Oral History with Cheryl Spector (Queer Capital-Genny Beemyn)

In this interview, Jewish lesbian activist Cheryl Ann Spector talks about her involvement in queer and HIV/AIDS activism in DC throughout the 1980s and 1990s. She describes how her journey with queer organizing first began in 1987, when she was invited to plan and attend the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Although Spector was a young lesbian involved in DC’s LGBT scene, she had not previously been involved in queer organizing before the march. However, her brother’s suicide in 1985 due to AIDS spurred her to become politically active and join the organizing committee for the 1987 March on Washington.

The march, which she describes as a life-changing event, led to her co-founding OUT, (“Oppression Under Target”), a DC-based gay, lesbian, and AIDS direct action group. OUT led various creative and impactful actions around DC to protest discriminatory laws and attitudes towards LGBT people and bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic. Notably, in 1988 OUT joined forces with ACT UP chapters from around the country to take control of the FDA building (“Seize Control of the FDA”), and demand faster research and development of AIDS drugs. Spector, who worked in television, often videotaped and photographed these actions.

As AIDS organizing grew in DC, Spector describes how she became involved with more queer activist groups, such as the new ACT UP DC chapter and Queer Nation. Some of these groups’ notable actions include “Storm the NIH” in 1990, “The 17th Street High Heel Race,” “Walk Without Fear,” and more. Spector points out that much of this activism was entirely grassroots and self-funded. For example, she describes how the activists would collect extra needles from diabetic friends to host needle exchanges, and buy the condoms and saran wrap themselves to create safe sex kits. Spector contrasts this culture of radical grassroots organizing with the professionalized, “assimilated” LGBT world of the late 90s. She expresses disappointment that she and many of her radical activist friends now cannot find employment at the LGBT centers that grew out of their activism.

However, Spector describes her excitement to be a member of the renewed DC Lesbian Avenger chapter, and to be witnessing a new generation of activists leading the charge for the upcoming “Dyke March.” Although she acknowledges that the activism of the late 80s and early 90s has decreased, she declares her belief in the power of the DC LGBT community, as well as the power of DC activism itself—where the local and national can join together.