Aids Coalition To Unleash Power

About two dozen activists were arrested as members of the American Medical Assn. debated whether physicians and patients should be routinely tested for AIDS. Police arrested about 25 people belonging to the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, as about 200 protesters marched to the Chicago Hilton & Towers Hotel, where the AMA convention is being held. Some tried to cross police barriers at the hotel entrance and were hauled off by officers.

IN June 1988, Chuck Stallard showed up to photograph a demonstration by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, on Copa De Oro Road in Bel-Air. The activist group, which became known for theatrical street protests that were infused with wit but fueled by anger, had gathered 70 protesters in front of a house where then Vice President George H.W. Bush was attending a fundraiser to demand that the presidential candidate make AIDS a priority campaign issue.

Two aggressive AIDS activists jailed in San Francisco are finding support from an improbable source: those who call their theories "crackpot" and consider their tactics indecent and abhorrent. Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli are jailed in lieu of a combined $1.1-million bail on charges of harassing, stalking and making criminal threats against newspaper reporters, public health officials and AIDS researchers.

Hundreds of AIDS activists converged on Albany and confronted Gov. Mario M. Cuomo at his heavily guarded home Wednesday before marching to the Capitol, where police hauled away scores of demonstrators. The protest, conducted by the Aids Coalition To Unleash Power, or ACT UP, was intended to draw attention to the need for more extensive health, welfare and insurance benefits for AIDS patients, organizers said. At least 47 people were arrested.

New York City police acknowledged that 30 women arrested while demonstrating for AIDS research funds were strip-searched, and said at least two police matrons will face departmental charges. The treatment of the members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power was "clearly improper" in light of the "minor charges" against them, said Alice McGillion, deputy police commissioner for public affairs.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, acting after the start of their meeting Tuesday was held up by militant AIDS activists, voted to study a recommendation by the county's advisory AIDS commission to add $9 million to the county budget to augment AIDS-related services. Last week, members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power-Los Angeles disrupted the supervisors' meeting in a half-hour protest that resulted in 27 arrests.

Thirty-eight AIDS activists were arrested Tuesday after shouting protests and chanting at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power/Los Angeles said they were protesting the supervisors' refusal to increase this year's proposed $60-million AIDS budget. The demonstration began at 10 a.m.

Demonstrators in San Francisco temporarily halted production of the upcoming NBC-TV series "Midnight Caller," saying one episode will encourage violence against people with AIDS. Filming of the series stopped when about 50 noisy demonstrators from ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, blew whistles at an outdoor set in the city.

On day six of a week-long vigil, about 30 AIDS patients and supporters stayed camped Thursday on the cement plaza in front of County-USC Medical Center in an attempt to call attention to a lack of public medical facilities designated for treatment of AIDS. Being close with those who are sympathetic to what AIDS patients are experiencing is what the vigil is about, said David Reid, a member of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. About a dozen community organizations have participated, Reid said.

AIDS demonstrators have always been provocative during the two-decade epidemic: interrupting important speeches, chaining themselves to furniture, placing a 35-foot balloon-like replica of a condom on a U.S. senator's roof. But even some old-time activists say two prominent San Francisco protesters and their supporters have gone too far. On Wednesday, San Francisco law enforcement officials agreed.

ACT UP, the activist group whose brash tactics seek to publicize the plight of people with AIDS, marked its 10th anniversary with a demonstration in the heart of New York City's financial district. The protest by about 250 people, who called for lower prices for AIDS-fighting drugs, came at a time when participation in the group has declined. Eight years ago, an ACT UP rally attracted 2,000 people.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the newly elected Orange County congresswoman who unseated firebrand Republican Robert K. Dornan, found herself caught between two battling AIDS groups on the eve of the presidential inauguration. Members from the local Washington chapter of ACT UP on Sunday picketed the $100-a-ticket Sanchez fund-raiser sponsored by the American AIDS Political Committee. Protest organizer Steve Michael accused the national AIDS committee of recently raising more than $1.

Police on horseback dispersed more than 300 AIDS activists protesting in front of the White House on Sunday after demonstrators tossed funeral urns containing ashes over the wrought-iron fence. Steven Hardway of Oklahoma City, a member of the group ACT UP who threw an urn that he said bore the ashes of his lover who died of AIDS, was escorted from the scene, but the U.S. Park Police said he was not arrested or charged.

Three years ago, Orange County ACT-UP member Robert Whyte was dumping sacks of manure on a clergyman's office steps and handing out thousands of condoms at local high schools. But today, Whyte is the lone representative of the group, which once attracted both widespread anger and praise for its in-your-face tactics. "What they did got action. When groups like ACT-UP . . .

An AIDS activist group handed out 3,000 bright yellow condoms to arriving Hoover High School students Wednesday to protest school officials' cancellation of a play about safe sex. The protesters from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power--ACT UP--handed out neon yellow and green stickers reading "Safe sex is hot sex" to students, many of whom asked for extras to stick on their lockers and give to friends.

About 25 protesters from an AIDS coalition smashed watermelons in front of the Coach House concert club Wednesday night as comedian Gallagher was preparing to perform. The protest, sponsored by ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) Orange County, was in response to a recent show at Lake Tahoe at which Gallagher included an AIDS joke in his act. "AIDS is not funny," screamed protest organizer Jan Speller as concert-goers were driving into the club parking lot.

Members of ACT UP Orange County say they won't be laughing tonight when controversial comedian Andrew Dice Clay takes the stage for his sold-out performance at the Pacific Amphitheatre. The group will be out in force before the show begins at 7:30 p.m. to protest Clay's slurs toward women and gays, ACT UP member Kelly Cowger said Friday. "He's a gay basher," said Cowger, 20, a student from Santa Ana. "He advocates violence toward women, and he's also a bigot."

Vice President Dan Quayle on Sunday led a bus caravan through central Florida in search of the "Reagan Democrats" that the Republican campaign believes it needs to win this key state in November. Sounding his well-tested themes of traditional values, small government and low taxes, the entourage of Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, rumbled through Lakeland, Claremont, Leesburg and Ocala. "Florida is key for us, and this is somewhat of a swing area," Quayle told reporters.

The AIDS activist group ACT UP put a new spin on its traditional monthly condom giveaway Wednesday when a student who belongs to the group asked that fellow members come to her school. Students at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa were greeted off campus before school began by about a dozen activists passing out the flesh-toned prophylactics and bilingual information sheets because a senior at the school wanted them to have additional information.