Please join ALICE every Saturday night as we boycott SFBadlands

9PM: Rally at LYRIC (127 Collingwood Street @ 18th)
10PM: Picket begins at Badlands (4121 18th Street)

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Reese's World: Perspectives from the Editor
"Me and My Big Red Backpack—
(p.s. what’s the theme for pride this year?)"

I have a big red backpack. You can’t miss it. It’s with me everywhere. I’ve tried and tried to find ways to leave it at home. But I’m kind of attached to it, “at the shoulder” as it were. Don’t get me wrong, I love the thing. It fits my life so well. I carry my newspapers, magazines, calendar, books, work stuff, Alice stuff, my jacket, and sometimes other clothes. That doesn’t even begin to note the various amounts of sundries, aspirin, glasses, contact lenses, and other such items that make it seem like a small drugstore on my back.

And then, being the happy-go-lucky Gay man that I am, I got me a little extra somethin’ somethin’ in there… cause you never know, just in case. You know what I’m sayin’?

Anyway, the point is, I have a big red backpack and it goes with me everywhere. You can’t miss it.

So when I’m hanging out in the Castro, even if I’m heading out for a night on the town and stepping into the local bars/dance-clubs for a little fun and to get my groove on, my big red bag’s with me. It’s a hassle to have it with me when I’m trying to feel loose and fancy-free, but what you gonna do? I ain’t got no car to put it in and my apartment is across town. So it’s with me all the time.

I’ve never had any trouble from the local Castro establishments though. Not once. In fact, on those occasions when I would take in Badlands for a little dancing, drinks, and eye-gazing, my big red backpack was always with me. I would just show my one ID and walk in. Once in a while I’d check it. But mostly, I’d have it hanging on one-shoulder up against the wall while I tried my best to look attractive and fun for some possible cute boy across the way. Or there were times when I just would sit it next to me on the ledge-for-seating area while watching videos. There were even several times when I would plop the backpack down next to me at the barstool.

I never had a problem with my backpack at Badlands.

Funny thing is, there’s supposedly a “No Bags” policy at Badlands. Well, who would have known? Actually, who would have known are the people that it was selectively used against. Turns out, there was an unwritten rule that used the policy against African-Americans to keep them out of the bar. So while my lily-white-self could walk in easily with my bright red backpack and have not a word said to me upon entering, or the entire time I was there, African-Americans were routinely told that they couldn’t enter the premises (even if they said they were going to check the bag).

Read the following excerpt from the recent Human Rights Commission findings on discrimination against Badlands:

“Several former employees explained that a selectively enforced bag policy was another method used to keep out certain African American customers. They assert that African American patrons were denied entry for carrying a bag while white patrons were allowed to enter… In August 2003, two outreach workers for a community organization conducting surveys outside of SF Badlands witnessed a doorman refusing entry to an African American man because he was carrying a small bag or backpack. The witnesses told the Commission that the African American man protested and pointed out other individuals already inside the bar who were carrying bags or backpacks. Both witnesses stated that they subsequently saw the doorman allow other individuals enter with bags while continuing to deny entry to the African American man. The witnesses explained that the African American man called the police but that the police officer explained there was nothing he could do because of the “No Bags” sign posted in the front window.”

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City Attorney Dennis Herrera
"Thank You to All My Friends at Alice!"

A heartfelt thank you to all Alice members for your early endorsement of my re-election campaign.

Over the past three-and-a-half years, I've been honored to lead an office that continues to earn national recognition for its work to protect consumers and our neighborhoods; to defend our City government and schools from those who would defraud them; and to forcefully advocate for the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans at a time when national progress seems hopelessly stalled. These may be tough times for Democrats nationwide, but I think we may all take pride in knowing that the Democratic Party here in San Francisco is as vibrant, energized and successful as ever -- and that the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club remains a cornerstone of that success.

As we enter Pride month for 2005, we have much to celebrate here in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office: a powerful ruling in our favor from the state trial court in the marriage equality case we're fighting alongside NCLR and Lambda Legal; a key federal court victory along with Planned Parenthood in our ongoing efforts to strike down the Bush Administration's so-called "Partial Birth Abortion Ban"; and our continued national leadership on LGBT issues most recently, as friends of the court in California's groundbreaking parental rights and responsibilities case as well in New York City's defense of its newly-enacted equal benefits ordinance.

