Let’s honor our true heroes past and present

Congratulations to the hardworking staff and volunteers of San Diego AIDS Walk & Run. It was another huge success.

San Diego’s true GLBT veteran heroes

All the local celebrations for the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell were great and very well attended and I, as we all should, salute the organizers and speakers. Thank you all. But let us not forget those who were involved with this issue years ago. They are true heroes also and deserve all of our respect and gratitude.

I’m speaking of veterans such as Jim Woodward, Bridget Wilson, Jeri Dilno, Ben Dillingham, Art Keller, Ann Curren, Bob Lehman, Ben Gomez, Mike Magee, Ken St. Pierre, Stewart Bornhoft, Jenny Kopstein, Joseph Rocha, Will Kennedy and so many more. San Diego is proud of all your leadership and hard work. Thank you.

San Francisco

Visiting San Francisco is nice but I would not want to live there. It seems their streets are getting dirtier and their homeless population is exploding. Speaking at the historic San Francisco War Memorial building brought back memories of the 1970s.

I also was a keynote speaker at a political event. A big thank you to Mark Dean, director of operations for Fusions Hotels who hosted me. The San Francisco mayor’s race is heating up. Frontrunners are Mayor Ed Lee (really nice guy), City Attorney Dennis Herrera (one of the early champions of marriage equality) and my “son” Supervisor Bevan Duffy who has a good shot of becoming the first gay mayor of San Francisco.

The Folsom Street Fair happened to be going on at the same time I was in the city by the bay and about 400,000 leather fans showed up in the Castro. No, I didn’t go, nor did I get to even stop by, even one, gay bar. Any free time I could get I slept and rested as I’ve been gone every weekend this past month and now it’s on to Oregon and Washington, then Hawaii. When in San Francisco I urge you to visit the first GLBT History Museum in the USA at 4127 18th St., in the Castro.

“Freedom Awards” this Saturday

The San Diego Democratic Club (S.D.D.C.) will be hosting their annual “Freedom Awards” this Saturday, Oct. 1 at The Center (6 p.m.). This is always one of our community’s must-attend events for elected officials, as the S.D.D.C. has been a well organized political machine that delivers votes, money and campaign workers. Our community’s civil rights gains and political power owe much to this club. Congratulations to all the 2011 honorees especially my pals, Assembleymember Tom Ammiano, Lorena Gonzalez and Evan McLaughlin. Also to honorees long time gay activists Bob Lynn, Judy Forman and Cindy Green. All of them richly deserve this recognition.

Early polling and mayoral primary history

The mayor’s race is a year away and all this early polling is interesting and, indeed, is giving us some frontrunners. But, things always change. Let me give you some primary election history and the curse of those who win the primary and yet go on to lose the general election. Ron Roberts won and then went on to lose the general election for mayor to Dick Murphy. Peter Navarro won the primary only to go on to lose to Susan Golding. Maureen O’Connor won the primary only to lose to Roger Hedgecock. The list goes on. Why I bring this up is because some people, who are new to politics, are acting like their candidate has already won and they are telling people who will be welcome and unwelcome at city hall. November 2012 is a long way away, and I say anything can happen. I’m not betting on this horse race because it’s anyone’s to win.

Trevor Project Fundraiser draws big crowd

Eden nightclub was packed with people for the third annual San Diego Ambassadors Trevor Project gala fundraiser and report. It was a fun and entertaining night with great performers. It was really nice to see so many young people and straight supporters in attendance. At my table were City Councilman Todd Gloria and School Boardmember Kevin Beiser, and we all agreed that the San Diego Ambassadors are some of the most dedicated and hard-working volunteers in the community. Bravo.

I’ll be hosting Bingo on Oct. 26

Back by popular demand and for one night only I will return to Bourbon Street for “Scary and Outrageous Bingo” on Wednesday, Oct. 26 from 8 to 11 p.m. This will be another charity bingo to benefit the Trevor Project and A Note to my Kid. There will be over $2,500 in prizes and surprises, so mark your calendar for October.

Another Chris Shaw bar?

Word is that super businessman Chris Shaw, owner of Urban Mo’s, Baja Betty’s and Gossip Grill is looking to open up another place right next to Gossip Grill. Yes, at the former Chinese restaurant which had the worst Asian food in town. So keep your eyes open for yet another fabulous place.

Nicole Murray Ramirez has been an award-winning columnist since 1973, and a Latino and gay activist for well over 40 years. He is currently a city commissioner and has served the last five mayors of San Diego. He is also a national board member of the Harvey Milk Foundation and chairman of the International Court Council of the USA, Canada and Mexico. Nicolemrsd@aol.com.