April_26_2012

6

8

Gay Mormons meet in D.C.

Russian River renaissance

17

SF Int'l Film Fest, week 2

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 42 • No. 17 • April 26 - May 2, 2012

Courtesy Transgender Law Center Rick Gerharter

Aldo Paredes from Pro-Latino poses during the 2008 San Jose Pride Parade, one of the last held.

Challenges hit SJ gay agencies

by Seth Hemmelgarn and Matthew S. Bajko

T

wo LGBT-related nonprofits in San Jose face challenges as problems, including unstable leadership, hit one and the possibility of a building sale looms for another.

The festival director for the San Jose LGBT Pride celebration, who was just hired in January, recently resigned, and tumult at the board level appears to be slowing down preparations for the August 19 festival at Discovery Meadow. The troubles come as the Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose, the group behind the event, starts from almost nothing to try to raise about $200,000 for this year’s celebration.

Meanwhile, the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center faces concerns of its own. The center’s building will be sold in 2013.

Despite his organization’s troubles, Pride board President Nathan Svoboda, who joined the group last July, said, “I do guarantee San Jose Pride will happen.”

He said Pride has support from “many people,” and “We’re going to continue. By no means are we in turmoil.”

Pride’s board is set to meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Thursday, April 26) at the DeFrank Center, 938 The Alameda. Agenda items include disbursement of the festival director’s role.

Given that the organization is based in a city of almost 1 million people, its struggles in recent years may seem odd. Among other problems, last year’s festival saw disappointing attendance numbers, and it once again didn’t have a parade.

Ex-festival director Dane Dugan, who resigned earlier this month, initially declined to be interviewed for this story but eventually provided several comments through Facebook.

See page 11 >>

Mia and Trish Macy

Big EEOC win for 25 years in Congress trans woman Jane Philomen Cleland

H

ouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was all smiles as she accepted a plaque recognizing her 25 years in Congress during a volunteer work day at the National AIDS Memorial Grove Saturday, April 21. Pelosi was joined on the podium by John Cunningham, left, executive director of the grove, and Tom Jensen, grove board co-chair. Hundreds of people

turned out for the work day planting trees and flowers, and grove officials announced plans to establish the Nancy Pelosi Leadership Pathway at the entrance to the grove in Golden Gate Park. Pelosi has worked hard to secure federal AIDS funding and is a national leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS. She also helped create the memorial grove.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

I

n what advocates hailed as a “game-changing” decision, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that federal sex discrimination law protects employees who are discriminated against because they are transgender.

See page 13 >>

SF Dem candidates differ on party panel makeup

by Matthew S. Bajko

O

nce again control of the local Democratic Party in San Francisco is up for grabs this June.

Every two years Democrats spar over seats on the Democratic County Central Committee, referred to as “the D triple C.” The party’s oversight panel plays a key role in local elections by endorsing candidates and weighs in on policy debates at City Hall.

The DCCC has also long been a launching pad for those looking to enter local politics and be elected to public office. It has proven to be a good groomer for LGBT candidates, particularly in Assembly District 17, which covers the gay Castro district and LGBT-friendly neighborhoods such as the Mission, Bernal, South of Market, and Noe Valley.

There are currently 12 LGBT people on the DCCC, and this year 17 LGBT candidates are running for the DCCC’s 24 seats, 14 of which are designated for residents from AD 17. The other 10 seats are for residents of Assembly District 19, which covers the city’s western neighborhoods.

The jockeying for the DCCC comes as the odd-numbered seats on the Board of Supervisors are up for grabs this fall. The winners of the party race on the June 5 primary ballot will determine

Jane Philomen Cleland

Courtesy Dunning campaign

DCCC treasurer Alix Rosenthal

DCCC candidate Zoe Dunning

which supervisor candidates win the local Democratic Party’s endorsement.

And they will help pick the party’s next chair this summer as the incumbent, former supervisor and board president Aaron Peskin, opted not to seek re-election. Choosing his successor will be the first order of business for the new DCCC members after they are sworn into office.

In years past the DCCC race has largely been viewed as a battle between moderates and progressives for control of the local party. Progressives currently hold a majority on the DCCC, but how much clout they have had over City Hall is a matter of debate.

Voters have mostly rejected the committee’s See page 12 >>

{ FIRST OF TWO SECTIONS }

<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Elliot Owen

Dan Ashbrook, left, and Jamie Almanza discussed the recent merger of Lavender Seniors of the East Bay with Bay Area Community Services.

East Bay LGBT senior group merges with adult services agency

by Elliot Owen

L

avender Seniors of the East Bay, a local LGBT senior services and advocacy organization, has come under the new fiscal sponsorship of Bay Area Community Services, a mainstream vulnerable adult services agency, to maintain and expand its outreach to the LGBT community.

Talks of merging began two years ago with meetings between Dan Ashbrook, executive director of Lavender Seniors, and Jaime Almanza, executive director of BACS, after they realized that the two organizations share similar visions.

“We came together to leverage our resources for the advancement of our missions,” Ashbrook said, “and realized all the wonderful possibilities should Lavender Seniors become a LGBT outreach advocacy arm of BACS.” Founded nearly 60 years ago, BACS provides adult day care, meals on wheels, case management, transportation, and mental health services to marginalized adult communities.

Prior to the incorporation of Lavender Seniors, BACS lacked any LGBTcentered programs.

“We did not have a formalized approach for providing LGBT-specific service strategies for our populations who experience many unique challenges as they age,” Almanza said.

“Through this merger, all BACS staff and clients throughout our many programs now have direct access and support to the expertise of Lavender Seniors.”

Since 1994, Lavender Seniors has been providing LGBT seniors with a variety of services, namely free monthly social lunches, educational seminars, and a friendly visitors program. Its advocacy branch educates health service providers, government officials and legislators about LGBT older adult issues through cultural competency trainings and community events. Today, Lavender Seniors serves 100 unduplicated clients per

month and about 200 more over the course of the year.

Government grants, private funding, and donations kept Lavender Seniors afloat since its inception, but when government funding for the agency was slashed by 30 percent in 2008 and continued to decrease each year thereafter, Ashbrook felt they needed to react.

“Our funding couldn’t keep pace with our growing client list,” he said.

“We knew we needed a better business plan and didn’t want to wait until total financial crisis before putting a plan into action.”

Prior to merging with BACS in February, Lavender Seniors operated under an annual budget of $150,000 and has now been able to cut costs by 50 percent after nestling under the wing of BACS, which has an $8 million budget. The BACS offices are in downtown Oakland.

Marvin Burrows, a Lavender Seniors advisory board member and one of the agency’s founders, agrees that becoming a project of BACS was the right response to a continuous decline in funding.

“This will be a lifesaver for us,” Burrows said. “It gives the financial responsibility to someone else and we’ll have a lot of other help with our programs, faster referrals, and so on.

It’s a way to continue the work that we do into the future.”

Not only has the financial future of Lavender Seniors been secured, the organization’s abilities have been expanded, too.

“BACS has an immense amount of resources,” Ashbrook said. “They have geriatric case managers, licensed clinical social workers, interns, a volunteer management system, and adult day care programs. We’re now able to enroll our most at-risk seniors into these programs and support systems much quicker.”

Leslie Fetherkile, an 80-year-old blind self-identified lesbian who has been accessing Lavender Seniors services for three years, said that she has

experienced faster responses from the organization since it merged with BACS. “All I have to do is call Dan and tell him what I’m having a problem with and he seemed to manage it but it took some time,” Fetherkile said. “Now with BACS, it’s a different story. They can do things in a couple days instead of a couple weeks. They had new steps put in and my electric hook-ups are going to be changed. I have people calling me and coming over here all the time.”

Although there was initial concern about the loss of the Lavender Seniors brand identity within the larger BACS structure during discussions about the merger, Ashbrook is confident that that won’t happen.

“We’re maintaining separate organizational identities,” he said. “We’re really not putting both brands sideby-side in a lot of our marketing and programming material. We are converging a lot of our advocacy, though, because there are mutual needs for all seniors.”

Ashbrook, who started working with Lavender Seniors six years ago as a volunteer, is now also the director of development and older adult services at BACS and has seen his annual salary increase from $55,000 to $70,000.

“I love working with the LGBT senior community,” he said. “It’s become a lifelong commitment. And I love that I’m still able to do that without the risk of losing my job.”

But one of the biggest benefits of the merger, he says, is the institutionalization of LGBT programming within a large government-funded agency.

“It’s a phenomenal model in which mainstream senior service agencies can replicate to better address the needs of LGBT older adults,” he said.▼ For information about how to access or donate to BACS and/ or Lavender Seniors, visit www. bayareacs.org, www.lavenderseniors.org, or call (510) 613-0330.

▼

Community News >>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Openhouse unveils designs for 55 Laguna project

by David Duran

T

he long anticipated schematic designs and renderings of the two Openhouse buildings that comprise the senior housing development of 55 Laguna Street were unveiled at the agency’s eighth annual Spring Fling luncheon held at the Four Seasons.

The project is nearing the completion of the first phase of pre-development.

The two buildings include 110 rental apartments for low-income seniors with space for Openhouse services and an activity center available to the entire community. The designs were paid for with significant pre-development funding from the city and county of San Francisco.

Planning Commission approval will mark the end of phase 1 of the pre-development stage. As part of the process, Openhouse will have two community meetings in May and staff is working with the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and other stakeholders to get feedback on the designs.

On May 1 and May 22 at 6 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center, Openhouse, Mercy Housing, and Wood Partners will present the designs for the entire site, which includes six more buildings of family housing, a public park, and community gardens.

The designs may be modified somewhat based on community feedback.

They will then be submitted to the Planning Commission for approval, possibly this summer.

At the same time, Openhouse will begin the process of securing construction financing.

“We face a very competitive environment for affordable housing financing at the local, state, and federal level,” said Openhouse Executive Director Seth Kilbourn at the April 22 luncheon, “but we have set up our project so that it can be built in phases, if necessary, as funding becomes available.”

Openhouse is currently working

David Duran

Spring Fling attendees Arthur Slepian, left, and P.J. Cherrin congratulate honoree Al Baum, right.

with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and is hopeful of breaking ground in late 2014.

“That may seem like a long time off – but in the development world in San Francisco, to be talking about ‘when’ and not ‘if’ is a truly remarkable achievement,” said Kilbourn.

Putting in place the housing and services necessary for seniors to be able to age with dignity is extremely vital for today’s LGBT elders, stated Kilbourn.

“It is a priority for our community and our many allies, especially in San Francisco,” he added.

According to Openhouse, more than 25,000 LGBT people over 55 live in the city. A major concern is that many of them will be forced “back into the closet” in order to receive quality care and move into residential facilities.

“Largely without children and many without partners, LGBT seniors depend on Openhouse and will need 55 Laguna as the hub of a strong community network,” said Kilbourn.

Longtime supporters and activists for seniors, Al Baum and his partner, Robert Holgate, received the Adelman-Gurevitch Founders Award at the event.

“The issue of older gay people is not only an issue for the older gay people,” said Baum. “It’s an issue for the young as well, because we all will get there eventually and we have a community and we have to help one another.”

Baum has been recognized for his service, philanthropy, and dedication to the community this past year and said he was thrilled to add one more honor to the list, especially one from “such a wonderful organization,” he said.

The event’s other honoree was Joyce Pierson, who received the Trailblazer Award.

Openhouse also provides extensive activities including yoga, art groups, and health seminars as well as social services for LGBT seniors at all income levels. The agency is currently introducing a new Friendly Visitor program, which will provide critical companionship and emotional support for LGBT seniors. Volunteers meet with their companion on a weekly basis and provide face-to-face time that which otherwise may not be available to the senior. Openhouse provides training and has a system in place for matching volunteers to elders in need.

In the last year, Openhouse provided 5,600 units of direct services to over 500 LGBT seniors. As a direct result of this work, 82 percent of community members reported improvements in health and well-being and 84 percent said they were better able to remain independent, according to Kilbourn.

For individuals who needed help finding housing and other services, Openhouse enrolled 77 percent in an LGBT-friendly social service program and placed 70 percent in housing or on a waitlist for future openings.▼ For more information contact Openhouse at (415) 296-8995 or visit www.openhouse-sf.org to get on the mailing list, learn more about 55 Laguna, or enroll in activities and social service programs.

Transgender man begins walk across America

by Heather Cassell

M

ikal Chall is just an ordinary transgender man from Michigan, but he has a big quest: equality. Putting one foot in front of the other and towing his handcrafted trailer behind him, he left San Francisco on April 23 on his journey across the “land of the free” to Washington, D.C. The first transgender man to hoof it across the U.S., he believes, he hopes to arrive in the nation’s capital by Election Day. Chall also hopes to raise more awareness about inequalities in America with his 2nd Class Citizen Project, which includes the walk and presenting Congress with a petition at the end of his journey. He plans to also produce a film interviewing people he meets about inequality in America.

He also has a secondary goal, at 314 pounds he said he hopes to lose weight.

Twinkle of an idea The idea to cross the country by foot came to Chall one night two years ago after being frustrated that he couldn’t marry his fiancee, Terra Truelove, in the state of Michigan and at the time his father, who is gay, couldn’t marry his partner of eight

Jane Philomen Cleland

Mikal Chall arrived at the Emeryville Amtrak station Saturday with his one-of-a-kind walking trailer; he left from San Francisco Monday and is walking to Washington, D.C.

years in Maryland.

Maryland recently became the eighth state to legalize same-sex marriage although the nuptials haven’t yet started and voters may face a referendum in the fall.

He looked around at the people in his life who were restricted in their lives either because they were afraid to come out and lose their jobs or homes in the small town the couple live in or their relationships

couldn’t be legally recognized. War veterans are living on the streets, as are children and mothers, and more, he said. The inequalities pile up.

The couple lives in Traverse City, Michigan. The town passed an antidiscrimination law, but the state limited marriage to between a man and a woman. The state considers Chall to be female because he hasn’t had surgery.

See page 13 >>

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

Volume 42, Number 17 April 26 - May 2, 2012 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Thomas E. Horn Bob Ross (Founder, 1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador • Erin Blackwell Roger Brigham • Scott Brogan Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Chuck Colbert Richard Dodds • David Duran Raymond Flournoy • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell John F. Karr • Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy David Lamble • Michael K. Lavers Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr • Donna Sachet Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Kurt Thomas PRODUCTION MANAGER T. Scott King PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Marc Geller Rick Gerharter Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith GENERAL MANAGER Michael M. Yamashita DISPLAY ADVERTISING Simma Baghbanbashi Colleen Small Scott Wazlowski

NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad

Best Bay Area Community Newspaper 2006 San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club

BAY AREA REPORTER 395 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 www.ebar.com

News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • events@ebar.com Advertising • advertising@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com A division of Benro Enterprises, Inc. © 2012 Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.

Advertising rates available upon request.

Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

▼

Obama should sign executive order T

here’s been an ongoing debate within the LGBT community, mostly among bloggers and activists, about whether President Barack Obama should sign an executive order that would ban discrimination by employers with federal contracts. This so-called miniENDA, proponents argue, would lessen discrimination against LGBT employees as we wait to see whether the Democrats can regain control of Congress and retain the Senate in order to finally, pass the fuller Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has languished under the GOP-controlled House.

On the other side are gay Democratic activists who argue that the president should not sign the executive order because it could possibly only be in effect for a few months (if he loses the election the order could be rescinded by the next president) and it risks losing votes for Obama from people who are not gay-friendly.

That doesn’t add up to us. Frankly, we don’t believe many Republicans and independents are using gay issues to motivate and increase voter turnout in the election this year. Oh sure, the Christian conservatives may get wound up, but just last week Romney brought onboard an out gay man to advise him on national security matters and no one’s making a fuss about that. One recent survey resulted with same-sex marriage at the bottom of the list of issues that preoccupy voters. Rather, we see such twisted reasoning providing political cover for the president. And the argument in the Advocate by Andrew Tobias, an out gay member of the Democratic National Committee, is replete with phrases that are often used in presidential election years when some LGBTs wonder if they should vote for the Democrat: “We risk seeing the Supreme Court lost for 20 years.” Actually, most voters don’t base their decisions on the fate of Supreme Court nominations; maybe they should, given the influential power of the justices, but it just doesn’t happen.

Furthermore, it has been reported widely that Obama has used executive orders to establish policies in the absence of any legislative action by Congress – and, to bolster his standing among his base, a base that includes LGBT voters. On

Monday, the lead story in the New York Times was headlined “Shift on Executive Power Lets Obama Bypass Rivals.” The article reveals that at a meeting last fall, Obama “expressed frustration, saying we have got to scour everything and push the envelope in finding things we can do on our own,” in the words of former Chief of Staff William Daley. In recent months, the article noted, the Obama administration has taken to branding the effort “We Can’t Wait,” as in we can’t wait for Congress to act so the president will take action and sign an executive order.

That strategy could and should certainly apply to something as basic as the mini-ENDA, which would help LGBTs keep their jobs in this tough economy.

Federal agencies, it seems, are moving in the right direction even without an executive order. This week the Transgender Law Center scored a big win when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that Title VII, the federal sex discrimination law, protects employees from discrimination because

they are transgender. The case involved a trans woman who had applied for a federal job as male and was told that funding for the position had been suddenly cut after disclosing her gender transition mid-way through the process. Not surprisingly, it turned out that funding was not cut and the woman later learned that someone else had been hired for the job.

TLC staff noted that this week’s EEOC decision follows a clear trend by federal courts in recent years holding that transgender people are protected by Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination. But it has broader implications than a court ruling because EEOC is the agency charged with interpreting and enforcing federal discrimination laws throughout the nation.

The president should reconsider his decision and sign the mini-ENDA executive order. Transgender people especially are underemployed or unemployed. You can be fired for being gay in 29 states. In 34 states you can be fired for being transgender. While the executive order would not be as broad as the ENDA legislation, it would be a good first step. And it’s action that the president can take and bypass the do-nothing Republicans in Congress.▼

Welcome, Equality Riders

by Cindi Love

O

n April 28 I will fly into San Francisco to greet the Soulforce Equality Riders as their bus crosses the last bridge on their 65day trip across America. I was with them on the day they started out in Philadelphia, and joined up with them along the way in Abilene, Texas, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

They chose San Francisco as the place to disembark from the road and I cannot think of a more fitting city. What a rare jewel this city is, a place that deeply values freedom and not just the red, white, and blue flag-waving kind, but also the kind of freedom in which conscientious protest by thinking and feeling people is respected, not quashed.

I hail from a different kind of place and I confess that I often feel like dancing with abandon when I visit my son, the Reverend Joshua Love, in his home in the Castro and when we gather with friends at his newly formed Church of Uncommon Hope. (www.churchofuncommonhope.com). It is so extraordinary to visit a city where a public kiss between two people of the same sex is not a revolution and where people of multiple faiths or no faith can gather in the same room to meditate for the common good.

When I visit a major city where there are an abundance of safe spaces for LGBT people, I am grateful and it is refreshing to relax. And, I never forget that 70 percent of all LGBT people in the United States live in places where there are few, if any safe spaces. It is for that reason that I work at Soulforce, home of the Equality Ride.

I live in Abilene, an Equality Ride stop. In fact, the ride has been to Abilene three times.

Some nuts are just harder to crack. Abilene is the third most conservative city in America.

Three Christian colleges are based there, two

of which are members of the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities. As members of the CCCU, they identify as “distinctively and intentionally Christian” and must affirm several statements of belief including the inerrancy of the Bible. To date, the administrators of these schools have not been able to reconcile their understanding of the Bible with the reality that there really are gay people in the world and that G_d loves them and being gay is not something that has to be forgiven.

Our work at Soulforce and on the Equality Ride is to help these administrators adjust their reactions and responses to LGBT people through our practice of relentless nonviolent resistance. When we leave a school, our goal is to leave behind at least one person who feels empowered and ready to create safe space for young people to live without fear and love whom they choose without guilt or shame or punishment.

In 1998, the Reverend Mel White, author of Stranger at the Gate and Religion Gone Bad, founded Soulforce. After being cast out of his church and losing his job when he came out as a gay man, he spent time studying the work of Gandhi in non-violent resistance.

He needed a way to deal with his grief and loss as well as his anger over rejection. And, he truly believed that his former colleagues and friends were misinformed and could be led to new understanding.

He built a systematic strategy and methodology to change the hearts and minds of the leaders of distinctively and intentionally Christian denominations about gay people based on the principles and practices taught

by Gandhi and followed by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Over a 10-year period, White took volunteers to protest the Southern Baptist Convention, the Vatican, the Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Lutheran general assemblies

and conferences, and the Assemblies of God. When ministers within these denominations “broke rank” and blessed the unions of same-sex couples and were subsequently defrocked at heresy trials for their “disobedience to church law,” White showed up and held vigils to support them.

And then, in 2005, a young man named Jake Reitan convinced White that the next phase of Soulforce’s work had to be at the colleges and universities that produce the next generation of conservative thought leaders.

White agreed and the Equality Ride was born. The ride’s objective is to visit and facilitate change in anti-gay policies at the 211 schools in the United States that openly discriminate against LGBT students and faculty.

On many of these campuses LGBT students and faculty are forced to suffer in silence. If they come out they are often subject to expulsion or loss of scholarship, discipline, and can even be forced into harmful ex-gay or reparative therapy programs.

Since 2006, the Equality Ride has visited 100 of these schools as well as the United States Military Academy, Focus on the Family (James Dobson’s global network), and the five most conservative mega-churches in America.

We are proud to report that several of them now “blame” us for making it necessary to change in their anti-gay policies. We like that kind of blame.

Each year Soulforce brings in new riders for two weeks of intense training in non-violent resistance, public speaking, community organizing, public relations, and Bible 101. They learn how to engage people who do not wish to engage. In addition, riders are taught to approach oppression from an intersectional lens – learning to fight racism, ableism, misogyny, classism, homophobia, transphobia, patriarchy, and other oppressive systems.

Even though riders do not have to profess a particular faith or belief to participate in the See page 5 >>

Community News >>

▼ Prozan named Pride marshal compiled by Cynthia Laird

L

ongtime LGBT community member and Democratic activist Rebecca Prozan has been named a community grand marshal for this year’s Pride Parade.

Prozan was selected by the membership of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee. Currently she is director of community outreach for the district attorney’s office, where she is creating a community relations model based on her 17 years of experience as an organizer, prosecutor, and neighborhood leader.

“What an amazing honor to be chosen to be a grand marshal of the most diverse, most vibrant LGBT community in the world,” Prozan told the Bay Area Reporter via email.

“I’m floored.”

Prozan, 40, ran unsuccessfully for District 8 supervisor in 2010.

In 2008 she was a delegate for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. This Saturday, she is part of a slate running to be an Obama delegate to the Democratic convention in North Carolina.

In San Francisco, Prozan was an organizer for Willie Brown’s mayoral campaign in the 1990s and then worked as Brown’s liaison to the LGBT community.

She managed Kamala Harris’s bid for San Francisco district attorney and served as a legislative aide to former Supervisor Bevan Dufty.

Prozan and her wife, Julia Adams, live in the Castro.

Earlier this month, the Pride Committee announced that Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will be a community grand marshal. Additional grand marshals are likely to be announced soon.

Haring sculpture to be restored No, it wasn’t stolen, but the Keith Haring sculpture Untitled (Three Dancing Figures) has been temporarily removed from Moscone Center in San Francisco so that it can undergo restoration, the San Francisco Arts Commission announced in a news release April 24.

The three-figure sculpture has been removed from the corner of 3rd and Howard streets for a comprehensive restoration that will include cleaning, removing vandalism such as tagging, addressing any corrosion issues, and a complete repainting.

Additionally, the sculpture’s pedestal will be updated with new light fixtures to illuminate the artwork at night.

Arts Commission spokeswoman Kate Patterson said that the project is being funded with a $65,000 grant from the Keith Haring Foundation

<<

Guest Opinion From page 4

ride, they do have to learn how to open up and sustain dialogue with people who are deeply convicted about their beliefs. And, they have to pull this off without anger or violence or becoming oppressors themselves. Riders come off the bus equipped to relate in the world in ways that few of us will choose or experience in our lifetimes.

Soulforce is committed to the ride in such a way that the young adult riders are provided this life changing experience at no cost to them, ensuring that there is never a dollar amount required to be an activist fighting for social justice.

All of a rider’s travel, accommodations, food, equipment, and training are provided by Soulforce supporters, including local contrib-

Rick Gerharter

Rebecca Prozan

along with approximately $10,000 in private donations to ArtCare, the city fund dedicated to care and maintenance of San Francisco’s civic art collection.

