Gay leader launches bid for SF District 9 supervisor

by Matthew S. Bajko

Relatively unknown outside of LGBTQ political circles, and a white candidate running for a seat San Francisco Latino leaders want to reclaim, Trevor Chandler is launching his bid for District 9 supervisor 19 months before voters will cast ballots in the race. By doing so, the gay leader aims to spend this year addressing the various hurdles he will face as a candidate.

“For me, the clear challenge I am dealing with is lack of name recognition. It is why I wanted to get started early,” Chandler, 36, told the Bay Area Reporter in an exclusive interview about his candidacy.

“I am not naïve. I know what my main challenge will be so I want to start heading out there and knocking on doors.”

District 9 covers the heavily Latino Mission district and had more of the Mission Dolores neighborhood added to it as part of last year’s redistricting process at the request of Latino leaders and others due to its historical significance to the Latino community. Doing so also incorporated more of the American Indian Cultural District into the supervisorial district.

The incumbent, Supervisor Hillary Ronen, a straight ally, is term limited from running again next year. She succeeded her boss, gay former supervisor David Campos, after being elected in 2016.

Campos had succeeded gay former supervisor Tom Ammiano, who departed in 2008 after being elected to the state Assembly. First elected citywide, Ammiano was assigned to the District 9 seat in 2000 when the supervisors reverted back to being elected by district.

Thus, while gay men have historically held the seat, the current Board of Supervisors is not lacking in LGBTQ representation. After the elections last year of Supervisors Joel Engardio in District 4 and Matt Dorsey in District 6, there are now three gay white men serving on the board, as District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman easily won reelection to a second term last November. (Chandler had endorsed both Dorsey and Mandelman but said he didn’t actively campaign for any candidate last year.)

The election of a fourth out supervisor would be historic in San Francisco, as the most LGBTQ people to serve on the board at one time has been three. But having none be a person of color blunts any argument supporters of Chandler’s candidacy make for having him help reach that milestone, especially if an out Black, Latino, or other LGBTQ person of color decides to enter the District 9 supervisor race.

“I totally respect those concerns and I look forward to having those conversations,” said Chandler. “The case I am going to be making is based on my views, and not discounting or disparaging anyone who might be skeptical of me being another white gay guy.”

As an associate regional field director for national LGBTQ advocacy organi- zation the Human Rights Campaign, Chandler spent six years working to elect queer people to public office across the country. He currently sits on the advisory board for statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California.

“I will be talking to every person, even those skeptical of me. It is a great San Francisco problem to have that we are concerned about having over a third of our Board of Supervisors being queer people,” said Chandler. “I think we can always do better at being more diverse.”

Currently just one Latina serves on the board, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who fled El Salvador’s civil war as a child in the 1980s. She is up for reelection next year.

Running as a progressive

As for the city’s political divide between progressive and moderate Democrats, Ronen is aligned with progressives, as were Campos and Ammiano. Chandler will be seen as a moderate, particularly for his support of the recalls last year of three of the city’s progressive school board members and district attorney.

Nonetheless, Chandler told the B.A.R. he is running as a progressive. And he pointed to the fact that the school board recall had majority support in all of District 9’s voting precincts.

“I am not naïve to the camps you are talking about. People will call me whatever they will call me,” said Chandler. “They should compare me to their record of knocking on doors and electing progressive candidates and passing progressive laws.”

A native of Laconia, New Hampshire, and a Plymouth University graduate, Chandler worked for former Democratic congressmember Paul Hodes of his home state after college. He served as campaign director on Hodes’ unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2010.

That year “was a Republican year. We were destroyed,” recalled Chandler.

It also brought to power in the Granite State a conservative GOP Legislature, leading Chandler to pivot to fighting for LGBTQ rights with HRC. He “lived out of a suitcase” throughout the East Coast working in a number of states until being sent out to Minnesota to help defeat efforts to ban same-sex marriage and then to enact it into law in 2015.

From there he relocated to Portland, Oregon, to wage another marriage equality battle. By late 2016, he had moved to San Francisco and took a job with the newly formed group AIPAC, which promotes ties between the U.S. and Israel.

“I have been proud to play a key role in both the fight for the freedom to mar- ry as well as for the rights of the trans community, with seven marriage equality campaigns and numerous other civil rights efforts,” Chandler told the B.A.R. He switched gears from politics to tech last year and went to work for the public safety app Citizen as its director of government affairs and public policy. But in January he was laid off, leading him to decide to seek elected office years before he ever had contemplated doing so.

“Putting myself on the ballot was never something I ever imagined I would be doing, especially not this early in my life. I had always thought maybe when I was retired,” said Chandler, who is in the process of becoming a substitute teacher for the city’s public school district. “I am without a job and able to take a breath and see a path separate from a career where I could make a difference.”

