The New York Times - November 16, 1985
Joyce Purnick

About 100 men and women, chanting "Fight AIDS, Not Gays" and carrying signs like "1935 - Juden Verboten, 1985 - Homosexuals Verboten," protested outside after a man suffering from the disease was handcuffed and taken into custody as he tried to enter the building. They stopped only after the AIDS patient, David Summers, was released, about a half hour after he was arrested.

The protest was only one incident in a day of outbursts, impassioned testimony and expressions of frustration from homosexuals who said they had become the victims of a frightened public.

"Stop scapegoating in the name of providing medical solutions," David Rothenberg, a leading homosexual rights activist, told members of the City Council's Health Committee. "We're frightened, very frightened." Violence Over AIDS Cited He also said he wanted the lawmakers to understand that homosexuals were upset about seeing a homosexual-rights bill fail in the Council 14 years in a row.

David Wertheimer, head of a group founded to combat violence against homosexuals, testified that AIDS had led to increasing incidents of "homophobic violence" in the city.

"AIDS-related violence, a phenomenon as new to the city as the AIDS crisis, is a reality that the Council must consider as it ponders its own response to the current situation," said Mr. Wertheimer, executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.

The reason for the hearing, which is scheduled to continue Tuesday, was to consider proposed Council legislation and two resolutions related to AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome. But the legislation - which would ban all who have or "carry" AIDS, including staff and students, from the public schools - is given little chance of passage. The Koch administration and others contend it is unconstitutional.

A Plea for Help

While there was testimony relating to the bill and the resolutions - one to close bathhouses and similar places, the other supporting a study of AIDS by the Council - the hearing became a forum to vent opinions and concern.

"We have done our part and we will do more in years ahead," said Richard Dunne, executive director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, a four-year-old organization founded to help people with AIDS. "We can't do it alone. We beseech you to help us. We are your children, your brothers and sisters, your nephews and nieces. We are persons with AIDS. We are care-givers to those with AIDS."

Councilman Noach Dear, Democrat of Brooklyn, a sponsor of the bill, called Intro. 1027, said: "I don't want anybody dying. That's why I'm here."

At one point, he set off a round of hisses when he said to one witness, Representative Ted Weiss of Manhattan, that "it was ironic that you want to help victims but you don't want to stop the spread of AIDS."

"I will take exception to that last comment," said Mr. Weiss, a Democrat from the West Side. "We all want to prevent the spread of AIDS."

He voiced "strenuous opposition" to the proposed bill. "The content of Intro. 1027 demonstrates the hysteria surrounding AIDS and the legal and civil-rights emergency generated by this unprecedented health crisis," he said.

Police Summoned

Other arguments broke out, including one outside the Council chambers between Paul Cameron, a psychologist who favors placing AIDS patients in quarantine, and a number of homosexuals who find his theories offensive.

God "will save this man," Mr. Cameron said, referring to Mr. Summers, the 33-year-old AIDS patient who by then had been released from custody and was standing next to him.

"How dare you?" Mr. Summers said. "I don't need saving." The encounter got heated, especially when a television camera arrived, and police officers were summoned. In an unusual display for City Hall, a phalanx of officers stood in front of the building during the demonstration.

Later, the police said Mr. Summers had pushed and punched a police officer, and he was charged with disorderly conduct. Mr. Summers said he was simply trying to enter the building to testify at the hearing.

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