Albert Gordon, an attorney who championed gay rights causes in the 70's and 80's, has died at 94, the L.A. Times reports:
"Often working
for free, he became known as 'the leading pro bono lawyer to L.A.'s gay
community,' historians Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons wrote in
their 2006 book 'Gay L.A.' … 'Before there was a straight-gay
alliance in America, there was Al Gordon,' the Rev. Troy Perry, a
longtime activist and founder of the gay-friendly Metropolitan
Community Churches, said in an interview last week. 'When other people
wouldn't touch us, he did. He was a hero.' One of Gordon's most
memorable cases stemmed from a notorious raid on a gay bathhouse on
Melrose Avenue in 1975, when scores of Los Angeles police officers
broke up a mock slave auction staged as part of the entertainment for a
gay community fundraiser. Apparently not amused by the gimmick, the
police treated the event as actual human slave trafficking, a felony,
and arrested 40 participants. Gordon helped win their release. He
supported a second mock auction, organized by Perry to raise defense
funds, by going on the auction block himself. He went for $369 to his
wife, Lorraine. He also represented gay activists in another
cause celebre: a 10-year battle to force Barney's Beanery, a popular
West Hollywood restaurant, to remove an offensive sign. The misspelled
sign, 'Fagots Stay Out,' was taken down in 1984."
May he rest in peace.
