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Chiu enters Assembly race by Matthew S. Bajko
Vol. 43 • No. 37 • September 12–18, 2013
Pride CEO departs amid board vote
W
ith the entrance Thursday of Board President David Chiu into the 2014 race for the 17th Assembly District seat, San Francisco voters in the city’s eastside district will be confronted with choosing between two supervisors named David with law degrees from Harvard to send to Sacramento as their representative. In August gay Supervisor David Campos, 42, became the first person to officially enter the David Chiu race. The Bernal Heights resident has the backing of the incumbent, gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), and history on his side. The last three holders of the seat have all been out elected officials, and many consider it to be the local LGBT community’s state legislative seat. Yet Chiu has a deep well of support within the city’s LGBT community and long has fought for LGBT rights. In 1996 he worked for then-Senator Paul Simon (D-Illinois) on Capitol Hill and was heavily involved in his boss’s unsuccessful efforts to block the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act. “I will never forget sitting in the Senate chamber on the dark day that 85 U.S. senators voted in favor of ugly bigotry, and that unsuccessful fight reaffirmed my personal commitment to LGBT equality,” Chiu wrote in an open letter to the LGBT community during his failed bid for mayor two years ago. In an interview Tuesday with the Bay Area Reporter about his decision to seek the Assembly seat, Chiu said the DOMA fight in Congress led to his moving to town nearly two decades ago. “That DOMA vote was truly ... it was an incredibly dark day in the U.S. Senate and a part of why I needed to move to a place like San Francisco, which to me and so many others has always been a beacon of tolerance to the rest of the world,” said Chiu, 43, who was first elected to the board in 2008 representing the city’s northern neighborhoods such as North Beach and Chinatown. In June the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the section of DOMA that forbade federal agencies from recognizing statesanctioned same-sex marriages. The court also ruled on a legal technicality in a different case that led California to once again marry samesex couples; last weekend Chiu joined other officials in celebrating the Berkeley couple who were plaintiffs in the case at a party in the Castro hosted by gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). “The struggles the LGBT community has are struggles that have been a part of the broader fight against discrimination and bigotry that has See page 13 >>
San Francisco Pride Members for Democracy, Accountability and Transparency held a candidates forum for the San Francisco Pride Committee’s board of directors Monday, September 9. Six of 14 candidates attended: from left, Kevin Bard, Joey Cain, John Caldera, moderator Michelle Sinhbandith (a.k.a. Michelle Meow), Jose Cital, Jesse Oliver Sanford, and Gary Virginia. Rick Gerharter
by James Patterson
J
ust days after the abrupt resignation of San Francisco Pride CEO Earl Plante, several candidates hoping to win seats on the board that oversees the annual parade and festival met in the Castro to discuss their visions for the organization.
Nearly 50 people attended the Monday, September 9 candidate forum at Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco. The six candidates who participated pledged change and better governance for the beleaguered San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee board, which has come under sharp criticism over the way it rescinded a grand marshal honor
for convicted WikiLeaks leaker Army private Chelsea Manning. Pride members who are eligible to vote will elect board members at the committee’s annual general meeting Sunday, September 15. As reported on the Bay Area Reporter’s blog Friday, September 6, Plante was forced out by the board last week. A letter from the directors said that the board and Plante “reached a mutual agreement” for Plante to resign. His resignation was effective immediately. Pride board President Lisa Williams has taken a leave from the board and is serving as interim CEO. Davace Chin is now board chair. Plante’s departure came after news broke last week that he had sent a threatening email to a Castro man seeking a position on the board. In his own 900-word September 6 letter to the “SF Pride Community,” which the B.A.R. received Sunday, September 8, Plante said his decision to resign was based largely on the “racist politics of personal destruction” and “unrelenting public vilification” “over the past four months” due to “the erroneous nomination and selection of Chelsea (Bradley) Manning as a Pride parade grand marshal.” While he acknowledged in the email the Manning matter “could have been handled better,” he did not take responsibility for the continuing controversy. See page 12 >>
Owner nixes gay plan for SOMA club by Matthew S. Bajko
A
mostly gay group of individuals seeking to operate a vacant nightlife space in San Francisco’s South of Market district had their proposal rejected and are now seeking a new venue. Led by drag queen Heklina, the creative force behind the Trannyshack parties and drag takeoffs of television shows like Sex and the City and The Golden Girls, and consultant Geoff Benjamin, a gay married father of two, the quartet of business partners had put in a bid for the former Paradise Lounge club space at the corner of 11th and Folsom streets. Once known as the Miracle Mile for its plethora of leather bars, the vicinity is now home to just five gay bars. The Paradise space at 1501 Folsom Street had been the site of the first leather bar to open on Folsom, called Febe’s, that operated from 1966 to 1986. “The building has real resonance to our community,” said Benjamin. “If you look at the number of bars that were historically in SOMA, it was the city’s second gay neighborhood. If you look at the number of gay bars there today, it is a fraction of what it was.” Their vision for the space included a 125seat cabaret theater for weeknights, headliner acts Fridays, and the revival of Trannyshack as a weekly party on Saturday nights. Benjamin described the vibe as “Brooklyn
A group of mostly gay nightlife promoters were on the losing end of a bid for the lease to run a club at the former Paradise Lounge at 11th and Folsom streets.
Courtesy McLellan Commercial Real Estate
meets Berlin in an edgy way, fabulous, fierce, over-the-top glitter with a little rock-and-roll grunge or grit, sort of industrial edge.” But the Friday prior to Labor Day the group was informed that the building’s owner, San Mateo resident John A. Andreini, had decided to go with a different proposal, believed to be a bid from a group of straight club promoters. “I was able to speak to ownership and after reviewing both offers, they have decided to move forward with the other group. The decision was based on more than just the economics of the deal,” wrote Jaclyn Brander, a broker with McLellan Commercial Real Estate, in an email to Benjamin that the Bay Area Reporter obtained from a third party with knowledge of
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the lease talks. “I appreciate your patience in all of this and wish I had better news.” Andreini did not respond to the B.A.R.’s requests for an interview this week. Reached Tuesday, Brander declined to comment further on the reasoning behind Andreini’s decision other than to say an owner can choose to accept or reject an offer “based on a number of things.” Nor could she divulge the identity of the other group, she said, as lease negotiations are ongoing for the 6,500 square foot club space, which includes a ground floor and second floor mezzanine space. According to the listing for the building, the monthly lease would be $8,435. See page 12 >>