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Aly Kim & her friends have been celebrating Pride in Monterey for decades
For Aly Kim of Monterey, California, Pride in the seaside town famous for John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, and nearby Pebble Beach in Carmel offered an added attraction in 2022: a reunion among friends more than 40 years in the making.
Aly, JT, and Gwen got to know each other in 1980 before the Monterey Peninsula had a Pride celebration. The only gay bar in the area, After Dark, hosted Monterey’s first Pride event in 1993 — behind closed doors.
Three years later, the LGBTQ+ community came out for a public celebration.
“Monterey’s gay community leapt into the spotlight during Monterey’s Gay Pride March and Festival this past June 8th and 9th,” read the lede in the peninsula’s only gay publication, The Paper. “The two events drew over 1,000 locals and visitors in this, the first public gay pride festival in Monterey County.”
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The theme of that year’s inaugural public Pride event: “Conquering Invisibility.”
Coverage of the celebration led two local TV newscasts and earned front-page stories in the Monterey County Herald and Monterey Times.
“Two hundred lesbians, gay men, and gay-friendly supporters walked down the sidewalk of Lighthouse Ave. from Reeside to David and back,” The Paperreported. “Flags in the colors of the gay flag shone brightly in the late afternoon sun.”
Thirty years later, Monterey Pride brought Aly and her old friends back together again.
Not long after they met, Aly moved to San Francisco, where she spent 35 years away from the area’s white sand beaches and Cypress trees — and JT and Gwen.
The group reconnected at Monterey’s 2022 March and Festival.
JT continues to make “good trouble” in Monterey, Gwen supports the town’s local artists in the Seaside neighborhood, and Aly is happy to be back south where their friendship started all those years earlier.
“And here we are reconnecting,” Aly told LGBTQ Nation, “at Monterey Pride!”
Pride in Pictures is LGBTQ Nation’s annual series celebrating Pride across the country. We asked our readers to send in their pictures and stories of Pride and we got so many rainbows. Keep an eye out for more heartwarming stories to get you ready for Pride Month 2024.
An attacker fired a pellet gun at 4 LGBTQ+ bars in San Diego. The community wants answers
An attacker targeted at least four LGBTQ+ bars with a pellet gun over the weekend, sparking fear and outrage among the San Diego community.
The assailant fired the pellet gun from a vehicle around 1 a.m. Saturday morning, San Diego Police told CBS 8, targeting four queer establishments in the southern California city: Rich’s, The Rail, #1 on Fifth Avenue, and PECS.
A security guard at The Rail, Donny Hurry, told the outlet that he was outside when someone began shooting from their vehicle. He realized the weapon was not a real gun after he was hit in the arms and back several times, and he then tried to run towards the car to get a description of the attacker before they drove off.
Eddie Reynoso, a host at Rich’s, said that he was standing outside when the suspect began yelling slurs from the what appeared to be an SUV and firing what he believed was an AK-47 or alike automatic weapon. Reynoso ducked immediately, but still got “hit directly in the eye.”
“I feel something kinda like explode almost like something popped. And by then I was already falling to the ground,” he said. “In my mind, I thought I just got shot through the eye and my eye just flew out.”
Reynoso said that Rich’s has been the target of several anti-LGBTQ+ incidents before, and he suspects the threats will continue.
Law enforcement has not released an official suspect or vehicle description, nor have they said if the attacks are being investigated as anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes. Police also said they are not yet certain whether the non-lethal rounds used to target the establishments and their patrons were bearing balls or paintballs.
Izan Corso, a patron who was at The Rail when the attack occurred, added: “This is obviously a safe space. So the fact that people can just come in from outside and sort of make it feel unsafe is just unfortunate.”
California district to pay $360K to teacher fired for not following transgender policies
A Southern California school district reached an agreement to settle a 2023 lawsuit from a former teacher who refused to adhere to the district’s gender identity-related policies.
The settlement amounts to $360,000, with the Jurupa Unified School District agreeing to pay $285,000 to Jessica Tapia and $75,000 for her attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuit alleged discrimination on the basis of religion following Tapia’s termination from the school district for being unwilling to comply with several directives regarding transgender students.
The directives included referring to students by their preferred pronouns, allowing students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and refraining from expressing religious beliefs with students or on social media.
