Gays Bashed by Gavin Newsom's Cops

I guess we know what to expect when Newsom gains power.

They should really know that they can't get away with that in this town. Don't they know San Francisco history?

I haven't lived in Cali. forever. Does Gavin newsom have some connection with show business? I saw this weird interview with him where he said he had a pet river otter when he was a child that he kept in his room, and he kept name dropping celebrities, which made him seem like a not-ordinary person. Sf always has the strangest mayors where everyone wonders how anyone would have voted for them, but I think it has to do with splitting the vote between different candidates. That would be dadaist to have him as Mayor, and Schwarzenegger as the next Governor at the same time.

"Gavin Newsom, a.k.a. the "Marina Mannequin," is a smooth playboy who has dated pricey debutantes while yachting and partying with all the filthy richest who reside in Pacific Heights palaces. Young Gavin’s deep pocket business partners (they own posh eateries & wineries in Tahoe, Napa and SF) are Billy and Gordon GETTY, for crissakes! Am I implying that silver-spoon-in-the-the-mouth babies aren’t normal “Everyday People” like the rest of us? Yes, I am -- my spies have informed me that collegiate Gavin actually had a tanning booth installed in his dorm room at Santa Clara University! Smells like excessive cash & vanity, eh?
"
http://www.sfbayrevolution.org/library/mannequin.html

Click here:

http://www.transbay.net/~nessie/Pages/getty.html

California Form 700
Statement of Economic Interests
A Public Document

(snip)

Schedule A-2
Investments, Income, and Assets of Business Entities/Trusts
(Ownership Interest is 10% or Greater)

Page 1

(snip)

http://www.transbay.net/~nessie/Media/getty6.jpg

"Nothing like a good ol' gay bashing!"

Why would you advocate bashing yourself? Oh, oops! Was I supposed to not say anything . . . Sorry!

Oh, and I also heard you're closet left! C'omon, everyone knows . . . I mean, why else would you hang around these parts? We all know the deal. And I'm sorry to tell you, but you don't fit in here either! Okay, I'm not sorry!

Go home and f** your own kind!

Gay Shame rocks! Who else would the cops get so freaked over . . . they're terrified.

>Bam Bam

This refers to a post that was hidden because of it's homophobic content.

The latest legal update follows:

4 people were booked by SFPD. 2 have been released. 2 people that were trying to protect a gayshame activist dressed in drag from being beaten by police have been charged with felonies and are being held over-night. Support queer activists and don't let these arrests go unnoticed. More updates to follow.

If the Gays Without Shame are going to act like the radical anti-abortion protestors by trying to stop people from attending a fundraising event of their own free will, then the same rules should apply.

Gays Without Shame should be required to maintain a 25-foot distance from the front door of the LGBT community center, as are the anti-abortion protestors.

Can't people who oppose the status quo find anyone other than somewhat of the characteristics of Gavin Newsome? From what people have been showing, he doesn't seem like a protest candidate.
What's interesting is that lots of people in SF think of themselves as sophisticated and educated, yet they keep electing Willie Brown or Gavin Newsome type people. Even a totally unsophisticated town like Fresno wouldn't be taken in by Newsome for a second.

"people in SF think of themselves as sophisticated and educated"

But try talking to a lot of them . . . they're corporate lackeys. Thier whole life is about their own coporation and going home to watch the Simpsons or whatever else people on Friends do. And their SUVs, the latest cell phone, the latest drink.

They're so busy trying to be just like everyone else, they don't have TIME for voting! And screw you if you bother them to sign anything! "Why haven't you idiots gotten the streets cleaned up of the riff raff! I'll elect Satan if I have to just to get the homeless swept away! I don't care, I have Tivo." They expect everything will work on it's own while they work for their megacorporation, like drones, thinking they're someone.

>those who want to hear what he has to say should have that right.

You can, but not here. Newsom's lackeys can go preach their revolting crap on their own site. This site is ours. Go away.

Gavin Newsom Brings Police Brutality to Gay Center

Urgent Update — February 7, 2003

When Gavin Newsom reaches out to the gay community, he does it with the fist of the law.

