Boom Town

San Francisco cracks down

Decked out in mesh stockings, spike heels and a nun’s habit slashed to miniskirt length, Jack Fertig, a San Francisco transvestite, campaigned for a seat on the eleven-member San Francisco board of supervisors last November under the alias of Sister Boom Boom. On the ballot he had listed his occupation as “nun of the above,” and he got 23,124 votes. This was not enough to win a supervisor’s seat, but enough to encourage him to enter this fall’s mayoral election. Also declaring: “Lady Lillian Chaucer-Peace, gentlewoman,” “James Bond Zero, political exorcist” and “Ronnie B. Foxy, world’s greatest pimp.” Not to mention, “Crown Prince Arcadia.”

All this got to be too much, even for San Francisco. Last month Mayor Dianne Feinstein signed a measure that was instantly dubbed “the Sister Boom Boom Law.” It requires candidates for San Francisco city offices to use their legal names. Afterward, the mayor, whose nickname locally is DiFi, observed, “I don’t think you ever have to worry about politics becoming too stuffy in San Francisco.”