Gay Activists to Risk Arrest in AIDS Protest

A national gay rights leader, opening a series of lobbying efforts and demonstrations that organizers say will conclude next week with mass arrests outside the Supreme Court building, accused the Reagan Administration on Friday of using “delay tactics” in the fight against AIDS.

Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, charged that the Administration’s policy on combatting the deadly disease is “in disarray,” citing the abrupt resignations Thursday of the chairman and vice chairman of the special presidential commission on AIDS.

He called for a stepped-up federal effort to fund AIDS research and to protect the civil liberties of gays, who he said are suffering from increasing abuse and discrimination because of public fears about the sexually transmitted disease.

Activists Begin Arriving

Levi, whose organization represents more than 300 gay groups nationwide, made his remarks at a press briefing on the AIDS lobbying campaign, as gay activists from around the nation began arriving in Washington for the series of events that will conclude Tuesday. He said that more than 100,000 people are expected to participate.

The rally will include a street march Sunday for lesbian and gay rights. Activists say that on Tuesday they will stage a demonstration of “nonviolent civil disobedience” outside the Supreme Court to protest the court’s 1986 decision upholding a Georgia law banning sodomy. More than 300 people have pledged to participate and be arrested for illegal demonstration, planners said.

Security to Be Tightened

A Supreme Court spokesman said that security will be tightened and that those engaging in “civil disobedience” will be arrested.

Gay rights activists said the rally reflects a determination by the gay community to press more aggressively for more government progress in the fight against acquired immune deficiency syndrome. “Life has not been particularly easy for us this past year and a half,” said Susan Hyde, who directs the task force’s Privacy Project. She cited violence and discrimination against gays.

Levi said he hopes that the gay community’s “life-saving” appeal to members of Congress may help bring about legislation to ban employment discrimination against gays and overturn state sodomy laws.