Dennis RomeroFiona Ma, the San Francisco assemblywoman who wants to ban raves at publicly owned venues in California, is going raving.
That's according to our sister publication SF Weekly, which reported last week that the Democrat, who would outlaw the parties at venues such as the L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena in response to three ecstasy related deaths in the state last year.
The lawmaker told the Weekly her proposed legislation, the Anti Raves Act of 2011, will ride a months-long a process of receiving input from “stakeholders” that will include ravers themselves.
(Other outlets have reported that her proposal was put on hold, but it seems this process was part of her plan all along, at least according to what she told us Dec. 23). Outcry against her proposal has been loud — including a Facebook protest.
Ma's bill would outlaw raves at publicly-owned venues and require that private raves have proper permits (though that part is kind of redundant).
Two men died following a rave at the Bay Area's state-owned Cow Palace in last spring, prompting officials there to say no to the parties. Then, in June, 15-year-old Sasha Rodriguez died of an ecstasy overdose following the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Coliseum.
The public body known as the Coliseum Commission voted to allow raves to go on at the L.A. venues it controls (including the Sports Arena), but Ma's bill would override that vote.
Ma tells SF Weekly (quite accurately, in our experience) that raves often involve “people walking around like zombies, sleeping all over, lying all over the floor, vomiting in the corners, vomiting in the bathrooms … people lying in their own urine.”
She'll get to see for herself.
SF Weekly envisioned her as a total glowstick princess for the occasion. Really, there's no news here. We just wrote this as an excuse to post this awesome photo illustration:
Fiona Ma as a raver.
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