The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club’s Three Commemorations of Their 40th Anniversary

There was a historic meeting of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and the San Francisco Police Department on July 11 during a forum at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.

Alice’s founder, Jim Foster, partially conceived of the political club as an activist group to oppose police raids and threats. Foster got an eyeful of what less affluent gays faced at the Society for Individual Rights (S.I.R.) headquarters on 6th Street in San Francisco, and he thought that a more political organization would help when he founded Alice 40 years ago. Raids on gay bars and hang-outs such as Compton’s Cafeteria in the Tenderloin were common. A lesbian bar named Peg’s Place was attacked by an inebriated bachelor party that included police officers as late as 1979. The Alice Club was quick to denounce these outrages and local politicians heard loud and clear that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated.

Club co-founders included lesbian pioneers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who founded the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in 1955, and their house party guests feared a police raid every time the doorbell rang. Lyon and Martin were active with the Council on Religion and the Homosexual which hosted the “Meet the Lesbian and Gay Community Weekend” events at Glide Memorial Church. Social workers, physicians, psychiatrists, attorneys, priests, family planners, and police officers met lesbian and gay couples and were invited to join them in their homes and restaurants. In the early 1970s a passionate gay teenage couple was introduced to the Weekend conference attendees, and this journalist and his boyfriend were that couple.

From a time when LGBT police officers had to be closeted to the present when open recruitment of out-of-the-closet officers has resulted in increasing numbers of police who have an insight into alternative lives. LGBT-friendly San Francisco Chief of Police Greg Suhr joined three lesbian police commanders at the Alice meeting: Lea Militello, Sandra Tong, and Denise Schmidt.

Alice member Terry Gauchet coordinated the panel and there was a lively Q&A. Over and over both Suhr and the commanders stressed that bring a police officer is the best job in the world because they can help people and see their positive impact on people's lives. Recruitment, maybe possibly from the ranks of the Alice members, was an ongoing theme of the evening. Another was the importance of police academy classes to add new officers that will replace retiring members of the department, and that the city budget should include funding for the classes.

The big news of the evening was that the SFPD will make an “It Gets Better” video to join the thousands that columnist Dan Savage and his lover Terry Miller inspired.

During a dialogue with Chief Suhr this journalist spoke about the early years in San Francisco when upfront gays were harassed by the police and when they were bashed by others, instead of helping them, law enforcement arrested them. The Frank Sinatra film "The Detective," which Suhr said he had seen, was cited as a view of that era. In contrast, now police officers are trained well in settling LGBT lovers’ and roommates’ disputes, and other sensitive situations.

Police deployment at Halloween in the Castro and Pink Saturday was discussed, and Suhr stated that he liked both events, but back when they were a few thousand neighborhood people and their visitors. Curtailment of publicity for Pink Saturday was mentioned as a logical action for 2012.

The Alice Club is also celebrating its “40 Years Together, 40 Years Strong” with a GLBT History Museum exhibit opening on August 1 which includes a visual history of the Alice Club and a recording of Jim Foster giving a lesbian and gay liberation speech at the Democratic Party convention that nominated George McGovern for president in 1972. Curator Nathan Purkiss’ phenomenal commentary about the Club’s history strongly affected the packed museum, and the people admired the event program which is crammed full of photographs and historical descriptions.

The following week there was a panel discussion about the Club’s history on Aug. 8, led by activist Phyllis Lyon, who spoke in detail about the founding of the Daughters of Bilitis, and about how its members were blue- and white-collar workers. She revealed that the group had been secretive during its early years,—they were more open later,—thanks to powerful political friends, some of the same friends that supported the Alice Club since its founding.

The courage of early lesbian and gay activists is astonishing, considering how much they had to lose, and Alice founders Foster, Lyon, and others deserve credit for their efforts.

For more information: www.alicebtoklas.org/

Bevan Dufty’s Mayoral Neighborhood Gathering: A Pancake Breakfast Rally in the Castro

A large crowd that rivaled the mass rallies against Proposition 8 that met in the same former Tower Records site space near Café Flore welcomed San Francisco mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty on June 11. It was promoted as a pancake breakfast that was prepared by Don Ramon’s Mexican Restaurant, which is highly regarded by many of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club members at the Saturday rally from the days when Robert Barnes was the club president and he presented meetings and parties at that popular South of Market venue.

Dufty wore an apron to join City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, activist Roberta Achtenberg, and the BART Board’s Lynette Sweet to serve a pancake treat to hungry precinct walkers. Many of the people who gathered to hear community leaders announce their support for Dufty knew each other from Dufty’s two supervisor campaigns and were happily greeting each other. Dufty’s communications director Roby Chavez coordinated the event and there was a smooth transition between the introductions and stage events.

Treasurer Cisneros acted as the event’s MC and introduced Achtenberg and Sweet, who glowingly spoke of their approval of Dufty as San Francisco’s next mayor, mostly as a hands-on people pleaser who has had the necessary experience while working for Mayor Willie Brown and also as a City Supervisor.

Dufty was then introduced to loud applause and he expanded on his years of service and his expectations as the city’s chief executive. He said that the event was a chance for his supporters to meet the campaign team. He introduced communications director Chavez and a dynamic young man named Joseph Rocha, who is working on the campaign. Rocha had a critically important job with the military and he was relieved of his duties because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). As he told his story, the audience was moved when they realized that he was an explosive detection canine handler, but his positive message that drew smiles was that he expects to return to service when DADT is ended. Astute audience members realized that a canine commando like Rocha was the first of the Navy Seals team to enter Osama Bin Laden’s lair during a recent incursion into Pakistan.

