Gay Activists Are Surprised and Disappointed by Veto : Politics: Leaders of homosexual groups had considered Gov. Wilson as more supportive of their cause than his predecessor or GOP conservatives.

Voicing surprise and hurt, gay and lesbian activists Sunday accused Gov. Pete Wilson of bowing to political expediency and trying to force them back into the closet by vetoing legislation that would have prohibited job discrimination against homosexuals.

“It is the poorest decision he (Wilson) could possibly make,” said Morris Kight, a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, which had endorsed the bill. Kight, the unofficial elder statesman of L.A. gay rights battles, said the governor bent to the wishes of a small group of “archconservatives,” including the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of Anaheim, one of the bill’s severest critics.

“If he’s (Wilson) catering to the voting public, he’s chosen the wrong side of the issue,” Kight said.

After hearing of the veto, a crowd of about 400 gay activists marched across West Hollywood on Sunday evening, blowing whistles, shouting slogans and burning a California state flag.

At least one person was hurt when he accidentally ran into the path of a car, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Lee Jordan. No one was arrested in connection with the accident, he said.

Deputies closed off streets along the route as the demonstrators marched west on Santa Monica Boulevard to San Vicente Boulevard and north to Sunset Boulevard, picking up supporters along the way, Jordan said.

About 60 activists from the “Queer Nation” group had been encamped on a hunger strike for several days on a grassy median at Crescent Heights and Santa Monica boulevards as they awaited the governor’s decision on the bill, Jordan said.

The disappointment of gay leaders was particularly sharp because the Republican governor had been viewed as more supportive of gay rights than his predecessor, Gov. George Deukmejian, or than conservative opponents of the bill like Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) and Sheldon.

Peter Nardi, co-president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said activists were caught off-guard by Wilson’s veto because during his campaign for governor Wilson “supported non-discrimination against gays and lesbians in the state of California.”

Wilson in 1986 attacked Lyndon H. LaRouche as “contemptible” and labeled a LaRouche-sponsored ballot initiative, which called for a quarantine of AIDS patients, as “evil.” That initiative, Proposition 64, would have in part required the firing of all food-service workers and school personnel who tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS. The initiative was defeated by voters.

In his veto message Sunday, Wilson clearly tried to soothe the expected gay community anger over rejection of the bill, AB 101 by Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Los Angeles). He acknowledged, as many public officials have not, that homosexuals are the target of violence, and conceded the veto “will cause profound disappointment to men and women of good faith whose goodwill I value, and I genuinely regret that.

“I regret . . . any false comfort that may be derived from (the veto) by the tiny minority of mean-spirited, gay-bashing bigots,” Wilson said.

But Wilson said he vetoed the bill because it would have placed an untoward burden on employers and because homosexuals were already protected from employment discrimination by existing laws.

Had Wilson signed the job discrimination bill, said activist Jeff McElroy, it could have given many homosexuals the confidence to disclose their sexual preference to employers. Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day, he said, estimating that 10% to 20% of the nation’s population is gay or lesbian but that many are too fearful to admit their homosexuality.

“I think the closet is a very dangerous place to be,” said McElroy, coordinator of a statewide conference of gay and lesbian activists, “and Gov. Wilson with his veto is trying to slam more nails into that closet door. The argument that we’re covered by other legislation is just totally misleading and demagogic.”

Torie Osborn, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, said that “for Gov. Wilson to cave in is absolutely cowardly and outrageous. There was widespread support for this bill. It was a simple job discrimination bill. I’m a little stunned still.”