A Tunisian court sentenced two men accused of sodomy to two years in prison on June 6, 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. The decision violates their rights to privacy and nondiscrimination under international law and Tunisia’s 2014 constitution. The police also attempted to subject the defendants to an anal exam, apparently to use as evidence in the case.
Police arrested the two men, both 26, on suspicion of same-sex conduct on June 3 in Le Kef, a city 175 kilometers southwest of Tunis, after one of them filed an unrelated complaint against the other. The prosecutor of the Kef First Instance Tribunal charged the men with sodomy under article 230 of the penal code, which punishes consensual same-sex conduct with up to three years in prison. Hassina Darraji, the lawyer who took on the men’s defense for the upcoming appeal, told Human Rights Watch the defendants told her they had refused the police’s demands that they undergo an anal exam.
“Tunisia’s record of actively prosecuting people for consensual same-sex conduct is deeply worrying and a blatant invasion of their private life,” said Rasha Younes, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “While states and international bodies have commended Tunisia for its progress on human rights, the criminalization and prosecution of homosexual conduct signals otherwise.”
Damj Association, a Tunis-based LGBT rights organization, told Human Rights Watch that one of the men had filed a complaint against the other regarding an outstanding loan. The police then attempted to persuade them to “confess that they are gay” by bullying, insulting, and threatening to imprison them, Darraji said.
Damj and Darraji said that after they were sentenced, the authorities transferred the men, whose names are being withheld for their privacy, to a prison in Ben Arous, near Tunis, when a prisoner in el-Kef prison contracted Covid-19. The men are now being quarantined in the Ben Arous prison. The two-year sentence, Damj said, is longer than most handed down for sodomy in recent years. The appeals hearing is scheduled for July 8.
During Tunisia’s 2017 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) hearing at the UN Human Rights Council, in response to the recommendation from several countries, Tunisia formally accepted the recommendation to end forced anal examsas a method of “proving” homosexuality. However, Tunisia’s delegation stated: “Medical examinations will be conducted based on the consent of the person and in the presence of a medical expert.”
This approach fails to recognize that consent is seriously compromised because trial courts can infer guilt from a refusal to undergo the exam, Human Rights Watch said. Furthermore, the tests are of no scientific or evidentiary value in proving homosexuality. Indeed, such examinations, when forcible, are intrusive, invasive, and amount to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment that violates international law. State-sponsored forcible anal exams violate medical ethics and have been recognized as torture by the UN Committee Against Torture.
Tunisian authorities should immediately quash the two men’s conviction and release them, Human Rights Watch said. Tunisia’s parliament should repeal penal code article 230, and the Justice Ministry should direct public prosecutors to abandon prosecutions under article 230 and issue a directive ordering prosecutors to stop sending detainees for anal examinations as part of police investigative procedures to determine suspects’ sexual behavior. Tunisia’s health minister should also direct all forensic doctors under the ministry’s authority to cease all anal examinations for these purposes and to respect people’s right to physical dignity and integrity.
Prosecutions for consensual sex in private between adults violate the rights to privacy and nondiscrimination guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Tunisia is a party. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the covenant, has made clear on several occasions that sexual orientation is a status protected against discrimination under these provisions. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found that arrests for same-sex conduct between consenting adults are, by definition, arbitrary.
This conviction appears to contradict the right to privacy and nondiscrimination reflected in Tunisia’s 2014 constitution. Article 24 obligates the government to protect the rights to privacy and the inviolability of the home. Article 21 provides that “All citizens, male and female, have equal rights and duties, and are equal before the law without any discrimination.”
In 2018, the Commission on Individual Freedoms and Equality, appointed by President Beji Caid Essebsi, proposed, among other actions, to decriminalize homosexuality and to end anal testing in criminal investigations into homosexuality. On October 11, 2018, 13 members of the Tunisian Parliament introduced draft legislation for a code on individual freedoms. It incorporated several proposals from the presidential commission including abolition of article 230.
“Tunisia has an opportunity to uphold individual freedoms and everyone’s right to nondiscrimination and bodily integrity by leading the way in decriminalizing same-sex conduct,” Younes said. “It should start by immediately releasing these two young men and halting arrests based on sexual orientation under archaic sodomy laws.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued Thursday for a more limited U.S. view of global human rights advocacy based on the principals laid out by America’s Founding Fathers, a suggestion critics assumed meant stepping away from more modern concepts such as support for women and the LGBTQ communities around the world.
