Suit Accuses Big Brothers of Excluding Gay Volunteers

On behalf of a bisexual Los Angeles man, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California filed suit on Monday against the Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles, charging that the group systematically excludes homosexuals and bisexuals from its pool of adult companions for boys of single-parent families.

The Los Angeles Superior Court suit, which seeks a court order to end the alleged discrimination, was filed on behalf of Richard Stanley, a 35-year-old Los Angeles car salesman who applied to participate in the program in July, 1984. In the course of a four-month application process, Stanley mentioned his bisexual orientation to interviewers.

According to the suit, Stanley was notified in writing the next November that he would not be considered for matching with a “little brother.” Later, in a telephone conversation with a Big Brothers representative, Stanley was told that the organization excludes bisexual or homosexual men, the suit states.

“Just simply put,” Stanley said in a telephone interview Monday, “I would like to be judged on who I am rather than what I am.”

Stanley said he had wanted to perform some kind of volunteer work and had heard public service announcements about the Big Brothers program. He said some friends suggested that being a Big Brother would be a rewarding form of volunteer work, and he thought he would have a lot to offer because he comes from a single-parent environment.

‘A Vital Function’

Richard Kline, president of Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles, defended the group’s stringent screening policy as “a vital function of the organization.”

“Since a Big Brother is looked to for information on everything from school to sex, we don’t believe it is appropriate to match a homosexual or bisexual man with a fatherless boy,” Kline said in an interview. “In our professional judgment, it is not our function to expose a fatherless boy to an alternative life style at a time when he is struggling with his own identity.”

According to Kline, Big Brothers spend about half a day a week with their little brothers, share experiences that are typically shared by fathers and sons and, in effect, become substitute fathers to the boys.

The 30-year-old private nonprofit organization is dedicated to providing a free service to single mothers rearing sons aged 6 to 12 in Los Angeles County. There are more than 500 Big Brother matches with more than 300 boys waiting for Big Brothers, Kline said.

“Oftentimes the Big Brother is the only man in (the child’s) life and oftentimes the most significant,” Kline said.

The lawsuit contends that Stanley should not be excluded from a pool for consideration for matching with a little brother because “all parties involved in the matching . . . are adequately safeguarded.

“All characteristics of a potential Big Brother are disclosable to the parent of a potential little brother prior to matching, and any matching is subject to the final approval of the parent,” the suit states.

Kline, a Big Brother for 14 years, said the organization has “an awesome responsibility to the mothers of these boys. . . . The lawsuit says we are a business. If what they expect is for Big Brothers to treat (boys) like items on a supermarket shelf, we are simply not going to do it.”

The suit alleges that Stanley’s exclusion is unnecessary discrimination in violation of state and local statutes. It asks the court to strike down the allegedly illegal discrimination and to issue a writ requiring the Big Brothers to accept Stanley for matching consideration on an equal basis with other volunteer applicants.