Pak Han Photography

Steve Boss plays some mean guitar (and skeleton) in Montoya's "The River"

Identity is often times difficult to unravel -- there's many layers to define. So what happens when you try to describe the persona of an entire state like California?

Richard Montoya -- founder of renown, Mission-bred political performance group Culture Clash -- has written The River in collaboration with Sean San Jose, co-founder of theater company Campo Santo. The play -- which is actually part of Montoya's larger project, "The Borders Series" -- is designed to help us navigate California's conflicted identity, exploring in equal parts the humor and pathos surrounding California's notorious diversity and the inherent tension it brings.

More »

Local sex work activist Siouxsie Q announced today that she has decided to resolve her conflict with Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass by changing the name of her podcast from This American Whore to The Whorecast.

See Also: This American Life Tells Local Podcaster: No Whores Allowed

Ira Glass Responds to SF Weekly 's Post on This American Whore Podcast

More »

Cultural institutions in San Francisco continually search for new acquisitions. Alexis Coe brings you the most important, often wondrous, sometimes bizarre, and occasionally downright vexing finds every other Friday.

San Francisco native José Sarria is a celebrated performer, advocate, and was the first known openly gay person to campaign for elected office in 1961. When the 90-year-old Sarria began to seriously consider the fate of his personal archives, it was no easy task. The Smithsonian expressed interest, but only wanted his correspondence, and Sarria knew that the public and researchers would best benefit from a complete collection at one institution.

See Also: John Steinbeck's Cold War Armenian Legacy
Exploratorium Film Seeks to Capture the Rhythm and Drama of the Embarcadero

More »

At any given point, there are hundreds of San Francisco-based campaigns on funding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Tragically, the volume and quick turnaround often mean that some of these don't meet their fundraising goals, whether they are good ideas or not. This is why we've decided to give a boost to some local campaigns that we've deemed worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Murals are a long-held tradition in San Francisco, and the city is home to hundreds across the various districts. Leadership High School takes this legacy to heart with their now annual Week Without Walls -- a single week where students are outside of the classroom to work on a project alongside professional artists and learn about mural art culture and history. Last year's inaugural piece was such a success that students have requested in return.

More »

Equality is not equal unless we can all wear comfortable underwear.
 
This spring, the NYC label Chrysalis is launching its new lingerie collection "by trans women for trans women" in an effort to destigmatize and empower trans bodies. The brand is offering lingerie that acknowledges the diversity of "our existence and provides a solution to our specific needs."

More »

If you missed Jodie Foster's rambly, kinda coming out speech at the Golden Globes the other night, we suggest you skip it and just watch The Onion parody instead, which reports that Foster's speech is inspiring LGBT youth to come out to their parents in vague, confusing riddles, such as, "I just want to let you know that I'm here and I love who I love, and I'm not who you never thought I wasn't going to be."

See also:

10 Reasons You Should Come Out of the Closet

S.F. Voted Best "Pride City" by Gay Travelers

More »

San Francisco might not be gay enough for Oakland, but when it comes to travel destinations, S.F. is still No. 1 in the ol' U.S. of Gay.

GayCities, the world's largest LGBT community-driven city guide, recently announced the winners in its annual Best of GayCities 2012, and San Francisco nabbed not one but two distinctions.

See also:

Gay People Love Vodka (Infographic)

Breaking: Oreo's "Gay" Cookie Agenda Crumbles

More »

Irene Young

Femmepire Records is an interview series on femme identity. Click here for the elevator pitch and first interview.

Here's Jewelle Gomez, the dynamo femme activist, poet, playwright, and author of the double Lambda Award-winning novel, The Gilda Stories. Her adaptation of the book for the stage Bones and Ash: a Gilda Story, was performed by the Urban Bush Women company in 13 U.S. cities. Find her at her website linked above and on Twitter @VampyreVamp.

See also:

Art Beat: Dia Dear on Performing Queerness

The "Perfect Man" According to San Francisco Women

More »

natanmac87/Flickr

Can you tell whether someone is male or female just from their voice? One of the more obvious cues our brains have when determining a person's gender is whether their voice is high- or low-pitched. But a new study shows that the way we pronounce words, specifically the letter "s" can have just as much impact on how people perceive our gender.

See also:

Being Transgender No Longer a Medical Disorder, DSM Revised

Femmepire Records: Genderfuck Girliedrag with Jolie O'Dell

More »

On left, the extraterrestrial Teen Titan, Starfire; on right, the image redrawn for The Hawkeye Initiative by Lauren Armstrong

The concept behind the hot new Tumblr, the Hawkeye Initiative, is simple: In order to demonstrate just how much superhero comics distort the bodies of female characters, fans take real comic art and redraw it, replacing the female characters with Hawkeye, perhaps the least interesting character ever to grace the pages of a Marvel comic.

See also:

Love and Rockets Celebrates 30 Years of Queer, Punk Comic Genius

Good Vibrations Sex Summit Is a Veritable Sex-Nerd Orgy

More »