LGBTI / Queer News

Thomas Leavitt writes: We are proud to announce the launch of BiNet Santa Cruz, a new grassroots community organization specifically aimed at providing a voice on behalf of and organizational vehicle for the bi+ community in Santa Cruz County. BiNet Santa Cruz is to be a local affiliate of the national BiNet USA organization.

We intend to engage in a dialogue with local community institutions about how to most effectively serve the bi+ community, which recent surveys indicate include anywhere from a quarter to 40% of millennials and younger folks. Individuals who fall under the bi+ umbrella face severe disparities in health and other services, a problem which is only compounded by the fact that disproportionately large numbers of transgender and queer people of color self-identify as bi+, according to a Human Rights Campaign brief prepared in conjunction with BiNet USA and other regional bi organizations.

Our founding steering committee consists of longtime out and proud bi+ community organizers Chai Bryce and Thomas Leavitt, who are joined by: Emilio Barajas, founding President of Pajaro Valley Pride and a newly emerging leader in both the bi and larger Santa Cruz County queer community; and Alina Hammer, longtime local community activist, most recently involved with Compassion and Choices and their effort to make the End Of Life Options Act law in California.

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The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) writes: Over the last year, in the Bay Area alone, there have been dozens of police murders. In San Francisco, we have most recently seen the brutal execution of Mario Woods, in addition to police beating a disabled man in front of the Twitter building and racist text messages exchanged between SFPD on-duty officers. In Oakland, we have seen a string of Black men murdered by police since only June of 2015. In fact, a recent graphic by Mapping Police Violence shows that in 2015, Oakland ranks third in police killings per million people in 60 of America's largest cities.

APTP has called for the Second Annual 96 Hours of Direct Action and Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March. For four days, hundreds of community members from over two dozen groups in both Oakland and San Francisco will unleash a spectrum of disruptive and creative activity. In the spirit of MLK, these actions will meaningfully interrupt business as usual whether that be with direct action, teach-ins, concerts or prayer vigils.

Demands include: The resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf; The immediate termination of Chief Sean Whent; The immediate termination of Chief Greg Suhr; The immediate termination of the officers involved in the murders of Richard Perkins, Mario Woods, Yuvette Henderson, Amilcar Lopez, Alex Nieto, Demouriah Hogg and Richard Linyard; Respect our Sanctuary Cities. ICE Out Oakland and San Francisco! No deportations! No Arrests!; and The immediate reallocation of city budgets: reduce police budgets and reallocate those funds to provide for affordable housing that allows Black, Brown and other people of color to remain in San Francisco and Oakland.

Read More | AntiPoliceTerrorProject.org | Coverage from 2015 | First Annual March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy | Oakland 2015 | Hard Knock Radio on MLK and 2016 Reclaim MLK 96 Hours of Action

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Full List of 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Events from the Indybay Calendar:

[Events listed are mostly APTP 96Hours-affiliated, some independent.]

Friday 1/15: Communities in Oakland and San Francisco will hold actions calling out the rampant gentrification occurring on both sides of the bridge.
96 Hours to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy: Friday in the Fillmore
Event announcements: No Sprouts In Oakland: Stop Gentrification of Local Food Economy | "Can You See Me?" Interfaith Procession in Remembrance of Black Lives | Reclaim SF! Reclaim MLK's Radical Legacy!

Saturday 1/16: The Oakland Community will call out the many forms of state terror occurring in The Town. Unannounced actions included a protest at the home of mayor Libby Schaaf in Oakland and police chief Sean Whent in Brentwood.
Event announcements: #CallOutLibby: the Bay Area calls out Libby Schaaf | Will their killing of MARIO WOODS be exploited by SFPD to acquire Tasers? HELL NO!!! / SF Forum On The Danger Of Tasers | Street Convos for Racial Justice in Oakland | Fast Food Workers' Action | BAMN-UC Berkeley "East meets West" March | Santa Cruz NAACP Annual Youth Day & Gospel Night | Children's Power: Play Action | Oakland Airport "Say Their Names"

Sunday 1/17: The people will unite in San Francisco to call out state terror, economic terror and the corrupt city governments that allow it to continue. Unannounced actions included demonstrations in front of the homes of mayor Ed Lee and police chief Greg Suhr.
Good Morning, Police Chief Greg Suhr!
Event announcements: "The moral passivity of a pastured cow" SF real estate walking tour | Paul Rockwell: Dr. King on imperialism and war | San Francisco March for Tech Diversity and Equity | San Francisco Airport "Say Their Names" | Visions for Racial Justice in Oakland: A Community Conversation | Black Panther Party history teach-in with Fred Hampton Jr

Monday 1/18: Second Annual Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy March from Oakland to Emeryville. Unannounced was a shutdown of the Bay Bridge.
Reclaim MLK March 2016: Oakland, California | Workers and Community Activists Rally On 2016 Oakland MLK Day | Support Black.Seed collective's bail fund for #BlackHealthMatters #BayBridge action! | Black.Seed Shuts Down Bay Bridge to Reclaim MLK's Radical Legacy | Black Queer Liberation Collective Black.Seed Shuts Down Bay Bridge
Event announcements: Children's Teach In: Reconstructing History, Deconstructing Power | Planting Justice Vigil for Economic Justice & Empowerment | Pre-March Protest in Solidarity with the fighting people of Haiti | Artists for Black Lives | Second Annual March to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy / Culmination of #96Hours of Direct Action Weekend | The 19th Annual Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Previous Related Indybay Feature: Bay Area Pulls Off 96 Hours of Action as Part of National Call to "Reclaim King’s Legacy" (2015)

On July 1, hundreds came together in spirit, unity, and love to transform the unacceptable destruction of the mural on the outside wall of Galeria de La Raza in the Mission District of San Francisco. The mural installed by the Los Angeles Maricon Collective is a celebration of LGBTQ people, and accompanies the presentation in the Galeria, The Q-Sides.

