Thank you to everyone who attended last month's General Membership Meeting. (If you missed it, you can watch it here.)

At our Meeting, the Membership voted:

1) To support the Harvey Milk Plaza renovation project. (Unanimous.)

2) To support an ordinance sponsored by Supervisor Hillary Ronen and Supervisor Shamann Walton to ensure access to paid time off for domestic workers and the campaign behind it. (Unanimous.)

3) To hold an endorsement vote at our November General Meeting for all candidates running for CA Assembly in District 25. (Unanimous.)

Also, as you probably have already heard, the Membership voted to officially endorse David Campos for CA Assembly District 17!

We are proud to endorse David Campos for Assembly! Whether you judge the candidates by their track record, their platform, their depth of experience, or the communities they represent, David Campos is an easy choice for AD 17 at the Milk Club.

David Campos is someone who doesn't just follow public opinion, he leads it and has done so for decades. Queers deserve a proven progressive in Sacramento. And the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and the Latinx folks deserve to be seen, heard, and represented.

So for all of these reasons, mark your calendars for David Campos's upcoming campaign events. The details are below:

And thank you to everyone who attended and sponsored our 2021 Gayla! And a special thank you to everyone who volunteered, especially Jeffrey Phillips, Jonathan Griffin, Paul Aguilar, Tiffany, Confetti Canon (www.confetticanondj.com), J. Elizabeth Portraiture (www.jelizabethportraiture.com), Danny Nicoletta, Jeff May, Sydney Simpson, Edgar Rodriguez, and Congregation Sherith Israel.

Here are some photos:

Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party David Campos & former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner.

VP of Events & Fundraising Jeffrey Kwong & CA Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez.

Jeff May & Milk Club Co-President Kaylah Williams.

Milk Club Co-President Edward Wright & Milk Club Board Member Joe Adkins.

Former Milk Club Presidents Stephany Ashley, SF Democratic Party Chair Honey Mahogany, Laura Thomas, Kevin Bard, DCCC Member Peter Gallotta, CCSF Trustee Tom Temprano, and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

David Campos, Supervisor Connie Chan, and former Milk Club President Peter Gallotta.

Photo: Bob McLeod / 1977 S.F. Examiner, during the signing of the City's Gay Rights Ordinance.

The Milk Club is unapologetically progressive and proudly queer. Since 1976, we have built power with and for all of the “Us’s” — San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities — in order to be free from scarcity, oppression, and machine politics.

Please join or renew your Harvey Milk Club Membership by clicking here. Stay with us in the fight!

Also, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding your Membership.

And stay involved by going to our website: www.milkclub.org. And join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for our handle @harveymilkclub.

The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
http://www.milkclub.org

Join or renew your Membership today!
http://www.milkclub.org/join

Our City and Community has lost a legendary activist with the passing of educator and legend Sally Miller Gearhart on July 14th.

Sally was a prominent activist in San Francisco during the 70’s and 80’s. She was also a tenured professor of women's and genders studies at SF State, one of the first in the country. And, of course, Sally served as an early and vocal ally to our Club's namesake Supervisor Harvey Milk. They both worked hand-in-hand in defeating Prop. 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, which would have barred lesbian and gay people from being teachers, if passed.

Sally was featured prominently in the “Life and Times of Harvey Milk” an acclaimed documentary about Harvey Milk's life and political forays, as well as in the ABC mini series “When We Rise”. 

Sally will be missed.

The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
http://www.milkclub.org

Join or renew your Membership today!
http://www.milkclub.org/join

Milk Club endorsed Janani Ramachandran, our candidate for a special election for the East Bay's 18th Assembly District seat, has advanced to the August 31st runoff. Please get involved here.

The Harvey Milk Club is thrilled that Janani Ramachandran has advanced to an August 31st runoff for CA's 18th Assembly District. Read more about where the race stands here and get involved to ensure Janani's victory next month!

The bad news is that the California Democratic Party called a last-minute endorsement vote at 5:10 PM on Friday, July 2nd, and then held a vote on Monday. All of this during the 4th of July three-day weekend!

Because the vote was rushed without due process and fairness to both sides, delegates did not have time to consider vital issues including voter fraud, conflicts of interest, and forgery. And a black delegate who was traveling during the holiday weekend was not allowed to vote.

