Ortez Alderson

Ortez Alderson (1952 – December 21, 1990) A member of LGBT community, he was a leader of the Black Caucus of the Chicago Gay Liberation Front, which later became the Third World Gay Revolution, and served a federal prison sentence for destroying files related to the draft for the Vietnam War. He died of complications from AIDS in 1990, and was inducted posthumously into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame. In April 1968, at the age of 15, he was arrested in downtown Chicago after the riots sparked by the assassination of Martin Luther King. Charged with arson, which Alderson said was "ridiculous", he was held in Cook County Jail in Chicago for five months. and was co-founder and chairman of the organization's Black Caucus,

A militant opponent of the Vietnam War, he was one of the "Pontiac Four" who were arrested on July 29, 1970, for vandalizing the Livingston County Draft Office and destroying files related to the draft. An analysis in the Journal of the History of Sexuality later noted the tension in Alderson's article between his condemnation of "what he termed the 'pigs mentality' of the American government" and his critique of "its hypocrisy for extolling the virtues of the Declaration of Independence while simultaneously seeking to repress homosexuals' own 'pursuit of happiness'."

After the Pontiac Four failed to appear for trial on November 16, their bonds were forfeited. and was involved in a confrontation with prison officials on June 28, 1971, after they refused to allow gay inmates to celebrate Gay Pride Day. In September, Rising Up Angry newspaper reported that Alderson believed he had been released earlier than the other three members of the Pontiac Four because of his attempts to organize gay prisoners, in "one of only two prison gay liberation chapters in the country". Alderson was recognized as one of the few "bright spots" in the actual cast.

In 1981, Alderson moved to New York City, where he continued to pursue his theater career, acting and directing plays. In 1985, Alderson acted in pieces from Saint's Rising to the Love We Need and New Love Songs, at the annual conference of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, which was held during Thanksgiving weekend in St. Louis, Missouri.

ACT UP New York in New York, he worked at the National AIDS Hotline Office in Manhattan. In 1987, Alderson was a founding member of ACT UP, so named to remind the broader group that the majority of HIV and AIDS cases in the city were people of color. Back in New York, he was one of four protesters ordered to stand trial after 72 individuals were arrested during the Day of Outrage on December 21, 1987, when they climbed onto the train tracks at the Borough Hall IRT subway station in Brooklyn.

Alderson was involved in ACT UP's high-profile confrontations with New York City Health Commissioner Stephen Joseph. According to Harrington, Alderson and McCarthy voiced their concerns about the exclusion of people of color, women, drug users, and children from the AIDS drug trials. Soon afterwards, he was hospitalized with PCP, but became active in ACT UP Chicago once he recovered.

Personal life and legacy Alderson was in a long-term relationship with activist Arthur Gursch.

Film footage of Alderson speaking during a 1987 ACT UP meeting in New York, as well as footage of the 1992 Ashes action, The photograph, titled "Stephen Cradling Ortez's Head", shows Alderson grasping a sign saying healthcare is a right and wearing a t-shirt that reads, "We Die – They Do Nothing".

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