Democracy Victorious! Debates Approved!

By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis
(Cross-posted from https://www.facebook.com/petrelis4supe8 and dated August 4th.)

Thanks to several modifications by Judge Sam Feng at this morning's hearing, our campaign can now participate in panels hosted by advocacy groups and candidate debates, to be held closer to election day.

He agreed that Michael could appear this Wednesday, August 6th, at the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club's special early endorsement meeting but to avoid being near the District 8 incumbent Supervisor.

Our defense attorney Derek St. Pierre and Michael must compile a list of other endorsement meetings of interest, then must request and will be granted expedited calendaring in Feng court to consider any potential proximity issues for the candidates.

Regarding formal debates in the fall organized by groups such as the League of Women Voters, Feng will allow Michael full participation in them including directly questioning the incumbent if the host organization's format calls for such engagement.

Do-it-yourself democracy in San Francisco was enhanced today by Judge Feng, and we are grateful for his modifications.

Many thanks to our supporters who were in court today, including Patrick Connors who tweeted this photo of Michael being interviewed by reporter David Stevenson of KTVU, left, and his lawyer on the right. You can read all of Patrick's tweets and view his #ILikeMikeSF photos here: https://twitter.com/uppityfag.

Weekend Woof #86: Bear - It's What's For Dinner!

The #ILikeMikeSF team has been out pressing the flesh at Harvey Milk Plaza with our materials for the District 8 Supervisor campaign, which is where many of these photos were snapped this week. Some were also taken today down at the SF Eagle Bar, where we went simply to enjoy the fine bears on the prowl.

Be sure to visit our campaign sites here https://www.facebook.com/petrelis4supe8 and also here http://www.ilikemikesf.org. 

Thanks to all the furry fellas who graced my camera lens!

The two shirtless bears have been known to provide eye candy for the queer dudes of the Castro, but I've always seen them in tee shirts till today.

A couple of salt-and-pepper bearded daddies to look at and one with a stogie in his mouth for the cigar fetishists among us.

OMG, a furry member of the Lollipop Guild standing on the Yellow Brick Road looking so adorable. Awwww.

The sweetest chub cub I met all week was this dude. Don't let the gray hairs fool you. He's all cub.

Here are youngish beefy dudes seen at Up Your Alley a few week back. And how was your week for bear-and-beef watching?

100 Attend Plaza 16 Meeting to Stop Luxury Condos
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

The diverse Plaza 16 coalition of Mission residents working to preserve our small piece of San Francisco brought out more than 100 people on July 31, with the primary purpose to organize against a proposed ten-story luxury condo adjacent to the BART 16th Street Plaza.

Over the course of a two-hour meeting, conducted in English and Spanish, the emphasis was on working together to stop the Planning Commission from approving the Maximus Real Estate Partners' condo project at their January meeting, and mobilizing more of our neighbors, friends and local small businesses to join the coalition.

We were there and found much support for the #ILikeMikeSF campaign. Many of our cards were distributed, photos of supporters and District 8 voters holding our sign were taken, and everyone offered us encouragement. Muchas gracias, amigos y amigas.

At the https://twitter.com/MichaelPetrelis feed, we shared photos of a few attendees and promoted the hashtag #PlazaSixteen. When you're on Twitter and other social media, be sure to raise awareness for #PlazaSixteen and assist this grassroots Mission effort.

Our message is clear to real estate developers, City Hall, Sacramento and Washington and our elected officials: we need affordable housing built now for low-income folks, and we won't rest until we have it.



This video was shot at the start of the meeting and gives you a small taste of the multicultural nature of everyone who showed up. We're proud to have joined our neighbors last night and look forward to future organizing with them.

SFMTA Repaints Market Street Bike Lane Stripes 

(Before the repainting, there were no safety stripes at this location.)

By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Do you recall our July 18 post about our service request to the SFMTA asking the transit agency address the dangerous lack of clearly visible white stripes for the bike lane on Market Street, from Guerrero to the Central Freeway ramp?

We pointed out that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition labeled the intersection the most hazardous one in the city, and we shared a video documenting the deplorable state of nearly invisible safety stripes on the pavement.

View our "before" video of the dangerous stretch of pavement here: https://vimeo.com/100929637.

 After filing the service request, we reached out to SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose for guidance in shepherding our concerns to the street painting division of the traffic and parking branch of the agency, and eventually communicated with painting supervisor Reggie Ruaro.

