Welcome to bay area focus, im susan sikoran. May, president obama said he supported Marriage Equality for samesex couples. Will this impact the upcoming election . What is the status in california on samesex marriage and what other priorities are ahead . For insight, we welcome back attorney kate kendall, the executive director of nclr, the National Center for lesbian rights headquartered here in San Francisco. Welcome back, good to see you. Great to be back. Lets be clear. Sometimes people get a title and it washes them over quickly. National, you mean with problems, legal problems and issues for the entire country here fromfromSan Francisco. Thats right. Were based here. This is where we were founded in 1977, and we do work now all over the country representing the entire specto rum of the lesbian, gay, transsexual and gender community. Lets start with the marriage issue. Sure. It feels like a straight wound watching this back and forth and back and forth and its different in this state. What is the status right now . Its really thinking. Interesting. I think youre right. Its been back and forth and a bit of a seasaw. The truth is, were only trending in one direction, and that is greater support for full inclusion and equality for samesex couples in marriage and every other facet of civil life. Uh. We have uhhuh. We have seen a lot of amendments spanning marriage, including proppity error in california. When you look prop 8 in california. When you look at the polling now, we see more and more people as they grapple with the issue and they think about it. The thing is why would i want to deny anyone else the right to be married, to make a commitment, a lifelong commitment to a partner and to have that relationship supported by the government. I think in november, we have four measures in different states on the ballot addressing the question of whether those states will support the right of samesex couples to marry. For the first time, we will see at least one of those states going our way. And that will be really the beginning of the end of the, at least a wide public debate. This will be resolved shortly, and i think most people come on the right side. Right now, if a gay couple wants to get married legally in california, they still can not . They can not. They have to go to another state . Their relationships will be recognized as a Domestic Partnership or with a relationship with all of the benefits and rights of marriage. And there are six states where you can be married. This is where you cant call your relationship a marriage and dont have federal recognition. Those outstanding issues are having this be one country where no matter where you get married, your marriage is recognized everywhere else and how do the federal government recognize the marriages. Both of those issues are going be very likely before the u. S. Supreme court in this coming term. All right. President obama came out in may saying that he supportd this. Yeah. And late in the game but there. All right. People are happy he did it at some point. Yeah. The question is, do you think its going to impact the election in november, which is around the corner . I wouldnt bet money lost that obama was going to make a statement before the election. I thought he wouldnt do it. I thought he would feel it was too much of a political risk. This is another important about our movements. Were having unlikely and likely allies, allies like president obama take risks for our community. That is a really important step in a social justice movement. Because . It shows were worth risking for. He knows that its the right side of history to be in support of gay couples being fully recognized as equal. Uhhuh. I think its helped obama. Given people struggling with the issue but wanted to feel like they were doing the right thing in terms of justice, equality and fairness, its given them permission to follow the same ark and path that president obama followed and ended up fully supporting our relationships. I think a lot, we have seen the polls shift, and i thinks lot of that is tied to the president s support. Yeah, and lets be clear also about what it is that the gay people want. By the way, when i say gay people, i mean lesbians as well. Is that being, i dont know, using mens to describe everything . As executive director of the National Center of gay and lesbian rights, i give you permission to use gay to mean the entire community. All right. I think, look, i think we want to make sure that in doing so, we acknowledge the issues of transgender people, bisexual people, lesbians and gay is a short term that many of us use, including in those of us in the community. Okay if governor romney should be president romney and president obama loses in the next election, what would that mean for the gay and lesbian community, do you think . It would be an enormous setback. You, by the way, we should say, grew up mormon. I did grow up mormon in utah. I still have a lot of affection for the faith of my childhood. I still have family members who are devowed and go to church every sunday and practicing mormons and practice it to perfection, but they still support me. This is where i think governor romney has missed the boat. In making a choice between, he felt like he had to make a choice between faith and what was in the best interest of the entire citizenry. He shouldnt have made the choice he made. They have gone to exclude so many, not just lgbt people, but so many people from the fairness and equality and justice in in the country, if he were to win the election in november, it would be an enormous setback for our community. He would roll back gains we have made under the obama administration. I think about this as a mother and a person who cares about civil rights westerlily. And generally. His presidency would be a cast is or a number of things i care about, including, i feel like, the financial and economic injustice security for my children. Okay, all right, were going to take a break. When we come back, well talk more about this, especially a lot of people tend to use religion as well and theyre taught that we have a new bishop in San Francisco. Well find out what the gay communitys response is to that when we return. Welcome back. Were talking