September 19, 2013 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Forum celebrates JFK's legacy

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Classic cars returns to Castro

ARTS

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Bay Area Cabaret

The

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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Event to help LGBTQs ‘Connect’ by Seth Hemmelgarn

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ity officials and service providers in fields ranging from housing to dentistry are encouraging LGBTQ people to attend an event offering services they may be reluctant to seek out. LGBTQ Connect is set for Monday, October 7 at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Organizers hope to see people who don’t always know where to get help, or who fear they’ll be shunned if Rick Gerharter they ask for it. Bevan Dufty Pre-registration is encouraged but not required for the event, which will also include services such as legal assistance and sexuallytransmitted infection testing. Planners have been influenced by local statistics. In late June, the biennial San Francisco Homeless Point-In-Time Count and Survey was released and, for the first time, included statistics on LGBT people. The report found that out of a total of 7,350 homeless people, more than one in four (29 percent) identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or “other” for a total of 2,132. Bevan Dufty, a gay man who serves as director of Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement for Mayor Ed Lee, was among those who cited the survey when talking about the need for LGBTQ Connect. The event is modeled after the city’s ongoing Project Homeless Connect, but the title’s been altered because some people “have difficulty defining themselves as homeless,” said Dufty. That includes people who are couch surfing or people who are worried about losing their rent-controlled apartments. “If you question the strength of your safety net,” LGBTQ Connect is an appropriate venue, he said. “Traditionally, there are not many LGBT service agencies that have come” to Project Homeless Connect, and “having this connect enables us to craft a day which is maybe more relevant for LGBTQ persons,” said Dufty. Based on the homeless report’s findings and estimates that at least 94,234 LGBT people live in San Francisco, LGBT housing activists estimate that 2.3 percent are homeless, compared to less than 1 percent for the general population. Brian Basinger, director of AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco, who noted the disproportion, said, “The city historically has not invested in homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing for LGBT people, and it’s that lack of investment that has caused these outrageous rates of homelessness.” Basinger added, “There’s a perception of discrimination in city services, or a fear of discrimination. It doesn’t matter whether discrimination is happening or not. These are people’s feelings, and those feelings and fears are creating barriers to homelessness prevention work for the community with the highest need. The system isn’t working as it’s currently constructed.” Representatives from agencies that address complaints about services, such as the city’s Human Rights Commission, are among those expected to be on hand at LGBTQ Connect. Dufty said officials want to survey participants and have a policy forum within weeks of the event to share insights. He said he hopes to have “a discussion about ways in which the city See page 12 >>

Vol. 43 • No. 38 • September 19-25, 2013

New Pride board expected to be named

by James Patterson

late if past elections using the bad formula gave bad results. he San Francisco Pride The incorrect formula was elections committee was discussed Sunday by memexpected to announce bers, board candidates, and new board members Wednesday SF Pride’s election commitevening following a brief meettee but no one could figure ing to complete the final calcua way around it in the highly lation process that was marred charged atmosphere. by a formula error at Sunday’s The Wednesday meeting, marathon annual meeting where according to Chin, was exno winners were announced. pected to last “about 30 minThe elections committee’s utes” and be “a very smooth meeting was scheduled after the process.” Bay Area Reporter went to press, Of the 14 board candidates, but a letter from the Pride board it is expected that most of the Rick Gerharter Tuesday seemed likely to end a newly elected board members controversial 72 hours that saw Pride board President Davace Chin, with the board of directors in will be from the accountabilPride board President Davace the background, spoke to members at the beginning of the annual ity slate. Based on unofficial Chin briefly hospitalized fol- general meeting Sunday, September 15. returns compiled by election lowing his collapse near the observer and Pride member end of Sunday’s meeting and a issue an announcement of the 2013-14 board Paul Quick, the winners on chaotic end after Vice President Lou Fischer of directors,” the board’s statement read. Sunday were Gary Virginia, Jose Cital, Joey declared there were no winners. According to Chin, the “incorrect formuCain, John Caldera, Marsha Levine, and Chin cited “dehydration, lack of food, and la” subtracted “against” votes from the “for” Jesse Oliver Sanford. Accountability slate lots and lots of stress” for his fainting spell. votes for the candidates. Only abstentions candidate Kevin Bard did not appear to have “We can disclose that as a result of a mathshould have been subtracted, he said. been elected. The sole board incumbent reematical error in the formula used in the calIn a telephone interview, Chin said the inelected appears to be Justin Taylor. culation of votes, the election officers will be correct formula had been used for past elecQuick shared his totals with the B.A.R. reconvening ... to complete the final calculations, he assumed it correct and he approved Sunday night. tion process, officially certify the election, and it for the 2013 election. He would not specuSee page 13 >>

