April 23, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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ICE detainee makes bond

New leader for Dem club

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Gay dad pens memoir

Comic bites

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Vol. 50 • No. 17 • April 23-29, 2020

2020 LGBT celebrations in doubt amid virus outbreak

by John Ferrannini Courtesy NCLR

NCLR Executive Director Imani RupertGordon

NCLR ED takes helm amid health crisis

by Matthew S. Bajko

U

sually the first month for a nonprofit’s incoming chief executive is spent meeting one-on-one with staff and hosting get-togethers with board members and donors of the agency as part of an introductory tour. That playbook had to be jettisoned by Imani RupertGordon, the new executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Since starting in the position March 16, Rupert-Gordon has been sequestered in her Oakland home she and her wife, Derah RupertGordon, moved into after relocating to the Bay Area from Chicago due to her being hired to lead one of the nation’s most prominent LGBT rights groups.

“There is no rule book on how to step in to an organization and become an amazing executive director and certainly not one during a global pandemic. I am trying to be as authentic as possible,” said Rupert-Gordon in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter about her first four weeks on the job.

The day prior to her succeeding Cindy L. Myers, Ph.D., who had served in an interim capacity following the 2018 departure of Kate Kendell after leading NCLR for 22 years, Rupert-Gordon had called her management team to inform them they were likely going to have to close NCLR’s San Francisco office for the time being.

“We were having most folks working from home already. The day before I started we had decided not to have anyone in the office and the next day we had the shelter-in-place order issued,” said Rupert-Gordon, who turned 41 April 16. “It was definitely not the first decision one thinks you will make on your first day.”

Her first 30 days have been a whirlwind of online video conferences and phone calls instead of in-person meetings. The agency has continued its advocacy efforts and legal work remotely, and it recently learned two of its immigration clients had been granted asylum in the U.S. It joined with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders to file a lawsuit March 18 in federal district court in Massachusetts on behalf of an anonymous transgender U.S. Navy officer, referred to as Jane Doe, facing involuntary discharge due to her gender identity. The case, known as Doe v. Esper, is the first challenge to President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members since it went into effect last April.

“Everything we are doing is being done teleSee page 9 >>

T

he novel coronavirus pandemic has left the future of large-scale and outdoor events the world over for at least the rest of the year in doubt – and these include longtime LGBT celebrations and festivals throughout the Bay Area.

Within days of the April 14 cancellation of the 2020 San Francisco LGBT Pride parade and Civic Center Plaza festival, the Dyke and Trans marches followed suit, as the Bay Area Reporter noted online. Those events are organized in coordination with the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, but not under its auspices.

On the same day, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) said that it is unlikely any large-scale gatherings will be possible until a vaccine for the novel coronavirus can be widely distributed. A vaccine is not expected until 2021, according to federal health officials.

“The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine,” Newsom said.

The Dyke March has occurred each year on the Saturday before the Market Street parade since 1993, but will not this year.

Participants took part in last year’s Trans March in San Francisco.

“Given the current pandemic, we cannot in good conscience plan for an in-person event in 2020,” Christine Graham, co-chair of the San Francisco Dyke March Organizing Committee, stated after the B.A.R. asked the organization about the status of the event. “We must acknowledge our community’s higher risk and protect the vulnerable amongst us. The economic impact to local businesses is significant,

Rick Gerharter

and we regret our need to cancel yet another event. The Dyke March remains grateful for the many local businesses, artists, venues, organizations, and individuals whose generosity and support have been essential to past marches.

“While we all organize separately, but in the same spirit, Dyke March is in agreement and supportive of Trans March and SF Pride’s decisions to also cancel their in-person events.

See page 8 >>

New head of Peninsula LGBTQ center takes it virtual during pandemic

by Heather Cassell

S

tarting a new job at the beginning of a global pandemic is not an ideal situation.

However, Francisco “Frankie” Sapp, the recently-hired program director of the San Mateo County Pride Center, is leading it through the crisis in stride.

The disabled, biracial, queer, transgender man is a 20-year social justice veteran and expert in crisis management and harm reduction.

Sapp, 42, began his new job February 12.

The center didn’t announce his taking over the position until a March 4 blog post. News outlets picked up the story earlier this month.

“We are so grateful to have Frankie working with our incredible team at the Pride center,” wrote Stephanie Weisner, 41, chief program officer at StarVista, the organization that oversees the center.

She praised Sapp for his “passion, warmth, experience, finesse, and humor” along with his ability to step “in with such compassion and strength during the COVID-19 pandemic,” referring to the illness caused by the virus.

“We are not sure what we would do without him!” she wrote in an email.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has upended Sapp’s initial plans, as the state is in the midst of a stay-at-home order for nonessential workers

Courtesy Francisco “Frankie” Sapp

Francisco “Frankie” Sapp is the new program director of the San Mateo County Pride Center.

that began just over a month ago.

Sapp credits his previous experience to deftly manage transitioning the physical center, located in the city of San Mateo, into a virtual one.

“The fact that this crisis is happening and I’m in this position ... having that harm reduction experience ... I think that I’m where I need to be,” he said about quickly identifying priorities and setting up policies informed by community and staff feedback during the process.

“Fortunately, I’ve had the amazing privilege to work with a wonderful team who is so kind,

so caring, and so thoughtful,” he added.

Sapp, who has Tourette syndrome and mobility issues, has been managing the center from the distance of his Fairfield home, where he recently spoke on the phone with the Bay Area Reporter.

Sapp said that he was drawn to the center because when he first stepped into the building its staff reflected the community and instantly felt like a safe space.

“I think that there are a lot of organizations that talk about representation, but don’t actually represent the communities that we serve,” said Sapp. “That is not true about the Pride center.

We have such a diverse staff.

“Moving forward that is everything that I want to maintain,” he continued. “I hold that very sacred.”

None of the staff have been laid off or furloughed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

A virtual space

The center opened to serve the Peninsula’s LGBT community in 2017.

Sapp replaced the center’s founding program director Lisa Putkey, a 33-year-old queer woman. She stepped down in December and moved to Marin County.

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Gay asylum seeker in ICE custody released from jail

by John Ferrannini

A

gay San Francisco man in United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody has been released following the payment of $10,000 bond.

The move from ICE came because it was recently discovered that Oumar Yaide, 32 (known in court documents as Abderman Yaide), was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which puts him at heightened risk for contracting COVID-19 (the illness caused by the novel coronavirus), and heightened risk of an adverse outcome should he contract the disease, which has killed upward of 40,000 Americans in recent weeks.

Yaide’s friend Hayley Kay set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the bond, which had to be paid in full, unlike in criminal case proceedings.

Kay said that the GoFundMe was initially a fund to help Yaide get re-established upon release and had to be re-tooled into a bond fund. She said that the news was “bittersweet.”

“On the one hand, I’m elated and I’m happy, but I’m also frustrated they are asking for a $10,000 bond when other inmates are getting released because of COVID-19,” Kay said in an April 16 phone call with the Bay Area Reporter, before Yaide was released.

Edwin Carmona-Cruz of Pangea Legal Services told the B.A.R. in an April 16 phone call that he was “confident” the money would be raised. It was, and Yaide was released the following day.

Carmona-Cruz wrote to the B.A.R. April 21 that the $10,000 was raised through “a combination of donations from 24 hours of fundraising on GoFundMe, donations that came in via Venmo, direct donations from community members, as well as some money saved from previous fundraisers that Oumar’s chosen family had raised.”

Carmona-Cruz said that Yaide’s release showcases the power of community organizing and activism.

“This is what happens when you have the community organizing to pressure ICE,” Carmona-Cruz said. “With the GoFundMe he can pay his bond and we can get him home to his chosen family where he can shelter-in-place.”

The bond was issued not by federal Judge Charles Breyer – who had been overseeing the case – but from ICE itself.

“This is what we have been saying.

ICE can release anyone at any time,” Carmona-Cruz said.

Yaide has been in Yuba County Jail near Sacramento since early March, when he returned to the United States

Courtesy Pangea Legal Services

Oumar Yaide was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Friday after posting a $10,000 bond.

from Chad. Breyer had ruled that ICE deported Yaide to Chad illegally and was obligated to return him.

Yaide, who was initially placed in ICE custody last August, had intended to reopen his asylum claim on the basis of his sexual orientation when he was deported by the DHS shortly after Thanksgiving.

“He’s been through so much in the last eight months and it’s amazing how resilient he’s been,” Kay said. “I can’t wait to give him a big hug when this is all over.”

