The owner of an Oakland LGBTQ Latino nightclub is speaking out after a break-in last week he says is the 10th time his business has been targeted in recent years. To garner support, he is planning a community benefit this weekend.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, Valentino Carrillo, a gay man, opened Que Rico at 381 15th Street in downtown Oakland in 2021. It came a year after the closure of Club 21, which at the time was the last bar in the Bay Area catering to Latino LGBTQs.
But Carrillo estimates he’s lost $100,000 over the past three years making repairs due to the 10 burglaries. The most recent, on July 23, cost him $30,000, he estimates.
Carrillo described himself as “pissed” in a statement, and said that the break-in, at 4:23 a.m., led to damages and stolen alcohol.
Carrillo stated he was alerted to the burglary by an alarm system on his phone and rushed to the site of his club.
“By the time police or I arrived, the perps are gone,” he stated, adding officers arrived first.
Carrillo alleged police didn’t chase after the suspects due to Oakland Police Department policy.
“There were two cars that sped right past them going the opposite way down a oneway street as they were approaching and officers believed they were leaving the scene,” Carrillo stated. “Because of the City of Oakland’s no chase laws, the officers could not pursue the suspects.”
OPD confirmed that the burglary happened “just before 4:30 a.m. on July 23, 2024, in the 300 block of 15th Street” and that “when officers arrived, they observed two unidentified vehicles speeding northbound on the 1700 block of Webster Street. They also located evidence that a burglary occurred at a business.”
OPD policy states “pursuits may only be initiated when there is reasonable suspicion to believe the fleeing individual committed a violent forcible crime and/or a crime involving the use of a firearm, or probable cause that the individual is in possession of a firearm.”
See page 22 >>
Welcome to the 2024 Besties
compiled by Cynthia Laird
It’s the dog days of summer so there’s no better time than to celebrate favorite LGBTQ-owned establishments, main stream businesses, and those owned by allies. This year’s results from the Bay Area Reporter’s reader’s poll, LGB–TQ Best of the Bay, or the Besties, are here.
In addition to the aforementioned businesses featured in the Shopping and Services group, other categories abound, and readers will find them throughout the issue. They are: Arts and Culture, Community, Dining, Nightlife, Nightlife Venues and Events, and Weddings and Destinations.
by John Ferrannini
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to landmark the late gay artist Gilbert Baker’s oversized rainbow flag installation in the Castro neighborhood without allowing variant or alternative flags at the site. The matter will have to be voted on a second time when the board returns from its August recess, though that is considered procedural since it was 10-0. (District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton was excused.)
See page 10 >>
See page 4 >>
United against Hamas, Israelis differ in opinions on Gaza war, Netanyahu
by John Ferrannini
Standing on the site of the Tribe of Nova music festival in the Negev Desert about three miles from the Gaza Strip that was attacked by Hamas fighters the morning of October 7, Alon Penzel discussed with a group of international journalists his book collecting eyewitness testimonies of the day the 2023 Israel-Hamas war began.
“I tried to convey what I could to the international community,” Penzel, a 23-year-old gay man who used to be a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces and is now a second-year political science student at the University of Haifa, told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent press trip to the region.
2017 Media Kit 0 a
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
“Every story here has been verified very carefully. What I haven’t verified is not in the book,” Penzel said, before going on to relate stories of beheadings and sexual violence.
At the festival, “there was a situation where a man tells about how he ran, from one tree to another, how he ran from tree to tree, got shot and still ran, and during the run he could see people get shot and fall.” Festivalgoers made fateful decisions whether they should “keep running, or try to help their friends and family members,” he said.
Penzel said he compiled “Testimonies Without Boundaries, Israel: October 7th 2023” after
hearing conspiracy theories that the attacks didn’t target civilians.
He did concede some initial reports that spread on Israeli social media – such as 40 children allegedly beheaded by Hamas – turned out to be false.
“There is already denial, but this is our reality,” Penzel said. “Documenting that reality is extremely significant.”
At the music festival alone 364 civilians were killed, and at least 40 hostages were taken. A total of 1,139 people were killed by Hamas during that day’s incursion into Israel, including 764 civilians, and of the 251 taken hostage, 116 remain in captivity as of press time.
