Jocelyn Salinas cries after the shooting of Lawrence King.
15-year-old Lawrence King of Oxnard, CA, was shot Tuesday at his school. He remained on a ventilator after being pronounced brain-dead by two neurosurgeons at St. John’s Regional Medical Center.
Police have not alleged a motive for the shooting, but said there appeared to have been “bad blood” between the teens. Police said a handgun was used in the attack, which occurred with more than 20 other students in the room.
[The Los Angeles Times reports that, “The teenager sometimes wore feminine clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he was gay,” according to fellow students. “He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails — the whole thing,” said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. “That was freaking the guys out.”] King had been under the care of the county foster care system and lived at Casa Pacifica, a nearby center for abused and neglected children, said Steve Elson, the facility’s chief executive.
“We’re are all stunned and it’s just an unspeakable tragedy,” Elson said.
Yet another unspeakable tragedy brought on by homophobia. This is what the attitudes fostered by RRRW Christianity enables. This is what hatred of anything and anybody “different” is doing to our world. This is the environment radicals are fighting so hard to maintain by working against SB 777. An environment where discrimination and intolerance flourish and are legal. One where it’s seemingly OK for kids to be killed just for being different.
California could make history by becoming the first state in the USA to have an official holiday for a gay person.
Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) has announced he will introduce a bill that would formally recognize the efforts of civil rights pioneer, Harvey Milk.
The legislation, if passed, would establish a non-fiscal state holiday in his name on the anniversary of Milk’s birth, May 22.
In 1977, when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Milk became the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the United States, and only the third openly gay elected official in the nation.
Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in San Francisco on November 27, 1978.
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Leno’s bill would proclaim May 22nd ‘Harvey Milk Day’ and add it to the list of state holidays, although it will be crafted in a way so as not to generate additional state costs or increase the number of paid state holidays.
‘Harvey Milk Day’ will provide a forum to raise public awareness of Milk’s work to extend basic human rights to all people and demonstrate that each one of us possesses the ability to create extraordinary change in our communities, our country and the world,” Leno said.
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“Harvey Milk knowingly put his safety at risk and ultimately gave his life because he believed that living as an openly gay man would help achieve true equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans,” said EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors.
This is amazing. Harvey Milk is a true hero to GLBT Americans, and having a holiday in his name would be quite inspiring. I hope the bill passes so that Milk can be honored as he should be.
That was just one of the things we chanted last night as we marched, my SO and I, as we played part of an irate mob of gays in the Castro district of San Francisco. We had signed on as extras for the film Milk and were into our third or fourth hour of yelling, chanting, shaking our fists and marching with Sean Penn (as Harvey Milk) and Emile Hirsch (as Cleve Jones). Director Gus Van Sant provided instructions and prompts. We heard him boom “back to one”, meaning we had to go back to our original positions for a re-take or new take, at least a dozen times.
A portion of Castro Street had gone through a time-warp and it was once again the late 1970s. The Castro Theater had undergone a facelift and was restored to its former beauty complete with glowing neon marquee. The advertised movies were All About Eve and Jezebel featuring Bette Davis. Hot Cookie appeared to be the Double Rainbow Ice Cream Shop. (Indeed, while my SO and I were in there later getting coffee and treats an unsuspecting gentleman came in looking for ice cream.). The upscale wine store and wine-tasting bar Swirl had ceased to exist for the time being, and was again a simple wine and liquor store. This transformation was both interior and exterior as some scenes were filmed inside the store. Many other changes were made as well, including a sign advertising Chevron gasoline starting at 63 cents a gallon for Regular (leaded) self-serve.
Now that’s a blast from the past.
Now I’d been born and raised on the East coast and had never seen a movie made, let alone been in one, so this was all a new experience for me. Yes we were mere unpaid extras but nonetheless this was exciting, particularly considering the important subject matter of the film. Harvey Milk is a hero in the LGBT world, so my SO and I were thrilled to be able to do anything related to this production. Even though we eventually got cold, hungry, thirsty, tired and achy we were still glad to be there. The fact that we twice got within arms reach of Sean Penn and my SO bumped into Emile Hirsch while marching were added bonuses. Who knows? We might just end up on the big screen for a few seconds.
