Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

Happy pride, jason, i love you so much, and i would love for you to have the opportunity to say a few words. I do want to say a few things thank you so much for this recognition. It truly is a very special night i want to thank all of the people who before me stood up and fought for equal equal rights. Many gave their lives to a cause that paved the road so i could stand here today. I never imagined growing up in an Italian Catholic family and an environment where i did not feel comfortable being myself. One i wasnt sure of my path and that one day i would be recognized for my work, especially during pride month. San francisco is my home and will always be my home. I am excited to see where it goes. It is such an honor and a pillage to call this place our home and i look forward to the future. Happy pride. [applause] okay. Next up will be supervisor more mar. Thank you so much for this opportunity to acknowledge begin work for pride month acknowledge meghan work. While San Francisco has been a beacon for queer and trans people, too often those stories are bought thought of as only being set in the castro, polk street, the tenderloin or in soma. The history of those neighborhoods is incredibly important, but queer and trans contributions to our city no no borders, and the Lgbtq Community deserves to be seen, heard, and recognized in every part of the city. Today i have the great privilege of highlighting one of the many lgbtq leaders in the sunset in honoring the incredible contributions of the reverend dr. Meghan rohr. As the first openly transgender pastor ordained by the lutheran church, pastor meghan is a faith leader in the truest sense of the word. They serve their congregation in the sunset boldly, truly welcoming all, and live in the sunset with her wife, laurel, two children and three cats. They wear one of many pastors arrested for protesting proposition eight and officiated weddings for the Lgbtq Community both before and after those marriages were legally recognized. Pastor meghans service to queer , trans, and other marginalized communities extends far beyond her congregation. They have advocated for lgbtq inclusion in big communities across the nation and were recognized as an unsung hero of compassion by his holiness, the dalai lama. They served as executive director of welcome since 2002, working with lgbtq people, lgbtq people experiencing homelessness, feeding the hungry , and in the castro, and providing groceries for h. I. V. Individuals. Pastor meghan has also served on the San Francisco womens march and trans march committee. The San Francisco Human Rights Commission lgbtq Advisory Committee, and was a finalist in transgender nonfiction for the lambda literary award. She served for transgender mentoring since 1976, and it was displayed at the historical society, and meghan has also Won International acclaim for the transbay documentary for a transbay documentary. Meghan, you are an important teller of lgbtq history and stories and you are also living them yourself. Leading with grace and delight, and setting a powerful example for lgbtq, and faith communities around the world. I am beyond proud to have you as a constituent, to have your leadership in the sunset, and to have this opportunity to recognize all you have done for you community, our neighborhood, our city, and the world. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you. Like many others in this space, it wouldnt be possible without loads of people in collaboration i wont make you come all the way up here, but stand up if you have been part of the work that ive done, if you follow me on social media, or you, in some way, claim me as a part of you. I see some pastors, sfpd, stand up. [laughter] it really does take a village you can sit back down, i promise , but you have to come back up for the picture. One of the greatest things that i probably have done for the lgbtq communities to adopt children. I have a 5yearold and a 6 yearold. When they first moved into our house, it was prior to the pride parade. They werent quite certain we were we were the fifth house they had lived in, but when they marched down the street with the sfpd, whom i serve as a chaplain , one of my kids was wearing a mask at the time, because foster kids cant have their pictures taken so Domestic Violence does not find them in their new home, my child leaned down from my shoulders and said, they all came for us . My children believe that the entire pride parade, people coming from all over the world to celebrate in San Francisco was a pep rally for them finding there forever home and wouldnt that be great if every child who grew up, regardless of their Sexual Orientation or their gender identities, had that large of a pep rally celebrating them. As a person of faith, one of the things that i have to say every pride is anyone who has been harmed by religion or pastors, i am profoundly sorry. It is not okay and i will be loud enough for claiming gods love because hopefully there can be at least one person who for sure is on your side. You might not know this, but as a teller of history, i want you to know that in San Francisco, our pride parade began different it began in part because