Castro Xmas Tree Lighting
Zapped by Wiener Foes

(Nudist leader Mitch Hightower designed these fabulous posters. They were glued to wooden sticks and displayed tonight, angering a good number of Wiener supporters.)

Many thanks to the 20 or so nudists and affordable housing advocates and folks who want to reclaim public space for the general public, who came out tonight to zap MUMC and Scott Wiener. It's clear to me that everyone at the event tonight in the Bank of America plaza got the simple message: No more Castro Inc business as usual.

We activists are more than fed up with how Wiener and MUMC make decisions behind closed doors about public plazas and public policies, and have no interest in providing transparency to the general public.
 
What a pathetic official event tonight. Just what the heck was the DA doing there and how many times must we listen to City Treasurer Jose Cisneros and Mark Leno aide Anna Damiani say basically nothing at these things?

The following report by Roy McKenzie provides a few details on what happened, but I wish to expand upon his claim that it was only murmurs of discontent directed at me and other activists. Those unhappy with us shouted their displeasure and a few said, "You're ruining it for the children."

I told one counter-heckler that our public space is controlled by private merchants and democratic engagement is not a hallmark of Wiener's two-years as supervisors, and the last thing I was concerned with were kids seeing a tree in front of a bank get illuminated and crowd urged to shop at businesses that demonize nudists.

From the Castro Biscuit report (thanks Roy!):

Over a hundred people, both family and friends, gathered around the unlit holiday tree at 18th and Castro Street for the Castro’s Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony. There were so many people that we spilled into the street as SFPD routed the 24 line around the crowd. Castro ambassador and drag queen Donna Sachet “Mistress Claus” MC’d the event . . .

Many local politicians including District Attorney George Gascon, Treasurer José Cisneros, and Disctrict 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener were there to say a few words and encourage the crowd to keep it local and hit the stores after the ceremony . . .

Throughout the ceremony, local activist Michael Petrelis, minced no words with his bull horn calling out Supervisor Wiener’s aggressive political moves over the past few months including the ban on nudity and his support for the removal of the benches at Harvey Milk Plaza. 

Other activists from Occuprides’s Community Not Commodity contingent held up large, but festive signs that read, “Santa is a nudist” and “Scott Wiener the grinch who stole benches”. 

Most of the crowd was not pleased with Petrelis’s actions booing him in unison as many times as he took to his bullhorn. Many people in the crowd murmured that it was neither the time nor the place to make a political statement . . .

POZ: AIDS Charities,
$300K Salaries & Giving Wisely

Remember my September blog post about 12 executive directors at assorted HIV and gay nonprofits making $300,000 or more? A lot of grief came my way for conducting that informal survey via examining a few years' worth of IRS 990 tax returns. Friends and supporters of the executives defended the salaries and said it was wrong to sunshine the info.

Now, an unsigned post at the POZ magazine web site has picked up on what I wrote and put the details in the larger context of helping donors get the full financial picture from AIDS charities before making a donation. I couldn't be happier with everything mentioned in the POZ column:

But before you get into the seasonal spirit of gift-giving and fundraising, heed some advice from Charity Navigator, a nonprofit group that offers guidance on smart, responsible giving.

First off: Don’t make a donation to a telemarketer, even if the caller represents a group or cause you want to support . . .

Likewise, you want to know how much of your donations are going to overhead versus going to programs and services. Blogger Michael Petrelis raised this issue in September with a post titled “$300K-Plus Club: 12 Gay & AIDS Executives’ Pay.” After looking at tax returns for related nonprofit service organizations, Petrelis found 12 executives who broke the $300,000 annual salary mark. (HIV executives making the list in 2011 include: amfAR’s Kevin Frost at $388,000, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Michael Weinstein at $380,000, Food & Friends’ Craig Schniderman at $374,000, God’s Love We Deliver’s Karen Pearl at $318,000 and amfAR’s Jerome Radwin at $300,000.) . . .

Yes, it's good to get this compensation info out to more of the public and POZ goes further with helping donors (and clients) understand the important of transparency:

Another way to find fiscal info on your AIDS service organization or any nonprofit is to look for its IRS 990 tax forms on its website. Charities that are most transparent regarding their finances make this information accessible to the public. If you can’t find it, then don’t hesitate to call or email to request a copy. While you’re at it, ask for tax forms from the past several years so you can look for trends. 

Speaking of transparency, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation does not like it and makes no IRS 990 available on their web site. Good of POZ to recommend looking at a few years' of returns and to simply ask any charity for their tax filing. You can also find the returns at GuideStar.org and help in understanding the forms at CharityNavigator.org.