Lisa’s Hair Design is temporarily Alda Yarn
At one point I was looking around at the signs the various “protesters” were holding. I’d Rather Fight Than Change. Human Rights are Gay Rights. We Are YOUR Children. Separate Church and State. Human Rights Abroad, Human Rights Here.
They were signs that had significance during that long-ago fight for gay rights. I began thinking and realized to my dismay that we could be using those exact same signs today, for though three long decades have passed we have accomplished so very little.
Sean Penn, as Harvey Milk, speaks to the crowd in this scene.
Bigots are fighting harder than ever to force us to change into straight people via “reparative therapy”. They use the language of love now, but the “Ex-Gay” movement is motivated by hate at its heart. We still have no federally recognized marriage rights and only have one state, MA, in which we can legally marry. Seven states allow Domestic Partnerships/Civil Unions which provide some of the same benefits of marriage, but fall significantly short of legal marriage. 19 states have constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions, another six have constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. It’s still legal in 31 states to fire somebody because they are gay, as ENDA has not been fully passed (GWB has yet to sign it. Even if he does transgender people will not be covered so it’s a sour victory.) We do not have hate-crimes protection; The Matthew Shepard Act failed in Congress this past year. Across America bigots fight to keep students from hearing that LGBT people exist, or mentioning that they themselves are gay.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Me enjoying a much needed cup of coffee after nearly five hours of acting.
We still have so far to go in our struggle for GLBT rights. It has not been an easy task thus far, and I don’t imagine it will get easy anytime in the near future. I commend those who came before me and those who have worked alongside me. I also put out a call to any who will join the fight.
Regarding Milk, Friday night my SO and I, along with thousands of others will be back in SF for the filming of the candlelight vigil scene. I anticipate it will be much quieter than last night but no less impressive. Here’s the original for your viewing pleasure.
Anti-vaccine woos will likely not be convinced by yet another piece of evidence via Science Daily that mercury does not cause autism. This one comes from The Golden State:
Autism cases continued to increase in California after the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal was eliminated from most childhood vaccines, according to a new report.This suggests that exposure to thimerosal is not a primary cause of autism.
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“Young children receive immunizations in the period preceding the typical manifestations or diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders,” the authors write. “Increased exposure to thimerosal, a preservative that contains 49.6 percent ethylmercury by weight, has been postulated to have contributed to the upswing in reported cases of autism spectrum disorders.” Thimerosal was eliminated from most vaccines by 2001. A 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine cited the lack of data supporting thimerosal as a cause of autism, but recommended that trends in autism diagnoses be observed as exposure to thimerosal decreased.
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“The estimated prevalence of autism for children at each year of age from 3 to 12 years increased throughout the study period,” the authors write. Per 1,000 children born in 1993, 0.3 had autism at age 3, compared with 1.3 per 1,000 births in 2003. The highest estimated prevalence–4.5 cases per 1,000 births–was reached in 2006 for children born in 2000. “Although insufficient time has passed to calculate the prevalence of autism for children 6 years and older born after 2000, the prevalence at ages 3 to 5 years has increased monotonically for each birth year since 1999, during which period exposure to thimerosal has been reduced,” they continue.
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“Parents of autistic children should be reassured that autism in their child did not occur through immunizations,” Dr. Fombonne concludes. “Their autistic children, and their siblings, should be normally vaccinated, and as there is no evidence of mercury poisoning in autism, they should avoid ineffective and dangerous ‘treatments’ such as chelation therapy for their children.”
The question is, will the antivax crowd continue to ignore the facts or will they search for a new scapegoat? If they’re anything like the RRRW it could be either–or both.
Jocelyn Salinas cries after the shooting of Lawrence King.
California could make history by becoming the first state in the USA to have an 
