“A proposed mural depicting the LGBT history of Polk Street may never be painted due to objections from neighbors,” the Bay Area Reporter relays. “The mural is a joint project of the Lower Polk Neighbors and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, intended to instill local pride while beautifying a blank wall on the side of Hemlock Alley. … [Neighborhood artists Helen Bayly and Aaron Bo Heimlich] consulted with the GLBT Historical Society, and incorporated actual incidents of police harassment, as well as tributes to social service organizations and their clients. … Reaction from LPN members was decidedly hostile.” What was wrong with the mural? They were trying to put it somewhere besides the Castro, the city’s historical gay district. “The Castro has such a monopoly on being ‘the gay neighborhood’ when really, there are gay and straight people in … neighborhoods throughout the city,” says Heimlich. “Polk Street was a hub for people being able to go someplace where they were accepted before the Castro.”
Francis
Shows that even in San Francisco, plenty of heterosexuals do not want to associate themselves with us in any way, and how much work we truly have to do to change hearts and minds.
TheRealAdam
@Francis: What, you think the liberals in SF really give a damn? Do you think they really want us in their neighborhoods if they can help it? West Hollywood, Castro, Chelsea…these places are all like zoos where the gays are quarantined away from the hets…and then they boast about how inclusive and diverse and progressive their city is because they can point to the gay zoos.
John
“Gay zoos”. đ
And my favourite animal is…
Francis
@TheRealAdam: You’re right, I didn’t really think about it like that, but you’re right. Although, maybe I am overreacting since the neighborhood association themselves sought to create a LGBT mural, why would they do that if they are homophobic? But yeah, I totally see where you’re coming from. I guess I had higher expectations than I should have.
peter k
A Case of AND
As a resident of SF I think the attitude that only the Castro is gay is taking root in SF. Polk and Folsom are also areas associated with gay people. But the Castro is THE gay area.
The idea that gay things only belong in the Castro is odious.
That alone is reason for outrage.
However, from what I’ve seen of the art proposal is that the quality of the art wasn’t very good.
So the heteronormative LPN folks who want to tuck the queers away in a ghetto are there, AND the art isn’t good.
The important thing here is to hold LPN’s feet to the fire for making it clear that they hold queers to be a stigmatized, and not let them distract focus away from this ugly attitude with the poor quality of the art.
What?
Peter K, “The important thing here is to hold LPN’s feet to the fire for making it clear that they hold queers to be a stigmatized, and not let them distract focus away from this ugly attitude with the poor quality of the art.”
You have that pretty much backward. Until the art is good, it’s implausible to make any other claims. One could hardly demand that a community allow *bad* art to mar its streets, regardless of what one might claim about their “real” motives.
B
http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=5478 states, “According to reports, meeting attendees overwhelmingly opposed the mural, saying that its depiction of conflict and disadvantaged residents constituted a negative portrayal.
“”One of the comments we received was … ‘we want something uplifting,'” said Heimlich.”
Also, “”The mural itself was really, really crude, very poorly done,” said David Villa-Lobos, executive director of Community Leadership Alliance, a neighborhood advocacy group.”
In other words, the critics didn’t like the mural. It’s not necessarily an anti-gay attitude, although it could be.
To put this in perspective, when San Jose revamped a park, they commissioned a sculpture of Quetzalcoatl (one of the Aztec deities). The Christians objected, claiming it was creating a state-sponsored religion. The judge ruled that it was merely a cultural symbol due to the Spaniards having killed off all the Aztecs – no one practicing that religion is alive today. Meanwhile the local newspaper’s art critic thought the sculpture resembled an artifact left by a passing dog. The critic was not a shill for the Christians – he merely didn’t like the sculpture because it was too squat and tired looking.
ewe
This is a worthy battle because those against this mural are basially into containing gay people in gay ghettos. It is the same mentality that refuses to be all inclusive in any school system throughout this country. It is unacceptable to allow homophobes to define who and where gay people are and reside. PLUS there happens to be gay people all along Polk street from the Marina district down to Market street. What a bunch of bullshit.
karoline
that is so gay.
southie
This art work is horrible. Not even worthy of an alley in san fran… ugh