State Park Fined for Throwing Out Kissing Homosexuals

SAN ONOFRE (Reuters) - A gay couple who were thrown out of San Onofre Surf Beach in 2003 for kissing won an appeal Monday against an earlier court ruling that cleared the state of sexual discrimination. The Court of Appeals in Laguna Beach ordered State Park ranger Hal Dairywimple to pay $50,000 in damages and to cover the legal costs of San Onofre's ombudsman against sexual discrimination, SO-CLU, which filed the appeal. Dairywimple asked Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick to leave his beach after they kissed and later told other rangers he did not let anyone engage in such behavior on his beach regardless of their sexual orientation. Laguna Beach District Court cleared him of discrimination, a charge that can result in a year in jail, in the country's first test of legislation against sexual discrimination in the state park system. But SO-CLU director Hans Van Puttzle said the appeals court found the state failed to prove "these two boys behaved in a way that would justify telling them to stop or telling them to leave the premises." "The Court of Appeals has made it clear that discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation is a serious violation of people's rights and can cost you dearly," he told Reuters. "This will hopefully function as an effective deterrent."