See page 20 >>
Besties 2024:
Besties 2024: Nightlife
A broken door at Que Rico is just one of 10 break-ins owner Valentino Carrillo says has taken place in recent years.
Courtesy Valentino Carrillo
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to landmark the oversized rainbow flag and flagpole at Castro and Market streets.
Rick Gerharter
Alon Penzel used to be a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces and is now a university student.
John Ferrannini
Jane Warner Plaza report OK’d by SF panel
by John Ferrannini
T
he move to make major changes at the Castro’s Jane Warner Plaza inched forward July 23 with the San Francisco Transportation Authority approving a key report.
The Neighborhood Transportation Improvement Program Planning Final Report was adopted at an abbreviated meeting two weeks after the matter was discussed before the commissioners, who are the 11 members of the Board of Supervisors. The commission is chaired by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, San Francisco Public Works presented a potential future design for the parklet at a meeting for Castro community stakeholders March 22. (There still has not been a community-wide meeting where city staff have presented the proposal directly to residents of the Castro.)
Anthony Esterbrooks with Public Works told the commissioners July 9 that $100,000 has been spent so far – $25,000 by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to look into how transit operations would change and $75,000 by Public Works to look into how the plaza’s design would change. The southern terminus for the F-line Muni streetcar is at the plaza, and the historic vehicles turn from 17th Street to head east back down Market Street en route to Embarcadero and Fisherman’s Wharf. The train tracks and loading platform for the trolleys are in the center of the plaza and can’t be moved. Mandelman had secured the $100,000 in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 from the authority.
Ever since it opened 15 years ago, the plaza has been criticized for its
lackluster appearance. An update to it that saw an aqua-green paint applied to its ground surface was met with derision.
Mandelman said that, thus far, community stakeholders have informed the city they want to see the plaza be “a better space for people to be in general and a better place to be a place for protest, gathering, and grieving.”
“Jane Warner Plaza is a focal point, an iconic intersection,” he said. “It’s come time to start thinking about what it could be in the future ... [to] turn the space into something that is a plaza, not just tables with foldable chairs.”
The plaza is named after Warner, a lesbian San Francisco patrol special police officer whose beat included the Castro. She died in 2010 after a yearlong battle with ovarian cancer. Warner also penned the B.A.R.’s Crime and Punishment column for many years, and a plaque in her honor can be found at the entrance to the plaza accessed from Castro Street.
Esterbrooks said the most-accepted design among the limited group that has been consulted, dubbed the “Green Embrace,” would increase sidewalk space by 4,000 square feet. It also imagines the space without the Chevron gas station at 2399 Market Street.
“It is possible part of the plaza could be built out as a PoPo,” referring to privately-owned public open spaces, of which there are dozens downtown, he said.
The first phase of the project proposal would cost $4-$5 million, Esterbrooks said, with a total cost of $6-$8 million.
Mandelman told the commissioners and Esterbrooks that he started thinking about what might happen at Jane Warner Plaza considering the
planned Harvey Milk Plaza renovation across the street.
“I think it made good sense to give a relatively small amount of money to start that conversation,” he said.
Esterbrooks said that the next step would be identifying where to find up to $8 million for the project. Mandelman said that based on his experience with Milk plaza, it wouldn’t come in the form of a single allocation.
“We kept finding money to get this part and that part,” Mandelman said regarding Milk plaza. “Identifying $8 million is hard.”
Mandelman asked Esterbrooks when Jane Warner Plaza is slated to be paved next, asking “I know your
department has done some patchup work but where are we?”
Esterbrooks said that “in midMay they do some spot repair of potholes” and Public Works is trying to identify funding to pave again.
Michael Petrelis, a longtime gay activist, has been outspoken on Jane Warner Plaza and gave public comment when the county transit board took up the matter July 9. Petrelis lambasted the lack of community meetings open to the public on the plaza redesign.
He also characterized the $100,000 expenditure on it as wasted.
“One hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to waste on a fantasy plan,” he said in his phoned-in
comments. “Shame on this body that wasted $100,000 that did nothing to improve pedestrian safety at this plaza. The potholes are a danger to thousands of people who pass through that plaza every week. It took screaming at the mayor through a bullhorn in May to get the city to patch up just half of the plaza’s potholes.”
