Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 12:30:39 -0700
From: David Stevens <phylstevens-AT-worldnet.att.net>
Subject: M-FEM: Queer and Loathing in San Francisco


[from <alt.politics.socialism.trotsky>]:

         Queer and Loathing in San Francisco

Readers of global newsgroup <alt.politics.socialism.trotsky>
might not have the same cultural opportunities available to
us San Franciscans.

 The San Francisco "Independent" is a no-glitz little
neighborhood newspaper. It's free (advertiser paid),
and its three times a week distribution covers all who
ask for it (and many who do not), fully 70% of the City.
This delightful paper has the editorial perspective of
San Francisco Chinese Republicans (perhaps because it's
owned by a family of San Francisco Chinese Republicans),
but it really does blanket the City, and at a fair price.

 When Warren Hinckle, of former new leftie journal "Ramparts,"
quit our Hearst rag [San Francisco "Examiner"] over Iraq,
this is where he ended up. Old Warren is losing teeth with
age, especially since his dog died, and collaboration with
Chinese Republicans is not too weird in context of S.F. local
politics. Hinckle provides the Fang family with curmudgeonly
left cover, and the "Independent" lets Hinckle puke green from
Ulster whisky, or fight for the good old Irish boys' Dover Club
against their landlordesses in the Womyn's Building. Ours is
a dynamic city, and don't forget your latex.

 Today's "Independent" is interesting not for Hinckle
(or for Brady's Old Town column on weird local history)
as much as for this article on page #3 of my edition:

 "Police to Decide Whether Gay 'Attack' on Straight Man was
Hate Crime: Gay men Allegedly Made Anti-Straight Slurs."

 The article by Johnny Brannon details charges being
prosecuted by "a self-described men's rights advocate",
who was nonviolently promoting professedly patriarchal
views with a display including an "Attention Straight
Males!" signboard when he alleges he was assaulted and
subjected to slurs against his heterosexuality. 

 San Francisco police officer Henry Seto of the Hate Crimes
unit is quoted as saying, "We believe there's enough
information to classify this as a hate crime, but we have
to investigate and confirm the information."

 BTW, only 133 of 323 alleged S.F. "hate crimes" last year
(according to Investigator Sandy Bargioni) were allegations
of straight people attacking gays. (Many cases are straights
attacking other straights they presume to be gay).

 This case has implications for those trendy lefties who
applaud increased state repression as the answer to racial
or homophobic violence. This is how bourgeois legalism works,
when it works at all. The state will be glad to pass laws to
"Ban the Klan," and gladder still to use such laws against
the political left.

 Anyone who is surprised by this use of "hate crimes" law
cited by the Independent -- that would include more than
a few of my friends or comrades -- was naive all along. 
  
 A real and prominent hate crime was committed by the state
of Pennsylvania, when black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was
sentenced to death for his political opinions. Advocates
of "hate crime" legislation might as well ask Judge Sabo
to convict himself on this one.

 Don't ask the barber if you need a haircut.

- David Stevens