Chandler and his fiancé, Adrian Chang, have been renters in the Mission for two years and live with their rescue Pitbull Juliet and Milos, a tri-paw Chihuahua terrier. They plan to marry this fall at Mission Street restaurant Foreign Cinema.

During his eight years as a San Francisco resident, Chandler has lived in numerous neighborhoods, including Nob Hill and the Tenderloin. As a gay teenager, he never imagined living in the city.

“It is a wild dream come together,” he said.

Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom named Chandler to the California State Board of Pharmacy, on which he has served since September. Having no professional experience as a pharmacist or in the pharmaceutical industry is why Chandler believes he was chosen for the statewide oversight role.

“Because I am an outsider, someone who knows the game but I work from the outside to fix things,” said Chandler. “I have built a reputation as a fixer and someone who can see big problems. I can untangle big knots, and if they can’t be untangled, I can figure out how to cut through the knots.”

What he does have experience in is addiction, as Chandler is a recovering alcoholic with seven years of sobriety. He told the B.A.R. it provides him with “a unique perspective” into the opiate drug crisis and the role the pharmaceutical industry played in it.

Chandler said he worked with Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) on his Assembly Bill 1286 that, among other requirements, would ensure adequate staffing at pharmacies “to prevent fatigue, distraction, or other conditions that may interfere with a pharmacist’s ability to practice competently and safely.” It is awaiting a committee hearing.

“It is the largest update to pharmacist

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related activities.)

The compromise terms – which SF Pride clarified to the B.A.R. on April 12 would be the same for the 2023 parade set to take place Sunday, June 25 – allowed the city’s police, sheriff, and fire departments to march together, with command staff allowed in uniform but without visible weapons. Some adjacent officers were allowed weapons for security, but the largest group had to be out of uniform, in shirts with department logos.

Ford told the B.A.R. that the meeting regarding this year’s event between the organization and the SFPO Pride Alliance would be “this week.”

When asked what will be discussed and what she hopes will come out of the meeting, Ford said, “I don’t really want to comment on that. Obviously we have the agreement from last year. We want to meet and start the work.”

<< Castro Theatre

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It isn’t clear if the amendment – made to the larger landmarking recommendation of the theater’s interior that was approved by the Historic Preservation Commission – will have an impact on APE’s ability to radically change the seating configuration.

“Ultimately even if made, it is not clear the amendment would prevent the city approving or APE not moving forward with their plans for the theater,” Mandelman said, adding that the amendment would be a “symbolic” gesture.

Still, that doesn’t make it the gesture the committee should send, Mandelman advised.

“I regret that the [Castro Theatre] conservancy and APE have not been able to make an agreement ensuring the conservancy a role in the continued showing of film at the theater,” Mandelman said. “Such a commitment would dramatically reduce the likelihood of APE’s plans being bogged down in litigation, which is not my desire.”

Still, “I do not believe this board should second guess or alter the work of planning staff,” he added, referring to the planning department’s report prepared for the Historic Preservation Commission.

A year of controversy

The imbroglio over the theater began in January 2022, when Another Planet – which runs the Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park, the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium near San Francisco’s Civic Center, and the Fox Theatre in Oakland – was announced as the new operators of the 101-year-old Castro Theatre.

APE wants to make significant changes to the theater’s interior, including replacing the current fixed orchestra seating with a motorized floor that’d make both raked seating and tiered standing arrangements possible.

Some Castro neighborhood, LGBTQ, and film groups – such as the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Castro Theatre Conservancy – formed the Friends of the Castro Theatre Coalition in opposition to the proposed changes, which would allow the theater to sometimes operate as a concert venue.

At issue at Monday’s hearing was whether the supervisors should change the Historic Preservation Commission’s recommended interior landmarking to give further protection to the current seats – protection that had been argued could effectively halt APE’s plans. Many speakers operated under this assumption, with commenters talking as

<< Lesbian visibility

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“We need actual representation on the Board of Supervisors and leadership through[out] the city,” Andary, a lesbian, wrote in a text to the B.A.R.

When asked when the decision was made by the board, Ford, who was SF Pride’s interim executive director last year, said, “There was really no decision made, we just kept the agreement in place and started to work on it. We’re just using the agreement from last year.”

When asked if that’d be acceptable to the various stakeholders – considering how contentious the issue was last year – Ford simply responded “yes.”

San Francisco Police Sergeant

Kathryn Winters of the SFPO Pride Alliance stated to the B.A.R. after the initial online publication of this report, “We have not yet met or spoken directly with San Francisco Pride on this matter, and, because we have not yet or spoken, I will not offer comment until after we have met and spoken.”

“We are meeting tomorrow [Thursday] evening, and Pride Alliance is committed to continuing the work of building trust with the community and ensuring that San though the committee’s decision was on the appropriateness of APE’s plans per se. (The exterior of the theater was designated a city landmark in 1977.)