The sculpture is expected to be re-installed this summer.

Haring was an openly gay pop artist whose bold lines and active figures carry messages of vitality and unity even today. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1990 at the age of 31.

“We are so grateful to the Keith Haring Foundation and to our ArtCare donors for making this restoration possible,” said Tom DeGaigny, the openly gay director of cultural affairs. He added that in recent years, the city has had to find “creative ways” to raise funds needed to care for the civic art collection.

Haring’s Untitled (Three Dancing Figures), 1989 was purchased and installed by the city in 2001 with art enrichment funds generated by the expansion of the Moscone Convention Center.

Youth open mic night The youth space at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose will have an open mic night Friday, April 27 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

The center is located at 938 The Alameda. The event is timed to follow the national Day of Silence, which took place April 20.

Titled “Breaking the Silence,” the event invites youth ages 13-25 to showcase their talents. Activities can include playing the guitar, dancing, singing, comedy, lip synching, or reading poetry.

For more information, visit www. defrankcenter.org and click on “youth,” then “youth programs.”

Shanti breast cancer benefit Shanti’s Breast Cancer Program will hold its annual benefit Saturday, April 28 from 3 to 5 p.m.at the Old

utors the Coil Foundation and the Church of Uncommon Hope. And, this week, the riders have been given a special gift tribute to their work that you are invited to join.

The cast and crew of Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption will be in San Francisco for a sneak preview of their new documentary and a special production of the play, Corpus Christi. Proceeds are designated for the Equality Ride.

You are invited April 29 for the sneak preview screening at 2 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. A VIP ticket includes a pre-show gathering at 1 p.m. with the cast and crew.

On Monday, April 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. you can also attend the play Corpus Christi at the Church of Uncommon Hope in the Chapel of the First Unitarian Universalist Society (1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco). All of the riders

Mint, Fifth and Mission streets, in San Francisco.

Under the theme A Speakeasy Celebration, guests will enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, and music and entertainment.

Those attending the VIP party, which runs from 2 to 3, will sample specialty cocktails and custommade tasting chocolates.

The event comes as Shanti has officially changed the name of the program in late 2011 (it was formerly known as LifeLines) and added two staff members. The program also recently crossed the 1,000 clients served mark. The average Shanti clients receives its high intensity care navigation services for 22 months, which includes culturally competent advocacy and care from peer support volunteers.

At the reception, two women involved with the program will be honored. Julie Baumgartner is a former Shanti board member and Diane Carr, RN, is director of breast and cervical cancer services for the city’s health department.

VIP tickets are $125 and general admission tickets are $75; they can be purchased at www.shanti.org.

Poll workers needed for June election The San Francisco Department of Elections is currently seeking poll workers for the June 5 primary election.

Poll workers operate polling places on Election Day and assist voters in every part of the voting process. They must attend a training class prior to the election. Lead poll workers must also pick up materials before Election Day and transport them to their assigned polling place on the morning of the election.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, age 18 or older, and be registered to vote in California. All positions are one-day assignments and pay between $125-$170.

Those who are interested may complete the online application at www.sfelections.org/pw. For more information, call (415) 554-4395.

In related news, the elections department also announced that the deadline to register to vote in the June election is May 21. If you have moved or want to change your party preference, you need to submit a voter registration card. For more information, visit the local elections website.▼

Correction The April 19 article, “No sex in Lawrence, book claims,” incorrectly referred to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case. Six of the justices signed on to the majority opinion. The online version has been updated.

and hosts of the ride will be at this performance to meet you. Tickets are $35 and are available through brandon@108productions.org.

On Tuesday, May 1, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., there is a benefit open to the public for the Equality Ride at the LGBT Community Center (1800 Market Street, San Francisco). Families, friends, and children welcome. Come for comedy, poetry, music, and stories from the road. Please RSVP to Haven Herrin at (612) 217-0371 or haven@soulforce.org.

And, finally on Wednesday, May 2 from 7:30 to 9 p.m, it will be my distinct privilege to welcome you at the Church of Uncommon Hope at a multi-faith celebration service and send off for the Equality Riders.▼ The Reverend Dr. Cindi Love is executive director of Soulforce.

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

<< National News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Gay Mormons and allies say church is slowly changing

by Michael K. Lavers

K

ate Kelly of Vienna, Virginia, was a student at Brigham Young University when she attended her first same-sex wedding. The 2004 ceremony took place beneath an increasingly ominous sky in Spanish Fork, Utah. A large rainbow suddenly appeared just as her friend and his partner began to exchange their vows.

“It was symbolic that the union was blessed by our heavenly parents and that it was far from being an abomination,” said Kelly. “It was a godly and positive and spiritual union.”

Kelly was among the nearly 100 people who attended the second Circling the Wagons conference in Washington, D.C., from April 20-22.

Mormon Stories, a group that seeks to create a safe space for LGBT Mormons and their families and allies, organized the three-day gathering that took place at the Community of Christ in northwest Washington.

Kelly was among conference attendees who noted they were not at a Mormon church.

“We are very grateful for the Community of Christ for welcoming us to their space,” she said during a marriage equality panel on which Sharon Graves of the Human Rights Campaign, Hugo Salinas of the LGBT

Courtesy Mormon Stories

Carol Lynn Pearson, left, and Mitch Mayne shared their stories at a conference for LGBT Mormons that took place last weekend in Washington, D.C.

Mormon group Affirmations, and Maryland state Senator Jamie Raskin sat on Saturday. “Mormon churches are not a safe space for gay people.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has historically taught that gays and lesbians can change their sexual orientation. Those who come out are welcome at church as long as they remain celibate. The Mormon Church does not specifically single out gays and lesbians for excommunication, but those who

have sex outside of a marriage between a man and a woman could face expulsion.

Originally from the Los Angeles area, Jared Fronk was excommunicated from the church in April 2011 for what he said was his intention to have sex with his then-boyfriend. He had not seen him since his December 2010 deployment to Afghanistan by the time his trial had begun. Fronk had anticipated the 15-men panel’s final decision that was to have ulti-

mately excommunicated him from the church, but he made one final statement on his behalf.

“I’ve always believed that the Mormon Church is a pro-family organization, but since I’ve come out I’ve met many gay families that are happy with kids or just monogamous couples or non-monogamous couples – happy families and you want to destroy that,” Fronk said he told the men. “I can’t be part of an organization that is so antifamily.”

Fronk moved to Washington, D.C., three months after the church excommunicated him to complete his doctoral program in economics at Georgetown University. He said that he has “a pretty good life” in the nation’s capital.

Other LGBT Mormons have been far less fortunate.

Kelly attended her husband’s gay cousin’s funeral last summer after he committed suicide. She was immediately struck by the way his family dealt with his sexual orientation.

“His family approached the fact that he was gay and they treated it as though it was a burden on the family and they had passed through a trial,” said Kelly as she became emotional. “I was sitting there thinking, this person is dead because of what you felt and the way that you treated

him and a lot of other factors in his life.”

Carol Lynn Pearson of Walnut Creek, California chronicled her marriage to a gay man and how she cared for him before he succumbed to AIDS in 1984 in her memoir Goodbye, I Love You. She struggled to find the words to describe the pain that leads some LGBT Mormons to take their own lives.

“It’s being so, so full of shame and so full of regret for what we as a body, as a religious organization – church family – have done to our gay brothers and sisters,” said Pearson.

In addition to the suicides of LGBT Mormons, the church faced scathing criticism over its support of Proposition 8, the California same-sex marriage ban that voters passed nearly four years ago.

Mitch Mayne, an openly gay man whom Bishop Don Fletcher of the San Francisco Bay Ward appointed as his executive secretary last August, described this stance to CNN earlier this month as “the least Christ-like thing we have done as a church.” He stressed to the Bay Area Reporter that he did not make this comment as an official church spokesman. Mayne added that he does not expect an immediate apology from the Mormon Church for supporting Prop 8.

“If we’re hinging our healing on waiting for an apology for that, we’re going to be in pain for a long time,” he said. “I personally don’t need anyone’s apology to be happy.”

In spite of this outrage, conference attendees stressed throughout the weekend that things have slowly begun to change within the church. The Salt Lake City Council in 2009 approved an anti-LGBT discrimination ordinance that the church endorsed.

A group of gay and lesbian BYU students earlier this month released an It Gets Better video.

Parents of LGBT Mormons appeared in a second It Gets Better video that Julia Hunter of Sandy, Utah, unveiled at the conference.

“For us in the Mormon faith, it’s a whole community of relationships which are affected by this single utterance; ‘I’m gay,’” she said.

Alanna Miller Farnsworth faced this conundrum when her then-16year-old son Blake came out to her as gay shortly after Christmas in 2005.

She described him as her “seminary boy,” but she and her family also firmly believed in the church’s teachings on homosexuality.

“Here was my perfect little church boy that I now know was doing all he could to pray away that gay,” said Farnsworth.

She said she turned to God for guidance on how she should treat her son. The answer came quickly: Love him.

“He’s not any different now than he was an hour ago before he told you this information,” said Farnsworth.

“He’s just the same. Just love him.”

Farnsworth reached out to other parents of LGBT Mormons through Affirmations’ website after her son came out. This journey has brought her to another calling: Supporting other LGBT Mormons who have been shunned by their families and their church.

“The more stories I heard, the more my heart swelled with love and compassion for these people who had lived their lives being told that they were not enough,” said Farnsworth.

“Some of them had even been kicked to the curb by their parents and thrown right out of their forever families. And I decided from that point that I would make myself available to anyone who needed a mom. That has brought immense joy to my life.”▼ The new It Gets Better video unveiled at the conference can be seen with the online version of this story at ebar.com.

▼

Politics>>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Lambda ED marks 20 years of legal victories

by Matthew S. Bajko

M

ay 1 marks Kevin Cathcart’s 20th anniversary as executive director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the country’s oldest and largest national LGBT legal organization. His two-decade tenure makes Cathcart the longest serving leader of a major national LGBT nonprofit.

It is a remarkable achievement, as nonprofits usually churn through executive directors.

“I think the fact that he has had a 20-year tenure speaks volumes.

It is the equivalent of dog years for EDs of LGBT organizations,” said Lambda board Co-Chair Bruce Deming, a San Francisco resident and partner at law firm Covington and Burling. “He is universally respected.

That is largely due to his approach to other organizations in the community, which is very much approaching this from a team-oriented partnership perspective rather than trying to stake out turf.”

It is all the more noteworthy, as Cathcart is relatively unknown outside of legal and media circles.

He is nowhere to be found on Out magazine’s Power 50 list ranking the country’s most influential LGBT leaders.

While Cathcart is well known to reporters and attorneys, the clients Lambda has represented in highprofile lawsuits over the years have more public name recognition than he does.

His tendency to remain out of the spotlight can be seen in the lowkey approach Lambda is paying to Cathcart’s milestone year with the agency. Lambda has not issued a

press statement publicizing Cathcart’s anniversary.

Instead, he has been giving interviews to local reporters as he attends Lambda fundraising events across the country. He was in San Francisco Friday, April 20 for a dinner reception that raised $400,000 for the agency.

Speaking by phone to the Bay Area Reporter while in town, Cathcart said the reason he has stayed in place for so long is because his job has never been routine. His duties have continually evolved since joining Lambda in 1992, when it had 21 staff people and two offices. Today he manages a staff of 90 people located in five different cities and an annual budget of $13 million.

“We are able to do significantly more work than we were able to do back then,” said Cathcart, 58, who lives in Manhattan with his partner of 12 years, Mayo Schreiber. “Partly as a result of our work and the many, many other peoples’ and groups’ work, the landscape in which we do this work has changed. I don’t feel like I have been in the same job for 20 years.”

Next month Cathcart’s new twoyear contract will take effect, which includes a 4 percent raise similar to what all Lambda employees receive.

His salary will increase to $300,000 a year.

As for when he plans to retire, Cathcart wouldn’t say. He has no desire to become a judge in New York state or teach at a law school.

“I love my job. We are doing great things,” he said. “As I take pains to say at many Lambda events, this is not my retirement party. This is not my obituary. It is my anniversary.”

Each year, Cathcart said, he does

Courtesy Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal’s Kevin Cathcart

talk to the board co-chairs about transition planning.

“I call it the what if I get hit by a bus talk,” he joked.

Deming, who first met Cathcart while a Harvard law student in 1991, said when the time does come for Cathcart to step down, the agency will survive.

“There is not a cult of Kevin. He has built a strong organization,” said Deming. “He is a unique individual and whoever steps in will have very big shoes to fill.”

Marriage rights fight During his time at Lambda, Cathcart has watched as the legal fight for same-sex marriage has taken center stage. A year into his tenure saw same-sex couples in Hawaii sue for the right to marry, and Lambda helped litigate the case.

They won before Hawaii’s highest court, but voters passed a constitutional amendment banning samesex marriage before any couples could wed. He said Lambda learned from the experience that winning in

the courthouse was not enough.

It had to also be ready to defend pro-gay decisions in the public square.

“That informed how we went ahead with litigation in the future,” said Cathcart. “In Hawaii we had a huge victory and it was yanked away.”

The experience helps explain why Lambda has been cautious about bringing a same-sex marriage case to the U.S. Supreme Court. It at first raised doubts about the litigation filed in federal court against California’s voter-approved ban on samesex marriage, openly questioning if the litigants could prevail should the Supreme Court take the case.

While Lambda and the Los Angeles-based foundation that filed the lawsuit, known as Perry v. Brown, disagreed initially, Lambda did file briefs supporting the case. And Cathcart insisted the disagreement was never personal.

“Often there are disagreements on strategies and cases,” he said.

Cathcart agrees with Vaughn Walker, the now-retired chief district judge who found Proposition 8 unconstitutional, in thinking the case will not reach the Supreme Court. Walker told a Commonwealth Club audience April 19 that there is reason to believe the case will end in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals due to an appellate panel’s narrow ruling issued in February.

“I am very hopeful the Supreme Court will not take this case because of the limited and narrow focus of the opinion,” said Cathcart. “If it was a very broad opinion that applied to every state of the country, I would have a different read on this.”

The fight over marriage rights for same-sex couples is not going away anytime soon, said Cathcart. Even if the Supreme Court strikes down the

federal ban on same-sex marriage, known as the Defense of Marriage Act, it is not likely to translate into states having to marry gay and lesbian couples, said Cathcart.

“The Gill case is not about the right to marry in any given state. It is about the federal recognition of marriages in states that allow them,” he said, referring to the DOMA case based in Boston. “Those are very different issues, both of which I think will come before the Supreme Court but will come in different cases at different times.”

For now Lambda is looking at a state-by-state path to marriage, as evidenced by the recent case it filed to win marriage rights in Nevada.

That litigation is aimed at overturning the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and is similar to a case Lambda is litigating in New Jersey.

“It is about the right to be married in a state the purports to give you all the rights and responsibilities of marriage but insists on calling it a second-class status like civil unions,” he said. “We need to drive up the number of states that have marriage equality. That will be an important factor when a marriage case, not a DOMA case, goes to the Supreme Court.”

One of the more famous cases Lambda has handled during Cathcart’s tenure was Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the country’s sodomy laws. It has been in the news again due to a new book that claims the two men at the heart of the case were not having sex when they were arrested.

Some reporters who covered the case have questioned why Lambda was not clearer about that fact.

Cathcart has insisted the agency never spun the media and only went See page 10 >>

<< Travel

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Ed Walsh

Michael Volpatt and Crista Luedtke are ready for the summer season at Big Bottom Market.

Russian River businesses optimistic for busy summer

by Ed Walsh

B

usinesses in Guerneville are optimistic for a busy summer season this year. The famed Triple R resort reopened a little over six months ago with a new name, r3, and its bar reopened on New Year’s Eve. The landmark Pat’s Restaurant

and Bar in downtown Guerneville was just sold to a gay couple from San Francisco and they promise some exciting changes. Pat’s is sandwiched in the middle of some of the trendiest new businesses in Guerneville: Big Bottom Market, the Whitetail Wine Bar, and Boon Eat and Drink, the latter having set the standard for minimalist chic on the strip when it opened three years ago.

The strip of those four newer businesses is heralding what residents hope will be a renaissance for Guerneville. The new r3 hopes to attract the same party crowd that filled the old Triple R, which had been closed for a little over a year.

The surrounding LGBT businesses hope to benefit from the crowd who will be drawn to some of the parties and entertainment that will be featured at the r3’s bar that retains the old name, the Triple R Bar and Grill.

This summer will be the first full season for the Whitetail, which opened in mid-July last year, just after the Big Bottom Market debuted. Both are decidedly a step up for Guerneville. The businesses resemble more of the kind of upscale feel you would expect from a trendy cafe in a big city.

San Francisco interior designer Leslie Bahr opened the Whitetail to fill a need for wine tasting in the heart of the Russian River area. She had been a frequent visitor to the river.

“I have been coming up with my ‘gay husbands’ for years,” Bahr told the Bay Area Reporter earlier this month, referring to her gay male friends, adding, “I have many of those.”

The Whitetail features wines from local small-scale wineries in Sonoma County. And despite the trendy upscale decor, her prices are down to earth. She offers 15 topnotch wines for $15 each. Besides the wine, one of Whitetail’s specialties is thin-crust artisan pizza made with locally grown ingredients.

Big Bottom Market is a restaurant and gourmet market that got its name from what Guerneville was once called. The town was once known as the Big Bottom because of the low flood plain that helped nourish the town’s once abundant redwood forest. The market offers locally-produced wines, cheeses, and a selection of gourmet honey.

It is owned by business partners Michael Volpatt, Kate Larkin, and Crista Luedtke. Volpatt and Luedtke

split their time between Guerneville and San Francisco. Larkin lives outside of New York City but gets to Guerneville once a month.

For the uninitiated, Guerneville is about 90 minutes north of San Francisco and has one of the highest per-capita populations of same-sex couples in the country.

The town of about 2,500 is named after George Guerne, a Swiss logger who ran a lumber mill there in the 1800s. Guerneville and the Russian River area eventually became a vacation spot for fog-weary San Franciscans. But by the 1960s, the area became depressed as the Russian River fell out of fashion as a place to vacation. Starting in the mid-1970s, gays helped spawn a resurgence to the river. In late 1980s, AIDS had tempered Guerneville’s party scene but more and more coupled LGBTs moved to the town year-round.

Now, gays are helping start Guerneville’s new evolution to the upscale.

The newest change will happen next month when a landmark business changes hands. Pat’s Restaurant and Bar, in the very heart of Main Street, has been owned by three generations of the Hines family since 1945. One side is a rustic straight bar and the other side is a restaurant. The new owners are life and now business partners Eric Edenfield and Chris Morano.

“We’re proud to do our part to ensure the River stays a successful, iconic, and a very gay-friendly place that welcomes everyone,” Edenfield told the B.A.R. “We intend to enhance the menu with fresh local products as well as retain and improve on the many all-American favorites. The interior will get a gradual refresh, with an eye to returning to its roots of the 1930s and 1940s.

We’re hitting the ground running with the busy season already upon us and will make changes subtly and over the next few months.”

Accommodations The Russian River area has three gay resorts: Highlands, the Woods, and r3 are all in downtown Guerneville. The upscale gay-owned boutique properties in Guerneville, the Sonoma Orchid Inn and Boon, and the Village Inn in neighboring Monte Rio, are among the finest in the Russian River region.

The r3 was re-purchased by Ray Allen along with other investors. Allen had owned the Triple R between 1992 and 2005. The next owners lost

▼

Travel >>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Ed Walsh

A woman meditates at the LGBT-friendly Osmosis spa in Freestone.

the property to foreclosure in September 2010 and the resort sat vacant until October 2011, when Allen and company reopened the hotel.

The resort includes a bar and restaurant and the outdoor barbecue will reopen in time for the summer.

R3 has 23 rooms with springtime rates starting at just $65. The resort is party central. Day visitors are welcome to hang out by the pool.

Highlands is perfectly situated in a redwood grove on a hill, just a couple of minutes’ stroll to the heart of downtown Guerneville. The 16unit property features cabins with a large clothing-optional pool in front and a hot tub in the back. A continental breakfast is also included.

Day use is $10 on weekends and $5 during the week and from November to April. The rooms in the main house across from the pool have TV but the cabin rooms do not, so the Highlands is a great place to really feel like you have gotten away from it all. If cabins aren’t rustic enough for you, campsites are available.

Rates start as low as $70 for a cabin room with a shared bath. Camping starts at $20.

The third gay resort in Guerneville is a block from the r3. The Woods is impeccably maintained and features suites with gas fireplaces and full kitchens, cottages with private patios, and smaller single-room accommodations. Like Highlands, its large pool is clothing optional. Most of the 19 rooms share beautiful views of the redwood forest that slopes up from the Russian River. The Woods is a great place to be close to the party but it is a quiet place to get away and relax and rest afterwards. Like the r3, its spring rates start at a bargain $65.

Day passes are available for $5.

The Sonoma Orchid Inn is owned by a gay couple who once worked in the high tech industry.

The nine-room inn is in Guerneville, three miles east of downtown. It used to be called the Ridenhour Inn, but Brian Siewert and Dana Murphy changed the name when they bought out the property six years ago. Murphy is an orchid aficionado and grows the plants in the greenhouse on the property. The inn was once a farmhouse and is kept in a beautiful, pristine condition that preserves the charm of the house while providing guests with the upscale comforts of a five-star hotel.

Murphy and Siewert are the perfect hosts who serve a gourmet breakfast

to their guests family style. They still have vacancies for Lazy Bear Weekend and they will host a Lazy Bear barbecue for guests that weekend.

Rates start at $149.

The Boon Hotel and Spa is a gayowned property about a mile from downtown Guerneville. The 14-unit resort is owned by Luedtke, who owns the aforementioned Boon Eat and Drink and is part-owner of the Big Bottom Market. Like the Sonoma Orchid Inn, it is one of the classiest boutique hotels in Sonoma County. But its decor is very different. It has a minimalist modern chic look. A continental breakfast is included. Rates start at $165.

The gay-owned Village Inn is in Monte Rio, the river town just west of Guerneville. The hotel features one of the best views of the river. If you are not staying there, be sure to stop by and have dinner overlooking the river on its spacious balcony.

If you are an old-time movie fan, the hotel may look familiar to you.

It was the setting for the Bing Crosby 1942 film Holiday Inn. “White Christmas” was written for that film and it was recycled for the movie White Christmas in 1954. Rates at this 10-room property start at $115.

Nightlife There are two gay bars in Guerneville, the Rainbow Cattle Company and the aforementioned r3. Both are gay, lesbian mixed and are straightfriendly. While other gay clubs have come and gone, the one constant has been the Rainbow on Main Street in the heart of downtown Guerneville.

You can’t miss the bar by the neon rainbow flag over the entrance. The rustic watering hole features pool and video games.

For a year, Rainbow was the only show in town, now the Triple R bar is hoping to regain some of the party crowd that kept it packed. Check the bars’ websites and published ads for some of the special events and first-rate entertainment that were a big draw to Guerneville.

Spa Be sure to make a stop at Osmosis Spa in the picturesque town of Freestone. It is about a 30-minute drive on the very scenic Bohemian Highway. Osmosis is very gay-friendly, has a gay general manager, and has an LGBT micro site: www.osmosis. com/lgbt. The spa is known for its signature treatment, a cedar enzyme bath made from finely ground ce-

dar, rice bran, and plant enzymes.

It’s akin to a mud bath but it doesn’t make you dirty. You just have to brush yourself off when you’re done.

The spa’s centerpiece is a beautifully landscaped Japanese tea garden.

Upcoming events The 32nd annual Women’s Weekend is coming up next month, May 17-21. Now that r3 is up and running, it will host events all five days of the extended weekend celebration. Many of the events will be held at the Main Street Station in downtown Guerneville. If you’d rather get back to nature, a photography walk will be held in the Armstrong Woods on Sunday. Fundraising proceeds will benefit the Russian River Sisters Grants Fund and the Center for Sacred Studies. More information can be found on www.russianriverwomensweekend.org.

Sonoma Gay Pride Parade and Festival takes place Sunday, June 3.

The day gets started with a pancake breakfast benefit from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Odd Fellows Hall. The parade starts on Main Street at 11. The festival will be on the expansive grounds of the Guerneville Lodge from noon to 6 p.m. (The Guerneville Lodge is where the Inn at the Willows used to be.) A Pride interfaith service will be held in Santa Rosa at 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.sonomacountypride.org.

