Election – Round 1

The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District will be managed by an Advisory Board of 15 people. This board will be chosen through three rounds of elections, beginning on December 14th. Click here for a complete description of voting procedures.

The first election was held on December 14th, 2019. Candidate statements for this election are below. These statements are presented as submitted by the candidates, and no attempt has been made to verify their content.

To submit a nomination for the next round of elections, click here.

Candidates

Shannon Amitin
Michael (Tod) Edgerton
Robert Graves
Sam Gray
Shaun Haines
Elizabeth Lanyon
Waide Riddle
Jesse Oliver Sanford
Anvar Shukurliyev
Sparks
Christopher R. Vasquez
Ron Williams

Candidate Statements

Shannon Amitin

Thank you for considering my application for the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District Board. I remember the moment I fell in love with the Castro: It was 1998, and I was 18 years old. It was late-June I was standing on the corner of Castro and Market, holding my girlfriend’s hand openly for the first time, taking photos with drag queens, and celebrating Pride . The energy was electric. More than two decades later, I’m now a 15-year resident of the Castro, dedicated to preserving our neighborhood for the next generation and beyond.

As a Trans activist, community builder, and entrepreneur, I’m dedicated to preserving the history of the Castro as the country’s most significant queer neighborhood — and working to make sure that neighborhood is safe and welcoming to all.

To that end, I’ve been a co-founder of two community safe spaces. Jolene’s opened in the Mission in late 2018 as San Francisco’s first queer woman- and Trans-owned bar, restaurant, and nightclub. farm:table, which I opened on Post Street in 2011, is a community-focused café and parklet. Building on these projects, I look forward to partnering with the community to create spaces and events for all Queer folks — especially folks of color, trans folks, and women who have not always felt welcomed in the neighborhood.

Currently, I am a member of the Castro LGBT Cultural District Working group, the Castro Merchants Association, St. James Infirmary’s Advisory Board, as well as on the planning committee for Trans Day of Visibility, Trans March, and Trans Day of Remembrance. It is my sincere hope to use my experience as a small-business owner and an active member of San Francisco’s LGBTQ community to help the Castro reach its full potential.

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Michael (Tod) Edgerton

Hi, I’m Dr. Michael Tod Edgerton—please call me Tod. I’m a poet and English professor who has lived in the Castro for three wonderful years, and I can no longer imagine living in any other neighborhood, let alone another city. It’s America’s Gayborhood, and I want to work with the District to keep the rainbow flags billowing as a proud symbol of the present—not the past.

As an artist and educator, myself, I am disheartened by the lack of arts in the Castro. While I love a good drag show and the occasional wild night of bar hopping (complete with my kick-ass karaoke version of “A Change Is Gonna Come” or “Purple Rain”), Queer culture in SF should not just be club culture. I’ve gone to a few literary and arts events at Strut on Castro Street, where I volunteer, once at a little gallery next to Mollie Stone, and at a couple of readings at Dog Eared Books—but these are very few and far between, and they don’t come even close to providing the density of arts events that the gayest neighborhood in America should be producing! When I go to an arts event, it’s almost always in the East Bay—and, if in SF, almost never in the Castro. It’s time to change that. I want a neighborhood filled with queers of as many colors and stripes as our rainbow flags, but also art galleries, performance spaces, and community arts workshops. I think the Castro should be a place where people come to seek out the best in the arts, not just that weekend hook-up. It should be as rich in forward-thinking artistic, cultural, social, and political activity and community as it was in its heyday. My husband and I intend to grow old in the Castro; decades from now, I do not want it to have become a neighborhood I once loved, wondering, as I enter MUNI to make my way to Oakland for the evening, where all the queer people have gone.

My most ambitious ideas for the District include putting some of the many empty commercial spaces to good use (every week, it seems, another business fails). I would love to be able to open more art galleries and to make the Castro Art Walk an even bigger event. I want to see educational and community spaces, performance venues, and affordable LGBTQ artists’ live-work spaces in the Castro. We need to bring not just the arts, but the artists back to the Castro, and housing is key to that aim. As an artist and arts organizer, editor, curator, and educator, I would love to work with community leaders to establish and help run such programs, perhaps partnering with Foglifter queer literary journal, the Castro theater, Dog Eared Books, Theatre Rhinoceros, Strut, ArtSavesLives, Spark Arts, and other extant organizations and spaces to nurture arts and artists in the Castro and help build more community in general. Three cheers for Queers, art, and community!