Indeed, Petrelis showed up to a merchant walk on Castro Street featuring Mayor London Breed in May with a bullhorn demanding the potholes be filled. He was later involved in the painting of a “yellow brick road” at the plaza. The plaza was not addressed in public comment July 23. t
Lesbian SF fire chief announces retirement
by John Ferrannini
Jeanine Nicholson, San Francisco’s first LGBTQ fire chief, announced her retirement July 26 in a statement from the agency.
Nicholson, a lesbian, stated that she is leaving due to “unforeseen medical issues” at the end of August.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the City and County of San Francisco for over 30 years,” Nicholson stated. “I am proud of the San Francisco Fire Department and the people that work day and night to protect our city and citizens. It has been a great privilege and honor to serve as your fire chief for the past five years.”
Mayor London Breed appointed Nicholson in 2019. Breed, who will now have the opportunity to choose Nicholson’s successor, praised her in a statement of her own.
“Chief Nicholson has been an incredible leader for the San Francisco Fire Department and is retiring with a distinguished and decades-long record of public service,” the mayor stated. “She and the department she leads have kept San Franciscans safe through the COVID pandemic and the challenges of the last few years while also helping launch groundbreaking and life-saving initiatives, like our nationally recognized Street Response Teams. Chief Nicholson has shown extraordinary leadership and dedication to our great city, and we are indebted to her for her service.”
Nicholson was already a 25-year veteran of the department, having started in January 1994, when Breed appointed her to replace Chief Joanne Hayes-White, who retired. She is one of only a handful of out leaders to oversee a major city fire department.
In 2012, seven years before she was selected to lead the SFFD, Nicholson was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. In an interview shortly before she was sworn in as fire chief, she told the B.A.R. that underwent a double mastectomy and 16 rounds of chemotherapy as she fought her way back to being healthy and able to return to work.
“While I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, it was an absolute learning and growing experience for me to go through that and come out on the other side,” she told the B.A.R. in 2019. “So going through something like that certainly helped prepare me, you know.”
More recently, Nicholson de-
fended the department and the city against a lawsuit last year when Assistant Chief Nicol Juratovac alleged discrimination, as the B.A.R. reported at the time.
Nicholson’s testimony preceded a verdict in favor of the city.
A San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson stated Nicholson will be available to the media at a later date.
Praise from supervisors
At the July 30 meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Nicholson was thanked for her service.
Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey said, “I just appreciate the
communities we share and how much you’ve meant to me. The community we share the most is how much we love this city.”
“Just for being a pioneering figure in the LGBTQ+ community, that means the world to me,” he continued, adding he hopes she has a welldeserved retirement.
Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman added Nicholson is “the very, very best” he or his staff has worked with.”
“Love you to pieces,” he concluded.
Gay District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio said, “Chief, please keep your wonderful laugh. Please keep laughing. It will sustain you through the road you have ahead.”
“To fix the things in our city requires hope, and hope is fueled by joy and you embody that,” he added. “So keep that wonderful laugh. I will remember it. I will use it in my work.”
After the tribute of the supervisors, Nicholson spoke, saying when she found out she’d be a San Francisco firefighter she thought, “Are you kidding me? I have won the lottery.”
“I didn’t do it alone. There’s a ton of people who’ve helped me in and outside of the department,” she added. “I’m super proud of our diversity, equity, and inclusion program. ... I’m proud of what we referred to earlier when we talked about my first time at the budget [committee] when I was advocating for health and wellness positions at the department. Thanks to you we’ve expanded that and are doing wonderful things.”
She said, “I took my first promotional exam when I’d been in the department 13-14 years” and had never expected to become chief, and that the impetus for the exam was “I saw some of the other people that took it.”
“I was all in after that,” she joked. Nicholson didn’t comment on the medical circumstances of her departure, but concluded her remarks by saying she is “so grateful for all the support that is in this room today. I’m just super, super lucky.
“Just one last thing: what I learned a long time ago is if you don’t know what to do just do the next right thing,” she continued. “That’s what I’ve tried to do and I’m eternally grateful. Thank you.” t
Design elements from the “Green Embrace” concept for Jane Warner Plaza include raised planters, top row, second from right; moveable furnishings, middle row, second from left; and an upgraded public toilet, bottom row, middle.
