Petrelis Files

May 22 Milk Day Demo at HRC Store;
Reclaim Milk Plaza for Sitting

In late January Tommi Avicolli Mecca and I met up at Cafe Flore to start planning for Harvey Milk Day 2011 on Sunday, May 22. Since then a new network has formed represented by queer folks working on a number of Castro and city-wide issues, and it's called QUEEN, Queers United for Economic Empowerment Now. We have a Google group for dialogue and networking. Click here to join.

Our original idea to focus on fighting against the sit-lie law with the underlying problem of losing public space, and remind the Human Rights Campaign executives and donors that they don't come close to representing the full diversity of the gay community, will take place on May 22.

Starting at 11:00 AM at Harvey Milk Plaza under the rainbow flag, a whole lotta queer and allied folks will gather for singing, sitting and speech-making. We'll be there for two-hours, then at 1:00 PM a march to the official grand opening of the HRC store in what was once Harvey's grassroots community center and camera shop.

At HRC's souvenir stand on the Castro Strip, a line up of diverse gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people will speak out for a fundamental change at this wasteful, bloated and massively ineffective organization. This is the two-page flyer members of the QUEEN coalition are spraying around the web and Castro. Please share it far and wide and join us on May 22 for a day to reclaim gay public space and the gay agenda.