Apparently peeing outdoors is not everyone's cup of tea.

A religious group and several local residents have sued the City and County of San Francisco over the new outdoor urinal in Mission Dolores Park, calling it a “shameful” invasion of privacy and decency.

The San Francisco Chinese Christian Union, along with several neighbors of the park, filed a 25-page civil lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court on Thursday alleging gender and disability discrimination, as well as violations of health and sanitation codes.

The urinal, which city officials call the “pissoir,” opened in January as the city's latest measure to combat public urination. It was part of a major park renovation that included new irrigation systems, playgrounds and restrooms.

The open-air urinal, next to a Muni streetcar stop, consists of a concrete slab with a drain and a circular fence that offers limited privacy. It is located near the southwest corner of the park, affectionately known as the “gay beach.”

The San Francisco Chinese Christian Union, described in the suit as a religious nonprofit organization that includes 15 churches, and other plaintiffs said in their suit that the “sewage hole” forces unsuspecting parkgoers to see strangers' genitals in a public park. It also discriminates against people who need to pee but don't want to do so outdoors, the suit says.

“The outdoor urination hole violates the privacy of those who need to use the restroom but must expose their bodies and endure the shame and humiliation of urinating in public,” the lawsuit states. “Seclusion when defecating is a societal norm and represents one of the most basic expectations of privacy.”

The urinal is also unfair to women, the lawsuit says.

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“The hole provided for outdoor urination is particularly egregious for women and girls,” the lawsuit states. Using this facility would subject women to “extreme embarrassment not experienced by men or boys who merely unzip their pants and pee all over the place.” [sic] when urinating.”

The plaintiffs are represented by the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal group that is pushing to overturn a state law that requires public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and play on sports teams of the gender with which they identify.

“If San Francisco wants to be truly progressive, it needs to have public parks that are accessible to everyone, not just certain groups,” Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, said in an interview. “The city is not above the law. They put the urinal in a place where people will see it, whether they want it or not.”

The office of San Francisco City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera issued a cheeky statement in response to the lawsuit on Friday, titled “Isn't That a Urinal?!”, saying Dolores Park is “famous for its counterculture, rampant sunbathing, hash brownies, 'Hunky Jesus' and more.”

“If I had to predict the 100 things in Dolores Park that would likely most offend these plaintiffs, I would not have guessed this would be among them,” Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for Herrera, said in the statement.

The residents of the neighborhood had campaigned for the urinal, the statement said.

The prosecution pointed out in its statement that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the Pacific Justice Institute as an anti-LGBT hate group.

Dacus rejected the designation, saying it came from a “very far-left extremist organization” and said the city was “desperately trying to distract from the real issues” in the lawsuit.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Follow me at @haileybranson / Google+

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To date, about 91 percent of the San Francisco government’s more than 35,000 employees have met the city’s vaccine mandate. However, around 360 city police personnel do not have this, and just over half of them have applied for a religious exemption from vaccination.

According to the city’s vaccination mandate, employees working in high-risk areas must be vaccinated by October 13th. All other municipal employees must be vaccinated by November 1st. Some have threatened to sue the city or resign over the mandate.

The city’s Department of Personnel said it has tentatively approved 157 exemptions so far. Despite the exception rules, employees could be reassigned to other roles, taken on leave or ordered to work remotely. This could be a problem for some of the city cops.

Police are making progress in suspending the few employees who have refused to provide vaccination status by August 12th.

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San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott (left to right) speaks with Sergeant Kin Lee at the end of a press conference on the semi-annual report on public safety statistics on Monday, July 12, 2021 in San Francisco, California. Lea Suzuki / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Of the 366 San Francisco Police Department employees not vaccinated against COVID-19, 193 have requested religious exemptions to avoid the required vaccines, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In June, San Francisco became the first major city to announce that approximately 35,000 city employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs, the Los Angeles Times reported.

All city employees must be vaccinated by October 13th. People who work in high-risk environments such as prisons or nursing homes must be vaccinated by September 15th.

At the end of last month, KBCW reported that 88% of city employees had already been vaccinated. About 2% did not report their vaccination status and 10% said they were not vaccinated.

KGO reported that the measure has been pushed back by city workers, with some city officials saying they would step down when the policy goes into effect.

In August, KGO reported that the city recommended eight officials, seven firefighters and two deputies to be suspended without pay for failing to reveal their vaccination status.

The San Francisco Human Resources Department reported on Chronicle 157 that police officers’ requests for religious exemptions have been tentatively approved. The department received a total of 296 requests for exemption from religious affiliation from employees of the city, 193 came from the police.

At the time of publication, DHR did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.

“The only way out of the pandemic and to protect our employees is to make sure that as many people as possible are vaccinated against COVID-19,” Mawuli Tugbenyoh, head of politics at the DHR, told the Chronicle: “The damage that COVID-19 did to our communities, health and livelihoods is now preventable. “

As of Saturday, 74% of all San Francisco residents were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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SAN FRANCISCO – The city and county of San Francisco have agreed to return a pair of religious relics to Thailand under an agreement with the United States, authorities said.

Originally part of ancient Thai temples, the 1,500-pound hand-carved lintels were reportedly illegally exported to the United States and donated to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco for more than 50 years, the US Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

In October, a three-year investigation by Homeland Security Investigations culminated in prosecutors filing a civil lawsuit for confiscation of the relics. The museum and the city, which owns the museum’s art collection, agreed to return the relics on Wednesday.

“The successful outcome of this investigation will help restore Thailand’s cultural heritage for the appreciation and study of this and future generations,” said Tatum King, special envoy for Homeland Security Investigations, in a statement.

“The theft and trafficking of cultural artifacts is a tradition as old as the cultures they represent,” continued King. “The return of a nation’s valuable cultural antiquities promotes goodwill among foreign governments and citizens while protecting the world’s cultural history and knowledge of past civilizations. In working with the US Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California on this investigation, we have carefully tried to ensure that the relationship between the United States and Thailand remains one of mutual respect and admiration. “

Museum officials also expressed their satisfaction with the settlement.

“We are very pleased that these falls are returning to their country of origin,” said the director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum, Dr. Jay Xu, in a statement. “This deal will allow us to do what we have wanted to do for a while – return the falls to Thailand.”

In a press release, the museum said the civil lawsuit came as a surprise because prosecutors already knew of their plans to return the relics and legal action could have slowed those efforts. The museum also denied allegations that the relics were illegally exported, saying prosecutors “did not provide corroborative evidence”.

“The museum has agreed to the ultimate goal of returning the falls to their country of origin without agreeing to the DOJ’s misleading factual claims,” ​​the press release said.

The relics will be returned through the U.S. Department of Justice’s sacrifice remission program and will be displayed on return for the religious and cultural appreciation of the Thai people, according to prosecutors.

“I would like to thank San Francisco and the Asian Art Museum for their agreement to forfeit these treasures so that they can be returned to Thailand,” said US Attorney David Anderson in the statement.

“The United States is committed to returning stolen relics to nations that want to preserve their heritage,” Anderson continued. “We will use all of our powers, including civil confiscation, to ensure that misappropriated cultural property is returned to its rightful owner.”

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