With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it is that important time of year again when we are all responsible for giving thanks for the blessings in our lives. This year, I am thankful for many new additions to my life – this column, my first niece who turns 1 in January and a new job that has brought me to Fraternity House, a residential care facility in San Diego’s North County, which provides services and shelter to eight men living with the AIDS virus. I began working at Fraternity House about five months ago, and in just that short time, I have learned an incalculable amount about the healing powers of friendship and love.

Fraternity House is one of only two licensed residential care facilities for people living with HIV/AIDS in San Diego County. It is a place where residents are given a second chance at life, via healthy meals, help with medication, emotional support and activities. The facility’s impressive, single-story house sits at the end of a private road in Elfin Forest, a beautiful area of San Marcos that is home to a number of wealthy families, many of whom keep horses on their large estates. Driving the winding roads that make up Elfin Forest and its neighboring community, Harmony Grove, it is impossible not to be awestruck by the area’s astonishing natural beauty.

Unfortunately, lurking beneath Elfin Forest’s seemingly perfect appearance is an under-current of fear that is now affecting Fraternity House in the most extreme of ways. Last year, Molly Henry, executive director of Fraternity House, learned that the facility’s Conditional Use Permit with the city of San Marcos needed to be renewed. She immediately began taking steps to renew the permit, initiating a process that includes applying through the city’s planning committee and soliciting public comment. Almost immediately, neighbors opposed to the renewal of the permit began submitting letters of complaint, many of which included false allegations that Fraternity House was leaving medical waste strewn on the road and allowing raw sewage to seep from the home’s septic tank. Also included in these letters were a number of blatantly bigoted statements, including, “It is hard to assume that the men being treated for HIV/AIDS at the Fraternity House [sic] all contracted this disease by accident. Their history and decisions they have made in their life [sic] are questioned by this community.”

After nearly a year of paperwork and discussions, a hearing for Fraternity House’s permit request has been set for Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m., at San Marcos City Hall (1 Civic Center Dr.). Fraternity House, Inc., the nonprofit organization that operates Fraternity House, and its “sister house”, Michaelle House, is requesting that as many people as possible show up on the evening of the hearing to support Fraternity House and its numerous residents, employees, volunteers and friends. In this season of thanks, there seems a no more appropriate time to show the people of San Marcos just how grateful we are that a place like Fraternity House exists, and I invite YOU to personally get involved. If you have any questions as to how you may support Fraternity House in this time of need, please do not hesitate to contact me, at (760) 736-0292 ext. 103.

In other news from the SD womyn’s community…

Everyone’s favorite art and action group, the S/he Collective, is gearing up for their bi-annual craft fair, S/he’s Crafty, which takes place on Sunday, Dec. 12, from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. at Gelato Vero (Washington/India Street). The S/he Collective’s events are always full of unique items, making this the perfect opportunity to find a holiday gift for your special someone. If you would like to participate and sell your wares, contact shecollective@yahoo.com; but make sure to at least swing by and support local artists!

At 6 Degrees, things are heating up on Wednesday nights as the S.D. Kings Club’s Quest for the Crown continues. The buzz around town is that the competition is getting seriously tough! Swing by the 6 on Wednesday nights at 9:30 p.m. to cheer for your favorite king, and enjoy a few cocktails from some of the friendliest bartenders in town!

And although Siren Open Mic is on winter hiatus, a new queer-focused open mic, T.M.I. (Too Much Information) has been started up in Ocean Beach. According to founders Anna Joy Springer and Jenny Donovan, T.M.I. is a word-performance show for homos, transfolk, hags, feminists, fairies, femme-ists, S.C.U.M. Manifesto Fan Club members, lesbos, queerpunx, womanists, polyamorites, tough old broads, baby-butches, lesbian schoolteachers, second-wavers, anarchist cheerleaders, bisexual plushies, bois, feminist straight guys (who know how to take up very little psychic space and don’t think their ponytail will save them), old-fashioned diesel dykes, and their friends who like perform word-based work and to watch writers and performers groove, live on stage. Sounds great to me! The next T.M.I. takes place on Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Voltaire Space in O.B. (4862 Voltaire St.) and will feature San Francisco-based author Michelle Tea and San Diego-based writer/performance artist Nancy Navarrete.

If you’re looking for a new spot to hang out and grab a drink after work, you may want to swing by Hillcrest’s newly renovated Martinis Above Fourth. Previously known as Martini’s Bar & Grill, the space has been given a complete makeover, and will now be home to everyone’s favorite performing lesbian, Laura Jane, on Saturday nights. Considering how much I love a good dirty martini (and Laura Jane), I know I’ll be there!

Congratulations are also due to a number of women’s organizations who have been working their butts off lately. Lavender Lens magazine now has a website, thanks to web-savvy Jen Marcelo and friends. SDWomyn is another community-based website bringing women together in cyberspace (visit this column at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for links to both). And a hearty congratulations also goes out to Danielle LoPresti and Alicia Champion for putting on the first-ever San Diego Indie Music Fest last Sunday, at The Abbey in Hillcrest. The daylong festival featured a number of impressive indie musicians, many of them female. It’s wonderful to see so much activity and action taking place in the womyn’s community!

In this season of thanks, I am grateful for all the members of our community who are fighting for increased visibility and creativity within the LGBTQ community. Please do not hesitate to contact me with events, announcements, comments or questions, at queerabby@hotmail.com. Enjoy the holiday season – however you choose to celebrate!