Archive: Author: Khaled Sayed

Khaled Sayed San Francisco Police Officer C. Stokes, right, takes a

A rally in the Castro to affirm and celebrate black LGBTQs briefly

turned ugly when some of the demonstrators went to a bar and said they

were met with hostility.

Organizers with Queer #BlackLivesMatter held the February 28 rally to

mark the end of Black History Month and call attention to violence

against trans women of color. One of those women, Taja DeJesus, was

stabbed to death in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood last month.

The rally, which started at Jane Warner Plaza at Castro and

Market streets at 2 p.m., was mostly peaceful, and the crowd

enjoyed music by Bayard Rustin Coalition members and a

performance by drag queen Bebe Sweetbriar.

Afterward, some of the participants decided to pay a visit to Toad Hall bar, 4146 18th Street.

They said they were met with hostility and were asked to leave. A

similar experience occurred there in December during a Queer

#BlackLivesMatter rally.

“We demonstrated in front of Toad Hall for 10 minutes, until one of the

establishment employees allegedly assaulted one of our trans

participants,” said Bayard Rustin Coalition member Shaun Haines.

The victim of the alleged assault was later identified by organizers as

Danielle Castro.

The building housing one of San Francisco’s oldest gay bars has been sold

and the owner said he’s retiring and moving to Hawaii, leaving the club’s

future uncertain.

Stud bar owner Michael McElhaney announced the news at a July 3

emergency meeting. The bar was filled with emotions as the owner spoke

before a crowd of around 50 friends and patrons.

The crowd, which reflected the culture of the quirky bar, listened silently

as McElhaney delivered the bad news. The Stud bar building was sold for

$2 million. McElhaney has two months to sell the business or put up with

a 300 percent rent increase.

The bar will continue to pay the same rent for the next two months but

starting September it will be increased to $9,500.

McElhaney made it clear he is not planning to be the owner anymore. He

proposed a few options that he thinks might make sense, including

transferring the business to someone else who can carry on the bar’s

legacy. He said that, after more than 25 years at the Stud, he is moving to

Hawaii to take care of his aging mother and explore other ventures.

The bar, currently located at the corner of 9th and Harrison streets,

opened in 1966. It has long been a home for LGBT people to party and

hold wild and entertaining events like Meow Mix, A Danceable Homo

Destine, and karaoke night. It was long the home of Heklina’s

Trannyshack show.

Tom Temprano, a gay man who is a part owner of Virgil’s Sea Room in

the Mission, was one of the attendees at the meeting. He said that he

remembered his first public DJ gig was at the Stud and he feels a deep

personal connection to the space.

“With the sort of changes we have seen in San Francisco, losing an

institution and community hub like the Stud would be heartbreaking,” he

said.

Temprano said he was inspired to see so many people come together and

be willing to do the work to keep this place open.

“I believe that our community will be able to rally around the space that

means so much, to keep it,” he said. “It will be tough given what the

number looks like, but this community has done this before and I think

we can do it again.”

Nate Albee, another attendee, said that this is something that has been

happening to queer bars and queer spaces all over the city.

“I’m sad. This is a place that has been a home for me and for my

community that we might lose,” Albee said, “but I also know that this is a

strong and resilient community and when we come together and fight we often win.”

Artist and nightlife fixture Mica Sigourney, who as Vivyanne Forevermore hosts the Stud’s “Something” drag show, sent an email to

the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday saying that he was exploring forming a co-op to buy the club and negotiate a new lease.

About 100 people gathered inside Mission High School’s auditorium

Tuesday to voice their concerns about San Francisco police officers as

part of a listening session held by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Most people who spoke were angry at the San Francisco Police

Department in light of recent killings of men of color, including

Alejandro “Alex” Nieto in 2014 and Mario Woods last December.

The meeting was held by the justice department’s Community Oriented

Policing Services, or COPS, division.

People in the audience raised posters with names and sketches of Woods,

Nieto, and others who were shot by SFPD officers.

