Last Thursday, Harvey Milk was celebrated, on what would have been his 84th birthday, everywhere from San Francisco to Washington DC — and in mailboxes across America! The Postal Service’s release of the Harvey Milk Forever stamp was marked by a White House ceremony as well as lines of early risers, including yours truly, at the Castro post office waiting to buy their piece of history.
A bartender’s schedule makes 7am wakeups a nightmare, and being met with the bountiful energy of Cleve Jones and the ageless (and tireless) good looks of Dustin Lance Black only added insult to my already haggard injury. The two were there to mark the occasion by having folks fill out and mail postcards to the Sultan of Brunei, who is facing a growing boycott of his hotels over his country’s anti-gay laws (you know a boycott is chic when Anna Wintour shows up).
The stamp got its official San Francisco welcome at City Hall yesterday where attendees were greeted to an unveiling of a MUCH larger than life version of the stamp and speeches from Stuart Milk, Anne Kronenberg and a host of local elected officials. David Campos used the opportunity as a to provide a much needed reminder for folks in the audience that for Harvey equality didn’t just mean equality based on your sexual orientation but socio-economic equality as well.
While Harvey’s global message of LGBT empowerment is vital, Campos’ reminder of his legacy of fighting to eradicate LGBT poverty, in a city where currently 40% of our homeless youth are queer and friends of Harvey’s who now are living with HIV and being evicted from their homes in the Castro by greedy speculators, couldn’t be more timely.
At the post-ceremony reception organized by Equality California, I was reminded of just how long I’d had my beard when a number of folks including Stuart Milk and EQCA’s Deputy Director Jack Lorenz, after staring at me for a second, came up and said “Tom?” Note to self: take advantage of this newfound mustache-cloaked anonymity.
Having grown up a short drive from Santa Barbara, I was stunned and saddened to hear about the senseless murders that took place near UCSB last week. Not that proximity to a tragedy like this makes it any more or less painful – every time I hear about yet another mass shooting my heart hurts for the family members of the victims who will never get to hug their loved ones again.
I was watching CNN on Saturday when the first live interview with Richard Martinez, whose son Christopher was one of the victims, and I was brought to tears not only by his willingness to share his uncensored grief with all of us, but by his willingness to point the finger of blame squarely where it ought to be, at “craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA.” In the days since, Martinez has made it clear that he is on a mission to ensure that other parents don’t have to share his grief. As Salon pointed out in their story about him, the NRA should be terrified.
Local press has covered the impact that the murders have had on local families — I have also been told that one of Christopher’s uncles Alan lives here in San Francisco— and I think that now is the time for us to do whatever we can to support the work that Richard Martinez is embarking on and rekindle our commitment to gun safety and ending gun violence here and everywhere in our country.
Though the NRA may have defeated San Francisco voters in its challenge of Prop H, which voters passed and banned handguns in San Francisco, that doesn’t mean we should now be unwilling to put up our dukes again.
PS: Gun violence continues to claim lives here — two shootings, one in Potrero Hill and one in Bayview, each claimed lives in the past couple weeks.
If Mr. Martinez is ready to give the NRA hell, I’d love to see our legislators do their part and work on putting forth the sort of common-sense safety-first gun control legislation that the NRA will have to take us to court over. We have a damn good city attorney; let’s let him, and us, join what could be a winning battle in honor of the young people who we lost in Santa Barbara last week.
MOVIE TIME: Is there anything like watching leviathans crushing your city to remind you just why you live there? I mean – what is it about the destruction of San Francisco that has everyone from Godzilla to Magneto so hell-bent on making rubble out of our gorgeous 49 square miles?
I’ll admit to going to see the new Godzilla specifically because I wanted to see what would happen to SF — and I wasn’t disappointed. From the billions of dollars (as tabulated by the SF Business Times) of damage to our Golden Gate to the total flattening of the Financial District, there was certainly destruction abound.
As I sat staring out at the city from Angel Island the next day I couldn’t blame Godzilla for his rampage. If a 28-year-old fun-loving gay guy is as drawn to San Francisco as I am, why wouldn’t a 400-foot tall ancient lizard be too?
TOM’S TOP TWO THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND
1) GET OUT THE VOTE! Between the time you read this and Tuesday at 8pm there are almost countless opportunities to make sure your friends and neighbors come out and vote in the critical June 3 primary. Turnout will determine this election. Don’t sit at home and complain later that you wish you had done more for your candidate!
2) St. James Infirmary 15th Birthday Benefit. Thursday, June 6th at Temple Nightclub.
Yes, this isn’t this weekend, but I won’t have a chance to tell you how much fun it will be and how important it is that you go prior to it happening! St. James Infirmary has been providing crucial medical and social services to San Francisco sex workers for a decade and a half and they need your help now more than ever. Despite a flourishing economy, non-profits like St. James that serve our most vulnerable residents are seeing funding dry up and are at constant threat of their doors closing. Come out and support your local sex workers (and the people who support them) this Thursday!