The Gay Wine Weekend is June 15-17 and is a benefit for Face to Face Sonoma County AIDS Network. The weekend will be packed with wine tastings, receptions, dances and dinners. Visit www. outinthevineyard.com for more information.

The biggest gay event in Guerneville is Lazy Bear Weekend, which will be held this year from August 1-6. The official schedule is not out yet but check the event’s website www.lazybearweekend.com later for details. The hotels in Guerneville quickly sell out for Lazy Bear, so if you want to go, make your reservation now. Late comers often have to stay in Santa Rosa, about 20 minutes away.

There’s a growing arts scene in the Russian River area and to showcase local artists, a monthly first-Friday art walk shows off that homegrown talent. More than a couple of dozen shops participate in downtown Guerneville to showcase locally produced art. The 3 to 8 p.m. event includes music and food.▼

ebar.com

<< National News

▼ Romney taps gay man as national security adviser 10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

by Lisa Keen

P

resumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has begun his run toward the political middle, and one aspect of that shift appears to have been adding an openly gay man to his team of campaign advisers.

The adviser is Richard Grenell, 45, who also served the administration of President George W. Bush as

a spokesman for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He was also appointed by former Ambassador John Danforth in 2004 to serve as an alternative representative of the United States to the U.N. Security Council.

The campaign’s April 19 announcement did not identify Grenell as gay, only that he was joining the campaign to serve as its spokesman on national security and for-

eign policy issues.

Grenell has served a long line of prominent Republicans in various capacities, including former New York Governor George Pataki, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, and former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.

The fact that the Romney campaign announced Grenell’s appointment suggests the campaign intends to go after those one in four gay voters who tend to vote Republican.

But one blogger – Doug Wead, a senior adviser to the Ron Paul campaign – noted that the Romney campaign also announced, on that same day, Romney’s plan to speak at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Wead called the same-day announcements “a clumsy attempt to show respect to both the evangelical and gay communities.”

“Instead,” wrote Wead in his blog www.dougwead.com, “it shows that the Romney campaign understands neither one.”

But Grenell may turn out to be a little too abrasive to attract any but the hardcore Republicans in the LGBT community. Just last month, he penned an op-ed piece for the Washington Blade that derided gay Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Capehart for defending President Barack Obama’s evolving position on same-sex marriage.

MetroWeekly in Washington, D.C. reported that Grenell and his longtime partner live in California.

Other media reported Grenell is expected to be working out of Romney headquarters in Boston.

Grenell is a member of Log Cabin Republicans, the national gay Republican group, and spoke about foreign policy issues at its national conference last year.

Jimmy LaSalvia, head of the national gay conservative group GOProud, said he feels sure Grenell “will be an outstanding addition” to Romney’s foreign policy and na-

Richard Grenell is an adviser to Mitt Romney on national security issues.

tional security team.

“Mitt Romney has a record, throughout his entire career, of assembling top notch teams to execute the tasks at hand,” said LaSalvia, “and I think this choice shows that he’ll attract the top talent to help him bring America back. And that’s good for all Americans – gay or straight.”

Politico columnist Alexander Burns reported Friday on Grenell’s passion for tweeting, especially crass observations about GOP presidential long-shot Newt Gingrich’s current wife, Callista. According to Burns, Grenell has tweeted cutting remarks about Mrs. Gingrich’s hair, her quiet demeanor, and the fact that she is Gingrich’s third wife.

(He later emailed Burns, apologizing and saying he would remove the tweets.)

Presumably, that sort of tweeting will stop, given that the Romney campaign, just one week ago, criticized lesbian Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen for commenting on the fact that Ann Romney has not held a paying job outside the home while raising her five sons.

The Advocate magazine reported

in September 2008 that Grenell, while at the U.N., sought to have the name of his partner, Matthew Lashey, listed in the U.N. directory that lists diplomatic personnel and their spouses. Grenell said that he and Lashey considered themselves married even though, at the time, it was not possible for them to obtain a marriage license in New York. A U.S. State Department official said the Defense of Marriage Act precluded the U.S. from submitting Lashey’s name for inclusion.

Grenell is currently a partner with a communication and public relations firm, Capitol Media Partners, based in Los Angeles. Grenell’s biography on the firm’s website indicates Grenell served as a delegate to a wide variety of U.N. conferences, including the “High Level Event on HIV/AIDS” in May 2006. The bio notes that Grenell teaches at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and is a regular commentator for Al-Jazeera TV. Grenell has a master’s in public administration from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.▼

Swim, don’t sink, in Tsunami de Mayo

by Roger Brigham

S

an Francisco’s Tsunami Water Polo will host its 12th annual Tsunami de Mayo tournament May 5-6 at Campolindo High School in Moraga.

Tsunami President John Kennedy said the tournament will have about 20 teams divided into co-ed and women’s divisions. Teams from around the Bay Area as well as Seattle and West Hollywood are expected.

Competition will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

<<

Political Notebok From page 7

with what was detailed in the arrest report.

“Whatever was going on in that room that night, I wish there was more focus on the fact at least some of the police officers had lied,” he said.

Until the publication of the book, Cathcart said there “never had been any questions about this.” Nor had he ever spoken to Lambda’s clients in the case, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, about it.

“I never knew Tyron and John never said to me they were not having sex,” said Cathcart. “The first

There is no admission charge.

The team will hold its annual fundraising Splish party the following weekend on Saturday, May 12, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Rebel bar, 1760 Market Street in San Francisco. The suggested donation is $10.

For more information, visit www.tsunamipolo.org.

Registration open for US Gay Open Tennis

25-28. The annual event is hosted by the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Federation of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Open, A Division, B, 40+B, C, 40+C, and D divisions, with men’s, women’s singles and doubles offered in most divisions. This year’s World Team Tennis competition will have a Hunger Games theme.

For registration and information, visit www.gltf.org.

Giants LGBT night tix on sale

Online registration is open through May 1 for the U.S. Gay Open Tennis Tournament, scheduled to be played at Stanford, May

As reported on the Bay Area Reporter’s blog earlier this week, tickets are on sale for the Giants LGBT night, which is May 29. For more info, see ebar.com/blogs/?p=3995.▼

time I heard this version of events was in the book.”

The book also leaves readers questioning why Lambda didn’t cover the burial expenses when Garner died in 2006. It sent out a fundraising appeal, but the book notes how his family couldn’t cover the expenses and no funeral was held. Instead, Garner was cremated

by Harris County. (Lawrence died last year.)

Asked about the account and why Lambda didn’t step in, Cathcart said he assumed people in Texas had taken care of it.

“We did not hear back from them.

In retrospect, I wish I had followed up with them. I assumed it all went

fine,” he said.

Lambda’s legal work these days runs the gamut from custody and parenting issues to student rights and spousal issues. Cathcart said his two favorite cases at the moment involve a high school student in Ohio and the Nevada couples.

“We go from a 17 year old to 74 year old grandmother. All of who are stepping up for themselves but also for all of us,” he said.

Gay student loses UC Berkeley prez race Once again an openly gay student body presidential candidate has come See page 13 >>

▼ <<

Community News >>

SJ gay

From page 1

He noted that he was only in the position for about two and a half months.

“There were so many red flags in that short amount of time that I needed to make the decision that I did,” he said.

Among other problems, he said, nobody “seemed to know who would play what role. It went back and forth so many times on who would coordinate volunteers, sponsorships, etc. that I still don’t know what the final placement was.”

He also said, “There is an enormous amount of work still to be done and unfortunately those involved are having to focus on the process of how things need to happen, rather than actually doing them.”

He added, “Hopefully what happens is that the board realizes they need to activate the community to fill the gap and make the festival happen.”

In a list that Dugan said he was asked to prepare and brought to an April 3 executive board meeting, he shared several concerns. The list included the expectation that, “If you volunteer to take on a project, you do it, keep to the timeline set forth or delegate it to another person.”

Dugan said that he didn’t make it through the list at the meeting because Svoboda “broke down crying and said he would be resigning.”

(Asked about that meeting, Svoboda said, in part, “I don’t know that there’s really too much to explain.”)

Svoboda almost left the board himself.

In an April 5 email, a copy of which he provided, Svoboda expressed confidence in the organization but said, “[R]ecent operational concerns and executive matters within the organization cause me great concern. A professional structure and integrity are passions I am unable to compromise. Unfortunately, my philosophy and vision for the organization no longer align with peers of the board of directors and its contractor.”

He said his resignation would be effective at the end of the next board meeting, April 11.

The agenda for the April 11 meeting included the item “Nominations and selection of new president.” According to Svoboda, the resignation was retracted, and the board voted unanimously to keep him.

Another topic on the agenda was for the dismissal of Roman Fernando, the board’s vice president.

Andre Mathurin, who resigned from the board recently, said he’d wanted Fernando to step down as vice president because when he tried “to figure out where in the

board things were getting the most slowed down, for me that was Roman.” He said Fernando “had a lot of great ideas,” but he suggested those notions weren’t realistic.

Several board members voted to keep Fernando, and the proposal was rejected.

Dugan’s departure means more work for at least some of the remaining board members. In his resignation, Mathurin said that he couldn’t commit the time that would be needed.

However, in an interview, he said, “I’m leaving on good terms,” and he’s offered to help them in the future.

Fernando declined to be interviewed, referring questions to Svoboda.

Financial picture Pride’s current net income is an estimated $8,000. In interviews, Svoboda seemed unaware of some key components of his organization’s budget, including its total expenses.

He said that he disagreed with that notion, but he initially said Pride’s budget this year is $250,000.

However, budget documents that he provided show the group’s total expenses are expected to be about $197,000. That’s an increase of just over $35,000 from last year, when costs totaled approximately $162,000.

Much of the increase is related to the entertainment costs, which are listed at almost $48,000, up from about $27,000 last year.

Club Papi, the group known for its go-go dancers, is working to provide at least $10,000 toward costs.

In an email, Club Papi owner Jamie Awad said Papi has agreed to raise the money through fundraisers. In a phone interview, he said that like others trying to help Pride, “I’m working my ass off.”

“This year is very critical for Pride, and the South Bay community in general,” said Awad. He said that he doesn’t see turmoil around Pride, and he hoped this story “doesn’t push away potential sponsors.”

Svoboda said that Pride is working to raise money through sponsorships and other sources. He said they recently received $5,000 from Hewlett-Packard. An HP spokeswoman didn’t provide confirmation of that amount.

Svoboda estimated that a recent fundraiser at San Jose’s Brix nightclub raised “a little over $500,” short of their goal of “at least $1,000.”

He said the organization is “looking at making potentially hard decisions, and that may include adding or subtracting of events.” He indicated discussions would include whether to have a parade this year.

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

The parade would cost approximately $18,000.

The budget indicates that organizers are expecting more people to attend this year, and Svoboda said they’re doing more marketing and exposure and providing “more entertainment value.”

The admission fee for the Sunday festival will remain $15.

Svoboda said that a “Taste and Tempo” event with restaurants, wineries, and similar vendors is planned for Saturday, August 18. Nobody’s signed on yet, he said.

Other board members contacted by the Bay Area Reporter either didn’t respond to interview requests or referred questions to Svoboda.

Board member Ray Mueller declined to be interviewed, but provided some financial information.

In an email, he said that Pride has outstanding debt from 2011 of $13,000, plus a loan for $10,000 that’s due in December.

There could be some help on the way from San Jose city officials.

Kerry Adams Hapner, director of San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affairs, said her agency is recommending that the city provide a “general range” of $7,500 for Pride.

She said she has “a certain degree of confidence this grant is going to proceed as recommended,” but the “final say” would come from the City Council and Mayor Chuck Reed.

Adams Hapner said the office’s grant recommendations would be released next week, when they would be forwarded to the city’s Arts Commission. That panel would then send recommendations to the city council.

LGBT issues hit council race The state of San Jose’s LGBT institutions has also become an issue in a heated race for a downtown City Council seat. The city has been without an LGBT council member since 2006, and some contend out leadership is sorely needed at City Hall.

Gay attorney Steve Kline has made the lack of LGBT representation a key point in his bid to oust District 6 Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio, whose district covers many LGBT-friendly neighborhoods. The local race is on the June 5 primary ballot, and this week Kline won the influential endorsement of the South Bay’s main LGBT political group BAYMEC. “I think one of the clear differences I have made in the campaign, and will continue to make, is he doesn’t interact with the community or neighborhoods,” said Kline.

Oliverio counters that the he is “not completely AWOL” and has attended Pride events, BAYMEC dinners, and the raising of the rainbow

Obituaries >> William Jeffrey Nagel January 1972 – April 18, 2012

William Jeffrey Nagel, born in January 1972, passed away peacefully at Laguna Honda Hospital on Wednesday April 18.

He is survived by his mom and dad and sister, his stepfather, and his two young sons and their mother. As well as his loving friends here in San Francisco. Thank you to all the staff at UCSF and Laguna Honda for making his last days so comfortable.

Leroy “Lee” Navarro June 19, 1967 – April 11, 2012

Leroy “Lee” Navarro, born June 19, 1967, was found dead on April 11 in his apartment several days after what appears to have been a natural death. If you knew Lee and would like to connect with

his friends please contact tongass@ mac.com.

William “Jerry” Sullivan 1930 – 2012

William “Jerry” Sullivan passed out of this life on March 24. Jerry was born in Dallas, Texas in 1930.

He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1952 and then took an MA in math. In 1956, Jerry moved to San Francisco, where he worked for Matson Navigation. In 1978, after four years spent in Paris, he returned to SF to work for Levi Strauss as a computer programmer. Jerry loved San Francisco.

He actively supported the LGBT movement, including the Primetimers. Jerry loved music of the Romantic Era, especially piano and opera. He also enjoyed art, architecture, local SF history, and classical literature. Jerry became ill in November 2010, with increasing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. In December 2011, he was moved to Mission Villa in Daly City. He passed away at Seton

Medical Center from pneumococcal pneumonia. Jerry is survived by one sister in Austin, Texas. His ashes were scattered at sea on a Neptune Society craft by friends and survivors on April 12. May he rest in peace! Interested persons may contact Timothy Greene at tpgreene@comcast.net regarding a memorial gathering to be held on May 8.

Obituary policy Obituaries should be e-mailed toobituaries@ebar. com. They must be no longer than 200 words.

Please follow normal rules of capitalization – and no poetry. We reserve the right to edit for style, clarity, grammar, and taste.

Please provide the name and contact information for the funeral home, crematory, or organ donation agency that handled final disposition of the body.

This is for verification.

Please submit a photo of the deceased. E-mail a recent color jpg. Deadline for obituaries is Monday at 9 a.m., with the exception of special display ad obituaries, which must be submitted by Friday at 3 p.m. For information on paid obituaries, call (415) 861-5019.

Obituaries can be mailed to Bay Area Reporter, 395 9th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Write the deceased’s name on the back of the photo. If you include a SASE for the photo’s return, write the person’s name on the inside of the envelope flap.

All obituaries must include a contact name and daytime phone number. They must be submitted within a year of the death.

For archived obituaries, go to www.glbthistory.org/ obituaries.

flag at City Hall each year.

Yet it has not gone unnoticed that Oliverio, who blogs about city issues for www.sanjoseinside.com, has never written about LGBT-specific concerns or topics since taking office. Asked about the omission by the B.A.R. during a recent editorial board meeting, Oliverio indicated there was nothing to write about, as his LGBT constituents’ concerns are similar to his other constituents.

They are most concerned about “qualify of life issues in San Jose,” he insisted.

Nor did Oliverio sound troubled about the status of his city’s Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center, which has struggled financially for the last several years and whose building is set to be put up for sale next year.

“It is offering less services than in the past but it is offering important services such as a seniors lunch, HIV testing, and bingo nights,” he said.

Asked what he had done to help the center attract city funding, OliSee page 13 >>

<< Election 2012

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

GOP candidates mixed on FAIR Act law

by Matthew S. Bajko

R

epublicans in San Francisco running to lead their party have mixed views on whether California public schools should be required to teach about LGBT history. The issue could dominate headlines this fall if anti-gay groups are able to place a measure on the November ballot to undo the curriculum mandate lawmakers passed last year.

Governor Jerry Brown signed into law in July what is known as the FAIR Act, which stands for Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education.

Pushed by openly gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the bill mandates that textbooks and instructional materials include contributions of LGBT Americans.

Opponents are circulating a referendum to undo the law that they have called the CLASS Act Initiative, using the acronym for Children Learning Accurate Social Science.

They are working to gather the signatures needed to qualify it for the November election.

Among the questions the Bay

<<

Area Reporter asked the 26 candidates seeking a seat on the Republican County Central Committee on the June primary ballot was whether the GOPers supported the FAIR Act. Only five of the people running to lead the local Republican Party turned in the B.A.R.’s questionnaire.

Based on the quintet’s responses, Republicans are of a mixed mind when it comes to teaching schoolchildren about the accomplishments of LGBT Americans.

The only candidate to respond to the B.A.R. in the contested 17th Assembly District race, where 12 people are seeking 11 seats on the RCCC, was Jason P. Clark, a gay man who is the party’s general counsel and already sits on the party committee. He stated that he opposes the FAIR Act. “I think history should be left to educators and historians, not the state legislature,” wrote Clark, the vice chair of the gay Log Cabin Republicans’ San Francisco chapter who is running against gay state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (DSan Francisco) this fall. “The State Board of Education should adopt standards that require textbooks

Rick Gerharter

Jason P. Clark

Daniel Brown

and history curriculum to reflect the contributions of all Californians to our history.”

Clark’s stance is in opposition to Daniel Brown, a gay man who was one of 14 people who filed to run for the 14 seats on the RCCC from the 19th Assembly District. President of the local Log Cabin chapter, Brown will automatically gain a seat on the county committee since the

race is uncontested.

In response to the B.A.R.’s question about the FAIR Act, Brown simply said that, “yes,” he does support it. Incumbent RCCC member Terence Faulkner, who like Brown is running in AD 19, also said he is in favor of the law.

“The facts of history should be accurately discussed,” wrote Faulkner.

Two other incumbents from AD

19, Bill Bowen and Howard Epstein, however agree with Clark and oppose the pro-gay law.

Bowen explained that he does “not believe that curriculum should be dictated by special interest groups.”

All five men are in agreement when it comes to supporting samesex marriage, and the quintet also was in unison on the need to push the statewide Republican Party to take more moderate stances when it comes to social issues such as LGBT rights.

Mirroring the others’ responses, Epstein pointed out that during this year’s Republican state convention, GOP leaders from San Francisco worked with their counterparts from around the state to push forward a moderate platform stripped of antigay language.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t pass. We have to keep trying,” wrote Epstein.

“In S.F. we support LGBT candidates for local and state office.”

Bowen added in his response that, “We can lead by example. We have a number of gay members and will soon have a platform that speaks to inclusion.”▼

SF Dem candidates From page 1

endorsed candidates for local races in the last two city elections. Some contend the committee’s sway with voters has been diminished partly due to sitting supervisors also being members of the DCCC. Five supervisors currently serve on the DCCC: John Avalos (District 11), Eric Mar (D1), David Chiu (D3), David Campos (D9), and Scott Wiener (D8). All are seeking re-election this year, and District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen is also running for a DCCC seat.

Should the six be elected to the DCCC, it would constitute a quorum of board members and trigger sunshine laws and other rules governing the supervisors.

That outcome has raised anew suggestions that the local party ban municipal elected officials from serving on the committee.

Openly gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), an exofficio member of the DCCC given the office he holds, told the Bay Area Reporter that he is “a little conflicted” about having city supervisors sit on the committee. He has endorsed Wiener’s DCCC re-election bid as well as former supervisors Leslie Katz and Bevan Dufty, but Leno prefers to see most of the seats go to people who have not held political office.

“I’d like to think the central committee is a good entry level post for community activists. There are a limited number of seats, so any elected or former elected takes a seat away from a new person,” said Leno in an interview, adding that at the same time “everyone has a right to run.”

DCCC Treasurer Alix Rosenthal, a contender to become the next party chair, told the B.A.R. municipal elected officials should be banned from being able to serve on the committee. She called the DCCC “a great way to get your feet wet” in local politics, especially for future candidates.

“But with all of the electeds holding positions on the DCCC, it is nearly impossible for a newcomer to get elected to the body now,” she told the B.A.R. in response to a candidate questionnaire. “Moreover, most of the supervisors sitting on the DCCC are too busy to come to most meetings, causing us quorum problems.

And the supervisors are often conflicted out of voting on matters of local concern.”

Wiener, who has served on the DCCC since 2004 and was a past party chair, told the B.A.R. he believes he “still has a role to play” on

Rick Gerharter

DCCC candidate Jamie Rafaela Wolfe

the committee in addition to being a city supervisor. He does not foresee, however, seeking the chairmanship again this year.

“Never say never but it is a big job and I am sure the DCCC will find the right candidate,” said Wiener, who would not disclose whom he would vote to be the next chair. “I think it would be great to have someone else be chair. I work 18 hours a day as supervisor. It takes a lot of time to be chair.”

The Bay Area Reporter sent questionnaires to all 51 candidates seeking DCCC seats this year. Twentyfive people responded in the AD 17 race. In AD 19, incumbent DCCC member Bill Fazio wrote to say he is declining to answer any questionnaires this year, while 14 people filled it out.

Few support banning electeds In 2010 then-Mayor Gavin Newsom placed on the November ballot a measure that would have banned supervisors and the mayor from running for seats on the DCCC. Progressives painted the proposal as sour grapes by moderates upset that they had lost control of the local party.

Not only had a progressive DCCC slate swept into office, in 2008 it also ousted Wiener as chair and, in his place, elected Peskin. Voters rejected Newsom’s measure, but the number of supervisors doing double duty as DCCC members has again drawn attention to the idea of a ban.

Few of the DCCC candidates who responded to the B.A.R.’s questionnaire support banning municipal elected officials from serving on the party committee. Others suggested supervisors be given ex-officio membership similar to state and federal officeholders.

Among the AD 17 candidates, only eight supported such a restric-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Rick Gerharter

Rick Gerharter

DCCC candidate Bevan Dufty

DCCC incumbent David Campos

DCCC incumbent Matt Dorsey

tion. The other 17 candidates said they opposed the idea.

Campos explained that not only does he believe the policy is unnecessary, he fears such a ban would lead to less minority members on the DCCC. “As a Latino man, one of the reasons I’m running is because many in that community fear that if I don’t run, it may be that there will be no Latino representation on the DCCC, which was the case years ago,” he wrote.

As the only Asian DCCC incumbent in AD 17, Chiu also said he was running to ensure a diverse ethnic makeup on the committee. He said he would agree to resign from the DCCC, however, if the federal and state officeholders given ex-officio status did the same.

“But unless that happens, it does not make sense to have a local Democratic leadership that consists of federal and state electeds and grassroots activists, but no local electeds,” wrote Chiu, the current board president.

Others, such as Dufty and school board member Hydra Mendoza, both of whom are policy advisers to Mayor Ed Lee, simply stated that they “respect” the voters’ decision from two years ago.

City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey, running for a full-term to the DCCC after being appointed to a vacancy earlier this year, added another reason to keeping the status quo.

“The Democratic Party is – and should remain – a democratic party,” wrote Dorsey, a gay man and one of the few HIV-positive people in the race. “If Democratic voters don’t want supervisors serving on the DCCC, they have the prerogative to not vote for those supervisors.”

Katz, a lesbian who serves on the city’s Port Commission, had a more nuanced reply. Against an outright ban, she said she hopes “such officials would self-regulate and recog-

nize the problems that now exist by holding two offices.”

She added that, “I am opposed to those who jump into the race without” a commitment to the party “but am hesitant to restrict people in their exercise of their right to run.”

So did lesbian former state Senator Carole Migden, a onetime chair of the party, who does not support a ban but did state that “the committee may be better served by more activists and fewer elected officials.”

Gay attorney Rafael Mandelman suggested that should all six supervisors win a seat on the DCCC – something he noted would be “unprecedented and seems a bit ridiculous” – he would encourage them to step down in favor of a designated successor. Doing so, he noted, “would be an opportunity to give new activists, ideally women and people of color, an opportunity to get a seat at the DCCC table.”

Among the crop of LGBT activists from AD 17 looking to move into local Democratic Party politics this year are transgender educator Jamie Rafaela Wolfe, AIDS activist Stu Smith, and Zoe Dunning, a lesbian retired naval officer who pushed for repeal of the military’s ban on out gay and lesbian service members.

Only Stu Smith said elected officials should not run for the DCCC, while Wolfe and Dunning told the B.A.R. they would not support an outright ban.

