April 4, 2024 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Gay former SF resident killed in Palm Springs

by John Ferrannini

Agay former San Francisco resident was killed in Palm Springs late Sunday, March 24, in what investigators said was a case of domestic violence.

The Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau confirmed to the Bay Area Reporter on March 27 that Robert “Bobby” DeTulio, 68, had been apparently stabbed when he was discovered by Palm Springs police in the 500 block of Tiki Drive. DeTulio was transported to the hospital, where he later died.

The Desert Sun reported March 25 that Evan Steele, 22, was arrested on suspicion of homicide after a 105-minute search that involved a sheriff’s helicopter. Eyewitnesses heard an altercation and saw someone flee before the helicopter was deployed, police stated.

“Eyewitnesses, including a vigilant neighbor, reported hearing an altercation and observing the suspect fleeing from the premises,” according to a statement. “Based on this information, PSPD officers, in collaboration with Riverside Sheriff’s Office Star 9, combed the vicinity for the suspect.”

Steele pleaded not guilty March 27 to murder, burglary and a sentence-enhancing charge of using a weapon in the commission of a felony. His next hearing is April 8.

The Desert Sun reported that the two men are believed to have been romantically involved. Steele is being held without bail in Riverside County Jail in Indio.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s and Public Defender’s offices did not return requests for comment.

Lisa Middleton, a transgender woman who’s a member of the Palm Springs City Council and served as mayor from 20212022, stated that she did not know DeTulio.

“The mobile home park where he was killed is in my district,” stated Middleton, who is running for a state Senate seat in November. “It is a lovely park with many wonderful people. They have held a vigil for the park residents. The population of the park is significantly LGBTQ.

“This is a very tragic, terrible death. I do not want to speculate on what went wrong,” she added.

See page 10 >>

Milk naval ship makes maiden voyage to San Francisco

by Matthew S. Bajko

The Navy’s USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO 206) made its maiden voyage Thursday through the Golden Gate and sailed into San Francisco Bay 28 months after being christened in the San Diego

shipyard where it was built. It docked at Pier 30/32 at the Port of San Francisco and sets sail Saturday for its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia. Helming a ship under the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time was Captain James J. White, who served in the Navy three years on

active duty and has spent more than three decades as a Military Sealift Command civilian mariner. This is his first time back in the Bay Area since he came through Oakland during his time in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

See page 10 >>

SF supes begin process to landmark Castro flag

by John Ferrannini

San Francisco supervisors agreed Tuesday to kickstart the process to grant local landmark status to one of the city’s most recognizable LGBTQ tourist attractions, the giant rainbow flag flying above the Castro Muni station.

The Board of Supervisors approved a resolution at its April 2 meeting that asks planning and historic preservation officials to take up the proposal to landmark the rainbow flag installation, which consists of the oversized flag and its flagpole at Harvey Milk Plaza. The public parklet built atop the transit station is located at Market and Castro streets in the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro, had introduced the resolution March 26. It requests that the planning department “prepare a landmark designation report to submit to the Historic Preservation Commission for its consideration of the full historical, architectural, aesthetic, and cultural interest and value of Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza,” it states.

The resolution requests “that the Historic Preservation Commission consider whether Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza warrants landmark designation and submit its recommendation to the board according to Article 10 of the Planning Code.” Per the city’s landmark

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution to begin the process of landmarking the oversized rainbow flag and flagpole at Castro and Market streets.

designation rules, a majority of the 11 supervisors would need to adopt an ordinance to officially add the flagpole to the list of local landmarks.

Mandelman’s office told the Bay Area Reporter that the resolution only begins the landmarking process. The clerk will now refer the matter to the historic preservation commission, which will hear the request. At that hearing, the HPC will make a recommendation and an ordinance will be introduced at the board of supervisors after the language has been worked on by the city attorney’s office and the planning department.

“In 1978, at the request of Harvey Milk, his

friend Gilbert Baker designed an eight-stripe rainbow flag as an image of pride for the queer community,” Mandelman explained to his board colleagues at last week’s meeting. “The flag was first revealed at the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. Color shortages necessitated the removal of the pink and turquoise stripes from subsequent flags and the blue was changed to a different shade. The updated 1979 Gilbert Baker rainbow flag includes six colors and has since become an iconic, internationally recognized representation of freedom, equality and LGBTQ+ pride.”

There’s a bit more to the backstory. As the B.A.R. previously reported, Baker co-created the flag with friends Lynn Segerblom, a straight ally who now lives in Southern California, and James McNamara, a gay man who died of AIDS-related complications in 1999.

Baker came up with a rainbow flag design that had eight colored stripes, with one version also sporting a corner section of stars to mimic the design of the American flag. Baker would go on to eliminate the stars and reduce the number of colored stripes to six.

“It really is a three person, not a one person, flag making. Everybody played their part and then some,” Segerblom told the B.A.R. in a 2018 phone interview from her home in Torrance, southwest of Los Angeles.

Tom Goss

Robert “Bobby” DeTulio

Rick Gerharter

From Facebook

Matthew S. Bajko

Former San Francisco supervisor and current BART board President Bevan Dufty stood on the deck of the USNS Harvey Milk during a tour March 28.

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Shame on US Postal Service

We’re not surprised by much these days, but the United States Postal Service managed to stun us with its letter stating that a stamp honoring gay college student Matthew Shepard was rejected as too “negative” – presumably because Shepard was beaten to death due to his sexual orientation. The Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee should rescind the rejection of a forever stamp honoring Shepard.

Shepard was brutally attacked on the night of October 6, 1998, tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die. Found by rescuers and taken to a local hospital, he would succumb six days later on October 12 to the severe head injuries he had received.

The murder of the University of Wyoming freshman 26 years ago attracted intense media coverage and is one of the most notorious antigay hate crimes in American history. It would galvanize activists across the country and led to the passage in 2009 of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

It’s co-named in honor of a Black man who was tied to the back of a truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas in 1998. The federal law expanded a 1969 federal hate crime statute to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

In the years since Shepard’s death, his parents, Dennis and Judy, started the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which works to address homophobia and promote LGBTQ rights. Both have remained outspoken allies to the LGBTQ community. An award-winning play based on his killing called “The Laramie Project” has been produced across the globe and helps educate audiences on how to counteract bigotry.

Those positive outcomes of a brutal tragedy – the federal law, the foundation, and the play –are apparently not enough for the postal service and its committee, though they should be.

“Unfortunately, this subject does not meet current criteria for commemoration on a postage stamp,” wrote Shawn P. Quinn, manager of stamp development for USPS, in a March 15 letter to gay San Diego resident Bob Lehman, who had written a letter to the postal service in support

of the Shepard stamp. Lehman shared the letter with the Bay Area Reporter and told us he was rather shocked to receive Quinn’s response. A Marine veteran who attended the welcoming ceremony for the USNS Harvey Milk in San Francisco last week, Lehman vehemently disagrees with the postal service and thinks Shepard’s death has had positive impacts over the last 26 years.

The postal service differs. “The stamp program commemorates positive contributions to American life, history, culture, and environment; therefore, negative occurrences and disasters will not be commemorated on U.S. postage stamps or stationery,” Quinn wrote.

Of course Shepard’s death was “negative” –death itself is generally not considered a positive development. But many postage stamps have been issued that commemorate people who have not had peaceful or “positive” deaths. Gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk was assassinated in November 1978, along with then-mayor George Moscone. A forever stamp honoring Milk was issued in 2014. Civil rights leader the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. A stamp honoring him was issued in 1979. Malcolm X, a Black leader also involved in the civil rights movement, was assassinated in 1965. A stamp recognizing him was issued in 1999.

More recently, the postal service issued a forever stamp recognizing manatees. A March 27 news release stated the aquatic mammals, familiar in Florida, often fall victim to accidental strikes by motorboats or become entangled in fishing nets. That’s not positive. The underground railroad, by which enslaved people escaped through a network of secret routes, was honored with a forever

Graphic novelist shares his SF

by Jonah Newman

I’m an author, illustrator, and editor who grew up in the Bay Area. My debut graphic novel “Out of Left Field,” published by Andrews McMeel in March, is based on my experiences playing baseball as a gay kid in San Francisco.

It’s a story I’ve wanted to tell ever since the events that inspired it ended. As early as freshman year of college, I wrote a short story based on my final season of high school baseball. I remember it pouring out of me; I was “in the zone” and tapping easily into those memories and emotions. That sort of creative energy is rare and not to be neglected. A couple of years later, I made a short memoir comic called “The Last Season.” But I felt I had still not done justice to my baseball story, and – inspired by queer graphic memoirs like Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home” and Tillie Walden’s “Spinning” – I wanted to include the discovery and embrace of my gay identity. I began to write “Out of Left Field” in 2018.

As the creative process progressed, and thanks in part to some great editorial feedback, what began as a graphic memoir evolved into semi-autobiographical fiction. Real life is messy and difficult to fit into a book, and others are unlikely to find your life as meaningful as you do. So in the hopes of making it easier for readers to connect with my story, I focused on distilling and conveying the emotional truth of what I went through. Taking creative liberties with the plot – reorganizing, exaggerating, and even inventing in places – allowed me to better capture the essentials and emotions of my high school experience: secretly crushing on boys, trying hopelessly to be cool, and then (once I wised up a bit) building genuine friendships and accepting my nerdy, gay self. With its focus on emotional truth above truthful detail, “Out of Left Field” turned out, I think, more compelling and relatable than a true memoir would have been.

That said, many aspects of the graphic novel are 100% true, including the Bay Area setting. I relished drawing the Golden Gate Bridge, Pacific Heights, Castro Street, Corona Heights Park, Marin County, and more.

There are a few messages that I hope readers will take away from my book. First and foremost, I hope my book makes LGBTQ+ teens, especially those who play sports, feel comforted and seen. There’s a lot more queer representation in young adult literature than there used to be, but not a ton of queer sports representation. While I think that in some contexts, it’s easier to be a queer athlete now than it was when I was in high school in the early 2010s, I know that many athletes – especially trans athletes

– still walk an extremely tough road. I hope my book emboldens them to live and compete fearlessly. Perhaps the most important message of the graphic novel is to be your authentic self, no matter what others might think. This is a message that anyone can connect with, whether or not they play sports or identify as LGBTQ+.

Another key takeaway is that it’s OK to make mistakes as long as you own up to them and learn and grow from the experiences. In the book, Jonah the character screws up a lot, from laughing along with his teammates’ offensive jokes to failing to be emotionally attentive to people close to him. These mistakes and what follows are crucial parts of Jonah’s journey. It was important to me to depict not just mistakes, but their aftermath – consequences, apologies,

and growth – because I wanted to show that selfhood is determined in part by how we respond to screwing up or being called out. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s the choices we make afterward that define us. In today’s cruel and divided world, we could all be more forgiving and graceful toward others and ourselves when we inevitably make mistakes.

Serious themes aside, I strove to keep “Out of Left Field” sweet and light-hearted, with plenty of humor. I hope you find it relatable and entertaining.t

Jonah Newman, a gay man, will be in the Bay Area April 8-19 doing bookstore, library, and community events. For a schedule, go to jonahnewmancomics.com and click on “Comics and graphic novels.”

