Woo, Ridley-Thomas, Watson Join Protest of Gay Jobs Bill Veto

Elected officials and civil rights advocates in Los Angeles added their voices Monday to the chorus of protest over Gov. Pete Wilson’s veto of gay-rights legislation while activists in West Hollywood called for the reinstatement of a gay sheriff’s deputy who was fired in April.

Los Angeles councilmen Michael Woo and Mark Ridley-Thomas, state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) and civil rights attorney Gloria Allred called for Wilson to reconsider his veto of AB 101, a bill that would have outlawed workplace discrimination against homosexuals.

“The battle should not be fought alone by the gay and lesbian community,” Allred said at a press conference on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall. “All of us have a stake in protecting the rights of each and every minority to be free of arbitrary discrimination.”

Watson agreed. “Let us remember that none of us is safe until all of us are safe,” she said in a statement. “None of us have rights until all of us have rights.”

Torie Osborn, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, said the support of Allred, Watson and the others strengthens the resolve of the gay and lesbian community, which has protested the Sept. 29 veto almost nightly for the past week.

She said a loose-knit coalition of gay lobbying groups has raised $28,000 of the $40,000 needed to hire a pollster to determine whether California voters will support an anti-discrimination ballot initiative.

Osborn said Wilson’s veto touched a nerve with gays and lesbians, prompting the emotional demonstrations. On Friday, activists will travel on chartered buses to a march in Sacramento, she said.

“People have been dying for a decade and now they tell us that we can’t work,” she said. “Of course people will take to the streets.”

More than 200 gay-rights activists attended Monday’s meeting of the West Hollywood City Council to protest the firing of a veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who is gay.

Former Deputy Bruce C. Boland, 44, was fired April 9 after six years with the department. Boland, who worked in the West Hollywood station, said he had received numerous commendations.

Boland, who has filed a $90-million suit against the department, contends that he was fired because he is gay. He said the department filed erroneous felony charges against him, involving a mistake in a crime report, to justify the firing.

In an interview Monday, Boland said he supports the activists for airing the issue because his firing is an example of the type of discrimination prohibited by AB 101.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Mark Squirs declined comment on Boland’s allegations. He said the issue will be raised during a Civil Service hearing next month.

An organizer of the City Council demonstration said protesters wanted to test the panel’s “commitment to anti-discrimination.”

“They do bear some responsibility to address an intolerable case of discrimination in the city,” said Mark Vandervelden, a spokesman for the AIDS Health Care Foundation.

Some speakers asked the council to hire Boland as a “public safety officer” pending the resolution of his dispute with the county. Others said that if Boland’s firing is shown to be discriminatory, that would be grounds for canceling the city’s law enforcement contract with the Sheriff’s Department. Still others said West Hollywood should establish its own department.

“It’s about time the city grows up and forms its own police department,” speaker Howard Armisted said.

In April, 1989, Boland arrested a man for possession of drug paraphernalia, Boland’s attorney John J. Duran said. At the preliminary hearing, Boland told the prosecutor he had mistakenly written that syringes were in the front seat of the man’s car, rather than the back seat, Duran said.

Because of the error, the prosecutor dismissed the charges against the man. A short time later, the department brought felony criminal charges against Boland for filing a false police report, Duran said. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed the case against Boland on June 1, 1990, he said. The district attorney’s office has appealed, Squirs said.

“I have not had a decent night’s sleep in two years,” Boland said. “I can’t believe all of this is happening to me.”

Boland said he is willing to drop his lawsuit if the department reinstates him. “All I want is my job back,” he said. “It’s a job I do well and it’s a job I love.”