<< Community News
16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • February 8-14, 2018
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API Wellness
From page 1
qualified health center, we are committed to ensuring full access to any and all low-income and homeless individuals in the Tenderloin. So many health care needs are going unaddressed for so many vulnerable communities, including transgender individuals, in San Francisco and we want to ensure that everyone knows they are welcome to access health care with us.” Toma, a gay man, said that some
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Pot action
From page 1
doesn’t require any action be taken by those who are eligible. Since 1975, nearly 8,000 people have been convicted of marijuanarelated crimes in San Francisco. Now that pot is legal in California, those convictions no longer make sense, the district attorney’s office said. “While drug policy on the federal level is going backwards, San Francisco is once again taking the lead to undo the damage that this country’s disastrous, failed drug war has had on our nation and on communities of color in particular,” Gascón said in a news release. “Long ago we lost our ability to distinguish the dangerous from the nuisance, and it has broken our pocket books, the fabric of our communities, and we are no safer for it.” According to Gascón, 3,038 misdemeanor pot convictions would be dismissed and sealed, while 4,940 felonies will be reviewed by the DA’s office, possibly resulting in recalling
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Listening tour
From page 5
Furthermore, he hasn’t found a new community of gay men for friendship or dating, he said. He has many female friends, but, “I want to be with the boys. I want the boys to be with me,” he said. Other issues brought up at the meeting were preventing anti-gay violence, starting with bullying in schools, and helping people feel safe when they report hate crimes. People didn’t simply raise issues, they proactively threw out suggestions to help solve some of the problems they identified and praised the city’s diversity and openness to different cultures. “I’m really proud that Mountain View was first,” Christopher Clark, a gay man who is on the Mountain View City Council, told the Bay Area Reporter following the meeting Clark and Solomon both liked receiving the community’s input, and said it confirmed anecdotal information they previously heard, identified new gaps in services, and suggested solutions.
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News Briefs
From page 5
the naming idea being approved by the supervisors. Should it reach his desk, interim Mayor Mark Farrell could sign the legislation prior to this year’s commemoration of Harvey Milk Day. A state day of special significance, it is observed in California every May 22, Milk’s birthday.
Tickets available for mayoral forum
Horizons Foundation has set up ticketing for the mayoral forum it is co-sponsoring with the Bay Area Reporter and KQED. The March 19 event takes place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street. The event is free, but tickets are required and can be obtained by visiting http://bit.ly/2FTiuf9. People can also submit questions at questions@horizonsfoundation.org.
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clients had reported they felt they couldn’t access the health center’s services “because they weren’t Asian or Pacific Islander,” so the new name is intended, in part, “to say to the community that anyone who is in need of our services can get them here. We will continue to be committed to the API community, all communities of color, LGBTQ communities, and really, the queerest among us.” For the past several years the nonprofit has been expanding its health care services. In 2015 its Polk Street clinic was designated a federally
qualified health center and was rebuilt as the agency ramped up its capacity to treat more patients. In April 2017, with the opening of its new primary care clinic in the LGBT Community Center, the wellness center touted it as the first “health home” for the entire LGBT community in San Francisco’s gay Castro district. Toma said that despite the new name, the health center’s programs and services would continue “as they have always been operating in service of community need. Our intention
is that we will continue to grow and expand with our new brand.” With a budget of about $7 million, the nonprofit serves about 3,000 unique clients, “and we have plans to expand the number of clients we serve,” he said. “We hope that our name change is a sign to the community that we truly believe that everyone deserves quality health care and that we want everyone – including the queerest among us – to feel welcome accessing services with us.” However, the new name has been
