Results matching “prop 8”

Meet Jennie Ketcham, the former Penny Flame. [Violet Blue]

The expanding War on Fun has taken another life, ladies and germs. Marke B. over at the SFBG reports that punk-politico drag queen Anna Conda has decided to call it quits on her weekly Friday party Charlie Horse at the Cinch after complaining Polk Street neighbors brought the bar before the Entertainment Commission. Rather than "take a break" and try to tone down the often raucous drag night (where it was likely the noisy smoking porch out back and the spillover out front that brought the complaints) Anna has decided to put a bullet in the head of this five-year-old party and pursue other ventures.

       

Last year at this time, the gay community (and then some) lost their collective shit over the passing of Prop 8, a pro-discrimination measure that effectively pruned the rights of gay married couples. The passing of the anti-marriage confused and disturbing "Fuck Mormons" banner from his home, while blaming "middle class people" for Prop 8's passing(!); and this handy map of those who donated to Prop 8.

After today's profoundly disappointing news that gay marriage was repealed in the state of Maine -- alas, unadulterated hate wins again -- rallies will be held across the country starting tonight.

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

Taking a closer look at Mission hipster bar The Phone Booth. [SFBG]

The people who sponsored last year's gay marriage ban must hand over certain internal campaign records to lawyers looking to overturn Prop 8. Turning down a request to block their super-special information from being made public, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, KTVU reports, "said the Protect Marriage campaign had failed to show that providing private e-mails, memos and reports would inhibit the political activities of gay marriage opponents or subject them to unbridled harassment."

                               

Everyone from Hilary Newsom to Bevan Duffy to San Francisco treasure/icon Joy Bianchi, above, participated in the NOH8 photo campaign, a campaign to help repeal Prop 8. The campaign involves people with varying amounts of fame (some more than others) wearing white shirts and electric tape over their mouths. But the photos, shot by Adam Bouska, are actually quite impressive, very much so. Check them out.

The gay marriage case that Hollywood made will be heading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on January 11th, and the City of San Francisco will be included as a party to the case, says U.S. District Judge Vaughan Walker. Three gay rights organizations--Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights--were asking to be included as parties to the case on the side of the plaintiffs as well, but they were denied and will have to settle for filing friend-of-the-court briefs. Whether this will serve to un-clutter and speed up the proceedings remains to be seen.

Turns out that an attorney representing some married gays in a federal court case for marriage equality has his own nefarious yet completely insane reasons for taking on this case - splitting California into two floundering pieces!

For those of you not aware of the current rumblings in the SF gay community, Prop 8 is so five minutes ago and everyone (especially local drag star Anna Conda) is UP IN ARMS over an incident from July 31 in which an affectionate gay male couple was kicked out of Internos Wine Cafe on Geary Street for macking on each other. Yes, they were kissing, and were promptly booted out by the owner who also allegedly called them perverts and faggots.

FILM: It's a double feature at the Castro with cult classic Repo Man, starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton, and Model Shop, about an American who receives a draft notice for the Vietnam War and falls in love with a French prostitute in L.A.

Supe Ross Mirkarimi aims again at Newsom's security details. [Appeal, SFBG]

In a decision that is probably wise and shouldn't be too shocking, Equality California announced today that they will put off the ballot fight for gay marriage until 2012, rather than going for it in the mid-term elections next year. The idea here is that not only do more people go to the polls in presidential elections, but there will be a greater change in "voter rolls" in 3 years.

The City of San Francisco has moved to intervene on behalf of the gay Burbank couple and the Berkeley lesbian couple who are the mascots in a huge federal lawsuit to overturn Prop 8 which is awaiting trial at the 9th Circuit. A trial date has still not been set, but the drama over who is best equipped to argue the case has been underway for several weeks, and won't be decided until mid-August.

Only you can stop PDFs, people. Please read what could be the most important post you read all year. [Curbed]

Hello there, So Cal brethren! If you're in the Los Angeles area tonight, you might want to head over South Los Angeles Town Hall to catch our famous, Prop. 8-hating, named-dropped-on--boasting, inarguably sexy mayor. He's running for California governor -- which could prove successful come 2010 -- so he'll be speaking from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Saint Andrews Rec Center Gymnasium (at 8701 S St Andrews). Be sure to RSVP here. He's also asking for you to send him a question for this evening's chat, which you can do right here. If you can't make it tonight, Newsom will also conduct town hall meetings in San Bernardino (7/28) and in Riverside (8/30).

As some of you know, Marc Leno's pushing a bill that wouldn't change any same-sex marriage laws, just clarify existing ones. See, Leno wants the state of California to recognize gay marriages taking place in other states. It didn't sound too controversial when we first heard about it, but sure enough, some people, like whimsical hate-group the California Catholic Daily, found a reason to object.

