Friday, February 23, 2007

This week's Bay Area Reporter is on newstands!

This week in the Bay Area Reporter I investigate a closely linked criminal and civil discrimination: “Man who filed bias suit against city is arrested” and I report about award winning out scientists: “Two Bay Area gay scientists honored.”

For more news and entertainment visit the
Bay Area Reporter online or pick up an issue at your local independent or queer bookstore.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

This week's Bay Area Reporter is on newstands!


This week in the Bay Area Reporter I look into HIV/AIDS in the Black gay male community: “AIDS rates among blacks puzzle researchers”; I report about the NAACP’s award from the EQCA: “NAACP honored by EQCA”; and I explore queer building families: “Adoption agency builds rainbow of families.”
For more news and entertainment visit the
Bay Area Reporter online or pick up an issue at your local independent or queer bookstore.

Monday, February 12, 2007

"Winter of Love" celebrates it's thrid anniversary with the Marriage Equality Story Quilt

San Francisco – Mayor Gavin Newsom and Marriage Equality USA kicked off the third anniversary of the “Winter of Love” with a gala event at City Hall on February 12.

Participants in the civil case pending in California’s Supreme Court stood along side Mayor Newsom, Assemblymember Mark Leno, Senator Carole Migden, and other marriage equality activists as they unveiled the Marriage Equality Story Quilt.


“I’m so proud to be a San Franciscan. I’m so proud to participate in this remarkable ideal…as we try to advance our principles and advance our values… and say we want to live our lives with dignity,” said Mayor Newsom. “It’s so much richness and so much deeper than just a gay and lesbian issue. It’s about America.”

The hope is in the air that marriage equality will win. Assemblymember Leno reintroduced bill AB43 the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act in December 2006. The legislation proposes to change the language in the California Family Code from marriage being a relationship between a “man and a woman” to “two persons,” has 44 Democratic votes in the Assembly and the civil case pending at the California Supreme Court gives a feeling that marriage equality is within Californians grasps.

“It’s just a reminder of how important it is for us to keep at it,” said Molly McKay, media director of Marriage Equality USA. “San Francisco really started something and it’s spreading.

McKay continued, “This is a super bowl year. We have a decision that is in the California legislature [and] through the California Supreme Court. We can have marriage equality. It’s all about this year. We need to keep at it. Whether we get marriage equality this year it’s totally up to us.”

The "Marriage Equality Story Quilt" will be on display in San Francisco's City Hall this month. The Quilt was produced by Maya Scott-Chung, 46, outreach director for LGBT parents for MEUSA. She developed the concept of the quilt as a part of her public health master's degree project at San Francisco State University.

Scott-Chung perceives the quilt as a tool to "bring alive" and "tying together the connections of communities, ethnicities, and families" and represent the impact of the 1,138 federal rights that marriage automatically provides for couples and their families.


She modeled the quilt after the AIDS Memorial Quilt because of the impact and the historical meaning. The quilt commemorates the three-year anniversary of the "Winter of Love," when Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered city officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples; the 36th anniversary of the beginning of marriage counter demonstrations when LGBT couples began requesting the right to marry; and the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned laws against interracial marriage.

Scott-Chung told the B.A.R. that marriage wasn't a high priority for her and her partner, Mei Beck Scott-Chung, until it became available at City Hall. Mei Beck Scott-Chung was two months pregnant at the time and they were on their way to a doctor's appointment, but ended up getting married at City Hall on February 13, 2004. It all became crystal clear to her in an instant what marriage meant and how family would be affected culminating, in "being good and responsible parents."

Since then she has been a marriage activist.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Request for Participants:

Research study about same-sex women relationships

You are invited to participate in a University of Rhode Island research study to explore the effects of closeness in relationships between women romantically involved with other women. The information gained through this research will be used to better understand how women relate in romantic relationships and how they define, view and experience closeness in their relationships. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary, confidential and anonymous. In order to participate, you must be:1) at least 18 years old, 2) English speaking, and 3) a woman (in terms of gender or biological sex) 4) in a monogamous, romantic relationship with another woman. This study is not concerned with the way you may identify in terms of your sexual orientation. Therefore, you may identify as lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual, or any other term you choose. It is only important that you are currently involved in a monogamous, romantic relationship with another woman and have been for at least the past year.
Just click the below link and you'll be directed right to the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=964993146878

I am a clinical psychology doctoral student at the University of Rhode Island currently collecting online data on closeness in female couples who have been together for at least one year. Could you please post the below request for participants to any university and/ or women's list-serves to which you may have access? Thank you, in advance for your help in completing my goal of at least 200 participants by March, 2007.For questions, please contact Cassandra at:
c_h_ride@hotmail.com, not the one posting this for her.

