The much talked about concert by Icelandic pop star Bjork scheduled to be held at The Flame on Wednesday, Jan. 15, was cancelled and the promoter behind the event ran off with the $16,000 collected through ticket sales. The concert was being hyped as an intimate evening with Bjork but turned out to be a scam perpetrated by Alex Conate, aka DJ Liquid Groove.

On Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2003, the mayor and the full city council proclaimed “Gay and Lesbian Times Day” in the City of San Diego. Councilmember Toni Atkins presented the proclamation in council chambers, shortly after 10:00 a.m. Deputy Mayor Ralph Inzunza followed Atkins’ presentation with words commending the Gay and Lesbian Times for its coverage of the Latino/a and various other communities in San Diego, speaking to the importance of building coalitions between communities to increase tolerance and diversity for the benefit of all San Diegans.

For only the second time in its 31-year history, the royalty of the Imperial Court de San Diego stepped down from their positions as Emperor and Empress. The Board of Directors of the Imperial Court announced in a press release the joint resignation of the 31st elected Monarchs, Victor and Cassandra-Marie Stahl.

Guillermo Romero, a 40-year-old man from Chula Vista, pleaded not guilty in a South Bay court to the stabbing death of his partner, Felix Anthony Acosta. Guillermo was taken into custody on Tuesday, Feb. 4, when Chula Vista Police responded to a 911 report of a stabbing at his and Acosta’s home in the 700 block of Jefferson Ave., shortly after 10:00 p.m. Detectives from Chula Vista’s Homicide Division and Family Protection Unit were assigned to the case to investigate the murder as an act of domestic violence.

Guadalupe Benitez, a North County woman who was denied fertility treatment by her insurance-provided specialist because she is a lesbian, learned that she would have her day in court. Benitez claimed that when her doctors refused to treat her, she was denied her state protected civil rights. In a unanimous decision, the California State Court of Appeals, Fourth Appellate District reversed the decision of San Diego Superior Court Judge William R. Nevitt that threw her case out of court on grounds that Benitez’s doctors were protected by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which would override state law.

The Toni Atkins Lesbian Health Fund (TALHF), formally established in January of this year by the Imperial Court de San Diego in conjunction with The Center, assists low-income, uninsured and underinsured lesbian and bisexual women in need of medical treatment, referrals, support, education, advocacy and guidance through the healthcare system. Funds are available to eligible women for any necessary health care appointment, procedure, or examination, including lab tests and medications.

The Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA), a bill that would give couples in permanent partnerships the same immigration benefits legal marriages bestow, reached 100 cosponsors when Rep. James Greenwood (R-Penn), signed on. The most prominent feature of the PPIA would allow U.S. Citizens and lawful permanent residents to sponsor their permanent partners for immigration purposes.

GLimmigration, a San Diego support group for bi-national couples, celebrated at a fundraiser held at Diversionary Theatre May 9. The group honored Congressmembers Bob Filner and Susan Davis for their leadership in sponsoring the PPIA.

The Center’s renovation, which began in September 2002, involved a complete redesign of the main level, including new meeting rooms, a senior space, an open lobby and drop-in area, larger bathroom facilities and an upgraded cyber center. The building is now fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with enlarged hallways and doorways and improved handicapped parking.

Although the original plan was to do all renovations at the same time, Jacobs said the escalating cost of construction made it necessary to do it in three stages. Phase II will include redoing the front patio area and finishing the basement to make it suitable for housing programs. According to Jacobs, CDBG funds have been requested for those two projects.

The first ever San Diego Youth Pride: Shake, Rattle and Revolution was held in The Center parking lot Saturday, May 3, and organizers estimate over 250 people came out to attend the event despite rainy weather during the first hours of the celebration.

In addition to the live performances, there was music playing at the festival all day, along with food booths, information booths and a rock-climbing wall for anyone who craved a little more excitement or wanted to get a bird’s eye view of Youth Pride.