Police attacked a crowd of peaceful protestors outside the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Community Center last night just as mayoral fruntrunner Gavin Newsom arrived to host a fundraiser for the center.

Whose Community? Whose Center?

Members of the community organization Gay Shame had gathered outside the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Community Center to say “shame!” on Gavin Newsom for his notorious anti-homeless policies, as well as on the Center for its cynical attempt to cozy up to the conservative mayoral frontrunner. By holding an event with Gavin Newsom, the Center revealed who its real community was — and who got left out. At $125, tickets for this fundraiser cost more than twice the monthly income of San Francisco’s neediest under Newsom’s new “Care Not Cash” plan. Shouldn’t a community center serve those who don’t have space elsewhere? Shouldn’t it serve those who are most in need?

The gay community needs homes and health care, not just another place to dance and drink. Gays and lesbians have been on the guestlist in San Francisco for twenty years — but we’ve forgotten the people we met while waiting in line! What good is our place at the table if we can’t object to the table manners that kept us out in the first place?

There is no care in “Care Not Cash”!

Newsom created “Care Not Cash”, a cynical ballot initiative which passed last November. Under Care Not Cash, monthly general assistance checks for the city’s neediest will be slashed from $320 per month to a miserly $59, with the difference made up in vouchers for services (like shelters and treatment programs) that don’t exist! What’s more, Gavin’s plan included no money to start these programs! By taking away money that people need to survive, Care Not Cash will actually increase the number of people on the streets. Many won’t be able to afford the pay-as-you-go SRO housing that’s been keeping them out of the rain — and they’ll be even more desperate than they are now. “Care Not Cash” should be called “Scare And Bash”!

“Toward the end of our peaceful protest, we tried to follow Gavin Newsom into the center,” explained a demonstrator. “As we approached the door, the SFPD rushed towards us, hitting us with their police batons as the center’s communications director looked on.” When protestors joined hands to calm the situation and let the police know they were safe, the police burst into the crowd and began arresting protestors right and left. During this attack, one protestor was hit in the face with a police baton. Blood streaming down her face, she left for the hospital with a shattered tooth and lip. Four protestors were arrested, two of whom were thrown face down into the street and dragged over concrete to the police wagons.

We are forced to ask:

Will this be Newsom’s San Francisco?


Gay Shame Press Inquiries: 415-794-4393

"Gays Without Shame should be required to maintain a 25-foot distance from the front door of the LGBT community center, as are the anti-abortion protestors."


Are the abortions they are having at the LGBT Center free? They must be a new service?

>> Are the abortions they are having at the LGBT Center free? They must be a new service? <<

The point is the tactics of Gays without Shame are EXACTLY the same as those used by the anti-abortion fanatics--using physical force to stop and intimidation to try to stop someone from doing something with which they disagree. Both are despicable and wrong.

If you want to protest Gavin Newsom, then go right ahead. Denying people access to hear him speak, and shouting obscenities at those who do, however, is where the line is crossed. Why are the rights of Gays Without Shame more important than those of Newsom supporters. They're not.

If you're against Gavin, then campaign against him, find someone who offers better alternatives, etc. I wasn't even sure who I was going to vote for, preferring to wait to hear what all of the candidates had to say, but now I'm so P.O'd at the tactics by the anti-Gavin forces that I want to vote for him just to spite you guys.

Gavin wants the conflict he thrivs on it. He gained a lot of publicity by attacks against him when he was beating up on the homeless. His strategy seems to be to piss of people with no political power and wait for the mainstream public to come to his side. Its not like he cared one bit about his own proposals (he lives in a part of town with few homeless people), but its a strategy that works. Today Gavin uses antihomeless bigotry to court the public, perhaps tomorrow he will use antiradical sentiments (like Reagan did) to get to his next office. If Gavin had been alive in the 30s he would be demonizing Jews and using public hatred of them to get elected. His whole self serving political strategy is scary and must be stopped. But most of thoe who try to stop him play exactly into the PR situations he set up to get himself more support.

