S.A.M.E. Hosts Victory Celebration for Marriage Equality Protesters (tags)
The San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (S.A.M.E.) held a victory celebration September 21 at the Bamboo Lounge in Hillcrest after San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith dropped all charges against the Equality Nine, protesters who were arrested at the San Diego County Clerk's office August 19, 2010 for showing up to request marriage licenses or support others doing so, including same-sex couples who had appointments. The event featured five of the Equality Nine and also Queer-rights pioneers Leo Laurence and Pat Brown, who led militant Queer-liberation demonstrations in San Francisco months before the Stonewall riots.
Walker Wins, Wisconsinites (tags)
elections
Queer Liberation Started in San Francisco, Not Stonewall (tags)
The legend says America's — and the world's — Queer liberation movement began with the riot at the Stonewall Inn bar in New York City in June 1969. But three months before, militant Queer activists in San Francisco had launched the Committee for Homosexual Freedom (CHF) and mounted the first-ever picket against a private employer for discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Leo Laurence and Pat Brown, two veterans of that movement, brought their story to Activist San Diego June 16.
Rally Kicks Off San Diego Pride Events (tags)
San Diego's Queer (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride events kicked off Friday, July 15 at a rally on the pride festival site in Balboa Park. The featured speakers were New Age author and credentialed minister Marianne Williamson, who talked about marriage equality as a straight supporter who has performed same-sex weddings, and Daniel Hernandez, the young, openly Gay aide to Congressmember Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) who saved her life when she was shot at an outdoor rally in January. But the most powerful speaker was former San Diego Democratic Club president Larry Baza, who powerfully expressed the history of the Queer rights movement and the challenges it faces in the future.
Leather History Meeting Relives the Wounds of AIDS (tags)
Though it was billed as a panel on the history of San Diego's Leather community, the San Diego League of Gentlemen meeting July 1 turned into something else: an emotionally intense discussion and reminiscence of the effect AIDS had on the Queer community in general and the Leather community in particular. Themselves touched by the crisis directly ? all the panelists either had AIDS, took care of people who did or were active in the community's response ? they talked about the pain of losing so many friends but also how the community grew and its surviving members became more emotionally committed to each other.
Chicano Arts Pioneer Takes On Globalization and War (tags)
Pioneering Chicano artist Malaquias Montoya was present at the creation of the Chicano rights movement in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, being one of the organizers of the Mexican American Liberation Arts Front (MALAF) who helped create the images of that movement. But he’s also involved with current social and political controversies. In his show “Globalization and War: The Aftermath,” through March 4 at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, he takes on Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, the U.S. government’s rationalization of torture (“softening them up for interrogation”), the growing gap between rich and poor in the U.S. and throughout the world, and other progressive themes in a bold, assertive and often brutal style derived from 20th century New York artist Ben Shahn and the Mexican muralists Orozco and Siquieros.
Over 200 Turn Out for Matthew Shepard Memorial in San Diego (tags)
Over 200 San Diegans marched in Hillcrest October 12, 2010 to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, target of an especially brutal Queer-bashing attack in Wyoming, and to honor the lives lost to Queer-bashing, bullying and teen suicide. The event featured two marches, a preliminary rally outside Obelisk Bookstore (site of a memorial plaque to John Robert Wear, 17-year-old killed in a Queer-related assault in 1991) and a program at San Diego’s LGBT Center that featured speakers including Terry Summers, a personal acquaintance of Matthew Shepard.
Homeless Veteran Activist Shares Horror Stories at First U-U Church (tags)
Anti-war homeless veteran and activist Maurice Martin delivered a chilling but moving presentation Friday, June 11 at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in Hillcrest. He talked about war crimes he witnessed or was involved in during his 18-month combat tour in El Salvador in 1974-75 and how his experiences there have haunted his life ever since. Martin also discussed the growing numbers of homeless veterans on our streets and what he and others are doing to help them.
“Innocents Abroad” Trek from San Diego to Gaza (tags)
When Larry Hampshire, Faith Attaguile and Hany El-Saldany signed on with an international convoy bringing supplies and vehicles to the people of the occupied Palestinian province of Gaza, they had so little insight into what they were getting into that they called their program “Innocents Abroad” when they reported on their experience to the Peace and Democracy Action Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in Hillcrest May 6. They faced opposition mostly from the government of Egypt — including a police riot, the confiscation of their passports and the arrest of seven members — but they also had strong support from the people in the countries they went through, especially in the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Jordan). Their presentation sparked a wide-ranging discussion about the prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace and whether the so-called “two-state solution” (a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza next to Israel) is still practical or desirable.
"Shrimper" Environmental Activist Speaks in San Diego (tags)
diane Wilson, who went from being a painfully shy Texas shrimp fisher to a nationally known environmental activist, presented her story in San Diego at a meeting sponsored by the Peace and Democracy Action Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church. Her inspiring story is also available in her book, "An Unreasonable Woman."
Giving His Eyes for His Country (tags)
Arab-American Mazin al-Nashi got screwed twice by the Bush administration and the private military contractor that employed him. Recruited to work as an interpreter for Titan in Iraq, he was blinded in an attack and then systematically denied the medical care that might have saved his eyesight. Mazin and his wife Layla told their story to Activist San Diego January 14.
New Details in Attack on American Spy Ship (tags)
An Israeli military court of inquiry later acknowledged that their naval headquarters knew at least three hours before the attack that the odd-looking ship 13 miles off the Sinai Peninsula, sprouting more than 40 antennas capable of receiving every kind of radio transmission, was "an electromagnetic audio-surveillance ship of the U.S. Navy," a floating electronic vacuum cleaner. The Israeli inquiry later concluded that that information had simply gotten lost, never passed along to the ground controllers who directed the air attack nor to the crews of the three Israeli torpedo boats who picked up where the air force left off, strafing the Liberty's decks with their machine guns and launching a torpedo that blew a 39-foot hole in its starboard side.
Chinese made baby strollers recalled nationwide ! (tags)
ComfyCabs are being recalled across the nation as many babies have had minor injuries when these junk-quality strollers break down.
Wars are stretching Marine Corps thin (tags)
The good news is we won't be invading Iran anytime soon. (Well that's if Geogre W Hitler doesn't nuke them)
Bat Mitzvahs and Bulletproof Vests--American Aravice
CALIFORNIA SAFE SCHOOLS - ALERTS PUBLIC TO KIDS RING RECALL! (tags)
CHILDREN'S RING RECALL - CONTAINS LEAD!
Citizens Required to Ask County if BSE Meat sold in restaurants, supermarkets.
JFK LIMO SURVIVOR STILL DEFIES 'SINGLE BULLET' THEORY (tags)
Summary of New York Times interview with Nell Connally, last surviving occupant of JFK limo during 1963 assassination, maintains, 40 years later, that a separate bullet struck her husband, then Texas Govenor John Conally, which would mean it was impossible for one man to have fired all shots. Her late husband had also insisted to his death that he was hit by a separate bullet, not the same one that initially wounded JFK.
But Is It Still Dirty Laundry If Bush Believes It?