One of the few (and perhaps only) remaining voices of untarnished activism in San Francisco, Michael Petrelis, interviewed LGBT Community Center executive director Rebecca Rolfe about the Center's unyielding support of AT&T and its pending merger with T-Mobile. Last week, if you recall, six GLAAD board members, as well as President Jarrett Barrios, were forced to resign due to the organization’s involvement in the proposed merger. (What with a Democrat sitting n the Oval Office, AT&T looks to left-learning organizations to help bend Obama's ear for merger approval. If this were the Bush era of a few years ago, AT&T would probably be hitting up the other end of the spectrum, the NRA, etc.) more ›

It's great to see the Castro district get media overage outside of a moving sandwich shop. Furthermore, it's even better to see an activist (one who doesn't need to make fake threats about vomiting on food trucks) get mainstream media coverage. Take, for example, Michael Petrelis. The noted activist/blogger received major ink in two publications today (SF Chronicle and SF Weekly) after his story about the stronghold the Merchants of Upper Market & Castro have on the rainbow flag, and their refusal to lower it at halfmast after Liz Talyor's death, went live. (To catch you up: the Castro rainbow flag, while impaled in public property, is paid for and lorded over by the MUMC, a private organization. Requests to fly the flag at halfmast, which has only happened seven times, get turned down on a regular basis.) more ›

There was not a very impressive turnout at that celebration of the death of terrorist cell leader Jerry Falwell. SFist photographer Jim reports that when he passed by, there were three protesters present (including the piñata), greatly outnumbered by members of the press. For the rest of the city, though, life went blissfully on -- such was the man's clout over the sinners of San Francisco. Sadly, as irrelevant as Jerry was to our lives, organizer Michael Petrelis too lacked the authority necessary to assemble a throng of promised gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders -- unless you count the reporters, of course. (To be fair, one witness reports that some Sisters hung out for a little while, and they've always got a handful of followers. But by the time we walked by at 6:30, only one or two people remained.) more ›

Michael Petrelis gleefully points out that young Mary Cheney's book is now selling for less than a dime on Amazon. What a steal! The memoir is all about how it's totally cool to support the people who think you're a disease, which sounds like a fun read. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, friendly blogneighbor Cedric wrote in to point out a glaring slight: on Out Magazine's list of 50 important gays, there seem to be zero San Franciscans. What! Zero! Of all the nerve! (At least, we it's zero ... after the twenties, we're a little foggy on some of those names. Like, Ingrid Sischy? Who?) But how dare they! Of all the oversights! How could they possibly have overlooked such local gay luminaries as ... er ... um ... hmm. more ›

You know everyone on the Muni board THINKS it, but we've really got to admire someone who actually comes out and says that they've got better stuff to worry about than busses and trains. Tom Nolan, Gavin's recent nominee for the board, has experience working for a sunshine ordinance committee, SamTrans, Caltrain, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission; most recently, he's worked for Project Open Hand, about which he says, and we quote, "Project Open Hand is my number one priority." more ›