Gay Activists United Over Goals but Splinter on Tactics

Since at least the American Revolution, when Ben Franklin warned that the new states must all hang together or they’d all hang separately, it has been considered wise for political movements to keep it together. But Orange County’s gay rights community finds itself caught in an increasingly intriguing web of irony.

To help gain acceptance by the public at large, the movement for years has stressed that its members represent all strata of society, cutting across social and economic lines. As that becomes more clearly obvious, it has led to a movement splintered over political tactics and strategy.

The practical effect of all this has been to divide the available money, effort and media attention. While diversity is not in itself inherently harmful, that division comes at a time when gay rights and the AIDS crisis promise to be back on the agenda at both the state and local levels.

Gays statewide are counting on Governor-elect Pete Wilson early in his term to sign the kind of anti-discrimination bill that Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed. At the local level, gay and lesbian leaders will try again to get the board of supervisors to prohibit discrimination against people who test positive for acquired immune deficiency syndrome but who aren’t showing symptoms of the disease. That’s in addition to more money being requested for AIDS-related health care.

So, the question before the house: How best to win both public support and legislative success? “Do you hold the demonstration outside the Board of Supervisors meeting--the die-in--to highlight the issue and politically embarrass them?” asked Jeff LeTourneau, executive director of the Orange County Visibility League, whose home was recently vandalized. “Or do you quietly start another yearlong effort through the committee process?”

LeTourneau said the groups all agree on the overriding issues of anti-discrimination ordinances and health-care money for AIDS patients. “How we get there is how we divide ourselves,” he said.

Consider an incident two years ago. The Log Cabin Club, a group of moderate to conservative Orange County gay Republicans, was courting then-Sen. Wilson’s support and invited him to the home of Frank Ricchiazzi, a club official. The Visibility League, then considered the county’s most activist and militant gay rights group, bridled at that and drew outlines of bodies on the road leading to the house and threw flowers on them--all to signify AIDS victims. Wilson had to drive over them to reach Ricchiazzi’s home.

“Log Cabin was outraged,” LeTourneau says. “To this day, there are people who think that was absolutely the worst thing. . . . It was bad enough to protest Pete Wilson, but to do so at a gay and lesbian-sponsored event was an absolute outrage, in their opinion.

“In our opinion, we thought it was necessary because we didn’t think at the time Pete Wilson was a friend of our community.”

Ricchiazzi said media attention given that day to the demonstration diluted the coverage of Wilson’s support of key gay rights issues.

The local divisions were further underscored six months ago when a small group of members broke off from the Visibility League, once considered the county’s most militant gay rights group. The new group, now claiming up to 30 core members, formed the Orange County chapter of ACT-UP--recognized nationally because of its fierce AIDS agenda as a militant gay rights organization.

One of the first actions by the new ACT-UP group was to disrupt a May fund-raiser at a church in Costa Mesa held by fundamentalist Louis P. Sheldon. Posing as straight couples, 10 members of ACT-UP began talking, blowing whistles and screaming. In its first month, the group also handed out condoms outside an Anaheim high school.

“It’s very easy for issues to hide in the darkness,” said Dave Barton of ACT-UP. “We reach into the darkness, grab them by the throat and pull them into the light.”

Then, a couple months ago, a new group with a handful of members and calling itself Queer Nation demonstrated at South Coast Plaza. Like ACT-UP, Queer Nation is a local offshoot of groups formed in other major cities.

ACT-UP and Queer Nation’s emergence automatically pushed the Visibility League closer to the center. But the groups must still rely on the same people for support and money. Besides the Log Cabin Club, other groups and politically active organizations on the spectrum include the well-established Elections Committee of the County of Orange and the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club.

Perhaps mindful of the increasing competition from both sides, LeTourneau said: “I’ve walked the halls of Sacramento and lobbied partisan politicians, I’ve made presentations to boards and city councils. . . . At the same time, I’ve been arrested 16 times, participated in civil disobedience, been out in the streets whenever necessary, both in this county and other places in the country. So I’ve done both.”

While labeling ACT-UP a fringe element, Ricchiazzi said Orange County gays can survive fractionalization: “I look at (the community) as a very big table. In the middle of the table is our dignity and ability not to be discriminated against. The table also has a left side and a right side. We come from the right side, and they come from the left.”

The gay community never said it was monolithic. And while it’s not necessary that they all hang together, it probably wouldn’t hurt its leaders to brush up on their Ben Franklin.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.