CELEBRITY FRIDAY: London Breed Elected First Black Female Mayor of San Francisco

London Breed will become the first African-American female mayor of San Francisco when her main rival for the position, openly gay former State Senator Mark Leno conceded defeat. San Francisco is California's 4th largest city (behind Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose) and the nation's 13th largest. Breed, 43, is the President of the Board of Supervisors and will become the only women of color to currently lead a major American city.

Breed will serve out the rest of Mayor Ed Lee's term (until January 2020) and has not said whether she will run for re-election in November 2019. It is worth noting that te next Governor of California is likely to be Gavin Newsom, who became known to voters as the Mayor of San Francisco. Breed will be the second woman to serve as Mayor; the first is Dianne Feinstein, who is now California's senior U.S. Senator.

SATURDAY POLITICS: Poll Shows Close CA-GOV Race Between Newsom and Villaraigosa

There is a recent PPIC poll on the June 2018 primary in California which demonstrates the current state of play in the race for governor (which is open due to term limits preventing 4-term Governor Jerry Brown from appearing on the ballot again) as well as the race for the United States Senate seat currently held by Diane Feinstein.

As in every public poll that has been released testing the California governor's race, Lieutenant Governor (and former San Francisco Mayor) Gavin Newsom is in the lead, with 23 percentage of respondents expressing a preference for him while former Los Angeles Mayor (and former California Assembly Speaker) Antonio Villaraigosa relatively close behind at 18 and State Treasurer and State Controller John Chiang far behind at 9 tied with the highest Republican contender John Cox. In June 2018 all gubernatorial candidates will appear on one ballot and the Top 2, regardless of party will advance to the November 2018 ballot.

In the Senate race it appears as if Senator Feinstein is well ahead of her challenger, State Senate head Kevin de León since she leads by a massive 45% to 21% with "Don't Know" at 33%.
However, as most political pundits know anytime an incumbent (especially one who has been in office since 1994(!)) is below 50%, they should be nervous. That being said it is very likely that again that the two top candidates will now will be the two top candidates in June and thus these races could last until November 2018. This is one of the main problems with state's Top 2 primary (which was put into place by a ballot measure championed by "centrist Republican" Abel Maldonado during the Schwarzenegger era of California politics in 2004). It's very possible California voters will have a chance to repeal the Top 2 Primary system in a November 2018 ballot measure.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman Reveals He Doesn't Believe In God

Jared Huffman has become one of the rare prominent U.S. politicians to publicly announce he does not believe in God.  Welcome to the growing group of Americans (such as yours truly) who are "religiously unaffiliated"! The democratic U.S. Congressman (CA-2) made the announcement he was changing his official religious affiliation to "humanist" after receiving the endorsement of the Freethought Equality Fund PAC:

"I’m honored by this endorsement because it recognizes and reinforces my efforts to ensure that everyone in this great, diverse country is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their religious or nonreligious views. Today more than ever, we must defend the religious liberty our founders enshrined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
…
“Like many people,I’ve struggled with questions of faith and religion for most of my life. While I don’t pretend to have all the answers, I am convinced that people of all religions, as well as the nonreligious, can work together to make a positive difference in the world.”

It is a big deal that Huffman has "cmoe out" in this way. The only other out godless federal politician was Congressman Pete Stark (curiously, he also represented a Northern California district). Obviously it is very unlikely that Rep. Huffman is the only member of Congress who is godless. One question is will Huffman's action encourage any of his colleagues to join him? Stay tuned!

 Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist

QUEER QUOTE: Apple CEO Tim Cook Comes Out Publicly

Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of Apple, has finally publicly acknowledged what many people have known for quite awhile: he is an openly gay man. In a first-person essay published today in Bloomberg Businessweek Cook says:

 Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. It’s made me more empathetic, which has led to a richer life. It’s been tough and uncomfortable at times, but it has given me the confidence to be myself, to follow my own path, and to rise above adversity and bigotry. It’s also given me the skin of a rhinoceros, which comes in handy when you’re the CEO of Apple.

With openly gay Cook as its head Apple has been quite successful, and has flirted with becoming the largest market capitalization of any US corporation in recent years.

