New York AIDS Network/Keith Lawrence

Provenance

These are the records of organizations to which Keith Lawrence volunteered – there is no personal papers. They were donated to the Center Archive on October 21, 2003.

Scope and Content

Correspondence and some minutes of the New York AIDS Network by Keith Lawrence volunteer convener. The group, a broadly-based coalition grew to include representatives from over sixty health, political, people with AIDS, scientific, legal, social services and religious groups. There are also other groups in which Mr. Lawrence participated; Safer Sex Committee, Coalitions for Sexual Responsibility, American Hepatitis Association. Lesbian & Gay Health Advocacy group and the Mayor’s Inter-Agency Task Force on AIDS. The minutes of the NY AIDS Network are complete from April 1983 through July 1983, there are mainly handwritten notes after that. There are also minutes from the other groups but they are not well organized. The Safer Sex Campaign is of interest concerning the correspondence with and inspection of bath houses and sex clubs in about 1985.

History or Bio

“The New York AIDS Network was a broadly-based coalition of health, political, and community groups and individuals brought together by a deep concern about AIDS.” It functions as a clearinghouse to disseminate information and help all work more effectively to meet the problems arising around AIDS. The concerns were education, research, funding, patient care and services, legal, political issues.

[President Reagan was President 1981 – 1989 “AIDS was first reported in 1981, but President Reagan could not bring himself to address the plague until March 31, 1987, at which time there were 60,000 reported cases of AIDS and 30,000 deaths July 6, 2004 “Advocate.”]

The Network started in July 1982. It met weekly on Thursday at 8:00 AM at St. Mark’s Clinic at 88 University Place. In October 1983 the meetings were changed to twice-a-month in the evenings. It grew to include representatives from over sixty health, political, patients, scientific, legal, social services and religious groups.

These records are the collection of Keith Lawrence volunteer convener of the NY AIDS Network and who had a Ph.D. in psychology. His worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and previously for the Federal Insurance Administration and adjunct teacher in psychology. He also volunteered on the Safer Sex Committee, the Coalitions for Sexual Responsibility, the American Hepatitis Association and the Lesbian & Gay Health Advocacy group. He was a member of the Mayor’s Inter-agency Task Force on AIDS. [Mayor Giuliani who was elected in 1993 and 1997 closed gay bath houses, gay sex clubs, strip joints and sex shops.]

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