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Queer-bashing at LGBT Center
On Thursday 2.6.03. numerous activists were beaten by the SFPD while staging a peaceful protest in front of the LGBT Center. Four were arrested, and two are still in jail with felony charges and need your support.
QUEERS GATHER TO PEACEFULLY PROTEST
On the evening of Thursday February 6th, a group of queer protesters gathered outside the LGBT Center to protest the appearance of District Supervisor Gavin Newsom at a fundraiser sponsored by him and his wife. The protesters gathered there to call attention to his racist and classist policies, and to ask The Center why they would accept this influence from someone who is obviously trying to exploit the powerful gay vote. Protesters had been peacefully flyering people walking into the LGBT Center as Gavin and Kimberly were escorted into The Center by a squad of SFPD officers. They were barely noticed by the protesters until they had entered the building.
Well after they had entered, a group of queer activists calmly attempted to enter what was supposedly "their center" in order to bring these issues up with Gavin as well as Center officials. At this time, the police presence became more and more violent. One demonstrator, standing with his back to The Center, and the line of police officers, was shoved harder and harder by police wielding batons. He was eventually shoved face first onto the ground.
COPS BASH QUEERS IN FRONT OF GAY CENTER
As the protesters tried to prevent more violence from occuring, the police incited a melee which spilled onto the street at Market and Octavia, and began beating and arresting people at random as Center officials complacently stood by and watched.
After the police were done, many had been injured. One person even had to seek medical attention because her face was bloodied and her tooth was knocked out by a particularly aggressive officer, star number1698. Ironically, Newsom and his spokespeople are trying to spin the events as a physical attack on him and his wife, despite the fact that the SFPD was solely responsible for the escalation of the situation.
FALSE CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST ACTIVISTS
Four people were arrested and charged, and two people are still being held for felonies. We are outraged at this excessive response to a peaceful situation. These charges are excessive and ridiculous for any protest. They are an obvious attempt to distract attention from the absurd reality that queers were bashed by the SFPD in front of the LGBT center. We want to call special attention to Gavin Newsom’s direct involvement in this police violence, and The Center’s complicity regarding it.
WE DEMAND THAT THESE POLITICAL PRISONERS BE RELEASED AND THEIR CHARGES BE DROPPED
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Call District Attorney Terrence Hallinan immediately and demand that all charges against all four activists be dropped. 415.553.1752.
Call 415.553.1741 and reference the case that occurred at 1800 Market Street at 7:00 pm on 2.6.03.
Call The Center and ask them why they stood by and watched as queer bashing occurred in front of their doors, and why queers were prevented from entering what is supposedly "their center" on that night. 415.865.5555.
This is not the same thing as calling your representatives. Enough people making these quick phone calls can actually make a huge difference in what happens to these four activists. Please take 3 minutes and make the phone calls, after copying & pasting this article and forwarding it to everyone you know.
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You can't call this "Queer basing" unless the police did it because the group was self-identified as "queer" and the police did it becuase its a "queer" group. This sounds like the usual police state tactics. Don't be screaming "queer bashing" just to get victim support. Yes homophobia is real but the most dangerous homobobia usually comes from within queers themselves and from other queers if they are not concious of it. I refuse to be a gay victim and you should too! Thats real power.
I made the phone calls. The second number for Hallinan, 553-1741, seems to work better.
I told the Center that we taxpayers paid 50% the cost of building that Center, and that as a tax-funded institution, as well as a gay center in general and as a matter of principle, we do not want any discrimination against any gay people, regardless of economic class. I also told him that having $125 per person fundraisers, honoring anti-workingclass fascists like Baby Boy Newsom (he is too young to be mayor) in any taxpayer-funded building, much less the gay center, is not acceptable.
