Seeking compromise
‘Nutcracker’ touches down
Activists pin hopes on getting HRC to sublease shop to Trevor Project.
San Francisco Ballet version of the classic continues the tradition.
HO G L 9 U IDA ID Y E pa ge s1 213
see Arts
page 4
9
BAYAREAREPORTER
Vol. 40
. No. 50 . 16 December 2010
Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
▼
Supes punt Fair proceeds distributed Turmoil interim roils SF mayor pick Pride by Matthew S. Bajko
by Matthew S. Bajko and Seth Hemmelgarn
W
Rick Gerharter
▼
epresentatives of nonprofits were all smiles Thursday, December 9 when the Castro Street Fair board distributed checks totaling $75,390 at a party in the Castro. Some of the beneficiaries include: Haight Ashbury Community Nursery School, Bears of San Francisco, SF Fog Rugby, Project Open Hand, AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Funds, Family Link, Instituto Familiar de la Raza, Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco, Castro Community on Patrol, and Everett Middle School. Fair officials said that all of the money was distributed at the event.
R
page 10
Dufty lauded as a hands-on supervisor by Matthew S. Bajko unning for office in 2002 Bevan Dufty was tarred by his opponents as being a puppet for then-Mayor Willie Brown, whom he had worked for as his director of neighborhood services. Detractors joked he would be a “pothole supervisor,” concerned more about his district’s needs rather than citywide policy. Yet that was what residents of the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park and other District 8 neighborhoods clamored for, someone in City Hall who would respond to their everyday concerns. And Dufty delivered. Over the last eight years Dufty has helped transform the commercial corridors along Castro Street, 24th Street, and the blocks near the Glen Park BART station. He worked with city officials to overhaul neighborhood libraries, recreation centers, and pocket parks. He pushed the LGBT Community Center to evolve from an under-used meeting room facility to a service provider offering help to job seekers, business owners, and first-time homebuyers. He promoted building an LGBT museum in the Castro and worked with the GLBT Historical Society to see the idea come to fruition. He secured funding to create design guidelines along the upper Market Street corridor as a number of prominent parcels were eyed for development projects. He backed allowing new restaurants to open in both the Castro and Noe Valley.
R
• • • FIRST
OF
Rick Gerharter
Rick Gerharter
Jane Philomen Cleland
W
▼
page 10
ith just over six months left before San Francisco’s 41st LGBT Pride Parade, the organization that runs the mammoth event appears to be in turmoil. As reported last week, one of the board’s co-chairs has resigned, and the board has fur- Nikki Calma loughed administrative staff, including the sponsorship director, in order to save money. In addition, the remaining board chair, Nikki Calma, doesn’t know how much money is in the bank. However, she said an anonymous donor
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, center, helps to unveil a new plaque honoring Harvey Milk in front of his former camera store on Castro Street on May 22, the first observance of Harvey Milk Day.
He harassed gay and mainstream media outlets, as well as city officials, to tackle a crystal methamphetamine epidemic ravaging the city’s gay male community. Nor was he shy about discussing his own personal life, from being a single, HIV-negative gay man to having a daughter with a woman he befriended. “Everything I have done was with a broad vi-
TWO
sion in my mind. What I think would make the neighborhood more sustainable,” Dufty, 55, told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview in his City Hall office. “I do have responsibility that 20 years from now, if I am fortunate enough to still be around chasing after my daughter, to
SECTIONS• • •
page 5
▼
ho will lead San Francisco once Mayor Gavin Newsom departs for Sacramento next month will remain the most talked about question in town until early 2011. For the second week in a row, a majority of the Board of Supervisors punted picking an interim mayor at its meeting Tuesday, December 14. Rather than begin discussions on whom to name to the position should Newsom resign January 3, when he is scheduled to be sworn in as the state’s lieutenant governor, eight supervisors voted to delay Chris Daly the matter until their January 4 meeting. Only Supervisors Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and David Campos, whom a number of progressives and queer activists want to see be given the job, voted to start taking nominations this week. Instead, outgoing Supervisor Sophie Maxwell moved to postpone the matter, and outgoing Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who is gay and a candidate for mayor, seconded the motion. Supervisors Michela AliotoPier, John Avalos, Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd, Eric Mar and board President David Chiu also voted to postpone the discussion. “I think we have three weeks to think about it and to have somebody just floating out there that amount of time is not in our best interest,” said Maxwell, who says she is not interested in being named mayor. “This gives us time to think about what to do over the next three weeks.” The failure to begin debate on the subject infuriated Daly, who criticized his colleagues for their reticence. “It is like déjà vu all over again,” said Daly, whose name was put forward Tuesday by several members of the public as an interim mayor candidate. “We have been sitting here now, what is this, the fourth public hearing we have had on the topic of transition. Colleagues, I think we are doing an incredible disservice for the citizens of San Francisco.” Daly had pushed to see openly gay state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who twice ran for mayor, be given the job once Newsom departs. But