Supervisor David Campos and staff brought the community together. He spoke of the pain this act caused him as a gay man who could not come out until he was 26 years old. Campos and every speaker emphasized that unity must be maintained in the Mission, healing with love not revenge, even though the vandalism was a hate crime

Trans man, Lucindo, spoke of the deep emotions, pain, and scars the mural image of the trans Latino man brought up inside. René Yañez, a founder of Galeria de la Raza, spoke its history and that the Galeria has always celebrated our differences and maintained our love for the Mission and one another.

Read More with Photos | More Photos and Video

Same-sex weddings took place across the country after the Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that all 50 states must now permit LGBTQ couples "the fundamental right to marry." The historic decision puts an end to marriage equality bans that remained in 14 states, impacting tens of thousands of couples. The plaintiff in the case, Jim Obergefell, celebrated the victory: "Today’s ruling from the Supreme Court affirms what millions across this country already know to be true in our hearts: Our love is equal..."

After the Supreme Court’s historic ruling on marriage equality, many LGBT organizers are now redirecting their attention to obtaining federal, state and local legal protections in areas of employment, housing and commerce. Nationwide, anti-discrimination laws for gay people are inconsistent and unequal with only 22 states barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Locally, activists want to shift the focus to issues that LGBT immigrants face in detention centers across the U.S. Transgender activists indicate that LGBTQ immigrant detainees are uniquely vulnerable to abuse, including sexual assault, while in custody. In prison settings, non-heterosexual prison inmates report sexual assault is higher than heterosexual inmates, with almost 40 percent of transgender inmates in prisons are sexually assaulted.

In San Francisco, kicking off Pride weekend on June 26 was a trans rally and march. As is custom, the rally was held in Dolores Park, then the Trans March worked its way through the streets of the Mission into downtown SF. The San Francisco Trans March is San Francisco’s largest transgender Pride event and one of the largest trans events in the entire world.

LGBTQ Weddings, Pride Celebrations Follow Historic Supreme Court Ruling on Marriage Equality | Chelsea Manning Contingent in the SF Pride Parade | Armed Trans People Will Not Get Bashed! | Trans Pride SF 2015 - audio from the stage and march | Stonewall Was a RIOT: No Pride in Police Brutality | Transgender Immigrants Taking A Stand Against Abuse: Trans March 2015 | Trans March! 2015 | Open Letter to SF Pride (re: Pink Brick for AirBnB)

The Sisters for Perpetual Indulgence rallied in front of Facebook's headquarters on June 1 to demand that the social media company remove the fake-name reporting option and stop asking users for government IDs. They stood with representatives of the African-American and Native American communities to say that it's not fair that anybody can claim someone is using a fake name and report that person to Facebook for scrutiny.

Victims of domestic violence also called for a change to Facebook's policy requiring that members use only birth names. They said that using their real name exposes them to their abusers.

People should be able to remain anonymous, the protesters said. Many Native Americans have two-word last names that were sometimes handed down in tribal ceremonies. White separatists have been able to disable Native American Facebook accounts by reporting tribal names as "fake" to Facebook. Sam White Swan-Perkins quoted Native legal activist Chase Iron Eyes as having said, "we are just the messengers, our warriors haven’t even shown up, and that’s when Facebook is going to pay attention."

Read More with Photos and Video

According to the Transgender Law Center, five transgender women of color have been violently killed within the first two months of 2015 in the United States. One murder locally has rattled the nerves of the local transgender community. On February 1, Taja Gabrielle de Jesus was stabbed repeatedly by an unknown assailant while walking down a street in the Bayview district in San Francisco. The stabbing death has mobilized the local transgender community to address their concerns with the San Francisco city government.

Approximately 200 people rallied on the steps of city hall for Transgender Tuesday on February 10. A permit was requested for the event but was denied by the SF sheriff’s department purportedly because the Board of Supervisors were meeting that day. The rally was held anyway without a permit.

Murders Motivate Transgender Community | Taja Gabrielle de Jesus Memorial Fund | TransgenderLawCenter.org

Claudia Tirado, a third grade teacher and tenant being evicted by Google's head of eDiscovery, Jack Halprin, queered her fight to remain in her home at the Folsom Street Fair on September 21. With other activists from Eviction Free San Francisco, Tirado handed out condoms for "eviction protection" at the annual kink and sex-positive SoMa fair in front of the Powerhouse bar. Halprin is active in the Powerhouse and leather community, and was part of the Powerhouse contingent during the 2014 Pride Parade. Eviction Free SF reported that many fair attendees agreed that housing is a queer issue and that it is unconscionable for Halprin to evict residents so that he can have a private mansion just three blocks from the Google bus stop at 18th and Dolores.

Halprin bought the 7-unit 812 Guerrero in 2012, and then illegally Owner-Move-In evicted one tenant, Susan, only days after her sister passed away. She filed a lawsuit against him, and won. In retaliation, he then proceeded to issue Ellis Act eviction notices to the other tenants in four other units in the building, including the unit where Claudia and her three-year-old son Valentino reside. Eviction Free SF has been demanding that Google pressure Halprin to rescind the eviction, utilizing tactics from bus blockades to demonstrations in Mountain View.

Read More | Eviction Free San Francisco