of a group of courageous pastors through a gay dance at california hall. They sued the city to make it possible for gay people to gather. It was possible because of it was possible for causing a cafeteria riot, but the Police Department appointed in lgbt cute liaison who started the very first Transgender Organization in the world. The very first article about pride, thank you for the sfpd for their help in organizing it. The first Pride Committee organizing the parade was mostly pastors. Whatever faith it was, i am not sure, but it was fabulous. Since then, of course, tension comes and goes. Trust in people amongst the l and the g. And the b. And the tee, waxes and wanes. And inciting, unfortunately happens more often then pride. More often then pride. The tension and politics, the tension between social classes, those who are the wealthiest lgbt folk and those who sleep on the lowest sidewalks might have differences farther than lutherans than catholics. One of the most difficult things that happen to me this year is knowing publicly that i had a double mistake to me for trans reasons. People started sending packages from amazon gifts, inserts to fill out a broad, hair removal supplies. Even those of us who have privilege still experience difficulties, but none more difficult than when i walked my beautiful black, trans child into kindergarten and had to inform the teacher of their safe word for when they are feeling like selfharm. Lgbt youth have five times the suicide rate of the general population, matched only by police and firefighters. I care for both because Mental Health is important. In these days, we must say, live your life as fabulously as possible because so many people didnt make it to today. We must say, choose life when you can, and if you are doubting those choices, call the San Francisco Suicide Prevention or the trevor project. We must say, if you do choose to take your own life, please only take your own life. I stand here because i want to be loud, as loud as this jacket. Loud that safe is possible for all people, loud enough to say that the divisions that divide us, the storms that make us feel like chaos and hope is missing, loud enough so that individuals who experience homophobia in other places wouldnt prefer homelessness here than how they are treated where they live across the country, loud enough for us to love again, big and bold. If you have as big of a support network as i do, it is your job to show up as often as i do. If you dont have that support network, i implore us all, find at least one doctor you feel safe with. Find at least one therapist you feel safe with, find at least one Police Officer you feel safe with. It is hard to trust institutions , it is hard to trust big populations of people, but we have to heal together and learn to trust together. If you cant imagine finding that one person, i will be it for you, and i hope you will be it for me. Thank you. [applause] all right. That brings us to district six supervisor, supervisor haney. Thank you for your work and helping to organize and congratulations to all of the honourees. This is such an extraordinary and special day. I wanted to thank all of you for your incredible contributions to our city. Today i have the privilege of recognizing a cultural icon within the San Francisco community. A person that has literally shaped the very face of San Francisco . Ors nightlife scene, father, mother, wicked stepmother, grandmother, anti, auntie, and a friend to us all, david glamour more. [cheers and applause] a new york native, he was one of the original boy bar beauties alongside other new york legends like connie girl and her royal highness, princess dandrea. She was one of the original queens of woodstock, a drug festival that helped that was taken place in the east village. When mr. David came to San Francisco in the 1990s, he quickly established himself as a fixture of the nightlife scene. She worked her way up and down polk street, the center of San Francisco dragged culture at the time, performing in places like chemos, with her drug family, including her daughter. [cheers and applause] she was not content with only performing in spaces where drug already existed. Always pushing boundaries, she edged her way into soma. Appearing and performing and curating shows with everything from raves, private parties, clubs, art galleries, helping to shape a . Are nightlife scene that was joyful, thoughtprovoking, powerful and uniquely San Francisco. Over the years, we have seen San Francisco change, with many of the Small Businesses and venues that were once flourishing with activities, closing, not due to lack of business, but due to higher rent and Profit Margins unable to keep up. While the city has often been slow to respond, mr. David has personally been responsible for rallying the Community Around many of our nightlife venues due to the creation of art shows in the power of drag. Mr. David was one of the reasons that the studd was able to survive the first wave of gentrification in the following economic crisis. Being instrumental to the implantation of nightlife parties. He continues this work today with parties like nuts, pillows and others. A party where she works as a drag queen. She will put people