It’s no exaggeration to say that the crowd at a Chinatown banquet hall Saturday night included the bulk of San Francisco’s existing and aspiring political power players. Mayor London Breed was there, as were her opponents Mark Farrell, Daniel Lurie, and Ahsha Safaí, as well as Sen. Scott Wiener, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, City Attorney David Chiu, Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Matt Dorsey, and a host of others.
But the star of the night? Josephine Zhao, a veteran of San Francisco politics once mired in controversy, who is ready to return to center stage.
“Asian Americans are in charge!” Zhao said in her powerful speech, after acknowledging the long list of city and state officials attending the annual dinner of the Chinese American Democratic Club, of which Zhao is president. The audience of about 300 cheered.
The response was a long way from her exit from the limelight in 2018 when Zhao, then a promising school board candidate, suspended her campaign after it came to light that she had not only attempted to derail trans rights legislation in the past, but had also provided her Chinese-speaking followers on WeChat a different narrative than what she was saying in English.
Zhao in 2013 described a California gender-neutral bathroom bill as “evil legislation” which would lead to “rape,” and urged citizens to reach out to their representatives and press for its repeal in her Chinese-language radio program.
As a declared candidate in 2018, she described her competition for the school board race as “two transgender candidates … fighting for the title of ‘first transgender commissioner’ … There are also three homosexuals. Their highest priority for education would be to spread ideologies.”
She also described the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club as “Cow Demons and Snake Spirits,” a Cultural Revolution-era term.
Though she apologized publicly in 2018 for the transphobic behavior, she boasted privately, in her Chinese-language WeChat channel, that she had become “even more well known” after the remarks. She told her Chinese-speaking followers that she had “learned some tactics” and was apologizing to save face, but that “my principles remain in my heart … [I] am not supporting gender-neutral bathrooms.”
After abandoning her own quest for public office, Zhao was active during the successful 2022 school board recall campaign — but was not subsequently appointed to any of the three open seats. Since then, she has mostly worked behind the scenes. Until Saturday night.
Her energetic speech at Far East Cafe Saturday night, where attendees paid $160 a seat, was a clear return to San Francisco’s political center stage. No fewer than three top elected officials underscored Zhao’s importance to the gathered crowd.
“Especially in this last election,” said longtime Zhao ally Sen. Scott Wiener, “thank you CADC for being part of our coalition to get the Democratic County Central Committee on the strongest track possible.” In March, the moderate-leaning Democrats for Change slate won 18 of the 24 available seats on the body, the city’s chapter of the Democratic Party.
Founded in 1958, the Chinese American Democratic Club, which also leans moderate, “wasn’t around for a while in a really active way,” said Wiener. Zhao, the club’s president in 2018, 2019 and 2024, was the lead in guiding it back on track.
“I just really want to thank CADC, but particularly the people who a number of years ago got this club back up and running,” Wiener added. Zhao recruited scads of Chinese-speaking paid staff to Wiener’s successful 2016 campaign when he was running for state senator against Jane Kim. People were recruited at $125 a day to hold signs and say one sentence: “I like Scott Wiener.”
Zhao also savaged Wiener’s opponent, Kim, as a “homewrecker” in Chinese social media.
Jenkins, for her part, referenced the campaign to recall former District Attorney Chesa Boudin, which also succeeded.
“I’m extra honored to be here tonight because of the new leadership at CADC,” said Jenkins. She said that Zhao was someone she “first met during the recall campaign for the previous DA,” who was “on the ground with me during that tough battle to get our office in this city to a place where public safety was at the forefront.”
Breed also praised Zhao.
“I’m really proud that when I first became mayor” in 2018, said Breed, “[in] one of the first appointments Josephine talked about representation, representation matters, and one of the first appointments I made to the City College Board was Ivy Lee.”
Earlier this week, Breed appointed Lee as the Director of the Office of Victim and Witness Rights.
Breed, who wore a green qipao for the banquet, went on with her Asian American appointments: School board commissioner Jenny Lam, City Attorney David Chiu, and City Administrator Carmen Chu. “I have continued to make sure that I have supported and uplifted the voices of the Asian community,” said the incumbent, who is facing a tough re-election and dismal approval ratings from the city’s Asian poll respondents.
When asked how it feels to be back in the middle of things, Zhao pushed back against that view. “I’ve never left politics,” she said. “I’ve been doing my work every day.”
Earlier on Saturday, she kicked off the school district’s Asian Parent Advisory Committee. In January, she served as a mediator between Asian rapper Chino Yang and the Rev. Amos Brown; the latter allegedly threatened Yang for a rap song that included criticisms of Breed.
Breed’s team did not directly address Zhao’s history of transphobic behavior, but said in a statement that Zhao’s “duty to educate and empower residents so they vote and make their voices heard” is “vital to a functioning democracy and city.”
Wiener’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jeffrey Kwong, president of Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club — “Cow Demons and Snake Spirits” — commented with Chinese idioms that could be roughly translated as, “Observe the person’s actions and words, and wait and see what happens.”
