Diverse LGBT Speakers List
for SF's May 17 IDAHO at UN Plaza

On behalf of Gays Without Borders, I am pleased to announce the following update for our May 17 International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia commemoration that begins at noon at UN Plaza in San Francisco.

We will start off with poignant speeches about the violence and jeopardy too many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face every day around our planet. After that, workers from the Department of Public Works will lower the United Nation flag to half staff, followed by the lowering of the United States flag to the same position.

The UN and US flags will fly at half staff to honor and remember all of the LGBT people murdered and maimed globally in the past year.

Gary Virginia of Gays Without Borders will serve as the emcee. Here are the names of confirmed speakers:

- Brendan Behan, Executive Director of SF Pride
- David Campos, Member of the Board of Supervisors
- Clinton Fein, Political artist and activist
- Veronika Cauley Fimbres, African-American trans advocate
- Michael Petrelis, Person living with AIDS
- Melanie Nathan, Lesbian blogger and activist
- Amy Whelan, Attorney for National Center for Lesbian Rights

In addition, community video documentarian will be taping the event and Heidi Beeler of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Band will play "Taps" as the flags descend.

The speakers will address topics such as the recent murder of a trans woman in Oakland, California, "corrective rape" of lesbian South Africans, the killing of gay youth Daniel Zamudio in Chile, the unsolved slayings of lesbians in Thailand, the slaughter of trans persons in Turkey, the deaths by skull-crushing of gay and emo youths in Iraq, the stigmatization and criminalization of HIV positive individuals, and the importance of organizing LGBT solidarity through IDAHO every year.

For more information on global IDAHO activities, check out this Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/may17idaho, and go here for additional details on the San Francisco IDAHO event, https://www.facebook.com/events/229514360488444/229582607148286/ .

Please join us this Thursday at 12 pm at UN Plaza, located at Market and 7th Streets, and assist in making our IDAHO event the best yet in San Francisco!

Mike + Mike Celebrate 
15-Years of Both Names on a Lease

(Mike + Mike last month, in San Jose.)

Every May Day is an enormous reason to celebrate in our happy home.

It was fifteen-years ago this month that my partner Mike and I moved into our apartment in San Francisco's inner Mission district. When we signed the lease agreement and paid the security deposit to our landlord, we had a few conversations about the commitment we were making to each other.

In 1996, the dot.com boom had not happened and our rent was very reasonable and affordable. Still is. Other tenants in our building who have taken up residence here in the past 3-4 years, with the same amount of space, are paying almost 50% more in rent than us. We count our blessings that we moved in before rents skyrocketed for gays like us.

Having a lease with both our names on it has been important to us than trying to get a marriage license. Gay marriage is just something not for us, and when it was an option here, we rejected it.

While this month marks our 15th year of living together, and in June we will celebrate our 16th anniversary of when we met. Mike and I first encountered each other, anonymously, in the backroom of the My Place leather bar on Folsom Street. Its motto, updated annually on t-shirts, was "Ruining Reputations for ___ Years!"

Sure, it was a fun sleaze pit that attracted a vast cross-section of gays and men who have sex with men because of the sexual hijinks, but My Place was also where many of us started lasting partnerships and friendships.

My Place is gone, thanks to prudes at the SF Department of Public Health, but Mike and Mike are still here, surviving and thriving very nicely!

Here's a selection of photos of us over the years:

(Circa 1996, in San Francisco.)

(Circa 1999, in Washington.)

(Circa 2000, in San Francisco.)

(Circa 2008, in New York.)

Is SF Gay Youth Executive 
on Sup. Wiener's Enemies List? 

Castro district Supervisor Scott Wiener in January held a hearing at City Hall about his controversial legislation to restrict certain behaviors (sleeping, use of shopping carts, smoking, etc), at Jane Warner and Harvey Milk Plazas, and dozens of concerned citizens spoke about his proposal.

An email exchange between Wiener and leaders of the Castro Benefit District, a prime backer of the legislation, reveals that he has quite a thin skin regarding one opponent of his proposal who didn't plant a big wet kiss on his tush.

Through a public records request, I obtained recent emails from CBD executive director Andrea Aiello, and I've posted the batch that contains the exchange here, for all to read. See page 62 for the email in question.