“an adjustment for everyone,” he said. “While some folks have been sad about our name change, most have been excited about this change and how inclusive this name is for everyone that currently accesses services with us,” said Toma. “We will be continuing our API-focused programming alongside everything else we do. I have really been grateful to our diligent staff working with our clients to make this transition relatively seamless.” For more information, visit http://apiwellness.org. t
or resentencing in those cases. Gay District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, speaking at the news conference announcing the new program, congratulated Gascón on the announcement and also thanked District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen for introducing legislation creating an “equity program” to give opportunities to people who have been harmed by the punitive laws. A similar equity program was approved in Oakland, creating opportunities for people to work in the cannabis industry. Cohen’s proposal is aimed at helping people whose lives were harmed because of the “unjust laws” that should never have been on the books to begin with, said Sheehy. Sheehy also noted the “irony” in the recent death of cannabis pioneer Dennis Peron. “I wonder how many convictions he had” compiled, said Sheehy. Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who is running against Sheehy in the June primary, said in an email to the Bay Area Reporter, “I strongly
support the district attorney’s actions on cannabis related convictions going back to 1975. The drug war has wrought so much devastation in so many communities. This doesn’t make up for all the harm of decades of failed policies, but it’s a solid start.” In a written statement, Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said, “The stigma associated with a marijuana arrest and criminal conviction is lifelong, and can directly lead to numerous lost opportunities later in life. The San Francisco District Attorney’s office is to be commended for proactively rectifying this situation – one that has disproportionately burdened far too many young people and people of color.” A statewide effort to require state courts to automatically expunge past marijuana convictions is underway with Assemblyman Rob Bonta’s (DOakland) Assembly Bill 1793. Bonta, praising Gascón’s move, said in a statement, “This is the right thing to
do. I encourage other district attorneys throughout the state to follow San Francisco’s lead.” In a prepared statement, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, a longtime cannabis advocate and candidate for governor, said, “This example, one of many across our state, underscores the true promise of Proposition 64 – providing new hope and opportunities to Californians, primarily people of color, whose lives were long ago derailed by a costly, broken, and racially discriminatory system of marijuana criminalization. This isn’t just an urgent issue of social justice here in California – it’s a model for the rest of the nation.” The DA’s office estimated that between 1915 and 2016, California law enforcement made 2,756,778 cannabis arrests. While Prop 64 allows for those convicted of marijuana crimes to petition to have their convictions reduced or wiped away, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, only 4,885
Californians have petitioned state courts to have their cannabis convictions expunged since the initiative’s passage. With the Department of Elections reporting that nearly 75 percent of San Franciscans voted to legalize marijuana, nearly three out of every four San Franciscans voted to provide this relief to those convicted of marijuana offenses, according to Gascón’s office. “As indicated by the disparities in San Francisco arrest and booking rates, the War on Drugs has produced disparate arrest rates across racial groups,” the DA’s office stated in the news release. “This is despite the fact that multiple studies have found that rates of drug use and drug sales are commensurate across racial lines. In particular, African-American and Latino communities interact with the criminal justice system, including via arrests, bookings, and incarceration, at a rate far higher than their Caucasian counterparts.” t
“We heard a lot of really good ideas from the group that will help to inform us as we move forward,” said Solomon. “I really appreciated that people made very specific suggestions, not just identifying a particular gap but offering specific suggestions on how to address it.” Clark added “It was really good to hear that were generally on the right track as a community. It’s good to have confirmation of that.”
