Each year there are people within our community that have an impact on our lives. The Gay & Lesbian Times would like to honor these individuals with its first annual feature dedicated to those who work tirelessly to improve our quality of life and advance the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

2005 has been a tumultuous year for San Diego’s GLBT community, with huge victories and advancements in GLBT equality and major defeats and disappointments.

This issue highlights several categories to not only capture this year’s greatest victories, but also to reflect on our losses.

Each year the Gay & Lesbian Times will select one person who’s efforts have had the greatest impact on San Diego’s GLBT community. This year, the selection process for the honor was effortless. After much discussion with members of the community and among our editorial department, the resounding response was Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins for her leadership during one of the most critical times in the city’s history.

As an openly lesbian elected official, her short time as acting mayor increased GLBT visibility and allowed San Diego to get to know one of our greatest and hardest working community members.

Atkins became the de facto leader of San Diego in July following the resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy and the resignation of then-Deputy Mayor Michael Zucchet after being convicted on corruption charges. Zucchet has since been acquitted on seven of the nine charges.

“It was certainly a moment I didn’t have time to prepare for,” said Atkins, speaking to the Gay & Lesbian Times on Monday shortly before Mayor Jerry Sanders’ inauguration. “I think most of the city and my colleagues were in a little bit of a state of shock given the indictments that day, and so I felt great to have the support of my colleagues; to know that they had that kind of faith and trust that I could step in and do that for a short period of time.”

Atkins took the mayor’s seat after a unanimous vote from the City Council. Short a mayor and two City Council members, and facing an employee pension fund deficit of at least $1.4 billion and a slew of investigations connected to the city’s financial problems, Atkins not only did the job, she excelled, earning the respect of the entire city.

She said the topic of her sexuality was a non-issue in what is considered to be a relatively conservative city.

“I don’t think we had negative reactions from the community at large about me being in the position,” she said. “I think that’s a positive thing; that people were focused on the real issues about how to move our city forward and how to create some stability. I think the fact that I am a lesbian didn’t factor in, even despite issues like the [Mt. Soledad] Cross and our issues around gay Pride that got highlighted, unfortunately, to the degree that it did.”

Atkins said one of her most memorable moments during her stint as acting mayor was working with Rear Adm. Len Hering, the new commander of Navy Region Southwest, to prevent the closing of the Navy Broadway Complex.

Another highlight, she said, was working to mobilize the city and county to support the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

As for disappointments, Atkins said she was frustrated with the lack of progress on the city audits.

“We had hoped to be done with our 2003 audit by the end of this calendar year…. So that has been probably the thing that has frustrated me the most,” she said.

Recently, Atkins announced the formation of an exploratory committee to gauge public support for a race against incumbent Ron Roberts for county supervisor in District 4.

Atkins was first elected to the City Council’s District 3 seat in 2000, and was re-elected in 2004. She cannot seek re-election in 2008 due to term limits.

The primary election for county supervisor is in June.

Atkins said that if she decides to run, she will formally announce her candidacy after the first of the year. She acknowledged that a Roberts vs. Atkins race could be a difficult choice for members of the GLBT community.

“People should have choices, and the choices should not be so easy,” she said. “I think Ron has been a friend of our community. He has supported us in some significant things and I think he has failed our community in some ways; and I would bring a different perspective, and that’s why I would do it.”

Sanders’ inauguration Monday as San Diego’s new political leader marked the end of Atkins’ brief but memorable time as acting mayor. Atkins said she’ll miss the mayor’s office for the availability of resources it provides, such as around-the-clock information in all areas of the city – quite a change from having responsibility over one district. She also said she enjoyed moving outside her district and learning about issues in the broader context of the city.

As for advice Atkins would give the new mayor based on her experience over the last four and a half months, Atkins said: “Keep that sense of humor, Jerry. We need it. … And you might want to increase your Tylenol intake [laughs].”

Two former Poway High School students were awarded $300,000 by a San Diego Superior Court on June 8 after filing a lawsuit against Poway Unified School District claiming they were harassed for being gay and alleging Poway High School failed to take appropriate actions to stop the harassment.

Poway Superintendent Don Phillips was one of the three administrators named in the lawsuit, along with Principal Scott Fisher and Assistant Principal Ed Giles.

