15
Missing Gay SF man found dead
Mayoral debate announced
ARTS
12
17
25
Sleeping Beauty
MORE! Stuff
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 5 • February 1-7, 2018
Medical pot pioneer Dennis Peron dies
by Liz Highleyman
D
ennis Peron, a gay man who spearheaded the fight for medical cannabis, died after a long battle with lung cancer Saturday, January 27, soon after the implementation of Rick Gerharter a law allowing rec- Dennis Peron reational marijuana use in California. He was 71. “Dennis deserves singular credit for imagining and launching the medical marijuana movement during the darkest days of the AIDS pandemic,” longtime activist Cleve Jones told the Bay Area Reporter. “He fought for patients’ access, was arrested multiple times, and never backed down. The fact that Californians can today use cannabis recreationally is his legacy.” See page 13 >>
Designers weigh comments on Milk plaza Castro resident Kile Ozier talks about his small group’s thoughts on a reimagined Harvey Milk Plaza at the first of four community meetings January 27 in the Castro.
Tony Taylor
by Tony Taylor
P
eople continue to have mixed views on the plans to renovate Harvey Milk Plaza, even as speakers at two recent meetings voiced concerns over the current space. On the one hand, designers and the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza envision a sweeping
new public space, while others are critical of initial renderings and wonder how the space will avoid becoming a magnet for homeless people. The Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza started on the project last year, planning to incorporate plaza changes with accessibility improvements led by the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency.
After a series of internet surveys, in-person conversations began last week to determine the fate of the Castro’s “plaza for the people.” Led by Perkins Eastman, the winning design firm that is based in New York and has an office in San Francisco, the plan is to convert the corner of Castro and Market streets into a community space that offers locals, visitors, See page 14 >>
Breed pivots back to being board prez
by Matthew S. Bajko
Besties balloting begins by Cynthia Laird
B
alloting for the Bay Area Reporter’s eighth readers’ poll, the Besties, begins Thursday (February 1). The popular contest allows readers to share their favorite LGBT-owned and LGBT-friendly people, places, and things in the Bay Area. Categories run the gamut from arts and culture to nightlife to dining to community. There are also destinations nominees and more. Look for some new entries this year, such as best personal trainer. Additionally there are two categories for cannabis, reflecting the now-legal use of recreational marijuana by adults. The entries for local nonprofits have been reconfigured, with mostly new nominees. See page 14 >>
T
wo days after being jettisoned as acting mayor of San Francisco by a majority of her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, District 5 Supervisor London Breed showed no signs that the political upheaval at City Hall had diminished her spirit. Rather, during a 45-minute interview in her supervisor office with the Bay Area Reporter Thursday, January 25, Breed hit back at her critics and pledged to continue to focus on the needs of the city as president of the board. “I am excited and fired up. I have received an influx of support since this thing happened on Tuesday from all sorts of people,” said Breed, who is a leading contender to be elected mayor in the special election June 5 that was scheduled due to the sudden death last month of former mayor Ed Lee. In a maneuver that surprised many in the city, the board’s five progressive members, along with more moderate District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, elected Mark Farrell as the city’s interim mayor when the board met January 23. Formerly the District 2 supervisor, Farrell will occupy Room 200 at City Hall until the winner of the June race is sworn in. It was an outcome that Breed did not see coming. Prior to the vote for Farrell, four board members, including Sheehy, had voted to make Breed interim mayor, but it was two votes short of the total she needed. “I was not expecting to be made interim mayor
Rick Gerharter
Board of Supervisors President London Breed
because I knew I didn’t have the votes,” said Breed. “I didn’t expect it would be Mark Farrell.” Supporters of Breed, the first African-American woman to serve as the city’s mayor, were incensed at seeing her replaced with a conservative white venture capitalist. They castigated the board’s decision as racist and sexist. Those supportive of the move stressed it had nothing to do with Breed’s race or gender and was more about maintaining a separation of power between the board and the mayor’s office. Her colleagues chose Farrell to be a “caretaker mayor” since he opted not to enter the mayoral
{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }
race by the January 9 deadline to file. They had argued it would not be fair to keep Breed as mayor, which she automatically became upon Lee’s death due to her being board president, while she ran to be elected to the position in June. In a guest opinion piece he wrote for the B.A.R. this week, Sheehy, the sole gay member of the board and the city’s first known HIV-positive supervisor, reiterated that argument. After Breed failed to be elected interim mayor, Sheehy asked himself if Farrell could capably lead the city as a “full-time mayor.” His answer, wrote Sheehy, was “a resounding yes.” Breed told the B.A.R. she found it “unfortunate” that Sheehy “did not keep his word” in regard to the interim mayor vote. She noted she had worked to address a number of issues in Sheehy’s district during the roughly six weeks she served as acting mayor, such as cleaning up the area behind the Safeway on upper Market Street where many homeless people set up tents and used needles often litter the bike path. “I have been nothing but supportive of him and the folks in District 8,” said Breed. Having endorsed Sheehy in his bid to retain his supervisor seat in the special election on the June ballot, as he was appointed to fill a vacancy by Lee last January, Breed said she does not intend to rescind her endorsement. In that race Sheehy is facing a strong challenge from gay City College trustee Rafael Mandelman. “We will have a relationship as long as he is See page 14 >>