New book explores trans men
ARTS
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'Show Boat' triumphs
Aimee Mann & Ted Leo
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Few challenge Wiener for D8 seat by Matthew S. Bajko
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ractically from the moment he was elected four years ago, critics of gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener have sought to find someone to run against him this fall who could conceivably oust Rick Gerharter him from office. Over the years half a Scott Wiener dozen potential high-profile progressive candidates were rumored to be thinking about jumping into the race against the moderate Wiener. Yet none announced they would in fact seek to represent the gay Castro district, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights and Glen Park at City Hall. In recent weeks pressure had mounted on two LGBT community leaders to enter the race: gay attorney David Waggoner and Sara Shortt, a lesbian and executive director of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. Shortt announced last week that after seriously considering it, she had decided “that being a city supervisor is not for me, at least not at this time.” Waggoner, as of last week, had appeared ready to announce his candidacy. Yet on Tuesday, June 10, the deadline to file paperwork with city elections officials, he informed the Bay Area Reporter that, “after much thought, I’ve decided not to run for a variety of reasons. I’m very grateful for those who have supported me and who believe in a more just District 8 for everyone.” According to the unofficial candidates list the city’s Department of Elections posted Wednesday, four people filed to run against Wiener, including nude activist George Davis and gay blogger and LGBT global rights activist Michael Petrelis. The other two challengers are Tom Wayne Basso and John Nulty. Petrelis readily admits he is “an honorable protest candidate in the tradition of ” Jack Fertig, who in 1982 ran citywide for supervisor as Sister Boom Boom, the name given him by the drag nun group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. “I am more running to give people a way to register a protest against Castro gentrification and development greed,” said Petrelis. As for Wiener, he kicked off his re-election bid last fall and has been campaigning ever since. By the end of 2013, he reported having nearly $143,000 in cash on hand in his campaign account. The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club has already endorsed his reelection bid. “It is a democracy and no one owns their seat on the Board of Supervisors,” Wiener said. See page 13 >>
Vol. 44 • No. 24 • June 12-18, 2014
Trans reservist becomes public advocate by Matthew S. Bajko
S Kaplan enters mayoral race
Jane Philomen Cleland
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ebecca Kaplan, left, formally entered the crowded Oakland mayor’s race, holding a June 5 news conference at a trash-strewn corner in East Oakland. Above, Kaplan demonstrates the city’s “See, click, fix” app that allows residents to report problems such as litter to city agencies, following her remarks about
running for mayor. Kaplan, a lesbian, is the only out candidate among 17 who are vying for mayor. She said that the city needs strong, stable leadership and that the revolving door of top officials at City Hall is one of the reasons she jumped into the race. For more, see the Bay Area Reporter’s blog post at www.ebar.com.
age Fox’s military career began in 1993 when she enlisted in the Army and was deployed to Tahiti. She then spent several years working for the Army chief of staff at the Pentagon. Rick Gerharter After a decade out of the armed forces, Sage Fox Fox returned in 2008 and became a direct commission officer with the Army Reserves. Stationed at the B T Collins Reserve Center in Sacramento, Fox was sent to Kuwait in 2012 where she managed $50 million in projects and oversaw 70 personnel. See page 12 >>
LGBT groups ditch ENDA support
by Chuck Colbert
A
growing number of national and statewide LGBT organizations are coming out against the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, saying that while it bans workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, the federal law also would allow religious organizations to discriminate against LGBTs even in non-ministerial or non-pastoral capacities. Advocates for LGBT equality maintain the proposed religious exemption, unprecedented in civil rights legislation, would in effect gut the non-discrimination protections. Last week, Shannon Minter, legal director for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in an email that NCLR now “strongly oppose[s] any religious exemption in ENDA or any other federal, state, or local non-discrimination law that is broader than the religious exemption that already exists in federal civil rights laws.” “We do not support legislation that will create a new and broader exemption for LGBT people than exists for other protected groups,” Minter said. “While we are confident the current discriminatory religious exemption in ENDA will not be part of the final legislation, we will not continue to support ENDA if it is not changed to be consistent with Title VII’s religious exemption.” The 1964 Civil Rights Act Title VII in fact
contains an exemption that adcategories, such as race, gender, disdresses a narrow issue, specifically ability, sexual orientation, or gender the interest of a religiously affiliated identity.” organization to create a community Minter said that “sanctioning that of similarly aligned co-believers. type of discrimination is antithetical Accordingly, the exemption alto the whole purpose of an anti-dislows faith-based organizations to crimination statue.” hire employees based on their reli“And to set the precedent that gion in order for the entity to mainthere is somehow something special tain a religious community, a faith or different about anti-discrimiCourtesy NCLR based-identity. Title VII does not re- NCLR’s Shannon nation laws for LGBT people that strict protections in the law against Minter warrant that kind of unprecedented workplace discrimination based on and unprincipled exemption would race, sex, or national origin. open a door that we do not want to Reached by telephone, Minter said that open. I think it is very dangerous.” if ENDA were enacted in its current form it In a similar vein, Mark Snyder, a senior comwould be “the first time in any civil rights legismunications manager for the Oakland-based lation at any level, to my knowledge, expressly Transgender Law Center, said in an email that permitted discrimination on any other basis his organization is now “unable to support other than religion.” ENDA in its current form.” He added, “There is a long history now of acAt the same time, he added, “We are fully commodating religious beliefs, by permitting committed to continuing to work for the pascertain narrowly defined religious employers sage of a law like ENDA that contains an exto favor individuals from the same faith. emption for religious organizations that is no “That Title VII exemption,” explained broader than the exemption in Title VII.” Minter, “is reasonable” as “religious liberty In his recent comments, Snyder reiterated is important. That kind of accommodation, TLC’s “grave concerns” about the religious exwe have decided for a long time now, makes emptions that were voiced last spring in a joint sense.” statement, along with NCLR, the American “But never, ever,” he added, “has a civil rights Civil Liberties Union, and Lambda Legal Delaw – certainly not at the federal level or state fense and Education Fund. level – said in addition to that, you can also That statement spelled out the implicadiscriminate on the basis of other protected See page 13 >>
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