16 Facts About Ortez Alderson

Ortez Alderson was an American AIDS, gay rights, and anti-war activist and actor.

Ortez Alderson died of complications from AIDS in 1990, and was inducted posthumously into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.

In 1969, at the age of 17, Ortez Alderson joined the Chicago Gay Liberation Front, and was co-founder and chairman of the organization's Black Caucus, which later became the Third World Gay Revolution.

On September 5,1970, Ortez Alderson participated in the Black Panthers Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention at Temple University in Philadelphia, helping to "mobilize the queer presence" for a workshop on gay rights.

Ortez Alderson spent three months in Peoria County Jail, and was sent to the Federal Youth Center in Ashland, Kentucky, for close to a year.

Ortez Alderson helped to organize the Transvestites Legal Committee, the first transgender political organization in Chicago.

In 1981, Ortez Alderson moved to New York City, where he continued to pursue his theater career, acting and directing plays.

Ortez Alderson worked in black gay theater with playwright and performance artist Assotto Saint.

In 1985, Ortez Alderson acted in pieces from Saint's Rising to the Love We Need and New Love Songs, at the annual conference of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, which was held during Thanksgiving weekend in St Louis, Missouri.

In 1987, Ortez Alderson was a founding member of ACT UP, and one of "only a handful of people of color" in the early years.

Together with Robert Vazquez-Pacheco and Robert Garcia, Ortez Alderson established the Majority Action Committee, so named to remind the broader group that the majority of HIV and AIDS cases in the city were people of color.

Ortez Alderson was involved in ACT UP's high-profile confrontations with New York City Health Commissioner Stephen Joseph.

On October 5,1988, Ortez Alderson represented ACT UP New York in a meeting with the United States Food and Drug Administration, together with Eigo, McCarthy, Mark Harrington, and Peter Staley.

In June 1990, Ortez Alderson participated in demonstrations at the International AIDS Conference in San Francisco, after which his health rapidly declined.

Ortez Alderson was in a long-term relationship with activist Arthur Gursch.

On December 21,1990, Ortez Alderson died of complications from AIDS.