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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 42 • No. 35 • August 30-September 5, 2012
Oakland prepares for LGBT Pride by Seth Hemmelgarn
O
akland’s third annual LGBT Pride festival is coming this weekend, and organizers are hoping attendees don’t see it as just a one-day party, but as an event to help the community’s future. This year’s Oakland Pride will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, September 2. The Labor Day weekend festival takes place at 20th Street and Broadway in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. (BART riders should exit at the 19th Street station). CeCe Peniston, best known for her 1991 song “Finally,” will be among the headliners. Admission is $10, or $5 for seniors and youth 12 and under. Pride organizers have struggled to break even, but board Chair Amber Todd said they’re still hoping to help gather funds for establishing an LGBT community center in Oakland – a long-term goal of the revitalized Pride festival. Raising money to put toward a community center is Pride’s “driving force,” she said. “Our goal is to fundraise so that all the bills are paid before we open the gates, so that the money collected at the gates can go toward the following year and creating sustainability,” Todd said. There’s still no money set aside for the center, Todd said. The board’s “not quite” there yet, Todd said. “We’re barely breaking even year to year,” she said. “It’s not that we’re not trying. It’s just hard.” Todd couldn’t immediately say what total expenses are expected to be this year. She estimated that fundraising efforts have generated more than $80,000 so far, but she wasn’t sure how much of that’s actually come in. Pride board Treasurer Frank Ciglar didn’t provide financial figures for this story, despite multiple requests. One issue facing Pride is that “we get a lot of mixed signals,” Todd said. “A large part of the community would prefer we are not corporate-sponsored,” she said, but right now, those backers are “what’s keeping us stable.” She said organizers have taken on some new sponsors this year that have See page 11 >>
Pols praise Kors hire by Cynthia Laird
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olitical leaders and activists praised the announcement this week that former Equality California executive director Geoff Kors has joined the National Center for Lesbian Rights as its new senior legislative and policy strategist. Rick Gerharter As the Bay Area Re- Geoff Kors porter reported online Tuesday, Kors, who started work August 28, will be working at the state and local level to advance LGBT laws and rights, mainly outside of California. State Senator Mark Leno (D-California) praised the pick as being “a great benefit” to the community in general. “His track record is incomparable in the success of moving our issues forward. He’s a great coalition builder,” Leno said in a brief phone interview Tuesday. In a conference call Monday with NCLR le-
Angie Williams-Vansteenberg made a “Hella-Gay” chalk drawing at last year’s festival.
See page 13 >>
Jane Philomen Cleland
Cordileone SF breast cancer services busted hope for Komen comeback for DUI by Catherine Pickavet
by Chuck Colbert
T
he archbishopelect for the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese, a muscular opponent of same-sex marriage in California, was arrested in San Diego last weekend on suspicion of driving under the Steven Underhill influence. Salvatore The DUI arrest Cordileone prompted sharp reactions from gay Catholics and gay-rights advocates, while a parish priest voiced grief. Police took the Oakland Diocese’s currently serving bishop, the Reverend Salvatore Cordileone, 56, into custody over the weekend, after being stopped at a DUI checkpoint in the city’s College district neighborhood, located near the campus of San Diego State University. The time of the offense was shortly after midnight on Saturday morning, August 25, acSee page 12 >>
T
wo San Francisco groups dedicated to supporting low-income and uninsured women with breast cancer are preparing for a tough budget season due to controversy that rocked the Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation earlier this year. The Breast Cancer Emergency Fund and Lyon-Martin Health Services are almost certain to take a hit in their 2013 budgets once the San Francisco Bay Area affiliate of Komen calculates proceeds from the 2012 Race for the Cure, which will take place in San Francisco on Sunday, September 9 and has seen a sharp drop in registration. Both agencies serve women in the LBT communities, as well as others. “Komen is the single largest funder to the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund,” said Mike Smith, executive director of the BCEF, in an interview. “They really believe in the work we’re doing around economic empowerment for low-income women. From the standpoint of community-based agencies that rely on Komen funding, this is devastating.” BCEF, which was granted $275,000 last year, or about 25 percent of its operating budget according to Smith, provides emergency financial assistance to approximately 500 low-income and uninsured women in San Francisco,
Courtesy Komen SF Bay Area affiliate
Participants ran out of the gate at 2011’s Komen Race for the Cure in San Francisco.
San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties while they undergo treatment for breast cancer. “Most of the women we serve are in hourly wage jobs and often don’t have health care through their employer,” Smith said. “And usually during their treatment for breast cancer, they end up losing their jobs, because they
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miss so much work.” Lyon-Martin Health Services is another local group that provides a range of services to women, lesbians, and transgender people seeking a “safe and compassionate environment.” Dr. Dawn Harbatkin, executive director and See page 13 >>