Meeting’s Aim Is to Find Cure for Homophobia in Laguna Beach

When Carrie Frank attended Laguna Beach High School in the late 1970s, a popular activity was to get drunk and shout insults at gays in town.

“I was not aware that I was a lesbian when I was in high school, but I was aware of more intolerance (of homosexuality) when I was in high school. . . . There was extreme homophobia, more than I’ve ever seen before.”

Frank was among about 50 Laguna Beach residents who gathered at City Hall on Saturday morning to discuss ways to curb violence against homosexuals. The meeting was prompted by attacks on four gay men in the city last summer.

Various church and education officials also attended the informal meeting, which was the product of an Aug. 16 City Council resolution decrying attacks on gays and calling for increased public education about homosexuals.

Some people at the meeting suggested that homosexuality needs to be discussed in high school, possibly as part of panel discussions on sex education.

“People don’t have to accept or understand (homosexuality) . . . but they do have to live with it,” Orange Coast College psychology instructor Olga Cox told the group. Cox has conducted several panel discussions at high schools in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. “I don’t teach homosexuality, I just tell them what it is,” she said.

Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry, who is gay, and others at the meeting said high school is a natural place to educate people about homosexuals.

Kirk Linville, a gay Laguna Beach resident who has participated in high school panel discussions, said he also has seen intolerance of gays in high school.

“It’s gone from ‘let’s go throw things at the faggots’ to ‘let’s go beat up some faggots,’ ” he said.

But Mayor Dan Kenney said schools aren’t the only place to educate people.

“One perception is that high-school-age kids hurl epithets, and one way to educate them would be to encourage more tolerance,” Kenney said. “That’s not an indictment of all high school kids. We’d like churches and other community groups to be involved as well.”

Some participating in the 2-hour meeting Saturday expressed fears about such panels in high school and questioned whether they would appear to advocate a homosexual life style.

Tom Ravensberg, a Laguna Beach resident, said his family took in and cared for a homosexual AIDS victim for three months until the man had to be hospitalized.

“Does that mean I have to give a blanket endorsement of a life style I consider immoral and wrong? No,” Ravensberg told the group.

If panel discussions were held, he said, he would “want the church to be represented, because the Bible teaches that homosexuality, like other sexual sin, is wrong.”

Russ Oquist, pastor of Calvary Church in Laguna Beach, also told the group that any panels should represent all views.

“It’s the hate-the-sin, love-the-sinner aspect,” Oquist said. “Laguna Beach is very tolerant, but no one should force their opinion on anyone else.”

Laguna Beach school board member Kathy Jones said any panel discussions should be organized by the students.

“It might be more interesting in a discussion of human rights to include a diversity and to focus not only on ways to improve the understanding of one group but of a variety of groups . . . such as Latinos, blacks and Asian-Americans,” Jones said.

Gentry said more meetings will be held to help the city plan community education programs on homosexuality.

“I’ve lived here 18 years, and there’s never been this kind of community-based dialogue,” he said. “This is very healthy.”