Gavin Newsom is running for governor. And so he’s throwing an “Unconventional ‘08” event in Denver at the Democratic Party Convention to honor “generation Obama”.

Guess who’s sponsoring it?

The two top-billed sponsors are AT&T and PG&E. Any coincidence with Newsom’s opposition to the San Francisco Clean Energy Act, which PG&E is spending millions of dollars to defeat?

So Gavin gets to party with some pretty good bands in Denver, while the rest of us suck peaker plant smoke in Potrero. The question for November is whether Clean Energy will win over Dirty Money.

There’s a potentially very significant case regarding transgender rights being argued in the US District Court in DC right now. Basically, the Library of Congress decided to hire a former special forces colonel, and after they offered him the job, she informed them that she was in the process of transitioning to life as a woman, and wouldn’t it make sense that she start as a woman from the beginning, to minimize confusion?

Like many other Democratic clubs in San Francisco, the Bernal Heights Democratic Club is doing endorsements in a two-part process. The first round was Federal offices, State Propositions, a couple city propositions, and some other miscellaneous items.

Here are the results:

President of the United States: Barack Obama
United States Congress: no endorsement
California Senate: Mark Leno
California Assembly: Tom Ammiano
Superior Court Judge seat 12: Gerardo C Sandoval
School Board – Jill Wynns (early endorsement, rest considered in September)

From today’s SFBG
Speaking of progressive issues: the move to reinstate JROTC in the public schools is really a wedge campaign that will be funded by downtown interests and used against progressives like Eric Mar, who is running in a more moderate district. The issue itself is a no-brainer. Do we want military recruitment programs in the public schools? The progressive candidates for school board need to stand up on this one and make it clear that they aren’t going to back down — JROTC has to go.

The Coleman Action Fund is a new 501c4 organization affiliated with but separate from Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth.

Just for facebookers: the release of our first-ever Candidate Endorsements!
(read the whole release on our Coleman Action Fund facebook page!)

Who’s Really for Working Families in San Francisco? Check it Out:

Board of Supervisors:
District 1: Eric Mar
District 3: Denise McCarthy and David Chiu
District 5: Ross Mirkarimi
District 9: Eric Quezada, David Campos, Mark Sanchez
District 11: John Avalos

Board of Education:
Sandra Lee Fewer
Rachel Norton
Dr James Calloway
Norman Yee

State Supreme Court says doctors must treat gays and lesbians

Doctors in California must treat gays and lesbians the same as any other patient, regardless of religious objections, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin on the picket line outside of the HRC dinner.

I was surprised about how biased her article was. She is usually less biased in my experience.

Peskin, the group’s chairman, said Thursday that the progressive endorsements are in step with the priorities of San Francisco’s voters and are geared toward making the party bigger and stronger after some left-wing members broke off to join the Green Party.

“We saw over the last many years disenchantment by Democratic Party activists who felt the past policies of the local party were out of step with San Francisco’s Democratic values,” he said. “We’re reaching out to people who were turned off, but we’re not alienating people who have been party stalwarts for decades.”

We don’t talk much about national politics here, but with rumors swirling that the repulsive Evan Bayh will be Obama’s choice for VP, I had to highlight two things:

There’s a Facebook group called “100,000 strong against Evan Bayh for VP”

The indespensible (but unfortunately sporadic) Fafblog had this to say about Evan Bayh as part of its roundup of potential VP candidates:

EVAN BAYH:
Pros: youthful energy signals a change from old corrupt politics to new corrupt politics; cynically hawkish, pro-corporate policy stance would be a refreshing counterweight to Obama’s freewheeling agenda of simulated empathy
Cons: opposition research will inevitably unearth mystically-sealed painting of rancidly decrepit Bayh created by powerful credit industry warlocks

I am tragically late posting this, but there’s a meeting tonight at the LGBT Center on the future of Public Access TV in San Francisco.

6:00 PM, Tuesday August 12, 2008
The LGBT Center
1800 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Due to changes in state law that the cable companies were able to achieve, the money SF gets for Public Educational and Government (PEG) Programming is drastically reduced. In addition, the money can only be spent for capital purchases, not operations. PEG funding is used for what is commonly thought of as Public Access, but it’s also used for things like the broadcast (and webcast) of public meetings.

Last night I was on KPFA (about 72 minutes into the show) with Josie Lehrer discussing the Men’s Story Project. I hope to see you there. I will be readiing a letter to my father and performing with 16 other men discussing masculinity.