Wiener was upset that at his hearing, Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center leader Jodi Schwarz supposed acted inappropriately. My recollection of her two-minutes of public comments is that she calmly rejected the legislation and addressed how it would impact gay youths who come to her agency's office in the Castro. In no way did Schwarz raise her voice or otherwise violate standards of decorum.

And yet, Wiener believes she acted "horribly" during the hearing. He wrote:

Thank you to both of you (Aiello and Gustavo Serina of the Castro Benefit District) for all the great organizing. It's impossible to turn out as many people as they do, but we held our own nicely. Boy they are over the top, and I'm truly unhappy with Jodi Schwarz. She behaved horribly.

Serina wrote to Aiello asking:

Do you know who Jodi Schwarz is?

The reply from Aiello said:

Executive Director for LYRIC. I think Scott was upset because she didn't acknowledge all the work he has done on behalf of LGBT youth and homeless people in general. She also did say she asked to have a work group with the CBD to discuss these issues and the CBD refused ... this part is right ... we did decline to meet with her and then [two CBD board members] were supposed do that and I'm afraid they dropped the ball.

To which Serina said:

Thanks for this. I think she was looking for money from the CBD.

Interesting that Aiello says nothing about Schwarz behaving "horribly" and suggests that Wiener may be upset Schwarz did not use any of her two-minutes to praise him. If she had, she would have less time to speak in opposition to the legislation's impact on her gay youth clients.

While I have been critical of Schwarz on other issues, on this matter I don't think she did damn thing inappropriate at Wiener's hearing. All she did was speak against his proposal for the public plazas in the Castro. Somehow, her testimony upset Wiener and I suspect he has an enemies list and she is now on it.

What I believe the emails from Wiener and Serina show is that they think speaking against the plaza legislation equals something horrible or that Schwarz wanted funding from the CBD.

Wiener should learn that lots of folks in his Castro district disagree with his legislative and political agendas, and offering public comment opposing his proposals is not acting horribly.

SF Public Library:
Radically Gay Harry Hay & NAMBLA

The San Francisco Public Library currently has a terrific exhibit on display, Radically Gay: The Life of Harry Hay, all about the work and legacy of the American gay community's great-grandfather. Curated by former longtime executive director of SF Pride, Joey Cain, the show is housed in the Jewett Gallery in the lower lobby of the main library at Grove and Larkin Streets.

Using photos, private letters and public newsletters, artifacts such as the tea set Hay's mother used to serve tea with during Mattachine Society meetings and a kaleidoscope invented by his lover John Burnside. It's an impressive array of items documenting decades of personal and political homosexual history.

Also included in the show is a photo of Hay marching at the 1986 Los Angeles gay pride parade wearing a cloth sign reading "NAMBLA Walks With Me", before the pride organizers and cops forced him to remove his message before joining the parade.

A note for the photo provides details about Hay's views on the controversial group:

Until the end of his life Harry stood up for the right of NAMBLA to march in the LGBT Parades. His support was predicated on two deeply held convictions. One was the belief that the gay movement should not be throwing any element of the community under the bus in order to gain 'respectability' with and acceptance by the hetero world. The other was his support for young gay boys, 'our younger gay brothers', and their right to choose when and with whom they had sex. In this he drew on his own experience at age 14, with Matt the 24-year-old man he met on the steamer tramp from San Francisco to Los Angeles with whom he made love and opened Harry's eyes to the beautiful vision of a 'silent brotherhood' that stretched around the world. Conversely, Harry believed that greatest, as yet unprosecuted, child sex abuse crime was the forcing of gay kids by parents and churches compulsory heterosexuality, leading to self-hatred, depression, destroyed lives and suicide.

For insight and understanding about Hay embracing many unpopular causes and various accomplishments that advanced gay liberation, read the excellent assessment and appreciation of the man and his legacy written by gay intellectual Michael Bronksi. His essay appeared in 2002 after Hay died in the Boston Phoenix.

Kudos to the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the James C. Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center of the library for sponsoring the exhibit, which is up until July 29. 

An NYT Editor Regrets
Donating to Obama Reelection Campaign

Last weekend, I was checking Federal Election Commission records for any new donations by people in the media business and two donations turned up from editors at the New York Times. The first was from John T. Stickney, senior editor for the NYT Syndicate which supplies content to thousands of news outlets, gave $300 in December to the Obama for America campaign.

