San Francisco Metropolis Corridor reopens with satisfaction
With heart earrings in the colors of the Transgender Pride flag, Lisa Strawn stood in front of the steps of the San Francisco City Hall on Monday and recorded the unveiling of the Pride flag on the flagpole from the mayor’s balcony with her cell phone. Despite a long night’s work, Strawn wanted to attend the city’s annual Pride Month official recognition ceremony.
“I didn’t want to miss this,” said Strawn, a transgender woman who was released from San Quentin State Prison last July after contracting COVID. “San Francisco has everything for everyone, not just LGBTQ people.”
Arrested for prostitution at age 19 and later sentenced to 50 years of life imprisonment for burglary under California’s Three Strikes Act, which automatically extends a person’s sentence the third time they are convicted, Strawn has served more than 35 years Years behind bars. During this time, she became an advocate for herself and other LGBTQ people in custody.
She welcomed gay senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) to San Quentin’s first Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony in November 2019 and, on behalf of the bill he signed last fall, campaigned for trans inmates to petition for housing Other inmates can apply for the same gender identity. So far, prisoners have been housed according to their gender assigned at birth.
Strawn lived in the city’s transgender district in the Tenderloin for the past 10 months and told the Bay Area reporter she was looking forward to attending her first Pride Month in San Francisco.
“I did it all by myself in San Francisco,” she said. “That means a lot to me after leaving San Quentin.”
Strawn wasn’t the only one to add a hopeful note at the flag-raising ceremony on June 7th, which coincided with the reopening of City Hall to the public after it closed for more than a year due to the COVID pandemic. As of Monday, personal services were offered again in the offices of the assessor-recorder Joaquin Torres and the gay treasurer-tax collector José Cisneros.
Those who applied to the Diane Rea County Clerk Office for marriage certificates could do so again while the civil ceremony resumes on Wednesday June 9th. For more information and to make an online appointment, click here.
“Who wants to get married? I have advantages,” joked Mayor London Breed, a single ally who looked forward to performing wedding ceremonies herself.
She welcomed the reopening of the City Hall to the public and looked forward to the city opening further on June 15, when state officials are expected to lift even more business restrictions and put in place public protocols to curb the transmission of the coronavirus.
“We survived a pandemic, all of you,” said Breed. “We’re still here. We’re still kicking. The town hall is open.”
Restrictions on large public gatherings are expected to remain in place, and unlike other cities preparing for in-person Pride events this year, San Francisco has no plans to host an official Pride parade or civic celebration on the last weekend in June.
Mark Pride month
Still, the city has found countless ways to celebrate Pride Month this year. On June 1st, the installation of the pink triangle on the Twin Peaks was illuminated. During their budget presentation earlier in the day, Breed announced $ 2 million to launch the country’s first guaranteed income program for transgender residents, as well as $ 12 million to purchase land for a large LGBTQ museum like the BAR first reported.
“Our rich history includes the LGBTQ community,” remarked Breed during the flag-raising ceremony.
The next day, much of Market Street was decked out with Pride flags. On Friday, June 4th, the day it once again welcomed visitors to its galleries on 18th Street in the LGBTQ neighborhood of Castro, the GLBT Historical Society Museum unveiled a fragment of one of the first rainbow flags displayed during the 1978 Pride Parade the town hall blew.
Gilbert Baker, who designed the first rainbow flags in 1978 with his friends Lynn Segerblom and the late James McNamara, saved them the following June but kept them out of the public eye. When he died unexpectedly in 2017, it was among the possessions inherited by his sister Ardonna Cook, who unwittingly sent it to the Gilbert Baker Foundation to be worn in the Stonewall 50 Pride Parade in New York City in June 2019.
On Saturday, the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park celebrated the 40th anniversary of the first reported AIDS cases. In the afternoon, the San Francisco Giants celebrated Pride Month across town in Oracle Park and debuted uniforms with the team logo in the Pride colors.
This weekend, the team is working with Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, and the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee to present two evenings of film at the ballpark. The film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In The Heights” by director Jon M. Chu will be shown Friday night, while the world premiere of “Everybody’s Talking about Jamie” about a British teenager who dreams of becoming a drag queen takes place on Saturday .
As part of the movie nights, attendees can expect a bit of the annual Pride Parade, such as the Dykes on Bikes contingent.
“You can’t cancel Pride,” said Pride Board President Carolyn R. Wysinger.
The flag-raising ceremony on Monday served as an opportunity for Pride to publicly celebrate this year’s Grand Marshals. These include Mayor’s Advisor Clair Farley, a transgender woman who is executive director of the Mayor’s Transgender Initiatives Bureau; Nicole Santamaría, Managing Director of El / La Para TransLatinas; Founding director of the Transgender Strategy Center Morey Riordan; and Akira Jackson, who is the executive director of the Transgender Advocates for Justice and Accountability Coalition; and the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.
“I can’t believe it’s 51 years of pride. We’re ready to go back and socialize and have a drink with a mask on,” said Jackson, who said she was honored to serve as Grand Marshal this year even though she was there there won’t be a parade.
After surviving last year and having her own agency do most of her work virtually, Jackson now celebrated being “on the threshold” of getting out of COVID and being able to see people in person again.
“We made the most of it with the zooms … the endless zooms, the endless zooms,” she said.
The queer twin sisters Melonie and Melorra Green, who are co-executive directors of the African American Art and Culture Complex in Western Addition, also act as grand marshals this year. The cultural center has partnered with Pride to hold a solidarity rally in honor of June 10th, marking the official end of slavery in the United States, on Friday, June 18, from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the facility at 762 Fulton Street becomes.
In an email to the BAR, Melorra Green expressed the sisters’ gratitude for their choice.
“The recognition from San Francisco Pride and our community is one of the most honored expressions,” said Melorra Green. “We hope to raise the voices of blacks and people of color in the LGBTQIA community to express themselves fully. We must all be allies to achieve justice, social justice and love for those who have not been given space, heard and understood to become.” . Know that change is coming. “
Imani Rupert-Gordon made her first public statements since becoming executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights when the COVID epidemic led to lockdowns last March, noting that not every LGBTQ person is in such a welcoming and supportive city how San Francisco lives. Her agency is involved in litigation across the country aimed at repealing anti-LGBTQ laws, particularly those that attack the rights of trans youth enacted by various state legislatures.
“It’s not just cruel. It’s unethical and illegal,” she said of the wave of such bills passed in recent weeks.
Rupert-Gordon called on Congress to pass the Equality Act, a comprehensive federal bill on LGBTQ rights that is currently in the Senate, despite President Joe Biden’s promise to sign it. Until then, LGBTQ residents will continue to face discrimination in 29 states, she noted.
“It will make every single person safer,” said Rupert-Gordon.
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