gay-sd.com FROM PAGE 3 MOMENTS


Industry Week magazine, Best said his decision to run came af- ter a “painful bout of conscious,” noting a case in which 25 police officers were employed to raid a local bathhouse.


“I thought the police chief of this city would be hard-pressed to explain to an elderly lady who had been mugged, or a shopkeep- er whose store had been robbed, what 25 of his men were doing in a gay bath house,” Best told Industry Week. “I couldn’t remain silent any longer.” In the article, titled “Homo- sexuals in Management,” Best went on to describe a meeting between alliance members and San Diego’s Public Services and Safety Commission, in which everyone involved was dressed in three-piece suits. “It was obvious that they were shaken,” Best said. “I could just see them thinking, ‘Holy cow, this is getting serious—now they look just like us.’”


The campaign inspired other so-called normative behavior from within the LGBT community. Best, whose engagingly


irreverent humor far outlasted his political career, recalled community activist and part-time drag personality Nicole Murray- Ramirez coming into his Wash- ington Street campaign office to


Compiled by Elena Buckley | GSD Reporter Your Nation, Your World


Jan. 17 Gay rights defender dies:


During his aviation career in New Mexico, Al Best met many interesting people, including jazz composer and big band leader, Duke Ellington. (Courtesy Al Best)


race, Best was fired from his job. Though the company’s board chair claimed it was for campaign- ing on their dime, Best believes he was fired for being gay. Other betrayals followed. Some of Best’s friends and acquaintances quickly distanced themselves from him, lest they be “outed” by association. “I cried more over that than anything,” Best said. Former U.S. Sen. S.I. Hay- akawa, who stayed with Best and courted the gay vote while cam- paigning for the Senate in 1976, turned his back on Best once in office, denouncing homosexuals as “sick and perverted.” Responding to Best’s outrage


White Supremacist leader Tom Metzger allegedly threatened Al Best’s life in 1979, during a func- tion for a group of LGBT Catholics in downtown San Diego.


help with phone banking. “He sat down, picked up the phone and dialed the first number. The person answered and Nicole said (Best adopts a hyper-masculine voice), ‘This is Nick Murray from the Al Best for City Council campaign.’ The room went berserk!” Murray-Ramirez said that while his closet contains an equal amount of suits and gowns, he knew which was appropriate to don during the campaign. “I thought it was so impor-


tant,” Murray-Ramirez said. “Brad Truax, Jess Jessop, all of us—our big dream was to get someone elected to the city council someday. … We thought Al Best was the perfect guy, you know, a professional man, articu- late, knew government and could handle the media.” In 1979, attempts to realize


that dream came at a cost. Though the staff at the dictat- ing equipment office where Best was employed as a sales man- ager threw him an impromptu champagne party to celebrate his candidacy, higher-ups at Los Angeles-based All Makes Dictat- ing Machine Co. were not as enthused. A week after entering the


over the comment, Hayakawa replied in a letter to him, “Thank you for expressing your concern about legislation that would end discrimination on the basis of sex- ual or affectional [sic] preference. I have no intention of supporting this legislation or anything like it. … Homosexuality is a failure of emotional masturbation—and it is nonsense to pretend that it is an ‘alternative lifestyle,’ with the same authenticity and the same value to society as sexual normality.” Threats to Best’s life followed, including a dire warning from white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader, Tom Metzger (a former Fallbrook resident). Though Harvey Milk is


depicted as taping death threats to his refrigerator in the film, “Milk,” Best was not so cavalier. After announcing his candi-


dacy, Best returned home and an- swered the phone to receive his first threat. “I answered and this extremely masculine voice said, ‘Is this Al Best? I am a San Diego policeman and I will assassinate you and I can get away with it,’” he recalled. Metzger, who identified him- self on the phone, was the second or third such call. “He said, ‘You’ve got two ways


to get out of the race: You can get out dead, or you can leave now alive.’”


