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November 20th: The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder in 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Since then, the event has grown to encompass memorials in dozens of cities across the world. On Wednesday, November 17th, City College of San Francisco held its Transgender Awareness Day and Resource Fair. On November 20th in San Francisco, people gathered at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro at 6:30 p.m. for a solemn march down Market Street to the LGBT Community Center. At 7:30 p.m. in the Rainbow Room of the LGBT Center, the official Day of Remembrance memorial featured members of Gwen Araujo's and Toni “Delicious” Green’s families, and a performance by the Transcendence Gospel Choir. In San Jose, the event at the Billy De Frank LGBT Center featured be Gwen Araujo’s mother, Sylvia Guerrero. UC Davis Trans Action Week. More TDoR locations locally and nationwide. Other events in the Bay Area this week. 9/1 Event to Honor Slain Sexworkers
This year's official Halloween in the Castro promised "Good Music, Good Times, Good Behavior," with "NO Booze, NO Drugs, and NO Bashing." Halloween in the Castro 2004 was held on Sunday, October 31st, from 7pm to midnight. Halloween in the Castro used to be the place for hundreds of thousands to party in the streets in costume, dancing, drinking (or not), and having a great time independent of regulation by the City, but one year, something was all wrong...

The Castro's raucous Halloween 2002 street party resulted in dozens of arrests for public drunkenness, and five people were stabbed. In 2003 police banned alcohol from the street celebration and set up checkpoints around the party's perimeter to prevent alcohol consumption. The event was relatively, um, uneventful.

Prior to this year's event, the Halloween in the Castro website said, the "team has been working hard to ensure that this year, our neighborhood celebration will be a safe and fun event for everyone. As you arrive at the event, you will pass through gates where you'll be checked for alcohol and/or weapons and volunteers from one of our community partners will be collecting donations." Attendees were asked to "bring $3 to help support this event and community organizations." Report

The event was organized by such local corporate sponsors as Wild 94.9, KMEL, Kron 4, ClearChannel Outdoor, San Francisco Pride, Walgreens, and others.
Indybay Story about Halloween 2003
Additional Halloween 2004 events in SF.
Mary Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney's out lesbian daughter, is head of her father's re-election campaign team. One of her past jobs was gay community liaison for Coors Brewing Company, where she helped to end the LGBT community's 20-year boycott of that company. She and her partner have been markedly silent about the same-sex marriage issue and Bush/Cheney's other anti-gay efforts, to the point that pro-same-sex marriage groups started a "Dear Mary" campaign to "try to get Mary to stand up to Dick."
Mary's sexuality became a campaign issue during the Vice-Presidential Debate, when John Edwards praised Cheney for publicly embracing his lesbian daughter, Mary. Cheney, said that he was grateful for the "kind words he said about my family and our daughter," and in a frank admission, said he would have preferred that the president not endorse a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and instead leave the issue to the states, but he added, "He sets policy for this administration, and I support the president."

In a debate between George Bush and John Kerry, Kerry responded to a question about whether or not homosexuality is a choice by saying, "'We're all God's children.... And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she was being who she was, she's being who she was born as.'" Despite the fact that Mary's (sexuality) was mentioned in the vice presidential debate with no angry response from Republicans, both Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne responded angrily against Kerry's remark in following days. Lynne Cheney has said, "Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom...What a cheap and tawdry political trick." It is unclear what trick she was referring to. LGBT activists have since stated that Kerry could have made his point without including Mary Cheney. Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of VP Candidate John Edwards, has stated "I believe the president has tried to use the constitutional amendment as a wedge issue, instead of addressing things like health care or real reform and attention to our veterans' issues." She has also said, "I think that [Mrs. Cheney's complaint] indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences." Kerry's campaign later issued a statement saying the candidate was only trying to be supportive of Mary Cheney, and apologized if his words were taken the wrong way. The UK Guardian pointed out that "Gay men and lesbians are furious with Kerry, not for using Mary as a political pawn but for exposing his own double standards. In the same breath, Kerry spoke passionately for gay freedom and for marriage as an institution that should be enjoyed only by a man and a woman."

Past Indybay Coverage of Kerry and the LGBT Community | Indybay Story about Coors and the LGBT Community | Log Cabin Republicans' Statement
When President George W. Bush announced his support of the gay marriage ban on February 24, 2004, something snapped in Dale Duncan and Joe Henderson, a gay couple that has been together for ten years living in Atlanta, Georgia. Both men decided it was time to do something. Henderson jokingly suggested that gays stop doing wedding-related services for a day: no hair styling, no wedding planning, no cake decorating, no bridal gowns. From that suggestion came the idea for an economic boycott. But of what? The suggestion was made that gays, lesbians, questioning, transgendered and all their allies drop out of the economy for one entire day. No purchases of any kind," says Duncan. "No cell phone use. Take a personal or vacation day off from work. If you're a gay or lesbian business-owner, close up shop for the day." That is how the idea of a national Boycott for Equality on October 8th came to be.

"This is a call for a nation-wide boycott in the traditions of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. We are asking all GLBT Americans and their Straight Allies to "drop out" of the United States economy for one day to demonstrate that we are vital and important members of our communities with significant economic presence. There are four elements to the boycott: withdraw from work, withdraw from your ATM, withdraw from commerce and withdraw from cell phone communication." The organizers suggest that GLBT identified people and supporters withdraw $80 from their bank accounts on Friday and hold the cash in their pockets to symbolize the symbolic average daily contribution of gay people to the economy. On Saturday, October 9, they suggested, either redeposit the money into your account, OR spend it at a local GLBT friendly business. The Boycott website says that there are an estimated 17 million GLBT citizens with a daily spending power of $1.4 billion, equivalent to $500 billion annually.

