Pop-up ordered to close
09
Trans subsidies workshop
ARTS
02
15
20
SF Opera 2020-21
Wynonna Judd
The
www.ebar.com
Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 50 • No. 04 • January 23-29, 2020
SF opens adult trans housing
by Matthew S. Bajko Courtesy Twitter
A man has started a petition to change the name of Isis Street to Harvey Milk Street.
Petition revives calls for LGBT street names
by John Ferrannini
A
petition to rename a South of Market street after Harvey Milk has reignited the issue of honoring LGBT leaders with street names in San Francisco. Last week, a change.org petition was created that asks Mayor London Breed and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to change the name of Isis Street, a small side street in the South of Market neighborhood, to Harvey Milk Street. As of Tuesday, it had garnered 45 signatures toward a goal of 100. The first such proposal to rename a street after Milk failed to gather steam back in 1999. Milk was the first openly gay man elected to office in San Francisco and California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated 11 months later. But now the creator of the petition – David Collins, 59, a straight ally who owns property on Isis Street – said he would be open to renaming the street after someone else, after members of the LGBT community indicated in Facebook discussions after the Bay Area Reporter’s initial January 15 article online that a street in SOMA should be named for a member of the leather community, or that Milk should be honored with a different street. “Maybe instead of Isis Street, it could be something that has a patriotic connotation like Veterans Street,” Collins said in a January 17 interview with the B.A.R., adding that he may rework his efforts to reflect that. “The most compelling thing is to take the Isis name off. “The LGBT community is in a better position to name Harvey Milk street, and I would support that,” he added. Terry Beswick, the executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, wrote on Facebook that he would support renaming Market Street for Milk. The 1999 proposal would have renamed a section of Market Street for Milk. Gerard Koskovich, also of the GLBT Historical Society, suggested renaming Isis Street for Michel Foucault, the French philosopher who frequented the SOMA LGBT scene and died of complications from AIDS in 1984. At least two San Francisco supervisors expressed their support for the idea after the initial petition was launched. District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney (Isis Street is in his district) wrote to the Bay Area Reporter via text message, “I love it.” “I’m definitely for more streets named after See page 12 >>
C
ome February Jane Cordova will move out of a shelter for LGBT adults in San Francisco’s Mission district for her own room in a Chinatown apartment. The scalloped windows in her bedroom will look out onto the city’s famed cable car line, which stops mere feet away. Cordova, 60, a transgender woman, is the first resident selected for the Trans Home SF on Washington Street, the city’s first transitional housing program for transgender and gender-nonconforming adults. The program aims to provide apartments for 12 individuals age 25 and older who will be able to live rent-free for a year as they receive support in landing a job, enrolling in school, and saving money to move into their own apartments. Tuesday afternoon Cordova saw her new temporary home for the first time and quickly got to work cleaning the windows in her bedroom and the baluster railing atop the stairs. The second-floor railroad flat has been divided into four bedrooms with a living area, kitchen, and one and a half bathrooms. “I think it is great. I love the location,”
Rick Gerharter
Jane Cordova cleans the windowsill in her new room at the Trans Home SF apartment, which overlooks the cable car route.
said Cordova, who grew up in Mexico and moved to San Francisco in the early 1990s. Stuck in the country’s immigration system, Cordova has struggled to find employment and affordable housing. A volunteer with the nonprofit El/La Para Trans Latinas, she is training to be a chef and hopes to be hired by a local restaurant
one day. “I like to cook,” said Cordova, who plans to oversee breakfast and dinner for her new housemates as she will serve as the resident manager. “I am the mother of the house.” City officials and community leadSee page 12 >>
Newsom asked to pardon Bayard Rustin by Cynthia Laird
right this terrible injustice and allow Mr. Rustin to take his rightful place in the history of our nation.”
T
he LGBTQ and Black caucuses of the state Legislature have asked Governor Gavin Newsom to posthumously pardon gay civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. According to a draft of the January 21 letter sent to Newsom, gay state Senator Scott Wiener and African American Assemblywoman Shirley Weber wrote that Rustin’s 1953 arrest in Pasadena, California on vagrancy charges led to Rustin spending 50 days in Los Angeles County Jail. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender. Rustin, who died in 1987 at age 75, was part of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle during the civil rights movement. He was one of the key organizers of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and he “was integral in various other nonviolent movements, boycotts, and protests to end racial discrimination,” the letter states. Both Democrats, Wiener, of San Francisco, and Weber, of San Diego, are the chairs of the Legislative LGBTQ and Black caucuses, respectively, in the Capitol. They wrote in their letter that Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey has informed them that she supports the pardon request. “Despite Mr. Rustin’s heroic contributions to the civil rights movement, he fell victim to California’s homophobic criminal justice system,” Wiener and Weber wrote. In an email Wednesday morning, Lacey confirmed she’s joining with the two caucuses in the
Courtesy Britannica
Two state lawmakers have asked Governor Gavin Newsom to posthumously pardon gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.
effort to posthumously pardon Rustin. “Mr. Bayard Rustin was one of the most significant civil rights leaders of our times, whose great accomplishments, unfortunately, were restricted by a 1953 conviction in Los Angeles County for activities between consenting adults that should never have been criminalized in the first place,” Lacey wrote. “I am joining with the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and the California Legislative Black Caucus in asking Governor Newsom to
In a statement, Newsom said he would consider the request. “History is clear. In California and across the country, sodomy laws were used as legal tools of oppression,” Newsom said in an emailed comment from his office. “They were used to stigmatize and punish LGBTQ individuals and communities and warn others what harm could await them for living authentically. I thank those who are advocating for Mr. Bayard Rustin’s pardon. I will be closely considering their request and the corresponding case.” Rustin’s surviving partner, Walter Naegle, also supports the pardon request. “Although Bayard passed away in 1987, such a pardon would be a symbolic gesture recognizing a violation of the concept of equal justice under the law,” he said in a release issued by Wiener’s office Tuesday following a news conference. “During the 1950s, gay men were victimized by laws that were not equally applied to heterosexuals. The rampart homophobia of our society led to stigmatization of gay men, often resulting in the loss of employment, damage to familial relationships and sometimes even suicides. I give my full support for the efforts of Senator Scott Weiner, the LGBTQ and Black Caucuses in asking Governor Newsom to pardon my late partner Bayard Rustin.”
{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }
@LGBTSF
@eBARnews
See page 12 >>