Results tagged “San Francisco” from A Swede in SF

It feels like it is time to start on the list of "only in San Francisco" moments I have had.

1. Be careful when you hug a friend that you usually hug - he may just have been have been whipped at a show.
2. Be careful when you hug a friend that you usually hug - he may just have gotten a new tattoo all over his back.
3. The man you have a coffee with may have a second career in gay adult movies. Still not sure if he got upset that I didn't recognize him... My ignorance!
   

Today I attended the Chancellor's Award for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and/or Transgender Leadership. As always this is a very powerful and touching event.

Having served on the selection committee for the last two years, I am aware of the phenomenal work that is done within the community by LGBTIQ individuals and our allies. But listening to the speeches from the awardees I was crying because of the powerful stories they shared with us present. Thank you all, and congratulations!

And in all of this, I cannot help to wonder over the ostracism, homophobia, and ignorance they have met - and that we as LGBTIQ women and men continue to face. Living in San Francisco it is so easy to get lost in the protected world, the bubble we live in. The flag over the Castro often feels like a beacon of hope, but at the same time also like an opium...

And the stories shared today become even more thought-provoking as I am - at the same time - reading about queer theory and describe that theory for my qualifying exam. It feels so strange to write about concepts like the heterosexual matrix and performativity, and then see its presence in and around myself.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Affirming Movies (bilerico.com)

Today, my thoughts go to friends and former patients that are living with the disease. I also get reminded of the men that I interviewed for my pilot study during the past year and the experience they had when HIV/AIDS hit the gay areas of San Francisco and New York City.

On a day like this I cannot help to think that HIV has been one "part" of my (sex) life from the age of 12 (well, 9 if one thinks of the first publications). From even starting thinking about other men, the reality of HIV has been around. The scare tactics have left me with an in-erasable awareness of a potential third party being involved.

In today's SF Chronicle there is an article about "Ward 86" that was the first ward for patients with AIDS in San Francisco that opened at the San Francisco General 25 years ago. It reminds me of the ward 53 at South Hospital in Stockholm that was closed after the introduction of the new, anti-retroviral combination treatments.

The treatments has allowed HIV/AIDS to be illnesses also for the older adult. Some of the problems regarding that was described in an article in the New York Times three weeks ago: "Speaking Out for a Group Once Unheard-Of: Aging With AIDS". That the medical community recognizes this - albeit gradually - is evident in that NIH has several research grants now that deal with the medical care for the older, HIV-infected adult.

Yesterday, it was 30 years ago since Harvey Milk, the Mayor of Castro Street was murdered together with San Francisco mayor George Moscone. Same day the movie MILK opened as a commercially available movie to go and see in your local cinema - if it isn't at a Cinemark movie. Cinemark's CEO donated $9,999 to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign.

I have now seen the movie two times, and I really like it. Tuesday, when I saw it for the second time, Milk's nephew was in the audience. He said that he cried more and more for every time he saw the movie - and it is true.

Tonight there is a memorial march scheduled, from City Hall to Milk's store on Castro Street. It's held to commemorate the light vigil that happened after Milk's assassination.  To learn more, go to ManiWOG's site

In reviews in both New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle, the movie gets excellent reviews. Another review can be found in the Los Angeles Times.

Articles in the two papers describe how people see the movie as an important tool in the fight for LGBT rights today and an interview with Senator Dianne Feinstein about the events that day. The news clip where Feinstein announces the murder is the one of the grim scenes that starts the MILK movie.



    

Related articles by Zemanta

• The man who blew up America's closets

The results finalized a lot during the day today, and Prop 8 passed with 52.2% against 47.8% - a difference by 400,000 votes.

The consequences of this are both hard to foresee and estimate. The immediate result was that no more same-sex marriages will be performed. The question about the more than 16,000 marriages that have been performed remains to be decided - from that they are valid to that they should bee annulled. At the same time, the opponents of Prop 8 have sued to block the measure to take effect [SF Chronicle].

Tonight, a crowd of 2,000 women and men of all ages, queer and straight gathered outside San Francisco City Hall to hold a vigil over the lost vote. But the fighting spirit was there: "Yes we will!". [SF Chronicle]

In an article in the SF Chronicle there is a critique of the "gawking" tourists, looking at the people living in the are like they were at animals in a zoo.

It is interesting when the gay life becomes the exciting and adventurous to come and see... What will be the next: safaris to the Folsom Street Fair?



On the other hand, gay marriages have become so mainstream in San Francisco that my local grocery store sells cards with same-sex couples in their wedding section.