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Oddie wins in Alameda
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'Volta' opens
Arts Events
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Lara, Thurmond win statewide office
Vol. 48 • No. 47 • November 22-28, 2018
City to mark 40th anniversary of Milk, Moscone killings By Matthew S. Bajko
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by Matthew S. Bajko
D
espite the Associated Press calling the last two statewide contests in California for the Democratic candidates last Friday, it took until Monday evening for both of Lara campaign the races to be ofState Insurance ficially over. Until then, the contest Commissioner-elect Ricardo Lara with the lone gay contender for an executive branch position had remained unsettled. See page 12 >>
The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club placed banners commemorating slain mayor George Moscone and gay supervisor Harvey Milk in the Castro. Shown here outside the Bank of America building, the banners now hang outside SoulCycle.
he devastating news of the murders of the city’s mayor and first openly gay supervisor left Shireen McSpadden and her fellow students at Lowell High School with a feeling of dread. It was a shattering blow for the then 14-year-old freshman. “For me, and for people my age, it was an end of innocence in a sense,” recalled McSpadden. “We were all blown away.” McSpadden and her friends joined hundreds of other residents of San Francisco the evening of November 27, 1978 in front of City Hall to mourn George Moscone, whose election three years prior as mayor swept in a progressive changing of the guard in the city’s politics, and Harvey Milk, who made political history in November 1977 by becoming the first out politician of a major American city, and the first in California, after winning a seat on the Board of Supervisors. “We all knew how bad that was and how scary it was, and then to know we are not safe,” recalled McSpadden, who is bisexual and now the executive See page 5 >>
Chiu hires Supreme Court justices to decide gay district whether to hear 3 LGBT cases director
Jane Philomen Cleland
by Lisa Keen
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by Matthew S. Bajko
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ong Beach native Tom Paulino has had his eye on a career in politics since being accepted to UC Berkeley, where he graduated in 2012 with a degree in a double major of political science and history. The question was how to achieve that goal. During his junior year in college Paulino was accepted into a UC program that had him intern in the fall of 2010 in the Washington, D.C. office of Congresswoman Linda Chavez (D-Lakewood), whose district includes his hometown. In the spring of 2011 he interned for Bay Area Congresswoman Barbara Lee (DOakland) and that summer moved over to the office of California Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. “I wanted to work in politics, but I didn’t know how to do it,” recalled Paulino, who landed a job with LinkedIn after he graduated college. “It was great and I loved it. But it also solidified my passion is really in politics.” See page 12 >>
are more likely to take a case brought by an employer.
hree big LGBT cases will be part of a private discussion at the U.S. Supreme Court next Friday, November 30, when the justices meet to conference about what appeals to hear in the coming months. All three cases test the limits of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on “sex.” Two of the three ask whether “sex” should be read to also prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. The third asks whether it should be read to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or “transgender status.” At least four justices must vote to accept an appeal before the court will schedule the case for argument. The likelihood of the court taking one of these cases is fairly strong, primarily because there is a conflict among several circuit courts as to whether Title VII can be read to include sexual orientation and/or gender identity discrimination. But with the newly constituted Supreme Court having a much more conservative slant, it is probably more likely that – if four justices want to hear an appeal – they will be seeking an opportunity to narrow the protective reach of Title VII, rather than expand it to LGBT people. In that regard, the justices
Funeral home case
Harris Funeral v. EEOC (from the 6th Circuit): This appeal comes from an employer in Michigan and asks whether “gender identity” or “transgender status” are covered under “sex” discrimination in Title VII. The employer, Harris Funeral, fired a longtime employee after she transitioned and refused to wear a man’s business suit supplied by the company. The employee, Aimee Stephens, first took her complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which ruled in her favor. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said “sex” discrimination in Title VII includes transgender discrimination. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the funeral home argues that its dress code applied equally to men and women and that the courts do not have the authority to say that “sex” includes “gender identity.” The reason the word “sex” was added to Title VII, said the funeral home, was to ensure “equal opportunities for women.” This case may be the most attractive to the conservative justices because they could deny protections to transgender employees and all LGBT people by simply claiming the lower courts have no authority to expand the definition of “sex”
Aimee Stephens was fired from a Michigan funeral home after she transitioned.
in federal law. The 6th Circuit includes Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Parachute company case
Altitude Express v. Zarda (from the 2nd Circuit): This appeal comes from an employer in New York, challenging a 2nd Circuit ruling that Title VII does cover discrimination because of See page 13 >>
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TAYLOR MAC’S HOLIDAY SAUCE Fri, Dec 14 & Sat, Dec 15 Royce Hall
Have a Mary Christmas and a Sassy New Year.