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Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington has two challengers in re-election fight.
What’s coming up in theatre, art, television and art-films.
Leather & Sex! Folsom Street Fair and events.
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BAYAREAREPORTER
Vol. 40
. No. 35 . 2 September 2010
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Pride returns to Oakland
Prelude to Oakland Pride
by Seth Hemmelgarn or the first time since 2003, a full-fledged LGBT Pride festival is set for Oakland. The LGBTQ Oakland Pride Festival will be held Sunday, September 5, from noon to 6 p.m. The main enterance is at 20th and Broadway in the Uptown District. The theme is “We Got the Funk: Di- Joe Hawkins versity in Action.” The legendary Chaka Khan (“I Feel for You,” “Ain’t Nobody”), is headlining the event. Other entertainers include the popular Martha Wash (“It’s Rainin’ Men”). The festival will also include a family and kid friendly area along with food, beverage, and community booths.
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Jane Philomen Cleland
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he ninth annual Sistahs Steppin’ in Pride East Bay Dyke March drew a crowd on Saturday, August 28 as marchers went from Lake Merritt to nearby Snow Park for an afternoon of music and entertainment. The event occurred just a week before the revival of Oakland Pride, which takes place Sunday, September 5.
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ichard Walters, who wrote under the pen name Sweet Lips and was a longtime Bay Area Reporter columnist who started writing for the paper when it was founded in 1971, Richard Walters, died Saturday, Aua.k.a. Sweet Lips gust 28. He was 87. Steven Rascher, a friend of Sweet Lips and executor of his estate, said the columnist died at Brookside Skilled Nursing Hospital in San Mateo Saturday evening. He described the cause of death as heart trouble. Sweet Lips and the late B.A.R. founding publisher Bob Ross were roommates when Sweet Lips started his self-described gossip column. Friends had helped with the column in recent years. Declining health led him to retire the column in June. Thomas E. Horn, the B.A.R.’s current publisher, called Sweet Lips “the Herb Caen of the LGBT community from the 1960s on,” referring to the late, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist. For years, Sweet Lips wrote about people, bars, and events in San Francisco’s Polk and Tenderloin areas. He worked in a few of the bars in the area. “When the Polkstrasse was the center of gay life in San Francisco, Lips knew every bartender, every club owner, most of the patrons, all of the cute boys, and, thus, most of the gossip of the community,” said Horn in an e-mail. “He will always be a seminal part of gay history in San Francisco and will be particularly missed by his B.A.R. family,” Horn added. In June, Sweet Lips recalled that he started the column to provide “publicity for other people and myself.” The columnist wore a charm bracelet with little red lips hanging from it to a lunch interview, where he had two Cape Cod cocktails with his food. He also explained how he got his name. “Because of my wonderful disposition,” he said, someone suggested his name should be “Sour Lips.” But others said it should be “Sweet Lips,” and the name stuck. He recalled the way the Polk area used to be decades ago, when gay bars were more prominent there. It was also ground zero for the gay community before the Castro became the city’s major “gayborhood.” “Polk Street used to be a good cruising area,” said Sweet Lips. “Even I made out.” Rascher said Sweet Lips was born December 1, 1922, in Illinois. He eventually moved to San Francisco in the 1950s. According to Rascher, Sweet Lips had been
Jane Philomen Cleland
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by Seth Hemmelgarn
LGBT journalists’ group turns 20 by Seth Hemmelgarn he organization that has helped alter the media landscape for LGBTs inside and out of the country’s newsrooms is turning 20 this year. The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s national convention and seventh annual LGBT Media Summit will convene in San Francisco starting today [Thursday, September 2] through September 5. Founded in 1990 by the late Leroy “Roy” Aarons, NLGJA includes journalists, media professionals, educators, and students who work from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues. The group also opposes workplace bias and provides professional development to its members. It is not a media watchdog group like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Michael Tune, NLGJA’s executive director, said the organization has had an “incredible” role in changes that have occurred in the last two decades. Tune said he now sees his “family” in the news, and, “I see stories daily. Especially now with the Internet, there are fantastic sources who are always reporting what’s going on, or their opinion with an LGBT focus.” He said the organization, which is based in Washington, D.C., has helped equip print journalists, broadcasters, bloggers, and other members “with the tools they need to do their job and to do it well.” The media have come a long way since the organization started. According to NLGJA’s website, in April 1989, the American Society of Newspaper Editors mandated its first-ever survey of LGBT journalists in American newspapers. A year later, Aarons presented the results of the survey at ASNE’s convention in Washington, D.C. and simultaneously came out publicly. The report inspired a call for a professional organization for LGBT journalists, and under Aarons’s guidance, NLGJA was formally incorporated in 1991. Aarons, who was once the executive editor of the Oakland Tribune, died in 2004 at the age of 70, after battling cancer.
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NLGJA Executive Director Michael Tune
Since then, journalism has become more hospitable to LGBTs. Tune noted that when the organization started 20 years ago, “very few” outlets even offered same-sex benefits to employees. But there are rough spots. The rise of the Internet coupled with a tough economy have meant declining ad revenue, especially at newspapers. Many media outlets, including the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, have made cuts. Others, such as the LGBT-oriented New York Blade, have shut down. This year, topics at the convention will center around journalists’ needs in the new economy. Session topics will include better use of journalism tools, networking skills, and resume tips. David Steinberg, president of NLGJA’s board and a member of the executive committee, said the group’s mission hasn’t changed, but he indicated professional development is one area where there’s more focus. NLGJA works to ensure members have the tools they need to be valuable employees, because as newsrooms cut back, it’s important to
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have out LGBTs in newsrooms, he said. “Basically, we’re not an activist organization yelling at people saying, ‘Why are you doing this, why aren’t you doing that?’” said Steinberg, who is the copy desk chief and stylebook editor for the Chronicle. “We are journalists, so we work from within the newsroom to try to improve coverage. If we’re not working, and we’re not in the newsroom, we can’t do that.” NLGJA has had financial problems the past couple years, but Tune said the situation has stabilized – at least, “as far as I think anything can stabilize in this economy,” he said. Tune, whose background is in nonprofit management, has been with the organization for about a year and a half. He credits strategic decisions and a quick response to the changing economy by the organization’s leadership for turning things around. Steinberg said that at around $500,000, NLGJA’s budget is “probably half of what it was a few years ago.” The organization has also gone from having seven staffers to two, he said. There are around 700 members in the organization.
Other changes Michael Triplett, who is a board member and writes for Re:Act, NLGJA’s blog, said the Times is one place that has been transformed by activism from NLGJA and others. The Times started publishing same-sex wedding announcements after NLGJA met with gay and lesbian Times staffers, along with publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and other senior officers of the paper. Triplett said one challenge now for the organization is how new media journalists, such as bloggers, and people from more traditional media can work together. He said there are bloggers and others who would argue, “They’re not there to provide news and balance, they’re there to provide opinion and activism. ... They’re very good at it, but I don’t think they’re trying to be neutral and objective.” Triplett is the assistant chief of correspondents for the Bureau of National Affairs Inc., which publishes specialized news and informa-
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‘Sweet Lips,’ an original B.A.R. columnist, dies at 87
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