Shea, the dogs, and I visited Quarters Cafe on Mare Island to meet up with some activist locals.
Quarters Cafe Backyard
Category Archives: Politics
Lawn Signs at Rental
Go Andrea!
Andrea Sorce Mayoral Picnic
Yesterday in Highland Park we went to the Labor Day BBQ for Vallejo Mayoral Candidate Andrea Sorce (in a red tank top). We brought the dogs and I also met County Supervisor-Elect Cassandra James in person for the first time (after years of seeing each other on Zoom)!
Shea and I are in a lot of these various pictures from the candidate site:
Sister Cities Dinner and Auction 2024
Had an amazing time at the Sister Cities International Dinner and Auction, which took place at the Filipino Community Center here in Vallejo. I helped Shea pick out this beautiful barong at Vallejo’s own Barong & Formal. The event was in recognition of Sister City La Spezia, Italy, where my cousin lives with his family. I got to speak a little Italian with the Italian dancers who performed, which I think they appreciated. There was a buffet from at least nine different cultures, as well as representatives from many parts of the world.
Bastille Day Coffee at Moschetti
Friend and mayoral candidate, Andrea Sorce, was speaking there.
Sacramento Tobacco Legislation Gathering Begins
The American Heart Association has an “Information and Education” day annually for tobacco control issues with various state senators and assemblyman. I’m proud to have been asked to be the lead for AD11 (Lori Wilson) and SD03 (Bll Todd).
Vote for Calyn!
I’m so proud that one of my friends and a colleague in my tobacco control coalition is running for school board in Hayward (where I grew up, although I was zoned and schooled in the New Haven Unified School District which covered southern Hayward). Calyn is an amazing man, father, and health advocate working to empower youth to live their best lives with Bay Area Community Resources. He has inspired me to be a better public speaker. I have watched him work off the cuff and have always been impressed with his confidence and the breadth of his knowledge. He deserves all the support he can get and Hayward would be lucky to have him in this capacity!
George Floyd Common Sense
It’s been a number of years since the George Floyd protests in 2020 and the shooting of Sean Monterrosa, which has been in the news a lot. Sean was not from Vallejo, but he was protesting the police brutality in Vallejo and became the next victim of a fatal officer-involved shooting of an unarmed person as a result. That was the last death of its kind in Vallejo to date. We had a new police chief, Shawny Williams, whom progressives mostly admired as he attempted to reform the Vallejo Police Department (VPD) after that, but he resigned eventually in what many of us believe was a result of his being chased out of town by the Vallejo Police Union (VPOA) with numerous racist threats (Shawny Williams is African-American).
In June 2023 there was the next officer-involved shooting of an unarmed person that made the news. Here is the link to the Vallejo Sun article. I’m pleased with the VPD decision.
So many asked me why I was SO UPSET that this Vallejo police officer fired shots at this alleged thief after I attended the VPD Town Hall at 4pm on a weekday. The timing of the town hall was suspect, but in fairness to VPD, they said all the evidence and investigation into the officer’s conduct was preliminary.
I asked myself “Was the cop in danger?” There were at least 5 unarmed AFTER-HOURS thieves in a closed commercial property. The thieves of course were NOT from Vallejo, but the property was closed up and there probably wasn’t even any cash in there. So the only thief who remained (the others jumped the fences to get away) drove forward since there was no other direction he could go. As a result, he was shot IN THE FACE by an officer who ran over to him. Is that the best practice for police officers? I thought shooting at fleeing unarmed thieves was not a reason to start gunfire, as is the case in every other country where guns are not fetishized. The car barely touched the cop on its way out of the parking space (you can watch the video), as clearly evidenced by the fact that the police officer continued to shoot directly toward the face of the UNARMED young man until his face was hit. No attempts were made at the tires of the car based on the ballistics, but there were a number of bullet holes in the car, which could have also caused it to explode. The alleged thief had surgery and survived, but a few inches over and he’d be dead for what? Stealing CANDY BARS?
