I'm thinking about the bulk of the work I did with Act Up in the 1990s. And I don't mean the times I took part in huge actions that the cops dispersed with billy clubs, handcuffs, and other violence. (Btw, as an aside, an interesting topic to explore might be why cops today are so much more routinely violent at protests than they used to be.)

But the Act Up work I spent most of my time doing was public HIV-safer-sex education. Does that sound boring?

Lol! I'm talking about squeezing into a pair of booty shorts, covering my naked chest with glitter, and dancing sexy with a hot friend to attract crowds.

We'd get everybody fired up with our joyful hedonism, and then throw condoms into the crowd along with literature about how safer sex is hotter sex.

That was a message the Puritanical powers-that-be shuddered over and did their best to suppress. "Abstinence only!" they raged. "If you queers weren't so morally depraved and slutty, you wouldn't have brought about your own destruction."

Their message was clear: Pleasure will destroy you.

Ours was just as clear: No it won't, watch our smoke. We're enjoying the hell out of ourselves, and you can too. Join us!