New York Times “111 Held in St. Patrick’s AIDS Protest” December 11, 1989 While some 4,500 people demonstrated outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday, several dozen disrupted the Mass at 10:15 A.M. to protest John Cardinal O’Connor’s recent statements on abortion, homosexuality and AIDS. Some of the protesters chained themselves to pews inside the cathedral, while others shouted or lay in aisles. The police said 111 people were arrested, including 43 inside the church. Many of the protesters were carried out on stretchers after refusing to stand up. Dozens of protesters blocked traffic on Fifth Avenue by lying in the street.
Michael Rumaker’s witty fable blends the marvelous and the murderous as it takes us on a grown-up children’s crusade across Manhattan. The object of their pilgrimage—to destroy the malefactors of the Church. The result—one grand surprise after another. The Canterbury Tales in reverse for the furious queer 80’s and 90’s.