Though it was a sparse crowd, none-the-less the first of several events honoring Harvey Milk, last Tuesday, was exciting, informative, and meaningful. Held at the beautiful California Museum and hosted by The Harvey Milk Foundation, Equality California (EQCA) and the California State LGBT Legislative Caucus, the event focused on a discussion of the FAIR Education Act (SB 48) as well as related issues including peer abuse which is prevalent in some of our schools. The FAIR Education Act authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) mandates all California schools to be more inclusive in teaching students about the history and accomplishments LGBT people have in American society. Because o

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” Directed by John Madden Review by Malcolm Maclachlan and Tony Sheppard Malcolm: I loved the Newsweek headline for their review of “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”—“Eat, Pray, Die.” Not that there was a lot of praying going on. Actually, I don’t remember any. Maybe it should have been “Eat, Love, Die,” (though that sounds a little Darwinian) because the aging Brits in this predictable but charming little tale remain obsessed with their love lives, but not much concerned with any afterlife they’ll soon experience (or not). To back up, the story involves a group of down-on-their-finances British retirees who decide to stretch their money by settling at a hotel i

The Harvey Milk Foundation celebrates the third annual Harvey Milk Day in Sacramento, Calif. and joins together with the California Legislative LGBT Caucus and Equality California (EQCA) to host a breakthrough conversation on the implementation and benefits of Senate Bill (SB) 48. This is an important event that families, educators, students, policy leaders and civil rights advocates should attend. Given the importance of the conversation, and the special holiday to celebrate one of our LGBT heroes, this event is free to the public with RSVP: http://harveymilkday.eventbrite.com/ Substance and celebration: The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act (SB 48), autho

This year Harvey Milk Day will be marked with several events here in Sacramento. Harvey Milk was a leader in the gay rights movement who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. This made him the nation’s first openly gay man elected to public office in a major U.S. city. Milk, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was assassinated by ousted Supervisor Dan White, November 27, 1978. On October 12, 2009, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill (SB 572) establishing “Harvey Milk Day” to take place each May 22nd, Milk’s birthday. This year, during the week of May 21 – 25, schools are encouraged to educate students about a leader whose courageous work helped to end

Equality Action NOW (EAN), a local Sacramento grassroots civil rights organization is hosting their third annual, all-ages, Harvey Milk Day celebration, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at Mulvaney’s Next Door to the B&L, 1215 19th Street, Sacramento. Harvey Milk was a leader in the gay rights movement who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. This made him the nation’s first openly gay man elected to public office in a major U.S. city. Milk, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone was assassinated by ousted Supervisor Dan White, November 27, 1978. On October 12, 2009, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill (SB 572) establishing “Harvey Milk Day”

It goes through the mind of every woman who has ever wanted children: What if it doesn’t bond with me? Or…what if I don’t have that maternal instinct that everyone talks about, what if I don’t feel anything? I can only imagine the deluge of complicated feelings that wash over parents of a child who is born with mental or physical challenges. And if your child is of indeterminate…species? That could take post-partum depression to a whole new level. Such is the premise of Smudge, directed by KOLT Run Creations co-founder Lisa Thew. Colby and Nicholas Stillman are a happily married couple, eagerly anticipating the arrival of their first child, when an ambiguous ultrasound--one in which

SideTrax, a night club being built on top of Hot Rod’s near 20th and K streets, is now on pace for a Labor Day weekend opening, and an innovative membership program may be the key to allowing 18- to 20-year-olds access despite the club having a full bar. The venue was initially scheduled to open last spring, but the date had to be pushed back due to construction delays involving design changes and the addition of an extensive patio. Owner T.J. Bruce said the club will accommodate about 300 people in a cigar bar-meets-urban lounge setting with high-quality sound and lighting systems. Bruce also owns nearby Lavender Heights night spots The Depot and Badlands, and he said SideTrax will app

Through a collaborative effort between faculty and students, Sacramento City College will host the first Los Rios District-wide LGBT Conference Friday, March 16, from 1–5 p.m. in the Student Center. The grassroots effort for LGBT education, rights and services in the Los Rios district is an attempt to increase understanding and support for all students and faculty throughout the system.“Even though we are one district, we are four different satellites, and [the conference is] kind of getting everyone together to start a dialogue,” said Queer Straight Alliance faculty adviser and Workability counselor Derrick Wydick. “We are hoping to support the efforts that are already established at eac

On Friday morning, March 2, 2012, after a meeting with leadership of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community concerning gay rights issues, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson joined a growing list of over 175 other mayors and municipal leaders, including West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon who signed early in the campaign, representing 32 states across the country, standing up publicly for marriage equality. “Mayors for the Freedom to Marry” are a broad-based and nonpartisan group of mayors who believe “all people should be able to share in the love and commitment of marriage”. Though it took a while for Mayor Johnson to agree to sign the statement, in the end the mayo

Marriage rights activists will deliver a petition asking Mayor Kevin Johnson to join other mayors in support of same-sex marriage Tuesday morning at City Hall in a move they said they hope will cause him to consider endorsing Mayors for the Freedom to Marry. “We’re not trying to force anybody’s hand or be aggressive in any way,” said Neil Pople, communications director for the Stonewall Democratic Club of Greater Sacramento and author of the petition. It has more than 300 signatures and is posted here. “We want to positively encourage the mayor and let him know that there are people who want this to happen.” Last week’s ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals against Proposition 8 –

