San Francisco Bay Guardian Presents the 39th Annual
local heroes Kate Kendell
T
Celebration!
Maus Haus MicahTron House of Babes DJs Rapidfire, Pink Lightning, & Jenna Riot Motown on Mondays DJs + Special Guests DJ Dials Hosted Bar all night!
Wednesday, November 6
1015 Folsom, SF • Doors at 8:30 • $10
tickets at getWillCall.com
OF SAN FRANCISCO
WILLCALL
12 SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN
best of the bay
went home without speaking a he night Proposition 8 whose own marriage’s validity word, and when she got in the passed was one of the hardest was threatened and who spent door she tried to pull it together. two decades fighting for equality, of Kate Kendell’s life. She Steeling herself to face her famremembers it with startling detail she earned a moment of embarrassing honesty. ily, Kendell walked out of the — and she should, because she Kendell’s infamous declarabathroom and burst into tears. was one of the most prominent tion may be how she’s known, Her son said simply “this just opponents of the measure to but one of her key decisions means we have to fight more.” overturn marriage equality in behind the California. “I was hopescenes shaped ful right up until the LGBT equalthe end that ity movement Prop. 8 would as well. When be defeated,” then-Mayor she said, speakGavin Newsom’s ing slowly as administration she pulled her wanted a couple thoughts from to be the first in what sounded his round of renegade gay marlike a dark place. riages in 2004, “Our initial it was Kendell polling numbers who suggested said we’d probably lose, but Del Martin and I really hoped Phyllis Lyon. The two in the deepest were in a relaheart of my tionship since heart that when 1953, pioneers people got in of LGBT activthere that they’d ism in San punch their Francisco. vote in favor of Kendell said it the person they was only right knew.” But as that they were the voters of first to read California their vows in showed in that the city they 2008 election, helped shape. “Were it not sometimes the for their congood guys lose. Kendell, tributions, executive visibility, Kate Kendell led the fight for marriage equality director of the and courage in California. guardian phoTo by evan ducharme National Center in the ’50s for Lesbian Rights, and ’60s, we So she did, and we all won. fought the good fight since she wouldn’t be in that room with That led to the moment for started there in 1994. The NCLR Newsom contemplating marriage which Kendell may be rememlitigates, creates policy, and perlicenses,” she said. “I’m just happy forms outreach for LGBT civil bered for a long time to come. they said yes. It was absolutely rights on a national level, with When Prop. 8 was overturned by appropriate.” headquarters in San Francisco. the US Supreme Court this year, And it’s with that sense of hisAfter years of anticipation, she a flock of San Francisco polititory that she herself pioneers forcians descended the steps inside poured herself into the camward, pushing in states across the paign against the proposition the rotunda at City Hall. Kendell US what Harvey Milk fought for that would make her marriage took to the podium and spoke to in California — workplace protecillegal, and then the measure the nation. tions for the LGBT community. “My name is Kate Kendell with “In 38 states, you can be fired passed. That night she hung her head the National Center for Lesbian from your job for being lesbian, in disbelief. She felt physically Rights,” she said, “and fuck you, gay, bisexual, or transgender. That ill, and her mind roiled in grief Prop. 8!” The crowd erupted into has to change,” she said. “When equaled only by the death of one cheers. the next chapter of history is She regrets saying it now, but of her parents. “It felt like that,” written, it will be about a nation history will likely forgive her she said. that treats the LGBT community Kendell and her wife, Sandy, for being human. For someone as equals.” 2 opinion
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