Results tagged “civilrights”

The definition of the federal hate crimes law might finally get expanded to include sexual orientation, as the House of Representatives approved the bill yesterday, which was an attachment of the $680 billion Defense Authorization Bill. The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as next week. Obama has said he will sign it into law -- unlike his predecessor, and Pelosi said this legislation has been on her agenda for two decades.

The intersection at "Grove and Van Ness [is] corked by 200 protesters, more coming from civic center," says Jim Herd who is live on the scene. Traffic is blocked as far as he can see. Cops are on the scene now. As we already mentioned, there is "lots of screaming at Civic Center plaza...[t]he goal, it seems, is to block all lanes of traffic." The protesters, according to a hurried KRON 4 reporter, plan top stay until they are arrested. (For more updates on what's going on at Civic Center, go here.)

As anticipated, the California State Supreme Court ruled to uphold prop 8, the same-sex marriage ban. That means that gay marriage in the state of California is still considered illegal, effectively stripping away civil rights of many GLBT Californians. The State Supreme court ruled that prop 8 is legal in a 6-1 ruling with justice Marino being the sole holdout.

After much speculation this week, the California State Supreme Court will announce its official decision on Prop 8, the gay marriage ban, on Tuesday, May 26 Here's what will go down the day before the ruling is announced:

NBC Bay Area reports that Rochelle Harrison, who has been openly gay since the age of thirteen, was ridiculed on a daily basis by teachers and staffmembers at Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo, who would say such nonsense as: "You'll never get a job," "You're going to hell," "You're so ignorant. You don't even know whether you're a boy or a girl." (Uh, what millennium are we in again?!)

Bobster1985 has a great collection of San Francisco archival footage. Here's a clip that shows a bit of San Francisco's progressive history during the Civil Rights Era. The full film can be seen at archive.org.

Take note, California: the Governor of New York introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. "There is clearly a problem in that those individuals who are gay or lesbian who would live in a civil union are still not entitled to somewhere between 1,250 and 1,300 civil protections" that are afforded to married couples, Paterson said yesterday.

Civil rights have really taken center stage today, yes? First, Vermont legalized gay marriage after Governor Jim Douglas vetoed it on Monday. (An aside: will there be some sort of Ben & Jerry's party today in the Castro?) Then, just this afternoon, Washington D.C. says it will recognize same-sex marriage from other states. According to the Washington Post:

Sean Penn didn't shame you into compliance last night? When relentlessly sporting demographic analyst David Latterman weighed in on Nelson Minear's M4M project, his projections were hobbled -- nay, crippled by the paucity of gay couple demographic intel: "Unfortunately, since gay marriage isn't legal, we don't have the age stats, but among opposite-sex marriage, men's average age of marriage is 27. It'd be older in the more tech-savvy urban areas, and even older for gay couples. Thus, you may find long-term partnering at the early-thirties. Then, as with all couples, come the round of break-ups in the mid/late thirties, putting people on the market again." You heard the man. (SFist comments)

Just about everyone agrees: gays can win more support for civil equality by partering with ally-communities. This is a nice-sounding idea, particularly in the San Francisco bubble. But what does it mean -- and is there a point at which collaborating stops being beneficial?

Oh this Prop 8 stuff just gets hairier and hairier. We were thumbing through some articles about the people who backed Prop 8; that includes groups like the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which despite the word "liberty" in their name wants to wield control over California marriages -- every single one -- vetoing whichever couples they don't like. They plan to use Prop 8 to continue stopping marriages and to nullify the approximately 18,000 that they don't currently like -- and possibly more in the future. And the Amicus Brief that they filed in Prop 8's favor contained this scintillating quote:

Remember the other day, we told you about a bunch of new TV ads about how gay families can actually be pleasant and likable? Well, you'll be glad to hear that the spots aired all over California during Tuesday's inauguration, which is great -- except in Los Angeles on ABC-TV. According to the folks who produced the ads, they were told they were "too controversial to air during the Inauguration, since 'many families will be watching.'"

With this week's slew of court filings, the post-Prop-8 fight for civil equality is still hot hot hot. And even though some of the 15-minutes-of-fame organizers may be losing focus, the pros aren't waiting for another election to reach out to voters.

Before we get to the nitty-gritty, we just want to make sure that everyone knows that tonight's Prop 8 town hall at the Veteran's Building has been postponed indefinitely. We'll let you know if there's an update on that. UPDATE! We've just received tons of new information about upcoming events. It's all pasted after the jump.

When some of us were still young boys but already chronic insomniacs, we began to demonstrate a talent for obsessive list making. While some precocious and intelligent children stayed up past their bedtimes reading The Red Badge of Courage under the covers with a flashlight, we spent those wee hours making never-ending lists of things that we desired with an all-consuming passion: rooms filled with trampolines, shopping sprees at K.B. Toys (we were obsessed with the idea of having a shopping spree anywhere, really; it could have been at Sears for all we cared), comprehensive psychoanalysis--- the list literally went on and on.

