A panel of lawyers and city officials gathered Monday at the
UCLA School of Law to reflect on the past 40 years of police
policies concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
adults.
The event commemorated the 40th anniversary of a UCLA study
examining law enforcement concerning homosexuals, which was the
first law review article on sexual orientation law.
The Williams Institute, a think tank within the School of Law
that concentrates on sexual orientation law and public policy,
sponsored the event.
The original study, published in 1966, found that police
officers discriminated against LGBT people, sometimes using
undercover officers to bait people into committing illegal activity
such as lewd conduct.
Panelists discussed how societal attitudes and police practices
have changed since the study was published.
Jon J. Gallo, Louis M. Meisinger and Gary D. Stabile, who wrote
the study while at UCLA law school, spoke about their article, for
which they had interviewed public service officers and people who
had been arrested.
Gallo said they all agreed there were better ways to use
society’s resources.
“It made sense to protect people from harassment in
public,” he said. “The law had reason to protect
children and people from coercion and some rules of public
morality. But it didn’t make sense to target private
homosexual behavior.”
The authors recommended changes such as eliminating registration
of homosexuals and using fines and probation rather than arrests to
punish offenders.
“It turns out research matters,” said Sharon
Dolovich, a UCLA law professor and the event’s moderator.
“The study is a basis for lawyers to make legal challenges
and wise recommendations about these issues.”
Other panelists said police conduct changed as a result of the
study.
Dean Hansell, former Los Angeles police commissioner, said
undercover officers used to go to parks and solicit sex from people
they thought were gay. If the person suggested having sex in a
public place the police officer would make an arrest even though no
contact had yet been made.
The solution Hansell pushed was to minimize the use of decoys
and instead make sure all officers making arrests for lewd contact
stay in uniform.
Sergeant Lisa Phillips of the Los Angeles Police Department, who
is gay, said that when she joined the police force in 1989 she
didn’t feel she was in an accepting environment. Then in
1993, a zero-tolerance policy was enacted against LGBT
discrimination.
“It made a more conducive atmosphere for police officers
to come out,” Phillips said. “It’s remarkable how
much progress has been made.”
She added that police changed some of their enforcement tactics
as well.
Police involved the community in a discussion of how to best
enforce laws and posted signs to notify people of police presence
and enforcement, she said.
Stabile said the changes in police conduct have been accompanied
by social changes as well.
“Societal attitudes have changed,” he said.
“It used to be considered abnormal to be gay. Now it is
considered maybe atypical, but not abnormal.”
Shayla Myers, a second-year law student, said laws often change
to reflect society.
“I always think it’s interesting the way the legal
process has evolved over time to be able to trace progress,”
she said.
Eric Hall, a 1990 graduate of UCLA’s law school, said he
came away with an understanding of what progress had been made.
“It was a very informative panel that shed a lot of light
on how far both the legal research and actual police enforcement
have come in the last 40 years,” he said.