Beyond the Headlines

June 24, 2012
LGBT Round Table
Hosted by ABC7's Cheryl Jennings

This week's episode of "Beyond the Headlines" is a special round table discussion on issues facing LGBT community members.

Recent census figure show the number of same sex households in America has skyrocketed over the past decade. The report says there are more than 646,000 same sex couples living together across the country. However, despite the rise in support and the growth of the LGBT community, opposition and hate crimes continue.

We will hear from community leaders Theresa Sparks, Kyriell Noon, and Helen Zia as they discuss their own experiences growing up and coming out, how new legislation is affecting them today, and how perceptions of the LGBT community have evolved over time.

Studio Guests

Theresa Sparks
Executive Director
San Francisco Human Rights Commission
www.sf-hrc.org/
Theresa Sparks is the former President of the SF Police Commission and former CEO of Good Vibrations. Sparks has been a pioneer in transgender rights since 1997 and is the first transgender person to serve as Executive Director of the SF Human Rights Commission. Being one of San Francisco's most notable transgender women, Sparks was the Grand Marshal in the 2008 Pride Parade. In 2003, Sparks became the first transgender to be honored as "Woman of the Year" by the California State Assembly.

Kyriell M. Noon
Director of Prevention Services
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
www.sfaf.org
Kyriell M. Noon is the Director of Prevention Services at the SF AIDS Foundation. When the STOP AIDS Project merged with the AIDS Foundation, Kyriell moved with it after running the STOP AIDS Project for eleven years. Noon was educated at both Vassar College and Harvard University and has been a professor of Islamic Studies and American and African American History at Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Reed College. He and his partner have two children.

Helen Zia
Human Rights Activist and Author, Asian American Dreams
Helen Zia is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People and is an award-winning investigative journalist and a Contributing Editor to Ms. Magazine, where she was formerly Executive Editor. Her articles, essays and reviews have appeared in Ms., New York Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Essence, A.Magazine, The Advocate, Curve, OUT!, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other publications. Helen has written several articles advocating that anti-gay violence as well as violence against women should be recognized and treated as hate crimes and civil rights violations in the law. Helen married her spouse at San Francisco City Hall during Valentine's Day weekend, 2004 and again in 2008. She addressed the California State Assembly in June 2009 in recognition of LGBT Pride Month, and served as a Grand Marshal in the 2009 San Francisco Pride Parade.

Additional Information

Asian Pacific Islander Equality
http://norcal.apiequality.org
https://www.facebook.com/apiequality