Homosexuals Deserve Protection Under Law

Homophobia has erupted in violent forms in two most unlikely places in Orange County, Laguna Beach and Irvine.

We say unlikely because those two communities are among the most enlightened in the county. Laguna Beach, where an estimated 18% to 30% of the residents are homosexual, probably has the largest homosexual population of any city in the county.

But wherever gay-bashing takes place, in whatever form, it deserves an immediate and opposing reaction from the entire community. When any group, for whatever reason, is singled out for attack, that is an assault on and threat to everyone’s freedom.

In Laguna Beach, three men have been attacked in the last several months. One man was so brutally beaten that he lost an eye. Another needed 80 stitches to close head wounds. Another man attacked was a transient who may not have been a homosexual, but that didn’t stop the attackers, who police say were out to attack a homosexual. That case of possible mistaken identity only points up the danger to the community at large because that makes everyone, homosexual or not, a potential target.

Police believe that youths from outside the city are responsible for the attacks in Laguna Beach. Three Huntington Beach men are in custody, charged with one of the assaults. Increased police patrols and vigilance can help curb those assaults.

The attacks against homosexuals in Irvine are less violent, but no less dangerous or reprehensible. A group of anti-homosexual residents, wrapping themselves in the cloak of being “family-oriented,” as if homosexuals neither care about nor have families, has launched an initiative drive to remove protections provided homosexuals under the city’s new human rights ordinance that went into effect last week.

The initiative isn’t seeking to repeal the entire ordinance. It would let stand a ban against discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, marital status or physical handicap. What it would do, in a blatant form of discrimination, is delete sexual orientation from the ordinance’s protected classes and prohibit defining “sexual orientation as a fundamental human right” in the future.

The mere filing of the initiative is all the reason needed for having such protection in the law--and for every responsible and caring resident in Irvine to flatly reject the effort to deny any group of residents its safeguards.

A person’s sexual orientation is a private matter that should have no bearing on his or her ability to do a job or rent an apartment. Unfortunately, the reality is that it too often does, exposing homosexuals to unwarranted discrimination, fanned even more lately by unfounded AIDS fears.

As a result, homosexuals live in fear of discovery and the subsequent denial of jobs, homes and physical abuse. They need--and deserve--more understanding and protection from the kinds of attacks now being aimed at them in Laguna Beach and Irvine.