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Robert Graves

Commitment to the community
I moved to this city for the vibrance, and density of its queer community. I had no family here or a job set-up, but after seeing the Castro for the first time, I knew that it was a place I could feel at home more than any city in America. I am grateful for this queer community and want to do the work to keep it strong, active and lively.

Skills to share
I’ve launched a nonprofit, and worked in nonprofit organizations since graduating University with a degree in History and Fine Art. I can share skills in nonprofit organization, community engagement, marketing, event planning, and volunteer organization (bringing in more people and valuing the use of your time and talents). I work with awesome volunteers to plan and execute events all year round at work and I want the opportunity to share that experience within our community.

Managed a board, coordinating with active committee chairs to engage in fundraising, programming and outreach that benefitted well over a thousand youth in Southern Colorado (2017-2018).

Completed application for 501(c)3 designation and insured organization of a board, passage of bylaws, tax filings, and other bureaucratic minutia required to get an organization off the ground (2016).

Oversee hiring and human resources for more than two hundred seasonal youth and adult staff. Run logistics and health and safety for events with 400-600 participants regularly (current).

Constituencies I Represent
Young people in the Castro, gay and queer people new to the community.

Intention in joining the board
Contributing meaningfully to the community in an environment I am good at making an impact.

Hopes for the district
Preservation of current businesses, nonprofits and initiatives that hold space for queer people.

Protection for residents, buildings, youth and elders in our community

Growth in the Castro’s accessibility for all queer folks and and arts visibility

Ability to raise funds
I work for a nonprofit and have participated in the planning and execution of fundraising events by doing mailing, outreach, logistics before and following the event, setup, program planning, and coordinating volunteers. Events have ranged from small $5,000 to large $400,000. Primarily grassroots fundraising, and middle-income participants.

Although I don’t have a significant network in the district, cultivating relationships and asking for money for a cause that I believe in is something I have five years of experience doing professionally.

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Sam Gray

I have been an active member of our LGBTQ+ community in SF since 1990. For the last two years I’ve been working at the SF LGBT Center as the Community Programs Coordinator with a goal of giving back to the community that has supported me in many personal and business ways and also to learn more about non-profit work. My job consist of outreach and collaboration with community service organizations, businesses, and members, and representing the Center on advocacy committees, as well as creating content for events including branding and promotions.

I’m happy to be able to serve our community through my work at the Center and look forward to continue on this path. Before, my position at the Center I worked as an independent contractor for 20 years in the entertainment industry as an Event/DJ/Music Producer. I’ve been fortunate to work with different teams through the years producing events in SF, LA, NYC, Austin, Miami and Santiago, Chile. Yes, I do speak Spanish.

There is an intersectionality to my existence that allows me to bring different folks in our community together through music, and common interests. I hope to share that ability with the Castro Cultural District (CCD). I am Interracial, Latinx, Queer person that is known for bridging our sub-communities through events, groups, and education. There is no doubt that times are changing and there is a need to revitalize our local community in the Castro. Being on the Board for the CCD would allow me to work with fellow Board members in achieving that goal. I would like to see more Art & Culture back in the Castro. I’d like to enhance our community building and social competency together with our service organizations. I’d like to find a way to educate ourselves more about each other and find ways to continue to stand together as allies, after our marriage equality win. I would also like the CCD to work closely with TAY Youth Orgs in working to ending youth homelessness within the next five years. While focusing on this type work, we can find inventing and interactive ways to fund raise for the CCD without it seeming like a chore or a heavy lift.

My hope for the CCD is one to set a precedent of History, Her-story, Trans-story, Inclusion, Family, Unity, and Sustainability. The CCD has a great opportunity to solidify our communities presence in San Francisco and I hope that we can establish the District in a way that future generations will be proud to accept as their memoirs. Thank you for accepting my nomination and I hope the community will vote for me to be on the Board of the Castro Cultural District.

