Longtime Activists Cleve Jones and David Mixner Call for Demonstrations Around SCOTUS Marriage Hearings

Last night, longtime activists Cleve Jones and David Mixner posted "a call to action", calling for local demonstrations and grassroots actions around the time the Supreme Court will hear the Prop 8 and DOMA cases on March 26 and 27.

Write Jones and Mixner: "Between us, we have over 80 years of experience in the movement for peace and social justice. In particular, as gay men, we have fought for the rights and dignity of our own community, known today as LGBT. We do not claim that age necessarily brings wisdom, but it does bring memories and we have many...Now is the time, once again, to recognize the unique moment before us and to act with the greatest power and intelligence possible."

The activists do not suggest a march to oppose the one being organized by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). "Ignore them," they say. Instead, they "encourage all LGBT advocates and all fair-minded Americans who believe in equality and justice to take part in public actions on during the last week of March."

Read their suggestions instead, AFTER THE JUMP...

Read their full post HERE.

Here is their Facebook page, National Equality Action.

Join Cleve Jones and ONE's Fight Against HIV/AIDS

In anticipating of World AIDS Day this weekend, activist Cleve Jones called on a few of his friends, including Colin Farrell, Kellan Lutz and Zoe Saldana Lark Voorhies, to participate in a new video series for the group ONE's campaign fight against HIV/AIDS: "It Starts With Me."

"Things only change when a new generation of people decides that something that was tolerable and acceptable is no longer for them and they say, 'It's got to be changed,'" Jones says in the video.

Watch Jones and company explain the disastrous, preventable gap in HIV/AIDS treatments around the world and how you can help end the nasty retrovirus once and for all AFTER THE JUMP.

Seeing 'How AIDS Ends'

BY ARI EZRA WALDMAN

We're so busy falling over cliffs or sliding down slopes and waiting with bated breadth for word about whether the Constitution recognizes the equal dignity of gay persons that we sometimes forget that a long life is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of rights and the good life.

So, mark your calendars: Saturday, December 1 is World AIDS Day.

It is a day on which we should make an extra effort to remember those whom we lost, reflect on what the AIDS Crisis has taught us, and realize that there are still too many getting infected with HIV, not getting tested, practicing unsafe sex, and dying of AIDS-related complications. Take the time to see David France's fantastic documentary, How to Survive a Plague, which tells the story of ACT UP (and its offshoot TAG) during 9 years of the AIDS Crisis in Greenwich Village. Even those too young to know anyone who died of AIDS will be taken into a world of anxiety, emergency, and death and will walk away thanking ACT UP for what it did and trying to learn from the examples of brave men and women like Peter Staley, Bob Rafsky, and Iris Long.

But, World AIDS Day Version 2012 is also a day that we can start to see how AIDS will end. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 2011, "the goal of an AIDS-free generation may be ambitious, but it is possible with the knowledge and interventions we have right now. And that is something we've never been able to say without qualification before. Imagine what the world will look like when we succeed.”

Imagine indeed. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), the country's largest AIDS services organization is not only imagining it, it is working hard to achieve it. In addition to its outreach, education, health care, counseling, and research work, the SFAF has just published a fascinating e-book in which scholars, activists, and leaders talk about what needs to be done to end the AIDS epidemic and what will happen in a post-AIDS world. Available here and for just $0.99 (that's less than what you spend on a Chobani yogurt!), How AIDS Ends asks 15 contributors -- from former President Bill Clinton to Cleve Jones -- to answer a simple, compelling, and overdue question: When we write the complete history of HIV/AIDS, what will the final chapter look like?

Buy the e-book. All proceeds go to support the free HIV prevention and care services of the SFAF, so you know your money is going where it's most needed. Take a moment to read it (it won't take long), and as you process what you've just read, follow me AFTER THE JUMP to discuss.

CONTINUED, AFTER THE JUMP...

Cleve Jones Organizes SF Vigil for Lesbian Couple Shot in Texas

Longtime activist Cleve Jones has organized a vigil in San Francisco for the teen lesbian couple shot in the head last Friday night in Portland, Texas. If you're just learning the story, catch up HERE.

Writes Jones:

"Last Friday, as millions of LGBT people and their allies were celebrating Pride, something awful happened in Portland, Texas. We need to respond publicly to this tragedy.  Whoever shot Mary Christine Chapa and Mollie Judith Olgin, whatever the motive, regardless of where it happened, two beautiful girls were shot and one was killed. We need to honor the memory of Mollie and pray for the recovery of Mary...Mary and Mollie loved each other. Now we need to show our love for them and their families and friends."

Please join this vigil taking place in San Francisco at Harvey Milk Plaza (Market and Castro Streets) this Wednesday, June 27 at 7pm. *Bring signs, candles and flowers*

Here's the vigil's Facebook page.

SF Mourners March for Harvey Milk, 33 Years After His Death: VIDEO

Last night, on the 33rd anniversary of his death, a Harvey Milk Memorial and Candlelight March took place in the Castro. Former Milk intern Cleve Jones offered some inpiring words to the marchers and activist and videographer Sean Chapin captured it all in a touching montage.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Anheuser-Busch Urged to Drop Sponsorship of Homophobic 'Ultimate Fighting Championship' (UFC)

Longtime gay activist Cleve Jones, Stonewall Democratic Club of Southern Nevada Chair Derek Washington, Culinary Workers Union President Geoconda Arguello-Kline,  Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network of Southern Nevada Co-Chair Howard Watts III, and Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada activist Laura Martin have written a letter to Anheuser-Busch urging them to drop sponsorship of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) over the organization's failure to address homophobic behavior by its leaders and athletes.

They write, in part:

"Bud Light has been a major sponsor of recent gay pride celebrations in Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, among other cities, as well as last year’s Gay Days celebration in Orlando, Fla.  However, we believe it is hypocritical of Anheuser-Busch to advertise Bud Light during gay pride events that celebrate diversity and tolerance, while sponsoring a professional sports organization that tolerates hateful language and anti-gay bigotry."

They also detail a long list of complaints regarding anti-gay behavior against the UFC.

Read their full letter, AFTER THE JUMP...

Much of the anti-gay behavior detailed in the letter can be found here. The activists have also started a petitiion urging FOX to drop the UFC.