Monday, November 30, 2009

Why Supervisor?

Why Supervisor? Well because I believe I can do that job and find creative and exciting ways to raise revenue so that the people who are struggling to live in San Francisco can have an easier time at it. District 6 is where I have lived my entire Fourteen year stay in San Francisco. From the Hayes Valley to the Tenderloin and South Of Market to Nob Hill I have lived in them all. This is the heart of the city with the richest and the poorest all thrown together. It is an awesome responsibility to think that my voice might be chosen to represent this group of San Francisco environs. This neighborhood is where I found my voice and became the activist and leader that I have become. This neighborhood is where I learned to use this voice to stand up to injustice on a public level. Like the Ladies at the Compton Cafeteria I can no longer be silenced and I will not be still and I am using my voice to the best of my ability. I hope that my voice in some way echos my foresisters and starts to create change in the way our government treats the least and the greatest of these.
I have one idea that uses three of my favorite issues and could generate income. One saturday my partner Brett and I walked through SOMA and realized that this neighborhood is literally covered in glossy night club flies that are not recyclable due to lamination. These fliers are left to end up in the bay polluting our water, the ocean, and contributing to the already global disaster of our seas being filled with plastic particles. I say charge the club who is not responsible enough to clean up after an event one dollar per flier left on the side walk with in a 2 block radius. Put that money directly into solving the homeless issues that are becoming more and more pressing as this recession lingers on.
Ok so who is going to clean this up? Well I say we partner with an organization like the Community Housing Partnership who works with restoring dignity to the homeless through housing and work programs. They are used by many street fairs to supply workers and do a fantastic job every time. Also the reason I mention the Community Housing Partnership is that they have a 98% success rate in keeping people off the streets. From what I can tell its because they give the person their dignity by making them responsible in their own lives and offering a future. This is a way for everyone to win. Its simple. It 1. cleans the streets 2. helps the environment both locally and globally 3. provides jobs and revenue, 4. is a PRO ACTIVE solution, 5. It forces people creating litter to own up to it and be accountable. Also I have run a successful club and never once had to use glossy paper fliers and never had enough made even to cover an entire 2 block radius. It is waste on so many levels that this is a no brainer as far as revenue and environmental impact. This is not a punishment but a solution.
That is just one idea that at this time I can share.There are sure to be issues that need to be worked out with any plan but new and better solutions must be found and implemented so that everyone can live in this city. There are many many issues such as education, homeless, environmental, gentrification, traffic, and so on that can have a solution that generates new revenue and solves a problem at the same time and it can be very easy. I believe that I am a motivator and a very dedicated person who has ideas, a voice, and the desire to bring about this change and return government to its task of serving the people.
I am currently putting together a team to give this run the power and support I will need. The real campaigning starts this spring now is fundraising time. Deeanna Leitner and Jason Smart have signed on as Treasurer and Co Treasurer. I have asked two people to come on board as Campaigne Manager and co-Campaigne Manager. I am very serious about this and believe that I can win and do a good job with the position.
These are the reasons I have filed to run for Supervisor of District 6. The passion comes from not being able to sit back and watch what is happening to my peers across the land. Gay and Lesbian legislature based on bigotry and fear made law, our waste piling up so high that we are now in a state of emergency, money and help being denied AIDS patients who will die without this help. This is not what our government was meant to do. It was meant to work for the people and with the people not corporations and special interests. I am running because it is time for us to start making the change that we so desperately need. I want to be given the chance to start creating this change because I believe we can do it.
Anna Conda

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Thanks and now....

