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In a not-so-surprising turn of events, former out lesbian state Senator Carole Migden has finally put the kabash on rumors she had planned to make a return to public office next year by running for the Board of Supervisors, which she served on in the late 1990s.

Migden told the SF Weekly that she would not seek the District 10 seat next year. Current D10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell is termed out of office come January 2011 and the race has drawn a long list of candidates already.

“I’m more in a position of wishing them well and allowing them to proceed,” Migden told the newsweekly.

Migden’s potential bid had been viewed as unlikely by those closest to her as it would have meant her having to move into the district – she lives in District 6 – and facing accusations not only of being a carpetbagger but also of running for a seat that has traditionally been held by an African American in the diverse district.

And she was easily trounced by fellow gay Dem Mark Leno in the June 2008 primary for her Senate seat, which covers the city’s District 10 areas. (Leno went on to easily win election to the Senate that November.)

While Migden had told the Bay Area Reporter this spring she would not rule out a potential run, she seemed happier being outside the public spotlight and traveling around the world.

She echoed those sentiments this week to the weekly alt paper:

“I don’t envision this as a fit for me in the New Year,” she said, adding, “I like where I live … I have a good life.”

The nation’s capital will have a new LGBT paper and news Web site Friday under the name DC Agenda, the Bay Area Reporter has learned. The new online portal at DCAGENDA.com and weekly paper is the reincarnation of the Washington Blade, which folded earlier this week.

“That is the name,” said Lynne Brown, formerly the publisher of the Blade who is overseeing the launch of the new paper.

Brown, who registered the domain name Tuesday, November 17, said the staff landed on the name once it was determined there was no trademark issues with using it.

She also joked that, “There is a homosexual agenda, according to the right wing,” before adding that, “Our personal agenda is to delivery of quality news of the DC metro area serving the population formerly served by the former publication known as the Washington Blade.”

On Monday the Blade ceased publishing along with the other LGBT media holdings of Window Media. As the B.A.R. reported in its edition today (Thursday, November 19) the company’s majority stockholder, Avalon Equity Partners, has been under receivership with the U.S. Small Business Administration since 2008, and it declared bankruptcy earlier this week.

The staffs of the company’s papers in D.C., Atlanta and south Florida arrived to work that morning to find the doors to their newsrooms locked shut. Within hours the staff of the Blade had regrouped and set about to launch their own newspaper.

A two-page printed version of the new DC Agenda is set to hit the streets by Friday morning when the new Web site is also expected to go live, said Brown. At a party the staff held Wednesday night the D.C. Gay Men’s Chorus showed up to buy an ad on the back page of the first edition.

“I haven’t cried yet,” said Brown, who declined to say how much the ad cost. “They paid what they wanted; they were very kind to us. It was the first and it was lovely they did it.”

The staff also launched this week another Web site – www.savetheblade.com – where they are selling bricks as a way to raise money to pay for the new media venture.

“It is a yellow brick road and it is paving the way to our future service as a community newspaper,” said Brown.

Starting in 2010 national LGBT newsmagazine The Advocate will be bundled together with Out magazine but remain a stand-alone publication, the Bay Area Reporter has confirmed.

Since the news earlier this month that the monthly publication had laid off staff and would no longer be available to subscribers by itself, readers and LGBT media watchers have been confused on whether The Advocate would cease to exist and be folded into Out as a special section or remain a separate entity.

In an email response to questions from the B.A.R. this week, Stephen Macias, senior vice president for Regent Media, the parent company that owns both publications, clarified what form The Advocate would appear in next year.

“The Advocate will continue to be a separate mag with its current editorial focus on news, politics and culture, delivered monthly with a separate OUT as well,” wrote Macias.

The B.A.R. contacted Macias for comment following the closures this week of Window Media’s newspapers, which included the Washington Blade in D.C. and Southern Voice in Atlanta. The shuttering of the well-regarded weeklies shocked readers nationwide and has led to ongoing recriminations over just what caused the sudden shut downs of the papers.

