October 19, 1996: Tom Rauffenbart scatters David’s ashes on the White House Lawn during ACT UP’s second Ashes Action.
These direct actions are inspired by David’s 1991 memoir Close to the Knives, in which he mused “what it would be like if, each time a lover, friend or stranger died of this disease, their friends, lovers or neighbors would take the dead body and drive with it in a car a hundred miles an hour to Washington DC and blast through the gates of the White House and come to a screeching halt before the entrance and dump their lifeless form on the front steps.”