AIDS activist Spencer Cox died on
Tuesday. He was 44 years old.
According to GLAAD, Cox died at
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City of causes related to
AIDS.
Cox had been involved in AIDS-related
activism for over 20 years. He was involved in AIDS Coalition To
Unleash Power (ACT UP) and was a co-founder of the Treatment Action
Group (TAG).
David France, who produced and directed
the documentary How To Survive A Plague, a film which looks at
the rise and success of HIV/AIDS advocacy groups ACT UP and TAG and
features Cox, spoke of Cox's role in the fight against the disease.
“As a very young man fresh from
Bennington, where he studied Theater and English Literature, he
arrived in NYC after finishing just 3 years,” France told
BuzzFeed.com.
“He was diagnosed with HIV soon thereafter. By 1989, at age 20, he
had become spokesman for ACT UP during its zenith through the early
90s. A member of its renowned Treatment & Data committee, and
later co-founder of TAG (the Treatment Action Group), he schooled
himself in the basic science of AIDS and became something of an
expert, a 'citizen scientist' whose ideas were sought by working
scientists. In the end, Spencer wrote the drug trial protocol which
TAG proposed for testing the promising protease inhibitor drugs in
1995. Adopted by industry, it helped develop rapid and reliable
answers about the power of those drugs, and led to their quick
approval by the FDA.”
“You live your life as meaningful as
you can make it,” Cox said in an outtake from France's film which
the director posted on Tuesday. “You live it and don't be afraid
of who is going to like you or are you being appropriate. You worry
about being kind. You worry about being generous. And if it's not
about that, what the hell's it about?” (The video is embedded on
this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)