From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 02:48:01 EST
Subject: Stephen J. Smith, ACT UP/DC founder, R.I.P.


Dear friends,

It is with great sorrow that I inform you Stephen J. Smith passed away due to
complications from AIDS early Monday morning, November 16 at GW University
Hospital in Washington, DC.  At the time of his death his dear friends and
fellow activists, William Clemson and Cheryl Spector, were at his deathbed.
His parents were also present.

Stephen was the founder of ACT UP/DC, during the Bush administration when
Washington desperately needed a chapter of the activist group. On his agenda
were needle exchange programs, condoms in the high schools, more federal
funding for treatment, and he started America's first Cannabis Buyer's Club.
He also helped launch the DC chapter of Queer Nation and was involved in
numerous demonstrations and press conferences.

Plans are underway for a party to celebrate Stephen's life.  I hope to write a
fuller remembrance about Stephen in the next few days, after the news really
sink in that he has died at such an early age.  Losing both Stephen J. Smith
and Steve Michael  in the past six months is doing an emotional number on my
head, but I feel it is important to share on the Internet thoughts about the
life and work of Stephen since losing him means an activist era is being
snuffed out.  If we don't remember our departed friends and their activism,
who will?

If you wish to make a contribution in memory of Stephen, and help continue his
ideals, please send a check to ACT UP/Washington, 409 H Street, Washington, DC
20002.  This chapter, especially Wayne Turner, was responsible for getting the
pro-medical marijuana Initiative 59 on the Washington, DC, ballot this year.

You can also simply light a candle for Stephen, as I have done.  My thoughts
are with him and the extended queer family he leaves behind.

--Michael Petrelis