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September 22 - October 5, 2011 | www.sfbaytimes.com
The LGBTQ Newspaper and Events Calendar for the San Francisco Bay Area | July 28 2011
Transgender Law Center Celebrates 9th Anniversary
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is History
National Organization for Marriage Tries to Circumvent Campaign Finance Law
Masen Davis, Executive Director of TLC.
By Dennis McMillan Joe Solomonese, President of HRC
Tita Aida returned as the always witty and wonderful mistress of ceremonies at the Transgender Law Center’s party on Sept. 16 at the EndUp with Josh Klipp and the Klipptones playing lively jazz and members of the Rice Rockettes dancing and lip-synching as 1940s Rosie the Riveters to “Sweet Sugar Candy Man” by Christina Aguilera. Masen Davis, TLC executive director, opened the event, explaining the function of TLC as a civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. The Transgender Law Center champions the ideal that everyone should be treated fairly and equally. By working for and with transgender people and their allies to change laws, policies, and attitudes, TLC helps make it possible for everyone to be who they are and live safe and fulfilling lives. TLC uses the term “transgender” to represent all of the innumerable genders and forms of gender expression that fall within and outside of stereotypical gender norms. TLC also understands, acknowledges, and resists non-gender based oppressions that limit people’s ability to live in peace. NCLR staff attorney, Ilona Turner, said that TLC, begun in 2002 as a fiscally sponsored project of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is California’s first fully staffed, statewide transgender legal organization. They were created - with early support also from the Pride Law Fund, and the Echoing Green Foundation - to respond to the overwhelming discrimination that transgender people and their families face in nearly every institution in California. In the spring of 2005, they became an independent, tax-exempt organization. Since they opened their doors in 2002, TLC has provided individualized legal information to between almost 1,000 community members and their families each year. Annually, they work directly with about 150 people who need more direct representation or advocacy. For example, they regularly work with clients who are: going to court to get recognition of their name and/or gender; filing asylum applications; trying to prevent or address workplace discrimination; protecting their families; accessing complete and competent health care; responding to discrimination in the criminal justice system; or f ixing problems at their school. (continued on page 5)
By Dennis McMillan
The ban on gays in the military has finally been lifted after more 13 year battle.
By Dayna Verstegen Monday night, September 19 was like New Year’s Eve in many gay bars around the country. At the stroke of midnight, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was off icially repealed. Lt. Gary Ross was the first in the country to marry after the repeal. At the stroke of midnight he and his partner of eleven years tied the knot in Vermont. Justice of the Peace Greg Trulson said “This is Gary’s official coming out.” Ross told USA Today that the end of DADT, will improve some aspects of his military life. “It
[DADT] requires you to lie several times a day. Being in the military is extremely invasive. It becomes a web of excuses you make when you try to be honest as possible but you can’t be honest.” The celebration was echoed in San Francisco as well. At high noon in the blazing sun on Sept. 20 in front of the Veterans’ Building, over 30 LGBT and mainstream news media gathered for a press conference regarding the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” A banner stretched behind the podium stating, “Alexander Hamil-
ton Post 448 San Francisco American Legion.” Mayor Ed Lee said, “I am so proud of everyone who worked for this repeal, both in and out of uniform to get to this day. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is ended forever.” He said before this day, “there were people in the armed forces who could not serve in a unfetished, unbiased way, with obstacles in their path.” He added, “They can now serve in their full potential, not limited in any way.” (continued on page 4)
Activist and Writer Arthur Evans, 1942 - 2011
Community activist and writer Arthur Evans died on September 11 at his home in Haight-Ashbury.
Arthur Evans, one of the founding fathers of modern gay liberation, died of a massive heart attack last week. Months before his death, he emailed a copy of his own obituary he had written. Arthur played a key role in Bay Times history. In recent times, his acerbic and sarcastic letters to the editor on the state of city politics were regularly printed in the paper. But back in October 1979, the Bay Times (then called Coming Up!) was launched, specifically to coincide with Halloween, a big queer/pagan holiday. Arthur had written the book Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture, and that was the title of the lead essay he wrote for the first issue of Bay Times. Here is Arthur’s obituary, which he penned himself: - Kim Corsaro Arthur Evans, long-time San Francisco community activist and writer, died quickly from a massive heart attack in his Haight-Ashbury home early in the morning on Sept. 11.
Diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm in October of 2010, Evans refused risky surgery, opting instead to live out his remaining time on his own terms. This was consistent with a lifetime of challenging convention and honoring his own intuition. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Arthur played a pivotal role in the newly emergent gay liberation movement in New York City. A few weeks after the famous Stonewall Riot of June 1969 (which he missed), Evans and his lover, Arthur Bell, joined The Gay Liberation Front (GLF), a new group that proudly proclaimed itself to be gay, countercultural, and revolutionary. Within GLF, Evans and others created a cell called The Radical Study Group to examine the historical roots of sexism and homophobia. Many of
the participants later became published authors, including Evans, Bell, John Lauritsen, Larry Mitchell, and Steve Dansky. A number of GLF members, including Evans, soon became dissatisfied with the organization, complaining that it lacked a coherent, ongoing program of street activism. On Dec. 21, 1969, they founded The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). Acting on the principle that the personal is the political, GAA held homophobes who were in positions of authority personally accountable for the consequences of their public policies. Evans and others developed the tactic of “zaps.” These were militant (but non-violent) faceto-face confrontations with outspoken homophobes in government, business, and the media. Evans was often arrested in such actions, participat(continued on page 17
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a highly secretive organization believed to be largely funded by the Mormon and Catholic churches. During the country’s greatest economic decline in decades, NOM has amassed huge resources to stop marriage equality, whether at the ballot box or in court. NOM publicly projects rationality and tolerance, yet keeps company with zealots and long-time LGBTQ antagonists. Many of the leading Republican presidential candidates have signed NOM’s pledge calling for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. NOM has filed a slew of lawsuits to shield its donors from public disclosure. But courts and state election boards have consistently disagreed and rejected NOM’s challenges. Donor disclosure is uniformly required across the country for federal, state, and local campaigns, and the practice is widely accepted as a vital means to ensure that elections are conducted transparently and fairly. “For some reason, NOM thinks it doesn’t have to comply with the donor disclosure laws,” said Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign president. “NOM’s aggressive legal strategy to keep its donors secret begs the question, what are they hiding? Is it that they realize it’s no longer popular to be openly antizzgay?” The latest in NOM’s string of legal defeats came when the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the group’s challenges in Maine and Rhode Island. On its Law Blog, the Wall Street Journal put the cases into perspective: “The 1st Circuit issued rulings in two cases that raise an important campaign finance issue: the extent to which states can require advocacy groups to report details about their expenditures in support of candidates or political causes.” Given the recent historical record, states do in fact take disclosure, and legal compliance, in earnest. NOM has unsuccessfully challenged disclosure laws in Maine, Minnesota, New York, California, Rhode Island, and Iowa. Each state has investigated the organization and found against them. (continued on page 17)