Congressional resolution honors Black LGBTQs

compiled by Cynthia Laird

Aresolution

authored by Congressmember Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and two gay House members honored Black LGBTQ Americans as Black History Month came to a close.

Joining Lee, a straight ally, in authoring the resolution were Congressmembers Ritchie Torres (D-New York) and Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin). All are members of the Congressional Equality Caucus, of which Lee is a founding member and current vice chair, and Pocan is the current chair.

The resolution, introduced February 27, has 32 co-sponsors, including co-leads, a news release stated. It needs to be voted on by the House.

Lee recently announced that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California).

“For generations, we have seen the erasure of Black LGBTQI+ Americans from our history, despite all of the rich and impactful contributions these individuals have made to our culture, society, and the advancement of civil rights,” Lee stated in the release.

Torres, who identifies as Afro-Latino, added, “Black LGBTQ+ Americans have made countless and indel ible contributions to our society that have enriched our lives, informed our history, and enhanced our culture across so many industries and institutions.”

The list of those honored in the resolution is a mix of living and deceased Black LGBTQ leaders. Among those recognized are Justice Martin Jenkins, the first openly LGBTQ person to serve on the California Supreme Court after Governor Gavin Newsom nominated him in 2020; the late Oakland A’s baseball player Glenn Burke; and Karine Jean-Pierre, a lesbian who currently serves as press secretary to President Joe Biden.

Others listed include lesbian Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot; queer Black Lives Matters co-founders Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza; and Andrea Jenkins, the first transgender woman to be elected to public office in Minnesota, where she serves on the Minneapolis City Council.

For a complete list, go to https://bit. ly/3J0pOJi

Leather district takes over ‘Dildeaux’ awards

Nominations are now open for the 51st annual Golden Dildeaux Awards, which this year have been taken over by the San Francisco Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District. A time-honored tradition in the leather community that had been produced by the Golden Gate Guards for the last 28 years, the awards are a good-humored contest for the sometimes-coveted, sometimes-embarrassing categories with suggestive subjects and names, a news release stated.

The awards also serve as a fundraiser as votes cost $1 each, with proceeds benefiting the emergency financial assistance program of PRC. Everyone is entitled to an unlimited number of votes for five nominees in 26 categories, the release stated. Some of the cheeky categories include “best sex,” “biggest pig,” and “best fister.”

The winners will be revealed the night of the Woodies Awards ceremony where they will come onstage to receive their Woody trophies. The Woodies take place Saturday, April 22, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the SF Eagle, 398 12th Street.

The leather district noted that the Dildeaux awards have a storied history. In 1974, the late Bay Area Reporter leather columnist Mister Marcus (Marcus Hernandez) founded them at the old Boot Camp Bar to raise money for the Tavern Guild Freedom Day parade float. By 1985, the awards had become a fundraiser for the old AIDS Emergency Fund (then known as the SF AIDS Fund).

In 1994, Hernandez asked the Golden Gate Guards to take on the awards, which the group did for 28 years, the release stated, building it from cardboard donation boxes in various bars to online voting and payments.

The Guards decided to dissolve last year, the release noted, at its 36th anniversary party. Members then turned over the Dildeaux awards to the leather district, which is honored to continue the tradition, officials stated.

In 2018, AEF merged with PRC.

The deadline for nominations is Thursday, March 9. Those will be revealed at the Golden Dildeaux launch party and beer bust Sunday, March 12, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the SF Eagle, after which voting begins. Balloting ends Thursday, April 20.

To make a nomination, go to https://bit.ly/3yfqVyB. For more information, go to https://sfleatherdistrict.org/gda/.

National LGBTQ coming out hotline now open

The LGBT National Help Center has launched its newest program, a coming out support hotline. According to a news release, the hotline focuses specifically on the concerns of those who are struggling with coming out issues, regardless of age or how each person defines that process. All services are free and confidential, and the hotline is staffed by LGBTQIA+ volunteers.

The LGBT National Help Center, based in San Francisco, is a nonprofit organization with a 26-year history of providing coming out services, the release stated.

Hotline volunteers would not tell someone to come out, the release noted, as that is a highly personal decision. But the peer volunteers can provide a safe space on the phone to discuss and consider a person’s physical and mental safety, as well as their options and how they might choose to move forward.

“When people in our community are considering one of the most important decisions of their lives, together we can provide critical support and care to those in the LGBTQIA+ community who are terrified to simply be themselves,” stated Aaron Almanza, executive director of the hotline.

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“When they [the LGBTQ team] beat the police department it was enormous news,” Brigham said. “Most of the time police and queers had been in the same headlines, it was because of police brutality, bar raids, and aggressive acts against our community. Putting police players, queer players on the same field added tremendous legitimacy to the queer community and put them together in a regular activity rather than eying across barricades at one another.”

The tradition of the teams playing each other continued through 1978, when the assassination of gay supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone by former supervisor and police officer Dan White once again soured relationships between the communities.

The role the softball league has in breaking down social barriers, however, continues to this day, the players told the B.A.R.

