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Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Advisory Committee

Minutes of the July 17, 2007 Meeting

 

Committee Members Present: Commissioner Cecilia Chung, Commissioner Mark Dunlop, Jane Aceituno, Rene Astudillo, Dora Balcazar, Blue Buddha, Ryan Fuimaono, Christopher Gomora, Ted Guggenheim, Robert Hill, Allison Laureano, Christina Martinez, Roberto Ordeñana, Ren Phoenix, Martin Rawlings-Fein, Greg Shaw, Miko Thomas, Lindasusan Ulrich.

 

Committee Members Absent:Billy Curtis (excused), Calvin Gipson, Rahman Haq, Anthony Philip (excused), Jason Riggs, Morningstar Vancil (excused).

 

Staff Present: Alan Boudreau (intern), Larry Brinkin, Cynthia Goldstein, Anna Kreiger (intern), Masood Ordikhani, Rachel Silverman (intern), Domenic Viterbo.

 

Guests Present: Randy Burns, Sadie Rawlings-Fein, John Shaw.

 

1.      Call to Order and Roll Call:

 

Commissioner Chung called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Mr. Brinkin called the roll.

 

Mr. Brinkin introduced Masood Ordikhani, the new Office Coordinator.

 

2.      Approval of May 15, 2007 minutes (Action Item):

 

Ms. Ulrich said that the second paragraph of Item 12: Announcements, should read “Mr. Shaw announced that the Harvey Milk Democratic Club dinner will be held on Thursday, May 24, at the Ramada Inn.”

 

Ms. Laureano moved to approve the May 15, 2007 minutes as amended. Mr. Rawlings-Fein seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

3.      Public Comment for Items Not on the Agenda:

 

Randy Burns expressed his concern about the Commission’s nine-month delay of the approval of the Native American Discrimination Report and hopes that all issues surrounding its approval will be resolved soon. He encouraged the Committee members to attend the Monday, July 23 meeting that will be held in the HRC offices. He also expressed his thanks to everyone involved in the production of the hearing.

Mr. Gomora feels that the removal of the byline discredits the report because the dominant culture is telling another how it should identify itself. He recited quotes on racism from Jack Forbes and George Lipsitz.

 

4.      Introduction of Summer Interns in the LGBT and HIV Division:

 

Alan Boudreau, currently in his second year studying law at U.C. Davis, is working on discrimination complaints as well as the HIV in the Workplace materials. Rachel Silverman, who is entering her third year at the University of Texas Law School in Austin , is working on discrimination complaints as well as a project on transgender rights in homeless shelters and transitioning on the job issues. Anna Kreiger, who is entering her second year at U.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, is doing Equal Benefits work and some discrimination complaint work and doing research on public accommodations and the Commission’s enforcement powers.

 

5.      “7X7” Presentation: Christina Martinez: The SFLGBT Community Center’s Latino Forum:

 

Ms. Martinez gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Latino Forum along with Mr. Ordeñana. Their mission is to work as an entire community to support their culture and roots in LGBT issues. Mr. Ordeñana, who works at the Community Center, provided background on the Forum and said that it’s now a volunteer group of community members coming together on a monthly basis to identify issues affecting the LGBT Latino/a community and creating a response to them. Ms. Martinez described some of the Forum’s annual events such as their Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos celebrations, as well as some of the successes they’ve had over the past year which involved their collaborating with a number of other organizations. One of these collaborations resulted in a community town hall meeting at the Mission Community Center called “Equal Right and Protections for All Latino Families” to discuss same-sex marriage and how the issue has affected their community. Lastly, she described the Forum’s two programs supporting Latino Arts and Culture: Composing Cultures, a poetry reading and panel discussion featuring queer women writers, and Yo Soy Lo Que Soy, a film screening and panel discussion. Meetings of the Forum are held the third Wednesday of every month.

 

6.      Debriefing of Pride Day:

 

Mr. Brinkin asked that Committee members and staff share their experience marching in the parade contingent and for any feedback. All responses were positive saying that the experience was good especially having the contingent march at the beginning of the parade. The only problem was that there was a shortage of literature handed out to the public detailing the Commission’s services. There was concern of the contingent’s placement in next year’s parade since Commissioner Pat Norman invited the contingent to march behind her due to her being a parade Grand Marshal. Many indicated that they would march again at next year’s parade if the Committee decides to do so. Commissioner Chung hoped for more media coverage and encouraged Committee members to attend an Outreach Work Group meeting, the first Wednesday of each month, to offer any suggestions on other venues where the Commission can participate.

 

7.      Outreach Work Group Report:

  • Approval of Locations for Outreach Activities (Action Item):

 Commissioner Chung said that they’ve met twice since the last Committee meeting. At both meetings, they’ve talked about other venues where both the Commission and Committee can have meetings and activities to participate in other than Pride. The goal for finding other venues for meetings is to reach groups in the City who are less likely to come to City Hall/Civic Center area to participate. Since Pride is more of an international event, it’s difficult to gauge the effectiveness of outreach to locals so they brainstormed on other possible City venues where locals are more likely to be at. A number of possible Commission and Committee activities were discussed such as participating in another annual event in addition to Pride, replacing Pride with a different event, or to simply test pilot different venues. In addition they discussed doing media outreach to produce public service announcements (audio visual and text) and print media (op ed pieces, press releases, etc.), and to form a partnership with the media to help educate the public on the work of the Commission and Committee. They also discussed attracting more people to the HRC’s website by adding more content to make it more interactive. Commissioner Chung asked the Committee to vote on three venues to recommend to the Commission from the following: Chinese New Year Celebration, Castro Street Fair, Carnival, Juneteenth, Harvest Moon Festival, Cinco de Mayo, Latino Pride, and Haight Street Fair. Ms. Phoenix suggested that the Committee table the vote another month for further discussion. Commissioner Chung deferred this item back to the Outreach Work Group. She invited everyone to attend the next Outreach Work Group meeting scheduled on August 1 at 5:30 p.m.

