Feature Archives

Vigils will be held across California this week to remember Lawrence "Larry" King, the 15 year old E.O. Green Junior High student who was shot on February 12th in Oxnard. Larry was declared brain-dead Wednesday after he was shot in the head twice by a fellow junior high student at school, and he was taken off life support three days later. According to friends, Larry was perceived to be gay and gender non-conforming and had been bullied at school. The suspect, a 14-year old student, has been charged with attempted murder, and the case is being prosecuted as a hate crime. Vigils will be held in San Francisco on Tuesday and in Fresno on Wednesday.

The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday, March 4th in the marriage cases that are challenging the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger highlighted that the California Supreme Court should decide the constitutional questions posed by the marriage statutes when he vetoed two measures passed by the California Legislature in 2005 and 2007 that would have permitted same-sex couples to marry. The California Supreme Court typically issues its decisions within 90 days following oral arguments.

UAW-QUAD writes, "Upon reading the UAW Local 2865’s summary of advancements made in the recent round of contract negotiations (emailed 10/4), one might think we made significant progress in improving our rights and benefits. It is apparent, however, that only small movement was made in the area of improving the rights of minority groups, while, generally speaking, disproportionate progress was made around the rights of the majority."

Activists are mobilizing to roll back changes to the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which is moving quickly through the House of Representatives. ENDA, which was introduced to protect LGBTQ employees, was recently stripped of provisions prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity. The stripped down bill denies protection to transgendered people and introduces loopholes that would seriously limit the bill's effect.

Gay Shame SF and LAGAI-Queer Insurrection will sponsor an "HRC sweatshop play land" for kids of all ages at the 19th and Castro Streets during the Castro Street Fair in San Francisco on Sunday, October 7th. The playland will ask "how can the Human Rights Campaign claim to be for the rights of humans, while cheering on corporate culture and selling goods manufactured in sweatshops?" Organizers will point out that corporations such as Coors, Nike, Chevron, and Merck aim to maximize profits, even at the expense of workers' safety and human rights. The playland, which will be for kids of all ages, will include a sewing machine, a button press, a paint fume bouncy tent, and more.

After many years of relative safety in the Sacramento area, the last several have seen virulent protest from radical fundamentalists. Satendar Singh, a recent immigrant from Fiji, was fatally wounded in an attack at Lake Natomas on July 1st by a group of Russian-speaking men after they perceived him as gay. Satendar was a recent immigrant to America from Fiji. Memorial services are being planned, and a West Coast Diversity Summit will take place on July 21st in Sacramento. The focus of the summit will be the growing number of hate crimes and threats generated from radical groups in the area.

San Francisco LGBT Pride Weekend was June 22nd through June 24th. Some 10,000 people poured into the streets to take place in the City's fourth annual Trans March. Tens of thousands of women and their friends spent Saturday afternoon in Dolores Park, enjoying music and speakers, before the San Francisco Dyke March, which led to Pink Saturday in the Castro. SF Pride continued on Sunday with a March down Market Street, and a Celebration in the Civic Center area.