The San Diego Men’s Chorus will perform at Cal State San Marcos on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. as part of the CSUSM’s 2007-2008 Arts and Lecture Series. Admission is free. Repertoire will include selections from the group’s upcoming holiday concert, “Sassy! Classy! Brassy!” The performance will be held in the school’s performance hall in Arts 111. Visit http://al.csusm.edu/A&L/index.php for more information on the SDMC’s performance or information on CSUSM.

Lambda Archives of San Diego, the GLBT community’s keeper of historical records, and a prime educational institution has officially announced its 20th anniversary celebration titled “20 Years . . . 20 Heroes” to be held on Saturday, Dec. 8 at the LGBT Community Center, located at 3909 Centre St. in Hillcrest. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the program will begin at 7 p.m. Lambda Archives, a non-profit organization, aims to collect, preserve and teach the San Diego community GLBT history.

“We are very excited about holding our first gala benefit for Lambda Archives of San Diego, and honoring 20 true leaders of our LGBT community,” said Frank Nobiletti, the archives’ president. “We want to highlight for all of us, and especially our young people, the extensive range of role models who are instrumental in making history every day by serving and strengthening our community, as well as all of San Diego.”

Nobiletti announced that the Dec. 8 event’s co-chairs are City Councilmember Toni Atkins and City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez.

Lambda Archives will be honoring 20 contemporary heroes in the GLBT community: Aaron Borovoy, the first elected openly gay president of a mainstream Jewish synagogue; Vertez Burke, longtime African-American lesbian activist and community leader; Ben Cartwright, longtime student/community activist; Alberto Cortes, HIV/AIDS and Latino activist and executive director of Mama’s Kitchen; Carla Coshow, longtime activist in the recovery community and business person; District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, the first elected lesbian district attorney in the nation; Tony Freeman, past Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) pastor and current executive director of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation; Robert Gleason, community/political activist, past board president of The Center, and national board member of the Victory Fund; John Graham, the first openly gay police officer in San Diego; Tracy Jarman, San Diego’s first lesbian fire chief; Julia Legaspi, longtime activist for the Asian-Pacific Islander transgender communities; Bob Lehman, former Marine sergeant, president of A.V.E.R. San Diego and co-founder of Stonewall Citizens’ Patrol; Joyce Marieb, executive director of the Greater San Diego Business Association (GSDBA); Bob Nelson, prominent businessperson and political activist; Tracie O’Brien, transgender activist and leader; Carolina Ramos, director of The Center’s Latino Services, longtime activist in the Latino community and feminist; Chris Shaw, longtime community leader, fund raiser, businessperson, and member of the San Diego Business Association Foundation; Todd Stevens, the first openly gay elected president of the San Diego Bar Association; Jim Ziegler, longtime philanthropist and member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Foundation; Bonnie Zimmerman, associate vice president for faculty affairs at San Diego State University, and women’s studies pioneer.

“These honorees are all true role models and heroes of not only the GLBT community but also the City of San Diego,” said Murray-Ramirez, who is on the Board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) of Washington, D.C.

The Dec. 8 event will include entertainment, hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction. General tickets are $50, and VIP tickets are $80. Major sponsorships are available as well. For tickets, table reservations, or further information call 619-260-1522 or 619-692-1967, or contact Lambda Archives at lambdaarchives.org.

The San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center (The Center) has announced that the November LGBT Community Coalition Breakfast will feature Dr. Carl Cohn, Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District. The LGBT Community Coalition Breakfast will take place on Friday, Nov. 16 from 7:30-9 a.m. at The Center, located at 3909 Centre St. in Hillcrest.

Cohn will discuss public education, with a focus on GLBT youth and teachers. He will also address the non-discrimination policies of the San Diego Unified School District.

Cohn has more than 35 years experience in education as a teacher, counselor and administrator. Before joining the San Diego Unified School District, he worked for 10 years as superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District, California’s third largest district. His tenure there made him the longest serving superintendent of any large, urban district in the nation. Cohn received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. John’s College, a master’s degree in counseling from Chapman University and his Ed.D. in urban educational policy from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

A full breakfast is available for a $10 donation; coffee and tea are complimentary. RSVPs are not required. ASL interpretation will be provided upon request, and must be sent to Caroline Dessert at cdessert@thecentersd.org at least seven working days before the event.