Finally, once excellent point POZ makes that I want to reiterate is this:

It also doesn’t hurt to take a look at an organization’s board of directors. Are any of the members openly living with HIV? Do they represent the community the group is supposed to be helping?

After checking out the IRS 990s, ask the organization not only if people with AIDS are on the board or in top leadership positions, but also see what mechanism they have for client input over how the money is spent and services delivered.

Let transparency reign at all AIDS nonprofits!

Bay View + Guardian:
Wiener Irks Parents, Environmentalists

It's not enough that polarizing Supervisor Scott Wiener, a politician truly lacking in people-skills and the ability to compromise with opponents, has pissed off nudists, sunshine and good government advocates, folks who want to reclaim flagpoles on public grounds, and voters who rejected his ballot prop to allow the Board of Supervisors to amend select measures passed by the electorate.

Wiener has now irked low-income parents with kids and their allies, because he does not want to use public dollars making Muni rides free for youths. Excerpted from an article last week in San Francisco's leading black newspaper the Bay View, written by Jaron Browne:

Dozens of parents and youth advocates testified before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Government Audits and Oversight Committee supporting Municipal Transportation Agency Director Ed Reiskin’s proposal to apply recently awarded regional funds to implement the free Muni for youth pilot program. 

The families were responding to a resolution introduced by Supervisor Scott Wiener urging the MTA to use the funds only on maintenance and not on the youth pass. 

“Supervisor Weiner is creating a false choice between the youth pass program and the health of the system as a whole,” said Angelina Yu with the Chinatown Community Development Center . . . 

“Supervisor Wiener is out of touch right now with the needs and experiences of the majority of people who ride the bus in San Francisco,” said Gloria Esteva, parent leader with POWER. “He says he is a transit advocate but he is fighting against the core issue being raised by the thousands of families and youth who ride Muni every day, which is the urgent transit need of our children and youth.”

The SF Metropolitan Transportation Agency is set to vote on a resolution backing free transit for youths on Muni on December 4, and a large crowd of advocates favoring the resolution are expected to show up and speak up. I'm supportive of the resolution and believe the newly available dollars would best be used getting youths used to riding public transit, and give low-income families a break in these hard times.

Also last week, the Bay Guardian's editor Tim Redmond reported on Wiener's attempt to dilute environmental protections and reviews, a scary proposal that would seriously jeopardize the public's right to appeal decisions favorable to developers:

Sup. Scott Wiener is proposing a dramatic overhaul of the city's environmental review process that would limit the ability of citizen activists to appeal projects and could ease the path for major developments.

The new rules — some of which are fairly simple and routine, others more far-reaching — cover the city's interpretation and implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state's venerable land-use and environmental oversight law. The legislation is before the Planning Commission and could reach the supervisors in December . . .

Wiener would do away with the mandate that the supervisors hold a hearing, accept appeal briefs, and address CEQA questions as a distinct and separate part of a project approval. 

"The public would be denied the right to a hearing before the full elected body on the adequacy of an EIR or other CEQA determination," a Planning Department staff analysis states . . .

As Wiener's first two years serving as the District 8 supervisor come to a close with more of his conservative and questionable tinkering with city policies, it's abundantly clear he has no intention of learning from his predecessor Harvey Milk in respectfully engaging all constituencies and practicing the political art of compromise.

The list of constituencies and numbers of citizens displeased with Wiener and his rigid conservative agenda continues to expand with these proposals, and that is not healthy for the Castro or the city at-large.

Weekend Woof #18:
Pleasing to My Queer Eye

Another week of snapping photos of good-looking dudes around San Francisco. Gay or straight, they all appeal to my queer eye and happily pose for me. Thanks much, fellas!

My gay neighbor Manesh models professionally and was so relaxed about smiling for this ongoing photographic series. Been meaning to grab pictures of him for some time now and glad I ran into him at our local taqueria.

At that same taqueria in the Mission is where I caught up with the adorable Tyler, a funny ham who once appeared on a reality show and struck a happy and serious pose for me. He's the general manager at the West of Pecos restaurant owned by his equally straight brother Dylan, who appeared in Weekend Woof #17.

One of the many pleasures of hanging out in Jane Warner Plaza is meeting all the handsome straight guys visiting the Castro with their girlfriends. These two men were visiting last weekend from Spain, and the one with the camera asked me to use my rudimentary Spanish to say hello for his camera. Just like I'm posting his image my blog, he's sharing some footage of me on his blog back at home.

