Sarah Schulman:: Co-founder, ACT UP Oral History Project Author, novelist, activist, educator, film producer—there are few hats that Sarah Schulman hasn’t worn. As one of the most influential queer intellectuals of the past 25 years, Schulman has explored and critiqued the LGBT movement in books (such as Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and its Consequences and her new novel, The Mere Future); film (she co-founded MIX: the NYC LGBT Experimental Film and Video Festival with Jim Hubbard) and other media. Also with Hubbard, Schulman cofounded the ACT UP Oral History Project, a unique endeavor that records the memories and voices of those at the center of the seminal direct-action group. Across the spectrum of her interests, Schulman finds “being effective, working with great people, using my skills and talents for justice, being creative and seeing the impossible come to be” most rewarding. “My current task is to transform how the U.S. LGBT community acts in relation to Palestine. My goal is that we come to understand and refuse “Pinkwashing”—in which the Israeli government uses our community to appear ‘progressive’ and hide their ongoing human rights abuses,” Schulman says. “Right now many of our community film festivals receive small amounts of money from the Israeli consulate for this PR purpose. My goal is for us to refuse to be used in that way.”