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Shaun Haines

Shaun Haines is two-spirited – born in San Francisco. Their pronouns are They and He. A Castro Cultural District work-group member, Shaun has been an effective leader creating success in areas such as:

• Securing our temporary fiscal sponsor and managing partner relationships
• Initiating a response fund for Castro fire victims
• Raising funds to provide for an operational budget for resources and supplies
• Producing literature and marketing material
• Established an online store, and our sample apparel
• Creating organizational banners, public notices and palm-cards
• Building our website, information management systems and organizer of our social media strategy, managing communications technology to reach over 200 members
• Managing community engagement; Castro Street Fair (2019/2018), OurTownSF (2019/2018), AlmosQueer (2019/2018), San Francisco Pride (2019) –volunteer management for these events

As a member of the City-Wide LGBTQ+ Cultural Heritage Strategy, worked toward securing our queer heritage from the forces of gentrification and cultural displacement.
Before becoming a founding member of Castro LGBTQ Cultural District work-group Shaun spent 15+ years working to address issues for the LGBTQ community of the Castro and San Francisco.
Shaun has worked to organize programs, work-shops, events and connected with people to develop community resources such as:

• Co-organizer 2019 of San Francisco BiCon. SF BiCon is the first Bay Area conference for bisexual people in over a quarter century
• Co-organizer of 2018 Holiday hygiene kit drive in Castro in collaboration with Sacred Space, San Francisco Impact Partners and the Gubio Project supporting our districts homeless
• Co-organized 2017 Pride SafeZone conference, providing LGBTQ resource clinics such as Name Change, DACA help, and discussions about racism in the LGBTQ community

Shaun’s background also includes the following experience:

• Organizing community events:
  • Organizing Queer Creative Art Exhibitions
  • Organizing Queer Performance Art Showcases
  • Organizing Queer discussion panels, conferences, galas and public demonstrations
  • Organizational development, nonprofit governance and media relations management
• Shaun’s LGBTQ Board Service Includes
  • Board Member, Sacred Space Member – The goal of Sacred Space is to meet the pastoral and spiritual needs of the LGBTQ community
  • Board Member, Pink Triangle Memorial Park Board – Stewardship of the Pink Triangle Memorial is America’s first historical landmark remembering Homosexual men persecuted in Fascist Europe between 1933-1945
  • Proud Ducal and Imperial Court Member – are the predominantly queer 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund-raising organizations
  • Former Member, Human Rights Commission LGBTQ Advisory Committee – provides assistance and advice to the Commission regarding discrimination against LGBT communities, advocates for the civil rights of persons with AIDS/HIV and educates LGBT communities about a diverse range of impactful issues
  • Former Board Member, San Francisco Pride – The Mission of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee is to educate the world, commemorate our heritage, and liberate our people
  • Former Speaker, LGBT Speakers Bureau – aims to bring an end to homophobic and trans-phobic violence and harassment by educating people
  • Shaun has also participated in the following
  • 3-time SF Aids LifeCycle rider
  • Testing Makes US Stronger HIV Awareness Campaign
  • Prep Supports Campaign

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Elizabeth Lanyon

I am Elizabeth Lanyon and I am interested in joining the Advisory Board for the Castro Cultural District. My relationship with the Casto includes as a resident, as a community organizer, as a patron of the many businesses in the neighborhood, one of which is owned by my partner. For many years, I organzied the Dyke March which ran through the Castro neighborhood and brought lesbian cheer to the businesses and merchants on Pride Weekend. During that time I also partnered with the Pink Party to ensure our events were safe and embracing of our communities. As a leader for the Women’s March, I helped with the Come Together Rally, as well as the unveiling of the Hope Will Never Be Silent artwork on the corner of Castro & Market. My favorite places in the Castro neighborhood are Alley Cat Books and Dekaki Jewels. My commitment to community is rooted in opportunity for engagement and representation, of everyone who calls the Castro home. I am interested in supporting the Castro Cultural District as this is a unique opportunity to participate in the City’s initiative to preserve and revitalize our neighborhood. It is a privilege to live in the CAstro and I am eager to offer my experience and commitment to this project.

I am a high femme dyke, non profit professional, organizer and activist. As a nonprofit development professional, I bring a strong background of experience in project management and fundraising. Significant fundraising experience includes writing and managing grants with foundation, corporate and government entities; sponsorship cultivation from small businesses and grassroots fundraising with networks of individuals. As an organizer, I understand the process and requirements for permitting, logistics and large scale event production. My intention in joining the board is to be part of the opportunity for neighborhood development that supports our vision of a vibrant Castro community. Just as the owners of Twin Peaks did years ago, when they removed the shades on the windows- I am interested in re imaging what our neighborhood for the community needs today. My hope is that our district will continue to thrive, to be home to families, small businesses, restaurants and bars, farmers markets and street festivals, yoga studios and every other kind of fitness; that the Castro district will be an inclusive, vibrant network of people who live, work and visit the area today.