The U.S. Postal Service rejected a stamp honoring the late Matthew Shepard.

Shepard stamp campaign committee

by Matthew S. Bajko

During her time in the Navy Paula Neira routinely got seasick when she boarded a vessel. It would take her at least 24 hours to find her sea legs.

Yet, cruising aboard the USNS Harvey Milk on its maiden voyage to San Francisco last week, Neira felt fine during the trip up California’s coast. She boarded the fleet replenishment oiler March 25 in San Diego and sailed with it through the Golden Gate three days later.

“I feel like I am home. I am feeling back where I belong,” Neira, 61, told the Bay Area Reporter last Friday, March 29, after witnessing the ceremony hailing the ship’s arrival in the city its namesake long called home.

It had been 33 years since Neira was last aboard a naval ship, as she was forced out of the Navy when she came out as transgender. During Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East, she was a Navy lieutenant stationed aboard the USS Merrill and part of the Mine Countermeasures Task Group.

“I never had better accommodations and food on a Navy ship in my career,” said Neira when asked about her experience aboard the Milk ship.

At the ship’s christening ceremony held November 6, 2021 at the San Diego shipyard where the Milk vessel was built, Neira was given the naval tradition of breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow of the T-AO 206 class oiler. Being invited back to join the 79-person crew for the journey to San Francisco before it set sail for its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, Neira told the B.A.R. she felt “the whole range of emotions” about the experience.

“It is humbling to get a chance to get underway with the crew and see their dedication to the mission,” said Neira. “It is great to see the pride the civil mariners take in this job. Our warships can’t do their job without ships like the Harvey Milk.”

tening. “As you do so, you will carry a rich legacy of civic leadership with the name of my former colleague, Harvey Milk ... best remembered for his selfless work building coalitions to bring about societal progress that improved the lives of many.”

As sponsors, Feinstein and Neira were able to name as matrons of the Milk ship Anne Kronenberg, a campaign manager and City Hall aide to Milk, and Laila Ireland, a trans Army veteran whose husband, Logan, is also trans and served in the U.S. Air Force.

Kronenberg attended the arrival ceremony sporting a cap festooned with the name and image of the Milk vessel.

“Harvey is doing a jig up there right now,” said Kronenberg.

The Milk oiler is to be deployed overseas sometime in 2025. Its docking at Pier 30/32 at the Port of San Francisco drew protesters of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, some of whom were able to break through the security barricade and chain themselves to the ship’s gangway after the arrival ceremony had already concluded.

Due to the inclement weather, the ceremony was held aboard the ship inside one of its enclosed areas where a plaque hangs that denotes General Dynamics NASSCO built the USNS Harvey Milk for the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. San Francisco Mayor London Breed was among the local leaders who welcomed it to town.

“It is so wonderful the Harvey Milk ship can spend a few days in our beautiful city before it ships off to duty,” remarked Breed.

With ships traditionally referred to using female pronouns, Breed quipped about the vessel being named after Milk, the first gay person to win elective office in California with his 1977 victory in the race for a San Francisco supervisor seat. He would be killed by an assassin’s bullet 11 months into his first term.

“It is so cool she is named for a boy. That is so San Francisco,” said Breed.

Along with Neira the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died last fall, was also named a sponsor of the ship. Adorning one of its walls is a letter from Feinstein, who served with Milk on the Board of Supervisors and fought for funds to build the naval vessel.

“USNS Harvey Milk will accomplish the critical mission of resupplying combat ships at sea, ensuring our warfighters have the provisions necessary to safeguard our nation,” wrote Feinstein on the occasion of its chris-

Part of Neira’s duty as a ship sponsor is to make sure the crew feels appreciated and supported. Speaking to the B.A.R., she noted that the civil mariners and their families make sacrifices for the crew to do their job, as they spend four-month intervals away from home working on the Milk oiler. At Christmas, for instance, Neira sent each member of the crew a card with yuletide greetings.

“I am there to be a resource and provide support, and help with the morale of the ship,” explained Neira, whose father served in the Army and was stationed in the Pacific during World War II.

It has been personally “very rewarding,” said Neira, since she was forced to sacrifice her naval career when she transitioned in 1991.

“My career ended when I took on my new gender identity,” she noted. “I intended to make the Navy a career.”

Former President Barack Obama had lifted the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military in 2016. The Trump administration later re-imposed the ban, which was again lifted in 2021 by military leaders at the direction of President Joe Biden

“These kids all get to fulfill their childhood dream of serving,” noted Neira as she choked up a bit. “The Navy today is remarkably different than the Navy I joined.”

No one should be drummed out of the military because their gender is different from that assigned to them at birth, argued Neira.

“When I accepted who I am and needed to be me, I was put in a position where I had to make the hardest decision I had to make. Nobody should be put in the position of choosing between themselves and choosing the mission,” Neira said of trans servicemembers.

Her being forced out of the Navy put Neira on a different career projection. She enrolled in nursing school then law school and worked on ending the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that kept servicemembers in the closet and ruined the careers of at least 13,000 LGBTQ military personnel.

Neira went on to work for the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. She is currently the program di-

rector of LGBTQ+ equity and education at John Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity.

She grew up in Jersey City, New Jer sey and was in high school when Milk was killed on the morning of Novem ber 27, 1978 along with then-mayor George Moscone by disgruntled for mer supervisor Dan White. She recalls hearing about their murders at the time but didn’t know much back then about Milk’s life story.

“Later in life I learned more about Harvey Milk,” said Neira.

Like Neira, Milk was a lieutenant (junior grade) in the Navy, having enlisted in 1951. By 1954 he was stationed at what was then called the Naval Air Missile Test Center in Ventura County in Southern California. Milk, a naval diving instructor, was on active duty during the Korean War aboard submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13).

As the B.A.R. reported in February 2020, Milk was given an “other than honorable” discharge from the U.S. Navy and forced to resign on February 7, 1955 rather than face a court-martial because of his homosexuality, according to a trove of naval records obtained by the paper. It contradicted an archival document housed in the San Francisco Public Library’s San Francisco History Center that several biographers of Milk had used to claim that he was honorably discharged from the Navy.

At last week’s ceremony Stuart Milk, Milk’s gay nephew who now runs a foundation the family set up to honor their famous relative’s legacy, retold the story of how Obama had called him when DADT was lifted to ask if he wanted to have Milk’s discharge be upgraded to an honorable one. Opposed to doing so, as the family didn’t want to forget why Milk’s naval career had ended, Stuart Milk said the phone went dead when he told Obama “no.”

The trajectory from Milk being drummed out of the military to decades later being the first LGBTQ leader honored with a naval ship naming is a reminder that the fight for progress forever moves forward, said Neira.

“A more perfect union is never achieved. Like Polaris, the North Star, it is your guide you keep working toward,” said Neira, who flew home to the East Coast Saturday as the Milk ship set sail for the Panama Canal. “It is what the preamble to the Constitution is about and something Harvey Milk obviously understood.”t

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Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on an LGBTQ data expert joining a 2030 census advisory body.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko.

Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or email m.bajko@ebar.com.

Proudly serving our Community.

Paula Neira is a sponsor of the USNS Harvey Milk and was in San Francisco last week for the ship’s arrival ceremony.

Matthew S. Bajko

In visibility

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Though completely random happenstance, Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility occurred on the same day this year, Sunday, March 31. Of course, this did not go unnoticed, with the right wing deciding that the conjunction of both events was a sinister, anti-Christian plot.

It wasn’t planned to be on the same day as Easter, however. It just sort of happened. Much like, I suppose, being trans itself.

I’ve written before about having somewhat complex feelings about the Transgender Day of Visibility. On one hand, I agree with its founder, Rachel Crandall, that our community needs more than simply a memorial to anti-transgender killings to honor our lives, which is why I founded the Transgender Day of Remembrance years ago. (It is observed each November 20.) Our lives are valuable, and deserve to be both seen and celebrated.

Yet, perhaps ironically, I find myself never a big fan of events like this. I feel that they get hijacked by organizations seeking a new event to fundraise off of, and by well-meaning but milquetoast allies looking for a quick and easy way to show support that doesn’t involve actually doing anything of substance. I want action, not just pretty words.

I also see a lot of confusion as to what the visibility day is even about, or questions about how it is any different from Trans Awareness Week (November 13-19) or National Coming Out Day (October 11) – or even Pride itself. What sets this day apart from the others, and what even are we supposed to be doing on a “visibility day?”

bit too visible for comfort. It certainly feels like there is a bright neon target on us nowadays.

The United States is a patchwork of states, with all too many of them actively hostile to transgender lives. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker at https://translegislation.com, 533 bills have been introduced in 41 states in just the first three months of 2024. The majority of those are still active.

Of course, I’ve also heard plenty of frustration from those who might feel that, given all that is happening in the United States and elsewhere around transgender rights, that maybe we’re a

These legislative proposals are clearly having an effect, with a new poll from Data for Progress showing how bad these bills have been for transgender people. According to the poll, of the 873 LGBTQ+ adults surveyed (with an oversampling of trans adults), two-thirds of transgender respondents reported their quality of life has decreased in the past year, and 20% have reported disruptions to their care – with more than half saying it is difficult to access gender-affirming medical care in general.

Likewise, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who looked at data from a survey of nearly 3,700 U.S. teens aged 13-17 found that 36% of trans or nonbinary students facing restricted restroom and/or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, trans people having

any rights are considered by Republicans as a major issue going into the presidential election season. We’re treated as something that must be eradicated, and the right is seeking every means it can to see that happen.

Take for example “Project 2025,” the Heritage Foundation’s plans for a conservative victory in 2024, meaning, at this stage, a return of former President Donald Trump, who’s the presumptive Republican nominee. Among the expectations is the rescinding of “regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics.”

In short, conservatives want a country that is as brutal to transgender people as they can manage, to claw back from us every right we are currently – desperately – clutching to.

Yet, I also want to note that many conservatives don’t tend to talk about transgender people. No, instead we are reduced to the “gender ideology,” or called a “contagion.” Indeed, in some of the worst examples, we are considered “vermin’’ – but not people. This is intentional, stripping away our humanity and treating us as something that needs to be eradicated before it corrupts.

Likewise, many media outlets tasked to report on these issues are doing the right-wing’s work, parroting its language while shutting out trans voices from the discussions about laws that impact our very lives.

GLAAD and Media Matters for America have found that the New York Times did not bother to quote a trans person in articles about antitrans legislation 66% of the time over the past year. The time frame is notable, as it comes one year after an open letter asking that the Times do more to treat trans people fairly in its coverage. Thus far, none of the open letter’s demands have been met.

Though the Times is particularly egregious, I suspect you can find a similar lack of trans voices in other

outlets. It is almost as if we are, well, invisible.

That brings me back to the topic at hand.

Perhaps Transgender Day of Visibility isn’t simply about showing ourselves, but is about bringing voice to our very right to exist. It is about facing a world that is interested in erasing our presence, and shouting, “I exist.” It isn’t simply a moment to come out, but a moment to be defiant.

Letters >>

The USNS Harvey Milk in SF

Here are a few more impressions to add to Matthew S. Bajko’s wonderful article covering the U.S. Naval Ship Harvey Milk’s inaugural visit to San Francisco this past Thursday [“Milk naval ship makes maiden voyage to San Francisco,” online, March 29].

