The Spahr Center celebrates and uplifts our transgender loved ones, siblings, and neighbors every day and all year long.
On Friday, we join the global festivities in recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility. In partnership with the Mill Valley Library, we are hosting an open mic night with special guest, author Lio Min, for an evening of trans excellence.
This event is free. RSVP is required to attend. We would love to hear your spoken word, music, short story, or comedy. Sign up below to perform.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) has introduced a bill designed specifically to protect LGBTQ+ youth in foster care.
S.B. 407 seeks to require that the unique needs of LGBTQ+ youth are considered when assessing the fitness of home. Under the bill, homes in which potential foster parents are not supportive of LGBTQ+ identities would be considered ineligible to foster.
“My dad grew up watching you as Wonder Woman,” the trans woman wrote. “Unfortunately he isn’t as open minded as you.”
“Every child deserves to be one hundred percent supported at home,” Wiener told the Los Angeles Blade. “S.B. 407 ensures that foster youth receive this essential support by specifically requiring LGBTQ acceptance be considered in the resource family approval (RFA) process, creating standard documentation for the assessment of LGBTQ youth needs, and ensuring more frequent follow-up. These youth are at high risk for homelessness, criminal justice involvement, and mental health issues, and we must do everything in our power to ensure they have a safe home in the state of California.”
The bill states that at least three studies estimate that approximately thirty percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+ and that these kids “have a right to be placed in out-of-home care according to their gender identity and the right to have caregivers that have received instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity” regarding caring for LGBTQ+ youth.
It also stated that LGBTQ+ foster youth who are currently being placed with families that do not affirm them are experiencing “additional harm and trauma.” It cites the Trevor Project, which found that teens with parental support for their gender identity were 93% less likely to attempt suicide.
Since 2019, California’s Foster Youth Bill of Rights has included a child’s right to have their LGBTQ+ identity affirmed, as well as the right to keep it private if they want to. But those rights have not yet been applied to the placement process.
“LGBTQ+ foster youth experience violence and other stressors unique to the LGBTQ+ community, including homophobia or transphobia,” Tony Hoang, Executive Director of Equality California, a sponsor of the bill, told the Blade.
“S.B. 407 protects LGBTQ+ foster youth from being placed in non-affirming homes by creating standard guidelines and criteria that carefully screens potential families. LGBTQ+ foster youth need a healthy environment that supports and embraces them as they explore their identity.”
Police in California announced they have arrested a university janitor in the murder of a local drag queen, barber, and member of the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus.
Curtis Marsh, 53, was found stabbed to death in his burning Oakland apartment near Lake Merritt on Saturday, March 4. Marsh was a popular member of the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus who also performed as a drag queen under the stage name Touri Monroe.
On Friday, Oakland Police Department (OPD) announced the arrest of Sweven Waterman, 38, and the Alameda District Attorney later charged him with Marsh’s murder. Waterman had worked as a senior custodian with the University of California Berkeley’s Housing & Dining Services since August 2022.
According to court documents, police responded to a report of smoke and a man screaming for help coming from Marsh’s apartment shortly after 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 4. The Oakland Fire Department was already on the scene and dealing with multiple fires inside the apartment when police arrived. Marsh was found nonresponsive and suffering from multiple stab wounds and trauma. He was pronounced dead at the scene by police.
“I heard screams, ‘help, help.’ I got up,” a neighbor who requested anonymity told local tv station KTVU. “My neighbor on the 4th floor was screaming and hollering that Curtis was dead. I was able to view his body. He was laying on his balcony bloodied.”
Investigators quickly identified Waterman as a suspect using surveillance video, electronic data, and witness statements. With the assistance of the University of California Police Department, officers from OPD arrested Waterman last Thursday afternoon at a UC Berkeley residence hall.
Marsh was described by friends as loving, gifted, and gracious.
“He was very sweet, very funny,” Steven Smith, who sang with Marsh in Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus, told KTVU. “He was an accomplished musician. Beautiful, beautiful voice.”
The Erotic Service Provider Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) joins with the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club in calling foul on the San Francisco Police Department’s (SFPD) ramping up of prostitution stings – they call it “enforcement operations” and “prostitution abatement” – in the Mission district Capp Street corridor. There is ample evidence that police crackdowns on sex work do not reduce the incidence of prostitution, but instead simply displace it to more dangerous and hidden locations. As a result, there is increased violence against sex workers, as well as harm to the broader community.