Wolfe wrote that she “would appreciate seeing more non-elected officials occupying” seats on the DCCC in order “to bring more diversity.”

But rather than limiting membership of elected officials, Wolfe favors letting “engaged Democratic voters decide who they want representing their party.”

Dunning said she “would consider proposals to establish a limited number of ex-officio positions for municipal electeds, freeing up the DCCC elected seats for the rest of us.”

Among the 14 candidates from AD 19, they were evenly divided on the issue. Neither incumbent Arlo Hale Smith nor Kevin Bard, a Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club board member, supports banning electeds from the DCCC. Bard said he is “open to smart ideas on this matter.”

Arlo Smith had worked with several DCCC members to increase the number of seats to 29 but their proposal was rejected. Although some electeds have had a positive impact serving on the panel, Smith said others have not and there has been negative consequences.

“It tends to increase ‘partisan’ bickering on the [panel] as concern over SFDCCC endorsements becomes exaggerated by the need of these officials to gain endorsements for themselves, and candidate/ballot measures they support,” wrote Smith.

Teacher Trevor McNeil was among those supporting a ban because he doesn’t believe having electeds on the DCCC is good for the party.

“I think at the worst it’s a way for electeds to get around fundraising limits, and it certainly does not help bring new voices to the party,” he wrote.

How the panel comes down on the issue of having electeds serve on the DCCC likely will be swayed by who is elected the next chair. Should they be re-elected to the party committee, look for Rosenthal, Migden, and Mandelman in the mix to succeed Peskin.

Rosenthal, who has generated debate with her all-female slate of DCCC candidates, has called for the next chair to be a woman.

Migden and Mandelman both told the B.A.R. their preference is to have an LGBT chair.

For more coverage of the DCCC race, see the B.A.R.’s next online Political Notes column Monday, April 30.▼

â&#x2013;ź <<

Community News>>

Political Notebook

From page 10

up short at UC Berkeley.

Andrew Albright, 20, a political science and sociology major, had hoped to break through the campusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political leadership lavender ceiling with his bid to lead the Associated Students of the University of California, or ASUC for short. But the Folsom native ended up in second place among the seven people running for the top post when the results were announced last Thursday, April 19.

He thanked his supporters via

<<

Transgender man From page 3

Power of one Frustrated with a plethora of inequalities from employment to marriage, Chall, 37, blurted out to Truelove on a late night drive home, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to walk across the country for equality and try to make a difference,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just equality. It shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be a different kind. It should just be equality,â&#x20AC;? said Chall, who identifies as straight, believing there shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be a hierarchy or any differences.

Planning the trip has been a challenge during the past two years. The couple has only raised $800 toward what they estimate will be an $8,000 trip. The money has come from their local community and family and

<<

SJ gay From page 11

verio countered that City Hallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own fiscal woes have made it impossible for the council to support many nonprofits. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Other nonprofits, like the DeFrank, have had to pull it up themselves,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the pleasure of serving under surplus budgets. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had to cut.â&#x20AC;?

To help solve the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fiscal constraints, Oliverio is working with Reed to pass a pension reform proposal on the June ballot known as Measure B. The cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unions are opposed to it, and Oliverio pegs his supporting the measure for why he failed to win endorsements from BAYMEC and the local Democratic Party. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sad to see a good organization being controlled by an interest group,â&#x20AC;?

<<

EEOC From page 1

The ruling, dated Friday, April 20 and released Tuesday, April 24, involves Mia Macy, a 39-year-old transgender woman who lives in Pacifica, a small city south of San Francisco. Macy was denied a job as a ballistics technician at the Walnut Creek, California laboratory of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives last year. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This decision isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just for me,â&#x20AC;?

Macy said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good for me, but this is a door thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opening a little widerâ&#x20AC;? for other transgender people.

She said the ordeal had been â&#x20AC;&#x153;completely devastatingâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;humiliating,â&#x20AC;? and included the loss of her home to foreclosure.

The Transgender Law Center, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, had filed the complaint on Macyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behalf. TLC legal director Ilona Turner said the EEOCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stance is â&#x20AC;&#x153;a gamechanging decision, and it will make a tremendous difference for transgender people.â&#x20AC;?

In the case, the EEOC ruled that Title VII, the federal sex discrimination law, protects employees who are discriminated against because they are transgender.

The commission is the federal agency that interprets and enforces federal employment discrimination

April 26-May 2, 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ BAY AREA REPORTER â&#x20AC;˘ 13

Berkeley makes no mention of there being an out ASUC president. In 1975 Bevan Dufty, a gay man and former San Francisco supervisor, did serve as ASUC co-president.

But he was not out of the closet and did not run as a gay candidate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At that time everyone but me knew I was gay,â&#x20AC;? Dufty told the B.A.R., adding that he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come out until moving to Washington, D.C. in 1976.â&#x2013;ź

noon for Political Notes, the notebookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online companion. This weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s column reports on the Obama campaignâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s re-election strategy.

Facebook, writing, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The work will always continue. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support, I truly couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have put myself out there were it not for you.â&#x20AC;?

It was the third time in recent years that the campusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; progressive political party CalSERVE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education â&#x20AC;&#x201C; had ran an out candidate for president. It is believed that the famously liberal East Bay campus has never elected an openly LGBT person to head the student government.

An online LGBT history of UC

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check www. ebar.com Monday mornings at

friends, the couple said. Chall has also received mix responses from individuals and organizations that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reached out to who are skeptical about his project.

He arrived in the Bay Area via train last weekend and spent a couple nights in San Francisco before heading out Monday morning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely an uphill battle,â&#x20AC;?

Chall said, but he isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t deterred. His spirits are high. He looks forward to walking with his family and friends who plan to join him when he passes through their towns. He has also received some in-kind donations of food and water, emergency medical connections, an iPhone, a used laptop, and train ticket to San Francisco, the couple said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m on the verge of being so completely proud that I want to

burst and so completely sad I want to burst,â&#x20AC;? said Truelove, who is scared about what might happen to Chall during his trip.

Truelove, 29, a straight woman, is a counselor at a crisis center in the coupleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hometown. She wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t able to join Chall on the journey.

Chall isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afraid of people, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more afraid of animals, he said. He looks forward to meeting the people he comes across during his 2,815mile journey across the U.S. along Highway 50, learning more about Americans and their thoughts about inequality, and more about himself, he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m hoping to have gained a better understanding of the different walks of life and the different depths of being a second-class citizen,â&#x20AC;? said Chall, who is a social work student.

For more information, visit www. the2ndclasscitizenproject.org.

wrote Oliverio in an email, noting that BAYMECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s council endorsements mirror that of labor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was fairly obvious during the interview when most questions were about pension reform rather than LGBT issues.â&#x20AC;?

Kline, however, insisted that concerns on LGBT issues and other problems plaguing San Jose played into BAYMECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision. He said the political group did weigh Oliverioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lack of attention on the challenges facing the LGBT communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s institutions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think most people in BAYMEC and the lesbian and gay community would just be outraged to be told that their sole thoughts were on Measure B,â&#x20AC;? said Kline. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He has a very narrow view of the world and this year his narrow view of the world is are you for or against Measure B. That is not the main issue I hear people talk about as I walk the streets.â&#x20AC;?

During his meeting with the B.A.R. Oliverio failed to mention that the City Council next week will be voting on a proposal that would see the DeFrankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s building be put up for sale next year.

Due to the dissolution of the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s redevelopment agencies, the successor agency in San Jose will be presenting its plans for disposing of the redevelopment agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assets over the next 18 months.

Spokesman Richard Keit told the B.A.R. this week that the DeFrank center would be one of the last properties put up for sale. It has had a sweetheart deal for years, paying $1 a month in rent.

Its lease agreement runs through 2054, and any new owner would be required to honor it. The successor agency would seek bids from potential buyers for the DeFrank in October 2013.

Keit said it would be up to bidders to suggest a selling price. The DeFrank is proposed to be one of the last buildings sold since it is currently occupied and is of value to the local LGBT community. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We think it is an important asset to the community, so it gives the community time to maybe come up with funds to acquire it,â&#x20AC;? said Keit.

The potential sale of the DeFrank is one example where having an LGBT council member could play an influential role, argued Kline. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How are we going to actively save the Billy DeFrank Center?â&#x20AC;? asked Kline. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is something we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put our heads in the sand about. We are going to need people following what the agency is doing.â&#x20AC;?

Chris Flood, the DeFrankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s board president, did not respond to the B.A.R.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s requests for comment.â&#x2013;ź

law. The decision marks the first time the EEOC has offered clear guidance on this issue, according to TLC. In its decision, the EEOC concluded that â&#x20AC;&#x153;intentional discrimination against a transgender individual because that person is transgender is, by definition, discrimination â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;based on ... sexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and such discrimination therefore violates Title VII.â&#x20AC;?

ATF spokeswoman Donna Sellers said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a matter of policy, ATF does not speak about personnel matters or ongoing litigation,â&#x20AC;? and she said she couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t answer any questions about the case.

Macy, a veteran and a former police detective, applied for the ATF job when she was living as a man.

A TLC statement said that she was â&#x20AC;&#x153;exceptionally qualified for the positionâ&#x20AC;? and was one of the few people in the country who had already been trained on ATFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ballistics computer system.

Tuesday, Macy said that the job was the â&#x20AC;&#x153;exact same job I was doing for [the ATF], just as a civilian.â&#x20AC;? She said she had been told the position â&#x20AC;&#x153;was mine if I wanted it.â&#x20AC;?

After Macy disclosed her gender transition during the hiring process, however, she was told that funding for the position had been cut. She later learned that someone else was hired for the job.

Turner said in TLCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement that â&#x20AC;&#x153;discrimination against trans-

gender people is a form of sex discrimination,â&#x20AC;? and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;true whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understood as discrimination because of the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gender identity, or because they have changed their sex, or because they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t conform to other peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stereotypes of how men and women ought to be.â&#x20AC;?

According to TLC, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The decision is entitled to significant deference by the courts, and will be binding on all federal agencies.â&#x20AC;?

Turner said that Title VII applies to all employers with 15 or more employees.

She said that TLC would seek compensatory damages, including back pay, for Macy.

TLC staff attorney Matt Wood said that Macy still wants the job. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever wanted,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff said that a prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation offered by ENDA or a similar bill is also still needed.

Wood said that ATF couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t appeal the EEOC ruling. He said the commission has â&#x20AC;&#x153;the final word,â&#x20AC;? and ATF could ask for reconsideration, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;unlikely.â&#x20AC;?

Organizations around the country celebrated the federal commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After years of being wrongly and unfairly excluded from federal protections against sex discrimination, transgender workers will now enjoy the same protections against unlawful discrimination based on gender stereotyping as other Americans,â&#x20AC;?

National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell said in a statement. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mia Macy and the Transgender Law Center deserve enormous credit for bringing this historic case, which has resulted in a landmark ruling that will change the lives of countless transgender people.â&#x20AC;?

In TLCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statement, Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision helps our discrimination laws fulfill their purpose of ensuring that no one loses a job based on sex. Women have fought for decades to be judged in the workplace by our abilities, not by our sex, gender identity, or gender stereotypes.â&#x20AC;?â&#x2013;ź

Implications Asked Tuesday whether transgender people still need to be protected under the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, TLC Executive Director Masen Davis said the EEOC ruling is â&#x20AC;&#x153;tremendously important,â&#x20AC;? but â&#x20AC;&#x153;We still need ENDA. ... We now need to make sure we complement [the ruling] with really strong legal protections from Congress and the courts.â&#x20AC;?

According to Davis, 34 states lack transgender-inclusive non-discrimination laws.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 861-5019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

On the web Online content this week includes the Bay Area Reporterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online column, Political Notes; the Out in the World column, and an article about a new Yelp-like site for LGBTs. www.ebar.com.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would really like this documentary to hit home that the LGBT community they are your neighbors, they are your brothers, your sisters,â&#x20AC;? said Chall, about small town perceptions of queer people that are garnered mostly from media. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are not just celebrities and they just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go bar hopping. They have successful relationships and they are living their lives as second-class citizens in the U.S. where that shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen.â&#x20AC;?

The bottom line for Chall is that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;nobody should be a second-class citizen in the U.S. If people are still second-class citizens in the U.S. then what separates us from the Third World countries?â&#x20AC;?â&#x2013;ź

Legal Notices>> SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals on or about April 12, 2012 for Real Property Appraisal Services with proposals due by 2:00 P.M. local time, Tuesday, May 15, 2012.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED The request for General Real Property $SSUDLVDO 6HUYLFHV VKDOO EH IRU D Ă&#x20AC;YH (5)-year period and the District intends to make three (3) awards resulting from this RFP. It is anticipated that each of the three (3) Agreements awarded under this RFP shall not exceed the amount of Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars ($800,000); however, there is no guaranteed minimum level of compensation as more particularly described in the RFP No. 6M4182.

Each agreement amount will be approximately two hundred and sixty six thousand dollars ($266,000). A pre-Proposal meeting will be held on Thursday, May 3, 2012 at 10:00 A.M. The meeting will convene at 10:00 a. m, ORFDO WLPH DW %$57 RIĂ&#x20AC;FHV ORFDWHG DW 300 Lakeside Drive, 15th Floor â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Main Conference Room # 1500, Oakland, CA. Prospective Proposers and subconsultants are urged to make every effort to attend this only-scheduled pre-Proposal meeting. Proposals must be received by 2:00 P.M., local time, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 at the address listed in the RFP. Submission of a SURSRVDO VKDOO FRQVWLWXWH D Ă&#x20AC;UP RIIHU to the District for One Hundred and Eighty (180) calendar days from date of proposal submission.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after April 12, 2012) Copies of the RFP may be obtained: A PDF version of the RFP will be VHQW WR DOO Ă&#x20AC;UPV RQ WKH ,QWHUHVWHG Parties List at time of advertisement; or, (1) By E-mail request to the Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Contract Administrator, Gloria Abdullah-Lewis, at gabdull@ bart.gov. (2) By arranging pickup at the above address. Call the Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Contract Administrator at (510) 464-6547 prior to pickup of the RFP. (3) By attending the Pre-Proposal Meeting and obtaining the RFP at the meeting. Dated at Oakland, California this11th day of April 2012. /s/ Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District Â&#x2021; &16 BAY AREA REPORTER

STATEMENT FILE A- 034240900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOROTHY AND RUTH, 1885 Golden Gate Ave. #5, SF, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Miranda Jones. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 04/01/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/02/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 STATEMENT FILE A- 034189900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROYALTY PIZZA CAFE, 829 Geary St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Mousa JM Abdel Jabbar. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 03/08/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 STATEMENT FILE A- 034190400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WAI KUEN WONG HERBALIST CONSULTING CENTER, 2822 San Bruno Ave., SF, CA 94134.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Stanley Wai Kuen Yang. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 03/07/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/09/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 STATEMENT FILE A- 034217400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WOODLEAF EATING DISORDER CENTER, 45 Franklin St. #205, SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed April A. Vancelette. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 03/21/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 STATEMENT FILE A- 034233500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROSAMUNDE SAUSAGE GRILL, 545 Haight St., SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Jennifer Tucci. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed ďŹ ctitious business name or names on 02/07/12. The statement was ďŹ led with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/28/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 • Bay Area Reporter • April 26-May 2, 2012

Classifieds

t

Legal Notices>>

The

Legal Notices>> SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT RFP NO. 6M4191 EXTENSION OF TIME FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District has extended the time for receipt of Proposals until the hour of 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 8, 2012, at the District’s Offices, 23rd Floor Receptionist, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612 (by Hand Delivery), or to the District Secretary’s Office, P.O. Box 12688, Oakland, CA 94604-2688 (by U.S. Mail), for Regular Temporary Help Services, RFP No. 6M4191, as more fully described in the RFP Documents.

Dated at Oakland, California, this 13th day of April, 2012. /s/ Patricia A. Williams for Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District • 4/26/12 CNS-2299033# BAY AREA REPORTER statement file A- 034201500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DE FRISCO REGALIA, 491-A Guerrero St., SF, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a husband and wife, and is signed Greene. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/14/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 statement file A- 034223200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRUNCH; CRUNCH FITNESS, 2330 Polk St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Keith Worts. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 statement file A- 034223800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRUNCH; CRUNCH FITNESS, 1725 Union St., SF, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Keith Worts. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 statement file A- 034223600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRUNCH; CRUNCH FITNESS, 61 New Montgomery, SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Keith Worts. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/09.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 statement file A- A-034223500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRUNCH; CRUNCH FITNESS, 345 Spear St., SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Keith Worts. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 statement file A- 034223400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRUNCH; CRUNCH FITNESS, 2324 Chestnut St., SF, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed Keith Worts. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/15/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012 Statement of abandonment of use of fictitious business name FILE# A-030632700 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: WOODLEAF EATING DISORDER CENTER, 45 Franklin St., SF, CA 94102. This business was conducted by an individual, signed Neil Miller.

The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/28/2007.

APR 5, 12, 19, 26, 2012

statement file A-034240400

statement file A-034274800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRET SERVICES, 652 Funston Ave., SF, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Tari Trethewy. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/02/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/02/12.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EVA LINDA’S CLEANING SERVICE, 1118 Fitzgerald Ave., SF, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Michael Mellegers. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/17/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/13/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# CNC12-548572 In the matter of the application of: ALTANTSETSEG YANSANJAV for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ALTANTSETSEG YANSANJAV is requesting that his/her name be changed to VICTORIA KRAJCI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 12th of June 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 statement file A-034254500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACCORDION APOCALYPSE REPAIR SHOP, 255 10th St., SF, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Rebecca Fell. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/28/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/05/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 statement file A-034246100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE COUNSELING CENTER, 870 Market St. #463, SF, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Randy Weled. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/03/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 statement file A-034221400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPARKLING JANITORIAL SERVICES, 2 Castillo St., SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Ines Hernandez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/23/12.

APR 12, 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 04/10/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: LANZHOU NOODLE LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 173-181 Eddy St., SF, CA 94102-2706. Type of license applied for

41 - On-sale BEER & WINE Eating place APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 2012 statement file A-034263400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KGB INTERIOR DESIGN, 245 Vallejo St., SF, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed KGB Associates LTD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/10/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/10/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 statement file A-034273300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UCSH CONSTRUCTION, 5316 Geary Blvd,, SF, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Sean Hsieh. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/12/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/13/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 statement file A-034272500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LANIADO DIAMONDS, 3145 Geary Blvd. #702, SF, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Yaniv Laniado. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/12/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 statement file A-034276500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SANDRA CLEANING SERVICES, 240 Arguello Ave., Vallejo, CA 94591. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Devon Willis. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/16/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/16/12.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 04/18/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: BL CATERING, LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1465 Carroll Ave., SF, CA 94124-3604. Type of license applied for

41 - On-sale beer & WINE EATing place APR 26, 2012 notice of application TO SELL alcoholic beverageS Dated 04/04/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: PINEAPPLE LLC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 4052 Balboa St., SF, CA 941212517. Type of license applied for

41 - On-sale beer & WINE EATing place APR 26, 2012 notice of application FOR CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP OF alcoholic beverage LICENSE Dated 04/17/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: CHILLI CHA CHA THAI NOODLE CAFE. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 494 Haight St., SF, CA 94117-3506. Type of license applied for

41 - On-sale BEER & WINE Eating place APR 26, 2012 notice of application FOR CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP OF alcoholic beverage LICENSE Dated 04/18/12 To Whom It May Concern: The name(s) of the applicant(s) is/are: STEAMED SLOTH, INC. The applicants listed above are applying to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control at 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2208, Oakland, CA 94612 to sell alcoholic beverages at 1875 Union St., SF, CA 94123-4307. Type of license applied for

47 - On-sale GENERAL Eating place APR 26, 2012 statement file A-034279400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRIENDLY LIMO, 1420 Bel Air Dr. #103, Concord, CA 94521, Contra Costa County. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Leonid Shagalov. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/17/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/17/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# CNC12-548552

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALAR MUSIC, 221 11th St., SF, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Cristian Lopez. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/05/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/05/12.

In the matter of the application of: RENEA MARIE HATCHER for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RENEA MARIE HATCHER is requesting that his/her name be changed to RENEA CLAY STEWART. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 514 on the 5th of June 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012

APR 19, 26, MAY 3, 10, 2012 statement file A-034254100

state of california in and for the county of san francisco file# CNC12-548600 In the matter of the application of: KIMBERLY LAURA FIFE for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KIMBERLY LAURA FIFE is requesting that his/her name be changed to KIMBERLY LAURA GARRISON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 21st of June 2012 at 9:00 am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034277000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAINT & OLIVE, 610 Webster St. #14, SF, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Olive A. Loew. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/16/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034249600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BABYLON B.C., 301 Crescent Ct. #3103, SF, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Sameh Zahda. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/04/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034284700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY EQUITY HOME LOANS; COVENANT MORTGAGE; EMAC HOME LOANS; BANKERS PREFERRED; TRISTAR HOME LOANS; BELL FINANCIAL; PE FINANCE; 100 California St. #1100, SF, CA 94111-4516. This business is conducted by an limited liability company, and is signed Bay Equity LLC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/18/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034286600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TT HANDYWORK, 535 Columbus Ave. #14, SF, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Shufen Wen. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/19/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034286100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JON SF ENERGY, 145 Madrone Ave., SF, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Jonathan Chan. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/19/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/19/12.

statement file A-034288300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRO IMAGE PRINTING, 3216 Geary Blvd. #A, SF, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Victoria S. Lauretta. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/20/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034292300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GIBRALTAR REALTY, 2521 18th Ave., SF, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed Harry Philibosian. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/23/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/23/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034286900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DEVSWAG, 156 2nd St., SF, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Tilde Inc. (Delaware). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/19/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034283300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TAI CHI RESTAURANT, 2031 Polk St., SF, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed Colin TC Inc. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/98. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/18/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012 statement file A-034295900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRIME LIMOUSINES, 1054 Paintbrush Dr., Sunnyvale, CA 94086, Santa Clara County. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed Nikolay Penev. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/24/12. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/24/12.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012

To pla c Class e your ified a d, Ca 415-8 ll 61-50 19

.

APR 26, MAY 3, 10, 17, 2012

ebar.com

Legal Services>> The Law Offices of

PATRICK MCMAHON

BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY We file Chapter 7 & Chapter 13 for individuals & small businesses who face: • WAGE GARNISHMENT • CREDITOR HARASSMENT • FORECLOSURE • TAXES • REPOSSESSION • STUDENT LOANS

• GOVERNMENT DEBTS

Bankruptcy may be the answer...

FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION (415) 543-9338

703 Market Street, Suite 1109 • San Francisco, CA 94103 www.bklawclinic.com • patrick@bklawclinic.com

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Public Notice>>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Upkeep>>

Counseling>>

Movers>>

PRE-ARRANGED FUNERALS

EAGLE M &

Pre-arranged cemetery & funeral services. Affordable payment plans. Call 415-713-8842

oving

S tor age , I nc .

E15-18

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT

Gay Owned and Operated

Let it be known that CA Technology University & Andrew University has hitherto never enter into any partnership

Local & Long Distance Moves All Over SF & The Bay Area

Gaylesta2x2_0610CN

415.404.7400 888.670.0840

E16-17

Did you know Tom Burdick(1950-1993)?

www.EagleMovingAndStorage.com

No obituary was written, but he deserves to be remembered.

Seeking friends’ descriptions / memories of Tom plus a picture as an adult (with Bob?) to complete his life story.

E-mail: orygunwolf@yahoo.com

E49

415-729-3996

Relapse Prevention Groups Forming

Reasonable fees, free consultation with

Steve Foster, LMFT

(415) 412-0397 The Wellness Center, Dolores & 16th Sts.

Brookline Electric 415-239-5393. Small Jobs Now.

E09-18

ebar.com

Flex your advertising muscle.

Call 415-861-5019 for details.

Household Services>>

Tech Support>>

Health Matters>> Wellness Massage 11-11pm www.rickoz2.com El Cerrito 510-932-5478

CRAFTSMEN FOR HIRE

* home or office * 21 years exp * sfmacman.com

E17-17

R ick 415 .821. 1 792

Hauling>> Reliable & on time hauling $30/hr 2hr min Mike 415-577-7180

Zacate Landscape Design

Creating Urban Gardens Mario in Dogpatch 415-341-5383

E09-17

E11-20

Hauling 24/7 441-1054 Lg. Truck

E14-24

E15-20

E14-21

Housecleaning since 1979.

Many original clients. All supplies.

