Queer activist Stephen Torres has been approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to a seat on the city's entertainment commission.
The 11-0 vote came at the board's October 25 meeting.
"I'm excited," Torres told the Bay Area Reporter in a brief phone call after the vote. "I'm very excited to be representing the nightlife workers community at this commission."
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Torres was recommended for the post at the October 17 meeting of the supervisors' rules committee, where he spoke about his qualifications.
Torres is also a member of the advisory board of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District.
Speaking before the committee earlier this month, Torres said, "I am a 22-year veteran of the San Francisco entertainment and nightlife industry," and that he had experienced "its challenges and inequities."
As a member of the commission, he said he would represent the city's nightlife workers and would expand the commission's focus. Seat 2 on the commission, for which Torres was approved, represents the interests of entertainment associations or groups. Torres is a bartender at the historic Twin Peaks Tavern in the Castro, according to his Facebook page.
Torres has a wealth of public service experience on his resume, including work on the executive board of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, and as an administrative associate with the Drug Policy Alliance, which promotes alternatives to current drug policy such as harm reduction. He has also worked as a journalist for a number of San Francisco publications including the old San Francisco Bay Guardian and BrokeAssStuart.com.
At the rules committee meeting, Supervisor Connie Chan (District 1) said she would support Torres, citing a conversation she had had with one of her constituents, a bar owner. Having asked the bar owner about his feelings about gay state Senator Scott Wiener's (D-San Francisco) ultimately unsuccessful effort to extend the city's bar closing times by two hours to 4 a.m., he told her it wasn't helpful in the face of the staffing shortages currently dogging many of the city's restaurants and bars.
Torres' emphasis on the city's nightlife workers, Chan said, "would be a unique, much needed perspective on the commission."
At the committee meeting, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman had praise for another candidate, Jonathan Larner, whom he commended for his work in keeping the popular Castro music venue Cafe du Nord open despite the challenges of the COVID pandemic, but he had equally high praise for Torres. Mandelman said he had worked extensively with Torres and had "seen his grace under pressure in sometimes very challenging circumstances."
"I think the balance breaks for Mr. Torres," said Mandelman, although he added he hoped Larner would reapply in the future.
Torres' term is until July 1, 2026. He succeeds Steven Lee who, since his term ended in June, has been appointed by Mayor London Breed to the Port Commission.
Torres said that he expected to be sworn in next month and that Mandelman would administer the oath of office.
The nightlife oversight body already has three out members: Cyn Wang, a queer lesbian mother who is the chief legal officer at her family's insurance company; Laura Thomas, a queer woman who is the director of harm reduction policy for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation; and Al Perez, a gay man and marketer who is president of the Filipino American Arts Exposition.
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