ACT-UP is a North America-wide organization of militant homosexuals and lesbians who publicly and physically confront prominent members of the ‘straight’ community who are hostile to ‘gay rights.’

In the U.S., ACT-UP/New York invaded St. Patrick’s Cathedral in December 1989 during a religious service conducted by Cardinal John O’Connor.  They proceeded to disrupt it with screaming and yelling obscenities and trampling upon consecrated hosts.

On June 16, 1990, the same group helped their fellow ‘gays’ of ACT-UP/Boston to scram blasphemies during an ordination ceremony.  They threw condoms at Bernard Cardinal Law and eleven newly-ordained priests when they processed out of the Cathedral.  Some time after the ceremony, the condom-throwing mob surrounded a newly-ordained priest leaving the cathedral; on one arm he carried his alb while his elderly mother held on to the other.  The Boston Globe described the whole terrifying episode as “colourful, loud – and peaceful.”

On August 25 ACT-UP/Vancouver made its contribution to progress and liberation.  Members of the group lay in wait outside a theatre where a fundraising performance of the play Les Miserables was scheduled.

When B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm and his wife, Lillie, showed up, the ACT-UP members yelled, chanted and pressed forward to jostle him and spit at him.  One grabbed the Premier by a leg; others knocked his wife to the ground.