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LAPD goes berserk raids gay charity 'slave auction,' arrests 40

by M. David Stein

LOS ANGELES-The desire of the LA Police Commission to change the "pervasive anti-gay philosophy" of the LA Police Department (see story elsewhere in this section) clearly has had no impact as yet on the way homophobic Chief Ed Davis operates his fiefdom. Capping a long career of more or less officially sanctioned "queer-baiting," last month Davis unleashed his attack troops in a bizarre blitzkreig against the LA gay-leather community.

The event was a charity "slave auction" at the Mark IV Health Club baths on Saturday, April 10. Sponsored by The Leather Fraternity and Drummer magazine, proceeds from each "sale" (of temporary personal services) were to go to a gay charity of the "slave's" choice, such as H.E.L.P., Inc. (Homophile Effort for Legal Protection) and the LA Gay Community Center. In effect the equivalent for "butch" gay men (into leather or levis, with or without S&M)of a drag show, in recent years such auctions have proven to be successful fund-raisers in a num-

Photo by Pat Rocco

Jeanne Barney

ber of cities, as well as effectively promoting community solidarity.

Needless to explain to anyone except the LAPD, the presence of each "slave" on the auction block was entirely voluntary, and no one was being forced to do anything he was unwilling to do. Nevertheless, shortly after midnight, a massive force of "LA's finest" swooped down on the Mark IV, accompanied by camera teams from every TV

station in the city, detained everyone then present, and hours later took 39 men and 1 woman off to jail on felony charges of "infringement of personal liberties" and "promotion of involuntary servitude." The statute invoked, which had not been previously used in Los Angeles for 21 years, carries with it penalties ranging from one year to life imprisonment.

The woman arrested was Jeanne Barney (who writes the "Smoke from Jeannie's Lamp" column for the Gay News), present in her capacity as editor of Drummer magazine. Questioned by a cop who couldn't believe she was really a woman, Barney defiantly answered: "Of course I'm a woman. If I was a drag queen I'd have bigger tits."

Actually, the police had every reason to be fully aware of Barney's identity, since (according to her) they had been following her day and night for two months prior to the raid and once broke into her house in her absence to search it. The offices of Drummer and The Leather Fraternity were also broken into,

'Cruising' banned in Boston;

test case nets new $500 fine

BOSTON The Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union (CLUM) and defendant "John Doe" were disappointed at the March 23 outcome of the first appeal stage of their attempt to stop police harassment of gay men "cruising" in Boston. The chosen "test case" was the conviction of "Doe " for "soliciting to commit an unnatural act" in the Jolar Cinema here (see story in the February Gay News). A $25 fine was imposed at the municipal court level, but when the Boston Superior Court jury affirmed the conviction on appeal, Judge Joseph DeGuglielmo imposed an additional $500 in court costs, together with a denunciation of the defendant for "slandering" the police. A request to stay payment of the money pending appeal to the Court of Appeals was denied.

Even the prosecutor found the judge's action unwarranted and excessive, according to Boston's Gay Community News, and defense lawyer Evan Lawson called it "punitive... the price you have to

pay for making a test case." State. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Boston) said DiGuglielmo was "perverting the justice system,... punishing people to scare them away from using (it)."

The defendant's fate appeared

to be sealed even before the trial

GAY NEWS UPDATE

began, both by the choice of DiGuglielmo as judge and by the composition of the jury, which was predominantly

middle-aged,

working class, and female. The judge agreed to ask prospective jurors if they were prejudiced against gay people and told women that they had the right to be excused, but very few disqualified themselves. Moreover, much of the defense strategy rested on the contention that the enclosed viewing booths at the Jolar should be considered "private" places under the law-since solicitation to commit an "unnatural act" between consenting adults in private is not illegal in Massachusetts but in his charge

to the jury Judge DiGuglielmo summarily dismissed this view, stating that "in this court" the Jolar Cinema was "a public place."

Taking the stand in his own defense, "Doe" said that it was the detective who arrested him (Edward Miller) who had made the advances, i.e., that in effect he had been "entrapped." With respect to the issues of consent and privacy, he told the jury: "I have too much pride to do something in public," and "I wouldn't do anything without anyone's consent."

Defense attorney Lawson asked the jury, in his summing up, to consider "who created the situation where the alleged crime

Barney said, and publisher John Embry (also known as "Robert Payne"), a co-founder of H.E.L.P., was equally the target of intensive undercover surveillance. "The police have been trying to get at the leather community for a long time." Barney commented, "and these charges at the auction were just their excuse."

Everyone at the auction was restrained by the police with socalled "plasticuffs," which are twisted tight and can only be removed by a special cutting tool.

took place," suggesting that Miller Cays on the Hill

had been an active participant, not an innocent bystander, and that he had encouraged the defendant to make a sexual advance. In his conclusion, the prosecutor dismissed the notion that entrapment was involved, and focused on the issue whether the Jolar is a public or (Continued on Page B8)

The handling was vindicatively brutal, according to Barney, who remarked that "a lot of people were going around the next day with bruises and lacerations on their wrists." Even those not ultimately arrested were photographed, fingerprinted, and "processed through," which with more than 120 people involved took several hours. "The LAPD has long been an authority on the practice of S &M," Barney jibed.

The 40 people arrested were (Continued on Page B5)

Photo courtesy UFMCC

Gay civil rights legislation pending before the U. S.Congress is discussed on the steps of the Capitol in Washington by (left to right) Craig Thigpen, openly gay aide to Rep. Bella Abzug (D-N.Y.); Gary Aldridge, open gay legislative assistant to Sen. Alan Cranston (DCalif.); Rev. Troy D. Perry, founder and moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC); and Adam DeBaugh, assistant director of UFMCC's Washington office and editor of its newsletter, Gays on the Hill.

GAY NEWS May 1976 Page R1