Stephen Gendin was a prominent AIDS activist, involved with ACT UP

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and...

, ActUp/RI

ActUp/RI

ActUp/ RI, the Rhode Island chapter of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, was formed in the spring of 1987, largely through the energies of Stephen Gendin, and continued as an active organization until 1993....

, Sex Panic!, Community Prescription Service, POZ Magazine

POZ (magazine)

POZ is a monthly magazine that chronicles the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS. Its website, Poz.com, has daily HIV/AIDS news, treatment information, forums, blogs and personals....

, and the Radical Faeries

Radical Faeries

The Radical Faeries are a loosely-affiliated, worldwide network and counter-cultural movement seeking to reject hetero-imitation and redefine queer identity through spirituality. The Radical Faerie movement started in the United States among gay men during the 1970s sexual and counterculture...

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Gendin was raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan

Ypsilanti, Michigan

Ypsilanti is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 22,362. The city is bounded to the north by the Charter Township of Superior and on the west, south, and east by the Charter Township of Ypsilanti...

, where he was an Eagle Scout. He attended Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, where he learned that he was HIV positive as a first-year student in 1985. He aggressively experimented with new medications for HIV and maintained a healthy and active lifestyle for many years, but did not survive treatment for AIDS-related lymphoma. In the summer of 2000, Gendin's death was eulogized in a widely-reprinted speech by Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning...

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