Project to Target Hate Crimes Against Gays : Civil rights: The objective is to increase awareness of such attacks and to spur vigorous police and public response to them.

Orange County’s gay and lesbian community is about to launch an offensive against hate crimes that will include lobbying for gay-rights ordinances and greater police protection and the distribution of whistles to ward off attacks.

The project, which is part of a nationwide effort being kicked off Wednesday, is aimed at increasing awareness and calling for vigorous response by public officials and police agencies to hate crimes that victimize gays, said Jeff LeTourneau, a spokesman for the Orange County Visibility League, a lesbian and gay activist organization.

The announcement came just three weeks after a 37-year-old man was beaten and shot in the leg by three attackers in Laguna Beach. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, police said.

Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil Purcell said his officers are instructed to aggressively pursue hate crimes. He said that includes a wide range of acts, including cross burnings, firebombings, the spray-painting of graffiti and the shouting of slogans and slurs.

“To me, hate crimes are the most deplorable thing that can occur. Hate crimes in Laguna Beach are treated like a homicide case or a rape case. It’s got that kind of priority,” said Purcell, whose department in 1988 became the first in the state to use the criminal provision of the U.S. Civil Rights Act to charge three skinheads with violating the civil rights of a man they brutally assaulted because they thought he was gay.

Hate crimes have been reported at record rates in Los Angeles County each year since 1986. Other Southern California counties, including Orange County, have not been keeping figures on hate crimes. However, LeTourneau said that as part of the campaign, these types of crimes will be monitored and tracked by the Visibility League.

LeTourneau, whose home was ransacked and spray-painted with anti-homosexual slogans last year, said he believes that hate crimes are increasing in Orange County. He said this might be because the fear of AIDS has given some groups and individuals “moral justification” to beat, embarrass and bash gays.

Some people have reacted to the fear of AIDS by victimizing gays in a violent manner, LeTourneau said. Or, they believe the violence is justified because it’s against someone they perceive as being a carrier of the HIV virus, he said.

“A month doesn’t go by without at least a couple of death threats made on the telephone line to the Visibility League,” he said.

Purcell said that in Laguna Beach his officers aggressively investigate any taunts or yelling of derogatory slogans.

The problem is that crimes against gays largely go unreported because victims are reluctant to publicize their identity, said Russell Kennedy, Orange County Human Relations Commission executive director. Victims fear loss of jobs, self-esteem and of being ostracized by relatives, activists said.

In a Times opinion piece, Kennedy once wrote that name-calling, tire slashings, thrown objects and violent physical assaults were “becoming a regular part of weekend nights in Orange County” for gays as “bigoted criminals” prey on them.

LeTourneau said he has had rocks pitched at his head by people in cars as he stood outside a gay bar in Laguna Beach.

Over the weekend, LeTourneau said a gay man suffered a broken jaw during a beating in front of a fast-food restaurant in Laguna Beach.

“But he hasn’t filed a (police) complaint because it means his name will appear in a newspaper and it could lead to his losing his job,” LeTourneau said.

To combat this rising problem, LeTourneau said, the campaign will focus on more police enforcement throughout the county and urge the passage of hate crime laws at the municipal and county levels.

In addition, the project will include an around-the-clock computerized information center to report hate crimes and refer victims to help, an educational campaign with posters and brochures, and distribution of whistles to help ward off attackers. A self-defense program will begin in the summer.