In a 10-6 vote May 27, The Center’s board of directors approved a proposal that would require all prospective board members to undergo either a criminal background check or to sign an affidavit stating they will have limited interaction with youth, and no direct fiscal responsibility. The issue of background checks first came before the board in September 2002, when it was announced that the procedure would be necessary for The Center to get liability insurance coverage at a reasonable rate.

Currently there is no plan for implementing the criminal background checks and no clear definitions have been set up to clarify what criteria applicants will be screened for in the process.

San Diego-based Healthy Youth Advocacy Program (HYAP), formerly known as Positively Speaking, closed its doors on May 2 after funds reportedly showed up missing from the organization’s general fund. The Gay and Lesbian Times received an anonymous phone call at that time, alleging the organization’s founder and executive director, David Blair, had used money from grants to pay for personal expenses, leaving the organization with no funds with which to pay operating expenses, including the salaries of three paid staff members, including Blair, who was the organization’s executive director, CEO and a board member.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against Santa Ana-based Olive Crest Family Care and Adoption Agency, on behalf of San Diego lesbian couple Shannon Rose and Jane Wesley Brooks. The suit claimed that although Rose and Brooks were assured that their sexual orientation would not be taken into consideration in the adoption process, they were ultimately dropped from the organization’s adoption certification program because they are lesbians and the policy gives preferential treatment to married heterosexual couples.

Olive Crest filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, in essence claiming that even if the accusations presented in the lawsuit were true, it is not unlawful to prefer nuclear families. However, the state of California’s community care licensing agency informed Olive Crest that the policy is not consistent with state regulations.

On Thursday, June 12, the California State Assembly passed Assembly House Resolution 32, authored by Assemblymember Christine Kehoe, with a vote of 42 to 24. Every Republican assemblymember either ab-stained or voted against the bill.

At the heart of the issue are two paragraphs in the resolution, written in an attempt to include every likely variation on fatherhood, including gay dads: “Whereas, America’s families reflect the wonderful diversity of our society as our fathers come from all backgrounds, including single fathers, foster fathers, adoptive fathers, biological fathers, stepfathers, families headed by two fathers, grandfathers raising grandchildren, fathers in blended households, and other nontraditional fathers; and Whereas, America’s fathers and mothers give us unconditional love, wisdom, care, and comfort each and every day of the year; and whereas, Father’s Day presents us with an opportunity to celebrate fatherhood and remember all fathers, whether biological, foster, adoptive, or a stepfather, and that we should honor our fathers every day of the year…”

Although the paragraphs were meant to be inclusive, some chose to interpret them otherwise.

On July 14, all eight members of the San Diego City Council and Mayor Dick Murphy voted unanimously to amend the city’s Human Dignity Ordinance (HDO) to protect the civil rights of transgender San Diegans. The city council had to approve the amendment again in a second vote on July 28 before it became law.

The HDO amendment adds gender identity, defined as “having or being perceived as having a gender-related identity or expression whether or not stereotypically associated with a person’s actual or perceived sex.”

Ted Weathers, an openly gay Superior Court Commissioner, was at the Statue of Liberty when his cell phone rang. It was the office of Gov. Gray Davis, calling to tell him he had been appointed a San Diego Superior Court Judge. A former board member of the predominantly gay and lesbian San Diego Democratic Club, Weathers relinquished his political affiliations when he was appointed a commissioner in 2000.

As the first openly gay man appointed to the bench in San Diego County, Weathers broke new ground for the GLBT community. Although District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis was out as a lesbian when she took office as a judge, she was elected, rather than appointed.

On July 31, a federal judge ruled the Boy Scouts’ land lease in Balboa Park unconstitutional. “It is clear that the Boy Scouts of America’s strongly held private, discriminatory beliefs are at odds with values requiring tolerance and inclusion in the public realm,” U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. wrote in his summary judgment, finding the City of San Diego’s lease to the Boy Scouts of America in violation of the California State Constitution and the first amendment of the United States Constitution.