 

8.      Anti-Racism Work Group Report:

  • Approval of the “We Agree!” Document Which Would Allow Businesses and Organizations to Express a Commitment to Diversity (Action Item):

Mr. Fuimaono reported that they had met twice since the last Committee meeting. At their July 9th meeting, they discussed the community forum planning meeting scheduled for August 15 for community members and external stakeholders to come and provide input and feedback on the “We Agree!” proposal.  Invitations will be sent out next week. While a venue for the planning meeting is being sought, Mr. Brinkin has a list of people to invite to the planning meeting. Committee members should inform him to include the names of people they would like to invite to the planning meeting. Mr. Buddha said that he and Mr. Fuimaono will draft a letter to get food donations and asked that Committee members inform them of any individuals or organizations where it can be sent. Ms. Laureano reported that at the meeting prior, Pride has scheduled a “Rap About Race” event in September and that the work group will possibly work with them in planning a second event on general race issues after the first of the year. Also a message to Save the Date was sent in June. They talked about a study on the diversity of businesses in the Castro/Eureka Valley areas that was held which didn’t mention people of color nor had people of color on the panel or in the audience and that women were mildly mentioned. Mr. Brinkin will contact Joe Caruso about this event. The production of a training video will be discussed at their next meeting. This item was tabled for vote at next month’s meeting.

 

  • Approval to Organize a Community Forum on Diversity in LGBT Businesses and Community Organizations (Action Item):

Mr. Buddha said that they hope to have a buy-in from the LGBT business community on developing good business practices based on the information gathered from the “Rap About Race” events. Mr. Brinkin said that the community forum will be directed at business owners and community-based organizations as a way for them to think about diversity in their business practices and outreach and making their places of business more accessible and welcoming. The group hopes to have a business owner such as Chip Conley attend the forum to address other business owners on how this is a good idea. Veronica Neal will also be invited to lead a discussion on diversity. A draft “We Agree!” document will be presented in which attendees are invited to add comments, make changes or additions. Attendees will be asked to sign the document of their commitment to diversity in their business. The work group is working with the LGBT Community Center on having the forum held there. Ms. Phoenix moved to approve the task force’s recommendation to organize a community forum. Mr. Buddha seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

 

9.      Commissioner Report;

 

Commissioner Chung reported that the housing caucus made a presentation at the July 9 meeting and was about to introduce a resolution for an LGBT assessment study to be voted on, but there wasn’t a quorum. Since their next Commission meeting being held in Chinatown , she will introduce the resolution will be at the August 23 meeting. She reported that there will be a meeting to discuss the Native American Discrimination Issues Public Hearing Report on Monday, July 23, at the HRC at 11:00 a.m. She reported that Commissioners Norman and Kahn have stepped down from the Commission and that a new HRC Commissioner, Michael Sweet, was sworn in last Friday. Commissioner Sweet will be invited to attend next month’s meeting. If anyone is interested in applying to fill the one Commission vacancy, she said to contact the Miguel Bustos, Commission Secretary, by emailing him at miguel.bustos@sfgov.org. Lastly, Calvin Gipson has stepped down from serving on the Committee.

 

10.  Staff Report:

 

Mr. Brinkin reported that staff is in the midst of hiring a new Representative to replace the position vacated by Hadas Rivera-Weiss in the LGBTH Division and hopes that someone will be selected by August. A meeting between the housing group that presented at the May meeting and staff will be arranged to talk about the group’s expectations and desired outcome. The HRC Director has expressed interest in sitting in on the meeting. Yong Lee of staff will be in contact with the members of the Sex Stigmatization Work Group to begin planning the informational panels and hopes that the first panel presentation will be made at the August meeting.

 

11.  Old/New Business:

 

Mr. Hill asked per the May meeting, to have a discussion about past Commission issues and how they were addressed. Ms. Ulrich asked for volunteers to help with a survey on bisexual visibility being put out by the Bay Area Bisexual Network. Mr. Brinkin will inform the Committee of the names of the bisexual task force volunteers. Commissioner Chung suggested that those volunteers meet informally to discuss pre-task force activities. Mr. Buddha recommended his boss, a psychologist specializing in HIV/AIDS, for discussions on the disadvantages and emotional effects of housing and HIV.

 

12.  Announcements:

 

Mr. Buddha announced that Calvin Gipson’s going-away party is scheduled for Friday, July 20, at Jade Bar, 650 Gough Street , at 8:00 p.m. Ms. Ulrich announced that requests for proposal for community issues grants for non-profits are available through the Horizons Foundation on www.horizonsfoundation.org and the deadline for submissions is Friday, August 31. Ms. Phoenix announced that the AIDS Emergency Fund is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the Marriott on Saturday, July 21 and that the Dore Alley Fair, Up Your Alley, will be held at the end of the month. Ms. Laureano announced that a fundraiser for Transgender San Francisco will be held on Sunday, July 29, at Aunt Charlie’s Bar at 4:00 p.m. Mr. Gomora announced that he is writing a dissertation on support services for indigenous people at CCSF and that the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education asked him to join their committee. Commissioner Chung announced that a hearing sponsored by the office of Assembly Member Sandre Swanson on transgender access to healthcare will be held on Wednesday, July 25, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Oakland State Building auditorium, 1550 Clay Street. She also announced that the Transgender Law Center is celebrating its fifth anniversary on September 11, at Club Crash. She encouraged Committee members to email her if interested in volunteering at this event.

 

13.  Adjournment:

 

The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.