First, I hope I always remember my sighting of another of our city treasures, Donna Sachet, in a stunningly sleek “Lady in Red” outfit striding across Pier 30 on a rainy gray day to a very gray, very business-like naval ship. To me it is a needed representation of diversity, equity, inclusion, adding to the breadth and talent of any organization, including the U.S. armed forces. What an arc of time from the inception of San Francisco Fleet Week during Mayor Dianne Feinstein’s tenure and the local revolt against home porting the U.S. Missouri here, and more importantly the “Serving in Silence” era of anti-gay discrimination in the armed forces, to now that enormous ship named for a less than honorably discharged gay man welcoming a perfectly coiffed Sachet to proudly walk up the gangplank. Thanks to U.S. Navy leadership and the largely Democratic leaders who made that change eventually happen. Thanks to Sachet for capturing the moment so well.

Support.

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Second, I remember so clearly seeing the signs on the not-yet-in-use Muni underground stations’ destination signs in the early 1980s saying: “Host a sailor in your home for Fleet Week.” Did anyone else see the humorous irony, or was it a double entendre of a really wise PR effort to suggest that then?

Finally, I want to highlight the role of Lewis Loeven, the executive director of San Francisco Fleet Week, in singularly conceiving of the invitation to, and festival for, the Harvey Milk ship in the city. About the only thing he couldn’t control was the weather. This event is a further step in the healing between the formerly exclusionary, hostile U.S. armed forces and the diversity of America, including both the LGBTQ+ and people of color communities. Let’s do everything we can to keep this wider inclusive vision and reality ever expanding. Thanks, Fleet Week and the Bay Area Reporter, for your parts in continuing that history through the present time.

That said, I think it is in all of our best interests to show this world who we are, no matter how much they want us to remain unseen. In a world where they want you to be hidden, your visibility can be a radical act that makes it clear that you will not be party to erasure. So, please, be visible, every day.t

Gwen Smith can’t help but be seen. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com

would be the ideal place.

We love San Francisco and come down frequently for all kinds of fun. Nope, not from the chamber of commerce or any other group, we just want to see some city folks now and then. So, come on up!

Frank D. Treadway Redding, California

‘Unpacking’ theater review

Having been present at the opening night of “Unpacking in P’Town,” by Jewelle Gomez, I was appalled to read the recent review by Jim Gladstone [“‘Unpacking in P’Town’ premieres at New Conservatory Theatre Center,” March 14].

There’s so much beauty to take from the play and instead, the writer rooted his review in invalidating the timeline; revealing nothing about the play but rather that he couldn’t imagine or accept what isn’t in his personal experience.

He states nothing is said about what the characters have done since they left the stage, which is untrue as the characters clearly reference their lives past the stage.

He questions the credibility of a Black character’s response to the phrase “master bedroom.” Of course Black people were aware of the implications of the word “master.” The 1950s were the emergence of the civil rights movement, the word “master” became even more of a flashpoint.

The reviewer questions how likely it would be for Lydia to articulately talk about her mixed identity and be supported by her friends in her process. Lydia is afraid of being accused of emphasizing her Native heritage to avoid being Black. To argue that she wouldn’t be able to articulate the emotional complexity of her own identity because of the time period is insulting and reflects the writer’s white-gaze.

People of color have held onto and know who they are. Discourse has always happened in private spaces like the setting in which this play takes place, whether or not people are silenced externally. The narrative thrust of the play uses this private space; a quiet unpacking of chosen family dynamics; about life’s living, loving and what it means to be known. As a result, the characters are decidedly made better because of each other.

And his comment about the ghost?

Charlie Spiegel San Francisco

Hello from the ‘real’ Nor Cal

Hello, Bay Area LGBTQ+ folks, from Redding, the “real” Northern California. When you drive north on I-5 past Sacramento heading into Oregon, you come right through Redding. We queer folks up here want you to stop and say hi. If you ever thought of moving, we’d welcome you, despite some of the current right-wingers, who are losing their clout on a daily basis.

We have three friendly gay bars; two mountains to climb, Mt. Shasta and Mt. Lassen; countless lakes to swim and boat; and sunshine almost year round. Great food, affordable housing, and plenty of jobs await. Someone needs to build a retirement home for us older queer folk. This

Gomez’s book, “The Gilda Stories” (1991), features a Black lesbian time traveling vampire, a character the literary world had never seen and that expanded the boundaries of speculative fiction and set the path toward afro-futurism. When Gomez includes an otherworldly character in her work, you should be listening and paying attention, not dismissing.

Lydia’s quoting of romance novels, which he disparages, illuminates the hearts of the characters and the play when she states, “nothing erodes a mountain of pain except friendship.”

When the world is raging on, who doesn’t want to be at peace for a moment, with the people we love and trust, celebrating with joy that we made it?

Natalia Vigil San Francisco

Christine Smith

Rec and Park cancels SF 420 festival

compiled by Cynthia Laird

What a buzz-kill. Officials with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and Sounds Bazaar have announced that this year’s 420 festival to celebrate cannabis has been canceled.

Usually held on April 20, which is a Saturday this year, the party for marijuana enthusiasts has in past years drawn crowds to Golden Gate Park’s Robin Williams Meadow, including Hippie Hill, for a day of toking, listening to live music, and saluting cannabis culture.

There will be an SF Weed Week that runs April 13-19 at various venues in the city. It includes seven world-class growers releasing seven strains over the course of seven nights. For more information, go to sfweedweek.com.

In a March 26 news release, officials from Rec and Park and Sounds Bazaar, which produces the Golden Gate Park event, cited economic challenges within the cannabis industry, making sponsorships hard to secure, and the city’s budget deficit, impacting Rec and Park’s ability to cover staffing for the event.

As has been reported, the city is facing a severe budget crunch, with a deficit of about $800 million over the next two fiscal years. That figure could reach $1 billion by 2028, Mayor London Breed has stated. Already, Breed ordered mid-year budget cuts of 10% across the board back in December.

As for the cannabis industry, legal dispensaries continue to fight competition from illegal sellers and high taxes imposed by the state and some local governments. To combat the tax issue, some cities and counties, including San Francisco, have lowered taxes, as MJBiz Daily reported last year.

Add that all up, and it’s a bummer for cannabis fans who are used to spending April 20 in Golden Gate Park.

City officials will still activate the park that day by partnering with Volvo Sports to run the “Peace, Love, and Volvo Field Day” volleyball and kickball tournaments at Robin Williams Meadow and Hippie Hill, the release stated. People can sign up to register as a full team, small group, or free agent to be placed on a team. It will celebrate Earth Day. To sign up, go to https://tinyurl.com/3t5syy4t.

Park officials and 420 organizers stressed there will not be a stage, live music, or cannabis booths at the park this year. They encourage cannabis aficionados to skip the trip and instead celebrate 420 in a place that’s special and local to them.

“We understand the disappointment and hope to make it up with a great event next year,” stated 420 organizer Alex Aquino. “We encourage

everyone to support their local equity brands, dispensaries, and lounges on 420 as we all celebrate plant medicine. Additionally, we are inviting everyone to join us next month at Carnaval San Francisco, May 25-26, as one of SF’s longestrunning free community cul tural events.

Health center’s Show of Hope

“Wherever you go, be safe and be respectful of whatever spaces you occupy,” Aquino added.

San Francisco Community Health Center will hold its 37th annual gala, Show of Hope, Friday, April 19, beginning with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency, 5 Embarcadero Center.

This year’s honorees will be the Ladies of AsiaSF, who will give a special performance, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former

longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

AsiaSF, located for 26 years at 201 Ninth Street in the city’s South of Market neighborhood, features choreographed cabaret shows with trans performers and Asian fusion meals. It announced earlier this year that it’s closing. While it was to have shuttered late last month, the owners recently announced that due to popular demand, its last day would be Sunday,

April 28. It’s expected to continue as a pop-up venue, as the Bay Area Reporter recently reported. The Ladies of SF will receive the Community Impact Award.

Fauci, long an ally to the HIV/AIDS community, retired from federal service in 2022. In his capacity, he advised U.S. presidents on various health challenges, including AIDS and COVID. He will receive the Health Justice

New Affordable Homes for Sale in Mission Bay

Sacramento seeks public input on LGBTQ history

by John Ferrannini

The city of Sacramento is seeking the public’s participation as it documents the state capital’s queer history and preservationists write a historic context statement. That document could determine if the city’s LGBTQ Lavender Heights neighborhood should be designated a historic district.

The meeting will be Thursday, April 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church at 2100 J Street, in the Lavender Heights neighborhood, and about two blocks from the 20th and K intersection in midtown Sacramento at which are located three of the city’s six LGBTQ nightlife spots.

Henry Feuss, a historic preservation planner with the city of Sacramento, said that his team is seeking oral history interviews from members of the public.

“This is going to be the first meeting for the project – an opportunity for the public to speak with us, an overview of our methodology, an overview of how the public can participate and an opportunity to directly participate and let us know if we need to look at something deeper,” he said.

The context statement will be accompanied by a survey of potentially historic sites.

“The survey aspect is to be a list of properties potentially significant under this historic context – anything to the location where something happened, the historic location of a bar, a nightclub, a bathhouse, or something like that – and identify the significance or lack thereof of these historic sites,” he said.

Feuss said that his team is discovering a lot of the area’s LGBTQ history is in West Sacramento, a separate city in neighboring Yolo County perhaps best known as the home of the Sacramento River Cats minor league baseball team. This tracks with the Bay Area Reporter’s own reporting last year that the former longtime

Sacramento County Sheriff John Misterly had kept gay bars and bathhouses from opening in the county.

It wasn’t until 1977 that the Mercantile Saloon was the first gay bar to open in the Lavender Heights area, at 1928 L Street. It was followed by the Wreck Room and the Western Pacific Depot (now simply The Depot), so named because of a nearby railway depot. Faces opened across the street in the 1980s.

One goal, Feuss said, is to determine “if there is a potential historic district around Lavender Heights or not. Our definition of Lavender Heights is a lot different than it would have been. The gay bars are not necessarily concentrated where they are now.”

Gay Faces owner Terry Sidie stated to the B.A.R., “I’m interested in following this.”

TJ Bruce, a gay man who now manages San Francisco Badlands in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood, owns three businesses at 20th and K in Sacramento – The Depot (2100 K Street), Sacramento Badlands (2003 K Street), and Roscoes (2007 K Street). He told the B.A.R. he is also interested in the historic context efforts.

“I support the idea,” he stated. “Makes sense it would be near 20th Street and K Street. Most of the gay bars have been within a block or two of that center.”

Thematic overview

The context statement will be “a thematic overview of the LGBTQ+ community in the city going back to the city’s founding and before,” and there are five major themes identified, Feuss said.

These are the 1940s and before, “going back to Native American heritage as well,” Feuss said; the period from World War II to the 1960s; the development of publicly-visible LGBTQ spaces in the 1960s; the development of the LGBTQ+ community; and the AIDS crisis.

“These are very much draft themes,” Feuss said. “They are subject to change.”

The California Office of Historic Preservation provided $40,000 in funding to the city. Feuss said the city provided a $26,000 match for a total of $66,000.

