i think it is also important that we in the lgbt community become involved. at the end of the day, nothing is going to happen unless that involvement takes place. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you to supervisor farrell, and i agree with supervisors weiner and campos on the larger issues. on practical issues, this building is also on the border of district 5. for about 16 months, we have had a number of meetings that go back to the embryonic idea of whether this would be a great location for target. for an area in my part of san francisco which is not really friendly to chain stores, i thought this was a creative debate and a sensible solution. that is the realization that when you have commercial buildings of the scale and size of this particular area, it is very unlikely a mom and pop is going to be able to come in, or somebody who is not franchise to -- is not franchised will be able to occupy that abandoned and lighted building. i appreciate the conversation amid the different districts that straddle this area of masonic and geary. i believe there

from the lgbt perspective, this is going to be tough, and i submit to the city that they consider thefollowing list of ideas which i have cryptically penned for this testimony. i have noticed that time has gone over, and i know how that feels, so i would just read one or two of them and make my testimony available in writing. the one that i would like to read which may add to what the professor had to say is, i think the city and county needs to form an urgent advisory committee and instruct a point person to work with our congressional representatives and senators to include promotion. that's send citizens to washington d.c. -- washington, d.c. they really do want to hear from us. i have another list of ideas that i would like to present to you. i will not take your time now. so my respectful and more urgent request, if you could get to make and use them to get a phone call as soon as possible to rep gutierrez's office and senator schumer's office to tell them how important it is to have comprehensive reform here and that it must include our gay and bi-national couples. we need to en

passage of the uniting american families act or inclusion of ufa and lgbt families in immigration reform will not only benefit me about the thousands of people who are also in the same situation as i am. amending immigration policy of this country to include permanent partners will serve, in the long run, to keep families like ours together. it is a great privilege to be here with you today. i humbly ask for your support, and thank you. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. i have to do it. now i cannot see you. i want to thank the commission, organizers, and tell the panelists how great we are for your insight and advocacy. my name is melanie nathan. i am a personal advocate and conflict resolution specialist. i serve as vice president on the board of fair housing in marine and was recently reappointed to the marin human rights council. i practiced law in south africa before moving to the u.s. in march of this year i was faced with a choice. i could stay in the united states with might call-year-old daughter in a shared custody arrangement or i would have to leave her behind to go into

commonly known that target in the last year or so has had a pretty strained relationship with the lgbt community, based on some things that happened. there has been a lot of discussion and a fair amount of out reached by a target. -- out reach by target. i think a lot of us thought the entitlement of this project would be a major fight. i anticipated -- i hope i did not say anything -- supervisor campos: he likes target. supervisor weiner: i had always assumed the conditional use would be appealed to the board. at the planning commission, there was almost no opposition from anybody, including the concerns of the lgbt community. there was a unanimous vote at the planning commission. there was no appeal to this board. the time to do so has since collapsed. this is now an untitled project. supervisor campos and i have met with target to discuss what they can do in the community to have a positive relationship. at this point, target is happening. this is a question of whether we have them with good signs or bad signs. i think we should have them with good signs. i will be supporting us tod

of some of the actions taken by target, a corporation which has benefited from the patronage of the lgbt community. this boat is not about target today. -- this vote is not about target today. it is part of a larger process. but there is a connection to target. i will be supporting this with the understanding that target will continue its work as it tries to reach out to the lgbt community. as supervisor weiner has indicated, he and i, along with former supervisor dufty, have met with target and community leaders to discuss how target can frankly makeise to -- is not franchised will be able to occupy that abandoned and lighted building. i appreciate the conversation amid the different districts that straddle this area of masonic and geary. i believe there is strong support for the target, which is great. as a harbinger of things to come, i was concerned when target needed to do better outreach. when i asked about their knowledge of the geary bart program, they had no idea what i was talking about. when i talked about the traffic going into trader joe's on masonic, they had no idea what i

it is critical that lgbt couples are included in the house and senate versions of comprehen

lgbt firefighters, service workers, lgbt people who are -- many, many lgbt people are unemployed, soating out a community, but, in fact, speaking to the wholeness of us and the the experiences of violence. then there's the, i guess, the third piece of intolerance i would talk about is the systemic intolerance or the systemic violence. again, we have seen this play out again and again in different movements across the country. you've just described, laid out a full plan of systemic intolerance, um, that played out and continues to play out. and these types of intolerances, systemic intolerance are connected. the attacks on labor, voter suppression in communities of color, the tax codes as they are and anti-lgbt policies that deny, for example, families from getting social security when one partner dies, thus subjecting the living partner to poverty if they were able to build up social security over their lifetime. and certainly immigration policy which i know my colleague will speak about in a minute. these are interconnected forms of intolerance, so in some ways, yes, there is more t

we do lgbt violence prevention and intervention work. this definitely sounds like a great effort to continue improving our relationship with the police department. i wanted to bring a little bit of a lighter question to a concern regarding implementation, wondering if there will be indicators to make sure that the general order is being implemented in the right way, i ain't the way that the communities can be looked at as an expert -- in a way that the communities can be looked at as an expert, and make sure that with in that partnership, there's a relationship with the police being the expert, but it is a little more mutual. we came out in june, together with other organizations in the nation, with the hate violence report. ha it is regardingte violence in the lgbt community. we found that violence from police officers continues to increase, and we just wanted to bring light to that. you can check it out at www.coop.org, which is our website. now in october, we're also going to publish the dv, must violence a version, of the same report

