April 25, 2024 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Foundations lag in giving to LGBTQ causes

by Matthew S. Bajko

LGBTQ issues in recent years have increasingly become a political flashpoint in school districts and statehouses across the country. Marriage equality is even making a return to the California ballot this November, 16 years after Golden State voters banned samesex marriage via a ballot measure later overturned by federal courts but whose language remains embedded in the state constitution.

Yet, over the last decade, giving by the country’s philanthropic foundations to LGBTQ causes has remained wanting. Reports have documented a spike in the amount of funds going toward LGBTQ nonprofits since 2015, but the starting point was so low that the figures can paint a misleading picture, contend philanthropic leaders from the LGBTQ community.

In 2021, for instance, foundational giving to LGBTQ causes reached $251 million, according to the most recent LGBTQ grantmaking by U.S. foundations tracking report released by Funders for LGBTQ Issues. But it represented just 0.13% of total charitable support doled out that year.

“It is an unbelievably small number. It speaks volumes to how relatively underfunded we are,” said Roger Doughty, a gay man who is president of Horizons Foundation, the LGBTQ philanthropic organization that supports Bay Area nonprofits and service providers.

The one positive, noted Doughty, is the trajectory in foundational giving to LGBTQ causes has been trending upward. Between 2015 and 2019 it grew by 46%.

“At least it is going up, not down,” he told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent interview.

Katie Carter, who is queer and CEO of the Pride Foundation (https://pridefoundation. org/) that supports LGBTQ groups throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, agreed with Doughty that the rising trend lines, while heartening to see, can give a false impression about the state of foundational giving. As the tracking report noted, for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations in 2021, only 28 cents specifically supported LGBTQ communities and issues.

Castro Theatre blade gets makeover

Another Planet Entertainment has begun renovation of the neon blade and marquee for the Castro Theatre. Workers erected scaffolding outside the historic movie palace in mid-April. Asked how long restoration of the lighted signage will take, gay spokesperson David Perry told the Bay

Area Reporter April 19 that it was “hard to tell at this stage. Once it’s all up and a thorough investigation takes place, we’ll have a better idea.”

For now, one of the most iconic sites in San Francisco – and a beacon for the LGBTQ community globally – is going to look a bit different.

by Christopher Kane, Washington Blade

NCA judge agrees with Bonta that ballot measure attacks rights of transgender youth

by John Ferrannini

Ajudge has sided with the state of California in the matter of a conservative group that sued over the title and summary Attorney General Rob Bonta assigned to its ballot measure that would strip rights from transgender minors.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Protect Kids California is gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would ban trans minors from receiving gender-affirming care; ban trans girls from female competitive sports, locker rooms and bathrooms; and require public schools to disclose students’ gender identities to parents if they say they are different than their sex at birth.

Protect Kids California has until May 28 to collect some 550,000 valid signatures in order to place the measure before state voters on the November 5 ballot. Most LGBTQ leaders doubt they will be successful in reaching that threshold.

In preparing a ballot title and summary for the measure, Bonta titled it “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” It prompted the Liberty Justice Center to file a lawsuit February 13 in Sacramento County Superior Court on behalf of Protect Kids California that alleged Bonta’s personal beliefs led to a biased title and summary. Therefore, the center contended the ballot measure proponents should be given 180 additional days for signature gathering without discounting signatures already collected.

“Respondent [Bonta] has demonstrated that he personally, and in his official capacity, is opposed to any kind of notification by a public school to a parent or guardian that his or her child is exhibiting signs of gender dysphoria when the child asks the school to publicly treat him or her as the opposite sex with a new name or pronouns, and to allow the child to use the sex-segregated facilities of the opposite sex,” claimed the groups in their lawsuit.

But a Sacramento Superior Court judge sided with Bonta in a ruling that was first issued tentatively April 19 and was made final April 22. Judge Stephen Acquisto ruled that Bonta’s title and summary are accurate.

“Under current law, minor students have express statutory rights with respect to their gender identity,” Acquisto stated. “A substantial portion of the proposed measure is dedicated to eliminating or restricting these statutory rights. … The proposed measure would eliminate express statutory rights and place a condition of parental consent on accommodations that are currently available without such condition.

“The proposed measure objectively ‘restricts rights’ of transgender youth by preventing the exercise of their existing rights. ‘Restricts rights of transgender youth’ is an accurate and impartial description of the proposed measure,” Acquisto added.

The attorney general’s office has some leeway when it comes to determining ballot titles, the judge noted.

Bonta is “afforded ‘considerable latitude’ in preparing a title and summary,” Acquisto ruled.

He found, “The court’s task is not to decide what language best captures the essence of the proposed measure, but to decide whether the language chosen by the Attorney General is ‘untrue, misleading, or argumentative.’ The Court finds that the Attorney

California Attorney General Rob Bonta Courtesy AG’s office

Horizons Foundation President Roger Doughty Courtesy Horizons Foundation

John Ferrannini

“Spoiler alert! Nothing dramatically has changed. It didn’t go from 28 cents to $25. It has been pennies to a hundred dollars for years,” said Carter, who recently joined the board of directors for the LGBTQ funders advocacy group. “Despite incredible efforts to bring more foundations into this space of funding LGBTQ services, it has not done much to actually shift their funding toward queer and trans communities.”

The top funder of LGBTQ causes three years ago was Gilead Sciences Inc., which gave $53.3 million according to the report. It also topped the funders list in 2019 and 2020, according to the combined report for those years.

The Bay Area-based company increased its giving by $23.6 million over that three-year time frame. The maker of various HIV medications has touted for months its support of local LGBTQ nonprofits in a series of televisions ads.

“The number of foundations who appear to be stepping up their giving in significant ways is very small,” noted Doughty.

Coming in second place for LGBTQ funders in 2021 was the Ford Foundation, which gave out $37.1 million. It was more than double what it had awarded in 2020 when it moved up from being in third in 2019 when it awarded $8.3 million.

The California Foundation came in third in the report for 2021 with $16.2 million in LGBTQ funds. It marked the first time it had made the list of top 10 funders.

The Wellspring Philanthropic Fund’s allotment of $12.5 million placed it in fourth. Close behind in fifth place was the Gill Foundation, which awarded $12.2 million.

The remaining five funders gave between $9.8 million and $5.3 million to LGBTQ causes in 2021, per the report. Horizons Foundation, which awarded $4.8 million that year, came in 12th on the list.

The Pride Foundation was in 15th place due to its granting $3.3 million. It was a marked increase from its usual giving of more than $2 million due to the impacts agencies were feeling from the COVID crisis.

“We tripled our grant making. We found new resources and moved as much as we could as fast as we could,” recalled Carter, whose foundation in late 2020 received $3 million from MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “We didn’t want to see organizations closing who had cash flow issues.”

Foundational giving is largely concentrated in a handful of states, with LGBTQ awardees in California and New York receiving the bulk of the funding. Some other concerning trends contained in the most recent funders report found LGBTQ giving is “increasingly top-heavy,” with the top 10 funders accounting for over 60% of the funding. The top 20 funders accounted for more than 70%, according to the report.

“It would be better to have a balance and more in the middle,” said Doughty. “If you take out one of the top funders there is a gap. I wish it was different but not a lot of foundations are breaking down the door trying to make LGBTQ issues a priority.”

Trans donations remain low

Giving targeted to trans communities remains low, despite the rights of trans individuals, especially youth, being targeted by a tsunami of anti-trans bills in legislatures across the country. Less than 4 cents

per $100 in foundational giving went toward trans causes, according to the most recent tracking report.

“There is chronic underfunding in our communities and it has been the case for decades,” said Carter, whose foundation is based in Seattle, Washington. “Following the marriage equality campaign’s monumental win, an incredible amount of money left the movement at that time.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage was a federal right in 2015, however, conservative groups and politicians have turned toward attacking not only trans people but also drag queens and venues that host drag events, especially public libraries that hold drag story hours. They have also banned LGBTQ-themed books from library shelves and restricted teachers from discussing LGBTQ topics in their classrooms.

“There has been an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation at a time when money for our movement has not really been changing a lot,” noted Carter.

In the region her foundation focuses on, it is one of the biggest funders of LGBTQ causes. It plans to award $2 million in grants this year.

“We are proud of that. It is a huge number for us,” said Carter. “We are talking about hundreds of organizations who need resources more than we have possible.”

When it comes to individual giving to LGBTQ causes, there is not as much data compared to foundational and governmental support, noted Carter. It is known that organiza -

tions in urban areas have a larger pool of donors to tap into than their more rural counterparts.

“We know a lot of it is contingent on where you live,” said Carter.

Reports done by Giving USA for 2022 and 2023 found a 13% drop off in all types of giving, “which is a lot,” said Doughty. The reports don’t break down the data by LGBTQ funding.

“Inflation was probably a part of it because people are feeling pinched,” he noted. “As large as 13% sounds, there are mitigating factors. It is not panic button time.”

Studies of high-net-worth philanthropy conducted by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy in partnership with U.S. Trust found that 6.5% of donors in 2020 said they gave to LGBTQ causes or organizations. It was up from the 4.8% of respondents who had done so in 2016.

Last May, using funding from Google.org as part of the Equitable Giving Lab, the school debuted its LGBTQ+ Index to better track charitable giving in the U.S. to LGBTQ organizations. It includes a searchable database with information on hundreds of LGBTQ agencies from across the country.

“Individual donors and institutional funders can use the research to identify gaps in existing resources and to tailor their giving based on the distinct characteristics of LGBTQ+ organizations,” noted a report about the project, whose advisory council included both Carter and Doughty.

Kicking off next Wednesday, May 1, is Give OUT Day, now an annual monthlong campaign aimed at boosting donations from individuals and other sources to LGBTQ nonprofits. Horizons Foundation oversees the yearly effort, which raised $1.2 million in 2023.

As of 2023, Horizons’ LGBTQ Community Endowment Fund had grown to $16.8 million, an increase of 65% since 2018. A major source of funding that Horizons receives comes from bequests and planned giving in people’s wills. It has pledges totaling $145 million from such giving and aims to reach $250 million by 2026.

“That is our community’s future,” said Doughty, whose foundation awards at least 80% of the money it annually receives back into supporting the Bay Area LGBTQ community. “We can secure our community’s future, though it won’t solve everything.”

In its fiscal year ending last June 30, Horizons’ operating expenses were nearly $10 million with a staff of 12 people. It reported awarding 92% of those funds towards grants and programs.

Nationally, unlike with giving in other communities where the bulk of the funds pay for direct services and support artistic endeavors, more than half of the money given to LGBTQ causes is dedicated for civil rights advocacy, noted Doughty. It means there are fewer resources for direct services within the LGBTQ community.

This chart shows sources of LGBTQ funding by funder type in 2021. Courtesy Funders for LGBTQ Issues

Briefs filed in appeal of bakery case ruling

by John Ferrannini

ABay Area legal group was one of several organizations that filed amicus briefs in support of the state’s appeal of a lower court decision that a Bakersfield bakery has a right not to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple.

In the case of California Civil Rights Department v. Tastries, attorneys for Catherine Miller of Cathy’s Creations, a Bakersfield-based bakery doing business as Tastries, argued that she had a right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution not to make the cake for a same-sex couple back in 2017 due to her Baptist beliefs, according to a brief filed with the California Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District in January.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area filed its brief April 11.

“Tastries’ refusal to sell a blank, white cake base to a lesbian couple based on their sexual orientation is unequivocally illegal,” Nisha Kashyap, a racial justice program director with the committee, told the Bay Area Reporter. “The trial court’s decision permitting this discrimination opens the door to discrimination by all types of businesses and threatens the civil rights of millions of Californians, including members of the LGBTQ community, interracial couples, people of color, and immigrants. We were proud to file an amicus brief, urging the Court of Appeal to correct this erroneous decision.”

Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, also spoke out in a statement to the B.A.R.

“Religious freedoms should not be a license to discriminate,” stated Jorge Reyes Salinas, EQCA’s communications director. “Unfortunately, the owners of Tastries Bakery are not part of the more than two-thirds of Americans who oppose permitting businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ+ people on religious

grounds. LGBTQ+ people are family members, co-workers, business owners, classmates, and customers in every community across California.

“We know the vast majority of business owners believe in treating all their customers with dignity and respect, and we call on all fair-minded business owners to condemn discrimination and stand on the side of equality,” Salinas added.

Cake controversy

The case is reminiscent of another that garnered national headlines, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in which the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled 7-2 in favor of a baker who would not bake a cake for a same-sex couple due to his religious beliefs. The court found that a Colorado commission was biased against baker Jack Phillips’ religious beliefs – thus avoiding the broader ques

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tions about anti-discrimination laws and the First Amendment, which have become increasingly salient as LGBTQ people have gained legal protections.

The imbroglio at Tastries started seven years ago when a mixed-sex group, including lesbian couple Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio, came to the shop for a scheduled tasting, Miller’s brief states.

“Upon their arrival, Miller believed these five were the bride and groom along with the maid of honor, the best man, and a mother,” Miller’s brief stated. When she realized “a few minutes into the consultation” that this was a request for a same-sex wedding cake, Miller “explained that she could not make their wedding cake because doing so would violate her Christian beliefs. Miller offered to connect them with a different custom wedding cake designer.”

The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (now the California Civil Rights Department) opened an investigation into Miller in October 2017 after the same-sex couple filed a formal complaint, the brief states.

In 2018, the civil rights department determined Miller had violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Civil Code Section 51, which states businesses in the Golden State can’t discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation, and filed a lawsuit against Tastries.

(The Unruh act was named for the late Jesse M. Unruh, the once-powerful state Assembly speaker who authored it in 1959. Sexual orientation was added in 2005.)

In 2022, however, Kern County Superior Court Judge J. Eric Bradshaw entered a judgment in Miller’s favor.

“The court found that Miller’s religious beliefs about marriage were sincere, and that her only motivation at all times was to ‘observe and practice her own Christian faith,’ and that ‘the design

standards apply uniformly to all persons, regardless of sexual orientation,’” Miller’s brief stated. “Even assuming that Miller’s conduct violated the Act, the Free Speech Clause of the United States Constitution did not allow the Department to compel Miller to create custom cakes for same-sex weddings.”

Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio could not be reached for comment.

In 2022, Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio told USA Today that she and her wife expected the state to appeal.“Of course we’re disappointed, but not surprised,” she told the paper. “We anticipate that our appeal will have a different result.”