in drug for the first time on stage. These firsttime queens performed a song from the broadway production apple tree. The show was incredible because everyone should try drag at least once in their life. The show has become a rite of passage for many candidates and elected officials, former supervisor jane kim, supervisor mandelman, and myself have all participated. Yes, it is true that i am actually a member of the house of more, personally painted and styled and dressed, and given a drag name by my drag parents that it ended up being relatively prophetic, victoria landslide. [laughter]. As if all of this wasnt enough, mr. David david is also someone who creates unique and oneofakind ensembles for the most dazzling gay icons. His fashions have been in shows across the globe, most notably a few years ago. He has famously created an outfit a day for the majority of his adult life, creating literally thousands of ensembles for one of the more for many drag queens. Legend has it that somewhere in his black book are measurements of rupaul, share, and diana ross to name a few. He was no secret it was no secret that he was a mastermind behind several looks featured in a music video. Along with the other lgbtq trailblazing leadership today, mr. David exemplifies the very best of what San Francisco has to offer. He is a source of constant inspiration to the generations of drag queens and artists of every kind, a proliferator of beauty, kindness, and fun, a change agent and culture maker, and someone who will forever change who has forever changed this phase of San Francisco nightlife. Mr. David, the city of San Francisco owes you so much. I am proud to be able to offer you this small token of appreciation for all you have done and continue to do for our city. Thank you. [cheers and applause] first of all, i would like to say, since we have just gone past 3 00, good morning. [laughter]. This is usually when i rise. I have been doing this my entire life, it is true. We dont go into details about how old i actually am, but i have been in the city at least 27 years now, so take that as a jumping off point. I will continue to do this until i die. That is all i have for you. It is very important, you know, the things that happen over a cocktail at midnight, sometimes walk right through this room and turn into love. I want you to realize that we are as important as the daytime folk. Thank you all. Thank you. [cheers and applause] [applause] okay. That brings us to our supervisor from district ten, supervisor walton. Thank you. I also want to thank supervisor mandelman for ensuring that we honor our trailblazers in the Lgbtq Community. My honouree today is mr. Tim chan. Tim chan has been a resident in district ten for 15 years, where he lives in the civil terrace neighborhood with his husband. By day, he leads the station Area Planning Team in rooms the home runs the Homeless Program at bart. By night, he is the vice chair of the Bayview Citizens Advisory Committee where he has been a fierce advocate for equitable housing, smart landuse planning, critically needed transportation investment , Inclusive Community engagement, and workforce opportunities for bayview residents. He is also on the board of San Francisco league conservation voters. He advocates for sound environmental policy, and works to hold us accountable. Good government, equitable housing, and transportation investments, in district ten and across the city of San Francisco in his spare time, he volunteers at open house as a companion for disabled lgbtq seniors and that in visitation valley. He hopes his involvement will have positive impacts on his district ten and lgbtq communities. Tim chan is community minded, and really focused working with neighbors to make life great in bayview and in district ten. I am proud to have leaders like tim from the Lgbtq Community in my district and we appreciate and honor you today. This certificate reads, in recognition of your many years of dedication to our community, and fierce advocacy for environmental policy, good government, equitable housing, and transportation in district ten as the vice chair that the bayview Hunters Point citizen Advisory Committee and throughout the city. Your leadership and commitment in the Lgbtq Community with open house has help seniors overcome the unique challenges they face as they age by providing a vibrant, healthy, and secure future. Thank you for all that you do. Happy pride. [cheers and applause] i was just told half an hour ago that i needed to prepare a speech. I will try to wing it. First of all, to supervisor walton and to the board of supervisors, thank you so much for this honor. You know, the call to service has been in my blood for many decades, i wont say how many, but many. It started when, you know, i was in my early twenties and i was working with lgbtq youth in seattle, and mentoring and helping them deal with a myriad of issues around coming out, around families that were rejecting them, around developing friendships in the community, around diversity. That really started my whole career in Public Service, and so in San Francisco, the call for Public Service is so important, especially in bayview. We live in a very divisive time. I think we all know that. In