As is a mainstay of hearings on the theater, a passionate hourslong period of public comment preceded the vote (though this time speakers were limited to one minute). All told, of those who appeared in person, 43 spoke broadly in favor of APE’s plans or against the amendment and 24 spoke broadly opposed to APE’s plans or in favor of the amendment. One person’s comments were directed at the Nasser family, which owns the theater, blaming them for the state of disrepair. Another’s was solely to promote his journalistic work.

Of those who called in, 32 were in favor of APE’s plans or against the amendment and 27 were against or in favor of the amendment.

Those in favor of the changes argued APE may be the only hope for the theater. Jim Abrams, the attorney for the Nasser family, said outright that if the deal between the Nassers and APE can’t work out it would “likely result in the permanent closure of the theater.”

Others agreed.

“Locking this building into a specific use to support a dying movie theater industry is chaos,” said Dave Karraker, a gay man who co-owns MX3 Fitness on Market Street and is a past co-president of the Castro Merchants Association.

“If you do this, and I work blocks away, I can guarantee you the Nasser family will board it up … Let it evolve with the young diverse multicultural community that is the future of the Castro.”

Keith Hall, who said he was LGBTQ, portrayed those opposed to APE as being loud but not representing what most people think.

“It [the amendment] does not have broad support in the community and certainly not among the younger members, the generation who will inherit this glorious building,” Hall said. “I propose we have a broader vision of what this place can be. Los Angeles has many glorious movie palaces that can be used for other events and I propose we dream bigger about that this place can be and be more inclusive.”

David Perry, a gay man who’s a spokesperson for Another Planet Entertainment, told the B.A.R. after the vote that the decision was not representative of what the community wants.

“It is perplexing that after public comment of which three-quarters of the speakers supported Another Planet, two members of the Board of Supervisors with no direct experience of the Castro neighborhood overrode fact, majority opinion and the economics of 2023 to

Long drought at City Hall

There hasn’t been a lesbian supervisor in San Francisco since January 2001, when Leslie Katz stepped down after not running for reelection the year prior when the supervisors reverted to being elected by district. Since then the lone

Francisco Pride is a weekend where all members of our community can celebrate together,” Winters added.

Winters followed up with the B.A.R. after the April 13 meeting, saying that it was “very productive” and “we are working on a plan to hold town hall meetings in order to have open and honest conversations with members of the community on issues around policing and the queer community.”

The dates and exact locations of these town halls have not been set.

Breed’s office was pleased with the news.

“The mayor’s office has been meeting with Suzanne and members of the Pride Alliance for months to prepare for this year’s Pride parade, and to continue to foster a positive relationship between all parties,” Breed spokesperson Jeff Cretan stated. “The mayor is happy that uniformed police officers will be allowed to march again like they did last year, and that both the Pride board and the Pride Alliance continue to work together hobble a private business from investing $15 million into a struggling community,” he stated.

Those who spoke in favor of the amendment argued APE was not negotiating in good faith and that either the theater can still be profitable or that profit shouldn’t be the motivating factor in preserving a place of such rich cultural importance.

Tina Aguirre, executive director of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, was upset that APE stopped engaging with the district on the subject.

“We remain very disappointed APE has not reached out directly to me as the lead staff member of the organization,” Aguirre said. “This represents erasure of a legislative body, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and myself, as a transgender person of color. I appreciate what you are moving today [the amendment] and urge you to move it forward.”

William Lewis said that as a young gay person, it’s important the patrimony of the past be handed on to future generations.

“There are young people, young gay people like me to whom it’s very important to have this landmark intact the way it is now,” Lewis said. “If it seems like we’re being inflexible it’s because we’ve seen this movie before, we know where it is going and we don’t want to let something else go.”

After public comment, Peskin revealed that he was personally involved in the negotiations, which had been facilitated by Mandelman. He said that “APE has frankly stonewalled” and bemoaned the lack of a privately-enforceable agreement considering that APE has not finished renovations to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, owned by the City and County of San Francisco, which it agreed to 13 years ago.

“I think this behavior over the last 13 years is a reasonable indicator of future behavior,” Peskin said, adding that APE did not treat the two weeks as an opportunity for serious engagement with the concerns of those opposed to its plans, taking it as “a PR and marketing exercise rather than an exercise in community engagement over a beloved icon.”

Melgar, a former planning commissioner, argued that be that as it may, “I don’t see putting, making the seats also, adding that to the historic preservation commission’s standing of what is going on in the theater, that that’s the cure for this.

“I think we all wish life before the [COVID] pandemic could continue. One of the things that’ve been affected, besides going to work in an office, has been the moviegoing experience – not just in San Francisco but all over the out female member of the board has been Christina Olague, who became the city’s first bisexual supervisor after being appointed to a vacancy in 2012 but lost her race for the District 5 seat that fall to now-mayor London Breed.