I was honored last year when the statewide legal newspaper, the Daily Journal, named me and my chief deputy, Terry Stewart (San Francisco's highest-ranking LGBT legal official) among the top 100 lawyers in California. In doing so, they credited me with putting San Francisco "on the leading edge of progressive city attorney offices in the state, if not the nation." With your early support for my re-election in 2005, I hope to continue that progressive leadership over the next four years.

To all my friends at Alice, thanks again for your early support!

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San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros
"Banking on San Francisco"

Dear Fellow Alice Friends,

While we are busy collecting revenue and safeguarding the city’s finances, the Treasurer’s Office is also launching its next initiative, “Bank on San Francisco.” Did you know that a shocking 22 percent of Californians do not have a bank account, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Here in our city, lower-income workers and people of color are the most likely to be without bank accounts. African Americans are more than four times as likely as whites to lack bank accounts, and fully one-third of Latino immigrants were without bank accounts in 2000.

Why is this a problem? Without bank accounts, workers are forced to use independent check-cashing operations to cash their paychecks where they get hit with steep fees, typically up to 3 percent of a check's face value. This is money that should be going to support their families. People with bank accounts are twice as likely as those without to have savings, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. They are also likely to add to those savings every month. And people without bank accounts have a much harder time building a good credit history and applying for loans. This makes them susceptible to lenders charging exorbitant interest rates, which can easily trap them in a vicious cycle of debt.

Much of the problem is because many checking and savings accounts have been unattractive or unavailable to low-income consumers because they have minimum-balance requirements and fee structures that may be too high or simply too overwhelming. When you couple this with a distrust of financial institutions, inconvenient business hours for working people and a lack of the services most often used by low-income people, it is easy to see why so many vulnerable city residents turn to check-cashing outlets and pay-day lenders.

But there are alternatives. A number of banks are offering free checking accounts and other services to the recipients of the Working Families Credit, our local match to the federal earned income tax credit. H&R Block is also discounting its rates for Working Families Credit filers. With such backing, all eligible San Francisco families should apply for this unique program. Over the next several months, I will be educating our fellow San Franciscans who do not have personal bank accounts about the financial benefits of checking and savings accounts.

As you may know, I was appointed Treasurer after Susan Leal became the head of the Public Utilities Commission. This November, I have to run for election. Having never run before, I can tell you that running for an office is an exciting experience. My campaign has kept me busy. As a former Alice Board Member, I want to thank Alice members for all of their support. Over the next several months, I hope you will join me in putting up house signs, marching in the Gay Pride Parade, and much, much more.

This is an exciting time for Alice and our city, and I am grateful that we can be part of it together.

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Acting Board of Equalization Member Betty T. Yee
"Here's to the Start of a Long-Term Working Relationship"

I want to thank the Alice B. Toklas Club for allowing me the opportunity to address its members on May 9, 2005 about my service on the State Board of Equalization (BOE). I am proud to be representing the First Equalization District, comprised of 21 counties in northern and central California, including my home county of San Francisco.

In my role as a BOE member, I take my responsibility very seriously in serving as a strong steward of our state’s revenues to ensure funding is protected for vital services such as public education, health care, environmental protection, and transportation. I do this by making sure that taxpayers comply with the state’s tax laws and do their part in paying their fair share of taxes.

But serving as a member of the BOE is about more than just upholding the state’s tax laws. It is also about the human impact tax policy has on our families and communities. When I served as Chief Deputy for former BOE Chairwoman (and now State Senator) Carole Migden, I helped develop rules at the BOE that have made a difference for many.

A couple of these rules provide a surviving registered domestic partner may avoid a property tax reassessment when the other partner dies. Yes, registered domestic partners must pursue creative estate planning tools to avoid property tax reassessment in the event one of them dies. However, I feel it is within reach, within this generation, that we will see the legal recognition of gay marriage, obviating the need for this rule --- when couples in a same-sex marriage can enjoy the full array of rights and benefits as heterosexual couples.

Another BOE rule allows a sales tax exemption for breast tissue expanders, which helps victims of breast cancer after surgery.