a joint project between individual cities’ governments, community leaders, and the county, Martinez and others said. The survey was a good starting place, but Martinez said that she learned that the data was “challenging for individual cities to really learn about their local jurisdiction.” “By having events like this [and] by partnering with local agencies, we can get a better snapshot about what the needs are of our local communities and, also, begin to build those partnerships with service providers, the city, or nonprofits that interface with the community directly,” Martinez told the B.A.R. It’s unclear if every city will do its own survey and report, like Mountain View is doing, but Martinez will be visiting 10 cities throughout the year to host discussions like the recent one in Mountain View. At the end of the year, she plans to present the information gathered at the sessions to the public. One of the key findings in the 2013 health survey was that community members were accessing services they needed, said Martinez. The office’s goal is to create pathways
for LGBT community members to access services, identify unknown issues, create programs and policies that will be institutionalized for the future, and create a welcoming environment for LGBT people in every corner of the South Bay, she said. Martinez wants “to really get a clearer and better snapshot about what is happening in our local communities,” she said, and set benchmarks comparing local data to national data. “It’s really important to have community input. We want to make sure that the community knows what we’re doing and that we’re here to serve them,” said Martinez. “A big piece is allowing time and space to be intentional about getting direct community feedback.” Another goal is to build awareness of the Office of LGBT Affairs and how it can help the community, as well as attempt to decrease the sense of “unsureness” about where the county stands with what’s happening at the national level, she said. Once the listening tour is completed, it will mark the first time at a government level that information has been collected about the South
Bay’s LGBTQ residents. Ultimately, the goal is “building lasting change ... that’s going to live beyond us,” Martinez told the audience. Simitian believes the tour will get better with each stop, “Mountain View was a good start,” he said. “I think we’ll learn something new from each one of these.” “The pivotal moment will be when the city tours are completed, and we will step back and say, ‘What have we learned?’ and more importantly, ‘What will we do with what we’ve learned?’” he said. The survey is available to LGBT and ally adults living or working in Mountain View in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian at https:// www.surveymonkey.com/r/NYZ57BH. A separate comment card is available for individuals who don’t live in Mountain View but visit the city often. The survey closes February 28. The next community listening forum will take place in Palo Alto, Thursday, March 29, at 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Park Community Center, 3700 Middlefield Road. Refreshments will be provided. t
who has been “bringing the mayor’s office to the people” at locations around the city, will be outside of the LGBTQ Community Center, 3207 Lakeshore Avenue, Saturday, February 10, from noon to 3 p.m. For the past several months Schaaf has brought a desk and city staffers to different neighborhoods in an effort to hear directly from Oakland residents. During the afternoon, people can apply for a library card or pay a traffic ticket, in addition to asking questions of the mayor and her staff. For more information, as well as other activities taking place at the center, visit http://www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org.
Sunday, February 11, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th Street in San Francisco. The Red Envelope Giving Circle creates positive social change in the greater Bay Area through philanthropic support for queer API people and communities. This year’s recipients are: An Intergenerational Feast of Resistance by QTViet Cafe, an event that brings together different generations of Vietnamese Americans through cooking and performance; “Rooted,” a docuseries by the Asian Prisoner Support Committee that follows the lives of three formerly incarcerated queer and trans API women; and Hunnies and Hot Sauce, a community space for queer, trans, genderqueer, and nonbinary folks. Other grantees are Gender Sexuality and Diversities Program’s Gender Justice Youth Exchange; Historically Queer Digital Project; San Jose State University’s Queer See page 17 >>
Serving the South Bay’s LGBT community
An estimated 76,776 residents, or 4 percent, of Santa Clara County’s 1,919,402 inhabitants identify as LGBT, according to a 2013 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 2016 U.S. Census, the most recent population data available. The county stretches north to south from Palo Alto to Hollister and east to west from Milpitas to Los Gatos. Building upon the “Status of LGBTQ Health: Santa Clara County, California 2013,” survey conducted and published by the county in January 2014, the listening tour is Confirmed participating candidates are Angela Alioto, London Breed, Richie Greenberg, Jane Kim, and Mark Leno. KQED’s Scott Shafer will moderate.
LGBT asylum drop-in project
The LGBT Asylum Project and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation have partnered to provide a monthly drop-in service for LGBTs seeking information about asylumrelated services. The drop-in clinics begin Saturday, February 10, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Strut, the AIDS foundation’s men’s health center, 470 Castro Street. Thereafter, the clinics will be held at Strut the second Saturday of the month at the same time. According to a Facebook announcement, people who may think they qualify for asylum can stop by for a free legal consultation and to learn more about the asylum process.
Courtesy Oakland LGBTQ Community Center
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf will hold office hours outside the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.
The LGBT Asylum Project provides free legal services to LGBT people seeking asylum in the U.S. For more information, visit www.lgbtasylumproject.org or email info@ lgbtasylumproject.org.
Meet Oakland mayor at LGBTQ center
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf,
API LGBT groups to get grants
The Red Envelope Giving Circle will have a community reception in celebration of its nine grantees that support and improve the lives of Asian and Pacific Islander LGBTQs