Pompeo, speaking in Philadelphia, singled out property rights and religious freedom as “foremost” principals in a speech that elsewhere complained about the “proliferation” of protections in international agreements related to human rights.
“As was clear from the start, Secretary Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights was designed to challenge the international consensus with a narrow view of human rights, that among other things would leave LGBTQ people even more vulnerable to violence and discrimination.”
DAVID STACY, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
“We are forced to grapple with tough choices about which rights to promote and how to think about this,” he said. “Americans have not only unalienable rights, but also positive rights granted by governments, courts and multilateral bodies. Many are worth defending in light of our founding; others aren’t.”
Pompeo on Thursday released a report produced by the Commission on Unalienable Rights, which he tasked last year with conducting a broad review of U.S. human rights policy, arguing at the time that it had “lost its bearings.”
Before its release, many human rights groups were skeptical of the commission, whose chairwoman was conservative legal scholar Mary Ann Glendon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.
Pompeo noted that the report emphasizes property rights and religious liberty. “No one can enjoy the pursuit of happiness if you cannot own the fruits of your own labor. And no society can retain its legitimacy or a virtuous character without religious freedom,” he said.
The report did not produce any specific recommendations and steered clear of endorsing policy proposals. But experts who parsed it for direction noted, for example, that it referred to abortion and same-sex marriage not as rights but “divisive social and political controversies.”
Critics such as Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the report would damage the United States’ reputation as a champion of human rights around the world by narrowing the scope of who deserves protection.
“As feared, Secretary Pompeo used his speech to insinuate a hierarchy of rights where property rights and religious liberty are ‘foremost’ rights and some rights are not ‘worth defending,’” said the New Jersey Democrat.
Critics also faulted the makeup of the commission, saying it was weighted with conservatives, and the public did not have sufficient opportunity to weigh in on its findings before the report’s release.
“As was clear from the start, Secretary Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights was designed to challenge the international consensus with a narrow view of human rights, that among other things would leave LGBTQ people even more vulnerable to violence and discrimination,” said David Stacy, government affairs director of Human Rights Campaign.
Pompeo also took aim in his speech at demonstrators “pulling down statues” and “desecrating monuments,” in echoes of President Donald Trump’s recent speech at Mount Rushmore. The secretary of state said it was an attack on the people who fought for the rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence.
He also criticized The New York Times for its 1619 Project, an award-winning explanation of the persistent legacy of slavery in the United States.
“America is fundamentally good and has much to offer the world because our founders recognized the existence of God-given unalienable rights and designed a durable system to protect them,” he said. “But these days I must say even saying America is fundamentally good has become controversial.”
In a report published this week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recommends that eligibility regulations for women athletes like those enforced by World Athletics, track and field’s global governing body, be revoked immediately.
The regulations target women athletes with some variations in their sex characteristics that cause their natural testosterone levels to be higher than typical. The regulations deny these women the right to participate as women for running events between 400 meters and 1 mile unless they submit to invasive testing and medically unnecessary procedures. There is no clear scientific consensus that women with naturally occurring higher-than-typical testosterone have a performance advantage in athletics. There are no similar regulations for men.
These regulations rose to prominence as a result of the decade-long controversy surrounding South African runner Caster Semenya, who lost her appeal for equal treatment in the Court of Arbitration for Sport last year. Semenya’s case came in the wake of another groundbreaking fight against gender discrimination in sports by courageous Indian sprinter, Dutee Chand. Runners in Kenya, Burundi, and Uganda have also been negatively affected by the regulations.
The UN’s report roundly criticizes the regulations, saying they “create the risk of unethical medical practice” by blurring the line between informed consent and coercion and encouraging medically unnecessary procedures (a critique the World Medical Association issued previously). The report also points to the power imbalances between the doctors affiliated with sporting bodies and athletes, saying: “in sport, such power imbalances are compounded by athletes’ dependency on the sports federations requiring such medical interventions and the frequent absence of adequate and holistic support during the decision-making process.”
These regulations are stigmatizing, stereotyping, and discriminatory, and have no place in sport or society. They amount to a policing of women’s bodies on the basis of arbitrary definitions of femininity and racial stereotypes.
The report authors call on sporting bodies such as World Athletics and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to carry out “in conjunction with athletes, public education campaigns to counter gender-stereotyped and racist attitudes to address negative and stereotypical portrayals of women and girl athletes in the media, including attitudes about appropriate norms of femininity.”
