ANAHEIM : Activists Pile Their Arguments

In a novel bid to dramatize their opposition to the anti-gay crusade of the Rev. Louis Sheldon, AIDS activists placed bags of manure at his office doorstep on Wednesday, which led to a brief shoving match.

No one was injured or arrested in the noonday scuffle between three members of ACT UP/Orange County and Sheldon’s son, Steve Sheldon. Police have referred the spat to the city attorney’s office for a decision on whether misdemeanor assault-and-battery charges will be filed against any of the parties.

As a fragrant kickoff to their campaign, members of the local chapter of the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power deposited 170 pounds of steer manure--”roughly Sheldon’s weight,” one member noted--outside the office of the minister’s Traditional Values Coalition. The activists criticized Sheldon for opposing AB 101, a state Assembly bill that would extend fair-employment and housing laws to minorities regardless of sexual orientation.

“This manure does the world a lot more good than his crap,” said ACT UP member Robert Whyte. “His bigotry offends justice.”

Followed by a small phalanx of journalists and watched by half a dozen Anaheim police officers, ACT UP members put five sealed bags of manure outside Sheldon’s closed office door. Then Whyte pounded on the door, demanding to see the clergyman. From inside, Steve Sheldon could be heard refusing entry to the group, but a few moments later he opened the door a crack. Whyte and two other activists, Dave Barton and Lee Waddell, surged over the threshold.

As soon as he got his arm through the door, Waddell served Steve Sheldon with a subpoena to appear in another court case. The younger Sheldon said that as Waddell came at him, “I put my right shoulder into the guy (Waddell) and pushed back.” The jousting sent Sheldon’s glasses flying. Both sides began shouting about harassment and assault. The police moved in and pried the men apart.

The subpoena requests the appearance of Louis and Steve Sheldon in a case charging several ACT UP members with disrupting a recent meeting of the Traditional Values Coalition at an Anaheim church. A June 25 hearing is scheduled in Fullerton Municipal Court in that case.

As police interviewed ACT UP members in the hallway outside, Louis Sheldon said the incident illustrated the group’s “Gestapo tactics” and “spirit of anarchy.”

“If this is an example of their attitude toward civil rights, we’re all in deep alligators,” Sheldon said.

Sheldon, Orange County’s most visible opponent of gay rights, said he opposes AB 101 because it would “allow homosexuals to become a protected class.” He said allowing gays to “get a foothold in public policy” would lead to the teaching in public schools of homosexuality as “a viable lifestyle,” he said.

“What’s next on their agenda, pedophilia?” Sheldon asked.