The San Francisco Examiner - January 23, 2002
Tanya Pampalone Of The Examiner Staff

The message screams from the wall inside ACT UP San Francisco's Market Street pot dispensary, on the edge of the Castro.

It has been the source of controversy, frustration and downright rage within the AIDS community for years, but came to the forefront after AUSF member David Pasquarelli and independent AIDS activist Michael Petrelis were arrested and held on 19 felonies and $1.1 million bail for allegedly harassing public health officials, AIDS researchers and journalists.

The two espouse different views -- Pasquarelli is an AIDS denialist while Petrelis is very much a believer in the epidemic. But the controversy is about more than their messages, it is about what many call their abhorrent tactics and the politics behind their recent arrest. And as the preliminary hearing continues today, it also is about how two men have captured the hatred of an entire community.

"This is bully stuff, this is not civil disobedience," said Hank Wilson, who has been an AIDS activist since it was an unnamed disease. "I've seen them disrupt meetings. I'm not talking about making a stink, I'm talking about shutting these meetings down. Finally, someone is saying it's enough."

Wilson was there in 1996 when an AUSF member dumped kitty litter on the head of S.F.'s AIDS Foundation director, Pat Christensen. He watched members storm the Project Inform meeting in April 2000, and pelt speakers with pills as they shouted: "You deserve to die."

Wilson has been arrested numerous times for protesting the high costs of AIDS drugs and in his attempts to rally for more AIDS funding.

"We had to get people's attention and we did," he said. "That was with signs, no one got hurt and no one was threatened."

In name only

Michael Bellefountaine is well aware of the fear AUSF members have wrought through the community for years, but he feels justified in his activism.

"People have been terrified by ACT UP actions, of that I am sure," said Bellefountaine, a veteran AUSF member. "If I scream on the street, you have a couple of options, one is to laugh at me and the other is to be terrified of me. But your reaction shouldn't infringe on my right to sit on the street and scream."

When ACT UP San Francisco started in 1986, it was one of what would be 150 worldwide chapters of ACT UP -- the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. The numbers nationwide have dwindled with the support of AIDS funding and at least two -- USF and ACT UP Toronto -- are renegade groups that believe HIV is not the cause of AIDS.

But the ACT UP creed remains as it was: a diverse collection of individuals united in anger and determined to end AIDS through militant direct action.

"But the only thing we are united in is our anger, that's the only thing we agree on," said Bellefountaine.

It wasn't always that way. Bellefountaine worked with ACT UP in three different cities before coming to San Francisco in 1993 to join, with David Pasquarelli and Todd Swindell, a small, dysfunctional ACT UP San Francisco chapter.

They were stirring up their in-your-face form of activism by storming the GOP's San Francisco offices in 1995, pouring fake blood on researchers in Vancouver and the kitty-litter dumping in 1996. But it wasn't until 1997 that the group began to disseminate their AIDS denial message.

What they believe is that either HIV is a harmless passenger virus or there is just no such thing as HIV.

So, what's killing everybody? Well, for the gay men, at least, it's poppers, too many drugs. The Africans? They are dying of malnutrition.

"If I am wrong, I'm crazy," Bellefountaine said, borrowing a quote from "Valley of the Dolls." "But if I'm right, it's so much worse than if I was wrong."

Many ACT UP groups nationwide say AUSF has hijacked the name of a good organization, while other ACT UP groups have taken measures to distance themselves from the S.F. chapter. ACT UP Golden Gate changed its name to Survive AIDS two years ago.

"I don't' understand how I can hijack the name of an organization that I have been a member of for 12 years in three different states," Bellefountaine said. "All of a sudden I believe that HIV doesn't cause AIDS and I'm hijacking the group."

Spit and politics

While Bellefountaine maintains that AUSF is hated because of its beliefs, many outside the group maintain it's not the message.

