Can’t make it during the week for an HIV Test? The Early Test is now available one Saturday per month at the AVRC in Hillcrest. The Early Test is free and confidential and can detect HIV as early as one week after exposure. Call to make an appointment for Saturday, Dec. 5. Testing hours are between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. For more information, call 619-543-8080

Martinis Above Fourth is seeking homemade wreaths for its annual wreath auction. Think you can build a better wreath? Put your creative energies to work and see the results displayed at Martini’s Above Fourth. The cabaret lounge will accept donated wreaths from individuals and businesses until Saturday, Dec. 12, at 11 p.m. The wreaths will be auctioned off at Martinis Above Fourth’s annual Wreath Auction event on Monday, Dec. 14, at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the auction will benefit The Center’s Eddie Conlon Youth Fund, which provides assistance to disadvantaged youth that are often turned away by their families. For more information, call 619-400-4500 or visit www.martinisabovefourth.com/WreathAuction.htm.

Equality Forum is accepting nominations for its GLBT History Month 2010 Icons. The deadline is Friday, Dec. 18. Each nominee must be a GLBT individual, living or deceased, who has distinguished themselves in their field of endeavor, is a national hero or has made a significant contribution to GLBT civil rights. Nominations should be submitted to nominations@equalityforum.com. To view the list of 124 Icons from 2006-2009, visit the archives at www.glbthistorymonth.com.

Marriage-equality organizations including San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality will host The Grinch Who Stole Equality, a winter caroling event in front of the Manchester Grand Hyatt on Monday, Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. Locals will be caroling Christmas carols that have been rewritten to be about equality, labor struggles and ‘Mr. Grinch’ Doug Manchester.

On July 10, 2008, UNITE HERE and GLBT leaders announced a full-scale boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. The coalition called for Hyatt to take action to correct a record of discrimination against workers at the hotel and because Manchester donated $125,000 to a political committee supporting Proposition 8, a November ballot initiative in California that seeks to make it illegal for loving gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Organizers encourage participants to bring flags, signs and wear Dr. Seuss costumes to the caroling event. The Manchester Grand Hyatt is located at 1 Market Place in Downtown. For more information, call 619-368-9948 or e-mail sarabrooks@gmail.com.

San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride will have gifted $93,633 by the first week in December to a plethora of GLBT community-supportive organizations. The funding has been made possible through a variety of channels that include proceeds generated from the annual Pride festival and other official Pride events, plus programs such as Friends of Pride, the Pride Ambassador Program, the Milk Money Holiday Campaign, partnerships and business support.

More than half of the Pride funds have already been distributed, the remaining $42,515 were granted to remaining recipients who attended a check-presentation ceremony on Dec. 2, at the Pride office in North Park.

Pride’s 2009 community grants include $16,400 to the San Diego LGBT Community Center in support of its Youth Housing Project, Annual Women’s Night, Harvey Milk Breakfast and 2010 gala and AIDS Walk. Some of the money has also been allocated for The Center’s general operating fund.

“We may be at $93,633 today, but by the end of the year, we will pass the $100,000 mark in funding and support,” said Ron deHarte, executive director of San Diego Pride. “The Milk Money holiday drive is just now reaching its peak and will take us over our goal of providing support at the $100,000 level in 2009. At the beginning of the year, with the challenging economic market and threat of less corporate support, we focused on delivering the same levels of programming while managing expenses and creating alternative sources of revenue to support our community enhancement work. With many community partners by our side, we made it through a tough year and our success is the community’s success.”

Other beneficiaries include Mama’s Kitchen; the San Diego chapter of the Golden State Rodeo Association; the Hillcrest Town Council; the Imperial Court de San Diego; and LGBT resource centers at San Diego State University and University of California at San Diego. Pride also gave more than $15,500 in festival tickets this year to active members of the military. A complete list of beneficiaries is available online in the “Our Giving” section under “About Us” at SanDiegoPride.org.

San Diego Pride, incorporated in 1994, has a long history of community philanthropy that extends also to other local, regional and international Pride organizations, such as InterPride, Tijuana Pride and the International Gay and Lesbian Organization. To date, San Diego Pride has given more than $1.4 million to numerous LGBT organizations as it continues to foster pride in and respect of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

The next major Pride awareness event is the Walk for Equality, scheduled for April 17.

For more information about sponsorship and volunteer opportunities, call the Pride office at: 619-297-7683 or visit the www.SanDiegoPride.org.

