Permit for gay march granted sans hitch

Deirdre Newman

What a difference a year makes.

Last August, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit

against the city on behalf of the organizers of the Orange County

Dyke March, lambasting the city’s permit process as being

unreasonable and unconstitutional.

On Saturday, the march will again occur in Costa Mesa. The lawsuit

is close to being settled, and march organizers were able to obtain a

permit with no hassle, said Terry Stone, executive director of the

Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County.

“There was just no drama, no problem at all,” Stone said.

The turnabout is because of new rules the city approved in June

for how special event permits are issued. After the lawsuit, city

officials realized they needed to update how special-event permits

are issued to make the process clearer and more objective.

The city’s previous process -- which involved review by a

committee, with the final decision by the city manager -- was

challenged by the lawsuit. It charged that the city’s onerous

regulations for the march violated free-speech rights.

Under the new law, the finance department processes the

applications for special-event permits, and any appeals will be

considered by the City Council. The new law is also content-neutral,

meaning the city can’t discriminate based on an event’s content of

speech when considering whether to grant permits.

The lawsuit is expected to be settled any day now, Stone said.

“They’ve done everything we’ve wanted,” Stone said. “There’s

nothing else for us to do past this point.”

“I think the lawsuit helped the city to look at the rules that

existed and take a real close look at what they should do in the

future to make sure they were equitable for all folks that would be

using the different parks and looking for permits,” he added.

The lawsuit expedited necessary updating of the permit process,

Mayor Gary Monahan said.

“I don’t know that it was necessarily responsible, but I think it

put an urgency on it,” Monahan said. “We don’t have that many special

events, so it hasn’t been anything in the limelight for a long time.

This sort of put it out in the forefront.”

This is the third year the city will be hosting the march. The

route will be similar to last year, with the march starting in Lions

Park and then proceeding around the periphery of the park.

The march is part of a larger, day-long festival that drew between

250 and 300 people last year, said Faith Idemundia, co-coordinator of

Saturday’s march. The march is to promote unity, visibility and

empowerment, she added.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.