Issue of Gays in Military Sparks Clash : Protests: Christian fundamentalists and gay activists confront each other at City Hall. Police move in to disperse crowd, and make one arrest.

A noisy face-off between Christian fundamentalists and lesbian and gay activists over the military ban on gays turned into a chaotic confrontation with police Friday as about 40 officers in riot gear and 10 on horseback waded in to disperse the crowd and made one arrest.

Half a dozen members of Concerned Citizens of America gathered in front of City Hall in the early afternoon rain to denounce allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military, while about 50 gay and lesbian counterdemonstrators held up signs reading, “Hate Is Not a Family Value,” chanted and blew whistles to drown out their opponents.

“Homosexuals are the highest form of security risk,” said George Brokate, a Marine Corps veteran and member of Concerned Citizens.

The U.S. armed forces’ policy states that a homosexual lifestyle is incompatible with military service. President-elect Bill Clinton has said he will consider lifting the ban under an executive order.

David Smith, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, one of several organizations that counterdemonstrated Friday, said Christian fundamentalists have begun to target gays in the military because they have failed in attempts to ban abortion.

“The religious right is shifting their agenda to our civil rights as their prime target . . . because they are losing on other fronts,” he said.

Police arrested Connie Norman, public policy director of the All Saints AIDS Service Center, for disturbing the peace and obstructing and delaying a police officer from performing his duty, said LAPD Sgt. George Haines. Authorities said Norman refused to move when ordered, but witnesses said authorities did not give Norman enough time to move.

In Washington’s Lafayette Park, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry and his supporters also faced off with gay and lesbian activists Friday, said Tanya Domi, director of the civil rights project of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“This is their new Communist bogey man . . . and we are countering them wherever they are,” said Domi, a former Army captain. She said gay activists held counterdemonstrations Friday in Seattle; Colorado Springs, Colo.; New York and Texas.

Dave Conrardy, a member of conservative Concerned Citizens of America, said his organization is independent of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and Terry. But Conrardy acknowledged that Concerned Citizens was responding to Terry’s call for citizens nationwide to protest gays in the military.