Metzger later approached Best at the U.S. Grant Hotel to reaffirm his threat, during a national conference for Dignity U.S.A., a group of gay and lesbian Catholics.


Though Best lost is bid for


city council, he survived the threats and intimidation, going on to lend his services and expertise to a number of HIV/AIDS and LGBT organizations, including Something Special Food Pantry, which he and partner, Eduardo Mendoza, helped run for more than six years before operations were handed over to Mama’s Kitchen.


His campaign, coupled with the failed 1987 campaign of openly gay District 8 council candidate, Neil Good, helped lay the groundwork for the success- ful 1993 city council campaign of Christine Kehoe, San Diego’s first openly gay or lesbian elected official (see page 1).


Best’s later work included a


stint as San Diego’s first openly gay civil service commissioner, from 1990 to 1995. As a commis- sioner, Best and Robert Ottilie launched an investigation into the San Diego Water Utilities Department that saved the city $8.7 million. Best will be honored Feb. 11 during the Lambda Archives of San Diego’s annual fund-raising gala, at the LGBT Community Center, of which Best is a former board member.


When assked about the rec-


ognition, Best said, “I’m human. Yes, it’s nice to be recognized, but it was never done for that. It was done because it had to be done.” Murray-Ramirez, a co-chair and co-founder of the Lambda Archives gala, called Best both a trailblazer and a hero. “Every city has a Harvey


Milk, and Al Best is San Diego’s Harvey Milk,” he said.•


Carolyn Wagner died today after fighting a long battle with cancer and hepatitis. An avid gay rights defender, Wagner founded Families United against Hate in 1996 motivated by her 16-year-old son’s battle with antigay bullying. She was also a former vice president of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.


federal child pornography stat- ues. The network is concerned about a scene where a 17-year- old male actor runs down the street naked and is filmed from behind. The show chronicles the out of control lives of its teenage cast. Characters are wrapped up in sex, drugs, alco- hol and mental disorders. ‘Full House’ star waits


for marriage equality: Jodie Sweetin, the memorable Stepha- nie Tanner from “Full House,” and her fiancée Morty Coyle announced that they will not get married until same-sex couples can marry.


NEWS


Jan. 28-Feb. 10, 2011


GAY SAN DIEGO


7


Scissor Sisters Jan. 19


Scissor Sisters to per-


form at Coachella: The gay-fronted Scissor Sisters will perform with dozens of other musical acts including Arcade Fire, Duran Duran, Animal Collective and P.J. Harvey at the 2011 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. on April 15-17.


Domestic partnership benefits in Allentown: According to The Morning Call, the Allentown, Penn. city council voted to provide medi- cal benefits for city employ- ees’ same-sex partners. City employees will also be allowed to take time off if their partner is hospitalized or dies. The new law excludes firefighters and police officers. Allentown joins other Pennsylvanian cities who already offer same-sex partner benefits including Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.


Jan. 20 MTV worried ‘Skins’


remake shows too much: Ac- cording to The New York Times, MTV is worried that their upcoming remake of the U.K. made “Skins”, which includes a lesbian character, will violate


Darren Criss and Chris Colfer of “Glee”


Gay teens on television:


Entertainment Weekly’s new cover story examines how gay teenage characters on television are affecting the everyday lives of real gay teens. Darren Criss and Chris Colfer are on the cover as their “Glee” characters, and are among many actors, producers and activists that the magazine interviewed for the story.


Jan. 21


LGBT murder increase in Honduras: The amount of LGBT murders in Honduras rose to 31 with the addition of three recent deaths. According to Gay City News, one of the victims was a 23-year-old trans- gender woman who was appar- ently raped, stoned to death and set on fire. The U.S. Embassy issued a statement urging Hon- duran law enforcement to inves- tigate the crimes and take the violence and abuse seriously.


see Elsewhere, pg 17


Al Best and partner Eduardo Mendoza pose with some of Best’s letters of recognition and accommodations from his time as a high-ranking aviation official in New Mexico, and an activist and community volun- teer in San Diego. (Pat Sherman/GSD)


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