SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (SF) - THURSDAY October 27, 1988 Edition: FINAL Section: NEWS Page: A4 Word Count: 1,106 MEMO: RELATED STORY
David Tuller, Chronicle Staff Writer

The protest over the new NBC show, which was shooting an episode that the demonstrators felt would incite violence against people with AIDS, set off a conflict that is still simmering.

Yet for Beswick, a 29-year-old gay man, the protest was just a typical night on the town. He is a member of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, and has been in dozens of AIDS-related protests in the past year and a half; he was arrested in six of them.

"I don't have a lot to lose, because it could be me who gets sick next," he said.

DIRECT ACTION

After a decade in which gays have focused their political energies on the ballot box, a new political current emphasizing street protests and other direct actions seems to be taking shape within the gay and HIV virus-infected community.

In San Francisco and elsewhere, gays, people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome and AIDS-related complex (ARC) and some of their supporters are turning increasingly to public demonstrations over what they perceive as widespread public, corporate and government indifference to the mounting toll of the AIDS epidemic.

"There is incredible frustration and renewed militancy," said San Francisco police officer Ray Benson, the department's liaison to the gay and lesbian community. Benson fears that the level of civil disobedience may rise.

'GRIEF INTO RAGE'

'It's grief turning into rage," said Rabbi Yoel Kahn of San Francisco's mostly gay Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, who has officiated at more than 20 AIDS-related funerals in recent years.

Typically, the new militants combine civil disobedience with elements of guerrilla theater and a sophisticated courtship of media attention. Local gay leaders say the uproar over "Midnight Caller" and the forthcoming 10th anniversary of the Harvey Milk and George Moscone assassinations are spurring the movement, as is the possible passage of Proposition 102, the AIDS initiative on the November ballot.

The protests gained national attention earlier this month when more than 1,000 demonstrators managed to shut down for a day the offices of the Food and Drug Administration in Rockville, Md., to protest the slow pace of FDA approval for AIDS treatments. Nearly 200 protesters were arrested.

LOOSE FEDERATION

The Washington action was organized by ACT NOW, a loose confederation of more than 50 AIDS groups in cities throughout the country. A week after the event, the FDA announced that it was streamlining the drug-approval process.

Although many in the gay community dismissed the FDA move as a pre-election public relations ploy, some managed to squeeze a bit of encouragement from the announcement.

"The fact that they feel it's important enough to use as an election issue indicates we're having some effect," said John Fall, a Los Angeles man who works as a benefits advocate for people with AIDS and ARC.

BACKLASH FEARED

Critics, including some within the gay community, suggest that the tactics of confrontation may be creating more enemies than friends.

When protesters demonstrated in Arcadia, Fla., last summer - a year after three brothers infected with the HIV virus were burned out of their house - police had to escort them out of town to prevent residents from attacking them.

Larry Paradis, a member of the AIDS advocacy group New Friends, said that although he generally supports peaceful civil disobedience, protesters have "crossed the line" at some demonstrations.

"Climbing on top of buildings and spray-painting logos all over the streets turns Middle America against us," he said. "This isn't Haight-Ashbury, 1969."

BROAD SUPPORT

But most gay leaders - even those well within the political establishment - say support for more protests is broad-based.

"Without qualification, I don't think there is any opposition to this kind of activism anywhere in our community," said San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt.

"The gay community has shown remarkable restraint," added Tom Nolan, the gay San Mateo County supervisor.

Many gay leaders say the galvanizing event in the current wave of protests was the formation of ACT UP in the spring of 1987 in New York - where city government has been slower than San Francisco's in establishing programs for people with AIDS.

The New York group, which has tied up traffic during rush hour on Wall Street and unfurled banners touting safe sex at Shea Stadium, regularly draws more than 300 people to its contentious weekly meetings. In recent months, after widespread coverage of its actions in the press, ACT UP groups have sprung up in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego, with chapters also in San Francisco and more than 20 other cities.

THE 'ZAP'

AIDS protesters say they specialize in the "zap" - a well-coordinated and often disruptive action targeting any government agency, company, organization or individual perceived to be acting in an AIDS-phobic or homophobic manner.

Last winter, for example, members of San Francisco's AIDS Action Pledge "zapped" the Burlingame offices of Burroughs Wellcome to protest the $10,000-a-year cost of AZT, the only federally approved drug for AIDS. The protesters planted grave markers on the company's front lawn, each bearing the name of a person who had died from the disease.

When protesters in Los Angeles sought to force the city to create a special AIDS hospital unit, they set up a mock ward, complete with intravenous drug-feeding equipment, outside the hospital. Some wore lab coats and stethoscopes, and others lay on stretchers. The Board of Supervisors has since approved establishment of an AIDS ward.

"We've grown up with TV, and we've learned what has visual impact and how to give the perfect, three-second sound bite," said Dan Bellm, who was arrested at the FDA with a San Francisco civil disobedience group called the Forget-Me-Nots.

INEXPERIENCE

Many AIDS protesters came of age long after the battles of the early gay rights movement and have little history of political activity. Terry Beswick, for example, used to vote "once in a while"; he became active only after several friends got sick.

Some of those working within the health care system to serve and educate at-risk populations say the street protesters provide a powerful lever that boosts their own efforts.

"It's a complementary kind of strategy," said Rene Durazzo, media relations coordinator for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. "It makes the policymakers we're trying to affect feel the pressure more and deal with the issues."

CAPTION: PHOTO

TERRY BESWICK/I don't have a lot to lose/BY JERRY TELFER/THE CHRONICLE

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1988. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1988. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .