Seattle based author, Catherine Kirkwood, will read from her debut novel, Cut Away, on Saturday, September 25 at 11:00 a.m., in the San Diego GLBT Community Center library (3909 Centre St., San Diego, 92103). Cut Away is a novel that expertly entwines the lives of three characters struggling to understand the meaning of identity and its seeming mutability. Orbiting around the mystery of a missing teenager, a trio of narrators each tells her story in turn. Alexandra is a transgender woman who has refused surgery and abandoned Los Angeles for a trailer at the desolate Salton Sea. Asa, the mother of the runaway, wants her grief-ridden face completely transformed. Eleanor, a plastic surgeon, is fascinated with surfaces and wonders whether visual harmony has the power to change what lies beneath. In a culture obsessed with transforming the body, do the incarnate fictions we create have the power to hide or reveal the truth of who we really are? This is a question that Catherine Kirkwood approaches in a stunning debut novel of desire, self-loathing, and the revisionary madness of the modern world. Kirkwood will read from Cut Away, answer audience questions and sign books. Coffee and bagels will be available. This event is free and open to all. For more information, contact Women’s Resource Center Coordinator, Abby Schwartz at (619) 692-2077 ext 212, or email women@thecentersd.org.

A lecture and book signing by historian Elaine Tyler May will be held on Tuesday, August 31, from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. at the San Diego History Center Casa de Balboa, Balboa Park. The cost is $5 for SDHC members and $8 for general admission. The book is an additional purchase. Call 619-232-6203 to register. Fifty years ago, the FDA announced approval for the birth control pill. Within a few years, millions of women were “on the pill,” making it the most popular form of contraception in the country and one of the best-selling drugs in U.S. history. But the road has not always been smooth, as historian Elaine Tyler May, Regents Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Minnesota, reveals in her new book. This is an engaging look into the political climate that greeted the pill, the women who are responsible for the pill’s success, men’s changing relationship with the pill and the myths and realities that continue to surround it.

County Supervisor Ron Roberts presented a $55,000 check to the Board of Directors of Stepping Stone of San Diego, Inc. This gift is the second of two grants distributed by Supervisor Roberts to the organization since June, 2010. The first grant Stepping Stone received was in the amount of $25,000 and designated to help with the moving costs involved in the relocation of the administrative offices from their previous address on 4th Avenue in Hillcrest to the residential facility. Both gifts were distributed to the agency in response to dramatic cuts to the base funding from the County of San Diego. Stepping Stone of San Diego, Inc. is a nationally recognized Alcohol, Drug, and HIV/AIDS services organization and one of the oldest GLBT service agencies in Southern California, having provided progressive drug and alcohol treatment programs specifically geared toward the GLBT community since 1976. Today Stepping Stone operates a state-of-the-art treatment facility which delivers life-saving and life affirming programs, both residential and outpatient. This past year more than 11,000 bed days were provided in the residential treatment facility and 13,000 sober living bed days were delivered to individuals transitioning back into the community. In addition, more than 600 Twelve step and SMART Recovery meetings are hosted at the facilities annually. In recognition of the 10th Anniversary of “The Stone,” the organization’s treatment facility, Mayor Jerry Sanders proclaimed June 5 as “Stepping Stone Day” in San Diego. While the event brought in $51,000 before and during the weekend, the immediate goals of the agency are, due to recent county budget cuts, much higher than anticipated earlier this year. For more than a year Stepping Stone of San Diego (SSSD) has been experiencing a “perfect storm” of bad news regarding the resources available to fulfill its mission to create, improve and deliver alcohol and other drug treatment, HIV and other health interventions, recovery, education and prevention services specializing in the challenges of the GLBT communities of the San Diego region. Elimination of whole programs like Proposition 36 (offender treatment) and HIV/AIDS prevention and outreach have resulted in staff reductions and shrinking revenues. Cuts to the organization’s base funding from the County of San Diego have been made worse by difficulties raising unrestricted funds from San Diego GLBT community already suffering from the economic downturn. This fiscal year will be equally challenging. Since July, county residential funding has been reduced by a further 10% ($35,000).

Be sure to catch the best show yet! Classic Pin-up photographs come to life and “take it off” in all new musical acts set to music favorites from the 20s-60s. Feather fan dances, tassel twirlin’ cuties, bump and grinds o’ plenty. Starring Shirley Taken, Bibi Bordeaux, Ivana Martini, Martini Bombshell, Lotte Da Lucks, Lux B.Aladee, Miss Jolie Goodnight, and Ginger N’ Whiskey. Special guest Lady Buffet! Saturday, August 28, 2010 Brick By Brick 1130 Buenos Avenue, San Diego. Doors at 9:00 p.m.$12. $2 off if you dress the era www.myspace.com/hellonheelsburlesque www.hellonheelsburlesque.com.

Thirteen members of the East Village creative community and a dozen restaurants, bars, and cafés will be open to the public for a walking and biking urban art experience. This was put together to coincide with San Diego Arts Month and the San Diego Contemporary Art Fair. The East Village arts community has banded together to offer a one-of-a-kind, unstructured, urban art tour. During “Open Spaces” visitors are invited to use the East Village Arts and Culture Map to enjoy an unstructured walk of the neighborhood’s sprawling warehouse district in search of vibrant street art, hives of artist studios, hidden courtyards, contemporary galleries, hyper-modern architecture and Victorian gems. Intrepid art explorers attending “Open Spaces” will pick up written guides that lead them to 13 exhilarating art spaces, 12 exceptional, independent restaurants, bars, and cafés, and 10 excellent examples of world-class street art including murals, wheat paste and mosaics. It will take place from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., Saturday, 4th in The East Village neighborhood.

This event will be held on Thursday, August 26th at 5:00 p.m. in Balboa Park and will be starting at the Kate Sessions statue on the west end of the Laurel Street Bridge and proceeding across the bridge to the Organ Pavilion at 6:00 p.m. Many local leaders of women’s and political organizations will gather on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. to acknowledge and celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Following a 5:00 p.m. program, the group will march with flags, signs and banners and will be dressed as 1920 Suffragists. They will march across the bridge to the Organ Pavilion for a concert and picnic at 6:15 p.m. Presenters include: Anne Hoiberg, President, Women’s History Museum & Educational Center, Abby Schwartz - Women’s Resource Center & Senior Services Coordinator, The San Diego GLBT Community Center,. Susan Baer - Co-President, League of Women Voters of San Diego, Tierra Gonzales-Hammonds - Miss Teen San Diego, Evie Kosower, President, Older Women’s League, Lorena Gonzales - CEO, San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council, Gloria Johnson - President, National Organization for Women of San Diego County, Tryce Czyczynska - Co-Founder, 51%, A Woman’s Place Is in Politics, Julius Syvanen - Women’s Equity Council, United Nations Association of San Diego, Eunis Christiansen - President, American Association of University Women, San Diego Branch, Ashley Gardner, Executive Director, Women’s History Museum.

The IGRA will be hosting a pub crawl on August, 27th starting at 6:30 p.m. at Urban Mo’s. Throw on you bucket hats and shine up your boots for the wildest wild in the west. This is to gear up to the much anticipated Rodeo that will take place in early September. If you can make it for this pub crawl, it is for a good cause and a better time. For more information call 863-944-1935.

The 35th Nicky awards will be held on August, 29th at The Center at 3909 Centre Street, San Diego. There will be appearances and performances by many, along with a night full of honoring San Diego’s GLBT’s finest. This year brings The Platt Brothers, Morgan McMichaels, DJMarcel Hetu, Mayor Heilman, Rob Halford of Judas Priest just to name a few. General admission will be $50 and VIP Gold Seating will be $75. For more information visit www.nickyawards.com.

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