All posts by Be_Devine

Keep Boycotting the Manchester Hyatt

It's working!  

Shum reported in his comments to the Del Marin post that the ongoing boycott on the Manchester Hyatt is really hurting the bottom line of its homophobic owner, Doug Manchester, who gave $125,000 to support Proposition 8 – the anti-marriage initiative.  

The San Diego Union-Tribune got its hands on an e-mail from Manchester's Chief Financial Officer to Manchester himself. The e-mail states "this boycott effort will cost you millions of dollars of lost revenue and possibly tens of millions of dollars in lost value for both the Manchester Grand Hyatt and The Grand Del Mar."  The Union-Tribune reports that:

Since the boycott began, several groups, including the county retirement board and the Association of American Law Schools, canceled events at the Manchester Hyatt, one of the largest hotels on the West Coast.

More on the flip

Shum suggests – and I could not agree more – that one way we can honor Del Martin this week is to give the Manchester Hyatt, or Doug Manchester himself, a call and let them know what we think of what he thinks of Del's right to marry the woman she loved for 55 years.

From Shum:

Why not call his office directly?  619.231.3800

His assistant is Holly.  She said she'd have Doug call me.

Let me check…nope not yet.

I love it when a boycott works.  Keep it up, kids!  Oh, and when traveling to San Diego, stay at the Lodge at Torrey Pines.  They're giving money to oppose Prop 8.

 

Del Martin: Feminist, Civil Rights Activist, and Wife

Dr. Del Martin, a San Francisco native and founder of Daughters of Bilitis, died today in San Francisco at the age of 87.

Dr. Martin was born in San Francisco and studied at the University of California and San Francisco State College.  She received a doctorate from the Institute for Advanced Study of Sexuality and began her career as a reporter in 1948.  Dr. Martin wrote several books, including Lesbian/Woman (1972) with Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian Love and Liberation (1973), Battered Lives (1976, 1981), and The Male Batterer: A Treatment Approach with Daniel Jay Sonkin and Lenore E. A. Walker (1985).

She was a civil rights activist and demanded that women, lesbians, and elderly people be treated with dignity and respect.  In 1955, together with her partner Phyllis Lyon, she founded the Daughters of Bilitis.  This was a groundbreaking social club for lesbian women that was designed to counteract the fear and self-loathing created by McCarthy-era demonization of gay men and lesbians.  She was the first out lesbian elected to the National Organization for Women and she later founded Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, a group created to fight both homophobia and ageism. 

When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered that the San Francisco Clerk begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples on Valentine's Day in 2004, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who had been together since 1952, were the first couple to be married.  That marriage was declared invalid.  But when the California Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional laws that prevented same sex partners from marrying, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were again the first couple to be married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Upon her death, Del Martin's wife, Phyllis Lyon, said, “Ever since I met Del 55 years ago, I could never imagine a day would come when she wouldn’t be by my side. I am so lucky to have known her, loved her, and been her partner in all things. I also never imagined there would be a day that we would actually be able to get married. I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed.”

Migden’s Meltdown – Staff Edition

Californians are fortunate that Mark Leno won the primary for Senate District Three. None more so than the members of the Senate staff.

The Sacramento Bee reports that:

Sen. Carole Migden's Capitol staff was sent home on Thursday afternoon and told not to report to work on Friday, after the San Francisco Democrat was heard berating them from the hallway.

Migden's conduct was so bad that the director of personnel had to consult with each of Migden's staff members and inform them of their rights. Later, the chief sergeant-of-arms of the Senate returned to excuse Migden's staff from the horror of working in her office. They were sent home and told not to come in to work on Friday.

More on the flip

When Migden was asked about the incident, she said “They weren't sent home,” and then she stormed away. Great response, Carole: an outright and easily confirmed lie.

Carole's meltdown is not really new or surprising. In a 2006 survey conducted by Capitol Weekly, Migden was voted “worst boss.”  The San Francisco Examiner labeled her “Sacramento's scariest boss.”

Carole, if I could be so presumptuous as to offer you some career counseling:  Rather than trying to re-start your political career, perhaps you should consider moving back to New York and managing the Helmesley chain of hotels:

 

Let the Eagle Soar . . . .

Perhaps I'm stepping on Beth Spotswood's turf here, but I couldn't help myself.

