By Tim Redmond

I've been around a long time in city politics, and seen a lot of strange things, but even by my standards, it's pretty darn wierd to see the Bay Area Reporter, a queer community paper, taking issue with the fact that a candidate for supervisor dresses in (mildly) outrageous clothes at Burning Man -- and (gasp!) admits she might have even taken drugs at that annual desert party. Lordy, lordy, she even calls herself a "freak."

Nice to see that Robert Haaland, who had endorsed Dufty, agrees with me that it's "distasteful to hear politicos make snide remarks about her, about her attendance at Burning Man, and about her fondness for freaks."

Has District 8 become so straight that the folks there can't handle a "freak?" Even in these uber-gentrified days, that's pretty hard to imagine.