Archive: Author: Khaled Sayed

The artist who created an LGBT mural in the Mission district that has

been vandalized multiple times said at a recent forum that he wasn’t

surprised the art was damaged, but he was shocked by an arson attempt

on the project.

Los Angeles-based artist Manuel Paul, a gay man who’s part of the

Maricon Collective, created the Por Vida (For Life) mural that was

installed at Bryant and 24th streets last month by Galeria de la Raza.

Por Vida depicts two lesbians looking at each other, a transgender man,

and two gay men embracing each other. The mural was defaced three

times in June, and on June 29 it was set on fire, leaving a third of the

mural irreparably damaged. The strong response to the mural on social

media and the vandalism have ignited conversations in the Mission

around issues of homophobia, displacement, appropriation, and trauma

within and outside the Chicano/Latino communities.

Galeria de la Raza hosted a community forum at City College of San

Francisco’s Mission campus Saturday, July 25. The meeting included

panel discussions and an examination of how art incites dialogue.

According to Paul, the digital mural installation was created to honor

San Francisco Pride Month, and inspired by the work of queer people of

color.

“I wanted to do it for the Maricon Collective supporters,” Paul said, “not

just for the collective but for their audiences.”

Paul said that there were mixed reactions to the mural, and there was a

lot of positive feedback, which is what he likes to pay attention to.

“The negative, I feel like it was a little bit extreme,” he said. “Because it

was a mural that was going to be up there for a month, and I feel like

some people didn’t have patience with it. They wanted it to be erased.”

Even though Paul anticipated that the mural would be vandalized, given

the history of the murals that Galeria de la Raza hosted in the past, he

didn’t think someone would set it on fire.

“Other murals at Galeria de la Raza got tagged up,” Paul said, “but I

never thought of fire, or being torched.”

During the forum’s first session, some panelists spoke about their

experiences coming out as queer. Gay activist and artist Joey Terrell

remembers his mom calling him queer without knowing that he was. At

the age of 15, he had an argument with her and yelled, “Yes, I’m queer.”

His mom broke down and cried, and said that she wished he was a drug

dealer or a thug instead.

“But she came around and now she is my best friend,” Terrell said.

Another panelist, muralist Carlos (Kookie) Gonzales, talked about how

he used to be homophobic. He wouldn’t want to be seen with gay people. But now he is a supporter of LGBT people.

“Everyone has a gay person in their family,” Gonzales said.

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Luciano Sagustume said that he came out as a lesbian, but after 10 years he realized that he was a transgender man.

“Before moving to San Francisco I never met a transgender person,” he said. “When I come out as queer, as a lesbian, it didn’t

feel right to me till I realized that I’m a transgender man.”

He said that the mural represented him as a trans man, and he was sad to see the amount of negative attention it received.

“I never thought that it would get burned,” Sagustume said. “That is another level of hate.”

Muralist Nancy Pili, another panelist, urged Galeria de la Raza to include misguided young people who feel ignored and

dismissed.

“I think one of the biggest problems is that these young Latinos feel that their history has been written by others,” Pili said. “We

need to create workshops and help them show their work. We need to give them a space to tell their story.”

Ani Rivera, the gallery’s executive director and a queer Chicana who lives in the Mission, promised that Galeria de la Raza will

continue to do outreach to both supporters and opponents of the mural.

“The gallery’s neighbors are very concerned about their safety since Por Vida was lit on fire,” Rivera said.

The community forum was sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Chicana Latina Foundation, National Center for

Lesbian Rights, and Our Family Coalition.

Last week San Francisco police released video of the arson incident. The video, from a surveillance camera at Galeria de la Raza,

2857 24th Street, shows someone in a black hooded sweatshirt or jacket with white stripes on the shoulders, black pants, white

tennis shoes, and white gloves approaching Por Vida, pouring liquid on it, and lighting the fire, which burns for about a minute

and a half before the footage ends.

According to Officer Carlos Manfredi, a police spokesman, officers responded to the scene at 11:10 p.m. June 29, just after the

fire started.