San Francisco, that does get played out. As much as we had similar values , we want the same outcomes, it is still a bit divisive. What i hope to do in my Public Service as a vice chair is to bring all of the different communities together, you know, as a planner by day, i tried to bring my experience and my knowledge into how we can develop more equitable and complete communities. One that supports people at all income levels, of all races, of all orientations and of all backgrounds, and at the end of the day, this is what i want. It is not specifically targeted for the Lgbtq Community, but it is deeply affecting the Lgbtq Community. In district ten, there hasnt always been a history of the lgbtq presence, so when my husband and i moved there about 15 years ago, you know, we started to see more and more people come in from different parts of San Francisco and different parts of the region. Over time, we have created a really vibrant community, and so , you know, on facebook, i cant take the credit for my husband, but he helped create the Facebook Community for homeless point, which is hunter s point, silver trs and gay view. It is really through that effort in bringing all of the Lgbtq Community that there was a place that perhaps we werent necessarily always talking about politics, but it was a place to talk about, you know, what will we do, how will we create events that will bring people together . And that is really important. I accept this award, but it is really shared with a lot of people in bayview because they also have created these amazing opportunities around pride events, around the opera house and the volk ball that has taken place last year, and will take place again this year. The publicservice that i bring is really important to me, in the last thing i will say around promoting open house and for people in this group who we are all aging. For many of us who dont have kids who are or are not part of a larger family, it is so important to reach out and to give back. With the open House Organization , it is about connecting with the lgbtq seniors. Many of them who have been ravaged and lost friends, you know, in the 80s and nineties during the aids epidemic. Now they really dont have a family and a community to support them. I think the work is so important because it is about connecting with them, making sure that even though they are in their sixties and seventies and 80s that they are still part of our community and that hopefully as we all age into those decades, that we will have people behind us who will also want to be part will want us to be part of them. With that, i accept the award, the honor, and i thank you again [cheers and applause] all right. Next is our supervisor from district one, supervisor fewer. Thank you very much. I would also like to thank supervisor mandelman for bringing us all together to celebrate. Colleagues, today im excited to recognize a San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance and welcome them to the podium. [applause] come on up. The seventh is the Police Department leads the nation in recruiting and promoting lgbtq officers and is one of the only few Police Departments with permanent lgbtq and transgender posts. We go much of this progress to the San Francisco Police Officer s pride aligns, a group of lgbtq officers who place signs and all stations informing lgbtq individuals that they will be treated with courtesy and respect and encourage lgbtq victims to report incidents to trusted Community Organizations and revisit bias related cold case files. This year, the s. Of p. D. As a First Department in the nation to where pride patches on their uniforms for the entire month of june with all proceeds from sales of the patch going to larkin Street Youth Services. 150 of our Homeless Youth are lgbtq, and 70 of people are people of color, we know we have a long way to go to achieve equity. When my Police Captain of my district station told me about the pride patch, i thought to myself, well, we have come a long way as a city and as a police force. As many of you know, my husband is a 35 year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, and when he entered the police force in 1970, it was not a friendly place. In fact, it was hostile for those brave enough to come out. They faced a lot of harassment and just outright bigotry. This pride patch and the pride s. U. V. Symbolizes a sea of change in a profession that has historically been dominated by straight white men. Our police force proudly displaying the pride rainbow on their uniform for an entire month sends an invaluable message to both lgbtq officers and the communities that they serve. The patch is a reminder that at a time when so much of the country is not safe, won countless cities refused to permit a single pride event, and people refuse to bake birthday cakes or create floral arrangements for people celebrating things same sex americans, or when our president prohibits gay pride flags to be waived at our u. S. Embassy, and also prohibits transgender folks from trans folks from enlisting into our armed forces, San Francisco proudly remains a sanctuary for all regardless of Sexual Orientation or gender identity. For their commitment to improving the relationship