As expected, U.S. judge in San Francisco denied an injunction yesterday on a federal lawsuit that challenged Prop 8. What does this mean? This: So, after the California Supreme court came down with their ruling that even though state law gives gays a right to marry, you can take that right away. David Boies and Ted Olsen (former adversaries during the Bush v Gore brouhaha who came together for in order to protect "human decency") filed suit saying that Prop 8 violates federal constitutional law. Why? So that this one would go to the U.S. Supreme Court and cover everyone in America, win or lose. Anyway, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker decided not to rule on the question right now, but is going to have a trial soon to go over all the history of homophobia in the U.S., the effects of Prop 8 in California, etc., which should actually be interesting (even though it sounded like yesterday's trail was listless.) According to CBS5 / BCN, Walker has yet to set a trial date. "but ordered lawyers on both sides to submit a statement to him by Aug. 7 detailing which facts they agree on, which facts are in dispute and a 'plan of action' for resolving the case." (Hat tip: Rita Hao for her legal expertise.)

Yes, everyone: The LGBT Pride Fest and Parade in San Francisco is the largest and best attended thing of its kind in the U.S. (and for those who've seen the fests in NY and LA this shouldn't be a surprise). This year, in the wake of Prop 8 and the Don't Ask Don't Tell bullshit, the parade on Sunday will come with a renewed sense of urgency and protest. But of course, for most lesbians and gays about town, this weekend is primarily about partying. So without further ado, here's a guide to all that's going down, in a gay way, this weekend. (Special thanks to The Sword - NSFW)

Don't let the Obama's defense of DOMA get you down this Pride season. City Attorney Dennis Herrera just filed a brief in federal court yesterday stating the obvious: Proposition 8 has no constitutionally legitimate purpose. Which is to say, SF has demanded a federal judge to overturn California's unfortunate ban on gay marriage. This latest war tactic against bigotry and slack-jawed mentality "uses a different tactic and argues that Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional guarantees of due process and equal treatment," according to SFGate. In other Prop 8 news, a census study of gay married couples found striking similarities to husband-and-wife couples. (Pluming fixtures aside, of course.) Also, the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people killed in because of their sexuality are at their highest since 1999. For comprehensive coverage on civil marriage equality in California and elsewhere, please visit Stop8.org.

In the middle of his second consecutive sellout show at Bottom of the Hill on Tuesday, Jens Lekman gave his own "gentle response to all the Prop 8 bullshit going on": his standout song, "Postcard to Nina". Between verses, the Swede explained an anecdote relating to the song: a story about the time he was in Berlin and briefly became heterosexual for his lesbian friend Nina, who introduced him to her father as her boyfriend because, of course, she didn't want her father to know about her girlfriend. Got that?

              

On Saturday, droves of pro-civil rights citizens and "hundreds" of anti-gay, bigoted types rallied in Fresno for an event called Meet in the Middle for Equality. Newsom wast there so was Charlize Theron. The Bible and God were exploited by religious zealots in favor of the voter-approved ban on gay marriage; and emotional speeches were given by real-life loving homosexuals, having to explain, yet again, that they are, in fact, regular people, not peripheral characters or wacky sidekicks.

SFist, as expected, also tried recovering from the shock of this week's Prop. 8 ruling.

Speaking of the gays and the fuzz, police delay Pink Saturday permit, so annual Pride party is in limbo. [BAR]

• San Francisco's finest interviews San Francisco's finest. [SFA]
• California's extreme makeover. (Well done, SFBG!) [SFBG]
• Food-wise, Gary Danko takes Meredith Brody's virginity. [SF Weekly]

A black flag flies over the rainbow flag in the Castro, which was set at half-mast this morning. after the California State Supreme Court ruled to uphold prop 8, the same-sex marriage ban.

For those of you who don't care for loud protests, cannot afford to donate, or don't like signing petitions, here's the best way you can show your support for gay marriage. This cute sticker at right -- tastefully adorned with two twee red hearts, measuring a scant 4.5" x 6" (about the size of a postcard) -- which you can get for free. According to this bizarre political activism and/or mobile communications company called CREDO, who are giving the stickers away, "we want everyone to know that we support marriage rights for all couples -- you can let everyone know that you do, too with one of our awesome stickers! You can get one sticker for free. Buy 5 or 50 stickers; we'll donate the profits to fight for marriage equality. For $5 we'll send you 5 stickers; for $25 we'll send 50 stickers."

Crazy-acting, "curvy" lesbians with face tattoos getting arrested at prop 8 protests be damned. We love the SFPD today. Why? Because of this story. See, according to SF Weekly, a "frantic" man flagged down an officer, "beside himself over his lost cat, 'Fluffy.'" And if you love pets like members of your family, you relate to Fluffy's papa. (In fact, you might even lose sleep on a regular basis worrying whether or not your cat may one day runaway, escape while you're on vacation, get lost during a post-earthquake evacuation, or worse. Also, more likely than not, you might be chronically single because of this perfectly natural obsession.) Missing for over a month (no!), the man heard his cat howling from inside an abandon house in the Taraval hood,and the police officer went into action. The SFPD cop, Patrice Scanlan, "phoned Animal Control -- but was informed that the service couldn't spare anyone at the moment. So she called a locksmith, who popped the house's rusted lock," soon thereafter finding the cat cowering "under the oven in an upstairs kitchen" (weep, weep), thus making the world a better place. So, congratulations, SFPD Officer Patrice Scanlan. You are officially an awesome human being for life.

It certainly isn't the final word on the issue, but yesterday's decision by the CA Supreme Court set off a well anticipated set of protests across the state and the country.