“Police enforcement doesn’t work when it comes to sex work between consenting adults” said Jeffrey Kwong, President of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club. “We need community-led solutions that center the voices and experiences of sex workers and other marginalized communities. By engaging in dialogue and collaboration with sex workers and their allies, we can develop policies and programs that prioritize the health, safety, and human rights of all individuals involved in the sex industry.” “The SFPD press release is misleading and full of derogatory language”, said Maxine Doogan, a current sex worker. “They refer to clients as “Johns” – a slang term that is sexist and derogatory. They claim they are combating trafficking – but so far have only issued citations and arrests for consensual sex work and traffic violations. This operation might make SFPD numbers look good. But having a misdemeanor arrest for prostitution can seriously impact your housing, your work, and even lead to deportation.”
ESPLERP’s recent report, “How The War On Sex Work Is Stripping Your Privacy Rights” (https://esplerp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Consumer-Privacy-Final.pdf) showed that law enforcement is routinely gathering data (from license readers, pole cameras, cellphones, social media) about sex workers, their clients, and individuals who just happen to be in the vicinity (such as residents and passers-by) to build vast unregulated databases. “We know the police use technology to target sex workers and our clients”, said Claire Alwyne of ESPLERP. “They won’t admit it, but you can bet they are indiscriminately collecting data at Capp Street. But there is no way of knowing what data they collect during these prostitution stings, until you are denied housing or employment, or you’re stopped, searched and questioned at customs when you’re traveling home from overseas.” Sex workers demand decriminalization!
On March 16, the GLBT Historical Society marks 38 years since our founding. To celebrate the occasion, we are thrilled to provide an interview with Greg Pennington, a founding member of the Society. To learn more about our history, visit glbthistory.org/timeline.
Was there a specific event that spurred you and the other founders to organize in 1985?
I moved to San Francisco in March 1977 as part of the wave of gay men that came here in the late 70’s. I heard about the election of Harvey Milk and George Moscone and wanted to live somewhere where I could truly be myself.
Just two months after I arrived, Anita Bryant helped overturn the gay rights ordinance in Miami and the San Francisco LGBTQ community reacted very strongly. The headline in the SF Chronicle was “5,000 angry gays march through San Francisco.” The marches went on for 5 nights and although I did not go to the first one, on the second night I heard the marchers going through my neighborhood on lower Nob Hill and I joined them for the next four nights.
This event was a catalyst for me, and I began collecting gay periodicals from all over the country. I was collecting as much information as I could about everything that was going on in the gay community. I wanted to preserve our history.
I met with Harvey Milk in his City Hall Office in July 1978, about creating an archive for our community. He was very supportive of young people like me fulfilling their dreams. He told me that he would help me make it happen. He issued a press release for a community meeting that would be held on August 28, 1978. Unfortunately, Jack Lira, Harvey’s lover at the time, hanged himself near the time of the meeting and it never happened.
In 1983 I met Bill Camilo, through a mutual friend and Bill invited me to a party at Scott Smith’s house (Harvey Milk’s lover at the time of his assassination) for a gathering with the people that wanted to form a gay library. At that meeting I met Willie Walker. Walker, Camilo, and I later met and formed the S.F. Gay and Lesbian Periodical Archives. Walker and I merged our substantial collections and kept them at his house. Camilo would later drop out of our project. We included the word lesbian in our title because Walker was beginning to amass numerous lesbian publications, such as The Ladder.
Walker and I met in my living room in the summer of 1984 and discussed his plan to create a historical society. I went with him to a meeting of the SF Lesbian & Gay History Project on September 5, 1984, to propose the idea and get their support and help to create the organization. They unanimously agreed to join us.
Walker, Eric Garber, and I were among about 10 people that met several times in the fall of 1984 to form the organization. We made some initial decisions about things until we realized we would have to start over because we needed to have future members of the organization involved in the decisions. Then we changed our focus to preparing what decisions would need to be made at a public meeting to create a Historical Society. We organized the public meeting that was held on March 16th, 1985, at the S.F. Public Library.
What was the atmosphere like at the first meeting?
There was excitement in the air as a very broad spectrum of community members answered the call to create an organization. The meeting was very well attended by over 50 people. Many of us were meeting each other for the first time. Walker’s letter to invite members of more than 160 community organizations and more than 100 individuals was wildly successful.
I think we did a good job of organizing the meeting presentations, topics of discussion and decision points. The issue that took the longest to resolve was the name. After at least a half hour on that subject we chose the San Francisco Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Historical Society. Fortunately, years later we made improvements to the name as it was just too long. We did fit that name on our early banner, buttons, and t-shirts though.
