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4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • May 18-24, 2017
Volume 47, Number 20 May 18-24, 2017 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Michael Nugent • Paul Parish • Sean Piverger Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr •Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Charlie Wagner • Ed Walsh Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863
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Failed ‘War on Drugs’ lives again W
e’ve known for decades that the socalled War on Drugs was an abject failure. It did not stem the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. and it did not stop the demand for them. What it did do was ensure that thousands of young people – disproportionality young men of color – were locked up for years for low-level drug buys and sales. When the medical marijuana movement gained traction in the late 1990s, drug convictions decreased, at least for those involving cannabis. Politically, there has been bipartisan consensus for years that “America was guilty of excessive incarceration and that large prison populations were too costly in tax dollars and the toll on families and communities,” Carl Hulse of the New York Times recently wrote. But once Jeff Sessions became attorney general in the Trump administration, all bets were off. And last week Sessions affirmed his hard line stance when he ordered federal prosecutors to pursue the highest penalties possible for criminal defendants. That, of course, includes people charged with drug crimes. Never mind that the country is in the midst of an opioid epidemic that is ravaging many communities in every state, or that more states have taken action to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use. Sessions’ efforts to undo Obama-era sentencing policies and ramp up the war on drugs comes as no surprise, and we see it as just another example of the Trump administration trying to put the screws to anything that Barack Obama did as president. Under Obama, the Justice Department took steps to ease penalties for nonviolent drug offenses. Now, Sessions is reverting to mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that will surely result in more poor, minority
men being sent to prison for longer stretches of time. In the years since Bush was in office, however, there’s been a push by Republicans and Democrats to overhaul the criminal justice system. States have also been working on criminal reform. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under Obama, encouraged prosecutors to consider the individual circumstances of defendants, and to exercise discretion in charging drug crimes, the Times reported. “In cases of nonviolent defendants with insignificant criminal histories and no connections to criminal organizations, Mr. Holder instructed prosecutors to omit details about drug quantities from charging documents so as not to trigger automatically harsh penalties,” the paper noted. Even the well-funded network overseen by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch opposes Sessions’ push for tougher punishments for drug offenders. “We favor a different approach which requires changing some of the existing federal laws,” Mark Holden, a top Koch network official who worked closely with the Obama administration on criminal justice reform told the Associated Press. “There are less costly and more effective ways to help low-level offenders who aren’t a threat to public safety other than incarceration.” The criminal justice system works best when prosecutors can do their jobs unfettered by strict policies to bring mandatory charges. Judges can do a better job when they have the ability to take the facts of a case into account to fashion a just sentence. In short, no one wins with Sessions’ new order. No one, that is, except the powerhungry Trump officials who would rather see young men of color sentenced to lengthy prison terms for buying a small bag of weed or a rock of crack than get the help they need to become
productive members of society. The private prison industry has seen an influx of new investment in anticipation of a growing prison population. California pays about $70,000 per year to house an inmate. That money could be much better spent on re-entry and job-training programs for ex-convicts, or to provide diversion instead of prison for low-level criminals. During the campaign, Trump drew a distinction between medical and recreational marijuana, supporting the former. Sessions, however, supports neither and Trump seems to have forgotten his earlier position. Now, with California readying regulations for the implementation of Proposition 64, which legalized adult use of cannabis, proponents should be very concerned about how Sessions’ new policy will affect the state’s effort to roll out legalization of recreational pot. Senator Kamala Harris (D-California), a former state attorney general and district attorney, got it right this week when she said that it’s time to fight a “war on addiction,” rather than the failed war on drugs. She was critical of Sessions, telling the Center for American Progress Ideas Conference, “He is calling for a renewed focus on essentially what is the neighborhood street-level drug dealer.” What the country needs, Harris said, is a national drug policy that “finally treats substance abuse not as a crime to be punished, but as a disease to be treated.” She said the nation needs to build on reforms instead of reviving mandatory minimum sentences and boosting the bottom line for private prisons. Harris also stated what we have believed for years, that marijuana should be decriminalized. Taking such action at the federal level – or at least getting it out of Schedule I, the category for the most serious drugs – would be a better administration of measured justice, rather than Sessions’ outdated and extreme position of enforcing harsh mandatory sentences regardless of the particular circumstances of the crime. t
