>> good morning, we'll get started. so, you need to have a conversation please go outside and have it. excuse me, we would like to get started. this meeting will quh to ord. this is a oversight and audit committee for march

19, 2015. i'm supervisor year and [inaudible] supervisor bree is on her way and we are joined today by supervisor wiener. so, the committee clerk is erica major and the committee would like to acknowledge the staff at sfgtv. joe smith and jen local who record each of our meetings and make the transscripts available to the public on line. clerk, do wru have any announcement >> police make sure to silence cell phones and all computer devices [inaudible] will appear on the march 31, board of supervisor agenda unless otherwise stated.

>> okay. madam clerk please call item number 1 >> item 1 is ordinance to [inaudible] residence or patients at long term care facilities on the basis of sexual orientation >> supervisor wiener is the sponsor of the ordinance do you have any remark >> thank you for scheduling this item today and for hearing. the legislation is sponsored by myself and by supervisor compose, i want to thank him for the co sponsorship. before you today is a legislation for bill of rights for long term care facilities in the city and county of san francisco whether nursing home or senior living facility. this is the first of

the kind in the cuntsry, once againsuch will lead the way in insureing the seniors are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. these are the people who have gotten us where we are today as a lgb community. it is sometimes easy to forget with all the successs we had in this country in terms of advancing the civil rights of the lgbt community, it waebt that long ago when we were living in a very very different world and the amount of discrimination and arassment and violence themunity had to 234der, but it still exists today, it was dramatically worse. these are people who went to hell and back multiple times through the hiv epidemic

and the trials and tribulations of the community. the least we can do for them and make sure as they age they do so as part of the community and with all the respect they deserve. this legislation will put protections in place for seniors living in facilities where they are vulnerable because they rely on others for service squz no long er have the privacy of thaur own home or own room. legislation will make it illegal to discriminate against sexual orientation, gender or hiv status. you may call in 2012, you may not recall, supervisor comps nob nub and i authored legislation to create a task force to make

recommendations to the board regarding the scene population. the board of supervisors selected 15 highly qualified people to surfb on the task force which spent about 18 months studying the issues and coming up with a tremendous report of the 25 thousand older adults living in san francisco who yife at lgbt. there was a report issues entitled lgbt naurks naurks the task force found seniors faced discrimination and mistreatment in long term care facilities. scenes are particularly vulnerable to the margealization that place them at greater isolation,

homelessness. in addition as seniors enter long term care facilities alt times staff however well meaning may lack the training and protocols for addressing the specific needs of l knrks bt population. while stand law mandates in a sense non discrimination, this legislation goes one step beyond by being specific about what non discrimination means. the ord nnss will set clear guidelines for long term care facilities to help them be fully embracing of this population. the legislation amends the police code to prohibit discrimination and ways it does so. it requires facilities to [inaudible] leozonwho have to undergo training to work with lgbt

people and help comply. theolog slaigz will require that facilities respect residence wishes in terms of the pronouns to be used in addressing them. the legislation will require requests be required if 2 residence share to share a room and [inaudible] the legislation will require access to appropriate and cultural comp tent medical care spinge to the needs of the residence. the legislation will require that residence be allowed to use the restrooms available to other residence of the same gender identify. the legislation will also provide individuals with the right to seek investigation and mediation by the human

rights commission and [inaudible] publish a manual to assist facilities in complying with the law and the legislation will create a private right of action for peoples whos rights have been [inaudible] this legislation will provide the seniors with the tools they need to be fully functioning and thriving members of the senior community. so, colleagues, with that i want to note i distributed a packet of letters that we received from various civil rights organizations supporting the legislation including the national center for lesbian rights and, transgender lawsenter and transgender equality and [inaudible] open house, the aclu of northern cal. cal

advocates for nourishing home reform [inaudible] if there are no additional or questions or comments we do have a few speakers before we get to public comment and first i want to invite amie wailen who is a senior staff attorney for the national center for lesbian rights. >> good morning. as supervisor wiener said, i'm amie wailen and work for the national center for lez biben rights chblt nclr [inaudible] as we have repeatedly learned lgbt seniors are particularly at risk for isolation and early institutionization. this is because they are more likely

than their straight counter parts to be single and live alone and not have childrens fwauz seniors tend to rely on families of choice composed of family or friends rb problems arise. friends and love ones not related by blood our marriage lack legal institution. problems can quickly get worse because institution teend refer to those relatives ovother people. many seniors also fear discrimination by service providers. lgbt seniors grew up in a time of extreme discrimination and biases. in the 1950 and 60 thousands of gay and lesbian employees lost their jobs. [inaudible] thought to have severe mental

