Aug. 2--Most residents of the small city of Douglas, Wyo., are used to seeing Larry "Sissy" Goodwin running his errands dressed in women's clothing. 

But the 55-year-old husband and father of two turned heads when he went shopping in a tennis skirt in the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City last April. The hotel ordered Goodwin to leave, and security guards tackled him when he refused. 

On Wednesday, Goodwin reached a settlement with the chain in lieu of filing a lawsuit alleging discrimination. Goodwin pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace to avoid the "time and expense" of fighting the charge, but still asserts he broke no laws and was asked to leave due to the way he was dressed. 

"This should mean a lot to the people of Salt Lake City," Goodwin said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It reaffirms that people can be different in a pluralistic society, and it's not OK to arrest someone because you don't like their looks." 

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah represented Goodwin in negotiating the settlement. The terms of the agreement are confidential, said ACLU Executive Director Carol Gnade. 

"The settlement accomplished what it needed to accomplish without spending years in court," Gnade said. "Mr. Goodwin was minding his own business, and it is amazing that this happened. Because someone looks different is not a reason for security guards to arrest them." 

Goodwin, a control-room operator for a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming, was in Salt Lake City on a business trip when the arrest occurred. He was staying at another hotel and had gone to Little America to shop for a gift for his wife. 

Shortly after the incident, a hotel manager insisted Goodwin had crossed a line by bending over and deliberately exposing his underwear. Little America said on Wednesday that the manager no longer works at the hotel. 

"Little America wishes to correct any misimpression created by prior public statements," the hotel said in an official statement. "Mr. Goodwin did not engage in any lewd or lascivious conduct at the time this incident occurred." 

Lynn Hart, a corporate counsel for Little America, described the incident as an unfortunate one that is not "reflective of the way we treat our guests in any way." 

Goodwin said he began cross-dressing, at first in secret, when he was four or five years old. A Vietnam veteran, Goodwin said he gradually began wearing women's clothing in public after he was honorably discharged from the Air Force. His commanding officer had discovered him sleeping in a nightgown. 

When Goodwin began cross- dressing at his job at PacifiCorp in Wyoming, the company ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation and counseling. 

He said he learned in counseling that he began dressing in his sister's clothing as a child to cope with an abusive home environment. 

The 2002 Winter Olympics will bring a "microcosm of the world" to Salt Lake City's doorstep next year, said Goodwin. Hotels and citizens will need to prepare for the diversity in appearance that will accompany the guests, he said. 

"If we want to live in a free country, we have to accept that people are different," he said. "You are not free if you are only free to be like everyone else." 

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(c) 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. PPW,