After the five-week trial, Joseph “Joey” Ramelli was awarded $175,000 and Megan Donovan received $125,000. The students originally sued for $225,000 each.

In April, Ramelli testified in San Diego Superior Court that he had been harassed and teased about his sexual orientation since he was a freshman. Students repeatedly called him names, threw food and spit on him, vandalized his car and shoved him in the hallways, he said. Bridget Wilson, a local attorney who represented the students, wrote in a trial briefing that students put a sign on his back that read, “I Am A Fag – Kick My Ass.”

Donovan testified she had been mistreated and denied a position on the girls’ varsity softball team because she is a lesbian. She told the court that during her stint on the junior varsity softball team, she felt uncomfortable when other players learned she was a lesbian. She said she complained to the coach but the treatment continued. Donovan did not make the varsity team during her junior year when she tried out for it.

The jury did not find that Donovan was discriminated against in regard to the softball team.

Ramelli and Donovan attended Poway High from 2000 to 2003, but, according to their lawsuit, spent their senior year in New Directions, a home-schooling program, due to their negative experiences on campus. Donovan and Ramelli graduated the program in 2004. Now students at Palomar College, the pair were honored this year as San Diego LGBT Pride grand marshals.

Ramelli and Donovan’s win against discrimination makes GLBT students safer in California. This ruling sends a message to schools that our students must be protected from harassment and discrimination or they’ll pay the price.

The discrimination lawsuit filed by Guadalupe “Lupita” Benitez, a North County woman who was denied fertility treatment in 2001 allegedly because of her sexual orientation and marital status, has attracted national attention and set a precedent for GLBT individuals who are discriminated against in the medical industry.

The case appears to be the first in the country in which a gay or lesbian patient was allowed to sue doctors over charges that treatment was denied based on sexual orientation, said Benitez’s attorney, Jennifer Pizer of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

On Dec. 2, a California appellate court ruled that North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton had the right to refuse to artificially inseminate Benitez on the grounds that it would have violated their religious beliefs.

The doctors were appealing a state Superior Court ruling that prevented them from raising religious freedom as a defense.

Instead, the 4th District Court of Appeals panel found that the doctors were within their rights because they based their decision on Benitez’s unmarried status and that discrimination based on marital status is not prohibited by California law.

Pizer said the appellate ruling would be appealed to the California Supreme Court.

California’s highest court ruled that country clubs must offer gay and lesbian members who register as domestic partners the same discounts given to married ones – a decision that could apply to other businesses such as insurance companies and mortgage lenders.

The Aug. 1 decision by the California Supreme Court dealt with a policy at the Bernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego that allowed only the children, grandchildren and spouses of married members to golf for free.

Birgit Koebke, an avid golfer who pays about $500 a month in membership fees, challenged the policy after being told that her longtime partner, Kendall French, could only play as a guest six times a year while paying up to $70 per round.

The court ruled that the policy constitutes “impermissible marital status discrimination.”

While businesses might once have claimed a legitimate business interest for maintaining different policies for married couples and gay and lesbian members who cannot legally wed, such distinctions are no longer justified under a sweeping domestic partner law that took effect in California on Jan. 1, the court said.

Koebke greeted the ruling, saying: “We aren’t activists, we aren’t politically charged. We just wanted to play golf together and we just really felt we had every human right to do that.”

Jon Davidson, legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, predicted that the ruling would affect not just country clubs, but mortgage lenders, insurance companies and other businesses that have separate policies or fees for married and unmarried customers.

“What the court said was that if a business in California provides benefits to married couples, it has to provide them equally to couples who register as domestic partners,” Davidson said.

The San Diego City Council voted unanimously on July 19 to approve final financing for the Sunburst Apartments, a 23-unit transitional housing facility designed to stabilize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and HIV-positive youth.

The facility, which will aim to help these 18-24 year-old youth successfully transition from homelessness, is the first of its kind in the nation.

The total financing for the property was approved for 55 years and $4.1 million, with $2.6 million coming from the Centre City Development Corporation. Based on an average stay of 18 months per tenant, 843 youth will likely be housed in that time span.

The youth housing project is a collaborative of The Center, Walden Family Services, YMCA Youth and Family Services, Metropolitan Community Church of San Diego and Children’s Hospital Chadwick Center.

