O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

By Melanie Nathan, April 13, 2025 (Updated 4/14)

The San Francisco based Bay Area Reporter, published “SF Pride reportedly denies request to name deported gay makeup artist honorary grand marshal” by John Ferrannini, Assistant Editor , Friday, April 11, 2025. Dramatic headline for a big non-drama that became a big drama on demand! Why am I not surprised when a salivating assistant editor at Bay Area Reporter meets the moment by indulging in a divisive hit job. A parasitic synergy born from entitled tantrum meeting scandal thriving tabloid. The fact that some activists express pain and hurt when SF Pride refused to bow to their dangerous and unschooled demands should not have turned into a drama…but alas, par for the course… and more importantly as this post will reveal, activists and Prides must adopt a ‘do no harm’ policy when it comes to matters of sensitivity, by at the very least consulting the experts,

Some history to understand the milieu:

1. In 2014 I had the great honor of being named a Community Grand Marshal of San Francisco Pride. At the time I was contacted by Bay Area Reporter (BAR), for an interview. The reporter emailed a thesis worth of questions. One such question asked how much I earned per year. I never understood why they wanted to know that? Another question was simply unimaginable: How did my wife and I produce our family– did we conceive or adopt? Yes they did! A Queer publication, run and written by LGBTQI+ identifying editors and journalists asked THAT question.

2. In that same year BAR wrote a hit piece based on a phone call they received from an individual who worked for an organization that describes itself  as “a coalition of prominent U.S.-based human rights and LGBTQI+ advocacy organizations that together encourage a clear U.S. voice for the human rights of LGBTQI+ communities around the world.” The phone call served as the impetus for an article that propped up the caller’s attempts to shut down, as in cancel, my project at San Francisco Africa Leadership Institute (SFALI), funded by Arcus foundation with the SF LGBT Center our fiscal sponsor. We had organized a public forum to discuss Uganda’s “Kill the Gays Bill”, with the one Ugandan Parliamentarian who was against the law. The caller had threatened to show up to protest the event if the SF LGBT Center did not shut it down. She asserted that the Parliamentarian was for the anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was simply not the truth. The caller had never spoken to the Parliamentarian and had based her assertion on a flawed understanding of the complex milieu in Uganda at the time. I call this an ego-grievance, where an entitled gatekeeper who believed they owned the advocacy space, was angry because someone else had the audacity to take the lead and engage in a space they believed they could gate-keep. Said gatekeeper was aggrieved and believed their stance precluded all else.

All said and done, BAR facilitated the stirring of the drama that ensued. They turned an ego-grievance into a story and hence a drama developed. This current story by Ferrannini, smacks of similar – an ego-grievance now with thanks to the BAR, a scandalous drama.

Apparently San Francisco activist Cleve Jones and another Nicole Murray Ramirez, a San Diego-based gay activist had called on San Francisco Pride to name Hernández Romero, a deported gay make-up artist who had been detained by the US government since the Biden administration, to be named a Grand Marshal of San Francisco Pride. Because Pride refused  there is now an attack on the integrity of SF Pride and its Executive Director Suzanne Ford.

Firstly, what glares (no I am not shocked) is that Cleve Jones would comment to BAR by reporting an apparent refusal of SF Pride to agree to this demand.

Why would Cleve not simply step back and respectfully accept SF Pride Executive Director, Suzanne Ford’s leadership on the issue, and allow her the dignity of her domain, to remain unencumbered by Cleve’s perspective and demand. Is this a ‘gay- white-man entitled – a not getting his way ‘kinda’ tantrum? Lest we forget this totem pole where he holds court at the top, a position already well established most especially when Cleve Jones participated in the deliberate exclusion of lesbian icon Sally Miller Gearhart from the Dustin Lance Black Academy Award winning film, MILK. Is this a sense of loss of power lobbed at the trans woman whose burgeoning leadership is not only stellar – but oh hey dammit, it’s not a gay man at the helm- top city LGBTQI+ leadership? What part of simply respecting the decision of this current San Francisco Pride leadership, with a nod of respect, are we missing here?

I am disgusted at how BAR used this non-controversy to create one! This division is typical of the publication – as self-orchestrated scoop – par for the course. Shame on Editor Cynthia Laird, reporter John Ferrannini, and publisher Mike Yamashita.

As a former VP of the San Francisco Pride Board, I have been privy to the rules and process involving appointments and voting for grand marshals. When a grand marshal is named it usually acknowledges and honors their contribution to LGBTQI+ communities, and in noting previous celebrity grand marshals, their contributions have been enormous. I know that issues do not receive awards and that people do. I also know that vulnerable people who have been forcibly displaced, and their plights, should not be weaponized politically, and nor should they be used as issue related pawns, at the very least without direct permissions, especially by those who have no understanding of the milieus they are attempting to influence. It is dangerous and the world of global advocacy, often back fires. There are many ways to protest an issue without the potential for harm to an individual.

3. Having spent many years in the global human rights world advocating for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, here are questions and observances:

a. What does Cleve Jones know about Romero or is he purely using Romero to further his own political agenda. Has Jones spoken directly to Romer or his legal representatives?

b. Why was Romero detained by the Biden admin? What are the nuances of his legal case? Is his story risked by too much publicity? Often legitimate asylum seekers are paroled out of detention while their claims are pending, Why not in this case? What is the full story here? Has Romero’s lawyer been consulted on whether or not Romero should be used in this way by SF Pride and if so why would SF Pride participate in such “use”.