Yaide’s friends raised about $15,000 to pay his rent and other expenses, Kay said, and with the assistance of Pangea they sought help from Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in support of Yaide.

San Francisco District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the district where Yaide resided before his arrest, introduced a resolution in his support. It was unanimously approved.

Ronen said that this is an example of how community organizing can create tangible change in people’s lives.

“Oumar is a constituent of mine from the Mission District, and we are thrilled that after months of legal limbo, he will finally be returning home,” Ronen stated in an email to the B.A.R. “This is a testament to the relentless advocacy of his closest friends, the immigrant rights groups who diligently monitored his case, and the broader community of supporters who worked for months to bring Oumar home where he is safe and supported.”

ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Courtesy SF Public Defender’s office

Lexis Hernandez Avilez

Trans asylum seeker still in custody

Another LGBT asylum seeker – a trans woman being detained by ICE in Texas – will be released from custody upon payment of a $10,000 bond.

However, an online fundraiser to pay the bond has only raised $855 of the total, as of press time.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, Lexis Hernandez Avilez, 41, is being defended in court by the San Francisco Public Defender’s office.

Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Hector Vega, told the B.A.R. March 25 that he was planning to ask for her release. There was a court hearing via phone April 16.

“The bond was granted,” Vega wrote to the B.A.R. in an email April 16. “The judge found she was not a danger and that flight risk could be mitigated with a bond of $10,000.”

Avilez, however, was not released due to COVID-19 concerns, her attorney said.

“She does have a medical condition where if she were to get the virus she would be very susceptible,” Vega said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. April 17. “However, the judge was very clear that it was solely based on other circumstances.”

In 2005, Avilez had been convicted of a gang-related assault.

“The judge focused on the fact that it has been 15 years since her last criminal action,” Vega said. “The judge acknowledged everything that has changed since; she pointed to the completion of rehabilitative programs while in detention, and that her focus today is to stay well and healthy as she continues her gender confirmation treatment.

“She acknowledged all the family support [Avilez] has and wished her good luck with the rest of her case,” Vega added. t

Abrams to discuss Fair Fight in digital reception compiled by Cynthia Laird

M

anny’s, the gay-owned event space in the Mission, will host a virtual reception for Stacey Abrams (D), who now runs Fair Fight to promote fair elections in Georgia and elsewhere after she lost the Peach State’s 2018 gubernatorial election amid charges of voting irregularities.

The Fair Fight political action committee has initiated programs to support voter protection programs at state parties around the country and is engaging in partnerships to support and elect pro voting rights, progressive leaders, according to its website.

The event takes place Tuesday, April 28, at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Funds

raised will go to the Fair Fight PAC. Manny Yekutiel, the owner of Manny’s, wrote in an email to supporters that Fair Fight is a critical organization as the country heads toward the 2020 presidential election.

“She’s holding up the mantle in a time where voter access is paramount to us winning in November,” he wrote of Abrams.

To RSVP, go to https://bit.ly/2K0iEVV. Tickets for the digital reception start at $25.

LYRIC moves open house online

The Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center will move its annual spring open house online due to stay-at-home orders because of the coronavirus outbreak.

In an email to supporters, LYRIC staff said that the event will take place Wednesday, April 29, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Called “My Identity; Our Hxstories: A Celebration of LYRIC’s 32 Years,” this online celebration will feature the voices and artwork of LYRIC youth leaders as they explore the complexities of their identities and revisit history through an intersectional lens.

LYRIC’s UndocuWorkforce Spring 2020 interns chose the theme for this celebration, making visible the voices of undocumented LGBTQQ youth who tend to be silenced or unrecognized by general community, organizers noted.

“It is especially important during this time to center and elevate the leadership of marginalized youth,” the email reads.

To RSVP, visit the event’s Facebook page at https://bit.ly/3bBo7yR. t

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t Small businesses need a shot at PPP T

he good news is that Congress is poised to approve another federal stimulus package to help small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus outbreak. The proposal includes a $320 billion extension of the paycheck protection program, or PPP, in which businesses with 500 or fewer employees can obtain loans from banks, mostly so they can meet payroll for eight weeks. If businesses retain employees and meet other requirements, the loans will be forgiven and ultimately paid by taxpayers. As many small business owners and their workers know, the first $349 billion for the program was snapped up quickly and the PPP ran out of funds in less than two weeks – before many companies could even apply. (The Senate approved the package Tuesday; it now advances to the House of Representatives.)

This time around, Congress, in consultation with the Trump administration, has refined the program to close loopholes exploited by a few large banks and companies at the expense of numerous smaller ones.

Large restaurant chains like Ruth’s Chris Steak House, which reported making $468 million in revenue, gobbled up $20 million of the PPP funds. Shake Shack got $10 million. (Its CEO said this week that he would return the money.) The Associated Press reported that publicly traded firms received $300 million in small business loans. Large hotel chains also got in on the action, reaping millions, all the while, truly small businesses were left in the dust.

The Washington Post reported this week that Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York) said that of the new $320 billion in funds, $125 billion would go to “unbanked” rural and minority areas. Women-

photo Courtesy AP

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are working on another federal stimulus package to help small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus.

and minority-owned businesses should also expect to see some of the money, according to NBC News. That should help small businesses, including those owned by LGBTs, and we hope that in hammering out the final details, the Senate and House will make sure that administrative regulations are improved. The Post noted that the Small Business Act, which formed the basis for the program, was originally intended to help small businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 500 employees that are unable to obtain credit elsewhere. This second round of money likely will run out soon too; there are simply too many companies that need emergency financial assistance.

And that need isn’t going to subside any-

time soon. While the majority of Americans understand the need for stay-at-home orders, it’s clear that even when restrictions are eased, life will not be the same as it was before March 16, when orders were issued by Santa Clara County, San Francisco, and several other Bay Area counties. The economy will be slow to rebound and millions of Americans will contend with financial insecurity.

Congress must provide more economic aid to businesses, with the goal of helping smaller ones that make neighborhoods special and provide jobs to the majority of workers across the country.

We know that big companies are suffering too, but these larger firms should have their own stimulus program. Besides, they have other resources for financing that are not available or affordable to small businesses.

This PPP expansion and any additional funds that Congress approves must be fixed to ensure funds are directed to their intended beneficiaries.

Local steps

San Francisco is helping small businesses in the city. This week, it announced that May deadlines for paying business registration fees and business licensing fees would be postponed until September 30.

Mayor London Breed has taken other initiatives to aid local businesses, including $9 million in emergency loan funding that provides up to $50,000 in zero interest loans for individual small businesses; $2 million in resiliency grants to provide up to $10,000 each to over 200 small businesses; and $10 million to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per employee.

All of this will help, but is not a cure. The city must be prepared to respond even more once it’s safe for the economy to reopen, even as that will probably be a slow process. t

LGBTQ leaders stand in solidarity

by Daniel Redman

W

e, the undersigned, are members or allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community in the city of San Francisco. The COVID-19 crisis has brought pain to all of our communities, and many have risen to the moment. But it has also awakened forces that we must reject with a strong voice.

No two epidemics and no two historical experiences are the same, but the horrors our community faced in the AIDS epidemic command us to stand in solidarity with communities facing injustice and violence today.

In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, LGBTQ people were targeted with violence and hate because of the virus, and our suffering was ignored by those with the power to do something about it.

Today, the Trump administration and other leaders have painted a bull’s-eye on the backs of Asian Americans with racist rhetoric about the “Chinese virus,” and certain public personalities and government officials argue that if “saving the economy” requires the death and suffering of older adults and people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, then we should turn away from them.

To both sentiments, we say: No. In the current crisis, as a result of Trump’s poisonous rhetoric, Slate reports that “people of Asian descent have [reported] being yelled at, being beaten, their children attacked and their businesses boycotted.” The Los Angeles Times reports that one advocacy group “has received more than 1,000 reports from people in 32 states detailing verbal abuse, denial of services, discrimination on the job or physical assaults.” In Texas, a man attacked an Asian American family – including small children – with a knife. The New York Times reports that Asian American leaders “have sounded the alarm about Republican messaging that they say stigmatizes their community and fans racism.”

Simultaneously, politicians, television personalities, and publications have told older adults and people with disabilities and chronic illnesses that their suffering should be ignored if doing so will protect the economy. One writer argued that the virus “overwhelmingly strikes the elderly or the already severely sick. Sad to say, those victims were already nearing the end of their lifespans.”

Courtesy of Ted Sahl/San Jose State Digital Archive

The late supervisor Harvey Milk led a coalition of different groups against the 1978 Briggs initiative that would have barred LGBTs from teaching in public schools. If went down to defeat that November.