I asked NYT spokesperson Eileen Murphy about the donation and whether it violated the paper's ethical guidelines. She replied:

John Stickney is employed as a senior editor of The New York Times Syndicate, which is part of The New York Times Company.  And yes, he has confirmed that he made this donation in December. While John is not a Times newsroom employee, he is in fact bound by the corporate policy that requires that any employee involved in the planning, creation or oversight of news and editorial content not give money to any political candidate or election cause.  In this case he made this donation without direct knowledge of that policy.  He is now aware of the policy and sincerely regrets having made the donation. 

The second donation was from Sally J. Singer, editor of T, the NYT's fashion and style magazine that does not cover politics or campaign. FEC files show she gave $500 to Obama's campaign in January. I asked spokesperson Murphy about this and whether the paper would send a reminder to all employees subject to the guidelines, that contributions are not allowed. Murphy said:  

Sally Singer’s donation was to a fashion industry event.  When she realized that the event was a fund raiser for the Obama re-election campaign, she asked for and had her money returned.  She was warned, however, that since they had already filed with the FEC, the donation would be reflected for at least one cycle. We do take steps to try to ensure that all Times journalists, including those who are separate from the newsroom, are aware of our guidelines, and we will continue to do so.  

I hope, as someone who expects the NYT to maintain the highest standards of journalistic impartiality and avoid even a hint of bias in its coverage, that a memo is circulated reminding editorial staff of rule number 90 of the guidelines, which states:  

Staff members may not themselves give money to any political candidate or election cause or raise money for one. Given the ease of Internet access to public records of campaign contributions, any political giving by a staff member would risk feeding a false impression that we are taking sides.

-

[Greetings, InstaPundit visitors. Be sure to also check out the video from the United Nations promoting respect and love for gay peoples around the world. It's short and worth the time to view. Click here to watch it.]

'Bully':
Highest Grossing Documentary of 2012

Give movie mogul Harvey Weinstein his due. Master of effective campaigns that win Oscars for small films and never shying away from controversy, he milked the rating brouhaha over the "Bully" film for all it was worth.

Even before it opened, Weinstein was able to bring attention not just to the film but to the national problem of gay teens suffering bullying, generating much discussion online and on cable news shows. Thanks, dude!

Earlier this week, Peter Knegt over Indie Wire delivered the good news in his specialty box office column about the healthy profits for the film:

Lee Hirsch's much-discussed doc "Bully" held steady on 263 screens in its fourth weekend with a "PG-13" rating.  The film dropped 49% in grosses and took in $168,000 as a result. That made for a weak $639 average as it took its gross so far to $2,534,877. Considering it has clearly peaked, the film should end up with a still impressive final gross around $3 million. Notably, it's already the highest grossing doc of 2012, just ahead of "Jiro Dreams of Sushi."

I'm sure "Bully" will reap even higher grosses, and reach a wider audience once it comes out on DVD and is available in other formats in a few months.

Meeting about Duboce/Valencia Fire 
at Friends School on May 10 at 5 pm

 (The San Francisco Fire Department battles the blaze that left dozens homeless. Credit: DJ Tina Christina via Mission Local.)

On Sunday morning, Mike and I, along with our neighbors, were traumatized by the four-alarm fire that broke out at the apartment building at the corner of Duboce and Valencia Streets. We live half a block behind the apartments that caught fire and still have a bit of burnt wood smell in our place.

As you may have read, no one died or was seriously injured, and thirty-seven tenants who lived in the building have lost their possessions and their housing.The SF Appeal has a great round up of stories, along with a video, about the blaze.

Late Sunday afternoon, we received an email from the good folks at the Friends School, expressing concern for everyone and asking what they could do to assist the neighborhood and displaced people. We asked that they hold a community at the school and simply allow everyone to come together, and they quickly said yes. Not only that, but the school is also working in a few ways to help those who lost their homes.

I'll be putting up flyers to let as many neighbors as possible know about the meeting later this week. Please share this info on all appropriate Mission district web sites. Here are the details from the Friends School:

In response to the Duboce/Valencia fire from this past Sunday we are hosting a neighborhood meeting at our school this Thursday, May 10 from 5-6pm in our Meeting Room.

A representative from the Red Cross will be present to answer questions. We've also connected with the Supervisors' offices and are reaching out to local fire officials.

In addition, we're partnering with the Red Cross to gather items for the displaced families. Feel free to donate any clothing, blankets, or toiletries and drop them off in our school lobby. We will collect items through this Friday May 11. Checks can also be the Red Cross (Duboce/Valencia fire in the memo).