Window Media’s majority stockholder, Avalon Equity Partners, had been under receivership with the U.S. Small Business Administration since 2008. While the SBA has said it had nothing to do with this week’s events, others have blamed the government agency.

No matter who is to blame, the news has further flamed fears that more LGBT publications could fold in coming weeks or months. Despite Regent Media’s denials, some continue to speculate that The Advocate will become an online only news outlet.

Macias did not discount that the company’s 2008 takeover of PlanetOut, which had owned the magazines, has been problematic. But he said the company is already forecasting that 2010 will be a better year advertising-wise than 2009 has been.

“The Advocate and the Window Media group have/had very different challenges. The Advocate online, Advocate video, Advocate print the new television show, and Advocate Summit scheduled for next fall will have more stakeholders and readers than its had in its 42 year history,” wrote Macias. “Our sales team is already selling The Advocate and Out brands well into third quarter of 2010. We are cautiously optimistic around the climate in the marketplace. Ad and marketing budgets are being restored for 2010. Advertisers are eager to include us in their buys as they realize what an important consumer niche LGBT Americans are.”

Mayoral candidate and District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty will host a City Hall meeting next week on policies surrounding the city’s famed leather events.

The public get-together will be a first for the producers of the annual street fairs and dance parties, known as Folsom Street Events. It comes at the behest of local gay blogger Michael Petrelis, who denounced the nonprofit for instituting a more stringent anti-public-sex policy this summer without first asking the community’s input. In one posting he said it would be better for fair organizers to ban children (and dogs) rather than place restrictions on open displays of gay sexuality.

As the Bay Area Reporter detailed in several stories this summer, the changes were done at the behest of police, who revealed they had received complaints about lax patrolling of lewd and illegal behavior during the 2008 Up Your Alley Fair. The smaller cousin to the larger Folsom Street Fair and known locally simply as Dore Alley, the event attracts a predominantly gay male crowd where oral sex and masturbation is not an uncommon sight within the venue’s foot print.

Even with the stricter guidelines in place – which called for people found engaging in public sex to be ejected from the fairgrounds after their second warning – organizers reported little problems with this year’s events.

The nonprofit’s board of directors and its executive director, Demetri Moshoyannis, had informed Petrelis in October they would grant his request for a public meeting. In an e-mail sent November 18, the organizers said they welcomed feedback on how to make next year’s events better.

“Folsom Street Events would like to hear from you about what makes our events so great and what would make them even better! There’s no need to RSVP. Just stop by and listen or give us a piece of your mind. We hope to see you there!” stated the e-mail.

The meeting runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, November 23 in Room 278 at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in San Francisco.

Former Assistant District Attorney James Hammer, an out gay man who provides legal analysis for local Fox News affiliate KTVU Channel 2, will join the city’s Police Commission as its newest member December 2.

In a surprise turn of events, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Hammer’s appointment to the citizen led police oversight panel at its meeting Tuesday, November 17. Behind the scenes there had been some moves to block Hammer’s being given the post.

But an apparent deal was worked out as no objections were raised when Hammer’s appointment was brought forward for a vote. The board’s Rules Committee had recommended the onetime police officer and Jesuit priest for the post on a 2-1 vote.

Openly gay Supervisor David Campos had voted against Hammer’s appointment – he favored seeing an out gay Latino be given the seat – but had said during the November 5 meeting that he would not block the decision when it went before the full board.

Hammer told the Bay Area Reporter late Tuesday that he was “really excited” about being given the post. He will be the panel’s only openly LGBT member and is widely expected to use the position as a launching pad for a run for district attorney when that elective office becomes vacant.

“I think it is a really exciting time for the city with a new chief of police. It is especially important to have an LGBT representative on there,” said Hammer. “It is a big responsibility, I think.”