In October 2023, the state appealed the decision to the appellate court, where the matter is pending.

“In California, we refuse to stand down and let others roll back the clock on fundamental civil rights protections,” stated Mary Wheat, the Civil Rights Department’s chief deputy director, in a news release at that time. “Every couple deserves to celebrate and mark their special occasions without fear of discrimination. Refusal to provide equal access to goods and services is against the law.

“I encourage all Californians who believe their civil rights have been violated to reach out to our office and work with us in fighting for your rights,” Wheat added.

In its appellate brief, the state alleges that the cake in question is “a plain, predesigned cake used interchangeably by the bakery for a variety of celebrations, from birthday parties to baby showers.”

“By operation, Tastries’s Design Standards expressly treat one class of individuals – heterosexuals – differently from other non-heterosexual classes,” the state’s brief stated. “The Design Standards specifically state that Tastries will only provide a cake for a wedding between a man and a woman. Thus, gay or lesbian couples, whose marriages are same-sex oriented, are denied the opportunity to purchase a Tastries cake

to celebrate their marriage – one that is made freely available to couples of a heterosexual (i.e., a couple formed by combining a man and woman) orientation. When Tastries realizes a couple is not heterosexual and having a wedding, it purposefully refuses to provide a cake on that basis alone.”

Amicus briefs

The Bay Area lawyer’s committee’s brief begins that “the trial court’s decision not only legitimizes Tastries’ open and deliberate discrimination ... but threatens to undo decades of progress in protecting the civil rights of marginalized groups. The ruling opens the door for businesses to wantonly discriminate against individuals based on their sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, and disabilities – all under the guise of religious freedom and free expression.”

It does this in three ways, the brief alleges: first, it “creates an exception for discriminatory conduct based on religious beliefs.”

“Applying the trial court’s logic, a business could explicitly discriminate against anyone based on a protected characteristic – so long as its proprietor alleges a sincere religious objection to treating that individual the same as others,” the brief states. “Unchecked, this exception would eviscerate the Unruh Act’s protections.”

The second way is that by excusing Miller referring the couple to an LGBTQ-friendly baker, the court “condone[s] a return to the Jim Crow ‘separate but equal’ era,” the lawyer’s committee brief states.

Finally, “the trial court’s conclusion that requiring Tastries to make a blank cake for a same-sex wedding would violate Catherine Miller’s First Amendment free speech rights departs from well-established precedent.”

The state of California is appealing a lower court decision that Catherine Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, can deny making wedding cakes for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs.

AP/Henry Barrios

New Title IX rule will help trans students

The U.S. Department of Education last week issued its final rule governing schools’ obligations to guarantee all students, including survivors of sexual harassment, LGBTQ students, and pregnant and parenting students, have full and equal access to educational opportunities regardless of sex. Title IX is the federal civil rights law that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments in 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or education program that receives federal funding. Key to the new rule is the Biden administration’s view that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation.

This, of course, is opposed by conservatives, many of whom have continued pushing to ban LGBTQthemed books from schools and forcing students to use facilities based on their sex assigned at birth, rather than their current identity. Conservative school board members in many parts of the country, including California, have forged ahead with policies that compel school personnel to out trans students to their parents without their consent.

It is in this context that the new final rule will help LGBTQ students. The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, praised the new rule. “At a critical time, when trans youth are being used by politicians as a punching bag, the final rule issues an important reminder that schools cannot discriminate based on gender identity, transgender status, or sexual orientation,” stated Louise Melling, ACLU deputy legal director.

Melling also touted the new rule’s inclusion of guidance on the rights of pregnant and parenting students and school employees.

“The rule includes provisions that require schools to address and investigate complaints of sexual harassment, restoring standards that were in place for decades and that mirror those used for other forms of harassment,” Melling added.

Specifically, the ACLU supports the provisions in the final regulation that make clear that Title IX covers harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex stereo-

types; restores the long-standing “severe or pervasive” standard for sex-based discrimination; and requires schools to investigate instances of student-on-student harassment or assaults that occur off campus where they affect students’ access to education. This last one is important because there are lots of reports of such off campus incidents, whether online or in person.

Jennifer Levi, a trans-identified person who is the senior director of transgender and queer rights at GLBTQ+ Legal Advocates and defenders, supports the new rule.

“This important rule could not come at a more critical time. LGBTQ+ students across the country are under attack and more vulnerable than ever,” Levy stated. “Hostile states and local school committees have wrongly cut back important school protections that queer and transgender young people need to thrive. GLAD and our partner organizations look forward to working with schools and school districts to ensure that local policies and practices comply with federal law.”

sexual harassment. And in 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bostock v. Clayton County, ruled that sex discrimination in employment includes gender identity and sexual orientation. Crafting the Title IX rule to align with that makes sense.

The Washington Post reported, “The combination of these two issues – sexual assault and transgender rights – drew enormous public interest, with some 240,000 public comments submitted in response to the proposed version published in 2022. The new rules take effect August 1, in time for the start of the next school year.”

Overall the new rule should be welcomed by students and educators alike.

Athletics

There is one area the new Title IX rule does not cover – athletics and the contentious issue of trans girls playing on girls’ sports teams. There is a separate regulation for that issue and it is currently under review. The Post reported there is no timetable for when it would be finalized and noted it likely was being delayed “to avoid injecting the matter into the presidential campaign, where [Joe] Biden faces a close race against Trump.”

In a call with reporters, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona stated, “These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights.”

The legal landscape has changed since former President Donald Trump’s administration imposed its policies, including one that more narrowly defined

As we noted in an editorial last year when the proposed Title IX rule on sports was issued, the Biden administration is trying to find a middle ground to allow students in elementary and middle school to play sports on teams that correspond to their gender identity. At issue in the proposal is a part that would allow schools to restrict the participation of trans athletes, but those must be supported by evidence and minimize harm to trans students. However, the other main part of the rule change is that the statewide blanket bans on trans students playing on sports teams that match their gender identity will not be allowed, nor would schools be able to enact across-the-board bans.

We support the Biden administration as it weighs these issues and works to put the best interest of students at the forefront of policy changes. t

I have HIV and I am alive –thanks to San Francisco

by Michael J. Madrigal

Iam 59 years old, have lived in our great city for nearly 40 years, and I have been HIV-positive for 30 of them. Against all odds, I am alive and doing reasonably well. Why? Because of our city’s extraordinarily successful approach to addressing HIV/ AIDS, known across the country as the “San Francisco Model.”

Alarmingly, this unique crown jewel is threatened as Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors grapple with a budget shortfall over the next two fiscal years. In deciding where to let the ax fall, they inevitably will feel pressured to make cuts based on political dynamics rather than on hard data. Instead, one principle should be paramount: protecting and strengthening social service programs that statistics show are actually working and working well.

San Francisco’s response to HIV/AIDS, the San Francisco Model, is one of them. It began in the early 1980s when hundreds, and then thousands, of gay men here were dying of AIDS and organizations of all types and sizes sprung up to care for the needs of those with the disease – and to press the city, state, and federal governments to respond.

Even as the epidemic changed, this continuum of care approach has remained and improved over time, and I’ve been a beneficiary of that. To day, wraparound services are provided by a tight, non-competitive network of groups with expertise in specific areas related to HIV that include medical care, education, benefits eligibility, housing and eviction prevention, and legal services.

the country, other than Seattle. Similarly, more than nine in 10 of those recently diagnosed with HIV in San Francisco are connected to care. That’s 12 percentage points higher than anywhere else.

The results of the San Francisco Model are stunning. I’ve learned that in nearly every measurable way, San Francisco is doing better at addressing HIV than any other city in the nation. For example, even though our city has one of the highest percentages of residents living with HIV and one of the highest percentages of residents at risk for contracting it, the rate of new infections among LGBTQ residents here is dramatically lower than in other cities, including New York City; Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; and MiamiDade, Florida. One of the reasons is because our model has ensured that 75% of San Franciscans with HIV have suppressed their viral loads to the point where the virus cannot be transmitted, a much, much higher percentage than every other city in

Clearly, the San Francisco Model is working. I am a living testament to that. When I was within a few hours of dying because of HIV, an amazing team at UCSF saved me. When I was facing eviction from my apartment after my lover died of ALS and my name wasn’t on the lease, lawyers at the AIDS Legal Referral Panel made sure that didn’t happen. Time and again when I’ve faced complex challenges with health insurance and other critical benefits, case managers at PRC have been there for me. I could go on and on, but you get the point. I wouldn’t be here without them.

While this model is indeed a crown jewel, the organizations delivering the services necessary to its success don’t have palatial offices and almost all of their employees live on modest salaries. Believe me, I know they are all working on shoestring budgets and making every dollar count. That’s why I and so many other HIVpositive San Franciscans are so concerned about where the budget ax is going to fall – there’s simply no fat to cut. What might be perceived as a modest reduction in funding will, in fact, have devastating results: the city’s ability to control the disease would be undermined, and the entire model that has been so effective would be significantly weakened.

Breed and gay Supervisors Rafael Mandelman (District 8) and Matt Dorsey (D6) have been champions in supporting the fight against HIV and sustaining our model of care. In 2022, for example, they led the creation of a major initiative that included securing $3 million in the budget to support community organizations providing HIV testing, prevention, and care services that were affected by a change in the allocation and distribution of HIV prevention funding by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation noted at the time.

That also helped to ensure that free HIV services provided to the community were not disrupted. The funding bolstered efforts to bring new HIV infections to zero by 2025, and included money to help HIV-positive residents from becoming homeless.

This year, we are counting on the mayor and our supporters on the Board of Supervisors to ensure hard budget decisions don’t end up decimating what’s been built up over the last four decades. We’ll never get it back. Ever. t

Michael J. Madrigal is a gay man living in San Francisco.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation will be holding a city budget teach-in Monday, May 6, from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, see the item in the News Briefs column.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation contingent marched in the 2019 San Francisco Pride parade.

Rick Gerharter

Courtesy Dept. of Education

by Matthew S. Bajko

The new executive committee for the San Francisco Democratic Party includes two out members who are maintaining LGBTQ leadership among the top posts. Serving as fourth vice chair is Emma Heiken, and Mike Chen is the new director of internal operations.

Heiken, 30, a legislative aide to District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, identifies as fluid. She holds the fifth highest position on the local party’s executive committee.

She told the Bay Area Reporter she sought the leadership post because the local party “has its work cut out for us” this electoral year with the presidency and control of Congress to be determined by the November 5 election outcomes along with the fall races for mayor of San Francisco and the odd-numbered seats on the Board of Supervisors.

“We want to make sure people know these things are on their ballot,” said Heiken, who is engaged to John Hare, a San Francisco native who works in operations.

Chen, 33, a gay man, is a data engineer and transit advocate. He is a supervisorial appointee from District 2 on the Citizens’ Advisory Council for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which he formerly chaired.

“I am happy to serve the party and excited with the direction we are taking the party,” said Chen, part of the new moderate majority along with Heiken that now controls the local party.

His executive committee position had been known as recording secretary and is the seventh-highest ranking among the party leaders. Queer BART Board director Janice Li formerly held it but opted against running for another term on the local party’s governing body in the March 5 primary.

Colloquially called the D-triple-C, the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee met April 19 to swear in the 24 winners elected in March to DCCC seats and to elect its new leadership team. As the B.A.R.’s Political Notes column first reported March 25, prosecutor Nancy Tung is the new party chair.

She succeeded Honey Mahogany, the first transgender person to hold the position. A district director for Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) and co-owner of the reopened Stud LGBTQ nightclub, Mahogany opted not to seek reelection this year to the DCCC.

the various city elected offices on the November ballot.

Like Chen, she is supportive of Mayor London Breed’s bid for reelection. They were among a sextet of DCCC winners who had said they were backing Breed in response to the B.A.R.’s candidate questionnaire.

Challenging Breed are fellow moderates Mark Farrell, a former mayor and District 2 supervisor, and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie. Progressive Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin who represents District 3, is also in the race, as is District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who has become more progressive since running as a moderate in 2016.

“I have not counted the votes so can’t say for certain. She does have my support,” Heiken said when asked about Breed’s chances of securing the local party’s endorsement. “I will look forward to hearing from the other candidates about number twos and threes and all that jazz.”

As the highest-ranking LGBTQ person within the local party, which is often a jumping off point for seeking an elected municipal office, Heiken told the B.A.R. she has no plans to run for anything on the fall ballot. Nor has she thought about seeking to be party chair down the line, she said.

Her focus right now is on registering people to vote.

“I want to make sure all San Franciscans vote early, often, and blue; that is the goal,” said Heiken.

scathed, Logan landed in the emergency room with bruises and a sprained wrist.

“It really speaks to how desperately we need to be fixing Oakland’s roads both for safety reasons and as a state of good repair in our city,” Logan told the B.A.R. this week. “I am still recovering. My wrist is still very sprained; fortunately most of my bruises and scratches are almost healed.”

He said he was “very thankful” to the doctors at Kaiser Permanente who treated him and for the many friends who reached out to wish him well or brought him food while he recovered.

“I couldn’t cook for myself for a couple of weeks,” said Logan.

Visit his campaign website at warrenforoakland.com to learn more about his candidacy.

EQCA, Skinner back Berkeley mayor in Senate race

In the East Bay race for the open Senate District 7 seat that spans Alameda and Contra Costa counties, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín has picked up the endorsement of Equality California. The straight ally ballyhooed receiving the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization’s backing in an April 22 email to his supporters.

“I am deeply humbled to receive Equality California’s endorsement. As a state Senator, I will fight tirelessly and proudly to ensure that California continues to lead the way on equality and social justice for all,” he wrote.

The party’s oversight body is made up of a mixture of elected officials automatically given seats on it and the 24 members elected by registered Democrats in the city’s two state Assembly districts. Heiken is one of 14 hailing from Assembly District 17, covering downtown and eastern neighborhoods like the LGBTQ Castro district.

Chen is among the 10 from Assembly District 19 covering the westside and much of southern San Francisco. He had first sought a DCCC seat in 2020 but came up short that year.

Local party leaders are planning to mobilize the city’s Democrats this year to assist with the push in the November election to reclaim the majority in the U.S. House and keep both the U.S. Senate and White House under Democratic control. Heiken told the B.A.R. they are looking at busing party members to help campaign for Democratic congressional candidates in Nevada and once again setting up a phone-banking operation in San Francisco for local party members to help candidates across the country.