Thank you in advance for your help and please forward this invitation to others who may either meet the criteria or know people who would.

Please complete this survey by February 20th, 2007. Thank you!

Friday, February 09, 2007

Job Opening:
Social Workers
Family Builders for Adoption


Family Builders is a non-profit, licensed foster care and adoption agency, serving children in the foster care system. Family Builders by Adoption is predicated on the belief that every child has the right to grow up in a permanent, nurturing family. Family Builders educates the community about the needs of waiting children, advocates on their behalf and places children with permanent, secure families, through adoption and other forms of permanency.

Family Builders welcomes traditional families, single parent families, both men and women, gay and lesbian families, transracial and multiracial families and all other families as prospective parents. Family Builders is committed to serving all families equally with dignity and respect.

We have several social work positions open in our Oakland and San Francisco offices. All positions require MSW/MA or equivalent.

Social Work Supervisor in our San Francisco office. The Social Work Supervisor is responsible for the daily operation of the Adoption SF Project which provides recruitment, training and home studies for San Francisco county. Includes clinical supervision, managing work flow and assignments, and providing a direct link with SFDHS unit supervisors.Adoption Social Worker who will conduct home studies, as well as provide training and support to families as they prepare to become adoptive parents. This position will be based in our SF office, and will serve families throughout the Bay Area.

Permanency Social Workers. The social worker will work directly with older youth in the foster care system to create a permanent family. They will work with birth families and permanent families; provide clinical support services to youth and families and facilitate support groups for youth and families.

Family Builders offers an excellent benefit package including medical, dental, vision, acupuncture, chiropractic, mental health, pension and a generous holiday schedule.

Please visit our website at
www.familybuilders.org

To apply please send resumes to Family Builders by Adoption, 528 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94610, email
kids@familybuilders.org or fax 510-272-0277.People of color and former foster youth strongly encouraged to apply! EOE.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Have your voice heard about female same-sex sexuality!

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School are seeking lesbian, bisexual, women-loving-women, and transgendered women who have been in a same-sex relationship for at least 6 months to complete a survey about sexuality.

We ask that you be 18 years of age or older and reside in Canada or the United States to participate in the study. We are interested in learning more about women's sexual orientation, sexuality, sexual trauma history and relationships in order to further understand the complexity of lesbian and bisexual women's sexuality.

This survey is confidential. If you would be interested in participating please go to (
http://www.lesbianandbisexualsurvey.com) and complete the online survey which is approximately 45 minutes long.

If you have questions, please email Shana Hamilton, Ph.D. at
svhamilton@umphysicians.umn.edu.
This week's Bay Area Reporter is on newstands!

This week in the Bay Area Reporter I search for the answer to lasting love: “Many couples find lasting love”; I look into the ongoing case for the Castro Halloween shooting: “Judge orders DA's office to produce pictures of Halloween suspect”; and I review one of the lastest bisexual books: “Bisexuals are doing it for themselves.”

For more news and entertainment visit the
Bay Area Reporter online or pick up an issue at your local independent or queer bookstore.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Journal of Bisexuality Announces New Editor

by Ron Suresha, 2/5/07

Regina Reinhardt, who assisted bisexuality expert and advocate Dr. Fritz Klein at the Journal of Bisexuality, recently announced that Jonathan Alexander, PhD, has been named the new Editor of the quarterly Journal of Bisexuality, published by the Haworth Press.

Jonathan is an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, and edited (with Karen Vescavage) the groundbreaking 2003 double issue of the Journal, "Bisexuality and Transgenderism: InterSEXions of the Others."

According to Regina, who remains the JoB assistant editor, Fritz made the appointment shortly before his death in 2006. They are resuming work on earlier ideas for journal themes, and are looking for support to keep the Journal going: "It is Fritz's greatest legacy," said Regina.

A complete list of the table and abstracts of the Journal of Bisexuality is located on
Bisexual.org.

More information on the Journal is also available at the
Haworth Press.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

NWSA Lesbian Caucus
Graduate Student Scholarship Award

Are you aware that each year the Lesbian Caucus of the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) makes an award of $500 to a graduate student conducting research towards a Master’s Thesis or a Doctoral Dissertation?