"They are not popular because of what they say, but it is their tactics that are the problem," said Tim Kingston, a journalist for the gay publication, Frontiers, who has been covering AUSF antics since the mid-90s. "I couldn't care less if they were to say that AIDS is caused by green cheese, but when they spit in people's faces while they say that AIDS is caused by green cheese, that's the problem here."

Kingston has been spit and yelled at by members of ACT UP San Francisco and calls them "abusive, violent, wretched little bullies."

But why it has taken so long for District Attorney Terence Hallinan to take action has many wondering.

"A lot of city officials looked at it as gay on gay violence," said Michael Lauro, a co-founder of AIDS Activists Against Violence and Lies, an organization formed to protest the actions of AUSF. "There was an element of homophobia ... they had committed violence, harassment and stalking before, but no one was tying the pieces together as a pattern of activity."

It all came to a head in November, after a spate of abusive and harassing phone calls from Petrelis and Pasquarelli disputing an article about syphilis to public health officials, a Bay Area Reporter editor, researchers -- and, most importantly the Chronicle.

"They f----- with the wrong people," said a health official, referring to the political power of the Chronicle to get the DA to prosecute.

Kingston agreed.

"The only reason these charges were filed is because Hallinan was dragged kicking and screaming because of the Chronicle charges," he said. "People had been crying out for Hallinan to do something and charge them for years."

Petrelis the pest

But it wasn't just AUSF members the DA wanted. It was independent activist Petrelis.

Petrelis came to The City in 1995 with a long history of in-your-face activism. He handed out condoms in the office of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and dumped soda on former Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Wisc., in an effort to bring attention to gay rights and AIDS.

He's been called a menace, a pest, a professional gadfly, and much worse.

"But he has also asked some of the rude questions, which have crossed the minds of others who have kept quiet," said Scott Tucker, co-founder of ACT UP Philadelphia, who signed an open letter of support for Pasquarelli and Petrelis. "About inflated salaries for the executives of some AIDS agencies ... and about seeming contradictions in epidemiological data."

As with Tucker, many in the AIDS community are well aware of Petrelis' hard work, his nasal whining that demands AIDS accountability and justice, but they don't understand his alliance with AUSF.

A rocky start

At an AIDS conference in Vancouver in 1995, Petrelis and Bellefountaine got into a fistfight after Petrelis poured black oil-based paint on Bellefountaine's head to protest a poster Bellefountaine was making. Things cooled down and they have worked together to bring down what they call AIDS Inc., and their common goal is to defund AIDS organizations -- even though their ultimate goals differ in a fundamental way.

AUSF wants AIDS funding shut down because they don't believe in HIV and Petrelis wants the researchers, the health departments, and the AIDS nonprofits to be held accountable.

He will go to any lengths to get it done. He reportedly sent a letter to Helms in July 2000 saying that Center for Disease Control money is used to fund porno Web sites depicting men having unprotected anal sex -- and he allied with conservative Republican Congressman Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition to spur federal investigations into AIDS programs.

When the Examiner asked Petrelis about the eventual Republican backlash from his sleeping with the enemy tactics he said, "The right wing is going to have to take a number."

As far as he is concerned, health officials shutting down the gay bathhouses and the assault that AIDS organizations launch every day on gay men are already in line with the conservative Republican agenda.

Disturbing the peace

While a rap sheet on any of the members will show that they have been charged on everything from assault to disturbing the peace, and they have been through several criminal trials, none of the AUSF members -- or Petrelis -- has been convicted of any violent charges.

So, do their tactics differ from other activist groups?

Darlene Weide, the director of the Stop AIDS Project, said they do. She admits that storming into a waiting room or office may be a tactic used by progressive groups, but with the intent of educating.

"What Petrelis (and company) are doing are random assaults on anyone related to HIV services and prevention -- from clients in waiting rooms, to health educators, to volunteer outreach workers, to managers," she said. "AUSF risks bodily harm to people inside the offices. We pass out fliers. They throw chairs. That's a major difference."

E-mail Tanya Pampalone at tpampalone@sfexaminer.com
020123
SE020106

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, 2002. 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. .