Save the S.F. Eagle Meeting
Tonight at 7 PM at the Bar

Word has been circulating all weekend about the troubles faced by the proprietor of the legendary leather San Francisco Eagle bar in the South of Market district. The owner of the lot where the bar is located is keen to sell his property to a condo developer, which would bring about the demise of the Eagle as we now know it.

The Eagle is a welcoming place for those into the leather scene and every other segment of our diverse gay community, including non-drinkers like myself who occasionally show up on Sundays for a diet soda or two and to enjoy all the men and laughter.

Countless fundraisers for small, community-based groups and individuals doing good work, have been held at the bar, which takes its responsibilities to give back to the community very seriously.

Given the prime location of the Eagle, and the surrounding condo developments dwarfing the tavern building and the large backyard that have cropped up in recent years, I'm surprised the property owner didn't sell out long ago.

There's a community meeting tonight, starting at 7 pm, at the Eagle to discuss the situation and attempts to save it. The bar is located at 398 - 12th Street, at Harrison. I hope to see you there.

Hat tip: Brock Keeling at SFist.com.

Bay Citizen, NYT Partner, Violates
Correction Code on Bookstore Piece

Every Friday the New York Times' San Francisco edition runs two-pages of stories produced by Bay Citizen, a non-profit online news service funded by billionaire Warren Hellman who is chairman of the BC board. Founded in 2010, the partnership between BC and the Times is just one reason why the news site gets lots of attention and ink in the San Francisco area.

The BC's Scott James on April 2 wrote a piece on his blog about the sad demise of A Different Light bookstore on Castro Street and he referenced the closure of the Modern Times shop in the Mission. I blogged about the piece and my headline reflected James' reporting that both bookstores were going out of business.

James said: "This [shuttering of the Castro store] comes on the heels of the closure of the Mission's Modern Times, another independent progressive bookstore."

A reader complained that I was wrong about Modern Times closing, and that the socialist bookstore was moving out of its current location and expects to find a new space and reopen for business again in a few short month. I went back to BC's story to check their wording on this store's status.

The James piece was altered. It now says: "This comes on the heels of the possible (albeit temporary) closure of the Mission's Modern Times, another independent progressive bookstore."

That is quite a change of facts, but I couldn't find any correction notice from the BC on the story's page. Given the pedigree and partners of the BC I would expect to inform readers of any significant amending to original reporting on their site. Off went a note to James and BC editor Jonathan Weber, seeking an explanation.

Did the site amend their reporting without telling the reader? Where was the correction note explaining the change and why?

The managing editor, Jeanne Cartensen, sent this reply, bolding mine: "Thanks so much for this note. What you point out is correct -- Scott James' post was updated without documenting the change, which is a violation of our own policy. The mistake has now been corrected. If you go to the post now, it says that it was updated after the post was published when we learned that the closure of Modern Times might not necessarily be permanent."

My follow up asked if the reporter or an editor was responsible for the violation. Cartensen said: "It wasn't Scott, it was an editor error."

Oh, that sounds sloppy. And what does the now-amended-with-a-note page say about the changed reporting? "Since this post was written we learned that the closure of Modern Times isn't necessarily permanent, so the phrase 'possible (albeit temporary)' was added above."

Interesting they learned after April 2 about Modern Times' temporary closing, because the original James story linked to the March 15 post at the BC site about, um, that temporary closing of the Mission district book shop. Odd, to say the least, BC editors weren't aware of their earlier reporting.

What I do know is a few mistakes were made by BC folks, they've owned up to them and have made public amends. That is good and laudable. Keeping nonprofit online news sites such as the Bay Citizen adhering to responsible rules regarding amending original stories is beneficial to them and their readers.

Editors at the New York Times might want to ask their BC colleagues about applying corrections' standard fairly and consistently, to their news partner practices the best journalism possible in the pages of the Gray Lady and online.

