Petrelis Files

Vid: MUMC Denounced at Supes Meeting;
NY Flag Displayed for Gay Marriages

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors held their weekly meeting this afternoon, and I used my two-minutes of public comment to denounce the problems with the Merchants of Upper Market/Castro that prevented the New York flag from flying this past weekend at Harvey Milk Plaza.

After months of trying to work with MUMC and its obstreperous president Steve Adams, and head of the local Sterling Bank on Market Street, to reclaim the rainbow flag and pole at the municipal plaza for wider community use, it's abundantly clear to me MUMC is more concerns with retaining illegitimate control and dividing the community.

If MUMC were an organization holding open meetings allowing for public comment, and the agenda not held hostage to the whims of the deceitful president, it might be possible to negotiate changes regarding the rainbow flag in the heart of the Castro. But since MUMC is a private group, it can do whatever the heck it pleases without microscopic transparency and fairness.

Just a few of the reasons why my campaign to remove the flag pole at Harvey Milk Plaza from the clutches of MUMC control queens brought me to the Board of Supervisors meeting today. The Supes will hear from me every Tuesday, until such time as the public regains management of the entire plaza.

I'll be attending more such meetings, including the Small Business Commission where Adams serves as vice president, and using public comment time, and the cameras, to criticize MUMC's rule over the plaza. The next commission meeting is on August 9, starting at 5:30 pm at City Hall.

The city's TV service for the Supervisors now allows the public to cut snippets out of the meetings covered, as I've done here. My denunciation of MUMC begins almost 1-minute into the snippet here and at the end of my public comment, after another member of the public in the back of the room demanded to see the New York flag, I display it for all to see.

At the end, when I declare full-force shame for the failure of the Castro, due to MUMC and political malpractice, to stage a solidarity action with New York, I am looking directly at Supervisor Scott Wiener, who allegedly represents the gay interests of the Castro and did not a damn thing to help fly that state's flag.



The city cable and online services also now make available the raw text of almost everything said by taking the closed-captioning text and posting it along side the video. Is that cool, or what? Here's most of the text of my public comment:

My name is Michael Petrelis and I am a gay activist. i am here to talk about the public property at Harvey Milk Plaza.

This property is controlled illegitimately by the merchants of upper market. I approached them to honor game marriages. they have refused to work with activists .

There is a lot of disappointment in the gay community from coast to coast because MUMC -- refuses to cooperate with people on making the flagpoles, the rainbow flag, and occasionally flying a new york state flag. They are not cooperating with us.

i do not think it's ok that public property has been handed to an private organization. and it is not just regular public property. 

We are talking about Harvey Milk Plaza. I assure you that plaza's symbolism around the world is a beacon of hope, a beacon of tolerance for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people.

Right now, because of MUMC nothing happened in the castro in solidarity with new york this weekend. Shame.