between Law Enforcement and the Lgbtq Community, in their work to ensure San Francisco remains a sanctuary for all lgbtq people , it is my prelate pleasure to honor the San Francisco Police Officers Pride Alliance in celebration of pride month. I thank you for your service and your advocacy and i would like now to turn the floor over to an officer and the Pride Alliance. [applause] on behalf of the Pride Alliance, i would like to thank you for this recognition. It means the world to us. A little history on the Pride Alliance, it was created in 2001 when a group of courageous San Francisco Police Officers who identified as lgbtq establish an organization because they felt the department needed to change and that the relationships between the lgbtq officers and the department needed to be flourishing and needed to change for the better. I dont think those officers would have thought we would have had a rainbow s. U. V. Rolling around the streets of San Francisco or that Police Officers from the department, lgbtq, straight, allied, members of the command staff and the chief himself will be Walking Around the month of june wearing pride patches, which we would like to thank the commission and the command staff for allowing us to do this to begin with. We created this project for two goals mainly. First, to shed light on the Youth Homeless crisis within the city of San Francisco, into support larkin Street Youth Services and their fight to end Youth Homelessness within the lgbtq and people of color community. And to really show that San Francisco Police Department is moving to become the forefront for lgbtq relationships and change with Law Enforcement as a whole. We want to show people in the community that if you have a problem, that we will take it seriously. We are there to serve the community, not just lgbtq, but people of color, straight people , everybody in the community who we serve, and we want to make sure members feel comfortable coming to us, and like pastor meghan said, we want to be that friend to you and we want to be that person that you run to when you have a problem and not be afraid of us. That is our goal. We would like to thank you guys again for allowing us to come up here and be recognized for the efforts and show the support that San Francisco gives us and the support we give the community. Thank you. [applause] okay. Next up is our supervisor from district three, supervisor peskin. Thank you. I would like to invite shane watson and donna graves up to the podium. When our office is all received notice of this years pride month special commendations, we immediately thought to honor the brilliant coauthors of the Citywide Historic context statement for lgbtq history in the city and county of San Francisco. Theres a lot to say about this monumental effort and how it started, but let me start by speaking in my own personal role as somebody who has championed Historic Preservation and advocated it in the Northeast Corner of the city. Long before i came into elected office in the 1990s, i was Community Advocate and helped save the colombo building at number 1 columbus avenue. I became acquainted with the history of the black cat and the paper doll that this board of supervisors has landmarked today , and we ultimately saved one columbus avenue from the wrecking ball. That was right at about the same time that the Carmel Fallon house was on the chopping block, and the story of the context statement, i think begins in that effort to save that 104 yearold victorian design by castro descendent Carmel Fallon at the intersection of market octavia and paige, led by a brave group of folks, the friends of 1800 market, that included luminaries like alan martinez, who later on joined the Historic Preservation commission, vincent marsh, denise lapointe, and many others i think commissioner martinez is here in the audience. That effort ultimately led to the preservation and land marking of that edifice that we recognize today as the building that houses the San Francisco lgbt center. That preservation effort was informed by an understanding of the historic historical sites is not just simply about the geography and physical structure , but more importantly, about the cultural significance of the communities that inhabit that space and geography. I think that is what we are celebrating and honoring today. Out of that effort, grew the first Historical Context statement of its kind in the entire country, pioneered by the friends of 1800, one that focused specifically on the history of lgbtq communities and the spaces they inhabit in San Francisco. Fastforward a number of years, and along came shane watson and donna graves with an idea to expand upon that 23 page document, and in concert with the lgbtq historical society, and funding from the citys Historic Fund committee, which was money from the settlement of a lawsuit on the old emporium, the fantastic document that we and the authors, the brilliant coauthors of that document, is now the Citywide Historic context statement for lgbtq history in San Francisco. It is an astonishing 365 pages of Indepth Research that chronicles the history of San Franciscos Lgbtq Community from the 19th century, and leading all the way up to the 1980s. I should