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Compiled by GayToday
San Francisco, California--Former members of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power who
organized and participated in the December 1989 ACT UP demonstration "Stop
The Church," announced yesterday they will go back to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New
York on Sunday, December 12 for a news conference.
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 Cardinal John O'Connor |
Members of ACT UP and WHAM, the Women's Health Action Mobilization, joined
forces in late 1989 after Archbishop John O'Connor and the Catholic
Archdiocese bureaucracy demanded public health and school officials withhold lifesaving
AIDS prevention information to students and abortion access to women.
More than 5,000 people attended the December 11 demonstration, including one
hundred protesters who disrupted mass to accuse O'Connor of meddling in
public health concerns.
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"We came to St. Patrick's in 1989 to repel the church's destructive intrusion
into public policies concerning AIDS, gay civil rights and women's
reproductive rights," said Michael Petrelis, an original member of ACT UP.
"Ten years later, church policy on these matters is still hostile and breeds
violence against gays and abortion providers." Petrelis was one of the
arrestees in the cathedral.
"In the decade since ACT UP and WHAM staged 'Stop The Church' the archdiocese
continued to lobby against gay rights and abortion services, denying public
opinion and medical facts," said Jay Blotcher, an ACT UP spokesperson in
1989.
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Related Sites:
ACT UP New York
Archdiocese of New York
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"The message we send to the Catholic hierarchy is simple: curb your
dogmatic persecution of gays and lesbians, people with HIV/AIDS and those who
support abortion."
The two ACT UP veterans ask their colleagues in the fight against the
Catholic Church's persecution of gays, lesbians and birth control rights to join them
for a news conference on Sunday, December 12, 1999 at 9:45 a.m., in front of
St. Patrick's Cathedral. No arrests are planned.
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