Los Angeles Press Conference for "No On Proposition 35" (tags)
Sexual service providers abhor and resist trafficking of all kinds, and support appropriate legislation that would effectively help eliminate it – laws that do not inappropriately mis-characterizing other activities as trafficking. Simple human decency demands this; moreover, it is in sex workers’ self-interest to eliminate sex trafficking, since they are trafficking’s likeliest victims. The sexual services extended community has long provided support to trafficking victims and will continue to do so. Sadly, Proposition 35, as written, would increase the risks to trafficked people and wrongly expand the definition of trafficking to include many entirely consensual adult sexual activities. If Proposition 35 passes, anyone receiving financial support from normal, consensual prostitution among adults could be prosecuted as a human trafficker; this includes a sex worker’s children, parents, spouse, domestic partner, roommate, landlord, or others. And if convicted they would be forced to register as a sex offender for life!
Queer Democrats Make Defeating Prop. 32 a Priority (tags)
The predominantly Queer San Diego Democrats for Equality voted August 23 to make defeating Proposition 32 a priority race in the November 6 election. Proposition 32 is an effort to destroy the ability of organized labor to raise money for political campaigns, and it's being sold deceptively as a campaign finance reform measure even though its principal sponsors are multi-million dollar donors to Republican candidates and super-PAC's. On the eve of Women's Equality Day, the club also heard from professors Dr. Sue Gonda and Carla Kirkwood on the history of women's struggles for equality and their links to the Queer rights movement.
Queer Democrats Unanimously Oppose Pension "Reform" (tags)
The hottest issue on the June 5 ballot in San Diego is Proposition B, the public pension "reform" initiative sponsored by openly Queer Right-wing City Councilmember and Mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio. It would freeze all city workers' pay for five years and abolish the city's pension system for new hires, replacing it with a 401(k)-style plan. The product of a decade-long propaganda campaign by the radical Right politicians and media, it's expected to pass easily — but the predominantly Queer San Diego Democrats for Equality, after hearing a debate on it, unanimously voted to oppose it at their April 26 meeting.
“Earth Is for People, Not for Corporations” (tags)
Election fraud expert Steven Freeman headlined “Earth Is for People, Not for Corporations” at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood July 1. The event featured a wide variety of anti-corporate presentations and showed the role of corporations in promoting and profiting from every current social evil, from war to the exploitation of immigrants and denial of the reality of climate change. It also exposed the role of corporate media and discussed ways people can challenge it.
San Diego Hosts Meeting on Same-Sex Marriage Equality (tags)
The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center hosted a town-hall meeting April 2 to discuss the future of marriage equality in the wake of the upcoming California Supreme Court ruling on Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in the state. Speakers included Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, other professionals and grass-roots activists like Fernando Lopez, whose group is organizing people to go talk to individuals one-on-one to make them aware of how Queer people suffer from not having access to civil marriage.
Over 500 Turn Out for Marriage Equality Demonstration (tags)
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and his Lesbian daughter Lisa (pictured) led off the San Diego installment of "March Forth on March Fourth," a series of rallies and demonstrations held statewide on the eve of the California Supreme Court's oral hearings on the legal challenges to Proposition 8. Mayor Sanders endorsed same-sex marriage equality last year after deciding he couldn't tell his daughter that her relationship was less important than his.
CA Green Party Facing Potential Disaster on November 2nd - Urgent Help Needed (tags)
Given our limited resources, probably the smartest action we can take to defeat Prop. 62 will be to mount a huge letters-to-the-editor campaign. If we can get four to seven 'No on 62' letters published in most every newspaper in the state, then we just might be able to defeat 62.