Congratulations, Mr. Cook!

FILM REVIEW: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

This summer's crop of movies has been somewhat disappointing to me. The biggest box-office successes released in summer 2014 are: 1) Guardians of the Galaxy ($262M); 2) Captain America : The Winter Soldier ($259M); 3) Transformers : Age of Extinction ($243M); 4) Maleficent ($237M); 5) X-Men: Days of Future Past ($232M). As you can see, I have only seen 2 of the Top 5 box-office hits to date. In fact, of the three I haven't seen the only one I would probably be interested in trying to see

One of the summer's hits that I wanted to see but almost didn't get around to it is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which is at #6 on the summer box-office list with $204M. I didn't see the original in the theaters, but I did see it, and I was impressed by that reboot of the venerable Planet of the Apes franchise starring James Franco to be interested to see how the story develops.

The sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, does not star Franco, but instead is carried by performances by Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke and Andy Serkis (as the motion capture source for Caesar, the talking ape from the first film). However, what sets apart this film from the other summer entertainment is the direction by Matt Reeves as well as a surprisingly clever script.

The new film starts about ten years after the events of the first film. There has been an epidemic which has basically led to a collapse of civilization. The apes from the first film have formed their own society in the depopulated woods of Northern California with Caesar as their leader.

However conflict with the humans resumes when a group lead by Jason Clarke's character ventures into the woods  to try and restart a power station in order to maintain electricity to San Francisco, where a sizable contingent of survivors who are genetically immune to the contagion which has decimated society.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the best film that I saw all summer long. The visual effects are truly astonishing, and within the first half-hour you really start to see the apes as fully realized characters with personalities and motivations clearly communicated (mostly through signs and subtitles). The story is compelling because it features both intra-species and inter-species conflicts.

Among the humans, there are factions that refuse to believe that the apes can be anything but dumb animals and want to use their technological advantages (particularly in armaments and weapons) to exterminate the apes and just take over the land that they want to insure their source of electricity.
However, there are humans who want to co-exist with the apes and they are able to negotiate with Caesar to give them enough access to the power station to fix it.

However, among the apes there are those who remember their torture and abuse (some would call it experiments in the name of science!) and who completely distrust the humans. They think that Caesar is too accommodating to the humans and when these apes learn of the stockpile of guns and ammunition the humans have back in the City they are sure this signals treacherous intentions among the humans.

So, the film's plot revolves around the worst elements in both factions inexorably leading the better, more openminded elements of the humans and apes into a violent conflict that will lead to many deaths on both sides.

All of this goes on in the context of the audience's knowledge of the future that these events presage a world where the apes are in complete ascendance and humans are viewed as chattel and uncivilized, violent creatures.

The result is an exciting, thought-provoking and emotionally satisfying movie which is great to look at and lingers with you afterwards as you ponder the issues it raised.

Title:  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Director: Matt Reeves.
Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief strong language.
Release Date: July 11, 2014.
Viewing Date: August 18, 2014.

Writing: A.
Acting: C.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: B-/C+ (2.50/4.0).

2014 STANFORD: Serena Faces Kerber In Final

Serena Williams reached the final of her first tournament back on the WTA tour, beating Andrea Petkovic 7-5 6-0 on Saturday at the Bank of the West Classic on the campus of Stanford University. She will face Angelique Kerber in the final on Sunday afternoon after the German saved match point to win 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2 late Saturday night.

Serena had a tough battle with former World #1 Ana Ivanovic on Friday night, coming back herself from 2-6 down in the first set to win the last two sets 6-3 7-5. This was an important victory for Serena, facing a player with the most wins on tour this year, who had beaten her at the 2014 Australian Open. Ivanovic played very well, at times out-hitting Serena and showing none of the mental lapses that have plagued her game in the past; she will be rewarded by entering the Top 10 on Monday.

