Feb. 6 2003, I went to my place of employment as Autumn for the first time. As many already know, I served in the U.S. Navy from 1980 through 2000. I’m a retired, disabled, Persian Gulf War veteran; my disabilities are service connected and my Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability rating is 100 percent….
Well, mark your calendars for Tuesday, Feb. 12 as it is time for another crazy and fun Hillcrest Mardi Gras that promises to be bigger than ever! Bill Hardt Productions which brings you the super-popular annual Zoo Party is the new producer and you all better be ready for a really big wild blowout! Together…
“Proposition 8 does not ‘dishonor’ gays and lesbians.” So says the brief filed with the Supreme Court by the advocates of Prop. 8, because same-sex couples are not “similarly situated” with opposite sex couples. Glad they cleared that up. And while I’m frankly feeling even more dishonored having read the brief (and the brief in…
Last September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill protecting LGBT youth from the psychological abuse of reparative therapy (sometimes referred to as conversion therapy). SB 1172, due to a temporary injunction by the federal courts, isn’t currently being enforced. The Liberty Counsel argued for three plaintiffs who practiced reparative therapy that implementation of the law…
This is the official statistic from the San Diego County Health Department. But we who have been involved with this HIV/AIDS epidemic since its early dark days of the 1980s (when indeed AIDS = death was true) know that countless people died of AIDS and they were not reported as such but as cancer, heart…
Members of the House of Representatives have offices in three buildings, each of which is named after a former speaker: Sam Rayburn, Nicholas Longworth and Joseph Gurney Cannon. When a fourth building is needed, I have little doubt it will be the “Nancy Pelosi House Office Building.” Not just because she was the first woman…
The media often facilitates the barriers in the way of tolerance of trans people in broader society, and sometimes are the barriers themselves. One recent example is from Great Britain. Columnist Suzanne Moore wrote an article entitled Seeing Red: The Power Of Female Anger for the British newsmagazine The New Statesman speaking to how women…
Stuart Milk (Harvey’s nephew), founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation has said that when Harvey Milk was stationed in San Diego as a naval officer “he fell in love with California;” and as we all know the rest is history. As you know this week’s announcement that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote…
There is a measure by which we’ll be able to judge current secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s support for the LGBT community that I haven’t seen mentioned yet in discussions. Should Sen. Hagel be confirmed as secretary of defense, his legacy on open service for transgender servicemembers will be a plumb line measure for…
Well, I’m in town this weekend but will be in Houston, Texas next weekend, then off to Atlanta, Ga. with Stuart Milk to attend the 20th annual Creating Change conference, sponsored by the N.G.L.T.F. and with more than 3,000 GLBT activists and leaders from all across the USA expected. It’s been a month for Mayor…