The suspect is described as a 6-foot-tall man, weighing 190 pounds and wearing a black cloth over the lower half of his face,

according to police. He was last seen running south on Bryant toward 25th Street.

Anyone with information in the case may call the police department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444, or text a tip to

847411 and type SFPD, then the message. People may also contact lead investigator Sergeant Pete Shields of the Special

Investigations Division at (415) 553-1133.

The case number for the June 29 incident is 150568699.

A wounded community came together to heal as hundreds turned out at

a recent rally following repeated vandalism of a mural in San

Francisco’s Mission district that depicts gay, transgender, and lesbian

Latinos.

The July 1 rally, held in front of the Por Vida (For Life) mural that is

hosted by Galeria de la Raza at 24th and Bryant streets, brought

together community members and political leaders who denounced the

vandalism, which included defacing it with paint and an effort to burn

the piece.

The mural, by artist Manuel Paul of the Los Angeles-based Maricon

Collective, shows a gay couple, a transgender man, and a lesbian

couple.

The first incident occurred Monday night, June 15. It was discovered

that someone had spray-painted over about half of the piece. The next

night, the mural was again defaced.

The gallery repaired the damage, but the mural was defaced again with

spray paint around midnight Sunday, June 21. On June 29, the mural

was set on fire, damaging a third of it.

Police are investigating the incidents as a hate crime.

San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, who represents the Mission,

spoke at the rally after a Latin dance troupe performed a ritual dance.

“It is hard to see from where you are, but the scene from my point of

view of this diverse crowd is truly beautiful,” Campos said.

Campos, who was born in Guatemala in Central America, said he was

closeted until he was 26.

“I know first hand how hard it is to come out to family and friends,

especially in a Latino family, and it is especially hard for a transgender

person who faces more challenges,” Campos, 44, said.

“For me, as a gay Latino man, to go from the incredible high of what

happened in the last few days, with the United State Supreme Court

issuing a ruling supporting same sex marriage. To go from that high to

seeing this – it was a very painful experience,” he said, pointing to the

vandalized mural.

Campos said that LGBT people are part of every community, and the Mission has always had that queer presence.

“The Mission has always had queer people living here,” Campos said. “It is painful to see this, and it was important for me, not

only as a supervisor, but as a human being, to call this out.”

Gay former state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said he believes that the mural vandalism is deliberate and very provocative, but

he finds it a mystery and he questions where it is coming from.

“It is so deliberate, and it may be a group or individuals who really don’t have a stake in either side, but they want to see a

conflict,” he said.

Ammiano, who lived in the Mission and worked as a teacher in the 1960s, remembers that there were challenges even back then

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living in the neighborhood, “because there were no resources,” Ammiano said. “But it was more like live and let live. And yes,

there was homophobia of course, but there were also lifetime residents and families who lived here who had gay kids, and it was

a different era; much more family oriented.”

Paul, in a statement released by Galeria de la Raza, explained the reason for the mural. “Por Vida was created to celebrate the

LGTBQ Chican@/Latin@culture within the context of a historically Chicano barrio.”

Paul explained using the @ symbol to refer to Chicanos or Chicanas: “Through our art and our work we present counterstories

that reflect queers growing up in the barrio.”

Ani Rivera, Galeria de la Raza’s executive director, thanked the crowd who came to the rally to show their support. A sign with a

printed version of the mural was distributed to attendees. Rivera asked the crowd to raise their signs. The crowd was cheering,

and Rivera leaned forward to the microphone and said, “Por Vida.” The crowd responded by clapping and cheering louder.

After the attacks started, the gallery installed a video surveillance system, which captured footage of the suspect. Last week,

police described the suspect as a white or Hispanic man between 20 and 40 years old, who’s 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 160

pounds. He was wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants, white gloves, and had a black cloth covering his face.

At the rally, gallery officials said they remained determined to support artists.

