Social media posts deemed ‘homophobic’ roil Fort Bragg politics

Social media posts that critics said were racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic have roiled consideration of a move to establish City Council district elections in the small Mendocino coast town of Fort Bragg.

An anonymous post last week on the Facebook page for the satirical “The Mendocino Bacon” were followed by a comment attributed to the city clerk, June Lemos, that included a color image of a woman astride a blue ox with a yellow star on its body.

The posting and some comments “could be perceived as offensive and hurtful to members of our community,” Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller wrote on the city website in an apology.

Miller, who took over as the Fort Bragg’s top administrator last month, apologized for “the inappropriate comments and any disrespect or offense” they may have caused.

Lemos referred all questions to Miller, who did not respond to requests over two days for comment.

“It hurts, to be honest with you,” said Kenny Jowers, an openly gay activist who is co-chairman of the Mendocino County Democratic Central Committee. “This was a pretty blatant attack on the gay community.”

The initial post, satirizing the district elections proposal made by openly gay Fort Bragg attorney Jacob Patterson, was laden with gay references, including renaming the ox “Blew,” invoking diva Liza Minnelli and stating that the competitive logging event would be replaced with quiche-making.

The post suggested that Fort Bragg’s longstanding Paul Bunyan Days be changed to “Paulina Bunyan & His Ox ‘Blew’ Days” to pacify LGBTs, referring to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

It also suggested that Latinos and various nationalities - Portuguese, Irish, Germans, Finns and Swedes - would watch the parade from separate “districts,” and the city clerk would be present to assign positions prior to the parade.

“Spectators will be given color-coded paper ‘Stars’ to be pinned to their clothing correlating to the section they are assigned,” the post said.

The Mendocino Bacon is a satirical website - its name mimicking the weekly Mendocino Beacon newspaper - and widely read on the Mendocino coast.

“Satire is great,” Jowers said, “except when you’re using it to attack someone. I’m not sure why whoever posted this felt they had to go to the whole Nazi thing.”

During the Holocaust, Jews were required to wear yellow six-pointed stars, and thousands of homosexuals sent to concentration camps wore pink triangles.

In her Facebook comment, Lemos said she had “already ordered my supply of colored stars” and that City Councilman Will Lee would be at the imagined parade to “serve as arbitrator” in cases of “star swapping.”

Lee did not return repeated calls.

Jowers and Patterson said Lemos’ comments were especially inappropriate because she is a city employee and the posts were time-stamped about 2 p.m. April 26, presumably the middle of her workday.

“People in their own time and context can say whatever they want,” Patterson said. “When she (Lemos) chose to join in, that’s where a line was crossed.”

Miller’s apology said that “several city employees” had posted comments on the Bacon Facebook page, but she included no names.

Patterson said he was personally offended by the posts, which he said had homophobic and racist undertones and unwelcome references to Nazi Germany. Patterson is a member of a pioneer Fort Bragg family who recently moved back from Southern California.

“Jokes about the Holocaust are generally viewed as not funny,” he said, noting that he “could have had a pink star pinned on me.”

The controversy was triggered by Patterson’s April 16 letter, as representative of a group called Coast Committee for Responsive Representation, asking the city to abandon the at-large election of five City Council members and convert to a system of voting in five separate districts.

The at-large election system “permits a bare majority of voters registered in Fort Bragg to control every seat of the City Council, which appears to disenfranchise the voting rights” of Latino voters, the letter said.

The system may violate the California Voting Rights Act of 2001, which prohibits at-large voting that “impairs the ability of a protected class to elect candidates of its choice.”

Fort Bragg, a former logging and fishing town now focused on tourism, has 7,260 residents, according to the latest Census Bureau estimate, and 34 percent are Latino.

The concentration of the Latino voting-age population is about four times greater in the city’s southern half than it is in the northern half, Patterson’s letter said.

The Fort Bragg council was scheduled to discuss the letter at Wednesday night’s meeting.

In a report to the council, Miller said that no California jurisdiction with at-large voting has successfully defended it in court. Parties filing legal challenges against jurisdictions have been awarded attorney’s fees reaching millions of dollars.

Douglas Johnson, president of the National Demographics Corp., which advises cities on voting issues, said Palmdale paid almost $7 million and Modesto $5.8 million to settle such cases.

He said those challenges are now being made in cities with populations well under 10,000.

Patterson declined to say how many people are in his group and whether they plan on suing the city.

“I think the council is open to discussion,” he said.

Santa Rosa was threatened with legal action last year and the council opted to switch to district elections, which will be used in fall voting for three out of seven council seats.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.