some of it is focus on the lgbt community. however, do you think that there is no more tolerance toward the gay and lesbian community that there was a decade ago? what types of discrimination over attacks has this community suffered? >> acuvue my favorite short answer, it depends. but i also do want to start out by thanking the afl-cio, and in particular our colleagues at pride at work, peggy and her colleagues are here. [applause] >> they and other out lgbt people in the labor movement remind us every day that our struggles are not separate. they are one, and i thank them very much for the work and other colleagues in the labor movement including mary kay henry, as well. i was thinking about the idea of intolerance, and violence, and with the civil rights movement and the themes of peace and violence and nonviolence, and the choices that we all make as activists today, and those around the country who share in all of our collective struggles. and i want to talk about it in this way, and that is that i think what we are seeing

i helped to build the lgbt community center. i started doing campaigns. i gradually got involved in democratic party politics. i got involved in the alice b. toklas democratic club. i ran for the democratic central committee in 2004. i ended up sharing the committee. it was a gradual process for me. by the time i started thinking about running for supervisor, it made sense because of my involvement in the community and in politics. >> what did you learn from campaigning for supervisor? >> i learned a lot. i knocked on about $15,000. -- i knocked about 15,000 doors. i met a huge number of people. that is the best way to learn about the neighborhood, the city, and what people want and what their concerns are. i feel i can do so much more than before and started campaigning. -- i feel like i know so much more than before i started campaigning. we're all part of the left on the national standard. i am a good liberal democrat. in the san francisco spectrum, and probably considered more middle of the road. -- i am probably considered more middle-of-the-road. i

i was involved in community work, helping to build the lgbt community center, doing neighborhood work, and i eventually started doing campaigns and gradually got more involved in democratic party politics. ultimately, in 2004, i ran for the democratic county central committee and ended up chairing the committee. it was a gradual process for me. by the time i started thinking about running for supervisor, it made sense because of my involvement in the community and the politics. i knock on about $15,000 -- i knocked on about 15,000 doors and a huge amount of people. the best way to learn about the city and what people want and what people's concerns are. i feel like i know so much more than before i started campaigning. i am a good liberal democrat. in the san francisco, miniature spectrum, i am considered pretty middle of the road. one thing about me is i am very independent when it comes to the issues, and i do not vote on party lines. i judge each issue on its merit. we have provided woefully inadequate support for our transition-age youth, and when we do not provide that support, w

i think actually the adjustment is going to be quicker because lgbt americans are already integratedy. they're just not out to people. people are going to be able to come out now to their colleagues. out serve did a poll of lgbt people in uniform right now. 40% of them, 40% plan on coming out in the next week to some of their colleagues in the service. people are going to realize they've been serving alongside lgbt -- their fellow citizens who are gay or lesbian, bi or trans for years. the period of adjustment is going to be swift. as we've seen any every other major military across the world that ended their bans on people serving openly, it's a huge nonissue. israel, canada, the united kingdom, australia. once they repealed their exclusionary policies about gay people serving in the military, everybody was surprised that there wasn't a lot of controversy. there really wasn't a lot of fallout. it's going to be a nonissue. >> dan, there's nothing like making americans sound stupid about these issues than a republican presidential primary campaign. and so we are in the midst of one ri

family is, but i was always interested in sanford cisco in terms of the city, culture, the amazing lgbt community -- i was always interested in san francisco. i am an attorney. i started off in private practice, doing complex litigation. in 2002, i moved to the san francisco city attorney's office, where our work on the trial team, doing trials for the city and doing my own cases and supervising a team of attorneys as well. another huge issue confronting the city is the deferred maintenance on our infrastructure. we have a lot of infrastructure that has been deteriorating because we have not maintained it properly, from our roads to our sewer system to muni. we need to be much more diligent about maintaining our infrastructure. i have been interested in politics since i was a kid. i have worked on campaigns since i was a teenager. i was involved in campaigning against senator jesse helms when i was in college. when i came out here i was not initially involved politically. i was involved in community work, helping to build the lgbt community center, doing neighborhood work, and i eventua

can also be a thought leader and help other cities do a better job in recognizing the needs of their lgbt citizens and be a thought leader in that regard, but i intend to be a great mayor for san francisco. please visit me at bevandufty.com >> election day is november 8, 2011 view that as the last date to vote in person and the deadline for receipt of vote by mail ballots. >> i am tony hall, and i am running for mayor because san francisco more than ever need someone who would deal honestly with the hard truth that in our city pier i am not a member of a political party and not seeking some higher office. for 35 years, i am have served you, the people of san francisco, as an administrator in seven different apartments. i know how the city functions, but more importantly, how it should be functioning. i am running to solve our city's problems, not very them. first, let's be honest about pension costs. a $7 billion unfunded liability continues to grow at $400 million per year. because of these costs, san francisco is like a runaway car driving 100 miles an hour down the road into a brick wa

and this is the button they like to push and use minority groups such as lgbt people as political pawnsmention that the lgbt minority group is a unique and different kind ofminority, largely voiceless group of opeople especially in the south. i have made my home in tennessee for the past 22 years and i lived in new york and nashville, tb tennessee, as well, and we are the most inclined people the lesbians and gays to speak up, because we are voiceless. we have a hard time making our positions known, and the conservative right knows just how to get the conservative right to get out the vote. that is what this is. >> certainly personal for you as you recently tied the knot with your partner lauren. >> yes. >> and we have a wedding picture to prove it. >> oh, do you? >> yes, you guys tweeted it of the happy day and you both look beautiful and we say congratulations, but why has this become so much more of a vocal and personal crusade for you as you see what is taking place around the country, but knowing where you come from at such a happy time in your life? >> well, i feel to whom much is