SAN FRANCISCO –
The first time Kenshi Westover entered AsiaSF, an iconic transgender cabaret in the city’s gritty South of Market neighborhood, it was as a withdrawn gay Mormon visiting from Utah.
That was 20 years ago, and Westover (who uses she/they pronouns) recalls being stunned by the performers strutting down an elevated catwalk behind the bar, impossibly high heels, dangerously low-cut dresses, the mood ebullient.
“These are my power animals,” Westover thought. “And I will be part of this world.”
Kenshi Westover, who came to San Francisco two decades ago as a secretly gay Mormon from Utah, says San Francisco “is a safe sandbox that allows a person to play without fear. I think it saved my life.”
(Kenshi Westover)
I met Westover Sunday night as AsiaSF celebrated its 25th anniversary, in a room crowded with drag queens, politicians in suits, and even a few Stanford students. Wearing a beaded Art Deco dress with dangling earrings and slicked-back hair, Westover, who describes himself as gender-nonconforming, was part of a vibrant community that says more about San Francisco than the alarming tales of the city’s demise come to be to define its reputation nationally.
For years, the far-right outrage machine has focused on San Francisco as a “hell hole” that embodies everything wrong with the Democratic leadership. They were supported by a small but vocal cadre of local social media Influencers who made their brand bash San Francisco’s public health and safety policies. They focus almost exclusively on drugs and crime, which fits in perfectly with the right-wing propaganda that is fomenting paranoia and panic in different parts of the country.
If you’re wondering why I don’t include the usually obligatory sample posts from these influencers, it’s because I don’t feel the need to add more oxygen to this false narrative. But their new king appears to be Elon Musk, who recently tweeted: “Violent crimes in SF are appalling‘, despite the fact that, with the exception of robbery, rates for violent crimes such as murder and rape have so far remained at last year’s levels or are declining.
Many of these proselytizers protest that they are not conservative, and most would not dare to raise other issues energizing the right, such as the wars on transgender people and abortion. But they have a symbiotic relationship with far-right media outlets (think Fox News) over crime and drugs.
In another California city, maybe Sacramento or even Los Angeles, their venom would be the stuff of Nextdoor posts. But because San Francisco is a right-wing target, these local voices have amassed power by providing so-called proof that this city, like other Democratic strongholds, is in perpetual chaos.
They post countless videos online of what I consider exploitative porn with moral outrage – clips of penniless people using drugs, sprawled on sidewalks, incoherent and lost. Few of these appear to have been filmed with the subject’s consent, but all are meant to convey to the good people of Iowa and Idaho just how bad life under “left” leadership can be.
Of course, this tale is not new.
In 2015, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump called out on San Francisco and its city-of-sanctuary policy following the horrific killing of resident Kathryn Steinle, who was shot by an undocumented immigrant with an extensive criminal record and a history of deportations. The shooter, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, was acquitted of murder after a jury ruled he found the gun under a bench and accidentally fired it. The gun belonged to a ranger with the Bureau of Land Management and had been stolen from his vehicle a week earlier.
But with the success of Trump’s political assault on the hearts and minds of anti-immigration Republicans, the accumulation of exploitative suffering has continued, culminating recently in the aftermath of the assassination of tech entrepreneur Bob Lee.
Lee was stabbed to death in the early hours of April 4 in an upscale downtown neighborhood. The next morning, right-wing social media drowned in city condemnations that assumed Lee had been attacked indiscriminately — the unspoken implication that the attacker was likely a homeless drug user. Lee’s death quickly became the latest evidence of how violent San Francisco has become despite its persistently low murder rate.
Police eventually arrested an acquaintance of Lee’s for the murder, suggesting the attack may have been motivated by an argument involving the suspect’s sister. Not a random murder at all, but that didn’t stop these complainants. After the arrest, a frequent social media poster suggested that it didn’t matter who did it because any type of killing proved how dangerous San Francisco was.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced multi-agency action, including the California National Guard, to attack major drug dealers in San Francisco, another of those agitators declared “victory,” falsely claiming that soldiers would be on the streets because the situation was so dire . CalGuard offers help with backroom intelligence gathering. There will be no tanks.
Of course, San Francisco has problems. Not small. There’s a tech bust that’s emptying expensive office towers, similar to the dot-com bubble around the same time AsiaSF first opened.
