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World AIDS Day events
Travel: Costa del Sol
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'Tomboy' opens
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Vol. 41 • No. 47 • November 24-30, 2011
SB 48 faces new repeal efforts
Court rejects convicted rapist’s appeal by Seth Hemmelgarn
by Seth Hemmelgarn
A
California appellate court has rejected arguments from a man convicted of brutally raping a transgender woman that problems at the San Francisco Police Department’s crime lab affected his case. In 2009, a San Francisco Superior Court jury found Courtesy CDCR that Donzell Francis committed forcible Donzell Francis copulation, assault with great bodily injury, false imprisonment, and other crimes against a woman in 2007 referred to in court documents as D.H. He was sentenced in January 2010 to serve 17 years and eight months in state prison in the case. Francis, 42, has also been accused in the murder of Rudy “Ruby” Ordenana, a transgender woman who was found dead in 2007. He has pleaded not guilty to that crime, though he’s also been tied to assaults on other transgender women. In its ruling, filed October 24, the state court of appeal, First Appellate District, Division Three rejected Francis’s arguments and affirmed the lower court judgment. DNA testing performed at the SFPD crime lab linked Francis to the crimes against D.H., according to the court. In his case before the appellate court, Francis contended that the trial court should have permitted him to cross-examine a witness from the lab about contamination that occurred there during testing in an unrelated case. He also said that the court should have exercised its discretion to exclude evidence of another sexual assault he committed, and he submitted that his sentence for assault and false imprisonment should have been stayed. According to the appellate court ruling, a copy of which was provided to the Bay Area Reporter, D.H. testified that she was walking to her residential hotel in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood early one morning in September 2007 when she accepted a ride home from Francis. She refused his demands for oral sex, but he forced his penis into her mouth, punched her, and choked her until she passed out, according to the documents. When she woke up, he forced her to perform oral sex on him, and when she spit out his semen, he said, “I’m going to rape you, and I’m going to kill you today.” He beat her and she again passed out. She woke up to find her hands tied with rope, and Francis raped her, according to the court document. Eventually, he kicked her out of the truck. D.H. quickly reported the incident to police See page 7 >>
N Jane Philomen Cleland
Ready for Thanksgiving A
my Aberle, the senior lunch program production manager at Project Open Hand, places trays of carved turkey breast onto a rack in preparation for Thanksgiving meals the agency will serve. Spokeswoman Hannah Schmunk said that 2,600 hot meals will be delivered to homebound clients living with HIV/AIDS or other critical illnesses, while 1,700 Thanksgiving lunches will be served to seniors. While Project Open Hand does not need volunteers this week, people can sign up to help for the upcoming winter holidays, Schmunk said, adding that donations are also welcome. For information, visit www.openhand.org.
ot one but two anti-gay initiatives have been submitted to state officials in an effort to thwart Senate Bill 48, the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act. In the first proposal, Rick Gerharter opponents are trying to alter the law so Sen. Mark Leno that California school students don’t have to learn about LGBT Americans’ historical contributions. Anti-gay activists are also proposing a second initiative that would allow parents to opt their children out of school instruction in social science and family life that conflicts with their moral convictions. Parents can already opt their children out of health lessons. The proposals, received by the state attorney general’s office November 16, come at a time when Equality California, a key SB 48 sponsor, See page 16 >>
Occupy participants won’t be deterred by Tony K. LeTigre
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he fate of the Occupy San Francisco camp in Justin Herman Plaza remains uncertain, but even if city officials prevail in their quest to squelch it, the civil rebellion it symbolizes is unlikely to die off any time soon. “This movement is bigger than each of us and bigger than our individual occupations,” read a declaration approved by general consensus of the Occupy SF camp on November 15. “You cannot evict an idea once that idea is rooted in the hearts and minds of the people.” This week, however, the San Francisco Police Department cleared the Occupy outpost in front of the Federal Reserve Building on Market Street and many protesters remained unsure of the camp’s chances for survival. Some noted the apparent synchronicity of actions against Occupy Wall Street encampments in disparate parts of the country: raids occurring within days of one another in Oakland, Denver, Salt Lake City, New York, and Portland, Oregon – as well as San Francisco. The Bay Area Reporter asked Mayor Ed Lee if the crackdown on Occupy SF was part of an orchestrated national effort, but the response from his office was short on particulars. “Mayor Lee has been working hard to come to some understanding with the group about See page 17 >>
Jane Philomen Cleland
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano addressed a crowd at the Occupy SF demonstration Sunday, November 20. Ammiano said that the state Assembly Committee on Public Safety, which he chairs, will hold hearings on police misconduct at California occupy events.
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