In 2002, Dr. Heather Berberet, director of mental health at Walden Family Services, the Reverend Tony Freeman of the Metropolitan Community Church, Councilmember Toni Atkins, former Center board member Jennifer LeSar and The Center’s chief executive officer, Delores Jacobs, formed the collaborative with other agencies that specialize in youth homelessness.

The collaborative estimates of all homeless youth in San Diego County, 30 percent are believed to be GLBT.

The California Legislature made history by becoming the first legislative body in the nation to pass marriage equality legislation on Sept. 6.

Assembly Bill 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, sought to amend California’s Family Code to read that marriage is a civil contract between “two persons” rather than between a man and a woman.

In the 41-35 Assembly vote, all Republicans voted against the bill except Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, who abstained. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, and Jerome Horton, D-Inglewood, also abstained.

The California Senate became the first legislative body in the U.S. to pass equal marriage rights legislation in a 21-15 vote on Sept 1. In the Senate vote, all Republicans voted against it along with one Democrat, Dean Florez, D-Shafter. Three other Democrats abstained from voting: Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, Michael Machado, D-Linden, and Jack Scott, D-Altadena.

Of the 41 votes necessary for the bill’s approval, crucial yes votes were gained from Democrats who had previously abstained in June. Those included Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, Tomas Umberg, D-Anaheim, and Simon Salinas, D-Salinas. Four Democrats voted no: Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, Barbara Matthews, D-Stockton, Nicole Parra, D-Bakersfield, and Juan Vargas, D-Chula Vista.

Earlier this year when the Assembly voted on the bill, which was then called AB 19, it did not gain the necessary 41 votes to pass, failing 37-36 on June 2.

The saddest moment of 2005 and most likely many years to come was the death of business owner and community leader John McCusker on March 13. As the anniversary of his death approaches, his family and our community still mourn his loss.

The John McCusker Educational Fund, created in his memory, raises funds for GLBT organizations at colleges, universities and high schools. For information on how to donate to the John McCusker Educational Fund, contact the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation at (619) 291-3383.

After losing their son tragically and unexpectedly March 13, John McCusker’s family was dealt another blow a few days later when San Diego Bishop Robert Brom forbade any of the 98 churches and chapels in the Diocese of San Diego from holding McCusker’s funeral “to avoid public scandal.” McCusker was the openly gay owner of two local gay bars, Montage and ReBar, for which Brom deemed him a “manifest sinner” under Canon Law 1184.

The McCusker family, along with the entire GLBT community and their allies, were justifiably pissed, and Brom’s decision caused a scandal of its own that attracted citywide and national attention.

After some last-minute arrangements, McCusker’s funeral was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, an Episcopal church. Over 500 people attended.

At a town hall meeting at The Center eight days after McCusker’s death, held to discuss how the community would react to Brom’s decision, the McCuskers surprised the audience by reading an apology issued by Brom that day.

“I deeply regret that denying a Catholic funeral for John McCusker at the Immaculata [Catholic Church, at the University of San Diego] has resulted in his unjust condemnation and I apologize to the family for the anguish this has caused them,” the statement read. Brom went on to say he would preside at a Mass for the family in memory of John McCusker.

Despite the shallow victory of Brom’s carefully-worded apology, we commend the McCusker family for fighting for their son’s rights even after his death.

Councilmember Donna Frye’s unequivocal support of civil rights and same-sex marriage, coupled with her honesty and unrelenting push for open government makes her one of the most admirable politicians of her day. Whether the issue at hand is clean water or adequate health care for the poor, Frye is outspoken and emotionally involved in every decision she makes. If we had a heart as big as she does, we’d have run screaming from politics a long time ago. That’s one tough lady.

Whether she runs for mayor 17 more times or drops everything tomorrow and surfs until she’s 80, she’ll always have a little piece of our hearts.

Well, he did it – he’s da mayor. Now let’s hope he makes good on his promises to take this fiscally run-down city of ours and fix ’er up good.

A Republican moderate, Sanders isn’t stellar on GLBT issues. He doesn’t support same-sex marriage for “religious reasons,” for one, and he really thinks the Boy Scouts should stay in Balboa Park for $1 a year despite their blatant violation of the San Diego Human Dignity Ordinance. But unlike his predecessor (and we don’t mean acting mayor Toni Atkins), at least Sanders will give us a straight answer on those kinds of issues.

