Opinion » Guest Opinion
Guest Opinion: Recalling Harry Britt and the AIDS vigil
The 1980s were an increasingly awful decade in California.
A year on from Stonewall's 50th anniversary, we find ourselves in quite an odd time in history.
Celebrating Pride this June is anything but what we'd envisioned for 2020.
First of all, I am talking about the peaceful protests. I live in Oakland, California and during 1967's Summer of Love it was our neighboring city of Berkeley that garnered the media attention for demonstrations and protests.
This year's Anniversary Celebration for the National Center for Lesbian Rights will be nothing like I imagined when I accepted the position as executive director in late 2019.
Shelter in place, which has been so successful at flattening the curve and saving lives, has been a disaster for street conditions in San Francisco.
Given what has transpired in our nation over the last several years, it is hard to argue with what then-Senator Barack Obama asserted in 2006: that America indeed suffers from an "empathy deficit."
On my desk are three mementos of the AIDS pandemic. They remind me of what we lived through in the frightening early years of a plague that seemed hell-bent on killing gay men — and the high price we have paid for our resilience.
Thank you very much, it has been both humbling and encouraging receiving your generous support when so many are also in need of help. So far, we have raised just over $25,000 and are just 15% away from reaching our goal of $30,000.
Who could imagine that radical behavioral changes required due to the new coronavirus would make kissing dangerous and caressing forbidden?
We, the undersigned, are members or allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community in the city of San Francisco.
An exclusive excerpt from Tom Ammiano's memoir, "Kiss My Gay Ass: My trip down the Yellow Brick Road through activism, stand-up, and politics."
San Francisco is one of 11 US cities that is fortunate to have a legacy LGBT publication by us, for us, and about us. Help preserve the BAR as an historic and important community institution for the future.