All Smiles After Kiss Commotion

A kiss is just a kiss--unless it occurs in the seventh inning of a night game in Section 53, Field Level, Dodger Stadium.

In that case, it becomes a reason to get thrown out of the ballpark, the basis for a threatened lawsuit and finally the motivation for an unusual public apology by Dodger President Bob Graziano.

Aug. 8 was a rare, happy night for fans at the stadium this summer. The Dodgers were drubbing the Cubs behind an uncommon display of power by pitcher Darren Dreifort, who hit two home runs.

Danielle Goldey and Meredith Kott celebrated the home runs by kissing, apparently with too much exuberance to satisfy stadium security guards, who descended on Section 53 en masse.

Goldey estimated that as many as nine guards appeared in the aisle of the row where she and Kott were seated and demanded that the two women accompany the guards behind the stands.

While one fan videotaped them and others lustily hissed and booed, the guards demanded Kott’s identification and initially refused to say why, she said.

“We thought it was something else, somebody else,” Kott said.

“Then one guard said, ‘Someone complained they didn’t want their kids around those kind of people,’ ” Goldey recalled.

The guards then told Goldey to quit being irate, showed the couple to a stadium exit and told them to leave and never come back, according to the women. They were forced to wait outside the park for the people with whom they had driven to the game.

“We kind of hid behind a vendor’s stand,” Kott said. “I was scared. It reminded me of all the reasons I was so afraid to come out [as a lesbian].”

Kott and Goldey were vindicated Wednesday when Dodger officials at a news conference in West Hollywood apologized to the couple and all other gays and lesbians, announced that they would give 5,000 tickets to gay and lesbian organizations and said all stadium security personnel would undergo sensitivity training.

The Dodger actions were part of a negotiated settlement to avoid a civil rights lawsuit the women threatened to file.

Graziano, nonetheless, said the incident “was not an example of discrimination. There was commotion in the section, and security attempted to defuse it.”

The mistake, he said, was in not allowing the couple to return to their seats.

Kott and Goldey said it seemed unlikely that they were causing any commotion because lots of other people in the stands were kissing as well, including the man and woman sitting next to them.

The women and their attorney, Bernie Bernheim, met with Dodger officials Tuesday and worked out the apology, which was accompanied by an unspecified monetary settlement. Bernheim characterized the sum involved as small, but sufficient to cover “an issue of personal damages.”

He said that if the Dodgers had not agreed to the settlement, he would have filed a lawsuit Wednesday morning. He agreed with Graziano that the incident was not part of a general stadium policy forbidding lesbian or gay kissing.

“It seems to have been an example of inappropriate response at a lower level,” he said.

As evidence of the ball club’s lack of discriminatory policies, Graziano noted that the Dodgers had previously been marketing group ticket sales to gay and lesbian organizations. Several such groups had already bought tickets for the Sept. 6 game.

The leaders of lesbian and gay organizations congratulated the women for seeking redress and the Dodgers for reacting so promptly and fully.

“The Dodger response is the best I’ve ever seen from a corporation. Frankly, I was shocked,” Bernheim said.