Read Janani Ramachandran's press release for more details on this incident.

When the Republican Party works to suppress votes, we rightly cry foul. When the Democratic Party adopts a vote process that by definition denies full access, we should raise our voices as one to speak out for a fair and just voting process.

Corporate Democrats are getting desperate in their efforts to stop both Medicare for All and Nina Turner, the Milk Club's endorsed candidate for Congress in OH-11.

And while we are on the topic of progressives vs. the party establishment, please remember to help out Nina Turner in whatever way you can to ensure her primary election victory on August 3rd in Ohio.

Like Janani Ramachandran here in California, Nina Turner faces opposition from the status quo. This is clearly evident in how the pharmaceutical industry responded (within hours!) to Nina's moving campaign ad calling for Medicare for All.

At the beginning of 2021, the Harvey Milk Club did not expect to be involved in any elections for at least a year. But surprises happen, so stay tuned for details regarding the upcoming September 14th gubernatorial recall and our Membership's official response to it. Along with other potential upcoming special elections.

All in good time.

Thank you to everyone who made is out to the People's March! It was certainly refreshing to have a Pride Parade centered around grassroots organizations rather than corrupt banks and massive corporations.

And speaking of Pride, please show your support for the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus as their members face death threats for the video posted above. Read more about this faux controversy here and judge for yourself.

The lyrics in question are as follows: "We'll convert your children. We'll make them tolerant, and fair.” The Harvey Milk Club has been doing just that for the past 45 years!

The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
http://www.milkclub.org

Join or renew your Membership today!
http://www.milkclub.org/join

Thank you to everyone who attended our June 8th PAC Meeting. And if you missed it, you can watch it here.

The PAC unanimously voted to pass the following motions:

1) A motion to support the GLBT Historical Society’s request for a $300,000 add-back in the 2021 annual appropriations ordinance.

2) A motion to support the creation of a Milk Club HIV Caucus.

3) A motion to support the 2021 budgetary priorities of the HIV AIDS Providers Network, Getting to Zero Consortium, and the SF HIV Planning Council in order to provide life-saving services and to protect essential funding for communities impacted by HIV in San Francisco.

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A photo from our first in-person Happy Hour on Monday at The Cinch since the start of the COVID pandemic. The Milk Club will be having another one in July.

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The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
http://www.milkclub.org

Join or renew your Membership today!
http://www.milkclub.org/join

 

 

Tomorrow, join the Milk Club, along with the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, Castro Merchants, LYRIC, The GLBT Historical Society, Openhouse, Strut, SF Office of Transgender Initiatives, Castro Community On Patrol, Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro/Upper Market CBD and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman as we celebrate this Harvey Milk Day by helping our community take its next steps out of the pandemic.

We are partnering with this broad coalition to provide community access to free testing, vaccinations, services and local business.

Harvey's Birthday Celebration will take place at Jane Warner Plaza on Saturday, May 22nd from 11am to 6pm.

More on our event can be found here.

At a recent meeting of our Political Action Committee, Milk Club Members discussed a range of budget priorities including community-based alternatives to policing, pandemic rent relief, supporting Community College of San Francisco, funding housing and workforce development for trans people community, housing-first solutions to homelessness, and much more.

Next Tuesday at 7pm, the Milk Club will be meeting with Budget Chair Matt Haney to learn more about how to sharpen our advocacy in the context of the current budget cycle.

Join us to learn about the City's budget process that decides how over $12 billion will be spent. And hear from our allies about critical investments the City can make for equity and justice.

Register to attend: bit.ly/milkbudget

With special guests:

• Supervisor Matt Haney
• The Office of Transgender Initiatives' Transgender Advisory Committee
• SEIU 1021
• AFT 2121

And that's not all.

The Milk Club will also be voting on two potential endorsements:

• Honey Mahogany for Chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, who would be the first ever Black and transgender woman to lead our local Party if elected!
• Janani Ramachandran for Assembly District 18, who would be the first-ever Queer, South Asian woman elected to the California State Assembly!

Don't miss it: bit.ly/milkbudget

Photo credit: Khaled Sayed.

As many of you are already aware, longtime Trans and AIDS activist Felicia "Flames" Elizondo recently passed away. 

