By Danielle Riendeau

The fight for LGBT equality in the Bay Area has faced plenty of challenges. Meet Matt Coles, who has been fighting for them from the beginning.



The rainbow flag is known all over the world as a symbol of LGBT rights and acceptance. Here in San Francisco, a huge rainbow flag waves over the Castro District. But that flag came close to being a trademarked symbol that could have kept it from public use. In 1978 Gilbert Baker, the person who created the flag, came to the Castro law office of a young LGBT civil rights attorney in private practice named Matt Coles. Baker explained that he created the flag for everyone and wanted it to remain free for public use. He needed an attorney to represent him to challenge an attempt from an advocacy organization to trademark it. He didn’t have any money, but Matt agreed to represent him. Today, the rainbow flags that symbolize Pride Month are a symbol for the people.

The flag case wasn’t Matt’s first – or last – tango in the LGBT rights community. Now our Deputy National Legal Director, Matt has built an impressive career out of opposing discrimination and fighting difficult battles – he served as counsel in the ACLU/Lambda challenge to the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, on the case that led to our first win in the U.S. Supreme Court, the challenge to Colorado’s anti-gay amendment 2, and on several challenges to Florida’s ban on adoption by gay people. He has figuratively – and literally – written the book on how to win LGBT Civil Rights: read Try This At Home for a few tips and tricks. When it comes to slaying dragons for the community, Matt is a genuine hero.

It all started right here in San Francisco. Before he came to the ACLU, he actually wrote the city’s first comprehensive law banning anti-gay discrimination – and California’s first as well.

What people may not know about LGBT history in the Bay Area is just how tough the fight for equal rights has been. Yes, the city has long been known the world over for its tolerant views and attitudes, especially where LGBT folks are concerned. This is where Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons started the daughters of Bilitis in the 1950s; it’s the city of Harvey Milk in the 1970s, home to the Castro and one of the world’s largest LGBT populations.

Back in 1982, the Board of Supervisors passed a domestic partnership ordinance that Matt wrote – but it was swiftly vetoed by then-mayor Dianne Feinstein. Matt wrote a new version that was passed in 1989, but was repealed by voters (yes, San Francisco voters repealed a gay rights bill – and it wasn’t so long ago). It finally passed for good in 1990, after 8 years of fighting tooth and nail for equality in what is often thought of as one of the most liberal and tolerant cities in the US. In 1991, a measure to repeal it was on the ballot again, but this time the repeal efforts failed.

The fight for full equality is far from over, in California and in the rest of the country. But you can rest assured that the ACLU will remain on the front lines.

ACLU Nor Cal’s Associate Director Kelli Evans tells the story of how she responded when her 8-year-old daughter asked if lesbians were going to be banned and what would happen to their family. The ACLU is the Community Organization Grand Marshal at SF Pride 2012 and is blogging throughout the week of Pride.

By Kelli Evans

Recently, I was at home making dinner with my eight-year-old daughter Kaden. As I cooked, she flipped through the mail on the kitchen counter with the curiosity that only eight-year-olds possess. One of the pieces of mail was from a local LGBT advocacy group, advertising an upcoming event. Although Kaden has two moms, one of whom (me) works as the Associate Director for the ACLU, she doesn’t see the word “lesbian” in print all that often in her daily life. She’s certainly heard the word plenty and because of my work is familiar with words and phrases many people don’t learn until high school or later.  Words like equal protection, constitutional rights, and fundamental fairness.

For some reason, seeing the word lesbian in large font on the mailer reminded her of Proposition 8, the ballot measure passed by California voters in 2008 that banned marriage for lesbian and gay couples. Referring to Prop 8, she became visibly agitated and asked me what would happen if voters decided to ban lesbians from California. Would we still be her parents? Would we be safe in our home? What would happen to her and to our family?

I fought back tears and swallowed my disgust and outrage at the fact that my child has to think about such things in the year 2012. I looked Kaden in the eye and told her that no one was going to pass a law outlawing lesbians or LGBT families. I also explained that no matter what laws were passed that we would always be her parents and her family. While I knew that I would die before allowing my family to be torn apart, I also knew that I wasn’t quite telling Kaden the truth.

The truth is that in the year 2012 laws are being passed and enforced that discriminate against LGBT individuals, couples, and families, excluding us from the same rights and protections enjoyed by everyone else.