Prominent activists who attended the event included Cisneros’ partner Mark Kelleher, Audrey Joseph, Rafael Mandelman, Bob Dockendorff, Rebecca Prozan, Rebecca Goldfader (the mother of Dufty’s child Sidney), Michael Costa, and Bob Mitchitarian.

There were discussions in the crowd about Dufty’s chances for victory. As mentioned in a Dec. 30 San Francisco Bay Times article, Dufty has new traction in  the race for mayor because State Senator Mark Leno likes his commission appointment in Sacramento and chose not to run for mayor. Since then, however there is chance that his Senate position will be eliminated and that decision is just a few days away from the deadline filing for mayor.

Candidate Dufty is know for his June Pride party floats which are more of an outrageous traveling dance party than the usual sight of a politician progressing slowly down Market Street in a car. A hint of how extreme this year’s Dufty Experience will be were the huge masses of blue and yellow balloons mounted in doorways, the kind that are worn at carnivals.

The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Fall Awards Ceremony: Activists Honored in a Futuristic Setting

California State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, and San Francisco City Supervisor David Campos

The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club honored their favorite activists at their 2010 Fall Awards Ceremony on Oct. 14 at the Infusion Lounge, which is around the corner from the Powell & Market cable car turnaround in San Francisco.

The Alice Club had its start at the Society of Individual Rights Gay Center on 6th Street when co-founder Jim Foster held meetings for lesbians and gays who sought their civil rights. This journalist attended some of those mid-70’s meetings and the first of his 30 Alice Awards Dinners was with lesbian pioneers Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin at the Palace Hotel in 1980. Honoree Jose Sarria entertained some guests and shocked others, including then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein, with his explicit voter registration stories.

The setting for this year’s event is quite different from the Palace Hotel. The Infusion Lounge resembles a futuristic San Francisco club of the next millennium with its Asian-themed red and black décor. Even the bathroom is something out of the film "Starship Troopers," with its severe, metallic, unisex design that necessitates an eager young man to coordinate the use of the locked stalls for various genders.

The key person for the use of Infusion Lounge is Michael Costa, Alice’s treasurer and the coordinator of political events at Infusion. Costa was also the host of a special VIP Reception for Congresswoman Jackie Speier that preceded the awards party.

Speier is admired as a hard-working legislator who promoted legislation to insure privacy and limit banks’ excesses before those issues received national attention. She is also admired as someone who has had to endure horrific personal tragedies and managed to continue to superbly serve the public.

VIP Reception guests asked pointed questions about such topics as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and redistricting. Speier answered each question with deftness and a steady gaze. Her chief of staff Cookab Hashemi accompanied her and they left after Alice co-chairs Charles Sheehan and Bentrish Satarzadeh gave her the the Visionary Award, the first of the honoree plaques of the evening.

San Francisco City Supervisor Bevan Dufty and activist Kelly Rivera Hart

The Alice co-chairs bestowed the Legislator of the Year Award on San Francisco Board of Supervisors president David Chiu, and the Community Individual Award went to Kelly Rivera Hart. The Community Service Organization Award went to the GLBT Historical Society, which was accepted by executive director Paul Boneberg and newly-single board member Bob Mitchitarian.

Paul Boneberg and Bob Mitchitarian

Hart was hosting a benefit for the AIDS Emergency Fund/Breast Cancer Emergency Fund at Trigger Lounge the night of the awards and took a break to come by Infusion, as did activist Andrea Shorter, whose birthday was being celebrated at Lime as a campaign event for District 8 City Supervisor candidate Rebecca Prozan. The benefit at Trigger was hosted by Betty Sullivan and, again, the generosity of Trigger and Lime owner Greg Bronstein is remarkable and a fine example to other business owners.

San Francisco City Supervisor Bevan Dufty received the Public Service Award and upon ascending the lit-from-below, Arthur Discothèque-esque stage, Dufty asked the DJ to play a Pussycat Dolls song and wildly gesticulated, drawing a pained comment from the audience: “I can’t wait for Scott.” Dufty stated that he will be running for mayor full tilt all over San Francisco starting in January when his supervisor term is over. He thanked the Alice Club and especially District 6 City Supervisor candidate Theresa Sparks for his election victories.

Theresa Sparks, Rebecca Prozan, and Scott Wiener were introduced as the endorsed candidates of the club, and they received sustained applause. Prozan ebulliently mingled with San Francisco Young Democrats president Max Sazbo and board member Kai Feder and moved throughout the lounge greeting supporters. Guys seemed mesmerized by Feder’s dazzling, bearded, good looks and smile and surrounded him for most of the evening.

Honorees Michael Costa and Susan Christian

The Volunteer of the Decade Award went to Michael Costa, and Lou Fischer received the Volunteer of the Year Award. Both seemed surprised, though they should not have been considering their listed accomplishments. Susan Christian received the well-earned Leadership Award from California State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and State Senator Mark Leno.

Ammiano announced that he had spent the night with Leno in Sacramento settling the state budget and that Leno’s hair did not move for one moment. That drew a big laugh and Leno remarked with a smile that he had been set up as the “straight man.”

The Ally Award was sent to attorney Eva Paterson, who had to send a video thanking the club and she suggested that they work together in the future. Paterson has worked to desegregate San Francisco schools and the fire department, and she bravely stepped into the racial divide after Prop 8 passed to calm the antagonists.

Anna Damiani and Reese Isbell from Leno’s office attended, as did Mayor Gavin Newsom’s aide Francis Tsang. The complicated congenial party was organized by Jason Chan, and it was one of the best Alice Club functions in recent memory.