“ACT UP! FIGHT BACK!”: The Ongoing Need for Health Activism and Community Care

BY JANINA GBENOBA

Since the start of the current U.S. presidential administration, public health protections for many, particularly those at the greatest socioeconomic disadvantage, have been slashed or repealed entirely. These changes have manifested in a number of ways: an executive order cutting off funding for gender-affirming research and care,¹ a directive from the Department of State to destroy $9.7 million worth of contraceptives bound for low-income countries,² the signing of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” that jeopardizes the health insurance of 11.8 million Americans,³ and even the banning of words like “gender,” “transgender,” and “pregnant people” from research manuscripts produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).⁴

In 1966, the United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights (ICESR), which outlines basic protections that must be afforded to all. Among these is the right to health irrespective of race, religion, sex, or “other status.”¹ The United States has not ratified the ICESR but is obligated as a signee to act in alignment with its mission.¹ Yet as transgender youth lose access to crucial medical support, low-income individuals and families face the prospect of reduced Medicaid benefits, and patients of color contend with exacerbated racial disparities following the erasure of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, it is clear that the health and safety of some is still being valued above that of others. 

These developments are undoubtedly frightening. How do we proceed when the most vulnerable of us are those most targeted? The path ahead is uncertain, but perhaps we might be afforded some clarity by first looking to the past. After all, the systemic health injustice we grapple with today is not unprecedented—and neither is the kind of action we need in order for things to change. 

The Black Panther Party and Free Breakfast for Children

Mentions of the Black Panther Party (BPP) do not typically call to mind images of its members in grocery stores. However, the donations solicited by BPP members there were a vital part of one of party’s most impactful projects: the Free Breakfast for Children Program. 

The Black Panther Party was established in 1966 in direct response to police brutality in Oakland, California and the broader plight of oppression towards Black Americans. But while the Black Panthers are most famous for their radical political tactics, they were also committed to materially addressing the needs they identified within the Black community. The BPP recognized, for example, that the hunger faced by Black schoolchildren was an issue undermining the foundation for their future educational success.⁵ The Black Panthers responded by starting Free Breakfast for Children in 1969. For many of the children the program served, it was their first time eating breakfast on a regular basis.⁶

The initiative would unfortunately come to a brutal end. Under FBI Director Edgar J. Hoover, misinformation was spread regarding the safety of the meals provided by the BPP and the party’s food materials were destroyed.⁶ However, the program’s impact was lasting. Free Breakfast for Children profoundly influenced future food justice movements and was an impetus for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 1975 establishment of the School Breakfast Program, which remains in place today.⁷

The Young Lords and Lincoln Detox

In November 1970, Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx appeared quite different from usual. The hospital had previously been known for its broken-down and dangerous conditions, but after being taken over for the second time that year by the Puerto Rican activist group the Young Lords, its auditorium was converted into a bustling makeshift drug detox clinic known as Lincoln Detox.⁸ 

The Young Lords Organization (YLO) was established in 1968 and pursued goals such as Latino self-determination, women’s rights, gay rights, and minority access to essentials like housing and healthcare.^8,9 And drawing inspiration from the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords sought to address the social welfare needs of the South Bronx that were being neglected by city officials, particularly with regards to the substance abuse crisis unfolding in the neighborhood.^9,10 It was thus that they established the volunteer-run Lincoln Detox, where acupuncture techniques were employed so successfully that the clinic came to assist the detox of 600 people every 10 days.⁸

The clinic was shut down by Mayor of New York City Ed Koch in 1978, but the legacy of Lincoln Detox lives on: the acupuncture methods used there inspired the formation of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) in 1985,¹¹ and more broadly, the Lincoln Detox clinic was a beacon of community care in the face of administrative neglect. The Young Lords’ accomplishments through Lincoln Detox continue to serve as an example for similar action today. 