CJ and John,

First John, don't even try to align gay shame with any characteristics of the pro-life movement. The LGBT Community Center is for all people who are LGBT and for that reason members of gay shame have the right to be out front and to go inside as well. Second, holding a fundraiser is a show of support. On the center's website you will find mentioned that they "support the needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals of every race, gender, age, sexuality, and socio-economic status." And that they are "serving youth, elderly, low-income, parents, or people of color by providing legal, health, social, educational or cultural services." And that they provide "affordable office space to emerging or small non-profits; affordable meeting and events space to LGBT groups; educational and job training opportunities to youth and low-income LGBT people." Gavin opposes this. He has consistently voted with special interests favoring corporations and the wealthy few. Further, his care not cash proposition, despite whether or not you are pro or con, does not provide new funding for new or existing services.

Now, the center claims to support services for those that need it, for homeless LGBT youth, for poor people who need job training, health services to LGBT people who can't afford them, etc. We are saying, you cannot support these things by supporting Gavin Newsom. And therefore, that the LGBT Center, in its financial support of Gavin Newsom, cannot be successful in achieving it supposed goals since it does not represent the most vulnerable members of our community.

CJ, With respect to your comment about Gavin winning the future mayoral election, it does not necessarily reflect his actual popularity. Gavin Newsom bought the Prop N victory. He spent almost $1,000,000 for ads that went on Muni busses, billboards, tv, supported a full time staff, mailings, etc.. Gavin lied in these ads and they were often the only things that so many people saw or heard. Even the title of the proposition "Care not Cash" is a lie. Get with it and stop trying to assimilate into the straight white rich male world, which only cares about your money and your vote and not your community.

umm... Gay Shame was not blockading the doors to the Center the police were, it's the police that beat up Queers at the LGBTQ center denying them access to their own center to protec a bigoted heterosexual rich white guy from hearing criticism of his policies.

Gay Shame is calling on folks to stop by 425 7th St, the Sheriff's, and support Queer prisoners arrested last night at the LGBTQ center in San Francisco.

If folks really don't want Gavin Newson elected, then why aren't the citizens of SF outraged at reports of the lack of ballots at some of the precincts during the last election? Apparently , voters left w/o EVER casting their votes in November. I'd be willing to bet that Newson's district had an ample number of ballots, and that ballot shortages took place in districts where Newsom probably isn't too popular. Denying folks the chance to vote is an abomination and i find it disturbing that voting reforms in SF consistently takes a backseat--the community seems largely unphased by it. Meanwhile folks like to complain over who gets elected.
Hank

the photos from yesterday's action are urgently needed asap. pls post asap. thanks.

As usual the Chronicle presents a proNewsom story that demonizes the victims of police brutality

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2003/02/07/newsom.DTL

photos from the gay shame action are < a href="http://www.gayshamesfbay.org/images/index.htm" target="external">here

As a founding member of the Out Against the War Coalition, I deplore the actions of the SFPD on the members of Gay Shame, who were doing nothing but exercising thier legitimate right to express their opinion in a non-violent way. In fact, from what I have seen, it was the SFPD who were looking for a fight and who were totally overrepresented for a so-called "fundraiser".

I was also an organizer for the "Dump Davis" demo when Gray Davis came to the LGBT center and I noticed as many cops present then as there were at the Gay Shame event. Why? It speaks uneasy volumns that Gavin Newsom is given this much power in SF.

I demand that all charges brought forth upon the Gay Shamers be dropped and that legal proceedings begin on compensating the physical and legal violations imposed on the Gay Shamers by the SFPD.

Stop the war, stop all violence!

Kevin Weaver
Out Against the War Coalition

The Glamorous Outcasts condemn this attrocity, and we offer our solidarity to our queer brothers and sisters in San Francisco.

The time has come to once again say, Never again.

Last year we adopted a slogan - First they came for the Muslims, then they came for the queers - and today we can see some of our worst fears coming true.

But the majority of people are revulsed by this kind of violent cop behaviour, but our governments seem bent on a course of violence and domination. We will suffer increasing repression, and increasing bigotry once the war begins. And to fight it, we need organization.

This crackdown is directed not only at queers, but at all of the exploited and oppressed, and this is much more clearly understood today by the majority, than it was during the largest marches of the Vietnam war.

