Easter, Earth Day activities
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New season for dance company
ARTS
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'Letters' opener
The
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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
Vol. 44 • No. 16 • April 17-23, 2014
Hearing on HIV funding cuts set
Pot club changes could spark debate
by Seth Hemmelgarn
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by Seth Hemmelgarn
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he San Francisco Planning Commission recently approved a report that recommends considering allowing medical cannabis dispensaries in more neighborhoods and reducing the space required between Rick Gerharter pot clubs and schools. However, little Supervisor John Avalos thought seems to have been given to how federal officials would react to additional pot clubs. The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, Melinda Haag, has cracked down on such operations over the last couple of years, citing in part the dispensaries’ proximity to schools. The planning panel approved the report by a 6-1 vote. It’s now expected to go to the city’s Health Commission before it reaches the Board of Supervisors. No legislation related to the report has been proposed, but the document follows an ordinance that District 11 Supervisor John Avalos passed last year requiring the city’s planning department to review local dispensary regulations and make recommendations on new rules for siting future clubs. “I am interested in new regulation because the current green zones,” where dispensaries are allowed, “are mostly found in certain neighborhoods in the east side of town creating areas where MCDs cluster even on the same block,” Avalos said in response to emailed questions from the Bay Area Reporter, referring to medical cannabis dispensaries. According to the planning commission report, of San Francisco’s 29 permitted and operational clubs, 21 are located in the northeastern part of the city. “I thought it better to have controls to encourage a variety of neighborhood serving businesses and make it so that certain neighborhoods not be the only place where MCDs can be sited,” said Avalos. “If we enacted some of the planning department’s recommendations and added higher standards for integrating MCDs in neighborhoods, then we would have a more balanced, citywide approach.” In 1996, voters passed Proposition 215, the California Compassionate Use Act, which regulates medical marijuana. Many people use the drug to help ease pain related to HIV and AIDS and other illnesses. In 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder signaled that the Obama administration would not target patients and providers in See page 7 >>
Hey, over here! Rick Gerharter
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esse Bie casts an alluring eye with his attractive balloon headdress, hoping to get interested fellows to his Gay Men’s Salon booth at the second annual Atmosqueer, a volunteer and services
fair sponsored by the LGBT Community Center, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Bridgemen. The April 12 event drew a good crowd who checked out social, medical, political, and athletic organizations.
n estimated $2.7 million in federal budget cuts for HIV care and prevention services in San Francisco in the coming fiscal year will be discussed at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing May 7. Steven Underhill At the hearing, staff AEF Executive from the Department Director Mike of Public Health, Mayor Smith Ed Lee’s budget office, and community organizations will discuss the projected shortfalls, their impact, and what the city can do to fill in the gaps. The federal reduction is the latest in a long line of cuts that have often left city officials scrambling to find money to protect people living with HIV and AIDS. Supervisor Scott Wiener, who recently called for the hearing, said in a news release, “EnsurSee page 10 >>
Seniors lack affordable housing options
by Matthew S. Bajko
which built the 104-unit Triangle Square LGBT senior housing GBT seniors in cities across project in Hollywood. When it the country are facing a lack opened in 2007 it was the nation’s of affordable housing opfirst affordable housing developtions as they age. ment of private, individual apartDemographers estimate there ments for LGBT elders. are at least 3 million LGBT seSeven years later it is readyniors aged 65 or older currently ing to open a 39-unit building living in the U.S., with the popdubbed the Argyle in collaboraulation projected to double by tion with AMCAL Multi-Hous2030. As their numbers increase, ing Inc. Built for low-income Rick Gerharter LGBT seniors’ access to housfamilies of all ages, a portion of ing, whether it be in retirement A rainbow painted fence encloses a temporary parking lot at 55 the units are expected to be occucommunities or assisted living fa- Laguna Street, site of the senior housing component of Openhouse’s pied by LGBT seniors. cilities, will become “increasingly project. Preserved structures from the original San Francisco State An estimated 65,000 LGBT critical” noted the Equal Rights University campus and construction for new housing can be seen in seniors 65 and older live in Los Center in a special report it issued the background. Angeles and 68 percent of them in February. live alone, according to the local “As the number of older adults agencies. More than 70 percent of Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. increases, as well as the number of LGBT seTriangle residents are living at or near poverty But the buildings, ranging in size from nine niors living openly, many with their spouse or level and struggle to cover expenses for housunits to more than 100, are nowhere near partners, the need for more housing options ing, food and medication. enough to address what is needed, according that allow older LGBT people to live in a safe Among the 3,000 clients age 50 and older to agency executives, housing activists, and and comfortable environment becomes inwho access the L.A. center’s senior services LGBT aging experts. creasingly important,” stated the report, titled program, 46 percent live on less than $2,500 “Housing is the number one need for our “Opening Doors: An Investigation of Barriers a month and 20 percent make do on less than clients. When they come in and meet with one to Senior Housing for Same-Sex Couples.” $1,000 each month. of my team managers, absolutely the bottom Nonprofit agencies in a number of major “While I am sure L.A. looks like a bargain line need is housing,” said Kathleen Sullivan, U.S. cities are working to address the shortfall to people in San Francisco, it is not an inexthe L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center’s director of by building designated housing for low-inpensive place to live,” said Sullivan, 48, an out senior services. come LGBT seniors. Projects are currently unlesbian whose thesis for her gerontology Ph.D. The L.A. center recently announced it was der way or have opened in such places as Los from Portland State University in Oregon fomerging with Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing, Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, See page 6 >>
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