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Indybay Feature

San Francisco’s support of Transgender Remembrance Day

by Lynda Carson (newzland2 [at] gmail.com)
The Motherlode Was A Transwomen's Bar In San Francisco That Closed Down A Number Of Years Ago.
The Motherlode Was A Transwomen's Bar In San Francisco That Closed Down A Number Of Years Ago.
San Francisco’s support of Transgender Remembrance Day

By Lynda Carson - November 15, 2025

On November 20 http://tdorsf.org/ , there will be an event with guest speakers to support Transgender Remembrance Day on San Francisco’s City Hall steps starting at 5:00pm, with a 6:00pm march to the LGBT Center, with a 7:00PM program at the LGBT Center at - 1800 Market Street.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual commemoration of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester’s death, and began an important tradition that has become the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

More about the Transgender Day of Remembrance may be found by clicking here.

In memory of “The Motherlode” this Transgender Day of Remembrance week. The Motherlode was a small popular transwomen’s bar in San Francisco that closed down a number of years ago.

Reportedly, “Francisco’s preeminent transwomen’s bar, closed in 2019, ending a 30-year dynasty that began with the Motherlode in 1989. The original owners were Joseph Jurkans and Mark Gilpin. “When these men bought the Motherlode, Gilpin let it be known that transgendered women were welcome there…One problem with the Motherlode, however, is that it is too small inside,” wrote transsexual author Christine Beatty. Diva’s with over 9,000 sq. ft. was the answer.

Even though the bar was moving less than a block from its original location at Post and Larkin, there was opposition from the Apostolic Faith Church and Polk Street District Merchants’ Association. When the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the move, Mayor Frank Jordan vetoed their resolution, but on April 17, 1995 the board overrode the veto 10 to 1.

The Lexington Club, San Francisco’s last lesbian bar, closed in 2014. Without Diva’s no one is sure if there will be a transwomen’s bar in San Francisco. “We will find another place in the city. I’m working on it,” said Alexis Miranda, Diva’s manager for the past 31 years. Miranda, a former Empress, is seeking, “investors…willing to open a new bar that is diverse and non-judgmental.” Interested parties, please, message her through Facebook and hope the task is easier now than it was in the 90s.”

More about The Motherlode and the closing of Diva’s may be found by clicking here, for an older interesting SF Chronicle article. Reportedly, “Before Divas was Divas it was the Motherlode, a much smaller bar that opened on the corner of Post and Larkin in 1987, back when Polk Gulch and the Tenderloin were thick with spaces for all sorts of queer people. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy remembers those days, bars up and down Turk and Mason and Leavenworth.”

During this week of Transgender Day of Remembrance, reportedly, “Transgender Air Force and Space Force service members are suing the Trump administration for rescinding pensions that had been previously granted by the Air Force secretary. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January that banned transgender people from serving in the military. In June, the Air Force approved retirement orders for the Airmen named in the lawsuit, but two months later the service reversed the course, informing airmen, each with at least 15 years of service, that they would be separated without retirement benefits under the ban. The lawsuit argues that revoking those retirement orders violates Air Force policies and procedures. Transgender service members affected by this will lose an estimated $1 to 2 million over the course of their lifetimes, the lawsuit says. It will also strip them of lifetime access to TRICARE health coverage.”

In contrast to the attack on transgender military personnel by the convicted felon President Donald J. Trump, it was on January 25, 2021, that the former President Joe Biden signed an executive order enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform. In part, the executive order says, “President Biden signed today an Executive Order that sets the policy that all Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve. The All-Volunteer Force thrives when it is composed of diverse Americans who can meet the rigorous standards for military service, and an inclusive military strengthens our national security.

President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity.  This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values.  America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive.  The military is no exception. Allowing all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for the country because an inclusive force is a more effective force.  Simply put, it’s the right thing to do and is in our national interest.

In 2016, a comprehensive study requested by the Department of Defense found that enabling transgender individuals to serve openly in the United States military would have only a minimal impact on military readiness and healthcare costs.  The study also concluded that open transgender service has had no significant impact on operational effectiveness or unit cohesion in foreign militaries.

These facts were confirmed by testimony in 2018 to Congress by the then-serving Chief of Staff of the Army, Chief of Naval Operations, Commandant of the Marine Corps, and Chief of Staff of the Air Force that they were not aware of any issues of unit cohesion, disciplinary problems, or issues of morale resulting from open transgender service.  In addition, former United States Surgeons General, who served under both Democratic and Republican Presidents, supported this posture, noted in 2018 that “transgender troops are as medically fit as their non-transgender peers and that there is no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude them from military service or to limit their access to medically necessary care.”

The Brutal Assault On The LGBTQ Plus Community.

There has been a brutal assault on the LGBTQ plus community in America, and in April, reportedly there was more than 850 anti-LGBTQ bills filed so far in 2025 - the most in US history. Reportedly, “Over the past five years, Republican lawmakers have turned anti-trans legislation into a full-blown political obsession. What began as a handful of bills targeting sports participation and so-called religious exemptions has metastasized into a sweeping campaign against nearly every facet of transgender life — bathroom access, IDs, medical care, even the legality of one’s identity. In 2020, there were just over 100 bills aimed at LGBTQ+ people. In 2025, that number has ballooned to more than 850, the vast majority singling out transgender Americans. What we are witnessing now is not a legislative trend — it’s a coordinated nationwide crusade.”

