Interview: Barbara Hughes

Interview with Barbara Hughes, Board Chair, Treatment Action Group

How did you get involved in AIDS activism?

In the late 80’s, I was in the restaurant business, and I had a lot of gay male friends, waiters mostly, who were getting sick. I volunteered at GMHC stuffing envelopes, but I wanted to do more. I was complaining about my envelope stuffing to a gay man working in the kitchen, and he took me to an ACT UP meeting. That was it. I was able to channel my anger and get cutting-edge information, which was hard to come by at the time.

What do you think about the Memorial?

I’m not a particularly spiritual person, but the site, across the street from the former St. Vincent’s Hospital, is very meaningful to me. Patrick, my very best friend, and two other close friends died within a year. Most of my friends now didn’t know them. It’s a chapter in my life that closed. They, and many others, died at St. Vincent’s. I remember getting a call at 6 am and running to the hospital from Bleecker Street. There are several people who were very important in my life that I last saw alive at St. Vincent’s. I think about the building as the Twin Towers, as a sacred place. There’s something to the connection between St. Vincent’s and the Memorial.

Also, for those of us still involved in AIDS activism, the Memorial will help jog our memory and remind us why we are doing this work, which is no longer so raw and emotional. It’s sometimes hard to hold onto that when you are focused on Board work and the administrative and fundraising chores that accompany it.

It’s important to have a symbol that is real, that you can look at and touch, something that is not a book or a film, though they are important. This will be different, a living place you can see when you’re taking a cab down Seventh Avenue. That’s pretty cool.

Tell us a little about Treatment Action Group?

Founded in 1992, Treatment Action Group is an independent AIDS research and policy think tank fighting for better treatment, a vaccine and a cure for AIDS. TAG works to ensure that all people with HIV receive lifesaving treatment, care and information. We are science-based treatment activists working to expand and accelerate vital research and effective community engagement with research and policy institutions. TAG catalyzes open collective action by all affected communities, scientists and policymakers to end AIDS.

Please visit treatmentactiongroup.org to sign up to receive TAGLine and other reports and publications, and consider attending TAG’s annual Research In Action Awards on Sunday, December 13, 2015 at the Eventi Hotel in Manhattan.