“Galeria is still committed to supporting Chicano, Latino artists that speak to the wealth of the prescriptive of our own people,”

Rivera said. “It is in that spirit that we invited the Maricon Collective to present the Por Vida mural.”

She also disagreed with the apparent message the vandal or vandals is sending.

“The targeted violence that has been visited upon the mural sent a message that queer Chicano doesn’t exist,” Rivera said. “But

I’m here to tell you we do exist.”

Every time Galeria de la Raza replaced the damaged mural it cost about $1,200. After the arson attempt, the mural will remain in

its burned state, said spokesman Henry Pacheco.

According to Rivera the mural will stay up until the end of July.

An online video platform that will feature more than 1,000 stories from

people living with HIV/AIDS held its launch event in San Francisco.

Coinciding with National HIV/AIDS Long-Term Survivors Awareness

Day, the June 5 news conference and viewing also took place on the

same day that 34 years ago, in 1981, saw the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention report the first case of AIDS in the U.S.

Called Generations HIV Online Video Archive, the site is overseen by

the San Francisco-based HIV Story Project, which was founded in 2009

by filmmakers Jorg Fockele and Marc Smolowitz. The filmmakers have

produced two documentaries: Still Around (2011), and Keep the

Promise (2013). Their latest film, Desert Migration , will world

premiere at Frameline 39 June 25.

The HIV Story Project created a booth with a video camera and a touch

screen to make it easy for people to record their stories. Starting in 2010

the booth was placed at many locations around San Francisco, Oakland,

and at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

Local officials and others present at the news conference praised the

project.

“I’m proud to be here to celebrate the people who are chronicling our

history, and the heroes in our community that made sure that this

community survived and thrived,” said Supervisor Scott Wiener, a gay

man who represents the Castro. “Because of those community heroes

who stood up and said that we are not going to fold and we are going to

keep on fighting.”

Wiener added that the community needs to make sure it doesn’t lose

sight of its history.

“We want make sure that the people from all ages know this community

history and what we went through during the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” he

said.

The Generation HIV Online Video Archive includes stories from

longtime survivors and people who witnessed that early HIV/AIDS

epidemic. Initially, the site is home to about 500 videos that users can

explore and share. More content is expected to be added weekly.

“Viewing some of the videos on the website was very emotional to me,

having to come to terms with being a gay man in the late 1980s, during

some of the worst periods of this epidemic,” Wiener said. “Having lost a

friend, having a friend who became very sick and got healthy again; this

is very emotional for a lot of us.”

Tez Anderson, founder of Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome), was also at the news conference and said he supported the

project.

“As we enter the 35th year of the AIDS pandemic, the Generations HIV Online Video Archive is an important chapter in our rich

history,” Anderson told the Bay Area Reporter in a Facebook message. “Finally people can see how varied our stories are.

Together they form a portrait of resilience of the human spirit and serve as reminders of how heroically our tribe rallied together

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to take care of each other when no else one would. That’s a big part of our legacy. Our stories give us context and help us make

sense of our lives.”

Anderson, a long-term survivor himself, said he has not yet done a video, but plans to.

Smolowitz, executive producer of the HIV Story Project, pointed out that the archive took a long time to develop and produce,

but he is glad that it is going to be live and people will be able to learn about this aspect of LGBT community history.

“For people who know me, this project was kind of a slow birth. We started this project in 2009,” he said. “After we were

approached by the Shanti Project to make a one-off web video project, we realized that something else is going on. In early 2000

there were not a lot of films about HIV/AIDS, and it seemed like everything went quiet.”

Smolowitz noticed that there was fatigue in the film world, and he wanted to reignite that fire.

“I have been HIV-positive since 1995. I wanted to tell my story and I was wondering if there were other people like me out

there,” Smolowitz said. “We wanted to focus on how people with HIV are living and thriving today with that disease.”

To view the archive, visit www.generationshiv.org.

Sean Dorsey Dance is celebrating its 10th anniversary home season

with The Missing Generation, a new program that will premier in San

Francisco next week.