NYT Reporter A.G. Sulzberger's
2010 Pay was $100K

(Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, in an undated photo. Credit: the Providence Journal, via the New York Observer.)

As a stockholder with a single share in the New York Times Company, I receive their annual meeting notices and proxy statements. My share was purchased by a friend when I wanted to attend the shareholders' 2004 meeting and raise a number of gay- and AIDS-related coverage complaints directly with publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr and his board of directors.

The 2011 proxy statement arrived in the mail this week and I was curious to see if it gave info on Sulzberger Jr's son A.G. Sulzberger, whose byline appears quite frequently in the news pages of the Gray Lady.

This is what the proxy said: "Arthur Gregg Sulzberger was employed as a staff reporter for The New York Times and was paid $100,646, including relocation benefits related to his transfer to The Times' Kansas City bureau."

By the way, according to a May 2010 story in the New York Observer by their media critic John Koblin about the transfer, A.G. Sulzberger is the bureau chief of that bureau. By all accounts, he's a top-notch professional media professional. Expect him to move up the corporate ladder in the future.

Many other Ochs-Sulzberger family members were also employed by the paper last year and their names and compensation are listed on page 30 of the proxy.

Here's a screen capture of that section. Click to enlarge:

Quite good of the Securities and Exchange Commission to require such disclosures to the public. Makes life easier for NY Times observers and Sulzberger family watchers to keep tabs on the paper and the relatives who are employed there.

Now, if only my single share would bring in more than a few dimes every once in a while, I'd be happy. ;-)

Saturday Fundraiser for Immune
Enhancement Project at El Rio

Since April of 1995, I've been a client at the Immune Enhancement Project in the Castro district receiving healing treatments of many modalities. From acupuncture to Reiki sessions to Chinese herbs, my immunity has been boosted by the treatments and caring practitioners.

When IEP's city funding was jeopardized on several occasions, I wrote letters to the health commission on their behalf and also lobbied the Board of Supervisors to keep municipal money flowing to the alternative medicine clinic. IEP's services are low-cost and I often throw an extra few bucks into their donation box, to keep the clinic open and thriving.

Tomorrow, April 9, there is a grassroots-organized fundraiser for IEP at the El Rio bar at 3158 Mission Street that kicks off at 5 pm. Loads of humorous, multi-talented and sexy performers of all genders and colors will be on hand to entertain the crowd. Please stop by El Rio, have a great time and help keep this healing community clinic operating.

The BF and I have alternative plans, but we're sending the clinic a check to show our support. You can show your love for the clinic by snail-mailing a donation to them. Send contributions to: Immune Enhancement Project, 3450 - 16th Street, SF, CA 94114.

And thank you, IEP practitioners, administrators, healers, Reiki masters and volunteers for your decades of boosting the immune systems of many people, not to mention all the good karma you all have put out to the universe.

LAT: Say No to Pols Pushing
Gay Ed Bill in Sacramento

Friday marks three days since the Senate Judiciary Committee in Sacramento voted 3-2 to endorse SB 48, a gay education bill authored by Mark Leno.

While many gays, myself included, view that vote on Tuesday as a good development because we are basically supportive of the legislation, the folks at Equality California have remained steadfast in their silence on their site about the bill moving forward.

While EQCA's leaders for some odd reason think silence is best about this bill and the controversies surrounding it, the editors at the Los Angeles Times have plenty to say against SB 48. None of it positive.

Care to wager money that our lying adversaries will seize upon the liberal LA Times coming out and opposing the bill, and will use the column to maximum affect to try and kill the bill? Can't say that I blame them.

I wonder how EQCA and other fabulous A-gays with wealth will counter the editorial. Maybe another invitation-only going-away party for one of their own, as he leaves EQCA for a job with Freedom to Marry, like the fancy soiree held in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening at a dazzling home?

One thing's for sure. Los Angeles-based Karen Ocamb will not be asking any hard and tough questions of this crowd about SB 48, problems with EQCA, or lack of democratic engagement with the grassroots.

