Yes. We were Filner’s enablers …

In one of my past columns I personally took my own responsibility as a longtime friend and supporter of Bob Filner for not speaking out to him about his conduct. The facts are that almost all of us heard, talked, gossiped about Bob and his hitting on women, not for years, but decades.

We laughed it off and accepted it as, “Oh, that’s just Bob.” Almost all of the Democratic leaders and elected officials knew about Bob’s bad boy reputation, as I can honestly say we had many conversations about him through the decades. To me, many who spoke out against Bob were hypocrites because we all gave him a pass on his conduct including many prominent women leaders and officials who called for his resignation.

Some have told me that there just wasn’t any solid proof! But we all knew there was something very solid about these stories as Bob hit on some of these very same women officials.

As I’ve said, I stood by my friend of more than 40 years until the very end, as a friend. Just as my friends stood by me in some of my darkest hours and depressions in my life, including battling drugs. You don’t desert your friends when they’re down. You don’t kick them when they’re down. We are not all perfect and God will be our final judge. I also look at Bob Filner’s record of almost 50 years of leadership and activism when it comes to civil rights and social justice.

But I must be honest, if more of us had spoken to Bob about his conduct and problems, I can’t help but wonder if it would have stopped. I’ve learned a lot about sexual harassment during these last months; something I should have educated myself on a long time ago. Yes. I still considered Bob Filner my friend and am glad he is getting the help he needs. I also feel very bad and sorry for many of these women. Let us all learn from this and try, no matter what, to do the right thing and speak up, because if we all would have, then we would have been truly Bob’s friend.

Priscilla. A must-see musical!

I’ve seen the movie and first saw the play on Broadway and this past Tuesday was at the opening night of Priscilla for its San Diego run. Well, it’s just fabulous and a must-see. It’s a fun, campy, outrageous story about friendships and family. Before the play we had dinner at Fogo de Chão, the new Brazilian steak house. It’s also fabulous and ten times better than that old Brazilian steak house on Fourth Avenue. I just love Fogo de Chão … outstanding food and service … ole.

The Harvey Milk Stamp

This national letter writing campaign started more than five years ago right here in San Diego, led by the International Imperial Court System and its 68 city chapters. Major co-sponsors were the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) and the Harvey Milk Foundation.

As the national chair and director of the National Harvey Milk Stamp Campaign, I am so proud of what we all accomplished working together. We did it! More in my next column, but on to our Harvey Milk Naval Vessel campaign.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto is one of the biggest cities on the East Coast and June 2014 will host World Pride, the first to ever be held in North America with almost two million people expected! I love this city and its huge GLBT population. It was almost five days of meetings for me and kept me so busy that I never got to stop by any of their all nude go go boy nightclubs, including the one that has a live sex show. Of course, I wouldn’t have gone even if I had time … hum.

My host was openly gay Wendy’s Restaurant executive, John Ribson, who was his usual host with the most including arranging for a most beautiful Marriott executive suite.

I met newly elected Councilmember Kristyn Wong-Tam who I believe has a very bright future ahead of her. Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford has made worldwide headlines for being a crack smoker; and we thought our mayor’s scandal was bad!

Now I’m off to Portland this weekend then after almost two month of traveling I will get almost a month off … hooray!