The Democrat-Republican Party (it is one capitalist party) police riot against the gay community, which this certainly was clearly is a problem for this reactionary gang as they need the gay vote to stay in office, which is why their local rag kept their homophobic story out of today's 2/8/03 Chronicle (and yesterday's 2/7/03 Chronicle) but kept it online. You may read this trash at:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2003/02/07/newsom.DTL
Hallinan is running for re-election and he must have the gay vote to win, as must all city-wide candidates, and most East Side supervisors. These phone calls are very effective in getting charges dropped, so please make the phone call to Hallinan at 553-1741.
I see Tom Ammiano is presenting a statement at the press conference on Monday, 2/10, but the other gay supervisor, Bevan Dufty, is stone silent. Considering he barely won District 8, which has the largest gay vote, in a very strongly contested heavy-voter turnout election, Dufty should be called too. His number is 554-6968 and his E-mail is Bevan.Dufty [at] sfgov.org You might remind him of his razor-thin victory and his need for the gay vote, which he claims to represent. Dufty is a friend of fascist Newsom, and you might remind him being friends with fascists and not being outspoken in defending gay people is not good for getting re-elected from District 8. You might also remind him that this is a Labor Era in a labor town and that his support of anti-labor Newsom and Prop N (as well as the anti-rent control Prop R) is also a sure way to be defeated in the next election.
Most of the above numbers have voice mail so you can say your whole pitch, with clean language only please, without being interrupted.
I am glad to see people are continuing to speak out against Proposition N. Since Newsom cannot deliver the housing and services, his lies about Prop N need to be pointed out every chance we get.
I certainly hope to see a socialist and/or Green Party candidate for mayor. In any event, everyone, please make those phone calls TODAY.
I told the Center that we taxpayers paid 50% the cost of building that Center, and that as a tax-funded institution, as well as a gay center in general and as a matter of principle, we do not want any discrimination against any gay people, regardless of economic class. I also told him that having $125 per person fundraisers, honoring anti-workingclass fascists like Baby Boy Newsom (he is too young to be mayor) in any taxpayer-funded building, much less the gay center, is not acceptable.
The Democrat-Republican Party (it is one capitalist party) police riot against the gay community, which this certainly was clearly is a problem for this reactionary gang as they need the gay vote to stay in office, which is why their local rag kept their homophobic story out of today's 2/8/03 Chronicle (and yesterday's 2/7/03 Chronicle) but kept it online. You may read this trash at:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/a/2003/02/07/newsom.DTL
Hallinan is running for re-election and he must have the gay vote to win, as must all city-wide candidates, and most East Side supervisors. These phone calls are very effective in getting charges dropped, so please make the phone call to Hallinan at 553-1741.
I see Tom Ammiano is presenting a statement at the press conference on Monday, 2/10, but the other gay supervisor, Bevan Dufty, is stone silent. Considering he barely won District 8, which has the largest gay vote, in a very strongly contested heavy-voter turnout election, Dufty should be called too. His number is 554-6968 and his E-mail is Bevan.Dufty [at] sfgov.org You might remind him of his razor-thin victory and his need for the gay vote, which he claims to represent. Dufty is a friend of fascist Newsom, and you might remind him being friends with fascists and not being outspoken in defending gay people is not good for getting re-elected from District 8. You might also remind him that this is a Labor Era in a labor town and that his support of anti-labor Newsom and Prop N (as well as the anti-rent control Prop R) is also a sure way to be defeated in the next election.
Most of the above numbers have voice mail so you can say your whole pitch, with clean language only please, without being interrupted.
I am glad to see people are continuing to speak out against Proposition N. Since Newsom cannot deliver the housing and services, his lies about Prop N need to be pointed out every chance we get.
I certainly hope to see a socialist and/or Green Party candidate for mayor. In any event, everyone, please make those phone calls TODAY.
For more information:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g...
fuck that. these motherfucking jakes are just asking for another stonewall in their fuckin back yard!
they want a war--we'll give um one.
solidarity from denver, co!
they want a war--we'll give um one.
solidarity from denver, co!