Darryl Roger, 70, who is a San Francisco native, said he feels that it is

important to get something resolved, and that can’t happen when there is a

committee that has no power.

“This committee has no enforcement power no matter what they

recommend and no matter what they say,” Roger said.

Roger believes that the only thing COPS is doing is listening to the

people in public forums and making recommendation with no guarantee

of implementation.

“My hope is that we can have community policing, and the police officers

walk into our communities without guns,” he said “When the community

sees the police officers walking in our communities without guns they

will think that they are there to help.”

Francisco Dacosta, 65, described the public forum as a dog and pony

show.

“These people from Washington, D.C. are here in San Francisco with no

knowledge of the communities who live here, and can’t help the people in

San Francisco,” Dacosta said. “They are government people who know

nothing about the people here.”

Hatim Manswiery, 18, a high school student, spoke before the COPS

representatives about his fear of the police officers because he is a person

of color. He is hoping to go to college, but like many other youth of color,

he fears harassment by the police.

“I shouldn’t be fearing the police every time I walk by them but I do,” Manswiery said. “The police are there to serve and protect us,

not to terrorize us.

“I feel this kind of meeting is all talk and not enough action,” Manswiery said. “I have seen these kinds of meetings many, many

times over the years, and a lot of the time nothing happens.”

Attorney Edwin Lindo said he thinks that there should be a federal civil rights investigation of the SFPD. Last month, the justice

department announced that it would investigate SFPD, including its training and practices. Tuesday’s forum was not part of that

review.

“We need an independent investigation of the Mario Woods, Alex Nieto, and Amilcar Perez-Lopez cases,” Lindo said.

Perez-Lopez was shot by San Francisco police last year; police said he had been attempting to steal a bike. Perez-Lopez’s family

members and attorney say he was not a robber and was running away from plainclothes officers. A federal civil rights lawsuit has

been filed in the case.

In the Nieto case, a civil wrongful death trial is now underway in federal court in San Francisco

“The SFPD needs anti-racism training, and we also need to reinstate the African American Police Community Advisory Council,

and create the Latino Community Advisory Council,” Lindo said.

Lindo added that he thinks the listening sessions – one was also held in the Bayview – were mostly positive.

“Without a doubt, our power is in organizing,” he said. “I believe the hearings are only effective when the community knows it has a

direct impact on the changes and reform needed within the criminal justice system.”

The main issue that was raised many times throughout the forum is that SFPD doesn’t hire from the community and that there is no

accountability when police shootings happen. People also chanted for Police Chief Greg Suhr to be fired.

In its effort to continue engaging women of color to increase their

visibility as philanthropists in the LGBT movement, the National Center

for Lesbian Rights brought out the stars for a recent benefit.

The event, billed as “Music and Conversation with Sara Ramirez,” drew

over 100 people to the San Francisco LGBT Community Center

Saturday, November 7 to support NCLR’s Ruth Ellis Women of Color

Giving Circle. Ramirez, a straight ally, currently stars on the hit TV

show Grey’s Anatomy . While on Broadway, she received a Tony Award

for her role as Lady of the Lake in Monty Python’s Spamalot .

Also on stage that evening was Maya Jupiter, who co-founded Artivist

Entertainment, an entertainment company committed to creating and

supporting art and music that inspires positive social change, and

Cambalache, a Chicano-Jarocho group based in East Los Angeles.

“What I love about the NCLR is that it is all-inclusive,” Ramirez said.

“When I look out and see the people who are involved with the NCLR, I

see a lot of different faces, I see a lot of people with lives, experiences,

backgrounds, cultures and colors, and I want to see more of that. They

help hundreds of individuals with their work in immigration and their

work with LGBTQ youth, and I’m very interested in all of these

intersections between all of these communities, for obvious reasons,

because a lot of these communities resonate with me.”

