Archive: Author: Khaled Sayed

Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black told graduates at City

College of San Francisco that they should celebrate who they are and

that their differences will make them valuable.

Black delivered his commencement address to a record 2,456 graduates

and thousands of friends and family members in the college’s Ram

Football Stadium Friday, May 23. Black, 39, himself is a community

college student, having graduated with honors from Pasadena City

College before attending UCLA’s School of Film and Television.

“I look out at this crowd of graduates and I see an ocean of gorgeous

differences,” Black said. “Let’s be honest. Everyone of us here today is a

minority in one way or another. It just depends on how you slice that

pie. After your celebration I want you to think about the way you are

different. For some of you like me, I think that difference might be

covered in shame. I’m telling you today: rip that shame off of your

differences. Your differences are what will make you valuable, what

will make you marketable, what will make you beautiful.”

Black asked the graduates to use their differences to create ties to

different communities wherever they are.

“I want to ask you to take these differences, and think about what you

can do with your differences to build bridges to other people to other

communities,” Black said. “To build bridges of understanding that will

unify us again; to build what Harvey Milk called the coalition of the

us’s.”

Black won an Academy Award in 2009 as best screenwriter for Milk ,

the biopic about the slain San Francisco supervisor.

In his speech, Black mentioned growing up in the Mormon faith. He

kept his sexuality a secret from his mother, but one day he invited some

of his gay friends over, and because he never mentioned anything about

his mother and her beliefs, they thought that his mother was okay with

him being gay.

Black’s friends told his mother about their personal stories and their

struggles with their own families, and how hard it was for them when

they came out. She listened to everyone politely, and acknowledged

them. Then, after everyone left, she pulled Black aside and asked him if

the boy he had been hanging out with was his boyfriend.

Black believes that, because his mother had listened to his friends’

struggles growing up gay, it changed her opinion and made her more

accepting of his sexuality. Black later took it upon himself to tell

everyone about the LGBT struggle, and he is hoping to change the

perception in people’s minds the way his mother’s perception changed.

Once again demonstrating that San Francisco is fertile ground for

campaign cash, gay Congressman Mark Takano (D-Riverside) came to

the Bay Area for a recent re-election fundraiser.

More than 50 people turned out for the event at Pisco Latin

Lounge/Destino on Market Street.

Takano, 53, was a public school teacher for 23 years before he was

elected to the House of Representatives from California’s 41st

Congressional District in 2012. Although he is a member of the

Democratic Party now, in college he was a member of the Republican

Party.

He is the first out gay person elected to Congress from California and

the first gay person of color in Congress. There are six gay or bisexual

people serving in the 113th Congress.

Takano can’t predict the outcome of the November midterm elections,

or whether the Democrats will be able to regain the control of the

House, but he remains optimistic.

“It could go either way; the Benghazi hearings could be a complete

disaster for the Republicans or they could do a lot of damage,” he said,

referring to the House Republicans’ recent decision to form a select

committee on the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya that killed several

people, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe there’s any substance to the

Republicans’ efforts to stage these Benghazi hearings,” he added. “But I

don’t underestimate their ability to muddy the waters. Even if we don’t

take back the House, I think gaining a few seats, depending on which

seats they are, changes the psychology of the House.”

Dr. Grant Colfax, a former top San Francisco health department official

who later joined the Obama administration as director of the White

House Office of National AIDS policy, was one of those who attended

the Takano campaign event. Currently Colfax works for PATH, an

international nonprofit, leading its HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis program.

“Historically, it is a big challenge to gain seats in the midterm election,”

Colfax said. “It is more about holding onto seats instead of gaining seats

in the midterm. But I believe that we have to fight every step of the way

and support the party and the cause, and Mark is part of that effort.

Mark is very progressive and he stands up for all that I believe in. He

stands up for health care, he stands up for LGBT rights, and he stands

up for veterans.”

One of the LGBT rights that Takano supports is the long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that prohibits

employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The Senate passed ENDA last year with strong

Democratic support. However, Takano believes that getting the House to pass this bill before this current session of Congress

ends in December depends on whether Democrats gain or lose seats in the House.

“It’s very important for people to get out and do fundraisers and encourage people to vote. John Boehner could decide to allow a

number of things to come to the floor if it is his last session as speaker of the House before January,” Takano said, referring to the

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Republican Ohio congressman.

Maurice Kelly, a marketing and sales professional, believes that both parties need to reach across the aisle and get things done in

Congress.