HEPA Vac. Richard 415-255-0389

E17-18

Classified Order Form

Deadline: NOON on MONDAY. Payment must accompany ad. If you have a question, call 415.861.5019.

Display advertising rates available upon request. Ads will appear in print and online.

Indicate Type Style Here

FOXY LADY BOUTIQUE

Is Up For Sale Due to Health Reasons. Negotiate Price. Foxy Lady Boutique is San Francisco’s legendary apparel superstore. From formal dresses to lingerie and sexy costumes, it’s the place to shop for the latest fashions and sexiest items with the highest quality and the lowest prices. 2644 Mission St. San Francisco JANINE 650-992-3772

E15-15

Real Estate>> MILLION DOLLAR VIEW

Custom Built Home, 1.24 Acres, Approx 3155 SQ.FT 4bdr/2.5ba 27715 Fairview ave Hayward, $ 1,198,800.

For Appt Donna 408-656-4454

E17-17

Cleaning Professional 25 Years Exp (415) 794-4411 * Roger Miller

The

Health & Fitness>>

ebar.com

MACINTOSH HELP

Carpentry repair & remodels, $35/ hr+ materials. 30yrs experience.

Jack816-810-4419, photos: cabinetmakerjack@yahoo.com

Business Opportunities>>

WWW.GAYREALESTATE.COM Instant Free Database of San Francisco’s Top Gay Realtors

Roommates>> Room in 2bdr GrandLakes home. $600 LGBT friendly/Pet friendly 510-465-0014

BAYAREAREPORTER

Like us on facebook!

Rentals>>

XBOLD and BOLD stop here

E52

395 Ninth Street S.F. CA PHONE 415.861.5019

FAX 861-8144

E17-17

Fax to

Fax fr

Help Wanted>>

RATES for Newspaper and website: First line, Regular 10.00 All subsequent lines 5.00 BOLD double price X-BOLD triple price

PAYMENT:

Cash

Expiration Date Signature

Personal Check

Money Order

Contact Information Name Address Number of Issues

Mail with payment to: Bay Area Reporter 395 Ninth Street SF, CA 94103 OR FAX TO: 415.861.8144 OR E-MAIL: simma@ebar.com

Credit Card Payment Name Card Number

City Classification

Visa

MasterCard

AmEx

Telephone State Amt. Enclosed

Zip

As part of our expansion program, our company is looking for part time work from home Account Managers & Sales Representatives, it pays $1000 a month plus benefits and takes only little of your time. Requirements Should be computer Literate. 24 hours access to the internet weekly. Must be Efficient and Dedicated. If you are interested and need more information, Contact Mark Castro, Email: castrmarkcastro@aol.com

E17-20

Account/Bookkeeping Rep for Brundage Furnitures. Interested persons should send a cover letter with his/her resume available to brundagelarry@yahoo.com

E17-17

ebar.com Vacation Rentals>> MAUI PANORAMIC OCEAN VIEW

Located on the sunny side of Maui is the lovely little town of Kihei.

This privately owned 2 bed 2 bath condo with 25 ft lanai is located on the 4th floor across the street from Kamaole III Beach Park in South Kihei, just a 1-1/2 mile walk from Wailea. http://www. vrbo.com/345646

E17-19

18

19

22

O&A

24

Out &About

Strangers in Paradise

Tom of all trades

Family dynamics

The

Vol. 42 • No. 17 • April 26-May 2, 2012

www.ebar.com/arts

Manila cover-band singer Arnel Pineda in director Ramona Diaz’s Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey.

Courtesy SFFS

T

he 55th San Francisco International Film Festival’s final eight days find our venerable Castro Theatre hosting cinema royalty.

Dead Again British renaissance filmmaker Kenneth Branagh receives the Founder’s Directing Award, followed by a screening of his 1991 LAset film noir. (Castro, 4/27, 7:30 p.m.)

The Novikoff Award Named for the Castro Theatre’s savior, the openly gay, genius pro-

★ ★ ★

Highlights from the San Francisco International Film Festival, week 2

by David Lamble

gramming showman Mel Novikoff, the award goes to French cinephile Pierre Rissient, followed by Fritz Lang’s noir gothic classic House

★ ★ ★

by the River. (Castro, 4/28, 4 p.m.)

Twixt Francis Coppola’s latest is a small-town mystery starring Val Kilmer, in 3-D at the Castro

Theatre. (Castro, 4/28, 7:30 p.m.)

Quadrophenia Sting’s acting debut is a highlight of The Who’s rock opera, drawing on the “angry young man” themes of the 1960s British New Wave. (Castro, 4/28, 10:30 p.m.)

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey Director Ramona Diaz tells the YouTube Cinderella story of a poor Manila cover-band singer (ArSee page 29 >>

Graphic genius of Oakland Cartoonist Daniel Clowes’ art shows at OMCA

by Sura Wood

U

Courtesy OMCA

Eightball 18 cover from Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes at the Oakland Museum.

nderground commix bad boy R. Crumb, the big daddy of 1960s San Francisco counterculture, is having his very first comprehensive museum show – in Paris, no less. So perhaps it’s not surprising to learn that Oakland-based Daniel Clowes, a 50ish, successful, award-winning cartoonist, screenwriter and graphic novelist of a somewhat younger vintage, is being celebrated in Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes, a career retrospective on view through the summer at the Oakland Museum.

A single large exhibition gallery

at OMCA is lined with 100 original artworks, several color gouaches, a few New Yorker magazine covers, and pages from some of Clowes’ 50 published “alternative” comics and books, dating from 1989 to 2011.

They include Eightball, an eclectic anthology series; The Death-Ray, featuring a teenage Spiderman/Peter Parker wannabe; David Boring, a weird kid suffering from arrested development who, in a made-up biography, is named after an artist who drew Superman in the 1950s; Lloyd Llewellyn, an early comic starring a retro hipster private detective; and examples from a number of other

{ SECOND OF TWO SECTIONS }

collections from the artist’s private stash. Clowes admits that parting with his personal artwork, even temporarily, induced separation anxiety.

“It was like sending all of my children to college at once.”

Although the show isn’t only for aficionados, those familiar with Clowes’ oeuvre will get a lot more out of it. When I saw the exhibition two days before it opened, there wasn’t nearly enough background information on the books and stories for a relative newbie, though brochures with excerpts from the artist’s discussions of various charSee page 29 >>

<< Out There

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Queer in the Equatorial Zone

by Roberto Friedman

W

e’re having a traditional Thai massage under a palm tree on the beach at Jomtien, south of Pattaya city on the Bay of Thailand.

Big, strong Thai masseur, big, strong hands, he twists Out There up into a salty little pretzel.

“You think about what you write?” he asks, completely intuitive.

Yes. He bends our left leg way back to the side and presses our right shoulder all the way down. Our body doesn’t usually stretch in opposite ways like this.

“You write about your Thai massage!” he commands us.

Yes. He pounds the muscles in our arm and twists it in its socket.

“You tell them how good!”

Yes. Ow. Good. Last week OT joined our good friends the photojournalists Jim James and Rick Gerharter on the first leg of their more extensive travels in Thailand. We flew

through Hong Kong to Bangkok, then hired a car south to Jomtien in Chonburi Province, spending a week there and back in Bangkok. While Jim and Rick went on to the ancient capital Chiang Mai in the north, we raced back here to be with you, dear readers.

Our visit coincided with the Thai New Year holiday Songkran, a festive celebration of water in which impish Thais delight in dousing farangs – that would be us, Westerners – with buckets of cold wetness.

Since we were chilling not far from the Equator during a hot season, the pelting with water didn’t seem so much like punishment as a love tap. Thais laughed maniacally as they splashed us again and again, like a joke that never gets old. They emptied their super-soakers on us.

It’s considered good luck for targeted farangs. Better waterguns than semiautomatics is what we say.

Dongtan beach, where we stayed, is the Pattaya area’s self-designated

gay beach, just a few miles down from the larger and more frenetic town. It’s mostly quiet, popular with expats and other farangs, but there’s a vibrant gay nightlife, centered on bars, cabarets and nightclubs in Jomtien Complex, where young Thai men (not boys) offer their charming company for drinks and other recompense.

In Pattaya we ate authentic Thai food, at a restaurant with an authentic Thai bucket flush, with expat Brit Phil P., then headed to Boyz Town for people-watching at the Panorama bar. At Copa nightclub, bar boys in tight whites, dress shoes and black socks posed and pouted. The cabaret includes a water show with boys (of legal age) doing water aerobics in a giant glass-walled tank, a miracle of gymnastic talent and breath control.

But we wanted to see them jump through hoops to catch a fish. They call him Flip-per!

Then we made our way to Sunee Plaza, a gay nightlife enclave in the Arab district, and eventually to the Crazy Dragon, where the boys (not underage) dance in their skimpies on mirror-top tables just for you. This is where, in a tableau which P. enjoyed describing to his expat chums the next day, OT had the fun of a go-go boy falling asleep in our lap. We will spare you the details.

Heading to Pattaya on Saturday night, the height of Songkran, we’d planned to take a baht bus – openbacked trucks that serve as public transit, 10 baht a ride – but noticed that the traffic had to run a gauntlet of super-soakers fully supplied with gallons of H2O. We tried sneaking behind the line of fire, but were spotted and drenched. Rick and Jim wrapped their cameras in plastic and prayed for them. One girl held our arm so she could pour a bucket of water over our head. “Happy new year!” she wished us with an angelic smile.

Downtown in the commercial district we were thrilled to pass a “fish massage” parlor with tanks set under benches in the window. Discussion of this phenomenon from a recent AbFab episode goes something like this: “Oh, do tell them about the fish pedicure. It’s hi-larious!”

“Well, it’s not so hilarious. Well, what is a fish pedicure, because of course fish don’t have feet. You put your feet in a tank of fish, and they come and nibble all the dead bits off.

But what happened was a fish bit a bit too hard, and it drew blood. And then

Rick Gerharter

Bars and clubs are part of the scene in the alleys of the nightlife hub at Sunee Plaza in Pattaya, Thailand.

Jim James

Performers in the water show at the Copa cabaret club, one of the gay nightspots in Pattaya, Thailand: chicken of the sea?

from there it was a feeding frenzy!”

Crammed in with a group of Russians on the baht bus: “Shtoi! Shtoi!”

Caged birds for sale on the beach: you pay to release them, for all the good karma of it. But what the mark doesn’t know is that they’re trained to fly back to their owner, ready for another day’s shift on the grift.

Seaweed-flavored Pringles chips: they’re made in Malaysia.

This was OT’s third trip to Thailand, and it was a great idea to begin it at the beach before returning to the big, bustling city of Bangkok. But we had to return, and we went as old friends, because it’s the only truly open place in Asia between Hong Kong and India, no? We’re at home at the Malaysia hotel and at the famous Babylon spa, which draws men from all over the continent and where we were able to keep up our swimming regimen in the perfect outdoor pool, and otherwise divert ourselves.

In Patpong, the absolute epicenter of the lights red, gay male entertainments rub shoulders and other body parts with the far more prevalent hetero attractions. On previous visits to alleys Soi 2 and Soi 4, we’ve sampled acrobatic sex shows and muscle-boy clubs. This trip, we swing by the Telephone and Balcony bars, where you’re apt to run into gay blades you know from the Occident; and visit the Jupiter Club in time for the night-show,

sip our watered-down drink, and eye the sullen go-go boys standing in poses of masculine lassitude. The bar boys are always proposing something imaginative. “I’m done with the sofa, I’m done with the hall!” They’re pushing the envelope as well as the gin.

We’ve seen the reclining buddhas, the gilded temples, the Grand Palace.

But we were surprised, when we told some friends and colleagues of our plans to return to the Land of Smiles, by a not-uncommon reaction: Oh, it’s for a sex vacation, is it? Yes, we admit it, the prospect of easily available recreational (safe) sex with young Thai men (not boys) can clearly be part of the attraction. But the bigger draw is the country’s colorful culture, its Buddhist practices, the food, the nightlife, the natural beauty. The people, and their utter divergence from entitled Americans. Their refreshing lack of guilt about sex and “original sin.”

Gay liberation, for us at least, implies a certain lack of judgmentalism re others’ lifestyle choices. OT believes, for example, that there is no hierarchy of merit for sexual orientations, tastes, or sexual acts. Hetero isn’t better than homo. Chaste is not better than loose. Married is not more virtuous than single. For Out There, whatever gets you through the night – or in this case, across the International Date Line – it’s alright.

Sawadee kap!▼

Jim James

Part of the cabaret show at the Copa nightclub in Pattaya, Thailand.

▼

Theatre >>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Incredibly true adventures of Tom Judson

by John F. Karr

T

he Tom Judson Show is arriving on May 2 for a 10-day whirl at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, hot and snappy after an SRO stint at New York City’s Metropolitan Room and a tour of Southern California. Tom who, you ask? Judson what?

You probably recognize Tom as Gus Mattox, the blue-eyed daddy with the devastating smile, and Falcon star of a couple years’ duration a couple years back. But who or what was he before, and after, that?

Tom’s primarily a musician. “I was going to be a Broadway composer,” he told me, “and wrote a lot of shows that played Off Off-Broadway.” He wrote music for Charles Busch’s offBroadway hit Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and for television’s Sesame Street. He wrote film scores, too, for The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love and Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan, among others.

An accomplished performer, his skill at wielding multiple instruments led to his touring in 42nd St. (which brought him to San Francisco as Oscar, the rehearsal pianist) and Cabaret (which brought him back to town singing and dancing alongside Norbert Leo Butz as one of “Two Ladies”

– feedle dee, feedle dee, dee!).

Realizing sometime after turning 40 that he was at some sort of peak he’d never see again, he enthused himself into porn. Okay – a sidebar about his porn years. He doesn’t watch those movies now, but recalls two favorites. He liked Unzipped Video’s Night Callers as a finished product because “it had a lot of acting,” and especially Buckshot Productions’ Big Rig, because “it had the most on-set fun.” It’s also the movie that earned him a GayVN Award as Actor of the Year, and it was his last sexo. “I’d lost every other award I’d been nominated for,” he said. “I was 45, the oldest-ever recipient of the award. Having hit this height, I thought to myself on the way to the podium to accept the award, ‘My career is over.’ So, like Garbo, I left.”

With the money he’d earned from touring, he bought the proverbial cabin in the woods. When friends saw how he’d fixed up the fixerupper, he was launched as a home renovator and interior decorator.

And when that was no longer novel, he collected the columns and essays he’d written when his porn star fame led to writing stints at the Advocate and other magazines, into a book, Laid Bare, which you’ll devour, he says, “if you want to know how be-

Skipping the visit

by Richard Dodds

T

here is good news and very good news emanating from the Magic Theatre right now. The good news is that Linda McLean’s intriguing and haunting Any Given Day is not only having its American premiere, but is also introducing the Scottish playwright, highly regarded in Britain, to U.S. audiences. The very good news is that Stacy Ross, one of the Bay Area’s busiest actresses, may have topped anything else in her estimable resume with her performance in Any Given Day. Back to the good news, the play itself, which takes audiences on a journey that may be confounding in the moment but continues to grow in its impact even after its brief 80 minutes are up. Within those 80 minutes, McLean actually offers two short plays that are linked tangentially and yet tragically. The dreadful irony that retroactively arises is that the hopeful resolution of the second piece that we are rooting for comes at the price of the horror that ends the first piece.

In the opening segment, we are in a council flat (what we would call a housing project) that is home to the mentally challenged Sadie and Bill, who, it is indicated, were set up for independent living after Thatcher-era changes to the National Health Service. The ample Amy Kossow brings a totally believable childlike quality to

Sadie, who has her deep-seated dark sides, while Christopher McHale’s crisply drawn Bill has harder edges, a better grip, but still critical dysfunctions.

It’s a day-in-the-life scenario as Sadie and Bill go through their comforting rituals that promise activity, making a pot of tea or taking a walk, but usually end up with nothing happening. A ringing phone or a doorbell buzzing could as easily be a banshee’s wailings for the easily addled Sadie and Bill. There’s a bit of a Waiting for Godot aspect to their routines as they prepare for, fret about, and debate the likelihood of a visit from Bill’s niece.

She never arrives, but there is another visitor (Daniel Petzold) whose brief appearance hardly gives us a chance to process the shock of his jaw-dropping behavior.

A lengthy scene change lets audiences ponder the whys of what they have just seen, as the apartment is transformed into a pub where the boss and a relatively new employee are tidying up. They don’t really know each other, but there is something happening between them. Jackie, who we find is the niece that Sadie and Bill have been waiting for, is a nurse who ditched that career to be a pub waitress so she can emotionally shut down because of family problems.

Pub master Dave is curious, personally and sexually, about his new hire, and slowly draws her out.

Jennifer Reiley

Stacy Ross gives a heart-rending performance in the American premiere of Linda McLean’s Any Given Day at the Magic Theatre.

Tom Judson, in vintage tux: ‘I thought to myself: My career is over.’

ing a male escort can have some surprisingly touching moments.” That book then became the basis for the two-year tour of his one-man show, Canned Ham. And then, finally, he got back to what he had originally started out to do: composing and singing show tunes. And bingo, this brand-new one-man show.

But don’t start groaning, oh no,

not another one of those True Confession, I Escaped Being a Mormon, Discovered My True Self, Discarded My Repressed Memories, Finished Rehab and Triumphed Over Adversity shows.

News Flash: It’s not one of those.

Tom will be wearing a vintage tuxedo (it’s plaid!), sitting down in front of a grand piano, and singing show tunes

There are wonderfully drawn exchanges between the two, as their awkward dance leads to blurted confessions. Jackie, who declares she isn’t gay, still can’t quite get her head around the look of a penis. The vagina, she acknowledges, isn’t that much to look at, but at least it’s tucked away and doesn’t “make a song and dance” about itself. Dave isn’t thrown by this candor; in fact, he is drawn in. Another of Jackie’s confessions: She has an uncle and his housemate whom she is supposed to visit, but she dreads this

because of the numbing predictability of each encounter.

Here’s where we come back to the very good news referenced above.

Stacy Ross, as the wounded and guiltridden Jackie, creates such a specific, honest, and heartbreaking character that you know you are in the presence of a truly great performance. James Carpenter, another of our area’s acting treasures, plays Dave with a weary yet distantly hopeful conviction that offers an excellent foil to Ross’ character.

Director Jon Tracy has given each

that’ll turn the New Conservatory into one of those days-of-yore, smart and intimate supper clubs. There will be some of Tom’s own songs, of course. And also classics and obscurities from composers as disparate as Ennio Morricone and Harold Arlen, as caviar-ed as Cy Coleman with Carolyn Leigh, as hallowed as Paul Simon, and as hip as Alan Cumming, whose “Next to Me” was one of the first to be chosen for the show, and which hasn’t been sung by anyone other than Tom – and, of course, Mr. Cumming. Tom tells us the show will be peppered with anecdotes and stories about some of the celebrities he’s crossed paths with. Plus, he’s been known to pull out a ukulele for a sweet finale. And he’ll stick around afterward to greet you and sign your copy of his book.

Well, hit me in the head with a kielbasa, I forgot to ask Tom if he knows Colby Keller. But that would be trading on a past life, when Tom’s looking jauntily forward. Like that Dreamgirl says, “Baby, I’ve got a show to do.” I, for one, intend to join him.▼ The Tom Judson Show runs at the New Conservatory Theatre Center from May 2-12. Box office: (415) 861-8972 or www.nctcsf.org.

half of this dramatic diptych its own flavor and pacing, yet the combination eventually makes sense, even as our brains get shifted into higher gears. Any Given Day is not the kind of play that will send you back into the world with the satisfaction of a neatly drawn drama. But you will think. And think again. And still again. ▼ Any Given Day will run at the Magic Theatre through April 29.

Tickets are $45-$60. Go to www. magictheatre.org.

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

<< Music

▼ Drama in the recording studio

by Tim Pfaff

F

the action to Vienna’s Sofiensaal, one of classical music’s most venerable recording sites until it burned down in 2001. The time is 1955, when that Boehm Frau recording is in session, the great conductor and one-time friend of Strauss having coaxed an ideal Vienna State Opera cast to record the work in the unheated hall in the middle of winter, virtually gratis, for the simple reason that it needed doing. It is a great story, to be sure, but one that, as a production “concept,” turns out to be too clever by half.

In Act I we encounter soprano Anne Schwanewilms playing not so much The Empress as Loy’s metafiction of a young woman resembling legendary soprano Leonie Rysanek singing, as Rysanek did, The Empress, with Michaela Schuster doing the same with The Nurse of Elisabeth Hoengen. They and all their colleagues in the studio – seemingly more of them by the minute – pace about nervously, clutching their piano-vocal scores, moving to carefully calculated positions on the studio floor’s numbered squares. But even before the act has run its course, the singers get caught up in the potent opera, stop singing for the mikes, and begin interacting, powerfully, like the characters in the opera we all know.

In the thornier second act, the going gets heavier yet as the singers playing singers playing characters start sprouting even more identities.

And, typically, Loy fills the stage with numerous superfluous extras – from recording technicians to nurses – who also become characters, adding to the fray. Despite his stated wish that his multi-tiered concept would make the drama clearer to the audience, we

PERSONAL TRAINER

ebar.com

ew people other than its librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, have ever claimed to understand Richard Strauss’ opera Die Frau ohne Schatten. For those who love the opera – conductor Christian Thielemann calls them Frau addicts – that’s hardly mattered, because the story that underlies its exotic fairy-tale plot is so deeply human, and more, because Strauss’ magnificent music tells that story best.

Thielemann, surely the greatest Strauss opera conductor working today, made his U.S. opera debut at San Francisco Opera in 1991 with a searing, unforgettable Elektra. His Frau has since become the stuff of legend – the Met, which has a distinguished history with the work, gave one of its best ever with Thielemann in the pit a few years back – and the newly released DVD set of the July 9, 2011 performance from last summer’s Salzburg Festival (Opus Arte) goes right to the top of the stack of Frau recordings.

Until now, there’s never been a fully satisfactory sound recording of Frau, though Frau addicts are sure to have Karl Boehm’s classic studio recording.

But despite the ways in which that one is still unbeaten and unbeatable, it’s marred by the severe cuts the conductor introduced, which may well have been necessary at the time but are inexcusable today. In addition to being musically intact, Thielemann’s new Frau is complete in every sense, if sometimes full to overflowing.

The aspect of it that could be deemed “too much information” is the direction of Christof Loy, who gets around the problems of the plot in the now-standard modern manner: by dispensing with them. Instead of setting the opera in Hofmannsthal’s Empire of Southeastern Islands in alteration with an almost Niebelheim-like earthly realm, Loy relocates

become more confused about what’s happening onstage than we did back in Hofmannsthal-ville.

The thing is, Loy – who could hardly have been expected to hew to the librettist’s stage directions – needn’t have taken such an elaborate, postmodern route away from them, either. Few directors today can draw stronger performances from singing actors than he does, and the committed, fine-grained characterizations he elicits from every single member of his cast, down to the smallest non-singing actor, add up to a Frau of tremendous impact. I couldn’t take my eyes off Loy’s masterful stage pictures, no matter how bewildering, and quickly noticed how much I cared about the characters.

Schuster’s Hoengen/Nurse, getting all the “little notes” right, as well as the tiniest details of characterization of this scheming deceiver, is transfixing, the best of a superbly well-integrated cast. Schwanewilms, who is done no favors by the implied comparison to Rysanek, is a touching Empress even if her voice doesn’t always do her bidding. Evelyn Herlitzius’ spitfire Dyer’s Wife, daringly intense both vocally and dramatically, is almost unbearably good. The husbands, Stephen Gould’s Emperor and Wolfgang Koch’s Barak, are all you could hope for, and often more.

The center of gravity is Thielemann’s incandescent conducting, as always laying out the whole score with startling clarity, shaping the music with infinite care, unleashing the full drama without driving it, and igniting the imaginations of all around him, the Vienna Philharmonic the dream orchestra for Frau. The DVD extra on the rehearsals reveals all.▼

Balance, Flexibility, Endurance and Strength Training

ASCEND STUDIOS San Francisco

Christopher Watros 408-710-2670

christopher@phoenixtraingandfitness.com www.phoenixtrainingandfitness.com

▼

Music >>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Flair & virtuosity

by Philip Campbell

T

wo internationally known stars and virtuoso instrumentalists have been renewing their long relations with the San Francisco Symphony in recent weeks. Each of them brought audiences at Davies Symphony Hall to their feet in enthusiastic welcome and appreciation, but the musical rewards they produced were almost as contrasted as their own performing styles.

