www.gay-sd.com


FROM PAGE 2 COMEDY


up comedy traffic school until the ability to take the classes online stole her business. Frustrated by the bias she


witnessed against female, gay and non-white comedians, Jean and Clobber, a San Diego-based professional comedian who has appeared on HBO and Showtime,


prejudice that women comics are not as funny as male comics. I think Margaret Cho and Ellen (DeGeneres) refute that. A comic is a comic is a comic—it doesn’t matter what your gender or sex or is.” Burford, who isn’t “out” at work,


said that, out of respect for her military colleagues who are subject to “don’t ask, don’t tell,” she avoided references to her sexuality in her early days as a comic. “I didn’t want to get


JUMP


FROM PAGE 1 HYC


FROM PAGE 5 HYATT


recognizes companies that promote LGBT equality in the workplace. “On LGBT issues they’re a


good employer,” Sainz said. “We obviously, vehemently take excep- tion to Doug Manchester’s contri- bution to Proposition 8 and have called him out as such, but he is the owner of that particular prop- erty, not the operator. “We have said that his contri-


said. Though the new strip center unit is only 950 square feet, it is just blocks from the main LGBT Center, where youth can now go to access some services—such as a computer lab—that were for- merly housed on site. “The landlord where we’ve


Sean Wherley


formed Brew Ha Ha. She now produces and hosts the free shows and, along with Clobber, holds weekly auditions for new acts. “We wanted to watch these


comics grow and give them some stage time—10 minutes versus three at The Comedy Store. You don’t know if [the material] is going to work until you get it in front of a live audience,” she said. “University Heights is the perfect place to do it because [the people there] are gay-friendly.” A few months ago the duo


decided to take the laughs east, beginning a Sunday night version of Brew Ha Ha at Gio Bistro Wine Bar in La Mesa. Four “out” gay comedians are scheduled for the Aug. 1 La Mesa show. Jean said she tries to arrange


an all-gay show about every two months. “This will be our third gay


show,” she said. “I’ve had people say nobody’s going to go to an all-gay show in La Mesa and I say, ‘Yes, they will—you watch.’ And they have.” Headlining the 6 p.m. show


will be Sarah Burford, who recently appeared at the San Diego Pride festival. “My dad was gay and I was


raised by two gay men so I grew up in the gay world,” she said. “It’s just a little piece of me. I like doing the gay comedy because it kind of lets me talk about it and reach out to straight audiences to say we’re all the same under our skin.” Burford, a civilian who works


in public relations for the Navy, began doing stand-up a year ago on a lark. “I was turning 40 and my


friends were daring me to do something big to mark the occasion,” she said. After a class at The Comedy


Store and a few shots at open mic nights, she realized she had found her calling. “I was headlining before


the end of the first year,’” said Burford, who estimates she’s done 50-60 shows in the last year, including opening for Dat Phan. During that time, she’s experienced the same discrimination that provoked Jean to open Brew Ha Ha. “Not so much for being gay,


but as a woman absolutely,” she said about comedy clubs’ partiality to men. “There’s a


Sarah Burford


pigeonholed as ‘Sarah The Gay Comic,’” she said. “Now it’s just me being me. I don’t set out to write all this gay material and do it. My observation is the way I perceive the world as a gay woman.” Sean Wherley, who will be


appearing with Burford at the Aug. 1 show, takes a similar approach.


see Comedy, pg 16


been has been great,” Jacobs said, “but one of the challenges has always been it’s too far away for youth to access the (main) build- ing here for special things.” At the main facility, at Centre


Street and University Avenue, youth will be able to access the Cy- ber Center and auditorium, where HYC’s annual “Other Prom” is held. Jacobs also envisions the youth tending their own commu- nity garden at the main site. “It also happens to save mon-


ey, which is always a good thing, but it wasn’t sole motivator for the move,” she said. During a recent visit to the


Hillcrest Youth Center, the mood see HYC, pg 13


bution to Prop. 8 was consistent with the values of hatred and big- otry ... and we definitely under- stand why LGBT people would not want to patronize that par- ticular hotel, but it is important to differentiate between Doug Manchester and properties that he owns, from Hyatt as a corpora- tion,” Sainz said. Still, the question as to whether


the boycott should continue, if and when the transaction is complete, remains unresolved for many. “As far as I know there is no


signed contract between Manches- ter and Hyatt and his name is still on the hotel,” said Fred Karger, found- er of Rights Equal Rights (formerly Californians Against Hate), which organized the initial Manchester Grand boycotts. “There is still the Douglas pavilion, Manchester ball- room and even the Elizabeth ball- room” (named after Manchester’s former wife, whom he divorced in 2009 after funding Prop. 8). “I imagine that the other boy-


cott organizers and I will hear from Global Hyatt if and when a sale is complete,” Karger said. “If Doug Manchester still has any owner-


July 30-August 12, 2010 GAY SAN DIEGO


11


ship of the property, then the there would be no reason to end our Manchester hotels boycott.” Sainz said he did not know


whether the Human Rights Cam- paign would take into consideration Hyatt’s decision to offer Manches- ter interest in two additional prop- erties when it next rates the compa- ny for its Corporate Equality Index. “Any ownership within that prop-


erty by Doug Manchester or any ownership of any [ Hyatt] property, would still make it objectionable in my opinion, because the standard for me is whether or not he contin- ues to profit from a hotel that LGBT people would patronize,” Sainz said. “It’s not whether or not he’s a major- ity or minority owner of the hotel. “[The HRC] has had several


conversations with Hyatt and they tell us that the deal is far from done,” Sainz said. “I think ‘stay tuned’ is basically what we’ve been told, because a lot remains to be seen before we hear the last of Doug Manchester.”☭ —GSD Editor Pat Sherman contributed to this report


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