Richmond councilwoman perseveres through hate speech

Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles, left, returns to her seat next to councilmember Nathaniel Bates, right, at the Richmond City Council meeting in Richmond, Calif., on Tuesday, July 15, 2014. Jovanka Beckles, a Richmond city councilmember who is a lesbian and native of Panama, has been hounded mercilessly by a few members on the council and their constituents in the audience. The behavior has prompted the council to explore a potential 6-month ban on audience members who disrupt the proceedings. less Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles, left, returns to her seat next to councilmember Nathaniel Bates, right, at the Richmond City Council meeting in Richmond, Calif., on Tuesday, July 15, 2014. Jovanka Beckles, a ... more Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Richmond councilwoman perseveres through hate speech 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

Mark Wassberg took to the podium, wagged his finger at the Richmond City Council and said:

"I'm going to keep coming up here and tell you how gays have no morality. ... You're filth. You're dirt. Because I have the constitutional right to say it."

The comments during a July meeting of the council were directed at Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles, the city's first openly lesbian councilwoman. She sighed and listened impassively. After all, she'd heard it all before. For four years.

Since she was elected in 2010, Beckles, 51, has endured taunts, rants and ridicule about her sexual orientation and race - she's from Panama and identifies herself as a black Latina - during City Council meetings.

Sometimes it comes from the public, and sometimes it comes from fellow council members.

Sometimes police haul away hecklers or the council recesses until the shouting dies down. In July, Beckles proposed a crackdown on hate speech, which the city staff is looking into.

Snapping back

Mostly, Beckles ignores the jeers, but occasionally she snaps. After a meeting last month, Beckles told a heckler, Ken Davis, who was shouting homophobic slurs at her to "get the f- out of my face."

"I thought that was totally appropriate," Councilman Tom Butt said last week. "They never leave her alone. She puts up with a hell of a lot more than I would."

Butt, a 19-year veteran of the council, described the rancor at City Hall as "the worst I've ever seen. ... They love to taunt her because she's openly lesbian. You'd think in 2014 in the Bay Area this wouldn't happen, but it goes on meeting after meeting."

Beckles draws a level of vitriol that stands out even on the deeply divided Richmond council. Much of the wrath comes from Councilman Corky Boozé and a handful of community members, who attack her almost weekly.

Boozé, who, like Beckles, was first elected in 2010, said Beckles instigates the trouble.

"She's got a short fuse," he said last week. "Some people don't care for her lifestyle. I don't care for it myself, but she takes that in a homophobic way. I'm not homophobic - my ex-wife is a lesbian."

Boozé questions Beckles' commitment to Richmond's African American community, because she does not describe herself as African American even though she is of African descent. Beckles was born in Panama to Caribbean parents who had immigrated to work on the Panama Canal. She attended Florida A&M University, a historically black college in Tallahassee, and says she is deeply committed to civil rights issues.

"She says she's a black Latina. Well, you're either African American or you're not," Boozé said. "If she's really black, then why does she throw black people out of City Council chambers for speaking their mind? She just says she's black around election time."

Beckles has a variety of ways to cope. She drinks a lot of chamomile tea and warm almond milk. She meditates. She lifts weights. She rides her motorcycle, a Suzuki Boulevard 650, and mixes music, mostly funk and old-school hip-hop.

San Francisco State political science Professor Robert Smith, a longtime observer of Richmond politics, said the antics of Boozé and his cohorts affect the credibility of the council.

'Like a reality show'

"It's no way to conduct business," he said. "Some people find it entertaining, like a reality show, but really it brings the City Council and city government into disrepute."

Smith described Beckles as one of the most thoughtful and deliberative representatives on the seven-member council.

"She has been subject to almost nonstop vitriolic attacks, but on the dais she's handled it with remarkable decorum," he said. "Despite everything, she's very nonconfrontational."

Beckles has a background in psychology and works as a mental health specialist for Contra Costa County, specializing in at-risk youths and their families. Her work with children inspired her to seek public office in hopes of bringing safer and more healthful options to Richmond children, she said. Jobs, education, nutrition and public safety have been her legislative priorities, she said.

Running for re-election

Beckles is married to her partner of 14 years and has a grown son. She moved to the Bay Area from the East Coast in 1989 when her stepfather was transferred to Travis Air Force Base, and she has high hopes for Richmond's future, she said.

She's so energized, in fact, that she's running for re-election.

"We're making big strides," she said, noting the drop in crime, surge in new jobs, and proliferation of community gardens and renovated parks. "I think things will eventually change for the better in this city, and, in the end, that's a cause I think is worth fighting for. It's worth putting up with all this other stuff."