Screengrab from SFGovTV
Mayor London Breed, left, swore in Jeanine Nicholson as chief of the San Francisco Fire Department in a ceremony at City Hall on May 6, 2019.
Rick Gerharter
HRC call raises $300K for Harris campaign
by Cynthia Laird
M
ore than 25,000 LGBTQs and allies from across the country raised over $300,000 for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in a virtual rally July 25 organized by the Human Rights Campaign that included a who’swho of out leaders.
In other news, Harris received the coveted endorsement of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, July 26 and released her first campaign ad. The oneminute ad, titled “Freedom,” uses the Beyoncé song from her 2016 “Lemonade” album and includes a shot of people waving rainbow flags in a nod to the LGBTQ community.
It also showed a mugshot of her rival, Republican former President Donald Trump and headlines from his conviction on 34 felony counts as she says, “No one is above the law.” Republicans nominated Trump as their presidential candidate for a third time at their recent convention in Milwaukee.
The HRC virtual rally, dubbed “Out for Kamala Harris LGBTQ+ Unity Call,” featured dozens of speeches from celebrities, elected officials, and a couple of young trans kids who, even as they acknowledged they would not be old enough to vote in the November 5 election, nevertheless voiced support for Harris.
In addition to the money raised, HRC reported that it had signed up 1,500 campaign volunteers.
Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee Sunday, July 21, after President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from his reelection campaign and endorsing her. Since then, Harris has lined up endorsements from hundreds of Democratic officeholders and has secured enough verbal commitments from delegates to clinch the nomination. The Democrats will hold their nominating convention beginning August 19 in Chicago, though there is expected to be a virtual nomination for Harris – and her as yet undetermined running mate –by August 7.
On the call, HRC President Kelley Robinson, a queer Black woman, highlighted the importance of mobilizing for Harris.
“This moment matters,” she said. “Because in this time, we’re not just
choosing between two candidates. We are choosing between two different futures for our country. Two different futures for our kids. ... In this moment, we’re going to ensure that love triumphs over hate. That hope triumphs over fear. That joy is available to every single one of us.”
Mawuli Tugbenyoh, a gay man who’s co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club in San Francisco, spoke on the call and told viewers that the club was the first to endorse Harris back in 2003 when she ran for district attorney. That race featured a runoff between Harris and incumbent DA the late Terence Hallinan, which Harris won.
“We’ve known Kamala Harris for a long time,” Tugbenyoh said, noting her work as DA to end the gay/trans panic defense in criminal cases. As California’s attorney general, Harris refused to defend Proposition 8, the anti-same-sex marriage law that voters passed in 2008. It was eventually ruled unconstitutional by federal courts, a ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court let stand, and samesex marriage returned to the Golden State in 2013, with Harris performing the first one at San Francisco City Hall.
“When she talks about defending reproductive rights, I believe her,” Tugbenyoh said. “When she says she’ll defeat Donald Trump and Project 2025, I believe her.”
Project 2025 is an authoritarian blueprint drafted by Trump’s supporters at the Heritage Foundation that would take the country back to the 1950s. Its language demonizes LGBTQ people and would roll back many rights if its proposals were implemented, critics contend. Trump has tried to distance himself from the document but many of his former officials had a hand in preparing it.
The Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club earlier this year rescinded its endorsement of Biden for the March primary. It left open the possibility of endorsing for president for the general election. Club President Jeffrey Kwong told the Bay Area Reporter July 29 that the club expects to have an endorsement meeting for Harris at its August meeting.
Rufus Gifford, a gay man who’s a former ambassador to Denmark, is the finance chair of the Harris campaign. (He also served as finance chair for the Biden campaign
until Biden dropped out.) He acknowledged that he and others were struggling over the last few weeks as Biden’s campaign hit a rough patch following his disastrous debate performance against Trump June 27. That all changed with Biden withdrew and decided to “pass the torch” to Harris, he said.
“I saw the unprecedented surge in support Sunday to Tuesday night,” he said.
Gifford said he would not release current campaign finance figures, other than to say that $130 million had been raised in those first couple of days, as has been reported. He was confident that with events like the HRC call and similar large online calls that have occurred with Black women, Black men, and white women, combined with numerous other donations and the Biden campaign’s war chest, the Harris campaign would be competitive.
