Recently, I had dinner at Baja Betty’s with the frontrunner for the 78th Assembly District race Sarah Boot, who Toni Atkins has endorsed as her successor. But local Republican Party officials are pushing former Marine captain and out lesbian Jacque Atkinson to become a candidate. Atkinson is currently the co-chair of the Sheriff’s GLBT Advisory Board and is on a shortlist for an upcoming mayoral appointment that may be announced this month.
Talking about our mayor, Kevin Faulconer, while he was in Washington, D.C. met with Evan Wolfson, the executive director of Freedom to Marry. Faulconer is a national co-chair of Mayors for Marriage Equality USA.
No one is surprised with the Union-Tribune’s very early endorsement for the re-election of popular County Supervisor Dave Roberts who has done an outstanding job these last four years. There is serious talk about Dave Roberts becoming a future mayor of San Diego. (Two of our past recent mayors came from the County Board of Supervisors.) Dave Roberts and his partner (fathers of five children) are true role models for our community.
Rumors are that two local gay bars may soon change ownership.
I will be leaving for Denver, Colo. this week for five days to attend the annual national Creating Change Conference which last year drew four thousand GLBT leaders and activists from across the nation.
Trans activists speak to City Council
This past Tuesday, two well-known transgender activists, Blue Montana (recently becoming the first San Diegan to make the national most influential trans list) and Giselle De la Rosa came before the San Diego City Council to request that our city follow the City of West Hollywood’s recent decision to make public restrooms gender neutral. Councilman Todd Gloria then requested that the Council direct the Human Relations Commission to look into this request and report back with a recommendation.
While I do not believe that the City Council would make restrooms gender neutral I do think that this is an important issue to educate more people about our transgender brothers and sisters.
The reality is that Americans as a whole, and sadly a majority of our own GLBT community, do not understand or really know about transgender people. There is a lot of ignorance and misinformation when it comes to the transgender community and their issues and struggles.
It is very important that new TV shows and reports more than ever educate Americans about the trans community. But we have a very long way to go.
But the good news is that the transgender community is getting more visible and organized than ever as witnessed by last Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
2015 Coronation a big success
This past Saturday night’s 43rd annual Coronation Ball of the Imperial Court de San Diego was a sold-out affair and the four days of events for visiting Imperial Court chapter members from all over Canada, Mexico and the USA raised a lot of money for the San Diego Court.
Among the VIP’s spotted in the crowd were Robert Gleason, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, Ben F. Dillingham, Steven Whitburn, Shannon Wagnor, Terry Cunningham, Lisa Saunders, Maureen Steiner, State Assembly candidate Sarah Boot, City Councilman Todd Gloria, Rich Reyes and Don Giaquinto of the mayor’s office, Susan Jester, Carolina Ramos, Elaine Graybill, Sarafina Scapicchio, Tom Hebrank, David McCullouh, and the Very Reverend Penny Bridges, dean of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral and many others.
Over $110,000 was raised by Emperor Robert, Empress Pearl, their Court and board members. Congratulations to our new Emperor Mikie and Empress Toni.
