On this day in queerstory: fighting for HIV medication

November 28 has long been a date where queer culture, legal battles, and global activism intersect, revealing just how far-reaching LGBTQ+ histories can be.

In the United States, the date is most often linked to a significant turning point in medical and political discourse. On November 28, 1990, ACT UP and a coalition of AIDS activists staged coordinated protests across multiple cities in response to the FDA’s slow approval processes for life-saving HIV medications. The demonstrations targeted federal offices in Washington, New York, and San Francisco, with protesters demanding faster access to experimental treatments and more transparent clinical-trial procedures. The actions were part of a larger national pressure campaign that helped accelerate policy changes in the early 1990s, including expanded compassionate-use programs and reformed drug-approval timelines. For many activists, November 28 became a shorthand for the moment grassroots pressure forced federal health agencies to confront a crisis they had spent years minimizing.

But the date also carries cultural history.

On November 28, 1987, in New York City, the legendary ballroom performer Willi Ninja debuted his groundbreaking solo performance The Walk at an East Village arts festival. Already known within ballroom circles for reshaping voguing into the precise, angular, runway-infused style that would soon ripple far beyond Harlem, Ninja’s performance introduced him to a wider downtown arts audience. It also became one of the earliest documented moments when ballroom aesthetics crossed into mainstream cultural spaces on queer terms rather than through later commercial appropriation. The performance expanded Ninja’s influence across fashion, choreography, and queer art — and helped ensure that ballroom culture would be recognized not only as entertainment but as a sophisticated artistic language born from Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ creativity.

Globally, November 28 has been a date of legal change and unexpected progress.

In Australia, on November 28, 2012, the Parliament of New South Wales passed a landmark anti-discrimination amendment extending protections to transgender and gender-diverse people, including students in public schools. While the law did not resolve all gaps in national protections, the amendment was widely seen as a major step in recognizing gender identity as a protected category — particularly in a political climate where conservative leaders were attempting to limit trans rights at the federal level.

Across the Indian Ocean, in South Africa, November 28 also holds meaning.

On November 28, 2006, just one week after the country legalized same-sex marriage, hundreds of couples gathered in Johannesburg and Cape Town for the first wave of public weddings under the new law. The ceremonies were covered heavily by both local and international media, turning the date into a celebratory milestone in global marriage-equality history. South Africa had become the first African nation — and the fifth country in the world — to legalize same-sex marriage, redefining the continent’s legal landscape and offering a rare moment of queer triumph amid widespread regional hostility.

Meanwhile, Europe saw a major cultural moment on November 28, 1995, when Icelandic singer Björk released the single “Headphones,” co-written with London-based producer and queer icon Tricky. Though not explicitly an LGBTQ+ anthem, the song became deeply associated with queer club culture across the late 1990s and early 2000s, especially in Scandinavian and British underground scenes. It marked a moment when queer nightlife was developing a distinct soundscape — the merging of trip-hop, avant-pop, and electronic experimentation — that would later influence the aesthetics of queer artists like Fever Ray, Planningtorock, and Arca.

Taken together, the histories tied to November 28 reveal the breadth of queer experience: political confrontation, artistic innovation, global shifts in law, and the everyday courage of communities pushing culture forward.

From ACT UP’s pressure campaigns to ballroom’s breakthrough in the downtown New York arts world, from anti-discrimination reforms in Australia to the joyful defiance of newlywed couples in Johannesburg, the date serves as a reminder that queer history is never confined to any one place or tone.