Real Bad Announces Beneficiaries & DJ

The 20th annual Real Bad party, the “unofficial” closing party of Folsom Street Fair and one of the best gay dance events on the planet, has announced the beneficiaries and DJ for this year’s event. Real Bad is completely volunteer-run and 100% of its proceeds go to the LGBT community.

Grass Roots Gay Rights West (GRGR/West), producers of the annual Real Bad fundraising dance party that follows San Francisco’s world-renowned Folsom Street Fair, today announced the beneficiaries and DJ for Real Bad XX — the twentieth installment of the legendary party. Five LGBT health and community service organizations, listed below, will share 100 percent of the funds raised by ticket sales for this historically sold-out event. The DJ, chosen from more than 20 applicants, is Tim Jones of London, England. Real Bad XX takes place on Sunday, September 28, 2008.

The organizations named as this year’s Real Bad beneficiaries represent diverse causes within the LGBT community. The beneficiary organizations are:

• AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP), a civil rights and social services organization that addresses the legal needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.
• Dimensions Clinic, which offers medical and mental health services to queer, transgender, and questioning youth, ages 12 to 25.
• GLBT Historical Society, which maintains one of the world’s largest collections of primary source materials about queer history. It will use its grant to support the installation of a major exhibit called “History of the GLBT Community of San Francisco: Treasures from the Archives of the GLBT Historical Society.”
• openhouse, which is a housing, services, and advocacy organization for LGBT seniors. Its goal is to ensure safe housing and support services that are sensitive to the needs of LGBT seniors.
• 360: The Positive Care Center at UCSF (360-UCSF), an HIV clinic that aims to serve all patients, including the uninsured and under-insured, in an equal access manner. Its innovative approach includes a program that reaches out to HIV-positive men of color and another project that focuses on HIV and aging.

Leif Wauters, Event Chair for Real Bad XX, stated that the beneficiary organizations were selected “based on their ability to create sustainable results or measurable change in San Francisco.” Wauters added that “the goal of Real Bad XX is to match the record-breaking community donation from Real Bad XIX in 2007.” Last year, Real Bad raised $150,000 for local LGBT charities.

Leif Wauters is one of my dearest friends and you can trust that with someone of his enormous talent at the helm, this year’s Real Bad will be as huge a success as in years past.

RELATED: Here’s my review of Real Bad 2006.