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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 56 ⢠No. 3 ⢠January 15-21, 2026
SF sheriff responds to letter about female, trans strip search Courtesy ACLU
Becky Pepper-Jackson had her case heard before the U.S. Supreme Court January 13.
Justices seem poised to uphold trans athlete bans by Lisa Keen
T
he U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to allow state bans barring trans women and girls from playing on female athletic teams. That was the takeaway Tuesday, January 13, after several hours of oral arguments in two cases from West Virginia and Idaho. Both states have bans barring trans athletes from competing on female sports teams. In this flashpoint in the culture wars, many states â and parents â fear their cisgender girls could be at an unfair advantage competing against transgender females. During oral arguments, the justices considered such issues as do transgender females who have taken puberty blockers at an early age and have not developed physical traits have an advantage over other female athletes. They also discussed more scholarly pursuits, where many girls vastly outperform boys. They considered whether states should ban girls from classes trying to bring boys up-tospeed academically and if competitive chess teams should be separated into boys and girls. And they questioned if a cisgender boy wanted to compete in track on a girlsâ team because he was a poor athlete and did not have a chance to make the boysâ team. In the end, the conservative majority seemed likely to uphold the state bans. Itâs unclear whether the justices will craft a narrow ruling or a broader one that could affect other transgender rights. Several justices said they considered the record unclear or underdeveloped. They did not think Congress had clearly defined the word âsexâ in 1972 when it passed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act. That legislation states, âNo person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistanceâŚ.â Nearly all secondary schools and about 90% of colleges and universities receive federal funding for various purposes. See page 8 >>
by John Ferrannini
S
an Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto is responding to concerns about the treatment of female and transgender people in the county jails. Those concern allegations of a mass strip search of incarcerated women that occurred last spring. This, as the sheriffâs office also stated that there is not an issue of overcrowding in the jails. Relatedly, a top city staffer to the Board of Supervisors has apologized for an employee in the clerkâs office using an anachronistic, offensive term for trans people in an email to the board that forwarded the letter from Miyamoto. The sheriff âs office was among city and county governmental organizations that received a letter December 16 from 31 local organizations authored by Julia Arroyo of the Young Womenâs Freedom Center. The letter to Miyamoto, Mayor Daniel Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and the Board of Supervisors states that on May 22, deputies ordered at least 19 women to undress in front of one another in a mass strip search, during which they were ridiculed and mocked. The proceedings were apparently filmed on the officersâ body-worn cameras. Lurieâs office referred to the sheriffâs office for comment; Mandelman didnât return a request for comment.
Courtesy the subject
San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said there will be an investigation into an alleged mass strip search of female prisoners in the county jail.
Mission Local reported on the incident after a legal claim was filed with the city on behalf of the women, who were in the B-Pod of the county jail, by Elizabeth Bertolino, founding attorney of the Bertolino Law Firm. Bertolino was unavailable for comment, and the firm did not return comment by press time. The claim states that the women âwere forced to strip in an open setting, were subjected to visual
body-cavity searches, and were required either to undergo or to witness these invasive searches while male deputies, some armed with weapons, stood by watching, laughing and making comments.â The December 16 letter from advocates states, âGenuine public safety requires the protection of people who are the most vulnerable, including people who are incarcerated. City policies that have prioritized an extreme punishment approach to social challenges have filled our jails to capacity and are directly endangering cisgender and trans women who have been caught in the system. We are also deeply concerned that the Sheriffâs Office is effectively condoning gendered violence in the jail by failing to take the reports of the mass strip searches seriously and by allowing the supervisors and deputies involved to remain in positions of authority over the impacted women. To date, our understanding is that no one involved has even been removed from Pod B.â Their letter makes a number of requests of city leaders, including but not limited to asking the sheriffâs office to suspend all deputies and supervisors involved; asking the district attorneyâs office to support pre-trial release of the impacted women; and asking Lurie and the Board of Supervisors to withhold new funding to the sheriffâs office âuntil the communityâs demands are met.â See page 4 >>
Mandelman seeks to landmark late gay Ambassador Hormelâs former home by Matthew S. Bajko
A
s part of his push to designate historic properties as city landmarks to protect them from being destroyed, gay San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is seeking such local recognition for the one-time home of the late gay U.S. Ambassador James. C. Hormel. The stately Queen Anne Victorian situated across the street from Buena Vista Park was built in the late 1890s and survived the 1906 earthquake. It is one of 28 properties Mandelman announced Tuesday that he is requesting be deemed local landmarks. The Hormel mansion at 181 Buena Vista Avenue East on the corner of Duboce Avenue is the only one related to LGBTQ history, Mandelman told the Bay Area Reporter in an exclusive interview ahead of the board meeting at which he introduced the landmarking ordinances. âIt is a combination of the house itself is beautiful and a historic resource certainly; on top of that, it is associated with a very important figure in queer history,â said Mandelman, president of the board, for why he included the Hormel mansion among his latest landmark requests. According to the Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco,
Matthew S. Bajko
The former San Francisco home of late U.S. Ambassador James C. Hormel has been proposed to be a local landmark.
Hormel purchased the home in 1986 and lived there for 26 years. The heir to the Hormel meatpacking fortune, Hormel became a prominent philanthropist who helped launch such LGBTQ organizations as the Human Rights
Campaign and the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center housed at the San Francisco Public Libraryâs main branch. See page 2 >>
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JANUARY 21-25, 2026 VIRTUAL Join us virtually for the largest political leadership and skills-building convening for the LGBTQ+ movement. WATCH THE MAINSTAGE ONLINE creatingchange.org/virtual CREATING-CHANGE-STRIP-2025.indd 1
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