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Youth-led confab
From page 1
been a growing success. It started with 25 participants the first year and grew to nearly 100 this year. The conference has also gained community and foundation support. Participants learned about the conference through community partners, festivals, queer and transgender youth list serves, social media, and guerrilla marketing with fliers placed in cafes and local businesses, said the organizers. The workshops covered a “broad spectrum of what health is to us and how to heal ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually,” said Isabel Hallock, a 17-year-old AfricanAmerican bisexual teen who was one of the youth leaders.
A space to inspire and create
“We know that the urgency of having queer and trans youth of color spaces is urgent. We need those spaces,” said Aldo Gallardo, 28, who identifies as a queer, nonbinary trans Latina, who was one of the adult leaders of the conference. Gallardo is also the northern California regional organizer for the Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network, formerly the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. “The youth have all of the power to change their current situation and their schools and communities,” said Gallardo, pointing out that recent state laws protecting youth in schools, such as the Schools Success
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AIDS nonprofit
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macy. By doing so, he said, AHF was “pretending not to be formula retail.” By a 4-1 vote January 28, planning commissioners rejected the nonprofit’s plans to relocate its Castro pharmacy from 4071 18th Street into 518 Castro, where it operates a health clinic. AHF had put its 2014 lawsuit against Wiener and the city on hold as it sought the permit to relocate the pharmacy. City planning staff initially had granted the agency the permit for
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Hansen
From page 11
interview after leaving the panel. “I wish that I could have accomplished more. I much too often was in a 4-1 vote where I was the one vote, that was frustrating and disappointing.” Her biggest disappointments, said Ms. Hansen, was in not being able to block the commission’s softening of the city’s lobbyist, campaign consultant, and campaign finance reform ordinances. “All three were weakened instead of strengthened,” said Ms. Hansen. Debra Walker, a lesbian and longtime member of the city’s Building Inspection Commission, said in an interview this week that Ms. Hansen “was such a mentor as I got involved in politics in the 1980s and 1990s.”
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Judge candidates
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Islander Legal Outreach before joining the San Francisco DA’s office, where he focused on human trafficking and sexual assault cases as well as hate crimes. Currently, he is back with APILO as its deputy director and serves on the city’s police commission. “I was a people’s lawyer. I want to be the people’s judge,” said Hwang, who after the election plans to marry his partner he has three children with, Ivy Lee, who is Supervisor Jane Kim’s chief of staff. Henderson, 48, who also works as a TV legal analyst, is endorsed by Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, the LGBT legal group, and
May 5-11, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13
now, are very marginalized, underfunded and underappreciated,” said Hollack. “Having a space where it’s OK to be how you are and have others like you in the space, especially, queer youth to be able to see each other and connect,” is unusual. “You are in a society that is telling you that you need to be a straight, white, usually male, in order to succeed; that is telling you that you are wrong, so to be in a space that nobody necessarily fits that binary I would say is powerful,” Hollack said. “It needs to happen a lot more.” Lowe agreed. “There are not that many other spaces, so we kind of need this space to be open and to be able to inspire us to continue living because a lot of queers attempt suicide and are depressed and having other bad life issues,” he said. “So, having a space where people can come and dance and be happy and just be inspired is amazing. [It] is really needed for our queer communities.” Eli Johnson, a 13-year-old asexual trans male, who was one of the youth leaders of the conference, said, “We already have a culture that’s full of art and dance and stuff, so just really like cultivate what’s there.” Flood agreed, adding, “Also, realizing that as young people we can still bring so much change to our community.”t
and Opportunities Act (AB 1266) and the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act (SB 48) have been initiated by youth. “So, it’s powerful to see queer trans young people of color organizing to create space for other folks that need it,” Gallardo said. Dania March, one of the adult leaders of the conference and who is with the Queer and Trans Network of Alameda County, agreed, adding, “The other piece too, is just about really being able to have a place to build relationships and to connect with other young people, but also with adults. “There have been some really great relationships built,” she continued. “I think that is the big hope of this conference too is to have that and to hope that is ongoing and to eventually provide more times and spaces for that to happen.” “Everyone has a role and supporting our young people – it literally takes a village and that’s what today is about,” added Gallardo. The youth leaders agreed that connecting with like-minded peers and adults and building relationships was a key component to the day. “So often in our society LGBTs in general – [and] queer youth of color or youth in general – don’t feel safe, so providing a space that gives opportunity to discuss and connect like, ‘I see you. You see me,’ is really important,” said Hallock. Hallock and Eric Flood, a fellow youth conference leader, agreed. They both talked about meeting new
friends and people to potentially connect with in the future through the conference’s workshop projects such as creating poems and learning how to handle stress in certain situations. “One of the points that stuck with me that we were talking about was stress, how to deal with stress in the self-care workshop. Sometimes, the best reaction is not to react,” said Hallock. “To me that’s like being resilient no matter like what comes at you.” For Flood planning the conference was a learning experience he valued. “I just had a lot of growing as a leader,” said Flood, 19, who’s AfricanAmerican and gay, talking about putting together all of the pieces to create the event. “I think its the biggest benefit that I had through the process.” March said the conference cost $10,000 to produce. The youth hosted a fundraiser several months ago at the Qulture Collective that raised an estimated $4,000 to help pay for the conference and there were in-kind donations, said March. Co-founders of the Qulture Collective, Alyah Baker and Terry and Julia Sok-Wolfson, were happy to provide the space for the youth’s fundraiser. “It was just an honor to have them in the space and great energy,” said Baker, a 33-year-old queer woman of color who also co-owns the Show and Tell Concept Shop clothing store. “Hopefully, they will come back and be with us throughout the rest of the year with programming and performances.
