Estee Slaughter representatives gave away thousands of “RealityfoldTM” sleep masks at SF Pride on Sunday, June 25th. The black mask, which is emblazoned in gold with the ES logo and “Make the Occupation Disappear," includes text that explains the connections between the company Estee Lauder, the destruction of Palestinians' homes, and World Pride 2006. The representatives were told by SFPD officers to stop distributing the masks. Also that day, Senior Unlimited Nudes activist Tortuga Bi Liberty was told by police to "cover up" when he was picketing and handing out leaflets at Pride while in the nude.

Read More On Indybay's LGBTI / Queer Page

Dina Boyer is a photographer and videographer who frequently posts media to Indybay, and covers LGBT and police brutality-related issues. Ms. Boyer reports, "For the last 8 years I have been covering the Pride celebration in San Francisco... every year I obtained media passes." After having applied months in advance for her official press passes, she was denied her passes on Saturday. She feels that she was discriminated against, and that her First Amendment rights as a journalist were violated. She feels that her presence as a transgendered woman and a journalist will not be missed when she does not cover Pride events next year. The press credentials of Allen White, who wrote a story critical of the corporate nature of SF Pride for Beyond Chron, were also lifted.

Read More On Indybay's Indymedia Page

Tuesday June 27th was a "National Day of Action" in solidarity with U.S. Army Lt. Ehren Watada. Outside the gates of Fort Lewis, Washington, hundreds rallied to support Watada – the first commissioned officer to resist the illegal war and occupation of Iraq. Photos
In San Francisco, people gathered at 5pm in Justin Herman Plaza. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | Audio: 1 | 2 | Video

On June 7th, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada held a press conference in Tacoma, WA to announce his intention to disobey the illegal order to deploy to Iraq. Ehren Watada is believed to be the first U.S. military officer to publicly refuse orders in the Iraq War due to its illegality. Photos
In the lead-up to the national day of action, supporters of Lt. Watada rallied in Fort Lewis on June 24th and Olympia on June 26th. Photos: 1 | 2 | Audio

Read More On Indybay's Anti-War Page

LGBT Pride Celebrations are held in many California cities during the month of June. On Saturday, June 3rd, Out in the Valley was held in Fresno. ( Photos) The Santa Cruz Pride March was held on Sunday, June 4th. The Sacramento Price March was held on June 10th.

San Francisco Pride will be held during the weekend of June 23rd through 25th.

The Trans March was held on Friday, June 23rd. The event began at 3:00pm with speakers and performers in Dolores Park.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

This year's SF Dyke March was entitled "SF Dyke March Two Thousand and Sex." It was held on Saturday, June 24th in Dolores Park, with speakers and perfomers preceding the 7pm march through the Mission District and Castro.

The SF Pride Celebration was held in Civic Center on Saturday from noon until 6pm, and on Sunday from noon until 7:00pm. This free event included performances on community stages, including the Trans Stage, Two Spirit Gathering Space and Homo Hip Hop, the Asian and Pacific Islander Stage, Nectar Women's Stage, Soul of Pride African American Stage, Latin stage, and others. There were gathering spaces for kids, elders, and deaf/hard of hearing folks.

The centerpiece of SF Pride was the Pride March down Market Street. It began on Sunday at 10:30am at Market and Beale Streets, and ended at Civic Center. There were hundreds of contingents, led by Dykes on Bikes. Photos | Reports: 1 | 2

Pride celebrations are held in many other locations, as well. Read about more events | Sistahs Steppin in Pride will be held on Saturday, August 26th. Read about pride celebrations around the world on the Interpride website.

