Petrelis Files

SF Chron: GetEQUAL's Already
Shut Down Castro Street?

A conservative columnist, by San Francisco standards, at the Chronicle, Mr. C.W. Nevius, is blogging this afternoon about a protest by GetEQUAL that is scheduled to take place in less than two hours. Seems as though the gay Astroturf org has put out a release about what happened, before it took place. Confused? Let Nevius explain:

Also, the group sent out a press release describing how the protest went hours before it happened. "At 5:30 pm (PST),'' it read, "after the rally, advocates marched from Harvey Milk Plaza to the corner of Market and Castro Street - in the heart of Speaker Pelosi's San Francisco Congressional District - where they unfurled a banner across the street, blocking traffic, that read,"Pelosi: When Jobs are Lost, the Market Stops."

So in a couple of hours keep an eye out for that, although apparently they have already seen how it is going to work out via some sort of time travel machine.

Paging H.G. Wells and his "Time Machine"! Well, Nevius has more complaining to do about GetEQUAL and one of its local organizers:

The press release that Politico has contains a quote from Gabriel Haaland, a local activist. He's certainly entitled to his opinion. But the release identifies him as a "city-wide elected DCCC Committee member.''

That's a bit of a stretch. Haaland is definitely a member of the San Francisco Democrative County Central Committee. But city-wide elected? I don't think so.

First, Haaland was elected in the 13th Assembly District, which is one of two districts that make up the DCCC in the city. So that's not city-wide.

And second, he got 9,711 votes in the most recent election, which placed him next to last in the district. And, in a city of over 750,000, that hardly qualifies him to speak as a city-wide elected official.

Not that I agree with Nevius on this point, but he has one final kvetch to register with readers:

Just saying. Enjoy the traffic jam at Market Street. I'm sure it will totally turn Pelosi around on the issue.

The planned protest and stopping of traffic in the heart of the gay ghetto may have an impact on Pelosi. Too bad GetEQUAL have done such a lousy job of explaining how the civil disobedience will be effective.

Add Nevius to the large chorus, of gay and straight people, who simply are not impressed with GetEQUAL, its tactics, and their strategy, if they have one, for moving legislation forward in Congress.