A leading Oakland mayoral candidate has called out her rivals and demanded two minor candidates drop out of the race after posting alleged anti-Semitic comments related to an upcoming forum and one showing bias against the transgender community.
Sheng Thao, who is a current city councilor and is running to replace Mayor Libby Schaaf, took to social media Tuesday evening to criticize long-time candidate Peter Liu, who has previously sought the position twice, and Seneca Scott, one west. An Oakland resident who posed at a First Friday event in June with well-known transphobe Chris Elston while carrying an anti-trans sandwich board.
Thao said in a Facebook video that he had attended Oakland’s Pride parade on Sept. 4 and was “deeply disheartening and disturbing to see a blatantly anti-Semitic email threat between Peter Liu and Seneca Scott” later that day. Thao was with Rebecca Kaplan, a lesbian city councilwoman who is vice mayor and currently running for the District 3 seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Thao used to be Kaplan’s chief of staff before she was elected to the City Council, and Kaplan has endorsed her mayoral bid.
“The email chain included myself, my fellow mayoral candidates, the Jewish community and others,” Thao said, “and it was sent a few days after it was revealed that Seneca Scott has a history of of shaming and defaming transgender youth, as well as shaming fat women.
“I fully condemn the hateful rhetoric of Peter Liu and Seneca Scott and ask them to apologize and suspend their campaigns,” Thao added. “They are clearly unfit to serve in elected office anywhere, especially in Oakland.”
My statement on the anti-Semitic email thread at the Oakland mayoral debate and anti-trans rhetoric.https://t.co/kJIEtKFhVO— Sheng Thao 盛桃 (@ShengForOakland) September 7, 2022
Scott was photographed holding a sandwich board that contained an anti-trans hate message, com Oaklandside reported September 6 Scott agreed to be photographed with the sandwich board, and Elston posted the image on his Twitter feed, the outlet reported.
“He’s an independent candidate who knows we shouldn’t be blocking puberty in kids,” Elston wrote in the tweet accompanying the photo.
The sandwich board Scott was carrying read: “Father, noun. A humane man who protects children from gender ideology.”
Scott told Oaklandside that he had not read the sandwich board before putting it on and disagreed with the statement.
In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter on Wednesday, Scott said he would not be bringing back the sandwich board. He denied being transphobic. He said he was backstage at last Sunday’s Oakland Pride festival and didn’t hear anything about it.
He has also said that he is not abandoning the mayoral race.
“This is comical,” he said of Thao’s call to suspend his campaign. “Sheng is afraid.”
Scott said she supports gender-affirming care for trans children, but noted that not everyone agrees on the issue, including those in the medical and trans communities. However, pressed on whether a trans child and their parents should have access to such care if a doctor recommended it, he said, “absolutely.” Several states have passed laws banning this cure.
Oaklandside reported that the fallout from Scott continued as Oakhella, a company he co-founded in 2016, distanced itself from him over the weekend.
“As a queer and trans organization, led by a black woman native to Oakland, we were shocked to see some of the comments and notions of boycotting OAKHELLA. We have worked tirelessly over the past 7 years to build a strong brand and reputation.” , read a statement from Oakhella posted on Instagram. “Oakhella was founded on the pillars of food justice, community co-creation, inclusion and celebration of all that is beautiful about Oakland. We create spaces specifically for queer and trans people, and have done so since first day.
“We’ve intentionally stayed as neutral as possible in the Oakland mayoral race, but when we’re openly associated with transphobia, we need to make it clear that we DO NOT SHARE THOSE FEELINGS,” the post said.
Anti-Semitic debate
As for Liu’s rant that apparently started it all, he sent an anti-Semitic email on Sept. 4 to more than 60 people, “defaming and threatening the Council on Jewish Community Relations, a public affairs group of the Bay Area and congregants of Oakland’s Temple Sinai Synagogue. Liu also accused both organizations of unfairly excluding him and other mayoral candidates this year next forum in the temple,” Oaklandside reported.
“I’m sick of these corrupt Jews and their media allies misleading the public,” Liu wrote, invoking an anti-Semitic trope in which Jews are accused of nefariously controlling the media, according to Oaklandside.
Scott was the first to respond to Liu’s email, with one word, “Protest?” Oaklandside reported that Scott told the outlet that he is not anti-Semitic, but that he was also responding to being excluded from the forum.
“I’m absolutely not anti-Semitic,” Scott told the BAR, adding that he has no plans to protest the forum, which is scheduled for Sept. 15. He also challenged Thao’s charge that his “protest?” the answer was antisemitic.
“That’s a stretch,” Scott said.
Tye Gregory, a gay man who is the executive director of the JCRC, told the BAR that he feels differently.
“It was my interpretation that he was trying to instigate a protest,” Gregory said in a phone interview, referring to Scott’s comment.
Gregory said “Liu’s hatred is an unfortunate reminder” of the headwinds of anti-Semitism. “It really underscores why the Jewish community wanted its own forum.”
He recalled anti-Semitic incidents such as the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018, in which 11 people were killed, and the hostage incident in January in which a man held four people in the Colleyville Congregation Beth Israel synagogue. Texas. (One hostage was released and the other three escaped.)
“We’re all very concerned,” Gregory said.
Scott said he has support within the Jewish community. He forwarded to the BAR an email written by Jonathan Carey to Gregory asking if Scott could be included in the forum.
“Is it too late to introduce my favorite candidate to this forum?” Carey wrote in the Aug. 25 email.
In an email response to the BAR, Carey wrote that he knew nothing of the recent events.
“However, Mr. Scott never made any derogatory comments toward me or my efforts to include him in the mayoral debate of the Jewish community,” Carey wrote. “I did not hide my Jewish background when I met him on several occasions and in this e-mail effort.”
Besides Thao’s mayoral candidates, Loren Taylor and Treva Reid, also city councilors, are the only three invited to the forum.
Carey wrote that Gregory only responded to her email once and “never followed up on only three candidates taking an internal measure of the campaign’s viability to be included.”
“I asked for clarification on what that measure was, as obviously others were still in the running, but he never responded,” Carey wrote.
In response to a question about this, Gregory said that as a 501(c)3, the JCRC hosts the forum for educational purposes. “There are no public polls, so we used fundraising numbers,” he said. “If new numbers or public polls come out, we can expand the number of candidates on stage.”
In her video, Thao credited mayoral candidate Taylor’s criticism of Liu’s comments.
“But I’m disappointed that he didn’t condemn Seneca Scott’s involvement in it either,” he said. “For women and the LGBTQ community, we see our rights under constant attack and threat. The AAPI hate is real, it’s on the rise, and it needs to be addressed.”
Taylor did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Gregory added that the JCRC recognizes that not all candidates will participate in the forum. But he also said Liu was not a serious candidate and acknowledged that this latest pulse was drawing attention to Liu and his campaign.
Liu did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Liu is perhaps best known for his vision of water slides in Lake Merritt. But a postcard-sized flyer for his 2018 mayoral campaign contains questionable language in addition to cartoons depicting water slides. The flyer contains a picture of a horse and buggy with the words “Horseback Rides for White People”. It also contains the phrases “Bounce houses for Latinos,” “Nice grills for Black people,” and “Mexican workers, Asian cashiers.”
Help keep the Bay Area Reporter going during these trying times. To support local, independent and LGBTQ journalism, take note become a member of the BAR.