Previous batches of woofy dudes are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Which Two 'Progressive' 
SF Supes Attended Junket in DC?

The president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, David Chiu, is no progressive, not when he frequently votes with the conservative faction of the board as he did on Tuesday to ban nudity.

Chiu's swing vote in favor of Scott Wiener's latest failure to hash out a neighborhood compromise to a social controversy, and to seek a second legislative nudity solution, illustrates Chiu's lack of progressive bona fides.

Imagine my surprise reading Chiu's gifts of travel disclosure posted on Tuesday at the Ethics Commission web site. He was in Washington, DC, from November 16 thru the 18th. The purpose of attending a junket in the capitol? Chiu claims he was:

Representing San Francisco at Founding Meeting of the National Progressive Municipal Network.

If Chiu's a progressive, then I'm Greta Garbo. His pro-Wiener, anti-nudity vote lays to rest any question that he's a genuine San Francisco progressive.

Amount listed for cost of attending the junket? Not much, just $707.

Section 4 of Chiu's disclosure requests the name of any other city employee required to file a statement of economic interests and Supervisor John Avalos' name is listed. Avalos is certifiably and genuinely progressive, but either he hasn't file a gifts of travel disclosure form for the trip or he has and the Ethics Commission has not posted it.

But Avalos' progressive reputation is sullied by the written promise he made in September 2011 during his mayoral campaign, that he would address the rainbow flag control issues at Harvey Milk Plaza. After his loss, he abandoned that promise.

There's also the matter of Avalos demanding more robust, direct and regular question time with Mayor Ed Lee, and not holding his own forums where question time directed at him is on the agenda.

Avalos could show the mayor how easy it is to engage with taxpayers via question time events, and put on his own. That is, if he's not too busy spending time on a junket in DC.

Wiener Uses SF Sheriff
to Intimidate Citizen Journalist

As I go about my day out and about in San Francisco, as a citizen journalist, I frequently snap lots of photos including ones of public figures in public places.

Remember my May 17, 2010, photo of Judge Vaughn Walker, pictured at right, having dinner with his friend AIDS executive Brett Andrews of the Positive Resource Center in a gay restaurant in the Castro, during the Prop 8 gay marriage lawsuit, before Walker exited the closet? Perfect example of my unique brand of documenting what I see in my daily routine.

I mention this because of a few of the questions posed to me this morning, with my attorney Derek St. Pierre present, during an intimidating 25-minute interview conducted by two deputies of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department at their 25 Van Ness office.

On the table was an inch-thick paper folder with my name and the case number of the complaint filed by Supervisor Scott Wiener, over the photo I snapped of him at a sink in a public restroom at City Hall in October.

The deputies explained that Wiener has filed a complaint against because he thinks the photo is inappropriate, as investigators in the security detail for City Hall they are obligated to conduct an interview. I was told twice that I was not under arrest and could leave at any time, and the interrogation lasted just under half an hour.

My attorney's request for a copy of the complaint and case file was rejected. Derek asked that the sheriff contact him should they have any further questions, or wish to bring a charge and arrest me, so he be present when I turn myself in, if we get to that point.

Stop and think about this situation for a moment. An ambitious supervisor is upset over a citizen journalist taking his photo in a public room at City Hall, and he got two sheriff's deputies investigating me and using taxpayer dollars to intimidate a blogger. Does the photograph really rise to the level of a taxpayer witch-hunt? For Wiener, the clear answer is yes.

For me, Wiener and the sheriff's department are blowing up an image all out of proportion that I took as part of my mundane day on October 26, when I was at City Hall for a photo-op I and fellow gay activist Charlie Hinton, pictured far right, organized.

Erick Martinez, pictured center in dark red shirt, is a brave gay Honduran democracy advocate and political journalist who has been targeted for death by the rightwing militia controlling his country. Charlie and I arranged for Erick to meet LGBT Supervisors David Campos, pictured second from left, and Christina Olague, standing next to our visiting Latin American dignitary.

The photo-op took place in the Grand Rotunda of City Hall with all of us standing in front the Harvey Milk Bust.

Our purpose in creating the photos and video was to build Erick's profile in the United States among the gay blogosphere and in the Honduran press and politically-charged social media, because a higher profile could make the junta leaders who want him dead think twice about assassinating him as they have assassinated Erick's friends and journalist colleagues Erick Avila and Walter Trochez.

Now that the interrogation is over, Big Mike and I are keeping on with our plans for the Thanksgiving holiday. As the Wiener-driven investigation continues, I'll share updates when necessary.