The Jurupa Unified School District said in a statement that the decision to settle the case was made “in the best interest of the students,” so the district “can continue to dedicate all of its resources and efforts to educate and support its student population regardless of their protected class.”
The settlement agreement was finalized Tuesday. The district added that it “continues to deny any illegal action or discrimination against Ms. Tapia” and “has not admitted any fault or wrongdoing.”
Advocates for Faith & Freedom, a nonprofit law firm focused on “protecting constitutional and religious liberty in the courts,” filed the lawsuit on Tapia’s behalf in May 2023. The firm alleged Tapia was wrongfully terminated for her religious beliefs.
“People of faith should be allowed to maintain their personal beliefs without fear of losing their job,” Mariah Gondeiro, vice president and legal counsel for the group, said in a statement last year. “Jessica Tapia was not dismissed for any wrongdoing, rather, she was dismissed for her Christian beliefs. This is a clear violation of our Constitutional rights.”
As some teachers have pushed back on trans-inclusive school policies in recent years, LGBTQ advocates point to a growing body of research that has connected supportive school environments to better mental health outcomes for queer and trans students.
For example, a 2018 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that trans youth who could use accurate names and pronouns experienced 71% fewer symptoms of depression, a 34% drop in suicidal thoughts and a 65% decrease in suicide attempts. Another 2019 study from the Trevor Project, a youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult in their life were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year.
Julianne Fleischer, legal counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom, said the settlement “serves as a reminder that religious freedom is protected, no matter your career.”
As part of the settlement, Tapia is unable to seek re-employment in the district.
“What happened to me can happen to anybody, and I want the next teacher to know that it is worth it to take a stand for what is right,” Tapia said in a statement shared by Advocates for Faith & Freedom.
The complaint stated that Tapia was a member of the school community for more than two decades. She was a student at Jurupa Valley High School, and then went on to become a physical education teacher within the district.
During a meeting with district representatives in September 2022, Tapia received a notice of unprofessional conduct that issued 12 allegations against her, including “expressing controversial opinions on issues pertaining to gender identity” and “posting offensive content on her public Instagram account,” according to the complaint.
Tapia said her faith “precludes her from endorsing policies that cause her to reject her faith, such as facilitating a student’s gender transition or withholding information about it from the student’s parents,” the complaint said.
The complaint also stated that Tapia regularly posted about her religious beliefs and cultural issues on personal social media pages but did not identify herself as a teacher or an employee of the district.
At the end of the 2021-22 academic year, Tapia was placed on administrative leave. She then took a medical leave of absence following the meeting with district representatives because the directives pertaining to gender identity caused her “to suffer severe mental and emotional anguish.”
She was fired in January 2023.
“Because Ms. Tapia was unable to comply with the directives due to her religious beliefs, she requested an accommodation from the District. JUSD refused to provide her with any accommodation and subsequently terminated her employment with the District,” the complaint stated.
Celebrating 15th anniversary of Harvey Milk Day
Harvey Milk’s birthday, May 22, is officially a Day of Special Significance in California. Other states also honor Milk.
Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office in U.S. history. In 1977, he was elected to a seat on the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. His term began in January 1978 and ended in November when disgruntled former Supervisor Dan White assassinated Milk and Mayor George Moscone at City Hall.
In his 1982 book “Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk,” Randy Shilts wrote a moving account of San Francisco’s 1978 memorial for Milk. A “massive crowd stretched the entire distance from City Hall to Castro Street, some 40,000 strong utterly silent,” Shilts wrote. The crowd “ostensibly memorialized both George Moscone and Harvey, but few speakers quarreled that the crowd had amassed chiefly to remember the gangly ward politician [Milk] who had once called himself the mayor of Castro Street.”
Shilts quoted Board of Supervisors President Dianne Feinstein, at the time acting mayor, telling the mourners that Milk “was a leader who represented your voices.” Another speaker said Milk “was to us what Dr. King was to his people. Harvey was a prophet [who] lived by a vision.” Equality was Milk’s vision.
Shilts presciently titled the last section in his book “The Legend Begins.” In 1979, after a jury gave assassin White a light seven-year sentence, LGBT rioters rocked San Francisco in what is called “The White Night Riots.” During the riots, Shilts wrote that “a lesbian university professor yelled into a feeble bullhorn: ‘Harvey Milk lives.’” Since 1978, Harvey Milk’s courageous leadership has been celebrated globally.
