Gay Realtors Say They've Nixed S.F Conference Due to Arizona Boycott

By Matt Smith Fri., May 14 2010 at 3:30 PM

Categories: Immigration

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The purported head of a gay Realtors' group said he'd much rather hold his conference in Arizona than the City by the Bay

A man claiming to be the executive director of a consortium of gay Realtors has told the city he is canceling a planned conference in San Francisco in protest of the city's boycott of the state of Arizona:

AtlantaGayNetwork.pdf

"We are disturbed by your policy to side with illegal alien drug smugglers, murderers, gangs, and workers who fail to pay taxes and send most of their taxes back in remittances," wrote Jackson Franco, in a May 5 letter to Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors. Franco claims to represent the Atlanta Gay Network, a group of 350 to 400 gay real estate professionals.

"Not only will we not go to your city for our conference, we will hold it in Arizona," Franco added. "At the very least, we can be sure that none of our conferees will be the victim of an illegal alien criminal."

It warrants mentioning, however, that the "Atlanta Gay Network," a purported membership organization of 350 of 400, has no web presence whatsoever. Our e-mails to Franco have not yet been returned.

Matt Dorsey, spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, has spent a lot of time during the past few days fielding phone calls from people angry about San Francisco's views on Arizona's controversial new encouraging police to apprehend people who look Mexican. It was Herrera who wrote a letter to Major League Baseball asking that the All-Star game be pulled out of Arizona. While his ear may be buzzing from too many loud phone calls, Dorsey wasn't terribly worried about the city's tourism prospects.

"I think San Francisco is an international destination city," Dorsey said. "I have to believe that for every red state visitor who doesn't like immigrants, who's going to stay away from San Francisco, there's a lot more people from Europe, Asia, South America, and elsewhere who are happy to come to a city that welcomes diversity.

Great. Do any of them have gay Realtor groups they can bring along?

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