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday the Police Commission does not meet next week. Hammer expects to be sworn-in sometime before the panel’s first meeting in December.

Backers attempting to place an initiative to repeal Proposition 8 on the November 2010 general election ballot have announced that they’re starting gathering petition signatures today.

The state attorney general’s office approved five versions of the initiative on Friday, November 13. The initiative’s proponents selected one version.

Prop 8, which passed by 52 percent in November 2008, changed the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

The initiative approved Friday voids Prop 8, and spells out that religious entities can’t be sued or have their tax-exempt status revoked if they refuse to perform same-sex weddings.

The proponents of the ballot initiative have 150 days to gather approximately 1 million signatures. The initiative officially needs 694,354 valid to qualify for the ballot. The signatures are due on April 12, 2010.

Backers have launched a Web site – www.SignForEquality.com – to aid in their efforts.

“SignForEquality.com brings the campaign back to the people,” said John Henning, who is heading the web effort as executive director of Love Honor Cherish. “We’re going to qualify this initiative person by person, and signature by signature.”

Look for more on this story in Thursday’s Bay Area Reporter.

Fernando Ventura (right in photo) and Greg Sherrell, the out duo that used to host the morning drive time show on the now-defunct Energy 92.7 FM, will return to the local airwaves next week on Movin’ 99.7 FM.

The pair is set to join KMVQ on Thursday, November 12, from 5 to 9:30 a.m. The station is owned by CBS Radio.

Ventura and Sherrell were dropped from Energy in September, when the radio station was sold and the format was changed. At the time, both men hoped to return to broadcasting in the Bay Area.

“It is fantastic to be back on the air in th Bay Area and with Movin’ 99.7. After five years, I am excited to have the opportunity to finally get a chance on a big signal,” Sherrell said in a statement.

Energy’s signal was much weaker, meaning the station didn’t reach as many listeners.

By a 2-1 vote Thursday, November 5 the Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee selected former assistant district attorney James Hammer, an out gay man, for a vacancy on the city’s Police Commission. Hammer’s nomination for the post now goes before the full board for final approval.

The vote split the committee’s two progressive members who normally side with each other: Supervisor Chris Daly backed Hammer, whom he said would provide “gravitas” to the police oversight panel and would be a “game changer” from day one of his term, while openly gay Supervisor David Campos favored giving the seat to Robert Retana, an out gay Latino who works as an attorney for the state court system.

Campos stressed his vote was not meant as a knock against Hammer, rather he felt Retana’s connections to immigrant and LGBT communities were what was needed as the city has become embroiled over police policies relating to immigrant communities.

“I think this is the right choice for where we are right now with what San Francisco is dealing with,” said Campos, who illegally entered the country as a teenager. “I really believe he is the best choice.”

Providing Hammer with the deciding vote was moderate Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who said she liked Hammer’s history of being “very vocal for women rights” and felt his background of having worked once as a police officer and later as an attorney would provide “unique perspective” on the Police Commission.

Speaking in support of his application were Steve Adams, president of the Castro merchants group, and one of the women who witnessed De Anza College baseball players rape a woman at an off campus party and denounced how law enforcement authorities handled the case.

He told the panel that should he be selected, “I can make a difference.”

Should Hammer be approved by the full board he would be the only openly LGBT person on the Police Commission. Campos resigned last December after winning his seat to the board, and this summer, the commission’s former transgender president, Theresa Sparks, stepped down to head the city’s Human Rights Commission.

Hammer would serve the remainder of Sparks’s term, which ends April 30, 2011. A likely candidate for district attorney, should that seat open up next year if Kamala Harris is elected as the state’s attorney general and resigns from the position, Hammer said should he enter the race and felt it conflicted with his role as a police commissioner he would resign from the panel.

He said he would have no qualms about standing up to the powerful Police Officer’s Association and does not support seeing the Police Commission’s oversight of officer complaints be watered down. He also pledged to oppose any move to have police officers act as immigration officials.