Trans March | Dyke March | Dykes on Bikes | SF Pride | Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

A memorial plaque commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot was installed in San Francisco at 12pm on Thursday, June 22nd, at the corner of Turk and Taylor Streets. The 1966 riot in the Tenderloin was the first known instance of transgender resistance to police harassment in the U.S. National and local community activists present will include Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church, author/activists Leslie Feinberg and Jamison Green, Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality, and representatives of the SF Mayor’s Office, Human Rights Commission, and Police Commission. Photos | Video

Read More On Indybay's LGBTI / Queer Page

Yet another Federal Grand Jury targeting local activists has been convened. The apparent reason is to investigate the anti-G8 protest held in the Mission District on July 8, 2005, during which a local police officer was injured. Independent journalist Josh Wolf, a frequent poster to Indybay, has been subpoenaed to provide his unedited videotape of the demonstration. June 15th update: Josh refused to testify or provide video evidence to the federal grand jury. Instead of being held in contempt, he was told by the prosecutor that he was free to go. Photos & Video

Read More On Indybay's Globalization & Capitalism or Indymedia Pages

Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss, college students in Tucson, Arizona, are facing up to 15 years in prison on felony charges for the volunteer work they did last summer to help undocumented immigrants in the Arizona desert. Their trial is set to begin in August. Sellz and Strauss are in the Bay Area this week to build support for their defense campaign. They will speak on Tuesday, June 20th, at the Friends' AFSC Hall in SF, 65 Ninth St. (between Mission and Market Streets).

Read More On Indybay's Immigrant Rights Page

SF Supervisor Chris Daly has introduced a resolution before the Supervisors' Land Use Committee to ask the UA Plumbers Local 38 Pension Trust Fund, which owns the Civic Center Hotel, to promptly proceed with a seismic retrofit. The building does not have the city-mandated seismic retrofit for unreinforced masonry buildings. The Land Use Committee will be meeting in San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday, June 21st at 1:00pm. Tenants and their supporters will explain why low-income housing is important to the City and why these units should not be lost.

Read More On Indybay's Poverty & Housing Page

There will be a rally at Third Street and Palou in the Bayview District on Monday, June 19th at 5:00pm. The rally will demand amnesty for all immigrants, and it takes place on the anniversary of the declaration of the end of slavery of Africans in the US (also called Juneteenth). Organizers say "We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the immediate freedom of... (former Black Panther, death row journalist) Mumia Abu-Jamal..."

Organizers are concerned that no matter what decisions lawmakers make to reform immigration laws, some immigrant workers would be considered legal, while others would be considered "illegal."

On June 10, protesters gathered on Market St. in San Francisco to protest Apple's use of Digital Rights Management, the restrictions placed by Apple on music purchased at iTunes. The protest was part of a nationwide day of action against Apple's use of DRM.
Photos & Video | Event Announcement | Video: Protest in front of Apple store Chicago | Google Video From SF Protest: here

DRM Technology can restricts users’ access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based anti-DRM campaign that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. The campaign aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled products to market. DRM products have features built-in that restrict what jobs they can do. These products have been intentionally crippled from the users' perspective, and are therefore "defective by design". This campaign will identify these “defective” products, and target them for elimination. The campaign's aim is the abolition of DRM as a social practice.
EFF: DRM | DRM and Privacy | French protest proposed DRM law | Google Video Of French Protest | Wikipedia: Digital Rights Management

There will be a June 9th press conference and rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal from 4-6pm at the Federal Building in San Francisco, 450 Golden Gate at Larkin). The rally is part of a national and international effort to win new support for Mumia's appeal and to counter the efforts to execute him. The State of Pennsylvania has recently filed an appeal seeking to reinstate the order to execute Mumia. Governor Ed Rendell has said that if the appeal is upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, he will sign the third warrant for Mumia's execution. Barring the unlikely intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, Mumia will have 90 days to live.

Two Pennsylvania Congresspeople are introducing legislation to demand that the Parisian suburb of Saint Denis reverse its decision to name a major street after Mumia. The new street, leading to the largest sports stadium in Europe, the Nelson Mandela Stadium, has been formally named Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia's legal team, headed by Robert R. Bryan, has expressed the view that Mumia's final appeal on the three central issues before the court will be successful and that the Pennsylvania's effort to execute Mumia will fail. However, Bryan warns that nothing is certain in these matters and especially in these times. Read more

The Mobilization to Free Mumia | Mumia's Freedom Journal | Photos from April 2006 visit to Philadelphia by a French delegation

On Saturday, June 10th, San Francisco will participate in the International Weekend of Resistance Against the Green Scare, along with some 40 other cities worldwide (List). These events will show solidarity and support for those facing charges and harassment in the recent wave of repression against Eco and Animal Rights activists. Organizers of the San Francisco event also aim to contextualize the Green Scare amidst the historic and on-going government oppression and harassment faced by people of color here and abroad, particularly in their struggles for liberation.

