SF Voter Toolkit Ad:
Get Tested for HIV

This may be a first, but even if it isn't it's still unique and a creative way of getting out an AIDS message without the usual fear-based approach to HIV testing.

My voting toolkit for the June 5 primary arrived in the mail yesterday and I did what I always do when comes. I read it from cover to cover and learned a few things, such as how it's an open primary and I can vote for the opponents of all the incumbents - Feinstein, Pelosi, Leno, Ammiano - who need to be challenged even in small ways at the ballot box.

Toward the back of the toolkit was a full-page ad promoting HIV testing from the Department of Public Health, using an election theme and image that was impossible to ignore:

I've been looking at San Francisco's voter toolkits since 1995 and don't recall seeing such an ad before. Opposite the HIV testing ad was a safety message about coyotes in the city, which was from the Recreation and Parks Department:

The online version of the toolkit does not contain these ads, so folks who have opted out of receiving the paper version in the mail and only read the PDF of it won't be seeing this HIV message. However, for those San Francisco who will read the printed version before election day, they'll be reminded to consider taking an HIV test and learning their sero-status.

If anyone knows about any other voting guide with such a push for HIV testing, please let me know about it.

Bay Times' Rostow's Cold Water:
NC Voters Will Pass Anti-Gay Amendment

(Ann Rostow smiles in a picture snapped by Rex Wockner.)

One of my favorite lesbian thinkers and writers is Ann Rostow, who pens a regular must-read column for San Francisco's Bay Times. She brings a down-to-earth view to our community and leaders, that is balanced and fair.

Back in 2008, before we lost gay marriage through the closetry of the gay leaders running the Prop 8 campaign, Rostow took the leadership to task for omitted lesbian and gay couples from their TV ads. She also didn't buy-in to the few polls showing our side would win on Prop 8.

Rostow over the years has paid very close attention to the various gay ballot propositions across the country, and brought a much-needed and very welcome skeptical eye to unwarranted optimism of local leaders, and the generally closeted losing campaigns they organize.

This week she looks at the anti-gay proposition facing voters in North Carolina. I've excerpted passages and predict she'll be proved right, again, the day after this vote takes place:

Okay. Enough frivolity. Perhaps you recall that our latest antigay marriage ballot vote is coming up next Tuesday in North Carolina. So far, I’ve seen nothing but depressing polls that suggest we will once again lose and that the Cancer State will join the crowds of states with a ban on same-sex unions engraved in their constitutions.

Lately, however, I’ve read a few encouraging articles hinting that there might be some slim chance of an upset victory for our side. [...] Polls show that a majority of voters support civil unions or domestic partnerships, so in theory, if these voters recognize the broad threat implicit in the marriage measure, they’ll vote no.

But at the risk of throwing cold water on our feverish hopes, let me make two points. First, the fine citizens of North Carolina don’t, and won’t, recognize the nuanced implications of their “save traditional marriage!” votes. [...]

Second, before every antigay ballot vote, there are always last minute articles claiming that we still have a chance to win, but we never do. [...]

To give you an example, here’s a headline off the Washington Post blog that reads: “Gay Marriage Battle Down to Wire in North Carolina.”

Read further, and the item cites a Public Policy Polling survey, released on May 1, that shows Amendment One winning by 55-41. Sorry, folks. That doesn’t sound like a close race to me. We have an advantage in ready cash, so we may be able to outspend the other side in the final days. But unless my first grade math fails me, we’re down by 14 points.

AP Quotes only Gs in Obama Story;
Forget about Ls, Bs and Ts

Speaking as a gay man, there's nothing wrong with quoting one of us in Associated Press stories about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and our complex relationship with President Obama and his administration.

AP reporter David Crary today filed a story about gay impatience with Obama, and the following seven community leaders and lobbyists were quoted:

Kevin Cathcart of Lambda Legal, Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, Tico Almeida of Freedom to Work, Andrew Tobias of the Democratic National Committee, Ethan Geto who's a political consultant, Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado, and Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry.

If those seven gay men are not enough, Crary also cited gay GOP advocate Richard Grenell, who resigned from the Mitt Romney campaign this week.

But where is the voice of a single lesbian, bisexual or transgender lobbyist or executive director? Missing from this AP wire story and I don't think that is ok. I'd like to suggest that Crary update his contract list for LGBT officials to contact when writing about the community.

