the war on multiple fronts, out in the streets, and also through his art.

He put pen to paper and began creating editorial cartoons.

- The cartoons reached a wide audience and they had an impact that something ACT UP didn't have to do.

All you had to do was be a person who picked up Gay Chicago magazine and opened it.

- [Owen] His cartoons were sort of the visual editorial of a lot of the things that ACT UP was doing, in that his cartoons were very much like a zap, a political action, a one-time thing designed usually to embarrass.

(mellow guitar music) - I remember the cartoon with the AZT, with the guy pulling the wagon, Bring Out Your Dead.

- [Narrator] Within months, Danny's cartoons were published in gay newspapers around the country, from New York to San Francisco.

- I am coast to coast now.

I'd like to hit all the markets in the United States, at the gay markets, and maybe cross over to the straight press.

- [Narrator] His cartoons were witheringly honest and no one was off limits.

- Danny's cartoons were powerful, they were raw, they were angry, they were funny, they were sarcastic.

The one I've always remembered the most shows Bush the first and Barbara reading the newspapers and it says some appalling number of dead from AIDS.

And George says, "Nothing in the news today."

Danny was brilliant, he was brilliant.

- When I found out from him how little he got paid to do those, and I mean, it's sort of a travesty of underground journalism, I guess, but I think if he even got $40 for a cartoon, I'd be surprised.

(upbeat music) - [Tim] As soon as we can get done with the ads, we can go pick up the coffin somehow.

So that's gonna free up everyone who's gonna put coffins.

- Right, okay.

- Or carry around coffins.

So I'll help put it.

- I got to know Danny through those meetings.

He just said, "Hey look, I'm a person with AIDS.

I might not be here in six months.

Let's get this done now."

We had a lot in common.

We were the same age.

We were both little guys.

We both came from dysfunctional families.

We both were HIV positive.

- When I talk to people now about ACT UP, people like have this notion that it was thousands of people.

It was dozens of key people.

- [Narrator] And those key people were experienced street activists.

- Innocent.

- First of all, the women- - [Narrator] But Danny also knew that political change couldn't happen without help from inside the halls of power.

So, he courted a handful of mainstream gay and lesbian advocates who were well-connected and politically savvy.

- We could be heard by some people that didn't wanna hear from Danny.

And it also worked out where, you know, if people didn't listen to us, if we didn't get our meetings, well, okay, you know, Danny will be visiting you (chuckles), you know.

- [Narrator] Laurie Dittman was the director of a respected progressive political watchdog group.

Danny called her constantly.

- At all hours.

I mean, there wasn't any like, you know, pattern.

It was just kind of, I think whenever he was just like, you know, I need to talk to Dittman and she needs to do more (laughs).

- [Narrator] Danny worked with bar owner and longtime civil rights advocate, Art Johnston.

- Danny was a natural leader.

Whatever Danny wanted you to do, you would do.

You could not ignore Danny Sotomayor.

- [Narrator] And Danny also tapped city hall lobbyist Rick Garcia.

- We'd work on strategy together.

The suits and the activists were in constant contact, and supported one another.

- [Narrator] With a powerful team assembled, Danny was ready to take action.

He would find inspiration for his first cause on an ordinary train ride.

- Danny and I were sitting on the elevated one day, and he looks up and he sees an ad, and there's a condom and it reads, "Don't think of it as birth control.

Think of it as death control."

It outraged him.

- This message that it was sending out was so horrible.

I immediately tore it down.

- [Narrator] Danny wanted to give the public the facts about safe sex, instead of preying on fear.

- We contacted CTA and asked them to meet with us several times, to talk about these posters, and they would have nothing to do with us.

- There's a lot of work to be done beforehand.

- [Narrator] So, he got started on his own ad campaign and rallied ACT UP to get behind him.

(taut mellow music) - Danny created the placards that would fit on the city buses.

- Save it for the buses.

- They were in English, they were in Spanish.

All of it was sex positive, yet informative and educational.

- I remember this one poster was, I always got a kick out of it.

It had like the dancing condom (chuckles).

- [Danny] Wrap it up, wrap it up.

(whistle blares) - [Narrator] The group gathered near a north side bus terminal on a Saturday in May 1989.

- Hey!

- [Crowd] Fight back, fight AIDS.

- ACT UP.

- I'm glad your brother is here.

- Yeah.

Fight AIDS.

- [Crowd] Act Up.

(crowd cheering) - Demonstrations were scream therapy, and it was scream therapy in a community.

It was like this massive release of anger and just this cry for change.

It was incredibly empowering.

- We had to change and learn about safe sex.

Thousands of gay people desperately need information and support to protect themselves.

Public monies must be spent on gay and lesbian communities.

- He was pretty intimidating, and he wasn't a large individual, but he had a voice and he had a determination.

- [Crowd] AIDS won't wait.

Come on, CTA, put the ads on display.

(woman screams) (crowd clamoring) Arrest AIDS, not people with AIDS.

- [Billy] I laid down, and the next thing I knew, a cop just grabbed me and it was a woman cop.

And then her hat flew off and she had me in a headlock, and she bent over to pick her hat and she just dragged me away like a rag doll.

(crowd clamoring) - And they would throw them like garbage into the paddy wagons.

- [Female Demonstrator] Take your hands off.

- The last one they got, who came kicking and screaming was Danny.

- CTA, you can't hide.

We charge you with genocide.

CTA, you can't hide.

We charge you with genocide.

- [Carol] Be careful, be careful.

You're hurting him.

- [Cop] Close the door, close the door.

- You can't hide.

- And the cops said, "I have four white males," and Danny yelled, "I'm Puerto Rican."

They took us to the police station at Addison and Halsted and they were chanting, "We want Billy."

- [Crowd] We want Billy, not Billy Clubs.

We want Billy, not Billy Clubs.

- A woman police officer who was processing me said, "They make it sound like you're some kind of a political prisoner or something."

And I said, "Well, I am."

- Where is Bob?

- I don't know.

- Hey!

- [All] Hey!

- Mr. Mob Action.

- Mob Action, yeah.

- Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Yikes, your head.

- They got me a little bit here too, when they dropped me.

They plucked out what they thought were the leaders, to end the demonstration, and I was innocent.

I was not doing any mob action.

Good job, good job.

- [Demonstrator] Great job.

- [Demonstrator] ACT UP, fight back.

- Then after that, we all went to this great Mexican restaurant.

- [Narrator] Danny and ACT UP had made their point.

Within a week, city officials agreed to meet with Danny and other activists.

Ultimately, the city scrapped the ads.

- Now people know that we are a force to be reckoned with.