Special Delivery San Diego, a local all-volunteer meal provider service for people living with HIV/AIDS, will hold its 14th annual Pride barbecue fund-raiser at Top of the Park at Park Manor Suites on Saturday, July 29, from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m.

“This annual fund-raiser has become a tradition during Pride weekend,” said Special Delivery executive director Ruth Henricks. “After the Pride parade, on the way to the Pride festival, we invite all festival-goers to come up to the top of the Park Manor Suites, enjoy the great views from the roof of the seven-story hotel as well as a delicious barbecue including hamburgers, mesquite chicken, veggie burgers, salads including potato salad and coleslaw, and all the trimmings.”

All proceeds benefit clients of Special Delivery San Diego. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Founded in 1991, Special Delivery prepares, packages and delivers meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in San Diego. Since its inception, the nonprofit organization has delivered more than 1 million meals.

Park Manor Suites is located at 525 Spruce St. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (619) 297-7373.

The Center will host a community planning meeting to strategize for the Nov. 7 election on Monday, Aug. 7, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at The Center.

The meeting’s goal is to plan a unified effort for getting GLBT voters to the polls this fall.

RSVP to Sean Wherley, The Center’s director of public policy, at swherley@thecentersd.org or call (619) 697-2077.

Tickets are now on sale for the San Diego Speaker Series (SDSS) – a series of lectures beginning this fall that will feature prominent, controversial political leaders, commentators and newsmakers

Rudolph Giuliani speaks on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at 7:30 p.m., James Carville and Ann Coulter take the stage on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m., and Wesley Clark and Bob Dole speak on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m.

SDSS’s three-part series offers an up-close opportunity for attendees to experience a dynamic panel of world-renowned speakers with a spectrum of politically divergent thoughts and views.

Tickets for the three-evening lecture series are priced depending on desirability of seating location. Prices range from $180 to $300, plus a $13.50 facility fee.

Tickets are sold as a series only and are available at all Ticketmaster locations. Call (619) 220-TIXS or visit www.ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets.

A limited number of VIP tickets are also available, which include a pre-show reception, VIP parking and a photo opportunity with each speaker. Group and VIP tickets may be purchased through SDSS by calling (619) 232-9000.

The speaker series takes place at Cox Arena, located at 5500 Canyon Crest Dr.

High-energy musician Camille Bloom will perform prior to San Diego LGBT Pride’s Spirit of Stonewall rally, which is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 28, at Marston Point in Balboa Park.

The rally and concert are free to the public. The artist will also perform on the Buzz Great Lawn Stage on Sunday, July 30, during Pride’s two-day festival in the park.

Bloom kicks off her rally performance at 6:00 p.m. on the Jack FM Stage. In the past three years, she has embarked on national tours and shared stages with such bands as Sugarcult, Marcus Eaton and the Lobby, Holly Figueroa and The Bradbury Press. She also created the soundtrack for an HBO-sponsored documentary, Not Straight Forward, and was picked to work on a compilation CD with Michelle Malone and the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray. Her debut CD, Within Me, has been nationally lauded for its wide array of sounds and moods stamped with a raw and haunting style.

The Spirit of Stonewall rally is Pride’s official kick-off to a weekend celebration that draws more than 150,000 people annually. Bloom’s show will be followed by a lineup of speakers that includes Neil Giuliano, who served four terms as an openly gay mayor of Tempe, Ariz., and is president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), as well as Lavender Lens publisher Bixi Craig and the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of Metropolitan Community Church.

Also sharing the speaker podium will be recording artist Juba Kalamka (a.k.a., Pointfivefag), a founding member of the homo-hop crew Deep Dickollective and curator for PeaceOUT World HomoHop Festival in the Bay Area.

This year’s rally will also feature the juried exhibit Art of Pride, which showcases the works of 20 GLBT artists in the mediums of painting, sculpture and jewelry.

For more information, call (619) 297-7683 or visit www.sdpride.org.

Matt Stephens is the featured guest at San Diego’s only live talk show dedicated to celebrating the diverse lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, taking place on Tuesday, Aug. 1, at 7:00 p.m. at the Women’s Resource Center at The Center, located at 3909 Centre St.

Stephens is a partner in the San Diego law firm Stock Stephens, LLP, an adjunct professor at California Western School of Law and a lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. He specializes in general civil litigation and has handled a wide range of cases involving business disputes, employment issues, civil rights claims and domestic partnership dissolutions.

Tryce Czyczynska hosts the event, which is free to attend. Deidrich’s Coffee in Hillcrest will provide complimentary coffee and refreshments.

For more information or to nominate a guest (artist, activist, professional, etc.) for this program, contact Claudia Lucero at (619) 692-2077 ext. 206 or e-mail clucero@thecentersd.org.

The Gay Men’s Chorus of San Diego (GMCSD) will perform two summer concerts bringing together traditional Americana and French romance.

Entitled “An American in Paris,” the pair of concerts will take place at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Hillcrest on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 5-6.

“Since returning last year to serve again as GMCSD’s conductor, I have brought our audiences a great deal of the fun, popular, and ‘campy’ music that the chorus loves to perform,” artistic director Gary Holt said.

“But the Gay Men’s Chorus also strives for diversity and balance in our programming,” he continued. “…GMCSD has an obligation to sing new music, old music, classical music and – as always – great music.”

The program’s first half features accompaniment from handbells, the oboe and a cello. American composer Jon Bailey pairs texts written by Gustave Flaubert and Arthur O’Shaughnessy in the concert opener “Prelude and Dance,” while noted film orchestrator Thomas Pasatieri provides a setting for May Swenson’s poem “To Lie With You.”

In addition, a message of the late writer and AIDS activist Paul Monette is given new life in Roger Bourland’s “All There Is Is Love.”

Closing the concert’s American half are Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” paired with Gwyneth Walker’s new men’s chorus arrangement of the Quaker anthem “How Can I Keep From Singing?”

Featured music in the second half, the French portion, will include Michel Legrand’s “Little Boy Lost” and “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?” as well as Jacques Brel’s “Madeleine.”

Performances of “An American in Paris” will take place Saturday, Aug. 5, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 6, at 7:00 p.m.

General admission is $25 with discounts for students, seniors, military and groups. Tickets are available from any GMCSD member, at Obelisk the Bookstore and also on the chorus’ Web site, www.gmcsd.com. The First Unitarian Universalist Church is located at 4190 Front St. in Hillcrest. Call (619) 57-GMCSD for more information.