In response to the brutal assault on the transgender community, on March 31, 2023, under the Biden/Harris administration, the White House released the; FACT SHEET: White House Honors Transgender Day of Visibility. In part it says, “Today, in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility, the Biden-Harris Administration is uplifting transgender communities—and especially transgender kids and their families—by celebrating their resilience in the face of hateful anti-transgender laws being advanced across the country. Since President Biden’s first day in office, the Administration has taken historic steps to advance equality, dignity, and safety for transgender Americans, and he is the first President in history to discuss the importance of expanding equality and combating attacks on the rights of transgender Americans in every State of the Union or joint session of Congress address. While transgender Americans have an unwavering champion in the President, conservative politicians have advanced hundreds of anti-transgender laws in states across the country so far this year, putting the fundamental rights and freedoms of trans Americans at risk. As President Biden has said, transgender Americans are some of the bravest people he knows, but nobody should have to be brave to be themselves.

"Over half of transgender youth say they have seriously considered suicide in the last year because of the discrimination and rejection they face. In the face of these challenges, research shows that, when transgender youth are affirmed and supported, they thrive. Today, to hear directly about the joys, hopes, and challenges that transgender children are experiencing, the White House will host a Roundtable on Affirming Transgender Kids. Transgender kids and their parents shared their experiences living in states that have attacked their rights, discussed how these laws have impacted their mental health, and highlighted how parents are protecting their children.

"Today, the Biden Administration is announcing additional steps to support transgender Americans:”

Despite the support of the former Biden/Harris administration, the assault on the transgender community continues.

According to the ACLU, in a press release as recent as November 6, 2025, in part it says, “WASHINGTON–The Supreme Court of the United States today granted a request from the Trump administration to stay a preliminary injunction in Orr v. Trump, allowing the government to enforce a discriminatory passport policy against transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people while the ACLU’s challenge to the policy continues.

"Jon Davidson, Senior Counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said “This is a heartbreaking setback for the freedom of all people to be themselves, and fuel on the fire the Trump administration is stoking against transgender people and their constitutional rights. Forcing transgender people to carry passports that out them against their will increases the risk that they will face harassment and violence and adds to the considerable barriers they already face in securing freedom, safety, and acceptance. We will continue to fight this policy and work for a future where no one is denied self-determination over their identity.”

“This decision will cause immediate, widespread, and irreparable harm to all those who are being denied accurate identity documents,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “The Trump administration's policy is an unlawful attempt to dehumanize, humiliate, and endanger transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans, and we will continue to seek its ultimate reversal in the courts.”

"The ACLU and its nationwide affiliate network have helped transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people around the country secure accurate passports since the preliminary injunction was put in place. Now that the policy will be enforced, anyone who applies for a new, corrected, or replacement passport or for a passport renewal is at risk of having their passport issued bearing the sex they were assigned at birth.

"We will work to update those at risk of being impacted by today’s order from the Court as we learn more from the State Department."

On his first day in office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order attempting to mandate discrimination against transgender people across the federal government and government programs. This included a directive to the Departments of State and Homeland Security “to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards” reflect a person’s sex “at conception.”

Within 48 hours, the State Department paused the processing of some passport applications submitted by transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people and returned others with a newly-issued passport marked with their sex assigned at birth. Over 214,000 public comments in opposition to the State Department’s new policy were collected by the ACLU and Advocates for Transgender Equality.

In February 2025, Orr v. Trump was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Covington and Burling LLP, on behalf of seven people who had not been able to obtain passports that match who they are because of the State Department’s new Passport Policy or were likely to be impacted by the new policy upon their next renewal. The complaint was filed in the federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The complaint was subsequently amended to add five additional transgender, nonbinary, and intersex plaintiffs and to seek to represent a class of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex passport holders. All twelve individual plaintiffs were appointed as class representatives.

In April, the court granted a preliminary injunction requiring the State Department to allow six transgender and nonbinary plaintiffs in Orr v. Trump to obtain passports with sex designations consistent with their gender identity or with an “X” sex designation while the lawsuit proceeds. In June, the court granted a class certification request and expanded the scope of the preliminary injunction.

After the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously denied the government’s request to stay the preliminary injunction, the Trump administration filed a stay request to the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Jackson issued a dissent to today’s order, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan.”

Things are so bad and crazy recently, that during the federal government shutdown, on the website for the US Department of Agriculture, and other federal government agency websites, they posted the following notice; “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”

According to a November 13, 2025 release by the Advocate called, “A devastating reality: New report finds violence and erasure ahead of Transgender Day of Remembrance,,,,. ” in part it says, “As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches on November 20, a stark new report from Advocates for Trans Equality reveals the extent of the violence, erasure, and institutional abandonment confronting transgender Americans and the resilience of a community determined to survive it.

The 2025 Remembrance Report, prepared by A4TE’s public education team and seen exclusively by The Advocate, documents 27 violent deaths of transgender and gender-nonconforming people over the last year and 21 deaths by suicide, a devastating pattern that has become grimly familiar.

Sixty-one percent of the transgender people lost to suicide were between ages 15 and 24, a finding the report connects directly to the dismantling of youth protections, the loss of crisis resources such as the LGBTQ-specific 988 suicide crisis line option 3 ended by the Trump administration in June, and the continued spread of misinformation about gender identity from the highest levels of government.

“We are in an extraordinary moment in the fight for trans lives,” the report warns, describing a federal landscape in which crucial health research has been censored, civil rights protections rolled back, and references to transgender people stripped from public-facing government resources.”

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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