Beloved violinist Itzhak Perlman (everybody’s favorite fiddler) and suavely chic French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet are artists of obviously differing temperament, but the musicians of the SFS don’t seem to have a problem adjusting to either of them, and everyone admits their individual dedication to high artistic standards.

Perlman went one step further than Thibaudet by conducting the orchestra while also performing as guest soloist during the first half of his concerts. Choosing two of the most readily familiar concertos from Vivaldi’s ubiquitous The Four Seasons, Summer and Winter, the endearing superstar further cemented his bond with the adoring fans and actually made a pretty good case for not playing the whole set and simply being done with it. There were some problems with pitch and pacing in the opening Summer, but Perlman’s slightly sharp edge and solid tone lent appropriate starkness to a monochromatic Winter. The capacity crowd was utterly enraptured, giving Perlman a long standing ovation. It was even stronger than the welcome he had received upon appearing.

Perlman’s physical challenge makes it understandably difficult for him to navigate entrances and exits, and it almost feels cruel expecting him to return for multiple curtain calls. That might partially explain why listeners want to give him all their thanks in one huge response, but I also think we have come to admire him as much for his tenacity as for his brilliant artistry and warmth.

As far as his relatively new career as a conductor, the jury still remains out, but it is possibly headed towards an eventual split verdict. Choosing the big, beautiful and lushly scored Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 for the second half of the program seemed an ambitious way for Perlman to show the scope of his interests and display his interpretive insights. This proved to be a thoroughly competent and fairly satisfying rendition, but Perlman’s idea of insight as a conductor seems to rely mostly on quirky and sluggish speeds. There were moments when things actually came close to a grinding halt before suddenly accelerating again with no apparent purpose other than to create contrast.

Itzhak Perlman is always welcome at Davies Hall, and we continue to anticipate the pleasure of his company. I just hope the next visit finds the veteran soloist showing a more seasoned grasp of leading his colleagues from the podium.

Akira Kinoshita

Violinist Itzhak Perlman conducted while performing as soloist.

Egyptian airs Jean-Yves Thibaudet is a horse of a different color altogether. After many years of watching him mature and maintain an international career and reputation, he still seems not terribly different from before, perhaps a little less flashy in the performance of his brilliant repertoire, but certainly no less adept as a pianist of remarkable skill and interpretive flair.

Looking dapper in subtly offbeat evening attire – well, the rhinestone belt buckle and choker gizmo were perhaps less than subtle, but hardly in Liberace territory – Thibaudet gave a really ingratiating performance of the Fifth and final piano concerto by Camille Saint-Saens, Egyptian. Like the performer himself, the limpid melodies and touches of exotica in the Saint-Saens, veering towards but successfully avoiding kitsch, made for a very good fit. It was fun and lively, and had me happily recalling the old visits to the Opera House by the Joffrey Ballet and their use of the Egyptian Concerto’s first movement in one of their signature pieces, Suite SaintSaens.

Conductor Stephane Deneve, in a welcome return to DSH, kept the Gallic mood afloat from the opening Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture (exceptionally well-paced) through the soloist’s star turn and a wonderful concluding The Firebird

Decca-Kasskara

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet gave an ingratiating performance.

Suite by Stravinsky (well, okay, Russian, but it premiered in Paris).

The only really introspective moment of the evening was supplied

by Thibaudet. Quelle surprise! His brief encore, Franz Liszt’s Consolation No. 3, was a lovely interlude between Deneve’s confident grasps of big orchestral showpieces.▼

<< Film

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Sealed with a kiss

by David Lamble

I

t takes two hours, four minutes and 10 seconds for the doomed male couple at the heart of the subtle, layered queer-family drama In the Family (opening Friday at the Metreon) to give us a passionate liplock. It surprises the kisser, the recently widowed schoolteacher Cody (Trevor St. John), and the recipient, his decidedly bashful Asian-American handyman hunk Joey (writer/ director Patrick Wang), as much as it delights and intrigues us.

Ostensibly, Cody is thanking Joey for renovations on the Martin, Tennessee house shared by Cody and his button-cute son Chip, and for the thoughtful gesture of building a crib for Chip out of some spare

lumber. But as Cody offers Joey a longneck bottle of beer and invites him to listen to his favorite Country music singer Chip Taylor, the men draw closer than the code for hetero buddies allows, and that kiss comes winging in just as the singer croons, “I want something, I want it all the time.”

“I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I don’t know what happened there.”

“This Chip Taylor really gets a hold of you.”

“Yeah, we actually named Chip after him. Rebecca didn’t even put up a fight about it. She knew better.

I’m sorry about that.”

“No complaints here, Cody!”

They kiss more passionately. “Cody, just what kind of a cheap date do

Joey (filmmaker Patrick Wang) and Cody (Trevor St. John) in the new film In the Family.

you take me for? Don’t think it’s going to be another of your one-beer and two-track romances. You gotta take me out on the town and spin me around a little.”

The nearly 10-minute scene – a flashback, because at this point in the story one of the lovers has died – is triggered by a scent-stimulated sense memory: Joey catching a whiff of one of Cody’s shirts. This memory trick, borrowed from Brokeback Mountain, carries similar emotional baggage, but for different reasons.

While this couple has their darknight-of-the-soul moments that Wang has crafted into autonomous yet integral to the main story flashbacks, Cody and Joey have grounded, consecrated and celebrated their bond in ways inconceivable to Ennis and Jack. Still, when tragedy strikes, there are loose ends that threaten everything.

For nearly three hours, Texasborn freshman filmmaker Wang earns his grip on our emotions. We go from a leisurely fade-in at the bedside of a lovable six-year-old who resists his cuddly nickname (“There ain’t no Chipmunk here!”) to the Capra-corn childhood Chip enjoys with his not necessarily gayidentified Tennessee dads; to the numbing-out of one of those dads, Joey, when the unthinkable happens; to the buried emotional landmines that surface during a meeting between Joey and his dead lover’s sister over the fate of Chip and everything this Asian “Bubba” holds dear.

“I didn’t find the will. Instead there’s this fill-in-the-blank deal.

He got as far as his name. Isn’t that hysterical?”

“Cody had a will, Joey, the house is in my name now. So that means there’s a mortgage in my name, too.

Cody left all his assets in my name so that he could see that Chip was

taken care of, by me.”

“Ilene, this is from 2002. Chip was just a baby!”

“It’s his will, Joey, he had six years to change it, and he didn’t. It says, ‘Last Will and Testament.’ It’s not, ‘Fill in the blank.’ He knew what he wanted. And you don’t have to worry about Chip.”

“Of course I need to worry about Chip. I’m his father.”

“It’s what my brother wanted, Joey. Could you have a little respect for that?”

“I’m Chip’s dad!”

Wang keeps Joey in a low gear, surrendering the spotlight to his ensemble. Observe Sebastian Brodziak’s Chip nurture Dad, pouring out a Coke while uncapping Joey’s beer, as Dad sits numbly opening the mail, lost in grief.

Wang astutely provides Joey a gentle Greek chorus of female friends who cook, counsel and console between Cody’s death and the climax, tinged with magic realism, of his journey. Brian Murray burns warmly as a courtly old-school lawyer who cuts to the heart of the case, a turn reminiscent of Joseph Welch’s cracker-barrel shrewd judge in Anatomy of a Murder.

On the record In a room decorated with a cherry blossom motif, 35-year-old newbie filmmaker Patrick Wang, who admits to inspiration from Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, greets me with a nuanced answer to an obvious question: “Are either of these guys gay?”

Patrick Wang: It’s an interesting question because the language doesn’t come up. I think Cody is bisexual and Joey is gay, but I don’t think he had ever been in love before Cody. There are people who don’t talk politics. Politics emerge from the details of their lives, and you’re able to talk about politics after the film. That’s more interesting than if I brought up certain words they’d not be likely to say day-by-day.

David Lamble: Knowing you had a three-hour movie as your first feature – with no cult of celebrity or reputation in the business to bolster your chances – were you tempted to cut it?

I wandered the streets of New

York turning over the edit in my head: “There’s got be another solution,” but there really wasn’t. You can always change a film, but what you lose is what makes it unique.

Now that I’ve [extensively] screened it, what I’ve discovered is that there’s an invitation for the audience to insert their own lives into the story, and if you cut it too close, there’s no room for the audience.

It’s like Paul Thomas Anderson’s three-hour opus Magnolia: you don’t know going in that you’re waiting for the “rain of frogs,” but when the frogs come, it works.

A lot of people assume that mistakes have led to this version.

It’s odd that I kept thinking of Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder, but your film shares that masterwork’s sense of being an intimate epic, with a strong sense of place.

I like thinking of it as intimate epic.

You’re the only Asian in the film, and after a while it sort of stops being an issue, but of course, it’s always an issue.

Yes, and you see it on the faces of people when they meet Joey for the first time. It’s like life when you meet these people, you wonder, “How did they get there?”

It’s very much a young man’s film, and despite the tragedy, it’s filled with optimism about life.

An honest picture about horrible things doesn’t interest me. I look to films for insight about hope and a way forward. Many colleagues make films based on their own lives, but imagination can get you much closer to realism than a true experience.

You grew up in Houston?

Yes, and nearby Sugarland. My parents are Taiwanese who met in Missouri and moved to Texas after graduation. I went to MIT to be a physicist, and graduated an economist. In Boston, I got hooked on theatre and started a small company there. At 15, I was an exchange student in Argentina, and that’s where I learned this feeling of family reflected in the film.

When did you come out?

In high school to a few, but I didn’t tell my parents until right before making this film.▼

▼

TV >>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

But can you dance to it?

by Victoria A. Brownworth

S

ome weeks the tube just spills over with an abundance of mustsee TV. This was one of those weeks.

Plus, season and series finales are right around the corner and summer replacements are starting to appear!

One DVR may not be enough.

Let us begin at the beginning, however, by marking the passing of TV legend Dick Clark. Clark, a pioneer in breaking the color barrier on TV, died the same day a racial discrimination suit was filed against ABC for never having had an African-American Bachelor or Bachelorette on those terrible, demeaning, stupidity-inducing programs that set feminism back 60 years.

More on that later.

Now: Dick Clark was a TV iconoclast. He started out doing a 1950s version of cable access, then began his local music and dance show American Bandstand in 1952 in Philadelphia. The show went national in 1957. In 1964, it moved from Philadelphia to Hollywood. ABC picked up the show from its Philadelphia affiliate WFIL in August and expected it to die a natural death by September.

Instead, the show garnered 50 million viewers and became the longest-running variety show ever on TV, ending in 1989. “Youth” TV never existed before Dick Clark. So now you know who to blame or laud for that cult.

Clark pre-dated MTV and the Simon Cowell/Ryan Seacrest American Idol extravaganza and its spin-offs.

Seacrest, who started working with Clark in 2006 on the New Year’s Eve show, said he had grown up watching Clark and wanting to be him. There had never been a show like Bandstand, and it resonated for the youth of America. The program aired every day for 90 minutes and even had a

brief stint on prime time in addition to its daytime version. There are few Americans over the age of 35 who don’t remember watching Bandstand after school with Clark’s classic ratings: “I like the beat, but can you dance to it?”

Clark brought rock and roll out of the teen closet: Since so many adults had decided the music was the tool of Satan, he found a way to make it legitimate. He had a dress code: boys had to wear ties, girls couldn’t wear tight sweaters. He had a plan: show that the music was fabulous, not dangerous.

Clark brought talent to the tube that otherwise would have been missed.

He presented rock and roll to all of America, not just kids, and of all his many achievements in TV, the most extraordinary thing Clark did was open Bandstand to black artists at a time when blacks had no place on TV other than as maids and waiters. Chubby Checker debuted there and noted that no one else would have had the guts to put a 19-year-old black kid from South Philadelphia on TV. Yet within a week, all of America was doing the dance he premiered on Bandstand, the Twist.

Sam Cook and the Jackson Five made their TV debuts on the show, as did a host of rap artists, because Clark was also the first TV host to bring rap and hip hop to the mainstream (and largely white) audience. Clark’s show also spawned Soul Train, which focused exclusively on music by black artists, and which featured only black dancers.

It wasn’t just the artists of color or new artists who made it big through Bandstand, however; already-famous stars wanted to be on the show as well. Clark had Mick Jagger and David Bowie perform during the period of their alleged sex romp. Madonna

made her first TV appearance there.

In fact, one of the few major talents that never turned up on Bandstand were The Beatles, because Clark thought they were “just a basement band.” He would later say he was almost never wrong about music, but with that decision he was so wrong he shocked himself.

ABC’s World News Now anchor Rob Nelson, an African American, commented on the monumental importance of Clark’s featuring black artists and getting kids of color on with the other dancers, and how it impacted him as a kid watching TV. But Clark acknowledged that integrating the show had been difficult, even for himself. He admitted having sweaty palms the first time he shook hands with black dancers on the show. But he still broke that color barrier, his own personal conflicts notwithstanding. And Clark was bigger than Ed Sullivan when it came to premiering musical acts.

Clark went on to expand his repertoire by hosting game shows like $100,000 Pyramid. He founded the American Music Awards in 1993.

And once Guy Lombardo passed the New Year’s Eve in Times Square baton to him, Clark was a staple of the night until a stroke felled him in December 2004. Yet he resumed his New Year’s duties the following year, despite some slow and slurred speech. Clark no longer looked like the eternal teenager – he was now 75 – but he was a fixture in millions of households, and everyone was glad to see him back.

Clark dropped the ball on Times Square for over 30 years and always made us feel like we were right there with him.

Clark was a shrewd businessman as well as a fixture in American homes; Dick Clark Productions was a multimillion dollar franchise. But it was the diversity Clark nurtured and would later cherish that achieved something

Pioneering host of American Bandstand Dick Clark.

no one else could do: just as he had made rock and roll less threatening, Clark made black artists a commonplace, demystifying people of color for an intensely segregated nation.

Clark neither feared nor bowed to the controversy over his decisions. Anita Baker put Clark’s legacy succinctly: “He opened up the door wide enough to let everyone through.” Snoop Dog said simply, “You were a great man, sir.”

Clark leaves a legacy unblemished by scandal or taint, with millions mourning his passing. Clark was on TV every year of every American’s life for 60 years. An impressive achievement, and one that made TV a better place for all of us.

No bachelor party The same cannot be said for ABC’s prime time franchise The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which are whiter in 2012 than Clark’s American Bandstand was in 1952. It was probably only a matter of time before there was a discrimination suit.

There isn’t another reality show on TV that doesn’t have at least some ethnic and racial diversity, and shows like CBS’ long-running Survivor and The Amazing Race or ABC’s Dancing

with the Stars (the top-rated reality programs) have strong racial/ethnic parity. But not the “let’s find a mate the old-fashioned way: by speed-dating strangers for three weeks on TV” Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise.

On April 17, two African-American men, Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, filed a class-action lawsuit against ABC and the producers of The Bachelor for racial bias.

The two men had attended a Bachelor casting event in Nashville, Tenn., and were not chosen for the show. Their suit alleges that “by discriminatorily refusing to cast people of color in the lead roles as well as in the role of suitor, ABC and The Bachelor play into the perceived racial fears of their audience and perpetuate outdated racial taboos.”

Warner Horizon, which produces Bachelor and Bachelorette, insists the lawsuit is “without merit.” Let’s put this one in network perspective: If the show chooses a black bachelor, all the women must then also be AfricanAmerican. But as the suit implies, black men are as likely to choose a non-black female as a black female mate. But because black women are already outraged by the interracial mating of black men, they would protest a racial mix in the women. So probably in keeping with the franchise tokenism, there would likely be one white contestant and possibly also one Asian or Latino contestant, but it would be pre-determined that these women could not win. Regardless of that internal complexion complexity and the issues between black men and black women, the show would then become a black show that only African-Americans watch. Ratings plummet, because black audiences traditionally do not support blackonly shows. And then ABC execs say, “See, we told you this wouldn’t work.”

We would toss into this mix that less than a quarter of African-American couples actually marry. But the African-American Bachelor has to propose. So there are other cultural isSee page 28 >>

<< Out&About

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

Thu 26>> Dining Out for Life @ Various Restaurants 11th annual fundraiser for the SF AIDS Foundation, where a portion of your bill at more than 100 participating local eateries goes to HIV prevention efforts. www.dolsf.org

Funky Chicken Dinner @ Mars Bar

Raices Profundas

Moveable feast

by Jim Provenzano

M

y personal favorite, the dance arts, leap, twirl and pas de bourée all over town this week. Some other events will move you, too, but not in ways you’d expect.

Get moving as Bay Area Dance Week continues. The annual free festival of dance includes performances, workshops and classes in tango, Bharatnatyam, jazz, hip hop, ballet, traditional hula, fire dance, Samba, modern, Chinese classical, belly, aerial, Scottish country, West African, and contact improvisation taking place all over the Bay Area. Events thru April 29. www.bayareadance.org David Zambrano’s The East Bay-based Company C The Soul Project Contemporary Ballet performs new and repertory works at the Cowell Theatre. $23-$45. April 27, 8pm. Also Sat 8pm & Sun 2pm. 700 Howard St. www.companycballet.org www.ybca.org David Zambrano’s The Soul Project plays two night at the YBCA Forum. The Venezuelan choreographer’s collaborative dance-theatre work features virtuosic solos by performers from many different countries, who perform at various areas in the open space. Prepare for sponteneity and terpsichorean feats –and feets- of skill. $15-$20. April 27 & 28 8pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org Smuin Ballet, the popular local dance company, performs two new works: Val Caniparoli’s Swipe, Ma Cong’s Through, and Michael Smuin’s Symphony of Psalms. $20-$45. April 27, 8pm thru May 6, 2pm. Novellus Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. (also May 18 & 23 in Walnut Creek and Mountain View). 91201899. www.smuinballet.org www.ybca.org April Follies celebrates a decade at Just Dance Ballroom in Oakland on Saturday, April 28. The tenth annual samesex ballroom dance competition and show, the largest and longest-running DanceSport event in North America, showcases some amazing paired dancers. $15-$35. Competitions 10am-5:30pm.

Beginner lessons 6:30pm. Showcase of champions, 8pm-11pm. 2500 Embarcadero, Oakland. www.aprilfollies.com Dances From the Heart, a dance concert and fundraiser for the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation, in- Zaccho Dance in the cludes a diverse array of performers: May Day concerts Ballet San Jose, Smuin Ballet, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Christy Coté Argentine Tango, Diablo Ballet, Amy Seiwert, ODC Dance, Na Lei Hulu, Post:Ballet and Nikki & Ethan White. $30-$50, $100-$1000. Monday, May 1. 7:30pm. Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center, Buchanan at Bay. 273-1620. www.helpisontheway.org May 2, the San Francisco International Arts Festival gets off to a rousing start with Raices Profundas at the Marines Memorial Theatre. The music and dance company performs Juan de Dios Ramos’ dynamic history of Cuban dance and music styles. $16-$35. 8pm. Also May 3, 8pm; May 4, 9pm. May 5, 9:30pm, May 6, 4pm. 609 Sutter St. 673-6672. Part of the SF International Arts Festival. www.sfiaf.org CounterPulse’s annual May Day benefit serves up three different nights of dance, theatre and performance works from a greatest hits of local talents, including W. Kamau Bell, Monique Jenkinson, Scott Wells and Dancers, Campo Santo, Zaccho Dance Theatre, Dandelion Dancetheater, Marga Gomez, Joe Goode Performance Group and others. $30-$350.

8pm. May 3-5. 1310 Mission St. 626-2060. www.counterpulse.org For unusual takes on literally moving –via Are We There Yet? cars, trains, bikes and more– Creativity Explored hosts a May 3 opening reception for Are We There Yet?, a group exhibition of transportation-themed artwork made by developmentally different teens and adults. 7pm-9pm. Thru June 13. Daily 10am-3pm (12pm-5pm weekends). 3245 16th St. 863-2108. www.creativityexplored.org

Smuin Ballet

Juanita More hosts the (usually) annual dinner fundraiser, featuring her own fried chicken with honey goo, mixed green salad muffin and a cupcake. Proceeds benefit Dining Out for Life recipients. $22.

Email reservations only. 6pm-9pm. 798 Brannan St. www.juanitamore.com

Hot Draw @ Mark I. Chester Studio Gay men’s sketch group, with models in sexy, sexual and kink-themed poses. Donations. 6:30-9:30pm. Reserve a space day of at 621-6294. 1229 Folsom St. www.markichester.com

Poets That Inspired Me @ SF Public Library Cole Krawitz, Robert Andrew Perez Jr., Jim Roderick, and James J. Siegel read favorite works at an event sponsored by Guy Writers. Free. 6pm reading. James Hormel Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. 557-4400. www.guywritersonline.org www.sfpl.org

Struggle, Then and Now @ La Peña Center, Berkeley Intergenerational Voices on the Bay Area Lesbian Movement: Judy Grahn hosts and evening of readings, dicsussions, and dance, with lesbian activists and authors, plus a performance by Anne Bluethenthal & Dancers. Free. 7pm. 3105 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley. www.lapena.org/event/2012

Three Guys + @ El Rio Live music from queer/trans musicians Josh Klipp, Joe Stevens, Eli Conley and violinist Beau Dream. Free. 6pm. 3158 Mission St. at Cesar Chavez. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Varla Jean Merman @ The Rrazz Room Statuesque drag performer (Jeffery Roberson) performs The Book of Merman, a comic show with hilarious music. $25-$40.

8pm. Wed-Sun thru April 28, 8pm. April 22 & 29 7pm. 2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www. varlaonline.com www.TheRrazzRoom.com

Fri 27>> Anatol @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Arthur Schnitzler’s play about a Viennese philanderer, in the world premiere of a newly translated adaptation by Margret Schaefer. $34-$55. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm & 7pm. 2081 Addison St. Thru May 13. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org

Bloomsbury/It’s Not Real @ ODC Theater Thirteenth Floor Dance Theater’s new production brings Virginia Woolf and her pals into a strange reality show. $18-$23.

8pm. Fri-Sun thru April 29. 3153 17th St. www.13thfloordance.org www.odctheater.org

Jean Paul Gaultier @ de Young Museum

Youth Speaks Poetry Slam @ Various Venues

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first exhibition devoted to the gay French fashion designer. Several other exhibits, too.

Free-$18. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Annual competition and reading festival, with hundreds of local teens performing spoken word. Grand Slam Finals April 27, 7pm at Masonic Auditorium, 1111 California St. ($6-$300). Thru April 27. www.youthspeaks.org

Lady Rizo @ The Rrazz Room New York R&B chanteuse with a darkly comic edge makes her West Coast premiere. $25. 10pm. Also April 28, 10pm.

2-drink min. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later @ New Conservatory Theatre The sequel to the groundbreaking drama, based on real interviews with people effected by the murder of Matthew Shepard, gets its San Francisco premiere. $25-$40.

Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru April 29. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Making Scenes @ de Young Museum 2012 Artist Fellow Monique Jenkinson (Fauxnique) celebrates the Gaultier exhibit with a special Friday Night event, including drag makeovers, performances by the Some Thing crew, DJ Bear Z. Bub, a Club Cultures History lecture in Koret Auditorium hosted by Waiyde Palmer, and a group dance installation in Wilsey Court.

Free (tickets required for exhibit entry).

5:30pm-8:30pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.deyoung.famsf.org

Marga Gomez @ The Marsh, Berkeley The lesbian comic returns with Not Getting Any Younger, her witty solo show about ‘coming of middle age’. $15-$35, $50. Fri 8pm. Sat 5pm. Thru May 19. 2120 Allston Way off Shattuck. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Marilyn Pittman @ The Marsh The veteran lesbian comic gets a little more serious in her solo show about her parents’ tragic murder-suicide deaths. $15-$35-$50.

Thu 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm. Extended thru May 27. Studio Theater, 1062 Valencia St. (800) 838-3006. www.themarsh.org

Radically Gay: The Life of Harry Hay @ SF Public Library New exhibition that celebrates the remarkable life and work of activist Harry Hay, who laid the foundation for the modern lesbian and gay rights movement; curated

by Joey Cain. Special events thru exhibit run. Free. Thru July 29. 100 Larkin St. 557-4400. www.sfpl.org

Red @ Berkeley Repertory John Logan’s (screenwriter of The Aviator, Gladiator and Hugo ) Broadway hit about abstract painter Mark Rothko, engaged in a battle of wits with his young assistant, makes its West Coast debut. $14-$72.

Tue-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. & 7pm Extended thru May 12. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.

