The ACLU's 100-year history of fighting for civil liberties in Southern California includes drag queens, immigrants, prisoners, students and nude statues. But 'progress isn’t inevitable.'
“The Lady Java case is very similar to the drag queen issue of today,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. “It’s that same kind of bias against a vulnerable group. It speaks to something that is almost a motto in the ACLU — that no victory ever stays won.”
Other issues also play like recurring themes in the national conversation. In 1957, the ACLU of Southern California won an injunction against the Beverly Hills police, who had ordered the removal from a shop window of nude replica statues, including Michelangelo’s masterpiece, “David,” for being lewd and obscene. A similar controversy arose this year when a Florida charter school
“Progressives and liberals often become very moderate or even conservative when it comes to police accountability,” said Villagra, whose office successfully sued the city and county in 2020 to repeal curfews set up to limit Black Lives Matter protests. He added that police lobbies and unions have a “level of resistance that’s off the charts” regarding reforms on the use of force. “They’re going to keep fighting and chipping away to resist accountability.
Hector Villagra said he once gave his wife, who works in Los Angeles County government, an ACLU mug. One of her co-workers “complained about her having communist propaganda.” He recalled similar sentiment when he headed the ACLU’s Orange County office and protesters turned up: “It was so absurd. One protester had a sign saying that Hitler loved
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