Longtime NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell, who has been at the

nonprofit for 21 years and headed it for 20, said that the fundraiser was

focused on elevating the voices of lesbians of color and gay men of

color within the organization.

“This is really is Ramirez’s vision,” Kendell said, “to come together and

do an event to benefit LGBT people of color within LGBT

organizations, in this case NCLR.”

According to Kendell there was no specific financial goal for the

fundraising event.

“We really didn’t set a financial goal,” she said. “The goal is for people

to be better connected with the organization. Particularly for men and

women of color to see the work of NCLR as being work that is focused

on the LGBT community, but with a racial justice analysis and framing,

and to have people commit at whatever level they can to support that

work.” A spokesman said the event raised $11,000.

Kendell said that the most challenging issue is one that has been a

constant, which is families rejecting their own kids for being gay.

“Being rejected by families is such a common experience, no matter

what is your ethnicity,” Kendell said. “By empowering LGBT people to feel good about themselves, ending shame, ending

stigma, and really making folks be responsible for their own future, regardless of family rejection, you can set yourself on a path

where you can be the agent of your own destiny.”

Kendell acknowledged that it is hard to overcome family rejection.

“If you experience family rejection, or if you have been a victim of conversion therapy, where our families try to crush who we

are as LGBT people, that challenge continues, even with all the victories we have had,” she said.

According to Kendell there is a long way to go for LGBT people to gain equal human rights in the U.S.; marriage equality didn’t

end the fight for equality.

“What we succeeded in doing with marriage equality is that the government is no longer an agent in our discrimination, but the

culture is,” Kendell said. “Families are, neighbors are, churches are, and communities are.”

Kendell pointed out various issues that still affect the community.

“LGBT people may be able to get married, but can still be fired from their jobs for being gay; can get married, but can still be

rejected by their families; can get married but still can’t adopt,” Kendall said, referring to laws in many other states. “So we have

succeeded in that the government is no longer really putting its thumb on the scale around our equality. But we have a way to go

in order for us to have an equality of life, where we feel free and we feel any opportunity is ours, and we are not hampered based

on our sexual orientation or gender identity. We are a long way from that moment.”

A trans tech journalist and others have developed a hashtag,

#transneeds, in an effort to open a dialogue on major issues affecting the

community and to solicit solutions.

The Transneeds project was born out of the recent White House tech

summit for LGBT leaders.

One of the early leading voices in the world of data science, D.J. Patil,

U.S. chief data scientist, will be using the data to help the Obama

administration address transgender issues. Patil is looking at using big

data to help citizens in lots of ways, including precision medicine.

Ina Turpen Fried, senior editor at Re/Code, had a conversation in June

with Patil.

“I explained just how little data of any kind there is on transgender

Americans,” Fried said. “The conversation continued at the August

White House LGBTQ Technology and Innovation Summit. At that

conference, participants split into a number of different groups, with

ours focusing on the lack of data on transgender needs. And late last

month we launched a @transneeds Twitter account.”

Transneeds is a way for transgender people to voice their concerns and

state their problem in a very public forum, and get their voices heard.

“We won’t solve the problem of a lack of data on trans people,” Fried

said, “but what we can help to do is highlight the areas of deepest need

and then report back to the White House with both recommendations

and some areas that need further study.”

The campaign has already received great support from a number of

leaders in the transgender and ally communities.

Trans celebrities such as Laverne Cox, an actress on Orange is the New

Black and Janet Mock, author and host of So POPular, a weekly pop

culture show on MSNBC, sent out tweets promoting the effort, as did

Debi Jackson, a trans rights activist and PFLAG chapter president, and

Scott Turner Schofield, an actor on the soap opera The Bold and the

Beautiful .

“Share your thoughts/observations with @transneeds using

#transneeds!” Mock tweeted when the effort launched in late

September.

Fried said the hashtag project would continue for a few more weeks.

Patil helped launch #transneeds with a keynote speech at the Strata data

conference in New York. The project is all-volunteer, with no specific organization behind it.

