Bay Area Reporter Weblogs

Light Up the Night, San Francisco – part of the National LGBT Food Drive for Equality – is encouraging people to donate food and other items in conjunction with the candlelight vigils taking place Saturday, December 20.
Final beneficiaries include the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement’s West Oakland Food Pantry and Covenant House Oakland, which provides shelter and other services for youth.
According to its Web site, the food pantry needs a canopy to help with distributions on rainy days ($200 or a donation of an easy-up 10 foot by 10 foot canopy); fresh produce, turkeys, frozen meats and fish, canned goods, cereal, juice, rice, pasta, and snacks; toys; and money to purchase food and offset the costs of a freezer. The center purchases many of the food items they distribute.
Donations can be made online through sites such as www.Safeway.com and www.Kmart.com, and the items can be shipped to the following address for distribution:
National LGBT Food Drive for Equality, c/o Dave Latina
Barbary Lane at the Lake Merritt Hotel
1800 Madison Street, Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 903-3580
Contributions before December 24 are encouraged, but will be accepted until January 5.
Donations to Covenant House can be made directly through https://support.covenanthouse.org/donate/
Also on Saturday, Barbary Lane is hosting an open house where people can drop off donations and mingle while we waiting for the Light Up the Night vigil.
For more information on the food drive, and the vigils, visit www.lightupthenightsf.com/give.html or jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Oakland

- Seth Hemmelgarn

It seems that the “Day Without A Gay” protest came a day late as the Golden Globe Award nominations snubbed Gus Van Sant’s critically acclaimed film Milk in the directing, best picture, and most acting categories.

The nominations were announced December 11.

The Focus Features film, about slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, received only one nomination – a best actor nod in the dramatic category for Sean Penn in the title role.

Others in the best actor category include Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road); Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon); Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button); and Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler).

James Franco, who the Los Angeles Times noted has received “rave reviews” for his portrayal as Milk’s lover Scott Smith in the film, instead earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a motion picture, comedy, or musical for his role in the stoner movie Pineapple Express.

For best dramatic picture, members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, and Revolutionary Road.

Directors receiving nominations in the dramatic category included Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire); David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button); Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon); Stephen Daldry (The Reader); and Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road).

The late Heath Ledger, who played a wicked Joker in Christopher Dolan’s Batman movie The Dark Knight, received a best supporting actor nomination. Ledger, who died in January, won the hearts of gay men the world over for his portrayal of gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain.

The Golden Globes will be broadcast on NBC January 11.

A Yes on Prop 8 campaign lawyer announced December 10 that a legal defense fund has been established to help prevent the measure from being repealed by the state Supreme Court.

“To protect the people’s vote for Prop 8, the expenses of this litigation will likely exceed $350,000,” Andrew Pugno, the fund’s general counsel, wrote in an e-mail blast.

In an apparent reference to the fact that anti-Prop 8 forces have targeted individuals and businesses that donated to Yes on 8 by using public records of reported donations that the campaign is required to file, Pugno noted that in the case of the legal defense fund, “Your privacy will be protected.”

“Since this is not a political campaign, donations to the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund are not publicly reported. Also, your donation is tax-deductible as allowed by law.”

He informed potential donors they could mail personal or corporate checks. Many businesses, including the Cinemark Theatre chain, have come under fire after same-sex marriage supporters learned of executives financially backing Prop 8.

Thanking supporters for helping overcome “the $40 million flood of attack ads against Prop 8, the opposition of virtually every statewide politician, and the ‘political machine’ of gay activist campaign workers that came from all across the nation to defeat Prop 8,” Pugno warned “the battle is not over yet.”

“Just as in the Prop 8 campaign, your decision to donate will determine whether or not we have the resources needed to win,” Pugno wrote.

In an e-mail to the Bay Area Reporter, Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a key Prop 8 opponent, said that EQCA sent out a fundraising e-mail Tuesday, December 9 for its marriage political action committee.

All funds from that PAC go to support a repeal of Prop 8 at the polls if efforts to overturn it in court aren’t successful, or to defend officials who might face a backlash if they support repeal, Kors said.

The group has proposed putting a repeal on the ballot as early as 2010.

“Having money set aside now will enable us to be prepared for whichever scenario we are faced with,” Kors wrote.

He also wrote, “Considering that the Alliance Defense Fund, a huge right-wing nonprofit legal organization based in Arizona, is working on this case, it is difficult to imagine why the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund would have $350,000 in costs associated with this litigation. We must wonder what that money might eventually go for.”

- Seth Hemmelgarn

The San Francisco Movie Bears group is leading what they bill as a peaceful protest at the CineArts at Empire, 85 West Portal, San Francisco tonight and tomorrow (Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6) at 6 p.m.

Milk, the movie about gay city Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, is set to open at the theater tonight.

The event is part of a boycott against CineArts and other theaters owned by Cinemark Holdings Inc. that started because Alan Stock, Cinemark’s CEO, donated $9,999 to the campaign supporting Prop 8, which eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to marry in California. Cinemark is based in Plano, Texas.

Movie Bears is a social group that gathers regularly to watch movies at local theaters. The group started in San Francisco four years ago and has since grown to include chapters in other cities.

According to Movie Bears’ Drew Galleni, since Thanksgiving, there have been protests against Cinemark in Chicago; Portland, Oregon; and Boulder, Colorado.

A growing group of people have vowed specifically not to see Milk at a Cinemark theater at www.nomilkforcinemark.com, Galleni said in an e-mail, adding that the tally at the Website now reaches 24,528 – representing a potential loss of revenue of about $240,528 to Cinemark.

