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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 49 • No. 7 • February 14-20, 2019
SF leaders OK Eagle Plaza permit
by Matthew S. Bajko
C Ed Walsh
Marjorie Knoller sits at a table during her parole hearing Thursday at the California Institution for Women in Corona.
Parole denial of Knoller wins plaudits by Ed Walsh
T
hose who prosecuted Marjorie Knoller in the 2001 dog-mauling death of lesbian Diane Whipple say a state board’s decision last week to deny parole to her is justice. The February 7 decision by the state parole board came at the conclusion of an emotional two and a half hour hearing that included statements from Sharon Smith, who was Whipple’s partner at the time of her death, as well as Whipple’s brother, Colin Kelly. But the most stunning statements came from Knoller herself, who at first seemed to argue for her parole but then later said she was not ready for it. Jim Hammer, a gay man who was the lead prosecutor in the case in 2002, told the B.A.R. this week that the tragedy of Whipple’s death is only made worse by Knoller still not taking responsibility for her actions. “I would have hoped that at some point, she would have accepted responsibility,” said Hammer, who is now in private practice. “She could have stopped this.” Last Friday, a day after the hearing, the second prosecutor in the 2002 case, Kimberly Guilfoyle, tweeted: “Great news out of California.” “Marjorie Knoller, who I helped convict for 2nd degree murder in 2001 for letting her dog murder her neighbor, was denied parole,” she wrote. “Justice served.” After the trial, Guilfoyle eventually went on to work as a Fox News host but resigned last year and currently is the vice chairwoman of America First Policies, a pro-Trump super PAC. She is dating Donald Trump Jr. Smith said this week that she was still processing the hearing, which she appeared at via a video link from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. “I just felt like I was hit by a bus,” Smith told the B.A.R. in a phone interview Tuesday, reflecting on her feeling after the hearing last week. See page 12 >>
onstruction on a public parklet honoring San Francisco’s LGBT and leather communities in the South of Market neighborhood is set to soon start now that city leaders have granted the project the street closure permit it needed. Named after the gay-owned bar it will front on a portion of 12th Street, Eagle Plaza is seen as a focal point for the LGBTQ cultural heritage district city officials created in western SOMA. The aim is to see the landscaped open space built in time for this year’s Folsom Street Fair, held annually the last Sunday in September. To help meet that deadline, Mayor London Breed last month took the lead in introducing the permit request to the Board of Supervisors in order to cut through the bureaucratic red tape that had stalled the project since first being proposed five years ago. District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents SOMA, and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman signed on as cosponsors of the legislation. The supervisors, without any discussion, voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the street encroachment permit. It was submitted as a resolution rather than an ordinance so that it did not require being voted on twice by the board.
Courtesy Build Inc./Place Lab
An artist rendering of Eagle Plaza looks north along 12th Street toward Bernice Street.
Breed planned to sign it into law once she received it, likely as soon as Wednesday afternoon. “Our LGBT and leather communities have a long history in San Francisco and western SOMA and they will now have a permanent home in the neighborhood,” stated Breed following the supervisors’ vote
February 12. “The new Eagle Plaza will celebrate our diversity and the pride we all have in these communities, while also creating a much-needed new open space for all of our residents.” Local development firm Build Inc. will See page 5 >>
San Francisco’s ‘Winter of Love’ turns 15 by Tony Taylor
I
t was 15 years ago this week that then-San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom ushered in a bold stand for same-sex couples when he ordered city officials to issue them marriage licenses. The surprising thing was that the marriages continued for about a month, as the courts refused to halt them despite opponents’ arguments that they violated state and federal law at the time. That was due to sharp legal work by City Attorney Dennis Herrera and his team, including his former chief deputy Therese Stewart, a lesbian who is now a justice on the state Court of Appeal. Newsom’s action was also unpopular among some political leaders. Most notably, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who called it “too much, too fast, too soon.” By the time marriages did end on March 11, approximately 4,000 couples had tied the knot in a show of civil disobedience. The marriages were later invalidated by the state Supreme Court, but Newsom’s action on February 12, 2004 began the long march to legalized samesex marriage, which was restored in California in 2013, and the rest of the nation two years later. (There was a brief window of time between May and November 2008 when same-sex couples could legally wed in the Golden State before the passage of Proposition 8.) For those 30 days, lines snaked around City
Rick Gerharter
A newly-married couple triumphantly exit San Francisco City Hall following their wedding ceremony on February 15, 2004
Hall as same-sex couples came from near and far to get hitched. It became known as the “Winter of Love.” Newsom, now California’s governor, mentioned the Winter of Love in his first State of the State address Tuesday, when he said that President Donald Trump’s “border emergency” was a “manufactured crisis.”
“For me, this is an echo from 15 years ago,” Newsom said. “I was a new mayor sitting in the gallery at the State of the Union when President Bush said LGBT Americans should not be able to get married. “It was an attack on our friends and neighbors, and on California’s values,” the governor added.
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