Activists Split over Jailed AIDS Protesters

Two AIDS activists jailed in San Francisco are receiving support from the very people who call their theories "crackpot" and consider their tactics indecent and abhorrent. Accused in criminal complaints of besieging city health officials with statements like "we're coming to get you," David R. Pasquarelli, of ACT UP San Francisco, and Michael A. Petrelis, a long-time advocate for gays, face more than 10 years in prison if convicted. Since their arrest last month, the two have been held in lieu of a total bail of $1.1 million.

Many mainstream activists disagree with the men's methods and their belief that AIDS-prevention messages stigmatize gay sex. But many have also signed an open letter opposing the protesters' bail and the felony charges against them. Signers include Tony Award-winning playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein; Peter Cashman, a founding member of ACT Up Los Angeles; Poz magazine founder Sean Strub; Patricia Nell Warren, who wrote the gay-themed bestseller "The Front Runner"; and Andy Humm, a cable TV host and former member of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Fierstein wrote on the Internet: "I, like everyone I know, abhor most of the messages and tactics" of Petrelis and Pasquarelli. "However . . . I fear the bullying of protesters." Many AIDS activists who signed the open letter stressed that their decision had more to do with protecting free speech than endorsing the jailed activists.

Others, however, believe the two men belong in jail. Kate Sorenson, a Philadelphia activist who was held in lieu of $1 million bond for protesting at the 2000 Republican National Convention, is among them. "I will fight for our right to demonstrate," Sorenson wrote to the two men on the Internet after refusing to sign the open letter. "I will fight for our right to free speech. I will fight this police state, but I will not fight for you." She derided the two men for "damaging the good work that real AIDS activists have done for years" by criticizing prevention efforts and disrupting meetings and workshops.

The pair are charged with nearly three dozen felonies and misdemeanors, including harassing the wife of Jeffrey Klausner, who oversees STD control for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "This is not about AIDS activism," said Klausner, who brought charges against the men. "This is really AIDS anarchism and trying to destabilize the public health movement."

Before their arrests, Petrelis and Pasquarelli said they were upset by reports from Klausner's office, printed in the San Francisco Chronicle, showing rising syphilis rates among men who have sex with men. They said that they believed those statistics were concocted to collect more federal money for the city. They also said they were angry about a magazine article in which Klausner discussed the possibility of quarantining AIDS patients who persistently engage in unsafe sex. The author later wrote a clarification saying that neither Klausner nor his agency advocates such an approach.

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