"You Mess With Us, You're Going To Wake Up One Morning With A Condom On Your House"

Peter Staley remembers a milestone in AIDS activism:

Sean Strub and I were the roof guys. The condom was made of parachute material, so when carefully rolled up, it fit into a large duffle bag, which I pulled and he pushed up the 28 foot extension ladder. We unfurled it on the roof, connected it to the blower, and prayed the cops took at least five minutes to get there.

As it began to rise, all the guy wires were quickly staked into the lawn on our four sides of the house, while Mark and others used the other ladder to guide the front section past electrical wires and the front door awning.

The first cop car arrived just as the reservoir nipple was beginning to rise, a little over seven minutes after we had arrived. We had done it!

Peter reveals that David Geffen paid for the material: $3,000, passed hand to hand on Fire Island. Ah, the revolution.