This year’s “Spirit of Stonewall” rally, which officially kicks off San Diego LGBT Pride weekend, will be held at 7:00 p.m., July 29, in the grassy, bowl-shaped area just off Balboa Drive near Juniper in Balboa Park. The site marks the location of where San Diego’s earliest GLBT rallies were held throughout the 1970s.

The area allows attendees to bring along picnic baskets, blankets and lawn chairs while taking in a program replete with political speakers and live musical entertainment.

Openly gay Assemblymember Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is this year’s keynote speaker. Since he was elected in 2002 to the California State Assembly, he has passed 28 bills through the Legislature and authored landmark legislation in the areas of GLBT civil rights and equal access to public services. Leno will be joined by local politicians “and hopefully San Diego’s mayoral winner, once the upcoming election pans out,” said Suanne Pauley, executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride.

Vocalist and composer Cris Williamson will perform at the beginning and end of the rally. Williamson ranks among the “mothers” of the women’s music scene, and will appear again the following day at the festival.

The rally will be emceed by local entertainer Laura Jane, and also includes this year’s Pride award recipients, honored for their contributions and services to the GLBT community. Pauley said attendees can arrive to the rally site as early as 5:00 p.m. to secure choice lawn space.

Details about Pride weekend are contained in the 2005 official “Pride Souvenir Program,” now available at The Center, the Pride office, Obelisk Bookstore and numerous businesses throughout Hillcrest. This year’s celebration, titled: “Equal Rights! No More, No Less!” is scheduled for July 29-31. For more information, call the Pride office at (619) 297-7683.

Santa Cruz Democratic Assemblymember John Laird’s Civil Rights Act of 2005, Assembly Bill 1400, passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a vote of 4-2 on June 29. Equality California-sponsored AB 1400 amends the Unruh Civil Rights Act and related provisions to clarify that people are protected from discrimination regardless of their gender identity, marital status or sexual orientation. The Senate floor will now vote on the bill.

“With the committee’s vote for reducing unnecessary litigation and clarifying the law for businesses and customers, we’ve moved another step closer to making a significant change to a significant law,” Assemblymember John Laird said. “With a vote for AB 1400, the full Senate now has an opportunity to help strengthen the Unruh Act – the centerpiece of non-discrimination protections in public accommodations.”

Executive Director Geoffrey Kors lauded supportive legislators.

“Equality California applauds our legislators for insisting that business in California be conducted fairly and without discrimination against LGBT people,” said Kors. “We appreciate the leadership of Assemblymember Laird and his continued work to ensure the equal treatment of all Californians.”

The Unruh Act applies to all business establishments that provide services, goods or accommodations to the public. Businesses subject to the Unruh Act include, but are not limited to, shopping centers, mobile home parks, bars and restaurants, schools, medical and dental offices, hotels, motels and condominium homeowners associations.

The Unruh Act explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability and medical condition. Courts have held the Unruh Act should be interpreted broadly to prohibit arbitrary discrimination, including discrimination based on personal characteristics, geographical origin, physical attributes and individual beliefs.

AB 1400 ensures that California’s nondiscrimination laws are as inclusive as possible, building on the efforts by Assemblymember Laird. He authored Equality California-sponsored AB 2900 amended labor- and employment-related nondiscrimination laws to ensure that they included the list of protected classes contained in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) last year. Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 2900 into law.

An event designed to teach non-profits and others how to get their stories into the newspaper, TV stations and radio takes place Saturday, July 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the San Diego Union-Tribune, located at 350 Camino de la Reina in San Diego.

Admission is free. For further information or to RSVP, e-mail David.Poller@uniontrib.com.

The seminar is sponsored by the Asian-American Journalist Association, the California Chicano News Media Association, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and The San Diego Association of Black Journalists.

Gay Men’s Chorus San Diego will wrap up its 13th season with two summer concerts, taking place Aug. 6 and 7. The concert, entitled “Oz & Beyond: The Music of Harold Arlen,” will feature standards such as “Get Happy,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Stormy Weather,” and a number of selections from Arlen’s classic score for The Wizard of Oz.

These shows will be performed at the 500-seat David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre at the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla, the same venue which hosted the chorus’ spring concert, “Broadway A-Z.”

Oz & Beyond also marks the return of GMCSD’s founder, Gary Holt, as artistic director.

“I’m thrilled to be back with the chorus, and look forward to giving audiences what they have come to expect from GMCSD – beautiful singing, great musicianship, important messages, and a whole lot of fun,” Holt said.

It was Holt’s idea to present the work of American composer Harold Arlen in the upcoming shows. “This year marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, and it will be a real thrill for us to perform so many of his classic songs,” Holt said.

The American Film Institute recognized Judy Garland’s rendition of Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow” as the number-one movie song of all time. While Arlen wrote some of the nation’s most-beloved songs, many of which reflect the Jewish and African-American influences of his youth, his name is not widely-known.

During his career, Arlen wrote more than 400 songs, and collaborated with Ira Gershwin, “Yip” Harburg and Johnny Mercer. When Arlen died in 1986, Irving Berlin commented, “He wasn’t as well-known as some of us, but he was a better songwriter than most of us, and he will be missed by all of us.”

The Oz & Beyond concert will also include the songs “Accentuate the Positive,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “I Love a Parade,” “The Man that Got Away,” “That Old Black Magic,” and many more. The concert will also feature Holt’s new arrangement of “A Sleeping Bee,” from the 1954 Broadway musical House of Flowers on which Arlen collaborated with noted author Truman Capote.

Gay Men’s Chorus San Diego is a member of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) and is funded in part by a grant from the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. Call (619) 57-GMCSD for more information about the chorus or “Oz & Beyond.”