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October 20 - November 2, 2011 | www.sfbaytimes.com
The LGBTQ Newspaper and Events Calendar for the San Francisco Bay Area | July 28 2011
FAIR Education Act Opponents Fail to Qualify for Ballot Referendum
Bay Times Endorses Bevan Dufty for Mayor Has Equality California Lost Focus?
Dennis Herrera P HOTO BY K AREN OC AM B
2nd Choice
Mark Leno authored the FAIR Education Act which Jerry Brown signed into law.
By Dennis McMillan
“The FAIR Education Act will simply ensure that California’s students learn an honest, accurate, and inclusive account of history; but opponents of equality have grossly distorted the intent and the effect of the FAIR Education Act in their quest to secure signatures for this referendum,” said Roland Palencia, former Equality California executive director and interim executive committee cochair of the coalition to protect the FAIR Education Act. “Today’s victory shows that their lies cannot stand up to our truth.” He cautioned, “But we know that opponents of equality won’t stop here. We remain vigilant, not only to make sure that people know the facts about the FAIR Education Act, but also to continue preparing for new attacks on the FAIR Education Act at the ballot box, in the legislature, and in courts of law.” “Now it’s time to focus on implementing the FAIR Education Act and demonstrate to the public that our opponents’ lies are nothing more than smear tactics designed to censor the historical contributions of LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and people of color from social studies classes,” said Laura Valdez, interim executive director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network and cochair of the interim executive committee of the coalition to protect the FAIR Education Act. “Already, we are working with school administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community groups to ensure the fair and accurate portrayal of historically marginalized groups in schools, and we will continue to work to educate the public.” (continued on page 9)
1st Choice By Dayna Verstegen The Bay Times has selected Bevan Dufty as our first choice for Mayor. Dufty’s commitment to improving public transportation, rent control, transgender services, solar power, as well as reversing “black flight” from our city, and hiring from within the city, are not only important to the LGBTQ community, but also for the health of our entire city. Former Supervisor and openly-gay candidate Bevan Dufty is an idealist with creative ideas for public housing, foster care, and LGBT family housing. And while he is dynamic and passionate,
he is also approachable and compassionate. This would be a refreshing change in a city whose mayors are typically overwhelming personalities. The second and third positions for endorsement were hotly debated. The Bay Times has narrowly selected Dennis Herrera for our second position over John Avalos, who takes the third spot. Dennis Herrera is an impressive and personable man. He has the strength of personality to command a room, but is thoughtful and fair in his thinking. He has an excellent handle on
3rd Choice
By Dayna Verstegen The dust is now beginning to settle on Roland Palencia’s resignation from Equality California, but the clearing has provided no more information than we had one week ago.
the issues facing the LGBTQ community including gay marriage (for which he has been a tireless advocate), public housing, housing for LGBTQ seniors, and empowering our nonprofit organizations to better deliver core services. We were also impressed that he is comfortable changing his mind after further education (e.g. Central Subway project). This is too rare a quality in a politician. We did not like his support of the redevelopment of Park Merced. We ultimately chose Mr. Herrera for our second spot because we believe he can create new economic opportunities for our city
Answers to questions posed to Rebekah Orr of EQCA by the Bay Times were limited to only a few words. “This was Roland’s decision.” “This was not performance-based.” When asked if this move has anything to do with the decision not to pursue a ballot measure on gay marriage, the answer was simply “no.” When asked if there were ideological differences between Palencia and the board, Orr said “Roland got on well with the board.”
(continued on page 9)
Endorsing a Mayor the Democratic Way
PHOTOS BY R INK
Anti-equality advocates have announced that they have failed to collect the required number of signatures to place a referendum for the November 2012 ballot to overturn the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. The FAIR Education Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and sponsored by Equality California and GSA Network, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown earlier this year. It requires schools to integrate age-appropriate and factual information about historical roles of LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and people of color into existing social science instruction.
Roland Palencia resigned last week as Executive Director of EQCA, a post he held since May of this year.
John Avalos
Interim Mayor Ed Lee’s top three priorities are the economy, job The committee meets with Board of Supervisors President David creation and a safe city. Chiu in his bid to become mayor.
By Kirsten Kruse During this election cycle, you have probably seen endorsements from a variety of LGBTQ organizations and newspapers. You may wonder why and how those decisions are made. The Bay Times is committed to fair reporting and therefore want to describe our process for selecting our f irst, second and third choices for Mayor of San Francisco. The Bay Times strongly feels that the mayoral endorsement should ref lect not only the best interest but also the input and opinions of our LGBTQ readership. Therefore, we formed a committee including outstanding members of the community and the paper’s editorial team to endorse a
mayoral candidate for the upcoming election on November 8. Both staff and community representatives then collectively interviewed San Francisco mayoral candidates and arrived at our decision via democratic principles. It was important to us that our endorsement ref lects a diverse set of perspectives and a balanced view. Interviews were held on September 26th and 27th in a space generously offered by Café Flore. The following candidates participated: Interim Mayor Ed Lee, President of the Board of Supervisors David Chiu, former supervisor Bevan Dufty, Senator Leland Yee, Terry Joan Baum, Assessor Phil Ting, City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor John Avalos. While some candidates were notice-
ably absent, all candidates were invited, but either did not respond, or were unable to attend. The committee was comprised of three community members: Andrea Shorter, Deputy Director of Marriage and Director of Coalitions at Equality California, Cecilia Chung, former Deputy Director of the Transgender Law Center, and community fundraiser and activist, Gary Virginia. Publisher Betty Sullivan, Editor Dayna Verstegen, Advisory Board Member Tracy Gary, and Staff Writer Kirsten Kruse represented the paper. Bay Times photographer, Rink, also participated in the interviews. All candidates were given the same opportunity to introduce themselves by making an opening statement, (continued on page 4)
Orr could also not provide any specifics about replacement of Palencia. She could not say whether the Board would appoint an interim executive director, how long it would take to appoint a permanent replacement, or if the organization would do a national search. To be fair, it is not Rebekah Orr’s job to create policy or make decisions. As a spokesperson for the organization, she is also not empowered to speculate on the future of the organization. That said, Orr should be provided with more guidance and information. The issue lies with leadership and most sources close to the organization seem to say the same thing: EQCA has lost its focus. The responsibility for this lies with the board. First and foremost, experts in nonprof it management say that the board should have been prepared for changes like this. Non-prof its and particularly political ones are volatile organizations and boards of directors should be ready with a “lieutenant” that can take over day to day management. A small staff, scattered around the state will quickly lose steam without a strong and consistent leader. According to Orr, “several” members of the Board are in contact daily with the staff. If this sounds disorganized, it probably is. In a brief interview on October 10 with Karen Ocamb, Palencia said that “we will be having a board meeting and have a transition plan by the (continued on page 9)