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Waide Riddle

I have been visiting your grand city of San Francisco since the mid-eighties. I still travel there on a regular basis for work and to be inspired to write my next poem, screenplay or story.

I am an award-winning writer with over 35 awards to my credit. I also write Feature stories for the NoHo Arts District News, (http://www.nohoartsdistrict.com/entertainment-all/the-lines), which covers Los Angeles County & the entire San Fernando Valley.

Though I am based in Los Angeles, I also call Castro my home. As I pointed out, I travel frequently there for business & inspiration.

My intention to join the board is simple: To be a part of a Team of like-minded individuals who want to preserve the Historic Heritage that Castro is and represents. I have observed how the City of West Hollywood has given itself over to greedy developers and contractors and representatives. Any and all available real estate is now gone-way to being bulldozed and replaced by ‘Luxury Condos.’ This includes Historic architectural designs and vintage buildings that made West Hollywood so special and unique. I give you this warning, this is exactly what will happen to Castro if you do NOT act fast & now! Rents are skyrocketing in Castro, as well as WeHo, and I see the sad effects. You will lose the charm, the sweetness & ambience that defines Castro if you’re not careful.

Your Artists are everything! They are the pulse of any great city and community. WeHo chased the Artists out many years ago with astronomical rents. Don’t let that happen to Castro.

Our Straight Friends & allies are important and we love them. We have worked hard for their Friendship. Those friends will also understand how important it is to keep Castro the gay mecca that it is.

WeHo, on the other hand, is mixed, and has evolved out of being the ‘Boys Town’ that it once bragged it was.

Affordable Housing & the homeless … where do I begin? A problem and dynamic that faces us all here and across America. A topic that has many answers and questions and must be addressed. Can Castro be a Leader & model in this area?

I’m 56 and I’d like to think I represent the ‘young-minded’ seniors. No, I don’t do karaoke and I hate bingo. I’m not sure why ‘those things’ became to define seniors. I love a great dance party that includes music from the 1960s-90s! LOUD! We’re NOT dead, yet! Perhaps, I can help organize a dance party as a fundraiser. As we know, fundraising is a key element to a successful charity. DANCE! DANCE! DANCE! As a DJ, (my fantasy career) I own over 6000 classic TOP 40 Hits, and I can even help DJ the fundraiser.

In conclusion, I have been a member of San Francisco’s own Sundance Association For Country Western Dancing for 16 years, with many of its members in Castro.

I love your community & I would like to be a part of the Castro LGBT Cultural District’s mission!

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Jesse Oliver Sanford

As a board member of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, I will fight for:

* LGBT-affirming housing, the foundation of our neighborhood’s existence;
* Supportive job training and employment opportunities, especially in empty storefronts;
* Safer hangout spaces for queer youth;
* A permanent home for the nation’s first LGBT museum;
* A path to integration for LGBTQ refugees from the US and beyond, regardless of economic means;
* Racial and gender justice, especially through diverse leadership that actively challenges white supremacy.

I am a democracy activist, queer liberationist, Radical Faerie, software engineer, anthropology PhD, and Castro resident. I’ve been involved with this organizing process since the first meeting in Spring 2018. As chair of our Governance Committee, I facilitated the discussions that led to the election process we’re conducting now. I recently led the meeting in which we chose the LGBT Center as the District’s fiscal sponsor. I was honored to represent at the City’s recent Cultural District conference and Japantown’s Town Hall. I’ve worked closely with elected officials and City staff. And I’ve witnessed firsthand the Cultural Districts deepening San Francisco’s commitment to communities that have faced oppression and displacement, building bridges not just within but between them.

As a board member for three years, I drove the replacement of Pride’s website, and organized Pride in Tech, one of Pride’s most successful individual donor fundraisers. In 2016, fighting to save the Sausage Factory building, I solicited pledges of $200k in private funds. As CFO of the Radical Faerie organization Nomenus, I helped open membership to people of all genders, beginning a transformation that continues a decade later, raising revenue and bringing on fiscally-sponsored projects across the country, from an intensive retreat program to a permanent trans-centric intentional community in Tennessee.

