LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

Amidst Loss of Faith in Redistricting Process, LGBTQ & BIPOC Communities Speak Out Opposing Final Draft Map

SAN FRANCISCO — In a shocking and sudden move, four members of the San Francisco Redistricting Task Force walked out in protest around 2 AM on Sunday April 10th, after meeting all day Saturday. The remaining five Task Force members voted to pass the draft map anyway, and have faced increasing criticism for the lack of transparency and consensus. This occurs on the heels of increased public scrutiny on the Task Force and a special hearing held on Friday by the Elections Commission, which raised concerns and questions about whether the Task Force is making fair, impartial decisions on public input. The four Task Force members who walked out were Chema Hernandez Gil, Michelle Pierce, Jeremy Lee, and Raynell Cooper.

 This latest turn of events occurred at the Saturday meeting to approve the final draft map. The four members walked out shortly after Vice Chair Reiner rescinded her previous vote that stopped Portola from being moved into District 10. In the first vote to move Portola into District 10, the motion failed 4-5 with Vice Chair Reiner as the 5th vote. However, after coming back from a short recess the Vice Chair rescinded her vote and voted to move the Portola despite overwhelming public comment asking to keep Potrero Hill whole and together with the Bayview in District 10. After members Hernandez Gil, Pierce, Jeremy Lee, and Cooper walked out of the meeting, the audience of approximately 30 people also walked out in support. Many Black community leaders spoke during public comment that adding the Portola to District 10 would dilute the Black population and harm the community.

The conduct of the Task Force to date has raised questions about political influence and disregard for public input. The four Task Force members’ decision to leave the meeting abruptly also showed a loss of faith in the process. Communities representing a diverse spectrum of San Francisco residents are hosting a joint press conference denouncing the final draft map, and demanding that the Task Force adds more public meetings to the calendar, even if it means going past the April 15 deadline.

WHAT: Press Conference and Rally

WHO:  Leaders from LGBTQ, Black, Latino, Asian, American Indian and Labor organizations will be speaking. 

WHEN: Monday, April 11, @ 4:30 pm (SF Redistricting Task Force will meet at 5:30 pm in Room 416, City Hall)

WHERE: City Hall main steps at 1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl, San Francisco

Despite hundreds of us giving public comment and submitting our input to the Redistricting Task Force, they have moved forward with maps that separate the Tenderloin from SOMA and D6, split Japantown Cultural District, add Sea Cliff to District 1, separate Potrero from D10, among other damaging changes. This Redistricting Task Force has ignored the public input and shows no concern for keeping marginalized communities together.

Come out to the Elections Commission emergency meeting today, Friday April 8th at 1:30pm. We’ll be mobilizing in person, but if you can’t make it to City Hall, join us remotely on WebEx.

Community members turned out in big numbers to voice their concerns to the Election’s Commission yesterday about their appointees on the Redistricting Task Force. And they heard our calls, which is why they have called a special emergency meeting tomorrow to investigate their appointees and if they are not abiding by their responsibilities, to remove them from the Task Force.

The district lines that are being proposed will tear apart our communities for the next 10 years. We must hold Task Force members accountable for not fulfilling their duty of taking COI testimony into consideration. Not sure what to say? We’ll share a talking points doc before tomorrow’s meeting.

Please share the attached flyers far and wide.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 5th, 2022

  SF Redistricting Task Force sneaks in 3am vote to use draft map that divides communities 

After agreeing to listen to the public and use draft map 4D, the Redistricting Task Force snuck in a vote to reverse course and use a completely different draft map at 3am last night 

Three days ago, at Saturday’s Redistricting Task Force meeting, nearly 200 people waited hours to testify before the Task Force and urge them to keep neighborhoods and communities with shared histories, needs, and culture together. The overwhelming majority of residents outside and inside City Hall on Saturday voiced support for draft map 4D, even as they called on the Task Force to make necessary tweaks to the map that would ensure resources and representation to uplift the city’s most marginalized communities. San Franciscans were gratified to see the Task Force listen to their testimony and vote 8-1 to move forward with draft map 4D. On Monday, residents expected the Task Force would continue its important work to fulfill the promise of democracy and pass a map that has community support and input.

Under the cloak of a 3am vote, the Task Force reneged on that promise and undid its Saturday vote, voting to scrap plans of using draft map 4D, and use 4B instead. Most San Franciscans waking up this morning have no idea of the events that unfolded last night, and are in the dark as to why the Task Force decided to ignore the calls of the community.