Cleve Jones suggests this could save Romero’s life and had the audacity to suggest “that SF Pride is taking no substantive action to save this man’s life”. Is that SF Pride’s job or mission? Because if it is and if it works I know about 200 human rights defenders who have actually put their necks on the line for fellow LGBTQI+ people who would love an opportunity to have their lives saved by SF Pride. (Tongue in cheek!) BUT THAT SAID – it is actually BS – because quite frankly in situations like this, such attention is more often than not likely to backfire. Especially in a fascist administration. And more so in the current global setting, the location where Romero is detained. It is my contention and sincere belief that any BIG GAY DESIGNATION such as Grand Marshal will actually not serve him, but hurt him.

As Kaye Ally, the director of Johannesburg Pride  so aptly told me:

“From my experience working in Africa, it’s important to understand that we do not explicitly amplify individuals in sensitive situations like this. In regions with hostile governments and anti-LGBTQ+ laws, such amplification can unintentionally put individuals at serious risk—potentially placing them under surveillance, on watchlists, or drawing unwanted attention from authorities, which could have severe consequences.

c. Most importantly – cardinal rule number ONE! And here is questioning Cleve Jones, who I believe has no working experience in immigration, asylum or refugee law/ diplomacy/advocacy and with harsh global environments such as El Salvador: – NEVER interfere in any way shape or form with an ongoing case where someone’s legal rights are in process of adjudication. This is the DO NO HARM presumption in our world. San Francisco Pride is smart and well advised to stand down.

My response as an advocate and human rights lawyer in global arenas for the past 20+ years, would be my concern for backlash. That by making Romero a GM one is opening a can of worms, where his very public story can take different turns, thereby hampering any legal claim and clouding his truth. And also the martyrdom it creates may cause government officials and adjudicators to dig their heels in and otherwise deny claims he may otherwise be granted, had the matter been more private and muted. Worse yet, any danger in his current detention circumstances could be exacerbated by such publicity.

Can you really see the Trump admin giving a shit that he is Grand Marshal of SF Pride, or any Pride  all the while blasting his gayness to El Salvador’s kind detention system. I mean really?

As noted by other members of the Pride and LGBT communities:

• It is so highly illegal to be LGBTQ+ in El Salvador, even being at a public parade can get you arrested and often disappeared or dead.
• Why did Cleve even think that an Administration that ignores the rule of law, disobeys judges’ rulings, cares nothing for his constituent would care about one gay makeup artist, when he has no respect for lawmakers that have so much more experience than Trump does
• Why would SF Pride, or any Pride, have any sway, when Trump is trying to erase us and our rights? Putting more visible targets on our backs
• And why did Cleve think this would hold more influence beyond Gov. Gavin Newsom sending a personal plea to Trump days before this new story erupted? That could completely nullify Newsom’s attempt.

If the gay leadership of San Francisco cared so much, where have they been for the past ten years on similar deportations? If so concerned about Romero why silent until now? What is this really about? Politicizing deportees?

That said I commend San Francisco Pride for its leadership and wisdom on this issue.  It has not been silent.  It is as one of very few organizations and bodies of leadership that has come forward to highlight migrants and global LGBTQI+ issues. It was San Francisco Pride which opened its heart and doors to platform Africa and the plight of forcibly displaced criminalized LGBTQI+ people at a time when no one else was doing it. San Francisco Pride has maintained this stellar record on this issue for over a decade. In 2014 the SF Pride Board honored me as Community Grand Marshal recognizing my work and accomplishments for LGBT African people in this situation, knowingly providing me with the very much needed and valuable platform, which served to launch much of my work here in the USA. In 2022 San Francisco Pride provided a main stage platform to African Human rights Coalition as we presented an historic video greeting from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Dr. Filippo Grandi. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3sePF3Fx1E&t=48s)

Pointing fingers at SF Pride for refusing this suggestion is absolutely ludicrous and quite frankly, vile. It is without any merit, given the context, the open questions, the protocols and history of San Francisco Pride. This is not a time to be divisive, but to stick together. This is a moment in time where we need to respect each leader and their decisions especially involving their fiduciary duties and adherence to their missions for their respective organizations.

The last word is to BAR – what a shoddy shameful piece of work – to platform disrespect, stir up this division in our community, and to report such undignified nonsense, turning ego-grievances into community upset into unnecessary drama – and if you are going to do it – at least reach out to those who can actually speak to the glaring issues on this complex situation.

The final word is to all the Prides here in the USA and globally: Do not be manipulated into thinking this is the right thing to do because two well appointed activists who claim absolute leadership on the topic say so. Help educate community and always defer to the experts in a field before making decisions which have serious implications on the lives of vulnerable people before running rampant with ideas.

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Melanie Nathan
Nathan@africanHRC.org

Melanie Nathan, Executive Director of African Human Rights Coalition is a qualified country of origin expert witness in the United States and global immigration courts, providing expert written country conditions  reports and testimony for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, non-binary, LGBTQI + asylum seekers from African Countries, to include those perceived as such,  activists, allies and human rights defenders.