“If a whiff of it gets out there then witnesses would dry up and they would run away. Then we would all be unsafe,” said Hammer, a former Fox News cable channel legal analyst who has his own private practice in the city.

A South Bay lesbian couple credited for convincing Congressman Mike Honda (D-Campbell) to add rights for binational same-sex couples to his comprehensive immigration reform bill has left the country.

San Jose resident Judy Rickard, on the right in the photo, and her European-born partner, Karin Bogliolo, will board the Queen Mary II Thursday, November 5 and set sail for England. Bogliolo’s six-month tourist visa expired this month and was forced to jump the pond again until she can re-apply for entry to the United States.

“We thought we would treat ourselves to a fashionable crossing of the Atlantic,” said Rickard in a phone interview from the Denver airport this week.

It is the first time that the couple, together four years, has left the country together for an extended period of time. In the past Rickard had remained stateside, apart from a days-long visit overseas, while awaiting Bogliolo’s return to the Bay Area.

“No law allows me to sponsor her” for American citizenship, said Rickard, who found a housemate to take care of her home and cat while she is away. “I did apply to sponsor her through Mike Honda’s office, of course it was denied when it went to the next step.”

The women, whose story was picked up by the national media this summer, have rented an apartment in the south of France for two months and then plan to travel throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Bogliolo, who was born in Germany and has British citizenship, could not say for sure if the women would return to America sometime next year.

“I don’t know if I will ever be back there. The likelihood is they will grant me a new visa but there is no guarantee,” she said. “It is hard seeing friends and family and saying goodbye. Right now I am okay today.”

The couple attended a community forum that Honda held in the South Bay and related their struggle to remain together on American soil. After pondering the women’s predicament, Honda instructed his staff to incorporate rights for binational same-sex couples into the Reuniting Families Act he is pushing through Congress.

The legislation faces an uphill battle and has been put on hold as lawmakers in Washington struggle to pass health care reform. It is unclear if Democrats will make it a priority in 2010 when House members will be up for re-election.

“I have hope, I am not sure about confidence, of seeing laws for binationals passed. We will see how things work in Washington,” said Bogliolo. “I am not sure I have real confidence but I do have real hope. I do think it will happen one of these days but not sure how quickly.”

A Golden Girls tribute event planned for the Castro Saturday, November 14 has been canceled due to the hospitalization of actress Rue McClanahan, who played Blanche Deveraux on the campy NBC sitcom.

In a statement McClanahan apologized for having to miss her San Francisco appearance but said she had to be a no show on doctor’s orders.

“My darlings, I’m just devastated that I am going to have to miss my own tribute at the Castro Theatre,” stated McClanahan from her hospital room, according to the e-mailed statement. “Unfortunately, my doctor has laid down the law, and I’m currently having some maintenance on the old ticker. Trust me, I’d much rather be in San Francisco having fun and being adored by all of you.”

McClanahan, 75, is one of two surviving cast members from the beloved television series. Betty White, 87, who was the ditzy Rose Nylund on Golden Girls, is still acting.

Beatrice “Bea” Arthur, who played Dorothy Zbornak on the show, died in April at the age of 87. Estelle Getty, who played Arthur’s mother Sophia Petrillo on the show, died in 2008 three days shy of her 85th birthday.

Event producer Marc Huestis announced the sudden cancellation Wednesday, November 4. A VIP reception with the aging actress and Del Shores, who was to interview McClanahan on stage, had nearly sold out while tickets for the event were selling briskly, according to Huestis.

“I understand that many folk were excited to attend this tribute, and deeply and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this unfortunate situation has caused,” Huestis stated. “Our collective hearts go out to Ms. McClanahan for a speedy recovery.”

Huestis said he hopes to reschedule the event. For now refunds can be secured through ticket vendors, and refund information is available at (415) 863-0611.