Cecilia Chung, the Transgender Law Center’s senior director of strategic initiatives and evaluation, has met Zhao in person and spoken with her over coffee about the past behavior. “I don’t doubt that Josephine is trying to change,” Chung said. “I don’t know to what extent she would change, but I think that she would be more mindful of working with all communities, including LGBT communities.”
In an election year without a major Asian mayoral candidate, Asian voters’ choices for mayor and supervisor are paramount. Around a dozen candidates for district supervisor, including Marjan Philhour, Roberto Hernandez, Trevor Chandler, Chyanne Chen, Michael Lai, Danny Sauter, Moe Jamil, and Sharon Lai were present on Saturday. Candidates flock to any and all Asian-related events, hoping to pick up votes and support.
So a seat at the Chinese American Democratic Club was a hot ticket, even though the club is not officially chartered by the Democratic County Central Committee.
Political consultant David Ho said the club has been shunned by the Democratic Party because “they are historically independent … they even include endorsements of Republican candidates.” said Ho.
That’s counting James Fang, who dieed in 2020 but was San Francisco’s last elected Republican. Fang was elected to the BART Board of Directors in 1990, and served until he was ousted in 2014. “James Fang was their preferred candidate,” Ho said.
Zhao, for her part, endorsed a straight Republican ticket in 2012, translating Republican Party material into Chinese and urging followers to vote for Mitt Romney and local Republican candidates.
Nevertheless, elected officials, candidates, wannabe candidates, their families, consultants, and campaign teams crammed into the banquet hall Saturday night for networking. They celebrated the empowerment of Asian American leaders, helping themselves to honey walnut prawns and steamed whole fish. On a table next to a fortune cookie lay a red “Trump” hat.
Never thought I’d see the day when gay elected office holders (looking at you Matt Dorsey, and it’s not a good look) would smile and pose for holy pictures with an avowed homophobe and hater. And in San Francisco. That is how low some will stoop to get votes. I cannot unsee this. Craven. Foul. Cowardly.
Dorsey sold his soul a long time ago.
She is objectionable and notice Peskin, who represents the largest Chinese population in his district avoided this. The rest of this crew wants votes for showing up.
Please continue to seek comment from Scott Wiener on why he stands with this person whose records of nasty anti-gay and anti-trans comments and misleading translations are well documented.
Zhao is also a “landlord’s rights” activist, and was actively anti-trans, starting in 2013, working stop AB 1266, a measure by Tom Ammiano permitting public school students to participate in athletic teams and use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.
In 2016, Wiener introduced a bill that would prohibit SF from doing business with North Carolina because of their trans bathroom ban.
Also in 2016, Scott Wiener was the was the featured guest speaker a banquet for Zhao, even though this was during Zhao’s peak transphobia. When asked why he is attending an event for a transphobic person, he responded that he “doesn’t agree with all of my many supporters on every single issue.”
Of course, due to the public outcry for his hypocrisy, Wiener eventually spoke out against Zhao’s transphobia. All to say that this is nothing new and we certainly could do better with someone else as our senator.
“Asian Americans are in charge!” Sounds racially and ethnically supremacist to me. The point of this exercise is supposed to be to eradicate supremacy in all forms, not to reproduce oppressive forms.
Milk Club “Cow Demons and Snake Spirits,” Milk is supporting the politically vacuous Debra Walker’s reappointment to the Police Commission, so there’s a hoof and scale or two of truth to this.
“Wiener’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” Like so much about neoliberal identity politics, TQ+ are used as a transactional tool of towards political control, to be discarded when necessary.
Republicans need the Democrats as much as the Democrats need Republicans: “The creatures outside looked from cow to snake, and from snake to cow, and from cow to snake again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Money money money. It’s a rich (wo)man’s world. Breed — and Wiener — care about one thing: Money. If someone’s going to give them money towards their campaigns, they’ll ignore everything else. Thanks to ML’s reporting, we’ve seen how much money is flowing into SF politics already.
Screen shot and save this photo so we can identify and mark the collaborators who embraced and curried the favors of homophobic and transphobic candidates.
Thanks for reporting on this event. CADC has long supported Chinese American candidates regardless of suitability or ability. Is a certain Chinese American state official (I can’t keep track of her ever-changing titles) who brought digital billboards to our highways still running for Lt Governor? Ew.
Josephine is an SF resident who has worked tirelessly for working people in this City.
All the commenters above seem to think that no one can learn new things in 10yrs. She apologized for that one mistake, and she has done so much for residents that you don’t event list.
I’m not Asian, but she has my full support and the support of many others who love this city, she pushes for a system of fairness that this city is not always known for.
Go Josephine! I and many others see all the work you do and we’re proud of you.
no one trusts anything she says and that is the issue.
The Asian Community like the Latino Community tend to be homophobic and transphobic, It is what it is. Not everybody has to approve of everybody’s lifestyle. Live and Let Live!
The issue at play here is perceived transphobia not homophobia. “Latinos” is a big word. Mexicans and Mexican Americans tend to live and let live on the private business of strangers, unlike US protestant conservatives, who are professional minders of other people’s business.