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November 3, 2022 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 52 • No. 44 • November 3-9, 2022

SF supervisor candidates differ on housing ballot measures by Matthew S. Bajko

Courtesy California Museum

U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame next month.

Soccer star Rapinoe named to CA Hall of Fame by Cynthia Laird

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SA women’s soccer champion Megan Rapinoe has been named as one of the members of the 15th class of the California Hall of Fame, Governor Gavin Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom announced November 1. The global sports superstar grew up in the Northern California town of Redding near Mount Shasta. Rapinoe, 37, a lesbian, has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and racial justice. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Joe Biden in July. Ahead of the midterm elections on November 8, Rapinoe has urged Americans to exercise their right to vote, especially women, as part of the Voting Suits You initiative asking female voters to wear pink suits to the ballot box on Tuesday. In an October 20 post on her Instagram account, Rapinoe posted a picture of her adorned in a pink shirt, jacket and pants combo. “When we organize, when we march, and most importantly when we VOTE we are unstoppable. From equal pay to abortion access, our freedoms are under attack,” she wrote. “That’s why, this November, we’re showing up – with determination, with joy, and in pink – to cast our votes and demand a government that represents us.” Rapinoe led the U.S. Women’s National Team to win the Women’s World cup in 2015 and 2019, and scored some of the biggest goals in the 2019 tournament as team co-captain. On the Olympic stage, Rapinoe led the team to a gold medal at the 2012 London Games, according to her bio in the hall of fame materials. Newsom and Siebel Newsom praised all of the members of the incoming class, who also include singer Linda Ronstadt, actor Lynda Carter, and Olympic champion ice skater Peggy Fleming. See page 7 >>

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ousing has been a political hot button issue in San Francisco for decades, and this year is no exception. It has been a top concern among the candidates running this fall for even-numbered supervisor district seats, as city leaders work to meet a state mandate that they build 82,000 units of housing by 2030. How to do so is the focus of dueling local measures on the November 8 ballot. Proposition D, known as the Affordable Housing - Initiative Petition, aims to streamline the approval process for housing developments while requiring prevailing wages and health care for workers. Among its backers are Mayor London Breed and gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). In fact, Wiener is featured in commercials touting Prop D and urging voters to reject Proposition E, titled Affordable Housing - Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Connie Chan and Aaron Peskin worked with a majority of their board colleagues to place Prop E on the ballot. They argue it will assist in building affordable housing while also ensuring there is local control over the design and impact of the projects. Opponents, however, criticize Prop E as

containing provisions that will do nothing to speed up approval for housing projects and complain it will still subject 100% affordable housing projects to stringent environmental review. Both measures need simple majority votes to pass, and if both receive 50% or more of the vote next Tuesday, then the one with the most total votes will prevail.

The Bay Area Reporter asked in its questionnaire for this year’s crop of supervisorial candidates where they stood on the two ballot measures. Their answers ran the gamut from either supporting or opposing them to being neutral on one of the two. See page 14 >>

Interracial gay couple discusses love, hate by David-Elijah Nahmod

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or Amos and Mickey Lim, a married gay couple who live with their 14-year-old daughter in San Francisco, the road to love was filled with challenges. Amos Lim, 52, is an emigre from Singapore, a country where it’s not easy to be gay. Mickey Lim, 58, is a white man. Their love for each other and for their daughter runs deep, but they admit that at times they must deal with the prejudices of the outside world. The couple met online in 1995. “I think I reached out because I was living in Singapore and was struggling with being gay,” Amos Lim recalled in a recent interview. “I saw a post that said the reason there’s no love in gay relationships is because we don’t have role models, and Mickey replied saying that’s not true, that there was a couple that just released their book called ‘Straight From the Heart,’ so I emailed him and asked him if he minded getting me the book because it’ll probably be banned in my country.” “Straight From the Heart: A Love Story” (1995) was written by Rod and Bob JacksonParis and was one of the first books by a gay couple in the national spotlight. Bob JacksonParis was a bodybuilder and Rod Jackson-Paris was a former Playgirl Man of the Year. That online reply from Mickey Lim was the beginning of their relationship. At first Amos Lim struggled to get a visa to come to the Unit-

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Courtesy the candidates

San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey, left, and his challenger, Honey Mahogany, both support the Proposition D housing measure; board President Shamann Walton supports the competing Proposition E; and Supervisor Gordon Mar supports both.

Christopher Robledo

Amos Lim, left, and his husband, Mickey Lim, are happily married but still face anti-Asian prejudice on occasion.

ed States, but he finally got an education visa in 1999 and came to the U.S. to attend school. “And the rest is history,” he said. Before that, it was in 1997 when they met in person for the first time, when Mickey Lim visited Singapore. Thirty minutes after meeting they knew they were meant for each other. Both had boyfriends at the time and they each ended their respective relationships. Amos Lim spoke of the difference between living as a gay man in Singapore and living a gay life in the Bay Area.

“It’s night and day,” he said. “It’s not that I never came out to people in Singapore, I have a very close group of friends that I’m out with, I’m out with my family, and my extended family all know, I’m sure a lot of people know, but we don’t talk about it.” According to Amos Lim, gay life in Singapore was non-existent, unless one went to bars or sex clubs regularly. Going to dance clubs, he recalled, was risky because the police might raid the club and arrest people. See page 14 >>

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