The Jean Harris Memorial at Delancey Street: A Fearless Activist, and a Hell of a Friend

Lesbian activist Jean Harris speaking about Domestic Partnership legislation in October 1999

The cover of the Jean Harris memorial program featured an eye-catching portrait and a quote from California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton: “A fearless activist, and a hell of a friend.”
Burton joined more than forty political activists and friends of Harris at Delancey Street in San Francisco on July 21 to present a tribute to the tireless promoter of LGBT rights. Burton said that he received numerous complaints about Harris being a “pain in the butt” when she was working for the Democratic Party. He said that “A pain in the butt that gets the job done is better that someone who does not do the job.”

Harris lost her two daughters to an ex-husband in a custody battle. That set her on an activist course that would lead to other lesbians and gay men not losing their children to ex-partners, and multiple other rights now taken for granted. She co-founded Lesbian Agenda for Action, the first lesbian political action committee (PAC) in the U.S., steered San Francisco’s domestic partner legislation to victory when she was an aide to San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt, and co-produced the “Lavender Sweep” that elected several lesbian and gay candidates. Harris also instigated needle exchange while working for San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan, became the executive director of Basic Rights Oregon to take on homophobic bigots, and the first executive director of the organization that became Equality California (EQCA).

Harris was front and center at a Queer Nation marriage equality protest at San Francisco City Hall, and she shooed the San Francisco Police Department Tactical Squad away after a storming of the City Clerk’s office and a mock wedding for eight couples. Her small army of domestic partnership campaigners easily overwhelmed local and bussed-in fundamentalists who tried to stop her. She met her match during the Rodney King protests in San Francisco when she was clubbed along with many others, and a huge angry cry went up when her clubbing was screened at the Roxie Theatre. Harris was decked out in a tuxedo and thoroughly enjoyed herself as the host of an election night celebration when Harry Britt became San Francisco Board of Supervisors President with over 110,000 votes.

Notables who attended the event at Delancey Street included: Kate Kendell, Roma Guy, Eileen Hanson, Happy Hyder, Dianne Jones, Dana Van Gorder, Geoff Kors, Ken Jones, Rafael Mandelman. Leslie Katz, Sharon Johnson, Kate Monica Klein, Lea Militello, and Melinda Paras. The reception was coordinated by Carol Stuart, and the choice of space and catering was impeccable.

Democratic Central Committee member Carole Migden passionately and eloquently summed up Harris and she received sustained applause:

Democratic Central Committee member Carole Migden

“Jean Harris was an absolutely original person, a harbinger ahead of her time. Coming from an awful life, Jean blasted into town in the mid eighties with a fierce agenda and a razor focus. She quickly gained access to important people. She intuitively understood the levers of power and how to use them. She was intense and charismatic and she cared nothing about status or personal gain. She provoked and prodded, dressed like a man and took the bullet that came with that. She was cool, older than us, attracted women like a magnet and usually traveled in a pack. Jean was confident, and you knew when she entered the room. Many times over the years Jean would stop by my office unannounced. In came Jean, in came the most important issue of all time. To experience Jean Harris was like being caught in a tidal wave. You are awestruck and transfixed. You know you are witnessing something profound and encompassing. The force was stronger than you, you stopped resisting for the best and knew here there’d be a lot of mopping up later. Jean invented a social media way before Zuckerberg and way before texting and tweeting took hold.  I love Jean Harris. She made me shine and she gave me many good times. I hope her profound contributions to LGBT equality get the recognition they deserve.”

Rafael Mandelman Thank You Party at the Blackbird Bar: Who Lost District 8?

Nick Cooper, Christopher Yee, Carole Migden and Rafael Mandelman

The Blackbird Bar was the intense vortex for the volunteers, staff, and supporters of San Francisco Supervisor District 8 candidate Rafael Mandelman on Jan. 6.

A crush of earthy under 30 year olds made up the majority of the party that consumed over one third of the space, with no one more than two feet away from each other, and all speaking heatedly about the recent campaign. By contrast the rest of the bar was full of other young people speaking quietly over cocktails in mostly male/female couples seated in the usual six foot distancing.

Carole Migden, of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, was excitedly speaking with the young politicos, and bisexual activist Maggi Rubenstein spoke to Matt Dorsey from the City Attorney’s office about his endorsements.

Carole Migden and Rafael Mandelman

Popular restaurant La Méditerranée catered the soirée and a large box of Noe Valley Bakery’s excellent fruit rugelach pastry was emptied within minutes.

Mandelman emotionally thanked his campaign staff that included Stephany Ashley, Nathan Albee, Tim Durning, and Mitchell Lester. There was a cascade of applause for them from the throng.

Rafael Mandelman with campaign staff Mitchell Lester, Stephany Ashley, and Nathan Albee

Mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez defeated Gavin Newsom in the Castro District, but the extent of progressive ideology in the other District 8 neighborhoods in 2010 is still a subject of study. There were many activists that assumed that Mandelman would win and that he just had to get the district’s supposed majority of progressive voters to the polling stations.

Mandelman spoke loudly from a table top about Scott Wiener, the winner in the race, who began with a 20 point lead that was narrowed to five percent by election day. Mandelman said that he only lost Noe Valley by 250 votes, but it was pointed out that he had been the president of the Noe Valley Democratic Club, which should have given him a power base for victory.

Mandleman also spoke about Wiener’s greater name recognition and visibilty. While Mandelman had been elected to the Democratic Central Committee and serves as its vice chair, Wiener had been its chair, a co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, a rescuer of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center while on its board, a president of the Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association, a board member and honoree of the Human Rights Campaign, and a founder of the neighborhood self-defense organization Castro Community on Patrol.

Mandleman and his workers also were chastised for low-key campaigning by experienced political operatives such as Cleve Jones, while Wieners’ campaigners did not flinch from interrupting café and bar patrons to make a pitch. Neighbors of Mandelman said that they were not aware of his run for office, there was a scarcity of posted campaign signs and ironing board volunteers, and at one debate when every candidate spoke about job creation, Mandelman spoke about helping the homeless, which discouraged his more pragmatic fans.

Wiener campaign consultant David Latterman spoke fervently and often about Wiener as an unusual moderate candidate who actually was a neighborhood denizen, in contrast to such candidates as an Alioto who ran against board president David Chiu. And the progressive swarm of hundreds of activists that elected four of their kind to the previous board did not materialize in the numbers needed to sweep Mandelman into City Hall.

There will be future studies by political analysts to determine if negative mailers by the nurses’ union and tenant groups who favored Mandelman and negative mailers from the Wiener campaign helped or hurt their candidates, and the question of money, its sources and its usage will also be an obvious question for dissection.

There was a key moment at Mandleman’s bar event when a clipboard appeared. It was not the usual sign-up sheet for a street fair booth. The top of the page said District 8 Democratic Club, a new organization. This should send a cold chill down the necks of the district’s conservatives when they realize that Mandelman has doubled the size of his power base, and that his supporters are not joining the current post-activist trend.

Mandelman was demonized by his opponents’ fringes as another fanatical Fidel Castro who planned a radical left Havana-by-the-Bay, and now they will be agitated to learn that he continues to rally his supporters for future political action.