You know I want to thanks everyone. It was totally fun. The Cinch asked me to take a break for a few weeks and I have made the decision to just end it. The break was a result of the condos next door complaining about the noise. It is a bit more homophobic than that. The Polk no longer welcomes gay businesses and the Polk Street Merchants Association has even taken action against leasing to gay businesses. A perfect example is the Deco lounge being black balled and the continued pressure to end the gay presence in the Polk so that the Marina and all its clean falsehood can expand. It is gentrification and bigotry. It has been an entire year of facing this as a gay culture. In fact our last show was almost a year after Prop 8 passed and we did our Yeah Yeah Yeah's tribute.
I love Charlie Horse for its angry punk voice and fighting spirit. I loved it because it gave Marcy and Anna and Dam and Dean and Mutha and Juanita and anyone who wanted to be a part a home. The jokes became the story and the story fucking kicked ass! I love that we never played Madonna except when I performed her breaking our only rule... No Madonna thus giving Juanita and Turleen free rage to abuse us with her again. I love that Kiddie has no memory of her six month run as co host because she was blacked out downstairs by 11. I love that the Cinch was the hottest ticket in town because it is a fuckin awesome bar. I loved the bar staff who made the night work and gave us a home. I love the DJ's for making me dance and want to be somewhere. The "talent" that made us laugh till we cried and let us have fun without questioning it. I loved the Taco's pop corn, STRONG drinks. The shows. The girls. The Guys. The audience, you guys were AWESOME and I love you for all that you have given me.
A home. Unconditional love. Faith. Strength. A voice. Acceptance. Patience. A swift kick in the butt. A way to repay and give back for all that drag has given me. Since Boy Bar I was looking for a way to give back and I feel like I have. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. It has meant the world.
Im sad. Let's face it terribly sad. I am going to miss the shit out of this night. It has meant so much. I just don't want to dwell on my tears.
Charlie Horse has gotten me past wanting to wallow in my tears. I want to move on. I want to create and I don't want the hassles that a weekly on the Polk was bringing. I want to fight a bigger fight. I want to create change and this party made me believe that we can make that change. Plus I have Herr-A-Chick to get dressed like a lady and get drunk and fall down.( As a cougar it is harder on the body than it used to be.) Today in Sf there is so much going on in the city from Tiara Sensation to Ducal Court events and I want to be a part of that again. Plus I am a married lady and I am sure he could use a little more attention and less ego from me.
Yes its sad but its hopeful. Conservatism is not going to win and I am going to devote all the hours that I put into CH and make sure that this city and country start taking notice of the ways that they are bullying us. We need to mobilize in a greater force and I hope to spend the new freedom making that happen. I will see you in the streets and in the bars and maybe even on the Board one day. Wherever it is it's going to be because of the strength you people shared with me. Charlie Horse was magic. It was DIY till the end. It was inspirational. To be a part with you all has been the best and most fun I have ever had.
Special thanks to Bob and Robbie and Miss Lucy Borden. Special special to Lucy! Thanks sister. Thanks to the bar staff new and past that helped so much. I love you like you were family and thats why I treated you that way.
Charlie Horse RIP 2004-2009

