Ann Northrop: A Pioneer

In 1986, HIV was NYC’s wildfire, spreading quickly, not well understood, feared by many, hated by all, and incurable. Ann Northrop, previously known for her anti-Vietnam activism, along with other members of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), used media and civil disobedience to stand up against a government that was failing to address the epidemic, as well as to educate the public (Donahue). 

“All too often artists fear that thinking politically about their work will interfere with some ‘pure’ vision,” (Hooks) so Northrop flipped this convention, and began to think artistically about her politics. After graduating from Vassar College, a place that facilitated her escape from her conservative upbringing, Northrop became a journalist, a TV news producer, and one of the first writers for Ms. magazine (Buis). An auteur in the making, Northrop became a public resource for current events from the perspectives of women and the LGBT community, sending a message that news analysis needs to be pertinent to all viewers. During the last five years of her early career in journalism, Northrop covered the development of the AIDS epidemic, then known as GRIDS (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), and gained enough credibility to get a job in AIDS education. After spending four years teaching thousands of students and teachers about the epidemic, Northrop finally joined ACT UP to tell America that “people in power [were] content with letting other people die” (Buis). Indeed, the federal government was allowing drug companies to smack absurdly high prices on drugs that HIV/AIDS patients needed to survive (Donahue).

The church wasn’t helping; it continued to condone unprotected sex, encouraging New York to spread the HIV virus. Northrop and her colleagues at ACT UP responded by disrupting a service in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, an event that drew worldwide attention to their plight, and set off Northrop’s career in civil disobedience; she went on to be arrested over two dozen times (Buis, Donahue). Northrop challenged the conventional notion of the quiet, neat, civil woman, showing the world that some women would only sit quietly after they’ve done something loud enough to get thrown into a jail cell. She knew that the media doesn’t depict reality, but “alters what already exists” and “gives the reimagined, reinvented version of the real,” so she ensured that, during her time on screen, she would show that women are activists in their own societies (Hooks). Northrop asked people direct questions and demanded direct answers, whether she was speaking to a group of high school students or Mayor Giuliani (Buis).

In 1996, Andy Humm, an old friend from ACT UP, was preparing to leave Pride and Progress, a mundane news show for gay audiences, when Northrop agreed to return to her role of journalistic auteur and turn the show around (Wood). Now called Gay USA, it’s a news show co-hosted by Northrop and Humm that offers an in-depth analysis of news relevant to LGBT issues. Viewers say that “Gay USA is the only place they can hear about LGBT issues- positively and in depth" (Buis). Northrop, now in her mid-sixties, says, “I am just continually compelled. This show is a lot of work every week. And we don’t get paid and we are getting older. But every single week, it’s so interesting to come in and talk about this stuff, and follow it on a daily basis. It becomes irresistible to keep doing it” (Wood).

Larry Kramer, the founder of ACT UP, feels that “activism is fueled by anger,” but that Northrop spoke of laughter, not anger (Buis). She has raised the standards for female activism, throwing herself directly into issues that she cares about, making sure that her voice is heard by those who are uncomfortable with it, and making it her job to give people the facts. In the early decades of the AIDS epidemic, she took information that was accessible to people and interpreted it in a way that was meaningful to them, in a way that they could interpret, use practically, and pass on. She was not interested in allowing mainstream ideas to dominate America’s politics, so she became an auteur in journalism, both written and broadcasted, and was able to give the public a different perspective, the perspective of a well-versed, gay woman. Northrop admits that not everyone has the resources that she had in her youth, and that it does take resources to become a well-known activist, but she insists that everyone should find something that they can do; there’s always something (Buis). To me, Ann Northrop will always be the woman who, in the 80s, brilliantly predicted that we will not be able to rely on a cure for AIDS to end the epidemic, but that AIDS, like diabetes, would become a long-term, manageable disease, and that the best way to fight it would be to spread information.

Works Cited

Hooks, Bell. Making Movie Magic.

Buis, Micah. “Headliner: Ann Northrop ’70.” Vassar: The Alumnai Quaterly.

Wood, Mark Dundas. “Ann Northrop and Andy Humm: 15 years on the LGBT beat with ‘Gay USA’.” Simply-Showbiz. April 5, 2011.

Phil Donahue Show. 1990. Episode featuring ACT UP.