Activists Threaten AIDS Benefit

What was to have been a glitzy event to help raise $1 million for the fight against AIDS could turn into a nightmare for its organizers. The Chicago branch of ACT UP, the activist AIDS organization, appears intent on disrupting the bash, an April 18 cocktail party and dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel to kick off the Chicago component of the national “ART Against AIDS” fund-raising effort. Actress and AIDS fund-raising pro Elizabeth Taylor is to be the guest of honor at both the cocktail reception and the more exclusive and much pricier dinner immediately following. The evening, which will include the unveiling of Wayne Thiebaud’s poster for this year’s Art Expo, is part of a promise by Marshall Field’s honcho Philip Miller to raise $1 million locally for the AIDS cause. But ACT UP leaders are incensed by Miller’s decision to name Governor James R. Thompson honorary cochairman an of the April 18 event; they are worked up over many of the governor’s views on AIDS, particularly his stand in favor of mandatory AIDS testing and reporting. Now ACT UP’s leaders are talking trouble if the governor shows up at the event. As of early this week, “Art Against AIDS” was on Thompson’s schedule. “They’re scared shitless we will crash the event,” says ACT UP spokesman Daniel Sotomayor. “We’re certainly not going to make it easy for them.”

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The Bridge, located far from any heavily populated neighborhood, consists almost entirely of outside decks along a branch of the Chicago River. Needless to say, Bridge owner Steve Edelson isn’t happy about the impending ban. “It’s unfair,” says Edelson, “but we’re trying to do the right thing.” Edelson says he and his associates are studying ways to comply with the ordinance and still attract a crowd to the club, which was to have opened for the season April 21. The opening has been postponed, and last week Edelson had not set a new opening date.

Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/John Sundlof.