She's way too cozy with these folks to jeopardize access by writing journalism that doesn't gush over them and their parties. EQCA and A-gays must love knowing they can reliably count on Karen for fawning coverage and pix like these, and that she is not about to challenge their rotten, stinking status quo.

From Friday's LA Times's editorial titled "Gays in textbooks: Best told by historians, not politicians":

Politicians don't write good textbooks, and they shouldn't try. That's true in Texas, where conservatives on the state Board of Education ordered up changes in history books, ...

It's also true in California, where liberals in the Legislature are pushing a bill that would require textbooks to include, according to Times reporter Patrick McGreevy, "the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans." A similar bill was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

Does the idea have a better chance five years later, with Jerry Brown as governor? We hope not. ...

That's not to say textbooks shouldn't address the struggle against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Though there is still a long way to go, gays and lesbians have made huge gains in recent decades and are now making history with their quest for full marriage rights. These battles no doubt have a legitimate place in the social studies curriculum. But that's a decision for educators and textbook writers to make. ...

Jones/Courage Campaign: Repeal DOMA
Captains in 435 Congressional Districts?

I've seen this movie before. In the fall of 2009, more than 100,000 gay folks and allies descended upon Washington, DC, for what I dub Cleve-Apalooza, a rally held on the steps and lawn of the U.S. Capitol on a weekend when Congressional members were out of town.

Longtime gay community advocate Cleve Jones spearheaded the Equality Across America/National Equality March, without much transparency and no public meetings to discuss little details like strategy, political demands, and follow up after the rally.

We were told march and rally were part of "a network of decentralized organizers in every one of the 435 Congressional districts. These organizers form Congressional District Action Teams (CDATs) that work within their own communities to achieve full equality for LGBT Americans and their families."

There were supposed to be 435 district captains to come out of the 2009 weekend in Washington, but that promise was not fulfilled. One month after the rally, the Bay Area Reporter performed a valuable duty for the gays and asked Cleve about those promised organizing teams across America:

"It remains to be seen exactly how many of those teams have been formed. Jones said Tuesday that he thinks groups have formed in some 200 districts. 'But that's kind of fuzzy,' he added." ...

Let's cut to the chase. Not a single team was formed, and certainly not in Cleve's district in Palm Springs where was living at the time, and is represented by the GOP's Mary Bono Mack. For all practical purposes, I thought the 435 Congressional district captains idea was as dead as doornail. Guess again.

Unnamed Advocate.com editors yesterday ran a marginally-altered release from Jones and his sponsoring organization about a scam to raise funds, harvest email addresses and phone numbers, while boosting their "membership" numbers, all part of a ruse to fool people into thinking this effort will actually accomplish any serious organizing or heavy lifting to do away with DOMA.

Illustrating how low this publication has sunk in providing an historical perspective to the "news" it reports, mention of the 2009 promise for a 435 network of activists is omitted by Advocate.com editors:

The Courage Campaign has launched a 50-state strategy to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which is also being challenged in federal court cases and by Congress.

The plan, in conjunction with longtime activist Cleve Jones, will be managed on a grassroots level, with efforts in each of the 435 congressional districts. ...

If this supposed plan exists, let's see the details and have the organizers hold a few town hall meetings to get feedback and engage the community. The plan in 2009 never materialized and the Advocate.com would do us all a huge service if they reminded us of that failure and took a skeptical look at the Courage Campaign's motivations.

Castro's Ferrari Foods Closing
Because of Bankruptcy Filing?

Normally, I don't read the business section of SF Chronicle in the morning on recycled-tree, but the headline about the personal and financial issues at the A.G. Ferrari Italian foods company caught my eye.

This boutique chain has an outlet on Castro Street and I've shopped there over the years, enjoying their selection of tasty cheeses and delicious sweets. (Ok, they've also had friendly, hunky male staffers to wait on customers, providing another reason for a gay man to be a customer at the upscale deli.)

