During the San Francisco Mayoral Debate, London Breed Asks Mark Farrell to Name 3 Drag Queens in San Francisco

BREED: “I’d like to ask Mark a question. You were at the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club and couldn’t name any LGBT advisers to your campaign. You were at the debate last week and couldn’t name any drag queens on your own. I was wondering if you could — this is an opportunity to redeem yourself, and if you could name three LGBTQ advisors for your campaign and three drag queens in San Francisco.”
FARRELL: “So, we’re not gonna — we’re not gonna revise the drag queen question from last week. But what I will say is, I am incredibly of the support that I have from our LGBTQ+ community here in the San Francisco.”
MODERATOR: [inaudible]
FARRELL: “Thank you. I have a member — a former member of the board of supervisors, Jeff Sheehy, who’s a close friend and supporter of my campaign. I have a member of my staff — two members of my staff from the queer community here in the city of San Francisco that I won’t dignify [inaudible] by actually naming exactly who they are. But what I will do is stand by my record in supporting our queer community here in the city of San Francisco. When I was a member of the board of supervisors, as a straight white male, I was the one who authored legislation to make sure that same sex couples that work for the city of San Francisco, they will be taxed by a federal government for their health care benefits before same sex-marriage was legalized. I was the one who authored the legislation to make sure the city of San Francisco reimbursed the same-sex couples, so they are treated equally in the eyes of San Francisco residents, equally in the eyes of San Francisco City Hall. I will stand by my record of that and I look forward to the continued support from our queer community throughout the city of San Francisco. Thank you for that question.”
MODERATOR: “[inaudible]. Mr. Lurie, your turn.”
LURIE: “I’ll give you a softball, mayor. Three nonprofits that you have cut because they weren’t performing well.”
BREED: “I feel bad about it. I feel bad. I don’t — I don’t know if — I don’t wanna throw some of these organizations under the bus.”
LURIE: “No names.”
BREED: “I will just say, sadly, one of the organizations was involved in some issues at the Bay View Hunters Point community. Another one tragically had done some inappropriate things with family shelter. And then unfortunately, there was one program that didn’t necessarily spend money appropriately to provide the appropriate tutor programs. It’s more than three, but, you know, I, just — I don’t wanna do that to these organizations. And let me just — matter of fact, let me just say, since I got like 90 seconds, you know, we have a lot of nonprofit organizations doing a lot of important work, and sadly, some of them had made some tremendous mistakes. It wasn’t as easy just to walk away from an organization that was responsible. For example, one of our family shelters. They had staff that was responsible for overseeing this project, but they did some things inappropriately so — and we had to make some adjustments with another nonprofit that was in good standing to make a transition. It’s not as simple as you can stop something from happening and throw these people under the bus. They have employees, there’s work that needs to be done in those transitions. And there’s more than three that we’ve had to cut funding for, and, in fact, right now, many of them are very upset and they’re going to the budget hearings to protest to get their money back. But, you know, I can probably provide you a list of examples. I just don’t wanna do it right here today.”
MODERATOR: “Thank you, mayor.”