Friday, May 18, 2012

Farewell SF!


The day after Christmas I finally had the guts to leave a relationship that was becoming more verbally and physically abusive over the last two of seven years. I stayed for as long as I did because I knew if I left I would be homeless. Now I am homeless and have been at the mercy of friends for almost 6 months. That is too long.

I have been without proper medical attention for a year. I have been HIV + for 25 years. This is a problem.

I have a bird named Conrad who I need to look after. He can not become homeless. We have been together for 17 years. I have to take care of him.

These pressures added to my PTSD; (due to my relationships abusive nature); have made it impossible to continue on in this manner. I have to do something about my situation.

I am 45 years old and have found my way through a 17 year stint in SF and now just have to move on.

I have by some miracle in this very traumatic last 6 months  been able to get 2 As in college, led a very productive 5 months at the Milk Club and almost 1 year at the Entertainment Commission.
Here in the city I have been in several Pride parades and Taken Back Polk, been part of the Castro Street Fair for 6 years, been Sainted by the Sisters, swilled beer at the Eagle and any other hole that served welcoming drinks, graduated from Miss Martys School of Beauty, dragged it out from Miss Trannyshack 2004 to Charlie Horse, and run for political office. I gave you my all SF!

I love this city and it is just my nature to try really hard, but I can achieve where ever I am. Since the city of San Francisco keeps selling itself out to the highest bidder and making deals like Twitter, I dont see how a temporary fix on my housing will help in the long run. 

Am I bitter... Hell yes!
I am mad as fucking hell!
But I will get over it.

I love you SF and you had better show up for the Milk Party this Monday because I have made up my mind to leave on the 30th.
Milk Soriee will be my last big appearence and I wanna share it with you. Because I love you.
This was a great 17 years! Changed my life. 

Anna

Also looking for a farewell party/moving fundraiser at the Cinch around the 27th.

Monday, May 14, 2012

NO to 8 Washington


Dear Supervisors,

As President of the Harvey Milk Club, I write to join the growing chorus of housing and neighborhood advocates opposing the 8 Washington luxury condo project. We ask you to reject its flawed EIR and deny the precedent setting bonuses it got from Planning including a 62% increase in height, a doubling of bulk and quadrupling of parking. This might have been justified for affordable housing but these condos will sell for $2.5 to over $7.5 million each including not 1 or 2 but 7 penthouses.

This is not the kind of housing San Franciscans want or need. It is housing for the ½ of 1%. A lot of it will be second, third and fourth homes for millionaires. As you know from a recent report by your Budget Analyst, this is the one (and only) category of housing in San Francisco that is overbuilt. Why build more?

In addition to the obvious problems with this project, it would also:

• reward owners of the Golden Gateway (they own 80% of the 8 Washington site)
at the same time they’re converting many of their 1,254 rent-controlled apartments
to short-term hotel use, destroying the kind of housing we actually do need.

• allow the Port to divert $30 million of future City tax revenue to Port projects,
including giving the developer a $5 million city subsidy.

• create a 400-car underground garage for a project touted as “transit oriented”

• put 20,000 dump trucks on The Embarcadero, up to one every 2 minutes, to
remove 110,000 cubic yards of dirt to build an underground (underwater) garage.

• destroy an active recreation facility used by thousands of residents each year.

Finally, the developer wants you to believe that those who oppose this outrageous project are “just a few vocal neighbors” or “the rich fighting the very rich”. That is simply not true. I join with the SF Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee, Senior Action Network, San Francisco Tomorrow, SF ACCE, Affordable Housing Alliance, the Golden Gateway Tenants Association, the SF Green Party, the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods and many more in opposing this ugly, needless project.

Please join us.

Sincerely,
Anna Conda/Glendon Hyde
President of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Questions about Milk Club Party

Hello Everyone,

First off let me state for the record we talked about pricing of the party A LOT!
$40 dollars is pricey but this is a major special event and only $10 after 10! However I totally understand the perspective that $40 is a lot to ask. I am there myself.
I scrape by in this city by the skin of my teeth and sandwiches provide by my work on Monday and Tuesday. (I cant wait for them to go back to the hummus. Egg salad not so much but I eat it.)
I am really grateful that I have dedicated myself to this club because the work that is being done is going to make people stand up and take notice.
It is part of our goal to really invite expressive exciting Queers to hang out with us.
Dont get me wrong we work very hard to bring a voice that is pro nightlife, pro drug policy reform, pro housing, pro people, pro sexworker, pro worker and questions why some voices are heard more than others.
This work and being a chartered Democratic Club require that we have money  because we have programs to run.
That money goes to help people like Jamie Rafaella Wolfe run for the DCCC and offer a new trans voice to the discussion. She is someone I truly stand behind and am proud to be organizing to support her future in the discussion.
This is what I am doing and to do this work takes money. Not for an office or for pay to any one. All labor is love motivated only.
So to help get your voice we are having a swanky shin dig at $40 dollars a pop. But um like I get the messages to go to these events and this price for what you are getting is pale in comparison. NOT that I can afford it but really we tried to be at least be reasonable.