say, normally we think of history as something as half a century or more, but the history of aids and the aids epidemic in San Francisco is really part of the history and is included in that context statement. Donnas reputation in Academic Circles is renowned and includes a host of publications on california landmarks, california s japan to town and rosie the riveter. Shanes more recent resume is no less impressive, specializing in the chronicling of lgbtq history , but extended to historic evaluations of ocean avenue, and a number of sights across the state of california. With respect to the rest of their bodies of work, it is difficult to imagine a project more impactful than this context statement. It is rightfully earning them the governors Historic Preservation award, and the california preservation foundations trustee award for excellence in Historic Preservation. It was the inspiration and foundation for the National Park service is lgbtq themed study, the first lgbtq history project in the world to be commissioned by federal government. It is significant because our history, and even our planning process in the city should really be driven by much more then the share ear physicality of the urban environment. The context statement stands for principles that i think that are far more significant, that our history and understanding originates with the people. It is about the people who form vibrant communities, families, chosen or otherwise, and come together to be selfsufficient communities. It is an old principal, reiterated maybe back to the days of aristotle, but reiterated by jane jacobs in the middle of the last century, and all too easily forgotten. The lgbtq context statement as a reminder of the humanity of our history, of the Critical Role that the Lgbtq Community plays historically and currently in San Franciscos fundamental identity. Theres a lot more that i could say, but with that, i want to thank ms. Graves and ms. Watson for their outstanding contribution to the movement and the Advisory Committee, which include some of our here used heroes. Congratulations and im delighted that your parents are able to join you here all the way from houston, and with that, i will turn the microphone over to you. And i only have one bouquet of flowers, so the two if you will have to fight over that. The floor is yours. Thank you and congratulations. [applause] thank you very much, donna and i are grateful, especially to you, supervisor peskin and lee hepner for recommending us, also for your ongoing support of lgbtq preservation and Historic Preservation in general. Thank you for that. As you mentioned, this project was funded by the Historic Preservation fund committee. We would not be here without that group of people. They were incredibly supportive throughout this project. Thank you to those people. Thank you. I would just like to share something that shows the surprising impact of this work. The citywide lgbtq Historic Context statement for San Francisco is on a website called academia edu where i placed some of my writing. That site sends me frequent notices when people from all over find, read, and download the report. Just since the beginning of pride month, people from the following places have found it in hanoi, pretoria, salon, lagos , shepherds bush, part of the u. K. , brazil, lyons, mexico, sacramento, addis ababa, brooklyn, washington, d. C. , new jersey, samoa, minnetonka, and reading, california. I dont know whether that makes you tear up, but every time i get one of those messages, i am a little bit for clumped, and i hope that knowing that this work on our lgbtq plus history that everybody has supported is providing sustenance and inspiration around the world. It makes shane and i incredibly grateful to all of our partners and to the Historic Preservation fund committee, the city of San Francisco, the board of supervisors, for ensuring that this document was created in the first place and is now being shared so widely. Thank you. [applause] up next is our supervisor from district five, supervisor brown. Thank you. Thank you supervisor mandelman and your staff for organizing this today. Today, in honor of pride month, i would like to commend gary mclean, many of us know as a legendary marlena of marlenas bar in hayes valley. Unfortunately, gary was unable to make it today due to an illness. His dear friend is here to accept the commendation on his behalf. Marlena is one of San Francisco s and district fives greatest icons. He has done a lot for this community. Over the years, he has uplifted voices and showcased queer art in district five. He has selflessly taken many people into his home, making them feel safe and welcome in the city by the bay. When i imagine what San Francisco values would be like in a person, i think of marlena. He is someone who truly embodies the open to all philosophy. Always opening his home and his heart with a kind word and a positive outlook on a changing city. For close to two and a half decades, marlenas helped space lgbtq people in hayes valley. It was a place to celebrate queer art and culture. Before the freeway was torn down , it was also a place for black and brown lgbtq folks from the surrounding neighborhood to have a place to feel accepted and