“We’re going to be well-funded,” he said.
U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler (D-California) also spoke. “It’s incredible what’s happening across the country,” she said.
Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Butler, a lesbian, after the death last fall of senator Dianne Feinstein (D). She is the second Black woman to represent the Golden State in the U.S. Senate – Harris was the first – and the first LGBTQ person to do so. Butler subsequently decided she would not seek election to a full six-year term and will serve until early January when the new Congress is seated.
She thanked Biden for his leadership. “He should be an inspiration – to put personal egos aside and put people ahead,” she said. “His fullthroated endorsement of California daughter Kamala Harris shows the kind of person he is.”
“The vibe of what is taking place is electric,” Butler added. “This is our moment; this is our time. LGBTQs are going to make the difference.”
She also referenced her choice not to seek election. “When I made the decision not to run I made a commitment to the people of California, even knowing my time was 14 months, to not count the days but make the days count. Make every minute count. Move this country to its next level of excellence.”
Celebrities speak out
The call also featured numerous LGBTQ celebrities. George Takei, of “Star Trek” fame and a gay longtime leader, joined the call with his husband, Brad.
“We were dedicated to supporting Joe Biden,” Takei said. “When he made that magnanimous decision to pass the baton to his vice president, we were enthusiastically supporting her.”
At the end, he gave the famous “live long and prosper” line and the Vulcan salute, which was the beginning of a mini “Star Trek” theme with two other speakers.
Gay actor Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in several “Star Trek” films, also did the salute at the end of his comments.
“I’m so excited for this moment and so aware of what we’re facing,” Quinto said. “I think about all our
coming out stories. For me, this is a moment of rising above fear.”
Gay Latino actor Wilson Cruz, who was in “Star Trek Discovery,” appeared with HRC call co-hosts Brandon Wolf, national press secretary, and Nik Harris, vice president of strategic outreach. Cruz said he had just arrived from the vice president’s residence where he was attending a Latino event that had been planned before Harris entered the presidential race.
“It’s going to take all of us,” he said. Everything is on the line. I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she sees us. She talks about us in rooms we’re not in.”
“Live long and prosper,” he added. Queer actor Sophia Bush and her girlfriend, former pro soccer player Ashlyn Harris, phoned in from Paris, where it was 4 a.m. and they were preparing to attend Olympics events. Hope Giselle, a transgender woman and author, also joined the call, saying she supports Harris because of “freedom.”
Don’t forget other races
Several speakers pointed to the need for voters not to forget about down ballot races. In addition to keeping control of the Senate, Democrats need to pick up a handful of seats to flip control of the House of Representatives. That would give Harris the means to implement her policies if she’s elected, the speakers noted.
Lesbian comedian Dana Goldberg quipped that she was a “childless cat lady” – a reference to 2021 comments by GOP vice presidential running mate Senator JD Vance (Ohio) in which he said the country was run “via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies.” Harris was among those he identified, even though she has two stepchildren. Gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was also named. In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg said that at the time of Vance’s comments, he and his husband, Chasten, had just “been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey.”
“He couldn’t have known that, but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children,” added Buttigieg, who’s reportedly being considered to be Harris’ running mate. Buttigieg and his hus-
band are now the parents of 3-yearold twins.
Goldberg then got serious.
“As a white woman, we’ve got to support our Black sisters,” she said. “Vote down ballot for a pro-equality House and extend the lead in the Senate.”
Lizette Trujillo and her son Daniel, 16, who is trans, joined the call from Arizona.
“I’m hopeful and fired up,” Lizette Trujillo said. “Vote down ticket.”
Daniel Trujillo said he was grateful to HRC. He came out at age 9, and said he’s excited about the Harris campaign and hopes she wins.
Delaware state Senator Sarah McBride (D), a transgender woman who’s running for Congress and would make history as the first out trans member if elected, has been close to the Biden family for 15 years. She had worked on the campaign of Biden’s son, the late Beau Biden, when he was Delaware attorney general.
“I thank Joe Biden. He ran in 2020 to save democracy and is passing the torch to Kamala Harris,” McBride said.
She explained this is a “critical moment” for the LGBTQ community.
“Donald Trump and JD Vance’s Project 2025 seeks to manufacture culture wars,” she said.