A precedential BOE decision allows for the transfer of conservation easements to a nonprofit or public entity without triggering a change in ownership and property tax reassessment. This rule provides an important incentive to maintain open space and protect vital watershed lands.

As I continue in public service, I continue my commitment to making a difference for our communities, especially our under-represented communities. As an Asian American woman, I understand fully the need to end discrimination against all communities and how important it is to guarantee each and every one of us have the same civil protections and rights. It is only when we have achieved this that we are all equal.

Thank you, Co-Chairs Laura Spanjian and Scott Wiener, for the invitation to address the
Alice B. Toklas Club members last month. I look forward to your support and a long-term working relationship as I continue my service on the BOE.

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BAR Letter to the Editor
by Laura Spanjian, Scott Wiener, Greg Shaw

To the editor:

We applaud And Castro For All for its efforts to rid the Castro of race discrimination at Badlands and elsewhere. The LGBT community must always stand for inclusion and diversity. We need to be willing to stand up and be counted when people are treated with disrespect based on who they are. For this reason, the Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Clubs both have endorsed the boycott of Badlands.

We were disappointed to see that the owner of Badlands has chosen to attack the Human Rights Commission for its strong and well-researched conclusion that various people experienced discrimination at Badlands. Contrary to the spin from Badlands representatives, the HRC considered all sides of the dispute, spoke with all involved persons, thoroughly analyzed the credibility of the witnesses, and concluded that many of the allegations of discrimination were true. We as a community should respect this well-reasoned conclusion instead of attacking it. We encourage Badlands, its lawyers, and its PR consultants to stop attacking the HRC’s strong process and to begin to acknowledge the serious problems that led the HRC to issue its findings in the first place.

Laura Spanjian, Co-chair, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
Scott Wiener, Co-chair, Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
Greg Shaw, President, Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club

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Les Natali and the Public Welfare
by John Newsome

On April 26, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission issued a finding – reviewed and approved by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office – that Castro bar owner Les Natali has, for many years, “discriminated against African American customers when they were required to provide multiple forms of identification, discouraged from entering, denied entry for carrying bags, and removed from the bar on false charges of violating bar policy.” The HRC also found that Mr. Natali discriminated against African American job applicants, and expressed concern that, with the exception of a bookkeeper, there were no women working at the Badlands when the HRC began its investigation.

In the wake of that finding – rather than apologize to his victims and to our community and take even a modicum of responsibility for the violations cited by the City – Mr. Natali and his team of law firms (four of them), PR and political consultants have gone on the offensive, accusing complainants and their supporters of being in the employ of his competitors – something the City found to be unsubstantiated, but which Mr. Natali and his consultants have continued to repeat – and attacked the Human Rights Commission itself.

Indeed, Natali’s dominant criticism of the HRC is especially chilling. Natali now argues that he should have received more due process rights during the HRC’s proceedings, e.g., the right to cross-examine witnesses – this despite the fact that Natali delayed the investigation by ignoring the HRC’s data requests, deadlines, and other due process requirements (as noted on pages 5-6 of the City’s finding, available through the HRC and at www.andcastroforall.org).

While this argument spins well in the press, it is legally and morally bankrupt. Back in 1960, the US Supreme Court heard – and dismissed – similar arguments about civil commissions, ruling that fact-finding investigations by agencies like the HRC do not have to be conducted according to the same time-consuming and expensive procedures that courts use, because this would overburden the investigating agency and impede its independent fact-finding function. The context, by the way: Louisiana segregationists were at that time trying to forestall another Commission – the Federal Civil Rights Commission – from investigating allegations that black voters were facing discrimination on account of their race.

Moreover, by failing to take responsibility for the violations outlined in the City’s finding, Mr. Natali has helped to foster an environment that actually may be more conducive to discrimination than ever before, as evidenced by numerous reports that, while most remain willfully ignorant of the circumstances, some Badlands patrons and employees have actually taken to shouting “nigger,” “coon,” “Black gorilla,” and “white power” at Badlands picketers and even passersby.

So, in light of the City’s finding, and in light of Mr. Natali’s outrageous response, which now is triggering even greater problems, the question becomes: How should Mr. Natali be held accountable for his misdeeds?

