The Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego thanked the entire San Diego community for its continuing support when the chorus presented its family-friendly concert, Holiday Toons, to hundreds of audience members at the Birch North Park Theatre on Dec. 13 and 14.

The shows included music inspired by Alvin and the Chipmunks, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Jack Frost to Santa Claus. The GMCSD performance also featured a newly-staged full production of Tommie dePaola’s award-winning children’s story, Oliver Button is a Sissy. Elaine Graybill, GMCSD board of directors vice president, narrated this story with its messages of love and acceptance, which the group hopes to raise funds to take to San Diego County schools in 2009.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego will soon kick off its 17th Season of Singing Out with an Info Night that will take place on Monday, Jan. 5, 2009, beginning at 7 p.m. All interested singers as well as non-singer volunteers who would like to join the GMCSD or who want to learn more about group are welcome to attend.

Info Night is dedicated to welcoming potential new members and will take place at GMCSD’s regular rehearsal space inside the University Christian Church, located across the street from the post office in Hillcrest and DMV.

Those who attend Info Night will have the opportunity to learn even more about the Gay Men’s Chorus, meet current members, and hear samples of GMCSD’s sound. The evening will also feature food and fun, prizes and surprises. Those who cannot attend Info Night can also contact GMCSD about auditioning at a later date.

For more information about the GMCSD, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com/links/1096.

San Diego LBGT Pride unveiled its theme for the 2009 Pride season: “Stonewall 2.0: Activism for Equality.” The theme commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City while embracing today’s new generation of GLBT grassroots activists and the methods they’ve used for mobilizing attention to equal rights.

Each year, San Diego Pride solicits theme submissions from the community at large before its board of directors selects the theme that best sets the tone for the annual celebration in July.

“This year’s theme reflects on gay civil rights activism of the last 40 years and calls upon each one of us to take action and demand full equality,” said Pride executive director Ron deHarte. “We’ve made many advances since the Stonewall Riots marked the start of the modern gay rights movement in 1969, and since San Diego’s first Pride march was held 35 years ago. The inner activist in each of us must answer the call to achieve full civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights for all LGBT people.”

The Stonewall 2.0 movement includes many first time activists who recently began utilizing e-mail, websites and social networking groups on the Internet, plus viral videos and cell phone text messages to the tried and true tactics of marches, protests, and sit-ins.

“Stonewall 2.0” has been embraced by mainstream and GLBT press after local blogger and journalist Rex Wockner pushed the moniker into the national consciousness with his reporting of massive protests that ensued after Proposition 8 passed in November’s California elections.

San Diego Pride is the non-profit organization that hosts San Diego’s Pride celebrations during the month of July. This year’s festivities include a free, mile-long parade at 11 a.m., July 19, through the heart of Hillcrest, and a two-day festival replete with non-stop entertainment, multiple performance stages and 200 exhibitors. The festival will be held on July 18 and 19.

Parade participants are encouraged to start working ahead of time on their float ideas to reflect the “Stonewall 2.0: Activism for Equality” theme. Parade applications will be available online beginning in early February, and festival tickets can be purchased through the Pride web site starting in April.

Almost half of the more than 70,000 children in foster care in California will become available for adoption, yet few foster family agencies have adoption licenses. In 2006, to meet this growing critical need, Walden Family Services began the formal process to become licensed as a domestic adoptions agency and, after an 18 month process, announced that it has received its license to now execute domestic adoptions. The new license is expected to make a foster child’s transition to a permanent home less cumbersome for the child and prospective parents.

“Many families become foster parents believing they do not want to adopt,” said Karny Stefan, CEO of Walden Family Services in San Diego. “Then, a child is placed in their home and becomes a part of their life, more than they had imagined. Having our adoptions license will allow us to make the often emotional and stressful process of adopting much less arduous so that they can spend their time growing as a family.”

According to Beth Barnes, executive director of Adoptions for Walden, “Since we can now serve as both a foster care and adoptions agency, the continuity of services and staff is maximized, making the process smoother for the adopting parents and the children.”

Many of the children served by Walden are special needs kids, and need to be placed in loving, nurturing homes. “Being adopted by loving parents is one of the most special gifts a foster child – especially one with developmental disabilities – could ever receive,” said Stefan. “Our goal at Walden is to assure all foster children in our care have the best chance at being placed in a loving home.”

Founded in 1976, Walden Family Services is a licensed, private treatment-level foster family agency providing safe homes, compassionate caregivers, and loving family environments to foster children. Accredited by the California Alliance for Child and Family Services and with a $10 million annual budget, Walden is the only agency in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties – and one of the few in San Diego County certified to handle clients with autism, cerebral palsy, physical disabilities, medically-fragile and other special needs. Walden also has Independent Futures, a program dedicated to helping youth emancipating from the foster care system transition into independent living.

For 32 years, through a variety of comprehensive programs and specialized services, Walden has enabled Southern California’s most vulnerable children to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives, supporting their pursuit of the promising futures they deserve.

E-World Recyclers will host a free electronic waste disposal day on Saturday Jan. 3, 2009, at the E-World Recyclers facility in Vista. All electronic products such as computers, fax machines, television sets are welcome. No hazardous waste or large household appliances such as refrigerators will be accepted. The free electronic waste disposal will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com/links/1096.

Dignity San Diego joined with other catholic reform organizations and GLBT civil rights groups on Dec. 19 in condemning the Vatican’s opposition to expanding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to decriminalize homosexuality.

While Benedict XVI celebrated Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 by saying that “the dignity of every man is really guaranteed only when all his fundamental rights are recognized, protected and promoted,” the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, speaking on behalf of the pope, lobbied member states to reject a proposal that would add language to the document condemning “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Tom Kirkman, former president of the local Dignity Chapter, echoed the response by Marianne Duddy-Burke, DignityUSA’s executive director who said “We applaud the United Nations for its call to end the laws that make gay and lesbian people criminals. But our joy is overwhelmed by our shock over the Vatican’s opposition to this initiative. Using faith and religion as an excuse to support laws that allow countries to imprison or execute gay people is shameful. We cannot be silent-the Vatican does not speak for all Catholics on this.” The Vatican maintains that the declaration would force countries to legalize same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church was very active in California in the passage of Proposition 8.

Dignity San Diego is a Catholic Christian organization providing a safe and supportive faith community for GLBT Catholics and all seeking a healthy connection between their religious traditions and spirituality through weekly worship, social and service activities.