The Crocker Art Museum will welcome William U. Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art, for a lecture on the imagery of Saint Sebastian and its cultural meanings for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender viewers on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. The lecture will be held in conjunction with the exhibition “Florence and the Baroque: Paintings from the Haukohl Family Collection,” an exhibition of paintings and sculptures from the largest privately-held collection of the period in the United States. Tickets are $6 for Museum members and $12 for nonmembers. Eiland’s lecture, titled “Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune: Queering Saint Sebastian,” will focus on two paintings in the exh

In the next few months look for progress in the fight to uphold Judge Walker’s decision to strike down Proposition 8 due to the fact that it is unconstitutional. On Thursday, December 8, a three-judge panel in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on the efforts to release video of the Prop. 8 trial as well as ProtectMarriage’s motion to throw out the case. The hearing is expected to take two hours, beginning at 2:30pm. The hearing will be delayed broadcast and will have remote viewing locations in Pasadena, Portland and Seattle. Thousands of other interested parties on both sides of the issue, including the LGBT community here is Sacramento will follow the hearing’s

The California Supreme Court announced it will issue a written opinion today at 10 a.m. on whether conservatives who sponsored Proposition 8 are entitled to defend the measure that overturned a 2008 ruling recognizing the right to same-sex marriage. The leadership of Equality Action NOW, a local Sacramento civil rights organization is inviting the community to gather at Headhunters/Cornerstone Restaurant on the corner of 10th and K Streets beginning at 9:30 a.m. to await the decision. For many members of the organization it is a personal issue and today will mark a pivotal moment in their fight for marriage equality. The Court in San Francisco will decide whether California law allows P

The Sacramento International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival kicked off Thursday evening, celebrating its 20th anniversary of great indie LGBT films and their filmmakers at the Crest Theatre. The festival is a non-profit organization, dedicated to showing independent LGBT films in [in or from?] Northern California. The festival continues through Saturday, with each evening concentrating on different subjects. Thursday evening focuses on male relationships, Friday on female relationships, and Saturday showcases a series of short films. Each year brings opportunities to show more films, give more money to nonprofit LGBT organizations and provide grants to filmmakers. Each evening, films begin

It’s a church. No, it’s a rock concert. It’s a church. No, it’s a rock concert. Actually, for tonight, it’s a rock concert in a church. Grammy nominated Christian singer/songwriter Jennifer Knapp’s lyrics soared with spine tingling, melt your heart, open your soul to true, goddess-like quality of Aphrodite truth - giving the audience chills and a shot at their own authenticity. What better place to test the acoustics than St. Marks United Methodist Church, though Knapp really didn’t need the microphone to amplify her strong powerhouse of a voice. In fact, the audience didn’t even notice until she alerted the sound booth that she had forgotten to turn on the acoustics on the guitar for t

Programming a film festival is an odd and varied process. Some events go out and pro-actively seek the best films that they can find, in an extensive search process – and we see this approach in such local great events as the Sacramento Jewish, French, Japanese, and Gay and Lesbian Film Fests. Other events are submission-based: A call for films is distributed, and filmmakers from a given area submit their works in the hopes of making it to the top of the pile. This latter approach, perhaps best exemplified on a grand scale by the Sundance Film Festival, is also used (on a more modest level) by the Sacramento Film & Music Festival and that given area is the entire world. This year, films

Tuesday, Board Members of Equality Action NOW, Tina Reynolds, Executive Director; Benancio Garza, Youth Spokesperson; Angela Luna, Education Lead and Author of "In Celebration of Harvey Milk"; and Ken Pierce, Board President and Communications Director attended the Sacramento County Division of Behavioral Health Services and Office of Education's "Sacramento Countywide Bullying Prevention Project" (SC-SPP) workshop. Under the direction of Pamela Robinson and Cheryl Raney of the Sacramento County Office of Education, the main purpose of the project is to "develop the capacity of (school) districts and their demonstration school sites to implement sustainable bullying prevention programs an

When is comes to redistricting, the LGBT community has a lot to say about being recognized as a legitimate community of interest and working toward getting the central city united into one council district. “Unless you see yourself represented, it’s hard to see yourself in the world,” said Steve Hansen, a community activist and a member of the former Citizens Advisory Committee on Redistricting. Hansen and Rosanna Herber, chairperson of the LGBT Redistricting Committee, said members of the LGBT community worked tirelessly over the last several months to be recognized as a community of interest and be given a stake in the process. Their goal has been to finally see the central city united

Monday, the California Assembly Appropriations Committee heard testimony concerning AB 9, otherwise known as Seth’s Law. Speaking for the anti-bullying law was its author, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), bill sponsors Matt Bunch, Equality California’s Government Affairs Manager and John Lovell of the California Police Chiefs Association. AB 9 will work hand-in-hand with the 2008 Safe Place to Learn Act by requiring schools to adopt comprehensive polices prohibiting intimidation and bullying in their existing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies; establishing a process for receiving and investigating complaints of intimidation and bullying; ensuring personnel are

Assemblymembers Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) and Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) and numerous community leaders, including the leadership of Equality Action NOW, a local civil rights organization are holding a news conference on the West Steps of the State Capitol this afternoon, June 9, 2011, at 2pm, speaking on behalf of Seth Parker. Parker, 26-year-old man was assaulted in the parking lot of the Strikes Family Entertainment Center in Elk Grove late Sunday night, the Elk Grove Police Department reported. Parker, of Sacramento, said Monday he believes he was attacked because he is gay. In a news interview, the victim said he and several female friends were leaving Strikes at about 1