Kaden doesn’t know, for example, that her parents’ marriage (after being together for 18 years, we hastily got married the day before Prop 8 passed) isn’t recognized by the federal government. Or, that her generally fearless moms hold their breath every time we pass through customs, worried about how the agents will react to a two mom family.

She doesn’t know about the children of thousands of same sex couples across the country who are denied legally recognized relationships with both of their parents. Or about the fact that in states across the country it’s still perfectly legal to fire someone or refuse to hire them simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. She also doesn’t know about the LGBT youth and adults who take their lives each year or who are beaten or murdered simply because of who they are.

While I usually tell my child the truth, I didn’t have the stomach to in this instance. Instead, after reassuring her about the safety and security of our family, we talked about how one day everyone will look back and wonder how there ever was a time when equal protection, constitutional rights, and fundamental fairness didn’t apply to everyone. That’s why I work at the ACLU, where every day my colleagues across the country are working hard to make this a reality.

Kelli Evans is the Associate Director at the ACLU of Northern California.

Roughly coinciding with Harvey Milk Day and still basking in the glow of President Obama’s full evolution on marriage equality, the Obama re-election campaign in California, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, launched Obama Pride in Los Angeles earlier this week. From the release:

Today, Obama for America-California and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACDP) hosted the official launch of Obama Pride: LGBT Americans for Obama in Los Angeles at the home of LACDP Chair and California Democratic Party Vice Chair Eric C. Bauman and his husband Michael Andraychak, coinciding with Harvey Milk Day as part of the national Obama Pride launch.

In a living room packed with LGBT community leaders and couples from all walks of life, the Obama Pride launch featured a coffee discussion on the President’s accomplishments for the LGBT community, the impact of the President’s policies on their personal lives, and the challenges in the 2012 election.

“President Obama is the first President to fully embrace all rights for LGBT Americans, from opposing discrimination in employment to supporting marriage equality.  In our community, talk about promises kept by the President: ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is no more; for the first time, federal civil rights law recognizes sexual orientation and gender identity as protected class with the Matthew Shepard and James Bird Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act; for the first time in history, a President of the United States supports marriage equality.  LGBT Americans has seen more progress under President Obama than any other time in U.S. history.  And we stand with President Barack Obama in 2012,” said Eric C. Bauman, LACDP Chair.

Karen Ocamb at Frontiers Magazine has a recap of the day’s events, reactions from Obama’s supporters in the LGBT community, and the challenges that still await the re-election campaign.

Needless to say, it’s amazing what can happen when politicians aren’t afraid to demonstrate the courage of their convictions. It’s actually motivating!

I think, as with Christmas or any other holiday, there is always rish in forgetting the deeper meaning of Pide. The struggles for marriage equity and other matters of fairness keep all progressives on our toes, but this letter posted on Andrew Sullivan’s site remind all of us that the it’s not just about the struggle here, but elsewhere in the world as well. Please forgive me for posting the entire content, but there is nothing I can see fit to leave out.

Gay Pride Parades may seem unnecessary in the US; this isn’t so everywhere. Last Thursday, I participated in the Jerusalem Gay Pride March. It is a very subdued affair – people are marching with placards and rainbow flags, none of the glamour you see in the Tel Aviv parades – yet for the last few years, there has been a strange coalition of rabbis, imams and priests against it.

Consider it for a moment: Israeli extremist rabbis, who call for the desecration of churches and the deportation of Muslims, find common ground with them for just one day in the year. Imams who routinely denounce Jews as “sons of pigs and apes”, put that aside for one day. Every year, Jerusalem is engulfed in riots, as the ultra-Orthodox set trash wagons on fire and clash with the police in the days before the parade.

The parade includes both Israeli and Palestinian gays, as well as many straight people, who, like me, think it is a battle front which must not be abandoned. In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox nutjob stabbed three of the marchers, screaming he did so in the name of God; he is now a minor hero of the ultra-Orthodox community. As a result, in 2006 the police have all but said they cannot secure the parade, and instead of it, a happening took place – in a secure, remote location, surrounded  by thousands of policemen.

This year the parade marched – for 500 meters. The police said they couldn’t guarantee anything more than that. The marching route was considered a “sterile zone”, and was cordoned; snipers took positions on many roofs along the route; helicopters kept buzzing over it. And the police seized an ultra-Orthodox wiho attempted to get near the paraders, having in his position an improvised pipe bomb.

“Anachronistic relic”? In New York, perhaps.