A Fundraising Party for Assemblyman Tom Ammiano: Great Fun and Food at a Political Party

California State Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, who served with distinction and humor on the San Francisco School Board and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, was the center of attention at a fundraising party in North Beach on June 17. Ammiano was one of first teachers to come out in San Francisco, and he and other out teachers became an activist core for future progressive change.

His other career as a comic—from the days of the Valencia Rose Nightclub in San Francisco, around the Bay Area, and across the U.S—comes through when least expected, and it is appreciated in the legislatures where he has served.

The event’s big draw was the hors d’oeuvres by gourmet chef Esther Marks, an Ammiano campaign operative and co-host of the event. There were suspected Republicans at the event, and donor Hank Donat said that “when  Esther Marks is catering, even Republicans will turn out for Tom Ammiano.”

It was also Democratic Party Chair Aaron Peskin’s birthday, and there was a large, heavily-scented dome of a cake being hungrily eyed by guests. Neighborhood women at the party spoke in reverential tones that it was from Stella Bakery, and even in the North Beach area of excellent bakeries, it stands out. The Sacripantina birthday cake is a fine, vanilla rum, sponge treasure, inducing a couple guests to ask for a second slice of the award-winning specialty of dessert pleasure.

Ammiano spoke about the Governor’s lack of communication before his budget veto, and co-host Dick Grosboll drew laughs when he said that the money raised may be needed for food and transportation for Anmiano, since the budget battle may lead to legislators being cut off from their paychecks. And a week later Ammiano was in fact cut off financially by the State of California.

Most of the guests were from the North Beach area, and others included Women’s Building founder Roma Guy, former Democratic Party Chair Jane Morrison, attorney Paul Melbostad, Sparc Club’s Erich Pearson and David Owen, Maurice Belote, and Joe Grubb.

Ammiano acknowledged that he can be seen in the online and TV video showing a near-fist fight in the California  State Assembly chambers, and he said he yelled out “Now girls!” to cool them off. Openly-gay Assembly Speaker John Perez is also shown on the video doing much of the persuading for the men to cool off and sit down.

There was a thrilling view of Alcatraz and Marin from the condo windows at the party and Ammiano welcomed guests, going from room to room at his happy fundraiser.

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.

Tom Ammiano’s Campaign Party at the Triple Crown: Progressives Gather for Their Hero

Sal Rosselli, John Perez, Tom Ammiano and John Burton

There was an extraordinary gathering of progressives for California State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s re-election campaign at the Triple Crown Lounge on May 6. A who’s who of the San Francisco Democrats showed up to enjoy stiff drinks and succulent hors d’oeuvres as they mingled with the politicos they knew and critically checked out the others.

The Triple Crown, situated just a half block away from the San Francisco LGBT Community Center at Market and Gough Streets, has hosted recent charity benefits put on by the Imperial Court and the gay erotic film industry. Last year about two dozen half-dressed porn stars caroused outside the lounge because the party, hosted by Sister Roma and Chi Chi LaRue, was such an extreme crush inside.

Ammiano is from working class New Jersey roots, growing up over a cab garage, and he has a feeling for service as an educator, civil rights activist, and legislator demanding justice and equality for the non-elite community. After moving to San Francisco he worked as a schoolteacher and his gayness was revealed after the principal of his school became ill and Ammiano served as the school’s interim principal. Lesbians and gays were not welcome by various groups within the teaching community until Ammiano allied himself with Harvey Milk and later with much-missed activist Hank Wilson and others.

The statewide No on 6 campaign that sought to save lesbian and gay teachers’ jobs by defeating the Briggs Initiative brought new awareness to the threats to LGBT rights, and Harvey Milk even succeeded in persuading then President Jimmy Carter and California Governor Ronald Reagan to join in — with the threat that if Proposition 6 passed, large numbers of teachers would sue and it would cost as much as $30,000 each to remove them. This journalist covered them as they rallied, agitated with the media, and stormed meetings until there was acceptance.

Against his wishes some lesbian friends mounted an Ammiano for School Board Campaign and he received more votes than many serious candidates. Acceding to their wishes, Ammiano ran and won a school board position on the next election cycle. Then his supporters induced him to run for a citywide supervisor seat in 1994, which he won, and he served there for 14 years, later representing District 9 when district elections were restored.

Hank Wilson led a Draft Ammiano for Mayor Campaign at street fair booths that was not endorsed by Ammiano. But after a short vacation, Ammiano returned to find a groundswell of support and he ran for mayor, putting a serious scare into Willie Brown operatives. Emily Morse’s excellent 2001 documentary “See How They Run” outlines how the Ammiano campaign not only came close to an election upset, but it also energized the progressives and later placed into power a majority of supervisors who were opposed to the status quo.

Today Ammiano serves as an energized state assemblyman, where his leadership in the campaign to legalize and tax marijuana — the state’s 14 billion dollar leading cash crop — has legislators and the national media taking notice.

While there are progressives who appreciate and admire Ammiano’s years of public service, there are others who receive almost as much pleasure experiencing theatrical rants from the radical right as they vent hysterically over the assemblyman’s supposed “socialist wrong thinking.” Imagine raised voices, stamping feet, and even a wig flopping up and down. They hate the fact that Ammiano is loved and respected for his support for the funding of health, housing, youth, seniors, and schools, and especially for middle and working class citizens.

Tom Ammiano and David Waggoner

The star attraction besides Ammiano at the Triple Crown party was gay Latino Speaker of the Assembly John Perez. The media was welcomed to the event, but they were barred by Perez from a recent San Francisco LGBT event because he supposedly did not want to hear questions about staff raises. California State Democratic Party Chair John Burton spoke about high-level business with Ammiano, Perez, and Sal Rosselli of the National Union of Healthcare Workers before the obligatory speeches.

Jane Morrison and John Perez

Former San Francisco Democratic Party Chair Jane Morrison, who just turned 90, handed out invitations to a May 23 brunch to benefit the Rafael Mandelman for District 8 Supervisor to activists Maggi Rubenstein and David Smith. Sharyn Saslavsky, the first prominent lesbian to support Harvey Milk’s election for supervisor was there, as was District 8 supervisor candidate Rebecca Prozan. Equality California’s Geoff Kors stopped by with New Conservatory Theatre’s Andrew Nance, and so did grant wizard Jeff Jones.

Tom Taylor, Tom Ammiano and Maggi Rubenstein

Tom Taylor, an expressive first-time candidate for the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (SFDCCC), was celebrating a Sierra Club endorsement with his lover Larry Cohen, while in contrast lesbian activist and retired Sheriff’s Department Captain Connie O’Conner congenially discussed her 30 years on the SFDCCC.

Consultant Esther Marks coordinated the event to her usual high standards and the tight squeeze of the 100-plus guests was a testament to her efforts and Ammiano’s popularity.

Kim Alvarenga, Tom Ammiano and Linnette Peralta Haynes