The San Francisco event will take place on Saturday at Station 40 (3030 B 16th Street @ Mission, San Francisco). Doors will open at 1:30pm, with the show at 2:00pm sharp. All donations will benefit political prisoners. The event will feature bands such as Acts of Sedition and Myth of Progress, speakers such as Black Panther and Grand Jury Resister Richard Brown, and free vegan food. More details

Read more on Police and Prisons News Page | Free Jeff 'Free' Luers! | Resist Grand Juries | California Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity | Portland Indymedia Story

San Francisco Pride will be held during the weekend of June 23rd through 25th. SF Mayor Gavin Newsom will kick off pride week with a rainbow flag raising and pride reception at City Hall on Monday, June 19th at 5:40pm. The Trans March will be held on Friday, June 23rd. The event will begin at 3:00pm with speakers and performers in Dolores Park, at 19th Street and Dolores. The march will leave at 7:00pm.

This year's SF Dyke March is entitled "SF Dyke March Two Thousand and Sex." It will be held on Saturday, June 24th in Dolores Park, with speakers and perfomers preceding the 7pm march through the Mission District and to the Castro for a celebration in the street.

Hundreds of thousands of people will throng the streets of San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday. The SF Pride Celebration will be held in Civic Center on Saturday from noon until 6pm, and on Sunday from noon until 7:00pm. This free event will include performances on community stages, including the Trans Stage, Two Spirit Gathering Space and Homo Hip Hop, the Asian and Pacific Islander Stage, Nectar Women's Stage, Soul of Pride African American Stage, Latin stage, and others. There will be gathering spaces for kids, elders, and deaf/hard of hearing folks.
The centerpiece of SF Pride is the Pride March down Market Street. It will begin on Sunday at 10:30am at Market and Beale Streets, and will end at Civic Center. There will be hundreds of contingents, led by Dykes on Bikes.

Pride celebrations are held in many other locations, as well. Read more on Indybay's LGBTQI/Queer News Page

Trans March | Dyke March | Dykes on Bikes | SF Pride | Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

On Saturday, June 3rd, Marriage Equality USA held walks across bridges in California and New York to raise visibility and funds for efforts to win the 1400 state and federal protections for civil marriage for same-sex couples. For the Golden Gate Bridge Walk for Marriage Equality, people gathered at the western end of Chrissy Field at 9:00am, and vans were to bring people to the Golden Gate Bridge for the Walk, which started at 9:30. Single "lesbian soccer mom" Jennifer Schumaker walked the last 5 miles of her 500 mile journey from San Diego to San Francisco in support of LGBT inclusion and marriage equality for same-sex couples. The event ended at 12pm and was followed by a cake reception.

It is expected that the US Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Constitutional Amendment on Monday, June 5th. The aim of the marches on Saturday was to increase outreach and educational efforts against the amendment.

Marriage Equality USA

Lakota Elder Madonna Thunder Hawk spoke in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 30th at 6:30pm, at New College of California. Flyer She is a veteran of every modern Native American struggle, from the occupation of Alcatraz to the siege of Wounded Knee. She is a long-time community organizer with a range of experience in Indian rights protection, cultural preservation, economic development and environmental justice. Audio interview with Madonna Thunder Hawk and Elizabeth Creeley of BACORR

Madonna Thunder Hawk addressed ongoing efforts in South Dakota to secure women's reproductive rights. BACORR says that her work serves as an inspiring model for committed reproductive rights,justice activists in the aftermath of South Dakota's disastrous decision to ban abortion and in the face of ongoing attacks on ourselves, our rights, and our bodies.

Event sponsors: New College of California's Activism and Social Change MA Program | Bay Area Coalition on Reproductive Rights