And Castro for All (AC4A) is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center dedicated to fostering a genuinely welcoming Castro neighborhood and broader Bay Area community by promoting awareness and dialogue about bias within the LGBT community and exposing actions that undermine inclusion.
AC4A has its origins in a group called IsBadlandsBad?, a campaign to uncover, publicize, and challenge documented patterns of race- and gender-based discrimination at local Castro businesses (see our Archives for more on this campaign). As a result of diligent “awareness raising” and advocacy by IsBadlandsBad? complainants, organizers, and volunteers, government officials, and community leaders, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) – the only governmental body with real enforcement power in a matter such as this – currently is conducting its first-ever investigation into charges of race and gender-based discrimination in an establishment under its watch, an investigation whose outcome will establish a precedent for the enforcement of civil rights laws throughout California. Likewise, in July the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) opened a rare, formal complaint based on individual testimony provided by over 20 former employees, patrons, and witnesses; an HRC finding is due towards the end of February.
The IsBadlandsBad? campaign has resulted in several other developments as well. For one, the establishments in question – SFBadlands and Detour – have posted new signage and explicitly non-discriminatory entrance policies; hired new staff; and undertaken proactive, “multicultural” marketing in local LGBT media. The campaign has led to a firestorm of media, raising awareness among many that discrimination exists even in the Castro, and has increased media coverage of African-American LGBT community events and issues. And most notably, the campaign also has drawn together leaders and organizations from across the LGBT community and across the City, setting the stage for new partnerships around issues of diversity, inclusion, and, ultimately, social justice, particularly within the Bay Area LGBT community.
Going forward, AC4A will build upon these successes, undertaking a broad diversity of projects, from public policy and systems reform efforts to leadership development, that promote greater inclusion within the Bay Area LGBT community. Over time, we will help seed and fulfil an aspirational new vision for the Castro and the Bay Area, a vision that we hope will ripple throughout the nation and beyond: that it is possible, preferable, and indeed wonderful, to create communities, devoid of division and discrimination, that unflinchingly respect, celebrate, and benefit from all of our histories, cultures, experiences, and talents.