Felicia was was heavily involved in the Tenderloin LGBT community, and was prolific in fundraising and community organizing for many causes, including the AID's Quilt, Shanti Project, project open-hand as well as serving on various commissions and task forces. 

You can read more about Felicia here.

Rest in Power Felicia.

And with no less sadness, we also remember and celebrate the singular life and influence of Phatima Rude, a performer, artist and beloved family member to many. We mourn this great loss with the rest of our community.

Recap of the May General Membership Meeting:

Thank you to everyone who attended the May General Membership Meeting! A recording of the meeting can be found here.

The Membership voted unanimously to support the following motions:

1) A motion condemning the use of 111 Taylor (the historic site of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot) by a private prison corporation. Instead, we seek to transform and reclaim this space for the Transgender Community.

2) A motion allowing for the Membership to consider endorsing Honey Mahogany for Chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party at a special general meeting scheduled for 7-9pm on Tuesday, May 25th. 

3) A motion supporting a $3.7 million budget proposal for the state of California submitted by the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) to fund research on the sex industry.

4) A motion allowing for the Membership to consider endorsing Janani Ramachandran for CA State Assembly (AD-18) at a special general meeting scheduled for 7-9pm on Tuesday, May 25th.

5) A motion asking SF Community College Board President Shanell Williams and Vice-President Tom Temprano not to extend Chancellor Rajen Vurdien’s contract at any price and instead to install Anita Maritinez for three months, from July 1st to September 30th.

6) A motion to co-host a CADEM Leadership Forum to be held at 6:30pm on Thursday, May 27th. (Register on Zoom here.)

7) A motion to adjourn our May General Meeting in honor of Felicia "Flames" Elizondo.

The Membership also voted to officially endorse Nina Turner for the U.S. House of Representatives for Ohio's 11th Congressional District.

The Milk Club is unapologetically progressive and proudly queer. Since 1976, we build power with and for all of the “Us’s” — San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities — to be free from scarcity, oppression, and machine politics. 

Get involved by going to our website: www.milkclub.org
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @harveymilkclub

It is not too late to renew your Harvey Milk Club Membership by clicking here. Please stay with us in the fight this new year.

Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding your Membership.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Harvey Milk Day Community Recovery Celebration 
Saturday, May 22nd, 11-6pm
Facebook Event Details Here

Milk Club Special May Membership Meeting
Tuesday, May 25th, 7-9pm
Facebook Event Details Here
Zoom Details Here

CADEM Leadership Forum
Thursday, May 27th, 6:30pm
Facebook Event Details Here
Zoom Details Here

Milk Club Pride Happy Hour @ The Cinch on Polk
1723 Polk Street, SF, CA 94109-3616
Monday, June 21st, 6-8pm
Facebook Event Details Here

The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
http://www.milkclub.org

Join or renew your Membership today!
http://www.milkclub.org/join

A recent snippet from The Daily Beast.

Amid everything else that happened last week, we learned that right-wing propagandist Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson listed himself as a member of The Dan White Society in his college yearbook. This blatant endorsement of the man who murdered Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in cold blood is especially heinous, yet perfectly consistent with Carlson’s brand of hateful rhetoric.

As the volunteer leaders of the organization originally founded by Harvey Milk, we are obligated to condemn Carlson and highlight the role he plays in upholding white supremacy, homophobia, and transphobia. The son of a Republican bureaucrat who served under Reagan and Bush Sr., Carlson spews a dangerously effective brand of faux populist white nationalism that belies his six-figure, East Coast education.

Along with his recent endorsement of the explicitly white nationalist “replacement theory,” which frames immigration as an existential threat to the future of our nation and the individual success of white people, in just the past few weeks Carlson has described Black Lives Matter protests as “an attack on civilization” and questioned whether Derek Chauvin received “a fair punishment” — when he has yet to be sentenced.

Carlson’s defense of Chauvin and exaltation of White, two police officers who committed murder, demonstrate a callous disregard for human life. His clear agitation at Chauvin’s conviction reveals his belief that straight white men, particularly cops, should be allowed to kill with impunity, as Dan White did.