The SF Friends School is located at 250 Valencia Street.

UN Video on LGBT People:
Punish Violence and Hatred, Not Love!



The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, a longtime friend of the global LGBT community, continues to advocate on our behalf for acceptance and respect. She's released a fantastic video today calling for an end to the abuse our brothers and sisters suffer, while also using the word love in terms of our lives.

The timing for the release of this UN video couldn't be better - about a week before May 17's IDAHO, International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. All global activists should use this video to promote IDAHO actions.

Speaking on behalf of Gays Without Borders, we are honored that an image from an action of ours in San Francisco appears in the video at the 1:55 mark. You'll see we're standing in front of an enormous UN flag and displaying a Global Gay Solidarity poster.

Please join Gays Without Borders on May 17 at noon at UN Plaza in San Francisco, where we will mark IDAHO by lowering the UN and US flags to memorialize LGBT people worldwide killed by hatred.

Many sincere and deep thanks to Pillay, the UNHCHR office and all UN staffers who created this video. It's incredible to see images of diverse LGBT people and colors and cultures and ages, in a powerful video promoting LGBT human rights.

Here's the transcript of Pillay's comments:

All over the world, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of all ages face harassment and discrimination — at work, at home, at school and in many other everyday situations. In many countries, national laws are skewed against them.

In some 76 States, having a partner of the same sex is a criminal offense. People are being arrested, singled out for physical attack, being tortured, even killed – just for being in a loving relationship.

When I raise these issues, some complain that I’m pushing for “new rights” or “special rights” for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. But there is nothing new or special about the right to life and security of person, the right to freedom from discrimination. These and other rights are universal … enshrined in international law but denied to many of our fellow human beings simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

We cannot let these abuses stand. We know what needs to be done. States must repeal discriminatory laws and ban discriminatory practices: punish violence and hatred … not love.

And we should all challenge homophobic attitudes. The best antidote is education – for children and adults alike. Reach out. Talk. Learn. And help make our world safer and better for everyone.

This is an historic moment: more and more States recognize the need for action and are speaking up – including here at the United Nations. With your help and the support of millions of people who believe in universal human rights, we will secure equal rights for every last one of us.

AP Reporter:
Lesbians Didn't Call Back

On Friday I blogged about an Associated Press story by David Crary on impatience with President Obama regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns, and what community leaders had to say. In response to my criticism that he only quoted gay men, Crary emailed this note:

My contact list is pretty well stocked with T's and L's (Tammy Baldwin, Hillary Rosen and the NLRC [sic - it's NCLR, National Center for Lesbian Rights] didn't get back to me for this story).

But if you've got some contact info for bisexual lobbyists and executive directors, I'd welcome a look. 

Interesting that Congresswoman Baldwin and NCLR, both of which have paid staffers to take care of communicating with reporters, were not able to call the AP for the article and offer a lesbian point of view.

I can't fault any reporter when his or her story lacks lesbian voices, especially if they've reached out to a lesbian politician, Democratic consultant and pundit, and a national advocacy organization.

By the way, I sent along some bisexual contacts and hope Crary will include bisexuals in future stories on the LGBT community.

SF Voter Toolkit Ad:
Get Tested for HIV

This may be a first, but even if it isn't it's still unique and a creative way of getting out an AIDS message without the usual fear-based approach to HIV testing.

My voting toolkit for the June 5 primary arrived in the mail yesterday and I did what I always do when comes. I read it from cover to cover and learned a few things, such as how it's an open primary and I can vote for the opponents of all the incumbents - Feinstein, Pelosi, Leno, Ammiano - who need to be challenged even in small ways at the ballot box.

Toward the back of the toolkit was a full-page ad promoting HIV testing from the Department of Public Health, using an election theme and image that was impossible to ignore:

I've been looking at San Francisco's voter toolkits since 1995 and don't recall seeing such an ad before. Opposite the HIV testing ad was a safety message about coyotes in the city, which was from the Recreation and Parks Department:

The online version of the toolkit does not contain these ads, so folks who have opted out of receiving the paper version in the mail and only read the PDF of it won't be seeing this HIV message. However, for those San Francisco who will read the printed version before election day, they'll be reminded to consider taking an HIV test and learning their sero-status.

If anyone knows about any other voting guide with such a push for HIV testing, please let me know about it.