I’ve spent much of my time these last few years learning about affordable housing, real estate regulation, and land trusts. I’ve learned from the example of the PoC-led EBPREC, which recently acquired property in the East Bay. I organized a panel discussion at the activist conference Creating Change, where I delivered a history of US housing policy, showing how it so often continues the theft of Black and Indigenous land.

In advocating the use of City funds for member housing for social organizations, I am one of the only people proposing a concrete solution that would deepen Cultural Districts’ character and strengthen LGBTQ-affirming social groups such as the Imperial Court and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

The Castro’s impact on global LGBT culture can scarcely be overestimated. It was here that Gilbert Baker transformed 8 colored stripes into the globally-recognized symbol for our community. It was here that Cleve Jones first conceived the AIDS Quilt. Here we love, we fight, we celebrate, we grieve. The Castro is sacred space. Yet we are also a neighborhood. Conditions on the streets have become unacceptable; no one should have to live their most intimate moments in public. The vision that brings us together must recognize both sides of this coin.

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Anvar Shukurliyev

Hello, my name is Anvar! Last two years I had a plan. First, to come in to the gay community of San Francisco and introduce myself. I am using any opportunity for that, I work as a volunteer in SF LGBT Center, I am a student in SFCC ( to improve my English asap), I am attending every Mondays Gay men’s chorus as a guest, and every Thursdays I am in Rainbow Toast Masters club. Also I am using any chances to ateend any events ralated to the gay community in the city. I am a person, who have found his own home here. I lived before in Europe and Asia, i was happy there but i did not find my home there. My last attempt to find my home was Nepal. I thought that it would be a chance to tell people about our lives. But the head of monks adiveced me to return to people and serve them. I took whole my courage and made my the darest dream an reality. I live here now in my home in San Francisco. It happened because of Harvey Milk. I am also his legacy. He would be very proud of us if we prolong his work. Not with a fight for freedom only, but with a making a next step to be Good people!

But I came here not with empty hands. I brought you my treasures: my experience, my skills, my stories, my revelations. I understood how the life can be when you believe in the better future of the humanity. Time to time I am sitting on the bench or in the cafes in the Castro smiling as an idiot, someone can think. But I do not care. This is the highest happy feeling I have ever felt. Non of the drugs can give you that. This feeling derives form the root of the deep understanding of our life and from my dream to make a next step in our evolution as human beings.

We live in the time of changes. We live in times of such people as Greta Thunberg. Wether you want it or not, but now it is time to change yourself, the time to make next step in human’s evolution.

As a generation whom young people judge is, as Greta Thunberg, we still have a chance to get their forgiveness. If even this young generation can be successful to preserve our nature, our planet, they can still face with the problem as we did. To preserve our planet we need change our mind. Someone might say, it is not possible. Wrong! Look around how many people have waken up already. How many people are trying to change not only their old habits of living, but also their minds. We have to understand how happy we are living in the time of changes. What are we waiting for? We are so close to it as never before. We can make this leap together.

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Sparks

It is with great enthusiasm that I am pleased to submit my candidate statement for the Castro Cultural District Board! I’ve lived in San Francisco for the last 16 years and in the Castro specifically (Collingwood and 18th) for the last five years. Every day, as I walk the streets of our neighborhood, I feel so lucky to live in a place with such a vibrant and active LGBTQ+ community and such historical significance to the broader LGBTQ movement. It would truly be an honor to play a larger leadership role in the process of envisioning, strategizing and developing ways that we can preserve and promote the cultural significance of the Castro. In addition, as one of the few single, lesbian, women of color in the neighborhood who actually owns a home in the Castro, I feel a strong sense of personal responsibility to represent the needs, interests, and dreams of my community’s past, present and future. I appreciate and value the fact that the Cultural District planning process is so community-driven and would love to help bring in the many voices and perspectives that represent our diverse community.

I currently serve as Executive Director of a family foundation and, after 12 years of working in philanthropy at the local and national level and being a donor myself, I am very tapped into the philanthropic community. I’m excited to strategize on the many ways we can bring in more resources to support the goals of the Castro Cultural District. I have a long history of supporting nonprofits and a wide range of communities in San Francisco. I’ve served on many Boards of Directors including SFWAR, HEY (Honoring Emancipated Youth), and for six years on the Board of the San Francisco LGBT Center. In addition, I’ve also spent significant time volunteering with Horizons Foundation (Program Committee member for the last 12 years) and I started HYPE (Horizon Foundation’s young donors giving circle). These experiences have given me a diverse set of skills in nonprofit fundraising, governance, leadership development, and finance which will surely benefit the Castro Cultural District Board.