Ultimately, the context statement and survey has to be completed by

January as a condition of the state funding, Feuss noted.

San Francisco completed an LGBTQ historic context statement and it was adopted by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission in 2015, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

Sacramento City councilmember Katie Valenzuela, a straight ally whose district includes Lavender Heights, told the B.A.R. that the process started when she asked the city’s preservationists “about potentially making Lavender Heights a historic landmark.”

“In their professional judgment the Lavender Heights area would not qualify, but they suggested we explore funding to do the LGBTQ+ stories project,” she said. “We had great success with our African American stories project. I thought this was a fantastic idea since there is so much history of the LGBTQ+ community in Sacramento beyond what has occurred in Lavender Heights. Staff was successful in getting funding to initiate the project last year, and I believe they are working now with a committee to fundraise additional resources.”

The gala emcee will be Reggie Aqui, a gay man who’s a morning anchor on ABC-7.

According to its website, San Francisco Community Health Center celebrates and attends to the health and wellness of the communities that define San Francisco –immigrant and communities of color, queer, trans, unhoused people,

and all of us who are most impacted by oppression – through comprehensive medical, dental, and mental health services.

Tickets for Show of Hope are $350 and the suggested dress is cocktail attire. The event includes dinner, hosted bar, entertainment, and dancing.

End the Epidemics Day of Action

End the Epidemics, a coalition of organizations in San Francisco working to end HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted infections, will hold a day of action in Sacramento Tuesday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Feuss said that officials are working with the city’s LGBTQ+ community.

“We want the community to take hold of this and be active in it,” he said. “We want it to be a historically supported document and something everyone can get behind.”

One group they’re working with is the Lavender Library at 1414 21st Street, a volunteer-run LGBTQ archive and library in Lavender Heights.

“The Lavender Library is thrilled to collaborate with the City of Sacramento on the historic context statement and survey of the Lavender Heights District,” Mauricio Torres, a gay man who is vice president of the Lavender Library’s board of directors, stated to the B.A.R. “As stewards of Greater Sacramento’s LGBTQ+ history, the Lavender Library eagerly offers our extensive archive and resources to support the city on this project.

“To this end, we are also collaborating closely with the research team to promote outreach events and facilitate access to unpublished oral histories housed within our Library. We aim to ensure that the historical context statement reflects the multiplicity of lived experiences that define our community’s vibrant tapestry. We are honored to contribute to this endeavor, affirming the enduring presence and resilience of LGBTQ+ individuals in shaping the cultural landscape of our city and beyond,” Torres added.

Pending an additional grant and community fundraising, the Lavender Library hopes to facilitate stipends to volunteer researchers and compensate community members who offer their oral histories.

“At a time when queer rights face backlash, initiatives like this play a vital role in preserving and celebrating our community’s rich legacy,” Torres said. “We must underscore the enduring presence and contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals in our communities and ensure our stories are recognized and woven into the fabric of our region’s collective memory.”t

Those interested in attending the advocacy day should complete a registration form at eteca.org/get-involved. The deadline to do so is Friday, April 5.t << News Briefs From page 7

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For more information and to purchase tickets, go to sfcommunityhealth.org/show-of-hope-gala.

According to an online announcement, advocates from across the state will mobilize to share their stories

during a rally on the steps of the state Capitol and in meetings with legislators. Participants will also advocate for increased funding to address the three health crises across the state, though California does have a deficit of at least $73 billion, according to officials.

‘Ken

LGBTQ bars located on K Street in Sacramento’s Lavender Heights neighborhood include The Depot and Badlands.

John Ferrannini Champion Award.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s 45th anniversary and Easter party March 31 drew thousands to San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park for an afternoon of fun and performances and great weather. The highlight was the hunky Jesus contest, which was won by Ken Ferraris, right, who was “Ken Jesus,” complete with a pink box

evoking Barbie’s friend. Celestina Meow, left, took the honors in the foxy Mary contest. The Sisters, a drag nun charitable organization, got their start in San Francisco on Easter Sunday in 1979, when three men donned nun habits and paraded through city streets. For more photos, check out the Bay Area Reporter’s Facebook page.

Gooch

Faces is another LGBTQ nightlife space located on K Street in Sacramento.

John Ferrannini

Petition started to support Teamsters name change

by John Ferrannini

ATeamsters leader has started an online petition for fellow members of the labor union to voice their support for a proposal to make its name more gender inclusive.

This comes as the man who first broached the proposal decades ago – Teamsters icon and Castro resident Allan Baird, who in the 1970s spearheaded the Coors Brewing Company boycott with Harvey Milk – reveals he’s been battling cancer for two years, and a new imbroglio between the union and the company now producing Coors carries on.

Name change

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Baird, a 92-year-old straight ally and retired president and business agent of Teamsters Local 921 (the San Francisco Newspaper Agency), has for over three decades wanted the organization to add Sisterhood to its name to reflect that it has men and women as members. The union’s official legal name is International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Baird renewed his request in a 2023 letter to Sean O’Brien, the president of the union.

After the publication of a B.A.R. report, Baird received a letter from O’Brien’s chief of staff, dated November 27, stating that the name “can only be changed through a constitutional amendment approved by delegates to the International Convention.”

The next convention is in 2026. Tizoc Arenas, a straight ally who is a business trustee at Teamsters Local 223 in Gladstone, Oregon, pledged to introduce a resolution at the convention regarding the name change.

In order to demonstrate support, Arenas started a Change.org petition that only Teamsters can sign. The petition has garnered 20 signatures as of press time.

“This petition is intended to continue the work Allan [Baird] began cultivating years ago,” the petition states. “In preparation for the 2026 Teamsters convention, we the following undersigned Teamster members support a constitutional amendment moving forward that will amend the name of the ‘International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ to the ‘International Union of Teamsters.’”

(Baird himself most recently suggested the International Sisterhood and Brotherhood of Teamsters.)

Arenas told the B.A.R. he also plans to introduce a separate Change.org petition for the general public to sign.

“We have a delegate system we use at the convention. Our hope is to raise the awareness of local leadership and those who will serve as delegates at the convention,” Arenas said. “Our primary goal is to bring attention to this topic to rank-and-file members, officers, and delegates participating.”

Baird told the B.A.R. March 25 that he thinks the petition is “great.”

“It’s finally waking up a lot of Teamsters who’ve been asleep and now they’re waking up with this,” he said in a phone interview. “They’re not afraid anymore.”

Ruben Bustillos, a gay man with Teamsters Local 896 who is a forklift operator for Shasta Beverages, told the B.A.R., “I think it’s overdue” when asked about renaming the union.

“I think we do need to change the name to represent women in the union,” he said. “We’ve always been on the forefront of progressive issues, dating back to our start, where there were contracts – I believe it was 1914 or 1916 – when women got paid equally with men, and for that time it was unheard of. ... Teamsters have always been ahead of the times, but on this issue, we’re a little lagging.”

Baird reveals cancer diagnosis

Baird has been a Castro resident since 1942. He led the famous 1973 boycott of Coors beer because of the

company’s then-homophobic and antiunion stances. He famously teamed up on it with Milk, then a gay political newcomer and Castro resident who would go on to win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. (Milk would be assassinated in November 1978 along with then-San Francisco mayor George Moscone by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White.)

Baird told the B.A.R. on March 25 that he was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer. He’d had it for “a little over two years,” he said. The B.A.R. double-checked with Baird that he was OK with publicly revealing that information.

“You gotta have the fight; that’s the whole thing,” Baird said. “Some people are saying ‘Allan has cancer in the brain,’ and everything like that, but that’s dirty crap they pull on people with cancer. I’m proud to say I’m fighting the cancer, and other people, I wish them well. He [Teamsters’ president O’Brien] knows I’m fighting. I feel sorry for him.”

In 2021, Milk protégé and longtime gay activist Cleve Jones threw a Pride weekend rally to honor Baird, as the B.A.R. reported. Jones told the B.A.R. on March 26 that “this guy just never quits a good fight. He’s been a very important mentor to me, and I owe him a lot.”

Even after Teamsters Local 888’s (beer delivery drivers) boycott of Coors ended in 1975, Baird continued to work with Milk – both successfully against the anti-LGBTQ Briggs initiative, Proposition 6, in 1978 that would have banned queer people and their supporters from teaching in California’s public schools, and for LGBTQ equality in the labor movement. For a time when American labor was often a bastion of social conservatism, Baird’s coalition-building did not go unnoticed by the LGBTQ community – especially in the LGBTQ neighborhood he has called home for so long.

(Local 921, which represented newspaper delivery workers, has since been merged with Local 853. Local 888 represented delivery drivers who

at the time faced low wages, unionbusting, and employment discrimination. Local 2785 now represents food and liquor delivery drivers.)

Teamsters sound off on RNC donation

One of America’s largest and most powerful unions, the Teamsters have not always been the most progressive, famously bucking traditional laborDemocratic Party bonds to endorse Republican presidential candidates, first by backing Richard Nixon in 1972 and then Ronald Reagan in 1980. More recently, however, the union supported Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

But the Teamsters made headlines last month when its political arm donated $45,000 to the Republican National Committee – its first donation to the GOP in two decades.

The check came after a closed-door meeting between O’Brien and former president and presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Axios reported. The union’s PAC also gave $45,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

Arenas said in his personal capacity that “as a Teamster member, amongst the folks in my bargaining unit, there was an immense amount of distaste for meeting with Trump and then giving money to the RNC. We certainly shouldn’t have donated to the RNC – not speaking as [a union officer] – that’s an opinion

among everyone in my bargaining unit here in Oregon and we’re not shy about it. But not everyone at the local level feels the same way.”

Another Coors boycott

Teamsters are also once again boycotting Coors. The Coors Brewing Co. merged in 2005 with Molson of Canada, creating the Molson Coors Beverage Company. Now, the union is accusing the company of not negotiating in good faith with Local 420 in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Don’t drink a drop of Molson Coors until they respect the workers,” a Teamsters flyer states. “Texans stand with Texas workers for fair wages and benefits.”

The local has been on strike since February 17.

“Teamsters walked off the job after Molson Coors failed to come to terms on a new three-year contract that respects the 420 workers who make, package, and warehouse the company’s beer and beverage brands,” a Teamsters news release stated. “The strike shuts down production at the only brewery that services the entire Western region of the United States with major Molson Coors products.

“Despite having months to negotiate, Molson Coors presented insulting and regressive contract proposals, including offering less than a $1 per

Retired Teamsters local president and business agent Allan Baird is pleased to see an online petition about his goal of getting the union to change its name to be more gender inclusive.

John Ferrannini

From page 1

“It was very exciting. One of those once in a lifetime things,” said White about commanding a vessel under the iconic landmark. “The crew loved it.”

The all-civilian crew serving on the 746-foot vessel numbers 79 at the moment; it will number 99 when fully staffed. Throughout its interior are photos of Milk from various stages of his life, including his time in the Navy and later when he became a civil rights leader in San Francisco. The lone color photo shows Milk in his dress uniform with his mother.

“This is a great ship with a message of inclusion,” said White as he gave a private tour of it to half a dozen gay leaders Thursday evening.