On February 15th, queers need to be out in force. Lets glam it up a bit. We need to build this movement, because the Bush Government plans an attrocity.

Today, on the website of the Sunshine Project, at http://www.sunshine-project.org you can hear Donald Rumsfeld clumsily admit that the United States Government plans to use CHEMICAL WEAPONS - in the form of sedative drugs (so called non-leathal incapacitating agents) - against Iraqi civillians and soldiers.

Rumsfeld describes the Chemical Weapons Convention a straightjacket. He is a sick hypocrite.

I have been writing about these plans for months at http://www.zmag.org . Now we have the proof that the US government is planning to use new forms of chemical weapons against unarmed civillians. And we are their next targets.

You would think that in this day and age people would grasp the concept of idividuality. You'd think that people would be able to accept others, no matter what. If the past has taught us anything, it's that hate will bring us nothing but death, destruction and sadness. How come police are given the right to beat up on peope, if they aren't liable for their actions, why should we be.. I say then "make it legal for us to beat the police".. It would be alot different because we are the majority. I can't believe this is still happening, we need to rise up as a unified voice and demand that a new infrastructure be put in place, demand that new measures be taken and enforce change.

just a message of solidarity from d.c. in response to this outrage...let us know if there's anything we can do
off the pigs, up the queers!

Go Gay Shame! Beat State!

S.F. cops suck.

I just want to show solidarity with the anti-capitalist gay activists for their action. Unfortuanately many gay people have made way for another type of mainstream pushing always forward new ways of consumerism. It is good if mainstream gays start to think also about others especially about other minority groups.
If we notice, the homeless have no voice and in this chat I doubt if any one of us is homeless! Thus, elect no one and get people together to manage the community yourselves! Enough with waiting for 'the good leader' no one once in power really cares for you!

What caused the police to react in such a violent manner? Were the police provoked by something the activists said or did?
I'm only trying to understand the situation from an outside perspective.

We were walking into the Center as it is a nonprofit community center and thus theoretically open to the public. Once we got to the front door (where moments before the police had opened the doors for another gay couple as they were visibly able to pay the $125 "donation") and the police just started to push us back into Market St. (which was filled with rush hour traffic). The Center called the cops on us to "take care of the problem" as Jamie, an employee of the Center quoted. It was the mixture of affluent gays and Gavin Newsom that used the apparatus of the police to keep the queers out of the Gay Center. And so those inside the Center watched as we were beaten bloodied and arrested, as they enjoyed their evening. It was one of the most perplexing sights imaginable, The Center using the cops to keeps gays out? SO quickly people forget history, yet I guess that is an easy thing to do when you can afford $125 for a couple hours of drinks.

Why do the police beat, abuse and intimidate people violently?

That is their job.

If their job were to be real peacemakers and to resolve problems then they would be communications expert not carrying guns. I've never seen a gun help make peace except in a cynical sarcastic way.

I've visited San Francisco and witnessed police insanity. You american have way too many cops and private security with guns. I saw them running over bicyclists with motorbikes there for no reason. Cops are on a power trip their ego is in their gun.

Even I know as a SF outsider about how the city mistreats the homeless. I know the homeless aren't getting millions of welfare because I saw hundreds sleeping in the park right next to this guilded multi million dollar city hall. Or maybe that somehow counts as helping/caring for the poor in Orwellian newspeak: The poor get a million dollar (not really) public building to look at while they sleep outside on the pavement in front.

Solidarity and support to Gay Shame from Canada!

noone was stopped from entering the gavin newsom fundraiser. not one single little dirty greedy rich bastard. Zero. not by the protesters anyway. maybe it was challenging getting in after the cops started beating beating the shit out of everybody.

Greetings and solidarity from Minneapolis (BTW I'm a lowly "breeder") As an aside, the Minneapolis police just recently "allegedly" beat a Native American man unconscious and then urinated on him. Then left him out in below freezing weather. A woman who was with him was spotted trying to crawl under a car to escape from Minneapolis' "finest. Finest filth that is. Keep up the struggle San Francisco. From a former Bay Area resident.

there motherfuckers are just asking for another stonewall...

if there's anything we can do out here--we're having a radical queer valentines party. we could probabaly pass a jar?

solidarity from denver. co

Police Blockade, Not Gay Shame by Idiots without facts annoy me Friday February 07, 2003 at 06:46 PM umm... Gay Shame was not blockading the doors to the Center the police were, it's the police that beat up Queers at the LGBTQ center denying them access to their own center to protec a bigoted heterosexual rich white guy from hearing criticism of his policies. How does someone being a "straight rich white guy" make them less than human, as you suggest? Heterophobe! Caucasaphobe! Idiot.