Earlier in the week Venus Williams surprised many by putting on a vintage display of power and will to defeat Victoria Azarenka 6-4 7-6(1). Petkovic managed to defeat her in one of the best matches of the year, 6-1 3-6 7-5. Venus fought hard, coming back from a break down in both the second and third sets, eventually evening the match out at 5-all in the final set but lost the two last games and the match.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: 10-Year-Old Tanishq Abraham Graduates From High School With 4.0 GPA

Tanishq Abraham, 10, made some headlines as a prodigy this week with the news that he was graduating from high school at the age of 10, with a perfect 4.0 GPA no less. This is not too surprising, since he joined Mensa at age 4 and has been taking college courses since age 7.

The San Francisco Examiner reports:

Abraham was home-schooled for the past three years, and then he passed a state exam in March that certified him as having met the appropriate academic standards to receive his high school diploma in California.
[...]
The boy says that he realized he had a special gift when he was just in kindergarten. At that very young age, he realized he could read books written for second and third graders. Additionally, his math skills were that of a second or third grader. He believes that learning just comes more naturally to him than to other youngsters. It also helps that he says he really likes to learn things. 

Abraham names science as his favorite subject. However, he says he also enjoys social studies and history. Of math, he says he kind of likes it. He plans to either become a doctor – though he doesn’t know what kind – or perhaps a medical researcher or even the president.

Let's hope that Taishq continues to excel as he gets older!

MadProfessah Is On Vacation (SFO & SLC) June 6-16

I am on "vacation" from June 6-16th, visiting family and friends up in San Francisco, attending two academic workshops (one at Brigham Young University and one at Pepperdine University) related to my day job as a math professsor and in between  those workshops I will be checking out the natural beauty of the state of Utah, probably around Moab and Arches National Park.

Blogging may be (s)lower than usual during that time, but will probably accelerate again once Wimbledon begins!

Frank Schubert's Lesbian Sister Running For Sacramento County DA

Interesting political news out of Sacramento today. Frank Schubert is well-known to readers of this blog as the mastermind behind California's ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, and many other ballot campaigns against marriage equality. It has been well-known for quite awhile that Schubert has a lesbian sister, but now Anne Marie Schubert is running for District Attorney of Sacramento County, as a openly gay Republican. During the Proposition 8 battle back in 2008 it was not known that Schubert existed and many people feel like if she had come out publicly at the time then it may have had an impact on the election.

Most openly gay candidates get the support of the LGBT community, but when you're the sister of the LGBT community's public enemy number one that is unlikely.

The Sacramento Bee's Marcus Breton reports

Schubert isn’t running as a gay candidate but as a champion for public safety. She doesn’t hide her orientation but doesn’t think it should define her, either. 

“Don’t vote for me because I’m gay or not gay. Vote for me because I’m the most qualified for the job,” she said. 

That Schubert is open but not an advocate for anything but the principles of her profession partly describes why Sacramento’s gay community is glaringly outside her varied tent of supporters. 

Ultimately, DAs are best judged by their record of achieving justice. 

But Schubert’s ascension and her disconnect with politically active segments of Sacramento’s gay community would have been unimaginable a few years ago. 

It was only eight years ago that West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon “came out” to his constituents after virtually hiding who he was his entire political career.

I think that the main reason Ms. Schubert is not going to be endorsed by the LGBT community in Sacramento County is not that she's a republican but that she is not really friendly to or supportive of the LGBT community.

California Progress Report discussed the dilemma in Sacramento's LGBT community:

Public records show both Schuberts are registered as Republicans, while the candidate's two opponents, Maggy Krell and Todd Leras, are registered Democrats. 

Ms. Schubert's oldest brother, Frank, made millions of dollars stripping away equal marriage rights of homosexuals at the ballot box in California and Maine in 2008. Because of the familial connection to the fight against marriage equality, Ms. Schubert's run for District Attorney has proven to be divisive among the region's LGBT advocacy community. 

"I don't hold Anne Marie accountable for the actions of her brother," Darrick Lawson, the past president of Sacramento's Rainbow Chamber of Commerce whose group surprised many with its recent endorsement of Schubert's leading opponent, Krell. "I hold her accountable for her own actions, and more importantly, her own inactions. 

"I believe there is one Californian in 2008 who was uniquely qualified to make a difference during the Prop 8 campaign, and that was Anne Marie Schubert. If she had stood on the Capitol steps with her partner and their two children, the debate would have changed immediately," Lawson claimed. 