Tell us about the other founders: what were their specific interests?
Willie Walker was a labor archivist in Butte, Montana before he moved to San Francisco in 1981. He was a nurse and served on the AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital. Walker, like me was a collector of periodicals and ephemera. He would go through community businesses collecting every free piece of paper he could get his hands on. His apartment, like mine was full of ephemera and printed matter. His apartment served as the first archives for the organization after we were founded.
Walker was always focused on doing things the right way to create a professional organization. He was our first archivist, and he got his master’s degree in library science in 1988 from U.C. Berkeley. Walker passed away from liver cancer in 2004 at age 55. It is very sad to me that he never got to see what the organization has become.
Eric Garber was one of our founding members, first Board members and served as our first newsletter editor. Eric was involved, like Walker, in the S.F. Lesbian and Gay History Project. Eric was interested in gay sci-fi and co-authored Uranian Worlds. Eric did research on all the gay bars, names, and locations in San Francisco. His research is in the collection of the archives. Unfortunately, AIDS took Eric before he could publish his bar research. Eric was once a roommate of Cleve Jones and a friend of Harvey Milk.
Were there any specific initiatives or areas of focus that the founders felt that the organization should prioritize in its infancy?
Walker and I both wanted to create an archive, but we realized that we would need a broadly focused organization to create interest and bring in the people and support we would need. The Society would create an archive but would also do historical programming, publish a newsletter, create a museum, and other activities to promote LGBTQ history. We had monthly programs in our first few years on a broad variety of topics of interest to the diverse elements of our community. We published the first issue of our newsletter very quickly after our formation.
The organization formed at the height of the AIDS holocaust in San Francisco when more than 20,000 LGBTQ people died. Walker and I were very concerned when families came to San Francisco for their gay sons that had passed away and threw away all of their stuff. We felt an urgent need to get as much of it as possible. We were losing a great number of people and a lot of our history.
We were also very keenly aware of what had happened under the Nazis in Berlin to the Magnus Hirschfield collection. At the time it was one of the finest collections of gay manuscripts and materials in the world. The Nazis destroyed all of it. Because of that we decided our collections must be under community control and not controlled by any government agency. We did not ever want to lose our collections because of a shift of political winds. We also did not want the government to censor, suppress, ban, or destroy our sexually explicit materials. Our sexuality is an important part of our history.
As the society approaches its 40th anniversary and we reflect on its impact, what are one or two things you are particularly proud of from this legacy?
I am very proud to have been part of the creation of this successful organization for the protection, preservation, and promotion of LGBTQ history. Any creator wants to be able to step out of the way and allow his idea and creation to flourish. I greatly appreciate the incredible volunteers, Board Members and staff that have continued our dream.
I am proud that we achieved our original goal of creating an archive that is a major research center for movie makers, authors, researchers, and community members. It is so important for younger generations to be able to learn about the history of our communities.
I am most proud of the diversity we have achieved in the organization. We still have further to go as there is always room for improvement. In the beginning we were mostly white cis men and we later had good parity of men and women but our consistent long-term focus on the importance of diversity paid off in the long run. Over time we reflected more of the racial and ethnic diversity and fortunately, we also expanded to include the transgender community. The LGBTQ community is the most diverse community on Earth, and we must reflect that.
What are your hopes for the society in the future?
I want to see a vibrant internationally acclaimed LGBTQ history museum in San Francisco that is a model for the world, and a tourist attraction that keeps LGBTQ people visiting San Francisco. It needs to be big enough to have space for us to reflect the vast diversity of the LGBTQ communities. I hope that our world-renowned archive collections can be co-located with the museum. I hope that younger generations will be excited to learn about our history and about all of the diverse elements of our communities.
Greg Pennington was a founder of the GLBT Historical Society. Originally from Wichita, KS, Greg moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles in 1977 at age 20. Greg retired after a 30 year career with the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2014. Greg served as the first LGBT Program Manager in the nation in the EPA San Francisco regional office starting in 1998. Greg spent 20% of his work time on issues of concern to the LGBT employees. LGBTQ history has always been one of Greg’s most important hobbies.
As the New Year dawns, Find Homeless People Inc., a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, continues to do its part in assisting unhoused people. The Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) effort has enabled Find Homeless People, Inc. to distribute 30 emergency housing vouchers to those who were in need and met eligibility criteria within the greater Los Angeles, CA area.
