XPost: ca.politics, alt.politics.obama, seattle.politics   
   XPost: alt.hollywood   
   From: jtownsle@butler.edu   
      
   The family of Los Angeles civil rights and criminal defense   
   attorney Herbert E. Selwyn recently announced his death  on Feb.   
   3 after a long illness. Selwyn was 90.   
      
   Selwyn’s dedication to social justice included stepping up to   
   help gay people at a time when gay attorneys could be arrested   
   and disbarred for being homosexual. In Aug. 1968, the year after   
   the LAPD raided the Black Cat Tavern in Silver Lake and a year   
   before the Stonewall riots in New York City, Articles of   
   Incorporation for the Hollywood-based Homosexual Information   
   Center (HIC) were signed in Selwyn’s office by founding   
   directors William Edward Glover, James V. Schneider, and Don   
   Slater. Three months later, on Nov. 4, 1968, Selwyn filed the   
   Articles (available as PDF) with California Sec. of State Frank   
   Jordan and soon thereafter the Franchise Tax Board granted HIC   
   exemption from franchise tax. The IRS granted HIC a federal   
   income tax exemption and 501(c)(3) status in 1971.   
      
   As an ACLU attorney in 1970, Selwyn was instrumental in enabling   
   the first Christopher Street West Parade to march down Hollywood   
   Blvd.. After Stonewall and the founding of the Gay Liberation   
   Front in 1969, GLF/LA co-founder Morris Kight was in touch with   
   gay activists in New York who wanted to commemorate the one year   
   anniversary of the historic uprising. In early May 1970, Kight   
   met with Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Universal Fellowship of   
   Metropolitan Community Churches, and Rev. Bob Humphries, founder   
   of the United States Mission, and the three created Christopher   
   Street West and determined to hold a Pride parade on June 28.   
      
   When Perry went to the Police Commission to secure a parade   
   permit, he was met with blatant hostility. The commissioners   
   peppered Perry with questions before LAPD Chief Ed Davis spoke   
   up. Perry remembers:   
      
   [Chief Davis] said, ‘Did you know that homosexuality is illegal   
   in the state of California?’ I looked at him, and I said, ‘No,   
   sir, it’s not.’ We then debated the issue. And he said, ‘Well, I   
   want to tell you something. As far as I’m concerned, granting a   
   parade permit to a group of homosexuals to parade down Hollywood   
   Boulevard would be the same as giving a permit to a group of   
   thieves and robbers.’ Finally, the motion was made. One   
   commissioner said, ‘There’ll be violence in the streets.’…   
      
   They debated among themselves. The commission was against it,   
   but they said, ‘We’re going to give the permit, if you can post   
   two bonds, one in the amount of $1 million, one in the amount of   
   $500,000. And you will post in cash the amount of $1,500 to pay   
   for the policemen that it will take to protect you. And, you   
   must have at least 3,000 people marching. If not, you go to the   
   sidewalks.’ I thanked them and left.”   
      
   The CSW organizers called the ACLU and the next day, Perry met   
   with Selwyn. The two appeared before the Police Commission the   
   next Friday and the Commission dropped all requirements except   
   the $1,500 for police protection. Selwyn appealed to the   
   California Superior Court and the following Monday, the Court   
   ruled that CSW receive their parade permit and required the LAPD   
   to provide protection to maintain order, as they would any other   
   group. The judge said that “all citizens of the State of   
   California are entitled to equal protection under its laws.”   
      
   Two days later, on June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride Parade on   
   the West Coast marched down Hollywood Boulevard, the boulevard   
   of awakening dreams. The GLF contingent carried banners and   
   chanted: “Two, four, six, eight, gay is just as good as   
   straight.” Also in the parade was a contingent of allies   
   carrying a large sign reading: “Heterosexuals for Homosexual   
   Freedom.” Selwyn is considered a “founding father” of CSW.   
      
   On Aug. 5, 2005, C. Todd White, Ph.D., HIC’s Chair in West   
   Hollywood, interviewed Selwyn for HIC’s Tangent online. Selwyn   
   said he got involved with the burgeoning homophile movement in   
   1953 because of a patient of his physician father. Ruth, a   
   lesbian photographer who belonged to the Mattachine Society,   
   asked the attorney if he would address her group about legal   
   issues at a time when being homosexual was a crime. After   
   speaking to that first meeting of about 20 to 30 people, he was   
   asked to speak with other Mattachine groups in central L.A.,   
   West Hollywood, West L.A., by the harbor, and in Long Beach.   
      
   “I gave a lot of talks to these groups, and they asked if I   
   would incorporate them. They didn’t have any money, so I did it   
   for free,” Selwyn told White. “My office was out on the Sunset   
   Strip now, and so I incorporated them.”   
      
   He was subsequently visited by the FBI, asking about that   
   incorporation. “They asked me about political affiliations, and   
   I said most [Mattachine Society leaders] are rather middle of   
   the road, and some are rather on the right wing, which pleased   
   them.”   
      
   Selwyn also had friends who were closeted gays during his time   
   in the military in the 1940s—they suspected he was gay, too,   
   including San Francisco poet Jack Spicer. He never worried about   
   having his reputation sullied by addressing the Mattachine   
   Society because he went to “all kinds of meetings,” with left   
   and right wing speakers, from Trotsky supporters to American   
   fascists before he addressed the homophile groups.   
      
   During this dark discriminatory time in the 1950s and 1960s , a   
   lot of attorneys were making money from gays fending off police   
   raids, spurious criminal charges, and the threat of losing their   
   jobs after being outed. Selwyn reject this crassness. In fact,   
   one of Selwyn’s early contributions was writing up a card on   
   Miranda Rights and distributing them to all the gay bars in   
   town. That upset a friend from law school who happened to be one   
   of the head prosecutors in the L.A. City Attorney’s office—who   
   didn’t know it was Selwyn’s idea to inform gay people of their   
   constitutional rights during the commonplace police raids.   
      
   Selwyn also represented gay teachers, hairdressers and   
   cosmetologists threatened with being fired or having their   
   licenses taken away. During one hearing, he said that “the   
   attorney general should ask his wife whether she knows any gay   
   hairdressers, and whether the women of America would find their   
   hair would go to hell, in effect, if all the gay hairdressers   
   had their licenses taken away.” He won the case.   
      
   “I’ve always argued, even before I was involved in the gay   
   movement, that except for the sexual direction, there is no   
   difference between gays and straights,” Selwyn said, adding that   
   famous pro-gay psychologist Evelyn Hooker was a friend.   
      
   Selwyn was a student of the philosophical and political   
   differences that divided the early gay rights movement leaders.   
   But from an overall civil rights perspective, he told White that   
   gays are making progress.   
      
   “When I was starting in this field, if [gays] had gone out of   
   the closet, they would have lost their jobs or be terribly   
   discriminated against,” Selwyn said. “So, it’s just like the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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