Advise for Rosenthal
I don't know what plans Alix Rosenthal may have for future political office. If, however, she does run again for District 8 supervisor, she would benefit from the following suggestions.
1. Don't patronize a popular and responsive incumbent by faintly praising his effectiveness at fixing potholes and similar curbside constituent concerns, then dismissing that skill as only a minor part of what the job truly entails. What residents most want from their supervisor is a quick and appropriate response to the quality of life problems affecting modern urban living. It's not sexy, but it matters.
2. Don't overestimate what a supervisor can accomplish. No supervisor can single-handedly fix Muni, let alone solve global warming. Learn how the city works before making commitments as to what you will accomplish if elected.
3. Don't be a typical "progressive," bringing your agenda to the voters, then trying to convince them that it's what they really want and need. Try a bottoms-up approach. Listen to what residents say they are concerned about, decide if it's something you want to help resolve, then make it your issue. If their concerns are too mundane to give you the intellectual challenge you are seeking, then don't run for office. Otherwise, be prepared to become a public servant.
4. Don't second-guess the police. The cops in District 8, especially those in the Castro, are terrific and popular with residents and merchants. We know Lisa Frazer, Chuck Limbert, and Jane Warner and trust them to keep us and our neighborhood safe. Don't tell the cops how to patrol the crowds at Halloween. They know their business. And they are smart enough not to tell you how to practice law in Oakland.
5. Regarding Halloween, pay attention to what the experts – the residents and merchants of the Castro – say. Don't suggest solutions that have already been tried and failed, like collecting donations at the entry points. Don't compare Halloween in the Castro with Halloween in Greenwich Village. The Village is no longer a gay-identified neighborhood that attracts gay bashers the way the Castro does.
6. Don't criticize a popular and effective mayor's signature issue, Care Not Cash, especially when it passed overwhelmingly in District 8 and is working.
7. Don't publicly express concerns about the degaying of the Castro without offering hard evidence that this is actually happening.
8. In selecting gay supporters, make sure that those speaking publicly on your behalf are in touch with district residents and merchants. Don't pick someone who ran for District 8 supervisor, lost overwhelmingly, and still hasn't recovered from that rebuff.
9. Now that the election is over, please remove your campaign signs posted all over the district. You may notice that the winner didn't litter the neighborhood with posters.
Good luck in your future endeavors.
Gustavo Serina
San Francisco
Must know HIV status to serosort
The primary source of new infections are from those who do not know they have HIV. The new Disclosure Initiative ad campaign encourages a false sense of security for both the truly HIV-negative and those who inaccurately believe that they still are uninfected ["HIV social marketing campaigns spark debate," November 9].
Unless a person gets tested three months after each time he might have had "risky" sex, then he cannot know his true status. Accurate disclosure is what's needed for serosorting to help prevent transmission of HIV.
Living and loving in that gray zone of uncertainty, they seek easy assurances; they know their own status even though they've not tested in years or the other guy will know if he has it and will tell if asked. This atmosphere of ambiguity ultimately takes its toll and instead of fighting for new prevention tools such as anal microbicides, they settle for a modern fairy-tale.
Serosorting is best left to us poz guys who are looking for other poz guys.
Richard Broussard
San Francisco
Child's play
The Reverend Ted Haggard scandal makes the Mark Foley incident seem like child's play.
Mike Brownstone
San Francisco
Outing fair game
While the voters in several other states decided to slap their gay and lesbian neighbors in the face by amending their state constitutions to ban same-gender marriage, in effect creating America's twist on the Nuremberg Laws, there was some good news from abroad – Mexico City will grant inheritance rights to registered domestic partners, and a parliamentary committee in South Africa approved proposals for same-sex marriages, clearing the way for the passage of legislation that would be unique on a deeply conservative continent.
At home, comedian Bill Maher outed the head of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, while appearing on Larry King Live. Is it coincidence that within 24 hours, Mr. Mehlman announced that he will be leaving his post as head of the RNC in January?
Individuals such as Ken Mehlman, Mark Foley, and Ted Haggard are the moral equivalent of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Rumkowski was the head of the Jewish Council in the Lodz Ghetto during World War II. He worked as an obedient servant of the Germans, even appealing to Ghetto parents to surrender their children for "resettlement" (directly to the Chelmno extermination camp). Rumkowski deluded himself that he would be able to survive by collaborating with those who wanted to destroy his people. He was sent with his family in late 1944 to Auschwitz. Some authorities believe that he personally never made it to the gas chambers, but was murdered by members of the Sonderkommando as soon as he was recognized among the crowd waiting for "selection."
Maher has threatened to out other closeted Republicans who work against their own community. He has my blessing if he does so. People remain in the closet for many reasons, and come out when they are ready. Public figures who hypocritically denounce in public the behavior they can't get enough of in private, and actively work against the civil liberties of their own kind, do not deserve to be left in the closet.
Eugene Marangoni
Union City, California
Is McNerney anti-gay?
I think he is. I just met him.
I am a gay man, 53 years old, a lifelong (mostly) Democrat. My partner of 15 1/2 years, Juan, and I have been frustrated by the divisive and dangerous demonization of gay people on the part of the Republicans over the last 12 years. So when this latest election cycle came, I was excited and hopeful that things might change in Washington, D.C.
I enrolled in the Human Rights Campaign's Federal Club, donating $100 a month to help HRC fight for LGBT equality. In August or September, I started getting e-mails from HRC with links to other sites that were supportive of "fair minded" people (mostly Democrats) who were in close races that needed to be supported. One of the messages had a link to Jerry McNerney's campaign site.
I read about Jerry, and about the incumbent, Richard Pombo. I liked what I read about Jerry – renewable energy, clean up the corruption, preserve the environment, yeah! I donated a few hundred dollars and, when push came to shove, I volunteered to do some precinct walking for get out the vote work in Morgan Hill, a Bay Area enclave in the 11th House District, that was only 20 minutes from our house in San Jose.
In the short time I was involved I was out to Keith Proctor (Jerry's campaign organizer in Morgan Hill) and some of the volunteers I worked with about being gay, how I got there, about my partner Juan, and why I was there.
And, against incredible odds, Jerry McNerney won! Like everyone else, we were so excited. So, when I got an e-mail invitation last week from Keith to attend a small celebration and a chance to meet McNerney, I decided to go, hoping to meet the man in person and to shake his hand.
At the event, I told him how I was led to his campaign by HRC and the links to sites supporting Democrats running in close races all over the country. I also told Jerry I understood they had a lot of important things to do when he gets to Washington, and that I understood the Democrats had to play to the center until 2008. Then I said, "But I hope that when the time comes, you will not forget that my partner Juan and I are also a family," as I reached out my hand to shake his.
What happened next stopped me in my tracks. It happened in a split second; his smile faded; his eyes hardened; his grip stiffened. And he said, simply, "I'm afraid I'll have to let my conscience be my guide in those issues."
I have seen that look dozens of times from others. His implication was clear. We cannot count on Jerry McNerney to stand up for LGBT equality.
I feel like a fool for assuming that because he is a Democrat he would support us. I am so disappointed. If the time ever comes to vote on a constitutional amendment banning Juan and I from getting married in the U.S., I believe it is clear how Congressman-elect McNerney will vote.
Only after the fact did I investigate on HRC's Web site to see if it had endorsed anyone from the 11th House District in California. HRC had not. I am so disappointed. Live and learn.
Dan Smith
San Jose, California
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