(510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

SF International Film Festival @ Various Venues

Cobra @ Magnet

Large film festival with features, shorts and documentaries from around the world.

Opening night screens Farewell, My Queen (7pm) at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St. Thru May 3. www.festival.sffs.org www.castrotheatre.com

Exhibit of wooden carvings with a decidedly erotic nature, made by the Santa Cruz artist. Exhibit thru April. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Spring Awakening @ Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Fwd: Life Gone Viral @ The Marsh

Duncan Sheik’s award-winning musical about teenage sexuality gets an East Bay production. $17-$35. Thu-Sat 8:15pm.

Sun 2:15pm. Thru May 6. Knight Stage 3 Theatre, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek.

(925) 295-1400. www.centerrep.org

David Ford, Jeri Lynn Cohen and Charlie Varon’s comic play about the foibles of Internet-ruled living. $20-$50. Previews; opening May 12. Thu 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, Sun 7pm. Thru June 10. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Hit So Hard @ Roxie Theater P. David Ebersole’s documentary about the true ‘to hell and back’ story of Hole drummer Patty Schemel and the Courtney Love-Kurt Cobain music scene. $7-$12.

Various times thru May 3. 3117 16th St. www.roxie.com

Hot Greeks @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers revives the Cockettes’ hilarious college comedy revue that meets ancient Greek bawdy burlesque in a new expanded version, with a new cast, costumes, songs and fabulous camp. $30-$35; $69 for a pair. Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru May 19. 575 10th St. at Bryant & Division.

(800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

▼

Thunder Above, Deeps Below @ Bindlestiff Studio A. Rey Pamatmat’s modern version of Shakespeare’s Pericles, about Philipino and Puerto Rican teens struggling to survive as a freezing Chicago winter approaches. $20-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru May 5.

185 Sixth St. at Howard. (800) 838-3006. www.BindlestiffStudio.org

Xtigone @ Buriel Clay Theater African American Shakespeare Company’s production of Chicago playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s urban adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. $10-$30. 8pm. Sat 8pm and Sun 3pm. Thru May 13. African American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton St. at Webster. (800) 838-3006. www.African-AmericanShakes.org

Sat 28>> Audience as Subject @ YBCA Mark Bradford (found material sculptures) and Audience as Subject, Part 2, (big photos of fans at soccer matches and rock concerts), plus other exhibits. Thru May 27.

701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Choose Paint! Choose Abstraction! @ MOAD Exhibit of abstract art by African American artists. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. 358-7200. www.moadsf.org

The Cult of Beauty @ Legion of Honor Subtitled The Victorian Avante-Garde, 1860-1900, this new exhibit focuses on the British Aesthetic Movement; paintings, architecture and decorative arts by Gabriel Rossetti, James McNeill Whistler, Edward Burne-Jones, E.W. Godwin, William Morris, Christopher Dresser and others. Free-$20.

Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Thru June 17.

Lincoln Park, 100 34th Ave. 750-3620. www.famsf.org

Faust @ California Theatre, San Jose Opera San Jose’s production of Gounoud’s Romantic-era masterpiece, based on Goethe’s story of a scholar who sells his soul to the devil. $11-$101. 6pm. Also May 1 & 4. Thru May 6. 345 South First St. downtown San Jose. (408) 437-4450. www.operasj.org

A Hot Day in Ephesus @ Live Oak Theatre, Berkeley Vicki Siegel’s musical comedy based on Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, about twin servants, mistaken identity and love. $12-$15. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru May 19.

1301 Shattuck at Berryman. (510) 6495999. www.aeofberkeley.org

Israeli Jazz Fest @ Jewsih Community Center Two days of concerts by the 3 Cohens, Third World Love, Eli Degibri, Gilad Hekselman and others. $25-$35. Various times.

Also April 29. 3200 California St. 292-1200. www.israelijazzfest.org

John C. Reilly and Friends @ Bimbo’s The acclaimed comic actor is also a musician. Hear him perform with pals Tom Brosseua and Becky Stark. $20. 21+.

9pm. 1025 Columbus Ave. 474-0365. www.bimbos365club.com

Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes @ Oakland Museum Exhibit of original art by the Oakland graphic novel illustrator and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter ( Ghost World ). Free-$12. Wed-Sun 11am-5pm.

Thru Aug. 12. 1000 Oak St. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Onstage @ The Four Seasons Dinner fundraiser for Berkeley Repertory Theatre, with a sumptuous variety of food, drinks and desserts, with award-winning actress Rita Moreno. $500 and up. 5:30pm11pm. 757 Market St. (510) 647-2909. www.berkeleyrep.org/onstage

Photography in Mexico @ SF Museum of Modern Art New group exhibit of historic prints documenting Mexican life and culture since 1920. Also, The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area, and a new mural by Dutch artist Parra. Thru July 29.

Free-$18. Open daily (except Wednesdays) 11am-5:45pm.; open late Thursdays, until 8:45pm. 131 Third St. 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org

Planet Booty @ Café du Nord Hot fun funk-electro band performs and celebrates the release of their new music video; Greenhorse opens. $12. 9:30pm.

2170 Market St. 861-5016. www.cafedunord.com

SF Hiking Club @ Mission Peak GLBT hikers go on a 6-mile, butt-kicker climb of Mission Peak. Bring water, lunch, hat, sunscreen, layers, good hiking boots.

Carpool meets at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores, at 9:15am. (908) 675-7554. www.sfhiking.com

▼

Out&About >>

Sun 29>> Bully @ Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael California Film Institute presents a special screening of the documentary about kids being violently harassed in schools; panel discussion with an education focus includes school administrators, teachers, students and a rep. from the ACLU. $6$10.50. 4:15pm. 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. 454-1222. www.cafilm.org

Do Not Destroy @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Trees, Art and Jewish Thought , a group exhibit exploring the tree in Jewish tradition; thru May 28. $5-$12. Thu-Tue 11am-5pm.

736 Mission St. at 3rd. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Honey Mahogany, Erika Von Völkyrie Trio @ Martuni’s Unique musical stylings at the intimate

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

martini bar & cabaret. $7. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. 241-0205.

Jessica Rivera @ SF Conservatory of Music Acclaimed soprano performs works, with piano accompaniment, by Mompou, Strauss, Barber and Muhly. $37. 2pm.

50 Oak St. 392-2545. www.sfperfromances.org

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet and Harry Denton host the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square.

395-8595. www.harrydenton.com

Theatre Rhino Fundraiser @ The Cinch Laurie Bushman and Auntie Dru cohost a beer bust benefit for the gay theatre company, with the five finalists in the GayPocket cover model contest, entertainment and raffle prizes. Donations. 3pm-6pm.

1723 Polk St. 776-4162. www.therhino.org

Corpus Christi

Mon 30>> Jon deMartin @ John Pence Gallery Exhibit of the artist’s realist human figure studies and industrial landscapes. Mon-Fri 10am-6pm. Sat 10am-5pm. Thru May 19.

750 Post St. 441-1138. www.johnpence.com

Life & Death in Black & White @ GLBT History Museum AIDS Direct Action in San Francisco, 1985–1990, focuses on the AIDS activism movement photos of Jane Philomen Cleland, Patrick Clifton, Marc Geller, Rick Gerharter and Daniel Nicoletta. Selection of other LGBT historic items also on display. $5.

Wed-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm.

4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Ten Percent @ Comcast 104 David Perry’s talk show about LGBT people and issues. This week, Perry speaks with Dr Marcus Conant, pioneering doctor in the fight against AIDS/HIV, and interviews Lisa Stahr, Executive Director of “Scout’s Fund” a non-profit animal rehab therapy organization. Mon-Fri 11:30am & 10:30pm. Sat & Sun 10:30pm. www.comcasthometown.com

Tue 1>> The Drag Show @ Various Channels Stu Smith’s weekly LGBT variety show features local talents, and not just drag artistes. Channels 29 & 76 on Comcast; 99 on AT&T and 30 on Astound. www.thedragshow.org

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s

Queer & present S

ometimes, it’s just interesting to note the diverse kinds of art and performances by LGB and/or T artists. This week’s no exception. In fact, it’s hella queer.

Fri 27: Matt Alber and Jeb Havens perform at the Swedish American Hall. The two cute gay singer-songwriters share a concert. $14. 8pm. 2170 Market St. 8615016. www.cafedunord.com Sat 28: Buffet Flats at Million Fishes brings Feast of the Pink Moon, the newest one-night show Jupiter and Seth Eisen and slow food tastefest, with Seth in Buffet Flats Eisen (as cabaret queen Jean Malin), Juda Kalamba, Annie Danger, Dave End, Marilyn McNeal, Gabriel Todd, Markos Major, Price Sheppy and Jayson “Frisk” Jaynes. $10-$35. 6:30pm-10pm. 2501 Bryant St. at 23rd. www.buffetflats.org April 29 & 30: Corpus Christi plays at various venues. Performances of Terrence McNally’s controversial “gay Jesus” play, are supplemented by a screening of Playing With Redemption, the documentary film about the rightwing boycotts and threats that surrounded several regional productions. Performance at Fort Mason Center, April 29, 7pm (Buchanan at Bay). Film screening April Matt Alber 29, 2pm (Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St.); then, additional performances of the play April 29, 7:30pm at First Unitarian Universalist Society, 1187 Franklin St.7:30pm, and April 30, 7pm. www.uusf.org www.108productions.org April 29: Queer Queens of Comedy – Poppy Champlin, Heather Gold and Kira Soltanovich– perform comedy with a sapphic sardonic edge. $30. 3pm.

2-drink min. The Rrazz Room, Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (800) 380-3095. www.TheRrazzRoom.com May 1: Vince Emery, the editor of The Harvey Milk Interviews: In His Own Poppy Champlin Words, discusses his new book, and screens rare videos of Harvey Milk in conversation.

7pm. LGBT Center, 1800 Market St. www.booksinc.net www.sfcenter.org May 2: Author Amy Sueyoshi discusses her book, Queer Compulsion: Race, Nation and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi, about a historic gay Japanese immigrant. $5.

7pm-9pm. GLBT Historical Society Museum, 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org May 3: Opening reception for Saints and Sinners, an exhibit of colorful multimedia works by gay visual artists David Faulk and Michael Johnstone in a site-specific installation. 5:30-7:30pm. Visual Aid, 57 Post St. Amy Sueyoshi’s #905. www.visualaid.org Queer Compulsion – J.P.

Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gayfriendly comedy night. One drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th.

431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Robert Heinecken, Edmund Teske Dual exhibit of photo-montages by artists who explore advertising (Henecken) and vintage imagery with contemporary nudes and portraits (Teske). Thru June 30. 49 Geary St. 5th floor. 421-0122. www.kochgallery.com

Wed 2>> In Paris @ Berkeley Repertory Michael Baryshnikov stars in Dmitry Krymov’s innovative and intimate romantic play performed in French and Russian with English subtitles. $22.50-$125. Tue, ThuSat 8pm. Wed 7pm Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru May 13. Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. at Shattuck. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

The Tom Judson Show @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Tom Judson, the cabaret singer-pianist, sings about his life and career with classic and obscure songs. $18-$36. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Thru May 12. 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Thu 3>> Comedy Bodega @ Esta Nocha The new LGBT and indie comic stand-up night’s hosted by “Mr. Gomez” (retired Telemundo extra and associate of comic Marga Gomez). 8pm-9:30pm. 3079 16th St. at Mission. www.comedybodega.com

Great Directors @ YBCA Weekly series of documentaries and films about great directors. $6-$8. 7:30pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

The Human Form @ Robert Tat Gallery Exhibit of vintage and contemporary photographic prints, including some stunning male and female nudes by James Bidgood, George Platt Lynes, Wilhelm Von Gloeden and others. Tue-Sat 11am-5:30pm. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com.

Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication.

For more bar and nightlife events, go to www.bartabsf.com

<< Society

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet with San Francisco AIDS Foundation Executive Director Neil Giuliano and State Senator Mark Leno at a cabaret fundraiser that Donna co-hosted for Leno at Trigger.

Passionate party people

by Donna Sachet

E

qualityCalifornia shone brightly at its annual gala at the Fairmont Hotel. VIP guests like Chris Carnes, Gretchen Fleishman, Mariah Hanson, Jody Cole, Jon Ballesteros, Chris Edwards & Scott Butler, Christopher Vasquez and Stu Smith enjoyed a private reception with Senator Dianne Feinstein, who received special recognition from EQCA and delivered a passionate speech on the importance of the fall election.

The main program in the Grand Ballroom was emceed with panache

by Wilson Cruz, and additional awards were presented to Dr. Royce C. Lin and J.C. Penny. Guests included State Senator Mark Leno, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, city Supervisors Scott Wiener, David Chiu, and Mark Ferrell, city Treasurer Jose Cisneros, Bevan Dufty, Ken McNeely, Stuart Milk, Anne

Kronenberg and Rebecca Rolfe.

Disco diva Thelma Houston kicked off the entertainment with footstomping music, which led to hours of dancing by hundreds of happy celebrants.

We checked out Fauxgirls last Thursday at their new Infusion Lounge location with Michael Pagan, Holotta Tymes and Mahlae of Sunday’s a Drag at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room.

The elegant dining room provides an inviting home for this fastpaced, richly costumed drag show.

The room was packed with other entertainers, friends and supporters who regaled the girls with applause and tips. It looks like this everythird-Thursday show is here to stay!

On Friday, we co-hosted a cabaret fundraiser for Senator Mark Leno at Trigger. The attendees were a regular Who’s Who, including Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Co-Chairs Reese Isbell and Martha Knutsen, SF AIDS Foundation

Executive Director Neil Giuliano, Shanti’s Kaushik Roy, Wayne Friday, Audrey Joseph, John Weber, Tom Oliver, Gary Virginia, Skye Patterson, Les Natali, and Trigger owner Greg Bronstein, his sister and her daughter. Dynamic musical entertainment came from Gypsy Love, Kippy Marks, and Connie Champagne singing clever lyrics rewritten for the occasion by Tom Orr. Later that night, a luxury bus gave a select group of invitees a grand bar tour in celebration of the birthday of Drew Cutler, popular Edge bartender and film star. We tumbled along with Sister Roma, Ben & Terry Penn, Kevin Lisle, Mr. Pam, Fernando Robles, Ray McKenzie, Mr. Bolt Sacramento Miguel Rubio, Michael Petri and many others, anxious to show their affection for this relative newcomer to San Francisco who has made great friends quickly.

Sunday night, we returned with Lu Conrad to the annual Star Chefs & Vintners Gala of Meals on Wheels, this time in a new location See page 26 >>

Coming up in leather and kink Thu., Apr. 26: Koktail Club Happy Hour at Kok Bar (1225 Folsom). Drink specials and Hamisi doing Hammy. 5-10 p.m. Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sun., Apr. 29: Jockstrap Beer Bust at Kok Bar. 3-7 p.m. Wear your jock for drink specials.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Thu., Apr. 26: Underwear Night at The Powerhouse.

Strip down for drink specials. 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sun., Apr. 29: Nasty at The Powerhouse.

Get nasty and dirty! 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Fri., Apr. 27: Strip at Kok Bar. $2 cover. Strip down for specials, flirt with the go-go studs. Enter the Cheap Ass contest, win $100. 11 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Mon., Apr. 30: Trivia Night with host Casey Ley at Truck. Featuring prizes and ridiculous questions!

8-10 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Fri., Apr. 27: Truck Wash at Truck (1900 Folsom).

10 p.m.-close. Live shower boys, drink specials.

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Fri., Apr. 27: 15 Association’s Men’s Dungeon Party.

Probably at the Mr. S Playspace, but contact The 15 to be sure. 8 p.m. Go to: www.15sf.org.

Sat., Apr. 28: Klub 86’d at Kok Bar. 4-9 p.m.

Different Malibu Koktails. Guber spins.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Apr. 28: All Beef Saturday Nights at The Lone Star (1354 Harrison). 100% SoMa Beef! 9 p.m.close. Go to: www.facebook.com/lonestarsf.

Mon., Apr. 30: Dirty Dicks at The Powerhouse. $3 well drinks. 4-10 p.m.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Tue., May 1: Busted at Truck. $5 beer bust. 9-11 p.m.

Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Tue., May 1: Safeword: 12-Step Kink Recovery Group at the SF Citadel (363 6th St.). 6:30 p.m.

Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Tue., May 1: Wolf! for Furry Men on the Prowl at The Watergarden (1010 Alameda, San Jose).

4 p.m.-Midnight. Go to: www.thewatergarden.com.

Tue., May 1: Ink & Metal at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.-close. Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

Sat., Apr. 28: Boot Lickin’ at The Powerhouse.

9 p.m.-close. Check it out on Facebook for more details.

Tue., May 1: Kok Block at Kok Bar. Happy hour prices all night. Pool tournament 7-10 p.m., win $25.

Go to: www.kokbarsf.com.

Sat., Apr. 28: Stallion Saturdays at Rebel Bar (1760 Market). Revolving DJs ensure never-ending fun. Stay for afterhours fun! 9 p.m.-4 a.m.

Go to: www.stallionsaturdays.com.

Wed., May 2: Dominant Discussion Group (DDG) at the SF Citadel. Doors open at 7 p.m., discussion 7:30 p.m. Go to: www.sfcitadel.org.

Sun., Apr. 29: Bare Chest Calendar Finals at the DNA Lounge (375 11th St.). See who will make it onto the 2013 Calendar. $5 if ticket is bought before the 4/29, $10 at the door. Calendar alumni get in for free! 5 p.m. Go to: www.barechest.org.

Sun., Apr. 29: Truck Bust Sundays at Truck. $1 beer bust. 4-8 p.m. Go to: www.trucksf.com.

Wed., May 2: Naked Buddies at Blow Buddies (933 Harrison). This is a male-only club. oors open 8 p.m.-12 a.m., play till late.

Go to: www.blowbuddies.com.

Wed., May 2: Nipple Play at The Powerhouse.

Go shirtless! 10 p.m.-close.

Go to: www.powerhouse-sf.com.

▼

DVD>>

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Choice cuts of beef

by David Lamble

L

onghorns is Bay Area filmmaker David Lewis’ crowning achievement, an affectionate, erotically charged satire of a group of UT-Austin good-oldboy undergrads going through a prolonged “homo awkward phase.”

In it, a very bold, deliciously effeminate queer lad, Cesar (Derek Villanueva), finds himself modeling in the buff for a strapping, seemingly sensitive ex-jock, Kevin (Jacob Newton).

“Tell me, Mr. Artist, why do models have to be nude?”

Kevin puts down his sketchpad and walks over to Cesar, his finger tracing a line from the now fully aroused model’s neck to his groin.

“The lines: underwear interrupts the v-line between the stomach and the groin.”

Cesar impulsively kisses Kevin, who quickly recoils.

“What are you doing?”

“I should ask you the same question.”

“You can’t just kiss me like that!”

“What was I thinking?”

“Look, I’m just not that kind of guy, that’s all.”

“So your hand just happened to wander down there, am I right?”

“I was just getting a sense of proportion for the sketch!”

“You’re completely delusional.”

“I’m sorry you got the wrong idea. No hard feelings, okay?”

“You’re nothing but a closet whore.”

“You’re calling me a whore!”

“Don’t come near me!”

Despite the seeming finality of their blowup, Cesar and Kevin can’t keep their hands off each other’s perfect skinny-boy torsos. They also can’t agree on what to call their bond.

Director/writer Lewis establishes a zone of redneck kitsch appropriate for a certain slice of young Texas manhood circa 1982. Long hair is still fashionable, and that radical new gadget, the VCR, has made

<<

every dorm room a potential porn theatre. Kevin and his best buds indulge in some suspiciously homo high-jinx in the name of truly appreciating Debbie Does Dallas.

But once the comely Cesar enters the picture, Kevin knows he has a big decision to make.

The sincere, hyper-romantic storytelling that has won Lewis a following with his first features (Rock Haven, Redwoods) has now been augmented with satire and the sting of reality when an over-thetop silly moment suddenly reveals some big stakes for the characters.

As with his previous films, Lewis has a knack for perfect character match-ups, and in this case,

perfect physical chemistry with his gorgeous leads.

As a queer boy whose own delicious awakening was Texasbased, I can attest that Lewis has captured what it was like to come roaring out of the closet in an Urban Texas landscape that hadn’t yet been scorched by AIDS. The lovely Grass Valley, California, stands in for the Texas Hill Country.

Special features: director’s cut; deleted scenes; some funny outtake scenes; interviews with director/ writer David Lewis, producer Lewis Tice, and actor Derek Villanueva (there’s an odd sound drop-out in the interview segment on my DVD).▼

On the Town From page 26

at Pier 48, expertly coordinated by Taste Catering. This rather raw space was transformed with silver and blue fabric, giant white obelisks, and modern seating areas into an inviting ballroom where scores of culinary and wine samples surrounded the extensive silent auction. Once inside the dining room, over a thousand attendees enjoyed the best from the best, including selections from Boulevard’s Nancy Oakes, AQ’s Mark Liberman, Café des Amis’ Justin Deering, Etoile’s Perry Hoffman, and Fifth Floor’s David Bazirgan and Nicolai Lipscomb. We are always blown away by the generosity of the guests, particularly during the live auction, where again hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised in a few short minutes. Guests included Sherri Burke, Robert Fountain, Peter Galli, Milton Mosk & Tom Foutch, Charles Zukow, and Andrew Freeman. In another of our many “pinch-me moments,” San Francisco mainstay Ellen Magnin Newman graciously approached us to inquire about our silvery metallic jacket. Does it get any better than that?

You are going to be busy this weekend, starting with Friday night’s fundraiser at Lime restaurant for Zoe Dunning’s Assembly campaign, Saturday afternoon’s Speakeasy Shanti benefit at the Old Mint, and finishing with Sunday’s SoMa Bare Chest Calendar finale at DNA Lounge and the second annual Miss Gay Northern California Pageant at Public Works, hosted by Mercedez Monro and Shangela of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Read more online at ebar.com

Steven Underhill

Actor Val Kilmer at the San Francisco International Film Festival’s premiere of The Fourth Dimension at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas.

Next week, we encourage you to attend Monday night’s Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation’s Dances from the Heart at Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater, featuring performances by members of Ballet San Jose, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Christy Cote Argentine tango, Diablo Ballet, Smuin Ballet, and Na Lei Hula, with a special appearance by statuesque

Julie Newmar. Then on Saturday, don’t miss Maitri’s Silver Anniversary Gala Bliss at the W Hotel with musical entertainment by Connie Champagne and Wade Preston and a fashion show by celebrity designer Carmen Marc Valvo. Rumor has it that this intrepid columnist will be donned in one of Carmen’s creations!▼

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

▼

Books >>

Loving homage to a difficult childhood

by Rachel Pepper

C

hana Wilson’s moving new memoir Riding Fury Home (Seal Press) is uniquely compelling. It tackles mother-daughter relationships, mental illness in the family, coming out into the lesbian-feminist movement of the 1970s, returning to school to find meaningful work as a healer, and finally, what it means to come into one’s own as an adult while mak-

ing peace with one’s past.

It quickly becomes clear from the beginning pages of this memoir that although Chana Wilson is a first-time author, she is a masterful storyteller.

This book is almost impossible to put down, especially if readers relate to any of the memoir’s main threads.

And the span of Riding Fury Home is immense: it begins in 1958 when Chana is a child, and carries us forward until almost the present day, well after

her mother’s death. Although originally Wilson says she was afraid that in writing this book, “the truth would come out” about the trauma she suffered as a child, she felt committed to exploring her mother’s story. Yet after she began to write, she found that her own life story was intrinsically tied to her mother’s. Thus the book ended up being her own memoir, but it pays loving homage to her mother.

“I decided to tell a story of two lives set against cultural history,” she says, and it is clear from reading her book that she succeeded. The book begins with Chana having to caretake her mother during an age when mental illness was not discussed, let alone understood. Also not discussed was her mother’s illicit lesbian affair while married to Chana’s father. When this affair ended, the grief of the loss led to her mother’s depression, suicidality, and eventual hospitalization. In and out of the hospital, and eventually given shock treatment, her mother’s depression and lesbian tendencies were surprisingly not “cured” by the treatment.

Through her caretaking and witnessing her mother’s struggles, Chana made a vow oft taken by the children of the mentally ill: that she herself would never succumb to mental illness, nor to addiction. Surprisingly, Chana’s father took a job out of the country during this time, Chana became her mother’s keeper, and eventually, she had to go stay with other people when her mother was again hospitalized.

