i also want to acknowledge supervisor rafael mandelman, who is here, as well.ng to be having a performance from the marina middle school singing. marina middle school, are you here? you're ready to go? let's give them a warm round of applause. [ applause ] let's give them a warm round ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ applause ] [ applause ] marina middle school. let's give them a round of applause as they take a picture. [ applause ] [ applause ] let me take a moment to also thank the apa heritage foundation and claudeen chang who works tirelessly every year to organize this event. thank you so much, claudeen. now, one of the things that i know mayor breed cares a lot about is making please join me in a big round of applause for gordon j. lau performers, fourth and fifth graders. congratulations. come on in. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> let's give a big round of applause to the gordon j. lau elementary school kids! [ applause ] and now a gentleman, of course, who needs no introduction, someone who's worked his entire life to support children, to support children's services, i want to introdu

i'm ra rafael mandelman. to my right is vice chair supervisor -- okay, so there is overflow seating in the main chamber. is that where it is? okay? and so you'll be able to watch everything that is going on and come in and speak during public comment, if you want to. but we do need everybody to be seated. seated somewhere. so if you have a seat here, great. or if you can find one, or else we need folks to go over to the chamber across the hall. i'll just take a moment to let the sheriffs do their work. thank you, deputy sheriff. can someone let matt in? okay. so we will continue. all right. there he is. all right. good morning, supervisor haney. i was just introducing the people up here. item rafael mandelman, chair of the committee, vice chair stefani is to my right, and supervisor walton. we're joined by the co-sponsor for the first hearing, supervisor ronen and supervisor haney. i want to thank samuel williams for staffing the meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> yes, thank you, mr. chair.

. >> and with that, i'd like to turn it over to supervisor rafael mandelman for some remarks.district. and i'm always happy to be here. i see all of the incredible businesses and the merchants. this is a beautiful community, and the sun is shining, so we're going to have a good time today. thank you, everyone, for being here. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. thank you for your commitment to this community and this neighborhood, the best neighborhood in the world. one of the places where the lgbt civil rights movement began just two blocks down at harvey milk's camera shop. this is a very appropriate place, of course, to be doing this for people in search of acceptance, refuge, or opportunity, san francisco has long provided a safe place to be who you are. from young queers fleeing violence, to families who immigrate here to create a better life, san francisco welcomes and celebrates our diversitiy. unfortunately, as the mayor noted, in more than half the country, discrimination is still protected under the law. only 20 states provide full legal protection from discriminat

we will also be joined by supervisor rafael mandelman, who has been very supportive of our work, and by senator scott weiner who actually was one of the first people who commissioned this task force, and david campos, a former supervisor, will also be joining us. we have invited the mayor, and hopefully she will join us and say a few words in support of this work. it is a chance for us to really celebrate the work we've done to talk about what next steps are in terms of finishing out the recommendations. we have completed -- we have done a lot of work on 11 of the 13 recommendations in the reports. it is something to be proud of. we know there isn't a complete equity for lgbtq people in san francisco, so we still have work to do, but overall, it will be a real celebration. that i wanted to talk a little bit to give you a heads up about something that will be happening in april, and that is the palliative care workgroup, which is staffed by dawes, but is a multi- departmental workgroup that looks at palliative care in san francisco, and tries to make sure that every person has access

i'm ra rafael mandelman. to my