Last, but not least, I simply have a huge amount of excitement about joining the Board! I know our work won’t be easy. It will require strong commitment, good communication skills, the ability to engage and listen to many different groups of stakeholders, and the creativity to dream but also the practicality and dedication needed to implement. I am excited and up for the challenge!

Thank you for considering my application. If anyone would like to hear more about my background and interests, I’m more than happy to chat.

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Christopher R. Vasquez

Thanks for your considering my candidacy to join the Castro Cultural District Board. When I first came to San Francisco as a newly-out, 17-year-old, queer, Latino man, I spent four days exploring every aspect of the Castro, having learned of the vast queer history of the neighborhood from older friends who lived there throughout their lives. So, when I moved to San Francisco nearly 11 years ago, it made sense that the Castro would be where I would gravitate towards, and where I would involve myself personally and professionally.

Over the last decade, I have dedicated myself to neighborhood in every facet, including nightlife, non-profits, politics, small business, and art and culture. I also had the unique opportunity of learning the in-depth, inner workings of the Castro through nine years of living with a former SF Supervisor who represented the District.

Now a formal Castro resident myself for over a year, the District is not only where I find myself at home inside my apartment, but also home with my fellow LGBTQ community that makes the district the most vibrant and welcoming in the City, as it has been since the 1970s.

In my professional life I serve as the Communications Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), an LGBTQ organization that has called San Francisco its base of operations for more than 40 years. Outside of my professional experience in non-profit, LGBTQ communications strategy, I have also been involved with numerous organizations in the City, including the Alice B. Toklas LBGTQ Democratic Club, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, GLAAD, and the SF LGBT Center, as well as keeping close personal and professional relationships with local elected officials.

Throughout all of this experience and the network of connections I have curated, I would be able to bring a broad range of skills to the District Board, including communications/marketing/PR, networking, fundraising, government affairs, nightlife/event planning, and non-profit management. In my role on the board, I would hope to lend a voice to queer and Latino men, as well as be a conduit for non-profits and nightlife that call the District home.

When elected to the board, I look forward to working with my fellow board members to preserve the vast and beautiful queer history and lineage that has been crafted over decades by residents, artists, activists, business owners, nightlife visionaries, and politicians before us. But more importantly, I very much will be a part of board that understands that diversity is what made the Castro the great neighborhood it is now, and will work daily to find ways to ensure the Castro Cultural District is as inviting to people of color, youth, and our trans and non-binary family as possible, as there is no community unless everyone is included.

Thank you again for your consideration of my candidacy to the Castro Cultural District Board.

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Ron Williams

I lived in the Casto in the early days from 1967 through 1977 when during the time of Harvey Milk. I lived at 651 Castro Street had a small graphics and advertising production company, Exactly That Productions, at 556 Castro, initially did typesetting, ad production and freelance photography for the BAR (Bay Area Reporter). From 1978 to 1984 I lived at the Russian River and worked in the wine industry as a marketing and advertising position.

1984 – 2015, I returned to the Castro, and worked at Chevron Corp. Headquarters downtown and lived at 4064 – 18th Street until 2015. During that period I started Webcastro.com with an associate, during the dot com period, 1995, WebCastro.com was viable until the more advanced web companies took over, webcastro.com is still online as a photo-archive.

As a resident of the Castro, I photographed, Pride, Castro St. Fair, Candlelight marches, activities, protestd on the street and Halloween and Pink Saturday. Hundred of photographs. During my time in Castro, I also worked for Marc Huestis managing his video at the Castro Theater, volunteered for the Frameline LGBT film festival.

I’m apart of the Gay elders that lived in the Castro during the early days, I was born in San Francisco and published an autobiography about my coming out and the early days in the Castro. Today I’m 75 living in Palm Springs with my husband Howie.

I feel very strongly preserving the Castro. Here a video did about Harry Britt did remember Harvey Milk at the 1998 20th Anniversary of that dreadful day.

As of today I just published “Capturing Our Diversity” a photo-essay memoir of San Francisco Pride Parades going back to 1980.  3 Decades of San Francisco, PRIDE Images and Pink Saturday in the Castro.

Living in Palm Springs, I could help in an advisory or Witness To History. Also, I’ve been a member of the GLBT Historical Society.

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