welcome. The bar itself was an outlier in the hayes valley, but that is what made it so special. Many of us who visited and remember how the bars electric decor, history, and culture it made us feel like we were being transported into a magical world anybody who had been in there, if you were down, marlena would give you a kind word to bring you up, and if you were a little saucy, she would actually make sure she put puts you in your place. Now as a proud mother to many, marlena continues to be a legend in San Francisco. Im so happy and honored to commend a true San Francisco hero, gary mclean, a. K. A. Marlena, and im hoping that she is watching this on t. V. Today. I know you have a few words. Yes. Thank you. First of all, marlena, i know you are watching, i love you. On behalf of gary mclean, better known as marlena to his friends, i would like to thank the supervisors, especially vallie brown from district five, and the community for this honor. Marlena would have liked to have been here in person, but it is in ill health, yet good spirits. On the 50th Year Anniversary of stonewall, it is with great pride that i repeat marlenas mantra. It is easier to love than it is to hate. Thank you. [applause] okay. That brings us to supervisor from district seven, which is me [laughter] first of all, i want to congratulate everyone of the honourees today for pride month. It is a really great selection of people that we have chosen, especially that we the one i am going to be choosing. My 2019 pride month honouree for district seven is dr. Steven tierney. Come on up. [applause] theres a long list of accomplishments attached to my honourees name, but let me just start by underscoring the most important ones because not dr. Stephen turney, multiple generations of lgbtq youth are alive today, not just surviving, but flourishing and paying for the gifts of another chance to live a healthier, happier life. Dr. Stephen tierney began his career after graduate school and continue to dedicate his lifes work on caring for youth for decades while in boston, he founded the sydney Burnham Health centre for lgbt and Homeless Youth, which is a fully licensed primary care and Mental Health clinic. As well as the boston gay and lesbian adolescent social services, or even what we call the boston glass, which would provide safe space, education, and housing employment services. When we were lucky enough to have dr. Tierney join us in San Francisco in 1996, he became the executive director of the Health Initiatives for youth, also known as hifi, which was an Innovative Program that served as an incubator for new programs in services for San Francisco transitional aged youth. He worked with former supervisor and current bart board member, devon duffy, to lead to the mayors task on San Francisco response to the crystal meth epidemic. His forward thinking and understanding of this epidemic is the reason that there are programs and services, to this day, to address meth addiction here in San Francisco. He spent the last 15 years training the next generation of communitybased adolescent psychotherapists as professors as a professor at the California Institute of integral studies, and we could use every single one of them to make sure our children and our youth are living lives that are healthy, stable, and peaceful as possible now in his spare time, dr. Tierney volunteers and performs suicide intervention and prevention training, as a response to the alarming trend of Youth Suicide in california. On top of all this, dr. Tierney is also an ordained weakest priest and serves as the c. E. O. Of the San Francisco Mindfulness Foundation and is a full facilitator of the meditation for people in recovery groups have the San Francisco zen center, providing access to recovery and wellness through meditation for hundreds of youth and young adults each year. Dr. Tierney, it is my immense honor to have you as our district seven resident honouree for this years lgbtq celebration. Thank you for your service. Please give us some wisdom. [applause] thank you. I came to this work and dedicated my life to working with young people when my 17 yearold brother died by suicide because he had been impacted by the heartbreak of a slick of exclusion and being in systems where there was no reasonable and safe and accessible Mental Health services for young people who were going through that search for self self that he was going through. I decided then, and have worked ever since, to have services that would make a difference, and so in boston, and here in San Francisco, with the Mayors Task Force that led to the creation of the castro youth housing that opened the dimensions clinic for youth and a number of programs such as that, we have the opportunity to really change the lives in the Life Expectancy of young people who are dealing with exclusion and violence, and the other things that young people deal with. And all of the programs that you mentioned are still in operation today. Some including the ones in boston that have 35 that are 45 years old. To be able to be here, again, the last time i testified here, i was the director of h. I. V. Prevention for this city, and when i took that job, the number of new infections a year was 1150, and when i left