The Spahr Center has an active Senior Program, and has formed a wonderful community of senior participants. Historically, we have offered two well-attended in-person Senior Discussion Groups, a monthly Mixer and quarterly luncheon. In response to Covid-19, we are now holding discussion groups twice a week over Zoom… Read the entire here
Sex and COVID-19
Questions abound about sex in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Out of our sense of duty to help keep our communities safe not just from sexually transmitted diseases, but other harmful pathogens, please read our somewhat graphic thoughts here, as applicable.
Virtual Pride 2020
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 emergency, The Spahr Center will not be holding its Annual Pride Picnic on Saturday, June 20. We will miss seeing many of you for that wonderful afternoon of togetherness and visibility. We are pleased to announce on Thursday, June 18 at 6:00 pm, we will hold our first ever Virtual Pride Celebration! Read more here
*Virtual* Support and Discussion Groups
Here is a current list of our social support and discussion groups happening virtually on Zoom for the month of May. For more information please click on any title or contact Bri at bsilva@thespahrcenter.org or call 415-886-8554
Our LGBTQ Youth drop-in groups have gone virtual! Click here for more information, meeting dates and times.Our Syringe Access Program is an essential service and most of our sites remain open. Click here to see our weekly schedule.
The Spahr Center 5th Anniversary CelebrationWe are honored by the generosity of donors to The Spahr Center’s 5th Anniversary Fund, who contributed a total of $18,500 in much-needed support for our programs and services.
VisionariesBioMarinHorizons FoundationSid Hartman & Miguel RuelasAdvocatesWhitney Hoyt & Miranda KolbeTrue FriendsBob & Ruth DellChrist Presbyterian ChurchDana Van GorderDenny DavidGay Men of Marin (GMOM)Sara M. Taylor, AttorneyVicki MartiWing S. Wong
Having cancelled our planned May 30 Anniversary fundraising event, it is still important that we reach our fundraising goal of $25,000. We welcome our Spahrkle readers to make additional donations to our Anniversary Fund, especially as we conduct extensive outreach to our youth, senior and HIV-positive clients to assure they are doing well and have their most basic needs met during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thank you for considering a gift today!
The Bay Area Reporter’s online fundraising appeal has been extended for another month, due to a matching offer from an anonymous donor.
The paper launched the Indiegogo campaign in early April because the coronavirus pandemic has caused grave economic losses for the LGBT publication, which saw a drastic drop off in advertising.
As of Wednesday, May 6, just over $24,000 of the paper’s $30,000 goal has been raised.
“We have extended the deadline because an anonymous donor has pledged to pay for transaction fees if we achieve our goal and to match contributions beyond it until June 1,” publisher Michael Yamashita wrote in an update. “So the amount raised above $30,000 will be doubled to support journalism at San Francisco’s independently owned, legacy LGBTQ+ community news source.”
Yamashita pointed out that over the years, the B.A.R. has focused on stories that mainstream media did not consider important: anti-gay discrimination in employment and housing; bias and fear of people with HIV/AIDS; victims of abuse and anti-gay violence; the plight of at-risk youth; and the unmet needs of LGBT elders.
“We’ve also supported thousands of LGBT artists through the years, with lively features, reviews, and nightlife coverage,” he wrote. “Our publication has given voice to the vulnerable and is a record of our history. But only with your help can we continue to play this unique role.”
Alis Nicolette Rodriguez is bracing themself, nervously looking over their shopping list and preparing in case someone tries to bar their way at the grocery store. It has happened before.
To keep crowds thin during the coronavirus quarantine, Colombian capital Bogota — like some other places in Latin America — has specified that men and women must go out on separate days. That has turned a routine food shopping trip into an outing fraught with tension for social work student Rodriguez, who is transgender and nonbinary.
From Panama to Peru, transgender people say gender-based quarantine restrictions have exposed them to discrimination and violence from people questioning their right to be out.
In Bogota, women can only go out on days with even-numbered dates and men on odd, while transgender people are allowed to choose.
However, rights group Red Comunitaria Trans said it had received 18 discrimination complaints since the measure began. One of those complaints was from a transgender woman in southern Bogota stabbed by a man who said she was out on the wrong day, a case also reported in local media. The woman is recovering from her injuries.
