Pride flag in jeopardy
Trans focus for Milk day
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B.A.R.
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Vol. 56 • No. 19 • May 7-13, 2026
San Mateo County Pride Center may lose 90% of funding, ED says by John Ferrannini
Fernando Orlandi
Indivisible SF, the group behind the “No Kings” marches, plans to partner with SF Pride for a march and rally for allies of the trans community.
Group behind ‘No Kings,’ SF Pride plan trans ally march by John Ferrannini
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new march for trans allies on the Saturday of Pride weekend in San Francisco will seek to represent people concerned about attacks on transgender rights in the United States, the Bay Area Reporter has learned. The event is separate from the annual Trans March, which will take place Friday, June 26. The trans ally march is tentatively set to kick off at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 27, at the Embarcadero and make its way to the Civic Center, See page 8 >>
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tions, and throw a fundraiser.” Sturken said that people should also “tell their elected leaders” to fund for the center. “This is a critical moment where local government needs to step up and support LGBTQIA+ services,” he said. Sapp is hoping to raise a minimum of $200,000 from the public by the end of June, in order to offset the cost of the first quarter of the next fiscal year. To make a donation, go to sanmateopride. org/donations.
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he San Mateo Pride Center is warning that it may lose 90% of its funding beginning July 1, and is seeking help from the public. The development means the center could see a drastic reduction in its core services, including LGBTQ-affirming therapy, peer support, and other programs. “This is an unexpected blow,” the Peninsula center’s Executive Director Francisco “Frankie” Sapp, a disabled, biracial, queer, transgender man, said in a phone interview. “Our services are too important to lose right now. This is a pivotal moment when our community really responded when we asked for support last summer, and I’m asking for support right now.” The center was founded in 2017 to serve the communities on the Peninsula south of San Francisco. As the B.A.R. previously reported, the center was under the auspices of StarVista until summer 2025, when that agency closed its doors. It’s now under the fiscal sponsorship of the San Francisco Public Health Foundation. The foundation didn’t return a request for comment. Chris Sturken, who is queer, is a Redwood City councilmember and a member of the county’s LGBTQIA+ Commission. He’s also a former member of the center’s community advisory board, back in 2016-18.
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Matthew S. Bajko
Francisco “Frankie” Sapp, executive director of the San Mateo County Pride Center, anticipates the nonprofit could lose up to 90% of its funding come July 1.
“The Pride Center is a lifeline for the county and the fact it could disappear, honestly, is sad; but it’s critical,” Sturken said. “In terms of what people can do, they can donate right away, right now, host a house party, talk to their employer about grant opportunities or becoming a donor, there’s so many things people can do. I’m in fundraising as well and have done that over my career but for your average person, what they can do is become a monthly donor and ask their employer to do matching dona-
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The center lost its physical office in San Mateo after StarVista’s closure. Earlier this year, it conducted a survey asking people what they’d like to see in a potential new permanent physical space. It has been using donated spaces to hold events around the county in the interim. “I just think we are at a critical juncture in time, and it’s just challenging because we went through a lot last summer when StarVista folded, and we had two weeks to suddenly vacate out of the physical center, and two weeks to find a new fiscal sponsor, and somehow we made it through that, and still there have been challenges since then and we’re still trying to catch our breath,” Sapp said. See page 9 >>
Report finds anti-LGBTQ policies continue to put youth at higher risk for suicide by Matthew S. Bajko
AS THE B.A.R. CONTINUES ITS ENDORSEMENTS, THIS LIST WILL BE UPDATED.
Loss of physical space
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olicies targeting queer and transgender youth continue to place them at higher risk of suicidality and victimization, the latest report on the mental health of America’s LGBTQ+ young people has found. It’s the seventh year in a row that the Trevor Project has warned of such consequences in its national surveys. The West Hollywood-based nationwide nonprofit focused on LGBTQ youth provided the Bay Area Reporter a copy of its “2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People” ahead of its release Wednesday, May 6. Its findings are based on the responses from 16,667 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 in the U.S. to an online survey conducted between March 4 and October 15, 2025. “For the seventh year, the U.S. National Survey found that LGBTQ+ young people are too often placed at higher risk for suicide not because of who they are, but as a result of how they are mistreated and stigmatized,” noted the report. “This year, antiLGBTQ+ victimization, policies and rhetoric contributed meaningfully to the rates of poor mental health and suicide risk observed among the LGBTQ+ young people who took this survey.” It found that 36% of the LGBTQ+ young people
seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including 40% of the transgender and nonbinary young people. One in 10 LGBTQ+ young people had attempted suicide in the past year. LGBTQ+ young people of color accounted for 36% of the respondents. They attempted suicide at higher rates than their white peers, according to the report, and nearly a third (32%) experienced racial or ethnic discrimination. “It is very disappointing and disheartening that the data again continues to show what we have seen for a while, that LGBTQ-plus youth in the U.S. do face very high risks of suicide because of who they are, and are being mistreated and stigmatized in this country,” Trevor Project Vice President of Research Ronita Nath, Ph.D., told the B.A.R. during a video interview to discuss the report. Per the latest survey findings, 90% of LGBTQ+ young people said recent anti-LGBTQ+ laws, policies, and debates caused them stress or anxiety. It also found that 44% of LGBTQ+ young people who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to get it. Over half (59%) of LGBTQ+ young people ages 13-17 experienced bullying in the past year, the survey found, and those who did reported significantly higher rates of attempting suicide in the past
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