Harvey Milk Dem club turns 40
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Max Hollein
Lone Star's state
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 46 • No. 33 • August 18-24, 2016
Gay Asian judge joins SF bench by Matthew S. Bajko
I Navy brass honors Milk at ship ceremony House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, left, joined Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Supervisor Scott Wiener, Stuart Milk, Paula Neira, and Nancy G. Brinker at the naming ceremony for the USNS Harvey Milk Tuesday on Treasure Island.
by David-Elijah Nahmod
M
ore than 200 dignitaries, members of the U.S. Navy, and local LGBT community members gathered on the Great Lawn at Treasure Island Tuesday, August 16 for a ceremony naming an about-to-be-built supply
vessel after the late Harvey Milk. Milk was the first out gay person to be elected to public office in California and San Francisco when he won his race in 1977. He served as a San Francisco supervisor for only 11 months when he was assassinated in his City Hall office in November See page 10 >>
New elevator, upgrades coming to Milk plaza Jane Philomen Cleland
by Matthew S. Bajko
W
ith transit officials set to add a second elevator at the Muni station in the Castro, they are also floating ideas to remodel the public plaza that surrounds it. Named for Harvey Milk, the city’s first gay elected official who was killed in office in 1978, the plaza has long vexed neighborhood leaders since it first opened nearly four decades ago. Its design has been derided as uninviting with poorly laid out spaces little used other than by smokers or homeless people. Over the years various ideas have been touted to improve the plaza. In 2000 artists wanted to float a pink cloud over it, an idea that never got off the ground. A decade later the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District presented plans to install benches to the walkway on the top level of the plaza in order to meet demands from the public for outdoor seating in the city’s gayborhood. The colorful benches were ripped out two years later amid complaints they attracted homeless people and transient youth. Now two city agencies, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and San Francisco Public Works, are proposing to make several changes to the plaza’s design as part of a project to improve pedestrian access throughout the space. “We have been working with folks in the neighborhood and the SFMTA and DPW for a while now brainstorming ideas, with the overall goal being to open up the plaza and to turn
Harvey Milk Plaza, with the site of the planned new elevator in the foreground and the proposed location of a new wall in the background. Rick Gerharter
this space into a useable plaza,” said District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, a gay man who represents the Castro at City Hall. “The way it is designed right now, it is so broken up with narrow spaces it is not useable. It ends up leading to problem activities.” One idea is to rip out the concrete planters along the upper walkway and leave the space entirely open. A memorial to Milk or the local LGBT community could then be installed on the newly exposed wall running the length of the plaza.
On the plaza’s second level at the bottom of the stairs and escalator where Castro and Market streets intersect, planter beds could also be removed to increase the size of the plaza. A mural could then be painted on the newly exposed wall in the space, and special paving materials could be used to create a design on the ground. “Right now it needs some work. People don’t even know it is Harvey Milk Plaza,” said CBD Executive Director Andrea Aiello. See page 9 >>
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n what is believed to be a first for the local bench, a gay Asian judge is now serving on the San Francisco Superior Court. Judge Roger Chan took his oath of office Courtesy Governor’s office July 22 and has been assigned to hear traf- Judge Roger Chan fic cases at the Hall of Justice. Governor Jerry Brown appointed him in late June to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Richard A. Kramer. He first applied to be considered for a court vacancy three years ago. In addition to being the first out Asian judge on the local court, Chan is the first known LGBT person of color to serve on the San Francisco bench. “If that is indeed the case, that is quite an honor,” Chan told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview Monday while speaking from his chambers. “For me, it is very important the bench reflects the community we serve. I think it helps the public to have greater confidence in the court.” Being appointed to succeed Kramer carries its own honor, added Chan, as he ruled in 2005 that California’s exclusion of samesex couples from marriage, under Proposition 22, was unconstitutional. Although the Court of Appeal overruled him, the state Supreme Court reversed that decision in 2008, agreeing with Kramer though on different grounds. The decision laid the groundwork for the passage of Proposition 8 that November, and later the federal lawsuit it sparked that won back the right to wed for same-sex couples in the Golden State in 2013. “It is also a great privilege to be appointed to take his seat,” Chan said. As is routine when it announces judicial appointments, Brown’s office did not disclose Chan’s sexual orientation when it released the news of his being picked for the vacancy. The B.A.R. only learned about the historic nature of his selection last week after fellow gay Judge Joe Quinn had lunch with Chan and contacted a reporter afterward. “As an LGBT person of color interested in the lives of young people, Roger will give more voice to important communities and help ensure that the court continues to grow in ways that reflect the diversity of the city,” Quinn told the B.A.R. Asked for comment about Chan’s appointment to the court seat, a former co-chair of the LGBT legal group Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom was also surprised by the news. Nonetheless, attorney David Tsai hailed the appointment. See page 9 >>
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