Thank you Judge Walker! 12 Take our gay news quiz GAY SAN 4


A galvanizing defeat How an anti-gay state senator spurred a generation of com- placent Californians into action.


8


NC walks Walker’s way Max Disposti ruminates on the effect Judge Walker’s decision will have on conservative North County.


14


Café 21 wows Sabatini Normal Heights eatery offers Ukrainian forkfuls of culinary bliss—and killer pierogis too!


18


Jacko has left the building? Popular celebrity impersonator Devra Gregory returns with elaborate dance and circus extravaganza to honor the ‘King of Pop.’


22


They left their figures in ... GSD’s travel gurus eat, drink and sightsee their way through the City by the Bay in three days.


INDEX


LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS…………5 PARENTHQOD…………………8 CLOSET TO SPOTLIGHT…………10 TECH DIEGO…………………11 ADVICE FROM THE BEYOND……13 SPORTS……………………17 FILM………………………20


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Rainbow flags prepare to fly high during SDSU’s annual Pride month ceremony. (Courtesy SDSU)


(bottom left) Mayor Jerry Sanders’ wife, Rana Sampson, Sanders and their open- ly lesbian daughter, Lisa Sanders, attended a town hall meeting at the LGBT Com- munity Center Aug. 4, in celebration of Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling; (bottom right) one of the many people who marched in support of marriage equality Aug. 4. (Courtesy David Harvey and Pat Sherman)


DIEGO SERVING OUR LGBT COMMUNITY


Visit our website, gay-sd.com, for updates on the Aug. 18 return of same-sex marriages to California.


VOL 1 • ISSUE 5 | August 13 - August 26, 2010 | gay-sd.com


One more step made to the altar


Prop. 8 deemed unconstitutional; gay couples can marry Aug. 18


By David Harvey | GSD Reporter As many as 2,500 San


Diegans marched through Hillcrest Aug. 4 to celebrate a victory for the LGBT com- munity after Chief U.S. Dis- trict Judge Vaughn Walker announced that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and dis- criminatory. Prop. 8, which was ap-


proved by 52 percent of Cali- fornia voters in Nov. 2008, altered California’s constitu- tion to define marriage as between only one man and one woman. Walker, who pre- sided over the first federal court battle regarding Prop. 8, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, released his decision Aug. 4. It read, in part: “Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same- sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples.” Under the U.S. Constitu-


tion, Walker said, there is no room for laws that discrimi- nate based on moral or reli- gious belief.


In Walker’s 136-page


decision, he said same-sex marriages should begin im- mediately. Though he issued a temporary stay on his deci- sion, eight days later he said he would lift the stay and that couples can resume mar- rying after 5 p.m. on Aug. 18. Prop. 8 supporters, who wanted the ban to remain in effect, are appealing his de- cision in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. On Aug. 6 lawyers for


the plaintiffs, as well as Gov. Schwarzenegger and Attor- ney General Jerry Brown, filed legal motions urging Walker to allow same-sex marriages to resume imme- diately in California. Openly lesbian state Sen.


Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) issued a response, which commended the Re- publican governor’s recent action, while chastising him for his previous failure to sup- port same-sex marriage.


see Marriage, pg 5 Manchester-funded gay group ignores By Rex Wockner | Special to GSD A national gay Republican


group has received $16,000 in con- tributions from San Diego’s Man- chester Financial Group and the gay-boycotted Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, and recently held an event at the hotel. In May, GOProud accepted a


$6,000 cash contribution from the financial group and $10,000 in ho- tel credit from the Hyatt, the orga-


nization confirmed July 30. The Manchester Grand Hyatt


has been boycotted for two years by LGBT activists in response to owner Doug Manchester’s $125,000 donation in “seed money” to the campaign that succeeded in amending California’s constitu- tion to re-ban same-sex marriage in 2008. “They generously are support- ing us with hotel credit and some


cash,” GOProud Executive Direc- tor Jimmy LaSalvia said in an inter- view. “We are grateful and happy to take it. I’m happy he is supporting organizations like GOProud rather than supporting organizations that are working against us.” GOProud held its first Califor-


nia event at the hotel July 31. Forty people attended. Tammy Bruce, an openly lesbian Fox News political analyst, author and radio talk-show


Five-star campus: SDSU receives top LGBT ranking in national survey UCSD also scores well; USD fails to participate in survey By Margie M. Palmer | GSD Reporter


It was less than three years ago that


the local media spotlight shone on San Diego State Universitys when The Koala, SDSU’s student-run newspaper spoofing campus life, printed a virulent antigay at- tack against Doug Case, the university’s openly gay coordinator of fraternity and sorority life. In a November 2007 interview, Ben


see Colleges, pg 7


boycott, holds event at San Diego Hyatt Conservative GOProud says developers apology should be good enough


host, was the featured speaker. The reception was picketed by


20 activists who said it was shame- ful for GOProud to violate the boy- cott and accept money from Man- chester. They were addressed by veteran Los Angeles lesbian activ- ist Robin Tyler. The protesters carried signs that said, “GOProud go home!”


see Hyatt, pg 12


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