McKean, Aldyn

Aldyn McKean (1948-1994), a gay rights and AIDS activist, was a founding member, spokesman, and grassroots organizer for ACT UP. Originally named John Baldwin McKean, he was raised in Lewiston, Idaho, and studied acting at Harvard, where he performed with the University's Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Harvard exposed McKean to the burgeoning antiwar movement, providing him with his first chance to participate in grassroots organizing. He joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and organized several successful campaigns on the Harvard campus, including the elimination of the ROTC program and the establishment of the Department of African American Studies.

After his graduation from Harvard in 1971, McKean enlisted to serve a tour of duty in Vietnam as an SDS infiltrator. Shortly after his return to the United States, he came to New York City to study at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, completing his studies in 1975. In 1978, McKean changed his name to Aldyn and pursued a stage career, performing on Broadway and singing as part of a cabaret act, all the while immersing himself in New York City's gay nightlife. McKean believed that it was during this time that he became infected with HIV.

McKean became a founding member of ACT UP in 1987. He organized and participated in several of its demonstrations of civil disobedience,demanding increased availability of AIDS drugs, the inclusion of people of color in AIDS drug trials, and the full participation of people with HIV and AIDS in international AIDS conferences. A noted speaker on the topic of long-term AIDS survival, McKean addressed various sessions of the International Conferences on AIDS held in San Francisco in 1990, Florence in 1991, and Berlin in 1993.

In 1992, McKean was hired by the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) to work as the administrative coordinator for United for AIDS Action. In this capacity he organized conferences and participated in coordinating the AIDS Walk in Central Park. After a dispute that led to his firing and a subsequent settlement with GMHC, McKean went to work with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Third Wave International, and other organizations devoted to economic and social justice and civil rights issues.

In addition to his presentations at AIDS conferences, McKean appeared on television and radio programs (ABC's Nightline, CNN, and National Public Radio), and in the film Voices From the Front, a feature-length documentary on AIDS activism in America created by the video collective Testing the Limits.

Aldyn McKean died of AIDS-related complications at his Manhattan apartment in February 1994.

Sources:

- Hanan, Stephen Mo. "Remembering Aldyn McKean." The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Mar/Apr 2004, Vol. 11 Issue 2, p.6.

- "Aldyn McKean; Gay Rights Advocate, 45." New York Times, March 3, 1994.

From the guide to the Aldyn McKean papers, 1974-1994, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)