Taking part was John Carrillo, a local hotel manager who is the 28th elected Emperor After Norton of the Imperial Court of San Francisco. The drag-based philanthropic group’s 70 chapters across North America had sent letters from its members and local officials in support of seeing the Navy name a ship after Milk.

“It’s really touching,” said Carrillo, who had seen the vessel several times while it was being built. “When I woke up Thursday, a friend had sent me a picture of it when it was out in the Golden Gate. It is so significant to have it here in San Francisco. This was Milk’s home.”

Milk was the first gay person elected to public office in California when he won a San Francisco supervisor seat in 1977. Tragically, a year later he and then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White.

Two decades prior, in 1951, Milk had enlisted in the Navy and attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. By 1954 he was a lieutenant (junior grade) stationed at what was then called the Naval Air Missile Test Center in Ventura County in Southern California. Milk, a naval diving instructor, was on active duty during the Korean War aboard submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake (ASR-13).

An LGBTQ San Diego advisory group in 2012 had first called for a naval ship to be named for Milk. Four years later the Navy agreed to name one of its fleet replenishment oilers after Milk. The official naming ceremony took place on Treasure Island in San Francisco in August 2016 with Ray Mabus, at the time secretary of the Navy, and Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), then the House minority leader.

It wouldn’t be until December 13, 2019 that the vessel’s first cut ceremony took place at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company’s San Diego shipyard. Nearly two years later, in November 2021, naval officials, servicemembers, and LGBTQ community leaders witnessed the USNS Harvey Milk leave dry dock for the first time, as the Bay Area Reporter had reported at the time.

Before the ship left the Southern California city’s harbor on March 25, gay San Diego city and county commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez was able to tour it. Jack Nooren Films posted a short video of the visit to its YouTube page.

Significant turnaround

Murray Ramirez, who as the Queen Mother I of the Americas and Nicole the Great is the titular head of the international court, first thought of the ship-naming proposal after the repeal of the military’s homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy over a decade ago. The ship honor for Milk marked a significant turnaround from how he was treated by the military during his enlistment.

As the B.A.R. reported in February 2020, Milk was given an “other than honorable” discharge from the U.S. Navy and forced to resign on February 7, 1955 rather than face a courtmartial because of his homosexuality, according to a trove of naval records obtained by the paper. It contradicted an archival document housed in the San Francisco Public Library’s San Francisco History Center that authors of several biographies of Milk had used to claim that Milk was honorably discharged from the Navy.

At the Milk ship’s christening ceremony Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro had noted he wanted to be there in order “to amend the wrongs of the past” in terms of the harassment LGBTQ servicemembers had faced.

Touring the ship Thursday with its

captain was former San Francisco supervisor Bevan Dufty, who served in what had been Milk’s board seat. Years ago Dufty had been one of the few individuals invited to take a sneak peak tour of the ship while it was being constructed in San Diego.

Seeing it docked along San Francisco’s waterfront near the support pillars for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge was a bit overwhelming, said Dufty.

“It’s beautiful that it is here,” said Dufty, board president for regional transit agency BART. “This being the first Navy ship being named after someone who wasn’t honorably discharged, it’s poetic.”

Witnessing its arrival as it sailed past Alcatraz Island, a onetime military prison turned national park, was Milk’s gay nephew Stuart Milk. He and his family now run a foundation to carry on the legacy of their famous relative.

“It has been a long trajectory,” noted Stuart Milk to the B.A.R. as he stopped by to see the ship docked Thursday evening.

Sometime in 2025 the Milk oiler will be sent overseas to refuel and restock other Navy ships. Stuart Milk is looking forward to the day when it sails into the territorial waters of countries where LGBTQ rights are either under attack or the LGBTQ community has no legal protections.

“I think it is important that here is a ship named after someone forced out of the military because they were gay and now this ship will go to parts of the Atlantic like the Baltic region and the Red Sea and the ports of a lot of countries where LGBTQ people are not accepted,” said Milk. “This sends the message that things can change.”

Ship welcomed to SF

Naval officials, veterans, and local leaders welcomed the ship to the Port of San Francisco with a special arrival ceremony and celebration of its namesake March 29. A special

National Vietnam War Veterans Day awards presentation for local veterans was also held in conjunction with the arrival of the Milk ship, as March 29 is annually observed as National Vietnam Veterans Day.

Pelosi and Mayor London Breed were at the ceremony, as was gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

Mandelman told the B.A.R. he was happy for all those who worked to bring the ship from an idea to reality.

“This is very cool,” he said. “I don’t think I appreciated how massive it is.”

The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration and Rear Admiral Richard W. Meyer of the U.S. Third Fleet presented official lapel pins to roughly 50 Bay Area Vietnam War veterans. Due to inclement weather, there was a closed media event on board the USNS Harvey Milk. The veterans event honoring those who served during the Vietnam War was moved to the Port of San Francisco building at Pier 1.

Meyer, a Bay Area resident, said he takes pride in seeing a ship named after “a champion of equality and universal rights.” He acknowledged that “unfortunately, [Milk] had to hide a very important part of himself when he served.”

With DADT now rescinded, Meyer said, “I am proud to say in today’s Navy we welcome everyone.”

Lewis Loeven, the executive director of the San Francisco Fleet Week Association since 2010, has watched the progression of the Milk ship from its inception. A straight ally who grew up in a U.S. Marine family on Long Island, Loeven has repeatedly pressed naval officials on when the Milk ship would come to San Francisco. He had once again asked Del Toro about it in February when they were both at an event in Miami. Three weeks later Loeven received word it would arrive to town on March 28.

“It was important for me to have the ship come in and show the San Fran-

cisco community and Harvey Milk’s community that the Navy cares and they honor his legacy,” Loeven told the B.A.R. as he saw the ship docked on Thursday.

Coordinating a crew from the local CBS affiliate KPIX-5, which had livestreamed the Milk ship’s arrival and was interviewing Stuart Milk where it had docked, was Brian O’Rourke, the media relations officer for the Navy Region Southwest. A gay man who grew up in Philadelphia and enlisted in the Navy in 1983 to see the world, O’Rourke was stationed in San Diego a year later and has spent his career with the Navy over the last 41 years in various roles.

He lives and works in San Diego, and could see the Milk ship from his office window. Having served before and during the DADT period in the military, O’Rourke told the B.A.R. to now have a naval ship named after an LGBTQ icon personally means a lot. It is another example of how quickly the military adjusted to having LGBTQ people serving openly, he noted.

“There was a lot of arguments about unit cohesiveness and the troops would never accept us. The reality was when DADT went away, it changed overnight. There was no long process to adjust to it,” said O’Rourke, who retired from active duty in the Navy in 2005. “It just happened and everybody was fine. The next year Navy ships were holding Pride events.”

The Milk replenishment oiler is one of four posthumously honoring civil rights leaders, with the first named after Georgia congressmember John Lewis. The others’ namesakes are U.S. attorney general Robert Kennedy and U.S. Supreme Court chief justice and California governor Earl Warren.

All four are part of the Military Sealift Command. The oilers can each carry 162,000 barrels of diesel ship fuel, aviation fuel, and dry stores cargo.

Captaining the Milk ship is a special honor for White, as he has a son and a daughter who are members of the LGBTQ community. He told the B.A.R. that his “kids support my career. They get a big kick out of it. They think it is pretty cool.”

As for sharing a surname with White, who’s middle name happened to be James, the captain noted it is the fifth most common last name in the country, particularly back in Boston where he is from.

“I am aware of it. I have heard a lot less about it than I thought I would,” said the captain, whose full name is James Joseph White. “It is ironic. Maybe it is some kind of cosmic karma thing.”t

From page 1

Marc Huestis, a gay filmmaker and former San Francisco resident who now lives in Palm Springs, told the B.A.R. that he knew DeTulio from their time in San Francisco.

DeTulio moved to Palm Springs in January 2023, to be part of the “community here of SF expats,” Huestis said.

From page 1

Over the ensuing years, Baker turned the standard six-color rainbow flag into an international symbol of LGBTQ rights. Baker died unexpectedly in 2017 at the age of 65, and the foundation created in his name donated a segment from one of the first rainbow flags that flew in front of San Francisco City Hall during the 1978 parade to the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the city’s Castro neighborhood, where it is now on public display.

An oversized rainbow flag has been flying at Harvey Milk Plaza since November 8, 1997, commemorating the 20th anniversary of Milk’s election to the Board of Supervisors. The Castro Merchants Association is the flag’s caretaker; most recently the association replaced it March 22, and it is slated to be replaced again before this year’s Pride festivities. Tom Taylor had been

“He was very beloved in the San Francisco community as well as here,” Huestis said, adding that DeTulio had been a caterer.

“I’ve known him since the 1980s,” Huestis said. “He loved to cook, and it was more than cooking. He put his heart and soul into all he did. ... I’ll forever remember him that way.”

the keeper of the flag, but he died in 2020, as the B.A.R. reported at the time.

In the years preceding his death, the merchants had been involved with him and his assistant in the flag’s caretaking.

The merchants association last year started a new program to donate retired rainbow flags to nonprofit organizations, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

In process for years

As the B.A.R. had reported in 2022, the Gilbert Baker Foundation had hired architectural historian Shayne Watson, a lesbian who is an expert on the city’s LGBTQ history, to conduct research on how the flagpole came to be as a first step toward declaring it a landmark. The Castro merchants group is supportive of the landmarking effort.

“This has been in the process for a very long time,” Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who is president of the association, stated to the B.A.R. “I am very excited to see the landmarking

Huestis said that DeTulio made a cameo appearance in “Chuck Solomon: Coming Of Age,” a 1986 film about a gay San Francisco theater director who died of complications from AIDS that year.

process move forward. This flag that flies over the Castro is a beacon of hope, not just for our community but for the entire world. It is so important that these steps are taken to make sure it is preserved and protected.”

Charley Beal, a gay man who is president of the Baker foundation, stated in a news release that “this initiative comes at a crucial time in civil rights history.”

“Homophobia has grown more aggressive at the government level,” he continued. Across America, the rainbow flag has been banned in nearly 50 places. And that includes seven towns and school districts in California. Our community is under attack.”

Beal stated that the oversized flag and flagpole at the plaza was the brainchild of Baker and then-mayor Willie Brown, who in the 1970s as a member of the state Assembly, spearheaded the successful effort to overturn the state’s sodomy laws. The release stated that Baker “had been developing the Har-

vey Milk Plaza flag for 10 years when he ran into charismatic San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown at the 1997 Castro Street Fair.”

Gilbert quickly pitched the flagpole installation concept. Mayor Brown turned to an aide and said, “Make it happen,” Beal’s release stated.

Gay former supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who was friends with Baker, described a similar scene in a 2021 Guest Opinion piece for the B.A.R., in which he wrote that he was with Baker when they ran into Brown. In the piece, Sheehy wrote that the flagpole and flag are considered an art installation.

The Baker foundation will be holding a virtual town hall on the matter Thursday, April 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. Pacific time. Further details will be announced later, Beal stated.

For years Mandelman has said he is open to looking at possibly landmarking the flagpole. Most landmark requests are made for sites that are at least 50 years old, though exceptions

Huestis said he saw DeTulio at a film premiere recently and that he brought Steele.

