Gerry Scoppettuolo interviewed by Jack Mulvaney March 21, 2020 via Zoom platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Narrator:
Gerry Scoppettuolo was born in 1947 in Winthrop, Massachusetts near Boston. The child of working-class Italian parents, he experienced the adverse effects of being a closeted gay man in the 1950s and 1960s. Going from Catholic grammar school to public high school and then leaving Boston College, he began a transitory period where he made close ties to the antiwar and labor movements in the Northeast. Settling in Northampton, Massachusetts in the 1980s while a student at UMass, he helped found the Gay and Lesbian Activists (GALA) which in 1982 organized the first march in Western Mass for gays and lesbians which later became Noho Pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After leaving Northampton, Gerry became heavily involved in the HIV-AIDs movement in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming involved in the cities ACT UP chapter in the later 1980s. For much of his adult life he has been involved in the HIV-AIDs education and prevention along with the labor movement and union organizing. He now lives with his husband outside Boston and works as a case worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abstract:
In this interview, Gerry reflects upon his experience as a gay man in different periods of his life. Gerry discusses his time growing up in a working-class Italian family in Boston, his time in Northampton and Nashville, Tennessee as a young adult, and his involvement in social movements from the sixties until today. In addition, he shares memories of founding GALA (Gay and Lesbian Activists) and the first Northampton Pride march and insights into modern American politics and the then current crisis of COVID-19 in relation to his experience with the HIV-AIDs movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interviewer
Jack Mulvaney is a member of the Simmons University School of Library and Information Science class of 2020. He works as a discovery and eResource librarian at UMass Amherst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please note: this interview mentions alcohol use and suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n