“The last time I went out things happened that were really tense,” said Rodriguez, 20, who uses neutral pronouns and began hormone treatments four months ago. “My features are still very masculine so people still say ‘I see the body of a man’ and they deny who you are.”
Rodriguez said the previous Sunday an employee stopped them at a grocery entrance and a police officer asked to see their identification, although the mayor’s office has told police not demand ID to prove gender during the quarantine.
A spokeswoman for Bogota’s government department for women confirmed the police do not have the right to question anyone’s gender identity.
In response to questions about the accusations of discrimination, Bogota’s Metropolitan Police sent Reuters a publicity video of officers and members of the transgender community speaking to store employees, explaining that transgender people can choose their shopping day.
Rodriguez was eventually allowed into the store, but at the check-out one cashier asked another why “this man” had been able to shop, they said. Being nonbinary complicates the choice about which day to go out, said Rodriguez, who has chosen the women’s days.
“If you don’t go out with make-up on, with a skirt… If you don’t comply with those stereotypes and gender roles then you can’t identify yourself or be in a public space,” said Rodriguez, who was wearing pink eye shadow and a sparkly silver jacket.
Afraid to report discrimination
Juli Salamanca, communications director for Red Comunitaria Trans, said the coronavirus pandemic had left transgender people particularly exposed.
“They’re trying to protect themselves from the violence of the police, the violence of the supermarkets, the violence of society in general,” Salamanca told Reuters, referring to the physical and emotional toll of discrimination and prejudice.
She said some transgender people may be afraid to report discrimination because of previous police abuse.
Colombia’s second-largest city, Medellin, has restricted outings based on ID numbers rather than gender, a valid alternative to enforce social distancing, Salamanca said.
Colombia is not the only Latin American country where restrictions have stoked fear among transgender people.
The Panamanian Association of Trans People has received more than 40 discrimination complaints since restrictions began in April, director Venus Tejada said, including problems getting into supermarkets or buying medicine.
Transgender people who are immunocompromised are particularly worried, according to Tejada, and some with HIV fear additional discrimination because of their illness.
“If they need anything we’ve advised them to ask a neighbor or someone else to get it,” Tejada said.
In Peru, the government canceled restrictions based on gender after just over a week, as retailers struggled to control crowds on women’s days and LGBT groups complained of discrimination.
Back in Bogota, Rodriguez is piling a shopping cart with items. They avert their eyes when two police officers walk into the store.
The officers escort out an older man who is violating the rules and then stare briefly at Rodriguez before leaving.
Joe Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to LGBT+ healthcare, vowing to make PrEP and gender affirming surgeries covered by insurance plans.
The presumptive Democratic nominee described gender affirming surgeries as “medically necessary” as he vowed to reverse Donald Trump’s attacks on trans and non-binary people during a virtual town hall event with the Human Rights Campaign on Wednesday (May 6).
He also pledged to remove the price barrier which prevents many people from accessing PrEP.
“As president, I’m going to protect and build on Obamacare with a public option,” Biden said.
“That’s the fastest way to get to universal coverage. Reverse Trump’s actions and restore Obamacare protections for LGBTQ Americans.
“And cover PrEP so that people at high risk of getting HIV and AIDS, HIV/AIDS, do have – don’t have to choose between covering their rent and staying alive.
“And make sure insurance companies treat gender confirmation surgery as a medical necessary, which it is.”
Joe Biden wants to reinstate Obama-era LGBT+ healthcare protections.
The presidential hopeful said that he would reinstate the LGBT+ protections Trump had scrapped to ensure that no one is refused healthcare on the basis of their sexuality.
“Trump has been trying to gut these protections since he took office,” Biden said.
“Anyone involved in patient care, from the board of directors to a receptionist in charge of scheduling, could put their beliefs above your healthcare.”
Biden has long been outspoken in his support for LGBT+ healthcare, and his campaign platform To Advance LGBTQ+ Equality in America and Around the World calls for full coverage of care related to transitioning.
In January he stated that trans rights “is the civil rights issue of our time” and said “there is no room for compromise”.
His words and actions earned him the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign, which gave him their backing on the eight-year anniversary of him coming out in support of same-sex marriage.
“His dedication to advancing LGBTQ equality, even when it was unpopular to do so, has pushed our country and our movement forward,” HRC president Alphonso David said in a statement.
On May 6, 2012, Vice President Joe Biden declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he supported the legalization of same-sex marriage — getting out ahead of his boss, Barack Obama, on one of the most volatile political issues of the day.