As Dr. Robert Butler (who first coined the term “ageism”) wrote, “Ageism allows the younger generation to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings.” As transgender rabbi and disability rights advocate Elliot Kukla put more bluntly in the New York Times last month, “Don’t they know sick and old people can read?”

We have seen this before.

In the 1980s, as public knowledge of AIDS grew, so did violence against LGBTQ people. In a November 1986 New York Times article, one community leader reported “We’re in the middle of an epidemic of violence against gay men and lesbians” because of public fear of AIDS. One member of Congress decried “dramatic increases in violence directed against gay men and lesbians, and the violence seems to be connected with the AIDS problem.’’ Hate crimes, including murders, doubled over the course of one year.

The suffering of LGBTQ people and people with HIV/AIDS was also ignored, with devastating results. In 1982, after 1,000 people had already died of AIDS, a journalist asked President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes, if the president had “any reaction to the announcement by

the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] that AIDS is now an epidemic.” Amidst laughter, Speakes joked, “I don’t have it. Do you?” The journalist asked: “Is the president concerned about this subject, Larry?” And the press secretary replied, “I haven’t heard him express concern.” Reagan would not seriously address HIV/AIDS for another five years, after 21,000 people had died.

The fundamental message of the LGBT civil rights movement is that all human beings have worth, possess dignity, deserve equality under the law, and that our communities’ struggles are tied together. LGBTQ communities – which includes people who are Asian American, older adults, and people with disabilities and chronic illnesses – must stand together now and always against hate and injustice.

In a June 1978 speech at San Francisco Pride against a ballot measure that would have barred LGBTQ teachers from public schools, Supervisor Harvey Milk said: “No more racism, no more sexism, no more ageism, no more hatred. No more.” And in this age of pandemic, we repeat these words and stand by them. t Co-signers include state Senator Scott Wiener; San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman; former supervisor Jeff Sheehy; former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano; former state senator Mark Leno; Shireen McSpadden, executive director, San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services; Roberta Achtenberg, former commissioner, United States Commission on Civil Rights; Manny Yekutiel, commissioner, San Francisco Small Business Commission and owner of Manny’s restaurant and civic space; Tom Temprano, vice president, City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees; Janice Li, BART Board of Directors; Bevan Dufty, BART Board of Directors; Mary Morgan, judge of the Superior Court of California (Retired); Tom Nolan, former board chair, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency; Imani Rupert-Gordon, executive director, National Center for Lesbian Rights; Kaushik Roy, executive director, Shanti Project; Karyn Skultety, Ph.D., executive director, Openhouse; Clair Farley, director, San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives; Cecilia Chung, director of evaluation and strategic initiatives, Transgender Law Center; Rebecca Prozan; Michael Pappas; and Marcy Adelman, Ph.D.

t

Politics >>

April 23-29, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Contra Costa LGBT Dem club elects new president

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he Lambda Democratic Club of Contra Costa County has elevated its former treasurer, Devin Murphy, to be its new president. He is the third person to hold the position since the group’s founding in 2017 and succeeds past president Robyn Kuslits.

The LGBTQI political club, which has 30 dues-paying members, met virtually Saturday, April 11, to elect its new slate of leaders.

Serving as vice president is Kelliane Parker, while Kuslits is now the club’s secretary.

Murphy, 26, is the first gay black man and second person of color to lead the club. Richmond resident Cesar Zepeda was the club’s first president. By being the public face for the club, Murphy aims to give voice to the sprawling county’s LGBTQI community.

“There has not been a lot of visibility for LGBTQI people in this county and in particular in elected office,” said Murphy, who grew up in San Francisco’s predominantly African American Bayview neighborhood.

His maternal grandparents hailed from the Caribbean countries of Trinidad and Cuba, while his paternal grandparents came from Barbados. When he was a child, his parents separated and his father relocated to the East Bay city of Pinole.

After graduating from UCLA with a degree in African American studies in 2015, Murphy decided to return to Northern California and moved in with his dad, while his mom now lives nearby in Pittsburg. He has been sheltering in place with his father along with one of his five brothers and his nieces due to the health crisis.

In addition to taking on the club presidency role, Murphy is considering running for one of the two seats on the Pinole City Council that are up for election this November. He told the Bay Area Reporter he plans to make a decision in May. Should he be elected, Murphy would be his city’s first out LGBTQ council member.

“It is important we have folks who represent our democratic values in office,” said Murphy, who serves on his city’s planning commission.

A political campaign consultant who is CEO of DTM Strategies, which he launched in late 2015, Murphy also advises nonprofits on how to wage campaigns to advance their goals and objectives.

He has worked with the League of Conservation Voters and #Cut50, a criminal justice reform nonprofit.

He assisted Kimberly Ellis when she sought to become chair of the California Democratic Party and was a campaign manager early on for Matt Haney when he launched his ultimately successful bid to become a San Francisco supervisor representing District 6 in 2018. Murphy left Haney’s campaign team after being hired

by Priorities USA, a national super PAC for Democrats, to work on its electoral efforts that year in Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Dakota.

When he returned to the Bay Area in late 2018, Murphy joined the Lambda club and was elected to its board the next year. As president he will be focused on helping to elect LGBT and pro-equality candidates this fall, among them gay El Cerrito City Councilman Gabriel Quinto who is seeking reelection and Zepeda, who was appointed to a seat on the West

Courtesy Devin Murphy

Devin Murphy is the new president of the Lambda Democratic Club of Contra Costa County.

County Wastewater District board last year and is now seeking a full four-year term.

Also up for re-election this fall is gay Hercules City Councilman Roland Esquivias, currently serving as his city’s mayor. He told the B.A.R. this week he has yet to make a decision on if he will seek a second four-year term.

While the Lambda club didn’t endorse in the races on the March primary ballot, Murphy expects the club to make endorsements in the fall races. It will be meeting this month to discuss its process and schedule for doing so.

“We usually do that in August for out candidates,” said Murphy, adding that he would like to do it even sooner this year “to make sure our voice is kind of out there.”

Zepeda, now president of the West County Democratic Club, told the B.A.R. that he expects Murphy will revitalize the Lambda club as president.

“He is going to bring a new perspective to the club and new energy,” said Zepeda, adding that the group is “going in a good direction. He wants to try to activate it and bring in more people. We are still fairly young as a club.”

Murphy will be picking up on one of the main priorities that Zepeda and Kuslits focused on during their presidential terms, seeing that cities throughout Contra Costa County issue proclamations celebrating Pride Month and fly the rainbow flag in front of their city halls throughout June.

Working with club members and supportive citizens throughout the East Bay jurisdiction last year, the Lambda club helped to see all but two cities in the county either raise the flag or issue a Pride proclamation or do both.

With San Francisco’s and Sonoma County’s Pride parades canceled this year due to the health crisis, Murphy said having local cities honor the annual LGBT celebrations is even more important this year. He is hoping to see every one of his county’s cities mark Pride in June.

“We know the visibility of raising the Pride flag across Contra Costa County is more vital than ever, especially since we don’t have the in-person experiences of Pride this year,” noted Murphy. “It is a really important conversation our club is having already, to see our school districts, our water board district, our city councils raising

that Pride flag for visibility. But also to make sure the Pride flag is a representation of a welcoming and inclusive jurisdiction.”

The first city to take up the matter was Clayton, whose City Council voted Tuesday night for the first time to issue a Pride proclamation this year and fly the rainbow flag not only in front of City Hall but also the town library and a public park, as the B.A.R. first reported online.

Also at the top of Murphy’s agenda this year is encouraging every LGBTQ resident of Contra Costa County to take part in the 2020 census count. The results will impact how much federal funding is allocated to the county for a wide array of social services utilized by LGBTQ people.

“It is important to us as a club and as members of the LGBTQ community because when we think about funding for local LGBT community centers and any governmental funding for social programs, it will impact LGBTQI people,” said Murphy.

Membership in the Lambda club costs $20 a year. To learn more about the group, visit is website at https://lambdademocrats.com/.

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Victory Fund endorses CA candidates

Three more out candidates running in November races in Southern California picked up endorsements Monday from the national LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Democrat Abigail Medina, a lesbian who also identifies as queer, secured the Victory Fund’s support for her bid for the state’s 23rd Senate District seat. She is one of two LGBTQ women of color aiming to be the first to serve in the state Senate.

Should Medina defeat her Republican opponent, Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, she would also be the first person who identifies as queer and the first out lawmaker from San Bernardino County serving in the Legislature.

And she could help the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, now at seven members, expand its ranks to a historic level come December.