Attached is a copy of the flyer and application cover sheet for the annual NWSA Lesbian Caucus Graduate Student Scholarship Award. This same information can also be viewed online at
http://www.nwsa.org/scholarship/lcguide.php where applicants who are NWSA members can process submissions electronically. (Information on other NWSA scholarship & award opportunities can be found at http://www.nwsa.org/scholarship/index.php).

March 1st is the postmark (or electronic postmark) deadline for submissions so there’s still plenty of time to prepare and submit an application packet! Students making submissions to any of the NWSA award competitions are encouraged to apply also for NWSA travel grants (deadline February 15th) so that in the event they are selected a winner they can be considered for a travel grant.

The winner of the 2007 Lesbian Caucus scholarly research award will be invited to attend the annual NWSA Lesbian Caucus Breakfast Reception during the 2007 conference and will be welcome to submit a related article/essay for publication in NWSAction (Fall 2007).

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. For further information, feel free to contact me at
lcchair@lists.nwsa.org.

Best,
Lisa Burke

Disclaimer: Unless explicity stated otherwise, the opinions and perspectives contained within this e-mail are my own and should not be construed as representative of NWSA or any of its constituency groups.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Call for Submissions:
The Journal of Lesbian Studies

Special Volume of The Journal of Lesbian Studies
The Lesbian Image in International Popular Culture
Guest Editor Sara E. Cooper, California State University Chico

This special volume of The Journal of Lesbian Studies is seeking essays that explore a wide variety of lesbian images in a global context. Essays may address the lesbian image as it appears in literature, art, film, music, television, Internet, the news media, marketing, or any other venue of International Popular Culture. Essays may concentrate on one particular culture or be comparative in nature. Although no one specific theoretical approach is preferred, essays should critically and carefully examine the images discussed, including a commentary on the cultural or national context in which they appear, as well as discussion of related issues (e.g. intended audience, reception, political or commercial agenda, and the implications thereof). We also welcome creative contributions, including personal accounts, oral histories, feminist theory, research, fiction, poetry, etc. Authors may use a pseudonym if they prefer. Please let your friends, colleagues, and members of your community know about this project.

The concept of “lesbian” increasingly has been theorized, debated, and studied in the last four decades. Images marked as “lesbian” create desire in men and women alike, sell commercial products and services, and stir up controversy on many levels. Despite enormous international interest in the idea and image of lesbian, however, I believe that most people have only a limited understanding of what it is to be lesbian in a global context. In part, this limited perspective is due to the unavailability of images of the broad diversity of real women-centered women. For instance, in United States mainstream popular culture, images often portray a middle to upper class, thin, fashionable “lipstick lesbian,” as is the case in the television series The L Word and the predominantly gay male series Queer As Folk. Even some first-rate imported films such as Fire and Aimee and Jaguar show a lesbian image that conforms to the Western concept of beauty, although they complicate the paradigm of what is “normative” in terms of lesbian life and community in other places and eras. Japanese manga and anime, on the other hand, frequently contextualize girl-girl love within the High School arena, a fact which demonstrates a cultural reality in which such romances are considered “safer” (compared to opposite-sex attractions) and less likely to be consummated at that age. Some portrayals of female-female desire go even further to challenge commonly held views as to what is lesbian, such as the excellent Internet sites maintained by Male to Female and Female to Male transgender lesbians across the globe.

All thematic issues of the Journal of Lesbian Studies are simultaneously reprinted in book form by Harrington Park Press, the book affiliate of Haworth Press. We hope that the resulting book will be used in women’s studies courses and will be available in feminist bookstores.

Please send a one-page overview of your proposed contribution to Sara E. Cooper at
scooper@csuchico.edu by February 28. 2007. Proposals will be evaluated for originality and writing style, as well as how all the contributions fit together.
Essays of 15-30 pages (including bibliography), maximum word count 9000, as well as creative submissions (flexible page and word limit) as Microsoft Word attachment will be due by August 31, 2007.
This week's Bay Area Reporter is on newstands!

This week in the Bay Area Reporter I investigated the suspicious death of a trans woman: “Family questions SFPD probe in trans death”; announced Saturday hours for a queer youth health clinic: “Dimensions Clinic expands to Saturdays”; and reported on finding LGBT seniors: “Seeking LGBT seniors.”

For more news and entertainment visit the
Bay Area Reporter online or pick up an issue at your local independent or queer bookstore.