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San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district was iconic as the center of the late 1960s – early ‘70s anti-war and sexual revolution counterculture. Often forgotten is its role in LGBTQ liberation history. That role gets loving attention...

We all know how important it is, especially for children and young adults, to see folks like us in the media. Comics and graphic novels are increasingly popular – it’s a billion-dollar-a-year-plus business – and...

“We are here for the tough conversations,” says Melorra Green, speaking for herself and her twin, Melonie Green. On this week’s Out in the Bay, the sisters talk about their visions for a more inclusive...

Writer Lauren Hough grew up in the infamous Christian free-love and -sex cult The Children of God, later called The Family. Her father had joined the cult around 1970 to evade the Vietnam War. At...

Breanna Sinclairé fled from a conservative, religious, sometimes abusive family in Baltimore and moved West to study opera at the California Institute of Arts and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She made history as...

Steven Rowley reads – dramatically! – from his latest novel, The Guncle, and talks about its Auntie Mame genesis on this week’s Out in the Bay. It’s a heart-warming, humorous work of fiction about a...

Meet Imani Rupert-Gordon, the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ new executive director. A long-time social worker and activist for LGBTQ people of color, Rupert-Gordon took the helm at the ground-breaking SF-based feminist LGBTQ legal organization in March, just as COVID-19 hit full force. She speaks with Out in the Bay‘s Eric Jansen about NCLR’s current priorities, her vision for NCLR, intersectionality, the USPS and voter suppression as mail-in voting for the 2020 presidential election is threatened. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is the first national LGBTQ legal organization founded by women and has a longstanding commitment to racial and economic justice and our community’s most vulnerable. Since 1977, NCLR has been at the forefront of advancing the civil and human rights of our full LGBTQ community and their families through impact litigation, public policy, and public education. NCLR Resources Pages: Submit comments to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) opposing the Trump administration’s proposed new rule to limit transgender people’s access to homeless shelters. Racial & Economic Justice Immigration & Asylum Youth

Through a generous grant from the Comcast Foundation and in partnership with the California LGBT Legislative Caucus, the Equality California Institute – Comcast Fellowship brings LGBTQ youth and allies to Sacramento to learn about California politics, the legislative process and civic engagement. The annual fellowship is an intensive four-week program for students who have completed at least their first year of undergraduate studies at a college or university.  Fellows gain first-hand experience and leadership skills working with legislators, policymakers and staff, and meet with LGBTQ leaders to learn about how advocacy and public service can fuel meaningful policy change. On this podcast-only edition of Out in the Bay, hear details about the Equality California Institute–Comcast Fellowship – including how to apply – from Comcast California Director of Community Impact, Lorena Hernandez, who created the fellowship in 2010, and Equality California Legislative Manager Tami Martin, who previously managed the fellowship and continues to work with fellows each year. With over 900,000 members, Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization and is California’s only LGBTQ+ civil rights organization working at the local, state and national levels. Links to fellowships, internships and mentorships discussed on this episode: Equality California Institute–Comcast Fellowship Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project-Comcast Fellowship Capitol LGBTQ Association Victory Fund A national organization devoted to electing LGBTQ leaders

On top of the health risks and financial hardships individuals face, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to overwhelm critical Bay Area non-profits, from social service providers to cultural outlets. Horizons Foundation says by late August, it will have granted nearly $900,000 from its LGBTQ COVID-19 Response Emergency Fund to scores of organizations. How are our non-profits and the folks they serve managing through COVID? Hear first-hand from leaders of two Horizons grantees — Barbara Hodgen of New Conservatory Theatre Center and Joe Hawkins of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center — with Horizons President Roger Doughty. While clearly feeling the pinch, they’re also finding creative ways to address current challenges. We also hear from Comcast California Community Impact Director Lorena Hernandez on corporate help to individuals and organizations. Guests and Resources: Roger Doughty, President, Horizons Foundation; Barbara Hodgen, Executive Director, New Conservatory Theater Center; Joe Hawkins, Executive Director, Oakland LGBTQ Community Center; Lorena Hernandez, Community Impact Director, Comcast California. Comcast has extended its offer of two months of free Internet Essentials service for low-income residents who qualify, and has relaxed some eligibility requirements, through Dec. 31, 2020. Internet Essentials is discounted home internet service for low-income residents who qualify. See website or call 1-855-8-INTERNET (1-855-846-8376) for qualifications. Although Ms. Hernandez did not mention this in our recorded conversation, we want to acknowledge and thank Comcast California for its support of Out in the Bay’s relaunch. Without that support, we would not be here today bringing you queer voices and stories. It’s a meaningful contribution to California LGBTQ culture and connection, one we especially appreciate in this stressful time of social distancing.

