This past weekend found me in San Francisco giving two speeches, one at the Design Center and the other at the Holiday Inn Civic Center. Of course I addressed the issues of the day; especially the president’s recent assault on transgender civil rights which I stated was an assault on all American civil rights.
Part of the reason I was in the City by the Bay was to promote the new “National GLBT Network U.S.A.,” but it was my remarks on Sunday that seem to have struck a chord with LGBT activists and fundraisers from throughout the U.S.A. who gave me a prolonged standing ovation when I stated, “To our trans youth we say, we stand with you; to our trans sisters and brothers, we stand with you; to our trans families, we are with you; for indeed from this day forth we are all transgender.”
I truly believe this and our LGBT community, its leaders and organizations, our friends and allies must all more than ever stand with our transgender brothers and sisters and let them know that their fight is our fight; indeed we are all transgender.
Most of the weekend I stayed in my hotel room fighting the flu which I got in Connecticut. It was nice seeing newly-elected State Sen. Scott Weiner and talking politics with him and long-time City Treasurer Jose Cisneros. I will be back in San Francisco at the end of the month.
Cleve Jones is looking forward to giving the keynote address at San Diego’s annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast. He will also be signing his recently released best-selling book, When We Rise, upon which this week’s ABC-TV three-day mini-series was partially based.
Mark Leno for mayor of San Francisco!
There is a lot of excitement in this city over the announcement that former Sen. Mark Leno will be running for mayor.
I have had the honor of knowing and becoming friends with every supervisor to occupy Harvey Milk’s seat, of course including Harvey. While my “son” Bevan Duffy is one of my favorites of course, Mark Leno reminds me more of Harvey than any of them. He is down to earth, hardworking, he has a great sense of humor, and he is a great speaker and public servant. He will make a great mayor for San Francisco.
We had a good conversation Saturday night and he is ready to go for 2019, and he would certainly make history as San Francisco’s first openly-gay mayor. Now more than ever it is time. Leno for mayor!
Meeting with Mexican consul general
Recently I arranged a meeting with the new consul of Mexico, the Honorable Marcela Celorio. Joining me were Carolina Ramos and Ricardo Gallego of The LGBT Center, and Michael Zarbo.
She is an outstanding representative of the Mexican government and has already become a respected and popular favorite in diplomatic circles. She speaks French, Italian and Hebrew, as well as fluent English. She is a former national director of Naturalization in the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We discussed many issues of the day including HIV-AIDS and LGBT civil rights.
Ms. Celorio spoke at the “Memorial for Orlando” at St. Paul’s Cathedral and will be at the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
She indeed makes me proud to be of Mexican descent.
