In solidarity with ACT UP NY’s 20-year anniversary action, Gay Shame held "a festive die-in and real estate tour of the ever-so-scary Castro" on Thursday, March 29th, starting at 12pm at 18th and Castro Streets. The action was organized around the idea of “Healthcare and Housing for ALL!” - linking the need for free housing along with the need for healthcare.

The Castro has recently been called the “AIDS eviction capital of the world." Throughout San Francisco, people with AIDS and other low-income residents have been forced out of their homes to make way for remodeling, owner move-ins and condo conversions. “The legacy of evictions is part of the cultural history of the Castro,” said Mary Mortgage of Gay Shame. “There’s been a huge cultural erasure. We’re holding real estate companies accountable for making profits off the eviction of protected tenants.” One such company, Coldwell Banker at 2355 Market, became the scene of a die-in after protesters marched up Castro Street chanting, “ACT UP! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!”

Veteran activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca echoed the theme of eviction as part of the neighborhood’s history, recalling that gay pioneer Harvey Milk himself was pushed out of his Castro Street camera store and apartment after rents tripled in the late 1970s. After a lull during the worst years of the AIDS crisis, gentrification intensified once again with the dot-com boom in the late 1990s. “The real estate industry has raped and pillaged the Castro for decades,” Mecca said. “We need a moratorium on market-rate housing in the Castro. Realtors do not own San Francisco. We own San Francisco!”

Photos | Tommi Avicolli Mecca: 20 years of ACTing UP | Gay Shame | ACT UP New York