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Vol. 54 • No. 42 • October 17-23, 2024
Milk school parents ‘devastated’ over closure announcement Rick Gerharter
Governor Gavin Newsom rallied supporters for the Freedom to Marry initiative at a June appearance in San Francisco.
Yes on 3 confident CA will finally vote for marriage equality by John Ferrannini
T
he Yes on Proposition 3 campaign is confident California voters will decide November 5 to remove language prohibiting same-sex marriage from the state constitution. While the campaign lacks the big bucks and involvement of religious leaders that the Proposition 8 fight had 16 years ago, attitudes among voters seem to have shifted toward LGBTQ equality. See page 10 >>
by John Ferrannini
D
arcie Bell, a queer woman, asked where the safest place to send her child would be in San Francisco after experiencing bullying behavior elsewhere in the district. She was told the best place would be Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood. Thus, Bell enrolled her child in the K-5 school named after the gay civil rights icon. While they are now in the seventh grade, Bell’s younger child is currently a fourth grader at the school. So the news last week that the Milk school in the city’s Castro neighborhood was on a list of schools being eyed for closure next year came as a gut punch for Bell. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the elementary school is one of 11 campuses that may be closed as the district grapples with its need to slash $100 million from its budget. All the schools facing closure have fewer than 300 students. The Milk school has 133 pupils who would be merged with those at Sanchez Elementary School, a few blocks away at 325 Sanchez Street. The district is also aiming to cut 500 positions from its payroll; the campus closings are expected to result in $22 million in cost savings for the district, which is struggling with declining enrollment. The final list of schools will be announced at the November 12 meeting of the school board and there will be a December 10 vote for the closings to be implemented in fall 2025.
Federal landmarking of Compton’s trans riot site stalls by Matthew S. Bajko
A
n effort to obtain federal landmarking for the site where a transgender uprising against police harassment took place in San Francisco 58 years ago remains pending two years after state preservationists had supported doing so. Revisions to the initial application requested last year by federal officials have yet to be submitted by the applicant. While the exact date has been lost to time, one night in August 1966 an angry drag queen patronizing Gene Compton’s Cafeteria at 101 Taylor Street reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of a police officer as he tried to arrest her without a warrant. It sparked a riot between trans and queer patrons of the 24-hour diner and cops, as detailed in the 2005 documentary “Screaming Queens” by transgender scholar and historian Susan Stryker, Ph.D. In 2022, San Francisco officials landmarked the intersection of Turk and Taylor in front of the building that had housed the eatery. The city’s 307th landmark also included portions of the structure’s exterior walls containing the commercial space, specifically the lower 11 feet of the facade extending north 52 feet from the corner of Turk Street and 40 feet west from the corner of Taylor Street. Local leaders were also supportive of seeing 101 Taylor Street be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In October 2022, the California State Historical Resources Commission recommended the Compton’s site be recognized on the federal register. Yet Sherry A. Frear, the chief and deputy keeper of the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program for cultural resources, partnerships, and science, determined the application for the Compton’s site was too limited in scope. She requested it be revised to include both the building and the immediate outdoor areas where the protest also took place.
Rick Gerharter
A parent dropped off their child at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy on the first day of school in 2018.
Bell, 49, who lives in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood adjacent to the Castro, isn’t the only parent voicing opposition. David Gordon, a straight ally who lives in the nearby Twin Peaks neighborhood, sends his kindergartener and second grader to the Milk school. The two both claim the school has been targeted and are among the parents speaking out, asking the school board not to follow through on the closure.
CALIFORNIA GENERAL ELECTION Kamala Harris and Tim Walz U.S. SENATE
Adam Schiff
Frear also wanted to see more information about how the incident that took place at Compton’s tied into the fight for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. in order to designate it as having a national level of significance. It occurred three years prior to the more famous riots at New York gay bar the Stonewall Inn considered to have kick-started the modern fight for LGBTQ equality. Madison Levesque had written the national registry request for Compton’s as part of their thesis project for the master’s in public history they earned in 2022 from California State University, Sacramento. At the time of the submission Levesque had been working as a cultural landscape inventory steward for the National Park Service. But since last year Levesque, who is queer and uses they/them pronouns, has worked as an architectural historian with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. As they had told the Bay Area Reporter last year, Levesque agreed with the suggested changes and had hoped to resubmit the listing request for Compton’s last October. See page 3 >>
OTHER RACES ALAMEDA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Dist. 5: John Bauters
OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL
SF MAYOR
Dist. 3: Warren Logan Dist. 5: Erin Armstrong At-Large: Rowena Brown
SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Dist. 2: Terry Taplin Dist. 6: Andy Katz
London Breed, first choice Aaron Peskin, second choice
Volunteers put the finishing touches on a Black Trans Lives Matter mural at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets in August 2020.