He explained that our service request was scheduled to be completed the second week of August, and we were pleased knowing this info. However, Reggie surprised us on July 30 with an early morning phone call saying a crew would be out later that day to repaint the safety stripes. Because of the SFMTA's concern for the well-being of bicyclists on this part of Market Street, the paint job was fast-tracked.

We will follow up with a new service request for bright green bicyclist symbols to be painted inside the white stripes, to expand safety measures for bicyclists and all users of this busy section of Market Street. Kudos to the SFMTA, especially Reggie and his work crew, for a quick and excellent job.

Here's an "after" photo of the roadway taken yesterday afternoon.

This essay is cross-posted from our campaign Facebook page.

Former Felons Can Vote in District 8 Race
 

(Article by Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis, cross-posted from our Facebook campaign site.)

A friend of ours who served time in a federal penitentiary for a felony conviction and lives in District 8, recently said he would vote for Michael this fall if he had voting rights.

Like him, we assumed California felons were stripped of this right and we asked around for facts about restoring the vote for former prisoners. Here's what one observer of the criminal justice system told us:

"I think your friend’s information is wrong about his voting rights. Felons in California may vote as long as they are not currently in custody for a felony conviction or actively on felony parole. If anything, we need a campaign around educating felons about the rights they don’t realize they have."

We investigated further and found this information at the NonProfitVote.org site for California"

"Individuals convicted of a felony are ineligible to vote while incarcerated and on parole. Voting rights are automatically restored upon completion of parole, and people on probation can vote. Ex-offenders should re-register to vote." (Source: http://tinyurl.com/jwd2nop)

Digging down for details about former inmates voting by mail, the California Secretary of State's site (http://tinyurl.com/55fwbh) mentions that this option is available for them as with all eligible voters and the secretary links to this online method of registering to vote: http://registertovote.ca.gov/.

Let's all spread the word that felons out of custody and off parole can vote, and also encourage everyone to register to vote in the fall election.

First Economic Statement Filed 2-Days Before Deadline

This was written by Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Our campaign is justifiably delighted to not only have successfully filed our first economic statement with the San Francisco Ethics Commission, but we filed two full days ahead of the July 31 deadline.

Michael and his longtime partner Mike Merrigan attended the required commission training in April, stayed on top of deadlines, and when needed were communicating frequently with commission deputies and workers at the Department of Elections.

On July 29, we spent almost an hour on the phone with a terrifically helpful Ethics deputy together making sure our data was properly entered, then taking the actual electronic steps necessary to file our Form 460.

We have been painfully aware of how the progressive community and its political institutions provide no training or support to activists who want to run for elected office.

Basically, you're on your own figuring out the paperwork, filing deadlines and adhering to local and state laws, while also gathering signatures and raising funds, speaking before clubs and advocacy organizations, and contending with invitations to answer questionnaires or attend listening sessions organized by unions.

If progressives in this town want to get more of their ilk elected and have their hands on the levers of power, they must begin training a cadre of potential candidates and leaders, of all varieties from serious and to alternative and message challengers, in how to navigate the election process.

Back in November, we pulled papers intending to get on the ballot and we achieved that goal, and have tremendously enjoyed engaging with voters and citizens in our unique do-it-yourself brand of democracy.

Every step has been a valuable lesson learned and we can't say it often enough: thank you for assisting us in this campaign!

#ILikeMikeSF Signs at Up Your Alley Fair 

The July 27 annual kink and fetish Up Your Alley fair in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood was one of the best we've attended over the years. The weather cooperated and countless men were totally or semi-nude, all putting out enjoyable vibes and a fun time was had by all homos and our allies.

We had a double-sided #ILikeMikeSF sign that also functioned as a fan to cool us off when the heat of the sizzling hot boys and men became too much, and posed for photos with supporters and friends of our District 8 alternative candidacy.

When not smiling for the cameras of others, we snapped a few shots of folks happy to hold up our sign for a photo to be used on our Facebook page. Unless otherwise stated, appearance on the photo album with an #ILikeMikeSF sign does not equal an endorsement.

Cruise over to our Facebook page and ILikeMikeSF.org sites for info on the campaign.

Many thanks to everyone at Folsom Street Events, the organizers of the fair, all the fabulous people who made it a terrific day, and each person who struck a pose for our camera with our campaign sign.

Two young man flashing smiles and holding our #ILikeMikeSF sign.

