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Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 47 • No. 30 • July 27-August 2, 2017
Trump bans trans troops by Cynthia Laird
S
hock, disgust, and anger greeted President Donald Trump’s announcement Wednesday that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military, reversing a Reuters policy of former PresiDonald Trump dent Barack Obama. Trump took to Twitter as people were waking up on the West Coast, blasting out inaccurate information about the cost of trans health care as he issued his directive. “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Reaction from local LGBT leaders and allies was swift and unsparing. “I’m disgusted by this bigoted move by President Trump,” gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) said in a statement. “First, Trump attacks transgender children trying to use the restroom. Now he’s attacking trans soldiers who are putting their lives on the line for our country. This man has no shame.” Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) called Trump’s action “un-American.” “The president’s decision to force transgender individuals out of the military is discriminatory, wrong, and un-American,” Harris stated. “The president’s claim that the service of transgender people impacts military readiness is not backed up by facts, nor is it publicly supported by our military leadership,” Harris added. “Removing thousands of transgender individuals currently serving would damage our security and make it more difficult to recruit the best possible fighting force going forward. Indeed, [Defense] Secretary [James] Mattis recently reaffirmed that all service members should be treated with dignity and respect. The White House is playing politics with our national security, plain and simple.” Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, “In three tweets, Trump is purporting to fire 15,000 transgender service members bravely serving our country and to prevent other patriotic transgender persons from enlisting.” Minter said that while the impact of Trump’s tweets is unclear, “banning transgender service members would erode military readiness and contradict our country’s values and ideals.” The Palm Center, an independent think tank that has studied LGBT military issues for decades, said that Trump was flat wrong about the financial issue. According to the Rand Corporation, the cost of medical care for trans service members is about See page 10 >>
SOMA leather alley dedicated
Dignitaries including former state Senator Mark Leno, left, developer Amir Massih, San Francisco Planning Director John Rahaim, Gayle Rubin, supervisorial aide Sunny Angulo, and developer Tony Deplisse cut the ribbon to officially dedicate the improvements to Ringold Alley that honor the leather history of the South of Market area.
by Alex Madison
T
oday, Ringold Alley is barely recognizable from its golden age of the 1960s, when it served as a beacon of sexual freedom for San Francisco’s leather community. Although it has been years since gay and bisexual men cruised the industrial, dark alley looking to get lucky, the area once again experienced a landmark moment Tuesday afternoon.
After some 11 years in the making, a leather ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the South of Market redevelopment project that includes LSeven, a 420-unit apartment complex, a public park, and a $2 million installation honoring leather community luminaries that began with an idea from Jim Meko, who died in 2015. Officially known as the San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley, the
installation includes bootprints honoring men and women who made a lasting contribution to the city’s leather community. Developer 4Terra Investments paid for the leather historical elements as part of the capital improvements it was required to fund. More than 300 people gathered in the park under the late afternoon sun July 26 to hear the See page 10 >>
Man faces hate crime trial in SF
Rick Gerharter
by Seth Hemmelgarn
A
man who’s accused of repeatedly punching a gay San Francisco man is facing trial. Marquis Deon Joyce, 24, is charged with felony counts of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury and battery causing serious bodily injury, misdemeanor battery, and hate crime and other allegations. In a June court filing, Deputy Public Defender Cindy Elias, an attorney for Joyce, said that the alleged incident started at about 3 p.m. May 6 after the victim, who’d drunk “all of the alcohol in his house,” went to a liquor store at 8th Avenue and Geary Boulevard to buy more. Joyce said that the victim approached him at a nearby bus stop and “propositioned him, offering to pay him $500 for sex,” according to Elias. Joyce claimed that he repeatedly told the victim to leave, but the victim, “undeterred, approached Joyce and put his arms around him. Joyce pushed [the victim] away and punched him several times.” Elias said that “several hours later,” the victim’s husband came home with two co-workers and found him sleeping on the couch. The husband assumed that the victim “had once again passed out from drinking too much.” After he saw blood on the victim and thought he’d “fallen or been mugged,” he took him to a hospital.
Courtesy SFPD
Marquis Deon Joyce
Changing stories
But the victim “has provided several different versions” of what happened, Elias said. During a May 6 interview, the victim said that he’d been smoking a cigarette at the bus stop when two men approached him. “He claims one man approached him, calling him a faggot, and the other man took his phone and wallet,” but the victim’s husband told police at the hospital that the victim had lost his wallet before the incident, Elias said. A week later, the victim said that he’d had
“a brief conversation” with just one man, who’d then attacked him. He said that afterward, he’d bought more bourbon, and on his way home, “the same man approached him and took his phone,” according to Elias. Joyce was arrested June 1. Joyce claimed that on that day, “the victim was making sexual faces and blowing kisses at him on the 38 bus,” Elias said. The victim said that he’d been “playing with his phone when he heard a black male say, ‘I beat that guy a couple of weeks ago.’” The victim said that Joyce then followed him off the bus and said, “You remember me, right?” punched him, and told him to leave him alone. The victim said that Joyce then punched him again. The victim called his husband and police from a nearby restaurant, Elias said, while Joyce “remained at the scene to tell his side of the story to witnesses and the police,” who arrested him. “Joyce denies making derogatory statements or stealing [the victim’s] cellphone,” according to Elias. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. In a June 1 interview, Elias said, the victim claimed that “while Marquis was punching him, he said, ‘Do you like that faggot?’” The victim also said that Joyce had taken his phone “immediately after the attack, not after purchasing bourbon from the corner store.” The next day, the victim reportedly shared See page 10 >>
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Photo: Michael Key, Washington Blade
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