While Frank Schubert designed a successful campaign that promoted the idea that children would somehow be damaged or diminished to be knowledgable of same-sex unions, his sister and now candidate for District Attorney worked and lived in Sacramento with her Domestic Partner, Julie Greenberg, raising two young children the approximate age of the young boy, Joey Wirthlin, politically exploited by her brother to get California voters to strip away the right of their gay fellow citizens to marry.

What do you all think?

What

I
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/16/6240784/marcos-breton-why-gays-oppose.html#storylink=cpy

FILM REVIEW: Fruitvale Station

The other half and I saw Fruitvale Station at the Arclight Cinemas Pasadena when I was back in Los Angeles last week. Fruitvale Station is a movie based on the life of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African American man who was fatally shot (in the back, while face down on the pavement!) by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle in the early hours of January 1, 2009 in front of a group of his friends while taking the train from partying in San Francisco. The shooting was caught live on multiple cell-phone videos that went viral on the Internet in the days and weeks following the killing. Mehserle was eventually charged with murder, the trial was moved from Alameda County to Los Angeles County but he was only found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years. He served 11 months in prison and was released. He was the first peace officer to be tried for murder for a line-of-duty fatal shooting in over 15 years. The Oscar Grant case was a cause celebre for several years and every New Years Day there are events to remember Oscar in Oakland and Northern California.

Fruitvale Station is the movie about the famous Oscar Grant case. It is filmmaker Ryan Coogler's very first film (although it was executive produced by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker) and stars Malcolm B. Jordan (Chronicle) and Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer (The Help).

Stylistically, Fruitvale Station is somewhere between a documentary and a drama. It is most definitely not a hagiography of Oscar Grant. We seem him make foolish choices as well as bad ones. But the film makes it clear he loved his daughter Tatiana and her mother very, very much. When he is on the floor of the BART Fruitvale Station after being shot he says to the officer who shot him "Why did you do that? I have a daughter." It is an absolutely devastating moment in the film, which is replete with them. Spencer plays Oscar's mom and the two have a very close relationship. She knows that he has a tendency to wander astray and you can see it in her eyes as she watches her son carefully. The other emotionally devastating scene in the film is the one in which we see Oscar's mom get the news about her son's death and then again when she views the body of her son.

A word must be said about the performance of Michael B. Jordan in the lead role. He is absolutely mesmerizing, despite being on screen for almost every scene one never gets bored or uninterested in what he is doing, even when one is annoyed with the choices his character is making. Hopefully this performance will not be forgotten when the end of the year comes around and film accolades for the year are announced.

That being said, even though it is an emotionally draining experience Fruitvale Station is most definitely worth your time and attention to see. It is exactly the kind of film the medium is made for, to impact the audience in a meaningful and lasting way another art form may not have been able to.

Title: Fruitvale Station.
Director: Ryan Coogler.
Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for some violence, language throughout and some drug use.
Release Date: July 26, 2013.
Viewing Date: July 30, 2013.

Writing: A-.
Acting: A.
Visuals: B+.
Impact: A+.

Overall Grade: A/A- (3.85/4.0).

POLL: Support for Marriage in California At 55%

A new poll commissioned by Equality California from David Binder Research indicates that support for marriage equality in California is a majority position, with the number of people who strongly support equal civil marriage rights for same-sex couples outnumbering opponents for the first time, 42% to 31%. Overall, 55% of California voters respond positively (support marriage equality) while 37% respond unfavorable (oppose marriage equality) to the query: "Do you strongly favor, somewhat favor, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose allowing same sex couples to be legally married?” This number is lower than the 61% support for marriage equality found by the Field Poll about 3 months ago prior to the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Hollingsworth v Perry case which will determine the federal constitutionality of California's Proposition 8.

Some key findings from the DBR polling memo on marriage are:

• Over the past four years, support for same sex marriage increased by 8, from 47% to 55%. At the same time, opposition dropped by 12, from 49% to 37%. This resulted in an increase in net support of +20.
  
