Dallas Voice story

Dear Friends:

As far as I know, this is the first article to appear in print about my efforts to get Bush's FBI file released through a FOIA request. It gives me tremendous pleasure that's a gay paper to put this in print, and a paper in Texas! Let's hope this story creates some pressure on the FBI to release whatever files it has on Dubya.

Michael Petrelis
^^^



December 3, 2004
The Dallas Voice

Firebrand West Coast activist glad to resume watchdog role Past legal consequences convince Petrelis to adopt less aggressive
tactics to monitor media; he still seeks release of President’s FBI file

By David Webb
Staff Writer


SAN FRANCISCO — Three years after he all but disappeared from the political scene, gay activist Michael Petrelis is back at work creating controversy.

The absence was painful for him, Petrelis said. He vowed to avoid the pitfalls that landed him in the San Francisco County Jail for 72 days in late 2001. The activist, self-described as “notorious,” said he learned the value of civility and patience while spending time behind bars for harassing public officials and members of the media.

“It’s taught me a lesson not to go over the line, and that phone calls in the middle of the night are not OK,” Petrelis said. “It also taught me to appreciate the freedom that I do have.”

The result is a “more mellow” watchdog for the GLBT community, Petrelis said.
Other than that, the activist admitted to being the same agitator he was in Nov. 2001 when San Francisco’s district attorney filed multiple felony charges against him, and a judge ordered him held on $500,000 bond. He pleaded no contest to two counts of making threats in February 2002 and was placed on three years’ probation.

For almost two years after his release from jail Petrelis attracted little attention, living a quieter existence in the Mission District of San Francisco with his partner of nearly 10 years. Then, suddenly, early this year he began attracting national attention again with his e-mails and phone calls.

Petrelis, who has long quarreled with the media and public health officials about AIDS statistics and other issues, targeted members of the media for making political contributions and not disclosing them. He exposed several reporters and editors who had contributed money to political candidates in violation of their publication’s employee policies.

Then Petrelis filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI for the release of President Bush’s file. The FBI notified Petrelis it would process the request — which is still pending. The activist flew to Washington to hold a press conference about his quest.

It would be impossible to abandon activism forever, said Petrelis, during an interview in San Francisco’s Castro district last week.

“I believe that activism is keeping me alive,” said Petrelis, who was found to have HIV in 1985. “I really believe it has given me lots of reasons to live and to keep up a good immune system.”

Petrelis said he was surprised when the media reported what he had discovered on the Internet about journalists and their political contributions.

“I thought my activist career was over when I had my legal troubles, and that no reporter anywhere would ever talk to me again,” Petrelis said. “That’s nice to still have credibility that leads to some news stories about my latest interests.”

Petrelis said he stumbled onto the information about journalists and their political contributions while surfing the Internet.

“I do have a problem with reporters and editors making donations to politicians and not disclosing they are making such donations,” Petrelis said. “It’s just that making the donations in the first place jeopardizes their impartiality as journalists.”

Petrelis said he turned his attention to President Bush’s FBI file because he has been unable to find any reference to anyone ever examining it in a news story or elsewhere.

“I think the American people should have had access to the Bush FBI file before the recent election,” Petrelis said. “I hope the FBI gives me the Bush file without everything blacked out and some attention gets paid to it.”

Petrelis said he would appeal to receive a complete copy of the file if the FBI withholds information.

So far, Petrelis said he has managed to control his temper and abide by the rules of conduct he accepted when he was placed on probation. He is limited to sending one fax or one letter per day to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Petrelis said he and another activist, who died earlier this year, got into trouble because they became enraged by what they saw as attempts by the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco health department to “demonize gay men over sexually-transmitted diseases.”

“I’ve had quite a temper over the years, and I think it comes from my ethnic background,” said Petrelis, who is of Greek and Italian heritage.

Petrelis’ boyfriend, Michael E. Merrigan, said it has been an “incredibly rewarding” experience to live with the activist. He called life with Petrelis “complicated, special and wonderful.”

“He is one of the most principled people it has ever been my privilege to know,” said Merrigan, who has been a legal secretary for the same lawyer for 22 years. “For every bit as tough and strident as he can be when hammering a conviction home to someone who doesn’t want to hear the message, he is a gentle, affectionate and thoroughly nonviolent man.

Petrelis said Merrigan, whom he met during an “anonymous sexual experience in a backroom bar,” stood by him during his legal problems.

“I have to say my partner has gone way above and beyond the call of duty for the average gay boyfriend,” Petrelis said.

Petrelis said that he and his partner decided not to get married when the city’s official briefly allowed same-sex marriages earlier this year, but he witnessed other couples’ marriages.

“It was amazing that a cynical, jaded activist like me had tears just looking at everyone waiting in line for hours to get married,” Petrelis said. “I’m so happy I was alive to see that day.”

Petrelis, who was raised in New Jersey, said he considers San Francisco the best environment for his activism and for the treatment of his HIV infection. The city’s AIDS services programs receive enough funding that they can offer alternative treatments as well as basic drug treatment and doctor visits, he said.

Although he acknowledges that his criticisms of AIDS funding often annoys the managers and clients of service agencies, the activist said he enjoys “begrudging respect” from many of the city’s gay residents.

“I love it here,” Petrelis said. “I don’t think I could live anywhere else in America.”

E-mail webb@dallasvoice.com