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Out & Equal update
Park plaque repaired
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CAAMFest
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Arts Events
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 49 • No. 19 • May 9-15, 2019
SF LGBT Democratic clubs focus on District 5 supervisorial race by Matthew S. Bajko
Courtesy Jacquelene Bishop
SF Pride Executive Director George F. Ridgely Jr., left, with board President Jacquelene Bishop
Ridgely to leave SF Pride after parade by Meg Elison
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fter five and half years in the position and six annual celebrations, San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee Executive Director George F. Ridgely Jr. has announced that this will be his final turn at the helm of the organization. He will leave after this year’s parade and festival in late June. According to a May 6 news release, Ridgely, a gay man, has accepted a position with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, where he will manage permits and reservations. See page 10 >>
HHS rule puts religious objections on ‘steroids’ by Lisa Keen
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new Trump administration regulation permitting religious bias came carefully wrapped up in the language of civil rights: Its text promises to “re- The U.S. Departmove barriers” for ment of Health and people who want to Human Services has work in health care, finalized a religious support a “more di- refusal rule for medverse” field of health ical and nonmedical care workers, and health workers. stop “discrimination in health care.” But LGBT activists and allies see a wolf in sheep’s clothing and read it as an invitation to people who harbor personal bias toward LGBT people to exercise that prejudice under the cloak of “religious or moral conviction.” The new final rule will go into effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. The See page 10 >>
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ix months before voters in San Francisco’s supervisorial District 5 head to the polls to elect their representative at City Hall, the city’s two LGBT Democratic clubs are turning their attention toward the race. Monday, May 13, the more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club is hosting a debate with three of the candidates seeking the seat that covers the Western Addition and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods. It has invited Supervisor Vallie Brown, whom Mayor London Breed appointed to the seat last July when she resigned after being elected in June, as well as two of her challengers, tenants rights activist Dean Preston and Ryan Solomon, a gay man who is a bartender at the Castro district bar Badlands. Preston, founder of the advocacy group Tenants Together, narrowly lost to Breed in 2016. In that race he was endorsed by the more progressive Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and is likely to secure its early endorsement this year when the club’s members vote at their May 28 meeting. Solomon and a third candidate, film producer Nomvula O’Meara, are also seeking Milk’s early endorsement. Whoever wins will serve out the remainder of Breed’s term through 2020 and will need to run
Rick Gerharter
Rick Gerharter
Supervisor Vallie Brown
District 5 candidate Dean Preston
next November for a full four-year term. The outcome of the race will do little to change the balance of power on the Board of Supervisors. Progressives are considered to hold a sevenperson majority on the board, with Brown seen as being among the four more moderate supervisors. All three of the other members of the moderate bloc – Supervisors Catherine Stefani (D2),
Shamann Walton (D10), and Aisha Safai (D11) – have endorsed her, as has Board President Norman Yee (D7). Preston meanwhile has the support of progressive Supervisors Gordon Mar (D4), Hillary Ronen (D9), Matt Haney, (D6), and Rafael Mandelman (D8), the lone LGBT member of the board. Three See page 7 >>
SF planners object to nonprofits in upper Market St. retail spaces by Matthew S. Bajko
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an Francisco planners oppose allowing nonprofits to lease out vacant sidewalkfronting storefronts along upper Market Street in the city’s gay Castro district. And they also object to requiring health care providers, like urgent care clinics, to seek a conditional use permit in order to open in ground floor spaces along the commercial corridor. Their concerns were laid out in a staff report regarding a zoning change proposal that District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is pursuing for the business district in the gayborhood. His aim is addressing the glut of empty storefronts along Market Street –mainly between Church and Castro streets – that has been exacerbated by the opening of new mixed-use developments with housing over retail spaces in the area and changes to consumers’ shopping habits away from brick-and-mortar retailers to online sites. The city’s planning commission is expected to take up the proposal at its meeting Thursday (May 9). It would then head to the Board of Supervisors’ for approval before being sent to Mayor London Breed for a final sign-off. As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in
Rick Gerharter
The former site of the Sweet Inspirations bakery and cafe on Market Street is one of several vacant storefronts in the Castro.
March, art studios, nonprofit offices, and restaurants serving wine and beer would find it easier to open along upper Market Street under the zoning changes. Mandelman, a gay man elected to the board in June, spent months conferring with neighborhood leaders on the legislation. Wine shops and restaurants that only sell
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wine and beer would no longer need to seek a conditional use permit if they wanted to open in a ground floor space; those selling or serving liquor and spirits would. Businesses would be allowed to stock more items for sale on the sidewalk in front of their stores, such as gardening supplies, plants, and building materials. The zoning changes come as several restauSee page 6 >>