At least seven non-Harvard affiliated groups, including the radical ACT UP and Queer Nation, will rally in the Square on Commencement Day to protest speaker Gen. Colin L. Powell and the ban on gays in the military, Harvard anti-ban activists said yesterday.

ACT UP, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Fenway Community Health Center, the Lavender Political Alliance, Operation Lift the Ban and Queer Nation are planning "a rally in Harvard Square in between the morning and afternoon ceremonies," said Michael D. O'Laughlin, a member of the Graduate School of Education Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Students and a member of the Commencement Pride Coalition.

The Commencement Pride Coalition, which is organizing protests inside the Yard, plans to distribute 7,000 balloons before Powell speaks, representing what they say are the number of gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers ejected from the military under Powell's tenure as Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They also plan to distribute mortarboard stickers and to chant "Lift the ban" while Powell receives his honorary degree.

O'Laughlin said that the Coalition had discussed at its weekly meeting last night plans for the rally by outside groups on Commencement Day.

O'Laughlin said about 50 students attended the meeting.

President Neil L. Rudenstine met Wednesday with several students from the Commencement Pride Coalition.

Rudenstine said yesterday that he will not try to interfere with the protests.

"From my point of view, I thought [the students] were extremely constructive and thoughtful," he said. "[The demonstration] consists in part of having lots of balloons handed out and so on. I said we're not about to try to take balloons away from people."

Rudenstine said in an interview two weeks ago that he would support any protests of Powell's position on gays in the military if they were non-disruptive.

The students also requested to be able to ask Powell to sign a petition supporting the removal of the ban, Rudenstine said.

"I thought there might be a time between the two ceremonies and it would really just depend on working out the logistics with the General," he said. "If it could be managed he seems to me to be the type of person who would manage it."

Members of the Commencement Pride Coalition said last night that Rudenstine had suggested that a separate ceremony be held between the morning and afternoon Commencement ceremonies in which Powell could be presented with the petition.

"We're asking for equal time for Mayor Kenneth Reeves to speak in the morning about the injustice of the ban," said Andrew J. Greenspan, a member of the Medical School Kinsey 2 to 6ers, the gay, lesbian and bisexual group there. "He said he would have to look into it, but he suggested [the additional] ceremony.