Court Says Magic Mountain Can’t Deny Request for Gays-Only Night

Six Flags Magic Mountain illegally discriminated against homosexuals when it refused to schedule an exclusive “Gay and Lesbian Night” at the amusement park, a judge ruled Thursday.

Rejecting arguments that teen-agers who work at the Valencia attraction might refuse to show up for work, in part out of the fear of AIDS, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien said state civil rights laws take precedence over the park’s staffing problems.

Attorney Gloria Allred, representing a Sylmar woman who had sought to organize the event, called the ruling “a major victory,” both for homosexuals involved in future discrimination cases and for other minority groups.

“If they could do that to gays and lesbians, who are 10% of our community, what’s to prevent them from barring blacks from the park, because there are white parents who might object to having their children working there? What’s to prevent Christian parents from saying they don’t want a B’nai B’rith event because they don’t want their children associating with Jewish people?” Allred asked.

The decision echoed an Orange County Superior Court ruling on Disneyland’s policy against allowing persons of the same sex to dance at the Anaheim park. In May, 1984, the court upheld a challenge to the policy brought by two male homosexuals who were ejected from the park for dancing together, and Disneyland later reversed the policy.

Magic Mountain officials said they have never discouraged homosexuals from using the park during regular visitors’ hours.

“As a result of the court’s order this morning, Magic Mountain will reconsider holding the proposed gay and lesbian private event at the park, and in addition, the park will continue to examine all available legal options,” including an appeal, Sherrie Bang, public relations manager, said Thursday.

Valerie Heekin, a video production specialist, telephoned Magic Mountain officials in May, 1985, to ask about reserving the park for a special “gay pride” event.

The park denied the request, citing problems that occurred during a “Gay Night at Magic Mountain” in 1979, when several teen-aged employees failed to report for work and the park received about 75 complaints from parents of staff members who were “severely critical” of the event.

Even More Teen-Agers

Since then, teen-agers make up an even greater proportion of the work force at the park--about 75% of its 2,000 employees--and while the park has no policy against admitting homosexuals, Magic Mountain officials fear that they would encounter “impossible staffing problems with an event reserved exclusively for homosexuals,” former general manager Richard Miller told the court in a written declaration.

With increasing concern about the high incidence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the gay community, “many employees do not want to be in a concentrated setting of high-risk individuals,” a park spokesman said.

‘On the Short End’

“You weigh all of that with rights set out in the Unruh Civil Rights Act, you’re on the short end,” O’Brien responded, granting Heekin’s request to rule on the merits of her case without going to a full trial.

Heekin said she has sought to organize the event because of what she said was the amusement park’s routine policy of preventing gays and homosexuals from openly displaying affection during regular operating days.

“We normally on an everyday basis can’t go into the park with our lovers and hold hands and so on,” said Heekin, adding that she will now attempt to organize the event for the Labor Day weekend.

But Bang said she knew of no instance in which homosexuals were ejected from the park for holding hands.