After 25 Years, Rudy Serra, Michigan's First Gay Judge, Is Still Fighting the Same Battle
The gay sex stings he documented in 1999 have evolved to Grindr, but targeting continues
When Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Rudy Serra to Michigan's 36th District Court in 2007, she made history by naming him the state's first openly gay judge. But for Serra, the appointment represented just one milestone in a decades-long career defending LGBTQ+ people from what he calls systematic police targeting.
Nearly two decades later, at 70, an age when many would be retired, Serra continues practicing law from his Ferndale home office, still taking cases and still sounding the alarm about police stings that he says violate the constitutional rights of gay men. The work that consumed him in 1999 remains urgent in 2025, even as the tactics have evolved from public restrooms to dating apps like Grindr.
"These types of undercover operations where the police pretend to be consenting adult gay men in order to entice someone into accepting an invitation seem to increase at times when, for example, the prosecutor's running for reelection or the sheriff is running for reelection," Serra said in a recent interview with Pride Source.
He's seen the pattern repeat across four decades of practice. Police conduct sweeps, prosecutors hold press conferences touting arrests of "predators" and gay men's lives are destroyed — often for behavior that, Serra argues, isn't actually criminal.
Serra’s 1999 "Bag a Fag" report, compiled for the Triangle Foundation, now Equality Michigan, documented what he termed a "relentless, determined and persistent choice to target gay men, their bars and public cruising areas, for special harassment and expensive undercover decoy operations." The report detailed cases from Detroit to Troy, from adult theaters to rest areas, where police arrested men for words alone or for consensual activity that would never result in charges for heterosexual couples.
"Rudy, working together with the Triangle Foundation and [founding executive director] Jeff Montgomery, really was the singular voice speaking out against this," ACLU of Michigan staff attorney Jay Kaplan said.
In one case Serra documented, a man was arrested after meeting two undercover officers at the Detroit Eagle, a gay leather bar; they spent two nights socializing before arresting him for disorderly conduct. His offense? Telling one of the officers, "You're really nice looking. I wouldn't mind chomping on your crotch for a while." The charges were eventually dismissed when police refused to provide evidence, but only after he was held for 17 hours and spent thousands on legal fees.
"Reliable sources inform the Triangle Foundation that officers have an 'inside' slang for these decoy projects," Serra wrote in the report. "They call them 'bag a fag' operations."
Serra submitted his findings to the Department of Justice. While the DOJ acknowledged receipt, he recalls little substantive change in police behavior. The stings continued, the arrests mounted and gay men kept pleading guilty to avoid publicity — exactly what made the operations so effective at terrorizing a community.
Born into an era when homosexuality was both criminalized and pathologized, Serra built his career on the principle that the state has no business regulating consensual adult sexuality. He attended law school and became a social worker, served on Detroit's Department of Human Rights and joined the State Bar of Michigan's Open Justice Commission. His appointment to the bench came during a period when LGBTQ+ legal victories — particularly around marriage equality — made some community members complacent about ongoing discrimination.
"Now that we have marriage equality, I think that a lot of members of the community are under the mistaken impression that we can do whatever we want to in the privacy of our bedroom," Serra said. "And unfortunately, that's not true."
"I remember years ago that a lot of people weren't necessarily comfortable publicly talking about the sexual proclivities or behavior of gay people," Kaplan recalled. "But Rudy was courageous to call it out for what it is and to say, ‘This is not a bad thing.’ A lot of people have whatever their sexual likes or dislikes, but it's two consenting adults in the privacy of their home."
Outdated laws remain on Michigan's books, statutes prohibiting "gross indecency" and the "abominable and detestable crime against nature,” which includes anal sex. Though courts have narrowed their application and Wayne County Circuit Court ruled them unconstitutional for private consensual acts in the 1988 case MOHR v. Kelley, prosecutors continue wielding them as threats. When faced with felony charges, defendants often accept misdemeanor pleas — building records that can lead to sex offender registration after multiple convictions.
The digital age has provided new hunting grounds. In August 2021, Michigan State Police arrested Evan Lakatos after an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old boy on Grindr engaged him in conversation. The profile used photos of an adult man who Lakatos said appeared to be in his 20s or 30s. Lakatos, who had no prior record and didn't meet the supposed minor, was convicted and served 71 days in jail, was placed on Michigan's sex offender registry and lost his longtime management position. His case is now under appeal with the State Appellate Defender Office, with attorneys arguing the operation constituted entrapment and that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to raise that defense.
Now that we have marriage equality, I think that a lot of members of the community are under the mistaken impression that we can do whatever we want to in the privacy of our bedroom. And unfortunately, that's not true.
Attorney Rudy Serra
"They had a big press conference and said, 'Oh, you know, we got this guy off the streets,'" Serra noted about the Lakatos case. "But then when you really read the facts of the case, this clearly was not a predator."
Since June, New York police have arrested more than 200 men in what they called a crackdown on "lewd behavior" at Penn Station. According to PinkNews, the operation has specifically targeted areas known for gay cruising, with officers conducting surveillance and making arrests for consensual activity between adults.
Selective enforcement remains blatant. Police don't conduct similar operations targeting heterosexual hookup spots or use undercover officers in straight bars. Comments that a woman could make freely in a singles bar will get a gay man hauled to jail, Serra noted.
"Even straight married couples could be victimized by these statutes," Serra said, referring to Michigan's gross indecency laws that technically apply to private consensual sex regardless of sexual orientation. But in practice, only gay men face arrest.
The human cost extends beyond individual defendants. Serra has watched clients lose jobs, marriages and hope. Some have died by suicide. Others plead guilty simply to end the publicity, forfeiting their chance to challenge unconstitutional practices in court.
"Usually they're very afraid of what's going to happen," Serra said. "They don't want to have anything public occur. And so they will plead guilty to something just so the media doesn't get wind of it."
At an age when he'd hoped to be "home in my recliner," Serra continues taking court appointments and family law cases because Social Security doesn't cover the bills. He'd like to update his 1999 report but lacks organizational support. Advocacy organizations don't seem to be exploring these police stings with the same focus as groups did in earlier decades.
Still, Serra remains available to anyone caught in a police sting. "If someone came to me with a criminal charge that involved an undercover police operation, I certainly would not tell them I'm not interested and hang up the phone," he said. "I would want to know more about what had happened and see if taking action would be helpful."
For Serra, the work isn't abstract. It's about human dignity and the right to exist without state harassment. Hooking up isn't illegal. Consensual sex between adults isn't illegal. But as long as police can pose as interested partners and prosecutors can threaten felony charges, gay men remain vulnerable in ways their heterosexual counterparts never experience.
"The desire to effectuate one's animus against homosexuals can never be a legitimate governmental purpose," Serra said, quoting the 1997 federal case Stemler v. City of Florence. "A state action based upon that animus alone violates the equal protection clause."
Twenty-five years after documenting Michigan's "bag a fag" operations, Rudy Serra is still waiting for that principle to be fully enforced.
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