Petrelis Files

Cleve's Rally = Obama's HRC Speech:
No Timeline

In a city far, far away from Washington, I watched President Obama on Saturday night address the gay wing of the Democratic Party, the Human Rights Campaign, and then on Sunday afternoon saw the Cleve Jones gay rights rally at the U.S. Capital, thanks to C-SPAN.

From my perch in San Francisco, it was great to see LGBT issues catching the attention of the mainstream media and our community engaged in a very public debate about the American gay agenda, and offer a few observations on what I saw and heard.

First and foremost, both Obama's speech and today's rally equaled each other on one crucial point: both lacked presentation of a timeline or road map. Second, so many of the same basic words and concepts - equality, DOMA, LGBT people, fairness, DADT, love, ENDA, pressure - dominated Obama's speech and lots of speakers today.

As a vocal critic who predicted only 10,000 would show up for the march and rally, clearly I was wrong and I stand corrected. Many more than that were present and I laud everyone who was there.

And just as Obama critic jumped on him for making a speech he could have made before the election, much of the rally's content has been stated before at the 1978, 1987, 1993 and 2000 gay marches, and not much new was proposed.

Nor were we told today how the Equality Across America structure is shaping up. Did I miss the speech about how many of the needed 435 congressional district captains are signed up and ready to get active locally?

I heard a few pleas to text your contact and zip code info to a number, and that sounds like a extension of email and phone number harvesting Courage Campaign is famous for in California. The big problem with that is one man, Rick Jacobs, really controls that group, which is not gay-specific. We'll wait and see if getting all that info today translates into nitty-gritty at-home advocacy.

Speaking of hometown advocacy, a fine drag queen and political advocate ,Pollo Del Mar, is agitating a homo-hating singer from Jamaica. Keep checking the SF Ducals site for updates on whether there will be a picket tomorrow night. Here's the skinny from Pollo:

San Francisco’s Rock-It Room has booked a performance by reggaeton artist Buju Banton, a renowned homophobe whose lyrics call for gays to be murdered (either by being shot or burned “like an old tire wheel”). Additionally, in his native Jamaica, Banton was once charged with participating in a gay-bashing that left one man blinded. [...]

PLEASE join me in doing everything YOU can to keep this hate-monger from performing in our city, especially on the anniversary of such a dark day for the LGBT community.

These are some of my requests/suggestions.

1) EMAIL THE ROCK-IT ROOM!!
Tell their management exactly why bringing Banton to San Francisco is unacceptable. Send email to:
Booking@Rock-It-Room.com.

2) CALL THE ROCK-IT ROOM! (415) 387-6343.
Flood the club’s phone line with messages as to why this man’s show MUST be cancelled.

3) CONTACT SUP. BEVAN DUFTY
Sup. Dufty is a strong and outspoken member of our community. Post your concerns to his Facebook page (He checks it religiously) () or call his office: (415) 554-6968.

4) CONTACT SUP. ERIC MAR: (415) 554-7410
The Rock-It Room is in his District, and as a liberal, he supports the gay community. Call his office!

5) BE PREPARED, IF NECESSARY, TO PROTEST!
If we need to, let our voices be heard Monday night in front of the club. That homophobe should know we will not be silent as he encourages violence against us! Keep your eyes open for alerts of this nature, which will go out on Monday if Rock-It Room management allows the show to go as scheduled.