“We know a lot of people show up to vote for president. We want to make sure they are voting for everything on their ballot,” she said.

A major focus for the DCCC is endorsing in local races. Heiken said the party plans to do so once the filing deadlines close in June and August for

Fluent in Spanish, and having spent a year in Colombia as a Fulbright Scholar in 2016, Heiken said she plans to speak with her neighbors in the city’s Mission district about voting this year. The Latino neighborhood historically has some of the lowest voter turnout rates in the city, she noted.

“I am really focused on November and making sure we have folks turned out to vote in November,” said Heiken, who is originally from Eugene, Oregon.

Gay Oakland council candidate Logan hosts birthday event

As he still recovers from a sprained wrist he hurt after hitting a pothole while riding his bike earlier this month, Warren Logan is planning a birthday event for his campaign for the District 3 seat on the Oakland City Council. He is seeking to oust from office the progressive incumbent, Councilmember Carroll Fife

As the Political Notebook first reported last fall,  Logan oversaw mobility issues in both San Francisco and Oakland. He lives in West Oakland with his husband.

Logan would be the first gay man elected to the council since 2012 and its first LGBTQ African American member. He is hosting the campaign event at 2 p.m. May 11 at 7th West, the bar, restaurant, and event space in West Oakland at 1255 7th Street.

It will mark a month after he hit a pothole on 27th Street while riding his bike on April 10, coincidentally the same day he had a scheduled interview with KGO-TV to talk about his city’s deteriorating roads. While his bike was un-

Arreguín was the top vote-getter in the March 5 primary. Nabbing second place was AC Transit board member Jovanka Beckles, a former Richmond City Council member who identifies as queer and lesbian.

They are seeking to succeed termed out state Senator Nancy Skinner (DBerkeley), who endorsed Arreguín this week. In a statement released by his campaign April 23, she called him a “trusted, progressive and effective leader.”

EQCA had endorsed union leader Kathryn Lybarger, who also identifies as queer and lesbian, ahead of the March 5 election. She ended up in fourth place.

In his email about EQCA now endorsing him in the general election, Arreguín noted it is imperative for California voters to pass a state ballot measure in the fall that will repeal the language of same-sex marriage ban Proposition 8 from the state constitution. Prop 8 passed in 2008 and was voided in 2013 by federal court decisions, however, LGBTQ advocates are concerned it could become law again if the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Court reverses a 2015 decision that made same-sex marriage a federal right.

“Today, with the rights of LGBTQIA+ Americans under renewed attack from extremists in Washington, D.C. and in state houses throughout the nation, it is more important than ever for us to stand up and fight for true equality for all. And that starts right here in California in November, when we will have a chance to vote to repeal Proposition 8 (which first outlawed marriage equality in 2008),” wrote Arreguín. t

memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial burden, allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you.

The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee has out leaders Emma Heiken, left, and Mike Chen in its executive ranks. Courtesy the

Public chimes in on Sacto LGBTQ history efforts

by John Ferrannini

While some community members were a little skeptical about the prospect of an LGBTQ historic district in Sacramento, many expressed their desire to see the role queer people played in the River City’s past be told. During an April 18 meeting, preservationists asked members of the community to help them learn more about the state capital’s queer history as they work on a historic context statement.

Sacramento’s LGBTQ neighborhood is known as Lavender Heights and is centered in midtown around 20th and K streets.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, preservationists are working on a survey of potentially historic buildings and sites in the area as well as the statement, which will help determine “if there is a potential historic district around Lavender Heights or not,” according to Henry Feuss, a historic preservation planner with the city of Sacramento.

About 50 people showed up to the meeting at First United Methodist Church at 2100 J Street, in Lavender Heights, and about two blocks from the 20th and K intersection at which are located three of the city’s six LGBTQ nightlife spots.

Feuss was joined in hosting the event by Sean de Courcy, the preservation director for the city of Sacramento. De Courcy said that the effort started when he was approached by Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, a straight ally whose district includes Lavender Heights, with the idea of making the area a historic district.

“The councilmember said, ‘Sean, we’re going to create a district in Lavender Heights,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘That’s not how it works. We need to tell the history – a thematic historic context statement – as we did at the time with the African American Experience Project.”

(Valenzuela told the B.A.R. that she had asked the city’s preservationists “about potentially making Lavender Heights a historic landmark.”)

The African American Experience Project tells the story of Sacramento’s Black community and is the blueprint for the current LGBTQ+ Historic Ex-

perience Project, as it is formally known.

The project collected historic documents and oral histories, and included both a historic context statement and a historic property evaluation.

De Courcy stressed that more can come out of the project than whether a district is officially designated.

“Many of the younger generation had no idea where the Black Panther Party headquarters in Oak Park was because now it’s a housing project,” he said. “The next thing we’re going to do is put a plaque on the site. It may not be a building, or a district, but a form of commemoration so people who don’t pick up a book can learn.”

Claire Flynn was hired as a consultant on the project. She said she has never faced pressure from public officials to elevate one narrative over another in her work.

“No one has ever told me what to include,” she said. “No one has ever directed me, other than you all, when we go to these meetings and someone says ‘you got that wrong.’”

Patrick Riordan, a gay man who attended the meeting, said that “trans people absolutely deserve to be included in this historic context statement.”

In response to concerns the historic narrative would focus on cisgender, white gay men, Flynn assured the public that the transgender community and people of color would be included.

“We’re going to talk about it – all the way back to Native American times,” she said.

It’s too early to say, however, how much space in the report will be designated for particular constituencies of the LGBTQ community, since that depends on the public’s participation, she added.

Public questions district route

The district idea was met with some skepticism because, as the B.A.R. previously reported, the area’s LGBTQ history is spread not only across the city of Sacramento, but also West Sacramento, which is across the Sacramento River in Yolo County.

“I see a broader scale, a broader history, that did not happen in those boundaries,” said former Democratic state Assemblymember Dennis Mangers, who came out as gay after leaving the Legislature. “Many of these things happened around the Capitol [building], not around Lavender Heights.”

Mangers said he moved to Sacramento full time after leaving the Assembly in 1980, where he had represented an Orange County district. He told the B.A.R. he helped to found the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus and CAP-PAC, an AIDS epidemic-era political action committee.

“I’m here to find out the scope of the city’s efforts,” he told the B.A.R. He asked de Courcy if they are bound to Lavender Heights, per se.

Answered de Courcy, “It will go where the research leads. … It may extend beyond those boundaries, if the history leads us there. You have to know the story before you start identifying the places and the sites that tell those stories. We’re hopeful there’s a historic district, but we’re not bound by that map.”

Former longtime Sacramento County Sheriff John Misterly had kept gay bars and bathhouses from opening in his jurisdiction; ergo, in the era when homosexuality was a criminal offense, many of these establishments were in neighboring West Sacramento. 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.

Feuss said that in the event the report finds evidence that would support a historic district in West Sacramento, anyone can propose that idea to the State Office of Historic Preservation or to the National Park Service.

Attendee Riordan said, “I think that there’s some concern in this idea of a district.”

“If we’re only looking for a constituted space that’s going to meet criteria, including an age standard, we might be setting ourselves up for failure,” he said.

“I wonder if there are other vehicles with which we can identify or look at Lavender Heights, as a cultural district or something else.”

Nonetheless, a significant change to the scope of the project would require the support of Phil Pluckebaum, Valenzuela’s successor on the City Council, de Courcy said. Though she is still a member of the body, she lost her reelection bid last month and will leave when her term finishes at the end of the year.

First draft to coincide with Pride

The preservationists have an ambitious schedule and are going to be providing stipends to people who want to participate. There’s $10,000 available total, de Courcy said, “to reimburse members of the public for their participation.”

“Things are changing. People like to get paid, and they should get paid,” he said. People who would like to participate can assist in research, go through archives, submit oral histories, provide access to their personal archives, and look at buildings across the city.

“These stipends can be for any

amount, but over $600 and the government will take one-third to half of it, so we like to limit the amount so the tax issue is off the table,” de Courcy said.

Feuss said the current timetable is to have a first draft of the historic context statement completed in “a month and a half, to coincide with Pride Month” in June. Then there will be another community meeting and a revision.

De Courcy said that it was the job of everyone who attended to tell those who hadn’t, but should, so they can come to the next meeting.

“There are people you don’t see in the room who should be in the room, and you know who they are,” de Courcy said.

Among those not at the meeting were Terry Sidie, a gay man who owns Faces nightclub in Lavender Heights, and TJ Bruce, a gay man who owns three businesses in the same area, The Depot, Sacramento Badlands, and Roscoes. Since last year, Bruce has managed San Francisco Badlands in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood.

Bruce told the B.A.R. he is “bummed” to have missed it but was not in Sacramento at the time. Sidie did not return a request for comment.

Enrique Manjarrez, a gay man who attended the meeting, said he thinks it’s a great idea to tell the story of the city’s LGBTQ history – district or no district.

“We need to focus on passing our history down to the next generation,” he said. “As a Latino, I very much know what it is to pass down oral history from one generation to another, so let’s write it down.”

Ivy Kelso, a bi woman, said she attended as a way of getting more involved in the community as she faces discrimination, not specifying her particular experience.

“I don’t want to be afraid or ashamed anymore of an innate part of my identity that is not wrong or bad,” she said. “I want to embrace who I am and be joyful and accepting of myself and my fellow queers. That starts with finding queer communities and finding ways to be involved.”

Anyone who’d like to participate in the historic context process can email LGBTQ-Experience@cityofsacramento.org. t

Comcast fellows announced for LGBTQ, Black publications

by Cynthia Laird

The announcement was made April 17.

“Through Project UP, we are proud to donate $1 million to launch this unique, first-of-its-kind program that

News is Out and Word In Black together announced the 16 fellows selected for The Digital Equity Local Voices Lab, a new initiative powered by Comcast NBCUniversal to place journalists at 16 Black and LGBTQ+ serving news publications across the country. During the yearlong fellowship, the group will receive the training and resources needed to tell stories within marginalized communities through media and technology and celebrate the work being done by Black and LGBTQ+ leaders in their communities.

will support coverage of Black and LGBTQ+ topics in the media as well as emerging journalists with a passion for reporting on issues of importance to these communities,” said Dalila Wilson-Scott, executive vice president and chief diversity officer, Comcast Corporation and president, Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation.

“Comcast is one of the earliest corporate leaders in LGBTQ+ inclusion,

so it should come as no surprise that they understand the value of local LGBTQ+ media,” said Mark Segal, founder of the Philadelphia Gay News and member of News is Out. “Their investment in our growth is also an investment in the future leadership of LGBT media and intersectional LGBTQ+ media.”

The fellows will receive best practices, learnings, and mentorship from journalists and media professionals at News is Out, Word In Black, and NBCUniversal. In addition, they will report on stories of Black and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and creatives in their communities, share training and resources on using technology more in their daily lives, report on policy related to technological access and connectivity, and share the work being done to advance digital equity.

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“I am excited to be a part of a fellowship that is specifically geared toward the promotion of diversity, inclusivity and intersectionality,” stated Davi B. Ulloa-Estrada, News is Out and Philadelphia Gay News fellow. “We are missing such crucial and different perspectives on world issues, so I look forward to being a part of this project.”

Word In Black fellows were also excited about the project.

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“This fellowship program is the epitome of what journalism means to me – using innovation and creativity to fuel a passion for multimedia storytelling and uplift the voice and perspective of the overlooked,” stated Word In Black and Washington Informer fellow, Jada Ingleton. “It means so much to know that I’ll be in a position to produce stories that could enact change and affect lives the same way generations of journalists impacted mine.”

The Local Media Foundation is managing the fellowship and Lab and

See page

Preservationists Sean de Courcy, left, Henry Feuss, and Claire Flynn discussed getting the public’s involvement in determining Sacramento’s LGBTQ history during an April 18 meeting.

John Ferrannini

Longtime Glide leader the Rev. Cecil Williams dies

by Cynthia Laird

The Reverend Cecil Williams, who remade Glide Memorial Church into a powerhouse for social justice, died Monday, April 22, according to San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office. He was 94.

According to the church’s website, Reverend Williams died at his San Francisco home.

Reverend Williams joined Glide in the 1960s, according to a history on the church’s website, and with other progressive ministers breathed new life into a dying congregation. The church welcomed all, from hippies to drug users to transgender youth, and offered a spiritual home and cultural growth.

Reverend Williams was also a steadfast ally to the LGBTQ community. During the 1960s Glide was part of a citizen’s alert group that documented incidents of harassment against LGBTQ people when possible. The church also sponsored LGBTQ balls, including one five years before Stonewall that was raided by San Francisco police and resulted in numerous arrests. (All charges were eventually dropped.)

Reverend Williams’ wife, Janice Mirikitani, died in 2021, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in its obituary.

Married in 1982, Ms. Mirikitani became president of the Glide Foundation.

Ms. Mirikitani and the Reverend Williams both spoke at the 2008 memorial for Del Martin, a founder of the Daughters of Bilitis and partner of Phyllis Lyon, who died in April 2020. The couple presented drag nun charitable group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence with Glide’s the Reverend Cecil Williams Legacy Award at the church’s 10th anniversary of its Legacy Gala.

Reverend Williams retired several

facilitating content creation to reach diverse audiences between the 16 publishers, Comcast NBCUniversal and NBCU Academy. Word In Black and News is Out are collaboratives that were launched by LMF.

The 16 fellows are:

• Megan Sayles, AFRO News (Baltimore)

• Menra Mapfumo, The Atlanta Voice (Atlanta)

• J.L. Odom, Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco)

years ago, but remained active with Glide. Last year, he announced he was formally stepping down, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time.

The Reverend Jim Mitulski, a gay man who served as senior pastor for many years at the old Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco in the city’s LGBTQ Castro neighborhood, recalled Reverend Williams.

“I worked with both Reverend Cecil Williams and with his wife and partner in ministry, the poet Jan Mirikitani, for many years, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s,” Mitulski, now pastor at Congregational Church of the Peninsula in Belmont, wrote in an email. “These were important years in LGBT and in HIV/ AIDS liberation. Through his work on the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, which he and others at Glide Church helped pioneer in the 1960s, he modeled an intersectional approach to social change and the collaborative approach to community work.”