See page 12 >>
B.A.R. election endorsements PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT
Rick Gerharter
“To be honest, I was shocked and overall devastated, to be blunt,” Gordon, 45, said. “I love the school, the community, everything they support. I love that the curriculum is intertwined with Harvey Milk and civil rights – it’s interwoven with what the kids learn on a daily basis, and I love it’s a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community in the heart of the Castro.” Milk was the first openly gay person elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Tragically, he and then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall in 1978 by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White. The school was named for Milk 18 years later, in 1996. Gordon said that “many kids and families transfer into Milk because they are being bullied for being different – having two moms, having two dads.” Bell said her family found safety there after a less welcoming experience elsewhere. Gordon said that “there’s no reason to close these schools,” claiming that the district has spent more on fixing the EMPower payroll system ($40 million, according to Mission Local) than would be saved by the proposed closures. The district’s payroll snafus have been a contentious issue for months. Gordon and Bell appear to have a new ally in their fight – San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who is embattled in her fight for reelection. She came out Tuesday, October 15, against the school closures as currently proposed.
Dist. 1: Connie Chan Dist. 3: Sharon Lai, first choice; Danny Sauter, second choice Dist. 5: Dean Preston Dist. 7: Myrna Melgar Dist. 9: Roberto Hernandez, first choice Stephen Torres, second choice Dist. 11: Ernest “EJ” Jones, first choice Michael Lai, second choice SF DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Brooke Jenkins
SF BOARD OF EDUCATION
Matt Alexander Jaime Huling John Jersin Parag Gupta
CITY COLLEGE OF SF
Luis Zamora Alan Wong Aliya Chisti Heather McCarty
BART BOARD DIST. 9
Joe Sangirardi
BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL
MOUNTAIN VIEW CITY COUNCIL
Chris Clark Devon Conley Emily Ann Ramos Pat Showalter
PALO ALTO CITY COUNCIL
Katie Causey Anne Cribbs
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO CITY COUNCIL
Dist. 4: James Coleman
SAN FRANCISCO PROPS Yes on: A, B, F, H, I, J, L, M, O No on: C, D, E, G, K, N CALIFORNIA PROPS Yes on: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 32, 33, 35 No on: 34, 36
CONGRESS (BAY AREA)
Dist. 2: Jared Huffman Dist. 4: Mike Thompson Dist. 8: John Garamendi Dist. 9: Josh Harder Dist. 10: Mark DeSaulnier Dist. 11: Nancy Pelosi Dist. 12: Lateefah Simon Dist. 14: Eric Swalwell Dist. 15: Kevin Mullin Dist. 16: Evan Low Dist. 17: Ro Khanna Dist. 18: Zoe Lofgren CA ASSEMBLY
Dist. 14: Buffy Wicks Dist. 16: Rebecca Bauer-Kahan Dist. 17: Matt Haney Dist. 18: Mia Bonta Dist. 19: Catherine Stefani Dist. 20: Liz Ortega Dist. 21: Diane Papan Dist. 24: Alex Lee Dist. 25: Ash Kalra Dist. 26: Patrick Ahrens CA SENATE
Dist. 3: Christopher Cabaldon Dist. 7: Jovanka Beckles Dist. 9: Marisol Rubio Dist. 11: Scott Wiener Dist. 13: Josh Becker Dist. 15: Dave Cortese Dist. 17: John Laird
Register to Vote - Register by October 21 | Register online at registertovote.ca.gov Early Voting - You can start voting now as early vote centers opened October 7. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before November 5 Election Day – November 5. Polls will be open throughout the state from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.