A variety of ways to participate: "If a large number of people don't use their cell phones for the day, cell phone companies will report a significant drop in usage the following day," Duncan says. "If a significant number of employees of a major company take the day off, it will be evident in that company's productivity. For people who cannot participate on the day of the boycott, there are other ways to show support. "We suggest having fundraising parties," says Duncan. "People can have cookouts and parties and take donations," to benefit organizing for the Boycott. The website includes a petition where people who are planning to participate in the boycott can sign up, which will help Duncan to know how many people plan to participate, and what the impact of their participation will be.
Criticism of the boycott came from a variety of positions: store owners said that they would have to close shop and lose profits; some saw the idea of a one-day boycott as impractical. Still others pointed out that the boycott did not address or criticize queer people's participation in unsustainable consumerist lifestyles. More about consumption
Gay and Lesbian Consumer Census | Gay Shame | Report from last year's Latino Strike in California | Publish your observations and experiences from the GLBT Boycott to Indybay
October 1, 2004: A march and rally were called for Friday evening in response to a recent increase of reported acts of racist and sexist discrimination at commercial establishments in the Castro neighborhood, which is seen as a hub for Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans communities in San Francisco. Over 200 people of many races, genders, ages, and abilities gathered at SF's LGBT Center to listen to speakers and march to Market and Castro, chanting for equality and inclusion and against discrimination in the queer community. At Harvey Milk Plaza the march met up with others who had already gathered. The SF Gay Men's Chorus and the transgender Transcendence Choir sang several songs together, and Supervisor Bevan Dufty spoke of the hard work of people of all colors who are striving to change the racially discriminatory practices that have become all too common in the Castro District.

The march continued on Castro St., and turned up 18th St. to confront the SF Badlands, one of two bars owned by Les Natali (the other is the Detour) that are accused of race- and gender- based discrimination. The crowd laid candles and flowers in front of the Pendulum bar across the street, where the weekend before a 54-year-old white man had died after an altercation with some African American men (the details of that tragedy are still unclear and under investigation). Speakers told of how the divide of racism wounds us all and creates divisions and violence that cannot continue. After creating the memorial and having a moment of silence, the march ended with a celebration of inclusion at 18th and Collingwood, blocking traffic and dancing to music spun by DJ Jamez.
Report | Photos: 1 | 2 | Video
10/03/2004: Gay Shame disrupted today's "Cutest of the Castro" beauty contest to protest body fascism's "cosmetic assault" on the queer community. The contest was originally marketed as benefitting the Maitri AIDS hospice, but Maitri later backed out of accepting money raised by a corporate-sponsored contest celebrating a fantasy fetish of youth and ability. Thirty costumed Gay Shame protesters unfurled their banners and marched through the crowd making a ruckus, much to the consternation of the hundreds of spectators. After a police escort left the scene, Gay Shame was invited onstage to share its perspective; two costumed contestants spoke to the crowd while Grimace danced around on stage. Although results have not yet been posted to the website, it did not appear that any of the costumed contestants were likely to win "Cutest of the Castro."

Gay Shame, which has been quietly operating under the radar for most of the year, aside from its acclaimed newspaper CRAP (Community's Reactionary Asshole Publication), promises "further and grander forms of insurgence soon." Reports: 1 | 2 | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Video
10/3: Indybay has just received word that the Catalyst has cancelled the Capleton show.
On September 13th, organizers of San Francisco's Reggae In The Park announced that they dropped a controversial Jamaican singer following complaints from queer activists in SF and beyond. In some of Capleton's lyrics, he has espoused hanging, drowning, burning, or shooting gays. Capleton issued an apology to San Franciso gays in an effort to head off a threatened demonstration. "I do not advocate violence or abuse against anyone, nor do I support prejudice, bigotry or discrimination," he said in a statement. "It bothers me deeply to hear that some of my past lyrics, which I no longer perform in concert, have been interpreted as offensive to gay and lesbian communities." Gay community activists called it insufficient and too late. Organizers of the event apparently agreed, decided that he would be disinvited to perform.

Capleton was scheduled to be one of the headline acts at Reggae in the Park, which is a fundraiser for Global Exchange to be held in Sharon Meadow on October 2nd and 3rd. Instead, during that weekend, Capleton has made plans to head to Santa Cruz for a concert at the popular nightclub Catalyst. GLBT activists there have vowed to protest the concert of the Jamaican native. They are calling for public pressure in advance of the concert, and if this fails, protest on Sunday, October 3rd at 7:30pm. Report on Santa Cruz Indymedia

San Francisco is not the only city in which a Capleton show has been cancelled-- Read more on Indybay's Arts and Action Page

365gay.com reports that in May, Amnesty International stated that at a reggae concert in Jamaica, Capleton and other performers "sang almost exclusively about gay men. Using the derogatory terms for gay men - 'chi chi men' or ‘'battybwoys’ - they urged the audience to ‘kill dem, battybwoys haffi dead, gun shots pon dem. Who want to see dem dead, put up his hand’". Amnesty International Launches Global Action to Combat Homophobic Violence in Jamaica
Amnesty International's Music for Human Rights
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