Subject: We will miss Paul Tsongas
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 09:16:26 -0500 (EST)

for immediate release   Jaunary 18, 1997
contact 202.547.6780

ACT UP Washington
Statement on the death of Paul Tsongas
Still Tsissy's for Tsongas

 ACT UP Washington mourns the loss of former United States Senator and
Presidential candidate Paul Tsongas.  ACT UP members had numerous meetings
and encounters with Tsongas on the campaign trail in 1992.  Tsongas
repeatedly stated his concern for the plight of people with AIDS, and was the
first United States Senator to introduce legislation that would have amended
the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include protections for Gay and Lesbian
Americans.  

 "Paul Tsongas was unwaivering in his commitment to people with AIDS and the
struggle for the equal rights and liberation of Gays and Lesbian Americans.
 He will be missed.  He was a true friend to all of us with HIV and AIDS,"
states ACT UP Washington spokesperson Steve Michael.  He continues, "I will
always be a "Tsissy for Tsongas.  There is no doubt in my mind that if Paul
Tsongas had been elected president in 1992, we would have had a cabinet-level
AIDS czar, real HIV prevention efforts that included needle exchanges well as
the much promised Manhattan-style project to cure AIDS."