Cascade AIDS Project records, 1977-2016

Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) is a non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon, that provides services and advocacy for people with HIV and AIDS living in Oregon and southwest Washington, and educates the public about AIDS and AIDS prevention. The organization was founded in 1983, and legally incorporated in 1985. In 1986, it merged with another AIDS advocacy group, Community Health and Essential Support Services (CHESS). Among the services the organization provides are HIV testing, assistance in finding housing, social support, and a summer camp for children living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Cascade AIDS Project also runs the Oregon AIDS Hotline jointly with the Oregon State Health Division.

In the 1980s, the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic spread in the United States, hitting gay communities particularly hard. In response to a perceived lack of effort by the U.S. federal government to combat the disease, playwright and gay rights activist Larry Kramer (1935-2020) founded AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, or ACT UP, in 1987 in New York City. The organization soon founded chapters in multiple U.S. cities, including Portland, Oregon. Portland's chapter, which was founded in 1988, staged protests and other actions in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including a February 1989 demonstration against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urging the FDA to release drugs that held promise for treating people with AIDS.

Sources: Crimp, Douglas, "AIDS Demographics," Bay Press, 1990; articles in Oregon Gay News, the Portland Alliance, the Paper, the Portland Monitor, and the Oregonian, 1988-1989.