Questions about HONOR PAC endorsement
Regarding the January 29, Political Notes column "CA LGBTQ Latino group makes surprising dual endorsement in SF supervisor race": PACs will PAC.
I've known of (dis)HONOR PAC for a while now. In 2009, it posted pictures from a Halloween party that included an attendee in blackface. Any other organization in their right mind would not allow that person to attend, let alone take a picture of said offensive action and not only post it but feature it so prominently. It was actually the photo album cover photo! I called it out at the time, but it has stayed up for 15 years until last week when it got visibility beyond Southern California.
The PAC's stated mission is to give the Latina/o/e LGBTQ+ movement a voice in government. So, its decision not to choose either of the two queer Latina/o/e folks running in favor of a straight Latino cis male and a non-Latino gay man is baffling to say the least. It also made many a San Francisco Bay Area Latina/e/o say, "Who the fuck are they? Never heard of them"
HONOR PAC has mostly focused on Southern California where it's based. But with the addition of San Francisco's Alfredo Pedroza to its board, it has taken a position on the District 9 Supervisor race where Mr. Pedroza lives.
In the column, Mr. Pedroza explains: "The simple part of why we endorsed who we endorsed in this race — both Roberto Hernández and Trevor Chandler — is that they represent the issues that are important to HONOR PAC. We are an issues-based PAC not into the personality politics," said Pedroza. "Also, they both reached out to us. They were the only two candidates who reached out in this race for an endorsement."
Why the Bay Area Reporter didn't push for further explanation is beyond me. Especially since there are so many unanswered questions: 1) How did these two candidates know to apply but all the others didn't? 2) Is this the first time HONOR PAC endorsed in the SF Bay Area and why just in the district where one of its board members lives? 3) What/who is that common connection between these two candidates and the organization (one can infer from reading the article)? 4) Also, how come many San Francisco Latine/x/a/o political folk never heard of HONOR PAC until this story? 5) Did you check in with other local queer Latine/a/o politicos to see if they even heard of HONOR PAC?
Hopefully, someone will do a deeper dive into this soon.
Lito Sandoval
San Francisco
Don't forget the Elephant Walk
Your initial online article, "Old Harvey's space gets new name" by John Ferrannini on Thursday, February 1, seems to have neglected to mention the space was known as the Elephant Walk, rather famous in gay history as the site of a police riot where patrons were attacked on White Night in one of the most shameful acts of the San Francisco Police Department's history. Rather like mentioning the old Washington, D.C. Record and Pension Office was being relocated and ignoring that it was also called Ford's Theater, the site of the Lincoln assassination.
Stephen R. Stapleton
Sacramento, California
[Editor's note: That has been corrected.]
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