Category Archives: Activism

Harry Hay Stairway!

The Eastsider LA reports that the Cove Avenue Stairway in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles may be renamed in honor of Harry Hay, who in 1951 formed the early gay rights group the Mattachine Society in a house he lived in at the top of the stairs. For the full article, click here.

SF Giants make an “It Gets Better” video

The World Champion San Francisco Giants have made an “It Gets Better” video. For more videos and more information on the project, founded by columnist Dan Savage to give gay kids a vision of life beyond high school, visit the website here. For more Giant charitable work, click here. If you’ve ever wondered about Brian Wilson’s edgy style, here. For sadly broken Buster, here, and for Timmy the Kid, here.

Hide/Seek in San Francisco with Curator Jonathan D. Katz

Hide/Seek Curator Jonathan D. Katz

Last October, The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery opened Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, the first major museum exhibition showing how the questions of gender and sexual identity have dramatically shaped the creation of modern American portraiture.

For background on the censorship scandal that ensued, click here, here, and here.

On June 3rd, Jonathan D. Katz, director of the doctoral program in visual studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, will discuss his role as co-curator and will consider such themes as sexual difference in depicting modern Americans; how artists have explored the definition of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art-especially abstraction-were influenced by this form of marginalization and how art reflected society’s changing attitudes. -via QCC

The program is at The LGBT Community Center at Market and Octavia. It begins at 8pm and costs $10. Want to get more of Katz? Want to give more to regional arts and humanities? Come to the Pre-party!

From 6pm until the lecture starts, enjoy a reception for Dr. Katz to benefit the Queer Cultural Center‘s Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts: a series of lectures co-presented by QCC and the California College of the Arts. QCCA brings together locally and nationally renowned artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars for a series of conversations to discuss a broad range of topics in the humanities and the arts. Reception tickets are $25-$100 donation and include wine, hors d’oeuvres, and preferred seating at the lecture.

A Sustainable Queer Planet? 14th Annual National Queer Arts Fest opens in SF

Philip Huang performs June 9 & 10 at Eros

We have made it this far. What next? How can we keep what we have created and protect it for the generations coming up? The theme of this year’s National Queer Arts Festival is A Sustainable Queer Planet. Presented by The Queer Cultural Center, the festival includes 22 venues and runs for a month. An array of performers, poets, writers, visual artists, musicians, comedians and dancers work through diverse notions of sustainability. Organizations, collaborations, friendships, political movements, publications, networks, connectivity, intentional communities, Queer families, and various ecological and economic interventions are all well represented in this month-long festival. High Holy Homo Days are upon us!

Watch this space for notices and commentaries on select individual programs. Philip Huang, pictured above, performs in Formerly Known As: Performances by Male and Trans Sex Workers. This two-day program, hosted by Kirk Read, takes place at The Center for Sex and Culture, and features a different line-up each night. It includes writers, performance artists, comedians and a slideshow of visual work. For a complete listing of festival offerings, visit The Queer Cultural Center’s site here.

Stay Gay! SF’s Eagle Bar sprouts Critical Graffiti Wall – Big Slide Show

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It has been  a few weeks now since the SF Eagle closed its doors. No bikes out front, no men inside, chained shut, it sits empty. But not silent. Its walls speak. In several languages, actually. Graffiti farewells and protests decorate the outside of the once vibrant gathering place. What comes next, no one knows. For more on the demise of the beloved San Francisco Leather bar, click here, here, here, and here.

Men Kissing for I.D.A.H.O. – Sexy Slide Show!

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Happy International Day Against HOmophobia! More on I.D.A.H.O. here, and more gay kisses here. Our love is stronger than anyone’s hate.

Kudos! SF Giants to make an “It Gets Better” Video

According to an SF Weekly article: “the team will make an iconic ‘It Gets Better’ video to encourage LGBT youth across the nation. The Giants will be the first professional sports team to join the spirited campaign aimed at curbing LGBT bullying and teen suicides.” Good for the Giants! Way to set the bar, boys. For more about the ‘It Gets Better’ anti-bullying media campaign, click here. For a bizarre promo for the Giants May 25th “Dynamite: A Fundraiser for Keenan Cahill” click here. For Brian “The Beard” Wilson at home with his Leathery pal “The Machine” here. And for the real action – ATT Park!

Homo Kiss-Ins for I.D.A.H.O. – International Day Against HOmophobia

May 17th is International Day Against HOmophobia. I.D.A.H.O. is a francophone project, with roots in Paris and branches in Quebec, but events are planned around the world. Kiss-Ins are a popular theme.  San Francisco’s Gary Virginia is planning a Pink Party at the Cafe Flore from 5 – 7 pm. The Flore, or the Cafe Hairdo as it has long been known to locals, is located at the northeast corner of Market and Noe. Come hang out and make out! For a current list of I.D.A.H.O. happenings, plus images for download and more, click here. For a slide show of Sexy Guys Kissing, click here!

Cinema taught me how to become the person I wanted to be…

Mickey Chen, center, poses with the two leading actors from the director’s 2007 short film Fragile in Love.

Author, gay activist and documentary filmmaker Mickey Chen is a friend of a friend of this site. Thanks to Guo-Juin Hong of Duke University for this one! Chen’s best-selling book Taipei Father New York Mother is coming out as a film. Both are semi-autobiographical and based on Chen’s difficult family background. Chen recently talked to the Taipei Times. He has described cinema as his “mother” and explains: “Children from dysfunctional families have different ways of licking their wounds. My brother is addicted to gambling, my older sister died of an overdose, and my younger sister spends her life in the frantic pursuit of love. I choose to hide in the abstract world of literature and the arts. I became parentless at the age of 10. Cinema taught me how to become the person I wanted to be.” Good stuff. For the rest of the interview, click here.

Action Alert: Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill up for a vote tomorrow

This infamous piece of legislation, which would introduce a death penalty in Uganda for people found guilty of homosexual conduct, is up for a vote tomorrow.

Life is already bad in Uganda for LGBT people – all of my LGBT friends from there have had to flee from their lives, and have some of the most horrifying, brutal stories of any LGBT refugees I know.  The Gay Highwaymen did a story on David Kato’s murder in Uganda earlier this year.

Want to do something about it? Credo Action has introduced this petition, which it will deliver to the president of Uganda. AllOut.org has another petition, as well as instructions for how to call your country’s representative in Uganda. Please consider signing, calling, and voicing your concerns about this legislation.

-AidanAbroad