"UN50" Demonstration June 25 in San Francisco

A march to protest ineffective AIDS policies of the United
Nations will take place in San Francisco on June 25. It is
scheduled to meet at 12 noon at Castro and Market Streets,
and march on Market Street and Van Ness Avenue to the War
Memorial Opera House. The march is organized by CRASH
(Coalition Responding to AIDS & State-sanctioned Homophobia).

On the following day, June 26, the Opera House will be the
site of the official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of
the signing of the United Nations charter. Hundreds of
reporters, and many world leaders including President
Clinton, will be in San Francisco for that event.

For more information, call Michael Petrelis at CRASH,
415/522-2939 (voicemail).

Comment

The "UN50" celebration, which officially started April 26,
has received remarkably little attention in San Francisco --
which is surprising if only in view of the amount of
disruption which is likely to occur when the event climaxes
on June 26. We have heard little discussion of United Nations
issues in the gay community, and found very little in the
mainstream press. We would be surprised if one San Franciscan
in ten even knows that UN50 is happening.

Quote

"What AIDS research lacks can be summed up in a few words:
Leadership, Courage, and a Sense of Urgency. We will continue
to see a slow but steady pace of advances without them, just
as we do today, but the pity is that we could move so much
faster and so much more effectively with them." Project
Inform, "Advances, Challenges, and Growing Frustration," in
PI PERSPECTIVE, May 1995.