In just the past week, San Francisco neighborhoods and cultural districts have raised alarm over how the proposed maps divided LGBTQ+ communities, Asian American communities, and other residents with a long history of shared organizing in the Tenderloin and SOMA. Residents of the Haight, NOPA, Japantown, Sunset and Richmond as well as the Transgender District and Castro LGBTQ Cultural District also spoke out against the maps which split their neighborhoods from historical communities of interest. However, it remains unclear why the Task Force encouraged people to wait up to 8 hours to give public comment when they reversed their previous vote in the early hours of the morning.

Going against months of recommendation to start mapping earlier, the Task Force claimed they wanted to hear from all districts before mapping, delaying the process and leaving just weeks from the first draft map to the final deadline. Clearly the shortened timeline has caught up with the Task Force, as last night’s 10 hour meeting saw emotions high and the atmosphere growing tense.

The SF Redistricting Task Force must finalize its new maps for the next 10 years by Friday, April 15, leaving the public just days to respond to the change in course that the Task Force took last night.

“Map 4B decimates the Black Community’s voting power and ability to elect a Black supervisor in District 10. It consolidates four Black neighborhoods spanning across four supervisorial districts (D5, D6, D10, and D11) and reduces them into three districts (D5, D10, D11). Map 4B finishes the work of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in the Western Addition by removing countless Black churches in District 5 at the expense of San Francisco’s most disfranchised ethnic group to favor the wealthy. San Francisco should be ashamed of itself.” -Geoffrea Morris, INVEST Black Coalition

“We established our cultural districts to unite and strengthen historically marginalized communities against the forces of gentrification. That’s why it’s so hurtful to see District 6 on the chopping block in this redistricting process all to the advantage of more affluent neighborhoods. Any map that centers the voice of the most privileged in our city, instead of vulnerable populations and communities sets us back and does not live up to San Francisco’s legacy of fighting for racial equity and equality.” -Raquel Redondiez, SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural District

“From listening to the live mapping session around 2 am, it appeared that several Task Force members were frustrated with the shape of District 6. After moving on to District 3 and hitting an impasse around Russian Hill, the decision to pull Map 4B out of the dust bin was done out of desperation or perhaps delirium. In any case it was shocking and a huge disappointment that we hope can be corrected in the final 5 meetings.” – Matthias Mormino, Chinatown Community Development Center

“There’s no better illustration of truly undermining and disenfranchising vulnerable communities than map 4B, where the Redistricting Task Force ended up last night. I don’t know what else the community can do – we turned out hundreds of people, including 117 public comments on the record for map 4D, and it’s not enough. The time for playing around and being exploratory with the map is way over.” – Emily Lee, San Francisco Rising

Hi.  Thanks for your interest in the “LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District”, created by the City of San Francisco to honor, support, and protect the unique and special culture that has flourished in the South of Market area.

We encourage anyone with an interest in the leather or kink community to learn about this project, and participate however they can.

There are lots of ways to get informed and involved:

• Read this brief introduction.
• View our old Brochure, or our current Postcard.
• Visit our About us page.
• Become a Member of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District – or at least get on our mailing list – to be notified of meetings and other events, join a committee, or volunteer your skills.
• Attend one of our semi-annual  Membership Meetings.
• Attend (as a guest) one of our monthly Board Meetings.
• Consider joining one of our important Committees, including the Arts and Culture Committee, the Communications Committee, The Governance Committee, the Land Use Committee, or the Diversity and Membership Committee.   
• Share your opinions about our community’s needs, and our organization’s priorities, either by using our survey, or by chatting with a member of our Board. 
• Read the Resolution approved by the Board of Supervisors, and signed by the Mayor on May 9, 2018,.
• Read the Cultural District’s Vision and Mission Statements.
• Read our full organizational Bylaws.
• See a list of our current Board of Directors.
• View a map of the Cultural District.. 
• Check out our list / calendar of Cultural District meetings and events,
• Like and follow the SF LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District on Facebook.  
• Join our Group on Fetlife.
• Follow @sfleatherdist on Instagram.  
• Write to our group’s elected President, Bob Brown, using the email address president@SFLCD.org or more generally to info@SFLCD.org.  

Let’s see what we can do to make this happen, and make it happen right!