Jones said in his decision that the lease extension was the result of exclusive negotiations that implied the city’s endorsement of the Scouts’ “inherently religious programs and practices.”

The city’s growing number of GLBT youth and families with school-age children will finally have a greater opportunity to have a say in how they are represented in the San Diego School District. During the recent redistricting, members of the GLBT community — including members of the San Diego Democratic Club and representatives of The Center — all spoke in favor of establishing a district that consolidates the Hillcrest, North Park, University Heights, South Park and Golden Hills neighborhoods. The newly established District D does just that, giving the high concentration of GLBT com- munity members in the area a strong voice in selecting a school board representative that will address their concerns.

On Aug. 5, the California Supreme Court ruled, 6-1, to reverse a lower court ruling that California adoption laws did not permit second-parent adoptions. The ruling in Sharon S. v. Superior Court came as a great relief to the many GLBT parents who feared that the lower court ruling would invalidate all California second-parent adoptions, leaving their children without financial support, inheritance rights, Social Security or retirement claims from the second-parent’s estate if they died or were incapacitated. The ruling also threatened children’s health and insurance benefits by nullifying the legal relationship between children and parents, stood to deny second-parents the right to make emergency medical decisions on their child’s behalf and raised the possibility of extensive legal wrangles.

A federal grand jury indicted three San Diego City Councilmembers on charges that they took illegal contributions in return for helping to repeal the no-touching rule at local strip clubs. Ralph Inzunza, Michael Zucchet and Charles Lewis were charged, along with Cheetahs nightclub owner Michael Galardi, his lobbyist Lance Malone and Cheetahs night manager John D'Intino in the 39-count indictment.

The GLBT community had endorsed all three of the councilmembers and Inzunza was named “Friend of the Year” in San Diego’s 2002 Pride celebration. All three were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy. Inzunza and Zucchet were also charged with extortion.

At the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Governor Gray Davis made history by signing Assembly Bill 205, the historic Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003. The new law, which will not go into effect until January 1, 2005, makes California the second state in the nation to provide sweeping legal protections for same-sex couples.

AB 205, authored by Los Angeles Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg and sponsored by San Diego’s own Christine Kehoe, grants domestic partners nearly all of the rights, benefits, and responsibilities currently granted to married couples by the state.

Proposition 54, innocuously called The Classification on Race, Ethnicity, Color & National Origin (CRECNO) Ballot Initiative or the Racial Privacy Initiative, if approved, would have prohibited California state and local governments and their agencies from collecting racial data.

Beyond differences in healthcare, Prop. 54 would have prevented the state attorney general and public agencies from prosecuting and tracking race and ethnicity-based hate crimes. Traditionally, people of color are the victims of violence and hate crimes at higher rates than Caucasians. Additionally, victims of discrimination based on race and ethnicity would not have had the data to meet court standards in proving racial discrimination when it came to state employment, contracting, or housing. Without data on race and ethnicity in law enforcement, it would be nearly impossible to track and prevent racial profiling.

The voters of California voted to recall Governor Gray Davis and elect action film star turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger to office.

Many GLBT leaders feel that the election of Schwarzenegger may lead to the erosion of rights that have been granted to the community under Governor Davis.

When he first entered the campaign, Schwarzenegger said that he supported GLBT rights and that he favored Domestic Partner rights. However, one day before the election the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Schwarzenegger said he would not have signed AB 205, which gives registered domestic partners most state-level marriage rights and was signed into law by Governor Davis. The revelation lended encouragement to right-wing extremists who sought to overturn the civil rights law both in court and at the ballot.

The San Diego Democratic Club and Pride At Work supported the strike of union workers at local grocery stores Albertson’s, Ralph’s and Von’s. The strike began after nego-tiations between union representatives and store officials broke down over the issue of health coverage.

