2008 was a landmark year for Citi-STOP, our campaign to target the city’s largest and most abusive landlord, Citi-Apartments. In February, we held a citywide meeting for tenants to strategize about ways to make City Apartments accountable.  In response to the meeting, Supervisor Daly arranged a hearing on Citi-Apartments in front of the Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee. Over 100 tenants attended the hearing; their testimonies were ample proof that Citi-Apartments was conducting a campaign of harassment. Finally, Citi-STOP played an integral role in writing and successfully passing Proposition M, which adds language to San Francisco’s Rent Ordinance to prosecute landlords who harass tenants.

In the fall, we joined UNITE-HERE Local 2 and the ILWU-IBU to host a labor issues briefing for San Francisco’s queer community. Longtime LGBT, AIDS and union activist Cleve Jones provided background and context for queer-labor alliances and current organizing drives.  Workers and organizers from both unions shared their struggle.

We have stood in solidarity with the migrant rights movement locally and nationally through direct advocacy and media. We organized two city-wide press conferences and wrote several op-eds in both LGBT and mainstream press.  This fall, we were invited to join the Immigrant Rights Defense Coalition to build bridges between the local labor, migrant, and queer struggles.  This summer, several members went to Arizona to offer humanitarian aid to migrants.  We have prioritized deepening our own understanding of the issues through readings and a targeted retreat.

This June, we marched in Pride with hundreds of rank-and-file members from unions across the Bay Area. Also, we had a major presence at the Trans-March where our members spoke about the need for a trans-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

As part of a coalition, we hosted the Left OUT Party outside of the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC’s) national gala at the St. Francis Hotel in July. The party was a response to HRC’s support for a non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that excludes transgender people. The coalition was able to pressure the gala’s keynote speaker, Los Angeles Mayor Villaragosa, from attending the event.

We continued our work with the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement coalition to do culturally appropriate outreach and community presentations in enforcement of local labor laws such as minimum wage, paid sick leave and health care ordinances.

We spearheaded an effort to educate young and queer people about Proposition 98, a rent control initiative, through various bar crawls, phone banks and an extensive GOTV effort.

In August, QYOP was proud to be honored as a 2008 Local Hero by the San Francisco Bay Guardian for our creative tactics in our efforts to protect rent control, our protest against HRC and for a Trans-Inclusive ENDA, and our Immigrant Rights work.