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By Rick Wilson | The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS — Gay men in Kent County are being targeted and entrapped by Kent County Sheriff’s deputies for behaviors that would be deemed acceptable for straight couples, a group of gay rights activist told the Kent County Commission on Tuesday.
A group including a Holland minister and a board member of Equality Michigan say sheriff’s deputies arrested 33 gay men in county parks in 2010 under the state’s soliciting and accosting statute, but claim about half of those arrests involved two men merely speaking to undercover deputies, or making casual contact like holding hands.
Miriam Aukerman, West Michigan staff attorney for the ACLU, which is investigating the allegations, said in half the reports she examined law officers initiated the contact with those they later arrested.
“In these cases, it’s the officers who are making the approaches,” Aukerman said. “It’s the officers who are doing the accosting and soliciting.”
Aukerman said the practice of sending undercover deputies in search of gay men seeking companionship has a long history.
Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma on Tuesday defended his deputies, whom he said are merely trying to keep county parks safe for everyone.
“This is sensationalizing and a distortion of what’s happening,” Stelma said. “We do not arrest anybody, male or female, for holding hands.”
Aukerman compared the behavior described in police reports to what happens on any weekend night in bars and restaurants all over the country as people — single and otherwise — seek companionship. She said an interpretation of the state statute is being misused.
The statute states: “A person 16 years of age or older who accosts, solicits, or invites another person in a public place or in or from a building or vehicle, by word, gesture, or any other means, to commit prostitution or to do any other lewd or immoral act is guilty of a crime.”
“If you look at the exact language of the statute, you could apply it to what happens in bars and restaurants in Kent County on any Friday or Saturday night,” Aukerman said. “We have concerns about laws that limit the behavior of consenting adults.
“It’s legal to go to a park, a bar or a restaurant and say, ‘Hey, would you like to go to my place?’ We want our parks to be safe places for everyone and that includes gay people who are merely flirting.”
Stelma said that’s exactly what his deputies are trying to do. Yet he conceded some ambiguity in the state law his deputies are charged with enforcing.
“There is a range of discernment there, but whatever that act or suggestion was has to be considered by a judge or jury as being lewd or immoral,” Stelma said. “Our community has invested heavily in the parks and they expect us to keep them safe, family-friendly places and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
Collette Seguin Beighley, a board member of Equality Michigan and director of Grand Valley State University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center, responded to criticism by some county commissioners that none in the gay community came forward themselves to complain.
“These are just devastating experiences for these men,” Beighley said. “Many of them are closeted and the consequences are so huge, the cost of having their cars impounded and the risk of being on the sex offender list.
“I know men who had hoped to be (at the meeting) but said, ‘If they’re targeting gay men, I’m not going to give my name and address.’”
The ACLU’s Aukerman said about half the cases she reviewed involved activity that was clearly illegal.
But others like the Rev. Bill Freeman of Holland said that targeting gay men is also illegal and should be stopped.
“There is no money changing hands, so this isn’t prostitution,” Freeman said. “We’re talking about two consenting adults who are trying to hook up together and if one of them is an undercover officer and the only thing one of them has done is say, ‘Let’s get together someplace,’ I don’t see the problem. They’re making it a problem because they’re targeting gays.”
County Attorney Dan Ophoff said changes in how county law enforcement deals with such situations are already in the works. He said his response to an ACLU letter last June has been delayed, perhaps causing frustration.
“From our perspective, we believe the arrests that were made were compliant with state law,” Ophoff said. “Some of them were dismissed before prosecution or at the preliminary stage of prosecution.”
Ophoff added there likely will be changes to the county parks ordinance offering more due process rights for those banned because of criminal behavior.
Stelma said such undercover stings are likely to continue though may become less frequent because of budget cuts.
“We certainly lost a number of bodies and we have to use our existing resources carefully so we can’t do the stings as frequently as we might have or would like to do them,” Stelma said. “We’re going to do what it takes to make our parks safe.
“We’re not devising some situation where we’re picking and choosing,” he added. “It’s a state law.”
For the gay advocacy community, that law is merely one of several that should be changed. GVSU’s Beighley suggested legislators start with including sexual orientation in civil rights protections.
“This is one of many acts going on against the gay community,” she said. “We just keep hanging out the unwelcome sign in Michigan.
“It hurts our economy but, more importantly, it hurts our humanity. It hurts who we are as human beings.”
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