The Queer People of Color Collective is soliciting speakers, workshop facilitators and research presenters for the 5th annual Queer People of Color Conference on May 7-8, 2010.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Building Visibility: Through our Traditions, Active Leadership, and Pride” and the collective is seeking proposals for presentations and or workshops loosely based on the following themes:

Traditions: queering family, cultural traditions and norms; queer people historical, today or future; spiritual; re-inventing cultural traditions and queering them, and or re-inscribing a queer presence in our cultural backgrounds

Leadership: activism (in our communities and campuses); defining our activism/leadership as queer people of color; building leadership: looking within ourselves as queer communities of color; defining our past to create our futures, addressing health issues and social inequalities

Pride: embracing fluidity within our cultural and queer identities; recognizing queer role models of color (Who are they? How do we incorporate them into history?); what’s next politically in today’s generation for queer people of color (academically/activism/social injustice etc.); social movements; recognizing and bridging our queer communities of color (embracing diversity within diversity)

The deadline to send proposals is March 15, 2010. Proposals must include the following: name and institutional affiliation (if applicable), title and 300-word summary of proposed workshop or presentation and a 200-word biography. Send your proposal with the aforementioned requirements to qpoccsd@gmail.com.

Please do not send attachments! Proposals will only be accepted if they are sent in the email body (not as attachments). Proposals will be referred through a double blind review process. Presenters or workshop presenters should be prepared to present or facilitate for 60-minutes followed by a 10-15 minute session for audience comments or questions.

“With these sessions, we hope to put various academic and activist approaches into conversation and action, as we explore how the formulation of our sexual and cultural/ethnic identities allows us to overcome obstacles and challenge our individual, institutional and communal spaces to incorporate queer people of color,” said Queer People of Color Collective Co-Organizer Gibran Guido.

San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride recently honored 10 individuals as “volunteers of the year” for their outstanding leadership service to various programs, including the Equality Torch Relay, Rainbow Flag Project and the Pride Green program, as well as the production of Pride’s annual weekend celebration held in July. The following honorees were presented plaques at a volunteer appreciation party:

Carlos Pizarro, a Sign Crew team member and lead supervisor for the festival beer garden, also helped organize July’s Rainbow Flag Raising Project by reaching out to numerous businesses that took part in flying the rainbow flags on their properties during Pride season.

Ben Orgovan was instrumental in coordinating the South Bay leg of San Diego Pride’s Equality Torch Relay in early June, which delivered an unprecedented message of tolerance and equality to 18 cities within San Diego County. Orgovan also worked diligently as setup coordinator for Pride’s mile-long parade on July 19.

Eve Parker excelled in her role as lead organizer for the Equality Torch Relay’s East County route, recruiting participants to carry the torch through non-gay-friendly areas along that route. In addition, she coordinated and staffed the Walk for Equality booth at the Pride festival in Balboa Park.

Karen Stone worked this year as a parade safety coordinator and also helped produce the North County leg of the Equality Torch Relay. Stone is also part of the outreach team for San Diego Pride, and has devoted much of her time assisting with the marketing of the organization.

Mark Vierra traveled from Los Angeles to oversee performers’ hospitality areas for all entertainment stages at the two-day Pride festival, ensuring that this year’s artists were supplied with ice, water and snacks.

Larry Sanchez made his volunteer debut as ticket sales coordinator, and exceeded the expectations of the position by successfully keeping six separate ticket outlets stocked with necessary supplies while overseeing extra volunteer sales shifts as they were needed.

Moises Esparza, an A-Team assistant coordinator, ranks among Pride’s many youth volunteers for his versatility in carrying out challenging office tasks and providing operational crews with extra volunteer support when needed.

Philip Bowles significantly contributed to keeping Pride “green” as its parade recycling coordinator. After attending numerous pre-event planning meetings, he became instrumental in improving the “capture rate” of recyclable materials along the parade route and solicited teams of volunteers to join in the effort.

Pam Dunnam served as this year’s fleet coordinator, overseeing deliveries and inventories of golf carts, trucks and pickup vans that are critical to festival operations. Throughout the two-day festival, she also provided reliable transportation to entertainers and other volunteers entering and leaving the grounds.

Shane Hancock is honored for his outstanding service to Pride in overseeing the smooth setup and teardown of the festival site. Hancock is also responsible for coordinating production vendors and assisting crews from all facets of the weekend production.

San Diego Pride recruits and trains more than 1,000 volunteers each year for carrying out a series of community programs and its annual July celebration, which has become one of San Diego’s largest public events. To inquire about volunteer opportunities, call 619-297-7683 or visit www.SanDiegoPride.org.