A progressive San Francisco LGBTQ club that had rescinded its endorsement of President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary over the Israel-Hamas war is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the November 5 general election.
The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club's endorsement of Biden was rescinded January 22 and, at the time, it was stated in a news release it wouldn't necessarily apply to his November match-up against Republican nominee Donald Trump. Then came Biden's stunning decision last month to end his candidacy, leading to Harris becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
With Harris in Chicago this week to formally accept the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Milk club members voted during their August 20 meeting to back her presidential bid. Asked by the Bay Area Reporter what the percentage of the vote in support of doing so was, Milk club president Jeffrey Kwong answered "overwhelmingly."
"The reality is that we are electing a president for the whole of the U.S. and we need a proven progressive leader like Kamala Harris," said Kwong, a gay man, in a phone interview. "We know we don't align 100% with Kamala, but that is true of every candidate, and the membership has overwhelmingly voted to endorse Kamala.
Ahead of the meeting, the club's political action committee had recommended endorsing Harris and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
"As a Democratic club, we want to make sure we elect Democrats ultimately and, at the same time, do everything we can to hold her accountable and make sure that we lobby for language that reflects the views of San Franciscans that, I think, overwhelmingly believe there is an unjust genocide in Palestine," Kwong added.
The city's more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club also endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket. And in a sign of how Harris has been able to secure considerable support from progressives who were less enthusiastic about Biden, the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters also endorsed Harris, the only candidate for federal office on the city ballot to receive its backing.
Biden won the Democratic primaries with only token opposition before dropping out last month and passing the torch to Harris, a known quantity in San Francisco from her time as district attorney, state attorney general, and California's junior U.S. senator.
The club previously decided to again endorse gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) as he seeks reelection this year. With the Jewish lawmaker a vocal defender of Israel, some Milk club members had called for stripping him of its support for his candidacy.
The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, when Hamas brigades broke out of the Gaza Strip and killed 1,139 people in Israel in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Since then, Hamas has been holding Israelis who were abducted as hostages in Gaza. (The number of hostages still being held is 109 as of press time, after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages, the Guardian reported.)
Israel responded to the Hamas attack with an extensive bombing campaign in Gaza, and a ground invasion with the stated goal of destroying Hamas. That has led to the deaths of over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The U.S. provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually. The Biden administration has faced pressure from some Democrats and protesters to cut off that aid, or make it conditional on a ceasefire.
(The Milk club's January news release criticizing the Biden administration did denounce the Hamas attacks.)
Biden and Harris — dogged by protests accusing them of being complicit in Israel's actions, which opponents have characterized as a genocide — have been working for a ceasefire and hostage deal. Hamas rejected a U.S. proposal just days ago.
Despite the protests, the Democratic National Convention voted to support the administration's policy in the party's platform August 19, as the B.A.R. reported. The platform states that Biden and Harris' "commitment to Israel's security, its qualitative military edge [and] its right to defend itself" is "ironclad." It also states "President Biden and Vice President Harris recognize the worth of every innocent life, whether Israeli or Palestinian."
Change in position
Asked why the club changed its position at its endorsement meeting, longtime club member and lesbian activist Gwenn Craig told the B.A.R. in a phone interview that Harris has taken a different tact herself from her boss — threading a difficult needle.
Craig, a Black woman and former Milk club president, said she couldn't speak to the club's decision per se — she "wasn't at the endorsement meeting" and thus didn't "have a real sense of how people are feeling," she said — but she noted that after Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the vice president was "much more assertive" than Biden had been.
"It was a much firmer position," Craig said.
Harris said, about innocent civilians being killed, that "we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent."
Craig was also heartened that Harris met with pro-Palestine activists, and that this year's DNC had the party's first-ever panel on Palestinian rights.
"They felt there was an opening there they hadn't felt before with the Biden administration," Craig said. "You just have a feeling she has a more empathetic approach toward what's happening with the mounting death toll in Palestine."
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