Plus Letters To the Editor
The Santa Cruz alternative press has a proud tradition of covering LGBTQ issues that don’t get the attention they deserve in the mainstream media. This has a lot to do with the vibrant LGBTQ community here, and I suspect, also, with the fact that City on a Hill Press—the UCSC paper where many Santa Cruz journalists did their first reporting—had a section devoted to LGBTQ news for many years. That tradition has continued in Good Times, for instance in last year’s cover story celebrating 40 years of Santa Cruz Pride, in which Jacob Pierce traced the history of the local transgender community, and wrote about some of the issues activists were prioritizing.
One of those issues was access to health care, and Anne-Marie Harrison’s cover story this week provides an in-depth look at how that health-care landscape is finally changing for transgender individuals—at least locally—thanks to the work of some dedicated health-care professionals. Her story fits firmly into, and furthers, the local legacy of attention to important LGBTQ issues by highlighting an aspect of transgender identity that most of us who are not transgender ourselves would probably never think about.
Read the stories of transgender people locally who have dealt with discrimination and ignorance in the health-care system and you’ll be moved; read how medical professionals like Dr. Jennifer Hastings are working to change it, and you’ll be inspired.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Quote Him
Re: “Bern Notice” (GT, 10/28): Thank you Good Times, Roseann Hernandez and Jacob Pierce for your superlative article about SantaCruz4BernieSanders. We have already shared it online with our National Bernie Sanders Campaign 2016, because it is a powerful example for our grassroots organizations across the country—in 50 states, and dozens of cities.
“Bernie is humanizing politics,” our “supporters admire his integrity” and his courageous campaign to empower “We The People: The 99%”. Because it is true: “Congress doesn’t regulate Wall Street, Wall Street regulates Congress!”
Thank you for your admirable coverage of “Making History Now!” Check our local events calendar and “Feel The Bern” with us. Fiat lux!
Allen Berg, Santa Cruz
Online Comments
Re: ‘The Water Diviners’
Like the concept, don’t see a plan. For starters, in order to collect storm water effectively you have to collect a lot of silt/septic water very quickly (storage/treatment at quarries essential). An upgraded Graham Hill WTP will be very limited. None of the committee members or the consultants they hired have experience building earthen reservoirs, so, please, no excuses not doing work you know nothing about. Why even speak of cost, when there are no conceptual plans even developed? Recycled water can fill/replace well demand on the Purisima much more effectively, and [is a] much better use rather than carrying pollution to the Bay.
— Bill Smallman
Re: ‘Bern Notice’
Bernie Sanders is not a socialist. He describes himself as a social democrat. He believes that government must play an important role in making sure that all citizens have health care; that, as a right, all of our children, regardless of income, have quality childcare, are able to go to college without going deeply into debt; that we do not allow large corporations and moneyed interests to destroy our environment; and that we create a government which is not dominated by big money interests.
I believe Bernie’s policies show that he most resembles America’s greatest progressive president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
— Fred Seamon
Re: ‘Fair BnB’
I believe all legit Airbnb hosts pay lodging tax to the city that goes into the General Fund. Why not use those funds to develop more affordable housing?
— Win Win
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FINAL APPROACH A pelican heads for the arch at Natural Bridges. Photograph by Brent Houston.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The cause of fighting local hunger always gets movers and shakers into a spirit of healthy competition before the holidays. With the Second Harvest Food Bank’s Holiday Food Drive now in full swing, one branch of Dominican Hospital has raised money for 12,500 meals, and another isn’t far behind with 8,000 meals raised so far. Food drive co-chair Hillary Bryant, a former Santa Cruz mayor, is challenging our community to beat last year’s benchmark of 4 million meals raised.
RESEMBLING ASSEMBLY
An outdoor-focused film program is coming to local high schools and the Rio Theatre with messages on environmental, cultural and social issues. The Telluride Mountainfilm Tour will be at Branciforte Middle School on Tuesday, Nov. 10, and Scotts Valley High School on Friday, Nov. 13. Later that same Friday, the films will screen at Harbor High School. The Rio show will be the night of Friday, Nov. 13. Visit mountainfilm.org or riotheatre.com for more information.