The recipients of these vouchers had access to LAHSA – approved homeless shelters such as LA Family Housing, Village Family Services, Single-room Occupancy Programs, Midnight Mission, Los Angeles LGBT Center and Home at Last. For an individual or household to be eligible for EHVs they must be fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking; be a survivor of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking; seeking an emergency transfer through the Interim LAHSA Emergency Transfer Plan under Violence Against Women Act (VAWA); generally homeless; a homeless military veteran; enrolled in time-limited subsidy programs that need a permanent housing resource; enrolled in interim housing whose sites are closing; long-term enrolled in interim housing with three months or longer; and/or enrolled in programs that offer navigation, case management and/or post lease up retention services such as Housing Navigation.
Find Homeless People Inc. encourages those who meet any of the aforementioned criteria and live in Los Angeles County to contact their office by calling 562-472-0222 or through their website contact page for assistance obtaining an emergency housing voucher and safe shelter.
State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation to improve access to PrEP for HIV prevention in California and improve previous legislation that allows pharmacies to offer PrEP without a prescription.
The new legislation will extend the length of time pharmacies may furnish PrEP without a prescription. It will also require health plans to cover the costs of pharmacists’ time to prepare PrEP.
PrEP has shown to reduce the risk of contracting HIV through sexual contact by more than 99%, which makes it more effective than condoms or any other preventative.
“PrEP freed millions of people from the fear of contracting HIV, a miracle of science that once seemed impossible,” Wiener said in a statement.
Despite some significant progress, HIV remains a major public challenge throughout California. “Each year around 4,000 Californians — disproportionally LGBTQ and people of color — contract HIV because of barriers to access,” said Wiener.
SB 339 will follow up on the first-of-the-nation Senate Bill 159 signed into law by Governor Newsom in 2019. SB 159 authorized pharmacies to furnish up to a 60-day supply of PrEP without a prescription and banned health plans from imposing step therapy and prior authorization on PrEP.
Surveys showed that previously, pharmacies struggled to uphold the law furnishing the 60-day window because health plans did not cover the cost of labor and the time period is too short to ensure referral to a primary-care physician.
“SB 339 will address the issues with implementing our groundbreaking legislation SB 159, allowing people to access PrEP without seeing a doctor,” said Wiener.
California joins states like Colorado, Nevada, and Utah in implementing pharmacy-provided PrEP programs. SB 339 requires health plans to cover up to a 90-day supply of PrEP as prescribed by a pharmacists, with ongoing supply contingent upon proper testing and follow-up.
Stephanie Wade is a former Marine Infantry officer, Surfrider Foundation activist and educator who left her public school teaching career in 2018 to work on the Cisneros for Congress Campaign. She followed Cisneros in to office and for two years served as his Veterans Liaison and Field Representative. As the only veteran working for a Navy veteran who served on the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committees, she held a particularly prominent role in supporting the congressmember’s legislative work. She currently serves as District Director and Policy advisor to Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley where she manages a $1.3 mil. discretionary fund, $2 mil. events budget and an additional $1 mil. in federal COVID relief. She also leads the office’s Constituent Services Team and advises the Supervisor on issues including veterans homelessness and LGBT equity. In addition to her work as an aide to elected officials, Stephanie is a member of the board of advisors for the Equality of California Institute and the Vice Chair of the Orange County Veterans Advisory Council. She is the proud mom of a 11 year old girl and a 25 year old son, both of whom are staunch progressives, feminists and LGBT allies. She likes cats, surfing and equity!
Fifteen years after the opening of Hollywood’s Triangle Square Apartments, the nation’s largest LGBTQ-affirming affordable housing complex for seniors, the Los Angeles LGBT Center has spearheaded a historic partnership with April Housing to transfer the building’s ownership to the Center. The transfer, which ensures that the building will be preserved as affordable housing for current and future residents, was commemorated with a reverse ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 26.
“Today serves as an important reminder that the best way to combat homelessness is by providing the housing, services, and care that so many need,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath. “Together, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and April Housing have transformed a building into a community, and I look forward to a long and meaningful relationship, with more projects like this to come.”
The 104-unit building opened in 2007, becoming the first affordable housing complex in the nation to specifically address the needs of LGBTQ+ elderly adults, who often struggle to afford housing and are less likely to have children or grandchildren to support them. In addition to housing, Triangle Square residents have access to the full range of services and support provided by the Center, including case management; home-delivered meals; in-home care and benefits assistance; connection to health and mental health care; HIV support and wellness; counseling and support groups; and more than 75 monthly activities and events provided for free or at low-cost.
