A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
Some 250 people gathered inside North Light Court at San Francisco City Hall on May 12 to deliver about 1,500 postcards to Mayor Daniel Lurie, urging him to restore $100 million in proposed cuts to the upcoming City budget, including LGBTQ+, HIV and homeless services, among others.
The cards were strung together and held by members of the People’s Budget Coalition, who chanted and marched in procession up the stairs to the doors of Lurie’s office,
by Monteque Pope-LeBeau
“What are you?”
These are words that another person felt they could say to me. I don’t know why they thought that was OK. Maybe it was the same reasoning that drove doctors to “treat” the “illness” of my gender, ravaging my body when I was an adolescent so many years ago. I still carry the injuries.
Countless others have had similar experiences that they didn’t deserve.
by Adriane Dietrich
Trott-war: I’m very excited to hear what you have to say. Before we get started, a simple but very important question: How are you?
Lea: I’m doing well! A lot has changed since back then. Above all, a lot of things have settled; four years ago, it was all new and different. I still didn’t know where all this was going to take me.
On a bright Sunday afternoon on May 18, a group of transgender activists gathered at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. The group, Compton’s x Coalition, invited local media, including Street Sheet, to the rally outside the 111 Taylor St. Apartments, which stands on the site of a historic riot over a half-century before.
The rally culminated in two members of a direct action group called Traction SF climbing a fire escape to the roof and dropping two vertical banners that displayed a single message: “Liberate Compton’s.”
The building at 111 Taylor St.
by Cal Lerchi
Do my shoes soak in Trans Magic
At the intersection of Turk + Taylor?
Spirits of queens, queers, outcasts
Throwing shit at pigs who try to police our joy
Try to extinguish our flames that burn together
More radiant than the sun
Does trans magic last?
When the building that used to nourish glorious queers
Is now owned by a massive for-profit corporation
And it is not a coincidence
That GEO Group also imprisons our kin
Along the U.S.-Mexico border
To steamroll over trans history—
Our transcestors
With this disgusting corporation—GEO Group …
Will we support this?
By Adriane Dietrich
Lea’s transition began four years ago. After more than four decades, it had become clear to her what had been bubbling under the surface all that time. She offers insights into her own development and society’s responsibility towards members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Trott-war: I’m very excited to hear what you have to say. Before we get started, a simple but very important question: How are you?
by Billy Thomas
EDITOR’S NOTE: Street Sheet is reprinting this piece from the 2024 Pride issue. Billy Thomas, an inmate at the John Wynne Unit of Texas State Prison in Huntsville sent multiple letters to ABO Comix in Oakland, California throughout 2022 and 2023. Street Sheet adapted these letters into a single piece, editing for brevity and clarity.
I am a 51-year-old person, a two-spirited transgender. I am a survivor of mental and sexual abuse from my time in the care of Texas Child Protective Services,
by Akir Jackson
Each morning I wake up invisible, just another faceless black body people avoid seeing on San Francisco’s streets. As a transgender homeless man who hasn’t medically transitioned, the world interacts with the gender assigned to me at birth, not my true male identity. This erasure compounded with anti-Blackness leaves me dehumanized and rejected by all sides.
When seeking shelter, I’m turned away from men’s quarters and told to sleep with women based on my sex assigned at birth.
by Jordan Davis
As you might already know, I write mostly about permanent supportive housing and how San Francisco’s government stands in the way of delivering effective services on time, under budget, and in a manner that works for everybody. I don’t like to talk much about my past, but since it’s Pride month, I’d like to share how being a neurodivergent, non-binary trans femme who began transitioning nine years ago has impacted me,
The New Lynchings of the 21st Century
Updated on May 16th to reflect current developments
What does Walgreens carry on its shelves that could be worth a human life? Banko Brown was a young Black trans activist who had been unhoused in San Francisco for a decade. In his volunteer work and community organizing with the Young Women’s Freedom Center, he consistently advocated for basic access to services, and was beloved by his community.
