Seeking Friendly Volunteers plus Seniors Who Want Visits!Bill Blackburn

The Spahr Center has established a new program bringing friendly visitors together with seniors who wish to connect with others. We are seeking LGBTQ+ volunteers willing to offer an hour or two each week in bringing community to a senior who longs for more connection. We also want to hear from our seniors, who would enjoy having someone to talk to on a regular basis. Everything we do that connects lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people with each other is creating community. Whether young or old, as LGBTQ+ people, we all need opportunities to be with other LGBTQ+ people and to be who we are. Community becomes even more important as we age and face the challenges of health, mobility, and loss. Our volunteers will be screened and then trained to provide companionship: what to do as well as what limits are appropriate. Then they will be carefully matched with an LGBTQ+ senior. Seniors may be living in residential facilities or assisted living facilities where they are hesitant to be out to staff or other residents due to concerns about discrimination. Or they may be living in their own homes, simply desiring more connection with others like themselves. Please look over the attached flyers at the bottom of this e-letter and consider whether you might become involved with the program. By volunteering to bring community to a senior, you may well find your own sense of connection and purpose broadening. And by asking to be matched with a friendly visitor, you may well find a connection of great value. Contact Katharine Cowan for more information: kcowan@thespahrcenter.org

The US Supreme Court Stands Up for Decency

We were thrilled at the decision of the US Supreme Court on June 28 (during Pride month), handing a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding with his gender identity.

The justices left in place a lower court’s ruling that the Gloucester County School Board had acted unlawfully in preventing Gavin Grimm from using the boys’ bathroom before he graduated in 2017. In doing so, the court opted against taking up a major transgender rights case that could have set a terrible nationwide precedent on the issue. The court turned away the board’s appeal of a 2020 ruling by the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Grimm is protected under the federal law known as Title IX that bars sex discrimination in education and the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that people be treated equally under the law. The current assault on transgender Americans is cruel and calculated. To have this current, conservative court stand up to this hatred, for now, represents a rare and much needed moment of civility.

Introducing Beth Brenner-Josef, our new Finance Director!

The Spahr Center is thrilled to announce the addition to our staff of Beth Brenner-Josef as Finance Director. With years of great experience managing finances for non-profit organizations, including beloved Frameline, she is helping us to strengthen systems to manage a larger and more complex agency. In the last two years, The Spahr Center has gone from managing a $1 million budget to a budget of $2.2 million in the fiscal year started July, 2021. We have attracted more grants and operate a pharmaceutical program that require intensive management. We thank Leslie Gallen enormously for managing our finances during these past two years. Her real job is to manage our HIV care program, a whole job in and of itself! And we warmly welcome Beth to help us ensure that we are even better stewards of our donors’ contributions. Beth can be reached at bbrenner@thespahrcenter.org. Thank you Beth!

The Spahr Center Now Has Onsite Meeting and Event Space. Everyone is Welcome to Request It!

The Spahr Center has recently added 1,250 square feet of space to our offices to accommodate our growth and, more importantly, the urgent need for flexible meeting and event space. We can now have our discussion and support groups, as well as other community events, occur onsite! Wow, are we excited!! If you have an interest in bringing a club or group together, or creating a fun community event – movie night, reading, knitting circle, book club, gardening talk, or musical performance – that we can help you advertise, we would love to host. Please email info@thespahrcenter.org

Save the Date for The Spahr Center’s 2021 Marin Pride Picnic – Saturday, September 25!

Our great supporters, Bob and Rick enjoying the 2019 picnic.

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We here at The Spahr Center are bummed out that we have not been able to safely assemble LGBTQ+ people of Marin, and our HIV community, for a joyous celebration of pride for the past two Junes! Now that the world is opening up again, we are eager to bring people together. We have set the date of Saturday, September 25th for the Marin Pride Picnic. Hours of the event are noon (12 pm) until 2:00. Location and further details will be announced as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, we hope you will hold this date. Please stay tuned for further announcements!

Take the LGBTQ+ Vaccine Survey!

We are excited to share the California LGBTQ+ COVID-19 vaccine survey with you. This survey was built-in collaboration with CSU Sacramento, Bryn Mawr University, Equality California, the California LGBTQ+ Health and Human Services Network, and The Sacramento LGBT Community Center. The results will better direct statewide and local policy change efforts that will improve accessibility and dissolve barriers stopping LGBTQ+ people from getting vaccinated.   Please take a moment to complete this survey, and feel free to share it with others! To take the survey, go to http://bit.ly/VaccineSurveyCA

Tickets Available for an Indie-Rock event Benefiting Spahr

Saturday, July 24 at Live Bait in Sausalito. Doors at 6:30. Show at 7pm. Live Bait is a new music venue at 350 Harbor Dr, Sausalito. Next to the world famous Fish Restaurant. Tickets at: https://m.bpt.me/event/5160794  Universal Ingrooves Music recording artist Alan Chapell from the Band Chapell is excited to play a concert at Live Bait and offer his share of the door proceeds to The Spahr Center – Marin County’s only non-profit community agency devoted to serving, supporting and empowering the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community and everyone in the county living with and affected by HIV. Having recorded with Jerry Harrison, Prairie Prince, and members of Susanne Vega, Avril Levigne and Jon Bon Jovi’s respective bands, indie-rocker Chapell is about to begin a nation tour supporting his sixth studio album TWO FISHES. Listen to Chapell on Spotify, Amazon, and Apple Music, or at www.ChapellMusic.com. Pre-save Chapell’s first single from Two Fishes here.