California Supreme Court Grants Review in Prop 8 Legal Challenges
Court to Determine Constitutionality of Prop 8
Today the California Supreme Court granted review in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, which passed by a narrow margin of 52 percent on November 4. In an order issued today, the Court agreed to hear the case and set an expedited briefing schedule. The Court also denied an immediate stay.
On November 5, 2008, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of Proposition 8 in the California Supreme Court on behalf of six couples and Equality California. The City of San Francisco , joined by the City of Los Angeles , the County of Los Angeles , and Santa Clara County , filed a similar challenge, as did a private attorney in Los Angeles.
The lawsuits allege that, on its face, Proposition 8 is an improper revision rather than an amendment of the California Constitution because, in its very title, which was “Eliminates the right to marry for same-sex couples,” the initiative eliminated an existing right only for a targeted minority. If permitted to stand, Proposition 8 would be the first time an initiative has successfully been used to change the California Constitution to take way an existing right only for a particular group. Such a change would defeat the very purpose of a constitution and fundamentally alter the role of the courts in protecting minority rights. According to the California Constitution, such a serious revision of our state Constitution cannot be enacted through a simple majority vote, but must first be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature.
Since the three lawsuits submitted on November 5, three other lawsuits challenging Proposition 8 have been filed. In a petition filed on November 14, 2008, leading African American, Latino, and Asian American groups argued that Proposition 8 threatens the equal protection rights of all Californians.
On November 17, 2008, the California Council of Churches and other religious leaders and faith organizations representing millions of members statewide, also filed a petition asserting that Proposition 8 poses a severe threat to the guarantee of equal protection for all, and was not enacted through the constitutionally required process for such a dramatic change to the California Constitution. On the same day, prominent California women’s rights organizations filed a petition asking the Court to invalidate Proposition 8 because of its potentially disastrous implications for women and other groups that face discrimination.
In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court held that barring same-sex couples from marriage violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and violates the fundamental right to marry. Proposition 8 would completely eliminate the right to marry only for same-sex couples. No other initiative has ever successfully changed the California Constitution to take away a right only from a targeted minority group.
Over the past 100 years, the California Supreme Court has heard nine cases challenging either legislative enactments or initiatives as invalid revisions of the California Constitution. In three of those cases, the Court invalidated those measures.
For more information on this case>>
Let's meet at the Firewood Cafe, 4248 18th Street, San Francisco. It has a relaxed atmosphere as well as wholesome dining. Come hang out with the guys from LSS, ladies from TransGender San Francisco, friends, and family. This social follows our monthly info/support meetings, on the third Saturday of every month.
Transgender Remembrance Shabbat
Friday, November 21, 2008, 7:30 pm
290 Dolores Street (corner of 16th Street)
San Francisco, CA 94103
www.shaarzahav.org
Since 1999, November 20th has been set aside in cities across the country as Transgender Day of Remembrance. This day memorializes those who have been killed due to anti-transgender hatred. High rates of murder and other violence continues to be one of the most critical issues facing our transgender communities; and more and more people, trans and non-trans, are raising their voices in commemoration and protest.
At Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, we have designated November 21st as Transgender Remembrance Shabbat. At Friday night services we will remember all who have suffered from anti-transgender violence, with special liturgy, music, sermon, and the reading of names. As the Congregation Sha'ar Zahav community participates in the holy act of remembering, we continue to educate ourselves and to commit to further action on this critical community issue.
More information about the Day of Remembrance can be found at http://www.transgenderdor.org/
Our Mission: At Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, we are committed to sustaining a safe environment to nurture and express our diverse spiritual, sexual, educational and ethical values. Our rabbi, lay-leaders and members join together to bring meaning to Torah and Jewish observance. We are committed to creative prayer, study, mitzvot and tikkun olam (repairing the world).
Transgender Health and Wellness Conference
Forwarded from the Bay Area Bisexual Network:
It's Florencia, the bisexual filmmaker making the bisexual film... in less than 4 weeks!
I need your help to send my way any cute trans boys (should be aged between 21-30) that may be interested in playing a small role in my film. The role of DRE was a non-speaking part that grew to have one speaking scene and two non-speaking ones - the love interest of one of the girls. No acting training required, since it's a small role; just someone comfortable in front of the camera and interested in being part of a film.
I'm holding auditions for some other small roles on Tuesday, so would love to be able to audition any potentials this Tuesday as well.
So! Please help me spread the word! Send any potentials my way - ask them to email mynahfilms@gmail. com ASAP. They can also check out the website:
www.mynahfilms. com
Thanks...
-F.
