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06/14/04 - SAN FRANCISCO -- A group of community
activists in San Francisco's Castro district is
charging that the owner of two popular bars there
discriminates in subtle and not-so-subtle ways against
people of color.
Don Romesberg said Monday
that he and a racially diverse group of about 15
friends decided to file complaints with the city's
Human Rights Commission and the state Alcoholic
Beverage Control Department based on "numerous"
reports of black men being discouraged from entering
the SF Badlands and Detour bars or ignored if they do
get inside. He said a sign inside Badlands formerly
announced that no rap music would be played so the
club could maintain "the right kind of clientele."
At the Human Rights Commission, Larry
Brinkin said his division,
which focuses on discrimination issues in the gay
community and HIV-related problems, receives 500 or so
complaints each year and tries to bring the various
parties together for mediation as a first step. If
that fails, an investigation can follow that in about
5 percent of cases leads to a "finding" of fault on
the part of the complaint's
target. Sometimes revised policies or a financial
settlement is involved.
Romesberg said his group
would like to see action taken against the two clubs
and their owner Les Natali,
but he is even more interested in fostering discussion
about racial discrimination that may not always be
publicly acknowledged in the Castro, which attracts
guests from all over the globe. He called the
experience of visiting the gay
mecca "bittersweet" for many people who are not
white.
"It's 2004," Romesberg
commented, "and somehow things haven't changed as much
as they should have.
No one was immediately available at either SF
Badlands or Detour to comment on the complaints, which
Brinkin said appear to
have come from several patrons and at least one former
employee.
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