And I also suggest that the AP and all mainstream media outlets look beyond gay marriage and federal employment protections. Many ordinary LGBT people worry about affordable housing, jobs with decent wages, affordable education opportunities and guaranteed access to healthcare and medicine.

Let's insist the media expand the LGBT they seek out for quotes and the issues they report on.

Golden Gate Xpress: SF Prepares
for May 17 IDAHO Flag-Lowerings

Ana Preza is a journalist for the Golden Gate Xpress newspaper published by students at San Francisco State University, and she wrote this fantastic story last month about what will take place here for IDAHO. It's so good that Preza is bringing the global day of solidarity to the attention of young students and raising their awareness about the problems faced by too many gays around the world.

Please join Gays Without Borders on Thursday, May 17 at UN Plaza for our flag-lowering ceremony that starts at noon.

From the Golden Gate Xpress:

Imagine living in a country where being gay is considered a crime. A place where people feel restrained from expressing their sexual orientation, are persecuted and always fear the day they may be imprisoned, stoned, beaten or killed for being gay. International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, commonly known as IDAHO, is a day that asks everyone regardless of sexual orientation to unite with LGBT communities to fight discrimination and violence. [...]

The goal of this day is to bring awareness to the violence, discrimination and murder of people within the LGBT community around the world. Several countries in Europe and Central and South America have recognized May 17 as a day of action against homophobia and transphobia.

Late last month, then San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution petitioned by Gays Without Borders, a gay activist organization that fights for equality and rights for the LGBT community. They asked that San Francisco lower the American and United Nations flags for a 24-hour period in recognition of IDAHO.

“Lowering the UN and American flag in the UN Plaza is a visual message of solidarity,” said Michael Petrelis, a member of Gays Without Borders in San Francisco. [...]

“I think it’s important for those of us who live in places like San Francisco where we don’t have to deal with those horrible situations that we acknowledge the suffering that other people have,” said David Campos, the supervisor who introduced the resolution to the board. [...]

Gays Without Borders has participated in IDAHO for several years. [...] This year they plan to honor gay teens that have been murdered in Iraq and Chile because of homophobia.

Petrelis wants to make American youth aware that being gay in other countries can get you killed. March 2, Daniel Zamudio, 24, of Chile was beaten and found with swastikas carved all over his body because he was gay. He died of his injuries 25 days later. [...]

Clinton to Release Human Rights Report,
According to NY Times Correspondent

Steven Lee Myers, the New York Times reporter who wrote yesterday's story on the Obama administration complex relationship with China including its human rights policies, has responded to my concerns expressed here that he should have mentioned the tardiness of the State Department's annual human rights report.

I'm pleased to learn more about what Myers found out about the pending report, and the fact that the delay has to do with Hillary Clinton wanting to be engaged when it's published later this month. Having Clinton again participating in the department's presentation of the latest report will add much importance to the findings in it.

Many thanks to Myers for providing me with this additional information. I very much appreciate having these sort of exchanges with Times reporters and all writers. Here's the entire note that he sent:

Thank you for writing and for your kind words.

I was aware the report was late and so checked on when it would be released when I mentioned it in the article you cited. As you noted, it has come out at different times in previous years despite the Congressional deadline – in April last year.

[The State Department's bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor] told me that it was a matter of coordinating the schedules of Secretary Clinton and the assistant secretary, Michael Posner, because she wanted to be involved in the unveiling of this year’s, as she has in the past.

State has notified Congress of the delay, and as far as I know at least, no one in Congress has objected. I don’t think the date has been finalized and thus is still subjected to change, but I was told that it would come on May 15. I did not think that the delay or the explanation for it warranted mention in this article, given its focus on the broader balance the administration has struggled to find.

NYT: State Dept's Human Rights Report
Due in May; Reason for Delay Omitted

On Sunday, I reported how the U.S. State Department's human rights report for 2011 was supposed to be released on February 25, and that it's quite comprehensive with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV citations. The report, but not that the fact that it should have been made public two-months ago, was cited in a New York Times story yesterday.

I've sent the following note seeking answers to the Times' public editor, Arthur S. Brisbane, and a few other folks at the paper. I'll let you know what they have to say when they get back to me.