Sanders ran his campaign on two major points: A San Diego police chief, he proved he can build consensus and return respectability to an embattled department; and as the CEO of the American Red Cross, he showed a knack for stabilizing a fiscally troubled organization.

Let’s hope that consensus-building ability of his shines through and he can give the city of San Diego the serious spring-cleaning it so desperately requires.

Bishop Robert Brom shares the dishonor of the Gay & Lesbian Times menace of the year with gal-pal James Hartline, both of whom wreaked considerable havoc on San Diego’s GLBT community in the year 2005.

Bishop Brom refused Catholic funeral rites at all 98 churches and chapels in the Diocese of San Diego to community business owner and friend John McCusker. Outraged, the entire community united and stood beside the McCusker family against the bishop, who later issued an apology read by Christine McCusker, John’s mother, at a community town hall meeting at The Center.

Crumbling under extreme public pressure, Brom’s apology did little to rectify the hurt he caused the McCusker family and San Diego’s GLBT community.

James Hartline found his way on our list through more ways than one. In addition to pressuring the bishop to deny funeral rites to the McCuskers, Hartline’s been busy protesting San Diego’s Youth Pride, Ebony Pride and the Ebony Pride film festival at the Malcolm X Library. His greatest blow to the GLBT community took place just weeks before the San Diego Pride celebration.

The controversy originated after Hartline and the Traditional Values Coalition, a right-wing extremist Christian group, ran criminal background checks on San Diego Pride volunteers and discovered that two of the volunteers were convicted sex offenders registered under Megan’s Law. After investigating further, the Gay & Lesbian Times confirmed that two others on Pride’s team were also registered sex offenders.

Numerous law enforcement officials, politicians, community organizations and entertainers slated to perform at the festival almost backed out of the parade and festival as Pride wrestled with whether they should dismiss the volunteers, saying their dilemma was over the men’s civil rights.

At the 11th hour, the Pride board voted to remove the volunteers and the Pride celebration went on as scheduled.

The Pride scandal is an example of how even someone like Hartline, who so vigorously opposes us, can make our community stronger. Since then, San Diego Pride has reorganized and is currently working on ways to screen volunteers to prevent registered sex offenders from volunteering with Pride. In the end, our families will be safer and Pride will be stronger despite Hartline’s attempt to shut it down.

Crystal meth abuse within the gay community became national news following the discovery of a New York City man with a highly drug-resistant strain of HIV that progressed into full-blown AIDS within months of his diagnosis. The man diagnosed reportedly had unprotected anal sex with multiple partners while using crystal meth.

The resistant strain was found to be specific to the man in the report and did not result in new epidemic as initially feared. The scare did, however, put gay sex practices under the microscope, revealing a symbiotic relationship between increasing rates of HIV and meth use.

The GLBT community in San Diego has since rallied to fight one of our community’s biggest and most challenging foes. While much work needs to be done, progress is slowly being made such as the public town hall meeting that took place Oct. 12 at The Center as part of the San Diego Leadership Council and the San Diego Harm Reduction Center’s www.knowcrystal.com campaign.

Unlike Massachusetts, where the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, California could have been the first state to pass same-sex marriage legislation without any court involvement. But no such luck.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kept his promise and vetoed Assembly Bill 849, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, on Sept. 29, citing conflicts with Proposition 22, which bans recognition of same-sex marriages in the state and was approved by California voters in 2000.

Schwarzenegger said he would let the California Supreme Court decide the fate of same-sex marriage.

“This bill simply adds confusion to a constitutional issue. If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, this bill is not necessary. If the ban is constitutional, this bill is ineffective,” Schwarzenegger said.

We say he took the easy way out.

Equally disappointing is Gov. Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, who has remained silent on Schwarzenegger’s veto. A Kennedy, Shriver’s family has spent decades fighting for civil rights. She should have spoken on this historic opportunity to advance the rights of gay and lesbian families, even if her opinion contradicted her husband’s.

San Diego LGBT Pride landed on our list of disappointments for their mismanagement of this year’s Pride scandal (See Menace of the Year James Hartline).

Pride has since taken steps to create a volunteer-screening policy and has increased board membership. Pride 2005 was a major disappointment, but San Diego’s most celebrated event will return next year and will no doubt continue to be one of San Diego’s best.