Petrelis Files

SF Weekly: Sour Prez of Milk
Club Starts Vanity AIDS Democratic Club

Nearly two weeks ago, I blogged on this development, and both SF gay newspapers, the BAR and the Bay Times, chose to ignore the Milk Club president forming a vanity Democratic club.

The latest issue of the alternative SF Weekly today runs a story about his new club, which as far as I can tell, has only one member and hasn't bothered with a single public meeting.

From the Weekly article:

Why is the head of San Francisco's most venerable gay Democratic club starting another political organization? That's what some in the gay community are asking after Brian Basinger, president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, recently launched the tentatively named HIV Democratic Club.

Well, if you think it has something to do with the big brouhaha in the Milk Club over its controversial decision to endorse incumbent state Senator Carole Migden (a lesbian) over challenger Assemblyman Mark Leno (a gay man), you're not alone. [...]

Basinger got in hot water with other Milk Club leaders after telling the Bay Area Reporter last month that an October vote pushed through by Migden supporters to endorse early in the District 3 Senate race was improper. The executive board responded by taking the highly unusual step of censuring Basinger and issuing a public letter reprimanding him for "undermining" its credibility. [...]

Basinger, executive director of the AIDS Housing Alliance, says he began talking about starting an AIDS-focused Democratic club a year ago, before the Migden-Leno race heated up. [...]

And, well, he says, the Milk Club can be "a toxic place" that isn't always welcoming for newcomers. The new organization, he sniffs, won't have 30 years of political baggage to weigh it down. Basinger says his HIV/AIDS club "will be able to work with everybody."

Hmmm, perhaps everybody except the Milk Club.