For more information, visit www.sfmoviebears.com.

- Seth Hemmelgarn

The San Francisco Fire Department is distributing job applications for entry-level firefighter positions, and at least one gay firefighter is hoping LGBTs will apply.

At station number 6 in the Castro, Keith Baraka, 43, said, “I’m the lone gay person out of 27 people that work there on a regular basis.”

Baraka, who’s been with the department for more than 11 years, said being a firefighter in the city is “wonderful, probably the best job I’ve ever had,” but said when it comes to recruiting for more firefighters from the LGBT community, “I believe our department could be doing a lot more.”

Baraka said LGBTs don’t make up the same proportion of the department that they do of the city’s population, and he thinks Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White should encourage more recruitment from the community.

“When diversity is lacking then that group is not, to me, properly represented,” said Baraka. “They don’t have a voice.”

Lieutenant Mindy Talmadge, Hayes-White’s spokeswoman, said recruitment is up to the city’s department of human resources, and fire department employee groups.

“We have thousands and thousands and thousands of people fill out applications, so recruitment is not really an issue,” Talmadge said.

Applications are being distributed weekdays only at fire department headquarters, 698 Second Street (at Townsend), through Wednesday, December 10. Applications must be hand-delivered from Thursday, December 11 through Saturday, December 13. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

- Seth Hemmelgarn

The city’s health department is facing $26.7 million in mid-year cuts. Members of the public are encouraged to attend a special meeting of San Francisco’s health commission Tuesday, November 25, to discuss part of the reductions, which would come at the request of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s budget office.

The cuts could affect areas including HIV prevention and substance abuse treatment.

The commission has already identified $10 million in possible cuts, and will be meeting Tuesday to go over another $16.7 million.

The reductions, many of which would take effect January 1, are part of an effort to close a citywide budget gap that’s expected to be $90 million to $125 million. The city charter requires a balanced budget.

Openly gay commission President Jim Illig said the potential cuts, which he said are unprecedented for mid-year, are “crazy … but that’s the level of desperation we’re at right now.”

The meeting will be at 3 p.m. at 101 Grove Street, room 300 (across the street from City Hall).

For more information, visit www.sfdph.org/dph/comupg/aboutdph/hc/nextMeeting.asp.

- Seth Hemmelgarn

A coalition of groups will hold a community forum, “Proposition 8 and Race: What’s Next?” on Wednesday, November 19 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street in San Francisco.

The Stop AIDS Project, And Castro for All, And Marriage for All, and the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition are hosting the forum. Those expected to speak include Supervisor Bevan Dufty, the Reverend Amos Brown, Andrea Shorter, and Eva Paterson. The facilitator will be Kyriell Noon, executive director of Stop AIDS.

Topics to be addressed include: how better bridges can be built between the LGBT community and communities of color; how LGBT people of all races can work with straight people to better communicate their relationships; and what individuals can do to further unity in their communities.

The forum is being held in an effort to move community discussions and strategy forward as LGBT people and allies continue to protest the passage of Prop 8.

A web site developed by a San Francisco man, www.stop8.org, has been revamped to be “a hub of information about the fight for equality.”

“There’s been a huge groundswell of support since the election, and now’s a crucial time to show our friends and families how they can help,” Matt Baume, the man behind the Web site, said in an e-mail to supporters.

The site includes updates on the evolving aftermath of Prop 8’s passage from a wide variety of blogs, newspapers, and other media; and links where people can go to get involved, whether it’s by attending rallies or signing petitions.

Equality California, which was a key member of the No on 8 coalition, announced yesterday (Wednesday, November 12) that it aims to work to repeal Prop 8 if efforts to get the state Supreme Court to overturn it fail.

The Stop8 site started during efforts to defeat the measure banning same-sex marriage in California, but has never been part of the official No on 8 campaign.

Before Election Day, the site consisted mainly of videos of same-sex couples telling their stories and urging people to vote no on Prop 8.

Baume told the Bay Area Reporter that he’s getting about 700 visitors a day, and he’ll keep the site going as long as he can.

- Seth Hemmelgarn

Oscar Nunez, who’s straight but plays the gay character Oscar Martinez on NBC’s “The Office,” called the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday, November 11 to talk about Prop 8 and suggested the measure’s opponents should try to gain support by helping other communities.

For example, the Cuban-born Nunez said, same-sex marriage supporters could organize events such as 5K runs in places like East Los Angeles, which has a large Latino population.

Assisting other communities, whether providing books for libraries or raising funds for playground equipment, even without mentioning Prop 8, could encourage support of the marriage equality in return, he said.

Nunez indicated he might look into organizing an event himself. The actor, who’s also in “The Proposal,” a movie starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds that’s expected to open in June, said he donated $25 or $50 to the No on 8 campaign at a friend’s wedding.

Referring to the large demonstrations that have sprung up around the state since the measure passed last week, Nunez, who lives in Los Angeles, said he understands protests are necessary, but “I don’t think you can argue your way into anyone’s brain.”

“You’re never going to change the mind of the Mormon Church,” whose members dumped millions of dollars into the Yes on 8 campaign, he said.

- Seth Hemmelgarn

A protest march against Proposition 8 will take place in San Francisco Friday, November 7, according to www.protest8.blogspot.com.

The march will start at 5:30 p.m. at Market and Seventh streets and end at Dolores Park.