What are some of the troubles? The Chronicle's business reporter Andrew S. Ross explained the sad news:

For A.G. Ferrari Foods, "importers of fine Italian foods since 1919," heartbreak has come suddenly, and in threes.

Last month, twin "godfathers" of the business - Harold Ferrari, 88, son of founder Annibale Giovanni Ferrari, and brother-in-law Vincent Cerletti, 89, - passed away, within three days of each other.

On Monday, the company announced it had filed for bankruptcy, the day after its Solano Avenue store in Berkeley shut its doors. A second store, in Sunnyvale, closed Wednesday night. ...

East Bay and Peninsula residents must be ruing the closures in their neighborhoods, but what about the store on Castro Street and its future? Is it staying open for business and if so, for how long, given the general economy and local business ills in the Castro district? The Chron said:

As is the case for other retailers in the Bay Area, the economic downturn combined with high rents has hit A.G. Ferrari hard. ...

In the interview, [CEO Paul] Ferrari said he is seeking to renegotiate leases on the Peninsula and in the South Bay - the company has stores in Belmont, Los Altos and Palo Alto, in addition to Sunnyvale. "Possibly a few more will close," said Ferrari. But, "right now," he said, the stores in San Francisco, the East Bay and Corte Madera are safe. ...

Whew, that is temporarily good news for fans of the Castro Street outlet, not to mention also good to hear for the folks who work there. That "right now" part could easily change.

I hope it stays in business for a very long time, despite the bankruptcy filing by the parent company. San Francisco's gayest district has more than enough empty storefronts, right now. It doesn't need any more venues shuttering.

(The Castro Street store, shown above, in a 2006 photo. Credit: RobertR2006, Flickr.)

Prop 8 Judge Vaughn Walker
Comes Out as a Gay Man

(Judge Vaughn Walker, left, with Brett Andrews, a platonic friend and AIDS executive, on May 17, 2010, at a gay restaurant in the Castro district. Credit: Michael Petrelis.)

From Reuters today:

Former U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who retired from the bench at the end of February, said it would not be appropriate for any judge's sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin or gender to stop them from presiding over a case. ...

The talk to a handful of reporters was Walker's first public comments to reporters about presiding over the lawsuit challenging to Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California. Walker struck down the ban as unconstitutional, and the case is currently on appeal.

It was also the first time Walker publicly acknowledged his own sexual orientation. Walker said he has been in a relationship with the man for 10 years. "He is a physician," Walker said. ...

From my post of July 3, 2009:

The moment I saw the photo of Walker in the BAR, my gaydar's bells and whistles went off. Once I was allowed into the courtroom, took a seat and observed Walker in action, I was convinced the judge was a gay man.

His chipper demeanor, and low-key humor that several times set off loud laughter from lawyers and spectators, gave me the feeling Walker would make an excellent entertainer at a gay piano bar for refined mature gentlemen. ...

From my May 17, 2010, guest post at the SF Appeal about seeing Walker in a gay restaurant:

With a smile on my face, I approached their table, nodded acknowledgment to Brett, then extended my right hand to Walker, who was grinning and quite relaxed. (Was it the drinks that put him at such ease?)

The brief conversation started thus:

MP: "Hello, Judge Walker, I'm -- "

VW: "Hi Michael."

MP: "I wanna ask you something. Will you come out?"

VW: "Come out?"

MP: "Yeah, come out."

BA: "Do you mean come out for some socializing?"

MP: "Oh, okay. Whatever. I just hope you do the right thing. Have a good night." ...

What else can I say on this day, when Judge Walker finally and officially steps out of the closet, except the obvious? Welcome to the out-of-closet community.

SF Ex Editor Clarifies Blogger
Credit Issue over Castro Story

This comment was posted to my recent essay about the Ex cribbing from another post of mine regarding the Castro theater going dark for every Monday and Tuesday night in April. The comment Stephen Buel deserves a post of its own:

I am the city editor for the "corporate media outlet" the SF Examiner. As a point of clarification, please let me note that our story was in fact a response to the story by KTVU, another "corporate media outlet." Whether their story was in fact inspired by your blog post I cannot say.