FBI File: 
Alexander Cockburn = 'Revolutionary Marxist'

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, via the National Archives, has released the rather boring 17-page file on the late radical journalist Alexander Cockburn in response to my Freedom of Information Act request. The full file is posted here.

Honestly, I expected the feds to have gathered more intelligence on Cockburn over the decades and found what's been released quite skimpy.

I think Cockburn, pictured, would be proud to be described as a revolutionary Marxist by the FBI and its counterpart in the United Kingdom, the MI-5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5) agency, which shared information with the FBI. From the file:

Cockburn has been a leading figure of the "New Left", a group of revolutionary Marxist academics centered round the "New Left Review", since 1966.

Although closely associated with members of Trotskyist and Communist groups, he is not known to have been either a Trotiskyist or a Communist himself, and is probably best described as a Revolutionary Marxist.

The existence of the Cockburn file means media critic Jack Shafer won't need to borrow Splenda from me to help him swallow his keyboard!

The surveillance state back in the 1970s, when the Cockburn file was created, has only expanded since then and continues to grow under Barack Obama.

Sheriff Investigating Wiener Restroom Pic; 
Meeting at 9:30 AM Tomorrow 

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department has apparently launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the photo I took of Scott Wiener on October 26 in the second floor public men's room at City Hall.

My attorney Derek St. Pierre spoke with a senior deputy from the sheriff's office, who said I am not under arrest nor facing any charges at this time and he simply wants to speak with me about the photo and what transpired in the men's room.

Derek and I have agreed to speak with the senior deputy at his office at 25 Van Ness Avenue at 9:30 am tomorrow. If all goes as expected, I will be shopping at the UN Plaza farmers' market before the morning is over, but if a worse case scenario plays out and I'm arrested, my attorney will be working on my behalf to have me released.

Wish me and Derek the best of luck.

BREAKING NEWS:
SF Mayor Won't Fly Trans Flag at City Hall

For a lot of weird and nonsensical reasons, the transgender pride flag can't fly on the taxpayer-funded flagpole off the mayoral taxpayer-funded balcony at San Francisco's City Hall, but . . .

. . . the Irish flag can . . .

. . . same goes for the German flag for Oktober beer fests across the city . . .

. . . also for the Philippines' flag . . .

. . . and the Forty-Niners team flag . . .

. . . and the black background version of the SF Giants flag can . . .

. . . as can the other version of the SF Giants' flag. They can all be flown from the mayor's balcony, but when it comes to raising the trans pride flag on Transgender Day of Remembrance on Tuesday, November 20, Mayor Ed Lee is unwilling to commemorate the day with a simple flag raising.

A short while ago, I received a call from transgender leader Cecilia Chung who informed me that because of procedural qualms with Matthew Goudeau, the gay director of the Office of Protocol, the request to fly her community's flag tomorrow was rejected.

Cecilia wouldn't qualify what Matthew said on behalf of Mayor Ed Lee, that the flag would not fly, as a rejection and I again believe her responsibilities as a mayoral appointee to the powerful Health Commission is why she is bending over backwards to avoid the word rejection. She's also not upset with the decision.

What is upsetting her is my sunshining of this matter and I assured Cecilia a post would go up today about the rejection. It's not too late for Mayor Ed Lee to fly a piece of cloth off the taxpayer-funded metal rod extending out over out City Hall.

Let the mayor's gay chief of staff Steve Kawa know you want to see the trans pride flag displayed from the mayor's balcony on TDOR, just like all the other flags that rotate on the pole.

Send email to: Steve.Kawa@sfgov.org and leave messages at the mayor's office: 415-554-6141.

Video: 265 Transgender People
Died from Violence in the Past Year





Jess Colyer, a transwoman and activist from San Diego where they have a flagpole on public land but none of the b.s. like we have with the Merchants of Upper Market Castro and Scott Wiener, shared this powerful and moving video with me. She asked that I share it on my blog, which I'm happy to do.

Here is Jess' text explaining the video:

265 Transgender people lost their lives in 2012. This video is there to honor those that died so violently and prematurely. Some victims were tortured, burned or shot more than a dozen times only because they were expressing who they truly felt they were inside. This video is free and can be downloaded. Please take it and use it any way you see fit to help in bring an end to violence against Transgender people worldwide.

One trans murder is one too many, and 265 trans killings are an outrage. Big thanks to Jess, for making this important video and I hope folks share it far and wide.

Please come to Harvey Milk Plaza today at 5:30 PM for the historic raising of the trans pride flag, on the eve of Transgender Day of Remembrance.