At the municipal level, the Victory Fund endorsed transgender Palm Springs City Councilwoman Lisa Middleton’s bid for re-election. After being elected citywide in 2018, Middleton is now seeking the city’s newly created District 5 seat.

It also endorsed queer National City Council candidate Marcus Bush, a policy adviser for queer San Diego City Council President Georgette Gómez, who is running for Congress this year. If elected, Bush would be his city’s first out LGBTQ and first AfroLatino council person. t 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 advice for pet owners in light of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< Queer Reading

6 • Bay Area Reporter • April 23-29, 2020

t

Author celebrates being gay in memoir to son

by Brian Bromberger

A

lthough there have been numerous books by straight parents writing about their gay children (and vice versa), up until now there has not been an advice memoir by a gay parent to his LGBTQ children.

That deficit has been remedied by Richie Jackson’s book, “Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son” (HarperCollins). Jackson is an award-winning Broadway, television, and film producer who most recently produced the Tony-nominated “Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song” on Broadway. He was the executive producer of Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” for seven seasons and the co-executive producer of the John Cameron Mitchell film “Shortbus.”

He and his husband, theater producer Jordan Roth, were honored with the Trevor Project’s 2016 Trevor Hero Award. His goal was to be a father, so when his oldest son, Jackson Foo, whose biological father is Jackson’s ex-partner, actor BD Wong, came out to him at age 15, he was both surprised and elated. He had wanted and hoped Foo would be gay, then Foo said to him, “Daddy, being gay is not a big deal. My generation doesn’t think it’s a big deal.”

Jackson’s book is a love letter response to his son’s comment. It deals with many aspects of gay life: coming out, parenting, LGBTQ history, AIDS, sex, character versus online profile stats, and good citizenship.

This writer interviewed Jackson, 54, on stage February 5 at Manny’s, the gay-owned cafe and event space in San Francisco’s Mission district. (The event occurred about a month and a half before the novel coronavirus outbreak resulted in regional and then statewide shelter-in-place orders.)

What follows are portions of the onstage interview.

Jackson, as opposed to his son, believes being gay is a really big deal.

“It’s the best and most important thing about me. I didn’t want him to grow up to be one of these people who say, ‘Gay doesn’t define me,’ or, ‘I just happen to be gay,’” Jackson said.

“If he made it matter-of-fact like that, he would diminish the gift that it is and break his own heart.

“And so I started to think about what I had to share with him about what it means to be a gay man. Then, Donald Trump was elected and he brought Mike Pence with him to Washington and they are more of an imminent threat to our son than ISIS and North Korea,” the author added.

“Now, I had to warn him about what it takes to be a gay man in America and that was the impetus for the book.

For the title, I knew I wanted ‘Gay’ in big letters on the cover of the book and I said, ‘No rainbows.’ In junior high school I had read a book called ‘Black Like Me.’ Part of what I had hoped to do with this book is have straight people read it to understand us better, so I thought ‘Gay Like Me’ was fitting, it served a double purpose, my son is gay like me but doesn’t see

Brian Bromberger

Richie Jackson holds a copy of his memoir, “Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son,” at his February event at Manny’s in San Francisco.

being gay like I do.”

Last June, gay journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote an opinion article for New York magazine arguing that “a gay politics was necessary only so that we could eventually get beyond politics and live as our straight brothers and sisters do, with our sexual orientation being a nonissue in our wider lives,” urging LGBTQ people to “just get on with our lives, without our sexual orientation getting in the way,” believing this is “the sanest approach to being gay, seeing it as an integral but by no means exhaustive way of being human.”

Jackson objected to Sullivan’s stance. “When I read it, I thought, you’re doing the work of our adversaries. That’s exactly what antiLGBTQ people want us to do. They want us to diminish it. They want us to put it in a little box,” he said. “Just a few months ago, someone in my own family said to me, ‘I think it’s sad you make everything about being gay.’

What he was really saying is, ‘Make your gayness smaller, smaller, smaller’ until he’s comfortable with how gay I am. And I’m not doing that. I will not diminish myself for anyone and that is what I think Andrew is writing. He’s saying he’s going to diminish himself to assimilate. I have never wanted to be straight; I have never wanted to be anything other than what I was. I never cared whether straight people accepted me. That’s not how I spend my life. This sounds like someone who has shame.”

‘Being gay is a gift’

He believes the reason the straight world tries to diminish LGBTQ people or demean their differences is because they recognize how powerful queer folks really are.

“I think being gay is a gift,” Jackson said. “And when you are other, you get to see the world from a different point of view. We are just 4.5% of the population. That is not a defect, that’s not worthless. We have been chosen to look at, think, and experience the world differently. It’s a blessing and it’s also powerful.

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to me is because I am gay,” he added.

“My husband would not have loved me if I had scrubbed off my gayness.”

Jackson’s coming out journey is key in how he views his understanding of gay identity today.

It was 1983 and he was in high school on Long Island, New York. His mom bought tickets for them to see “Torch Song Trilogy,” featuring Fierstein.

“We didn’t have the money to buy tickets at the box office,” Jackson said.

“We never bought full price tickets, ... so I said, ‘What is it about?’ She said, ‘Homosexuality.’”

Fierstein’s character was named Arnold.

“The character Arnold, that he played, was the very first gay man I ever came in contact with and it was extraordinary to see this gay man demanding to have the life he wanted,” Jackson recalled.

And at the end of the play, the mother in the play says to Arnold, “If I knew you were going to be gay, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

“And my mother took me to dinner after this play and she said, ‘You know, if you ever came home and said you were gay, I would never react like the mother in that play,’” Jackson said. “Nobody was talking to my Long Island mother in 1983 about gay people. She had no gay friends, no gay co-workers. It was her own humanity that had her take me to a Broadway play, to use the play as a crystal ball and show me a life that could be possible for me.”

Jackson said he did not come out to her that night, but knew that when he did he would be safe.

“During my freshman year at New York University I went home for Passover and she said, ‘when are you going to tell me you’re gay?’ So, she gave me about six months leeway. The part that I wasn’t ready for is, she had not brought my father along on this knowledge and so I told her, ‘I’ll tell everybody, please don’t tell anyone else in the family.’ She immediately told my father and he did not react like she did. He said all the wrong stereotypical things: ‘Gay men are lonely and sad.’ ‘It’s just a phase.’ ‘Why did you choose this?’

“I was off kilter because I never had a fight with my parents. I was such a good kid and I had such a close relationship with them. The reason I always had believed that being gay is a gift from third grade on is because they never said a negative word about any human being in my home,” Jackson said. “What I wished I had known then was in 1983 is that my dad’s first reaction would not be his last. It was not good for several years and then I met BD, who I was in a 15-year relationship with. Then my father saw a [gay] couple at every family meal and celebration. All of a sudden his stereotypical idea of gay men was washed away because he saw a loving couple.

He saw what real gay men were like.”

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Both Jackson’s children were born through surrogacy.

“When we had Jackson [Foo] in 2000 we were pioneers, there were very few people who had done it. And paid surrogacy back in 2000 was not legal in New York and shamefully is not legal now,” Jackson said. “So we had to leave our home state to find a carrier who would carry our baby. We had embryos made from BD’s sperm and my sister donated her egg. We were expecting identical twins and they came three months premature.

One of our babies died an hour after he was born. Jackson was very, very sick and he was born in Modesto, California. He had to be airlifted to UCSF for three months.”

Jackson said that he and Wong broke up when Foo was 2. Levi, Jackson’s son with Roth, was born in Virginia.

Jackson maintains that there are unique challenges that gay parents face, calling it a marathon, not a sprint.

“We never travel without our children’s birth certificates for fear our parentage would be challenged at an airport or a hospital,” he said. “There are also the little indignities, such as when you get the notice that the school or temple is having a blood drive and Jordan and I have to say, ‘As much as we would love to participate...’”

(The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently reduced the number of months men who have sex with men have to remain celibate before donating blood from 12 to three.)

Being the gay parent of a gay son gives Jackson a unique perspective on which to advise straight parents of an LGBTQ child.

“I would say to the parents of LGBTQ kids – or if you think you have one – is you can be their first obstacle, their first trauma, or you can help raise them with good gay self-esteem,” he said.

Being gay in America

Jackson notes that in being gay in America, one is never fully at liberty to relax. One must be constantly on guard so as to keep oneself and one’s family safe.

“Every gay person has to have double vision,” he said. “In one view we keep our beautiful gayness and in the other a clear-eyed view of how America treats us. And you need to hold both those visions at the same time but do not let America’s view seep into and poison your own gay view of yourself. One of the reasons I wrote the book is because I realized our son had no gay guard – he had no knowledge that you have to always be on alert.