The Times' esteemed reporter Steven Lee Myers wrote an excellent story this week on the many diplomatic challenges facing President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, in our relations with China including regarding that country's record on human rights.

In his story, Myers made this reference to the State Department's yearly survey of human rights practices abroad:

Every president, to some degree, has championed human rights around the world. For the last 35 years the United States has produced an annual report on individual nations that have adhered to basic freedoms; the 36th is to be released this month. 

All that is true, however, Myers omitted the fact that this year's report was due on February 25, as it every year as required by the Foreign Assistance Act. I blogged last weekend about this two-month tardiness on the Obama administration's part and pointed out that this the third year in a row the State Department has missed the Congressionally-mandated publication date.

I am requesting that you ask Myers and the foreign desk editor why the larger context of the annual human rights report being two-months overdue was omitted. Times readers deserve to know that the report is late and why this is so.

Thanks in advance for your prompt attention to my concerns.

WSJ: SF Gay Pride Rebounds;
Activist Says Occupy Attitude Needed

(SF Pride executive director Brendan Behan poses with parade floats. Credit: Annie Tritt, WSJ.)

When Geoffrey Fowler of the Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau contacted me about the recent fiscal and political troubles for the local gay pride parade and celebration, I had a hunch it was because he needed a critic of the pride committee to weigh in on a number of related issues.

In our phone chat, I spoke about the diminished political relevancy of pride and that the gay agenda was much more than military and marriage issues especially for those of us who don't want to join the Marines or get married. Concerns such as affordable housing, access to healthcare and medicine, making banks and large corporations pay more taxes that would sustain public transit and services, were a few matters I raised with Fowler but were left on the cutting room floor.

His story is now online and I was quoted pushing the radical idea of making our official June pride parade and party focused on economic justice issues. That pleases me, of course, as does being identified as a writer and AIDS activist because I am not sure that if I hadn't spoken with Fowler that AIDS would have been mentioned.

From the Wall Street Journal:

San Francisco's annual Pride celebration has come to be known for rainbows, revelry—and red ink. After the nonprofit behind the event accumulated $225,000 in debt, some city officials in 2010 publicly questioned if the group would last another year. But the financial situation has improved significantly in the past year and a half.

In 2011, San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee Inc. made a profit and put a dent in its debt. And under new leadership in the past year, the organization rebuilt its board, slimmed its staff and sliced its debt further, to $80,000.

If the sun and crowds return to this year's Pride parade and celebrations, scheduled for June 23 and 24, the organization projects a net profit of about $17,000. The turnaround has been steered by Executive Director Brendan Behan, 31 years old, who joined the Pride organization as an administrative assistant and volunteer coordinator in 2006. [...]

"This is our year to move out of the woods," says Mr. Behan. "We have to figure out how to keep moving in the direction of financial stability while we're activists at heart." [...]

"Conversations I had with Brendan really solidified my thinking," says Doug Donnellan, general manager of San Francisco Toyota Scion, which is returning as a sponsor for the ninth year. [...]

Not everyone is satisfied with Pride's focus on business and sponsorships. "What they're really doing is selling us as a market to corporations," says Michael Petrelis, 53, a San Francisco writer and AIDS activist. "I would like to see San Francisco Pride adopt the attitude of the Occupy movement, and move away from being a bigger, better party."[...]

Chronicle Omits Costs
of 5 SF Pols' Trip to Seattle

Here's a good example of the decline of basic journalism in San Francisco.

The Chronicle's Heather Knight, who wields a wide sarcastic streak in most of her opinionated items for the quasi-news column City Insider while omitting key facts, yesterday reported on Monday's trip by several department heads and the mayor to Seattle to tour a wet house, among other official duties.

Costs for the field trip? Knight does not say. She curbed her sarcasm this time and still forgot to inform readers of the tab for the travel and related expenses. Five City Hall officials hop up to Seattle to visit the wet house, and readers are left in the dark why they all had to make the trip.

There's also the matter of how close San Francisco may be to opening a wet house. The Chronicle didn't report on that either, or if the officials plan to hold a public meeting reporting back to taxpayers about their Seattle visit.

