Gay Political Leader Scott Eulogized as a Man of Courage

The memorial service was, in many ways, the epitome of tradition. A soprano sang “Amazing Grace,” and there was a reading of the 23rd Psalm. That is the one about walking through the valley of the shadow of death and fearing no evil. Gay political leader Peter Scott, who died from AIDS on May 13, was thus remembered Saturday as a man of courage. State Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp eulogized Scott as a leader who made a difference and had “a good life well-lived.” A gay friend, Judge Stephen Lachs, spoke of “a lonely chill” and of anger.

“I ask, how many more must die from AIDS? How many more before the public shakes its lethargy?” Lachs asked mourners at the service at St. Augustine’s by the Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica.

“We have been burying our dead every day for eight years. . . . America, can you not feel our agony?”

As of the end of April, 4,484 people had died of AIDS in Los Angeles County.

Agony Is Compounded

For the gay community, living in the shadow of AIDS, the agony is compounded by the loss of its leaders. Scott’s name now takes its place in a litany of prominent Southern California gay activists claimed by AIDS. Others include Los Angeles banker and UC Regent Sheldon Andelson; San Diego physician A. Brad Truax; Long Beach’s Rob Kramme, and Los Angeles’ Scott Barry. Founder of “Being Alive,” a political organization of people with AIDS, Barry died only two days before Scott.

“We do this a lot,” said David Wexler, executive director of AIDS Project Los Angeles, after the service. “The beauty is that we have other people coming up. . . . He made it possible for himself to be succeeded.”

Within the gay community, Lachs said, the reaction to such deaths is more anger than despair. Gays are frustrated by what they say is a lack of public commitment for research efforts aimed at finding treatments and vaccines.

Only days after the deaths of Barry and Scott, County Supervisor Pete Schabarum asserted that the average citizen has no interest in AIDS or in funding a cure--statements gay leaders attacked as callous and inaccurate.

“This hasn’t been a good week,” Lachs said.

Scott’s memorial, organized by his longtime political consulting partner, David Mixner, reflected his life in politics. In addition to Van de Kamp, former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Councilman Joel Wachs paid their respects.

Scott had been a founder in 1977 of the Municipal Election Committee of Los Angeles, which raised millions of dollars for local and state elections. He had planned to run for the state Assembly but shelved those ambitions upon learning that he had AIDS. Scott’s last major public act was to organize, with Elizabeth Taylor, the “Commitment to Life” benefit that raised more than $1 million for AIDS Project Los Angeles.

Van de Kamp told how Scott, after learning that he had contracted AIDS, pushed for legislation enabling California to conduct its own AIDS drug research program.

Lachs told how Scott, as a boy growing up on a West Texas ranch, dreamed of becoming governor. With his charisma, political acumen and “matinee idol looks,” the judge said, Scott could have done it. All it would require, he said, was “a few compromises.”

Scott always seemed to be “at the begining” and “at the top” of gay causes, Lachs said.

In a later interview, Lachs called Scott’s death “a major, major tragedy (for the gay movement). . . . We have lost so many wonderful, important people to our movement.

“But we have so many left--that’s what I try to think about.”