ReShonda Tate, Houston Defender (Houston)

Ebony “JJ” Curry, Michigan Chronicle (Detroit)

Leah Mallory, New York Amsterdam News (New York City)

Davi B. Ulloa-Estrada, Philadelphia Gay News (Philadelphia)

• Christine Shelby, The Sacramento Observer (Sacramento)

• Kira Doyle, Seattle Medium (Seattle)

• Devored Horton, The St. Louis American (St. Louis)

Mitulski added that the couple created the space for self-determined movements like the Metropolitan Community Church, which was led by LGBTQ people for LGBTQ people.

“He knew when to lead and he knew how to work alongside,” Mitulski added. “Cecil and Jan we’re always a great friend to MCC and a source of encouragement for the work we did.

“On a very personal level, he was always kind to me and always had time to give me advice, even when we didn’t agree,” Mitulski stated. “This Sunday at my church, I’ll be sure we celebrate him as a revolutionary saint who changed the world and to show others how to do the same.”

Brian Basinger, a gay man, posted a tribute on Facebook that recalled Reverend Williams stopping the San Francisco Pride parade for 30 minutes after he was mobbed by reporters while on Basinger’s Freedom to Marry float.

“Rev. Williams missed his only sermon to be on my Freedom to Marry float at Pride one year,” Basinger wrote. “We won best float after being mobbed by global press, stopping the parade for 30 minutes. This is when gay marriage was controversial, so him standing with us was a courageous act. Rev. Williams was in full regalia head to toe bright African print. The float was a garden wedding scene with gazebo on green turf, white picket fence, topiary, 6 male couples in dove grey tuxedos with top hats and morning tails, the women wore Jessica McClintock wedding gowns. To top it off, we had a counter tenor from SF Opera singing ‘Ave Maria.’”

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) posted on X that he will miss Reverend Williams.

“I knew Cecil for many years & was continually in awe of his wisdom &

commitment to justice,” Wiener wrote. “Cecil played a key role in creating the Glide community – a beautiful, welcoming place.”

Governor Gavin Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, issued a statement Monday evening.

“Jennifer and I join all Californians in mourning the passing of Reverend Cecil Williams, a visionary leader whose legendary compassion and love for his community transformed the lives of people from all walks of life,” Newsom stated, referring to his wife, first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

“At the helm of Glide Memorial Church for decades, Reverend Williams and his congregation offered refuge and support to all who entered their doors,” the governor added. “Their tireless work to empower marginalized members of the community put them at the forefront of key social justice and human rights issues, driving positive change.

“Reverend Williams truly embodied the California values of unity, generosity and acceptance. All of us can take inspiration from his legacy and renew our commitment to one another,” Newsom stated. Breed issued a statement on Reverend Williams’ passing.

“Reverend Cecil Williams was the conscience of our San Francisco community,” she stated. “He spoke out against injustice and he spoke for the marginalized. He led with compassion and wisdom, always putting the people first and never relenting in his pursuit of justice and equality. His kindness brought people together and his vision changed our city and the world.

“What he created at Glide Memorial Church, along with his partner Janice Mirikitani, saved and transformed countless lives,” the mayor added. “Their impact will never be matched. Cecil and

Jan showed how supportive housing, wraparound programs and love can uplift troubled communities and create dignity, hope and opportunity.”

Breed noted that the Reverend Williams was “at the top of that list” of African American community members who inspired Black youngsters to dream and to serve.

“Cecil mentored generations of San Francisco leaders, many of us emerging from the most difficult circumstances,” she recalled.

“As a young girl, I would never have dreamed I’d grow up to work with him,” Breed added. “We all benefited from his guidance, his support, and his moral compass. We would not be who we are as a city and a people without the legendary Cecil Williams.”

Reverend Williams was born on September 22, 1929 in San Angelo, Texas.

Glide officials posted a tribute to Reverend Williams on the church’s website.

“With Reverend Cecil William’s passing, we have lost an incomparable champion of social justice, civil and human rights, and liberation theology,” stated Gina Fromer, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Glide Foundation. “For more than 60 years, Reverend Cecil Williams expanded the limits of spirituality, compassion, and diversity as co-founder and minister of liberation of GLIDE in San Francisco.

“As minister, author, social activist, lecturer, community leader and ceaseless champion for the poor and marginalized, Reverend Cecil Williams was long respected and recognized as a national leader on the forefront of change and in the struggle for civil and human rights,” Fromer added. “Today, he joins his beloved late wife and co-founder, Janice Mirikitani, in eternal peace. t

• Melissa Whitler, Dallas Voice (Dallas) Marlissa Collier, Dallas Weekly (Dallas)

• Victoria F. Vega, Tagg Magazine (National)

Henry Carnell, Washington Blade (Washington, D.C.)

Jada Ingleton, The Washington Informer (Washington, D.C.)

• Lu Calzada, Windy City Times (Chicago)

In February, the three organizations announced the launch of The Digital Equity Local Voices Lab and application period. The Lab is part of Project UP, Comcast’s $1 billion initiative to connect people to the Internet and advance digital equity and economic mobility through programs and community partnerships that open doors for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, storytellers, and creators across Comcast, NBCUniversal, and Sky. t

This article previously appeared on News is Out. <<

The Reverend Cecil Williams, a longtime ally to the LGBTQ community, has died.

Bill Wilson

Some of the News is Out and Word In Black fellows who will participate in The Digital Equity Local Voices Lab.

Courtesy News is Out

SF groups to dedicate upper Market mural

compiled by Cynthia Laird

S everal San Francisco organizations will join together and formally dedicate the restoration of an iconic mural on upper Market Street during the monthly Castro Art Walk Friday, May 3, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Artist Betsie Miller-Kusz originally painted “The Chant of the Earth, the Voice of the Land” mural in 1981.

The Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association was involved in the restoration, and officials from the organization will join those from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Castro Community Benefit District, and San Francisco Public Works at the dedication. Castro Art Walk representatives will attend, along with elected officials, according to an EVNA news release.

The mural, located on 19th Street between Market Street and Caselli Avenue, is viewed by thousands of commuters and pedestrians each day, the release noted. It has been restored three times by Miller-Kusz. During the recent restoration that occurred last year, the artist worked with a team of assistants and volunteers. The project was made possible with a $25,000 grant from the arts

commission, as well as fundraising that was spearheaded by EVNA. The dedication takes place shortly after Earth Day. The release noted that though the mural was not intended as a political statement when it was created, the climate crisis has made it so today. The mural features an abstract, brilliantly colored depiction of landforms behind the retaining wall. The multicolored forms sweep along at the street

level, portraying flows and fissures, uplifts, and earth forces, a gentle counterpoint to the hard lines of the downtown skyline visible from the site.

The mural is coated with a varnish intended to last many years. (During the restoration process, the mural was tagged, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in a news brief on the restoration.)

The site is at almost the exact geo-

graphic center of San Francisco, according to the release.

Miller-Kusz stated, “Every brushstroke on this mural is an imprint of my gratitude to the EVNA core mural team; to the restoration assistants; to my friends, fam ily, and community of contributors; and to the great city of San Francisco, which made this huge project possible.”

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is executive director of the CBD, stated the mural is impossible to ignore.

climbing scaffolding took its toll. I’m so proud of what my dedicated colleagues have overcome and can’t wait to celebrate this triumph with everyone.”

“Imagine you’re a local, coming home after being away, or a tourist coming to the Castro for the first time, winding down the curves of Twin Peaks,” she stated. “You turn the corner and unexpectedly meet this colorful hillside mural, welcoming you into the heart of the city.”

Alex Lemberg, who is nonbinary and the recent past president of EVNA, stated that they encouraged the neighborhood group’s involvement in the restoration last year.

“I had no idea we’d be planning around atmospheric rivers and sweating through heat waves,” Lemberg stated, referring to last year’s wild weather. “For me, personally,

This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to https://www.cavshate.org/.

The upcoming dedication is open to the public. Note that there is no power, running water, or restrooms at the site. A program will take place at 6 p.m. that will feature speakers, music, and performers.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring snacks to share. The Muni bus 33 stops nearby at 18th and Market streets, as does the Muni bus 37 at Corbett Avenue and Danvers Street. It is a 0.6-mile uphill walk from the Castro Muni Station at Castro and Market streets.

Donations are still being accepted and can be made at https://tinyurl. com/5brwnm8a.

SF Eagle marks 11 years under current ownership

The SF Eagle bar will celebrate its 11th anniversary under its current ownership Sunday, April 28, from noon to 6 p.m. in Eagle Plaza, located adjacent to the bar at 398 12th Street in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.

As many B.A.R readers know, the Eagle first opened at its SOMA location in 1981. It closed in 2011. Lex Montiel and his late business partner, Mike Leon, who died in 2019, bought the business in 2012. They reopened in March 2013, reviving the Eagle’s enormously popular Sunday beer busts held on its spacious outdoor patio, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

The bar was then shuttered temporarily during the COVID pandemic.

In October 2021, during LGBTQ History Month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors granted the SF Eagle city landmark status. It’s the second leather bar in the U.S. of the same name to become a local landmark, as the B.A.R. reported at the time. (The other is the Eagle bar in Atlanta.)

In a news release announcing the anniversary party, Montiel stated the bar has become a vibrant community space.

“The event is not just about celebrating our milestone but also about embracing our community’s values of inclusion, accessibility, and lifting each other up,” he stated.

Indeed, as the B.A.R. recently reported, SF Eagle held a fundraiser for the Cat Club, a nightlife space that had been burglarized.

One of the highlights of the anniversary party will be SF Eagle’s collaboration with Big Ass Amazingly Awesome Homosexual Sheep, or BAAAHS, promising an experience that exudes the bar’s commitment to inclusivity and diverse expression, the release noted.

Christian Williams and Giovanni Matiz, organizers of BAAAHS, stated they are excited to help celebrate SF Eagle’s anniversary.

“BAAAHS is a community-driven organization dedicated to bringing joy through music, art, and participation – with a little silliness on the side,” they stated.

For more information, go to sfeagle.com.

SFAF to hold city budget teach-in

With San Francisco experiencing a difficult budget year, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and its HIV Advocacy Network will hold a teach-in on the city’s process Monday, May 6, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Strut, the foundation’s community health center at 470 Castro Street in the LGBTQ neighborhood.

“The Chant of the Earth, the Voice of the Land” mural by artist Betsie Miller-Kusz on upper Market Street will be formally dedicated at a May 3 ceremony.

Rick Gerharter

Preliminary hearing delayed again in gay Oakland murder case

by John Ferrannini

T he preliminary hearing in the case of the UC Berkeley employee charged in the killing of a gay Black man in Oakland last year was pushed back for a fifth time.

Defendant Sweven Waterman, 38, of Oakland, is charged with homicide in the March 4, 2023 stabbing death of Curtis Marsh, 53, also of Oakland.

Waterman has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

Waterman had been set to appear in court last week, but his preliminary hearing was reset for June 17 at 8:45 a.m. in Department 11 at the Rene C. Davidson Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland.

Waterman’s attorney, David Briggs, declined to comment on why the hearing was again delayed. The Alameda County District Attorney’s office did not return a request for comment. A preliminary hearing is held so that a judge can determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the preliminary hearing was originally set for October 17. Then, during a court hearing that day, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office requested a new date, which was given for November 17. The hearing didn’t happen that day, either, because the DA requested another continuance, according to Briggs. It was then pushed to January 14 but didn’t occur because the DA wasn’t ready, Briggs said, and was continued again to February 6.

Briggs stated to the B.A.R. February that it has been rescheduled for April 2.

In a previous interview, Briggs demurred when asked about his client’s sexual orientation. Waterman is on administrative leave from his job as a senior custodian at UC Berkeley.

Marsh, who was also known as drag artist Touri Monroe, was a hair stylist and a Miss Gay Oakland emeritus who used to sing with the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus. Originally from Iowa, friends described him as fun, helpful, and active in his church.

Briggs has told the B.A.R. in past reports that Waterman did not know Marsh, as far as he knew.

Police responded to Marsh’s home on Vernon Street in the Adams Point neighborhood just before 8 a.m. March 4, 2023 after a report of a disturbance, Oakland Police Officer Darryl Rodgers previously stated in an email to the B.A.R.

The “disturbance” consisted of “reports of an individual screaming,” stated Paul Chambers, the strategic communication manager for the Oakland Police Department.

When officers arrived, Oakland firefighters were on the scene extin-

guishing a fire.

“Upon arrival, officers located an Oakland resident with multiple lacerations,” Oakland Police Officer Darryl Rodgers stated. “The victim succumbed to their injuries and medical units pronounced the victim deceased on scene. Investigators from the OPD Homicide Section responded to the scene to begin the fol-

low-up investigation into the circumstances surrounding the homicide.” Neighbors told KTVU-TV that the perpetrator set the fire and left the front door and gate open when running away. No motive has been given, nor the circumstances of if — or how — the two men knew one another.

A memorial for Marsh was held March 11, 2023 at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center where friends remembered him.

Marsh is one of at least two gay Black men who were killed in Oakland last year. But, so far, no suspect

Waterman has six prior convictions dating back to 2002, including felony evasion, forgery, robbery, and vehicle theft, according to Berkeley Scanner.

has been found in the March 12, 2023 shooting death of Devonte Davis, police told the B.A.R. February 15. Oakland police did not return a request from the B.A.R. for an update on the Davis case April 10.

The two incidents are unrelated. t

In support of The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to improve safety and access for people walking, bicycling, and taking public transit, the Folsom Streetscape Project aims to increase traffic, pedestrian, and bike safety on Folsom Street from 2nd to 11th streets.

Folsom Street is part of San Francisco’s Vision Zero High Injury Network. This means that Folsom is part of the 12% of streets in San Francisco that receive 68% of the city’s severe traffic injuries and fatalities.

Construction is anticipated to begin in May 2024. Two community events are scheduled for April 27 and May 2. Come learn more and subscribe for updates at SFMTA.com/FolsomHoward

The Folsom Streetscape Project will improve Folsom from 2nd to 11th streets with design elements that include: • Two-way Bikeway

“We know why. We are being attacked,” he said, “perhaps more than ever right now.”

COVID impacts

differ by region

With the latest tracking report covering the second year of the COVID pandemic, it found that grantmakers’ support for efforts related to addressing the health crisis represented nearly 14% of overall funding to LGBTQ communities in 2021. Along the West Coast the global pandemic impacted regions differently.

With an uptick in individual giving spurred by the pandemic, Horizons was able to give out $1.5 million in emergency funds to Bay Area LG-

<< LGBTQ students

From page 1

The Title IX policy “protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and other abuse,” Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said in a statement praising the education department’s issuance of the final rule Friday, April 19.

