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There’s no LGBT community
June 30-July 6, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5
There is no LGBT community. It’s dead, strangled by fascist social justice warriors who are just as anti-intellectual as Donald Trump’s populist supporters. I was at the vigil the Sunday night after the Orlando massacre. I was disgusted by the behavior of the people who booed Mayor Ed Lee off the stage even though he was there in support of our community”, in a time of pain and grief, and is more often a champion than a foe for LGBT constituents. I was even more disgusted (but not surprised) when Lee, state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), and Supervisor Scott Wiener were booed off the stage at the Trans March even though they have all done remarkable work on our behalf. It seems they haven’t eradicated homelessness so they were not good enough for selfappointed “leaders” who complained those in the crowd were being used by politicians as props. What are those self-appointed leaders doing if not using those same people as props? Leno got gender identity added to the state Fair Employment and Housing Act. What have any of these screamers in the crowd ever done for trans people except censor others in their name? I’m tired of self-righteous queers who are no better than Trump in that they only want to divide and never unify. The San Francisco left are just as intolerant as the Mississippi right, and their list of “enemies” gets longer every year. Israel is always wrong, even though it is the only country in the Middle East that supports LGBT rights and offers asylum to gay Palestinians threatened with death and violence. The police are always wrong. Landlords are always wrong. New housing is always wrong. The politics of ACT UP used so effectively against our true enemies are now being used against supporters who don’t meet the impossible standards of perfection demanded by these haters. I’m 56 and was around to see the murder of Harvey Milk, the beginning of the AIDS crisis, the brutal murders of Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena. I felt a sense of unity through those events, but it is gone now. All I see is a separation into smaller and smaller self-involved groups who judge and berate and see enemies everywhere. Even the horrific massacre in Orlando was not enough to bring us together for even one night. Community is a joke when elected LGBT leaders and straight supporters are the enemy. Don’t let the loudest
and most strident people speak for the rest of us. If you see something, say something to counter this rising tide of intolerance. If we do, then maybe we can bring the LGBT community back from the dead. Joe Barrett San Francisco
Barry Schneider Attorney at Law
family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills
Social change doesn’t come easy
Most social change has begun with the act of a single person like Rosa Parks’ refusal to sit in the back of the bus. From that act a movement develops, and movements are usually led by a man, or men, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. The experience in our community is different. Our drive to secure basic civil rights started at the grassroots but not at a single moment. It started in San Francisco when transvestites stood up the to cops at Compton’s Cafeteria. It started in Los Angeles when John Rechy published City of Night. It started in New York when drag queens took on the cops at the Stonewall Inn. We saw it again during the AIDS crisis as individual efforts to provide support and funds for care and treatment for our dying friends and partners popped up overnight across the country. Perhaps because we, as a community, have never given much credence to leadership by the few we have relied on our creative talents and common sense to do what had to be done simply because it had to be done wherever it was needed. As I watched members of the House at their sit-in at the Capitol last Wednesday, I had two thoughts. First, it took the murder of 49 people at a gay nightclub to spur a stronger reaction than other mass murders. (Not something we should pat our backs over but I suspect because we are still fresh in the minds of the public because of the rapidity of our drive to achieve equal rights it made it more real when we were murdered senselessly.) Second, I thought if this had been strictly an LGBT issue that caused the sit-in at the Capitol members of our community across the country would spontaneously organize sit-ins in the offices of members of the House who had voted against gun regulation. Who knows? That still might happen.
www.SchneiderLawSF.com
415-781-6500 *Certified by the California State Bar 400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA
Chuck Forester San Francisco
Ideas differ on maintaining SF’s LGBT population by Matthew S. Bajko
A
n aging LGBT population combined with rising housing costs making San Francisco increasingly unaffordable has led many to question the future of the city’s LGBT community. In recent years there has been a steady exodus of LGBT residents looking for cheaper housing options in the East Bay, southern California, or out of state. Talk has been raised anew about how long the Castro district, one of the more pricey and desirable neighborhoods in San Francisco, will remain an LGBT neighborhood. With these concerns in mind, earlier this spring the Bay Area Reporter asked the candidates running for seats on the Democratic County Central Committee, which controls the local Democratic Party, what steps they felt the city could take to ensure that it maintains a sizable and vibrant LGBT community. Seventeen of the winners of the June primary race for the committee’s 24 elected seats turned in the B.A.R.’s questionnaire. Their answers ran the gamut from making it easier for developers to build all manner of housing to providing financial assistance to keep people housed in their homes. “Restore some affordability and continue to anchor LGBT culture and history. I worked hard on this and it’s troubling to have so many people come up and say they are fearful for us losing queer identity here,” wrote gay former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who most
Rick Gerharter
DCCC member Bevan Dufty
recently served as an adviser on homeless issues to Mayor Ed Lee. Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who is president of the community college board, said the city should look at raising the real estate transfer tax and other mechanisms to generate revenue for funding affordable housing developments. Other steps the city should take, added Mandelman, include extending rent control to new buildings that receive city entitlements and further restricting the conversion of rentcontrolled apartments to short-term rentals or condominiums. “The biggest challenge to the survival of San Francisco’s LGBT community, as to so much of San Francisco’s diversity, is the lack of affordable housing,” wrote Mandelman. “The city needs to significantly increase its investment in the acquisition, preservation and development of affordable housing. We simply do not currently have public
resources adequate to meet the rising demand.” Mary Jung, a straight woman who is the current chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, cited offering protection to LGBT asylum seekers as one step the city could take under its Sanctuary City Policy. She also suggested that the hotel sales tax windfall San Francisco saw from hosting the Super Bowl go toward maintaining the “vibrancy in the neighborhoods where LGBT people live and work and where artists and activists are inspired and empowered.” In addition to “drastically” accelerating the building of affordable housing, Keith Baraka, a gay firefighter, said the city should also look at imposing an eviction moratorium. “I think we need to create options for retaining nonprofit HIV/AIDS, cultural, artistic, and other community nonprofits from the LGBT and all the diverse communities of SF,” wrote Baraka. “These organizations face the squeeze of higher rents and other costs and struggle to stay afloat and serve our city. They are the backbone of all communities and are crucial to maintaining the flavor and nuance of San Francisco.” Kaiser OB-GYN Dr. Pratima Gupta, who identifies as queer and is the volunteer medical director of the St. James Infirmary, a clinic for sex workers and transgender individuals, pledged to fight for the needs of the city’s transgender community as a member of the DCCC. “Throughout my career as a physician and community advocate, I have worked tirelessly to ensure that all patients have access to the same high standards of care, regardless See page 10 >>
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