LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Gay inmates at a county jail in Southern California say they were verbally abused and denied services because of their sexual orientation.
A group of 15 men who are or have been incarcerated in the West Valley Detention Center filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday. The suit said the jail in Rancho Cucamonga maintains an "alternative lifestyle tank" where gays are automatically segregated from the rest of the population.
Melissa Goodman, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said jails and prisons have an obligation to protect inmates who might be harmed because of their sexual orientation. But she said they cannot treat them differently in other ways.
"In the United States, we punish people because of the crime they commit, not because of who they are," Goodman said. "Imposing harsher penalties just because of who they are is illegal, and it's unconstitutional."
The inmates charge that gay people are kept in their cells for most of the day, unable to participate in work or education programs.