Slated to take effect August 1, the new regulations constitute an expansion of the 1972 Title IX civil rights law, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.

Pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the landmark 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County case, the department’s revised policy clarifies that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity constitutes sex-based discrimination as defined under the law.

“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said during an April 18 call with reporters.

While the new rule does not provide guidance on whether schools must allow transgender students to play on sports teams corresponding with their gender identity to comply with Title IX, the question is addressed in a separate rule proposed by the agency in April.

The administration’s new policy also reverses some Trump-era Title IX rules

<< Ballot measure

From page 1

General’s use of the term ‘restricts rights’ does not render the title and summary untrue, misleading, or argumentative.”

BTQ nonprofits during the onset of COVID. Few local organizations had to lay off staff, though they did reduce employee schedules as a cost-saving measure, said Doughty.

governing how schools must respond to reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were widely seen as imbalanced in favor of the accused.

Jennifer Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said during Thursday’s call that the department sought to strike a balance with respect to these issues, “reaffirming our longstanding commitment to fundamental fairness.”

Lambda Legal issued a statement in support of the final rule.

“We applaud the Biden administration’s action to rescind the legally unsound, cruel, and dangerous sexual harassment and assault rule of the previous administration,” stated Sasha Buchert, a trans person who is Lambda Legal’s nonbinary and transgender rights project director.

“Today’s rule instead appropriately underscores that Title IX’s civil rights protections clearly cover LGBTQ+ students, as well as survivors and pregnant and parenting students across race and gender identity,” she added. “Schools must be places where students can learn and thrive free of harassment, discrimination, and other abuse.”

Gay Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside) praised the final rule.

“The Education Department and Biden administration showed real courage today, delivering on a long-held promise to ensure that the federal government does more to protect all Amer-

The federal government’s payroll protection program was a major assist for many larger nonprofits but not as helpful to smaller ones, he added.

“I was actually surprised how relatively few organizations had to lay people off,” Doughty told the B.A.R.

Sometime in 2025 Doughty is planning for his foundation to conduct a survey of local LGBTQ nonprofits to see how they are doing financially and what the trends are in both their individual and foundation support. Many are bracing to see if their budgets will be impacted this year by the fiscal decisions city and state leaders make as they contend with multimillion-dollar deficits.

“I am very concerned about that,” said Doughty, particularly of the fiscal situation San Francisco faces this year.

icans – especially LGBTQ Americans – from discrimination,” Takano stated.

“This groundbreaking rule is a major victory, but we still have much to do,” he added. “We need to enshrine and expand its protections by passing the Equality Act because for too many Americans, their rights and protections depend on the ZIP code they live in.”

Other LGBTQ organizations also issued statements in support of the final rule.

“Today the U.S. Department of Education has enshrined in federal regulation what we all know to be true - discrimination against students on the basis of sex has no place in our schools,” stated Julianna Gonen, federal policy director at San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights.

“In this time when policymakers in some states are targeting LGBTQ – and particularly transgender – youth with hostile laws, it is essential for our federal government to send a clear message that such measures violate federal law,” Gonen added. “We welcome these updated Title IX rules and look forward to working with the Biden administration to ensure that they are fully implemented so that all students can learn and thrive in our public schools.”

Kelley Robinson, a queer Black woman who is president of the Human Rights Campaign, stated that the rule will be “life-changing.”

“Today’s rule will be life-changing

Carter told the B.A.R. that agencies in her region saw institutional funding dip during the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020. Since then such resources have “risen a little bit,” she said.

Her foundation currently employs 16 people and has an annual budget of $7 million due to being the fiscal sponsor for the next two years of the $2 million Queer Data Project based in Oregon. The statewide initiative is working to build community driven data collection efforts of the Beaver State’s LGBTQ population.

“There is very little data that is about the queer community,” said Carter.

One troubling trend she has seen over the past year is the closure of LGBTQ nonprofits her foundation had supported. Five have shuttered.

for so many LGBTQ+ youth and help ensure LGBTQ+ students can receive the same educational experience as their peers: going to dances, safely using the restroom, and writing stories that tell the truth about their own lives,” she stated.

Robinson also had a warning for school officials.

“School administrators should take note and immediately act to implement anti-bias and anti-bullying and harassment programs that ensure misgendering stops, that cruelty against LGBTQ+ students ends and that every student has access to an education free of discrimination,” she stated. “This updated rule is a reminder of what Title IX has been designed to accomplish for more than fifty years: ensure students are safe from abuse, harassment, and discrimination while they pursue their education.”

Robinson noted that other issues remain, such as trans students playing on sports teams.

“Even as we celebrate this progress, our work is far from finished,” she added. “LGBTQ+ Americans, particularly transgender youth, continue to endure ongoing attacks on their rights and their dignity at the state level. We call on the Biden-Harris administration to move swiftly to ensure Title IX protects the rights of transgender athletes to play and be part of a team. There are also critical protections in health care broadly, including veterans care, that are overdue. It’s time to get the job done.”

“We didn’t see a lot of groups close during COVID. We are seeing groups close now,” said Carter.

Why exactly is hard to say, she told the B.A.R.

“I don’t know if I am ready to call it post-COVID yet. But people are tired and those who gave their all during those years need space and time to recharge,” said Carter. “It is not for lack of need. They are not closing their doors because things are great here, so let’s call it a day.”

Part of it likely has to do with the minimal fiscal support many LGBTQ nonprofits receive, she said.

“There are not enough LGBTQ folks in their communities supporting those organizations and so few funders investing in LGBTQ organizations,” said Carter. t

Anti-LGBTQ groups criticized the final rule. Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project, blasted the change.

“When federal lawmakers enacted Title IX over four decades ago, it was with a clear purpose in mind: to protect the rights of women and girls,” stated Schilling. “Today, President Biden has officially turned that on its head. Under the rule released by this administration, schools will now be forced to allow any man or boy who claims to be female into girls’ intimate spaces.

“Despite the obvious privacy and safety concerns, girls will now have to share bathrooms and locker rooms with biological males,” Schilling stated. “They will have to share accommodations on field trips and in related circumstances. And although this rule punts the issue of sports, as we saw in this week’s ruling in West Virginia, it will also likely have the effect of compelling girls to compete against male athletes.”

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, a three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled April 16 that West Virginia’s law barring transgender female students from participating on female student sports teams violates federal law. t

The Bay Area Reporter contributed reporting.

<< Bakery case

From page 3

“If upheld, the ruling would allow virtually any business to discriminate against protected individuals by asserting a right to avoid ‘compelled’ speech or expressive conduct,” the brief states.

“This cannot be correct.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus brief

<< News Briefs

From page 8

HAN is a grassroots group of HIV and LGBTQ activists in the Bay Area fighting to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

As the B.A.R. has reported, the need for HIV funding comes as the city stares down a budget deficit that could be as large as $1 billion – and some programs have already seen huge cuts and don’t have funding stability.

The city’s two-year budget process for fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26 is now underway. SFAF’s Laura Thomas and Lance Toma, CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center, are the co-chairs

In an April 19 statement posted to its Facebook page, (https://www.facebook.com/libertyjusticecenter) the Liberty Justice Center said it was “evaluating next steps” in light of the judge’s decision.

“While we are disappointed that the court precluded evidence establishing

A spokesperson for Bonta stated April 23, “We are pleased with the court’s decision to uphold the Attorney General’s fair and accurate title and summary for this measure.”

of its own April 12, alongside Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, the Global Justice Institute, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Sikh Coalition.

“Christian Nationalists are trying to drag this country back to the days when people from marginalized communities were forced to go door to door because businesses displayed signs like ‘No Jews, No Blacks, No Irish,’” Rachel Laser, pres-

of the HIV/AIDS Provider Network, a group of city HIV/AIDS nonprofits that advocate city officials for funding. They previously told the B.A.R. that just keeping funding at current levels will be difficult considering the budget crunch. Last year’s budget included $1.25 million for housing subsidies for people living with HIV for 2023-24 and $500,000 for 2024-25. The budget also included $500,000 to help HIV/ AIDS nonprofits with rising costs, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

The funding was far short of the $7 million requested by HIV advocates.

Last December, Mayor London Breed asked city departments for 10% cuts across the board. A deficit of about $800 million is expected

AG Bonta’s bias, we appreciate that the matter has been taken under submission by the judge,” stated center officials.

A spokesperson for Protect Kids California did not return requests for comment.

Tony Hoang, a gay man who is the executive director of statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California, stated to the B.A.R. that “we are pleased with the judge’s ruling.”

ident and CEO of Americans United, stated in a news release. “Decades ago we as a society agreed that when a business decides to open its doors to the public, it must be open to all. If religious extremists are successful in getting the courts to allow religiously motivated discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, that license to discriminate could harm other vulnerable communities too.”

That brief quotes the Masterpiece case,

over the next two fiscal years, and Breed has said it could reach $1 billion by Fiscal Year 2028.

It is in this climate that the AIDS foundation wants people to get involved. According to an email announcement for “Action=Life: Queering the San Francisco Budget,” the teach-in will feature a range of speakers including policy experts, frontline workers, and community activists who will guide attendees through the budget process, dive deeper on issues such as housing and health care, and share advocacy strategies. Organizers noted this is a critical opportunity for community members to get involved and advocate for queer and HIV justice.

“California should be a safe and welcoming place for everyone, which is why we have longstanding laws in effect that protect and preserve the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and their families,” Hoang stated. “This proposed initiative seeks to undo these critical protections and make our schools and communities less safe for all youth.”

stating religious objections “do not allow business owners and other actors in the economy and in society to deny protected persons equal access to goods and services under a neutral and generally applicable public accommodations law.”

The brief continues: “The Free Exercise Clause is not, and never has been, a free pass to violate the law. And neither federal nor state free-exercise protections compel California to exempt Tastries from the

There is no cost to attend and food will be provided. To register, go to https://tinyurl.com/r5mdyk9n.

Eurovision viewing party in SF Parivar Bay Area and the LGBT Asylum Project are holding a Eurovision Song Contest grand final viewing party and fundraiser Saturday, May 11, beginning at 11 a.m. at the DNA Lounge, 375 11th Street in San Francisco. The Eurovision Song Contest is held annually by the European Broadcasting Union. This year’s event takes place in Malmö, Sweden. Proceeds from the San Francisco event’s ticket sales and a silent auction will benefit the Center for Im-

Politico’s California Playbook newsletter reported last month that the Protect Kids California measure is struggling. “The campaign has so far collected less than a fifth of what it would need to qualify for the ballot,” Politico reported. “It does not appear on track to meet a May 28 deadline.” t

state’s prohibition against discrimination in public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation.”

Attorneys with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, representing Miller, did not return a request for comment for this report. A spokesperson for the Civil Rights Department stated that the case is currently in the briefings stage, and the court has not yet set a date to hear the appeal. t

migration Protection, a new nonprofit that Parivar Bay Area and the LGBT Asylum Project launched last year, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

CIP strives to provide comprehensive and accessible support services, including legal assistance and social integration, while promoting awareness, education, and acceptance, according to an email announcement.

All ages are welcome for the viewing party, the announcement stated. Tickets to the CIP fundraiser start at $20 general admission, and can be purchased at https://tinyurl. com/4ftzjxdy. t

Pride Foundation CEO Katie Carter Courtesy Pride Foundation

by Michael Flanagan

When the Stud first opened at 1535 Folsom Street in May 1966, The Mamas and The Papas’ song “Monday, Monday” was the #1 single, and “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys had just been released. Initially a leather bar, a year before Stonewall, in 1968, it had already become a gay hippie bar. The late poet Thom Gunn gives us an idea of what the bar was like in a letter to Tony Tanner from Christmas 1968:

“The Stud closed for a night to give its 150 closest friends a party in the bar. The place was decorated with polythene so as to look like a kind of Venusian Fingal’s Cave, with flexible stalactites, etc. And everybody, including Mike and me, said it was the best party they’d ever been to. One thing that helped was that everyone was offered acid, and so about 70 of us were on a reasonably heavy trip.”

More his and herstory

By 1970, the bar was the place to be. One of the stories about how Sylvester met the Cockettes directly involves The Stud (though admittedly many versions of that story exist).

“The Fabulous Sylvester” biography by Joshua Gamson sets the scene:

“Tahara had been seeing Sylvester regularly at The Stud, a bar south of Market Street where ‘everybody far-out went every night.’

One night, Tahara recalls, Sylvester invited everyone at The Stud to his flat for a party, and Tahara showed up with about thirty other people. Word got out that Sylvester did Billie Holiday impersonations.”

Things weren’t always quite so groovy in the early days, however. On December 12, 1970, San Francisco police shot Charles Christman in the ankle as they were “trying to clear the street”

(as the SF Chronicle put it) after closing time at the Stud. His car was shot four times because he bumped two policemen while trying to leave Norfolk Alley. He was tried for five felonies, and after one trial with a hung jury, he plead guilty to two misdemeanors and was given probation for three years.

The Stud was renowned for music performances in its first decades. The first time Sylvester performed with Two Tons of Fun was at The Stud, on August 15, 1976. Etta James performed there many times in the ’70s and ’80s, often on Valentine’s Day. Several women’s music bands played there, including Sweet Chariot and Pegasus, and when Bebe K’Roche released their album on Olivia in 1976 they performed there.

My earliest memories of The Stud are from 1982, when I was invited to an after-party by the bartender Gidget (known for the buttons he

The Stud’s return

made for the bar). It was not nearly as wild as Gunn’s memories of the LSD parties, but is a fond memory nonetheless.

In 1987, The Stud moved to 399 9th Street at Harrison, which had previously been the Arena and Club Nine, where Courtney Love ran coat check, Chris Isaak was the house band and Diamanda Galas first performed music from “Plague Mass.” By the time The Stud got there, the location already had an LGBTQ following.

The 9th Street version of the bar is fondly remembered as the home of Heklina’s T-shack show, which began in 1996. My favorite memory of that era was seeing the “Age of Aquarius” tribute to “Hair,” which included Juanita MORE! performing “Easy to be Hard” while smoking an amazing large joint on stage. It’s worth pointing out that you can see a direct connection between the rise of Heklina’s parties at The Stud and the

by Jim Gladstone

To hear some tell it, there is and always will be one and only one “Funny Girl.”