The largest national LGBTQ rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, formally endorsed Biden for president on Wednesday, the eighth anniversary of that event.
“Joe Biden is the leader our community and our country need at this moment,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “His dedication to advancing LGBTQ equality, even when it was unpopular to do so, has pushed our country and our movement forward.”
The endorsement itself is no surprise, given the antipathy that most LGBTQ activists have toward Biden’s rival, President Donald Trump. But the timing is a way of highlighting Biden’s bona fides among activists who gratefully remember his 2012 role.
Obama had taken office in 2009 as a self-described fierce advocate for gay rights, yet for much of his first term, he drew flak from activists who viewed him as too cautious and politically expedient. They were frustrated he wouldn’t endorse same-sex marriage — Obama cagily said he was “evolving” on the issue.
That changed swiftly after Biden told “Meet the Press” that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex marriage. Three days later, in a White House interview with ABC News, Obama followed suit.
Biden, a Democrat, subsequently has entrenched himself as a stalwart ally of the LGBTQ rights movement, including periodic appearances at Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinners. He is scheduled to participate in a livestreamed conversation with the organization’s president on Wednesday evening.
Since Trump succeeded Obama in 2017, his Republican administration has taken multiple steps to slow or reverse gains by LGBTQ Americans. For example, it has restricted military service by transgender people and argued in a Supreme Court case that the federal civil rights law doesn’t protect LGBTQ people from discrimination at work.
Along with its endorsement of Biden, the Human Rights Campaign is releasing new details about its 2020 election strategy — identifying voters who support LGBTQ rights, then working to maximize their turnout. Texas is a new addition to the list of targeted states, along with Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
If you’ve recently been laid off or are struggling to make ends meet during the coronavirus pandemic, we have compiled a list of local food banks and nonprofits in Sonoma County that are providing free meals and groceries.
Santa Rosa City Schools
Santa Rosa City Schools is offering a drive-thru meal service for students on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at nine locations throughout the city. Students ages 18 and under from any school district are eligible to receive two breakfasts and lunches on Monday and three breakfasts and lunches on Wednesday. For more information, visit srcschools.org/freemeals.
Redwood Empire Food Bank
The Redwood Empire Food Bank is providing food to residents in need without proof of income, Food Connections manager Maria Fuentes said. Residents can visit the office (3990 Brickway Blvd., Santa Rosa) for a box of dry goods or to be directed to a pick-up location. Coronavirus concerns have forced some pick-up locations to close and others’ hours to be extended, so visit getfood.refb.org for an updated list. Additional questions can be directed to 707-523-7900.
The food bank also has partnered with local school kitchens to provide families lunch and care packages with groceries. The meals can be picked up from any of the participating schools, but children must be present to receive food. Click here for a list of participating schools and here for a map to see where they’re located.
Catholic Charities
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa is continuing its food distribution programs for anyone who needs help feeding their family throughout the pandemic. Go here for a list of days, times and locations. Go here for more information and a full list of resources.
Salvation Army
Salvation Army is providing food to any resident in need Monday-Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon during the pandemic, said Santa Rosa Salvation Army Capt. Rio Ray. To receive food, go to the parking lot of the Corps Community Center (93 Stony Circle, Santa Rosa) with a valid ID. Families are limited to picking up groceries once per week. For more information, call 707-542-0981.
Windsor Service Alliance Food Pantry
The Windsor Service Alliance Food Pantry (8987 Windsor Road, Windsor) is doling out fresh produce and packaged groceries to Windsor residents on Fridays from 2-5 p.m. Go here or call 707-838- 6947 for more information.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin
Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin are providing grab-and-go lunches for children who live in west county. Meals can be picked up at Guerneville Elementary School (14630 Armstrong Woods Road, Guerneville) from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Children must be present to receive the meals. For more information, go here.
Rotary Clubs of Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Rohnert Park
Several Rotary Clubs in Sonoma County are offering drive-thru meal services every Saturday at noon for both laid-off and employed hospitality and service workers in need. Meals can be picked up at these locations: Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library (6250 Lynne Condé Way, Rohnert Park), the Multicultural Child Development Center (1650 W. 3rd St., Santa Rosa) and the Petaluma Community Center (320 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma).