“Personally, I would like to see more civility and a lot more attempts to reach out,” Kelly said. “I’m biased. I really think most of

the stonewalling comes from the Republican side. They are the ones who are most entrenched that they can’t be budged. I would

hope that they would have a change of heart at some point. Nothing is getting done. The American people are seriously suffering

from the political game [Republicans] are playing and it needs to stop.”

Riverside County used to be solid Republican before it turned more Democratic, and Takano has no serious opponent in his

district yet.

“We live in an era when a Super PAC could materialize in an instant,” Takano said, referring to the independent expenditure

groups that raise millions of dollars. “I have a district that could be put into play. Riverside County is a new district that

Democrats have claimed, and it has been blue for more than 20 years, but those changes are somewhat blunted by the low turnout

effect. Any Republican candidate could be turned into a serious opponent.”

In Takano’s first term the House has passed two veterans’ bills that he authored, the VetSuccess Enhancement Act (H.R. 844) and

the Work Study for Student Veterans Act (H.R. 1453). Both are related to access to training and the renewal of the work-study

program for veterans, and they both passed unanimously.

“We’re waiting to see if the Senate will act. There’s a chance that my bills will be signed into law. I am also authoring two other

bills related to veterans issues,” he said.

When it comes to sports Takano was one of many people to publicly congratulate Michael Sam, the first openly gay NFL player

who was drafted last weekend by the St. Louis Rams.

“I congratulated Michael Sam on my official Facebook page for his accomplishment with the St. Louis Rams, and that post had

more than 50,000 views within two hours, and so far about 250,000 have viewed it,” he said. “It’s another positive sign that our

country is changing.”

One of the first organizations to recognize the importance of addressing

mental health needs of people living with HIV/AIDS marked 30 years

of service with a recent reception at its Market Street offices in San

Francisco.

According to its publications, the UCSF Alliance Health Project

recognized early on that the HIV/AIDS epidemic had a devastating

psychological impact on people. It was among the first organizations to

emphasize mental health and wellness and to provide emotional support

and therapy to HIV-positive and HIV-negative people, as well as their

loved ones.

Today, AHP’s services include case management, individual and

couples counseling, and psychiatry. It also provides education and

training in addition to its HIV/AIDS publications. Support groups are

available for lesbians with disabilities, people coping with trauma,

transgender folks, the newly positive, men over 50, and LGBTQ folks

coping with sex and sobriety.

AHP has an annual budget of just under $8 million, said spokeswoman

DK Haas. It serves about 6,500 unduplicated clients, and that figure

includes HIV tests and provider training that AHP is contracted to do

around California.

The agency’s longtime executive director, Dr. James Dilley, reflected on

its growth over the years at the March 21 event.

“A friend of mine asked me what it is like to be part of an organization

that has gone from those early days to today, and my answer was

gratitude,” Dilley said. “And, as Hillary Clinton famously said, ‘it takes

a village.’ That is certainly true not only in raising a child, but in raising

an organization.”

Another speaker was AHP medical director Dr. George Harrison, who

said that he couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.

With more people, especially those who are younger, ditching

traditional gender identities, advocates are working to change the

language and hope that in the process, more understanding will result.

Generally speaking, when a person is born, they are assigned a gender,

male or female, based on their anatomy. While the majority of people

accept the gender that was assigned to them at birth, some opt to change

their gender identity. Others don’t feel they can identify themselves with

either gender, and are known broadly as gender non-conforming.

Phil Crawford, 52, identifies as cis (a person whose experience of their

own gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth). He is the

father of Lux, a gender non-conforming person. Crawford was in San

Francisco last week to put the gender issue in the spotlight, making it a

subject for people to discuss, and advocating for the possibility of

changing the language around gender.

Crawford is a straight married man who often finds it hard to get used to

calling his own kid by the right pronouns, but he is making an effort to

speak correctly and he advocates for others to do the same.

In a meeting room at the Women’s Building in San Francisco on a sunny

Saturday afternoon, Bay Area Humanists welcomed Crawford to talk

about his experience as the father of a gender non-conforming person.

Among the small audience of about 10 there were gay, lesbian, and

straight identified people who listened carefully as Crawford spoke

about his own kid. Lux was not in attendance.

While many in the audience were understanding, there were people who

raised questions about today’s language and society. They pointed out

that making new rules would require making a new social contract that

would involve understanding the gender-neutral identity issue.

One man who said he was 59 years old said that he did not know how to

drop “he” and “she” from his vocabulary and worried about upsetting

someone by using the wrong pronoun.

Crawford acknowledged that pronoun use is one of the trickier issues

with gender non-conforming people.

Dad advocates for gender non-conforming kids