That, they’d insist, would be Barbra Streisand, who originated the titular, loosely biographical role of comic actress Fanny Brice in both the original 1964 stage production and the Academy Award winning film adaptation of the Jule Styne (score)/Bob Merril (lyrics) musical. Revived for the first time on Broadway in 2022, the show plays a national tour engagement beginning April 30 at the Orpheum Theatre.

But Steven Mark Lukas – who co-stars as Brice’s suave-to-a-fault gambler husband, Nicky Arnstein on the current tour, having understudied Ramin Karimloo in the role on Broadway –

Stephen Mark Lukas: the ‘Funny Girl’ guy

Classic musical arrives at the Orpheum

This era of The Stud also continued their other contributions to a sense of community, from their hosting of the Frameline volunteers parties after the film festival to their parties on Folsom Street Fair weekends.

New era

Having a forty-something year relationship with a bar leads to high expectations, so I was looking forward to the reopening of The Stud at 1123 Folsom Street. I wasn’t disappointed.

At the pre-opening party on April 12, I spoke with both party-goers and staff. I asked San Francisco native Mark Montgomery French, a composer and lecturer as well as a writer at PopMatters, what the reopening of The Stud meant to him.

as he explained, “It was as if Fanny would just do anything she needed to succeed at all costs. There was a ferocity to it that worked beautifully for her.

“I think that Katerina captures that sense of ambition, but there’s also an uplift to her performance that’s unique.”

Critics have almost unanimously agreed, praising 25-year-old McCrimmon, who’s making her national tour debut following a single Broadway stint in “The Rose Tattoo” in 2019.

“She’s phenomenal,” said Lukas, “She’s such a generous partner on stage, she’s incredibly funny, and her voice is just out of this world.

In addition to McCrimmon and Michele, Lukas has done the fandango with Julie Benko, Hannah Shankman, Leah Platt, and Ephie Aardema, all of who have understudied Fanny on Broadway or the tour. Benko also famously took over for original Broadway leading lady Beanie Feldstein, captivating audiences and setting her own star on the rise in the interim period before Michele stepped into the role.

Leading man material

Lukas, who has played Elder Price in “The Book of Mormon” both on Broadway and on tour, is perhaps best known in the industry for playing leading male roles in evergreen musicals, parts he consistently books at major regional theaters nationally.

Sky Masterson in “Guys and Dolls,” Joe Hardy in “Damn Yankees,” Lancelot in “Camelot,” and Curly in “Oklahoma” are among the classic hunks he’s brought to hummable life.

has the rare distinction of having played opposite half a dozen Funny Girls and appreciates the differences they’ve brought to the part.

“The show is structured around Fanny,” said Lukas in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “And a central role like that needs to be built on the strengths and the vulnerabilities of the actress who is playing her.

“It wouldn’t work to do an impression of Barbra Streisand or even a generalized idea of her style. Each of the six women I’ve had a chance to do it with are incredible actresses as well as great singers, and they all bring a huge part of themselves to the role.

“It’s been fun having the chance to play the same part with different actors as Fanny,” reflected Lukas. “I get to have some fun with the role a little, change it up a bit to bring out different sides of myself to work with each of their styles.”

McCrimmon, Michele, and more

Of Katerina McCrimmon, who plays Fanny on tour, Lukas said, “There’s a vivaciousness to her take on the role. Her Fanny has a genuine lust for life. She’s focused on building her career, but there’s a sense of joy to everything she does. It’s very clear that Fanny is enjoying herself. And I know Katerina is too.”

Toward the end of the show’s Broadway run, leading man Karimloo left for a month in order to fulfill a long-standing engagement as the Phantom of the Opera in Italy, giving Lukas the chance to play a weeks-long stretch of performances opposite Lea Michele, who drew rave reviews for her take on Fanny.

While McCrimmon’s interpretation of the part is vivacious, Lukas described Michele’s as “almost violent,” still sounding a bit stunned

Engaged to marry longtime partner and former Broadway dancer Brian Letendre, Lukas says he loves playing these somewhat old-fashioned straight romantic characters.

“Growing up in Kennebunk, Maine, my parents always played musical cast albums and took us to see the big shows a few times a year in New York.”

He does mention that “This ‘Funny Girl’ has been updated a bit. Harvey Fierstein worked on the book to round out the secondary characters and punch things up.”

“When I first started auditioning for Broadway, there were lots of pop and rock-sounding shows. But that’s just not the right music for my voice. I really love the old Broadway standards.”

birth of the new version at Oasis.

Honey Mahogany performs at The Stud’s grand opening on April 20

Historic bar’s triumphant third time’s a charm

Gooch

Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Stephen Mark Lukas in ‘Funny Girl’

by Heather Cassell

Nearly 100 people came out to the opening reception of “Out Museum: A Chinese Queer Museum” exhibit on April 12. The “Chinese queer museum prototype” by lesbian Chinese artist Xiangqi Chen opened at 41 Ross Alley art studio in the historic Chinatown April 11.

The collection of mixed media works explores the experiences of LGBTQ Chinese from Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. Viewers of the queer Chinese experiences took in a documentary projected onto a wall in the back of the small gallery; a video of the artist, Chen getting dressed and marching in traditional Chinese opera garb in her first parade at San Francisco Pride. On the wall directly across the room from the video is a largescale image of her transformation celebrating her heritage and queerness marching down Market Street.

Chen said the photo of her at Pride is her favorite piece in the exhibit because “it was a very special moment” for her. The two separate works are connected by a string of Chinese lesbian zines and event fliers hanging along the archway in the middle of the gallery.

A large rainbow in the front of the gallery invites people to create with crayons and markers and post messages on the interactive creative piece. In a corner behind the rainbow piece there are images of two queer women in a hijab holding signs in Chinese above fliers explaining the exhibit.

“It is impossible to build a Chinese Queer Museum, but it is not impossible to try a version of it,” the red flier printed in several different languages begins. The flier goes on explaining that Out Museum “assumes that museums are forever” and in that assumption is “comfort” that the Chinese queer communities “activism, and our ‘stuff’ may live on for an eternity.”

Crackdown

The impossibility of being able to create queer spaces in China is due to a severe crackdown by the Chinese government on LGBTQ and feminist activism in the country. The Bay Area Reporter previously reported last May, China’s last LGBTQ community center located in Beijing, China’s capital, closed. In 2021, Chinese authorities’ shutdown LGBTQ and feminist groups on WeChat, the country’s Xlike social media network, and universities’ queer and feminist research and

unofficial student groups.

Chen moved to the U.S. as an visiting scholar, she told the B.A.R. through interpreter Hoi Leung (the exhibit’s curator and a Hongkonger queer woman, Leung is also the CCC’s deputy director)

Chen continues to fight back from the U.S. through her artwork and activism. Chen said she feels reinvigorated for the movement again, due to Out Museum and CCC’s support.

At the exhibit’s opening reception, Madeleine Lim, executive director of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, praised CCC’s support of queer Chinese artists, saying it is “significant” and “so moving and so important.”

“I understand government crackdown and impact on the lives of LGBTQ people,” continued Lim. An immigrant queer woman of color, her 1997 film, “Sambal Belacan in San Francisco” is still banned in Singapore more than 25 years later, the B.A.R. previously reported.

Lim empathized with Chen, whom she met years ago, and her work and praised Leung for CCC’s and her ongoing support of queer Chinese artists and being a longtime QWOCMAP partner.

San Francisco Pride President Nguyen Pham agreed calling the CCC’s ongoing support of queer Chinese artists and the community was “vital.”

The event was “critical to show not

only our community, but also the world that queer and trans people have always existed in our Asian communities and to uplift that,” he said.

“It’s also critical to venture out to different parts of San Francisco and make sure that we’re shedding light on the existing beauty of our distinctive neighborhoods,” Pham added.

Chen said she wants “all people to understand the issues that the Chinese queer community is going through,” but for Out Museum in particular, “It’s really also about the Chinese speakers in the U.S. for them to really see people

in the Chinese culture.”

Laney College adjunct faculty and Lavender Project Coordinator Yih Ren said his favorite piece was the documentary where LGBTQ Chinese people talk queer life in China.

“It is very fluid and very indeed queer,” said the 31-year-old University of San Francisco doctoral candidate who is studying queerness in Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans. “I think having a physical space here will definitely foster a stronger identification with their identities and their homeland as well.”

Other exhibitions, films, panel discussions, and pop-up performances by Chinese queer and feminist artists will run alongside the exhibit during the nearly three months Out Museum is displayed.

Officials and fans

San Francisco’s elected officials, Chinese American and LGBTQ community leaders, and people interested in the Chinese queer experience crowded the narrow ally and small gallery during the opening reception April 12. The festivities were heightened by the energy in the air that Chinatown’s Night Market also brought.

Mayoral candidate and San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Connie Chan kicked off the event with speeches along with other elected officials.

“The notion that the LGBT community is alive and well in Shanghai is profound and meaningful to me and my constituents and my colleagues,” Peskin told the crowd. He continued

stating that events like the exhibit are the “cultural ties” that make him and San Francisco “very proud. The real legislators are artists, but artists are really the people who legislate how we think,” he said, before handing a certificate of honor to Chen as the crowd erupted with applause.

Chen, Chan, and Peskin were joined by openly gay elected officials California State Senator Scott Weiner, District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio.

Some heads of the city’s LGBTQ community organizations also came out to the opening. Openly lesbian Lim and Openhouse’s Kathleen Sullivan, Ph.D., as well as, openly gay Roberto Ordenana of the GLBT Historical Society and Museum, and Pham were among the queer community leaders at the opening. Former openly gay head of the California Arts Council Jonathan Moscone was also present.

Chen expressed her gratitude for what generations of Chinese and LGBTQ activists have done, “It’s just amazing,” she told the crowd through her translator. The studio is celebrating its ten-year anniversary. Opened in 2014, the studio is a collaboration between the Chinatown Community Development Center and the CCC.t

‘Out Museum: A Chinese Queer Museum’ through June 29, Thursdays through Saturdays, 11am-4pm in Chinatown between Washington and Jackson streets. www.cccsf.us www.41ross.org

<< Stephen Mark Lucas

From page 13

Melissa Manchester plays Mama

Making a refreshing return to musical theater as Fanny Brice’s mother is recording star Melissa Manchester, 73.

After making a mark in Bette Midler’s backup trio, the Harlettes, Manchester had a series of solo pop hits, including “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” and “Midnight Blue,” which were omnipresent on adult contemporary radio in the late 1970s.

No stranger to musical theater, Manchester saw Streisand on Broadway in “Funny Girl” as a child. In 1979, she stepped into a part created on Broadway by Bernadette Peters, head-

lining the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Song and Dance.”

On Monday, May 20, Manchester will headline a one-night fundraising concert for the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation and Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS. “The Diva’s Toast,” hosted by queer quipster Bruce Vilanch at Marine’s Memorial Theater, will also feature several “Funny Girl” cast members.t

‘Funny Girl,’ April 30-May 26. $55-$239. Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St. (888)-746-1799

www.broadwaysf.com

‘The Diva’s Toast’ with Melissa Manchester, May 20. $40-$100. Marines’ Memorial Theater, 609 Sutter St. (415) 264-0926.

www.reaf-sf.org

Katerina McCrimmon and Stephen Mark Lukas in ‘Funny Girl’

Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Xiangqi Chen speaks at the opening of her exhibit. Chinese Cultural Center

Left: Flyers adorn an archway at the intimate 41 Ross gallery opening on April 12. Right: Zines depicting queer Chinese women’s lives in China.

Chinese Cultural Center Heather Cassell

by Philip Mayard

Anniversary seasons can be a tricky proposition for artistic organizations, requiring companies to strike a delicate balance between honoring their legacy and history, while looking toward the future and keeping programming fresh and relevant.

As Smuin Contemporary Ballet approaches the conclusion of its ambitious 30th anniversary season, it’s clear that the company’s leaders, Artistic Director Celia Fushille and Associate Artistic Director Amy Seiwert, have risen to the challenge. Smuin’s 202324 season culminates in a month-long run of a triple-bill program in four venues across the Bay Area, followed by a week-long engagement at New York’s celebrated Joyce Theatre in July.

Although it’s been an exhilarating but exhausting season for the 16-dancer company, on a recent afternoon in the sunny Smuin Ballet headquarters on Potrero Hill, there was a palpable sense of change and excitement in the air. Downstairs in the main studio, Seiwert rehearsed her work, “Broken Open,” with the dancers, meticulously fine-tuning solos and duets, and ensuring that the performers understood the emotions driving each moment. As rehearsal came to an end, Seiwert directed the dancers to prepare for a full runthrough, while Fushille came down from her second-floor office and quietly entered the studio to observe.

As the ballet unfolded, the dancers energetically approached every move, fully embodying the work and performing as though they were in front of a packed house. At the conclusion

of the piece, Fushille wiped tears from her eyes and walked over to Seiwert, looked directly into her eyes, whispered a few words of praise, and the two shared a long hug.

Reflection and transition

In recent days, moments of reflection and acknowledgement have become more frequent for both of these women, as Fushille prepares to step down after 17 years as Artistic Director and turn the leadership of Smuin Ballet over to Seiwert.

Following the rehearsal Fuschille said, “I haven’t had time to watch Amy rehearse. That’s the first time I’ve seen a full run of the piece. Seeing these artists who I’ve worked with for so long, what they are doing, and what Amy is pulling out of them, it just brought

tears to my eyes. The company is going to be in good, caring hands.”

For several years Fushille and her board of directors had been working on a succession plan, conversations no doubt informed by the sudden death of the company’s founder Michael Smuin in 2007, unexpectedly thrusting Fushille into the Artistic Director position.

She said, “I didn’t have a departure date, but I felt it was important to talk about this for me and for other key staff members who have been with Smuin for so long and have so much institutional knowledge.”

She added, “I had a short list of people in my mind who I thought would be appropriate for the role, but it was the board’s decision. It was wonderful because we had time to really think about tough questions. Does the person who succeeds me need to have known and worked with Michael? Do they understand the ethos of this company or can we hire someone completely new to come in and start creating? What’s important to us as an organization?”

For anyone familiar with the dance landscape in America, particularly here in the Bay Area, Seiwert’s appointment to the position was a welcome if not totally unexpected surprise. A nationally prominent choreographer who has created works for companies across the country, Seiwert danced with Smuin Ballet for nine years and was the company’s Choreographer in Residence from 2008-2018.

