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Amie Seiwert’s Imagery
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Vol. 53 • No. 29 • July 20-26, 2023
Bay Area lawyers use drag to benefit out-of-state LGBTQ groups by Matthew S. Bajko
Rick Gerharter
Clergy members and supporters, totaling more than 200 people, marched to Civic Center on March 26, 2009, following a negative decision on Proposition 8 by the California Supreme Court.
Prop 8 repeal heads to CA ballot in 2024 by Matthew S. Bajko
I
n 2024, 16 years after a slim majority of Golden State residents adopted a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, California voters will have a chance to rescind that homophobic decision next November. The campaign to once-and-for-all undue what was known as Proposition 8 could also help dozens of LGBTQ and progressive candidates running throughout the state next fall. After the state Assembly voted during Pride Month to place the Prop 8 repeal measure Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 before voters, state senators followed suit July 13. Legislators in the chamber voted 31-0 with bipartisan support in favor of ACA 5. “Today, with bipartisan support, we are one step closer to ensuring marriage equality as a fundamental right in California. ACA 5 will give voters the opportunity to remove a black stain from the California Constitution,” stated gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Sunnyvale), who was the lead author of the measure. “California is ready for love, and these protections will protect against any future attempts to restrict marriage rights for same-sex and interracial couples.” Co-author gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) expressed optimism in seeing voters adopt ACA 5. “Next fall, Californians will reject the assault on LGBTQ rights that bigoted, ideological Justices have launched from the Supreme Court,” predicted Wiener. “The bipartisan support for this amendment shows once again that inclusion remains a core value across ideological lines in our state. I look forward to working with this incredible coalition to advance this critical protection.” Two Democrats who had signed on as co-authors of ACA 5 didn’t cast votes last week, Senators Bill Dodd of Napa and Anthony J. Portantino of Burbank, while the lone Republican senator to vote for it was Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita. The seven other members of the Senate’s GOP caucus didn’t cast votes on ACA 5. The decision to skip the vote by Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa), who currently holds the 23rd Senate District seat, led to an admonishment from transgender Palm See page 10 >>
T
exas families and health care providers this month filed suit against Lone Star State officials in a bid to block a law banning medical procedures for transgender youth from going into effect on September 1. HIV prevention agencies are closely following a federal lawsuit over Texans’ access to the medication PrEP that prevents transmission of the disease. Watching the legal battles from afar are Bay Area lawyers outraged by the attacks on LGBTQ rights and preventative sexual health services. They have also been dismayed by the passage of laws specifically targeting drag performers, such as a Texas bill adopted this year that bans “sexually oriented performances” in the presence of minors. Rather than merely kvetch, they are harnessing their connections in the local legal field and using their talents as drag performers to raise awareness and financially benefit LGBTQ agencies on the ground in Texas and other states where conservative lawmakers have been passing anti-LGBTQ laws. “I was really sad for most of this year and, frankly, waking up every day really upset. Being able to focus on something active and positive has really helped me feel like there is something to keep working toward,” said nonbinary Oakland resident Ari Jones,
JNC Snaps
Drag king Papi Churro is helping promote House of Jurisprudence’s July 30 drag show that will benefit LGBTQ organizations in their former home state of Texas.
who performs in drag as Pop Rox. “I am very grateful this community exists, but I look forward to the day when trans people can exist in serenity.” Jones, 31, is a director at Berkeley nonprofit Oasis Legal Services, where they represent LGBTQI+
asylees and other immigrant survivors of trauma. The native of Redwood City began performing in drag while at UC Berkeley School of Law. Earlier this year Jones helped found a collective of drag artist legal professionals under the name Legalize Drag. The group hosted its first drag show benefit in the spring and raised $10,492 for organizations in Tennessee, where a law banning drag shows at public venues was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge in June. “I think that folks in the Bay Area really want to step up and express solidarity with those who are in less friendly embracing environments,” said Jones. “And, frankly, a lot of folks in the legal community have deeper pockets. So by focusing on performers that are also legal professionals, we are able to tap into some networks that have an ability to give right now.” The collective is hoping to match or exceed what it raised for groups in the Volunteer State with its July 30 fundraiser for several Texas LGBTQ nonprofits. It is being held at a larger space, the queerowned nightlife venue El Rio in San Francisco’s Mission district. “The group of performers we brought together for the Tennessee benefit had a lot of energy and wanted to keep putting on events. The group decided to name ourselves the House of Jurisprudence,” See page 8 >>
With no LGBTQ SF mayoral candidate expected in 2024, past contenders recall steep hill they faced by Cynthia Laird
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ay former state senator and city supervisor Mark Leno perhaps came closest when he was in first place for several hours in San Francisco’s June 2018 special mayoral election. But after ranked choice votes were tabulated, he saw his Election Night lead disappear as former interim mayor and then-supervisor London Breed won the race to serve out the term of deceased mayor Ed Lee. And while there have been other lesbian and gay candidates for San Francisco mayor over the years, none has been successful in winning election to occupy Room 200 at City Hall. In 1995, Roberta Achtenberg, a lesbian and former San Francisco supervisor who went on to a top post as an assistant secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration, left the federal government to run for mayor against incumbent Frank Jordan and Willie Brown, the powerful former state Assembly speaker. Believed to be the first serious out candidate, Achtenberg lost in the general election, and Brown defeated Jordan in the runoff. “The idea was to come in at least second to be in the runoff,” Achtenberg said in a recent phone interview. In 1999, gay then-supervisor Tom Ammiano, a progressive champion, shocked the political estab-
Rick Gerharter
San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Leno, flanked by former supervisor and 2003 mayoral candidate Susan Leal, left, and former supervisor Sophie Maxwell, gathered with supporters at his campaign office on May 26, 2018.
lishment when he received enough votes as a writein candidate to challenge then-mayor Brown, who was seeking a second term. But big money from the mayor’s backers and a December runoff saw Ammiano lose that election. An inspired “Run, Tom, Run” movement had sprung up earlier that year, led by queer progressives, as he recounted in his 2020 book, “Kiss My Gay Ass: My Trip Down the Yellow Brick Road Through Activism, Stand-up, and Politics.”
Ammiano then lost in the 2003 election that fellow supervisor Gavin Newsom, now California’s governor, went on to win. There was another out candidate in that 2003 race, lesbian former supervisor Susan Leal, who by that time was serving as the city’s elected treasurer. Both Ammiano and Leal had won citywide races before, including for supervisor, yet the top political job was not within their grasp. See page 10 >>