
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990                   TAG: 9006240029
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Medium

AIDS `ARMY' SHOWS UNITY ON AGENDA

A ragtag army of AIDS protesters joined hands Saturday with researchers and policy-makers from the Sixth International AIDS Conference and marched through downtown San Francisco to tell the world that they shared an agenda to help people with AIDS by speeding treatment, improving health care and ending discrimination.

The march of several thousand people was briefly disrupted by the most outrageous piece of street theater of the week, an invasion of the Nordstrom department store led by the Seattle chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.

About 1,000 Act-Up members from around the country stormed through the store's brass-handled doors, with scores of photographers in tow, and streamed up the circular escalators.

Within minutes, they filled the store's atrium to overflowing, unfurling banners over the railings, plastering every surface with their signature "Silence Equals Death" stickers.

Lavender fliers swirled through the air like confetti, explaining that Act-Up had singled out the store, which has headquarters in Seattle, because it contends it discriminated against an AIDS-infected employee. A lawsuit is pending, and no spokesman for Nordstrom could be immediately reached for comment.

Act-Up had planned one major protest a day during the five-day conference, each with a theme, and a series of unannounced "zaps" like Saturday's against Nordstrom.

All the actions were noisy and disrupted traffic. Some were sexually explicit. But there was virtually no violence here this week, by the demonstrators or the police, who showed restraint and good humor.

Each of the demonstrations was tightly choreographed by Act-Up members, many with platinum flattops, rings in their noses and the organizational skills of slick political operatives.

The police, for their part, also hewed to a script, eager to avoid the sort of confrontations with gay protesters that have tarnished the department's reputation. At several points when push might have come to shove, the police were flexible, allowing marchers to alter parade routes without warning, for instance, or to occupy a hotel lobby.

The only ugly moments came when protesters rattled the steel barricades that kept them from the doors of the convention center or the Immigration and Naturalization Service's offices, the scene of protests over federal laws that bar people with AIDS from entering the United States or gaining legal residency.

by CNB