Being a newcomer to the Indymedie site, I am still a little skeptical about the legitmacy of the articles presented on this website. However, while I don't doubt that there is police brutality in SF, I do feel that the article was discredited by the use of the word "crap". Regardless of whether or not consumerism is crap, the use of the word gave article a less factual basis and therefore gave it an aspect of faulty argumentation. I believe that indymedia sites would be more highly respected and actually viewed by the general public if its articles were written in a more profession manner.

Re: (from lead) <<local activists were given a taste of what to come in case of war>>

The significance of this event doesn't lie primarily in its predictive power for straight- or even queer- anti-war activists. This was a meaningful event becuase it is one more illustration of the injustice of police brutality and of hetero- & gender-normativity.

I don't believe Gavin Newsom was there for a debate with the "Game Shame" crowd.

I'm voting for Gavin Newsom for mayor. I like him and think he actually gets things done.

On the other hand Ammiano has done done nothing for my community. He's all talk and doesn't really care about the "whole community" that he supposedly represents. Just because he's a "gay" doesn't cut it anymore.

Not all gays agree with you so don't lump us all together. Some freaks actually pay taxes and support the community instead of being negative loud mouths who squawk the squawk but do little to actually help the community.

Good morning,
tattooedfag

I challenge you tattoedfag,

Tell everyone why you like Gavin Newsom and what he has gotten done, both in general and for our community specifically.

And tell us what Tom Ammiano exactly has and hasn't done.

More importantly, the subject at hand is not the race for mayor. And nobody is trying to lump anyone together in that regard. However, I would like to know why would you choose to attack members of your community who were themselves victimized, beaten and arrested outside of the LGBT Center instead of showing some support. The Center has already apologized.

One thing that Gavin Newsom has been able to do blatently is to have the police intervene in a peaceful protest, beat up, arrest, and charge members of the gay community with felonies that could result in years in jail, and then on top of all that use his position to make it seem as though he is the victim and make the public blame the peaceful protesters for the resultant violence.

Please respond.

And to everyone from other cities who would like to show support, please write letters and emails to the SF District Attorneys office at mark_macnamara [at] ci.sf.ca.us, SF Mayor Willie Brown at damayor [at] sfgov.org, and the SF Board of Supervisors at board.of.supervisors [at] sfgov.org

Thanks.





showing your support and concern. Thanks.

I don't know much about the situation y'all got going out in SF, but this Newsom guy sounds like a mad dick. So, to all my gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans people in the struggle, peace. Show that rich beyatch the exit...

GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER PEOPLE

This is a call to action!
Instead of griping about stupid bullshit ( the posting that suggested that "consumerism isnt CRAP" ) PLEASE
do anything or everything to stop police depts from hurting any citizens who are protesting

DEMOCRACY means DISSENT
FUCK BUSH FUCK THE RICH FUCK YOU IF YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER CONSUMERIST APOLOGIST FOR THE FASCIST SYSTEM WE PAY FOR AND SUPPORT WITH OUR APATHY AND ACCEPTANCE OF OUR OWN MENTAL OPPRESSION

Police have objectives and a job to do while keeping order. They were likely told NOT to allow anyone unauthorized into the center. They did their job. And please, anybody, ANYBODY, whether gay, straight, black, white, asian, Democratic, Republican, or whatever who is standing in the way of a moving police vehicle is due for an ass-whomping.

How many times have we seen protests turn into riots? Sure, it may have been peaceful at the time when police starting hitting people, but at any moment, some pissed off gay could decide to throw a bottle at the cops, and then who knows what might happen.