“Marginalized communities need space,” said Baker. “Space is power. Space allows you to be safe. In a safe environment you can kind of create the change you sort of wish to see happen in the world,” she said. The Sok-Wolfsons agreed, noting that while the LGBT movement has come far, communities of color and particularly queer communities of color continue to face systematic discrimination, oppression, and violence against them. “It is extremely important for queer/trans youth of color to have a safe space to gather and hold conversation, create community together,” the two women said. “Engaging youth in this larger conversation is essential and necessary for their own safety and for moving forward in this struggle.” Another conference supporter was the Town Kitchen, which provided an in-kind sponsorship to allocate meals at a discounted price. Town Kitchen is an organization that pairs low-income youth with chefs to teach them about the hospitality and food service industry, according to its website.
relocating its pharmacy in January 2014. But they then reversed course after concluding AHF’s pharmacy was covered by the city’s formula retail rules, which require chains with 11 or more stores to seek a conditional use permit to open a new location. AHF lost its appeal of that decision and then sued the city and Wiener, claiming city officials had unfairly targeted it when they passed emergency zoning legislation covering chain stores in the Castro. In its new lawsuit, AHF refers to the planning commission’s January 28 vote disapproving its plans to move to 518 Castro.
The commission “failed to proceed in the manner required by law, its decision is not supported by its findings, and its findings are not supported by substantial evidence,” AHF says. Among other claims, the nonprofit says, “The commission determined that the ability of similar retail uses within the district ‘adequately provide the neighborhood’s pharmaceutical needs through formula retail outlets,’” but it “failed to consider” that conditional use authorization “would move AHF’s current pharmacy to a new location and would not create any additional pharmacies in the area.”
AHF is seeking $500,000 in damages from the city, plus other costs. The city attorney’s office said in a news release that the nonprofit missed the 90-day deadline for filing its lawsuit “by one day – apparently neglecting to count 2016’s quadrennial ‘Leap Day’” February 29. City Attorney Dennis Herrera stated, “Because AHF’s new lawsuit is time-barred, we won’t need to address its utter lack of merit and other procedural infirmities. As with its prior suit, however, AHF is mistaken that the U.S. Constitution allows it to put chain stores wherever it wants. Courts have long recognized local governments’ broad
authority to regulate land uses in myriad ways, and San Francisco is no exception.” Herrera’s office said he “has not ruled out the possibility of exploring sanctions against the AHF plaintiffs for violating Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which generally intends to deter frivolous and otherwise slipshod pleadings, in order to curb vexatious abuses of the judicial system.” The lawsuit also names the city’s planning commission and planning department as defendants. An AHF spokesman didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.t
Walker said she and Ms. Hansen were often “the only women in the room.” When Ms. Hansen ran against gay men Mark Leno in 2000 and Bevan Dufty in 2002 for the District 8 supervisor seat, Walker said, her biggest message was “‘We are the voters, the power is with us individuals, and the power of one person to participate in politics and in political decisions is vital. It’s vital for our political system. That is what it’s based on.’ She spoke truth to power all the time, and in a way that’s effective.” “I’ll miss her a lot,” Walker said. “I think we all will.” Ms. Hansen lived in District 8, which includes the Castro, with Wells, her partner of more than 30 years. Oliver Luby, who was a staffer at
the Ethics Commission for part of the time Ms. Hansen was a commissioner, said, “She was a total asset to the commission when she was on it, and at times the lone voice for ethical thinking.” Ms. Hansen also served as executive director of the Marin AIDS Support Network and the National Lawyers Guild’s AIDS Project, and she worked as policy director at AIDS Legal Referral Panel, Wells said. Additionally, Ms. Hansen had a role in the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights and engaged in civil disobedience, and she was part of AIDS Action Pledge, which eventually folded into ACT UP/SF. Asked what Ms. Hansen would want people to do now, longtime queer activist Tommi Avicolli