According to Fushille, “Amy is so invested in the art form, where it’s come from and where it’s going. She cares deeply about this company. She loved Michael, she cares about his work and she knows what this company is about. I told her, ‘Amy, I have to know that you will keep Michael’s legacy alive.’ Amy said, ‘Cel, I will not only keep Michael’s legacy alive, I’ll keep your legacy alive too.’”

Creativity thrives

Seiwert is indeed committed to carrying on the tireless work of both Smuin and Fushille. She said, “Michael’s legacy was all about creation. When I joined the company, he was making at least two new ballets each year. He believed strongly in the power of the words, putting ‘World Premiere’ on a poster. And, Michael gave me and other dancers the space to explore our interest in choreography, which was so critical in my career. Celia has followed that with the Choreography Showcase, which allows our dancers to create new works on each other. I want to continue and even expand on that. To be a choreographer, you need to keep making new works, and to have an idea that maybe doesn’t work. I’m passionate about creating an environment where creativity can thrive.”

Seiwert believes Fushille’s legacy is grounded in curation, saying, “The day that Celia got a Jiří Kylián work for the company changed a lot of people’s perception of who we were, and what

‘Just come here and point your foot on count three.’”

As she looks to the future, Seiwert doesn’t envision a big change in the eclectic range of work the company presents.

“If you’re really interested in doing ‘Swan Lake,’ this isn’t the place,” she said. “I have a deep love for classical ballet, and I did it for years and years. Then I wanted to do something else, and that’s when I came here. What’s most exciting is finding dancers who are really curious. Smuin performs more than most companies. Other companies, you can work your butt off for seven weeks and perform a piece twice. We do programs around 20 times, sometimes more.”

we could do. To do the work of Jiří, Trey McIntyre, James Kudelka, Annabelle Ochoa (whose new work for Smuin makes its world premiere this month) and many others, these are incredible opportunities. I want dancers to know that if they come here, they’re going to be collaborating with exceptional choreographers and making world premieres with them. It’s not

Seiwert continued, “There are solos that Michael made on me that I would perform well over 100 times. You have to find something new about what you’re doing. You have to stay curious and figure out how to approach things differently, not just to keep the audience engaged but to keep yourself engaged. Curiosity is one of the traits that allows an artist to thrive.”t

Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s Dance Series 2, May 3 - 31, $34-89, various Bay Area venues, www.smuinballet.org

Above: Amy Seiwert being lifted in a dance by Michael Smuin

Below: Amy Seiwert strikes a stunning leap pose with the Bay Bridge and San Francisco in the background

Above: Scot Goodman Below:Tom Hauck

Left: Amy Siewert (right) in rehearsal for ‘French Kiss’ Right: Amy Seiwert and Celia Fushille outside the Smuin Center for Dance

Both photos: Chris Hardy

SF International Arts Festival

by David-Elijah Nahmod

Since 2003 the San Francisco International Arts Festival has celebrated the arts by bringing together a global community of performers and

audiences, by focusing on increasing human awareness and understanding within and across cultures. The festival will run from May 1 until May 12 at various venues around the city’s Mission District.

“It’s success in the defense of art –even with the lack of support of art, the lack of support of gays and the lack of night life support from the city,” said French. “It also means the spirit of freedom and fun can’t be stopped. People come from all over to experience this safe fun, and you don’t get this in the suburbs.”

Bernadette Fons is known from the 9th Street Stud and spoke about the sense of family in the bar. She was hired by late Stud owner Ben Guibord in 2005, and it was already a highly popular workplace. Said Fons, “Once you get a job here, nobody ever leaves.”

Rachel Ryan, president of the Stud Collective, about finally getting the bar open, said, “The process has been a rollercoaster and it’s been a long time

This year’s festival theme is “In Diaspora: I.D. For the New Majority,” and will include a variety of LGBT performers. According to Festival Executive Director Andrew Wood, the theme speaks to the shifting demographics in the United States.

“I think the LGBTQ+ community is part of that movement,” Wood said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I don’t know that statistically there are any more LGBTQ+ people than there were in the past, but more people are coming out and identifying as such. I think that is very powerful and it adds a dimension and richness to the diversity of the country. An LGBTQ+ consciousness is part of this coalition majority.”

Wood feels that the backlash against LGBTQ+ people in some parts of the country is a reaction to this. He added that Republicans are realizing that the abortion issue is going to work against them in the upcoming elections, so they need to find other innocent communities to beat up on.

“Banning Critical Race Theory and creating legislation against trans youth is part of that,” he said. “I think this is why it is important to build strong coalitions across cultures to combat these kinds of attacks. And that is what we try to emphasize with the festival.”

Wood explained what he looks for when he books a performer to appear at the festival.

“For the international artists, we are looking for types of original works that aren’t being presented by Bay Area artists,” he said. “We identify local artists whose work speaks to the theme and who wants to share their message with our audience. A festival is an opportunity to see a kaleidoscope of performances across many genres and cultures and we try to provide that.”

Music acts

One of the featured LGBTQ performers at this year’s festival is trans musician (and executive director of the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival) Shawna Virago, who is delighted to be bringing her unique talents to the festival stage.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the Arts Festival,” she said. “They’re one of the few San Francisco organizations with an international reach. I was so glad to be invited and be given free reign to do what I want.”

coming, but it has been very exciting!”

Returning to the bar for the grand opening on April 20, standing in line next to me was Manny Yekutiel of Manny’s. While we waited, he asked if he should get into his outfit, and the answer to that is always yes, so when he came back he was trying to decide whether to wear his wig or a turban, and a butch gentlemen in front of us suggested the turban on top of the wig, which was perfect! In heels, Manny was able to offer a good description of the Sister’s ritual, which included a sprinkling of green and blue glitter.

The opening party included themes from the bars several decades. Asked which era he most admired and who he was here to see, Yekutiel said, “I wish I had been here in the ’70s, so I’m really looking forward to DJ Steve Fabus.”

Once inside, I asked Sister Bubbles Bathory, who was with The Sisters of

Virago’s performance will take place on May 2 at El Rio. The show is called “Blood in Her Dreams” and it’s the record release party for Virago’s new album of the same name.

“It’s a night of trans and queer punky-tonk and alt-Americana music featuring myself, the Secret Emchy Society, and Ed Varga,” Virago said. “Plus our event hostess is drag royalty Churro Nomi.”

Perpetual Indulgence on the crowded patio for their ritual. “It was a blessing for the opening, and as well as blessing the entrance,” said Bathory. “We also blessed the (bathroom) stalls with glitter.”

Virago noted that her show won’t just appeal to trans people, but to all genders. This show is for lovers of punk-Americana and alt-country music. She added that it’s important to be out and visible. She has been performing as her true self for three decades.

“We live in a time of contradictions,” she said. “There are lots of people who want to erase the existence of trans people, while there are many more who are championing trans and gender non-conforming people. I have the privilege of being out and getting to raise my voice. And I have a really loud voice.”t

All of the LGBT acts performing in the San Francisco International Arts Festival this year

May 1 and 3, 8pm / May 4, 2pm

Mission Cultural Center / 2868 Mission Street

Kassandra Production, The Soul Catcher “Unmasking the Modern Predator”

The Soul Catcher, “Unmasking the Modern Predator” is a seductive and disturbing performance about psychological abuse, manipulation and power, all told with a powerful mix of performance, dance, spoken word, and electronic music.

Kassandra Production is an artist driven platform for innovative contemporary performing arts, in the intersection of dance, theater, media, activism, and performance art.

May 2, 9pm / El Rio / 3158 Mission Street

Shawna Virago and friends, record release party for “Blood in Her Dreams” with Secret Emchy Society and Ed Varga.

May 3, 7pm / Bissap Baobab / 2243 Mission Street

Agua Pura plays a mix of traditional Cuban music, Cumbia, Salsa, Timba, and R & B fusion. The band members are all femme/queer.

May 3, 8:30pm / May 4, 4pm

Dance Mission Theater / 3316 24th Street

Joe Landini Dance, “Freddie vs Elvis,” World Premiere

Two abstract dances that use the music of Freddie Mercury and Elvis Presley as backdrops to create a series of dances that are influenced by iconic imagery, pop culture and collective memory.

May 9, 8pm / El Rio / 3158 Mission Street

Rachel Garlin Concert and DJ Rockaway Dance Party

Singer/songwriter Rachel Garlin teams up with DJ Rockaway for a night of LGBTQ+ original production, starting with a concert, and ending with a dance party. www.sfiaf.org

Music of the ages

The course of the evening’s music went decade by decade. For the 1960s, Brown Amy and DJ Carnitas played a set which included “Think” by Aretha Franklin, “Want Ads” by Honey Cone and “Love is Like an Itchin’ in my Heart” by the Supremes.

Gina LaDivina was the opening performer and did “Don’t Rain on my Parade” from the 1960s musical “Funny Girl.”

Steve Fabus’ 1970s set was indeed memorable, and his set included “Music Is My Way of Life” by Patti Labelle, “Let’s Start the Dance” by Hamilton Bohannon, “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder, and “Do You Want to Funk” by Sylvester and Patrick Cowley. It was exceptionally touching to hear Sylvester, given his connection with The Stud.

The ’80s New Wave set by Jim Hopkins included “Pale Shelter” by Tears for Fears and “Words” by Tom Tom Club. The performer for this hour was Fauxnique, who was amazing, as usual.

The performer for the ’90s Club Kid era was Rahni Nothingmore, who did a killer version of “I’m Your Baby Tonight.”

I stayed through part of the T-Shack era set, to see a fun performance from Glamamore.

On my way out the door, Sister Bubbles Bathory sweetly told me, “Get home safe now!”

It was a wonderful baptism for the new location of the Stud. It’s open, it’s waiting and it’s lots of fun. Welcome back!t

The Stud, 1123 Folsom Street. www.studsf.com

Above: The Soul Catcher, “Unmasking the Modern Predator” Middle: Joe Landini dancers Below, Left to Right: Shawna Virago, Ed Varga, and Cindy Emch

Anne Huebertz

Kyle Adler

Lindsay Gauthier

David Le

Left: A vintage ad for a Sylvester concert at the old Stud bar on Folsom Street. Middle: Stud bar patrons in the early 1990s Right: The Stud’s 45th anniversary at the former location on Harrison Street.

Marc Geller

Left: Devoted Stud bar patrons at The Stud’s grand opening on April 20

Right: A crowded dance floor at The Stud’s grand opening on April 20

Both photos: Gooch

Jim Provenzano

SFFilm’s queer picks

by Brian Bromberger

“Film, always a reflection of and beacon for society, remains the gateway to a vibrant healthy future of our culture and city,” is the inspirational credo of Anne Lai, Executive Director of SFFilm, as she introduced the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival, the longest running film festival in the Americas. The festival will run April 24-28.

Unfortunately, perhaps because the festival has been shortened, there are few queer films, with the LGBTQ aspect only an incidental part of each movie.

“Wakhri” is a Pakistani film inspired by the late social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch. Well-known Pakistani actress Faryal Mehmood stars as Noor Malik, a widowed dedicated school teacher with an 11-year-old son. Her late husband’s Muslim family disapproves of her liberal views and seeks to gain custody of her son. Her school is closing and she wants to raise funds to open a school for girls.

Her best friend, gay Gucci (Gulshan Majeed) who dresses in drag, convinces her to perform at a nightclub. She adopts a disguise with a veil and purple wig, calling herself Wakhri. The sexy persona emboldens her and she starts expressing controversial opinions supporting women and opposing bigotry. She becomes a viral sensation and unlikely social influencer, developing her own voice, which engenders a violent backlash on social media. She’s defiant and unafraid to break barriers or challenge stereotypes and social norms. She refuses to back down.

This is obviously an important film for Pakistan, where women are largely defined through their fathers, brothers, or husbands. Overall, it’s well worth watching, though it’s time to retire the gay best friend cliché

“Luther: Never Too Much” is director Dawn Porter’s affectionate deep appreciation of singer Luther Vandross (1951-2005) and his music. Influenced by the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, and Dionne Warwick, he sung in the Listen My Brother Ensemble with his other Harlem childhood friends.

His first four albums went platinum, creating music ideal for sex (at least according to actor Jamie Foxx). He composed his own songs, was an arranger, producer, and even designed his own clothes. He was nominated for nine Grammys before he finally won one in 1991.

Pigeon-holed as an R & B singer, Vandross never hit number one on the pop Billboard charts because mainstream radio stations didn’t play his music, as he was perceived has having no crossover appeal. They claimed he didn’t match the romantic image portrayed in his songs.

This insult plus limited budgets, recording times, and promotion is rightly attributed to racism. He suffered from diabetes and weight problems (“I’m always thinking about food”) constantly binging or going on extreme diets, losing so much weight rumors circulated he was dead or had AIDS, all of which affected him emotionally.

Although probably gay (he wouldn’t deny or confirm it, though his Liberace-lite wardrobe leaves little doubt), Vandross feared alienating his women fans and family, so he com-

partmentalized his public and personal selves. Porter and close friends want to honor his privacy, but it is probably likely that homophobia also prevented him from becoming the superstar his talent should have merited. This is ultimately a sad story of an artist, a vocal virtuoso, who never quite earned the respect his music deserved.

“Seeking Mavis Beacon” is a provocative, investigative, experimental documentary on the bestselling educational software program, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, launched in 1987.

However, Mavis Beacon was an invented character. She never existed, used by the software company to make its product more accessible. She seemed so real on the computer screen. The woman on the software cover was Haitian-born Renee L’Esperance, discovered behind a Saks Fifth Avenue cosmetic counter, who had never modeled.

She was paid $500, and was the first Black women on the cover of a computer product (“the Aunt Jemima of technology”), becoming a household name and role model of excellence for Black children. The program sold six million copies in 11 years. L’Esperance disappeared in 1995 with later models replacing her.

The documentary follows two young Black women – Jazmin Jones, the director; and Olivia Ross, the investigator and associate director – as they engage in a wild goose chase to locate L’Esperance, even finding the original software developers. We learn she might not want to be (re)discovered, but the hunt exacts an emotional and physical toll on Jones, who might best be described as a lighthearted stalker.

Jones is queer; we don’t find that out from the film but on its website. However, there is a clue because both women watch lesbian Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman” – on the search for a forgotten queer black actress – many times, for inspiration.

There are some fascinating questions posed, such as; do we see our heroes as real people and do we have a right to be forgotten, as well as the dehumanization and exploitation of Black women. The two women are confident and care about each other, though we aren’t told the nature of their relationship. This bold, engaging documentary can be self-indulgent and lacking in focus, but you do care whether the women find L’Esperance.

