Last week PG&E received glowing media coverage on its $250,000 shareholder donation to the campaign to defeat Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ban on the November ballot, and its taking the lead in the formation of an advisory council to bring other businesses into the effort.

The news was just the latest in a string of pink steps the company has taken this summer. It was a major sponsor for Pink magazine's Pride party this year. And the utility company just announced it is teaming up with Out & Equal, which promotes pro-gay business practices, to co-host its third annual SF Bay Area Hot August Night event Thursday, August 21 at the Oakland firm of Wendel Rosen Black & Dean.

The pro-gay moves, however, strike some San Francisco officials as suspect, as the company is locked in a fierce battle with state and local officials over two similar clean energy bills on the fall ballot. Some of its most vocal critics – as well as boosters of the two ballot measures – are local LGBT lawmakers who are upset with the company for a variety of reasons.

Some are questioning if PG&E's altruism in the marriage fight is meant to shield it from attacks that it engaged in a homophobic spear campaign this spring against openly gay state Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) during his successful primary race for a state Senate seat.

The company is also suspected of being behind the ouster of out lesbian Susan Leal as general manager of the city's Public Utilities Commission because of her support of public power and alternative fuels. Mayor Gavin Newsom pushed Leal out of the post he had initially given her, and some have tied the action to his political strategist Eric Jaye moonlighting as a consultant for PG&E. Newsom has also come out against the local clean energy measure.

Openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty , a close ally to Leal who endorsed Leno in his campaign, is also no fan of the power company. For years he has complained about the glacial pace of undergrounding the city's power lines, a project PG&E is overseeing. Castro merchants have also castigated the company for more than a year for its work replacing gas lines in the gay neighborhood, which has taken up valuable parking spaces and at times made access to stores on certain blocks difficult, leading to a drop in customers.

The night of Leno's Senate primary race victory he lashed out at the company for its "negative hit pieces" against him. The company formed an independent expenditure committee called Protect Our Kids whose stated purposed was "to oppose Mark Leno for state Senate," according to state records.

It sent out a mailer and ran a television commercial in Marin and Sonoma claiming Leno had approved a budget that cut education spending and voted against laws that would have strengthened penalties against sexual predators.

"When you assault one gay man and bring up fear of children you assault all gay men. And all gay men should be outraged with PG&E tonight," railed Leno at his party in the Castro June 3.

Last week Leno said other than a low level gay employee at the company, none of PG&E's top managers had called him to apologize for the anti-gay attacks against him. He defended his votes, saying he was not the only lawmaker to pass the budget cuts and he opposed the other bills because they were based on criminal justice tactics proven not to work and would have cost the state billions of dollars to implement.

"I do not like to presume why anyone or any entity does exactly what they do, but it would seem there is some relationship," said Leno of the company's very public pro-gay moves. "I had said going back to my election night they just need to step forward and apologize very publicly for what they did. That would have gone a long way for me personally, but they hardly have done anything of the sort."

"I think it raises a larger question as to why is a public utility spending money to attack leaders of our community? That is not what this pubic utility is formed for," added Leno. "Rather than squander all of this money, they should be reinvesting in their infrastructure so small business owners like myself don't see the lights go out because of system failures." [Leno owns a sign-making shop.]

Julian Davis, a spokesman for the campaign to pass the local Clean Energy Act, which would mandate that 51 percent of the city's electricity come from clean energy sources by 2017, increasing to 75 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040, also questioned PG&E's motives.

"I think in addition to greenwashing, PG&E is now engaged in gay-washing, given their inappropriate attacks on Assemblyman Mark Leno," Davis told the Bay Area Reporter last week. "I think there is pretty resounding resentment in the gay community for PG&E's tactics. It is kind of obvious they are trying now to court favor in a community they offended with their unsavory tactics."

A request for comment from the company went unanswered Friday, August 1.

At the news conference Tuesday, July 29 announcing the donation to the No on Prop 8 campaign, PG&E spokeswoman Darlene Chiu said the company did not approve the mailer against Leno prior to its publication.

"We didn't see the mailer before it went out. We didn't know the mailer was going out," said Chiu, a former spokeswoman for Newsom.

As for people who feel PG&E has a monopoly on San Francisco being uncomfortable with the utility company joining the marriage fight, Nancy McFadden, PG&E senior vice president of public affairs, said, "I don't think the fact that we're the main utility in Northern California has anything to do with doing the right thing or not."

People on both sides of the public power debate are needed to defeat Prop 8, McFadden said.

As far as people being "squeamish" about PG&E's involvement, National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell said, "From my perspective, this is not about PG&E and public power or a utility fight. That is really a separate issue from the very significant contributions that PG&E has made to LGBT issues for a long time."

Geoff Kors , executive director of Equality California, said PG&E has a long relationship with EQCA and has been "very supportive of us and our legislative work."

"Everybody should be glad they're giving back to the community," Kors said.

Leno, however, said last week that the company's contribution is a pittance compared to what it is spending to defeat both the local measure and the statewide Proposition 7, which would require all utilities, including government-owned utilities, to generate 20 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2010, a standard currently applicable only to private electrical corporations. The measure would also raise the requirement for all utilities to 40 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025.

"Given they have put over $10 million to defeat another proposition on clean power statewide, I would think our community might feel we have been significantly shorted by their $250,000 contribution," said Leno.

Gay officials campaign for local measure

Clearly the company has fences to mend in the gay community.

Two weeks ago at a July 22 rally on the steps of City Hall to promote the Clean Energy Act on San Francisco's fall ballot, openly gay Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who is expected to replace Leno in the 13th District Assembly seat, called out PG&E for its "homophobic tactics in its mailers" against Leno.

Dufty also was on hand to counter attacks in PG&E-funded mailers being sent to local households this summer that claim the Board of Supervisors want to "take over" the company by issuing a bond it claims will cost $4 billion to pay back and "would mean a utility bill increase of over $400 dollars per customer per year for at least 30 years."

One mailer attacks the supervisors as "politicians who can't fill our potholes," while another says if the measure passes the city would lose "$20 million per year in taxes and fees" that PG&E pays each year. The mailer says the money would be better spent on Muni, fire and police services, and park improvements.

"You want to look at something mismanaged, look at how PG&E handled the undergrounding project. The city and county of San Francisco will do a much better job," said Dufty, who boycotted Pink 's party due to PG&E's involvement. "This November is about change. The LGBT community will come out strongly for this measure."

Leal was also on hand to voice her support for the measure.

"This is not some crazy takeover scheme. This is about the environment and protecting the rights of San Franciscans and their ratepayers," she said. "We need to get out from under the grips of a monopoly that has not allowed this city to use renewable energy."

Seth Hemmelgarn contributed to this report. Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.