Ceres Community Project
Ceres Community Project is providing meals and food assistance to Sonoma and Marin County residents who are facing serious medical and financial challenges. Residents must meet several qualifications to receive assistance, such as being without a caretaker to provide meals. If you meet Ceres’ qualifications, call the client intake line at 707-829-5833, ext. 201. It may take up to three weeks to receive meals. The organization is working to expand its capacity.
Food For Thought
Food For Thought provides weekly groceries and frozen meals to people living with HIV and other serious illnesses in Sonoma County. Go here for more information. To apply for assistance, contact client services director Nina Redman at NinaR@FFTfoodbank.org or 707-887-1647 ext. 119.
Friends in Sonoma Helping
Friends in Sonoma Helping will provide Sonoma Valley families in need with groceries twice per month. To receive groceries, first call 707-996-0111 between 9 a.m.-noon on weekdays. For more information, go here.
How: Appointments are required. No drive-up testing. Residents can go to https://lhi.care/covidtesting or call 1-888-634-1123 to schedule an appointment.
Where: Santa Rosa High School and the Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa Junior College.
Who: All Sonoma County residents are eligible, regardless of age, economic or immigration status, or health symptoms.
California will move into Stage 2 of the state’s reopening plan by the end of this week, Governor Gavin Newsom announced during a press conference Monday.
“On Friday I said we were days not weeks from announcing modifications to the stay-at-home order, and today we are announcing our efforts to update the stay-at-home guidelines and begin the process of moving to Stage 2,” he said.
The new guidelines for Stage 2 — which allow for the return of retail, manufacturing, and other “low-risk” businesses — will be released Thursday, and businesses can start reopening Friday if new physical-distancing measures are implemented.
“As early as by end of this week, you will have the capacity as retailer to begin to reopen for pickup: clothing, bookstores, music shops, sporting goods, florists as Mother’s Day approaches and other sectors within that retail sector,” Newsom said.
However, these activities are still prohibited under the Bay Area’s updated shelter-in-place order, and Newsom said the region “has the right” to enforce its stricter order that allows for the return of outdoor businesses and activities, but not retail.
“The Bay Area has guidelines that are a little more strict,” he said. “If they choose to not come into compliance, they have that right.”
In a Monday afternoon press conference, San Francisco Mayor London Breed acknowledged Governor Newsom’s announcement but said the city is currently focused on observing the social distancing success of outdoor businesses that have been allowed to reopen to inform whether San Francisco will take further steps to reopen.
“The health directive has everything to do with limiting our ability to be in contact with people so we can avoid not only transmitting the virus, but we also realize there are a number of people out there struggling financially,” Breed said. “If there is a way to accommodate the public health goal of keeping people safe while allowing businesses to operate but to operate differently with certain guidelines, we can definitely work together to achieve that goal and get to a better place.”
Breed added that San Francisco would be working with the governor towards a Phase 2 plan, and identifying retailers that could be open in collaboration with local health officers. Specifically, she mentioned that the city was looking at options for restaurants and gyms.
“Can we say definitively those businesses will be open Friday? No we can’t,” she said. “It’s important we rely on the facts, the data, that we rely on the advice of our county health officers so as we push to do these things, we do so responsibly. And we want to also give businesses time to know exactly what’s expected and to know what are the things they need to prepare for as they reopen.”
Newsom also stated that rural counties have the right to move “deeper” into Phase 2 and reopen restaurants, offices, shopping malls and other businesses if they meet criteria the state releases Thursday. The governor also stated there could be “unfortunate consequences” for businesses that reopen across the state without receiving approval, but did not elaborate on what those consequences might be.
Today, the Bay Area permitted outdoor businesses such as construction, landscaping and golf courses to reopen, but left retail off the list. The local order provides that if any provision comes into conflict with the state order, the stricter order will apply.
As local LGBTQIA+ community leaders, we are inviting you to participate in the #Out4MentalHealth Virtual Meeting, May 6th 6-8pm. The gathering was originally going to be a town hall to focus on long term strategies for connection and collaboration amongst all of the different LGBTQ groups, organizations, and causes in our county. While this is still an important conversation we’d like to have, we must also focus the conversation around immediate needs and resources to keep our community safe and healthy in the midst of COVID-19. Our hope is that this webinar will help to identify new strategies or shared resources to make sure our communities’ needs are met, while enjoying some virtual time and space with other friendly folks.
