His work and advocacy has been featured on Capital Tonight, MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes, and NY1’s Inside City Hall. His success in advancing an array of social justice issues has earned him recognitions from POZ Magazine, the National Black Justice Coalition, People for the American Way Foundation, as well as City & State New York list of LGBT Leaders on the Rise. In 2012, following the murder of Trayvon Martin, Jason was the lead organizer in a citywide solidarity rally, which lead to the creation of #Louisville4Trayvon, now the Louisville Chapter of Black Lives Matter. Jason’s devotion to black and queer liberation organizing began as a student at the University of Louisville where he served as President of the of the NAACP and Co-founder of BlkOut – the first LGBTQ recognized student organization for People of Color in the state of Kentucky. He is one of the founding members of PrEP4All and is currently the HIV/AIDS Campaign Coordinator at VOCAL New York where he is building political power among low income New Yorkers living with HIV and LGBTQ youth to combat homelessness, mass incarceration, health inequity, and poverty. Walker is a nationally recognized activist, community organizer, and movement builder working within the intersections of black and queer liberation. ACT UP still lives and works on all of those issues. Their commitment to making themselves experts and then their willingness to confront those in power with urgent, creative and confrontational actions helped lead to better drugs, saved lives and created a model for generations of activists. They demanded housing as treatment, early access to experimental drugs, health care for all, clean needles for intravenous drug users, a change to the drug approval system, inclusion of women and people of color in clinical trials…and on and on. ACT UP’s agenda quickly broadened as members came to understand the scope of the epidemic. It was a unique concept - direct action, civil disobedience, demanding a cure for a disease. WE ARE NOT SILENT.įurious and terrified about deaths from HIV/AIDS, hundreds of NY gay men, lesbians, other LGBT community members and allies banded together in 1987, goaded by Larry Kramer, to fight for the lives of their friends and themselves.
ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.