Mormon Church supports gay rights bill

The Mormon Church's support of gay rights legislation in Salt Lake City should not be taken as a sign that it is a friend of gays and lesbians. One has only to look at the Mormon Church and its cabal of church friends, and their continued attacks on gays and lesbians. One should look at this gesture as a way for the church to make itself look moderate after a bruising battle at the polls. Yes, they won, but with a black eye in the process. The Mormon Church has not given up its not so secret long-term plan to marginalize gay and lesbian people.

The Mormon Church tries to project an image of being patriotic to the America most of us know and love. The fact is the church has contempt for the three branch governmental system, except when it serves its own needs. The church will resort to lies, as it has done in California and Maine, to subvert the judicial and legislative system to take away the civil rights from its fellow citizens.

I will believe the welcome mat to be genuine when I see the church stop its interference with other people's beliefs.

Jerry Royer
San Francisco

Store will accelerate Castro's demise

The supporters of Trader Joe's argue that another chain retail store is needed to rescue the Castro from the fate of small business closures and the loss of daytime street life in the Castro [Mailstrom, November 12]. In fact, allowing Trader Joe's at Noe and Market won't save the Castro, it will accelerate the process of the Castro's demise. The appetites of commercial landlords have been whetted by several prominent approvals of formula retail in the Castro – from Pottery Barn to Levi's.

Landlords have become unwilling to negotiate reasonable rents with local retailers and organizations, preferring to hold out for chain stores. Speculators bid up the price of commercial real estate for sale, based on the prospect of ever-increasing rents. That's why San Francisco has a formula-retail ordinance; we recognize when multinational corporations like the one that owns Trader Joe's encroach upon our neighborhoods, they drive up rents and push neighborhood-serving enterprises out.

Trader Joe's will hurt the neighborhood more than it helps. The neighborhood already has two supermarkets and several smaller grocers. Another large grocer is on the way at 14th and Dolores. Grocery stores are the most car-dependent of retailers, and the specific site proposed for this Trader Joe's is ill-equipped to handle the traffic. Neighbors will find their residential streets choked with traffic. Neighboring retailers will not only find their rents going up, they will also find their customers have nowhere to park.

The back room deal that threatens to bring Trader Joe's to Noe and Market needs to be exposed for what it is, a political giveaway that will hurt our neighborhood.

Paul Quick
San Francisco

Remembering Marcus

Marcus Hernandez and I first met in the summer of 1968 at the casual straight Pierce Street annex bar in the Marina, where he was a regular and I was a doorman. Later that summer, we saw each other at the Ramrod bar on Folsom Street and "freaked out" in a good way.

Man, did he ever find his calling there and in the leather/Levis scene. Joining Empress I Jose as Emperor I, he began his long career chronicling that part of gay history as it evolved.

His UCLA education shone in the flawless copy that he submitted. Marcus's emcee talents and ribald humor were in demand across leather America.

In my B.A.R. article, "Mr. Folsom Street Gets his Bar" (about the Arena, owned by Alan Ferguson and Mel Byrd), the first paragraph read, "Somewhere, the late Bobby Kearns (Marcus's lover and a gay murder victim) must be smiling along with a legion of fans far and wide."

Southern California native Marcus would be pleased to see how far Hispanic people have become part of mainstream society, starting with Art Torres (former state Democratic Party chair) and including the current Los Angeles mayor.

As a gay "minority" man, he would take heart from President Barack Obama's wildly successful town hall meeting in the center of conservative Orange County during the presidential campaign. Also heartening is establishment Newport Beach's widespread approval of its new city manager, an accomplished athlete who happens to be gay, and who lives with his medical doctor partner in Laguna Beach.

Things are changing and Marcus played a good, fun role in helping to make them happen. We weren't close in later years, but memories are good. I was pleased to know him.

Jim Dewey
Newport Beach, California

To Mister Marcus

I am sorry that I can't attend the celebration of life for you, as I am going home for Thanksgiving. I will truly miss you, Marcus, and all the good times we had together in the late 1970s early 1980s. We had good times at the holes and every nook and bar we could find in the city. I loved when we went to the empress balls and drag shows in the city. It was truly a pleasure to have known you and loved you. I will never forget the many people that he introduced me to in the world. Every major leather man from here to around the world. I will never forget all the Mr. Leather activities we went to. Thank you again, Marcus. You will be missed by all, from the Castro to South of the Slot, to the rest of the world.

Goodbye, my friend. 

Kim Olson
San Francisco