Two AIDS Activists Barred From Contact with San Francisco Chronicle Employees

A San Francisco judge yesterday issued a temporary restraining order barring AIDS activists Michael Petrelis and David Pasquarelli from "having any contact" with San Francisco Chronicle employees, the Chronicle reports. Judge James Robertson's ruling also prohibits Petrelis and Pasquarelli from coming within 300 yards of "any Chronicle employee or the newspaper's offices." The pair allegedly made "dozens of obscene and threatening" phone calls to Chronicle editors and reporters, prompting the paper on Friday to seek the temporary restraining order. Staff members said they began receiving the phone calls last Wednesday, "both at home and at work." The two activists "apparently were angered" by two Chronicle stories that ran in October, one on the "rise of unsafe sex practices" among gay men in San Francisco and the other on increases in the rates of syphilis among gay and bisexual men in the city. The restraining order will be effective through "at least" Nov. 28, when Robertson will hold a hearing to address the Chronicle's request for a permanent injunction against Pasquarelli and Petrelis. Pasquarelli is a member of the "dissident" AIDS advocacy group ACT UP/San Francisco (San Francisco Chronicle, 11/13).