Special Section: World AIDS Day. Starts on Page 13.
Ready to Deck the Halls and Light Up the Menorah? Check Out the Special Holiday Calendar. Starts on Page 22.
Dr. Betty Sullivan’s Gift Guide for the Holidays. Page 3.
The LGBTQ Newspaper and Events Calendar for the San Francisco Bay Area | July 28 2011 www.sfbaytimes.com
December 1-14, 2011 | www.sfbaytimes.com
PHOTO BY RIN K
World AIDS Day 2011
Activists React to Prop 8 Ruling in Federal Court
Activists Stuart Gaffney and Shelly Bailes protested at a Prop 8 rally at the State Courthouse on Nov. 17.
By Dennis McMillan
“Man with Skull.” Artist: George Towne | See more art in our special World AIDS Day feature starting on page 13.
World A I DS Day, December 1, presents an opportunity for San Franciscans and people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV. This year’s event also marks the thirtieth anniversary of the pandemic. Those of us who were around in 1981 will never forget the chilling news that spring about five previously healthy gay men from Los Angeles suffering from what
was then described as a deadly form of pneumonia. Since that fateful year, more than 25 million people have died from HIV/ AIDS. An estimated 33.3 million people globally are living with HIV now. According to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, a total of 28,409 San Francisco residents since 1981
have been diagnosed with AIDS, which comprises 18% of California AIDS cases and 3% of cases reported nationally. The statistics, however, don’t put much of a face on the disease. For that, we look to our hearts to remember irreplaceable loved ones who succumbed to HIV/AIDS. It
is impossible to value or put a number on treasured, loving individuals whose contributions to our lives and communit ies were cut shor t by this still relentless disease. There is little doubt we have all been deeply touched by what has become one of the most serious, deadly diseases in human history.
PHOTO BY AMA NDA BLAN TON
Reveling in the Holidays
Kelsey Hartman and Lynn Ungar with their daughter Mattea Hartman perform each year with the California Revels.
Kim Silverman plays Merlin in the 2011 California Revels production which takes place in Camelot.
By Lynn Ungar
annual holiday tradition. But eventually we realized that the only people who could possibly be having more fun than the audience were the people on stage. And so, as soon as our daughter was old enough we decided (all three of us) to audition to join the cast, and our picture of what the holidays look like took a major turn.
For as long as my wife and I have been a family (even before we adopted our daughter) as soon as December has rolled around we’ve dragged out the boxes and set up the Chanukah menorah in a window, strung little, sparkly lights in the eaves and decorated a tree (spruce, not fir) with a growing collection of treasures. Our family, two white women and our African-American daughter, doesn’t look much like the Norman Rockwell paintings one associates with the sea-
son, but we had our own picture of holiday cheer. When we moved back to California my parents invited us to join them for a show called the Christmas Revels, which performs each year at the Scottish Rite Temple on Oakland’s Lake Merritt. Even our daughter, who was only three year old at the time, loved the music and the dancing, the children’s chorus and storytelling, the beautiful costumes and the chance to sing along. Attending the Christmas Revels with my parents became our
1 BAY TIMES DECEM BER 1, 2011
We were swept into a whole new way of celebrating the season. There was no time for elaborate decorations at home, but we sang and danced on a stage painted in glorious colors. We
didn’t shop for party clothes, but we dressed up for days on end in intricate, amazing costumes. Each year the place and the time period of the show is different—frontier French Canada, Victorian England, a medieval castle, Bavaria, Ireland—but the magic remains the same. We come together to build a community of song and dance and story, and then invite the audience to join that community of celebration with us. The Christmas Revels has been happening in Oakland for over a quarter (continued on page 25)
The California Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the proponents of Proposition 8 - removing the right for same-sex couples to legally marry - have the right under state law to appeal a federal court decision that struck down the law. The case now goes back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a future decision on whether the voter-approved ban on marriage equality violates the federal Constitution. The ruling provides an advisory opinion requested by the federal appeals court earlier this year. The sponsors of the 2008 ballot initiative are seeking to appeal a decision in which now-retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down the measure, saying that it violates the U.S. Constitution. But in January, the federal appeals court said that U.S. law as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court does not appear to allow such an appeal when state off icials, including Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris, have refused to defend the measure. The federal court then asked the state high court to advise whether state law provides such a right. In this last ruling, the California court said there is such a right and that “the purpose and integrity of the initiative process” set forth in the state Constitution are at stake. It must be emphasized that the court was not ruling on the validity of Prop 8 itself, but rather on a procedural matter that affects all initiatives enacted by California voters. “This decision by the California Supreme Court simply means that we continue forward in our fight to achieve full equality for all couples in California,” said State Senator Mark Leno. “We expect the legal challenge to Proposition 8 to be a long one, and this is merely a small bump in that (continued on page 4)