By incorporating such cultural moments as the rise of public radio (Wilson hosted a lesbian show on KPFA), FBI surveillance of lesbian households in San Francisco, and the blossoming of the Bay Area as a gay and lesbian mecca, Wilson creates a book not just of personal but also of political and cultural relevance. Of the 1970s Wilson says, “There was euphoria at being part of a community and having radical ideas, of having a sense of belonging even when stigmatized, and this created a powerful political force.” Wilson found comfort in doing her radio work and

<<

Lavender Tube From page 23

sues that need to be addressed totally irrespective of the show itself. But it does raise some interesting questions.

Personally, we hate this franchise and its loathsome and ludicrous premise, and we hope no queers think it’s their turn to file suit against it. We understand that we aren’t all free until we are free to be embarrassingly stupid and obnoxious on TV, but seriously.

For this suit to have merit, the premise has to have merit. When the two men allege that not having an African American man as The Bachelor plays into racial fears, how so? The implication is that the women contestants would be white, not black.

Which would never happen. So on its face, so to speak, the suit fails. But we’ll still be interested in seeing where this one goes. Personally, we’d rather see African-American powerhouse showrunner and producer Shonda Rhimes get more access and a time slot not guaranteed to fail for her new and very good show Scandal, which is the only show on the tube with a black lead. Only show with a black lead, folks. In 2012. Where’s Dick Clark when you need him?

Meanwhile, we found it rather interesting that the erotomania of the American housewife took center stage this week with all the furor over the hot new bestseller 50 Shades of Grey. The morning shows (morning? really?) couldn’t get enough of chit-chat about the BDSM and other

Irene Young

Riding Fury Home author Chana Wilson.

participating in groups such as Sistah Boom, a women’s street percussion band which has led various rallies and marches, and which she has been a member of since 1984.

Riding Fury Home took Wilson 12 years to write. She says that she rewrote some chapters 30 times. During this time, she took writing classes, participated in supportive writers’ groups, and gradually pieced together the story she wished to tell. But the story still didn’t seem as authentic as she wished. She wondered how she would get fully inside the head of the girl she had been as a child, and felt frustrated by the disassociation she felt from what had been her authetntic childhood self. At that point, Wilson decided to take a class that helped her “open up to my subconscious.” The book swelled out to more than 550 pages, which was eventually pared down to just under 400 gripping pages.

After many years spent in young adulthood not sure what direction to move professionally, Chana eventually went back to school to become a therapist. Ironically, she found herself following in her mother Gloria’s footsteps, since she had already trained as a Gestalt therapist and was doing counseling in the LGBT community.

Chana still practices as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the Bay Area,

doing “LGBT-affirming therapy,” and believes that being a clinician has helped in her writing process. “I have been so inspired by the healing of others,” she says. “As therapists, we also need to do our own healing.” Writing her memoir, Chana says, provided incentive to “tackle issues of trauma and recovery,” and to infuse the book with “a hopeful air of change.”

Likely because of its focus on mental illness as well as its strong lesbian feminist voice, when Wilson was pitching her book for publication, she was told by several large publishers that her book “wasn’t commercially viable.” Luckily, small feminist publisher Seal Press, which has a roster of first-rate lesbian-feminist memoirs, was not afraid to take a chance on her book. Three weeks from their first inquiry of interest, she had a book contract in hand.

By being so honest about her mother’s mental illness and the effect it had on her, Wilson hopes that her story “opens up others, as well as helping them or moving them in some way.”

She says, “I hope that my story helps take away some of the stigma and shame” of mental illness. There is no doubt this fine memoir by Oakland author Wilson will help do so, and no doubt, too, that of the many readers who will enjoy this book, some will find comfort for this reason.▼

pushing-the-straight-envelope sex in the book. ABC’s 20/20 devoted its April 20 show to how straight people are now entering into exotic sex play in their marriages. Nightline added a late-night take. And don’t think in the relationships with a woman and two men that the men are getting together. Oh no!

We were particularly amused by Barbara Walters on The View on April 17 asking Elisabeth Hasselbeck if she likes it rough. Whoopi kept slamming her head against the table while this exchange went on (but we doubt it knocked any sense into her). Gee, aren’t straight people funny?

Meanwhile, there were more queer sightings than usual – that is, there actually were queer sightings – on the tube that we really enjoyed.

Smash now has not one, not two, but three gay male storylines. Yes, on one show. And one of them is interracial.

With full-on mouth kissing. Take that, Bachelor.

Meanwhile, the concept of queer make-up sex came, so to speak, to Grey’s Anatomy this week with our favorite lesbian couple, Callie and Arizona, fighting and taking off their clothes at the same time. One more small but simple act toward equalizing queers and straights on the tube. Courtesy of Shonda Rhimes, we might add.

Glee continues on its quest for queer/straight equality. Their disco inferno episode had Britney trying to help Santana achieve her goal of becoming famous by putting a sex tape of her and Santana on the Internet,

spliced with cute stuff her cat was doing. These two have come a long way in a short time. Their reprise of “More than a Woman” was quite lovely.

Speaking of which, Finn finally knows what he wants to do with his life. Who would have thought Saturday Night Fever would be an educational tool? Although we already knew Jane Lynch would look fabulously butch in a white disco suit.

We do love the way the queer aspect of this show and the interracial relationships are all just seamlessly folded into the storyline. That’s the way it should be, so why isn’t it that way everywhere?

Over at Suburgatory, which is just so wonderfully, caustically funny, with Mr. Wolfe (Rex Lee), the only queer Asian character on the tube, his white partner, who used to be married to a woman and isn’t quite comfy yet with the fact that he’s now living with another man, was able to acknowledge to Mr. Wolfe that “we are homosexual lovers” and kiss in public. They bonded over a little dog, for whom they bought sweaters to match their own.

Stereotypically gay? Sure. But it was also really cute and romantic. And the ever-queer-friendly actress Alicia Silverstone just joined the cast, too.

Speaking of romance, be still our hearts. After 25 years on the tube with not a single queer character despite being set in the fashion industry, CBS’ The Bold & the Beautiful, the top-rated soap worldwide, is getting a queer storyline. A lesbian storyline. With a tried-and-true lesbian heartthrob, See page 30 >>

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

April 26-May 2, 2012 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Courtesy SFFS

Scene from director Paul Lacoste’s Step Up to the Plate.

Courtesy SFFS

Scene from directors Delphine & Muriel Coulin’s 17 Girls: ‘accidental’ pregnancy goes viral.

<<

SFIFF, week 2 From page 17

nel Pineda) who is now lead singer for his favorite rock band, Journey. (Castro, Closing Night, 5/3, 7 p.m.)

The Third Man Director Carole Reed’s 1948 classic, which has a sizzling queer backstory and Orson Welles in his second-most acclaimed role, honors the San Francisco Film Society’s late executive director, Bingham Ray. A cat plays with a fugitive’s shoes as the light from a window illuminates a genius working for wages. I’ve loved this Carol Reed-directed/Graham Greene-written thriller since I first heard the TV plug, “Orson Welles – tonight on The Late Show, Channel 2.” Why do I still watch it every time it hits the tube? Let me count the ways: Welles ad-libbing his sinister cuckooclock joke. The viciously homophobic Joseph Cotten doubling down on the plight of a third-rate Western pulp writer with a sissy first name.

David O. Selznick’s nagging suspicion that the Harry Lime/Holly Martins friendship was based on “sheer

<<

buggery.” Greene biographer Michael Shelden’s asserts that “Selznick was close to the truth. [In the novel,] Martins has always loved Lime. And his love shows signs of repressed sexual desire. To Selznick’s relief, the ‘buggery’ failed to come across in the film. [Casting] Cary Grant and Noel Coward might have [given the game away], but considerable imagination is needed to see Cotten and Welles as potential boyfriends.”

Why did Bingham Ray love this extraordinary caper climaxing in post-WWII Vienna’s labyrinthine underground sewers? Possibly Reed’s intuitive grasp of Greene’s classic themes: smuggling – meaning masking one’s desires behind a moral façade – and betrayal. As for Ray, celebrated for championing edgy social comedies (Happiness, Igby Goes Down), a full-blooded portrait emerges in Peter Biskind’s study of the American independent film movement, Down and Dirty Films. Ray “lived and breathed movies. ‘I would come in from the [NYC] suburbs wearing a buttondown shirt to the Elgin [Cinema]

and sit next to a guy in a raincoat.’

“Ray chain-smoked Marlboros, loved to drink, and was a great storyteller, expansive and flamboyant.

‘If you locked Bingham up alone in a closet, he’d pick a fight with himself.’” (Castro, 4/28, 1 p.m.)

17 Girls Directors Delphine & Muriel Coulin show an “accidental” pregnancy going viral in a small coastal French town. Inspired by actual events, the filmmakers focus on the special sisterhood that develops as 17-year-old girls, using their boyfriends like sperm banks and ignoring the outrage of parents and teachers, nurture their own little society: 15 births, and bonds that can barely be imagined. (Kabuki, 4/28; SF Film Society Cinema, 4/30, 5/2) The Waiting Room In 1971, screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky imagined a 10th circle of hell, a big-city teaching hospital where God himself might perish without insurance.

Now a powerful new documentary updates Chayefsky’s dystopian black comedy The Hospital.

“Let’s roll him over before we call it. Ready to call it: time of death is

20:16. The kid is how old?”

“15.”

“Can his family view the body?”

“It’s a crime scene, and the body is part of the evidence. Sometimes the coroner will let the family view through a window.”

Director Peter Nicks’ cameras witness America’s version of “socialized medicine,” Oakland’s Highland Hospital, the last stop for desperately ill individuals unlucky enough to find themselves medically indigent or uninsured.

A 40ish black carpet-layer, complaining of severe back pain, selfmedicates: three gallons of cranberry juice a day for a week, no results.

Highland ER doctors say he has back spurs.

“How soon can I have surgery?”

“They’ll call you.”

“A week?”

“More like a month.”

“Even though I’m in pain and can’t work?”

A 20ish white vegan appears with medical tests (from Kaiser) indicating he has testicular cancer. “This is a major wake-up call.” (Kabuki, 4/30, 5/1) Guilty In director Vincent Garenq’s gripping update of Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man, a French bailiff, accused of sexually abusing kids by a family of total strangers, tries to cop a plea with a ruthlessly dishonest prosecutor. Philippe Torreton puts

his body and your heart through the trials of Job, with a fate exceeding his worst nightmares. The film is based on a real case that exposed Kafkaesque flaws in the French justice system. (Kabuki, 4/27, Noon) Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema Unless you’ve tried to get a film shown at Cannes, you’ll probably never have heard of this cinema insider whose resume includes burnishing the reps of Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino. Rissient’s stories about a one-eyed Fritz Lang and John Ford drunk out of his mind are blessedly in English and worth the price of admission. (SFFSC, 4/27; PFA, 4/30) Somebody Up There Likes Me Director Bob Byington spoofs puerile comedies with a clueless Everyman who dies without aging. The flaws of this slick, shallow, soulless piece prove that mumblecore is not a lazy man’s game, vindicating fans of emotionally nimble talents like Andrew Bujalski, Kate Dollenmayer, Christian Rudder and Wiley Wiggins. Rent Funny Ha Ha or the sweet SF romance Sorry, Thanks instead.

(Kabuki, 4/28, 5/1; SFFSC, 4/29) Step Up to the Plate Director Paul Lacoste, attempting to prove that Jiro Dreams of Sushi was no flash in the pan, follows a generational shift in a Michelin-approved restaurant in SW France. (Kabuki, 4/27, 28; PFA, 4/29)▼

Daniel Clowes From page 17

acters and their genesis complement each section. Still, if I hadn’t been there with a friend steeped in Clowes knowledge, I would’ve been lost.

But many visitors are better acquainted with Clowes’ work than they may realize. His Mister Wonderful was serialized in The New York Times Magazine, and two of his graphic novels, Ghost World and Art School Confidential, both of which he adapted for the screen, were turned into movies directed by Terry Zwigoff. Now Wilson, the dyspeptic middle-aged Oaklander who offers up pithy, often profane commentary on the marvels and horrors of his adopted urban environment (“How did I ever wind up here?” he wonders. “Oakland. For God’s sake!”), is the cranky protagonist of a new movie that will be directed by Alexander Payne and shot in Oakland.

The misanthropic character, whom Clowes describes as “the darkest vision” of himself, was born when his ailing father was in the hospital for an extended period and later died.

Rather than inhabiting the stereotypical, squalid, airless apartment crammed with yellowed newspapers and strewn with half-opened tuna fish cans, the type of abode usually associated with permanently adolescent anti-social cartoonists, Clowes lives in a comfortable home in the Piedmont neighborhood with a woman he has been married to for 17 years, his son and a beagle. How normal can you get? Comics and their creators, it appears, have crossed over to mainstream respectability. Well, maybe, maybe not.

Terry Lorant

Daniel Clowes, whose work is explored in Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes at the Oakland Museum.

Courtesy OMCA

Eightball 17 cover from Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes at the Oakland Museum.

Clowes’ artistic ambitions nearly bit the dust when, right after high school, he attended Pratt Institute, intent on becoming an illustrator. The sour fruits of that disillusioning experience are wittily lampooned in several hilarious pages from the lacerating satire Art School Confidential, which purports to be “the story that blows the lid off a million dollar racket.”

“They all thought I was at art school to learn self-expression pursuant to a career – and that’s exactly what I wanted them to think,” it reads. “Actually, I was there as a freelance, undercover agent in order to learn first-hand the shocking truth about the biggest scam of the cen-

tury.” Art school, he writes, harbors “has-been famous art professors who couldn’t teach a dog to bark” and “rich boys who draw worse than your seven-year old sister. There are two reasons to go to art school: no work and loose women.”

Razor-sharp and witty, Clowes, who calls Crumb “the father of everything I do,” is more palatable than that patently offensive and notoriously misogynistic albeit influential cartoonist. A slender, balding, seemingly gentle, mild-mannered man, he reserves the pent-up aggrievement of a misfit, maladaptive loner and a dark, sardonic streak for his characters, like Enid Coleslaw, the cynical,

hypercritical teenage anti-heroine of Ghost World. Coleslaw, a disdainful outsider with big black eyeglasses, bitches and hatches diabolical plans designed to humiliate others in her war against the world with her disaffected BFF, Rebecca. The latter character was played in the movie by a youthful Scarlett Johansson before the actress became the va-va-voom girl and action hero soon to be seen in form-fitting leather in the summer blockbuster The Avengers.

The tales of Ice Haven, a sinister take on Our Town, are related by a self-involved, frustrated poet/narrator named Random Wilder, and unfold in a small, outwardly pristine

hamlet whose menacing inhabitants include an obsessed private investigator, a taciturn kidnapped boy and a psychotic blue bunny. Ice Haven’s very first resident, Rocky, is a caveman from 100,000 BC with a serious case of the blahs; think Fred Flintstone with clinical depression and no Barney, Wilma or Prozac. “I’m almost 20, at the end of my life with nothing to show for it,” he laments.

“All I think about is survival, survival and procreation. Surely, there has to be something more. Tomorrow I’ll walk to the edge of the world. What do I have to lose? There goes Ogg,” he grouses, “’Mr. Sunshine’ – what’s his secret? I’ll kill him.”▼ Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes, through August 12 at OMCA. Info: www.museumca.org.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • April 26-May 2, 2012

Comeback kids hirty years after releasing her first solo album, Stevie Nicks returned with In Your Dreams (Reprise), the best album of her career.

Co-produced by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame, who also cowrote a few of the songs and even duets on the track “Cheaper than Free,” the album not only touches on Nicks’ strengths, but also takes her outside of her comfort zone on a few occasions. The excellent “For What It’s Worth” reminds us of Stevie’s country past (remember “Leather and Lace?”), while “Wide Sargasso Sea” recalls her fondness for the story song and “Secret Life” updates her 1980s sound. But the real excitement occurs on the dreamy rev of the title cut, the haunting and heartfelt “New Orleans” (in which she name-checks Anne Rice), the literary “Annabel Lee” (adapted from the Edgar Allan Poe poem) and the molto bella “Italian Summer.”

Ms. Stevie’s former Fleetwood Mac partner-in-crime (and exbeau) Lindsey Buckingham also makes a strong comeback with Seeds We Sow (Mind Kit/Fontana).

Unlike Stevie’s album, the selfreleased Seeds We Sew is a no-frills effort, performed, recorded and mixed by Buckingham. You can

still hear the Buckingham of Tusk, as well as the one who continued to explore his experimental side on solo albums such as Law and Order and Go Insane. All of this is to say that in its way, Seeds We Sow is every bit as compelling as In Your Dreams.

This is especially true of “In Our Own Time,” “Gone Too Far,” “End of Time,” “Illuminations,” “Stars Are Crazy” and “Rock Away Blind.”

Emmylou Harris is another example of an artist who keeps getting better with age. Her latest, Hard Bargain (Nonesuch), continues the sonic trend she began with 1995’s Wrecking Ball, as you can hear on “The Road” and “Home Sweet Home.” The breathtaking “My

<<

Lavender Tube From page 28

too. Crystal Chappell, whom we last fell for on Guiding Light, where she played Olivia Spencer, the other part of Olivia/Natalia in one of the hottest soap romances ever, is coming to B&B in mid-May as Danielle, the other mother of Caroline Spencer, who just joined the cast as the soap pumps up its younger characters. The fact that Caroline has two mothers is a secret to most, but she will be revealing it in advance of Danielle coming to town.

Danielle’s partner, Karen Spencer (Joanna Johnson), has been a recur-

Personals The

Massage>>

Kate,” Harris’ exquisite cover to her dear friend (and mother of Rufus Wainwright) Kate McGarrigle. One version of the album includes a DVD consisting of an exclusive interview and six live performances.

Even though they haven’t recorded an album of all-original material in several years, Hall & Oates remain as popular as ever, with their songs appearing in movies, in TV shows and in commercials. Daryl Hall has only recorded three solo albums in 30 years, but his new one Laughing Down Crying (Verve Forecast) easily ranks with his finest work. To Hall’s ccredit, the best songs on th the disc, such as the ttitle number, “Talking tto Myself,” “Lifetime of L Love,” “Eyes for You” aand “Wrong Side of H History,” recall Hall & O Oates’ most memor rable work without s sounding recycled.

Aside from an org solo straight out of gan “ “Whiter Shade of Pale” o “Let It Go,” most of on B Breathe Out, Breathe I (Red House) by The In Z Zombies (featuring original members Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent) feels like a breath of fresh air.

The title cut (vaguely reminiscent of vintage Steely Dan), “Any Other Way,” “Play It for Real” and “Shine on Sunshine” are all outstanding selections.

Although the Mekons haven’t been around quite as long as some of these other artists, their impact and influence are far-reaching, especially to those who came of age on punk and alternative music. Their marvelous new album Ancient & Modern (Sin/Bloodshot) proves that Jon Langford, Sally Timms and company are showing no signs of slowing down. You can hear that for yourself on “Space in Your Face,” “I Fall Asleep,” “Calling All Demons” and “Honey Bear,” among others.▼

ring figure on the show throughout the past 25 years. Johnson played a dual role as the original Caroline Spencer, the late wife of Ridge Forrester, for whom the young niece is named. Chappell, a soap veteran who also spent time on Days of Our Lives and One Life to Live, is one of the hottest women on the tube. She just exudes sexual heat and promise.

So look for this storyline to smolder.

The question is, will these two be able to draw the nymphomaniacal Brooke Forrester (the super-sexy Katherine Kelly Lang) into a threesome?

We can dream, can’t we? Thus in the hope of having those dreams fulfilled, we really must stay tuned.▼

Model/Escorts>>

Massage for Silver Daddies only David & Tony 415-806-3150

Wanna Melt? Castro $50 Jim 415-621-4517

E17-18

Tall Blond CMT nr Delores Park with strong skilled hands.

Specialty massages $85-$200 415-706-9740 E17-17

E17-28

HAIRY MASSEUR Erotic Relaxing Full Body Massage by hairy Irish/Portugese guy.

All Bay Area.

(510) 912-8812 late nights ok.

E17-17

Therapeutic Deep Tissue or Swedish Massage 10am-10pm daily. Quiet central Castro location. Call for rates and availability 415-685-1915 E17-17

Massage W/Release 7 Days A Week. In/Out 415-350-0968 E14-16

Fremont, Jim CMT * Great Hands * Mature $40/hr 510-651-2217 E17-20

“Dr. BLISS” is IN! I love touching men and it shows! Massage is my artform. 415.706.6549 http://bodymagicsf.blogspot.com E17-17

CHILANGOSEXY.COM

T

Name is Emmett Till” sounds like it could have been written by Joan Baez. The rocking “New Orleans” is equally topical, while “Big Black Dog” finds Harris proudly displaying her sense of humor. Her cover of the Ron Sexsmith-penned title tune is a delight, and be sure to have a box of tissue nearby for “Darlin’

EDUARDO

by Gregg Shapiro

▼

415-374-4439

Asian CMT In Sunnyvale. In -$50, Out-$70 Michael 408-400-9088 or 408-893-1966 E14-17

Pelvis – Hips – Thighs - Low Back Jeff Gibson 415-626-7095

COREMASSAGE4MEN.COM E12-17

SEXY ASIAN $60 Jim 269-5707 E14-17

www.sfgaymassage.com E06-15

Edgy Escort For Xtreme Clients

HOT*COOL*24HRS Out* 860-5468*$150 Hr*

ebar.com

E15-18

U 1- Ê " " -ÊUÊÊÊ EVERY TIME! E52

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

April 26-May 2, 2012, 2012 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

“Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.”

-Matt Groening

JeffAllen_2x5 People>>

Men MEET Men...

Men MEET Men...

Like Right Now i ! low as $1.00 per day!

VISA/MC -tas

Right Now

VISA/MC/AMEX - as low as $1.00 per day!

MrN

MrN

Connnect Now on the Bay Area’s hottest chatline!

Connnect Now on the Bay Area’s hottest chatline!

FREE 415-707-2400 Try it for

408-539-2400 510-281-2400 650-870-2500

FREE 415-707-2400 Try it for

707-582-2400 831-789-2400 925-955-2000

408-539-2400 510-281-2400 650-870-2500 707-582-2400

ai rq

air q origin_Communications_2x2_3910

831-789-2400 925-955-2000

ebar.com

sfmanscaping.com Look your best this holiday season! Body groom / trim services.

Please book through www.sfmanscaping.com -- Gil

Men MEET Men...

Men MEET Men...

E52

HOT LOCAL MEN & WOMEN

Listen to Ads & Reply FREE! SF - 415-430-1199 East Bay - 510-343-1122 Use FREE Code 5931, 18+ VISA/MC - as

VISA/MC - as low as $1.00 per day!

low as $1.00 per day!

CLB

Classified Order Form

MrN

Deadline: NOON on MONDAY. Payment must accompany ad. If you have a question, call 415.861.5019.

Display advertising rates available upon request. Ads will appear in print and online.

Connnect Now on XBOLD and BOLD stop here the Bay Area’s hottest chatline!

San Francisco

415.430.1199 MrN Oakland

Connnect Now on 510.343.1122 the Bay Area’s hottest chatline!

Indicate Type Style Here

San Jose

FREE 415-707-2400

FREE 415-707-2400 408.514.1111

Try it for

408-539-2400 510-281-2400 650-870-2500 707-582-2400

AL REMEN!

Right Now

Right Now The

MEET

Try it for

FREE CODE: REPORTER

831-789-2400 925-955-2000

ai rq

Other local numbers:

408-539-2400 831-789-2400 1-888-634-2628 510-281-2400 925-955-2000 650-870-2500 707-582-2400

ai rq

E FRtoEListen

Tell-AFriend

RATES for Newspaper and website: First line, Regular 10.00 All subsequent lines 5.00 BOLD double price X-BOLD triple price

PAYMENT:

Cash

Personal Check

Money Order

Contact Information Name Address Number of Issues

Mail with payment to: Bay Area Reporter 395 Ninth Street SF, CA 94103 OR FAX TO: 415.861.8144 OR E-MAIL: simma@ebar.com

Credit Card Payment Name Card Number Expiration Date Signature

City Classification

Visa

MasterCard

AmEx

Telephone State Amt. Enclosed

Zip

REWARDS

& Reply to Ads!

1-888-MegaMatesTM

24/7 Friendly Customer Care 1(888)MegaMates 18+

©2012 PC LLC

2117

Adult Jobs>> Hot guys 4 porn

Looking 4 Hot Guys For Adult Films. RU 18-40, In Good Shape? apply @ factoryvideos.com/casting

39w