“Upon This Rock” is a tangled-web murder mystery set in Italy and Vatican City, with Catholic corruption, hidden homosexuality, the international refugee crisis, and much more in the mix.  Long-time PR maven and Rainbow Honor Walk co-founder David Perry reads from and discusses his first novel and shares his take on how Bay Area hotels and small businesses are surviving the COVID crisis. Among Perry’s many accomplishments, he’s founder and CEO of the successful PR firm David Perry & Associates and co-founded the Rainbow Honor Walk that features LGBTQ heroes on educational plaques embedded in the sidewalks of San Francisco’s Castro district.  He was host and producer of 10 Percent, the longest running LGBTQ television interview program in California history, which aired for a decade on Comcast’s San Francisco public access channel until 2018.  More recently, Perry has hosted “The Great Pause” and created and hosts “Ahoy” internet TV programs, featuring diverse insights on coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. He also serves as the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce’s small business chair and is a member of the San Francisco Hotel Council. Upon This Rock is on schedule to be published Sept. 1. It has already earned glowing praise—including from acclaimed Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin, who writes: “Perry has written an elegant, twisty thriller in which a gay couple investigates a mysterious suicide in a scenic Italian hill town.  It’s not hard to imagine that this book could do for Orvieto what Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil did for Savannah.” Guggenheim Fellow and author Fenton Johnson describes Upon This Rock as “The gay DaVinci Code, but a lot better.” Follow these links to learn more about David Perry and Upon This Rock

How do young LGBTQ Californians help shape state policies to make them more equitable and fair? On this week’s Out in the Bay, two Sacramento insiders working hard for equal treatment share their views on how the sausage is made — and how they help make it — in our state capitol. Tami Martin is Equality California’s Legislative Manager; Severiano Christian is Senate Consultant for the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and a recent Equality California Institute-Comcast Fellowship alum. Some of the issues they’re working on now and discuss in this week’s conversation are safety for incarcerated transgender people; the dearth of data on how COVID-19 affects LGBTQ people; and how teen sex is treated criminally — penalties are currently much harsher for same-sex partners than for their hetero peers. The Equality California Institute – Comcast Fellowship brings LGBTQ youth and allies to Sacramento to learn about California politics and the legislative process. Fellows gain first-hand experience and leadership skills working with legislators, policymakers and staff, and meet with LGBTQ leaders to learn about how advocacy and public service can fuel meaningful policy change. Links to other fellowships, internships and mentorships named in this week’s episode: Capitol LGBTQ Association Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project-Comcast Fellowship CA Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus Capitol Internship CSU Sacramento Capital Fellows Programs

Are we in the midst of a national genocide? Disability activist Rabbi Elliot Kukla tells Out in the Bay that systemic racism, economic injustice and US government inaction to COVID-19 amounts to genocide against the chronically ill, disabled, elders and people of color. In a New York Times opinion piece, “My Life is More ‘Disposable’ During This Pandemic,” Kukla wrote that COVID-19 has unmasked the ageism and ableism that exists in American capitalist culture, and compared current attitudes and language used to address the pandemic to 1930s and ’40s Nazi Germany rhetoric. Rabbi Kukla, the first openly transgender rabbi ordained by a mainstream Jewish movement, is no stranger to sheltering in place.  He has been living with a chronic debilitating illness for years and spends much of his time at home.  In his talk with Out in the Bay host Eric Jansen, he not only highlights the discrimination embedded in US culture, policy and practices, Kukla also challenges Americans’ “myth of independence” and speaks about what we can all learn from people of color, the chronically ill, disabled and seniors during this time. He refers to the deaths of over 130,000 Americans from COVID-19 and specifically calls the disproportionate deaths of elders, disabled and people of color genocide, citing the lack of a strong public health response:  “There are a lot of health conditions that are connected to poverty, systemic racism and economic injustice so people of color are not able to shelter in place in the same rates as white people.  People of color are less likely to have the same kind of health insurance. It’s really a cluster of all of the deep, deep white supremacy of this country that’s leading to what I would really call a genocide.” Kukla says there is no “silver lining” to this pandemic, but that there may be opportunities for a new, better “normal.” Rabbi Kukla works at the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center in San Francisco where he has been providing spiritual care to the ill, dying and bereaved since 2008.  He has written on a wide variety of topics including spirituality, Judaism, gender diversity, healing and chronic illness.

It’s San Francisco Pride’s 50th Anniversary! But it won’t be the party planners imagined a year or even four months ago. The COVID pandemic means no huge parade up Market Street and no public parties. And the continued killings of Black people—many at the hands of law enforcement — have resulted in nationwide protests demanding racial justice and real police reform in this country.     Although less well known, the deaths of at least 15 transgender or gender non-conforming people in the first five months of 2020 have also highlighted the disproportionately high rates of violence affecting transgender women of color—particularly Black transgender women—and have resulted in the queer community examining its own racism, misogyny and transphobia.      While the focus of this year’s Pride has definitely shifted, there are still things to celebrate, including the recent Supreme Court ruling confirming that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination. On this week’s Out in the Bay, Eric Jansen speaks with current and past San Francisco Pride presidents on what we’re celebrating, what still needs to be done and ways to participate. We’ll also hear from the president of Out@Comcast on employee resource groups (ERGs) and the complicated relationship between Pride and corporate sponsors.     The Human Rights Campaign has more information on the violence experienced by transgender and gender non-conforming people and you can help support change by donating to Black trans organizations here and by learning more at Color of Change, recommended by our guests this week. Guests:Cecilia Chung, Director of Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives at the Transgender Law Center; San Francisco Pride President in 2001Carolyn Wysinger, current San Francisco Pride PresidentJacqueline Chiang, San Francisco Market Development Manager at ComcastPlan Your Pride:     San Francisco Pride Online Celebration and Rally    Global Pride 2020    Illuminate the Pink Triangle, Saturday, June 27th, 2020    Trans March 2020, Friday, June 26th 11am-7pm    Dykes Go Digital, Saturday, June 27th, 2020    San Francisco’s Live “Pride is a Riot” March, Sunday, June 28th 2020    Frameline44 Pride Showcase, June 25- 28, 2020    EyeZen’s OUT of Site: SOMA, June 26-28, 2020    Oasis’s Pride Programming    Bay Area Reporter, for online updates and roundup of other things to do