I'm sure that if it had turned into a riot, this site would be touting "POLICE FAIL TO KEEP ORDER: PROTEST SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL DUE TO INCOMPETENCE; 2 KILLED, 67 INJURED".

Please, this incident was likely the fault of some pushy protesters. I have no problem with people voicing opinions, but surely it can be done with out any disobendience.

What is Gay Shame? An appropriate name for a group that is a shame to the gay community. Gay Shame is an out of control extremist group that bashes queers if they're not as radiKKKal as they are. They tried to stink up last year's pride parade because there were "too many corporate sponsors". Well, I say f*ck em because its the sponsors that allow us to have such wonderful parades. If they want to have a "boo on you" parade and pay the thousands of dollars it takes to run huge and sucessfull prides like we have in San Francisco, fine. Until then, put up or shut up. I've been to prides that could barely even organize enough money to have a few booths and stands...never mind a parade. The size of SF Pride is a feat that any queer person would be proud to be a part of.

That said, no one deserves to be a victim of a hate crime. I don't agree with the politics of this group, but clearly something should be done to protest the deplorable actions of the SFPD...in a queer neighborhood no less!!!

I lived in San Fancisco for a few years. In most west coast cities people despise the police. I always found this interesting because the police that I knew in Indiana as a teenager seemed far worse than the police I met in San Francisco. Maybe my cicumstances were unique. I don't know.

The answer seems simple to me. Become cops or elect a new police chief. Isn't that what haveing a liberal city like San Francisco is all about. Choosing a government to support your cause.

love to gay shame. i love you i love you!
anti-corporate queers unite!
shit, the cops seemed so polite at the beginning of the anti-war march in january (although i didn't see the end cuz i was sick and fading fast). i thought, "we're not in new york anymore! we're not getting trampled by horses!" i guess cops with batons can do just as much harm. goddammit. i fucking hate that anyone got hurt (especially that girl i love and admire!!!!).
police have no right to beat ANYONE unless doing so is saving someone else's life who the 'anyone' is actively harming. our super-duper gay shamers were not harming gavin or the comfortable gay people!!!!!!!!!!! (and iraq is not harming the u.s.)
so i guess we are in new york, after all. i don't know what i was thinking. i guess s.f. has a way of making things 'look' supportive and glossing over the same old bullshit and violence. that's why it's important to fucking open our mouths about politicians who do the same, and organizations who give in and support them. it's a shame that we get beaten for speaking and walking and encouraging knowledge and thought in ways that all of the corporate media silences. (even corporation -loving responders try to silence us! never a dull moment in this beautiful world. we never know what to expect, even from s.f., even from 'gays.' )
i'm with you all the way, gay shame.
you do all the right things to try to help some real thinking happen in this so-called progressive country, state, city...
i honor all the brave and gorgeous queers who have the courage to disobey corporate thought... to do something other than staying in a place away from it all to enjoy themselves complacent forever... to let people know what's really going on (cuz no fucking corporate news report is gonna tell you, honey!).
life is mind-numbing without gay shame.
thank the good lord for the dancing queers!
keep spreading the word!
xxxooo
gina

This goes out to matt hedgecock. Ok matt, isn't the point of a protest to be somewhat disobedient? I mean, no group that is in control of anything wants people to protest and surely by definition a protest is deviance from being obedient. In case you couldn't figure it out, a protest is deviant from being obedient because those participating aren't just letting the people in power do whatever they want. Also, you mentioned how many times have protests turned into riots, well I have a question for you. How many times have protests not turned into riots?

I had a great time at the last Gay Pride here in SF, I was dancing all day in front of the Endup stage, I got to hear my all time favorite disco diva Jocelyn Brown perform live, what a blast, and it was sunny too! Just go where the fun people are at, there will always be serious minded people wherever you go on this planet. Though i'm sure the one in LA is just as fun, yea if more people enjoyed life more and celebrated it, im sure we would not have to be on these message boards anymore complaining about how screwed up things are. Love to all..

"Gay pride day is supposed to be a day of celebrating, not listening to boring speeches about Palestine, third-world oppression, etc. S.F. Freedom Day has pretty much been hijaaked by every conceivable political special interest group who wants to use it for their own ends."

