Thomas Homann, Defender of Outcasts, and Civil and Sexual Rights, Dies at 42

As an attorney, Thomas F. Homann defended adult-bookstore owners, transsexuals and bikers. One of his cases ended up in the U.S. Supreme Court. His friends called him a champion of free speech and civil liberties.

His clients, said friend Bridgit Wilson, ranged from pimps, pornographers and prostitutes to “unconventional religious groups,” such as the Hare Krishnas. Homann was, she said, an outspoken advocate for gay and lesbian rights.

After a long illness, Homann died Sunday from complications resulting from AIDS. He was 42.

Born in Mattoon, Ill., Homann moved to Santa Maria, Calif., as a child. He graduated from UC Santa Barbara and obtained his law degree from Western State University in San Diego. He passed the bar exam in 1978.

He remained in San Diego, where he established a practice that served the outcast and the downtrodden. He was especially interested in an individual’s unencumbered right to the sexual expression of his or her own choosing.

“While his clients were not particularly popular, their legal issues usually involved the First Amendment and other constitutional rights,” Wilson said.

Since becoming a lawyer, Homann had opposed various cities in San Diego County--Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido, National City and others--in their efforts to restrict adult-oriented businesses. And, Wilson said, he was usually successful.

But perhaps Homann’s most famous case was one that he lost--before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 1985 case, California vs. Carney, found Homann arguing that a warrantless search of a motor home was unwarranted and unlawful, because motor homes are no different from any other home. They are, in his view, a home.

The court ruled that motor homes are more motor vehicles than homes, and thus can be treated differently and with a different set of standards than those followed in searching a person’s residence.

Wilson said that Homann’s favorite case was one in which he proved that “leather gloves and wrist bands with metal studs are not deadly weapons.” He dubbed that effort the “Great Punk Rock Jewelry Case.”

Last September, Homann received the annual Ceil Podoloff Award from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of San Diego County, which cited him as a lawyer who “has exhibited an enduring and significant devotion to the cause of civil liberties.”

Wilson said that Homann was diagnosed as having AIDS about a year and a half ago. She said a “private family service and cremation” will take place later this week, with a public memorial at 7 p.m. Monday at the San Diego County Bar Assn. building, 1333 7th Ave.

“Tom said the thing he really cherished about his practice was that it gave him the opportunity to argue constitutional law every day, which most attorneys never have the opportunity to do,” Wilson said.