LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

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
  

  ---

  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.

 

We are pleased to let you know about an upcoming Next Generation Manufacturing training session which begins on January 18th, 2021.

This is a free 12-week program where participants get hard skills related to 3D printing or CNC, and get soft skills training and assistance with resumes, cover letters, and other job readiness. Additionally, participants get full access to the shop so there are plenty of other skills and machines to learn such as the laser cutter, vinyl cutter, wood shop, metal shop, 3D printers, industrial sewing and much more.

Priority will go to applicants who are low income, women and people of color, but our only eligibility requirements are that applicants be 18 years or older, have a high school diploma or GED, and fluent in English. The language requirement is flexible and is included because class instruction and the materials are only available in English.

More info is in the video below, and at https://www.humanmade.org/workforce-development.

If you or someone you know might be interested, fill out this interest form or reach out directly to Brenda Orellana, Humanmade Client Support and Outreach Coordinator, 510-227-4451, at brenda@humanmade.org.

 

LGBTQ+ Black Lives Matter
Unity Town Hall

October 17th & October 18th, 1:00 – 3:00 PM

We live in a period where social contradictions have been laid bare by the racism in our communities: ongoing murder of black people by police, mass incarceration, high unemployment, lack of access to health care, climate crisis, voter suppression, a broken system of education, and COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous and POC communities. As same-gender-loving and LGBTQ+ community members let’s unite to make things right.

In this virtual town hall panelists and participants, will break out in small groups to explore:

• • • Where does it hurt? The injury to the individual and community from racism, internalized oppression and unconscious/implicit bias.
    • How addressing anti-black bias will benefit all people. Who benefits from crises if unchecked? Who benefits when we “other” each other?

REGISTER ONLINE

Organized by Openhouse’s Leadership Council on Queerness, Race, and Privilege – a member-initiated working group
Openhouse

Members of LGBTQ+ communities in the Bay Area have formed a Friends of the Lyon-Martin House group to preserve the longtime home of pioneering lesbian activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon on Duncan Street in San Francisco, which recently sold for $2.25M. Lyon and Martin purchased the property in 1955 and lived there together until Del Martin’s death; Phyllis Lyon lived on in the house until her passing earlier this year.

A “Friends of the Lyon-Martin House” team has been created, including Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the GLBT Historical Society, and San Francisco Heritage, to ensure that this property is designated a San Francisco Landmark and preserved as one of San Francisco’s most iconic cultural sites.

Check out the new website for the Friends of the Lyon-Martin House: https://www.friends-of-the-lyon-martin-house.com/.

While on the site, you can sign a letter to the Board of Supervisors and Historic Preservation Commission, which will be submitted to the Board of Supervisors in advance of their 10/19 hearing.

Please share the website and letter — created by Grete Miller — with your communities.  Thank you.