S.F. Gay Rights Advocate Arrested on Suspicion of Possessing Child Porn

Longtime San Francisco gay rights activist Larry Brinkin has been arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography, but he has yet to be formally charged.

The San Francisco district attorney's office is "waiting for computer forensic evidence to be completed so we can make a proper charging decision," spokeswoman Stephanie Ong Stillman told The Bay Citizen Tuesday. "These types of cases are complex in nature, and we require more time to thoroughly evaluate the evidence."

Police arrested Brinkin at his home Friday night. In their search warrant, police said pornographic images of very young children were embedded in messages from Brinkin's email account, the Citizen reports. According to the paper, the search warrant also noted that some emails from his account included fantasy stories involving the rape and torture of African-American children and one contained the words "White Power! White Supremacy!"

The arrest stemmed from a months-long investigation begun by the Los Angeles Police Department, which traced emails with the offending images to San Francisco. Brinkin spent Friday night in jail and was released on bond.

Brinkin worked 22 years for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, where he helped write the city's Equal Benefits Ordinance, which requires companies doing business with city government to provide domestic-partner benefits and adhere to nondiscrimination policies. When he retired in 2010, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared a Larry Brinkin Week in honor of his "dedication to advance the civil rights of all people."

Bevan Dufty, a gay member of the Board of Supervisors, told the San Francisco Chronicle he was shocked when he hear about Brinkin's arrest. "I have admired and respected his work for the LGBT community," Dufty said. "I respect and am confident that there will be due process."