For immediate release
Chicago, IL - May 13, 2024
Danny Sotomayor was a man on a mission. The fiery openly gay AIDS activist, political cartoonist, and organizer took to the streets, using civil disobedience to wage war on city officials who marginalized the LGBTQ community and turned a blind eye to the AIDS crisis – all while fighting a losing battle with the disease himself. WTTW’s documentary CHICAGO STORIES: THE OUTRAGE OF DANNY SOTOMAYOR profiles a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer – who channeled his rage and pain into a movement to effect positive change on Friday, June 28 at 9:00 pm and streaming on wttw.com and the PBS app now.
Danny Sotomayor received what amounted to a death sentence in 1988 – he was diagnosed with AIDS. At the time, there was no cure, drugs designed to combat the disease were expensive and hard to come by, and people often died within weeks of the first failures of their immune systems. Feeling the clock ticking on his life, the 29-year-old cartoonist set out to confront the AIDS crisis as only he knew how: by making a spectacle.
Sotomayor, as the founder of the Chicago chapter of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, staged effective, carefully targeted, and highly theatrical acts of civil disobedience to confront the slow approval of life-preserving drugs, homophobic messaging from church leaders and city officials, and the exclusion of people with AIDS from research panels. As much as anyone, Sotomayor, with his persistent chant of “Act up, fight back, fight AIDS!” embodied the ethos.
When Sotomayor climbed out on an overhang of the County Building with four other activists in April 1990, unfurling a hand-painted reading “We Demand Equal Healthcare Now” to the roars of thousands below in Daley Plaza, not only did the wider community learn who he was and what he wanted, but much of the country did as well. And his weekly editorial cartoons published in the gay press nationwide found an even wider audience. As the country’s first openly gay editorial cartoonist, Sotomayor captured the fight in clever, single-panel cartoons filled with wit and bite, charming national gay leaders like Cleve Jones, creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, with his humorous, sharp attacks on President George H.W. Bush and others.
THE OUTRAGE OF DANNY SOTOMAYOR brings the story to life through interviews with fellow activists who climbed out on overhangs with him, friends who encouraged him, and stayed by his side through his struggle until the very end when he died at age 33, and his older brother, who bravely describes their childhood as working-class Puerto Rican/Mexican Chicagoans dealing with family violence and societal bigotry.
Bolstered by an extensive collection of documentary and news footage, including never-before- seen interviews with Sotomayor, this is an intimate portrait of a community galvanized by the horrors of an epidemic that resonates with the recent COVID pandemic, complicated by the ugly specters of hatred and homophobia. And it reminds viewers of the power of one person to, as Chicago journalist Tracy Baim put it, “change the world.”
The companion website for THE OUTRAGE OF DANNY SOTOMAYOR includes a feature article about Sotomayor’s life; a look at the Youth Empowerment Performance Project inspired by his activism that engages LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness through expressive performance arts; archival images and Sotomayor’s provocative political cartoons; and an original video about AIDS Garden Chicago and Belmont Rocks in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
On June 28 at 8:00 pm, WTTW will also premiere ART AND PEP, a moving profile of Art Johnston and José Pepe Peña, two civil rights leaders who in 1982 founded Chicago’s iconic gay bar Sidetrack, a pillar of the city’s gay business district that for decades has helped fuel movements and create community in Chicago. They share their 40-year love story and recall the struggle for fair treatment and the fight to love freely – a tale of activism born in the heartland that has inspired others to follow in their footsteps. Art and Pep was directed by Mercedes Kane and executive produced by Kevin Hauswirth.
The Outrage of Danny Sotomayor was produced and written by WTTW’s Dan Andries and executive produced by Anna Chadwick Gardner. Chicago Stories is the only weekly documentary series dedicated to uncovering the sweeping history, rich diversity, and breadth of human experience that shaped this great American city. WTTW is the PBS member station in Chicago, committed to creating and presenting unique media content across distinct television and digital channels – WTTW, WTTW Prime, WTTW Create, WTTW World, WTTW PBS Kids 24/7, wttw.com, and the PBS/WTTW video app. Recognized for award-winning journalism and local productions – such as Chicago Tonight, Black Voices, Latino Voices, Chicago Stories, Firsthand, The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago, and Chicago By ‘L’ – WTTW presents the very best in public affairs, arts and culture, nature and science, history and documentary, and children’s public media content. Connect with WTTW on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,and YouTube.
