Guest Opinion: Protecting and supporting San Francisco's LGBTQ+ community

  • by Daniel Lurie
  • Wednesday January 29, 2025
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San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo: Rick Gerharter
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo: Rick Gerharter

As some may know, I entered the mayor's race because I couldn't justify the conditions on our streets to my children. I couldn't explain away the immense pain and suffering that we witnessed on a daily basis. I wanted to show them what compassion in action looks like, what it means to be a part of the solution. As mayor of San Francisco, I intend to be focused on solutions to our city's biggest issues. But just as I couldn't explain away the crises on our streets to my kids, I am finding it difficult to help them understand the actions coming out of Washington, D.C. that are in direct opposition to our core San Francisco values.

Last year alone more than 515 pieces of legislation that target the LGBTQ+ community were introduced in 40 states across the country. The vast majority of them were attacking trans people. Many of them were attacking trans children and their families.

We cannot stand for that here in San Francisco. This is a city that believes in, and fights for, equity, and we love our LGBTQ+ community. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to raise my children in a city with a rich and diverse cultural history. Over the years, countless dedicated and diverse LGBTQ+ leaders, community members, and allies have worked and fought together to make San Francisco the place we know and love. In the 1950s, San Francisco-based organizations like the Daughters of Bilitis, founded by the late lesbian pioneers Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, and the Mattachine Society helped establish San Francisco as a leader in the fight for LGBTQ+ equality. Those organizations, in turn, paved the way for the Society for Individual Rights, the Tavern Guild, and the International Imperial Court System, whose founder the late Latino veteran José Julio Sarria would be the first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States.

Three years before the 1969 Stonewall riots, San Francisco had the Compton's Cafeteria riot of 1966. Led by trans women and drag queens at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets in the Tenderloin, the riot is credited as the first officially documented uprising of LGBTQ+ people in the country. Decades later, the advocacy of trans women of color would lead to the site of this historic event becoming the center of the world's first Transgender District.

By the 1970s the Castro was on its way to becoming the cultural, economic, and political center for gay San Francisco, and the election of Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors cemented the political power of the LGBTQ+ community in the city. Sadly, Milk's time in office was cut tragically short when he was shot and killed alongside mayor George Moscone due to bigotry and hate.

That is why it is so important that we remember our history here in San Francisco. Because Milk's leadership and his message of hope, the spirit of resilience and defiance in the face of oppression at Compton's, and the tireless dedication and advocacy of all those who came before is a blueprint for our work ahead.

Let's not forget that when an indifferent federal government turned its back on us during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we developed systems of care here in San Francisco. When the federal government denied same-sex couples the right to marry, San Francisco defied them with the "Winter of Love," led by then-mayor Gavin Newsom, now the state's governor. When the federal government and elected officials sought to attack and scapegoat the trans community, San Francisco established the Office of Transgender Initiatives, the Transgender Cultural District, and Transgender History Month.

Let me be clear, our city's strength comes from its diversity and the communities that shape it. At a time when the LGBTQ+ community's access to life saving health care is being used as a political pawn, and their basic rights, freedoms, and humanity are under attack, we will double down on our support for the LGBTQ+ community here in San Francisco.

I know that many in our city feel a great deal of fear and uncertainty. Make no mistake, we are a city that values and defends the rights of every individual, regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.

To the trans community: we stand with you today, tomorrow, and every day after. Queer and trans people exist, have always existed, and will always exist. As your mayor, I promise you that your rights in this city will never be up for debate.

Daniel Lurie is the 46th mayor of San Francisco.

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