Shouting Unravels Press Conference : AIDS: Critics of condom distribution trade comments with school board member Jeff Horton, who announced last week that he is gay.

A news conference called by conservative Christians to denounce distribution of condoms at Los Angeles public schools and churches turned into a nasty shouting match Friday with Jeff Horton, the Los Angeles Unified School District board member who announced last week that he is gay.

Horton, who said he just happened by the news conference on his way to a meeting, is chairman of a school board committee considering recommendations by the district’s AIDS task force, one of which is that condoms should be distributed as part of an AIDS education and prevention program.

“We do not want to see a battle take place between heterosexuals and homosexuals,” said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition. “We do believe in AIDS education.”

But he said condom distribution, which began last Sunday in several black Los Angeles churches and is also proposed within the Los Angeles Unified School District, is an action by homosexuals and misguided church leaders that could destroy society.

Interrupting Sheldon, Horton said heatedly, “You’re nothing but a bigot.

“It is hatemongers like you that hurt these children. You’re an intruder and you need to go home.”

“You’re afraid of me,” Sheldon answered. “You’re a heterophobe.”

“That’s not even a word,” Horton said. “My parents are heterosexuals and I love them.”

Others joined the debate. Star Parker, a news conference participant and parent of a seventh-grader in the school system, said: “We’re not going to lay down and let the homosexual community teach our children that homosexuality is a viable lifestyle.”

But Horton said conservatives are “trying to mix up the issue of homosexuality and the issue of AIDS. The disease doesn’t care who you are sleeping with.”

Condom distribution is only part of the AIDS education proposal, Horton said, adding that “we put abstinence as the first choice for young people.”

Condoms are given out as part of birth control services at medical clinics in three Los Angeles high schools. “The kids will be long gone from our schools when they die,” Horton said. “That’s why I feel strongly enough to go out and pump up my blood pressure with fools like that,” referring to the conservatives.

At one point, Parker began shouting louder and louder at Horton. “Lower you voice,” Sheldon urged her--in a whisper.

“We can’t even talk in board meetings,” Parker said, complaining that gay rights activists shout down anyone with a conservative viewpoint. “We’re saying enough is enough.”

Beginning next month, the district will hold four public meetings on the AIDS education policy. Friday’s news conference, both sides said, may portend the tenor of those meetings.

Several black church leaders at the event said the majority of the African-American Christian community does not favor condom distribution. La Verne Tolbert of the Faithful Central Baptist Church in Los Angeles said those who oppose the program represent a group that is “a sleeping giant” now awakened.

She said opponents will work for Horton’s ouster and for an end to condom distribution.

“There is going to be a mobilization of forces from the black religious community,” she said. Contrary to news reports, she said, her 3,000-member church did not participate in last Sunday’s condom distribution.

The Rev. Edgar E. Boyd, pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles, added that “the idea of passing out condoms in church and in school . . . is a morally repugnant and socially irresponsible act.”