We agree with Matt Dorsey: it’s time to streamline impractical bureaucracy.

In a city that’s facing a historic budget deficit, we need to make City Hall work better. In this vein, openly gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey has made a refreshingly pragmatic - albeit, perhaps surprising - suggestion: let’s take a serious look at whether San Francisco’s 1996 Equal Benefits Ordinance still makes sense in 2025.

It might be surprising to hear one of the city’s openly gay elected officials calling to halt enforcement of an ordinance meant to promote LGBTQ rights. When the ordinance was passed, the law was groundbreaking—prohibiting the City from doing business with companies that didn’t offer domestic partner benefits to employees. At the time, gay couples couldn’t marry, so this was a necessary and powerful tool for equality.

But things have changed. Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since 2015. Yet, the ordinance still blocks companies from bidding on City contracts if they don’t offer domestic partner benefits—a requirement many see as outdated, not to mention stifles competition, which could be driving up costs for taxpayers. Furthermore, compliance adds bureaucratic delays, with certification taking weeks in some cases. Every time we add another hoop (and therefore, cost) to doing business with the City of San Francisco, it gets directly or indirectly passed onto San Franciscans.

Dorsey isn’t charging ahead blindly. In late July, he formally asked the City’s Budget and Legislative Analyst to calculate the ordinance’s real-world costs. He’s said plainly: no action until he sees the numbers. And if the Supreme Court ever overturns the gay marriage ruling, any legislation he'd propose on the issue would have a trigger to reinstate the ordinance immediately. Let’s hope nothing triggers such a reinstatement. 

Dorsey’s move is part of a broader push by moderates to modernize City government. Board President Rafael Mandelman tried to reform City contracting but saw his bill delayed because unions opposed removing the nearly inactive Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Group. In a surprise twist, even mod-aligned Joel Engardio voted to stall the bill. City Attorney David Chiu has legislation to scrap redundant reporting requirements after finding more than a third of mandated reports are unnecessary—like one that overstated housing evictions by 40%.

Part of electing a pragmatist majority to the Board of Supervisors last November meant that, while not necessarily the most glamorous work, facilitating a better-run San Francisco is one of the best ways to directly improve the everyday quality of life for San Franciscans. While we should always aim to legislate our values (including through legislation like the Equal Benefits Ordinance), we also have to acknowledge when “legislating our values” ends up creating bureaucratic plaque on the arteries of good government.

San Francisco’s budget shortfall and service failures won’t be fixed by clinging to policies whose original purpose has already been fulfilled. Common-sense reforms like Dorsey’s should be welcomed, debated on the facts, and—if the analysis supports it—enacted.