Mecca, who works for the city’s Housing Rights Committee, said, “I think she’d want us to continue fighting for the things she was fighting for,” such as “social and economic justice issues like housing, like a living wage, like immigrant rights. She was involved with so many movements, so many struggles. I feel pretty confident having known her close to 25 years that she would want us to continue the work.” Avicolli Mecca said Ms. Hansen’s death is “such a great loss to our community. ... She was involved with so many things the list would be too long to publish.” In a Facebook post about Ms. Hansen, Sara Shortt, who until recently also worked for the Housing Rights Committee, said, “She was a [Jewish] angel. And I generally don’t
use that word to describe people. But she damn-well deserves that title more than anyone I know. ... And because she was such an eternal optimist, I never believed she would lose this battle. She was Eileen. She would win. Because that’s what she did. She gave everyone hope and kept fighting against the odds, especially when she knew the battle was righteous. Our last words exchanged were her expressing concern for others in our lives, who were also up against the EVIL cancer. That’s so like her. It was never about her.” Ammiano said Ms. Hansen is “going to be sorely missed, not just in the LGBT community, but in the world of social justice. There really was no one like her, and I think she’s irreplaceable.” Memorial plans are pending.t
the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club. He also picked up the endorsement of the San Francisco Democratic Party. Henderson is a San Francisco native who grew up in the Bayview and his mother was a public defender. He graduated from Tulane Law School, where he was homeless for a time and slept in his car. He first joined the DA’s office in 1995, and on his first day as a prosecutor, Henderson recalled being mistaken by a judge as a defendant rather than a lawyer after he walked into the courtroom. “The judge told me I had to leave and to wait until my lawyer came in to talk to me. He also said, ‘By the way, you are at the DA’s table.’ It wasn’t a moment of shame for me or em-
barrassment,” said Henderson, who instead took inspiration from the encounter to work on changing people’s perceptions about black men. He worked his way up to become the highest-ranking LGBT person and African-American male in the DA’s office, serving as chief of administration under former DA Kamala Harris. When she was elected in 2010 as the state’s attorney general, he openly campaigned to be named her replacement. Former Mayor Gavin Newsom instead chose the city’s then-police chief, George Gascón, and Henderson went to work for Lee, who had been named by the Board of Supervisors to replace Newsom after he became the state’s lieutenant governor. Henderson also announced he would not run
against Gascón that fall to be DA. If elected, he would be the first LGBT African-American to serve on the local court. “I believe my voice and presence should be heard managing a courtroom,” said Henderson, who has served as a pro-tem superior court bench officer resolving criminal cases and heard civil appellate cases as a hearing officer for the Alameda County Superior Court. Irias, 54, is also a native San Franciscan who graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law. A past president of the La Raza Lawyers Association – her family is Nicaraguan American – Irias has the endorsement of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. Her legal experience runs the
gamut from medical malpractice litigation to probate cases, though unlike her two opponents, she has never tried a felony case. “I have had some exposure to criminal cases,” Irias told the Bay Area Reporter. “I am not so arrogant to say I wouldn’t need to study up. I have shown flexibility in the past. I am not intimidated by dealing with criminal cases.” In addition to her three decades of practicing law in the city, Irias has also served as a pro-tem judge handling small claims, traffic and juvenile cases for the San Francisco Superior Court since 2014. “I believe I will be a real asset to the court,” Irias, the mother of three children, said during the BASF candidate forum.t
Building community
All of the youth interviewed agreed that it was unique to have a space dedicated to queer youth of color to connect and explore issues of importance to them, especially since they aren’t always welcome in their own ethnic communities. “Youth of color in general, especially in American society right
For more information, contact Gallardo at agallardo@ gsanetwork.org or visit https://gsanetwork.org.