Let’s consider the perspectives of those who suffered as a result of Mr. Natali’s actions. In June 2004, Kaya Nati, an Alvin Ailey-trained dancer who came to San Francisco to serve as the Stop AIDS Project’s African American men’s program coordinator, described how he felt after being evicted without cause from Badlands by Mr. Natali, who told him, “you’re not welcome here” and threw Kaya’s bag onto the street. “I felt shameful, and I couldn’t understand that,” noted Nati, who passed away in April. “All of these years of educating myself around the issue of racism and how it manifests itself, and the roots of it, and here I am feeling ashamed of being involved in a situation like this, almost feeling guilty. And that surprised me. It was hard. It got hard for me.”

Marvin Miller, whom Mr. Natali stopped at the doorway of Badlands and demanded “two or three” forms of identification for admission, remarks, “I felt humiliated.” In fact, even after a few years, some of Mr. Natali’s victims still cannot speak about their experiences without sobbing uncontrollably. When asked what remedy they would deem appropriate, victims like Nati, Miller, and many others, as well as many community leaders, have asserted that Mr. Natali should not be entrusted with the privilege of actively managing vital, social spaces, like bars and clubs, in our diverse community.

Let’s also consider the perspectives of City leaders. In a June 2004 letter to the ABC, Supervisor Bevan Dufty explains that “discrimination is not just wrong; it’s illegal. Business owners who engage in such practices should not receive privileges from the State of California or the City and County of San Francisco such as alcohol and/or entertainment licenses.” Supervisor Jake McGoldrick conveys a similar sentiment in his October 2004 letter to the ABC, noting that, “if Mr. Natali is found to be in violation of anti-discrimination laws, I urge you to seriously consider license revocation. I also hope that the ABC adopts a policy of zero-tolerance for discrimination.”

That said, it is a crime – not just an insult to individuals and to our community, but an actual crime – to violate City and State civil rights laws. As such, responsibility for establishing proper penalties and for enforcement falls not to the complainants, or to opinion leaders, or to the general public but, rather, to City and State agencies.

Here, the answers to the “proper penalty” question are quite clear. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), which is the responsible State regulatory body in this matter, has publicly available Penalty Guidelines (www.abc.ca.gov; these presumably should apply to the City’s own Entertainment Commission as well). While the ABC suggests relatively mild penalties for most violations (e.g., a 30-day license suspension if a bartender is found to be working while intoxicated), in the event that a licensee has committed a “crime of moral turpitude” (e.g., petty theft, shoplifting… or, as in this case, repeated violations of City and State civil rights laws over the course of several years), the ABC holds up license revocation as the appropriate recourse.

Why? Because, in the United States; in California; and especially in San Francisco, civil rights crimes are that serious. In the closing lines of its Finding against Mr. Natali, the Human Rights Commission explains: “Chapter 12A [of the City’s police code] states that discriminatory practices such as [Natali’s] are inimical to the public welfare. They create intergroup hostilities and impede social and economic progress for the entire citizenry.”

The facts are in, the legal standards are clear, and now it’s time for City and State agencies to enforce the law. For the complainants, for the LGBT community, and for the entire citizenry.

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HRC Finding of Fact

Following an exhaustive ten-month investigation, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission has forcefully concluded that Les Natali, owner of one the city’s most popular gay bars, has violated numerous civil rights ordinances in his discriminatory practices in employment and patronage against people of color.

Read the documents from the finding of fact here (this is a large PDF file)

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Alice Membership Form

Alice B Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
1800 Market Street PMB#18
San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel: 415-707-2010
www.alicebtoklas.org
Alice Reports Editor: Reese Aaron Isbell, M.P.P.

General Membership Meeting 2nd Monday of each month

Month of June:
Monday, June 13, 2005
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

LGBT Community Center
1800 Market Street @ Octavia

You can now join online www.alicebtoklas.org/abt/joinonline.asp, or fill out the application below

Membership Application

Yes, I want to join the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club!

__$35 Regular
__$100 Supporter
__$250 Sponsor
__$500 Champion
__$20 Special Needs
__Other

__I am renewing my membership        __I will be a new member

__I am a registered Democrat

Name ______________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________

City ____________________________________State: ______Zip: _____________

Phone: Day __________________________Eve: _____________________________

Email: _________________________________________

Please send checks payable to “Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club” and mail to:

Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
1800 Market Street, PMB#18
San Francisco, CA 94102

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