Petrelis Files

Cleve Jones Zapped the Harvey Milk Club This Week

[CORRECTION: I've been informed that Jones did address the club with his criticism, but wasn't disruptive. I regret the error.]

Do you recall my zap against the lame Harvey Milk Democratic Club last September 11, over their broken promise to tackle reclaiming the public rainbow flag at, ahem, Harvey Milk Plaza, that I blogged about here?

Apparently, there's been a second zap against the club this time by the Widow Milk himself Cleve Jones. I heard about what went down at the regular general meeting on Tuesday, April 16 at the Women's Building in the Mission, through second sources and emails to the club leadership have not been responded to.

Some have said Jones disrupted a panel on affordable housing, saying the club's presence in the community is invisible and the membership is inactive at registering new voters on the streets. Jones also supposedly reminded the attendees that he was a cofounder of the club after Harvey's assassination.

Depending on who you talk to, folks were either unhappy with Jones' criticism or found it all was a breath of fresh air. What has it all lead to? A decent amount of soul-searching among the membership and a smattering of online chatter.

I've not heard if Jones said anything about the complaint I've heard in the past year about the club's accomplishment. Yeah, singular. I'm talking about the worthwhile and successful support that brought about the reopening of the Eagle Bar, which is what many think of as the club's biggest project and only project in 2012 and into 2013. Can you name something else they're responsible for, of any impact for the larger queer progressives they claim to represent?

Before going any further I must point out just how piss poor this self-proclaimed "Home of San Francisco's Queer Progressive Left" is at communication. The Milk Club's site never posts an agenda before meetings, guaranteeing only insiders get advance notice of what's to be discussed.

Pull in regular queers who are David Campos or John Avalos lackeys, or those who aren't looking for City Hall jobs? Not part of their engagement with the larger community.

By the way, former club leaders Stephany Ashley and Nate Allbee are on Campos' staff, which probably explains why the club has not pushed the Supervisor to keep either his flag promises as part of a larger agenda to reclaim public space or hold hearing about the epidemic of evictions in his district.

Oh, the club did come out for Campos' effort to rename the airport and that didn't do a damn thing to address the housing crisis among queer poor and moderate income folks.

But where's the club been while the Castro's public spaces have been further privatized? Does the membership give a damn about the nudity ban or the excessive police forces harassing and arresting nudists? Are club leaders willing to take on the control queens MUMC and the CBD over public space and other community-driven issues in the Castro?

And the beat goes on!