with kate kendall, shes an attorney and the executive director of the National Center for lesbian rights. And that is really a national group. Were talking about, we start to talk about religion. We have a new. We have a new bishop in San Francisco and hes been very vocal against samesex marriage. Yes, he has. I think i would know the obvious response from the gay community. I guess my question is what do you hear from gay catholics, especially those in serious, loving committed relationships . What i hear is disappointment. What i hear is betrayal and sadness. I would be the first to say everyone is entitled to whatever religious beliefs they want to hold. I would defend that to the death. There is a different question, though, around what kind of country do you want to live in. You know, this is not afghanistan. No taliban. This is not a theocracy. We are a country with multiple views, multiple religions, a breath taking and lovely sort of diversity, and what kind of country do wont to live in should we have a country standing true to the promise of the constitution, which is were all entitled to equality under the law. That means youre intitled to your religious faith to believe whatever you want. No person should have to marry a couple they dont want to marry. Absolutely. We had a twosided debate it a couple of years back. We made it clear, i think, and i think it bears repeating is you dont expect the Catholic Church or any church. If they feel its wrong in their religion to have a same error errorsix relationship, no one is saying you must perform this ceremony in a Catholic Church or profit assistant church or jewish sip going. Theyre not being laboratory testify do that. They should never be legislative to believe that. If you want to believe that im going to hell because im in a 20year relationship with another woman, that is your belief, too. That should stop when it comes to the civic recognition, the government recognition of equality and fairness and benefits and justice or the constitution is meaningless. And that is not the kind of country we live in. Uh. It impacts things like social security. Oh, everything. Social security, the right to sponsor a partner for immigration. Sometimes the right to see your partner in the hospital. The right to have your relationship with your children protected as legal parents. Yeah. And there are a whole way of things that are impacted because we cant marry, including most of us not being able to have the same sort of vocabulary and understanding of our relationships that everyone else has. More about picking out a china pattern at macys. And stoles that is really important. And sometimes that is really important. Okay. Lets move on. Governor brown signed a bill this past week. Sure. And let me see if i am saying it right, its basically against trying to change somebodys Sexual Orientation in the setting of, i guess a Psychologist Office . Yes, statelicensed psychologists. Uh. What we want to do and what this bill does is it ends the psychological abuse of minors at the hands of statelicensed therapists engaging in what is known in the business as Sexual Orientation change effort. Uhhuh. Everyone understands the efforts dont work. Theyre destructive. Sexual orientation is yours to fix, mine to fix. Its something that cant and shouldnt be changeed but to put a minor in the hands of a state licensed therapist telling them that they are wrong, they are bad, they should not accept who they are, they shouldnt be comfortable and happy with who they are, 52 topetrait the fraud on parents, the Sexual Orientation can be changeed, i am told congress damage. The parents cant change his or her son or daughter through a psychiatrist and then its illegal for the parent to do that, right . Its illegal for any therapist. A parent can believe what they want. What we want is truth in advertising. We want parents to understand that youre doing so much damage to your kid by telling them or forcing them into some sort of therapy to change who they are. What should happen, instead, is Family Therapy that helps accept and understand Sexual Orientation and understand that its not something that can or should be changeed, especially someone who has a state license. That is what this bill stops. We have to pass it in california and were looking to pass it in other states as well. The damage has been uncalclayble. Okay, gay marriage is front and center. Are there other issues besides this that youre looking at, your priorities right now. What is next on the list . Well, you know, what we want, what we seek, and this is the gay agenda. You know, you heard here. The gay agenda. The gay agenda is nothing more than full equality security under the law to not be shamed, to not suffer lack of dignity based on who we are or who we love. So, were looking at kids things around bullying, representing young people who were bullied in high schools to get the high schools to change and to protect the kids. And every kid should be able to learn and not be attacked orvillified based on who they are and how they appear. We really want to live in a country where our entire community wakes up in the morning feeling like they belong and that the constitution means as much for them, their parents. And there was a thing i caught on the Huffington Post yesterday, actually, and it was a about a gentleman named Timothy Couric coming out with a book called the cross in the clos the cross in the closet. The story of a gay young man pretending to be what he liked. He had a close friend who said she was a lesbian. When she came out, her family turned on her and she was crying in his arms. He kept thinking i need to convert her and change her and realized how wrong that was. He does this and said after he came out nearly 95 with his his friends stopped talking to him and went through his mothers journal one day, she said i would ratherva found out from the doctor show had terminal he had terminal cancer than a gay son. She eventually came around. The question is, why in 2012s it fearbased, we dont know people in our lives or what i dont get it. I wish i had the key to unlock that. I think most americans, the numbers like 70 something percent know someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. What