July, August & September Meetings
7/19 -- Regular discussion meeting (No Topic)
8/16 -- Regular discussion meeting (No Topic)
9/20 -- Regular discussion meeting (No Topic)
October, November & December Meetings
10/18 -- TLC Presentation: Legal Issues
11/15 -- Regular discussion meeting (No Topic)
12/20 -- Panel of trans men who are healers
Meetings and Support Groups are held on the third Saturday of each month from 2-5pm at the Eureka Valley Rec Center, 100 Collingwood Street - Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94114.
7/19 -- Regular discussion meeting (No Topic)
Informational meetings odd months are (open), centered around a topic to focus discussion, provide time for networking/social gathering and are open to all genders.
The Lou Sullivan Society strives to keep the life and spirit of Louis Graydon Sullivan alive in the hearts and minds of transgender, transsexual and genderqueer men through providing information, support, community building, education and advocacy for Female to Male persons and their loved ones.
Saturday June, 21 2-3:30pm, Topic: UCSF AIDS Health Project (AHP) - HIV/STD Prevention - Discussion, instruction, referrals, answers, needs. (3:30-5pm will be open discussion on any topic without guest presenters)
Guest Presenters: Dee Hampton is the Mobile Testing, Medical Team Coordinator for AHP's HIV/STD Counseling Testing and Linkages Program at AHP & John Tighe, LCSW, is coordinator of the Groups & Workshops Program at AHP
The UCSF AIDS Health Project has been providing HIV testing since 1985 & is funded by the San Francisco Department of Public Health
by Martin Rawlings-Fein
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Bri Smith opened my eyes to Midwestern history with zirs Lou Sullivan biographical event. Bri was an unassuming person tall, from my perspective, quiet and personable. It was quite a surprise to see Bri as such an engaging speaker at the June 23rd "Remembering Lou Sullivan: Celebrating 20 Years of FTM Voices" event and from what I learned it should have been called 20 years of Bay Area FTM Voices. The dynamic presentation was eye opening in the least.
Lou Sullivan was on the vanguard in the Wisconsin beat counterculture scene. He was truly a voice for change even as a child and young person living in the Midwest. He consistently talked about "playing boys" and about it meaning more to him than it did to the other children. He was also fostered by gay liberation movement and the gender-bending aesthetic of the late sixties and early seventies, in Wisconsin.
This Midwesterner was out loud and proud to be a freak, in the good sense, with the support of a loving family, partners and friends. His identity morphed from a girl "playing boys" to a "female transvestite" to eventually a "transsexual" just before he moved to San Francisco in 1975. Only to be turned away from surgery because the DSM did not agree that transsexuals could be homosexual. Sullivan the lover of men could therefore not be a true transsexual unless he lied.
Sullivan, in a true testament to living life to the fullest potential with honesty and forthrightness, did not lie on his applications for surgery. Instead he told the truth which got him rejected many times over. However, in the end the truth won out and he was cleared for surgery in 1986 the same year he founded the FTM support group in San Francisco.
In the end of Bri's dynamic presentation I was moved to an intense love of the places in between the coasts. They do not get as much respect as they should. Places like Wauwatosa, WI, can produce people like Louis Graydon Sullivan and they have since the beginning of our movement. Yet, Lou did not come here as many others do, running from the past. He came here to be with his sister, Maryellen, with a pocket watch from his mother engraved "Go West Young Man" and a dream of being the man he was meant to be.
After the presentation Maryellen and Bri announced that Sullivan's diaries, from age 11 to just before his death from AIDS complications in 1991, were going to be released to a Midwestern FTM publisher for printing sometime next year. Perhaps another Lou Sullivan is out there in the Midwest waiting to stumble upon them in a library like we in the Bay Area can do any day of the week.
Sullivan's full collection of papers and diaries are held at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library for all to see. Bri Smith is a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, PhD candidate in History. Smith's dissertation is titled "'Yours in Liberation': The Life and Work of Lou Sullivan." Please email Bri at SmithB@uwm.edu with recollections, questions, and/or comments that you might have.
This is a monumental day for human dignity and the rights of all. In a 4-3 decision, the California Supreme Court justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." The ruling is likely to flood county courthouses with applications from couples newly eligible to marry when the decision takes effect in 30 days from May 15th.
"The California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples," Chief Justice Ronald George wrote in the majority opinion.The Lou Sullivan Society applauds the justices decision to overturn the discriminatory law that halted the lives of thousands of same-sex couples married four years ago in San Francisco.
The California case is In re Marriage Cases, S147999. The ruling is available at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions.
Pictures from San Francisco City Hall
Video from the Steps of the Courthouse
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