“I have not let my guard down in 36 years of being a gay adult,” he added.

“I always know who’s around me, who can hear me. I always am aware of where it’s safe to hold my husband’s hand and when it’s not, when it’s safe to kiss him goodbye and when it’s not.

And so, I talk to my son about having to be on guard and always be aware of your safety. Part of that is when you can come out and when you shouldn’t come out. As much as I believe I want to be out all the time and I want to make sure everybody knows I’m gay, I said to him, ‘Your safety comes first.’”

Jackson and Roth married in 2012.

Jackson maintains that it’s harder to grow up gay today than when he was growing up, despite social and political progress.

“This is the big tension between my son and I, and why I wrote the book,” he said. “I think it’s going to be harder for him than it was for me in 1983 because in 1983 all our goals of what we wanted to achieve were a pipe dream. They were our adversaries’ worst nightmare, but then we got so much of what we wanted, though not all of it.

Jackson talked about how young LGBTQ people can be out and see gay lives on social media.

“That’s why my son let me write this book,” he said. “I asked his permission and he understood immediately the benefit it could have on people. I do think that a lot of the gay male apps with the six-pack abs and everyone looks like they have tons of leisure time and muscles is unhealthy.

I do not want my child to measure himself against that. And I also talk about in the book that it’s not profile stats he should look at but character.

The dad in me wants him to meet a nice guy who treats him well, appreciates how special he is, loves all of him, and likes his own parents.”

Complacency

Jackson is not afraid to critique the current queer civil rights movement and to some extent blames the internet.

“I worry that social media is sort of lulling us into this complacency where we’re not taking to the streets, because protests have become slapping a rainbow on an Instagram post or a tweet and not really disrupting things like we did in my generation,” he observed. “We’re too complacent because the movement thinks everything is so much better than it was. I don’t think you can be gay without being angry and all the rainbows have cooled down our temperature and softened our edges. We should be in a rage how we are marginalized and at risk, we should all be in a rage that there is an epidemic of transgender people being murdered, we should be in a rage at the state-sanctioned, systematic child abuse of our LGBTQ youth.”

This criticism undergirds Jackson’s understanding of gay Pride. For him in his youth, gay Pride included angry marches with pink triangles, not rainbows.

“Pride to me is not a parade. Pride is how we live every day in order to make the young kids behind us safer to come out and join in. And Pride is for the people who can’t come out, who aren’t safe enough to come out, who live in countries they can’t be out,” Jackson said. t

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Community News>>

San Francisco

April 23-29, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Remdesivir promising for COVID-19; malaria drugs, not so much

by Liz Highleyman

R

emdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug from Gilead Sciences, has shown promise based on early results in people with severe COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. But experts caution that data from randomized studies are still needed to determine if the medication is safe and effective.

“While it is reassuring to hear reports of cohorts with good outcomes, it is impossible to interpret the impact that remdesivir is having on a group that has been treated with this drug in the absence of a control arm,” UCSF professor of medicine Dr. An-

Eric Slomanson/Courtesy End Hep C SF

Dr. Annie Leutkemeyer, shown speaking at an End Hep C event in San Francisco last fall, cautioned against reading too much into early studies of remdesivir.

nie Leutkemeyer told the Bay Area Reporter.

On April 16, the medical news site STAT leaked comments made by study investigator Dr. Kathleen Mullane of the University of Chicago during a video discussion with colleagues.

Her remarks were not intended for the public and the findings have not yet been peer-reviewed or published.

Mullane reported preliminary findings from a group of 113 people with severe COVID-19 treated with daily intravenous infusions of remdesivir as part of a late-stage clinical trial at a Chicago hospital.

Remdesivir is a nucleotide analogue, in the same drug class as the HIV medication tenofovir and the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir, both also

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Although these patients recovered quicker than expected, a majority of people with COVID-19 do recover without treatment, though this is less likely among those with severe disease.

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SF mayor taps gay man to lead housing office

by Cynthia Laird

the mayor’s team to create more housing and make an Francisco Mayor San Francisco a more afLondon Breed on Tuesfordable and equitable day named Eric D. Shaw place to live. With the curas the new director of the rent coronavirus pandemMayor’s Office of Housing ic, MOHCD’s services are and Community Developmore important than ever, ment. especially in our vulnerable Shaw, a gay man, is exCourtesy SF Mayor’s office communities.” pected to start April 27. He Eric D. Shaw According to the mayreplaces Dan Adams, who or’s office, Shaw most rehad served as acting direccently served as an adviser tor of the agency since July 2019. to California Governor Gavin NewBreed said in a news release that som’s Office of Emergency Services, Shaw would focus on affordable where he coordinated community housing development and the complanning and engagement activities munity benefits that are associated associated with recovery from the with such projects.

2018 Camp Fire. Prior to his work at “Eric has extensive experience in Cal OES, Shaw was the director of the community planning and I’m looking Office of Planning for Washington, forward to working with him to create D.C., and was director of community a more affordable and equitable San and economic development for Salt Francisco,” she stated.

Lake City. He has experience workShaw said that he’s up to the chaling in the Bay Area for Silicon Valley lenge.

Community Foundation and the San “I am honored to be selected by Jose Redevelopment Agency.

Mayor Breed to lead the Mayor’s OfShaw graduated from UCLA and fice of Housing and Community Dethe Harvard University Graduate velopment during this critical time in School of Design, according to the San Francisco’s history,” he stated. “I release. am looking forward to being part of Breed also thanked Adams for his

S

Obituaries >> Jim Campbell May 13, 1945 – April 4, 2020

Gay liberation activist and artist Jim Campbell died in New York City April 4, 2020 of complications of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Jim was born May 13, 1945 in Palmyra, New York. Jim worked with Lee Mentley, Lynn Segerblom, the late James McNamara, the late Gilbert Baker, and the Eureka/Noe Valley Artist Coalition to create the iconic and emblematic rainbow flags in 1978, Mentley wrote in an obituary. He also was a member of the legendary Cockette family, working with John Flowers to create magical sets of cardboard, paste, and glitter.

Jim attended the University of Rochester and upon graduation moved from New York to San Francisco, where he quickly became an antiVietnam war and gay liberation activist. Jim was a founder of the Gay Men’s Sketch Group, created posters and art for Castro Street’s Hula Palace salons, and was a top floor gallery artist at the 330 Grove Gay Center. Professionally, he served as clerk to California Court of Appeal Justice William Newsom, the late father of Governor Gavin Newsom.

Upon retirement Jim returned to New York to live in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, where he was a popular neighborhood figure, holding court at

Champignon Cafe. He continued his work in oil, watercolor, pen and ink, and collage and was a member of the Gay Men’s Sketch Group at the LeslieLohman Museum in Soho.

Jim continued his political activism for gay rights, most recently protesting Donald Trump on Fifth Avenue. Over the final decade of his life he was a member of Cockette Rumi Missabu’s theater troupe, performing in “The Last Days of Pompeii” at Lincoln Center, “The Witches of Salem,” and “The War” at Judson Memorial Church, and lastly, creating the set for Missabu’s “Demon Pond.”

Jim was on the steps of San Francisco City Hall the night of the Dan White riot, protesting the lenient sentence for White’s assassination of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

Borrowing words from his dear friend Robert Croonquist, “He would have liked the poetic justice that he died across from Bella Abzug Way, in the shadow of the AIDS memorial [in New York City]. He would have liked that he died in a brilliant gleaming white midcentury modern classic that was originally a hiring hall for the maritime trades. He would have liked that he left this world in a place once filled with sailors. Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’ is written on the stone pavers of the memorial, and chalk tributes to the nurses and doctors who cared for him are written on all the sidewalks surrounding Lenox Health.”

Jim is survived by his brothers, Bob and Vic Campbell.

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“I am overjoyed that Frankie is the Pride center’s new director and wish him all the best,” she wrote in an email.

Sapp swiftly got the center up and running virtually within a week.

That enabled his nine full-time and six part-time staff, including interns, along with nearly 30 volunteers, to serve clients through its therapy and case management services and various programs.

The Pride center operates on a budget of nearly $1 million and serves more than 2,000 clients annually.

Sapp declined to provide his salary.

The center is a program within StarVista, a $12 million social services organization in San Mateo County. It receives one of its major grants from San Mateo County Behavioral Recovery Services.

One of Sapp’s proudest achievements is his ability to build and nurture networks between professionals and communities to help them succeed. It’s a skill he honed at his first position as the regional director of the Southern California Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network, then known as the Gay Straight Alliance.

