Coalition to Confront Sheldon in Washington : Homosexuality: Groups plan to protest evangelist’s conference that seeks a national strategy against special rights for gays and lesbians.

WASHINGTON —  A coalition of national civil rights groups is planning a public showdown next week with the Rev. Louis Sheldon, the Orange County evangelist whose Traditional Values Coalition is waging a highly publicized battle against homosexual rights.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Organization for Women, among other groups, are planning a march, rally and press conference in Washington next Friday to denounce Sheldon’s “ideology of bigotry and intolerance,” a spokesman said.

“Louis Sheldon is coming to town, but we’re going to be ready for him,” said Robert Bray, the task force’s director of public information.

The object of the protest is the Sheldon-organized “National Summit on Homosexuality: Healing and Public Policy Implications,” an all-day meeting next Friday at the Sheraton-Washington Hotel.

Among the scheduled speakers are Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), a longtime foe of the homosexual rights movement, and William B. Allen, former chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. At a Sheldon conference in Anaheim last October, Allen, then-chairman of the commission, delivered a controversial speech entitled: “Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What is a Minority?”

The purpose of the Washington gathering, Sheldon said Thursday, is to plan a national strategy for countering the position that homosexuality is normal and should be protected with special civil rights legislation.

Sheldon said about 50 to 75 “clinical people, public-policy people and . . . recovering homosexual people” will attend the summit to hear a half-dozen speakers and panelists. Sheldon said he could not identify those attending because of concerns about reprisals for their participation.

Sheldon and his associates dispute the view that homosexuality is a genetically determined trait. They promote the use of “reparative therapy” to “heal” homosexuals and return them to a heterosexual life style.

“It’s not our intention to inflame hatred or condemnation, because homosexuals have received too much of that already,” Sheldon said. “Our purpose is to do three things: to shed light, to stimulate clear thinking and to facilitate reasoned thought and conclusions.”

However, Bray said he believes Sheldon’s intentions are less sanguine. “What is unique about Sheldon’s group is that in the past, Moral Majority types manifested their hatred toward us and didn’t try to put it behind a smiley face,” he said.

Bray and Gregory King of the Human Rights Campaign Fund said they believe the Washington meeting is significant because it fuels speculation that Sheldon is intent on attracting a national audience.

“We believe that the Coalition for Traditional Values . . . (and related groups) are poised to make a bid for national attention,” Bray said.

“With the vacuum created by the suspension of the Moral Majority, and (the Rev.) Jerry Falwell stepping out of the national political scene, we think that Louis Sheldon, in particular . . . will step in,” he added.

As traditional conservatives become less worried about the threat of world communism because of the changes in Eastern Europe, groups such as Sheldon’s are attempting to focus conservative fears on homosexuality, Bray said.

“We are the new bogyman,” King said.

Dannemeyer’s spokesman, Paul Mero, countered: “They just flatter themselves. They’re not the bogyman they think they are. We’ve got other things to do and this is just one of many.”

Anti-Sheldon protesters plan to rally at DuPont Circle in downtown Washington at 6 p.m. next Friday. A march to the Sheraton-Washington will follow. A press conference is also scheduled.

Among the other groups sponsoring the protest, Bray said, are the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the American Psychological Assn., the Washington Interreligious Staff Council, People for the American Way, the Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.