Deputies, Gays Leave Troubles in the Past

West Hollywood’s gay and lesbian community was boiling over with frustration in 1991. Gov. Pete Wilson had just vetoed a major gay rights bill, sparking statewide protests. The AIDS epidemic continued to claim lives.

And when the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department fired a gay deputy amid cries of discrimination, activists had had enough. So they lobbied to end the city’s contract with the Sheriff’s Department in favor of a police force that might better reflect the population of 36,000, which was estimated to be one-third gay.

The City Council put the divisive issue on the ballot, and voters narrowly decided to keep the Sheriff’s Department. The close brush with losing a $9-million contract, the department’s largest at the time, pushed the station to begin efforts to improve its relationship with gay residents. Ten years later, residents and city officials said, that relationship has gone from troubled to positive.

Today, several openly gay deputies serve in the station; it is a presence that was unimaginable a decade ago.

“It’s been a long, long journey, but the [deputies] are now part of the community. And the community respects what they do,” said Ivy Bottini, co-chairwoman of the Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, a group of residents who act as liaisons to the City Council.

Change has come not only in the city but in the department’s policies. After his election in 1998, Sheriff Lee Baca added the word “homophobia” to his agency’s core-values statement. He vowed that the department would “stand against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and bigotry in all its forms.”

“Law enforcement has to do more to protect human rights and civil rights,” Baca said recently.

Things were different 10 years ago. West Hollywood residents said law enforcement raids on gay bars, mistreatment of homosexuals in jail and lack of deputy recruitment in the gay community created animosity among gay and lesbian residents.

“I think a lot of people felt there was homophobia within the Sheriff’s [Department],” said Nancy Greenstein, a former West Hollywood public safety administrator who is UCLA’s director of police community services.

Rodney Scott, who is gay and has lived in West Hollywood for more than a decade, has seen the station’s transformation.

When deputies dealt with gay and lesbian residents 10 years ago, “they weren’t sensitive to sexual orientation issues,” he said. “Those were challenges that have pretty much been mitigated.”

Changes in Policy Made

Scott, co-chairman of Christopher Street West, said deputies “work really well with us” at the group’s annual gay pride parade on Santa Monica Boulevard, which attracts about 250,000 people.

“The thing that spurred the change--I think a lot of it--was that election,” said Deputy Don Mueller. The November 1992 ballot measure to form a police department was defeated 53% to 47%.

Afterward, Greenstein said, she worked to improve the Sheriff’s Department’s relationship with gay and lesbian law enforcement officers and residents. That meant eliminating questions about applicants’ sexual practices from the department’s psychological screenings, implementing cultural awareness training and recruiting from the gay community. Even before the election was called, West Hollywood had begun securing changes in department policies. In 1990, the city won a battle--begun soon after incorporation in 1984--to bar discrimination in the hiring of gays and lesbians as deputies.

Bias against them was cited by the 1992 Kolts Commission in its review of the Sheriff’s Department.

The department was “a very difficult environment for gays and lesbians to work in or find employment” in, according to the 359-page report produced by the commission, which was led by special counsel James G. Kolts.

The gay community saw the April 1991 termination of gay West Hollywood Sheriff’s Deputy Bruce Boland as a prime example of discrimination.

The department said he was fired because of erroneous information in a report he filed that led to a drug suspect being freed. Boland contended the error was minor and that he was fired because of his sexual orientation.

The West Hollywood station has made such an about-face that a plaque with a photo of Boland, who died of AIDS in 1995, now hangs in the lobby.

And Deputy Mueller, who is gay, heads the station’s community relations effort.

For years, fear of discrimination kept him from pursuing his dream of becoming a cop. Then in 1990, he left his job as a stockbroker and went for it. When he was hired and assigned to the Men’s Central Jail, he worked just as hard to hide his sexual orientation.

‘I Was Tired of That Fear’

“I had to make up stories about a fake, imaginary girlfriend,” Mueller said. “I had to make up reasons why my friends had to call first before coming over. I was terrified [that] somebody would see me when I was ‘somewhere questionable.’ I was tired of that fear.”

So, two years after being hired and just months after Boland was exonerated and reinstated, Mueller revealed to his captain that he was gay. Then he took a 10-day vacation, fearing what the reaction would be.

While he was gone, he received several supportive phone messages from co-workers.

One, Mueller remembered, said, “ ‘You got guts. You’re stupid, but you have guts.’ ”

There were a few uncomfortable stares when he returned to work, but, as one of only two openly gay deputies in the department then, Mueller said, he was soon asked to recruit gay and lesbian deputies.

Next, he became the instructor for the department’s 90-minute cultural awareness training for deputies on gay and lesbian issues.

“I taught them the basics--almost Gay 101--the basics of the gay and lesbian community,” Mueller said. That included educating people about stereotypes, hate crimes, domestic partner violence and inclusive language, and how to work with a gay or lesbian partner.

West Hollywood station personnel expanded on this by allowing members of the city’s transgender community to conduct an information session during briefings and inviting gay and lesbian residents to address newly assigned deputies during their orientation.

As part of the station’s Valuing Diversity Plan, which was adopted by the entire department in January, deputies take turns making a presentation each month about their race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.

The station tracks hate crimes and hate incidents, which have the potential to escalate, said Mueller, who was assigned to West Hollywood in 1996. He has developed a policy of having gay and lesbian deputies make follow-up calls to hate crime victims.

“They identify themselves as a gay or lesbian deputy,” he said, “not as part of the investigation, simply to offer support.”

“Things have changed here,” said Ken Leffler, operations lieutenant at the station. Station personnel are on 16 city commissions, councils or boards, including the Transgender Advisory Board. “We address the concerns of the city.”

The West Hollywood station had a brief relapse in the summer of 2000 when its special problems unit conducted a sting operation. Capt. Lynda Castro said the deputies responded to complaints of lewd conduct in the men’s room of the Pacific Design Center by going undercover without following proper procedures. Some residents called it entrapment.

“It was something that unfortunately happened and we did a number of things to address it,” she said.

Two deputies involved were transferred, additional training was given, a civilian liaison joined the special problems unit, and several gay and lesbian groups discussed the matter.

Bill Gordon, co-chairman of the Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, was part of the discussions and commends Castro for making “honest efforts” to correct past mistakes.

Starting Point for the County

Gordon praised the addition of lesbian and gay staff at the station. Deputies and other station personnel “hear the concerns of the community and are responsive,” he said.

Councilman Steve Martin said West Hollywood’s gay and lesbian community gets “specialized services” that should be extended countywide. “If you’re really treating people fairly, you do it across the board,” he said.

Jeff Prang, one of four openly gay members on the five-seat council, said the city’s improved relationship with gay and lesbian residents represents a starting point for change countywide.

He is a civilian field deputy for the Sheriff’s Department.

West Hollywood Councilman John Duran, who represented Boland during his trial and sued the department for its treatment of inmates with HIV, is surprised by the station’s turnaround.

“As a former civil rights lawyer who sued the Sheriff’s Department every chance he got, I’ve seen a drastic change,” Duran said. “They have done exactly what they said they would: They reformed.”