As a former restaurant critic, I don’t get to go to dinner on assignment much anymore. But last week, I spent a grueling few hours in the private back room of a restaurant in North Beach, listening to a crowd gnash their teeth about “parental rights,” and the Trans Conspiracy to Destroy the American Family, while noshing on very dry garlic bread. Hosted by the San Francisco Republican Party, the event was billed by the group’s chairman John Dennis as “a reasonable conversation for parents who have concerns.” Speakers included Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, a Bay Area-based former social worker and a...