• 
  Gains in support are greatest among Republicans (+12), middle aged voters (+13 for 30 to 44 year olds and +17 for 45 to 64 year olds), African Americans (+14), and those who know a gay or lesbian personally (+10). 
  
  Those who know gays or lesbians are significantly more likely to support same sex marriage. Those who know a gay or lesbian person are 62% supportive and only 32% opposed. Those that do not know anyone who is gay or lesbian are 36% supportive and 53% opposed. 
  

It will be interesting to see how this new data influences the discussion after the Supreme Court ruling comes out in the next 3-4 weeks.

Saturday Politics: Lesbian Wins NoCal Senate Seat

Cathleen Gagliani won a hotly contested State Senate race to
give Democrats 29 votes and the LGBT caucus an 8th member

Cathleen Galgiani made news last year when she came out of the closet to become the 8th member of the California LGBT Legislative Caucus. At that time she came out she was an Assemblymember representing the 17th District in Northern California, in the Republican-leaning sections of Sacramento and San Joaquin counties. Galgiani decided to run for the 5th Senate District this year in another conservative district against Republican assemblyman Bob Berryhill and was trailing when votes were tallied on election day.

However, it looks like she has won the tightly contested race when absentee and provisional votes were counted:

After trailing since Election Day, Democrat Cathleen Galgiani overtook Bill Berryhill by more than 2,100 votes Wednesday night, assuring her of victory in their hotly contested 5th Senate District race. 

Thomas Lawson, Galgiani's campaign manager, said the trend is clear and that her victory will make Thanksgiving Day even sweeter. 

Berryhill's campaign consultant, Duane Dichiara, stopped short of conceding defeat but admitted, "It's a tough row to hoe" now. 

Galgiani inched ahead of her Republican opponent on the strength of her showing in San Joaquin County.She started Wednesday about 1,500 votes behind and now leads by 2,111 votes.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/11/cathleen-galgiani-overtakes-bill-berryhill-in-hot-senate-race.html#storylink=cpy

If Galgiani's win is confirmed it will mean that Democrats will have 29 seats in the 40-member Senate, 2 more than the two-thirds super-majority needed to place constitutional amendments directly on the ballot and pass new taxes. Astonishingly, Democrats will also have a super-majority in the Assembly, and openly gay Speaker John Pérez will lead the largest Democratic caucus in a century, with at least 54 members in the 80-member lower house.

There is also good news for the California LGBT Legislative Caucus, which will maintain its status as the nation's largest, with 8 members (tied with Maryland).

The openly LGBT members of the California legislature from 2012-2014 will be:

John A. Pérez (Assembly District 53) 

Toni Atkins (Assembly District 78) 

Richard Gordon (Assembly District 24) 

Tom Ammiano (Assembly District 17) 

Susan Eggman* (Assembly District 13) 

Ricardo Lara* (Senate District 33) 

Cathleen Galgiani* (Senate District 5) 

Mark Leno (Senate District 11)

California would have had a record NINE openly LGBT members if my friend Luis Lopez had won his intra-party race against Jimmie Gomez in my Assembly District (the 51st in Los Angeles), but unfortunately that did not happen.

Godless Wednesday: Lone Atheist Loses House Seat

Congressman Pete Stark has long been identified as the lone member of Congress to openly associate himself with the label "atheist." Stark had represented a district in Northern California in the U.S. House since 1973(!) but in last week's congressional election he lost an all-Democrat match-up (courtesy California's new top 2 general election format) to Eric Salwell by almost 10,000 votes.

Interestingly, Kyrsten Sinema, the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress (that we have been following on this blog since she won her primary earlier this year) has reportedly flirted with being an openly atheist member as well. She won her race (over a Black male Republican!) by a mere 6,000 votes and for several days after the election it was too close to call.

During her race Sinema described herself as a "notnheist" but now her campaign spokesperson is claiming the Congressperson-elect is rejecting that label.

While Sinema's campaign was initially unavailable for comment after Tuesday's election, spokesman Justin Unga said Friday that Sinema does not consider herself a nonbeliever, adding that she prefers a "secular approach.'' 