So far no lesbian is being mentioned as a supervisorial candidate for any of the to seek and find compromise.”

Gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, who was not on the board during last year’s imbroglio, also expressed support.

“Today’s SFPD is quite diverse and it is a leader in police reforms. Many residents want more police presence in their neighborhoods and business areas,” Engardio stated. “Allowing out LGBTQ officers to participate in the Pride parade is a good thing. Hopefully, it will help recruit more people to want to be police officers in San Francisco given the extreme shortage we have for a city our size.”

Indeed, Dorsey and straight ally

District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani just introduced a charter amendment for the March 2024 primary ballot that would establish minimum police staffing levels. Dorsey, who served as communications director for San Francisco Police Chief William Scott before joining the Board of Supervisors, said that the city is short more than 500 officers and “hasn’t had a fully staffed police de- partment for decades.”

After the initial online publication of this report, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told the B.A.R., “I think this makes sense” and that he’s “glad the Pride Alliance and SF Pride were able to get past this.”

Dorsey told the B.A.R. April 13 that “I’m hoping they can be on the same page, no drama.”

“I haven’t had the chance to check in with Suzanne or the Pride Alliance but I want to be supportive and that we see an inclusive Pride,” he added.

The Transgender District, which pulled out of city-sponsored Pride events last year and asked Breed to apologize for her reticence about participating in the 2022 parade if a police uniform ban was imposed, declined to comment for this story.

SFPD and the San Francisco Police Officers Association did not respond to requests for comment for this report as of press time. t world,” Melgar said. “I will not support the amendment of Supervisor Preston because we need to be as flexible as possible so a business enterprise can continue on that commercial corridor. It is time right now to be supporting ways to provide the most flexibility and the widest array of programming.”

Nonetheless, Melgar said to Peskin that “I, like you, would like to see some [memorandum of understanding] or agreement to provide film on a consistent regular basis.”

Preston said that he didn’t see the logic in being in favor of interior landmarking but being against the amendment. The current language only discusses the “presence of seating.”

“I would urge Another Planet and folks organizing around this issue to recognize we have the same goal here and it’s possible to have this amendment, carry out the intent of the HPC and ensure the success of the Castro Theatre,” Preston said, referring to the Historic Preservation Commission.

The vote was then taken with Peskin and Preston voting for the amendment and Melgar voting against, with another vote moving to bring the topic up again next week, since it is substantive enough of an amendment to require a second vote before it goes before the whole board. That passed unanimously.

Terrance Alan, a gay man who is the current president of the Castro Merchants Association – which voted to endorse APE’s plans with conditions – told the B.A.R. he does not have comment on the vote but that he is “excited about the unintended consequence of asking the question, fixed seats or not.”

“It showed the strength of our community,” Alan said. “We may seem divided on the ‘how,’ but unbreakable we stand for the ‘what.’ A love of the Cas- odd-numbered seats that will be on the city’s 2024 fall ballot. As the B.A.R.’s Political Notebook column reported this week, Trevor Chandler launched his bid for the District 9 seat, and if elected, would be the fourth gay male member of the board.

A host of events celebrating lesbians around the world this year is listed on tro that will prevail after the division is healed. I can hardly wait to see what it looks like.”

Although the merchants group’s endorsement was reticent, several public commenters read aloud the names of 104 businesses in the area that do support Another Planet’s plans.

Stephen Torres, a queer man who is on the cultural district’s board of directors, spoke on the district’s behalf to the B.A.R. after the vote.

“We appreciate the outpouring of community support on keeping this a community asset and we also appreciate Supervisor Mandelman with having responded to our request to expand the landmarking and to Supervisor[s] Preston and Peskin for adding this important, definitive language,” Torres said. “They’ve [APE] continued not to engage with the Castro cultural district and not make enforceable commitments and it seems they’ve treated the city no differently, regarding the Bill Graham Civic.”

In a statement on the Bill Graham allegations, Perry stated APE has spent over $10.3 million on the auditorium, including $7 million in capital improvements to the facility, and $3.3 million in repairs and maintenance. Past and present agreements, he said, “were fully approved and reviewed by the Board of Supervisors.”

Mandelman thanked Peskin, Preston, and Melgar for listening – but reminded everyone that they don’t have the last say.

“I am grateful that my colleagues on the committee took the time to hear from the public over two meetings and seriously grapple with the competing visions for the future of the theater,” Mandelman stated after the vote. “Plainly the majority reached a different conclusion than I have, and we will continue the conversation at the full board.” t the Lesbian Visibility Week website. Some events will be livestreamed. The visibility week is supported by the U.K.based Diversity Umbrella Foundation. To find more lesbian communities around the world and virtually, join The Curve Foundation’s Facebook community for free and special events. t