“Senior Services is one of the brightest jewels in the Center’s crown, and April Housing has made that jewel shine even brighter by agreeing to sell us this historic building that houses our elders,” said Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendoner. “This sale is going to greatly improve the Center’s ability to help our clients and to further prove to Los Angeles, the LGBTQ+ community, and the nation that we must stop leaving our elders behind.”
“April Housing is proud to transfer ownership of Triangle Square to the Los Angeles LGBT Center,” added Alice Carr, CEO of April Housing, ownership partner of Triangle Square Apartments. “This truly groundbreaking affordable community was created to be a safe, healthy and affordable environment friendly to LGBT seniors, where they can live, thrive and age with respect and dignity. April Housing is thrilled to support the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the important work they do.”
A trans woman is facing an upcoming trial in which she has been charged with five felony counts of indecent exposure for an incident that occurred at a Los Angeles spa.
A judge recently ruled that the trial of Darren Merager can move forward after multiple witnesses testified in a pre-trial hearing that in the summer of 2021 Merager made them uncomfortable while naked in the spa’s women’s locker room due to her exposed penis.
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Witnesses cannot agree on whether or not Merager’s penis was erect, but the possibility that an erection took place was enough for the judge to move the case forward, according toLos Angeles Magazine (LAMag). The judge, Lana S. Kim, also said that the spa’s antidiscrimination policy protecting trans customers “was not an affirmative defense.”
At the time of the alleged incident, a video of a woman complaining to spa staff about a “man” in the women’s locker room went viral and the dispute quickly became a right-wing conspiracy. The spa in question at first denied a trans woman was using the facilities at the time and no evidence had publicly been made available showing otherwise.
But weeks later, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged Merager with indecent exposure and said she was already a registered sex offender due to indecent exposure incidents in 2002 and 2003.
The woman, going by the online moniker Cubana Angel, was complaining in the video that a man was allegedly posing as a woman to use women’s facilities at the spa, and that he tried to expose himself to women in the room. Customers at the family-friendly facilities are frequently undressed while bathing and soaking in the hot water.
In the video, the woman shouts, “There is no such thing as transgender. He has a dick.”
With the spa maintaining that there was no trans woman or cisgender man pretending to be a trans woman knowingly sharing the facilities with cis women at the time, several media outlets deemed the entire controversy likely to be a conspiracy or hoax based on misinformation. Yet the LAPD and right-wing media remained fixated on the incident.
QAnon believers quickly seized on the video as “evidence” for the conspiracy theory that Democratic politicians and celebrities belong to a pedophilic cannibal cult run by aliens. Adherents spread similar false rumors about a D.C. pizza parlor, claiming the restaurant’s basement was a nexus for pedophiles.
In 2018, the LAPD printed public information posters saying Merager often “claims to be female in order to gain access to women’s locker rooms and showers.”
In an interview at the time, Merager claimed the witnesses at the spa were spewing “a bunch of garbage and lies.”
“She never saw me naked,” Merager reportedly told a right-wing journalist at the time. “I was underwater with water all the way up to my chest.”
“If you go into an area where you’re expected to be nude, there has to be an indecent exposure exemption,” Merager also said.
At the pre-trial hearing, a witness named Claudia, who was present at the spa with her two daughters, reportedly stated that Merager “was relaxed, like it was normal.”
“He was walking, like in a beauty contest, completely naked, like it was normal for a guy to walk around naked there.” (Merager has previously told LAMag that she uses both she/her and he/him pronouns. Her driver’s license has reportedly identified her as female since 2019).
According to both Claudia and her daughters, Merager was sitting on the edge of the jacuzzi with her legs opened 45 degrees. They said she did not try to get their attention but that it made them uncomfortable nonetheless.
Claudia said she was worried about her 14-year-old daughter. “I was afraid for her – here’s this guy with an erect penis.”
Another witness named Christina had previously told a detective that Merager’s penis was “partially erect.” Meanwhile, Claudia’s 14-year-old testified that the penis was “soft” but that she felt “unsafe” and “uncomfortable” anyway because she had never seen anyone’s penis before. Claudia’s other daughter claimed Merager’s penis was erect.
But in the original viral videos, there was reportedly no mention of an erect penis, and Merager is claiming the witnesses have changed their stories.
“Every single one of these witnesses that get up on the stand decided it’s an erection a month later. Where are my witnesses?” Merager told LAMag during the pre-trial hearing. “Why weren’t the two dozen women in the spa indecently exposed? Only men can be indecently exposed, but women can’t? Only the penis is indecent.”
Arraignment for the case will take place on February 21st.
