The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has seated three straight members on the Historic Preservation Commission, leaving it for the time being without anyone from the LGBTQ community. Mayor London Breed is facing pressure to name an out person to a fourth seat she has yet to fill.
Last month, Breed did not reappoint the commission s two gay members, Jonathan Pearlman and Aaron Hyland, who had been serving as the commission s president. Pearlman s Seat 3 is to be filled by an architectural historian, and LGBTQ community leaders have encouraged Breed to name Hyland to it.
Breed spokesman Jeff Cretan told the Bay Area Reporter last week that the mayor will take the lack of LGBTQ members on the commission under consideration as she makes her decision on whom to appoint. It weighs in on such matters as landmarking LGBTQ historic sites in the city and approving queer-owned legacy business and nonprofit applications.
A trio of out applicants seeking appointment to San Francisco s Immigrant Rights Commission won support Monday from the Board of Supervisor s Rules Committee. The full board at its March 9 meeting will take up their appointments as well as the four straight applicants who also secured a recommendation from the supervisor panel.
Aiming to continue serving is Commissioner Jessy Ruiz Navarro, who is originally from Mexico. She first joined the oversight body in 2019 as its first transgender member and its first commissioner whose primary language isn t English.
Navarro, who works for the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, does not live in San Francisco so requires a residency waiver in order to continue to be an immigrant rights commissioner. The rules committee voted to support her remaining in her Seat 1 on the advisory panel.
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Come its March 3 meeting San Francisco s Historic Preservation Commission will no longer have anyone from the city s LGBTQ community serving on it. The lack of representation comes as numerous queer historic issues are expected to go before the advisory panel in the coming months, from landmarking of LGBTQ historical sites to designating queer-owned legacy businesses.
The mayor chooses the oversight body s seven members and the Board of Supervisors confirms the appointees. Four of the seats are currently up for appointment. While Mayor London Breed has renominated two commissioners for new terms straight allies Diane Matsuda and Chris Foley she did not reappoint the panel s two gay members, Jonathan Pearlman and Aaron Hyland, who had been serving as the commission s president.