ACT UP and Mass Demonstrations

The scene outside the Maryland headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on October 11, 1988 was a jarring one. Lying on the ground, protestors held up gravestone-like signs bearing such phrases as “KILLED BY THE SYSTEM” and “I DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE F.D.A.”¹² The group ACT UP, or the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, had staged a die-in, its first major national demonstration. And the work did not stop there: additional die-ins would take place at locations including Wall Street, Grand Central Station, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the following years.¹²

AIDS had been quickly stigmatized as the “gay plague” following initial reports of the condition in 1981.¹³ Both the U.S. government and media refrained from discussing the matter–in fact, President Ronald Reagan would not publicly mention AIDS until 1985.¹³ Amid this silence, ACT UP emerged with demands for intensified drug testing efforts, the release of affordable treatments, and protection of AIDS patients’ dignity. By the time the U.S. began working to raise awareness about AIDS in 1987, an estimated 47,000 people had been infected with HIV.¹³ But the work done by ACT UP in the meantime had not been in vain; the FDA’s drug approval process was significantly accelerated following the 1988 die-in, for example, and other ACT UP projects like a clean needle exchange program helped save lives in a time when the government was refusing to act. 

Looking Ahead

It has been established within the medical field that an understanding of the social determinants of health—including the unique challenges faced by members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, patients of color, and other groups—are essential to the provision of effective and often life-saving care.¹⁴ Consideration of different communities’ needs, then, is not simply a political act; it is a recognition of the basic truth that healthcare is a human right, and that providers must leave no one behind. The barriers to identity-related care that are currently being instituted undermine this mission. It is therefore necessary that we use our voices in this moment to take action against them. 

It is easy to look at the work done by groups like the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, or ACT UP and question how we seem to have made such little progress since their time, or to have even regressed. The difficult truth is that victories are fragile. But that does not ever mean that they are not worth working towards. We must look at past instances of public health activism not as an example of what we have lost, but as a testament to the strength of our communities–a reminder of what we can build even in the midst of crisis. A great deal is currently out of our control, but what we do still have power over is how we care and stand up for each other in the meantime. 

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References

1. Human Rights Watch. “They’re Ruining People’s Lives”: Bans on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth in the U.S. (2025).
2. Treisman, R. The U.S. said it would burn $9.7 million of birth control. Its fate is still unclear. NPR https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/09/16/nx-s1-5511304/birth-control-foreign-aid-destruction-belgium-warehouse (2025). 
3. Tanne, J. H. & Looi, M. Some 11.8 million Americans projected to lose health insurance as Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act passes. BMJ 390, 1400 (2025).
4. Columbia Climate School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. CDC Orders Retraction or Pause in Publication of Research Manuscripts. (2025). 
5. Kalscheuer, R. Free Breakfast for Children: Nonviolent Legacies of the Black Panther Party. The Nonviolence Project https://thenonviolenceproject.wisc.edu/2024/02/04/free-breakfast-for-children-nonviolent-legacies-of-the-black-panther-party/ (2024). 
6. Blakemore, E. How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government. History.com https://www.history.com/articles/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party (2018). 
7. Black History Month: Celebrating the Origins of Free Breakfast and the Food Justice Movement. No Kid Hungry https://www.nokidhungry.org/blog/black-history-month-celebrating-origins-free-breakfast-and-food-justice-movement (2023). 
8. Khatib, J. How a Hospital Takeover Changed How We Treat Addiction in America. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/us/young-lords-lincoln-hospital-addiction.html (2025). 
9. A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States. Library of Congress https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/young-lords-organization.
10. Bellafante, G. In the Bronx, Heroin Woes Never Went Away. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/nyregion/bronx-heroin-opioid-crisis.html (2017). 
11. Stuyt, E. B., Voyles, C. A. & Bursac, S. NADA Protocol for Behavioral Health. Putting Tools in the Hands of Behavioral Health Providers: The Case for Auricular Detoxification Specialists. Medicines 5, 20 (2018). 
12. Montalvo, D. How AIDS Activists Used ‘Die-Ins’ to Demand Attention to the Growing Epidemic. History.com https://www.history.com/articles/aids-activism-protests-act-up-die-ins (2021). 
13. Bennington-Castro, J. How AIDS Remained an Unspoken—But Deadly—Epidemic for Years. History.com https://www.history.com/articles/aids-epidemic-ronald-reagan (2020). 
14. López, N. & Gadsden, V. L. Health Inequities, Social Determinants, and Intersectionality. National Academy of Medicine https://nam.edu/perspectives/health-inequities-social-determinants-and-intersectionality/ (2016).