Anyone with information is asked to call Palm Springs Police Department Detective Michael Delgado at (760) 323-8145.t

“It was one of the first documentaries that dealt with the community’s response to AIDS that wasn’t grim,” Huestis said. “Throughout the years, his cousin Donna and I worked together for a number of years. He was Italian from the East Coast, and she was very Italian too, so he’d come and they’d goof it up –very East Coast Italian.”

to the guideline can be made in certain circumstances.

When asked last month why now, Mandelman stated to the B.A.R. that “Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag installation at Harvey Milk Plaza deserves recognition as a historically significant art installation. More than a quarter century since the flag was first raised over Harvey Milk Plaza, nearly a half century since Gilbert first conceived the rainbow as a symbol of queer liberation, it’s high time for San Francisco to recognize Gilbert Baker’s Rainbow Flag installation as the historic landmark it is.”

Milk was fatally shot in November 1978 by disgruntled former supervisor Dan White, shortly after White killed then-mayor George Moscone after the mayor refused to reappoint White to the supervisor’s seat from which he had resigned on November 10.

White served only five of a sevenyear sentence for his crimes, after which he killed himself on October 21, 1985.t

USNS Harvey Milk Captain James J. White, center, pointed to lifeboats on the ship during a private tour with gay leaders March 28. At left are Bevan Dufty and John Carrillo (obscured); to the left of Smith is Donna Sachet (out of drag).

Matthew S. Bajko

John Carrillo looked at a photo of Harvey Milk aboard the USNS Harvey Milk.

Matthew S. Bajko

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Tom Goss has a story to tell. The gay singer/ songwriter has been out since the release of his first record in 2006. Now, he is celebrating the release of his latest album, “Remember What it Feels Like,” with a concert at the Utah on April 11 as part of his performing tour. The album includes a tune titled “Not My Problem,” in which he shares a very personal story about his ex, who is currently in jail for embezzling millions of dollars.

“He used my sympathy,” Goss said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “He used my desire to help and heal, to drag me into a relationship that wasn’t real. I spent countless hours being a support for someone going through health ailments, job struggles, divorce, etc., none of which actually happened. ‘Not My Problem’ is my response to him being in prison and not having to be there for a person that is quite literally creating his own problems.”

At 42, Goss is perfectly comfortable sharing this story with the world, saying that his goal is openness and authenticity. He doesn’t want to

John-Andrew Morrison (second from right) with the Broadway cast of ‘A Strange Loop’ in 2022.

‘Makeup’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“Makeup” is a buddy film for the 21st century. A tale of an unlikely friendship between two very different people, one of whom has a secret, “Makeup” is a film which raises a number of interesting questions about gender roles, and about living one’s life as a gender nonconforming person.

Shot in London on a shoestring budget, “Makeup” stars Hugo Andre and Will Masheter as Sacha and Dan, who meet when Sacha rents a room in Dan’s house. Andre and Masheter cowrote the film’s screenplay, with Andre also serving as director. The film is now streaming at Vudu, Amazon Prime, Tubi and Apple TV, and is also available on a barebones DVD which features no bonus materials of any kind. Interviews with the leads would have been nice. Note: do not confuse this film with another film called “Makeup” which was released in 2019. Andre’s film is brand new.

The relationship between Sacha

From page 13

let me listen to a couple of his mother’s messages, so I could get a sense of her voice. And the thing I heard most of all in the way she spoke to him, and in the lyrics of his song was the love and adoration that you have for a kid.

“And, as you might imagine, I also have a mom,” Morrison joked. “She would say, ‘If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t focus on you.’ So, I understood what the nudging in the song was about, how this woman loved her kid so much that she wanted to save him.”

The song left audiences dumbstruck, recalled Morrison.

“And Michael just kept asking me back to sing it. We were doing little showcase cabarets of his songs all over town. At some point, someone said

Portrait of an oddball friendship with a drag twist

and Dan is a complicated one. Sacha is an ex-chef turned food critic, while Dan is an alpha male who works as a stockbroker. But Dan has a secret. At work he sits in a restroom cubicle and reads a women’s fashion magazine. Dan likes to wear women’s clothes. Furthermore, he wants to perform as a female burlesque dancer, though he appears to not be gay.

Sacha is painfully shy. Dan is seen on a date with a woman and he has an ex-wife, while Sacha appears to be asexual. When Sacha first sees Dan wearing a wig and makeup, he is shocked and uncomfortable.

After Dan is seen by two co-workers performing at a club in drag, he’s fired from his job. Rather than look for new employment, he continues dressing up with plans to perform again, and is even seen taking a private dance lesson.

Sacha, meanwhile, though remaining subdued, is beginning to feel a bond with Dan. When some of Sacha’s friends make fun of Dan after seeing him in drag, Sacha has a sudden burst

to Michael, ‘Hey, there’s a musical in there somewhere.’”

Over the next decade, with the in-

of self confidence and demands that his friends leave the house. Shortly thereafter Dan puts a wig and makeup on Sacha, who appears to enjoy this.

“Makeup” is a slow, quiet film which puts its lead characters under a micro-

put of many collaborators, Jackson’s autobiographical songs and storytelling gradually coalesced into “A Strange Loop,” going through major shifts from workshop to workshop.

“When Stephen came on to direct ‘A Strange Loop,’” recalled Morrison, “He’d already heard me sing this song several times. And I think it had been gnawing at him for quite some time. Why was I singing this song while everyone else was cast to match their characters?”

Many directors would have opted to recast Morrison’s role, but in what is likely to become a legendary act of Broadway alchemy, Brackett began to think about recontextualizing everything else in the show.

What if the entire cast consisted of people with queer Black bodies?

“Something opened up in Michael,” said Morrison, remembering when

never made clear. That question is left up to you, the viewer, to decide.

Sacha is a somewhat sad figure. He was forced out of his job as a chef due to a neurological problem in his hand which has made the work dangerous. He appears to be a lonely guy, and it seems that the burgeoning friendship with Dan/Danielle is alleviating his loneliness.

scope and allows them to be fully developed. Both are fascinating people.

Dan is trying to live two very different lives–in drag he calls himself Danielle. He’s an ambiguous person. Whether he’s a drag queen or a trans person is

Brackett and Jackson began to brainstorm around this idea.

The long-aborning piece began a gallop toward its final form: a multiplayer one-character show. The protagonist, Usher, remains a young, bigbodied Black gay man; the other cast members each play elements of his neurotic unconscious.

A son and a song

After Morrison had lived with his big number for over a decade and “A Strange Loop” won Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards for “A Strange Loop” Off-Broadway, the show’s progress was paused by the pandemic, and Morrison found himself in a more essential caretaker role. In 2020, during lockdown, Morrison’s mother suffered a stroke back in Jamaica.

“She had lost the use of the entire right side of her body. My dad is elderly as well, and he couldn’t take care of her. So, I went back to be head nurse, cook and bottle washer. It was a scary, trying time.”

After about six months, Morrison’s mother had stabilized and improved enough that he felt able to return to the U.S. (She has since improved even further and regularly enjoys video calls with her son).

When he returned to “A Strange Loop” for the show’s pre-Broadway engagement in Washington, DC, “Periodically” took on even more resonance for Morrison.

“The stakes of the song became even higher and deeper for me,” he said. Because it’s one thing that the mother doesn’t want her son to be gay, but I’d just dealt with my mother being seriously ill, and the song is reckoning with eternity and the afterlife. She doesn’t want her son to go to hell. It all hit me very differently.”

Shortly before “A Strange Loop” had its first Broadway preview in April 2022, COVID-19 cases began to break out among cast members, Morrison among them.

With their screenplay Andre and Masheter pose a few interesting questions: what makes a man and what constitutes friendship. The friendship between Sacha and Dan is an odd one because the two couldn’t be less alike. Yet both of them, sorely in need of support, slowly become a source of support for each other. They are the ultimate odd couple, illustrating how close a bond can be forged under the most unexpected circumstances.

“Makeup” is definitely worth a look.t

‘Makeup,’ now streaming at Vudu, Amazon Prime, Tubi and Apple TV. Also on DVD.

“All of the pomp and pageantry of the first night on Broadway, and I was watching from the audience and just going, ‘Wow. Okay. This is weird.’ That’s the only time I’ve ever seen someone else sing the song.”

The following night, Morrison made his own Broadway debut. “A Strange Loop” ended its successful Broadway run in January 2023.

“My body completely shut down,” Morrison recalls. “And then, about two weeks later. I had this wonderful thought, which was like, having felt so responsible for caretaking this song for this show for so long, it was like suddenly ‘Oh! I don’t have to take care of the song anymore.”.

And yet, 13 months later, Morrison arrived in California for rehearsals, the only member of the Broadway cast returning for San Francisco and Los Angeles runs.

“I’m kind of surrogate dramaturg for the new team now; the institutional memory on stage.”

“I’ve become the grandpa,” said the man who sings as the mother.

A strange loop, indeed.

No one-song wonder, Morrison will hop a few blocks from the Toni Rembe Theater on Monday, April 29 to present his cabaret concert, “No… Maybe…Why not?,” accompanied by pianist Drew Wutke. The show incorporates a bit of Broadway, but leans much more into pop, from reggae to Taylor Swift.

“It’s a reluctant and dubious look at love,” said Morrison. “I’m very proud of it.”t

‘A Strange Loop,’ April 18-May 12. $25-$137. A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theatre, 415 Geary St. (415)749-2228.

www.act-sf.org

‘No…Maybe…Why Not:

An Evening with John-Andrew Morrison,’ April 29. $41. Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063.

www.feinsteinssf.com

www.johnandrewmorrison.com

<< Morrison

John-Andrew Morrison Roberto Araujo

Will Masheter in ‘Makeup’

The Broadway cast of ‘A Strange Loop’ in 2022.

Marc J. Franklin

‘Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All’

by Gregg Shapiro

Since the summer of 2023, when Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-winning box office blockbuster “Barbie” opened in theaters, prominently featuring the Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine,” the queer musical duo has been having a boffo year.

In addition to a 2024 concert tour schedule including with another lesbian icon, Melissa Etheridge, and the release of “Glitter & Doom,” a jukebox musical movie comprised of Indigo Girls’ songs, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are the subjects of a marvelous and long overdue documentary, “Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All” (Oscilloscope Laboratories).

Directed by Alexandria Bombach, “It’s Only Life After All” is the generous and celebratory film that the out musical duo and longtime activists deserve. Bombach makes expert use of vintage and recent concert footage. She incorporates multiple sources for interview footage, such as MTV and VH1, as well as talk shows hosted by David Letterman and Jay Leno.

Of particular interest and value is the video footage provided by Ray who was notorious for carrying a video camera around with her everywhere, documenting their career. Bombach also makes excellent use of this wealth of visual material.

Equally impressive is the scope of

the doc. While it ends before the “Barbie” boost, “It’s Only Life After All” goes a long way in filling in any blanks and answering any questions fans and newcomers alike might have.

Making music

We get in-depth portraits of both Ray’s and Saliers’ early years, including how they came to music. Their meeting at school in Atlanta in 1975 as the girls who played guitar, and sang together in choir, resulting in their becoming best friends. Then, after high school, how they

both ended up at Emory University and still making music together, formed the duo we all know (and love) as Indigo Girls in the mid-1980s.

