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Leno unsure of future
Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 46 • No. 46 • November 17-23, 2016
Anti-Trump protests erupt in Bay Area
by Matthew S. Bajko
S
unday, December 4 gay state Senator Mark Leno’s time in the Statehouse will officially come to an end. The San Francisco Democrat is being termed out of office, Rick Gerharter having spent the last eights years represent- State Senator ing the state’s 11th Mark Leno Senate District and serving in the Assembly the six years prior. Come December 5 the man he endorsed to succeed him, gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, will be sworn into office. It will mark the first time since April 1998, when he was chosen to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors, that Leno has not held public office. And it remains an open question if his name will appear on a future ballot. He has ruled out making a bid to become the first LGBT person elected to a statewide office by running for lieutenant governor in 2018. This week he endorsed state Senator Ed Hernandez’s (D-West Covina) bid for the position. Nor is he ready to announce running for mayor of San Francisco in 2019. Having decided not to contest Mayor Ed Lee last year, the 65-year-old Leno is being urged by a number of LGBT community leaders and progressives to seek the position when Lee is termed out of office. “I told him he has my undying support if he runs for mayor,” District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose name is often mentioned as a mayoral candidate, told the Bay Area Reporter this fall. Should he win, Leno would become the city’s first gay mayor. But he would face a host of issues, from homelessness to housing costs, with no easy solutions. During an interview last week with the B.A.R. in his district office overlooking the Civic Center and City Hall, Leno said he had yet to decide on running for mayor. “I really do not know what’s next,” said Leno. “I consider this a privileged time in my life, having worked intensely the last 40 years. This is a rare opportunity to take a deep breath and look at the world from a stop position rather than a whirling dervish.” Nearly everyone he meets these days is asking what he will do next, said Leno. As for entering the mayoral race, he is giving himself the next 12 months to mull it over and plans to make a decision by the end of 2017. “The question I am asking myself is what is meaningful to me, and what can I do to address that,” said Leno. See page 22 >>
Joshua Ramirez joined hundreds in the Castro last Wednesday to march against the election of Donald Trump as president.
by David-Elijah Nahmod
T
he Bay Area’s LGBT community joined thousands of other people in swift reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected win on Election Day. Protests have taken place regularly over the past week, from school students marching out
of class to thousands of people demonstrating in San Francisco and Oakland. As one group of anti-Trump protesters marched up Market Street from Civic Center last Wednesday, a group of several hundred members of the LGBT community gathered See page 18 >>
LGBTs across country react to Trump win Rick Gerharter
by Seth Hemmelgarn
“kept saying ‘Trump’s going to win,’” Rutherford said. ast Saturday, as people “The morning after, he’s knockmarched down San Francising on my door,” he said. Rutherford co’s Market Street protesting “closed the blinds and locked the Republican Donald Trump’s elecdoor,” but he could hear the man tion as president, James Robinson, making cheers like “He won,” and CEO of Free2Be in Huntsville, Al“We’re taking the country back.” abama, wept as he said, “I’m very “It was horrifying,” Rutherford proud of the people peacefully said. protesting in our big cities where The day prompted memories they’re able to do that ... I wish I of his first boyfriend, who’d been could be with them.” beaten to death. Like many LGBTs across the “I kept seeing him in the coffin country, Robinson, 53, is conwith the towel over his face,” and True Spain cerned about what Trump’s “his pants and the color of them administration may do. The Michelle Mathis, left, Richard Hames, Steven Tester, Maryann Dore, that day just kept flashing into my and Karen Lowe took part in a unity gathering in Hickory, North billionaire businessman’s rhetohead,” Rutherford, who’s originally Carolina Friday, November 11. ric during the campaign has from Florida, said. He also rememencouraged hostility toward bered seeing people die from AIDS. Clients who came in for regular appointLGBTs, Muslims, people of “I had flashbacks of people sitments the day after the election “were so trau- ting on the street ... they looked like they were color, immigrants, and other groups. matized our therapist felt the need to do risk People at LGBT organizations in several starving to death. No one would go up to them,” states said that the election has been tough on assessments on them” to try to ensure they Rutherford said. clients and heightened worries about funding, weren’t going to harm themselves, he said. Since last week’s election, he’s seen trouble just Vincent Rutherford, 52, who’s gay and serves outside Huntsville, with people driving around but they’ve also seen support. “Huntsville is by far the most progressive as director of Huntsville’s Rocket City Pride, with Confederate flags and signs saying “fags,” city in Alabama,” and the city is one of the most said the election “gave me flashbacks to the “Mexicans,” and the N-word should “get out.” progressive cities in the South, said Robinson, 1980s. ... I just had to lock myself in the house “I’m sure it will cool down,” but Trump’s that next day and try to deal with it. I kept havwhose organization provides counseling, advoelection “seems to have emboldened these peoing flashbacks to other horrible times in my life ple to feel free to do this. They feel the whole cacy, and other services. and being afraid.” However, he said, many LGBTs, especially country is on their side now,” Rutherford said. Making things worse was his neighbor, a transgender people, are still worried about how See page 7 >> Republican and retired Baptist preacher who’d a Trump administration may impact them.
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