illness. many people were forces into mental institutions or subjected to conversion therapy in a effect to cure cume. by the time the aids epidemic hit in the 1980's the u.s. government ignoreed the crisis forcing lgbt people to start their own support. [inaudible] particularly of lgbt seniors of color who live in poverty or marginalized fear disclosing their identity. the problems we have seen can be devastating chblt we had a client who was forcibly separated from his partner of 7 years when they were put in

separate facilities. the partner died alone 13 months later and our client was prevented to be at his side. at another case a hospital facility admitted [inaudible] as a jane dough patient. once they found her scr reunited a couple and moved them to another facility it was clear well meaning staff would be a problem. we learned at one point the facility had been dressing our butch lesbian client in dresses and make up. she felt uncomfortable and humiliated, but suffered in silence because of her dependents on staff for day to day care. a similar situation happened with a lez bygone client suffering from alzheimer's who was dressed in feminine clothe. advocateed for a transgender womeen who

was prevented from transitioning. nclr received a call from a gay man. the partner had cancer and the partners family moved him to a undisclosed facility. we found the partner 2 days later and found out he died in the facility and had fooinform the partner. we advocate for laws [inaudible] insure futility forms, training materials and marketing dauments are lgbt inclusive and impose duty on staff to provide treatment and care consistent with the gender identify. by passing these bill of rights san francisco will [inaudible] thank you >> thank you. before you go to the next speaker i wds like

to acknowledge supervisor bree has joined us >> next i would like to invite daniel redman. daniel is a attorney that does a lot of work around elder issues and was a member of the lgbt task force and played a critical role in helping us prepare this legislation. daniel, thank you for your service >> thank you, scott. thank you for the opportunity to speak and the task force. bill [inaudible] supervisor wiener and campus. my name is daniel redman and attorney [inaudible] here in the city. and with regard to the ordinance, the task force report aging at the golden gate lgbt seniors are a vulnerable population and given to premature institutional. i

think this is ordinance is important in addressing the isue. supervisor wiener merngzed the letter coming in across the country from midwest and new york and washington dc and cal. across the lgbt team there is a sense this ordinance could be a pivotal moment in changing that conversation and bringing more attention to issue. in a study done for lgbt [inaudible] 90 percent said they wouldn't be safe in the facility and 50 percent of respondent said they are or someone they knew faced discrimination and this included verbal and physical

harassment by staff or other residence [inaudible] restriction of visitors. refruzal to provide basic care. deninel of medical care and refusal to respect the persons identify. to give 2 examples from that report both from california, john and jack went to a nusilty and the facility said they refused to bathe jack because they didn't want to touch a gay person. a transgender [inaudible] forced to eat by herself and not allowed to participate in any activities. there is no doubt california provides non discrimination protection, what we need is clarification and guidance in the specific

context of long term care facilities and this ordinance does that. the law is the result of a contributions of a dozen lgbt long term care [inaudible] policy recommendations. what is key about had law is it tells facilities what they can do so there is no excuse of what we don't know what to do. theords nns says what they must do. it prohibits discrimination [inaudible] in particular it man dates the facilities respect the individuals identify and expression for bathroom use, name and dress. it states explicitly and this is very important, that a facility may not move a transgender person from a room just because a room mate complains. respecting a

individuals pronoun name and expression is non negotiable in this ordinance as it is under the state law and inter shurs the human rights commission has the power to [inaudible] and it establishes a private right of action. as supervisor wiener medicationed the seniors are the people that biltd the community and this lgbt right moouvment. they fought hard to get us to the this point. san francisco has been a leader for decades in civil rights matters and this ordinance is the next chapter of that legacy. thank you. >> thank you very much. mr. redman. colleagues with that i think we are reedy to go to paublic comment. i want to acknowledge we have several members of the lgbt task force today. i believe some will be

speaking and also want to acknowledge and thank you tom noleen with the department of aging service and helps to move these items forward. >> supervisor christensen would like >> i just want to-in hearing from supervisor wiener about the ordiance i was taken back. my sister was a emergency care-nurse at ucsf in 1980 when aids cases came in. the thing that touched her most, not only for the patient is the exclusion of their partners. i remember her being effected by that that they were excluded from heblth care decision squz participation in the greechbing process. it never occurred that 35 years later i would be in a position to do something

about that and absolute supervisor wiener and support this effort >> my comment is that this is a well written piece of legislation and i really appreciate the details that was put into at hand and what it is trying to do. i have a quick question and don't know who will answer it, once this passes, i'm curious i didn't see anything about how we would notify or get people to know about this? what is the outreach effort, are there plans for that at this point? >> we are-we have been speaking with 2 different sogez, the california association of helths facilities and california assisted living association so it is our intent to work through the association to get