Indeed, as the convener of global sport, the IOC should lead in upholding human rights.
At least 843 LGBTQ people currently serve in elected offices across the United States, constituting a 21 percent increase since June 2019, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute’s “Out for America 2020” census of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer elected officials.
Particularly pronounced increases were seen in the number of LGBTQ mayors, with a 35 percent year-over-year jump; the number of bisexual and queer-identified people, with increases of 53 percent and 71 percent, respectively; and the number of transgender women serving in elected office, with a 40 percent year-over-year rise.
“In a world where our civil rights are under attack, and many are questioning their place in the world, the affirming power of such representation cannot be overstated,” said Mondaire Jones, who recently won the Democratic nomination in New York’s 17th Congressional District and, if elected in November, could be the first openly gay Black man elected to Congress.
Much of this increase was driven by what Victory called a “rainbow wave” — a surge in LGBTQ wins in the 2018 and 2019 elections. Victory hopes that 2020 will usher even more LGBTQ people into elected office.
“While LGBTQ people are running for office in historic numbers, we remain severely underrepresented at every level of government — and that must change,” Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Institute, said in a statement.
According to UCLA’s Williams Institute, roughly 5 percent of U.S. adults say they are LGBTQ. According to the Victory Institute, just 0.17 percent of roughly a half million elected officials are known to be LGBTQ. The Victory Institute says that in order for LGBTQ people to achieve “equitable representation,” there would need to be 22,544 more lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in elected office.
But LGBTQ political gains are not evenly distributed. In some types of political office, LGBTQ people are near equity, which Victory defines as having the percentage of elected positions held by openly LGBTQ elected officials equal to the percentage of LGBTQ people in the U.S. adult population (currently 4.5 percent). At the governor level, there would need to be one more LGBTQ person elected to reach that goal (total of 3 governors). In the U.S. Senate, three more LGBTQ elected officials would achieve equity (5 senators total).
State legislatures, on the other hand, lag behind: One-hundred-and-seventy-three LGBTQ people would need to be elected in order to achieve equity, according to Victory’s tally.
The majority of the 843 LGBTQ officials — 54 percent — are gay men, followed by 30 percent lesbians, 6 percent bisexuals and 5 percent queer officials.
The vast majority of all LGBTQ officials are cisgender — 94 percent. Roughly 2 percent are trans women and a half of 1 percent are trans men. Less than 1 percent of elected officials identify as intersex, two-spirit, gender-nonconforming or nonbinary.
America’s LGBTQ elected officials are mostly white — 77 percent — followed by 10 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Black, 2 percent multiracial, 2 percent Asian or Pacific Islander and less than 1 percent each for indigenous and Middle Eastern.
“One of the most energizing features of this campaign is the sheer volume of messages I have received from members of the LGBTQ community, young and old, saying that my candidacy as an openly gay, Black person has inspired them to accept their own identities and live authentic lives,” Jones said in a text message to NBC News.
“I’m so humbled to be in a position to provide representation that I never had growing up,” Jones said.
The other openly gay Black man running for Congress is Ritchie Torres, currently the youngest member of the New York City Council, who has a strong lead in vote returns for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 15th Congressional District, which is also overwhelmingly Democratic. (The New York City Board of Elections began counting absentee ballots in the second week of July, and NBC News has not yet officially called the NY-15 election.)
While both Jones and Torres would be the House’s first openly gay Black members, they apparently would not be the body’s first gay Black members.
That honor is thought to belong to Barbara Jordan of Texas, who in 1972 became the first Black woman to represent the South in Congress, and in 1976 became the first Black woman to be a keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention. It was only after her death in 1996 that her lesbian identity, hidden out of fear of political ramifications, was finally revealed.
The High Court of Uganda awarded damages of UGX 5,000,000 (about US$1,340) to 20 homeless gay, bisexual, and transgender people who had been arbitrarily detained and held without access to their lawyers.
Their arrests had occurred in response to complaints about their sexual identities.
On June 15, the court ruled that the prison system’s refusal to allow the 20 people access to counsel violated their rights to a fair hearing and to liberty. The 20 people, who were residents of the Children of the Sun Foundation (COSF) shelter, had been detained for over 6 weeks without access to lawyers.
