From: ACTUPSF@aol.com Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 07:35:06 -0400 Subject: OutRageous support for PETA! The following are statements by OutRage! London and Peter Tatchell, co-founder of ACT UP London, supporting the upcoming March For The Animals and denouncing recent attacks on PETA by conservative elements in the ACT UP movement. As articulately pointed out, recent protests of the direct action tactics of defenders of animal liberation by individuals of ACT UP Golden Gate and ACT UP Washington are out of line with the militant Queer and AIDS activist movement. Members of ACT UP San Francisco join other Queer radicals in London and across the U.S. in seeking an end to the abuse of animals. ACT UP! Fight AIDS! ========== OutRage! London 5 Peter Street London W1V 3RR Phone: 0171-439-2381 fax: 0171-439-3291 20th June 1996 The Queer rights direct action group OutRage! sends its official support and solidarity to The March For The Animals on 23rd June 1996 in Washington DC. We do not believe that the oppression of Queer people can or should be remedied by the oppression of other peoples or species. Even when faced with the horror of the AIDS epidemic, there can be no ethical justification for colluding with the victimisation of living, thinking, feeling creatures. It is a moral outrage that in the name of stopping HIV, some people are prepared to condone the willful infliction of suffering on sentient beings, such as chimpanzees and monkeys, which clearly experience physical pain and emotional distress as a result of HIV-related experiments conducted upon them. As Queer people who have suffered victimisation, we feel a special responsibility to speak out for all animals, human and non-human, who suffer violations of their dignity and rights. Yours in solidarity, Mariana Cronin OutRage! ========== Peter Tatchell 45 Arrol House Rockingham Street London, SE1 6QL England, U.K. 20 June 1996 As a longtime AIDS activist and campaigner for Queer freedom, I extend my wholehearted support to The March For The Animals in Washington DC on 23 June 1996. We all want a cure and vaccine for HIV as soon as possible. But it cannot be right to seek a remedy for HIV through the deliberate infliction of suffering on other sentient species in laboratory experiments, especially when there are cruelty-free alternatives and when research findings with other species cannot be generalised to humans because of our vastly different physiology. For Queers to demand an end to homophobic oppression while supporting the oppression of other animals is selfish and hypocritical. Where's the moral consistency in wanting freedom for ourselves but denying it to other thinking, feeling creatures? Like all authoritarians, the defenders of vivisection argue that 'the ends justify the means'. The need to find a cure for HIV is so great, they say, that the infliction of pain on other species is ethically justifiable. However, if cruelty is excusable for the sake of the greater good, than the logic of their argument is that it would be also justifiable to experiment on humans. Obviously, it is not. The denial of rights to other animals by humans (speciesism) is analogous to the denial of rights to Queers by straights (heterosexism). Both these forms of oppression derive from a prejudiced, chauvinistic mindset that devalues 'difference' and victimises 'otherness'. Neither has any place in a compassionate, civilised society. Non-human animals deserve to be spared suffering for the same reason that Queers and people with HIV deserve to be spared suffering. All sentient animals - human and non-human - have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, irrespective of their species, race, sex, class, disability or sexual orientation. Peter Tatchell Peter Tatchell is the co-founder of ACT UP London and the Queer rights group OutRage!, and author of AIDS: A Guide To Survival and Safer Sexy - The Guide To Gay Sex Safely.