City Settles Lawsuit Over Gay Rights Rally

Settling a 5-year-old lawsuit, the city has agreed to pay $325,000 to a group of gay rights demonstrators who say they were beaten and disparaged by Los Angeles Police Department officers during a Century City protest.

The money will go to 28 men and women who were among hundreds gathered in front of the Century Plaza Hotel on the night of Oct. 23, 1991, in one of a series of Los Angeles protests held after Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed gay rights legislation that fall.

In a 1992 lawsuit on their behalf, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California claimed that more than 100 LAPD officers in riot gear became violent when they tried to break up the protest, clubbing and shoving demonstrators, charging them with their horses and shouting anti-gay epithets.

“That night, instead of doing their job, the LAPD did the unthinkable,” ACLU attorney Taylor Flynn said Monday at a news conference announcing the agreement.

“This settlement makes it clear to the LAPD that discrimination is costly. It sends a strong message to the LAPD that [it] cannot abuse people based on either who they are or what they believe in.”

The LAPD, which did not admit to any wrongdoing, declined to comment on the settlement.

But Cmdr. Bruce Hagerty, the LAPD’s head of community affairs, noted that since 1991, a number of steps have been taken to improve the department’s relationship with the gay community.

Those efforts range from including sexual orientation issues in department training sessions to the establishment of a gay liaison and the recruitment of officers from within the gay community.

Flynn agreed that there have been a number of reforms. “I have seen a lot of changes that I’m encouraged by,” she said.

Still, she said, problems remain. As an example she cited recent complaints that police have harassed patrons of gay bars. She also pointed to an LAPD audit earlier this year that showed gay bars are inspected by police and Alcohol and Beverage Control agents at a higher rate than non-gay establishments.

The suit was one of two stemming from the 1991 gay rights protests. The other was settled earlier this year with an $87,000 payment to a man who said he was struck in the face by a baton-wielding officer at a Woodland Hills demonstration.