Our nudist friend Pete Sferra stopped to hold up an #ILikeMikeSF sign and wish us best of luck.

The adorable local transgender queer and HIV advocate Cyd Nova struck a smiling pose while holding our sign.

Say hello to the hunky Andrew Leavitt, who has endorsed our campaign for Supervisor.

A new pal named Michael gave approval to our campaign effort.

And we end with San Francisco dragster legend Anna Conda, aka Glendon Hyde, giving us wicked look.

Protest at AIDS Health Fdtn Pharmacy for Truvada/PrEP

(Adam Zeboski. Photo credit: Bill Wilson.)

A handful of activists gathered on Thursday, July 24th at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's pharmacy on 18th Street in the Castro, to launch a boycott against the pharmacy because of the organization's falsehoods about the drug Truvada as an effective prevention tool.

Before we began our protest and filming, I spoke with the manager of the pharmacy, Dale Gluth. We know each other and had friendly chat about our plans and I appreciated the coolness of their store. It was quite hot in the Castro sun yesterday.

Ken Hodnett brought his video camera and lighting equipment to shoot footage for a video now in the editing stages. Mitch Hightower served as the interviewed and asked me questions. Bill Wilson snapped photos of our activities. We were joined by Adam Zeboski, who created the Twitter hashtag #TruvadaWhore and is on the drug as part of his PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis, plan.

Adam spoke about his experience on PrEP, why he promotes Truvada as prevention for HIV negative men who enjoy anal sex and don't use condoms, and addressed general questions about AIDS concerns of gay men under 30.

One central point was asking Castro area patrons of the AHF pharmacy to boycott the store until the organization's executive director, Michael Wienstein, ends his lies about Truvada, apologizes for mistakenly calling it a "party drug" and endorses it as one more prevention tool for at-risk individuals.

Unfortunately, another expected participant. Eric Leue who is Mister LA Leather, was stuck in traffic and unable to join us but he did arrive in San Francisco to speak at the PrEP town hall meeting last night at the Metropolitan Community Church on Eureka Street.

Many thanks to everyone who participated or supported our effort via social media. We'll let you know when our video is ready for viewing.

PrEP Forum Far From Revolutionary 

The Gay Men's Community Initiative forum on Thursday, July 24 at MCC in the Castro was provocatively titled "Does PrEP = a New Sexual Revolution?", and it was a conversation in a safe space environment.

Let me start with what I thought was excellent about the forum. Approximately fifty men showed up, about a dozen wore TruvadaWhore shirts, microphones were used, some of the panelists had prepared points to make and several community members offered wonderful personal insight either about using Truvada or their sex lives.

The depth of concern for queer individual and communal wellness was proudly and unmistakable. Everyone was committed to preventing new HIV transmissions and keeping sexual liaisons fun, full of healing goodness and romantic.

But overall, for me, the meeting was frustrating and I left early because the conversation jumped all over the map, the agenda on the white board wasn't readable by everyone and we didn't follow it as far as I could tell, the lead moderator didn't give enough time for audience comments and frequently added his interpretation about what was said, and there wasn't a stack monitor.

(A stack monitor, for those who don't know, keeps a list of folks who raise their hands when it's time for comments, so speakers don't keep their hands up waiting anxiously to be called on.)

Here are my suggestions for future forums:

(1) Have a moderator who facilitates a chat, isn't too controlling and a stack monitor;

(2) Make sure the agenda is understood and visible to everyone;

(3) If there's a panel, keep it small, say, to only two or three speakers;

(4) Set adequate time aside just for comments from the audience;

(5) Audience comments should be between two and three minutes per speaker;

(6) Make an extra effort to have shy guys pipe up and share their thoughts.

I hope the organizers of the forum take my remarks and suggestions in spirit in which they are offered, to foster the best forums possible.

Weekend Woof #85: Up Your Alley Men & Boys

Last Sunday's annual Up Your Alley fair was truly wonderful. The weather was great, the men were super friendly, I paraded around with a campaign sign that doubled as a fan and I snapped lots of good photos. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

The only dude I saw all day sucking on a lollipop. 

Two guys who I wish didn't go get a room and instead kept their kink on full public display.

Several men and boys with some meat on their bones caught my queer eye.

Furry faced father types were out in full fuzzy force.

Nipples here, nipples there, nipples everywhere!

Just my luck that this hunk stood still long enough for me to grab two pix.