The best film I saw at the festival was not LGBTQ-related, but will win the hearts of all viewers regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, “Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story.” I remember as a wee child watching and loving the 1969 film “Ring of Bright Water,” about a Londoner and his pet otter living on the coast of Scotland. “Billy and Molly” is the best otter film since “Ring.”

Molly, apparently orphaned as a pup when her mother was hit by a car, washes up on Bill’s jetty on a remote Shetland Island in Scotland, alone, starving, and injured. Molly is a river otter living in the sea since there’s not enough food in the rivers to sustain them. Billy nurses “Molly” back to health, along with his wife Susan and devoted sheepdog Jade (ignored, begging for attention and playtime).

Wife Susan begins to wonder if Billy might be interfering with Molly’s ability

to survive in the wild, as domestication by humans can be disastrous. “Molly was his whole life, he was only part of hers.” At only 77 minutes, the film could have explored this issue more deeply, but this is a minor quibble.

Directed and shot by National Geographic photographer now-filmmaker Charlie Hamilton-Jones, the film’s gorgeous nature cinematography on land and undersea entrances us all the way to the film’s stunning and unexpected finale. The film will screen later this year on Disney Plus.

Another well-reviewed animal documentary, “The Cats of Gokogu Shrine,” was not available for review. It’s the story of a large stray cat colony that inhabits a Shinto shrine in the seaside town of Ushimado in Japan.

The mostly elderly residents care for them, while others are disturbed by the poop mess they make as well as concern about the wrong impression that people can abandon their cats there and they will be taken care of by the townsfolk. It sounds as if cat aficionados will be in heaven.

Still another film getting rave reviews but not available for review, is “Sing Sing,” concerning Divine G (played by the gay Oscar-nominated actor, Colman Domingo, “Rustin”) imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.

The film is based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at New York’s Sing-Sing maximum security prison. Reviews say it is a story of resilience, humanity, and the healing transformative power of art. Its theme

is that no matter what you have done in the past or what terrible situation you find yourself, there are ways out and it’s never too late to turn your life around should resonate with all viewers.

Finally, straight ally/gay icon Joan Chen, Chinese-American actor, screenwriter, producer, and director will be honored with a special screening of a rare 35mm print of her 1998 debut directorial feature, “Xiu Xii: The Sent Down Girl.” Chen is fondly remembered as the unwed, pregnant mother of her lesbian surgeon daughter finding love with her dancer girlfriend in Alice Wu’s landmark 2004 film, “Saving Face.”t

www.sffilm.org

Left: ‘Wakhri’ Middle Left: ‘Luther: Never Too Much’ Middle Right: ‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’ Right: ‘Billy and Molly: An Otter Love Story’

Left: ‘The Cats of Gokogu Shrine’ Middle: ‘Sing Sing’ Right: Actor/director/producer Joan Chen

by David-Elijah Nahmod

avid Vass has lived a colorful life.

DNow in his 70s, he has seen and done it all. In his new memoir, “Liar, Alleged: A Tell-all: Celebrities, Sex, and all the Rest,” Vass recalls his life behind the scenes in show business, growing up gay during the 1950s and ’60s, and much more.

Vass, born in 1950, grew up in what he refers to as a “white trash” neighborhood in Baltimore. He was an unwanted child, and was for the most part left alone to do as he pleased. For two years during his childhood, he refused to speak due to a speech impediment that was eventually corrected through surgery and speech therapy.

From a very early age, Vass knew he was gay and had no shame about it. He had no compunction about telling grownups that he thought he was a homosexual because he fantasized about men. He developed quite a reputation in school for staring at other boys’ crotches and he didn’t care what his classmates thought of this. When he was assigned to be the towel monitor in gym class showers, he was delighted because he got to see all of his male classmates naked.

Vass’ language is quite graphic as he recalls these experiences. He gets even more graphic when he writes about his sexual exploits during the late ’60s and ’70s. The book opens with a warning:

“This book contains explicit sexual content, adult themes, and is suitable only for mature audiences eighteen and older,” reads the warning. “This work may be considered profane, vulgar, unsettling, inappropriate, and/or offensive. It may be too graphic or explicit for some readers.”

While “Liar, Alleged” is definitely not for kids, were it made into a film it would no doubt be rated NC17, it’s highly unlikely that the average gay adult reader would find it all that shocking.

Show biz tales

Actually, “Liar, Alleged” is a great deal of fun, filled with anecdotes that might give readers pause and think, “You can’t make this stuff up.” While still a minor, Vass got a job working lights and sound in seedy Baltimore strip clubs. He writes about those years with raunchy good humor, recalling his friendships with the ladies, one of whom was his bisexual sister. In one particularly funny memory finds Vass walking in on his sister doing “the deed” with a boy that Vass himself had been putting the make on.

His time in strip clubs served him well. Years later he did tech work in nightclubs and cabarets, working with some of the biggest names in show business like Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Frank

Sinatra, and Julie Andrews, who, unlike her squeaky clean image, had quite a dirty mouth. He writes about all of his celebrity friends with an honesty that is sometimes jarring. He holds nothing back. Some of the stories are hilarious, while some are sad. At one point he did tech for Little Edie Beale of “Grey Gardens” fame, a woman with obvious mental health issues who couldn’t remember song lyrics and had no idea how to conduct herself on stage. But the audience loved Edie because of her “Grey Gardens” fame. Vass devotes an entire chapter to his friendship with jazz legend Anita O’Day, who, like Vass, abused drugs, stole when she needed to, and served time in jail. O’Day was a woman who took no prisoners, and her mother/ son relationship with Vass is quite moving.

Bianca Del Rio

by David-Elijah Nahmod When drag superstar Bianca Del Rio was crowned Most Powerful Drag Queen by Vulture, she took it all in stride.

“It was a surprise and an honor,” Del Rio said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “But I try not to get too caught up in that stuff. This year I could be crowned the ugliest and most useless. That’s showbiz, baby.”

Currently on tour, Del Rio will bring her unique brand of outrageous humor to the Warfield on May 3 and May 4 in a new show called “Dead Inside.”

But just who is Bianca Del Rio?

How did she come to be? According to the diva, she was born nine months after a wild night between Joan Rivers, Don Rickles, and Bozo the Clown, though she won’t say what happened that night. She refers to herself as “the expert on nothing who has an opinion on everything, who likes to wear sparkly gowns and too much makeup.” But she has her serious side as well.

“Visibility is extremely important for drag and all other marginalized groups,” she said. “Because the more people are exposed to those groups the less threatened they feel by them. Drag visibility demystifies and humanizes LGBTQ+ individuals, and it helps LGBTQ+ youth in red states feel seen and less alone.”

The “Drag Race” alumnus has never been afraid to shock or offend her audiences. She admits that there has been backlash, yet she stands her ground, saying that pushback isn’t going to change who she is or what she has to say.

“But there are quite a few people out there who are just as rotten as I am and find humor in everything,” she said. “That’s my target audience. There will always be people who are offended by something I say, but I don’t pay those

Vass’ time in jail came about when he refused to sign up for the draft during the Vietnam war. He had a grand time in the slammer, where he had lots of sex.

“Liar, Alleged” is relatively short at 261 pages. It’s an easy read, a book that recalls what it was like to be gay both pre- and post-Stonewall. The words flowed easily from Vass. It’s raunchy, yes, but it’s well worth checking out for those who love reading about show biz and for those who have an open mind about sexuality; highly recommended.t

‘Liar, Alleged: A Tell-All Celebrities, Sex, and all the Rest’ by David Vass, AR Press, 261 pages, Hardcover $16.99, Paperback $11.99, Kindle $0.99, Audiobook $19.95 www.davidvass.com

Drag star coming to the Warfield

people any mind. As a good friend of mine once said: “Bianca can’t get canceled, because she stays canceled.”

Del Rio promises that “Dead Inside” will be pretty offensive. She advises parents to leave their kids at home, and says that anyone with thin skin should also stay at home.

“If you’re the type of person who laughs at funerals and doesn’t take anything seriously, then come on out,” she said. “You’ll probably like my show.”

And when push comes to shove,

Del Rio advises people against pursuing a career in drag. “It’s a trap,” she warned. “You dress in drag once for Halloween, and thirty years later you’re in drag six days a week schlepping huge bags of wigs, makeup, and tights all over the world.”t

Bianca Del Rio’s ‘Dead Inside Comedy Tour,’ May 3 and May 4, 8pm, $39.50-$275, The Warfield, 982 Market St.

Bianca Del Rio

by Gregg Shapiro

Long before cities such as Seattle (and by extension Olympia), Washington or Austin, Texas became music meccas at the end of the 20th century, Athens, Georgia was the place for cool bands. Athens was home to legendary acts including the B-52’s and R.E.M., as well as Love Tractor, Oh-OK, and of course Pylon.

With lead vocals by Vanessa Briscoe Hay, and a unique danceable sound, Pylon made an indelible impression with two albums, “Gyrate” (1980) and “Chomp” (1983), before parting ways. Over the years they regrouped here and there, and then received the reissue-treatment in 2007, 2009, and then again in 2020.

Pylon Reenactment Society, led by the band’s original vocalist Vanessa Briscoe Hay, along with Jason Nesmith, Kay Stanton, and Gregory Sanders, makes its album debut on “Magnet Factory” (Strolling Bones/New West). The 11 songs manage to remind us of Hay’s origins while successfully making something new and exciting.

Gregg Shapiro: Vanessa, for those who may not be aware, please say something about how the original band line-up came up with the name Pylon.

Vanessa Briscoe Hay: Pylons are the cones you see on the road, not the architectural ones or electrical ones. We chose the name Pylon because its shape is modern, industrial, iconic, and functional. We first noticed them at a factory where three of us worked when we were coming up with our band name. Fortunately, another band name contender “Diagonal” fell by the wayside.

We considered using the symbol of a diagonal – perhaps found images – as our band name, years before Prince.

Pylon was one of several bands that emerged from the fertile Athens, Georgia music scene. What would you say were some of the qualities that distinguished it from the scenes in other cities at that time?

We were part of a creative group of people who weren’t afraid of working outside of our disciplines. Many who went to the art school at University of Georgia back then were trying on different hats – a photographer might make sculptures out of unconventional material like sprinklers or garden hoses like our bassist Michael Lachowski did, or painting using only two colors be-

Going out

cause that was all they could afford, like some of the art girls did. We weren’t afraid to just go in there and do it. No authority needed. Every scene needs a tipping point to succeed - we had all the elements we needed to make it happen: a great student radio station (WUOG), a record store (Chapter Three), interesting people, cheap rent, parties, and a vegetarian restaurant (El Dorado).

Fellow Athens band R.E.M. recorded a cover of Pylon’s “Crazy.” Do you recall what that meant to you?

It meant a lot. Pylon had retired for the first time at that point. I was honored that they chose our song to record. Michael Stipe heard it the first time we played it and remarked to me between sets outside the 40 Watt Club how much he liked that song. We would probably have been forgotten except for their recording of that song and a big mention in the movie “Athens, GA Inside/Out” around that same time. Pylon regrouped and began playing again in 1988.

Interest in Pylon never seriously waned and in 2007 and 2009 DFA reissued “Gyrate” and “Chomp,” which were then reissued in 2020 on New West, along with a four-LP box set. What do you think that says about Pylon’s musical impact?

I never would have guessed this would happen back when we got started in 1979. I thought it was going to be a one-off project. There is something elemental/youthful about our music which makes it ripe for rediscovery by succeeding generations. Our music can sometimes be a bit raw and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But it is danceable and fun. I have theorized that because we never achieved mainstream success (or were overplayed on the radio or MTV or wherever) that might make the music more interesting to some folks as well. Just a theory, who knows? I’m glad people are still finding out about us and like Pylon.

In what ways would you say your songwriting has evolved in the years between Pylon and Pylon Reenactment Society?

I am so glad you used the term evolve. As we live, hopefully, we do grow and evolve. It’s really hard for me to see exactly how I’ve evolved because I am obviously too close. I know I’ve experienced more things first-hand at this point than I experienced in earlier phases of my life, like birth, death, betrayal, magical things, sad things. I try to write a little something every day.

Maybe I’ve learned a few things.

Earlier we talked about R.E.M, and Kate Pierson of the B-52’s, another legendary Athens band, can be heard singing with you on the song “Fix It” on “Magnet Factory.” How did that collaboration come about?

About a year ago, the B-52s had announced that they were coming to the end of their touring days and would play their last show in Athens, GA. Of course, we all went. It was fabulous onstage and off [laughs]!

Anyway, Pylon Reenactment Society had just finished tracking our album and we were set to mix the album at Chase Park Transduction with David Barbe the following week. While watching this show, I realized what a perfect fit Kate would make for one of our songs. She is one of my singing idols and Cindy Wilson is another. I asked Kate after the show if she would sing a song with us on our album and she said yes. I sent her the lyrics and Jason sent her the tracks. She recorded her vocals at the studio she uses the next week and sent the re-

cording to us to mix. We were all over the moon when we heard her vocals. Just amazing! Such an honor to have her sing with us.

Athens bands including the B-52’s, R.E.M., and Love Tractor, all had queer members, which made me wonder if you were aware of an LGBTQ following for your own musical career?

We do have a LGBTQ following for our music – even some super fans. I am so appreciative of their support. I went to art school at UGA in Athens and was friends with Jeremy Ayers who was Silva Thin at Andy Warhol’s Factory. I also have loved ones in the LGBTQ community. Don’t we all?  If you say you don’t, you are in major league denial. We are all a part of the human race. Love not hate. We need more of that.

Read the full interview, with several music videos, on www.ebar.com.

pylonreenactmentsociety.com

Some really big shows are coming up in theater, dance, music and the visual arts. But probably nothing is as big as the giant sheep DJ art car, aka BAAAHS (Big-Ass Amazingly Awesome Homosexual Sheep), that’ll be at the April 28 Leather District block party celebrating the SF Eagle’s 11th anniversary of new ownership. Get your sunblock and your kinky dance gear and have fun. See plenty more events in Going Out, only on www.ebar.com.

(L-R) Jason Nesmith, Kay Stanton, Vanessa Briscoe Hay and Gregory Sanders of Pylon Reenactment Society Murmur Trestle Vanessa Briscoe Hay performing with Pylon Reenactment Society Allison Durham

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