The Power of the Letter: HIV Activism Behind the Walls

Letters and correspondence contained in LGBTQ+ archives provide a window into the personal, historical, political and social experience of the one who is writing as well as the perspective of the receiver. Letters from incarcerated individuals to those on the outside create important connections between those inside and outside the walls of the prison.

Prisoners living with HIV & AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s engaged in practices of letter writing not only to friends and family but to forge social and political alliances with people and organizations empathetic to their plight. Prisoners living with AIDS in the early days of the epidemic (though healthcare access in prisons remains an ongoing issue if one looks at the experience of incarcerated individuals and COVID-19 pandemic) were subjected to inhumane conditions and lacked even basic access to healthcare.

Women prisoners at Chowchilla did not have an on-site doctor and were unable to get basic medical treatment like pap smears and breast exams. Prisoners with AIDS experienced excruciating deaths and were subjected to unsanitary conditions as they often faced isolation and ostracism by prison guards and officials. Networks of prisoners were left to do the care work and created peer education and advocacy programs to make necessary changes to the conditions inside the prison.

Judy Greenspan was a member of ACT UP San Francisco’s Prison Issues Committee and opened a letter Joann Walker had written to the organization urging them to get involved in what was going on in Chowchilla.

The two began corresponding and a coalition between the women in Chowchilla and the prison issues committee of ACT UP was forged to bring attention to: the lack of healthcare and treatments to prisoners living with HIV & AIDS at Chowchilla; support campaigns for the compassionate release of prisoners dying from AIDS complications; pursue lawsuits and place political pressure on lawmakers to make much needed changes; and most importantly, create systems of care, support and mutual aid for women inside the prison walls.

Demonstrations, op-eds, and letter writing campaigns took place inside and outside the walls and worked to change conditions for the women at Chowchilla.

All of these letters and additional pieces of ephemera are from the Judy Greenspan Papers located at The Center Archive. Each piece clearly articulates the voice and vision of the author and grounds the challenges and hopefulness present in the organizing work. Consider the letter written by Twillah W., which fully articulates the humanity of incarcerated people as deserving of dignity, human rights and care.

Not only is there a call to care for prisoners with AIDS but an expression of solidarity with all incarcerated individuals. This letter has a kind of rawness that gives insight into who Twillah was as a person. Their letter is both personal and frames the collective struggle of prisoners living with AIDS.