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I S S U E III
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 44 • No. 50 • December 11-17, 2014
Chiu seeks SF couple set for annual holiday display LGBT caucus E membership by David-Elijah Nahmod
by Matthew S. Bajko
U
pholding a campaign promise, Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), who is straight, is seeking to join a legislative group for LGBT lawmakers in the Statehouse. Jane Philomen Cleland But it remains unclear if the California Assemblyman Legislative LGBT Cau- David Chiu cus will revise its rules, which currently restrict membership to only those members of the state Assembly and Senate who identify as either lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Thus, freshman gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), who represents the 28th Assembly District, automatically became a member of the LGBT caucus when he took his oath of office December 1. Shortly thereafter the LGBT caucus sent out a tweet in which it welcomed “our newest member” in reference to Low. After he was sworn-in to his 17th Assembly District seat last week, Chiu approached the LGBT caucus’ chair, gay Assemblyman Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park), to formally request that he be allowed to join the group. “I have said if that is something the LGBT caucus members feel is helpful and appropriate, I am happy to do that. But I will leave that up to the caucus to decide,” Chiu told the Bay Area Reporter this week when asked if he still wanted to join the group. “I am sure there are a number of ways I can be supportive of the caucus. I want to be as supportive as I can.” The Legislature is now adjourned until Monday, January 5. The LGBT caucus, which meets for breakfast the first Wednesday of the month, is scheduled to take up Chiu’s request the morning of January 7. “I will have that on the agenda. I don’t know what the group will do,” Gordon told the B.A.R. this week when asked about Chiu’s membership request. A year ago when the B.A.R. first reported that Chiu had announced he wanted to join the LGBT caucus during a fundraiser his campaign held with LGBT donors, Gordon at first was emphatic that Chiu could not become a member due to the caucus’ rules about membership. Pressed on if the rules could be changed, Gordon replied it would be up to the caucus “to make that decision.” He noted that all five of the Legislature’s minority caucuses – there are also ones for women, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian and Pacific Islanders – restrict their See page 21 >>
very year, the San Francisco hillside home of Dr. Jerome Goldstein and Tom Taylor lights up the neighborhood for the holidays and this year’s display is now up for visitors to admire. The couple, married in 2013 but together since 1972, turns the front yard of their 21st Street home – located on a steep hillside in Dolores Heights, a microhood between Noe Valley and the Castro – into a winter wonderland with wrapped boxes, stuffed animals, and glittering lights, while a 65 foot tall lighted Norfolk Island pine tree is the centerpiece. Few Bay Area homes are decorated more grandly, and for many, visiting Tom and Jerry’s Christmas Tree, as it’s become known, is a holiday tradition. It’s estimated that thousands of adults and children come to view the holiday display each year, according to a news release. The men consider it their gift to the city. Goldstein said that the tree is not a religious symbol. “We don’t include anything that is a reverential reference to a specific religion or belief,” he said. “The display offers a significant appeal to the emotions, the senses, and the joy of the holidays.” Taylor, 71, and Goldstein, 73, both long-term HIV survivors, are known for their sense of civic pride. For their October 2013 wedding, the couple closed off the street and had a block party. Goldstein said that all the ornaments were personally delivered to their home by Santa Claus from the North Pole, who, contrary to popular opinion, is actually located right here in the city. As always, Santa will be at Taylor and Goldstein’s house until it’s time to take his sleigh into flight to deliver this year’s toys. “We have a live Santa Claus for 10 days until Christmas,” See page 21 >>
Tom Taylor sits under the nearly-completed holiday decorations at the home on 21st Street in Dolores Heights that he shares with his husband, Jerry Goldstein. Rick Gerharter
Book captures legislative effort of marriage fight
by Cynthia Laird
“The story had never been told,” Solomon explained, adding third major book on the that interest picked up after the marriage equality fight successful legislative effort in New has hit bookstores this York state in 2011. year, but unlike the previous two, “Initially it was Massachusetts which focused on California’s and New York, then stuff kept efforts to undo Proposition 8, happening,” Solomon said, exthis one looks at the behind the plaining that he ended his book scenes efforts of political leaders with last year’s U.S. Supreme and grassroots activists to pass Court decision in the Defense same-sex marriage laws in state of Marriage Act, in which a key Legislatures and the ballot fights provision was ruled unconstituin Maine, Minnesota, and Washtional. That decision opened the ington state. floodgates to numerous court deWinning Marriage, by Freecisions striking down state mardom to Marry national campaign riage bans in the last year and a Rick Gerharter director Marc Solomon, offers half, bringing same-sex marriage few surprises for those who have A sign amidst the crowd at the June 2011 LGBT Pride festival in to 35 states, plus Washington, closely followed marriage equal- Civic Center congratulated New York on its marriage equality victory. D.C., and St. Louis, Missouri, acity efforts across the country. But cording to Freedom to Marry. it does contain plenty of insight political household in Kansas City, Missouri, Solomon may be familiar to and lots of strategies that activists and others he turned to the right in part because of the readers as he worked for Equality California can use in future equality battles. recognition that he was gay and “desperately from 2009-2010 after the passage of Prop 8, Solomon will be in San Francisco Friday, didn’t want to be.” the state’s same-sex marriage ban. He left the December 12, at a book launch party hosted He tried therapy and dating women before job after the federal lawsuit challenging Prop by dot429, an LGBT professional group. accepting and embracing his sexuality. 8 went to trial and was ruled unconstitutional, Solomon is also not your usual activist. In “I’ve been gay for awhile,” Solomon, 48, setting up its path to the U.S. Supreme Court, fact, one of the first things readers learn is that quipped in a recent phone interview when which ruled in June 2013 on a technicality he used to be a Republican and didn’t come talking about his background. that Prop 8 was invalid; same-sex marriages out as gay until he was 30. Solomon said that he’s been working on the resumed in the Golden State a few days later. “My path to becoming an activist for the book for years – ever since marriage equality “I had come out to California to get ready freedom to marry was anything but a direct became legal in Massachusetts in 2004 – but at to bring back [a ballot measure] to undo one,” he writes. that time publishers didn’t have a lot of interest See page 20 >> He noted that while he was raised in a liberal in the story about a single state.
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