“…many housing activists consider the sponsorship a betrayal of SF Pride’s equality mission. They claim that Airbnb does not promote equality in a city where many lower income and senior LGBT people continue to face evictions and skyrocketing rents.”
After Bradley Manning was placed on the ballot and the “Electoral College” of San Francisco Pride approved him as a Grand Marshall for the 2013 Pride Parade with Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame to represent him at the Parade while Manning languishes in prison, the President of the Board of SF Pride announced that the organization couldn’t permit him to be a Grand Marshall for political reasons. Then, the Board issued a notice claiming that the reason Bradley Manning couldn’t be a Grand Marshall is that he isn’t a “local hero”. Past SF Pride Board President Joey Cain thinks it’s “bullshit” and so do I.
Some folks protested at the SF Pride offices once, then again when I could attend the SF Pride Board Meeting scheduled on May 7, 2013. We chanted “They say Court Martial, we say Grand Marshall” and “Shame, Shame, Shame on Pride”. They only let a few people into the meeting and banned cameras. I heard afterwards that they eventually ended up cancelling the meeting.
By a second and final 5-4 vote, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a nudity ban proposed by Supervisor Scott Wiener that is scheduled to go into effect on February 1, 2013, if a federal legal challenge fails.
Protestors from as far as Norway and Germany disrobed in the Board of Supervisors chambers just after the vote as Board President David Chiu hurriedly called a recess, which stopped the cameras recording the public response to passage of the ordinance.