Human Rights Watch reported on the arrests and, on May 11, sent the director of public prosecutions, Jane Abodo, an open letter calling for dismissal of the charges. Abodo, in acknowledging receipt of the letter, pledged to work to rectify the situation that Human Rights Watch had highlighted. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions did withdraw the charges, and on May 18, the Nsangi Magistrate’s Court ordered the release of the 20 detainees who had been taken from the shelter.
The 13 gay men, 4 transgender women, and 3 bisexual men were arrested on March 29, when the mayor of Nsangi led a raid on a shelter for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in response to neighbors’ complaints about the residents’ gender expression. Police first searched the shelter for evidence of homosexual activity, which is punishable by up to life in prison in Uganda. During the search, police confiscated HIV medication, self-testing kits, and condoms. Police then charged the residents with “a negligent act likely to spread infection of disease” as well as “disobedience of lawful orders.”
The “COSF-20,” as the 20 were nicknamed, were represented by lawyers from the Kampala-based legal aid group Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF). HRAPF said some of the COSF-20 suffered torture, ill-treatment, and possible exposure to Covid-19 while detained. HRAPF has filed a complaint with the commissioner general of Uganda’s prison system about one prison officer who allegedly personally participated in or oversaw the beating and burning of some of the COSF-20 – abuses that were based on their perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
The arrests echoed an October 2019 raid on another LGBT shelter in the area, when police arrested 16 people who had been attacked by a mob. After detaining the LGBT people, police subjected them to forced anal examinations. The charges against those victims were eventually dropped as well.
Our research shows that the Covid-19 crisis has exposed and exacerbated the inequality, violence, and abuse LGBT people face on a regular basis. Human Rights Watch remains committed to supporting HRAPF in its quest for justice for LGBT victims of human rights violations in Uganda and to investigating, exposing, and changing the draconian laws that are used as grounds for mistreatment towards LGBT people.
The number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in the United States has more than doubled in the past four years — and those ranks could soon grow, thanks to a record field of LGBTQ candidates this year, according to new data from an advocacy and research group.
The LGBTQ Victory Institute’s Out For America report, released Thursday, tallies 843 openly LGBTQ elected officials across all levels of government at present, up from 417 in June 2016. The institute says a record 850 LGBTQ people are running for office this year, including several candidates with strong chances of entering Congress.
Yet the institute’s president, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, says that despite significant progress, LGBTQ people “continue to be severely underrepresented in every state and at every level of government.”
She said LGBTQ people make up about 4.5% of the U.S. adult population, yet hold only 0.17% of the more than 510,000 elected positions in the U.S., ranging from Congress and state legislatures to city councils and school boards. To achieve proportionate representation, Parker said, LGBTQ people would need to win more than 22,500 additional positions.
The Victory Institute data reveals a striking partisan divide. As of 2018, it counted 438 LGBTQ elected officials affiliated with the Democratic Party and only 16 Republicans. Among the LGBTQ candidates with solid chances of winning in November are several Democratic congressional contenders.
One is Gina Ortiz Jones, an Air Force veteran who nearly beat Republican incumbent Will Hurd in a southwest Texas district two years ago, and now is viewed as an even stronger candidate in the mostly Hispanic district because of Hurd’s retirement.
Jones, in a telephone interview, said health care is the dominant issue on the minds of many of the district’s voters, but on the campaign trial she frequently shares her thoughts on the need for equality for LGBTQ people.
Gina Ortiz Jones, the Democratic nominee for a House seat in West Texas, poses for a photo, Friday, Aug. 10, 2018, in San Antonio, Texas.
When she went to college on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and later served in Iraq as an intelligence officer, the now-defunct Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was in effect — obligating gay and lesbian service members to be secretive about their sexual orientation.
“If they found out I was gay, I would have lost my scholarship,” she said. “I bring my entire self to this race — people want to get a sense of the life that you’ve lived.”Subscribe to the Politics email.From Washington to the campaign trail, get the latest politics news.
In New York state, a gay, Black attorney, Mondaire Jones, was this week declared winner of the Democratic primary for a congressional seat opening up in New York City’s northern suburbs. It’s an overwhelmingly Democratic district, so Jones has a strong chance of becoming a history-maker in Congress — it’s never had an openly LGBTQ Black member.
Jones could have company in breaking that barrier. Gay New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who is Afro-Latino, also has a good chance of winning a congressional seat in the Bronx.
“Growing up poor, Black, and gay, I never imagined someone like me could run for Congress, let alone win,” Jones said in his primary victory statement.