Dorsey, who runs the eponymous named dance company, is a

transgender man who’s an acclaimed contemporary dance

choreographer. He has won accolades from San Francisco to New York

with his powerful dance-theater.

The Missing Generation features the voices of many AIDS survivors

and was edited from 25 people who told their stories to accompany the

dance.

“These are oral interviews that I conducted with longtime survivors of

the AIDS epidemic,” Dorsey said. “For two years I researched and then

I did six residencies in cities around the U.S. in which I recorded oral

histories of AIDS survivors from the late 1980s to early 1990s.”

“These are people who lost a lover, a partner, a friend, a child, a parent,”

Dorsey said. “These were early activists and members of ACT UP, early

hospice workers, nurses, and people who were diagnosed 30 or 40 years

ago and are still with us today.”

The work explores the loss of part of an entire generation of gay and

transgender people to AIDS. It features full-throttle dance, luscious

partnering, intimate storytelling, and theater.

Dorsey said that he started to notice a theme emerge from the

interviews.

“I asked people specific questions that I had in mind, but a particular

theme that people started talking about emerged, like a common

experience, even across communities,” he said. “I really ingested these

stories. It was a very intense process to sit across the table from

someone who is a longtime survivor whose experience, for me and

people like me and younger than me, seems like an unthinkable horror.”

Based on these interviews, some of which were four hours long, Dorsey

worked with a team of composers to develop the sound score.

“What the audience hears is original music and the real voices of the

people I interviewed and their remarkable real-life stories,” he said.

“Part of why this project is important to me is that people my age and

younger don’t know what the early days of the epidemic were like. It’s

no fault of our own,” Dorsey, 42, added. “We just were not taught that

history in school, and it is often lost or not documented for younger people, who have no idea about that part of LGBT history.”

Dorsey believes that American culture has turned its back on the survivors of the early part of the epidemic.

Gay San Francisco Supervisors Scott Wiener and David Campos

Tuesday introduced a resolution condemning the anti-gay law recently

signed by Indiana Governor Mike Pence.

The two gay lawmakers are the latest city voices speaking out against

the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Pence signed in a closed

ceremony March 26. The law, which goes into effect in July, allows

anyone in the Hoosier State to use their religious beliefs to claim that

they have a right to refuse to follow anti-discrimination protections and

other laws.

The law, known as Senate Bill 101, is primarily focused on allowing

businesses to refuse service to gays and lesbians. It is a reaction to the

advancement of marriage rights for same-sex couples and court rulings

that have determined bakeries and wedding service providers can’t

discriminate against LGBT customers.

Since Pence, a Republican, signed the RFRA he has been faced with a

huge backlash from LGBT people and their supporters around the U.S.

This week, following a massive protest against the law last weekend,

Pence said he would seek to “clarify” the law.

In a March 31 news release, Wiener and Campos said their resolution,

which the Board of Supervisors will vote on next week, condemns the

law and calls on city departments and private businesses to end business

relations with Indiana.

The day Pence signed the law, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee directed all

city departments to ban any publicly-funded city employee travel to the

Hoosier State. Wiener and Campos’ resolution calls on city departments

to refrain from entering into any new or amended contracts with

companies headquartered in Indiana, and to review existing contracts to

explore opportunities to discontinue those contracts.

“This law is an attack against the LGBT community and basic human

rights and has no place in our country,” Wiener said in a statement.

This week Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf also said that she was directing

the city administrator not to approve the use of city dollars for business

travel to Indiana. She said she would ask the City Council to pass a similar resolution.

San Francisco State University will bar school-funded travel to the state.

“I am informing the campus community that no San Francisco State University funds from any source – general funds or auxiliary – will be used to support employee or student travel to Indiana,” SFSU President Leslie E. Wong said in a statement Monday, March 30.

She also announced that she will not attend a required meeting of the NCAA Division II President’s Council, to be held in April

in Indianapolis.