Besos AC

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

YBCA Soap box

What is wrong with Gays today? We are a bunch of apathetic has beens who are letting state legislation be passed around this country removing rights, that we had already been granted, and we are doing next to NOTHING to stop it. I can not believe this is the same group of people who taught me to fight and never give up. That these are the people who told me that AIDS was what I made it, and my 20 years with the disease have proven that they were right. I did not get sad and withdrawn and just give over to this disease, this countries bigotry, my parents brow beating, just to be placed at the mercy of bigots telling me how I can change to fit their ideas of who I am or who gay people should be. I learned to fight for what it was I needed, we wanted, and against authority that is oppressive. Yet where are my people now? It is exactly this apathy that lets gay men and women be handed shame by society, that is not ours, and accept it. We have let ourselves be told what it is that will grant us our acceptance and we have started to change accordingly and we are loosing ourselves in the process. We have added letter after letter to our cause and created the innocuous label of LGBTQQIP instead of understanding who we are and what it is we offer.
Our shame is in listening to the society that is oppressing us instead of being true to the people we are and are meant to be. Our legacy is that of proud people who have made a difference through out history by spreading beauty, tolerance, magic and being shaman for a better world. There is no shame in who we are and never has been. It is our duty to stop believing this lie. This shame has poisoned us into a fearful state of surrender where we have lost our dignity and have masked it with ghettoization and lack of commitment. We have taken ourselves out of the battle and claimed that by rolling over and giving in we will just be handed rights. Gay people are foolish to believe that they are just going to get rights. There is no reason to believe that magically our rights will be guaranteed. In fact Main has just joined our great state in removing rights for gay people making us illegal in almost all 50 states. During our lives we have moved backwards into a more closeted and fearful existence. We are isolated from the world out side our ghettos and have completetly lost our voice because we want people to like us.
Instead of taking to the streets to declare who we are we have tried to pander to traditional "straight society" and made their beliefs our own. By choosing to try and include everyone; ie lgbqqip; we have missed the mark of what our battle is about. It is about us as a gay people deserving to be equal to others because we are PEOPLE. In this world to not stand up to bigotry has lead to terrible consequences and we must be vigilant that we are not next. With out making a noise that can not be ignored we are allowing ourselves to be herded like sheep and forced to change our "evil ways" or suffer. We have been hunted like animals and killed. We are taunted even in heavily gay areas and cities and the police are raiding our bars forcing us to act as people who deserve to be treated this way. We are arrested for showing affection. We live in fear because of who we are and because bigotry has not been questioned by us. If this has not gotten us into the streets on mass what will? Are we to remain silent until the doors of the oven have closed and we have no choice but to scream?
Our apathy is killing us. It is letting our culture go unnoticed and uncelebrated. The stories of great leaders remain a dim past that most of us don't know. Stories like We Wah the gay Native American who lead the largest of the Western tribes in the US for over 40 years. He was taken to Washington DC in the 1800's and presented as an Indian Princess even though he was over 6 feet tall and looked nothing like a woman. He worked with other gay Native Americans to stop the white mans tyranny and oppression of his people. Or Sappho the lesbian poet of Greece who held international fame and power. Quan Yin the father of Toaist thought and modern Chinese poetry. The story of how Oscar Wild decided to stay in England and be imprisoned instead of leaving England and saving himself. Or Harvey Milk who as an average person with the belief that he could make a difference and did. These are the stories that have led us to the point where we must now take up their voices and make them our own instead of listening to people who know nothing about us.
It is time to stand up for what we deserve and stop our apathy before it is too late. I am not advocating violence but I am suggesting we start stepping out of line. We as a people have every reason to be angry. We are made third class citizens and if it were to happen to any other minority they would not be silenced. They would not let fear and false shame keep them from getting the rights that we, like they, deserve. We must not be silenced and instead should clarify our voice and use it as loudly as possible. Our marches should not be shepereded by the police into areas most convenient to the city because what has been taken from us as a people is not convenient. Our anger is justified and if we don't start using our anger in a helpful way then it is going to fester away at us taking even more power from our hands. Shame and fear has made us into a people who are willingly letting ourselves be oppressed and we must say enough!
There is no reason that I should be here speaking instead of you. My voice is not so different than many of you. The reason I am here is because I have chosen not to take it any more and because we do not deserve this treatment and should not let people tell us that we do. One day I turned the corner and decided to commit myself and stop being selfish. I do not do this kind of work for me but for us. At five this morning I woke up knowing that what I had planned on giving you in my speech was a compromise and I was not happy with it and that I must work harder to clarify my voice so that I could share it with you. This voice is what I have come to listen to. Putting myself out and loud into the public arena is not easy. I doubt myself and come face to face with my own fear. However I believe that if we don't start using our voice it will be to late, not for me but for us. I have gained so much strength from my gay and lesbian peers that it is a selfish act for me not to stand up and be counted. It is truly a sin to not vocalize against the lies and slander that my people endure. It is our responsibility to be noticed, to be out, to be queer and to make a noise that can not be ignored. We as a people and a culture should not be willing to let apathy and fear get in our way. If we do not stand up together then we deserve what we get and are getting. We must rise as a queer nation and tell the world we are not going to take it any longer. It is not about turning a blind eye and hoping it will get better. It is about taking a stand because we know it should be better and casting off our shame and being who we are. There is no room for apathy and shame in our fight and we must join together to remove it. We must take to the streets and be visible. Not just on major events but whenever we feel like it. We must effect change in our every day lives and we must do it together and we must do it now. We can not wait because every second we wait another fag or dyke is kicked in the face because it is ok to do that to a "fuckin fag". Well its not alright and only our shame and apathy stand between us and the day when that stops happening.