Feature Archives

National organizations called for actions during National Freedom to Marry Week, February 9-15, 2004. The organizations included The Equality Campaign, DontAmend.com and Metropolitan Community Churches, the world's largest predominantly gay and lesbian church group, long with a network of civil rights groups including Marriage Equality and Freedom to Marry. Events in California during January and February.
2/14: over one thousand people rallied for marriage equality at the state capitol. Reports: 1 | Photos: 1 | 2 | Video

Urban Outfitters wants to build a huge store at 1728 Haight Street. This store will endanger independent neighborhood businesses and will lead the way for more chain stores in the neighborhood. In addition, Urban Outfitters is owned by Dick Hayne, a financial supporter of Sen. Rick Santorum, whose recent comments about homosexuals equated gay sex with incest and bestiality. On Thursday, 1/15, there will be a picket outside City Hall. Read More...

On January 8th 2004, Gavin Newsom was sworn in as the new mayor of San Francisco. As thousands of conservative Democrats and Republicans rallied in the streets, activists mourned Newsom's rise while celebrating the end of 8 years of Willie Brown's corruption. Police took a hostile attitude towards the protesters, trying to isolate them to an area where they would not be seen by the press (while allowing other signs and banners that did not attack Newsom to be brought into the main crowd). A protest by radical queers walked with a mock coffin into the crowd at one point but a homophobic Newsom supporter quickly confronted them, claimed to have gotten fake blood on his jacket and had a protester detained.
Photos: 1   2   3

1/8/03 Kate Raphael has been released from the Israeli prison where she was being held. Kate is a long-time queer activist in the Bay Area, and a member of the International Women's Peace Service. She is one of four internationals who were arrested on December 30th in a demonstration protesting the construction of the Israeli apartheid wall. The wall is planned to completely surround the Palestinian community in Budrus. Kate is a member of LAGAI-Queer Insurrection and QUIT! (Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism). Kate has fought for queer visibility in many progressive movements, from the Central America Solidarity Movement to the current anti-war movement. She believes that queer liberation is inextricably linked to all liberation struggles. Read more! Check here for Updates
1/6/2004:About 100 people gathered at the Israeli consulate in San Francisco Tuesday to protest the detention and intended deportation of Kate Raphael.
Photos: 1   2   |   Video: 1  2  

8/17/2002: About 25 queer settlers descended on a downtown Berkeley Starbucks on Saturday, August 17, claiming Berkeley as “a city without people for people without a city.” The group, organized by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!), posted a banner proclaiming the reclaimed café “Queerkeley – A Prophecy Fulfilled.”

The group selected Starbucks for the location of their first settlement in Berkeley because Starbucks founder and CEO, Howard Shultz, is a major supporter of the Israeli state and the corporation has become the prime target of an international boycott of corporations with ties to Israel. “Since Mr. Shultz clearly believes it is okay for one group of people to grab land belonging to another and say they have a right to it, we figure he won’t mind if we take some of his,” a QUIT leaflet explains.

Workers in the café were surprisingly unruffled as the Queer Defense Forces entered the café and announced over a loudspeaker that the land had been confiscated by the Queer National Fund and curfew for straights would begin in five minutes.

On December 18th, Bush said, “If necessary, I will support a constitutional amendment which would honor marriage between a man and a woman, codify that, and will - the position of this administration is that whatever legal arrangements people want to make, they're allowed to make, so long as it's embraced...at the state level. Let me tell you, the (Massachusetts) court I thought overreached its bounds as a court...” Bush is under pressure nationwide from the religious right and same-sex marriage advocates, so that his position will be clear during the 2004 election campaign. Canadians began to celebrate gay marriage in 2003.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has called for civil disobedience in response to the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.

10/4/2003: A year can pass by in a seeming heartbeat. For family members of a slain child, though, a year can seem an eternity. On the first anniversary of her Gwen Araujo's murder, Sylvia Guerrero sat with approximately fifty family members in the front row of the Newark Memorial High School auditorium during a memorial to her daughter.
About 150 people gathered on Saturday, October 4th, for a mix of music, poetry, and speeches centering on the loss of Gwen Araujo and on the senseless killing that continues unabated. Several of Gwen's friends attended the memorial alongside government representatives, transgender activists, and other Newark citizens, including members of the anti-hate group "Not in Newark," formed after her death. Read More...

Gwen Araujo was also remembered October 3 2003, in Hollywood CA as around 50 candlelight marchers paraded through "Tranny town", down Santa Monica Blvd. from Highland Ave. to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery where she was eulogized by LA Transgender activists such as Maria Roman of Bienestar, Shirley Bushnell of Transgender Menace, Alexander Yoo of FTM Alliance and Talia of SCHA-LA.

From the IMC Newswire (past and present): Family And City Remember Gwen, October 3rd. Photos, “Shallow Grave” an illustration, Accused Murderer Seeks Bond, Remembering our SISTER GWEN ARAUJO and Equality for California's Transgender Citizens!.

From the Web: AUDIO (streams fast), “gendertalk” interviews Shelly Prevost, independent film maker and video activist, on the aftermath of Gwen Araujo’s murder and her short film "Isn’t It Obvious". Also interviewed, Seth Kilbourne, National Field Director for the Human Rights Campaign, on their national strategy for trans inclusion.
One Year Later… by Jaime Ray

Media Coverage: San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News