From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 11:03:06 EST
Subject: Queer Nation plans same sex kiss-in at SF cathedral


For Immediate Release                            
March 24, 1999
Contacts:  
Tommi Avicolli Mecca
415-552-6031
Michael Petrelis
415-621-6267

SAME-SEX KISS-IN AT ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL;

QUEERS DEMAND I.R.S. TAX THE CHURCH

San Francisco, CA - Members of the activist group Queer Nation today announced
they will hold a peaceful same-sex kiss-in outside of St. Mary's Cathedral,
located at 1111 Gough Street, on Palm Sunday, March 28, starting at 11:00 a.m.

Queer Nation is outraged the San Francisco archdiocese is again attempting to
restrict the right to assemble and to speak out against church hypocrisy.  By
asking the Board of Supervisors to rescind a street closure permit, granted to
the Sisters of PerpetualIndulgence, the archdiocese demonstrates its blatant
anti-democratic agenda.  The Sisters is a twenty-year-old charitable
organization dedicated to serving people in need, that marks its founding
every Easter and the group will close Castro Street on April 4 for a
celebration.

"Over the centuries, the Catholic church has burned us alive at the stake,
remained silent as Hitler forced us into concentration camps, supported
enactment and enforcement of anti-sodomy laws, and currently opposes effective
means of AIDS prevention for gay men and others at risk of contracting HIV,"
said Michael Petrelis, a spokesperson for Queer Nation.  "We also object to
church policies on women, abortion issues, and the muted reaction as the Nazis
annihilated most of Europe's Jewish population.  The church is institutionally
hostile to homosexuals, women and Jews."

Another Queer Nation member, and self described recovering Catholic, Tommi
Avicolli Mecca called for abolishing the church's tax exempt status.  "The
Catholic church is more political than the Republican and Democratic parties
combined -- and should be taxed accordingly," he said.  "We demand the I.R.S.
strip the church of its special status.  San Francisco's politicians must
resist the archdiocese's newest incursion into city government.  Democracy
requires a hard-line definitively separating church and state."

The gay activists further point out the archdiocese's failure publicly
denounce the recent brutal killings of two gay men; Matthew Shepard in Wyoming
and Billy Jack Gaither in Alabama.  "The lack of condemnation against the
violence which maims and murders gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender
people from church leaders -- because of whom and how we love -- can only be
interpreted as an implicit endorsement of homophobia," said Petrelis, who was
raised a Roman Catholic.

"Our same-sex kiss-in on the steps of St. Mary's is open to all people who
object to church doctrine which denigrates secular government, the g/l/b/t
communities and a women's right to abortion," Mecca said.  He strongly
stressed his group would not enter St. Mary's during Mass, nor prevent
worshippers from attending Mass.  "Our complaint is not with individual
Catholics, it is with the church hierarchy, which needs its dogma constantly
curbed."
                   
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