I realize you are not very aware of history.. but do you REALLY not even know the origins of "gay pride" and why its in June? Stonewall was not a party.. and it was not led by a bunch of upper-class gays.. it was a riot led by queers, drag queens, transpeople and all the other "social deviants" of the "gay community". SO remember that next time you are dancing your way down Castro, or better yet.. just move on down to LA.

even in sf? won't you give us one place to dream about?
all my love and solidarity to this courageous group.
we face similar problems, protesting as LGT s against the occupation of palestine and other evils (commercialization of pride being one of them). we also get similar reactions from inside LGT communities.
black laundry, tal aviv

where are the phone numbers that were listed before to call to demand that charges be dropped?
any updates on charges?
xoxo,
gina

-- i wish this stupid site didn't censor the messages even if they're homophobic or even if they have numbers to call to harass politicians.

Here is a decent description of Newsome in the Chronicle giving details about his money: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/23/MN245262.DTL

As a Canadian citizen who has an interst in politics, I don't want Gavin Newson for Mayor because he has no compassion for the gays, the poor, working families and he is not the right person to be Mayor of San Francisco. ]I want to see a Mayor such as Angela Alioto because she has decency, common sense, is for the poor, working families and gays and represents the people. The election of Angela Alioto tand supervisors to support her will bring decnecy and common sense to the people of San Francisco. It is time that the people wake up and really elect candidates such as Angela Alioto who will make a decent Mayor who will do something on the housing, apartment, gay, homless, transportation and other [problems. So God help me if Gavin Newson is Mayor of San Francisco because he is the Establishment type who stands up for the rich downtown and west side people who have money and power, he is deterimental to the poor, the gays, the homless people and will be bad to average people like me of course! It is time that San Francisco elects a Mayor that truly represents everyone in San Francisco and I had enough of the corrupt and powerful Brown-Burton machine that has dominated San Francisco for the last eight years.

Prop N is media darling S.F. Supervisor Gavin Newsom's stealth campaign for Mayor. Although touted as "a compassionate response to homelessness," Prop N will reduce cash welfare payments to homeless people by 85%, to $59 per month, with the resultant savings supposedly being applied toward services.

In reality, the savings would go into the budget of the Department of Human Services, at which point the dollars could be used for anything. Worse still, Prop N will reimburse workfare "volunteer" labor at a rate of about $1.84 per hour, about 27% of minimum wage. Most San Franciscans are probably unaware of the fact that able-bodied adults on welfare have to perform a workfare requirement to be eligible for their benefits.

As for the roughly 15,000 people on the waiting list for public housing, the 1100 chronic substance abusers on the waiting list for treatment, the 140 families on the waiting list for emergency shelter, and the legions playing the lottery for sleeping space on some floor at a shelter, Prop N offers nothing more than what they currently have, which in most cases is nothing. In fact, Prop N is so poorly and loosely written, that its only obvious impact will be to make San Francisco even more inhospitable to the homeless.

Proponents of N and R have mounted unprecedented public relations efforts to put these ballot proposals across. Newsom has been appearing in 30-second prime time commercial spots for Prop. N since last May. The Hotel Council forked over $57,000 for the "We Want Change" billboard campaign which reinforces the distortions of the mainstream press and direct the pent-up frustrations of voters with poor city services (such as street cleaning, park maintenance and sufficient shelter to get people indoors at night) toward the homeless. Frank Gallagher, a former landlord and corporate political consultant, now styles himself as a "political editor" at the Examiner where he has made false allegations of impropriety about the grassroots Housing Rights Committee, and has portrayed nonprofit low-income housing providers as the "Nonprofit Mafia."

Grassroots organizations and candidates defending the rights and interests of those on the bottom rungs of America's economy are now presented in local print media as the ones to blame for the social ills they attempt to address. Homeless advocates are blamed for San Francisco's intractable "homeless problem." Affordable housing and tenant activist organizations are blamed for the local housing crisis.

Telling the truth about homelessness and housing issues would entail challenging the real-estate industry's right to unlimited profit.


exerpts from http://www.media-alliance.org/mediafile/21-4/homeless.html
"Propositions N & R Benefit from Slanted Coverage"
by Chance Martin

it's happened again

SHAME on PRIDE!