"Kyrsten believes the terms non-theist, atheist or nonbeliever are not befitting of her life's work or personal character,'' Unga said in email. "She does not identify as any of the above."

And doesn't that just speak volumes? After making headlines all over the country (and world) as the first openly bisexual person elected to the United States lower legislative body, Sinema apparently feels like it would be a "bridge too far" to also be known as someone who is also godless.

Hat/tip to Friendly Atheist

Space Shuttle Endeavour Arrives in California!

The 4th Space Shuttle, Endeavour, has arrived in California en route to its final destination at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be part of an exhibition that opens on October 30, 2012.

Another Virulent Homophobe Caught Molesting Kids

Ahhh, the sweet delicious irony. Heterosexual supremacists often attepmt to tar LGBT activists with the canard that homosexuality is synonymous or associated with pederasty or molestation of children. But, all reasonable evidence suggests that the vast percentage of child molesters are heterosexual (since the vast number of people are heterosexual) and that religious extremists are over-represented in the sample of heinous child sex criminals.

A case in point is one Caleb Hesse, 52, who is well-known in Northern California for his promotion of Proposition 8 and prominent anti-gay activities. According to Back2STonewall, Hesse was recently busted for sexually molesting "numerous underage boys":

A longtime anti-gay activist, California Prop 8 donor, and elementary school teacher was taken into custody on August 17th after admitting inappropriate contact with young boys.Caleb Douglas Hesse, a teacher for the Morongo Unified School District since 1987 (most recently, he was teaching first grade at Friendly Hills Elementary School in Joshua Tree) and a longtime youth volunteer with the virulently homophobic Evangelical Free Church of Yucca Valley, has confessed to sexually abusing “numerous underage boys,” with authorities believe the crimes occurred between the early 1980’s and as recently as a week ago.” Investigators say Hesse met the majority of the victims during overnight outings with a youth group at the  Evangelical Free Church. 

 During his arraignment on August 21st Hess recanted his confession and changed his plea to “not guilty”. 

 Hesse’s bail was set at 2.5 million dollars.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, Hesse is the owner of protectmarriage.com, the primary website for the proponents of Proposition 8, has been charged with four felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and is being held at the Morongo Basin Jail. The investigation of his activities is in its early stages but he has been active at the "Evangelical Free Church" for a long time.

What a shocker (not)! Another person with intense, almost obsessive activism and attention to promoting homophobia, preventing gay marriage and opposition to LGBT equality found to be sexually perverse. At this point it has almost become a cliche. After all, how, really, does homosexuality affect you if you're not gay yourself? People who have such significant issues with it are almost always dealing with some internal personal conflict over the issue.

hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Celebrity Friday: Lesbian Genius Chemist Carolyn Bertozzi

Carolyn Bertozzi is the T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at University of California at Berkeley. She is also openly lesbian, one of the rare openly LGBT scientists. She is also something of a superstar in her chosen field, as a quick perusal of her biography makes clear:

She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1993. After completing postdoctoral work at UCSF in the field of cellular immunology, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996.

Prof. Bertozzi's research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface glycosylation pertinent to disease states. Her lab focuses on profiling changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and exploiting this information for development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. In addition, her group develops nanoscience-based technologies for probing cell function and methods for protein engineering.

Prof. Bertozzi has been recognized with many honors and awards for both her research and teaching accomplishments. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Some awards of note include the Lemelson-MIT award for inventors, Whistler Award, Ernst Schering Prize, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award, and Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award of the Protein Society. Her efforts in undergraduate education have earned her the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award and the Donald Sterling Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

I had the good fortune of having lunch with Prof. Bertozzi during a visit to the National Science Foundation last month, and attended her Invited Distinguished Lecture at the agency. Her talk was incredible, very funny and demonstrated her ability to communicate the nature of her very complicated work to a broad audience.

I think it is important to recognize people like Prof. Bertozzi as examples of people who should be more famous, thus she is my pick for today's Celebrity Friday.

LGBT Friendly Apple Worth Over $500,000,000,000!