Today's Matier and Ross quoted Simone, the psychic who married Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel (yeah, you read that right – a psychic married our mayor), about the couple's future.  She observed:

“I alluded to them in the ceremony as an eagle and a dove, and how they have to fly high and stay focused on each other because they are traveling all the time … and being pulled apart by the world,” Simone said.

An eagle and a dove?  Really?  Don't eagles like . . . um, hunt and eat doves?  Like:

Brian Leubitz is Thirty

 

He is passionate and compassionate about everything he does.

He is a pragmatic utopian. 

He is way more smarter than I'll ever be.

He edits me when I should be edited.

He humors me when I insist that I'm going to put chickens in the backyard so we have fresh eggs in the morning. 

He makes me laugh each time he breaks into song and/or dance for no particular reason.

He sings a mean “I Will Survive.” 

He can get just about anything he wants with his smile.

He is a loving partner, brother, son, uncle, and pug-daddy. 

He has given me four incredibly happy years. 

He has been away just three days and I can't stand it. 

I love him more than words can say.

And today, he is thirty.

Happy birthday, Boo. 

God v. Ammianio

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held oral argument in the case of Catholic League for Religous and Civil Rights v. City and County of San Francisco.

This case relates to the church's a resolution the San Francisco  

In 200___, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution     ssss

 

The lawsuit names as defendants the City and County of S.F. and Aaron Peskin, the President of the Board of Supervisors.  The only other supervisor named in the lawsuit is Tom Ammianio.  Perhaps telling their followers that God was suing the gay member of the Board of Supervisors helped out at the collection plate that Sunday.)   

The test to determine if a law violates the Establishment Clause  ___ that law must: (1) have a secular purpose; (2) have a primary effect which neither advances nor inhibits religion; and (3) not foster excessive state entanglement with religion.  The law must meet all three of these requirements.

 

District Judge Marily Hall Patel ____ in her Order.

Hug, Paez, Berzon

Prop 8 is alive but will be defeated

Everyone knew it was a long-shot.  But today, the California Supreme Court denied the petition to remove Proposition 8 from the November ballot.  The petition was filed by Equality California.  It argued that Prop 8 should be removed from the ballot for two reasons: (1) because it constitutes an impermissible “revision” to the Constitution and (2) the description of the initiative was misleading when signatures were gathered.

Because the Court denied the petition without comment, there is no way of knowing the reasons why the Court did what it did.  I believe the Court chose to punt on this issue now because it would prefer that the voters strike down Prop 8 rather than the Courts.  This does not, however, mean that the Court rejected the constitutional challenges to Prop 8. In the unlikely event that Prop 8 passes, these same challenges will be raised anew and the Court, at that time, would be required to render a written decision on the merits.

Game on, folks.  Raise money, get organized, and vote vote, vote to defeat this hateful proposition.

San Francisco Mayor Laid The Foundation for Marriage Ruling

( – promoted by Be_Devine)

Robert wrote a great post remembering Harvey Milk.  A few months ago, I wrote about George Moscone.  I thought this would be a good time to bring it to the front page to remember another giant.

* * * * *

Many courageous and hard-working women and men deserve credit for the recent marriage victory in California. But there is one man whose courageous stand for civil liberties laid the groundwork for the monumental California Supreme Court decision. Once a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, this man would go on to become the mayor of the great City of San Francisco. Although he was straight and married, he was a strong advocate for the rights of people in LGBT community. He was criticized by many for standing up for the fundamental rights of those who did not have a strong voice in politics. But as history played itself out, his firm stand in favor of civil liberties was vindicated.

The man’s name, of course, is George Moscone.

The California Supreme Court's decision in In re: Marriage Cases was premised upon the right to privacy contained in the California State Constitution.  In the decision of the Court, Chief Justice Ronald George wrote: “Our cases make clear that the right to marry is an integral component of an individual’s interest in personal autonomy protected by the privacy provision of Article 1, Section 1.”

We think of the right to privacy as something that has been around for time immemorial.  Or at least around as long as John McCain.  But, in fact, California's constitutional protection of the right to privacy was created just a few months before I was created.  And it is George Moscone who we can thank for fighting the battle to create the constitutionally-protected right to privacy in 1972.

More on the flip . . . 

 

Along with Assemblyman Kenneth Cory, State Senator George Moscone authored what would become known as the Privacy Initiative.  In November 1972, the Privacy Initiative was submitted to California voters as Proposition 11.  It passed overwhelmingly.

