The LGBTQ 100

The Pride Issue

Cecilia Chung, advocate: Serving on the city’s Health Commission, the senior strategist at the Transgender Law Center spearheaded efforts to get S.F. to start paying for gender confirmation surgeries for uninsured patients.

Joel Goodrich, realtor: The former iceskating prodigy has sold some of the most luxe penthouses in the city, most recently the $2.6 million top-floor pad at 8 Octavia.

Ken Fulk, designer: The golden boy of the Battery Club set crossed over into flyover country in 2015 with his own Pottery Barn line, to be followed this fall by a coffee-table book from Artisan.

Jana Rich, tech recruiter: Known as “the unicorn hunter,” she plucks tech talent out of obscurity and into major jobs with such clients as Twitter, Google, Dropbox, Uber, Square, and Eventbrite.

Alicia Garza, activist: Helped make Black Lives Matter more than just a trending hashtag by taking her Marinborn, Oakland-honed message to the lecture circuit—with a stop at the State of the Union address.

Russell Holt and Jon Retsky, event designers: The owners of Got Light have added all kinds of drama to such tech and high-society events as Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom’s Napa wedding and this year’s S.F. Ballet opening gala.

Brian Basinger, housing advocate: The founder of the AIDS Housing Alliance is trying to secure fair-housing protections for LGBTQs with the Equality Act, which will pass in Congress only when, he says wryly, “the Dems are in charge.”

Geoffrey De Sousa, interior designer: Co-owner of the furniture showroom De Sousa Hughes, he is also the curator of Previously Owned by a Gay Man, a secondhand furniture site featuring, as Vogue puts it, “only furniture formerly owned by men who sleep with men.”

Gerard Koskovich, historian: The activist, lecturer, and GLBT Historical Society curator contributed a chapter on queer history from 1890 to 1990 for the National Park Service’s recent LGBTQ Heritage Initiative study.

BUSINESS

Dave Peterson, event producer: After converting the dilapidated Pier 70 into a massive party venue, the owner of Pier 70 Partners has similar visions for the Old Mint, which he leased in late 2015. Stanlee Gatti, event planner: This summer, the A-list party planner and former S.F. Arts Commission president is channeling all of that lavish taste into a new gourmet market in the Tenderloin. Amy Errett, entrepreneur: The founder and CEO of the natural beauty company Madison Reed also chairs the Glide Foundation’s board of trustees, currently developing a transition plan for a post–Cecil Williams future. Paul Dillinger, designer: The head of global product innovation at Levi Strauss & Co. has quarterbacked cutting-edge developments such as touch-sensitive textiles; he also serves on the board of directors at the Castro’s Queer LifeSpace. Jack Calhoun, fashion executive: One of the best dressers in town, the former global president at Banana Republic is credited with leading the effort to find a new director for the Fine Arts Museums. Richard Hunter, entrepreneur: This ringmaster has been cracking the whip at Mr. S Leather ever since he purchased the legendary fetish factory in 1991. Judy Dlugacz, travel entrepreneur: She redefined “gay cruising” after transforming Olivia, a record company she launched in 1973, into a successful travel operator for lesbian cruises.

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Phyllis Lyon, activist: She and her partner, Del Martin, who died in 2008, were the first openly lesbian couple to join the National Organization for Women, as well as the first couple to get married at City Hall in 2004.

The LGBTQ 100

Ken McNeely, communications executive: AT&T California’s longestserving president was appointed to his position in 2005 after helping secure the company’s historic merger with SBC Communications.

Stephany Joy Ashley, activist: Calls the shots, so to speak, as executive director of the St. James Infirmary, a healthcare and social services center for sex workers.

Sister Roma, drag performer: In protest of Facebook’s “real name” policy, the longtime Sister of Perpetual Indulgence created the #MyNameIs campaign to protect those who no longer identify by their legal names. Don Romesburg, scholar: The erudite Sonoma State University professor is editing The Routledge History of Queer America, a scholarly work by approximately 30 academics that’s due out in 2017.

Keith Baraka, firefighter: Revealed in a 2014 Examiner interview that he’d suffered antigay harassment during his time at Fire Station 6 in the Castro, prompting Mayor Ed Lee to appoint the fire department’s first-ever gay commissioner, Ken Cleaveland.

Janetta Johnson, activist: After being incarcerated in a men’s prison, Johnson went on to become executive director of TGI Justice, where she is the leading voice for #BlackTransLivesMatter. Roberto Ordeñana, activist: The director of development for the S.F. LGBT Center is also vice president of the S.F. Arts Commission, awarding grants and shaping cultural policies in the name of “enlivening the urban environment.”

