Ann Northrop worked at HMI from 1987-1992 as an HIV/AIDS Educator where she visited NYC-area schools to educate students, teachers, administrators and parents on on HIV, while also addressing homophobia. In a 2019 interview with the Washington Blade, she remarked on her experience at HMI, “Turns out it was much more fascinating to talk to 8th graders than Henry Kissinger.”
Immediately after college, Ann worked for the National Journal in DC, reporting on the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court. A year and a half later, she moved to New York to work on a program called Woman for WCBS-TV, later moving on to work for ABC Sports, Ladies’ Home Journal, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Morning News, where she was a producer for five years working with the show’s hosts including Diane Sawyer, Bill Kurtis, Forrest Sawyer, Maria Shriver, Phyllis George, Charlie Rose and Meredith Vieira.
After being a mainstream journalist for many years, Ann was looking for a change and learned about HMI from a friend, at which point she came on board to our organization. During that same time, she became a member of Act Up New York in 1988, where she began leading their weekly meetings, participating in hundreds of demonstrations and getting arrested repeatedly, once for lying in the middle of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1989 Stop the Church action.
Ann was the only openly lesbian or gay individual in the New York delegation to the Democratic National Convention in 1992. She also served for four years as a board member of the Gay Games which were held in NYC in 1994. Ann helped create the Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies—a gay think tank—for which she also served on the board of advisors. She was regularly featured on Dyke TV in a political commentary segment called Ann Northrop Mouths Off. In 1996, Ann became co-host of the tv news program, Gay USA, alongside fellow anchor Andy Humm where they presented news coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues on a local, national and international level.
As an activist and journalist herself, Ann, later in her career, provided training for activists on how to effectively deal with the news media. She has been invited to speak at countless events including the 25th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and she has been featured in several books including Making History by Eric Marcus, Wolf Girls at Vassar by Anne MacKay, and Queer in America by Michelangelo Signorile.
Ann also helped found the Lesbian and Gay Alumnae Association of Vassar College, and helped organize the Queer Liberation alternate Pride Marches in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Click thumbnails below for more on Ann Northrop