i dont think we have done, though, we have come out. Uhhuh. That is important. I dont think we have had the conversation of what it means to be relegated to secondclass status under the law. What it means to not have acceptance. What it means to not feel valued for our relationships and who we love. Many of us feel that way. Uh. I feel lucky to live in the bay area and to have a family, even though devoutly mormon was my mother and totally my champion from the moment i came out to her. Im fortunate. Many people are not, and i think what this guy did in this book, which i think is so great, is, you know, its the whole walking in someone elses moccasins. You walk in someone elses shoes and see life through their eyes and you have that ah amount where you can never be the same again. If we could have two seconds of people knowing what it was like to be lgbt in this country, i think that would help. Well leave it there. I wish i had two seconds more, but you will come back. Thank you for being here. My pleasure. The website is called nclrights. Org and their office is on market street. If you have a legal ore issue or a question, visit their website or go see them. Stay with us. Welcome back. When we hear hoorah, we hear hula, we hear hawaii. And howla will be on stage this week at the palace of fine arts. Meet the man who brings it, patrick, a native of hawaii, who begins began dancing at age 13. Now hes a choreographer, he blends his creativity and passion for original hula. The results is a Performance Dance Group nale hulu and take a look. [ music ] the First Time Ever i kissed your i felt the earth move in my hand. Wow, that is beautiful. All right, patrick. Welcome. Aloha. Nice to be here. And that was Roberta Flack. That was Roberta Flack. Who puts her music to hula, you. It seems like a easy tradition. Many of our dances are accompanied by beautiful songs. My point is why should it just be in hawaii . It works. Absolutely. And most people would expect to here, a u cue uca laically and hawaii is ukelele and hawaii. And you will hear the ukelele on our show as well and we move on to modern music. Uh. Like Roberta Flack or i left my heart in San Francisco. Did you get a lot of slack over this . The traditional master . Not so much. The thing is i dont mess around with the traditional chant and dances. And dancing to Roberta Flack is tony benson is not anything frowned upon. I am sure people expect to so them in grass skirts and leis and the traditional music as well and that is a departure, yeah . It is. And we run the entire gamut. You will see fresh, beautiful ladies and in grass skirts and something that is a departure from what you expect. It takes a lot of time like any dancer. Many spend time perfecting their technique in bay lay. In my company, many have been there for over 15 years. Wow, its a respected tradition enough, at least in hawaii and maybe elsewhere, i dont know, tell me. They can make a living at it . Some people make a living but its difficult to make a living as a hula dancer. There are not a lot of places to showcase your work. For instance n my company, everyone has a 95 job and we rehearse through the weekend and do whatever shows we can, that our time allows for us. And that is common, i think, about any art, isnt it . Absolutely. Right. So difficult. And you started dancing at 13 . I did. What does it take to start your own company . You are creative and have ideas. You knew the dance and made the next step to go, and it was like the actors going to directing and the dancers go to core youngrafy. Right. I had as a dancer while in hawaii to clarify a few pieces. When i moved here to go to school at San Francisco university in 1994, i wanted to keep up with the dancing. There was a need here at that time for people to take hula hoop qualified teachers. So i faked my qualifications. Not arrest. I studied with a great teacher and his name opened the door for me. And hula, if im correct, tells a story. And a lot of people think hula takes the story but tells the story but its the chat. The movement, the vocabulary, the movement in howla dramatizes the poetry associateed with the dance. Uhhuh. Okay. Who is taking lessons . You said there is a need for actually teaching people this. Is it just people in the Hawaiian Community in. Its people in the Hawaiian Community, people who are outside of the Hawaiian Community. People who have an affinity and love for hawaii and some people who love culture and caps. Uhhuh. And and dance. And some people found their way in there and they did. Its a large hula community. You would be surprise how many people are dancing hula here in San Francisco in the bay area. What takes you through your process, if you will, of putting a show together . And do you have to start with the traditional stuff they expect or in the wrong seat, you know. And that is an interesting question. We love the traditional dances and its the foundation of what we do and what we are. And from there, we can build upon that and take you to other places. Uhhuh. Are you competing with a lot of other masters and choreographers doing the same thing . Are they branching out and copying you . I dont know if people are copying me, but they trying is to stretch their boundaries on hula and traditions while evolving your art. Uhhuh. And a lot of people in hula and all ethnic communities are and i am working with that idea of how do you preserve your traditions while simultaneously evolving your art form. Uh. We can be exclusive or not. Finally, the thing that is culture to keep going in did any tradition, it depends on getting the young involved. Absolutely. Are young people interested in this enough, embrace it and continue it . Yes. You know what is interesting is my dancers, i started with them in their early 20s and theyre having children of their own. Uh. And theyre in the company. And you so this continuation coming from the family and this is how it was done traditionally. Okay. Patrick, thank you for being here. Were going to leave with you a look at the hula show. It runs today through october 28th. For more information and tickets, visit www. Nalehulu. Org or cityboxoffice. Com. I am susan sikora. Thank you for watching. [ singing ] [ singing ]