At the VPD Town Hall on the shooting, we were told that the burglary of an EMPTY store with no employees present and with NO weapons except the crowbar used to enter the EMPTY store was considered a “Priority 1,” it made me wonder what priority a kidnapping, rape, or murder would have been. Would it have taken precedence over a nonviolent empty store being robbed in a city of 126,000? I’m not saying robbery is okay, but it’s NOT worth killing someone over!
Now VPD has wisely banned shooting at vehicles altogether, which would have made sense in this case also. It’s not like the license plate of the vehicle that attempted to escape wasn’t immediately discernable with the body cam and dashcam. Let’s hope that bit by bit common sense will prevail and guns will only be pulled out of police holsters when actual threats of violence toward PEOPLE are happening.
Italian Homophobia Perserveres
I cannot help but speak out about the escalating homophobia in my mother’s home country of Italy (and where some of my father’s ancestors are from). The aspiring fascist prime minister there is trying to earn political points by stripping away lesbian mothers of their rights and legally breaking apart families. As a Board alum of six years, I reached out to FamilyEquality.org with my outrage as an Italo-American still eligible for dual citizenship and how this is clearly violative of the European Union’s higher courts, which I hope step in. Giorgia Meloni is making examples of some lesbian mothers by literally removing their names from birth certificates based on the non-biological ties to their own children. Now they are working on criminalizing surrogacy, just to round out the homophobia.
I constantly remind people that the equivalent of Italy’s founding fathers are both GAY – Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo, not to mention countless other Renaissance pillars, popes, etc.
This is exactly the kind of underhanded bigotry that we are still fighting against in what should be a modern world. As a gay parent, I am appalled, but very pleased that Family Equality Executive Director Stacey Stevenson replied to my pleas for the organization to make an official statement, which they have now done. This is a perfect response to these troubling developments:
Family Equality Condemns Rising Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation in Italy Targeting LGBTQ+ Parents and Families
August 11, 2023
Soon after prime minister Giorgia Meloni issued a public order removing the names of nonbiological LGBTQ+ parents from their children’s birth certificates, the Italian parliament approved a bill that criminalized surrogacy abroad.
Washington, D.C. — Family Equality, the leading national organization for current and future LGBTQ+ families in America, condemns recent actions taken by the Italian government to undermine and diminish the rights of LGBTQ+ parents and families, including removing nonbiological LGBTQ+ parents from birth certificates and, more recently, approving a bill that would criminalize surrogacy abroad.
With surrogacy and other reproductive medical treatments like IVF already prohibited for LGBTQ+ couples in Italy, this legislation not only denies LGBTQ+ people the opportunity to start their family — it threatens to put prospective parents in jail for even trying. The measure, which passed in the chamber of deputies with 166 votes in support, needs approval by the Italian senate before being passed into law.
“Everyone deserves the opportunity to experience the unconditional joy and belonging of family, no matter who you love or where you live,” said Family Equality CEO, Stacey Stevenson. “What we’re seeing from the top elected officials in Italy is unconscionable. And yet, these actions reflect what we’re seeing outside our own front door, as politicians and pundits alike spout dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric instead of focusing on passing legislation that keeps us all safe, healthy, and protected. To the LGBTQ+ families in Italy, know that we stand in solidarity with you and will fight with our partners in this international community to preserve your fundamental right to find and form family.”
Tobacco Town Hall at Dan Foley Center
Our coalition of Bay Area Community Resources, Tobacco Free Solano, and LGBTQ Minus Tobacco held a town hall with youth activists at which many dignitaries showed up. Vice-Mayor Verder-Aliga, Councilmember Peter Bregenzer, Vallejo School Board Trustee John Fox, and County Supervisor Monica Brown were in attendance.
The youth activists gave us a presentation and, despite the rain, we were in a beautiful venue of the Dan Foley Center at Lake Chabot in Vallejo, with a covered wraparound patio that allowed us to look over the lake, hills, and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
