Three prominent Southern California LGBTQ+ health advocacy organizations have banded together to call for an end to the relentless push for late last calls. In an August 26th, 2022, letter to California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, the organizations--The Wall Las Memorias, Access to Prevention Advocacy Intervention & Treatment, and the Minority AIDS Project--decried the bill as "an affront to LGBTQ communities of color which suffer from harm due to overuse of alcohol and other substance uses."
SB 930, proposed by State Senator Scott Wiener and State Assemblymember Matt Haney (both D-San Francisco), would extend bar last call times out to 4 a.m., starting with three specific cities: San Francisco, West Hollywood, and Palm Springs. All three of these cities are notable both for prominent LGBTQ+ communities, and for being "party towns" which draw commuters from all around the areas.
The authors themselves tout the money it will bring to LGBTQ+ bars in these cities, although extended last call times also come with a raft of overconsumption-related theats, including dangerous driving, violence and injury, and ER admissions. Even without last call extensions, LGBTQ+ individuals experience
higher rates of alcohol-use disorder, and
experienced worse alcohol use and mental health outcomes during COVID-19. "This bill," the organizations write, "would create even more damage to our already marginalized communities."
The letter is available in
ENGLISH and in
SPANISH.
Mapping the Bay Area's "magnets" for potential deadly drivers.
As the California Assembly debates the passage of SB 930, a poorly conceived and reckless bit of legislation that would extend last call times in certain cities, the question remains: what about the rest of us? What should we expect if we don’t live in these cities?
It’s clear from existing research that extended last call times are associated with increased violent crime, emergency room visits, ambulance calls, and DUIs. What’s also clear is that people who drink in one city often do not confine their driving to just that same city. According to Ventura County Behavioral Health, people receiving DUIs often travel 7 to 40 miles before getting pulled over. Surveillance in New York State showed that DUIs were elevated in counties whose neighbors had extended last call times, even if those counties kept to normal ones.
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