Last week, I was named Empress Nicole the Great as Queen Mother of the Americas, the leader of the world’s second largest GLBT organization, the International Court System of Canada, U.S.A. and Mexico. The organization has been fund raising for 41 years and is much like the GLBT version of an Elks/Shriners organization, with chapters in more than 68 cities in three nations.

I was also elected to the board of directors of a national organization based in Washington, D.C., this past week (more information on this in next week’s column). However, even though my health has improved and I feel that I can fulfill my commitments, obligations and, yes, even travel at my own pace, I will have to cut down on my involvement in other organizations. (Just an FYI, I will once again be out of town a lot more than I have been this past year.)

This past week, I met and had several conversations with our hardworking City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Let’s remember who Mike is and what his record is. For more than three decades, Aguirre has been a fighter and champion for civil rights and equality. As a Latino, Mike “gets it” when it comes to discrimination. Let’s not forget he was the only candidate running for public office who dared to show up at a City Council meeting and speak against discrimination and the continuing of the Boy Scouts’ $1 Balboa Park lease deal. He has stood with us since the Anita Bryant campaigns and has stood up against discrimination of any community and for the equality of all citizens.

Aguirre has been misrepresented with regard to the voluntary closing of the 2200 Club. I have been involved in this bathhouse issue since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, when I was appointed by the County Board of Supervisors to the AIDS Regional Task Force. I worked with Susan Golding, who was then county supervisor, on a compromise that put our bathhouses under the supervision of the County Health Department, so that they would not be shut down and instead could provide HIV/AIDS information, forums and workshops.

Despite the change in ownership a few year’s back, problems with the bathhouse at 2200 University Ave. continue. Most problems concern drugs; 90 percent of which concern meth. As then chair of the Police Chief’s Advisory Board, I had countless conversations with the previous owners to try to get them up to the standards of our two other spas. I remember walking through the club, and there were unsafe (barebacking) videos on everyday until I got them stopped. We all know the Mustang Club earned a reputation for drugs, etc. In their own way, the new owners tried to clean it up, but it was an impossible task after so many years of being so poorly run.

As Aguirre has stated, the bathhouse situation at 2200 University Ave. is “unique.” You all need to know many of the complaints made to the health department and police department were from our own community and from bathhouse patrons. This does not include so-called anti-gay “former” homosexuals.

Trust me, our city attorney has more important issues to handle than guys in towels, but at times things at the 2200 Club were out of control – and, boys, we all know it. I am not passing judgment on anyone’s gay lifestyle or their drug usage because as I’ve said in the past, “He without sin cast the first stone.” But I will say, as a person involved with this issue since the ’80s, there is not a “witch hunt” going on by the City Attorney’s Office or the SDPD. Period.

How do you like our new look? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet, as we have a lot more in store for you. I would personally like to salute all of our very dedicated staff, and especially our editor, Russell O’Brien, and the assistant to the publisher, Todd Klein. But I would especially like to sincerely thank our Publisher Michael Portantino, who has for countless years given me, yes, a most colorful, controversial columnist, a forum to write and express my views (which at times he has caught hell for). Michael has always put his money where his mouth is. He walks his talk when it comes to our fight for GLBT equality and giving back to the countless GLBT and HIV/AIDS organizations in the community. No publisher on the West Coast can match his record. Of course we don’t always agree on all the issues, but I know where his heart and soul is … and it’s with his community.

We now have more elected openly GLBT officials than ever before in the history of our country, from city council members, judges and state representatives to members of the U.S. Congress, and we aren’t stopping now, as someday we will have our first openly gay U.S. senator. Playing a role in all of this is the Victory Fund, and, thus, I urge you all to attend and support the organization’s annual San Diego lunch next Friday, March 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the beautiful Bahia Resort Hotel. Tickets are $75-$500. For more information or to purchase tickets, call City Commissioner Robert Gleason at (858) 539-7610 or log on to www.victoryfund.org/events.

The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park will be the place where everyone is going to be this Saturday, Feb. 24. It is going to be a colorful and exciting evening of entertainment and food, along with some surprises. It is all going to benefit Stepping Stone and the Human Dignity Foundation. Just follow the crowds and get ready to have a great time. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (619) 225-9216 or log on to www.universalrhythms.info.

I firmly believe a vast majority of San Diego citizens feel as strongly as I do, that it’s long overdue to give our police force and firefighters a raise. To know that they are one of the most underpaid forces in U.S. major cities is a disgrace. Let’s do the right thing and support these hardworking and dedicated men and women, not only with words but action!