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Advocates seek to empower LGBT immigrants

by Chris Carson

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hen Amy Lin pulled her mother aside and said, “I like girls too, are you okay with that?” her mother, who moved Lin to the U.S. from Taiwan when Lin was 12, looked at her and said, “It doesn’t matter, that’s what America is for.” But when Lin, who is now a student at UCLA and a volunteer for Asian Students Promoting Immigration Rights through Education, or ASPIRE, came out as an undocumented immigrant, she realized it wouldn’t be as easy to find that same acceptance. “I sort of hid my identity in high school,” Lin said last week at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church as part of a panel discussion called “What’s Beyond DOMA in Immigration Reform: The Next Steps for Women and LGBTQ Communities.” “I thought that I can’t be both,” Lin explained. “You’re sort of marginalized as undocumented already, adding that you’re queer, you’re worse.” The discussion, sponsored by New America Media and other groups, also featured Ben de Guzman, co-director of programs for the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance; Gabriela Villareal of the California Immigrant Policy Center; Alex Aldana of East Bay Immigrant Youth Coalition; Stacey Umezu of Community United Against Violence; and Lourdes Perez of Mujeres Unidas y Activas. The panelists attempted to empower “undocuqueers” by informing them on a range of legislation, some of which has passed through the California Legislature, while other proposals are awaiting action in Congress. One such piece, on the state level, is the Transparency and Responsibility Using State Tools, or TRUST, Act by gay Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), which would limit excesses by the federal program known as Secure Communities. Under SComm, as it’s known, more than 50,000 contributing Californians have been deported

Jane Philomen Cleland

Sammie Willis, left, API Equality moderator, confers with May Liang, ASPIRE moderator, at last week’s panel discussion on immigration reform.

though they had not been convicted of any crime, or only minor crimes, according to a statement from Ammiano’s office. “Nobody knows how you get into or out of an ICE database,” Umezu said at one point in the panel discussion, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The TRUST Act passed an Assembly concurrence vote last week and is headed to Governor Jerry Brown, who has until October 13 to sign or veto the legislation. Villareal pointed out another piece of legislation, AB 1195, which she called a “common sense measure.” The bill, which was authored by lesbian Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), was signed into law by Brown last week. It allows immigrant victims of crimes to access police reports. On the national level, de Guzman said the conflict in Syria has “flipped Congress on its head,” pushing the issue of comprehensive immigration reform down to a lower priority. But, he said “the equality debate is not over,” and “everyone deserves a path to citizenship”

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as a way to be free of what he called “draconian” deportation and detention systems. The Senate approved an immigration reform bill earlier this year, but action is still needed in the House of Representatives, where Republicans are sharply divided on the issue. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman for federal purposes, most conversations on a path to citizenship for LGBTQ people have seen marriage as the best option. Immigration officials have issued green cards to same-sex binational couples who have already married in a jurisdiction where it is legal. “Now you can fix your papers and get married,” Aldana said sarcastically, adding, but “I don’t see that as a solution to my legal status. Not everyone buys the institution of marriage.” He brought up the question of what happens when two undocumented people fall in See page 10 >>


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