Indiana is not the only state that adopted a religious freedom law. Nineteen other states have implemented similar laws, according

to the American Civil Liberties Union. Indiana’s doesn’t specifically mention LGBT people but it gives the right for people to

discriminate against LGBT people using their religion as an excuse since there are no laws in Indiana to protect LGBT people

from discrimination.

Last Sunday Pence appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos and was asked if he would support or issue a law

to protect LGBT people from discrimination. Pence said, “I will not push for that. It’s not on any agenda. It’s not been an

objective of the people of the state of Indiana.”

One of the supporters of the bill, Eric Miller from Advance America, an anti-LGBT lobbying group, wrote on

advanceamerica.com, “SB 101 will help protect individuals. Christian businesses, Christian bakers, florists, and photographers

should not be punished for refusing to participate in a homosexual marriage!”

Swift opposition

Opposition from companies across the country was swift.

The day Pence signed the bill, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, a San Francisco-based company, tweeted, “Today we are

canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination.”

Bill Oesterle, CEO of Angie’s List, said March 28 that the company has pulled its proposed campus expansion project on

Indianapolis’ near east side from City-County Council consideration as a result of the passage of the RFRA.

“Angie’s List is open to all and discriminates against none and we are hugely disappointed in what this bill represents,” Oesterle

said in a statement. The company, which is based in Indiana, was expected to break ground on the project within days.

Among the CEOs who used Twitter to condemn the new law was gay Apple CEO Tim Cook, who also called on Hutchinson to

veto his state’s bill.

“Apple is open for everyone. We are deeply disappointed in Indiana’s new law and calling on Arkansas Gov. to veto the similar

#HB1228,” Cook tweeted March 27.

Leaders in other cities and states have curtailed publicly-funded travel to Indiana.

Gay Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed an executive order Tuesday banning city employee-funded travel to Indiana.

“Laws that say you can discriminate have no place in this country,” he told reporters Saturday.

Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy will sign a similar executive order barring state-funded travel to Indiana.

LGBT nonprofits doing innovative work were recently recognized by

the Horizons Foundation, which hosted organization representatives at

its annual grantee breakfast.

Horizons, a San Francisco-based philanthropic organization, granted

$1.37 million this year to key organizations serving the LGBT

community in the nine-county Bay Area region.

The December 16 breakfast, held at the Westin St. Francis, brought

together 30 nonprofit organizations.

Dan C. Quigley, Horizons board chair, welcomed the attendees.

“For the board members at the Horizons Foundation this is the highlight

of our annual calendar,” Quigley said. “The main reason why we are

here is to celebrate the primary reason why the Horizons Foundation

exists, which is to support and fuel the LGBT community and the

nonprofits, who do the work day-in and day-out, to succeed and grow.”

Miko Thomas, of the Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits,

performed a Native American ceremony. BAAITS received $6,630

from Horizons for general operating support to teach gender-neutral

powwow dance classes and regalia-making classes for Native American

Two-Spirit people.

Francisco O. Buchting, director of grantmaking and community

initiatives for Horizons, mentioned 2014 grantmaking panelists, and

also introduced many nonprofit organizations, such as the Transgender

Law Center, a 2014 Give Out Day prize award grantee ($5,000); the

San Francisco LGBT Community Center, which received $10,000 to

increase giving support for the implementation of a new fundraising

plan; and the Rainbow Women’s Chorus, which received $5,000 for

general operating support to develop choral musical programming by

the all-women’s chorus, to name a few.

Brian Villa, of the RYSE Center, presented a short video made by the

center’s youth members. The organization, in Richmond, received

“I’m really honored to be here and share with you some of the work we do at the RYSE Center,” Villa said. “Before we opened in

2008, we wanted to make sure that we would be a space for all young people no matter who they were and where they came

from. Because we understand the importance of providing opportunities to support their identities in a safe and healthy way.”

RYSE received support for the Alphabet Group, a space where LGBTQQ youth can talk about their experiences, explore their

identities, attain new skills, engage in political advocacy, and inform allies about issues.

A play with an uplifting message about LGBT youth finding personal

identity received a positive reaction from the audience at its only

performance last week.