On the one hand, being LGBTQ in professional sports is still often stigmatized. For example, baseball pitcher Solomon Bates became just the second active minor league player to come out as gay, as the New York Times reported.

“It helps build camaraderie and people’s self esteem,” Fuqua said about the league, adding the players are happy about their 50th anniversary partnership with the San Francisco Giants.

“It’s a huge thing to have a Major League Baseball team help out,” Fuqua said.

Orlando Diaz, a gay man who is the softball league’s director of business development, said that while details are in the works, “we’re definitely going to be a big part of their [the Giants’] Pride night.”

Added Fuqua: “We may also be a part of the throwing out of the first pitch as well.”

Pride Night is scheduled for June 10; The Giants organization did not respond to a request for comment for this report as of press time.

Peter Graham, a gay man who has been involved with the league since 2000, said it is his second gay softball league and that there are characteristics that make it unique from others.

“I played in Philadelphia in the league in 1995,” Graham said. “I’ve been involved in the SFGSL since 2000. When I first started playing, it was a great way to meet other LGBTQ folks who were also into sports. It’s an LGBTQ league, so we didn’t have to worry about any of the stuff going on with harassment or anything like that.”

Graham continued that he likes that the league is both friendly and serious about the game.

“SFGSL is just a really great league,” he said. “People are friendly, supportive, inclusive – but we’re also competitive too and we try to play the right way.”

Brigham said that the gay league “helped break down public prejudice against the queer community.”

“When they [straight people] see us as jocks, it changes viewpoints in the fight for acceptance,” Brigham said.

But the barriers the league tackles are also within the LGBTQ community. Fuqua said there’ve been allsober, all-drag, and all-trans teams over the years.

“This is all about making sure our members are fully included,” Fuqua said. “We have such a variety because we want people to come and grow and be themselves. We even had an all-straight team because we have a lot of allies.”

Brigham said that historically environments like the softball league, and other LGBTQ sporting leagues, have helped people feel included who either feel marginalized by, or are not attracted to, the nightlife scene.

“The greater gay sports movement came out at the same time as AIDS and sort of became an alternative lifestyle to just meeting people in the bars,” he said. Fighting for equality

But that inclusive and open attitude has not come without contro- versy. In particular, three San Francisco players – LaRon Charles, Jon Russ, and Steven Apilado – helped to spearhead changes to the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association’s rules to include bisexual and trans players.

The three could not be reached for comment.

When San Francisco’s team D2 made it to the NAGAAA championship in 2008, the players were questioned about their sexual orientations (players were ruled either gay or straight, with no option for any other sexual orientation or gender identity) and when one stated he was bisexual, a NAGAAA member said “this is not a bisexual world series – this is a gay world series.”

The team was disqualified on the basis it had too many non-gay players, which led to Charles, Russ, and Apilado filing suit. They were represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. While the three plaintiffs were men of color, two white players who were similarly questioned were ultimately ruled to be gay.

The case was settled in 2011.

“In the settlement, NAGAAA recognized that disqualifying the players from the 2008 tournament was not consistent with NAGAAA’s intention of being inclusive of bisexual players,” NCLR states on its website.

“NAGAAA now recognizes the players’ team, D2, as a secondplace winner of the 2008 Gay Softball World Series, and will award the team a second-place trophy. NAGAAA expressed regret at the impact the 2008 protest hearing process had on the players and their team. As a result of this case, NAGAAA changed its rules to be fully inclusive of all bisexual and transgender players, permitting an unlimited number of bisexual or transgender players to participate on a Gay Softball World Series team.”

Shannon Minter, a trans man who is legal director of the NCLR, stated that the nonprofit is proud of its work on the case.

“We were very honored to represent the plaintiffs in this case and to shine a light on the need to ensure that the Gay Softball League is open to all queer men – including bisexual men of color. Of course our community institutions are not perfect or immune to bias,” Minter stated. “Facing up to problems can be painful, but doing so is always better than pretending they don’t exist. These issues of exclusion and belonging are often hyper-charged for LGBTQ people because so many of us have faced trauma and exclusion. In our search for safe spaces we must be vigilant about not creating or even passively tolerating new exclusions.”

The NAGAAA did not respond to a request for comment for this report as of press time.

The upcoming season is “getting ready to start March 26,” Fuqua said, adding that a season-opening celebration will be held March 19 at the James P. Lang Athletic Fields on Cathedral Hill. Teams play usually at either Kimball Field (at Geary and Steiner streets, in the Western Addition) or Moscone Park (at Laguna and Chestnut streets, in the Marina). For more information, go to http://www.sfgsl.org/

The final day to register for the coming season is May 9, Bracco stated. For most players, the cost to do so is $95.

“The later date gives teams time to finalize rosters before the [NAGAAA] World Series and allows people to join late,” Bracco stated. “Regular season games end June 18, we typically wrap up before Pride. Then we have the End of Season Tournament on July 9.”

The world series is August 28-September 2 in Minneapolis, and the series for the women’s+ division is September 6-9 in San Diego. t

Volume 53, Number 09

March 2-8, 2023 www.ebar.com

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