Over four years, 2006-2010, San Francisco reminded the country that Milk was a gay man worthy of great honors. The 2008 movie “Milk,” filmed partly in San Francisco, with Sean Penn as Milk, ignited greater public interest in the legendary gay activist. Gay screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and Penn won Academy Awards in 2009.
The film led Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign legislation making Milk’s birthday a Day of Special Significance. Also, President Barack Obama awarded Milk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. On Milk’s 84th birthday, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Forever stamp in his honor.
California’s Harvey Milk Day recognizes Milk for his contributions to the state. It also encourages public schools to conduct “suitable commemorative exercises” to honor Milk.
“To me, [Milk] was a man who was a capitalist, and an entrepreneur who happened to be gay,” said Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado, the only Republican to vote for the bill to create Harvey Milk Day.
The newer scholarship about Milk provided additional insight into his activism. “An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk’s Speeches and Writings” edited by James Edward Black, Charles Morris, and Frank Robinson, published in 2013 by the Univ. of California Press, is an excellent example.
The book’s title is drawn from Milk’s 1978 speech called “The Hope Speech.” He spoke about people [gays, seniors, Black Americans, disabled, Latinos, Asians] “who’ve lost hope.” He proceeds to talk about inspiring hope in others who are struggling when the “pressures at home are too great.” It is a passionate speech, based largely on Milk’s conversations with people in the Castro. In a review of the book for The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, I wrote it is: “An important contribution to the corpus of work on Harvey Milk as a writer and orator.”
Milk believed that it was important for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to come out. If more people were aware of their LGBTQIA+ associates who were their friends, family, and loved ones, then discrimination would end. To Milk, coming out would lead to ensuring LGBTQIA+ civil rights.
In 2007, during Pride in San Francisco I worked at a nonprofit’s booth in Civic Center Plaza. A man stopped to talk. I mostly listened. He was a veterinarian from a small town in Arkansas. He was gay and closeted. He regularly visited San Francisco for Pride. Afterward, he regularly returned to his closeted life in Arkansas. I felt sorry for him. Though I was a stranger to him, he needed to come out to me. I was reminded of Milk’s wisdom about the freedom of coming out.
Harvey Milk Day is for all people who need hope. Milk’s life is a lesson that one person can make a difference. A strong, united community inspired by Milk and others has changed and continues to change the world.
Milk’s short political career led to long-term LGBTQIA+ political leadership from the Bay Area to Washington, D.C. to Miami to Seattle. To paraphrase a Woody Guthrie song: This LGBTQIA+ Land is Our Land. Happy Milk Day 2024!
James Patterson is a lifetime member of the American Foreign Service Association.
Erotic ResistancePerformance, Art, and Activism in San Francisco Strip Clubs (1960s-1990s) Opens at SF GLBT Historical Society Museum June 7
| Erotic ResistancePerformance, Art, and Activism in San Francisco Strip Clubs (1960s-1990s) Purchase your tickets Friday, June 7, 2024 6:00 – 8:00 PM$5.00 – $10.00 | Free for members GLBT Historical Society Museum 4127 18th Street San Francisco, CA 94114 About the ExhibitionThis exhibition preserves the memory of San Francisco’s bohemian past and its essential role in the development of American adult entertainment. It highlights the contributions of queer women, trans women, and women of color who were instrumental in the city’s labor history, as well as its LGBTQ and sex workers’ rights movements. In the 1960s, topless entertainment became legal in the city for the first time in US history, though cross-dressing continued to be criminalized. In the 1990s, stripper-artist-activists led the first successful class action lawsuits and efforts to unionize. The exhibit sheds light on intersectional communities in the making and the women who played a critical role in this history, which has often been hidden from view. This exhibit is titled after Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa’s dissertation, now published as Erotic Resistance: The Struggle for the Soul of San Francisco (University of California Press, 2024). During her research, she encountered objects in the GLBT Historical Society’s archives that are featured in this exhibition and that tell the story of the cross-pollination of LGBTQ venues, strip clubs, and burlesque theaters by sex worker and LGBTQ communities alike, during the latter part of the twentieth century.About the CuratorGigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, PhD, is an artist-scholar who teaches and writes about art and activism, queer of color critique, erotic performance, and the intersections of mindfulness and creative practice. She holds a doctorate in Theater and Performance Studies with a minor in Art History from Stanford University, where she currently leads the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning.About the ExhibitionAbout the Reception The reception will include light refreshments and brief remarks. We are no longer requiring proof of vaccination to enter the museums, but masks are encouraged and will be made available to guests at check in. Visit our COVID-19 page or more information.Purchase your tickets |
| Photo Credits: Isis Rodríguez, Zapatista Stripper, developed during Guillermo Gomez-Peña’s The Mexterminator Project (1998). |
Fremont, California man convicted in Grindr robbery & assault
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced this week that her office secured a conviction of Ronald Anthony Silveria (27), of Fremont, after a trial by jury for attacking and stealing from a man he met on the Grindr application.
