Compiled and edited by Martin Flynn
health officials with statements like "We're coming to get you"
and could face up to ten years imprisonment if convicted. With bail set
for each at over $1/2 million the pair languished in jail over the Christmas
and New Year holidays.
Both men face felony counts of violating restraining orders as well as
criminal conspiracy and stalking. They are alleged to have had violent
clashes with local public health officials, journalists and Aids service
providers, harassing them and their families in public and on the phone.
In one incident, Pasquarelli was said to have burst into an HIV treatment
forum screaming "You faggots need to die."
But despite disagreeing with the duo's methods, mainstream Aids activists
worldwide are now campaigning for their release from incarceration. Signers
of an open letter opposing the duo's bail and the felony charges against
them include playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein, Poz Magazine founder
Sean Straub, author Patricia Nell Warren and TV host Andy Humm.
Fierstein wrote: "I, like everyone I know, abhor most of their messages
and tactics. However, I fear the bullying of protesters."
But others believe the pair should remain in jail. Kate Sorenson, a Philadelphia
activist held in prison for protesting at the 2000 Republican Party convention,
derided the two men for "damaging the good work that real Aids activists
have done for
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