Gay Charges Bias in Vote for Board’s Presidency : Election: Lesbian member of county Commission for Women says president-elect led a campaign against her. Group’s goals include working to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The president-elect of Los Angeles County’s Commission for Women has been accused of leading a campaign to deny a lesbian the commission’s top job in violation of the organization’s goals, which include seeking to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The accusation against Celeste H. Greig is contained in a letter sent May 30 to the Board of Supervisors by Myra B. Riddell, an openly gay commissioner.

Riddell said she was denied the commission presidency because of Greig’s objections that “the entire commission might be identified as lesbian.” Greig was elected president in a close vote.

Greig, a Republican Party activist appointed to the commission by Supervisor Mike Antonovich, acknowledged that she opposed Riddell’s election for fear that she would use the post to promote homosexuality. But Grieg said, “To say I am homophobic is really upsetting.”

Riddell has demanded that Grieg be ousted from the advisory group.

The issue has deeply divided the 15-member commission, which after a raucous session last week voted to discuss the matter at a retreat later this year.

“The commission is full of hypocrisy,” said Commissioner Susan Carpenter-McMillan. She noted that the same commissioners who are complaining about Riddell’s treatment opposed honoring a woman because of her opposition to abortion.

“The only women they don’t want discriminated against are the left-wing bleeding-heart liberals,” said Carpenter-McMillan, a former president of the Right to Life League of Southern California and an appointee of the conservative Antonovich.

Carpenter-McMillan and some other commissioners said that Greig’s views are not reflective of the commission majority. “I did not vote against Myra because she is a lesbian,” said Carpenter-McMillan. “I voted against her because I felt Celeste would be a better president.”

Riddell, an appointee of liberal Supervisor Ed Edelman and the commission’s vice president, was the only commissioner who submitted papers to run for president at the April meeting of the commission’s nominating committee.

Sandra Klasky, a committee member, said in a separate letter to supervisors, “Greig, who was sitting next to me, said quietly to me that she would support Myra as president if she would not identify herself as a lesbian woman once she was elected.”

Klasky said Greig also said that Antonovich would be “furious if there was a lesbian president. Celeste expressed concern that with Myra’s visibility in the community the entire commission might be identified as lesbian.”

The committee nominated Riddell for president, but Greig was elected president by a 7-5 vote at the May meeting.

Greig denied that she waged a campaign to deny Riddell the ceremonial post. No mention was made publicly of Riddell’s sexual orientation at the meetings of the full commission leading to the vote.

“I could not support that woman because of her openness about her homosexuality,” Greig said in an interview. “I am heterosexual, but I don’t go around saying, ‘I am proud to be heterosexual.’ ”

Edelman sent a letter to the county’s Human Relations Commission Tuesday, asking it to investigate the matter. “Discrimination of this sort, if it occurred, is completely inconsistent with my personal beliefs in nondiscrimination, as well as the charter of the commission,” he said.

Antonovich said that he wants the women’s commission to resolve the matter.