HIVers fight stigma
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Film 2016
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 46 • No. 52 • December 29, 2016-January 4, 2017
Travel bans to anti-LGBT states take shape Despite protests in San Francisco over the election of Donald Trump, the changing political landscape means that anti-LGBT bills are likely to be heard in various states in 2017.
by Matthew S. Bajko
W
ith bills allowing religious-based discrimination against LGBT people pending in state legislatures across the U.S., state employees in California, as well as those working for San Francisco, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, could find themselves barred from traveling on the public’s dime to a
large swath of the country next year. As of January 1 the Golden State will join Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties in banning non-essential taxpayer-funded travel to states that have enacted laws allowing for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It stems from the passage in the fall of Assembly Bill 1887 authored by gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell).
In November the state attorney general’s office informed Richard Gillihan, director of the California Department of Human Resources, that it intended to ban state employees from traveling to Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee due to those states having anti-LGBT laws on their books. More states are expected to be included when the See page 2 >>
Gay music icon George Michael dies by Heather Cassell
G
ay British pop singer George Michael, who rose to fame as part of the group Wham and later went on to a successful solo career, was found dead at his country home in EngGoldenPlec land December 25. He was 53. George Michael Mr. Michael’s manager, Michael Lipman, said that the cause of death was heart failure. Police arrived at his home in Goring-onThames, Oxfordshire shortly before 2 p.m. Christmas Day. He was dead upon their arrival, reported the New York Times. An autopsy report could be ready in a couple of days, forensic experts told the Times. Mr. Michael’s publicist Connie Filippello confirmed the news to the media Sunday. “It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother, and friend See page 8 >>
Nonprofit rating site seeks LGBT agencies New CA laws Rick Gerharter
by Matthew S. Bajko
W
hen GreatNonprofits, a Bay Areabased website that rates charitable organizations, released its list of the top-rated LGBTQ charities for 2016, just five agencies made the cut. And only one was based on the West Coast, Seattle’s Free2Luv. A check of the 8-year-old website’s past annual winners found that just three LGBTQ agencies in California had ever been included on the top-rated list. The lone Bay Area agency, the Gay Straight Alliance Network (now the Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network) in San Francisco, made the 2012 list, while two Los Angeles County agencies, the Trevor Project and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, were included in 2009. The website does list scores of LGBTQ nonprofits across the country, but very few have the top-rated status. The website has honored more AIDS agencies based in the Golden State, naming 11 as top-rated over the years. The Shanti Project and Project Open Hand, both in San Francisco, have made the list, as has the Oakland-based Internet Sexuality Information Services, which is now known as YTH, short for youth, tech and health. The lack of local LGBTQ agencies rated best by GreatNonprofits, however, could give potential donors a false impression, said Roger Doughty, president of the Horizons Foundation, which is focused on LGBT charitable giving.
Courtesy GreatNonprofits
A rainbow flag-themed Instagram post from a few days ago urged LGBT donors to make year-end contributions before the December 31 deadline.
“If their impression is there are no great LGBTQ nonprofits in the Bay Area or California that would be deeply unfortunate and deeply inaccurate,” Doughty told the Bay Area Reporter when asked about the website. “There are scores and scores of organizations that work like crazy and make enormous contributions to the community and to the movement. To suggest there are none in California that merits being well-rated is ludicrous.” What the website’s annual lists do signal, said
Doughty, is that “for whatever reasons GreatNonprofits has not made a lot of inroads into the LGBTQ community of nonprofits.” In an interview with the B.A.R. Perla Ni, the website’s CEO, acknowledged as much, saying she hopes to see more LGBTQ agencies participate in 2017. She has spoken to Doughty on how to get more local nonprofits involved. “We want to get the word out to Bay Areabased organizations better,” said Ni, who suggested their lack of participation this year many have been due to being more focused on the presidential election. To be named one of GreatNonprofits’ toprated LGBTQ charities in a given year, agencies have a rather low threshold they need to meet. They must generate, at minimum, 10 positive experiences, or “stories” as the website calls them, from clients, donors, or volunteers between January 1 and October 31 to be included in the annual top-rated list, which numbered more than 1,600 across all categories for 2016. “Our methodology is really communitysourced nominations,” explained Ni. “We invite nonprofits and their community to participate.” Hearing directly from those assisted by, or working with, the nonprofits can give donors and others better insight into the effectiveness of the agencies, argued Ni. It is a different way of evaluating a charity, she said, than the more financially focused methods used by other nonprofit rating agencies, such as Charity Navigator.
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take effect in 2017 by Seth Hemmelgarn
C
alifornia Governor Jerry Brown signed into law several LGBTsupportive bills this fall that are set to take effect in 2017, including a bill aimed to combat discrimination at universities and legislation designed to State Senator prevent youth suicides. Ricardo Lara One bill Brown signed into law is Senate Bill 1146, authored by gay state Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens). The legislation requires that private universities that receive public funds publicly disclose whether they discriminate against students based on gender expression, gender identity, or sexual orientation. If a university has a Title IX exemption, it’s required to notify the state Student Aid Commission and share the information with students and staff. At the federal level, Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and similar factors, in federally See page 8 >>
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