Steinem wows SF crowd
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Les Ballets Trockadero
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Pussy Riots' US Invation
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 47 • No. 10 • March 9-15, 2017
Suit raises concerns about SF DUI cases by Seth Hemmelgarn
S
an Francisco’s former chief forensic toxicologist has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city that’s raising concerns about DUI analyses and other work performed by the man who replaced him. Dr. Nikolas Lemos In a civil complaint filed in February in San Francisco Superior Court, Dr. Nikolas Lemos says he quit after he was “instructed ... to engage in unlawful activity” by assisting “an unlicensed forensic toxicologist to illegally perform DUI alcohol testing.” See page 5 >>
The wooden bar still has its luster at the former Paper Doll Club in North Beach.
by Matthew S. Bajko
T
he owners of a property in North Beach that once housed several LGBT restaurants, the first of which was known as the Paper Doll, are seeking city landmark status for the site. Should their request for 524 Union Street be approved later this year, it would be the
Owners of LGBT eatery site seek landmark status first landmark in the country to focus on an early queer restaurant, according to a local preservationist assisting with the application process. The Paper Doll is believed to be San Francisco’s first restaurant and nightclub catering to the gay community. The building would be the fourth property in the city to be designated a landmark for its LGBT historical significance and the first
located outside of the gay Castro district. The last site to be added, in 2013, was the gay bar Twin Peaks (401 Castro Street), famous for being the first gay bar in the city to have clear glass windows at a time when people could be fired based on their sexual orientation. The other LGBT city landmarks are the See page 12 >>
Study: Same-sex marriage Supreme Court dumps linked to drop in youth suicide Grimm case by Liz Highleyman
by Lisa Keen
T
he U.S. Supreme Court Monday vacated a federal appeals court ruling in favor of a transgender high school student and directed the lower court to reconsider its Scout Tufankjian/ACLU earlier ruling. Gavin Grimm The Supreme Court order in Gloucester v. G.G. came in response to “the guidance document” issued by the departments of Education and Justice on February 22. The February 22 document was a “Dear Colleague letter” from two acting officials of the DOJ and DOE, advising public school officials that the Trump administration was “withdrawing the statements of policy and guidance” in two letters from Obama administration officials. The Obama administration’s DOJ and DOE letters had advised schools receiving federal funding that Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination in education based on “sex” included See page 12 >>
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egalization of same-sex marriage was associated with a significant decline in suicide attempts among high school students, lowering the number by more than 100,000 per year, according to a study recently published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “These are high school students, so they aren’t getting married any time soon, for the most part,” said study author Julia Raifman, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “Still, permitting same-sex marriage reduces structural stigma associated with sexual orientation. There may be something about having equal rights – even if they have no immediate plans to take advantage of them – that makes students feel less stigmatized and more hopeful for the future.” Raifman and her colleagues set out to show whether state-level same-sex marriage policies are associated with a reduction in adolescent suicide attempts, especially those among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people age 15 to 24 in the United States, and the rate has been rising, they noted as background. Between 1999 and 2014 there were an average of 5.3 deaths by suicide per 100,000 adolescents age 14 to 17 years (roughly high school age), but attempted suicides greatly outnumber deaths. Raifman’s team analyzed anonymous data
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People celebrated outside the U.S. Supreme Court after its June 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System from January 1999 through December 2015. The survey included more than 763,000 public high school students in grades nine through 12. About 13 percent identified as “sexual minorities” – those who answered gay or lesbian
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Rick Gerharter
(2.3 percent), bisexual (6.4 percent), or not sure (4 percent) when asked which sexual identity best describes them. The survey question did not ask about gender identity. The researchers looked at changes in the proportion of students reporting at least one suicide attempt during the past year in 32 states that established same-sex marriage laws before January 2015 and 15 states that did not. In June 2015 the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision held that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide. The study did not look at actual suicide deaths, only reported attempts. Making comparisons over time within states let the researchers control for political and cultural differences between states that could influence both the likelihood of legalizing samesex marriage and the mental health of sexual minority youth. The study showed that gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning students were more likely to attempt suicide than others their age. Overall, 9 percent of high school students reported at least one such attempt before implementation of same-sex marriage laws in their state. But the rate among sexual minority students was about six times higher than that of self-identified heterosexual students – 6 percent versus 29 percent. The proportion of students reporting suicide See page 11 >>
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