And she was critical of the Republicans’ efforts prior to their convention to hint that the country would be seeing a “new,” gentler Trump as the confab took place just days after the assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“He’s the same old trust fund baby,” she said, adding he governed by pettiness during his first term.
McBride also noted the longstalled Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Choose freedom over fear,” McBride said, “and build on the progress of the Biden-Harris administration. Keep the Senate and flip the House to pass the Equality Act and finally get it to the president’s desk.”
The recording of the call can be viewed on HRC’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wTXkXS7cCa0. t
Charley Beal, a gay man who is president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation, celebrated in a statement to the B.A.R. July 30.
this iconic symbol, created by Gilbert Baker and his ragtag band of volunteers, will fly in perpetuity high above the city where it was created. We are deeply grateful to Supervisor [Rafael] Mandelman and the board for helping to landmark this historic work of art.
“The rainbow flag, created for all sexes, all genders, all races, and all ages, is a beacon of hope worldwide,” Beal stated. “Today’s vote by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors moves us one step closer to making sure that
The Land Use and Transportation Committee forwarded the matter with a positive recommendation to the full board after a 3-0 vote July 29.
The new ordinance was first introduced by Mandelman, a gay man who
represents District 8, including the Castro neighborhood, on June 25, just days before the city’s LGBTQ Pride parade. That followed a meeting of the historic preservation commission in May where it was revealed that under the original ordinance other flags would be allowed to be flown on the flagpole. Mandelman in June proposed an amendment to quash that idea, which was also unanimously agreed to by the committee. At Monday’s hearing District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, vice
chair of the committee, added his name as a co-sponsor of the ordinance. Committee Chair Supervisor Myrna Melgar (D7) and member Aaron Peskin (D3 and president of the board) were already listed as co-sponsors.
(Since 1997 when the flagpole and flag were installed, there have been only a few instances of other banners briefly flying on the flagpole, including a giant American flag after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.) << Castro flag From page 1
“Gilbert Baker created many monumental rainbow flags, but the flag at Harvey Milk Plaza remains Gilbert Baker’s sole art installation,” Mandelman said. “We have circulated one amendment for your consideration –to specify the flag shall fly at full-mast
24 hours each day, seven days a week. As I understand, that was Gilbert’s intention and has been the practice of the installation for at least the last decade.”
See page 22 >>
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, welcomed Zoom attendees to the “Out for Kamala Harris LGBTQ+ Unity Call” July 25.
Courtesy HRC
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris released the first ad of her campaign July 25, the same day that the Human Rights Campaign organized a virtual LGBTQ rally and fundraiser that brought in more than $300,000.
Vacation company caters to LGBTQs
by Dana Piccoli
“I
feel like I’m in that scene from
‘Under the Tuscan Sun,’” my wife whispered to me as we boarded the Brand g Vacations bus in Bordeaux, France.
She’s not wrong. It does hearken to the scene where Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) takes her best lesbian friend’s place on a queer European adventure. We are seated among a sea of gay men (and two very dedicated lesbian Brand g regulars) on our way from the Intercontinental Hotel Bordeaux to have lunch at the famous Château Smith Haut Lafitte. One of our many excellent guides that week told us that King Charles III recently paid a visit to the winery. The visit sets the tone for the rest of our Loire Valley River trip – sometimes decadent, often boisterous, but always fun.
Founded in 2011 as “the next generation in gay travel,” Brand g Vacations offers an alternative to queer vacation companies that host large cruises and resort trips. If 1,000 person, party-centric cruises aren’t your cup of tea, Brand g offers a more intimate, excursion-heavy option. This proves popular with Brand g’s clientele, many of whom have traveled with the company multiple times. (My wife and I were guests of the company.)
Brand g’s Director of Marketing Eric Poole said that the company’s success lies in four key elements – service, quality, inclusivity, and destinations.
“Our commitment to high-touch service is unparalleled in the industry,” said Poole. “The surveys we receive from guests after each trip routinely point out the extremely high level of personal service and their appreciation of the fact that all they have to do is show up. We will take care of everything else.”
Mark W. from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was one of our trip’s 80 or so guests. (He asked that his last name not be published.) It’s precisely the service level that Poole mentions
that has resulted in Mark booking 17 trips with Brand g. Mark told me that it’s the door-to-door service and like-minded LGBTQ+ guests that keep him coming back.