that job, the number of new infections was 480 a year. What i said then, and what i say now, is all of the things that we talk about today, all work done by collaboration. The youth housing in the dimensions clinic were done with young people at the table. When we created the magnet clinic for folks in the gay community, that was done with people from the community, and each of the things that i have done, i believe has worked to the degree that it has because it was never about who was in charge of who might end up having such a wonderful honor as today, it was always about collaboration so that nobody would feel that heartbreak of exclusion ever again. Thank you. [applause] all right. Now it is the supervisor from district nine, supervisor ronen. Thank you. Colleagues, it is my great pleasure to recognize Communities United against violence, the district nine honoree for lgbtq pride month. Pablo espinoza and Lydia Salazar , the coexecutive directors of this exceptional organization, as well as kyle and dominic who are here today. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for your patience, recognizing all of these amazing heroes. We celebrate you today for 40 years of grassroots leadership to build safety and power within lgbtq communities, as the oldest lgbtq antiviolence organization in the country. It began his mission to transform trauma and deliberation in 1979. Following the assassination of harvey milk, ended a time of increased violence against the Lgbtq Community. Particularly in the castro. Launching a safety whistle campaign, they emphasize mutual aid and collective power, and then built upon the same approach by Training Community members to b. P. Advocates and becoming the first lgbtq organization to provide direct services to lgbtq Domestic Violence survivors. Since its inception, they have been an innovator from addressing Domestic Violence within the lgbtq communities, to organizing transgender people to stop police brutality, to becoming the first lgbtq membershipbased agency in california to both provide direct service to survivors and organize them to lead change, policy advocacy campaigns. They have been at the cutting eight edge of social change movements. Today they have expanded their opportunities for lgbtq survivors to develop themselves as leaders in their communities by designing a 40 hour anti oppression curriculum that builds skills around Community Accountability and violence prevention, that connects their local work to larger movements around prison abolition and racial justice, and ultimately prepares their members to engage in policy advocacy and social justice campaigns. As the community continues to come under attack, one gender and sexual oppression are on the rise, when a transgender woman waiting at a bus stop on castro street was brutally assaulted and in a totally unprovoked attack, when a preacher slashed cost, and delivers a sermon calling for lgbtq people to be arrested and as executed, we know that their work is more crucially important than ever. Where there is a need for leadership to protect the safety and health of our Lgbtq Community, they have delivered. You have set a high bar for healing, for resilience, for liberation, and community power. From the city of San Francisco, thank you so much for your continuous and transformative efforts to make San Francisco a safer city for all of us. We are so incredibly grateful to your work and cant wait to hear one or some of you speak on behalf of this amazing organization. From there on, kuav did a lot of work and examination and reexamination around what it means to be safe as an lgbtq person, an out person, somebody who may go to a drag bar, may want to do activis activism in r community and to do it in a healthy way. Over the years, we have been one of the few programs in the United States that works with lgbtq people that identifies domestic survivors and thats a small population of the community who continues need a lot of support and services because we have in this country a stigma to say what does it mean to be in a relationship. Were living in very Tumultuous Times politically and socially, but i think that weve always been in Tumultuous Times and i think that one of the previous speakers had talked about what does it mean to struggle internally as an lgbtq population, having different backgrounds and histories. Quav has done a lot of tracking against lgbtq people and we live in this Information Age where we have a lot of information accessibility and we are seeing now, i think, for the first time just how prevalent against lgbtq people and its important to invest in what it means to be a survivor of violence, what does it mean to look for counseling and support as an openly transgender person, as someone who might be still closeted in a place where they work. We sometimes see ourselves in a bubble here in the bay area when it comes to the lgbtq populations but we still have dealing with a lot of violents and discrimination in our own city. So we want to continue to lift up the voices of not just those folks who are here and surviving and being open and proud of being lgbtq but also folks that we have lost and we have lost a lot of community and we track a lot of death and a lot of