Anderson Cooper honors Spencer Cox - AIDS/HIV activist

Spencer Cox, a prominent voice in the fight against AIDS for more than two decades, died Tuesday at the age of 44.

After three years as a student at Bennington College in Vermont, he moved to New York. By 1989, at age 20, he had joined the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, better known as Act Up, the organization devoted to pushing government and private industry, often with demonstrations, sit-ins and other tactics, to dedicate more resources for AIDS treatment and prevention.

In 1992, he was among the Act Up members who formed the Treatment Action Group, known as TAG, to focus on accelerating treatment research.

Along with other TAG colleagues, Mr. Cox schooled himself in the science of AIDS, the workings of drug trials and the government approval process. While still in his 20s he represented people with AIDS in high-level meetings with the Federal Drug Administration and other agencies and private companies.

Via New York Times