As to the larger issue of when it is appropriate to confer credit to other media outlets, whether they are "corporate media outlets" or scrappy neighborhood blogs, the standards are fairly clear. If we rely on the reporting of another news outlet and are unable to confirm the information ourselves, we should credit the other news outlet, and we do. If, on the other hand, we rereport a story and confirm the facts on our own, such credit is not customary, as was the case in this instance.

Always nice to for a daily's editor and blogger to communicate about these issues, so I told Stephen I was happy to hear from him. I also asked Eve Batey of the SF Appeal for her valuable thoughts about Stephen's comment, because she has spent a good deal of time considering media ethics for old and new media outlets. Eve said:

Every news org has their own standards for what's fair attribution, and they range anywhere from (most) new media orgs, that attribute and link to everything they can, to the more traditional big media orgs (typically print based) that will attribute nothing and rewrite nearly everything.

Buel's response seems fairly typical of the standards for old media news organizations. Which is a bit disappointing to me, because I've seen some gestures toward new media standards in some of their content! But I know that progress can be very slow for legacy news folks.

In the case we're discussing, specifically, to mention "blogs" in the story, but not by name, seems to miss an opportunity to make some progress away from that old-fashioned way of thinking. I am hopeful that by posting on this, Michael, perhaps you have encouraged at least one person to question the old media way of doing things.

The Ex is truly one of my favorite publications to read (after SFist, of course, hi Brock), and I think their staff works hard and does a lot of great stuff. I am rooting for them to succeed, and I do believe they'll have more of a chance if they act like a new media organization. So I must admit that my perspective is a bit selfish -- I want them to stick around!

Eve is one smart cookie and I agree with her about wanting the Ex to keep publishing. Reading Stephen and Eve's comments jogged my memory regarding a story in the Ex that helped me get a press pass from the San Francisco police department.

In August 2009, after the cops rejected my request for such a pass, I blogged about an Ex reporter interviewing the then-new police chief George Gascon and getting him to go on record saying press passes should be issued to bloggers and other online news sources.

I wrote: Brent Begin at the SF Examiner reported on Gascon's effort to modernize the public information office, and this terrific development was noted [that would open the pass process to more than just corporate media types].

Not only did I give credit to the publication and the writer of the story, I also linked to it because that is my custom when blogging about other sources including in my essays. That's pretty much the standard for all online-only news sites and bloggers.

Again, I thank Stephen for openly communication between us and offering an explanation. Let me repeat something I said in my critical post about the Ex's story on the Castro theater. The story was a good reminder to San Francisco's many movie-lovers to turn off the computer and TV, and help keep the historical film palace alive and well by catching a movie there.

CA Gay Ed Bill Passes Out
of Committee by 3 to 2 Vote

Moments ago I finished up my phone chat with Roseanne Moreno, the assistant to the California Senate Judiciary Committee and can now report that SB 48, the gay education bill, passed out of committee by a vote of 3 to 2 along party lines.

Democrats Noreen Evans, Ellen Corbett and Mark Leno cast the ayes, while GOP Senators Tom Harmon and Sam Blakeslee voted no.

The legislation now works its way up to the Senate floor, and the date of that debate will be announced later.

Today's hearing was taped and will available on the Cal Channel by tomorrow afternoon, according to Roseanne. If you want to watch the meeting, click here on Wednesday, then search for the April 5 judiciary committee hearing. The debate on SB 48 was the first item on the agenda today, so it should be at the start of video.

As I write this, it's 5:30 pm and no info on the vote or hearing is posted at the Equality California web site. Same thing at the site for the Traditional Values Coalition.

Let's see how each side spins the vote earlier this afternoon, and how they mobilize for the next steps in moving SB 48 forward.