Chief supports sex worker bill
07
Out candidate runs in SoCal
ARTS
02
10
Troye Sivan 'Three Months'
Since 1971
The
www.ebar.com
Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 52 • No. 08 • February 24-March 2, 2022
GAPA plans vigil for gay man; SFPD chief wants to meet with family by Eric Burkett
Courtesy SF Pride
SF Pride interim Executive Director Suzanne Ford
SF Pride hires 1st trans ED by Eric Burkett
S
an Francisco Pride has hired its first transgender executive director since it became a full-time paid position in 1997. Stepping into the role on an interim basis is Suzanne Ford, a transgender woman who has held several positions on the board that oversees the city’s LGBTQ parade and celebration normally held in late June. Ford, a Novato resident, is taking over the leadership helm less than five months before the Pride committee plans to return to pre-COVID life with its first annual in-person parade and festival since 2019. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the events held over the last weekend of June were canceled the past two years. In an email to the Bay Area Reporter Thursday, February 17, Ford wrote that she is “excited about this great opportunity in front of me.” “I am blessed to have a deep bench of board members, staff, community partners and contractors with long relationships with SF Pride,” Ford, 56, told the B.A.R. “Obviously emerging from the pandemic presents new obstacles that will continue to arise as we move forward.” The leadership change at SF Pride was necessitated by the resignation of Fred Lopez, who accepted a job with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A gay man, Lopez had worked as an event manager at MOMA from 2016 until being hired as SF Pride’s executive director on a permanent basis in January 2020. He had been named SF Pride’s interim leader shortly after the 2019 celebration, having served as executive director of the Castro Street Fair since January 2014. Because of the COVID pandemic, Lopez was the first Pride executive director not to oversee a parade during his tenure. Instead, he worked to move the typically massive event to a virtual version in 2020. Last June, SF Pride co-sponsored with Giants Enterprises two movie nights at Oracle Park produced by Frameline as part of its annual San Francisco LGBTQ film festival. “While the time I had at SF Pride was certainly challenging due to the pandemic, I am really proud of the work that our team did to continue to bring experiences to our communities,” Lopez wrote in an email to the B.A.R. Ford, who most recently had served as Pride’s treasurer and has been on the nonprofit’s board See page 8 >>
H
oping to draw attention to the death of a gay man nearly two years ago, the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance is planning a vigil in front of San Francisco City Hall next weekend. Meanwhile, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told the Bay Area Reporter that he would personally like to meet with the man’s parents, who have called on authorities to reopen their investigation. Jaxon Sales, 20, died March 2, 2020 in a Rincon Hill apartment, according to a copy of the medical examiner’s report obtained by the B.A.R. The Oakland resident had gone to the San Francisco apartment of an acquaintance to have sex, and another man was also present for part of the time, the report stated. The medical examiner’s report lists the cause of Jaxon Sales’ death as acute mixed drug intoxication, including gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The manner of death is listed as an accident. The report also says Jaxon Sales suffered from asthma, and the toxicology report shows Sales took ephedrine, an asthma medication, though this was not listed among the drugs to which death was attributed. His parents, Angie and Jim Sales, launched a
Photo
GAPA is holding a vigil Saturday outside San Francisco City Hall for Jaxon Sales, who died nearly two years ago.
change.org petition in January because they felt they weren’t getting answers to their questions regarding the circumstances of their son’s death. They also allege a staff member at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner made a discriminatory remark about gays using GHB.
Since the online petition launched, members of GAPA have also expressed concern about how the city agencies handled the case. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) was among those who wrote a letter to Scott and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Liverman expressing that the case should be more fully investigated. The vigil, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, February 26, is to bring attention to the community efforts to convince the San Francisco Police Department to reopen the case. Angie Sales told the B.A.R. in a phone interview February 18 that she wants the event to be about healing and remembering her son but, at its foundation, the vigil is to draw attention to a death she doesn’t believe was investigated as diligently as it should have been. Others in the community who have been drawn to the case feel the same. Howard Chan, chair of GAPA, is helping to organize the vigil although he did not personally know Jaxon Sales. “For us, the gathering is meant to do two things,” Chan said in a phone interview Friday. “A public gathering to remember Jaxon and his life, and who he was.” See page 5 >>
Turnout will be key in SF Assembly runoff race by Matthew S. Bajko
W
ithout a recall or other election to help drive up voter interest, turnout is expected to be significantly lower for the April 19 runoff race for San Francisco’s vacant 17th Assembly District seat. Even with ballots being mailed out to registered voters in the city’s eastern neighborhoods, the race is likely to be decided by less than half of those eligible to vote. According to the city’s elections department, a little less than 35% of the 287,636 registered voters in the Assembly District cast ballots in the February 15 special election to fill the seat vacated by David Chiu, who in November became San Francisco’s first Asian American city attorney. District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney took the top spot with 36.45% of those cast, for a total of 34,141 votes based on the unofficial returns. Landing in second and advancing to the runoff was gay former District 9 supervisor David Campos. He received 33,404 votes, or 35.66% of those cast. Turnout for the election was helped by the successful recall of three school board members on last week’s ballot. Commissioner Faauuga Moliga stepped down last Wednesday, while Gabriela López, president of the school board, and Alison Collins have yet to follow suit. In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter last week, Campos acknowledged it will
Campos, Rick Gerharter; Haney, Christopher Robledo
David Campos, left, and Matt Haney advanced to the April 19 Assembly runoff race.
be harder to drive people to the polls next month now that the fight over leadership of the city’s public schools has moved from the ballot box to City Hall. (Mayor London Breed must now appoint three people to the vacant school board seats.) “We have to understand the April electorate is going to be different,” he said. “We had a lot of people motivated by the recall of the school board who may not come out in April.” Limited in funding partly due to his selfimposed restrictions on the contributions he will accept, Campos vowed he would have the resources he needs to carry his campaign into April. Endorsed by the B.A.R. and a slew of LG-
WANT TO HELP SHAPE LGBTQ+ MEDIA? TAKE THE NEWS IS OUT AUDIENCE SURVEY https://bit.ly/3rvtKZG
BTQ leaders and groups, Campos would be the city’s first Latino legislator and return LGBTQ representation from San Francisco to the Legislature’s lower chamber. “I think what is key in a special election like this, and in April, is the ground game,” said Campos, adding he was buoyed by the support he received from those casting ballots in person last Tuesday. “We won Election Day by almost 10%.” Haney did not respond to an interview request for this story. But he issued a statement last Thursday hailing his first-place finish and See page 2 >>