Mondaire Jones, left, winner of the Democratic primary for the 17th Congressional District, addresses a Black Lives Matter rally near a statue of Martin Luther King Jr., Wednesday, July 15, 2020, outside the Westchester County courthouse in White Plains, N.Y.
Among other LGBTQ congressional candidates — all Democrats — are Beth Doglio in Washington state, Pat Hackett in Indiana, Alex Morse in Massachusetts, and Georgette Gómez in California.
Gómez is currently president of the city council in San Diego, where a gay state legislator, Todd Gloria, is a leading contender in the race to become mayor.
The Victory Institute says the number of LGBTQ Black people and Hispanic people holding elected positions has doubled in the past three years — from 92 to 184.
During that same time period, the number of transgender elected officials rose from six to 26. In Delaware, Democratic candidate Sarah McBride is campaigning this year to become the first openly transgender person elected to a state senate anywhere in the U.S.
Parker said LGBTQ elected officials have been leaders on a wide range of issues, including affordable housing, health care, immigration and gun control, as well as influencing debate on LGBTQ rights.
“When LGBTQ elected officials are in the halls of power, they change the hearts and minds of their lawmaker colleagues, defeat anti-LGBTQ bills and inspire more inclusive legislation,” she said.
In the face of daily tragedy, the Bay Area’s AIDS treatment activists of the 1980s and 1990s undertook their advocacy with defiance, determination and hope. They distributed experimental medications for people with AIDS. They founded advocacy organizations demanding government and industry-sponsored research on the disease, and then demanded community participation in those initiatives. They took to the streets in order to attract and leverage media attention. “AIDS Treatment Activism: A Bay Area Story” is a new online exhibition on the GLBT Historical Society’s website. The show uses documents, flyers, photographs, ephemera and audiovisual materials to explore the rise and growth of the treatment-activism movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. History Happens interviewed curator Brenda Lein, a veteran of the treatment-activist movement, as she put the finishing touches on the exhibition.
Q: What drew people to AIDS treatment activism in the 1980s?
People find their path to activism in different ways and for different reasons. Some are fighting for their lives, or the lives of their friends or a lover. Others are digging themselves out of wells of grief or rage and looking for both escape and empowerment. For still others it is a way to grasp at control during a time that is chaotic and out of control. In the 1980s, HIV was spreading through the LGBTQ and other undervalued communities, while mainstream America went on, business as usual. It’s the same with the Black Lives Matter movement today; for decades Black Americans have been dying at the hands of largely white “law enforcement.” When lives hang in the balance and people are dying before you, you turn up the volume. Many people who turned to treatment activism felt there was simply no other choice but to act. They were not extraordinary; they were very ordinary people in an extraordinary situation and they rose to the moment.
Q: What was the relationship of treatment activists to the medical community? Did it evolve over time?
There were a few different kinds of relationships at play. The mainstream medical establishment didn’t (and still doesn’t) have much room for input from the communities it serves. There was reticence to embrace community involvement, but AIDS treatment activists weren’t waiting for permission; they were reading medical journals (with a thesaurus in hand) and attending scientific conferences. It wasn’t long before they were more informed about HIV disease and the bleeding edge of research than the average general practitioner. Over time treatment activists were invited as featured guests to speak at Continuing Medication Education forums. The relationship of activists to the research establishment was a different animal. Initially, researchers made efforts to minimize contact and input from community activists. Perhaps not surprisingly, the brightest scientists — the thought leaders — were often the first to sit down with treatment activists. When their peers and colleagues witnessed positive and growing relationships between activists and scientific leadership, it softened the edges. As activists were made privy to the barriers to scientific progress, they marshaled their forces and fought for changes that loosened purse strings and resulted in meaningful reforms. When scientists were flooded with more resources, they began reaching out to the activists as partners, as opposed to adversaries.
Q: How does this exhibition document a uniquely Bay Area story?
While AIDS treatment activists emerged in many urban areas, both the approach and focus of activists in the Bay Area were unique. The community in San Francisco mobilized more rapidly, establishing organizations to provide care and services, buyers’ clubs to provide access to experimental therapies and HIV information networks emerged. And while New York is known as the birthplace of ACT UP, San Francisco was the birthplace of treatment activism. Project Inform was founded in 1984 to provide information, advocacy and inspiration to people living with HIV. On the proposal of an ACT UP Golden Gate member, Jesse Dobson, Project Inform created Project Immune Restoration, an advocacy program focusing research attention on immune therapies and advanced-stage AIDS. This focus area of activism became signature to Bay Area treatment activists.
