Petrelis Files

When I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's San Francisco office in May 2003, I expected, at most, to get back ten, maybe a dozen, pages.

The agency three months ago released to me 269 pages of the 273 file the local office has on me. I reacted with shock and awe at the rather voluminous file. After recovering my balance, I filed an appeal for the four pages withheld by the FBI.

Poring over my FBI file, I learned how extensive the effort was by taxpayer-subsidized AIDS researchers, prevention experts and epidemiologists at the University of California at San Francisco to have me charged in late 2001 under the USA Patriot Act, as a domestic terrorist.

How did my file compare to the one compiled by the FBI on the Gay Activists Alliance in the early 1970s, I wondered. Google quickly provided me the answer.

The FBI file on GAA is only 135 pages long, much smaller than mine. Not that I'm a size queen about these matters, but it's a small badge of honor to have an FBI file, as an individual, larger than the one it has on an organization. [1, 2]

Reading the GAA document was a history lesson for me. The FBI file includes portions of GAA's Constitution and Bylaws, in which they proudly proclaim, "We as liberated homosexual activists demand the freedom for expression of our dignity . . . [and] an immediate end to all oppression of homosexuals." Much of the file explains what the FBI knew about GAA's planned zaps and other actions at the 1972 Democratic and GOP party conventions in Miami.

The wonder awful thing about the GAA file is the richness of detail about the state of our movement, at least on the East Coast, and how organized the activists were, before our community was fully legal.

Who were the brave pioneers under surveillance by the federal agents, some of whom were questioned and investigated by the G-men?

In a memo from the FBI's Miami bureau dated June 19, 1972, the agents were "furnished a list of Gay organizations along with their leaders who will be attending the Miami Democratic and Republican Conventions. This list consisting of five pages is enclosed."

The name that stands out most is that of Ann Woytow, of the White House Vigilers [sic] for Peace, because of the address, "1600 Penn Avenue, Sidewalk, Washington, DC 20002."

(Um, Ms. Woytow, were expecting the post office to deliver your mail by mistake to the residence behind the iron fence on the sidewalk you list as your address? Oh, we don't see enough of such characters that much today, and I wish we did.)

When the FBI released the GAA file in 1999, and posted it on the web, a news release was issued, leading me to think there must have been stories about the file and its contents, in both the mainstream and gay press, but after a few on line searches, I could not find one. [3]

Did I miss those articles back in 1999? If I did, and you have copies, or know where I can locate them on the web, please let me know.

And if you haven't already done so, make a FOIA request with the FBI and see what the agency may have on you.

Sources:
1. FBI GAA file, pt. 1
2. FBI GAA file, pt. 2
3. FBI news release on GAA file