It is important to us that we have diverse and inclusive representation of our entire local community. We need your voice, perspective, and insight! Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. Hope to see you there!
For Fabliha Anbar, 20, her LGBTQ identity is an important part of her social and academic life. She’s out to friends, on social media and at her progressive university, where she founded the South Asian Queer and Trans Collective. But last month, when her campus closed due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Anbar returned home — and back to the proverbial closet.
“Having to go home and act a certain way 24/7 is a means for survival,” said Anbar, who asked that the name of her university and hometown not be published. “That can be straining emotionally and extremely damaging.”
For the past six weeks, Anbar has been self-isolating in a small, two-bedroom house with her parents, whom she said she doesn’t feel safe coming out to.
Anbar’s situation is not unique. Since schools across the U.S. started to close in mid-March to help stem the spread of the coronavirus, LGBTQ advocates say a number of queer youth and young adults have lost crucial support systems and have been forced to self-isolate with unsupportive family members.
“They may have had to go back in the closet if they were out at school. If they had support from a GSA or an LGBTQ club or group at school, they don’t have that anymore,” said Ellen Kahn, senior director of programs and partnerships at the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ rights group.
Kahn said she’s particularly concerned about those “who are in overtly hostile environments,” saying, “It could put them at risk of physical or emotional abuse; it could force them out to the streets.”
‘Students might feel isolated’
Danushi Fernando, the director of LGBTQ and gender resources at Vassar College in New York, said a number of students with whom she works “voiced their concerns” about returning home when the campus announced it would close last month.
“We are super aware that there are people who are not able to go back to their homes because either they’re not safe, or students aren’t out to their families,” she said.
After discussing this situation with the university administration, Vassar opened up some dorms on a case-by-case basis to students who felt unsafe leaving.
But for some of those who did leave — thinking their departure would just be for an extended spring break — living back at their parents’ house has been uncomfortable or isolating.
“There are lots of times that students might feel isolated,” she said. “There are students who have reached out like, ‘Do you know of anyone in Idaho that I could connect with?’”
As for Anbar, she said she’s been hosting virtual programming and support groups over Zoom, joined by people from all over the world, for the South Asian Queer and Trans Collective. If she’s within earshot of her parents, she said she has to be careful.
“It does get kind of scary,” she said. “That’s why I make sure to be very careful about the words that I choose. I usually take advantage of the language barrier between me and my parents. I say things like ‘queer’ rather than ‘lesbian.’”
When speaking to her parents, she said she describes the South Asian Queer and Trans Collective, the organization she dedicates so much time to, as a “feminist collective,” which she said “isn’t entirely wrong.”
‘Stuck at home with abusers’
In the weeks following school closures, child abuse and neglect hotlines, like the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline, reported an inundation of calls and texts from young people newly confined to unsafe environments.
“A lot of these young people are stuck at home with abusers,” Daphne Young, the organization’s chief communications officer, said. “College kids are coming home from school and have to re-enter the home with perpetrators.”
Young said LGBTQ youth and adolescents have consistently been among their callers.
She also noted that the financial strain caused by the pandemic has the potential to make bad environments even worse.
“Whatever was the stressor or the discord between the family, you now have compound trauma,” Young said.
Like Childhelp, The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people, reported a steep increase in the number of youth and young adults who have reached out to its 24/7 hotline.
The New York-based nonprofit published a white paper last month outlining the “serious implications” the COVID-19 crisis could have on the mental health of LGBTQ youth. The organization cited the physical distancing, economic strain and increased anxiety related to the pandemic as being among the most worrisome problems.
“LGBTQ young people … are already at risk of discrimination and isolation, which can impact their mental health,” Amit Paley, the organization’s CEO, said last month in an interview with MSNBC. “For a lot of LGBTQ young people, the main sources of support that they get are at their schools, at clubs, at community centers, at physical spaces that they no longer have access to. … Not being able to connect with some of those really important, positive influences in your life can be extremely challenging for LGBTQ youth right now.”
‘An opportunity’ for parents
Two thirds of LGBTQ youth hear their families make negative comments about LGBTQ people, and only 1 in 4 feel like they can be themselves at home, according to data from the Human Rights Campaign.
“If you’re that kid, whether you’re 6 or 12 or 18, that changes dramatically how you feel in your own skin, how you can thrive or not in your family,” Kahn said.
