Aids Activists Dump Funeral Urns

Police on horseback dispersed more than 300 AIDS activists protesting in front of the White House on Sunday after demonstrators tossed funeral urns with ashes inside over the wrought-iron fence.

Steven Hardway, of Oklahoma City, a member of the group ACT UP who threw an urn that he said bore the ashes of his lover who died of AIDS, was escorted from the scene, but the U.S. Park Police said he was not arrested or charged.

ACT UP characterized the demonstration as a political funeral to protest President Clinton’s AIDS policies and to press demands including guaranteed access to anti-AIDS medications, more AIDS research and a federally funded needle exchange program for addicts.

Clinton, campaigning in the West, missed the protest.