There is also an addiction crisis that has led to unacceptable levels of property crime, areas of the city where drugs are openly sold and consumed, and stolen goods are offered for sale in street markets. As in so many other places – urban, suburban, and rural – fentanyl has become the drug of choice, leading to skyrocketing overdose rates. So far this year, 200 people have died from a fentanyl overdose in the city, compared to 142 deaths in the same period last year.
And anti-Asian hate crimes, largely unrelated to the addiction crisis, have rightfully fueled fury — they rose 167% nationwide between 2020 and 2021, according to FBI data, far exceeding increases for any other group. In San Francisco, among other brazen attacks, these included an Asian man who died after being pushed into the street, a man who threw a brick at elderly Asians in a park, and an elderly woman who was attacked by four youths in her Age was robbed and beaten living center.
Anti-Asian hate crimes appear to be declining this year, but Asian communities have become more vocal and political in their calls for better policing of the city — calls that have sometimes been confused with the far-right talking points, but have very different perspectives.
A recent city survey found that all residents, regardless of ethnicity, feel less safe than they did before the pandemic.
Only 36% of respondents said they felt safe or very safe walking alone in their neighborhood at night. In 2019, 53% said they felt safe at night.
Despite this drop, the overall residents’ sense of security score came in at a C+, which isn’t great, but it’s not a failure from hell either.
That said, don’t believe the hype you read about San Francisco on the internet.
“The real San Francisco is AsiaSF. It’s the cherry blossom parade. It’s Easter with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Dolores Park,” Sen. Scott Wiener told me as we stepped out of the club to chat. For those who don’t know, the sisters are a collective of activist queer and transgender nuns who have been around since Jimmy Carter was in the Oval Office. You like to roller skate.
“This is a place with a soul that can’t be smothered,” said Bette McKenzie, a former public relations executive who helped conceptualize one of the West Coast’s largest AIDS fundraisers, as we listened to the pounding music inside of the club roared .
“Despite all the babble you hear from the right-wing media, San Francisco is a beacon of hope for so many people,” Larry Hashbarger told me. He is one of the owners of AsiaSF.
He arrived in San Francisco from Boulder, Colorado in 1977, a “young gay man who wasn’t quite ready for the scene.” At 71, he’s the scene, working the space in a black iridescent suit styled after a painting by Keith Haring.
When AsiaSF opened, “the word transgender wasn’t even in our vocabulary,” Hashbarger told me.
But everyone wanted to come anyway. “The Matrons of Pacific Heights would bring their Dom Perignon.”
He estimates that a million people have come through the doors since then. Mayor London Breed stopped by on Friday, he said. Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco resident, sent a proclamation “in recognition of outstanding and invaluable service to the community.” Even State Treasurer Fiona Ma was there with her brother on Sunday.
“Everyone becomes who they are and celebrates who they are. No matter who you are, you have to find your truth and live your truth,” Hashbarger said.
And that is San Francisco’s enduring strength. People go to New York and Los Angeles in search of fame and fortune. People come to San Francisco in search of themselves—in search of freedom and authenticity.
Those who find their own identity and tribes are the real powers in this city, building communities with vigor and endurance. Just look at who’s getting elected, from Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold office in California, to Wiener, who champions a progressive agenda that has vilified him from the right.
For a small minority, their truth is always born of wickedness and privilege. And that minority will have its power as democracy demands, especially in this perverse American timeline where the push toward authoritarianism requires hatred and fear to justify itself. That, Wiener said, is a “challenge” that San Francisco has always mastered and will always master.
For the majority of San Francisco, the peddlers of outrage are a sideshow, a pale whisper against the power of the real show at places like AsiaSF.
Decades ago, Westover, the withdrawn Mormon, stood up a 20-foot ladder contemplating suicide — jumping to see if that could quiet the noise and pain. They were 23. Their parents had rejected them, and being gay or transgender or something else seemed terrifying. Seeing the cast of AsiaSF gave Westover the courage to define himself.
On Sunday night, I saw Westover as a beautiful person, fully committed to who he is, surrounded by a found family.
“This city is a safe sandbox that allows a person to play without fear,” Westover told me. “I think it saved my life.”
They’re not the only ones who saved San Francisco, and they won’t be the last.
That’s the beauty of this city, and no scare tactics will change that.
Source : www.latimes.com
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