“I am one of about a dozen or so people that are part of the effort, all volunteers who got together at the White House summit,”

Fried said. “I’ve worked to help spread the word and recruit prominent voices to amplify our message. Others on the team have

helped set up our web and social media presence, do data analysis and many other tasks.”

Fried said some of the supporting agencies include the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center and the National

Center for Lesbian Rights, both based in San Francisco.

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“We have received tremendous support from a variety of nonprofits including the National Center for Transgender Equality,

LYRIC, Housing Works, NCLR and many others,” Fried added.

In addition to the social media presence, Transneeds has a toll-free number, 844-876-7637 (844-TRNS-NDS) that people can

text.

“It’s also critically important that we reach the huge parts of the transgender community who aren’t online, and that is a big focus

right now,” Fried said. “We need to get the word out.”

The two main candidates for San Francisco sheriff faced off in a debate

this week, trying to solidify their support ahead of next month’s

election.

Despite the fact that it’s one of the few contested races on the ballot, it

was a low-key affair. Fewer than 30 people showed up at Golden Gate

University Monday, October 12 for the forum, which was sponsored by

the League of Women Voters of San Francisco.

Current Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is in a tough re-election race due to

several scandals that have rocked the department. His main challenger

is Vicki Hennessy, a former chief deputy in the department who Mayor

Ed Lee named interim sheriff for several months after Mirkarimi was

placed on unpaid leave following a domestic incident with his wife.

Mirkarimi pleaded guilty to one count of false imprisonment for the

incident, in which he grabbed his wife’s arm. He was reinstated as

sheriff in October 2012 after four members of the Board of Supervisors

voted not to remove him from office. This spring he won a judge’s order

to expunge the conviction from his record.

At Monday’s forum, Mirkarimi showed an enthusiastic attitude and

energy, while Hennessy seemed more composed. Unlike Mirkarimi, she

never ran over time answering questions.

Hennessy stated that she is the first woman to run for sheriff. Born and

raised in San Francisco, she joined the sheriff’s department in 1975 and

quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the youngest captain in

California law enforcement in 1983 and chief deputy in 1997.

At the debate Hennessy tried to set herself apart from Mirkarimi by

stating that she is not a politician but a professional.

“I think the biggest difference between us is that I’m not a professional

politician,” Hennessy said. “I’m somebody who worked in the

department for 30 years. I came in the first class that was actively

recruiting people of color and lesbians. I have 25 years of executive and

management positions both in the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department

as well as the Department of Emergency Management, so I think that is

our biggest difference.”

She added that another difference is that she has experience in providing proactive leadership.

“I held myself accountable, I held others accountable and I’ve set examples as a leader. I think that is very, very important,”

Hennessy said.

The election is being fought against the backdrop of several scandals that have surfaced during Mirkarimi’s tenure.

In 2013, a woman who had been reported missing from San Francisco General Hospital, which sheriff’s deputies patrol, was

found dead in a stairwell there. Earlier this year allegations of a fight ring in a county jail run by sheriff deputies went public, and

there is reportedly low morale among the rank and file of the safety agency.

Making international headlines was the killing in July of a woman on a city pier, allegedly by a man in the country illegally who

had been released from custody by the sheriff’s department after a long ago drug possession charge against him was dismissed.

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Due to the city’s sanctuary city policy, the sheriff’s department released the individual without alerting federal immigration

authorities, a decision that came under blistering criticism from Lee and other officials.

At the forum, there was no discussion of the Pier 14 incident per se. The candidates were asked about the sanctuary city policy

and both said they support it and that the law should stay in place.

Prior to being elected sheriff in 2011, Mirkarimi served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors representing District 5. Before

that Mirkarimi worked for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office from 1996-2005. He is endorsed by his predecessor,

Sheriff Mike Hennessey, and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club.

Hennessy has secured endorsements from the mayor, eight members of the Board of Supervisors, the deputy sheriff’s association,

Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, and the Bay Area Reporter .

