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‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
Shawn Ryan
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 48 • November 29-December 5, 2018
South Bay opens trans health center; OKs shelter
Openhouse announces lottery date
by Alex Madison
A
by Matthew S. Bajko
T
he South Bay’s first transgender-specific health clinic opens Thursday, November 29, for a half day inside the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in Jo-Lynn Otto downtown San Jose. Supervisor In other South Bay Ken Yeager news, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted to approve a lease for the county to operate an LGBT-specific adult homeless shelter. After two years in the making, the Gender Health Center will have a soft opening in December with limited services and be fully operational starting in January. The clinic will offer hormone treatments, trans-affirmative gynecologic care, sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, HIV See page 12 >>
City Hall recalls Milk, Moscone
by Matthew S. Bajko
G
ay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and Mayor London Breed, who were both small children at the time of the 1978 assassinations of mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk, held a special commemoration under the rotunda of City Hall Tuesday afternoon to honor the two men. They both credited their political predecessors with laying the groundwork for their own elections 40 years later this past June. “Young people today may not be aware of how significant it was to have Harvey Milk as the first openly gay elected leader in the city,” said Breed, who was 4 years old in 1978. “Mayor Moscone was making the kinds of appointments that were just not happening here in San Francisco. He made sure to appoint AfricanAmericans, women, and LGBT people. It was significant then and something we take for granted today.” See page 8 >>
Rick Gerharter
Santa visits Castro
S
anta stopped by the annual lighting of the Castro Merchants’ holiday tree Monday, November 26, to pass out candy canes to the children who were there. Groups participating in the tree lighting
included the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus.
pplicants looking to be selected for 57 units of affordable housing aimed at LGBT seniors in San Francisco will have seven days to enter into the lottery starting next Friday, Kelly Sullivan December 7. Karyn Skultety, Ph.D The last day for people to submit the required application form will be the following Friday, December 14. It is expected that upward of 3,000 seniors, both LGBT and straight, age 62 and older will seek to live at the new building under construction at 95 Laguna Street. Openhouse, a nonprofit provider of LGBT senior services in San Francisco, disclosed the application window dates late on Wednesday, November 21, the day prior to Thanksgiving. It has since mailed out letters to those seniors See page 12 >>
Milk, Moscone celebrated at vigil
by David-Elijah Nahmod
A
light, steady rain did not deter about 500 people from gathering in San Francisco Tuesday, November 27, to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassinations of mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to office in California. Disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White snuck into City Hall and killed both men after he asked the mayor for his old job back and was refused. Joining the crowd that met in the Castro and marched to City Hall was Milk’s gay nephew, Stuart Milk; gay former supervisor Harry Britt; activist Cleve Jones; and a number of others who knew Milk personally. Younger people who had not yet been born when the assassinations took place in 1978 also came out to celebrate the lives of the two men. “Three years ago Harvey Milk was a character in ‘The Mayor of Castro Street,’ a book that I read in my little apartment in Denver,” Scott Bird, a gay 24-year-old, told the Bay Area Reporter. “I’d been to San Francisco many times but never knew his legacy until reading that book. Every time I came to this city I would come to this street and reflect on that legacy. I had no way of knowing that I would move here, and since I’ve been here I keep the reverence of that legacy with me. “I’m honored to be able to light this candle the same way they did 40 years ago in
Rick Gerharter
Former supervisor Harry Britt speaks at the candlelight march November 27 to mark the 40th anniversary of the City Hall assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
remembrance of the hope that Harvey Milk gave to me and to so many others,” he added. Mayor London Breed praised the two progressive San Francisco leaders. “Thank you all for coming to honor the legacy of two amazing men,” she said. “Two men who paved the way for LGBT people, for people of color. Moscone had a partner in Harvey Milk to make sure that everyone was included.” The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performed a rendition of “Singing For Our Lives (Gentle Angry People),” a song lesbian
singer-songwriter Holly Near wrote on the day of the assassinations. The chorus had sung the song on the steps of City Hall that very night for what was their first public performance. The song was updated slightly for the vigil. After the line “We are gay and straight together, and we are singing, singing for our lives,” the chorus added a new line: “We are trans and cis together, and we are singing, singing for our lives.” “I think it’s important for organizations like the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus to commemorate anniversaries like this so that people who are my age know where we came from,” said gay man Andrew Caldwell, 32. Caldwell also said that he would like to be able to thank Milk. “I would have loved to have seen what else he could have done with his life,” he said. David A. Diaz, a 53-year-old gay man who just joined the chorus, told the B.A.R. that he was “extremely proud” to have taken part in the evening. “It’s tremendously significant to me to get to be part of something that I think is part of history,” Diaz said. “Harvey Milk is my idol and hero. The year I came out was the year the documentary ‘The Times of Harvey Milk’ was released. He inspired me so much at an early age. I went from being a closeted, confused kid to being a full blown activist a year later.” Friends of Milk who spoke included Britt, See page 8 >>
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