Two San Francisco AIDS Activists Accused of Stalking

On Wednesday, San Francisco Police arrested Michael Petrelis and ACT UP San Francisco spokesperson David Pasquarelli on charges of criminal conspiracy, stalking, and making terroristic threats. They are accused of calling reporters and public health officials at home repeatedly past midnight, making threats and leaving obscene sexual messages. Together, they are charged with 27 felonies and misdemeanors and are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Both men have acknowledged making or encouraging late-night calls, sometimes using foul language, but have denied making threats. They cite the need for a "new phase of activism" to combat what they call false public health studies and biased news articles that have scared the gay community and discouraged gay sex. Petrelis has acknowledged publicizing the home phone numbers of top officials at the CDC. "The gay community has been under a microscope by health officials for almost two decades now and the level of hysteria is out of control," Pasquarelli said in an interview Tuesday.

ACT UP San Francisco, a breakaway group not affiliated with the national ACT UP, believes AIDS is caused by side effects of HIV treatments, rather than by HIV itself. Petrelis is not a member of ACT UP San Francisco and disagrees with those views but shares its belief that federal AIDS funds are being misspent on frightening, sexually graphic prevention efforts.

San Francisco Chronicle staff members obtained a restraining order against the two activists earlier this month. Separate orders were served Wednesday covering Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, director of STD prevention and control in San Francisco; Eileen Shields, spokesperson for the health department; and Michael Shriver, AIDS advisor to Mayor Willie Brown.

The wave of phone calls and restraining orders began after San Francisco launched a syphilis awareness campaign last month, citing a significant increase in the number of cases among gay and bisexual men. Klausner immediately began receiving threatening phone calls at home from callers who asked his wife and nanny if they had syphilis, according to court papers. The criticism of Klausner intensified after publication of this month's Washington Monthly magazine, which quotes him discussing the possibility of quarantining AIDS patients who refuse to practice safe sex and have infected 20 or more people.

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