Proposition 11 is remarkable in its simplicity.  Aside from changing the sexist reference to “men” to “people,” it added a single word to Article I, Section I of the California Constitution: privacy.   Kenneth Cory and George Moscone's proposed amendment was as follows:

SECTION 1. All men people are by nature free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; and pursuing and obtaining safety, and happiness, and privacy.

In their argument in support of Proposition 11, which appeared in the 1972 Ballot Pamphlet, Assemblyman Cory and Senator Moscone said:

The right of privacy is the right to be left alone. It is a fundamental and compelling interest. It protects our homes, our families, our thoughts, our emotions, our expressions, our personalities, our freedom to associate with the people we choose.  (emphasis mine).

The California Supreme Court has a long history of relying on Cory and Moscone's argument from the Ballot Pamphlet.  On at least two occasions, the Supreme Court has looked to this argument to help define the scope of California's constitutional right to privacy.  In the 1975 case of White v. Davis, the Supreme Court held that Cory and Moscone's argument represents, in essence, a “legislative history” that can assist the Court in interpreting the scope of the constitutional amendment.  Two decades later, in the 1994 case of  Hill v. N.C.A.A., the Supreme Court held:

The Privacy Initiative is to be interpreted and applied in a manner consistent with the probable intent of the body enacting it: the voters of the State of California. When, as here, the language of an initiative measure does not point to a definitive resolution of a question of interpretation, ” 'it is appropriate to consider indicia of the voters' intent other than the language of the provision itself.' . . . Such indicia include the analysis and arguments contained in the official ballot pamphlet.”

George Moscone is widely recognized as a martyr of the LGBT rights movement because he was assassinated along with Harvey Milk.  He is also remembered as helping to push through AB 489 which, in 1975, decriminalized consensual sex between same-sex couples in California.  The connection between Moscone's work on the Privacy Initiative and the California Supreme Court's marriage decision is not discussed as often as it perhaps should be.  As the marriage case shows, George Moscone's work in the California Legislature is a gift that keeps giving. 

I hope that when the lists are made of all the leaders who deserve credit for marriage equality, people will not forget that there was a good looking, straight mayor from San Francisco who helped lay the foundation upon which that right was built.

San Francisco Weddings

Brian Leubitz and Bob Brigham are at City Hall in San Francisco with the throngs of supporters and bigoted protesters.  Inside, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon are being legally wed in a private ceremony conducted by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

 

Check Bob Brigham's blog for pictures and check back here later for full team coverage.

[UPDATE by Dave]: While we’re waiting I’ll link to The New York Times’ coverage.

WIth a series of simple “I dos,” gay and lesbian couples across California began the state’s court-sanctioned and potentially short-lived legalization of same-sex marriage on Monday, the first of what are expected to be a crush of such unions in coming weeks.

The weddings began in a handful of locations around the state at exactly 5:01 p.m. Pacific time, the first minute allowed by last month’s decision by the California Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage. Many more ceremonies will be held on Tuesday when all 58 counties around the state will be issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In San Francisco, Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, were the first and only couple to be wed here, saying their vows in the office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, before emerging to a throng of media and screaming well-wishers.

I should note that Robin Tyler and Diane Olson are now wed.  They were plaintiffs to the lawsuit on which the California Supreme Court ruled, and their ceremony was at the Beverly Hills Courthouse.  Their brave story is worth reading.

Alex Kozinski and the Confessions of a Judicial Hitman

As Dave’s quick-hit reported, the Los Angeles Times broke a sensational story yesterday that the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had ___.

This story is the product of a judicial hitman and this story should have never been reported by the Los Angeles Times.

This story is disgustingly overblown.  Everyone knows that America has an unquenchable thirst for any story that connects those in power with sex (let’s call those stories sexposes).  But the distinction between ___ and smear campaigns seems to be lost in the sensation inherently associated with these sexposes.  

There are two reasons a sexpose might merit discussion.  First, it could show that the subject is corrupt.  An example of this is the ___.  Second, the sexpose could expose the subject as a hypocrite.  See, e.g., Mark Foely, Larry Craig, Bob Allen.

The Kozinski story is neither.  

Justice Kozinski, on the other hand, always has been a fervent supporter of privacy rights and free speech rights.  There is no hipocracy here.      

But the backstory is even more interesting and begins on the flip . . .  

This is all the work of a judicial hit man by the name of Cyrus Sanai.  Mr. Sanai