The largest company (by stock market valuation) in the world is Apple, which also happens to be one of the most LGBT-supportive companies in the world. For example, it's CEO is Tim Cook, who is an openly gay man. It is now worth nearly half-a-trillion dollars, according to the Los Angeles Times:

The company's market value passed the rarefied half trillion mark in trading Wednesday, as its stock bumped up more than 1%, or nearly $6, to put its value at closer to $504 billion.  The stock jump came a day after the company sent invitations to members of the media for an event next Wednesday in which it is expected to release its third generation iPad. 

Apple is currently the world's most valuable company by market value -- a measure of the total combined value of all of its outstanding shares of stock.  For much of last year, Apple was neck and neck with Exxon Mobil Corp. for that title, but over the last month Apple has catapulted nearly $100 billion past Exxon, which is now worth about $407 billion.

Interestingly, Apple's rival for the top spot, Exxon-Mobil is one of the most anti-LGBT companies in the Fortune 500, infamous for eliminating policies like domestic partnership benefits and sexual orientation nondiscrimination when it merged with Mobil. It is the only company ever to get a negative rating on HRC"s Corporate Equality Index.

With Apple CEO Resignation, Openly Gay COO Takes Over

New Apple CEO Tim Cook (left) with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Wow! This is big news! Tim Cook, the openly gay COO of Apple, has been named the new CEO, effective immediately  following the resignation of Steve Jobs earlier on Wednesday.

Here's the text of the letter co-founded and CEO Steve Jobs sent to the Apple community:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as C.E.O. of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as C.E.O. of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

I have recently become a MacBook Air user and I'm loving it! I had previously blogged about the openly gay COO of Apple, who now becomes the one of the most famous LGBT people in America. Apple, interestingly, has been flirting with the #1 position on the Fortune 500 in terms of market capitalization as the largest company in the world this summer. The #2 company is the evil Exxon Mobil, which is the only company in the Fortune 500 to have rescinded a gay-supportive non-discrimination ordinance (when Exxon merged with Mobil several years ago).

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Serena Demolishes Lisicki and Sharapova To Reach Final

Serena Williams ranked #169 in the world, beat World #5 Maria Sharapova and World #26 Sabine Lisicki in the last two days, losing a stunning total of 7 games over four sets. First she beat 2011 Wimbledon finalist Sharapova 6-1 6-3 on Friday night and followed that performance with a 6-1 6-2 drubbing of 2011 Wimbledon semifinalist Lisicki 6-1 6-2 in 59 minutes.

Serena reached her first final since the 2010 Wimbledon final and her first final on U.S. soil since the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open (which she lost to Victoria Azarenka). She will face Marion Bartoli, the player who shockingly dismissed the defending champion from this year's Wimbledon in straights sets in the fourth round. Bartoli has actually lost even less games than Serena in her last two matches because she's only had to play one set: both Dominika Cibulkova and Ayuma Morita have had to witchdraw, the former without playing a single point.

That being said, Bartoli does have the power to match Serena stroke for stroke, but it is doubtful she has the stamina or agility. Serena hates to lose to a player twice in a row, and I doubt that will happen Sunday afternoon in Stanford.

MadProfessah's prediction: Serena in two sets.

UPDATE: More Info On Homophobic GOP Hypocrite

There is a lot more information on the curious case of (recently divorced, father of four) GOP State Senator Ray Ashburn's DUI arrest Tuesday night in the proximity of a Sacramento gay bar with another man in the car at the time who has since been identified as a Latino man.

TPM Muckraker has these updates:

• Ashburn has taken a "personal leave" from the state Senate, his spokesman says.

• The Bakersfield Californian, Ashburn's home newspaper, had asked him twice about his sexuality in the past several years. After hearing a rumor that Ashburn was going to be outed by another newspaper, a columnist for the paper asked Ashburn last year if he is gay. Ashburn replied: "Why would that be anyone's business?"

• Ashburn's blood alcohol level was .14 when he was picked up by police, according to the Sacramento DA. The legal limit is .08.

• In 2005, Ashburn held a rally against gay marriage to protect "the future of our children."

KOVR CBS 13 has been doing excellent coverage of the story. Also, openly gay West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon is interviewed above revealing that he outed Ashburn on his Facebook page over 6 months ago.