From the Chronicle:

That controversial plan to open a wet house in San Francisco where chronic homeless drunks can get city housing and keep drinking took a big step forward Monday. Mayor Ed Lee and a bevy of city officials toured the Seattle version, where the building's staff even goes on booze runs for some residents, dispersing beer, wine and vodka. Critics have dubbed the facility "bunks for drunks." [...] Bevan Dufty, the supervisor-turned-mayor's-homeless point person, has long advocated for a San Francisco wet house and showed Lee the Seattle model along with Barbara Garcia, director of the Department of Public Health; Henry Alvarez, head of the Housing Authority; and Joyce Crum, director of housing and homeless programs for the Human Services Agency. 

Dufty said the group toured the facility's common areas, met with staff and saw the private room of one of the residents whose life has changed so dramatically, he's now a chef who makes meals for his still-homeless buddies. Dufty wouldn't say whether Lee has pledged to open a similar version in San Francisco, but did say, "I thought it went well. I was really happy. It's definitely something we're going to keep talking about." [...]

Um, if the mayor is not ready to begin operating a wet house in San Francisco, why did all of the officials head up to Seattle on Monday?

L.I. AIDS Exec's $433K Pay
May Lead to State Investigation

My previous reporting on Gail Barouh, pictured, and her avarice can be found here, here, here and here.

The Long Island Business News yesterday ran a detailed report by Claude Solnik about a call by a county executive to have the New York state attorney general investigate the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, because of potential fiscal improprieties. The robust six-figure salary of the association's executive director initially raised the concerns of the county executive.

I wish to note that the county executive for unknown reasons is using 2009 figures for the total compensation of the association's executive director who is head of three non-profits. The executive director in 2009 took home $432,832, according to IRS tax filings but as I showed in April 2011, her collective compensation totaled $526,200 in 2010 as reported in additional IRS filings.

Here are key excerpts from yesterday's story, and the entire piece is worth a read:

Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos is recommending the state investigate the Long Island Association for AIDS Care, since he says the group failed to cooperate with a county audit. Maragos is asking the attorney general and state comptroller to look into LIAAC, which he said “was not adequately forthcoming with requested documents and records” required under its contract with Nassau. [...]

Maragos also is referring findings to the Nassau County attorney for possible legal action, including a breach of contact suit. The county contract states “the contractor shall maintain accurate records,” although Maragos said the nonprofit failed to provide sufficient documents and information despite numerous requests.

The LIAAC Board in a response to Maragos’ findings said it “fully cooperated with the financial audit” concerning HIV prevention services from 2009 to 2010. “LIAAC believes all issues were settled and there was no indication from the Comptroller to the contrary,” the Board said. “LIAAC never refused to provide any documents or records.”

Maragos said the group, which provides AIDS outreach and prevention, reported its CEO Gail Barouh earned $432,832 in 2009 for work at LIAAC, BiasHELP of Long Island and the Long Island Network of Community Services.

Maragos’ office requested documents for 2009-2010 after the compensation raised a red flag. [...]

SF Waives $1,400 
Flag-Lowering Fee for May 17 IDAHO

It give my global gay activist heart much pleasure to announce that the city of San Francisco has agreed to fly the UN and American flags at UN Plaza for International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), without charging Gays Without Borders a nearly $1,400 charge to do so.

The community liaison for the Department of Public Works, Greg Crump, today emailed Gays Without Borders the good news:

DPW will lower and raise the flags in United Nations Plaza on May 17th in accordance with your request and will waive the fee that covers the costs involved for the service.

You'll recall the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in March endorsing the flag-lowerings for 24-hours in conjunction with IDAHO, and also backing this global day of solidarity, activism and remembrance for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people everywhere.

Once the resolution passed the board, many online and phone conversations took place involving we activists, the DPW and several supervisors and their staffers nailing down details and clearing up any confusion. I must call out two supervisors, David Campos, for shepherding the resolution to reality, and Jane Kim, for nudging DPW to waive the fee.

And let me express my thanks to everyone who is helping to make the fifth-year of IDAHO in San Francisco the best yet.

Mark your calendars and plan to join Gays Without Borders at UN Plaza on May 17 at noon for IDAHO. We'll have a few short speeches regarding global LGBT issues and people, stage the flag-lowerings with a bugler playing taps, and create media images to share afterward. Please join us!