From Debutante to Defendant

Journalist and activist Ann Northrop at NYU on April 10. | DONNA ACETO

Journalist and activist Ann Northrop at NYU on April 10. | DONNA ACETO

Veteran LGBT rights and AIDS activist Ann Northrop, a Vassar graduate whose work as a journalist included reporting on the Washington scene for the National Journal and producing responsibilities on “The CBS Morning News,” delivered the 2014 Irving H. Jurow Lecture at NYU’s College of Arts and Science. The April 10 address, titled “From Debutante to Defendant: The Making of a Lesbian Activist,” in part, examined the role of a liberal arts education in social activism.

In addition to her career in journalism, a field in which she currently co-produces and co-hosts (with Gay City News’ Andy Humm) the weekly “Gay USA” cable news program, Northrop also taught New York LGBT teenagers about AIDS and civil rights at the Hetrick-Martin Institute. An activist with ACT UP dating back to the 1980s, Northrop has in recent years helped organize protests against state-sanctioned homophobia in the US, Russia, Uganda, Nigeria, and elsewhere.