For only the third time in the past 26 years have San Francisco’s two main LGBTQ Democratic clubs agreed on who should represent the LGBTQ Castro district and its surrounding neighborhoods as the District 8 supervisor. In this year’s race they have coalesced around Gary McCoy, a gay longtime political aide to Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), as their top choice.

Tuesday night, the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club endorsed McCoy as its number one pick in the contest. The progressive political group also backed gay patent attorney Michael Trung Nguyen as its second choice in the four-person race.

Under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, voters can rank candidates in first, second, third, and fourth place if they choose. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the first round then the candidates with the least votes are successively eliminated with their voters’ other ranked choices tabulated until a winner emerges.

Milk club Co-Presidents AjaiNicole Duncan and Reid Coggins told the Bay Area Reporter on Wednesday that they “are proud” by the members’ decision to approve the endorsements for District 8 Supervisor as recommended by its political action committee.

“Both Gary and Michael have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to public service, the LGBTQ+ community, and the progressive values that define San Francisco. Throughout their careers, they have shown up for working people, marginalized communities, and those whose voices are too often left out of the conversation,” stated Duncan and Coggins. “Harvey Milk Democrats have always fought for the collective 'us' – for a city where everyone can thrive – and we are confident that both Gary and Michael will continue that tradition by championing policies that put community, equity, and justice first. Either would make an outstanding representative for District 8."

On Monday night, as the B.A.R.’s Political Notebook first reported online, the more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club solely endorsed McCoy to succeed gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is termed out of office in early January. McCoy is a former co-chair of the Alice club and also served as a co-president of the Milk club.

“I have spent my career leading and working alongside these clubs, and having them both in my corner means everything. It’s an honor I don’t take lightly. I look forward to working with Alice and Milk to fight for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community and for District 8,” stated McCoy, who lives in Twin Peaks with his husband Kory Powell-McCoy, who is Pelosi’s district director in her San Francisco office.

Nguyen, also known as drag performer Juicy Liu, founded the Milk club’s AAPI Caucus for its Asian American Pacific Islander members. He had served alongside McCoy on its board and lives near him in Twin Peaks.

“I’m honored to receive the endorsement of the Milk Club and I look forward to upholding the progressive values of its namesake, Harvey Milk,” Nguyen told the B.A.R., referring to the late gay San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated his first year in office on November 27, 1978, along with then-mayor George Moscone.

While Noe Valley resident Darshini Patel, a bisexual and queer woman who used to work at DoorDash, had also sought Milk’s endorsement, gay cafe and events space owner Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel opted not to and didn’t fill out the club’s questionnaire unlike his trio of opponents. The Castro resident instead sent Milk leaders a brief note in which he expressed his “deep respect” for it, as the Political Notebook column had reported.

Yekutiel pledged “to build a strong working relationship” with the Milk club should he be elected to the supervisorial seat. As for Alice’s endorsement process, he had criticized it as being unfair since the club only voted on endorsing McCoy. But Alice co-chair Rabbi Martin Rawlings-Fein had dismissed such criticisms, noting the club’s bylaws lay out the process for it to consider an early endorsement of a sole candidate.

“You can't say it's unfair if it's in our bylaws,” Rawlings-Fein, who is bisexual and a transgender father, told the B.A.R.

A relative newcomer to the city’s political scene, Patel had told the B.A.R. she understood that endorsements by the local clubs “often reward the relationships you build over time. I'm building something newer and different, and I think that's exactly what District 8 needs right now.”

Back in 2018, when he sought election to the seat, Mandelman became the first candidate in District 8 to secure the backing of the two LGBTQ political groups since supervisors in San Francisco reverted back to being elected by district in 2000, as the Political Notebook had reported at the time. A former Milk club president who also served for a decade on Alice’s board in the early 2000s, Mandelman also had both clubs’ support in his reelection campaign four years ago.

Mandelman has solely endorsed Yekutiel in this year’s race. The Noe Valley Democratic Club, which had co-hosted a forum with the four candidates in the spring, also gave a sole endorsement to Yekutiel.

The dual endorsement moves by the LGBTQ clubs, though, blunt Yekutiel’s perceived frontrunner status in the race. Both Alice and Milk not only send out slate cards to voters ahead of the November 3 election touting their endorsed candidates but also marshal their memberships to phone bank and canvass for them. Such support could provide a boost to McCoy and Nguyen in what will be one of the more competitive supervisor races this fall.