His most recent position was as codirector at the Ontario Harm Reduction Network in Canada.

As a result, the organizations grew and were able to help more people, he said.

Sapp is the most recent trans person to lead a Bay Area LGBT community center. In February, Kiku Johnson, a trans man of color, was hired as executive director of the Rainbow Community Center in Concord. Aejaie Sellers, a trans woman, served as executive director of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center in San Jose from 2006-2009.

Challenges

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Peninsula center

From page 1

Sapp’s success has not come easy.

Like many gender-nonconforming people, he suffered from a crippling lack of self-esteem and body-hatred for many years.

It got so bad that he wanted to take his own life, he said.

“Most of us are very aware that we are different at a very young age, but the larger society [says we are] too young to understand and be taught about it,” said Sapp, who speaks regularly about sexual orientation and gender identity. “I felt so filled with shame.

I felt the weight, like the actual weight, of the shame in my body every day.”

<<

LGBT celebrations

From page 1

Everyone’s health must be prioritized given the pandemic and uncertainty ahead, but we are already looking forward to a great Dyke March in 2021,” the statement continues.

It is unclear, as of press time, whether there will be an online component of the Dyke March this year.

The Trans March, on the other hand, has committed to an online event.

“Due to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2, which causes the disease COVID-19, Trans March 2020 will not be a physical gathering. The leadership met and has decided to make some kind of virtual event,” states a note on that event’s website.

The Trans March occurs the Friday of Pride weekend.

Nicky “Tita Aida” Calma, one of the Trans March organizers, told the B.A.R. last week that “I would be more than happy to speak with you perhaps next week once a few ideas have been talked about.”

Pink triangle

The installation of the pink triangle atop Twin Peaks on the Saturday of Pride weekend is scheduled to continue as of now, but according to cofounder Patrick Carney “it is still too early to tell if the pink triangle will happen, or even be allowed to happen.”

Typically, the installation of pink tarps requires 125 volunteers.

That lack of confidence in himself was compounded, he explained, by a “multitude of toxic managers” throughout his career who attacked him for being disabled, being a person of color, or being transgender.

A California native, Sapp was born at Travis Air Force Base to a Filipino mother and white father. Growing up in a military family, he lived in three countries and many different states and provinces. He returned to California and received his undergraduate degree in film and Asian American studies at UC Santa Barbara.

It was at UCSB that the spark for social justice that had started in high school grew into a passion, launching him into his career.

“I was very drawn to doing this work ... even when I was making videos and films, they were very centered around social justice,” he said.

It has led him to working with indigenous people, seniors, and LGBT youth, creating advocacy and leadership workshops and peer education and HIV prevention programs before moving into crisis management and harm reduction.

A majority of his career was spent in Canada. Sapp returned home to California in August 2019. He is happy to be back in the Bay Area after two decades away.

While Sapp spent his life helping others, he finally saw his own transformation when he transitioned about 12 years ago. He said that he finally felt at home in his body and his confidence grew.

“Now, I just try to role model it’s OK – it’s OK to be who you are,” said Sapp, who believes people should have positive conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity with children.

He attributes his ability to live through those darker years to the way his brain works and his personality for being “oppositional.” He takes negative experiences in life and behaves in a proactive positive way, he said.

It also shaped his management and leadership style.

“That’s why I think that I try to foster a supportive environment in my workplace as a manager ... as much as possible,” he said.

Connecting community

His team and clients at the Pride center have not experienced coronavirus-related anti-Asian racism yet, he said, but they are prepared due to ongoing conversations about race, sexuality, and gender.

The reason Carney and others started the pink triangle installation was to remind people of the time when it was used by the Nazis in concentration camps to identify and stigmatize homosexual prisoners. It has since been embraced by the LGBTQ community as a symbol of pride.

Carney pointed out that this is a milestone year for the installation.

“I haven’t decided yet regarding the 25th annual pink triangle,” Carney wrote in an April 15 email to the B.A.R. “Possibly, yes, it will happen.

There are still 10 weeks to go so conditions may later allow a small group to gather for a safe installation.

“If the 25th annual pink triangle is a ‘go,’ Ben Davis, the founder and chief visionary officer of Illuminate, has graciously come forward with an interest in lighting it,” he wrote.

The pink triangle has been lit seven times before, but as Carney noted, “this time will be truly spectacular.”

Illuminate does the lighting on the western span of the San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge.

In November 2017 Illuminate installed a “Hope Will Never Be Silent” lighted art piece on the mantel of the commercial building overlooking the plaza that bears Harvey Milk’s name above the Castro Muni station. It was part of the ceremonies that fall commemorating the 40th anniversary of Milk’s historic 1977 election as the first out gay supervisor in San Francisco and the first openly LGBT

t

“Hate has always existed in the world, but in this period of the last few years hate has been really heightened,” said Sapp.

“Why the Pride center is so important to me is that it is a safe space for so many people,” he continued.

“We’ve got to keep it that way.”

He and his team are concerned about the impact self-isolation during the pandemic is having on the Peninsula’s LGBT community.

But the pandemic is not about isolation or social distancing, argued Sapp.

“It’s about physical distancing while making a social connection,” he explained. “That’s what we are really trying to do when we are being virtual at the Pride center.”

The center is providing customized counseling sessions by phone or video conferencing, depending on the client’s comfort level. It has virtual movie nights. The staff continue to connect weekly during video conferences and soon Sapp hopes to have the center’s trainings available online too.

While the center is currently operating virtually, Sapp does have his eyes on returning to the physical space once the threat has passed and stayat-home orders are lifted.

He sees many of the virtual aspects remaining in place following the global public health crisis.

His original goals to grow the center’s offerings might have to be temporarily put on hold as the world recovers from the economic impact of the pandemic.

“I don’t know how my vision has changed since the pandemic,” he said, speaking candidly about not having time to adjust his original vision leading the organization.

At the moment, he is focused on keeping the doors open virtually and, eventually, the staff’s return to the center.

Sapp misses the in-person interactions with the center’s staff and clients despite being used to working remotely due to his disabilities, he said.

“I miss the texture of in-person meetings. I miss the energy that you get from connecting in person,” he said. “That has been the biggest challenge for me.”

Sapp looks forward to returning to some sense of normalcy going into the center with his dog, Avery, bringing in his baked goods to share with the staff and clients, and simply being together. t For more information, visit https:// sanmateopride.org.

elected official in California.

(As the B.A.R. previously reported, Illuminate’s plan for a similar art piece on the bandstand in Golden Gate Park was rejected by the city’s historic preservation commission. However, the city’s Park and Recreation Commission threw its support behind the lighted art piece and asked the historic preservation panel to reconsider. It has yet to do so. The “Hope” quote is widely attributed to Milk, though it is unclear when he first said it.)

“The conversation is still early and they are investigating so a decision can be made regarding lighting in the next week or so but we have had several Zoom calls to discuss it and brainstorm,” Carney wrote. “I remain optimistic and am applying for the necessary permit today to have just in case everything comes together. Even without the parade, a gigantic pink triangle on Twin Peaks sends an uplifting message.”

Summer, fall events in question

The AIDS Walk announced April 21 it is moving to a virtual format.

“We had an honest conversation about the problem of whether the COVID-19 situation would be different than it is right now and whether individuals would want to come together so soon after being in the midst of COVID-19 – gathering 10,000 See page 9 >>

t <<

Community News>>

NCLR

From page 1

phonically,” noted Rupert-Gordon.

“All the work we are doing is still obviously going on.”

Despite being unable to leave their home other than to run errands for food and supplies or get out for a bit of exercise, Rupert-Gordon said she and her wife are happy to be living again in California. The women, married five years, initially met a decade ago in the Bay Area when Imani Rupert-Gordon was living in Santa Cruz and Derah was in San Francisco.

“It is great to be back in the Bay Area,” said Imani Rupert-Gordon, who grew up in Southern California and whose straight sister, Maya Rupert, formerly was a policy director at NCLR.

<<

Remdesivir

From page 7

“Even without a control, if those results hold up, that’s awfully promising,” Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF, tweeted after seeing the findings.

Earlier this month, the New England Journal of Medicine published outcomes from Gilead’s compassionate use program, which provides remdesivir to people with advanced disease outside of formal trials. This analysis included 53 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 30 of whom were on mechanical ventilators. They were treated with IV remdesivir for 10 days.

More than two-thirds of the treated patients needed less oxygen support, including 17 who were able to come off ventilators. Everyone who was taken off a ventilator survived.