The smaller daily trashy capitalist rag in San Francisco, the Examiner, had its version of the police riot against the workingclass gay organization, Gay Shame, at the Gay Center. See 2/10/03, article by Adriel Hampton, at
http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.shame.0210w
They quoted the viciously reactionary friend of equally fascist Supervisor Gavin Newsom and "mayor" Willie Brown, namely Supervisor Bevan Dufty of District 8, who demonstrated his contempt for the workingclass by stating that he was in a "parallel universe" from them, and smearing the workingclass gays with a viciously reactionary lie by associating them with their enemy, and the enemy of the entire workingclass, the anti-gay Fred Phelps.
This idiot, Bevan Dufty, does not seem to understand he has stepped in deep doo-doo, and it is going to stick all the way to the next election, when the class struggle will be sharper as the property owners in his district will be faced with declining property values and increased property taxes to pay for schools and social services, while their own jobs are also on the line, which may cause them to be unable to pay their mortgages. These elitist "parallel universe" statements do not elect anybody in hard economic times, and our current hard times are going to get much harder very soon, and for sometime to come.
Bevan Dufty, Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown are all good Democrats. Barbara Lee, the Oakland-Berkeley congressional representative, even endorsed Bevan Dufty for supervisor, as well as Willie Brown for his re-election in 1999, because she too is a good Democrat. The other thing they all have in common, including Barbara Lee, besides being good Democrats is being staunch supporters of Israel. Bevan Dufty, especially, is a proud Zionist.
Keep away from the whole stinking Democrat-Republican Party.
I certainly hope Gay Shame receives an office at the Gay Center and that never again will the Gay Center have these exclusive high-priced parties. The Center should focus primarily on the needs and interests of the workingclass gay community as it is they who have the needs. The rich can still give to the Center and get their tax write-off, and that is all the Center is to the rich.
KPFA announced on the Sunday news, 2/9/03, that all of the arrested protesters were out of jail, but did not state the terms. We await Gay Shame's update and the entire progressive community supports Gay Shame.
http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.shame.0210w
They quoted the viciously reactionary friend of equally fascist Supervisor Gavin Newsom and "mayor" Willie Brown, namely Supervisor Bevan Dufty of District 8, who demonstrated his contempt for the workingclass by stating that he was in a "parallel universe" from them, and smearing the workingclass gays with a viciously reactionary lie by associating them with their enemy, and the enemy of the entire workingclass, the anti-gay Fred Phelps.
This idiot, Bevan Dufty, does not seem to understand he has stepped in deep doo-doo, and it is going to stick all the way to the next election, when the class struggle will be sharper as the property owners in his district will be faced with declining property values and increased property taxes to pay for schools and social services, while their own jobs are also on the line, which may cause them to be unable to pay their mortgages. These elitist "parallel universe" statements do not elect anybody in hard economic times, and our current hard times are going to get much harder very soon, and for sometime to come.
Bevan Dufty, Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown are all good Democrats. Barbara Lee, the Oakland-Berkeley congressional representative, even endorsed Bevan Dufty for supervisor, as well as Willie Brown for his re-election in 1999, because she too is a good Democrat. The other thing they all have in common, including Barbara Lee, besides being good Democrats is being staunch supporters of Israel. Bevan Dufty, especially, is a proud Zionist.
Keep away from the whole stinking Democrat-Republican Party.
I certainly hope Gay Shame receives an office at the Gay Center and that never again will the Gay Center have these exclusive high-priced parties. The Center should focus primarily on the needs and interests of the workingclass gay community as it is they who have the needs. The rich can still give to the Center and get their tax write-off, and that is all the Center is to the rich.
KPFA announced on the Sunday news, 2/9/03, that all of the arrested protesters were out of jail, but did not state the terms. We await Gay Shame's update and the entire progressive community supports Gay Shame.
For more information:
http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?s...
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