 |
Peter Staley
(Photo: Bill Bytsura) |
Peter Staley
Staley was a closeted bond trader on Wall Street when he tested positive in 1985. He picked up a flyer for the first ACT UP demonstration on his way to work on March 24, 1987, and signed up for the next meeting.
A member of the powerful Treatment and Data Committee, Staley brought the language of money to activism, conducting a relentless campaign against the usurious price of AIDS medications and revolutionizing ACT UP’s fund-raising. Now Staley sees his experience with the epidemic as a kind of privilege: “It was full of deaths, but one of the most beautiful moments the gay community ever experienced.”