Silveria was convicted of first-degree robbery (PC 211), false imprisonment by violence or menace (PC 236/237(a)), identity theft (PC 530.5(a)), and misdemeanor assault (PC 240) and false imprisonment (PC 236).
“The jury’s verdict holds Mr. Silveria accountable for his despicable crimes,” said District Attorney Jenkins. “My office will always stand with victims of crime and work to ensure there are consequences for criminal behavior.”
According to evidence and other testimony presented at trial on September 15, 2022, Silveria met a man in Fremont through the Grindr app. They traveled in separate cars to a San Francisco motel where the victim had rented a room.
After hanging out in the room for a while, Silveria pulled out a gun and tied the victim, who was naked, to the bed. He then proceeded to go through the victim’s bags and electronics, hitting the victim and demanding passwords for bank apps. Silveria eventually agreed to release the victim if he withdrew $400 from an ATM and gave it to him.
The victim agreed and Silveria allowed him to dress, then forced him to wipe down the room, and get into his car to drive to a nearby ATM. After taking the $400, Silveria refused to return the victim’s car keys and belongings. Silveria then drove across the Bay Bridge and abandoned the victim in Emeryville, California at 4:30am. He drove off with all of victim’s belongings including his phone, iPad, and wallet.
The case against Silveria was successfully prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Edward Mario, with assistance from District Attorney Investigator Mike Beaver, and paralegal Melissa Cruz. The case was successfully prosecuted based on the thorough investigation of the San Francisco Police Department’s Robbery Division and the ongoing participation from the victims.
“Mr. Silveria preyed on a man who was in a trusting, compromised, and vulnerable position,” said Assistant District Attorney Edward Mario. “I thank the victim for his bravery in testifying and re-living traumatic life events. This conviction ensures accountability for Mr. Silveria’s actions and provide a measure of justice for the victim.”
Silveria is currently in custody. He faces up to twelve years in state prison for his crimes. Sentencing is scheduled for May 22, 2024.
Mothers’ Day Bridge Walk for Peace Happens Sunday
| Mothers’ Day Bridge Walk for Peace Sun, May 12 @ 12 PM, 11:45: Gather at the Welcome Center Plaza on the East (Hill) side of the Golden Gate Bridge Food to Gaza, not Weapons to Israel. No Tax $$ for Genocide. |
| RSVP |
This school district is going to start outing trans kids even after the state told them not to
A defiant conservative majority on the board of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District (MVUSD) voted to ignore an order from the state of California to rescind a discriminatory policy that requires teachers and school administrators in Riverside County to out any trans or nonbinary student that asks to be called by a name or pronoun different than the ones listed on their birth certificate.
A packed audience in the ruby red district cheered the result.
“We have a right as a board to defy a dictatorial governor and bureaucracy — or whatever — that tries to take away our rights as parents and as citizens — as a duly elected board,” board member Nick Pardue told constituents at the meeting last Thursday. “We have legal standing and we should absolutely stand up for our rights against dictators.”
A report released on April 10 by the California Department of Education found that the notification rules were discriminatory and therefore illegal. The department ordered the Riverside County school system, which contains Murrieta Valley, to provide written notice to all employees within five days that the notification policy is “inconsistent” with the state education code and will “not be implemented,” according to The Los Angeles Times.
The department told MVUSD that the policy “provided no educational or administrative purpose that could justify the discrimination of LGBT+ students,” and warned it “singles out and is directed exclusively toward one group of students based on that group’s legally protected characteristics of identifying with or expressing a gender other than that identified at birth.”
Murrieta Superintendent Dr. Ward Andrus’ followed the order with a notification to staff reversing the policy after the April 10 order was received. The district also sent an emailed notice to parents, faculty, and staff members stating that the policy was rescinded.