Also from 10-2 there is a 10 dollar admission and that gets you a membership to Milk for a year! Thats how we arrived at that price.
 That features Stay Gold, Hard French, Honey Sound System, Bear-z-Bub, SOME Thing- Historic, Sucker Punch, and many more.
We want you to celebrate Harvey s Birthday with us! We are trying as hard as we can to get you to be with us.

So again its $40 and up from 7-10 where we give awards to
Jose Sarria (Total radical Ass Kicking mother of all Queens honey!)-Harry Britt Life Time Achievement,
Jon Ginoli (Pansy Divison) and Lynee Breedlove (Tribe 8 and Homobiles) Hank Wilson Activist Award,
The Ducal Court of SF- Bill Kraus HIV/Aids Activism Award,
El Rio - The Community Ally Award,
Transgender Law Center - Baynard Rustin Civil RightsAward
The Cockettes - Sylvester Pride in the Arts Award

Plus tributes to our awardees with live performances by Thrill Peddlers, Doug Hilsinger, Tom Orr and surprise guests. Along with Catering to die for!
This is a multi media presentation and amazing footage will be shared. Honestly I think Nate Albee thought he was producing a SMASH episode!

So we have a great night all night lined up no matter what your price range and if not this year join us and help out next year.
I would love to let everyone in for free.... trust Charlie Horse never cost no body nothin but maybe a liver or two, but this is simply a different situation.
Trust me I HATE knowing $40 is too much for some and nothing to others. It just reminds me why I am doing this work.

Anna Conda

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Letter from Milk and Alice









Dear Mayor Lee and Board of Supervisors,

We are writing on behalf of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club to ask you to fully fund HIV/AIDS services for San Francisco in the budget for the coming fiscal year. We ask that you find local General Fund dollars to replace the lost federal funds for San Francisco. 

As you know, the LGBT community has borne the brunt of the HIV epidemic in San Francisco since the beginning. Our two clubs have lost countless members to this disease and many of our members are currently living with HIV. Gay and bisexual men and transgender women have been particularly hard hit. This is an issue of utmost importance to us, and we ask that you prioritize filling these federal funding gaps as you put together your budget. We pledge to help you with this in any way that we can.

There are more people living with HIV in San Francisco now that at any point in the epidemic. And yet our HIV budget is shrinking. San  Francisco is facing major cuts in the federal funds that we depend on to reduce the spread of the disease and to take care of San Franciscans living with the virus. Ryan White funding has decreased over the years from $37.5 million in 2001 to $20.8 for 2012, a decrease of about 45%. This year we are facing:
·         A 20% cut, or $4.7 million reduction to the Ryan White grant for San Francisco, which would result in the loss of medical care, food, dental care, hospice care, mental health services, legal services, home health care, and other essential programs;
·         A 20% cut, or $3.1 million (the first installment of a 50% cut over five years) in HIV prevention funds from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC); and
·         The loss of $500,000 in services for young people with HIV at Larkin Street Youth Services because of a change in federal funding priorities.

If those funds are not replaced, San Francisco may see an increase in new HIV transmissions and a decrease in access to life-saving services for people living with HIV/AIDS, potentially leading to a preventable increase in deaths. We call on you to do everything you can to help avoid those outcomes. We understand that the city is facing economic challenges and that the budget is tight. If we do not replace these grants, however, we will face higher public health costs down the road: increased transmissions, expensive emergency room access and hospitalizations. It is more cost-effective to invest in prevention and care now.

Thank you for all of your work on behalf of the LGBT communities and we offer our help in building political support for a budget that replaces these funds. We look forward to working with you on this.

Sincerely,
Martha Knutzen and Reese Aaron Isbell, Co-Chairs of the Alice B Tolkas LGBT Democratic Club.
Anna Conda/ Glendon Hyde
President, Harvey Milk Club