the word out. one of the challenges is this is not just your sort of standard big institutional nursing homes, it is nursing homes and assisted living and a lot of smaller facilities. it may be 5 or 10 beds or people they serve and so it is a pretty i think in the press conference we had, daniel estimated it could be as high as 500 to 1 thousand facilities and we are unaware of the list, but we'll work through the association and there will be a guidance and we'll work to get that word out >> so the outreach is at 2 levels and you sort of talked about one level. the other level is the individuals-the community? sometimes people are not aware of the

regulations. one institution could easily ignore it and nobody would know >> that is a very very important point and we do have some terrific orgz like open house and nclr that work hard totry to get the word out, but you are right, there are people that get mistreated and don't realize it so it is important >> mr. chairman, may we move to public comments? i only have one card, but i think there is more than one person to speak for this. mu lain hern from the human rights commission and if there is anyone else who wants to speak you can fill out one of the blue cards and public comment is 2 minutes. >> good morning everyone. thank you to had board of

supervisors, it is prichbolog to be here today and have a opportunity to comment on this piece of legislation. my name is [inaudible] director of the non discrimination program at the san francisco human rights commission. special thanks to supervisor wiener and compose for this legislation. california provides some of the strongest protection in the nation to lesbian gay, and transgender people, but there is a gap with long term care. these facilities need care guideants to care for residence and patient. supervisor wiener and daniel redman highlighted to the stats from the task force report issued in 2014 so i'll with hold comments on that report, but i did want to share part of my role at the human rights commission is investigate and mediate disyimination complaints and analyze the type of complaints we receive nords to neat needs

of the vulnerable populations. last year sexual orientation was naimented as a basis in 13 percent of all disyimination claims filed with the humanten rights administration. gender identify was 8 percent of all discrimination claim jz 34 percent were based on disability. public accommodation claims that include health care facilities where seniors may face similar issues as long term care facilsties, nearly 20 percent of complaints filed were based on gender yoirf. nearbyly 20 percent were on sexual orientation and 3ator percent is on disability. it is without question the populations have unique needs not met and believe this ordinance is a important first step in addressing the needs. the ordinance will [inaudible] prohibit discrimination in

admission, transfer, evictionerse room assignment and visitation. in particular it mandates facility staff respect transjendser for bathroom use, preferred name, pronoun and dress. these are the issues we see that come [inaudible] and empower the san francisco human rights commission to investigate and mediate complaints. i want to note that of the complaint that san francisco humeb rights commission mediates rbs over 80 percent are resolved and settled. i would also encourage consideration of article 38 of the police code in conjunction with the proposed ordinance which includes hiv status and may

include statute of limitations [inaudible] thank you for your consideration of the ordinance as a effort as combatting discrimination and insuring all have the proper tools. i would like to submit for the record a letter from the director of the human rights commission [inaudible] >> thank you and does that letter contain that statute of limitations you raised? >> it does not. >> if you can send a e-mail so we can take a look at that and make sure we are not creating problem. next brian [inaudible] michele [inaudible] elizabeth gill and >> [inaudible] thank you so much for your leadership on this issue and thank you for your heart felt words. when wrongs get righted i think we

get emotional because of the healing that happens and i feel it is a healing for the community that is long due. all people deserve to be not just tolerated, not just respected, respected but not just respected, but all human beings deserve to be celebrated and celebrated equally. all colors of the rainbow should be celebratored. immigrants, women, men and all the rest deserve to be equally celebrated. residence of public housing and people who are homeless and residence of assisted care facilities deserve to be celebrated, not just tolerated. elderly and [inaudible] this is i think relevant to 24 community. i

was kicked out of the house for being gay. i had a violent step father who trying to kill me. i'm the last left of 30 gay guys. like many people in my community we don't have access >> student the family support networks others do and this is a wonderful opportunity. in addition to this i know this is a first step, but in my work at the aids housing allowance one realty i think we need to accept is that we do have a sense of limited resources and when people are fighting over crumbs, what happens is the truth comes out about where people think folks are and we need to have more resources to insure there is is sense of [inaudible] >> thank you very much. >> good morning supervisors. my name is michele [inaudible]

director at open house. i want to congratulation daniel redman for developing a powerful bill of rights in suvs to our aging community. 7 years ago when i joined open house i was struck by the number of calls we received from l gx bt members and the families who were experiences discrimination. younger residence would also call hoping to move the family members or parents closer to them. they expressed grave concern about how themselves would betrated as care givers and how the straight parents would be treated. [inaudible] met with greater division and exclusion and is what makes the bill of rights that much more

impactful because it explicitly outlines guideline principles and practices. open house supports the lgbt long term facility rights and together with california bill 663 requires [inaudible] this bill would strengthen the importance of the training. open house is the forfront of training since 2006 and here to support other advocates and implementation of best practices. [inaudible] will serve as a compelling model whos impact has a pesh to row verberate the cost of the cities other sites including shelters other housing