Carlson has a documented history of making racist, misogynistic, and homophobic comments, instigating targeted attacks on female journalists, and stoking hysterical transphobia. It’s no surprise he identifies with White, who harnessed the same hatred and fear of change to propel himself into a brief political career, culminating in a horrific act of violence not unlike those carried out by some of Carlson’s viewers.

A chilling video by The Daily Show demonstrates how Carlson echoes the same talking points used in the manifestos of several mass shooters - revealing the unforgiving reality that this rhetoric inevitably results in violence and death.

Targeting Tucker’s advertisers with a public pressure campaign and demanding that Fox News take him off the air is a worthy cause. At the same time, we must remember that just as removing Trump from office did not end hate in this country, neither will removing Carlson. He is one of many figureheads for systemic white supremacy, and the fight to eradicate hate must continue no matter who peddles it, and no matter how they repackage it.

Read more about this story in The Daily Beast, HuffPost, Business Insider, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Advocate and The Guardian.

And check out our letter below:

Thank you to everyone who attended our April General Membership Meeting. We heard from newly-appointed City Controller Carmen Chu and held a lively panel discussion on cross-racial solidarity with Chinese Progressive Alliance Director Lai Wa Wu and BART Board Member and activist Lateefah Simon. 

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

At the meeting, our Membership voted on the following motions:

1) Authorize the creation of an Asian Pacific Islander Caucus.

2) Condemn the layoffs and cuts at CCSF.

3) Hold an official endorsement vote for Nina Turner for US Congress (OH-11) at our May General Membership Meeting. (Our recent fundraiser for her was a huge success, and we surpassed the fundraising goal!)

4) Oppose all signature gathering efforts aimed at recalling SF District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

5) Reaffirm our support #30 Right Now Campaign to ensure that some of San Francisco’s most low-income tenants do not pay more than 30% of their income towards rent.

6) Oppose any signature gathering effort aimed at recalling any member of the SF Board of Education and instead build cross-racial solidarity with and for Asian and Black communities in the spirit of transformative justice.

Save SF City College now!

As previously noted, a motion was passed at our April General Membership meeting to condemn the vast layoffs and cuts that are being considered at City College. 

Currently, the CCSF administration is seeking to terminate over 600 full and part-time staff, including 163 full time faculty and eliminating 50% of all classes, including major cuts to ethnic studies, Art and Nursing.

A full list of the potential cuts can be found here. Downsizing city college will only worsen the problem. Decreased enrollment means decreased state funding. 

We urge the board of trustees and other CCSF administrators to take the following steps to save CCSF and avert the mass layoffs by:

1) Utilizing HEERF funding provided by the federal governments covid-relief package as well other public funding from the city.

2) Encourage access to enrollment by sending the full class schedule and enrollment information to every San Francisco home via mail or email.

3) Fixing the broken and confusing enrollment system.

4) Provide in-person registration; critical to help encourage and sustain enrollment.

5) Provide the development and contraction Diego Rivera Theatre that will allow for many job and educational opportunities including bringing in revenue through ticket sales, leasing merchandising etc. 

6) Writing a letter to your supervisor to encourage them to support supervisor Hillary Ronen and Gordon Mars' efforts to expand Workforce Education Recovery fund (WERF) to address the years $30 million budget shortfall and next years projected $40 million shortfall. More info on WERF can be found here.

The deadline for finalizing the pink slip layoffs is May 15th!

Our Fundraiser for Nina Turner's congressional campaign raised over $10,000! The Membership will hold a formal endorsement vote for Nina Turner at our May General Membership Meeting.

Congratulations to David Campos for being elected Second Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party!

A photo of Dan White's victims.

The Milk Club is unapologetically progressive and proudly queer. Since 1976, we have built power with and for all of the Us’s — San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities — demanding freedom from scarcity, oppression, and machine politics. 

Get involved by going to our website: www.milkclub.org. And our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handles can be found under @harveymilkclub.

It is not too late to renew your Harvey Milk Club Membership by clicking here. Please stay with us in the fight this new year.

Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding your Membership.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Harvey Milk Club's May General Meeting:
Reclaiming Compton's Cafeteria — The Fight for 111 Taylor
Tuesday, May 18th | 7-9pm
Zoom Details Here

The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club
http://www.milkclub.org

Join or renew your Membership today!
http://www.milkclub.org/join