From ‘coming out’ to ‘bringing in’ by John Bauters
G
ay brothers and sisters, you must come out. Come out to your parents. I know that it is hard and will hurt them, but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives. Come out to your friends, if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors, to your fellow workers, to the people who work where you eat and shop. Come out only to the people you know, and who know you, not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths. Destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake.” – Harvey Milk (1978) I remember almost coming out 22 years ago like it was yesterday. Almost. I recall preparing to tell two of my high school classmates that I was gay. After thinking about it for several months, I was confident in my plan. I would be the only student in my small Midwest high school that identified publicly as LGBTQ. Just days before my planned reveal, a classmate named Dave told several students in the drama club he was bisexual. By the end of the day the whole school knew. The following week, I remember returning to the boys locker room after gym class. As the rest of us prepared to return to class, I noticed Dave silently searching random lockers for his school clothes. Moments later he found them: in a toilet that had subsequently been used. A note affixed to the stall advised him to drop out of gym class, employing an all-too-familiar anti-gay epithet to convey the message. As the rest of us were seated against the gymnasium wall and interrogated for about an hour, I watched through the gym teacher’s office window as Dave sat sobbing, waiting for his mother to arrive with a new set of clothes so he could return to class. I imagined the humiliation he felt. I wondered how he would explain to her what had happened. Nobody confessed or fingered the culprit. After an hour we were all returned to class, free to go about our school day as if nothing had happened. There would be no justice for Dave. Gossip about Dave and the events in the boys locker room permeated the school hallways for
John Bauters
weeks. I couldn’t sleep for days. The trauma I experienced living silently alongside Dave’s public ordeal had lasting impacts on my health. I lost the ability to discern empathy and fear. I worried that Dave would hurt himself. I never executed my plan to tell my high school friends that year. Witnessing what happened to Dave delayed my own coming out by two years. To this day I still live with feelings of guilt that I did not have the courage to come out or at least be strong enough to publicly support him. Harvey Milk’s call for the LGBTQ community to come out recognized the power we possess when we act together. Since then, we have materially altered our common destiny, secured greater protections for our families, and changed the national narrative around what it means to be LGBTQ. Milk’s words have served us well in the fight for equality. As we look to the future, however, we must recognize that coming out is not where it ends, but where it begins. Forty years ago, it was far more common for LGBTQ people to come out later in their adult lives. Most had finished school, held jobs, owned homes, and found social circles they relied on to support one another. Much
like Dave’s situation, a lack of family, peer, and social supports made coming out as a youth an unimaginable prospect for most. Today, people self-identify as LGBTQ at much younger ages. People see LGBTQ voices and influences on social media and they embrace Milk’s message to come out much earlier in life. Being out and accepted is a life-affirming experience for young people who stand to live healthier and more complete lives. New challenges exist. Unlike many who came out in adulthood, today’s youth have not finished school, are often not old enough to be employed, cannot obtain health care for themselves, and do not possess the tools to be fully independent. Thus, while society has warmed to the LGBTQ community as a whole, the younger people are when they come out, the more vulnerable they are if their most immediate family and peers are not supportive. Evidence of this growing problem is everywhere. Covenant House, a national nonprofit that serves homeless youth, estimates that as much as 40 percent of the homeless youth population identifies as LGBTQ. These young people are high-risk for drug use, HIV, depression and sex trafficking. This is an issue we cannot afford to ignore. As an openly gay elected official, I stand humbly in the long shadow cast by Milk’s legacy of leadership. The call to “come out” was a rallying cry for acceptance and unity. We must take stock in our many recent accomplishments but also look to our future: today’s youth. For years I wished I could go back to my high school days be there for Dave. I lamented that I missed an opportunity to live openly and courageously as Milk implored. I don’t wish that anymore. As Milk showed us 40 years ago, courage is a commitment to our common future. With that in mind, do as Milk encouraged us to do: come out. But do more. Mentor our youth. Contribute your time and money to helping meet their needs. Build our community. Be yourself. t John Bauters is the vice mayor of Emeryville.