Assessor ‘Flabbergasted’ at Gay Parade Revelation : Homosexuality: Kenneth P. Hahn calls the announcement and his sexual preference non-issues.

A surprise awaited County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn as he took his place Sunday with other politicians participating in West Hollywood’s annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade: As the dignitaries were introduced to the crowd, Hahn was “kind of flabbergasted” to hear himself described as “senior-most elected openly gay official in Los Angeles.”

Hahn, elected last year after a long career in the assessor’s office, said Monday that he has never denied his homosexuality when asked about it, and has been identified in the gay press and even the Washington Post as a gay politician. Nonetheless, he had never made a public pronouncement of his sexual preference, and he said Monday that he did not know that parade officials intended to do so for him.

“I thought I would be treated like any other elected official,” Hahn, 51, said in an interview. “My sexual orientation has nothing to do with my job. . . . I’ve never been a gay candidate, just a candidate who happened to be gay.”

David Smith, spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, a parade sponsor, said Hahn’s homosexuality was noted in the introduction because it fit with the parade’s Gay Pride theme.

“Whenever there is someone in the public eye who acknowledges (his homosexuality) . . . it helps the movement,” Smith said.

He said his understanding from people who wrote the announcer’s script was that Hahn “was open and that was that.”

Hahn--who is no relation to County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn or his son, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn--took pains to make clear Monday that he was not denying his homosexuality or even angered at his parade introduction.

“It’s a non-issue,” he said.

But Hahn said he has never sought to make his homosexuality a political issue.

“My whole concern is to be a good assessor,” Hahn said Monday. “It’s not a crusade to be a gay assessor.”

The Hahn incident comes at a time when “outing”--the effort by some gays to expose the homosexuality of celebrities and politicians and business leaders--is dividing the gay community.

One camp believes that coming “out of the closet” is a personal decision, while the other sees the involuntary unmasking of gays as an important political step forward in the removing of societal stigma.

Hahn’s case falls into a little-visited gray zone, said Robert Bray of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. While Hahn is open about his homosexuality--”it’s a matter of public record,” as he said Monday, a reference to press reports--it had not been generally publicized in Los Angeles.

Bray, who says he opposes “outing,” said it is nonetheless important for elected officials, such as Hahn, to be open because “it shows we can serve well regardless of a sexual orientation.”

As Hahn said Monday, “I ran because there was a need for decent management in this department, and by God we’re doing it.”

Frank Ricchiazzi, executive director of the Log Cabin Clubs, a gay Republican organization, said the scant attention to Hahn’s sexual orientation during the campaign shows a maturing of the political process.

“In the 1970s and 1980s it was necessary to have openly gay candidates run and win to break the barriers,” Ricchiazzi said. “The next step is, as long as you are qualified, (sexual orientation) doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t matter. It’s not denying anything, it’s just saying ‘let’s move on.’ ”

There are no openly gay members of the Legislature and none hold statewide office. There are several gay county supervisors around the state, and at least one mayor and a few city councilmen. But Hahn’s office--a countywide position in the largest county in the state--is considered the most prestigious yet to be won by a gay.

Steve Afriat, a political consultant who worked on the campaign of former County Assessor John Lynch who lost to Hahn, said Hahn’s sexual orientation was well-known during the campaign, but was not a relevant campaign issue.

And, added Afriat, who also is openly gay, “we put the Lynch campaign on notice that we’d quit,” if there was any attempt to make Hahn’s sexual orientation a campaign issue.

But Afriat also acknowledged that a well-publicized disclosure of Hahn’s sexual orientation “would have cost more votes than it would have gained him.”