Brenda Lein was a member of ACT UP San Francisco, a founding member of ACT UP Golden Gate, and held the dual positions of director of information and advocacy and director of Project Immune Restoration at Project Inform.
Our art gallery will be open on Saturdays from Noon to 4 PM beginning July 18th with an exhibition of artwork by our members! And, although we anticipate limited in-person visitors, we will also be featuring each piece of art and its creator in our next virtual show!
We’re organizing a special drive-up take in for this show on Tuesday, July 14th from 1-6 PM with special safety protocols in place. OCA members may each enter one original art piece, no entry fees for this show! Please make a reservation for your entry drop off. Due to safety regulations, we will not be having a reception for this exhibit.
We’re equally happy to announce the return of two OCA programs: both Readers Theater and Thursday Night Figure Drawing are back in action, with social distancing and appropriate safety precautions in place. Readers Theater meets every other Tuesday afternoon from 4-6 PM in our auditorium beginning July 14th. To learn more or join this group please contact Joan Ambrosini.
The Thursday Night Figure Drawing Group meets weekly from 7-9 PM in our auditorium. Masks required, limited participants, live models. To participate please contact group organizer Andy Rangel.
Please help us serve our community better! We’ve designed a short, anonymous surveyabout our recent programs and future events, and how we are all impacted by the COVID19 pandemic. We’d love your input.
Coming Up: Virtual Variety Show #3 Our 3rd Virtual Variety Show will premier on August 8th!
This show will focus on our community, with performers and artists from within Sonoma County. Here’s a preliminary list of performers: The Musers • Doug Jayne • Kevin Russell • Candy GirardAbbie Gabrielson • Chris Riebli • Sonia Tubridy • River MortensonPatrick Fanning • Steve Fowler • Andrea Van DykeSarah Dupre • David Rosen • Bob Burnett • Stephen PollaineConrad Bishop • Elizabeth Fuller plus a virtual exhibition of artwork and more!Stay tuned for a complete list of performers TBA soon.
A Great Big Thank You ! To all of the generous donors who have shown their support for OCA during the COVID crisis. We’ve raised nearly $7k of our $10k goal to get us through this extended time without any program income. We can tell – our community values OCA and wants to make sure we are here for you in the future! We are very grateful for the generosity of our community during this time.
TIPS ON ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS WHILE NAVIGATING THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM(WITH COVID-19 IN THE MIX)
Thursday July 16 12:30 to 2 pmon the Spahr Senior Discussion Group Facilitators:Beth Reed, Retired Family Nurse PractitionerLolma Olson, Retired Patient/Family/Partner Advocate
You can count on an informative presentation with examples on how to interact with providers/caregivers in healthcare & how to navigate the current healthcare system during COVID. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation. Be sure to not miss this workshop, you’ll be happy you joined!
The Spahr Center’s LGBT Senior Discussion Groupscontinue every Thursday 12:30 to 2 pm on Zoom
To Join Group by Video using Computer, Smart Phone or TabletJust click this button at the start time, 12:30 pm:Join GroupTry it, it’s easy!
To Join Group by Phone CallIf you don’t have internet connections or prefer joining by phone,call the following number at the start time, 12:30 pm:1-669-900-6833The Meeting id is 820 7368 6606#(no participant id required)The password, if requested, is 135296# If you want the meeting to call you to bring you into the group, notify Bill Blackburn 415/450-5339
Coming soon…Please watch for The Spahr Center’s Senior Survey.By filling out this anonymous survey, you’ll help us help our communityand discover who we may not be reaching!
July 23: By request, we’ll return to the subject of Black Lives Matter and the awakening around race issues. Following a deep, meaningful conversation about BLM on June 25, participants asked for more!
The Northbay LGBT Senior Social Committee is organizing a monthly birthday celebration via Zoom on the second Tuesday at 4pm to honor those who were born that month. To send your name & birthdate to be celebrated and to celebrate others, RSVP to the socialcommittee@comcast.net. They will be celebrating all July birthdays on Tuesday, July 14th at 4 pm.
The Social Committee sends out a monthly email that outlines all senior LGBT activities in that month along with related flyers and letters. Ongoing activities include games day, birthday celebration, farkle and a women’s coffee. Special events are also included like the talent show, mad libs or discussion of establishing healthcare relationships. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, send your name & email to socialcommittee@comcast.net