Thursday’s vote by the board reverses the reversal.
The right-wing board members undertook the defiant vote despite a warning from the district’s law firm to board President Paul Diffley, who sponsored the outing rules. The law firm warned that “‘going ahead (with the policy) in such an environment’ could cost the district $500,000 in legal expenses.”
Among a majority of speakers in favor of the reversal, the board’s student member, Isabella Dadalt, cowed the audience into silence as she ran down a long list of reasons the outing policy was harmful to children.
“I do not believe that their students would ever withhold information from their parents unless they were genuinely forced to,” Dadalt said. “So if you’re a parent, and you feel [offended] by the fact that your student is going to a teacher instead of you, I think you need to rethink your parenting.”
Board member Linda Lunn, who voted against the policy reinstatement, told the Times the divisive cultural battle was a waste of district time and resources.
“This is weaponizing Murrieta Valley Unified to play politics with Sacramento, and they’re using taxpayer money to do it,” Lunn said.
“I believe in following the law and the Education Code,” Young said. “They don’t all seem to understand that the Code is the law.”
Similar battles are being waged in other Riverside County school districts, including Temecula and Chino, both hotbeds of “parental rights” activism.
“We will continue to stand strong, linked arms all over California, to ensure the government does not infringe on parental rights — period,” Chino Valley School Board President Sonja Shaw said recently.
The state investigation in Murrieta was prompted after two teachers filed a complaint. One, 6th and 7th grade teacher Karen Poznanski, is also a district parent with a nonbinary child.
“This policy, whether enforced or not, hindered our LGBTQ+ students from living authentically,” Poznanski told The Times. “Moreover, it not only compromised their privacy and dignity, but also perpetuated harm and discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.”
Poznanski called the reinstated policy an example of discrimination and a misuse of power “in its most blatant form.”
“California Sex Workers and Harm Reduction Groups Call Foul On Three Bills Seeking to Again Let Police Target People for intent to Commit Prostitution”
California sex workers and a statewide harm reduction coalition are calling foul on three bills currently before the California state legislature which seek to reinstate the criminalization of loitering in a public place with the intent to commit prostitution.
The anti-loitering law in question, also known as the ‘walking while trans’ law was repealed in 2022 and the repeal went into effect at the beginning of 2023 The reform was a response to widespread concerns about how the law, like similarly controversial “stop and frisk” legislation, was being misused by law enforcement.
Supporters of the new bills repeat the same old trope; that police need this ‘crucial tool to combat human trafficking’. But as Maxine Doogan of the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) pointed out to Courthouse News, “There is absolutely no evidence that the repeal of the loitering law facilitated forced labor in the sex trade. There is no data whatsoever showing that those arrested for loitering were ever victims of forced labor.” (https://www.courthousenews.com/pointing-to-human-trafficking-some-california-lawmakers-hop e-to-reinstate-prostitution-loitering-law/)
“Police are not mind readers”, added Starchild, a mononymous sex worker who chairs the Libertarian Party of San Francisco. “‘Intent’ is a dangerously vague standard that can easily be used as an evidence-free justification to harass, detain, or arrest people, prostitutes or not, for literally doing nothing.”
Sex workers in California have cited ways in which the repealed law violated the Racial Justice Act and disproportionately targeted women and ethnic minorities. It also discouraged actual sex workers from carrying and using condoms, undermining the state’s zero infection goal to end the HIV epidemic.
The new bills have already met with strong opposition in the state legislature. The sponsors of both AB 2034 and AB 2646 have withdrawn them from the Assembly Public Safety Committee. SB 1219 was heard in the Senate Public Safety Committee, but remains stalled there after receiving a strong rebuke by Senator Scott Wiener.
Sex workers and a coalition of harm reduction advocates will join together to raise awareness about the harms of AB 2034, AB 2646 and SB1219 on the North West Steps of the State Capital Building between 10th and 11th streets. We want to give journalists and members of the public a chance to talk with us and learn the truth about this bad legislation.
Rally Against Re-Criminalizing Loitering With Intent to Commit Prostitution
• Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project • The Sidewalk Project
• USPROStitutes Collective
• Strippers United
• Stoptheraids.org
• DecrimSexWorkCA
10:30 to 11:30am, Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Northwest steps of the California State Capitol building, between 10th and 11th streets, Sacramento, CA 95814