Mirkarimi focused his closing statement on the fact that he was the one being endorsed by Hennessey.

“I view him as a progressive sheriff,” Mirkarimi said, “who was elected and served 32 years in San Francisco, and he endorsed

only myself. He did so in 2011 when he was ready to retire, and does so again. That says a lot because Mike Hennessey was

known as an outsider even when he ran for the fourth, fifth and sixth time. But he supported me because he knew that we need to

continue to advance the kind of independent and constitutional bright line of protecting our sheriff’s department.”

John Robinson is the third candidate in the sheriff race, but he didn’t show up to the debate. According to his website, Robinson is

a former longtime sheriff’s deputy who rose to the rank of lieutenant.

A new groundbreaking survey launched this week that aims to assess

needs and realities of transgender people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Oakland-based Transgender Law Center launched the Positively

Trans, or T+, survey Monday, August 3. The community-led online

survey is intended to examine the legal and policy landscape as

experienced by transgender women, men, and gender nonconforming

people living with HIV/AIDS across the country.

According to TLC, Positively Trans is a response to the structural

inequalities that drive the high rate of HIV/AIDS and poor health

outcomes for transgender people, especially transgender women of

color. What makes this survey unique, TLC staff said, is that it is the

first survey like this developed by transgender people living with HIV

for transgender people living with HIV.

“As transgender people living with HIV/AIDS, we are capable of

forming our own network, telling our own stories, and developing our

own strategies for advocacy,” Cecilia Chung, an HIV-positive trans

woman who is a senior strategist at TLC and the project leader of

Positively Trans, said in a news release. “This survey is a

groundbreaking opportunity to not only highlight our needs, but also

our resilience when there are few resources available. We are ready to

offer policymakers, providers and legislators our own solutions.”

Chung believes that, because this survey was written by the community,

developed by the community and promoted by and through community

channels, it will empower the transgender community to be more active

and engaged.

“The data we are collecting would really get a better picture of where

the gaps are,” Chung said, “so we can tune in, and come up with

recommendations specifically for those gaps to better help transgender

people.”

Chung said that there is still a lot of work to be done in the HIV/AIDS

community around understanding the needs of trans people.

“We still hear stories about trans women being harassed by law

enforcement, which creates unsafe environments for trans people,” she

said. “Like engaging in health care and they find it hard to disclose their

HIV status or even to go out on the street.”

Chung also referenced the number of trans women who have been

murdered this year in several cities.

“So far we have seen over 11 trans women murdered already this year alone,” Chung said. “These are very discouraging

messages that trans people are exposed to and they see and hear enough of how much of transgender lives seems to be

disposable. Some of that message might sink in.”

According to Chung, the goal of this survey is to look at how much confidence transgender people have in the legal system to

protect them, and how much confidence they have in the health care system that is supposed to help them.

The survey was developed in partnership with nine Positively Trans national advisory board members from across the country:

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Arianna Lint, Channing-Celeste Wayne, Dee Dee Chamblee, Milan Sherry, Octavia Lewis, Ruby Corado, Tela Love, Teo Drake,

and Tiommi J. Luckett. The majority of them are trans women of color living with HIV.

“This survey is for us and will not be done without us,” said Luckett, who lives in Arkansas. “Every trans woman and man living

with HIV should fill out this survey, because we need people to know that we’re here, and that we can develop our own solutions

and strategies to take care of ourselves.”

TLC staff noted that the survey is a safe and anonymous place for trans and gender nonconforming people living with HIV to

share their experiences on topics such as barriers, discrimination, and violence, as well as positive stories about health care

services, housing, employment, relationships, and community.

Positively Trans was made possible with the support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, TLC said. The survey’s findings, which

will be released in October, will ultimately inform policy and program recommendations, prioritization of needs, strategic

planning and advocacy efforts.

To take the survey, which is available in English and Spanish, visit http://transgenderlawcenter.org/positively-trans.