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Vol. 50 • No. 38 • September 17-23, 2020
Long-term HIV/AIDS survivors draft SF Principles statement by John Ferrannini Courtesy Governor’s office
Governor Gavin Newsom
Newsom signs LGBTQ teen sex offender registry bill by Matthew S. Bajko
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overnor Gavin Newsom late Friday signed into law a controversial bill that ends discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ young adults faced with registering as sex offenders. The author of Senate Bill 145, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), has faced death threats and been subjected to anti-Semitic harassment from followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory for months due to the policy change. He has also been falsely accused of promoting pedophilia, not only from online trolls but also from his colleague Senator Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore). Close to 8 p.m. September 11, Newsom’s office announced he had signed the bill along with 22 other bills. He made no comment about any of the legislation, and the press statement from his office made no mention of the controversy surrounding SB 145. It merely referred to the bill as “Sex offenders: registration.” In a Facebook post Wiener thanked Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco and long a champion of LGBTQ issues, for signing the bill into law in spite of the lies and homophobic reaction it had generated. “Proving again that he’s a true champion for the LGBTQ community – even when it’s hard – Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 145, ending discrimination against LGBTQ young people on California’s sex offender registry,” wrote Wiener. “Thank you, Governor, for seeing through the QAnon lies about this equality legislation.” Wiener noted that he had “been subjected to a tidal wave of QAnon/MAGA anti-Semitic, homophobic death threats, doxxing, and slander regarding this legislation. #SB145 is supported by law enforcement, civil rights groups & sexual assault survivor groups. Today, equality and justice won.” On Twitter, Melendez lashed out at Newsom for signing the legislation. “Well what a shock. Newsom signed SB145, the bill that allows a 24-year-old to have sex with a 14-year-old and escape a felony conviction and requirement to be a registered sex offender. Absolutely disgusting,” she wrote. The bill doesn’t change any criminal statutes. In actuality, Wiener’s legislation ensures LGBTQ adolescents are treated the same as their heterosexual peers when faced with the possibility of being listed on the state’s sex offender registry. He has been pushing to pass it for several years now. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, had held it over last summer in order See page 8 >>
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ong-term HIV/AIDS survivors in San Francisco have drafted a statement of principles demanding greater inclusion in policy making. The San Francisco Principles will be announced at an in-person news conference Friday, September 18, at noon at Civic Center Plaza (masks and social distancing required). Draftees told the Bay Area Reporter September 15 that policymakers often ignore their cohort and that this can only change if they have a seat at the table where government and nonprofit decisions are made. Hank Trout, the senior editor of A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine, said he and several other long-term survivors held a Zoom call after the 2020 International AIDS Conference, which would have been held in San Francisco and Oakland but for the COVID-19 pandemic. “We came together to talk about our reaction,” Trout said. “We were all pretty disappointed with it. Out of 100 hours of programming there were only two, onehour sessions devoted to long-term survi-
Courtesy SF Pride
Vince Crisostomo is one of the longterm HIV/AIDS survivors behind the new San Francisco Principles.
vors. Simply a statement about the conference isn’t enough.” Organizers of the 2020 AIDS Conference did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Trout said that they looked to the past
Courtesy Hank Troutå
Hank Trout
of AIDS activism for answers about how to address the lack of representation. “We were inspired by the Denver Principles in 1983, when people with AIDS demanded they be included and represented in policy, research, treatment and care and we decided on a statement of principles for long-term survivors,” Trout said. “We See page 2 >>
3 props address CA housing issues by John Ferrannini
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ousing, one of the most salient issues in California, is a subject of three statewide propositions on the November 3 ballot. Proposition 15 would repeal some caps on commercial property taxes first imposed by 1978’s Proposition 13. Proposition 19 would allow older, disabled, and some displaced Californians to move their property tax rates with them throughout the state – but would also require the inheritors of homes to live in them in order to claim lower property tax rates. Proposition 21 would grant local governments broader power to enact rent control.
Commercial property tax increase
In 1978, California voters passed Prop 13, which limited property taxes for the owners of both homes and commercial spaces. The result was a drastic reduction in property taxes, which critics have argued has hurt the state’s schools, which depend on that revenue. Prop 15 is known as the “split roll” fix, and would repeal the 1978 commercial property tax caps for properties worth over $3 million. It could generate billions of dollars in tax revenue. It does not apply to residential property. Proposition 15, dubbed the Schools and Communities First initiative, is supported by Equality California, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ
Rich Gerharter
A flat was for sale on Church Street in May.
Democratic Club, and the California Democratic Party. The California Republican Party opposes it. (Neither of California’s major political parties responded to requests for comment for this story. The California GOP only recently issued its ballot endorsements.) “We believe this is very important because it is a critical step to making sure every child has a safe and supportive school,” Samuel Garrett-Pate, the communications director for EQCA, said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “LGBTQ students face more risks at school and
our teachers and staff are on the frontlines of protecting our LGBTQ students, but both are underfunded because of these unfair tax laws. They need the support and funding to support LGBTQ+ people. And this would only apply to commercial, not residential, property.” Edward Wright, chair of the Milk club political action committee, told the B.A.R. that Prop 15 was the only proposition “pre-endorsed” by the club. See page 8 >>