Villaraigosa cancels speech
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pulled out as keynote speaker for a gay rights group’s fundraising event Saturday after intense lobbying from transgender activists angry over the group’s stand on a federal gay rights bill.
Villaraigosa was scheduled to headline the Human Rights Campaign dinner in San Francisco, which was billed as a fundraiser to help defeat a November ballot measure that would again ban same-sex marriage in California.
The Human Rights Campaign has given more than $500,000 to defeat the same-sex marriage measure. But many transgender activists and their allies have been angry at the group since the fall, when its leaders agreed to support a federal job discrimination ban that protected gays, lesbians and bisexuals -- but not transgender people.
Matt Szabo, Villaraigosa’s spokesman, said that when Villaraigosa agreed to appear at the dinner at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, he was unaware that the San Francisco Labor Council had urged its members to boycott the event.
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