Confide in Me was performed one night only, September 6, at the

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. The play is about the struggles

of LGBT youth and how those often get overlooked. Starring in the play

were Sienna Williams, Elsie Phillips, Victoria Lavin, and Ali Brown, all

emerging community actors from Nicky’s Youth Theater and LGBTQ

activists.

Confide in Me was presented as a play that hoped to inspire audiences to

find personal identity, trust, and sympathy with those who share an

untold story.

Nichole Martinez, playwright, director and light operator, worked all

summer on the project. She was very happy to see it come together on

the stage, and see the audience’s reaction.

“The play shows the difficulty with family as well as the inner struggle

and the violence that can occur with the general public,” Martinez, 20,

said. “This show is about perseverance through those struggles, and

finding inner peace and the ability to choose happiness for yourself over

the comfort of the people who can not accept you.”

In the play, Mary-Anne (Williams) wants to come to terms with her

gender identity, but she has a mother who will not accept her.

Meanwhile Julie (Phillips) is fighting for her identity and the acceptance

of the people in her life. Julie and Mary-Anne must make a hard choice

between making the town happy or becoming who they really want to

be.

Martinez, who identifies as a gender-fluid lesbian, wanted to feature the

transgender community because she feels that it is under-represented.

“I included a transgender character in my play because I believe they

are the least represented in our communities,” Martinez said. “They are

discriminated against and I wanted to present a show that called

attention to the discrimination and hardships people of the LGBTQ

community have in general through my transgender character, Mary-
Anne/Martin.”

The audience’s reaction overall was very positive.

“I was really nervous that people wouldn’t understand my play or react to it the way I intended them to,” Martinez said. “But it

was a great surprise to have them laugh at the parts I intended to be comic relief, or become uncomfortable, and even think

deeply about the story I presented them. And I was really happy to find they appeared to understand, or at least respect, the story

being told. And that all really reflected during the Q&A.”

In response to the high demand for web development engineers, “boot

camps” have started to show up to train new engineers to meet the need.

One of those is Hack Reactor, a San Francisco-based firm that runs a

12-week advanced immersive program that trains full-stack JavaScript

engineers to fill the needs of the startup market. It accepts candidates

who possess both technical know-how and strong interpersonal skills.

Students train for about 800 hours in a curriculum focused on computer

science fundamentals and web engineering.

Tony Phillips, Hack Reactor’s co-founder, believes that anyone who is

dedicated to learning can learn to program.

“Hack Reactor works hard on creating a diverse environment to make

everyone welcome,” he said at a July 21 media briefing. “We’ve found

that many students suffer from lack of confidence in the beginning of

the course, and Hack Reactor tries to debunk that issue right away.

People think that, because they don’t have a conceptual background,

maybe they might not be a good fit for the course. Debunking that is the

first thing we do by having role models in our students body and our

staff.”

Phillips believes that creating a safe and diverse environment for

learning is a key to have successful program.

Phillips talked about his philosophy of reaching out to women and

minorities. Recent news reports have pointed out that the workforces of

many tech companies are mostly male and white.

“We had a scholarship for women and minorities in the beginning, but

we found out that this wasn’t influencing people to sign up as much as

we hoped,” he said. “So we allocate this money to sending people to

conferences such as the Grace Hopper conference in Minnesota, to

promote the brand of Hack Reactor. I think the experience of women

who come here is our greatest asset because we have very clear

standards about how people should treat each other. Not only women or

minorities, but anyone to anyone. We have clearly defined inbound and

outbound rules that we describe to the students, and we have kicked out

students before who created an inhospitable environment for anyone.”

Kwyn Meagher is an LGBT graduate student who has been at Hack

Reactor for six months in a select program for top students to prepare

them to teach in the next program, besides working on their own

projects in Hack Reactor’s internal incubator.

“I heard about Hack Reactor from a friend,” Meagher said. “I was sure it was a good program because my friend from college had success with it. I also did my research and Hack Reactor seemed to stand out for me.”