From their early performances in Atlanta’s Little Five Points to the release of a 1986 EP and 1987’s full-length “Strange Fire” album.

Of course, it was 1989’s self-titled LP, containing “Closer to Fine” (from which the doc also got its name), that led to their breakthrough, opening for R.E.M. on tour, and earning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. With all the attention, Ray and Saliers also had to deal with the spotlight that kind of popularity brings, which includes the issue of coming out publicly.

As anyone familiar with the band knows, Indigo Girls’ grassroots community activism is as important to the pair as their music. “It’s Only

“We didn’t know how political we were because we had no need for rhetoric. It was the underground press that made us these political darlings. We were so anti-establishment. We didn’t think about that. We were just out to have a good time. While our shows may have been interpreted as political, they were really just excuses to have a party, find boyfriends, and get laid.”

Life After All” spends a generous amount of time focusing on that aspect. Known for supporting multiple causes, including LGBTQ, indigenous, environmental, social justice, and empowering the disenfranchised, among others, the doc honors the contributions the duo has made for many years. Rating: A-t

“It’s Only Life After All” will screen at more than 40 theaters across the U.S. on April 10 (including the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St., SF, and The New Parkway Theater, 474 24th St, Oakland), with a few select dates from April 11 to 18. For more information visit indigogirls.oscilloscope.net Indigo Girls perform in San Francisco at The Masonic, 1111 California St., Sept. 25. $75-$145. www.indigogirls.com

From page 13

“In retrospect, I was also trying to figure out what was important to me,” he said. “So I suppose I was inspired by people that were using music to change the world, and I wanted to do the same.”

Goss hopes that his new album will make people smile.

“I hope it gives people the freedom to feel however they want to feel,” he said.

Those who attend Goss’ show at the Utah won’t just hear songs from the new album, they’ll be treated to tunes from across his catalog.

“I’ll be telling funny and engaging stories,” he said. “My show is the epitome of queer joy.”t

Tom Goss’ ‘Remember What it Feels Like,’ available as an MP3 download and on CD.

www.tomgossmusic.com

Tom Goss at the Hotel Utah Saloon, 500 4th St., April 11, 8pm. $20-$40. www.hotelutah.com

Tom Goss, Dean Elex Bais and Meatball in the music video for ‘Not My Problem’

Indigo Girls Emily Saliers and Amy Ray

A photo of young Amy Ray and Emily Saliers in ‘It’s Only Life After All’ Oscilloscope Laboratories

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers in ‘It’s Only Life After All’ Oscilloscope Laboratories

www.indigogirls.com

—Original Cockette Rumi Missabu, aka James Bartlett (1947-2024) in an interview on the LGBTQ History Project (www.lgbtqhp.org)

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Ah, Spring. Flowers are in bloom and love is in the air–and on some of our favorite shows.

And is there a possible gay storyline for Edmundo “Eddie” Diaz (Ryan Guzman) and Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark) on the procedural drama, “9-1-1” which moved from Fox to ABC for its seventh season?

“9-1-1” was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear and follows the lives of Los Angeles first responders: police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and dispatchers. The series currently stars Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Guzman, Aisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi and Gavin McHugh in the lead roles, so a pairing of Eddie and Buck would be huge. The duo has already had a longtime bromance. Can it kick up to the next level?

The “9-1-1” Season 7 premiere drew a big 10.1 million viewers as the series debuted with a cruise ship disaster arc. Now that the show is on ABC, it’s also on Hulu the next day, making for broader viewership. That could make for more interest in a Buck and Eddie pairing.

Courtin’

June is Pride month and the traditional wedding month, but “Night Court’s” Roz (Marsha Warfield) and Loretta (Indira G. Wilson) tied the knot for Women’s History Month in a first for NBC’s iconic “Night Court” series. Also, it’s very cool to see two older lesbians getting married on TV. All did not go smoothly, as is often the case on the show.

“9-1-1” has featured other queer characters over previous seasons, including Henrietta Wilson (played by out actor Aisha Hinds), who got married to her partner, Karen (Tracie Thoms) last season. The couple have a son, Denny. Also, former lead character Michael Grant (Rockmond Dunbar) left his wife of many years, Athena (Bassett) for another man.

But in the end, love conquered all. Dan (John Larroquette) walked Roz down the aisle in a nod to the original series (19841992). Abby (Melissa Rauch) officiated and yes, we cried. It was beautiful and a perfect season 2 finale.

Ark, the herald

We don’t play video games and we aren’t especially fond of animated series, but we are all in for the new Paramount+ original “Ark: The Animated Series,” which premiered March 21. It’s a star-studded vehicle with some

The Sisters’ Easter 2024

Photos by Steven Underhill

The sun shined brightly for the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s 45th annual Easter celebrations held in Dolores Park on March 31. The newly crowned Hunky Jesus, ‘Jesus Ken,’ and Foxy Mary winner ‘Puta Mary’ impressed, as well as the Easter Bonnet contest, which were highlights of the event cohosted by Sister Roma and Honey Mahogany.

For more nightlife, daytime and arts events, visit Going Out on www.ebar.com.

For more Steven Underhill photo albums, visit BARtab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife.t

leontologist on 21st-century Earth. When Helena’s wife Victoria (Page) dies suddenly, Helena’s identity becomes subsumed into that of grieving widow (something we could so relate to, alas).

One night, Helena is coping with her massive grief by drinking wine with a pill chaser and scrolling through her phone. She wakes up suddenly, groggy and disoriented, in the middle of a vast ocean, drowning. She swims to the surface, but as she’s gasping for air, a new challenge arises.

amazing actors voicing the characters. “Ark” costars Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as the voice of a lesbian rebel leader, Oscar winner Russell Crowe, Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright, screen icon Malcolm McDowell, Vin Diesel, Juliet Mills, David Tennant and Monica Bellucci. Isn’t that enough to pull you in? Oh, and Elliot Page to cinch the deal.

There are also a host of Indigenous actors and the cast is led by the star, Madeleine Madden, in the lesbian lead. This totally queer show is an adult animated epic science-fantasy series based on the video game “Ark: Survival Evolved.”

The series revolves around Helena Walker (Madden), an Australian pa-

Escaping from a large, charging shark, she washes up on a strange island. “Ark” chronicles the story of that island, a mysterious primeval land populated by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures, where people from throughout human history have been resurrected.

The island becomes a sanctuary and more. Helena befriends a wild Dodo, only to discover it was being hunted by a human male tribe hunter named Bob (Karl Urban). Both Bob and Helena landed on this otherworldly island the same way. Bob teaches Helena the tricks of survival there.

In this wild and ever-changing place where there are dinosaurs, strange technology and warring tribes, Helena is on a survival quest, and a quest to return to her own world. In that land she finds allies and enemies.

This series took us way out of our

comfort zone, but it’s amazingly compelling. Created by the game’s creators Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, and executive-produced by Russell Crowe, Gerard Butler and Vin Diesel, it’s big.

Villa people

Decadence and debauchery collide in “Vanderpump Villa,” a new unscripted docu-drama following Real Housewife Lisa Vanderpump’s hand-selected staff as they work, live, and play at an exclusive French estate, Chateau Rosabelle.

“Welcome to Vanderpump Villa,” Vanderpump says to a room full of staff. “I have personally selected each of you from some of the best restaurants, bars and kitchens. I know you know how to serve, but this is France. So let’s talk expectations.”

The first look begins with a montage of the staff working at the mansion set to the song “Glamorous” by Fergie. As the staff is introduced to Vanderpump herself, she shows she means business when it comes to the property.

“You can do whatever you want behind the scenes. But when you’re around the guests, don’t get sloppy,” she warns. “This is not Chateau S**t Show.”

It’s fabulous, and on Hulu.t

Left: Oliver Stark and Ryan Guzman in ‘9-1-1’

Right: Indira G. Wilson and Marsha Warfield in ‘Night Court’ ABC

Left: ‘Ark: The Animated Series’ Right: The cast of ‘Vanderpump Villa’ Paramount+ NBC Hulu

This Earth Day plant your feet.

And see how the Earth moves you.

One day just isn’t enough. Join us as we celebrate our planet all month long. Explore rocky tidepools during the City Nature Challenge, dive into coral reefs with an Academy talk, or marvel at blooming wildflowers on our Living Roof. Whether in your community or at the Academy, there are so many ways to join the movement to regenerate the natural world. calacademy.org/earthmonth

‘Beyond Ridiculous’

by Jim Provenzano

It’s been 40 years since Theater-inLimbo made its debut in the thenwreckage of the East Village before gentrification turned it into entirely different place. The AIDS epidemic had just begun to spread widely, and Manhattan itself was undergoing massive changes. In the midst of this, Kenneth Elliott, along with co-founder, playwright and actor Charles Busch, created a new style of irreverent and campy theater. The ensemble performed plays penned by Busch, most of them a hilarious parody and homage to classic camp films and world history.

In “Beyond Ridiculous: Making Gay Theatre with Charles Busch in 1980s New York,” (University of Iowa Press), Elliott recounts the history of this unique art movement.

Named after the nightclub Limbo Lounge where they debuted their first play, “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” the company, with interchanging participants, would go on to perform in almost a dozen plays penned by and mostly starring Busch, until the early 1990s when actors had either left the company or died, and Busch had moved on to more commercial interests.

Some of their earlier performances may have been marred by the cramped overheated nightclub, which forced them out into an outdoor patio, where they performed more appropriately with a series of faux-primitive statues; until it rained, and the makeshift yard/ stage became a pool of mud. Still, audiences reveled in seeing the raw and hilarious new experience.

Kenneth Elliott’s theatrical tell-all

cesses and failures are documented, along with theater critics’ praise and pans. Woven into the history is the decimating course that AIDS took, noted by memorial events created by surviving company members.

Although the heart of the company had a creative period of little more than a decade, the shows live on in revivals and regional versions, even a tour to Japan. Towards the end, Elliott describes his later attempt at television directing, his falling out with Busch, and his eventual successful career in academia.

Busch moved on to more mainstream plays, television and film roles, including adaptations of some of his

Limbo scripts. Of course, an apt companion reading would be “Leading Lady: A Memoir of a Most Unusual Boy” by Charles Busch, reviewed in our October 5 2023 issue.

Thorough in detail yet compact in structure, with several production photos, footnotes, a bibliography and an index, Elliott’s book is a must-have for any theater professional or fan of queer arts.t

‘Beyond Ridiculous: Making Gay Theatre with Charles Busch in 1980s New York,’ by Kenneth Elliott, University of Iowa Press. Paperback, $35. www.uipress.uiowa.edu

Backstage gossip

Author Elliott shares a fascinating array of details, from hiring technical staff to renting venues, which included many mishaps, and a few skittering rats. The company’s initial look and style were aided by Bill Whitehall’s innovative flyer and set designs – limited to colorfully thematic backdrops and adornments to the proscenium, when there was one – and costumes by John Glazer, who turned plastic forks into gold crowns.