The LGBT Community Coalition Breakfast is sponsored by Wells Fargo, the Gay & Lesbian Times and San Diego LGBT Pride.

On Thursday, Nov. 15, Aging as Ourselves will sponsor “Maintaining Recovery During the Holiday Season,” a program for GLBT seniors in recovery and their partners. Robert L. Bettinger, Ph.D., will give a brief presentation and facilitate the program.

Robert Bettinger has been active in the GLBT community since 1975 and has had many years experience in developing and delivering community-based alcohol- and drug-related educational programs. He is a trained intervention specialist and is also an experienced spiritual counselor.

This program will be the first in a series of presentations for GLBT seniors in recovery. As one person in recovery stated, “AA members often like to support their recovery with competently prepared programs which help in all the steps and which continue to build self esteem and provide new ways of perceiving life, rebuilding relationships and moving on with sober living.”

“Maintaining Recovery During the Holiday Season” will be held at 6 p.m. at the S.A.G.E. Center, located at 3138 Fifth Ave. between Spruce and Redwood. Light refreshments will be provided. For further information, please call Tom at 619-298-9900.

Aging As Ourselves is an innovative community-wide collaborative that provides a safe and comfortable environment for GLBT seniors in San Diego to tap into culturally responsive legal, social and health-related services. For additional information, visit www.agingasourselves.org.

The San Diego LGBT Community Center (The Center) called last week’s vote on the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) a “bittersweet moment in our movement’s history.”

The measure passed 235-184. However, the amendment pushed by U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin, which would have extended the protections to transgender employees, was withdrawn due to lack of support.

“After three decades of work to pass a simple, basic piece of legislation, this is clearly a victory, but not a complete one,” said Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, chief executive officer of The Center. “The San Diego LGBT Community Center is not inclusive in name only. We supported the original version of ENDA, which would have protected lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in employment.”

“While there is some measure of success here, we have waited for far too long for this most basic of protections, the right to work free of discrimination,” Jacobs said. “It is incredibly disappointing that a portion of our community has been left behind for political expediency.”

Jacobs said political expediency is a wrong-headed direction, especially given that the Bush Administration has indicated the president will veto the bill.

“We call on President Bush to do the right thing and let this bill become law,” Jacobs said. “We are not optimistic that he will, given that he seems to save his veto stamp for measures that would actually provide real help for Americans.”

KPBS has announced the release of a new documentary titled Anyone and Everyone. The film tells the stories of families from across the United States who are all connected by having a son or daughter who is gay. Poignant and often heart-wrenching, the documentary by local, first-time filmmaker Susan Polis Schutz reveals the struggles of families as they try to understand and accept a child’s sexual orientation.

The film features families from a diverse range of religious and cultural backgrounds including Japanese, Bolivian, Cherokee, Mormon, Jewish, Catholic and Hindu. These parents share intimate accounts of their experiences when their children revealed to them that they were gay. While some showed unconditional support, many struggled with their child’s sexual orientation, fearing alienation from their extended family, their church or their community. The driving point of the documentary is that the families featured really could be “anyone and everyone.”

Anyone and Everyone is supported by community outreach both locally and nationally. KPBS is teaming with The Pacific Beach United Methodist Church to hold an open screening and discussion of Anyone and Everyone on Saturday, Nov. 17 from 7-9 p.m. The church is located at 1561 Thomas St. in Pacific Beach, one block south of the Ingraham and Grand intersection. The event is free and open to the public.

In addition to local outreach, KPBS has partnered with several national organizations to plan screenings across the country.

For more information contact Erin Fitzpatrick at efitzpatrick@kpbs.org, or visit anyoneandeveryone.com.

In cities across the country, the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is organized to commemorate the lives and mourn the losses of those killed due to anti-transgender violence. The remembrance ceremony features a moving reading of the names of transgender people who have died due to violence. TDOR is part a national effort to bring attention to anti-transgender violence.

The event was established to honor Rita Hester, whose murder in November of 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” (www.gender.org/remember) Web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder, like many anti-transgender homicide cases, has yet to be solved.

Locally, a candlelight march will be on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 6 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. program at The Center.