From the guy who runs Apple to the queen who rules nightlife to the lady who coined #BlackLivesMatter, these are the Bay Area’s most influential non-straights. By Brock Keeling and Leilani Marie Labong

Terry Beswick, nonprofit director: After managing the Castro Country Club, the neighborhood’s dry LGBTQ social space, Beswick was announced as the new executive director of the GLBT Historical Society earlier this year.

ACTIVISM

Cleve Jones, activist: An original member of the Harvey Milk squad and cofounder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, he’s working on a memoir, When We Rise, and consulting on an ABC miniseries of the same name.

Rick Welts, president of the Warriors: With over 40 years’ experience in the NBA, he is inarguably at the zenith of his career after helping build one of the greatest pro teams of all time.

SPORTS

James Nunemacher, realtor: The owner of Vanguard Properties, which has generated more than $10 billion in sales since 1986.

Ben Ospital, shop owner: San Francisco’s answer to Comme des Garçons, his pioneering MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing) stores in Hayes Valley and Dogpatch raised the city’s sartorial consciousness.

Brian Boitano, figure skater: Our resident Olympic legend, the 20-year Russian Hill dweller, cookbook author, and South Park muse won a gold medal at the 1988 Winter Games.

Ruth McFarlane, attorney: Director of development at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which advocates for LGBTQ equality and provides free legal assistance to the community. Peter Gallotta, activist: The president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club also founded Mama G’s Thanksgiving Street Dinner, which feeds turkey dinner to 300 people each year.

Rebecca Prozan, political liaison: The manager of public policy and government affairs at Google balances her private sector interests with her civic duties on the Democratic County Central Committee. (She’s up for reelection this month.) Tom Ammiano, retired politician: Since being termed out of Sacramento, the outspoken former assemblyman—a proponent of marijuana legalization, universal healthcare, and living wages for city employees—has taken to writing a memoir and honing his stand-up routine.

Jennifer Azzi, basketball coach: The former Stanford great and current coach of the USF women’s basketball team won national raves when she announced this March that she had married Blair Hardiek, an assistant coach.

Nate Allbee, political consultant: A former apparatchik for David Campos, Aaron Peskin, and Stuart Schuffman (aka Broke-Ass Stuart), he will next toil behind the scenes for Dean Preston, who hopes to unseat District 5 supervisor London Breed.

Steve Kawa, mayoral chief of staff: The “Shadow Mayor” serves as the iron fist to Ed Lee’s velvet glove, negotiating many of the city’s complex deals behind the scenes, just as he did for Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom.

Mark Leno, state senator: The rumored future mayoral candidate is, among other things, responsible for authoring California’s new minimum wage law. More important, his table at the Alice B. Toklas Club Pride Breakfast is always closest to the stage.

David Campos, District 9 supervisor: The brashest of the city’s progressive lawmakers, he’s lately played aggressor to a reeling Ed Lee on the issues of homelessness, police abuse, and property crime.

Bevan Dufty, politician: The exsupervisor and avowed enemy of chain stores stepped down last year as the city’s first homeless czar, though he continues to rally for such reforms as wet houses and supervised injection sites.

GOVERNMENT

Scott Wiener, District 8 supervisor: The heir apparent to Mark Leno’s state senate seat (although fellow supe Jane Kim has other ideas), he most recently received some Twitter love from Hillary Clinton after authoring the nation’s most robust paidparental-leave law. Tom DeCaigny, civil servant: Appointed by Mayor Lee in 2012 to serve as the city’s director of cultural affairs, the former board cochair of the LGBTQQ youth advocacy organization LYRIC oversees policy and funding efforts for the city’s abundant public art. Laura Thomas, civil servant: A recent appointment to the public health seat on the Entertainment Commission syncs up with her role on the Cannabis State Legalization Task Force, which is drafting local policy for when/if marijuana is legalized this year.

José Cisneros, city treasurer: Appointed by Gavin Newsom in 2004, Cisneros has won every election cycle (he’s usually unopposed) since 2005. His work has resulted in the lowest property tax delinquency rate in San Francisco ever.

Great Gay Moments—in Haiku!

Timothy Papandreou, transportation strategist: The chief innovation officer at the MTA is preparing the city for the inevitability of self-driving cars, in lockstep with his work creating the trafficsafety policy Vision Zero.

1955: Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, along with three other couples, organize the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. The organization hosts social functions, providing alternatives to lesbian bars and clubs, which are often raided by the police.

Rebecca Kaplan, politician: Despite finishing second in Oakland’s 2014 mayoral race, the city councilwoman is still one of the most popular politicos in town.

“If our club name sounds like a disease, maybe cops won’t raid?” “Lez do it.”