Author: AdminSFLD

As reported in the Leather Journal, Gayle Rubin is one of four individuals due to be honored at the 33rd annual Creating Change Conference, to be held virtually in late January of 2021.

Gayle Rubin is an anthropologist, theorist, writer, historian, and a proud member of the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District Board of Directors.

She will be honored with the Leather Leadership Award for her work and studies within the Leather community, as part of the four-day Conference, run by the National LGBTQ Task Force as a space for learning, connecting, and growing among LGBTQ activists, leaders, allies, and changemakers from across the nation.

The presentation to Gayle is scheduled to occur between 1:45 and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Sunday, January 31, 2021.

You can read more about Gayle in the Leather Journal article.  For more information about the Conference, or to register to attend virtually, visit https://www.thetaskforce.org/creatingchange.html.

As reported on SFGATE and NBC Bay Area, Supervisor Matt Haney has proposed creating a recovery fund to save ‘the heart and soul of S.F.’ —  its nightlife.

According to Haney, the San Francisco Music and Entertainment Venue Recovery Fund is desperately needed as many of the businesses are facing permanent closure as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

“What this pandemic has done to our economy and our way of life has been nothing short of a nightmare, and for our city’s venues, there has been no reprieve. They were the first to close and will likely be the among the last to reopen,” Haney said in statement.

 

The GLBT Historical Society has announced a new program series for 2021:  the “Queer Culture Club,” a monthly series on the second Thursday of each month that focuses on LGBTQ people who are defining the queer culture of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

These programs feature GLBT Historical Society executive director Terry Beswick as he interviews queer culture-makers, including authors, playwrights, historians, activists, artists and archivists, to learn about their work, process, inspirations, hopes and dreams.

In this first installment, legendary San Francisco gay “radical sex” photographer Mark I. Chester will discuss his forthcoming new book of contemporary photography, “Street Sex Photos”(2021).

The event will take place online, on Thursday, January 14, 2021 from 7:00 to 7:30 pm. It is free, with a suggested donation of $5.00. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link and instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar as an attendee. The event will also be livestreamed on Facebook and then archived on YouTube.

For full information on the event, visit the event page on  Facebook or on the GLBT Historical Society website.

Registration and tickets are here.

The LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District has been gathering input from all corners of our community, to help us to create our District’s Cultural History, Housing and Economic Sustainability Strategies (CHHESS) report, which will guide our organization’s efforts — and help shape San Francisco city policy and priorities — for the next 3 to 5 years.

We are doing this through a variety of methodologies, including individual interviews, a major Town Hall event, and a series of  Zoom-based “Focus Groups”, each one targeting either a specific area of concern or a specific demographic group.  In this way we can get honest input from a diverse, varied and representative set of people, even if some individual focus groups are not, in themselves, socially or culturally diverse.

Here is a list of some of these events, past and upcoming:

• Arts and Culture Focus Group, 7/20/2020
• Economic Vitality Focus Group 11/30/2020
• Sex Workers’ Focus Group, 8/13/2020
• Town Hall, 8/25/2020
• BIPOC Focus Group, 9/17/2020
• Transgender Focus Group 10/6/2020
• Women’s Focus Group, 10/15/2020
  

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  Upcoming

• Disabled Persons’ Focus Group:  Monday, November 9, from 6 to 8 pm: Register/attend here.
• Tenant / Land Use Focus Group: Tuesday, November 17, from 6 to 8 pm,  Register/attend here.
• Leather Folks’ Focus Group: Thursday, November 19, from 6 to 8 pm: Register/attend here.
  
• Kinky Folks’ Focus Group: Tuesday, December 1, from 6 to 8 pm: Register/attend here. 

If you have not participated in one of our Focus Groups yet, we want to hear from you. 

Please select a group and register or attend using the links above.   (If you register in advance, we’ll send you a confirmation email.  If you click on the link just before or during the meeting, registration will take you directly into the meeting.  Registration is needed to discourage “zoom-bombing” by intruders.)

Focus Groups are recorded for our internal use only:  you are encouraged to keep your camera off and/or use a different display name if you wish greater anonymity.

If you can’t attend any of these dates, there is a Google Form you can use to provide similar input, here.

The CHHESS Report we write will go to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for their approval; once approved, it will be used to guide and direct public policy for our neighborhood, in everything from art installations to zoning laws.  The Focus Group process will also help the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District to set its own priorities for programming, spending, and public advocacy.

Please let us hear your voice.