SF: proposal for sex tents at Folsom Street Fairs

San Francisco police planned a crack down on the public sex the Folsom Street Fair and the Up Your Alley Street Fair due to complaints filed by citizens and the excellent photo journalism of Zombie, according to an article in the Bay Area Reporter this last April. But after the events, some in the gay community complained about the loss of a venue for public sex and proposed sex tents be provided at future events for those who wish to engage or watch out of the public eye.

In the words of gay activist Michael Petrelis:

I want to reclaim the right to engage in public fellatio, or watch it unimpeded by sex monitors.

I said a tent, that would be clearly marked for oral sex and alcohol-free, should be considered, as a safe space for consenting adults to engage in fellatio on a public street. Of course, some poor suckers, er, lucky volunteers would have to head up a committee to maintain security at the tent, or other structure, if this idea is to become reality, and I'd be the first to kneel down and pray that this happens. Demetri and Bevan will consider the tent idea and it will be revisited at future meetings.

Bevan refers to Bevan Dufty, the city council member for the district that includes the Castro and who intends to run for mayor. The SF Chronicle's Matier and Ross carried an item about this last week, concluding:

Dufty said he wasn't sure if the issue was big enough at this point to recommend any action.

"There are definitely people interested in seeing more public sex," Dufty said, but "right now, I'd just take it under advisement and wait and see what develops."

Spoken like a true candidate.

The good news is that today the San Francisco Chronicle published an editorial against it:

Idea of public sex tents is way out of line

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Public sex tents? Now there's an idea that should have been shot down the second it was announced from the mouth of a member of the "leather community" in response to complaints about public sex at Folsom Street Fair and its smaller sibling fair, Up Your Alley.


Instead, it appears that at least one of our local leaders (Supervisor Bevan Dufty) has agreed to take the matter "under advisement." Since our local leaders are having trouble speaking the obvious, we will: Public sex is not appropriate at Folsom Street Fair or anywhere else. Even in San Francisco.

Public sex isn't just lewd, it's illegal under state law. San Francisco officials and police have historically given the fairs broad leeway to self-police bawdy behavior, but that should have been revoked the moment that citizens complained. Instead, people are giving serious thought to ways to make the streets safe for public sex and unsafe for public decency.

Enough. This is a quality-of-life issue that should have been tackled years ago. Local leaders need to stop clowning around and insist that everyone obey the law.

San Francisco: Flash Mobs Leave Messes for City to Clean Up

San Francisco is now in its fourth year of "flash mob" public happenings and is starting to get tired of the clean up duty. The events are "spontaneous", organized by text messaging, on websites or word of mouth. Recent events have included January's Pants-less Bart Train Ride,

the Valentine's Day Pillow Fight at Justin Herman Plaza

and the March 5th Pie Fight at the Powell and Market Cable Car Turnabout.


They do look like they are having fun, and while some argue that this party spirit is good for tourism, the clean up is a problem.


The city says the cost of cleaning up after the pillow fight was $20,000. But it does gets the city international attention.

SF Archbishop Can't Stop Teens from Performing Gay Play

That was a fast one. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, Geoger Niederauer ordered the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer to cancel the planned Sunday March 8th performance of the "gay friendly play "Be Still and Know" with students from Sacred Heart Prep School in Atherton. And, yes, Most Holy Redeemer canceled the play, the archdiocese announced.

However, what the archdiocese did not know was that the venue for the play was merely shifted to the Presentation Theater of the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit run school. I see on the Jesuit Society webpage that the Jesuit's have a vow of obedience to the Pope. I guess that means they can disrespect the wishes of local archbishops. The Sacred Heart Prep School in Atherton is run by the women of the Society of the Sacred Heart.

I wonder how the authorities at the high school and the college would feel if their students disregarded their clear wishes. It is so much more fun to be the one "challenging authority" than to be the one who's authority is being challenged. I am sure the Jesuit men have the power to survive this challenge to the archbishops authority, but I am a little concerned about the sisters of the Sacred Heart.

Anyway, it seems to be a lay man who is behind this. The Drama Director at Sacred Heart, John Loschmann adapted the play from the novel The God Box. The California Catholic Daily provides information from the blog of a teenage participant in the play:

Writing on her personal blog “The thoughts of a teenage girl” on Dec. 15, 2008, a young woman who says she plays “Angie, who is the lead character’s girlfriend,” and had just returned from her first rehearsal of “Be Still and Know,” had this to say of the play: “With the passing of Prop 8, I think that California needs a nice dose of humanity. The show does a beautiful job of defending homosexuality with the bible, the very thing most commonly used to condemn it, including Leviticus 18:22 (‘Thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman, it is an abomination’), to which Carlos (Manuel) Cordero, and openly gay, Christian teen in the play, responds, ‘The Bible also say that eating shellfish is an abomination… Does anyone who eats shrimp commit a lesser crime than homosexuality?’ The show is smart, and powerful, and will cause many people to reconsider their beliefs about homosexuality.”

But the young writer also acknowledged that the play had provoked disapproval by some at her school: “In my nice little Sacred Heart high school, though in one of the most liberal places in the world, San Francisco, this show is causing a remarkable amount of controversy… Parents are protesting it, teachers are confused by it, and student are just avoiding the topic all together.”

You can see the blog post here.