Members of the exclusive Norteño gang in the Mission District got capped with a civil injunction today, barring them from hanging out each other in a 60-square-block area and from loitering after 10 p.m., according to a report in the Chronicle.

Queer rights groups freaked out, threw a tizzy (understandably), and nixed their support for a workplace discrimination civil rights bill "after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., pulled transgender people from the legislation that would protect gays and lesbians from workplace discrimination." And since nothing says action like an angry missive or online petition, a letter signed by gay groups was sent to Congress yesterday demanding them to rebuff legislation excluding transgender folk, according to the NGLTF.

Un-American group the Catholic League, the nation's largest Catholic civil rights sect, has called for a boycott of Miller Beer ever since The Last Supper got the parody treatment from the Folsom Street Fair folks.

--The heart of rock and roll is still beatin' -- at Stern Grove this afternoon. It's HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS!!!! The free show starts at 2, but we assume folks'll be lining up pretty early, beach towels and folding chairs at the ready. Stern Grove's at Sloat and 19th.

While San Francisco is known globally for a certain worldview, those of us who actually live here know that when it comes down to particulars, we don't often agree. We can't agree on Blue Angels. We can't agree on a Muni solution. Heck, we can't even agree on what to do about Ed Jew (oh no!). But you know a banner we can all unite under? The One City One Book: San Francisco Reads program. Imagine, hordes of people reading a sort of narrative story on paper! No electricity required (save, perhaps, for reading lights).

Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority, was found dead in his office earlier today. Our condolences go out to his family and loved ones.

Here's todays wrap up of the news

The father of Shayar Aziz Jr, Shayar Aziz Not Jr., announced today he was going to file a suit in the jaw breaking of his son. The lawsuit was filed against five of the 415 Gang for "assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and violation of civil rights." Those five include the two who have already been charged, Brian Dwyer and Richard Aicardi, as well as Aicardi's two brothers and Marino Peradotto. Peradotto is the one who is part of the Marine's crack anti-acapella group unit.

-State Senate votes for an early primary and to extend term limits. -College students everywhere to put down the bong and stage a national day of protest over the Iraq War. Then they'll go back to using the bong.

Last week's winner: The East Bay Express. What? No letters about Cody's? Fret not -- there's an article. (We had no idea the reason why there's no books on the shelves there now is because they were behind on their bills!) Also -- neighbors rat out neighbors for loud parties and for opening day-care centers. Cover: Fat acceptance movement (medical, civil rights, artistic, online). Good article, which makes the no fatties cartoon running later in the issue seem a little weird. Peruvian food in Richmond. The Ivy Room closes down this week, and their rants column "Haters Stand Up," about annoying fans of "conscious rap." And Savage Love says it's wrong to take advantage of polyamorists.

Between a skyrocketing homicide rate, brutal and incompetent police, moves to completely redevelop the last community stronghold in The City, the shutdown of a school named after a famous local civil rights leader and disproportionate incarceration rates, black people just can't seem to get a break in San Francisco.

It's part of the Politician Rulebook that for Martin Luther King Day, the politician goes to find some civil rights type group, gives a speech in which they give a bunch of homilies in praise of the good Dr., says there's still a lot of work to do, then goes back to not doing anything to accomplish any of it. Which is what Herr Governator did this Martin Luther King Day: he gave a speech at a labor-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in San Francisco. It didn't go over very well

You probably haven't been to a vocal concert since your high school crush object sang that solo from Carousel in the annual choir festival. What relevance does choral music have to my everyday life? you ask. Well, how about a celebration of everyone's equal right to love? San Francisco's Volti, a new-vocal music group (the adjective "new" modifies "vocal music," not the group itself, which has been around for over 25 years), is performing the world premiere of No More To Hide: An American Wedding Cantata, in tribute to last year's same-sex marriages. No More to Hide sets to music a verse from 1 John 4:7 ("Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.") and snippets from Leaves of Grass ("I dream'd in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth.") -- and for you civil rights activists on a budget, will be performed for free at City Hall next Wednesday, November 16, courtesy of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services and the Music@MONS program. (don't worry, folks, there's seats.) If you like to absorb your choral music in a more pastoral setting, Volti will perform No More To Hide, along with several other gay-themed works (more Whitman, and some Edna St. Vincent Millay) at St. Francis Lutheran on Mon. Nov. 21, which was expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America for ordaining gay and lesbian pastors in 1990, and thus was totally free to bless the same-sex weddings from 2004. Tickets available here (and also a Sunday performance in Berkeley). Picture of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, same-sex marriage no. 1

Well, the internets are all abuzz over the 8th annual "One Night Stand," put on by SomArts. We're willing to go with the flow and recommend an erotic art party -- not to mention Indra, known as the "Courtney Love of Cabaret." Wow. That's a reputation to live up to.