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/06/1623369_comment.php#1623445

850 Bryant St., on Monday, June 30th, at noon

Any pictures taken? Please post

A bunch of wanna-be-thug fags attacks a supervisor because they don't agree with his policies, or doesn't attack him, or threatens him, or just thought they could carry sharp spears in a parade.

Whose borderline protest methods?

Whose inflammatory and potentially violence-inciting stunt?

If gays want to return to the days when people settled things with violence or the threat of it, I'm sure PLENTY of ultraconservative WEAPON OWNERS would probably start to take note of this trend, and perhaps be inspired by it. Is this what 'the community" is going to call acceptable protest behavior? Nevermind my personal thoughts on mixing politics and sexual agendas, this is going to backfire, fags.

Big time. If you disagree with someone, protest.
If you want to scare someone or get violent, it's going to come back at you, mathew shepard style. Flamboyance and rainbowness is one thing, and fuck if I care what other people do in their bedrooms, but pretending to be mafioso-ettes is going to be your undoing.

Since when is chanting slogans against a politican the same as physically attacking them?

The mainstream media and many of those posting here ASSUME that Gay Shame MUST have done something wrong if they were attacked by the police. But they didnt! They were chanting slogans against Newsom near the LGBT center and the police beat the shit out of them for merely protesting and chanting when Newsom arrived. Many police in SF are HOMOPHOBIC and also HATE radical activists. Those who condemn Gay Shame are no better than white southerners who assumed that Civil Rights protesters must have done something to deserve being attacked by police dogs.

I've seen posts on here by liberals that contain phrases like "what do you expect when you condemn Newsom so harshly". How exactly does that make sense? Gay Shame mainly chants "Shame on Newsom", Iranian protesters last month were chanting for the death of their leader and the world condemned the police crackdown there. Should it only be legal to have a protest for issues everyone already agrees upon? Is it ok for the police to arrest and hold without bail queer youth whose only crimes were trying to display a banner about the corporatization of gay culture? Is it ok for the police to cause severe bodilly harm to queer protesters in front of the LGBT center when they didnt do any more than chant and walk towards the building?

The worst part about the protest at the LGBT center is that its a public building that was built to help the LGBT community. Yet, while a politician who is demonizes a homeless minority is welcomed with open arms, queer youth are sent away with bloody noses and broken arms. And while some papers like the Bay Times did cover the hypocracy of the whole thing, many self described liberals condemned the protesters on the mere assumption that they MUST have done something wrong (because they were protesters? because they were queer youth?).

you plant a rhetorical argument with no tangible proof
this type of argument has no merit in fact .
(even worse it works to cloud the issues, muddy the waters, and distract the public from what is really going on)

If there is any shame to be had - it is reserved for the right-wing, narrow minded individuals as are you who support this site.
I am certain that many of you, if you are old enough, still support the notion of people being treated as second class citizens based on the colour of their skin.
You cannot get over the fact that being gay is not a "chosen" lifestyle, it is something that people "are", and this has been proven to have been the case since the dawn of time. Don't like to hear that? I'm not surprised as it flys in the face of your bigoted agenda.
This is the beginning of a long overdue movement to award civil rights to citizens who pay taxes, work hard and live their lives as best as they can. Just like you. Don't like the sound of that? Again, I am not surprised, as what you would really like to do is keep your right-wing blinders on and happily wish it all away.
This is the real world- and grotty little web sites like this will soon be completely erased as the world accepts that it cannot treat people who live their lives a little differently to your, as second class citizens.

Do the posters of the comments have anything to say about Newsom's actions? Ie, are they willing to admit they were wrong about his attitude towards gay rights?

Oh, gee, Gavvie supports equal rights for middle class homosexuals, and contributes to Republican electoral causes, again-- only this time at the same time. We must all shut up and fall in line. Not to do so would be to hate our very selves.

Hork.

Signed, --Never Forget "Care" Not Cash

PS: What will *you* do to oppose the war on the poor?

Maybe you should look at the pictures of the bloodied minority opinion again, and ask what your role in those human rights violations are?