By Heather Knight
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — Where will San Francisco firefighters be on Thursday night? Why the Gold Club, of course -- you know, the South of Market “topless strip club featuring the best strippers in San Francisco.”
(That’s according to the club’s website. I cannot personally confirm or deny the “best strippers” claim.)
Members of San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 will be on hand to accept a check from the Gold Club’s “Secret Santas” -- a euphemism for women dressed in far less than big red suits. The event is the culmination of the union’s annual holiday toy drive, and the check will go to buy toys for needy kids.
This comes after another strip club party for the firefighters on Nov. 21 to kick off the toy drive. That one was at the Penthouse Club -- you know, the North Beach “top rated strip club with the most beautiful topless strippers.” (Again, courtesy of its website. Again, cannot confirm or deny the claim.)
There were also strip club parties to celebrate the midpoint and three-quarter marks of the holiday toy drive. OK, we’re kidding about that part.
The partnership between the firefighters union and the strip clubs every holiday season goes back several years and has mostly stayed off the radar.
“We’re just providing an opportunity for people to go from the naughty list to the nice list,” joked union President Tom O’Connor. He added that the strip clubs -- also including Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club, Little Darlings and others -- often raise $20,000 a year for the holiday toy drive. And no, not in singles.
Only off-duty firefighters can go to the strip club parties, and O’Connor said it’s usually the younger guys and not the leadership like himself. (“They’re going to lose money if they have us up on that stage -- that’s for sure,” he said with a laugh.)
But some female leaders in the city think the strip club parties are a bit odd, outdated and sexist, especially considering the union’s recent treatment of the department’s first female fire chief.
In September, leaders of San Francisco’s rank-and-file firefighter organizations asked Mayor Ed Lee to remove Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White because, they argued, under her leadership the department is “failing in its most basic of missions.” A prime example was the lengthy response times for ambulances to arrive at medical emergencies.
Six female department heads wrote in a letter to the Fire Commission that the unions’ anger at Hayes-White was sexist. “As women leaders, we know that outspoken, strong women can particularly be vilified or attacked for taking unpopular positions, saying ‘no’ and otherwise asserting themselves,” the letter said.
Among those signing the letter was Emily Murase, executive director of the city’s Department on the Status of Women. She said she doesn’t condemn the union for partnering with strip clubs to raise money for its holiday toy drive, but does have questions about how female firefighters feel about the parties.
“I would ask of the union, ‘Is this an inclusive event? Do women firefighters feel comfortable with this event?’” she said.
Murase and her team have worked with Hayes-White to bring more women into the Fire Department. The department had such paltry numbers of women and minorities that it was under a federal consent decree for a decade ending in 1998 to ensure it did better.
The department of 1,500 firefighters had no women until 1987 and only 7 percent women 10 years later. Currently, women make up 16 percent of the department. But Murase pointed out that of the 48 people who started the academy class in January, just 7 were women and just 2 of those remained in the class, for a variety of reasons.
Hayes-White has said the department is trying to expand its recruitment program to attract more women.
“The fire chief has really taken gender equality in the fire department very seriously,” Murase said. “I would love to see the union make a similar commitment.”
Alix Rosenthal, a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee who advocates for more women in politics, said she supports sex workers, but they don’t have a place in a city department.
“Fire departments around the country are one of the last strongholds of sexism in the workplace,” she said. “For a taxpayer-funded city department to so openly associate itself (with strip clubs) just seems so wrong to me.”
Hayes-White told us she doesn’t mind the strip club parties or the clubs’ donations to the toy drive. “Who am I to judge how someone makes a living as long as they’re law-abiding citizens?” she said.
What she did have a problem with was the strippers coming to fire stations to award the checks as they did before she put the kibosh on that tradition a couple of years ago. She said she knows the firefighters think she’s “a prude” but she stands by the decision.
“I just want to make sure people are focused on their work,” she said.
The department’s spokeswoman, Mindy Talmadge, tried to explain further. “She doesn’t want strippers in the fire stations in their work clothes because in the fire stations, the members are on duty, they’re working and it’s not appropriate for the work environment.”
In other words, if your “work clothes” don’t actually include clothes, it’s a no-go.
O’Connor countered that the strippers were -- wait for it -- dressed when they presented checks at the fire stations. And he said ending the tradition was strange since the Mitchell Brothers, pioneering pornographers, helped fund the department’s Surf Rescue Squad for years.
By the way, O’Connor said nothing has changed in the way the union views their chief.
“I don’t think I’m getting a Christmas card from her this year,” he said.
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