The company’s devoted audiences were mostly found in the gay community at first. Occasionally, a mainstream

As actor, director and producer, Elliott shares firsthand knowledge of the entire backstage happenings that took place over the course of those years. Preceded in style in the West Village by Charles Ludlum and his Ridiculous Theatre Company, Busch performed with the company in one show, but had a very unpleasant experience. Although he decided to make his own lighter version of camp drag theater, he couldn’t shake critics’ comparisons for years.

publication would give them a nod and flocks of confused tourists would fill a theater’s seats. But some of the shows remained too obscure for them to understand, and the shows didn’t last long. Some of them lost money.

A few of the plays enjoyed some success in Off-Broadway theaters, including “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” which ran for five years at the Provincetown Playhouse in the West Village. But with Elliott and Busch later spreading themselves a bit thin with later multiple shows being developed or performed, other productions didn’t fare so well. Still, their influence on the performing arts remains noteworthy.

Anyone interested in the art and business of theater will be fascinated by the specific details that Elliott provides, from finding backers for shows to even the technical specifics of the shape and size of theaters and how it affected audience reactions.

From the messy World nightclub to the more “legitimate” Lucille Lortel Theatre, the company’s various suc-

Funny stuff: author James Pauley Jr.

by Michele Karlsberg

James Pauley Jr. is a humor writer with a knack for storytelling, focusing on personal experiences that are both entertaining and heartwarming. His books, “Bumpy Rides and Soft Landings” and the forthcoming “An Unconditional Friendship: Messages from a Colorful Granny and an OffColor Gay Guy” (Take Flight Publishing, May, 2024), contain a collection of laugh-out-loud anecdotes and messages of love and acceptance.

“Bumpy Rides and Soft Landings” may explore the ups and downs of life with humor and resilience, while “An Unconditional Friendship” highlights the importance of embracing diversity and cherishing the unique connections we make with others.

Pauley’s writing style likely combines wit, charm, and a touch of sin-

cerity, making his stories relatable to a wide range of readers. Through his work, he spreads joy, laughter, and the message of acceptance, celebrating the quirks and complexities of life and friendship.

Born and raised in a small town in southwestern Michigan, Pauley received his bachelor’s degree from Albion College, with a double major in German and Spanish. Spending a semester each in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Heidelberg, Germany piqued his interest and a lifelong love of international travel. He began his career as a flight attendant in 1978, a job that he loved for 44 years. He lives with his spouse, Rich, in Indiana. Pauley shared moments from his life that led to writing books in this essay:

Humor through life

Having been raised in a small Mich-

igan farming community in the late 1950s and early 1960s, my early years were rather unremarkable. I had two loving (albeit young parents), a bossy older sister, and a spoiled younger brother. But when I was six, my world was forever changed when my parents did the absolute unthinkable: They got a divorce! Now, this was in 1964, in a small town in the Midwest. Long before social media, cable TV, and openmindedness even existed.

As an extremely sensitive, inquisitive child who didn’t miss anything, I often heard the hushed whispers when I was out with my attractive and newly-single mother. I quickly learned to just sit back, listen, watch, and take note of everything.

And although I was not at all happy that our home was now ‘broken,’ I quickly found my new best friend. Its name was Humor. Now, I wasn’t a complete stranger to it, as we had met many times before when it came to visit my parents.

When I was eight, I saved my 25-cents-a-week allowance for three weeks and bought my first diary. That was the beginning of my long-term and sometimes turbulent love affair with writing. I could write about anything I wanted; myself, made-up characters, fantasies, sadness, gladness, or just about any emotion I was feeling at the time.

But humor, in all its sneakiness, always found its way in. Maybe it was a good coping mechanism for me, especially since I could fantasize, fabricate, and make everything seem perfect in my own imperfect world. And if it couldn’t be perfect, it could sure as hell be funny!

My long-time flight attendant career afforded me the opportunity to observe a lot. Having worked for both a commercial and a private airline for a combined 45 years, I learned early on to jot down the most notable and outrageous things that I observed. I

filled notebook after notebook, and

to date, I still have hundreds, if not thousands, of “funnies’ to expound on when the time is right. A few years ago, on one of my private work flights, I had the great pleasure of having a very popular comedian and late-night talk show host on board. It turned out that this particular comedian was extremely approachable and friendly, and we ended up having a long conversation about pretty much anything and everything.

But what I noticed most was that when I was sharing something, this person was truly listening. And at times, I even felt like I was being “studied.” It could have made me very nervous, but it didn’t. Thinking about it later, I realized it was exactly how this person found and created their own material for future monologues or jokes. It brought to mind what a friend had told me years before. “Always steal with your eyes and ears, because you never know when you can use that material later on.”

Recently, while simultaneously typing on my laptop with one hand, eating chocolate bonbons with the other, my long-time partner was sitting at the other end of the sofa, watching television. As I sat there giggling, and then trying to suppress an outright snort, he asked, “What are you read—?

Wait a minute are you reading your own writing?”

Before I could answer, he said. “That’s just not right!” I smiled demurely as I licked the chocolate from my lips, and responded, “Au contraire, my darling. That’s exactly when it is just right!”t

Author Kenneth Elliott

Kenneth Elliott and Charles Busch in a 1984 press photo for ‘Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium’ George Dudley

Author James Pauley Jr.

‘Portrait of a Body’ Julie

by Laura Moreno

“Portrait of a Body” by Julie Delporte, translated from French by Helge Dascher and Karen Houle, tells the story of how one woman came to gain self-acceptance. The intimate storybook is masterfully illustrated by the author.

Born in France, Delporte lives in Montreal. Her previous books include the highly acclaimed “Everywhere Antennas” and “This Woman’s Work.” She is also a punk musician.

Simply and beautifully, Delporte documents her stages of healing in this book. An important part of her journey was to move away from heterosexuality quite late in life. Told in remarkably few words, she dares to delve deeply into her subconscious mind, motivations, trauma, and dissociation. Above all, she seeks to be honest with herself.

The book opens with expressive India ink drawings (black and white) inspired by Chantal Akerman’s 1974 film “Je tu il elle,” while she tells the reader about the first time she was with a woman.

“I was a little shocked by how normal it all felt. ‘Abnormal’ was everything that had come before.”

The next two pages lay out two pencil crayon drawings of landscapes in color that look like Rainbow Mountain in South America, representing the new life she is finally able to claim as her own as she charts a new course.

Writer Eileen Myles has high praise for “Portrait of a Body”: “It’s ardently alive... like being whispered to all night

by someone you love.”

Throughout the book Delcorte uses intricate abstract art to illustrate her states of mind, thoughts, emotions. It is intelligent, ballsy art that depicts life-like flowers, a colorful series of seashells, scenes from her life, swirling color sometimes dancing, but always very expressive.

In particular, I love the drawings of favorite dresses kept in her closet because she liked the patterns on the fabric, even though they are no longer worn.

Late Bloomer Lesbian

Echoing the sentiments of many women today, at age 35 she was “tired

of trying to love men.”

Like many late bloomer lesbians, the easy explanation was, “One day, I fell in love with a woman.” But she knew that didn’t quite explain it. If she thought about it, she had to acknowledge she had never eroticized women. She had never eroticized men either, if truth be told.

“I wanted to be Tove Jansson, Courtney Barnett, Chantal Akerman... I wanted to be a lesbian even before I was sexually attracted to women. And before I’d fallen in love with one,” Delporte writes. For a long time, she was unable to admit to herself what she felt. But she was clear that heterosexuality should not be mandatory. About the demands of femininity, she writes, “I was tired of pretending.”

Psychoanalysis was no help at all. Isn’t it far too much to expect a therapist to understand where she was coming from, much less offer solutions? It only seemed to have increased her anxiety.

Far more helpful was reading, writing, art and making art. The work of women like Akerman, Georgia O’Keeffe, Adrienne Rich and Annie Ernaux helped her understand herself, her childhood, her path to healing and self-acceptance much better than therapy ever could.

She recognized that throughout her childhood “no” was not an option. There were clothes you had to wear,

medicine you had to take, etc. And although she was no longer a child, she was still mindlessly living as she was socialized to do, without any agency. But when does she finally get to decide for herself how to be her own person?

Delporte writes that she and all her friends were captivated by Leonardo Dicaprio’s rapturous performance and no less by his unforgettable blouse in the film “Romeo & Juliet.”

Something about Leonardo and his

blouse exuded a sense of total freedom that became an important part of her healing journey.

And finally, the crowning realization: “All those years, I had tried so desperately to be beautiful when I already was.”t

‘Portrait of a Body’ by Julie Delporte, Drawn & Quarterly. $29.95 drawnandquarterly.com juliedelporte.com

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Monday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Tuesday 8am (last seating 9:45pm)

Wednesday 8am

(last seating 9:45pm)

Thursday 8am

Open 24 Hours

Friday

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Sunday 7am

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Author/artist Julie Delporte

Drawings and text in Julie Delporte’s ‘Portrait of a Body’

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Continuing a 55-year relationship with Cal Performances, the magnificent dancers of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater return to campus for the company’s annual residency with an exuberant selection of recent works and Ailey masterpieces that celebrates the Black American experience.

Apr 2–7

ZELLERBACH HALL

Jakub Józef Orliński, countertenor Il Pomo d'Oro Beyond

Riveting Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński returns to Berkeley this season with the sensational ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, in a program of rarely performed works from the 16th and 17th centuries— by Monteverdi, Caccini, Frescobaldi, Cavalli, Strozzi, and others.

Danish String Quartet

Johannes Rostamo, cello

The dazzling Danish String Quartet returns to complete its ambitious multiyear Doppelgänger Project, which has paired major works from Schubert’s chamber music repertoire and the newly commissioned quintet by renowned British composer Thomas Adès.

Apr 9

ZELLERBACH HALL

Mark Morris Dance Group

Returning to its West Coast home away from home, the Mark Morris Dance Group visits with the profoundly moving repertory work Socrates danced to the music of Erik Satie, and the world premiere of a new Mark Morris creation, Via Dolorosa, set to Nico Muhly’s meditative composition The Street, inspired by the evocative, mysterious, and poetic texts of Alice Goodman and featuring harpist Parker Ramsay performing the score live.

Drum Tao 30th Anniversary Tour

A feast for the eyes and ears, Drum Tao’s mesmerizing productions combine thunderous traditional taiko drumming with dazzling staging, theatrical costumes, and dramatic lighting effects. Flute, marimba, and harp are added to the drum ensemble, and high-octane choreography contributes fresh new energy to this centuries-old Japanese art form.

Apr 11–12

ZELLERBACH HALL

Apr 13

ZELLERBACH HALL

Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Apr 19–21

ZELLERBACH HALL

Angélique Kidjo

The five-time Grammy winner is known for making connections across genres, generations, and geopolitical boundaries, enlisting her clarion voice and dynamic, eclectic musical vision to address complex subject matter through radiantly joyful music.

Apr 26

ZELLERBACH HALL

J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson plays the complete set of Bach’s Goldberg Variations—his renditions praised by Bachtrack as “a complete show of mastery and virtuosity”—in his Cal Performances debut.

May 4

ZELLERBACH HALL

An Evening with David Sedaris

Adored by readers for his sardonic wit and incisive social critique, David Sedaris visits with readings drawn from his beloved best-selling books and story collections, as well as new and unpublished work.

May 5

ZELLERBACH HALL