Nearly half were discharged from the hospital, but seven died. The treatment was generally safe, though some patients developed elevated liver enzymes.

<<

LGBT celebrations

From page 8

people in Golden Gate Park on a Sunday would normally be good,” Brett Andrews, a gay man who is CEO of PRC, which co-produces the walk, said in a phone call with the B.A.R. April 21. “As a health and human services organization, keeping people safe is our priority.”

The virtual AIDS Walk will be streamed in collaboration with YouTube and KGO-TV among other outlets from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday, July 19. People will be able to participate entirely in their own residences.

Andrews said there will be other AIDS Walk online events, such as a nonprofit night (which has not as yet been scheduled) as well as a kick-off night at 5 p.m. May 28.

As for what a virtual walkathon

April 23-29, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Reaching out

staff the morning of April 9 when they learned that celebrated lesbian rights pioneer Phyllis Lyon had passed away at the age of 95. Lyon and her late partner, Del Martin, had a long history with the agency and were the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit NCLR filed to secure marriage rights for same-sex couples in California.

Their June 2008 victory in the case was followed that fall by the voter approved Proposition 8 that once again banned marriage equality in the state. It led to NCLR’s involvement in the successful federal lawsuit that resulted in the overturning of Prop 8 in June 2013.

“That was an incredibly sad day and sad time; we were all reeling from that. She is an icon in our movement,” Rupert-Gordon said of Lyon. “NCLR has a huge affinity for her. The work we did together was literally life changing.”

The agency is now deciding how to honor Lyon and Martin at its up-

coming annual gala set for May 30.

The event, like so many fundraisers for LGBT groups, is being reimagined this year due to the health crisis.

NCLR now plans to livestream its 43rd Anniversary Celebration that Saturday and is also planning to hold “the most epic dance party ever” November 21 at the Metreon City View.

“A lot of people are saying no to postponing things. Our supporters have been appreciative that we are being creative and finding new ways to engage folks,” Rupert-Gordon said about reaction to the decision to split the yearly fundraising dinner and dance party into two events. “This is a really popular event and something we look forward to. Overwhelmingly people are happy we are finding a way to reimagine how this works and we can all celebrate together. So that is really exciting.”

The agency, with an annual budget of $5 million, isn’t looking at furlough-

ing any staff in light of the current crisis, said Rupert-Gordon, whose salary is in the range of $225,000 to $250,000.

It came close to meeting a $100,000 matching donation challenge within the deadline to do so Monday, April 20.

“We are very fortunate our community has really looked out for us and come through for us,” she said. “We are trying to be as thoughtful as we can.

We are doing a deep dive into ways we can use our funds most efficiently.”

Among NCLR’s top priorities is ensuring LGBT people impacted by the coronavirus outbreak are not left out of the relief efforts at the local, state, and federal levels. Rupert-Gordon sounded optimistic that the LGBT community will rise to the challenge it’s confronting from the health crisis.

“I am feeling very confident our community is going to get through this,” she said. t

Gilead urged caution about interpreting these observational findings.

“We understand the urgent need for a COVID-19 treatment and the resulting interest in data on our investigational antiviral drug remdesivir,” the company said in a statement. “Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19.”

Just as antiretrovirals for HIV work best when used early, before the virus causes severe immune system damage, remdesivir may be more effective if given before severe lung damage occurs.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced this week that early treatment with remdesivir, compared with a placebo, significantly reduced breathing difficulty, virus levels in the lungs and lung damage in monkeys infected with the new coronavirus.

Gilead chairman and CEO Daniel O’Day said that results from a study of people with severe COVID-19 will be available at the end of April, with results from a randomized trial of patients with moderate disease following in May.

In contrast, studies of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), two inexpensive medications long used to treat malaria, have yielded mixed but largely disappointing results.

These medications became the subject of political controversy after President Donald Trump touted chloroquine and a combination regimen of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin on Twitter and at his daily COVID-19 media briefings.

Although Trump suggested the treatments could be a “game changer,” NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci countered that controlled clinical tri-

als – not just anecdotal reports – are still needed to determine the drugs’ safety and effectiveness.

An early study in China suggested that COVID-19 patients treated with chloroquine fared better than untreated people, and the drug went viral when Tesla founder Elon Musk and others tweeted about previous research. A small French study of 26 patients with asymptomatic or moderate disease found that a majority were cured after receiving hydroxychloroquine alone or with azithromycin, but some worsened despite treatment and there was no untreated control group for comparison.

In the absence of proven alternatives, some hospitals in the United States are already treating severely ill patients with these medications while randomized clinical trials are underway.

But a growing body of evidence suggests this approach is not very effective and may be harmful, as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine

can cause serious side effects. A small study in Brazil was recently halted after it became apparent that people treated with high doses of hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin were at higher risk for potentially fatal heart rhythm abnormalities.

The most recent study, available as a preprint but not yet peer reviewed, looked at 368 COVID-19 patients treated at Veterans Health Administration medical centers nationwide.

The researchers “found no evidence” that hydroxychloroquine alone or with azithromycin reduced the need for a ventilator or the likelihood of death. In fact, those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone were more likely to die than untreated patients.

What’s more, a group of rheumatologists who use hydroxychloroquine to treat people with rheumatoid arthritis or lupus recently reported that nearly 200 such patients who used the drug have developed COVID-19, showing that it does not prevent the disease. t

would look like more specifically, Andrews said those discussions are currently taking place but he does “not yet” know.

“It was a difficult decision. We’re still planning the bells and whistles. We’re planning a series of livestream engagement activities,” Andrews said. “Every challenge creates an opportunity.”

That said, Andrews stressed that the AIDS Walk website will be working the same as in the past – individuals and teams will be free to register and sponsors are encouraged to continue donations.

Angel Adeyoha, the interim executive director of Folsom Street Events, told the B.A.R. early April 21 that a decision’s coming Monday, April 27, about the Up Your Alley street fair (also known as Dore Alley) that occurs annually in July and the Folsom Street Fair annually in September.

A representative of Silicon Valley Pride, which is scheduled for late August in downtown San Jose, told the B.A.R. April 20 that the organization that produces that event would have a statement the following day but did not provide any information at that time.

“At this moment, we are monitoring this situation and we are evaluating the need to postpone or to cancel future events leading up to and including our 45th annual Pride Parade and Festival 2020,” the statement reads. “We will keep everyone posted.”

A representative of Oakland Pride, which is scheduled for September 13, said that a decision won’t be made until later in the year.

“Our team is monitoring the situation here in the Bay Area and the progress of our elected and health officials. We remain hopeful that we will be able to bring our LGBTQ

community a great Oakland Pride 2020 and will ensure that Oakland Pride remains a healthy, safe, and community-driven event,” Oakland Pride co-chair Carlos Uribe wrote to the B.A.R. in an April 21 email. “Currently, our board and staff are working toward that goal and we do not currently anticipate cancelling this year’s event. If that decision has to be made, we will make that closer to September, in consideration of our community’s needs and guidelines from local, state, and federal health officials.”

As the B.A.R. previously reported, Oakland Pride lost its longtime office space earlier this year when San Francisco-based real estate firm Ellis Partners closed it to make room for tech office space.

Oakland Pride was in talks with City of Refuge Church in Oakland about the possibility of obtaining of-

fice space there, Uribe told the B.A.R. in February.

Uribe said April 21 that the organization may move there “once (shelterin-place) restrictions are eased.” Oakland Pride was recently able to obtain office space at East Bay for Everyone in downtown Oakland, near Lake Merritt.

Jenn Meyer, a straight ally who is the president of the board of directors for the Castro Street Fair, which annually occurs in October, wrote in an email to the B.A.R. April 22 that they would make a decision a couple of months out.

“We are currently waiting until around mid-July to evaluate the landscape but will of course abide by any public health directives that are released before then,” Meyer stated. t

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the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/31/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/08/20.

To reach NCLR supporters and LGBT community members directly Rupert-Gordon released a video message March 30 that she recorded inside her East Bay house. In it she alerted people to a FAQ sheet the agency had created about different resources available to LGBT individuals impacted by the health crisis and to let them know that the agency was continuing to fight for their rights. She urged people to call NCLR’s legal help line if they were encountering problems.

“For a lot of reasons our community is feeling really alone right now.

I wanted to let people know we are still doing our work at NCLR and thinking about folks,” she said about her reasoning for taping the video. “I wanted people to know we are concerned about them and want to know if they are doing well.”

More unsettling news hit NCLR’s

Safety issues seen in malaria drugs

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Comic bites & family fun What We Do in the Shadows

by Victoria A. Brownworth

F

X is one of our favorite networks. Partnering with Hulu, the network has some of the queerest (Pose) and edgiest (American Horror Story) series on the tube.

