1985-07-28First AIDS Walk

The first AIDS Walk is held in Los Angeles, California, organized by AIDS Project Los Angeles. Over the next decades, AIDS walks and runs would become a major fundraising tool for AIDS service organizations and an important means of raising public awareness of the epidemic.

1985-07-28First AIDS Walk Held in Los Angeles

The first AIDS Walk is held, organized by AIDS Project Los Angeles. Over the next decades, AIDS walks and runs would become a major fundraising tool of AIDS service organizations and an important means of raising public awareness of the epidemic.

1985-10-30GLAAD Founded in New York

Several writers and activists, including Vito Russo and Darrell Yates Rist, meet in New York City and found GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, in response to the increasingly homophobic media coverage of the AIDS epidemic. Its first public meeting, held a few days later, draws over 700 people eager to take action. Over the decades, GLAAD has been a watchdog group monitoring the portrayal of LGBT people in movies, television, and other media.

1985-11-16AIDS Activism in France

The French publication, Gai Pied, includes a condom with its issue for this date, despite a law prohibiting the distribution of condoms in the mail. The action signaled a rising awareness of the growing AIDS epidemic in France, and showed the willingness of some in the gay community to take more aggressive action to fight the epidemic.

1985-11-23Polish Activist Publishes Manifesto

Polish gay activist Krzysztof Darski publishes a page-long article in the national weekly magazine, Polityka. Writing frankly about the situation faced by gays in Poland, he described them as “ridiculed and pushed to the edge of society, discriminated against without exception by all institutions.” He called on gays and lesbians to organize on their own behalf to make change.

1985-12-01GLAAD Holds First Rally Outside New York Post

GLAAD [the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] holds its first public rally outside the offices of the New York Post, a newspaper owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, to protest its homophobic coverage of the AIDS epidemic. 800 protesters showed up, carrying signs with slogans such as “Fight AIDS, Not Gays” and “Close the Post, Not the Baths.”