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Gay bank seeks biz
'F' word flies in Castro
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Frameline 24
Years & Years
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 24 • June 14-20, 2018
Lesbian behind in E. Bay race by Matthew S. Bajko
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or two days last weekend Jovanka Beckles, a lesbian who sits on the Richmond City Council, was in the second-place spot for the open 15th Assembly District seat, Jane Philomen Cleland which stretches from Jovanka Beckles Richmond south into parts of Oakland. Late Friday Oakland City Councilman Dan Kalb had fallen to third place. But by Sunday night he had again surpassed Beckles in the race. And his vote edge has continued to grow in recent days. As of the Bay Area Reporter’s press deadline Wednesday, Kalb was leading by 704 votes. He had 16 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial returns, while Beckles had 15.3 percent. On her Twitter account Monday morning, Beckles quoted the Yogi Berra quip, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” In an email message to her supporters later that day, Beckles wrote, “We are in this until the final vote is counted.” Former Obama staffer Buffy Wicks continues to have a dominating lead with 33, 945 votes. Under the state’s “jungle primary” system, the top two vote-getters in the June 5 primary race will compete against each other in the November 6 general election. In southern California, lesbian health care leader Marge Doyle has not budged from her third-place showing in the 8th Congressional District race. As of Wednesday morning, she had 21.8 percent of the vote, while former Republican state Assemblyman Tim Donnelly remained in second-place with 22.8 percent of the vote. Representative Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) remains in first place with 41.1 percent of the vote. Like Beckles, Doyle has said she will not concede until the final vote is counted.
San Mateo ed race remains close
On the Peninsula, Gary Waddell, Ph.D., has a razor-thin 75-vote lead in the contest for San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools. As of Tuesday afternoon both he and his opponent, Nancy Magee, were in a statistical tie of 50 percent of the vote. Waddell currently has 40,487 votes, while Magee has 40,412 votes. The next update will come Friday at 4:30 p.m. “I am hopeful that our lead holds out and I can get to work on behalf of all of our students, but it is in the hands of the voters,” Waddell told the B.A.R. The two out candidates are colleagues at the county education office and are running to succeed lesbian San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools Anne E. Campbell. After serving two four-year terms in the position, Campbell opted not to seek re-election. Waddell, a gay resident of Pacifica, currently serves as deputy superintendent of the instructional services division at the county education office. Magee, a lesbian resident of Half Moon Bay, is the county’s associate superintendent for the student services division.t
Cynthia Laird
Mark Leno conceded the mayor’s race Wednesday.
Leno concedes mayor’s race by Matthew S. Bajko
G Warriors rule!
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olden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry raises his arms in celebration of back-toback NBA championships at the victory parade in downtown Oakland Tuesday, June 12. This year, Curry and other players mingled on the street with fans during part of the parade. The Warriors
Jane Philomen Cleland
swept the Cleveland Cavaliers four games to none with their 108-85 win Friday night on the road. Gay Warriors President Rick Welts told the Bay Area Reporter that the team will bring the championship trophy to this year’s San Francisco Pride parade.
ay mayoral candidate Mark Leno conceded defeat Wednesday in his bid to become San Francisco’s first LGBT mayor. He had remained stuck in second place over the last four days as the election returns were updated. It was a reversal of fortunes from last week, when he had eked out a first-place finish after elections officials determined the first ranked-choice voting results. Board of Supervisors President London Breed, who represents District 5 and initially was in second place, began closing in on the top spot with each successive update of the vote tally. By Saturday she had overtaken Leno and, ever since, has seen See page 10 >>
Salazar may be moved from ICU
by Alex Madison
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aron Salazar, the young, gay Latino man who was found critically injured adjacent to the train tracks near Truckee, California may soon be transferred from the intensive care unit to another facility at the Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, according to his family. Salazar, 22, was a passenger on an Amtrak train found lying near the railroad tracks at the far east end of Truckee May 15, Truckee Police Chief Rob Leftwich said in a statement last month. Salazar had suffered major injuries and was transported to the hospital in Reno. The Salazar family has been continually critical of the Amtrak Police Department’s investigation, which is still ongoing. At a May 29 news conference, Amtrak Police Chief Neil Trugman said that Amtrak believes the young college student was “very distraught” while on the train and may have attempted suicide. The family strongly disagrees with this narrative and believes Salazar was attacked and is calling it a hate crime. Amtrak is the lead on the investigation. Family members want the FBI to take over the investigation and have started an online petition to garner support for that. So far, nearly 300 people have signed the petition. A new statement released June 7 to the Bay Area Reporter by Amtrak spokeswoman Christina Leeds said that the agency has brought on two additional lead investigators to work on the case and
Courtesy Facebook
Aaron Salazar
that investigators have accessed Salazar’s cellphone. “The contents [of the cellphone] continue to support that Mr. Salazar had life concerns and challenges, and he had shared that with friends and family,” Leeds said. The family held a fundraiser for Salazar Saturday, June 9, at the University of Nevada, Reno and has raised more than $60,000 through a GoFundMe campaign set up for Salazar’s medical expenses. On Facebook, the family’s spokesman, Austin Sailas, a cousin of Salazar’s, posted a letter he received from Brody Levesque, chief political
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correspondent for the New Civil Rights Movement, a New York City-based online magazine. The letter gives support to the family and condemns Amtrak’s investigation and its preliminary finding that Salazar attempted suicide. It was sent on behalf of “several journalists and editors” following the case. [The B.A.R. is not a signatory to the letter.] The letter also references the 2012 case of Robin Andrew Putnam, 25, who was traveling on an Amtrak train from Emeryville, California to Colorado. At the time, Amtrak claimed Putman got off the train in Salt Lake City, leaving all of his possessions behind. Three years later Putman’s remains were found near train tracks outside of Elko, Nevada, at which point Amtrak concluded it to be a suicide. The Putnam family was also critical of the way Amtrak conducted the investigation, including withholding information. “One of the factors that has struck this working group has been Amtrak’s continuing claim that these young men were somehow directly responsible for the circumstances that led up to their horrific injuries, and in the case of Robin, his death,” Levesque wrote. “In our opinion, the evidence and facts that we’ve gathered over the course of our investigation into both young men’s cases belies these specious claims by Amtrak investigators, and the public pronouncements of the company’s current police chief, Neil Trugman,” the letter stated. The letter also urged the Salazar family to have See page 16 >>