What We Do in the Shadows is both. Set in Staten Island, What We Do in the Shadows follows the lives of three traditional vampires in a mockumentary format.

Nandor (Kayvan Novak) is a centuries-old gay vampire who is the self-

styled leader of the vampire clan. Laszlo (Matt Berry) is a British vampire married to Nadja (Natasia Demitriou), a Romani vampire. Both are bisexual. Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) is an energy vampire and Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) is Nandor’s familiar. The series revolves around the vampires adapting to the modern world with the help of Guillermo and, occasionally, Colin Robinson.

What We Do in the Shadows is quirky, clever, hilarious, surprising, sexy, queer AF and at times, quite horrifying. Season 2 debuted April 16.t

More online

Visit www.ebar.com for Brownworth’s take on Sandra Oh’s Sapphic sleuth-fest Killing Eve, Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) and her takedown of fake doctors, and gay dads in PBS Kids.

The Half of It promotional still

The whole story ‘The Half of It’ writer-director Alice Wu

by Gregg Shapiro

Y

ears after her festival hit Saving Face, writer-director Alice Wu discusses her second movie, The Half of It. A queer 21st-century take on Cyrano de Bergerac, debuting on Netflix on May 1, Wu’s teen rom-com introduces extremely bright student Ellie (Leah Lewis), who makes bank writing term papers for her classmates, and is enlisted to write love letters from Paul (Daniel Diemer) to Aster (Alexxis Lemire).

The problem is that Ellie is also in love. To say more would give away an essential plot point, but it’s well worth watching the movie to see how it unfolds. Alice Wu discussed her life and movies in advance of the movie’s Netflix premiere.

GS: The movie world has changed considerably since Saving Face. For example, The Half of It is having its premiere on the popular streaming service Netflix. What does such a change means to you as a filmmaker?

AW: When I first sent out The Half of It, Hollywood hadn’t “discovered” diversity in such a big way yet. I assumed it would be like Saving

Face and take years to get made. But within a the kicker is, they actually surprised me a few few months, surprisingly, I had a few financmonths ago with theatrical release plans! With ing possibilities. One was Netflix, the other two the coronavirus situation shutting down all thewould have meant specialty theatrical. I’m old aters, that is obviously no longer in the works, school; my first film was shot on but honestly, I was just so thrilled 35mm. So, I very much leaned tothat they were willing to back a ward theatrical. film without name-cast or a bigPlus, at that time, the general name director. consensus was that having a theatrical release was always more GS: The Plato quote and cachet for a filmmaker. But the the drawings related to Plato’s thing is, I wrote a film that I seSymposium used in the movie cretly hoped would find in-roads made me think about “The Oriin more conservative commugin of Love” from Hedwig and nities. It’s why I set it in a small the Angry Inch. Why do you rural town. And while I go to the think this theme about which theater religiously, that’s not the Plato wrote has found a place in case for most people anymore. queer culture?

So, if my goal is to affect the culAW: I originally chose the Symtural conversation, the best game Writer-Director posium because of it being such Alice Wu in town was Netflix. an origin story for this notion of But since I made that decision, finding your ‘other half.’ But in the world has shifted again. So the animation, I also wanted to be many filmmakers I admire have since released careful to keep the ‘original whole human’ nonincredible films on Netflix (Roma). And I will binary gendered. It isn’t male or female. This isn’t say, Netflix has been an incredible creative partabout a male half searching for a female half, or ner. I found them wonderfully supportive. And even a female half searching for a female half.

There is something about being able to keep that story from being purely heterosexist, which is appealing and very queer.

GS: The Half of It features a cast of young actors. What was the experience like for you to work with them?

AW: I love those kids so much. I wanted to cast fresh faces so that we might have a chance at believing these kids exist. So, my poor casting directors probably had me read 500-600 people per role. I feel so strongly about the people we chose.

In terms of the experience, I spent a lot of time with each of them talking about the physical and emotional lives of the characters. The time between a director and actor before you shoot is pretty sacred. It’s when your actors either decide to trust you, or they feel like they need to protect themselves and their work. I try really hard to earn that trust.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com https://www.netflix.com/title/81005150

t

Music/Opera/Leather/Books >>

April 23-29, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Operas offstage, online

Linda Lavin offers ‘Love Notes’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

hough she is a Tony-winning Broadway star, with numerous nominations for a variety of awards in non-musical performances, music has always been in Linda Lavin’s blood. She has appeared in cabaret in both New York and San Francisco.

Lavin spoke to the Bay Area Reporter from her home in New York City, where she is in good health and good spirits amid the Covid-19 crisis.

“Today I am fine,” she said, “Which is all we have. A day at a time is the active reality here, but I am well today. I am safe at home and I’ve walked my little dog. I’m in the epicenter, and I’m really grateful. When I get fearful, I remember gratitude for the roof over my head and the hot running water and electricity and enough money to buy the food that I need and water for me and my little dog.”

Unable to take her act on the road due to the pandemic, Lavin has been performing a series of concerts on Facebook Live with

legendary pianist Billy Stritch, who performs with her on the CD. The concerts have been archived on Stritch’s Facebook page.

“It’s what I can do,” she said. “Music really connects us from our hearts and we’re so much in our heads right now, our fear, and we need to get to our feelings, and into our spiritual life at this time.”

In the middle of all this, her album was released. Unable to put together a record release party because of the need to shelter in place, Lavin said that she’s gotten a tremendous response to the Facebook Live concerts.

“People have responded with such gratitude,” she said. “It encourages us to do it again. Otherwise I wouldn’t have, because it’s not about being a show business celebrity, it’s about giving service in some way in the way that I can give service best and that is to share what I love doing; to share my music.”t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com

San Jose Opera’s Idomeneo: ré di Creta, viewable online.

by Philip Campbell

T

he other shoe dropped last week as the San Francisco Opera joined the growing list of music institutions cancelling the rest of their spring and summer seasons. General Director Matthew Shilvock announced the “heartbreaking decision,” made after an April 10 board meeting and weeks of consultation, following SF Mayor London Breed’s initial shelter-in-place order March 16.

The Company intends paying full compensation and benefits for employees through the current May 3 shelter-in-place period. Continuing negotiations will focus on the effect of cancellations on the lives of artists, crew and staff and an uncertain future.

Cancellations of Pride Night at the Opera and SF Pride 2020 prevent public celebration with SFO staff, but San Francisco is still an opera town and where there’s a will there’s a way.

In a typical act of civic commitment, the company recently donated a supply of inhouse PPE to UCSF’s Mt. Zion campus. N95 masks, suits, gloves, and disinfectants, ordinarily used to insure the safety of musicians and stage workers are out of storage and onto the crisis frontline.

Spiritual aid comes with the launch of Opera is ON. The evolving initiative online includes new and historical material, viewable at https://sfopera.com/opera-is-on More Bay Area organizations offer opera performances online for listeners, feeling early pains of withdrawal. We can gorge on carbs and grand opera in the privacy of our own homes as Opera San Jose streams its 2011 production of Mozart’s majestic Idomeneo, on the company’s official website through May 18, 2020. www.operasj.orgt

Read the full version of this article on www.ebar.com

Best Actress Max Woltman

Julian Wolf

Playing with gender

by Race Bannon

B

ending and manipulating gender is not historically in my sexual wheelhouse. So, I put out a call to some friends and acquaintances asking if anyone would be willing to share their experiences playing with gender expression as part of their erotic lives. The response was overwhelming.

Immediately people came out of the woodwork to share with me and answer

questions. I received so many volunteers that I told most of them I’d likely have to use their stories and feedback in the future because the volume was just too large to encapsulate in the confines of a single article.t

Read Race’s column, with quotes from Tober Brandt, KL Joy, Julian A. Wolf and a take on Sam Smith and Demi Lovato’s gender-queer music video, “I’m Ready.” online at www.ebar.com

Jane Fonda on the set of Klute, for which she won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Actress. Inset: Cover of Best Actress

S

tephen Tapert’s Best Actress: The History of Oscar-Winning Women (2020, Rutgers University Press, 504 pages) is a coffee table reference book featuring the seventy-five Best Actress Academy Award winners from Janet Gaynor in 1927 to Emma Stone in 2016.

A ravishing Sophia Loren graces the cover, and the book is arranged chronologically by the first Oscar bestowed on each actress (thirteen women have won twice, while Katharine Hepburn won a whopping four).t

Read the review by Matthew Kennedy on www.ebar.com

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