GAG and ACT UP: Learning From Your Elders

The Los Angeles chapter of Gays Against Guns is largely influenced by ACT UP's activism. The two founders of the L.A. branch, Bobby Heller and Abe Gurko, lost many of their friends to the AIDS crisis. Now they are channeling that energy into activism with Gays Against Guns. The Orlando tragedy was a wake-up call for Gurko, who felt compelled to do something in response. After reading an article in The New York Times about Gays Against Guns, Gurko messaged one of the men who got the group started in New York, and the rest is history, as the cliché goes.