Over 70,000 grocery workers went on strike after rejecting the supermarket companies’ pro-posal to cut employee pay and benefits, including wage reductions, reduced holiday and vacation pay, reduced health and retirement benefits and shift premiums.

Jim Puccetti, the executive director of Townspeople, died in his home on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the age of 65. Puccetti, who was winning a battle with prostate cancer, was diagnosed with brain cancer in late August.

Puccetti had been the executive director at Townspeople since 1997, coming to the organ-ization with an extensive background in non-profit work that spanned four decades.

Interim Executive Director Greg Curran added that Puccetti’s involvement was key in the growth of the organi-zation, “particularly in the area of credibility, accountability and financial security, Jim is the one who brought Townspeople to that point.”

When many San Diegans awoke Sunday morning, Oct. 26, they may have noticed an unusually brilliant sunrise, but few could have predicted the events that the day had in store for them. Fires forced the evacuation of thousands of people to shelters or into the homes of friends who were out of the fires’ reach.

The Center evaluated the situation to see how they could work with the Red Cross and other service providers to support the GLBT community. They sent counselors out to emergency shelters to work with people who had been impacted by the fire, and donated 50 percent of the proceeds from ‘Nightmare on Normal Street’ to the Red Cross.

The first openly gay African-American mayor, Ron Oden, was elected in Palm Springs, while Steve Pougnet, an openly gay man, and Ginny Foat, an openly lesbian woman were elected to city council.

Oden, whose campaign slogan was “It’s Time for a Change,” won with 51 percent of the vote, a substantial lead over incumbent Will Kleindienst, who received 43 percent of the vote.

As SummerQuest 2003 approached, members of the planning committee, including representatives from each of the beneficiaries, became concerned about the success of the gala. However, the biggest shock came this October when the beneficiaries received their checks from SummerQuest. Both UCSD and Neighborhood Healthcare received checks for $3,500, and Family Healthcare Centers received a check for $2,800.

According to the members of the SummerQuest 2003 planning committee, early on in the process of planning for the event all three of the beneficiaries were shown pictures of last year’s recipients receiving checks for $30,000 each and were told that this year’s event had a goal of raising $90,000.

On Saturday, Nov. 1, in international waters off the coast of San Diego, two members of a GLBT tour group were seriously injured in an assault aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas. The victims are described the unprovoked attack as an anti-gay hate crime. However, because the incident occurred in international waters and is being investigated by the FBI under federal law, the perpetrators, if charged, will only be prosecuted for assault and battery because GLBTs aren’t a protected class under federal law.

Each November, GLBT elected and appointed officials from around the world gather at The International Network of Lesbian and Gay Officials (INLGO) conference. This year the event was held here in San Diego, hosted by City Councilmember Toni Atkins, and conference co-chairs California State Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Christine Kehoe and San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. Also co-chairing was Kevin Vaughan, president of INLGO and associate director of the Free Library of Philadelphia, PA.

The San Diego Coalition for Domestic Partnership Rights met at The Center on Tuesday, Nov. 25, to discuss and plan their intensive four-month campaign to defeat Senator William J. “Pete” Knight’s efforts to roll back the recently enacted Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act, AB 205.

While Knight gathered signatures to put the referendum on the 2004 March or November ballot, two campaign committees formed to oppose it: San Diegans for Domestic Partner Rights, a local campaign led by the Coalition, and Equality California’s statewide Equality for California Families. Both campaigns grew rapidly.

Third District City Council-member Toni Atkins was appointed deputy mayor on Dec. 1 by Mayor Dick Murphy, becoming the first member of the GLBT community to serve as deputy mayor in San Diego. The appointment, made official at a regularly scheduled council meeting, received unanimous support from the city council.

“I’m really pleased,” Atkins told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “This is a very symbolic thing for the LGBT community. But I would also add that it is an important thing for the whole community of District Three.… It is also significant for the gay community because it does mean that we can fully participate in the civic life and the leadership in San Diego.”