U.S. Official’s Appearance at Anti-Gay Conference Proteste

Several homosexual rights organizations on Thursday criticized plans by the head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, two congressmen and an assemblyman to speak at an upcoming Orange County symposium sponsored by a group that is openly hostile to homosexuals.

U.S. Civil Rights Commission Chairman William Allen, Reps. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), and Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) are listed as speakers for the symposium Oct. 6 and 7, sponsored by the California Coalition for Traditional Values, an Anaheim-based lobbying group whose leader, the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, has declared a “war on homosexuality.”

Such scheduled symposium topics as “Reparative Therapy for the Homosexual and “Criteria for Successful Treatment Toward Heterosexuality” were called “sick” and “abhorrent” by representatives of several homosexual groups.

“The topics are saying there is something sick and wrong with our lives. We do not believe it is true,” said Carol Anderson, co-chair of the Los Angeles-based Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Moreover, while Allen’s anti-homosexual views are as well-known as those of Dornan and Dannemeyer, his appearance lends the symposium a “credibility which it (otherwise would) not have,” Anderson said.

Allen said he has received 40 to 60 printed cards signed by people opposed to his appearance but is not “unduly troubled” by the uproar and has no plans to change his scheduled appearance.

“Nobody has ever been able to sway me from doing what is right,” said Allen, a black conservative Republican and professor of government at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, who was named by Reagan to the commission in 1987. “It’s right (that) I speak to Americans about civil rights, and I will do it.”

A well-known and controversial critic of affirmative action, Allen resisted efforts to unseat him as chairman earlier this year. In March, President Bush selected a moderate Republican, Arthur A. Flectcher, to replace Allen when a restructuring of the commission is finished this year. At the moment, Allen still is chairman.

Allen said he is unaware of any specific positions taken recently by Sheldon’s group, but said, “I have known Mr. Sheldon as an activist in a number of causes and he expresses himself energetically and takes very seriously the issues with which he’s concerned.”

Basically, Anderson said, homosexual groups are concerned about the symposium because “they are purporting to deal with our lives without any input from the community.” The organization wrote to Sheldon requesting speaking time at the symposium to present opposing views.

“That’s a joke,” Sheldon said Thursday. “We’re under no obligation to present another viewpoint. This isn’t taxpayer dollars.”

Meanwhile, the Orange County Visibility League, a militant gay-rights organization, claims its 400-letter campaign chased the symposium from its scheduled location at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange. A spokesman confirmed that the symposium was canceled at that hotel, but declined to offer an explanation.

As a result, Sheldon said he will move the symposium to a secret location. Participants will be notified by telephone at the last moment where to go, he said. “People can be assured it’s going to be held.”

The purpose of the symposium is to educate people involved in public policy about the “nature and function of homosexuality,” Sheldon said.

He said he did not expect a large crowd. “This is not a rally. We’re dealing with heavy-duty thinking. This isn’t lightweight stuff.”

Other speakers include two men who claim to have changed their homosexual practices and now counsel others, and Steve Arterburn, director of New Hope Treatment Center in Anaheim, which claims to treat homosexuality.

Jeff Le Tourneau, spokesman for the Orange County Visibility League, said gay community organizers plan to stage a protest at the symposium.

“We’ll be there to present the other side to the press and the people participating,” said Le Tourneau. “There will be medical authorities and social service workers.”

Homosexuality, no longer listed by the American Psychological Assn. as a disorder, “is not something to be cured of,” he said. Treatment centers, he said, “don’t change anybody. They actually convince them to suppress their natural feelings the rest of their lives and to live a false life.”

Activists said they have written letters to President Bush and legislators protesting Allen’s appearance. Further plans include picketing Allen’s workplace and home. “He will be held strictly accountable for his actions,” Le Tourneau said.