Couple Steve M. and David P. (who also didn’t want their last names used) also commend the service they experience with Brand g. Originally on a stateside cruise that was canceled (by the charter company), the couple pivoted and booked a spot on the Loire Valley trip. This was their third Brand g adventure.
For our particular trip, we arrived in Bordeaux and spent the next six days experiencing delightful Loire Valley towns like Nantes, La Rochelle and Clisson. On our visit to Clisson, we stumbled upon the 13th century town’s Italian-inspired festival, with masked revelers, music, and many fellow tourists.
Our trip was led by our host and cruise director Johnathon Galla -
gher. Hailing from Scotland, Gallagher is a fixture on many Brand g trips. Bawdy and friendly, you can see why Gallagher is such a popular touchpoint for guests. Steve M. and David P. told me that one of the reasons they booked again was because of Gallagher and how much he had added to their previous trip.
While Gallagher is very entertaining, he wasn’t the only topnotch talent on board. Guests were treated to musical performances by West End star Emma Lindars, accompanied by musical director/ composer Tom Knowles.
Lindars and Knowles performed everything from disco hits to Broadway ballads, captivating the guests each time. The duo was even kind enough to allow some guests (myself included) to sing a little ourselves.
Also performing to cheering crowds was dynamic Wales-based performer Lee Gilbert.
Previously a guest on a Brand g
trip, Gilbert is now a host and performer after impressing the team with his serious chops.
I asked Poole what Brand g looks for when booking talent for these cruises.
“The ability to blow our guests away; the ability to perform several shows over the course of a cruise and keep an audience engaged with new material at each show; and someone who is a lovely human being,” he said.
Something special about this trip for me was the oppor tunity to get to know many of the guests. I tried to sit with different guests for meals and excursions, getting to know groups of people from places like Palm Springs, Fort Lauderdale, and even Melbourne, Australia.
sible. My wife and I were two of four women travelers on my particular trip. We were also some of the youngest travelers on the ship. Brand g was transparent about this when I asked about marketing toward queer women.
Writing about my experience without noting some important demographics would be impos -
“Because we do skew heavily male, we try to attract women travelers who have lots of gay male friends or who enjoy traveling with a mixed group as opposed to an all-female experience like Olivia (No disrespect to Olivia – there’s a place for all kinds of LGBT+ travel experiences),” said Poole.
“This tends to occur by referral more than through marketing, since we’re seeking a subset of lesbians,” he added.
See page 23 >>
CA LGBTQ lawmakers secure SOGI funds
by
Matthew S. Bajko
LGBTQ California lawmakers were able to secure $2.2 million during this year’s budget negotiations for improving data collection on the health of LGBTQ Golden State residents. The gathering of the information was required under a law enacted last year and included a deadline of July 1, 2026, for state agencies to meet.
In particular, the funds will allow for the California Department of Public Health, and its Center for Infectious Diseases and Center for Health Statistics and Informatics, to better track the health needs of transgender, gender-nonconforming, and intersex (TGI) Californians. Under Assembly Bill 1163 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Arleta), which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2023, various state agencies and departments must revise their publicuse forms so they are more inclusive of various gender identities.
The agencies also must collect data pertaining to the specific needs of such TGI individuals, such as their medical care and mental health disparities, as well as the population size of the various communities.
State health officials specifically requested $430,000 in the state’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget and $280,000 in fiscal year 2025-26 in order to update the department’s systems and bring it into compliance with AB 1163. As the state agency explained in its budget request for the funds, CDPH needs to modify its infectious disease data systems to
include the intersexuality category information required under AB 1163.
“This would entail configuring these systems to enable collection of these data, and updating all of the corresponding data exports for these data to be available for analysis,” it explained in the five-page document.
“CDPH would also need health statistic system updates to meet the changes that AB 1163 require, including adding a question to collect intersexuality data to the list of voluntary self-identified questions in the Electronic Birth Registration System and Fetal Death Registration Module.”
The money requested by CDPH had been withheld, however, in the budget Newsom unveiled in January but was
then proposed in the revised budget released in May. The Legislature approved the funds as budgeted in the final budget agreement state legislators sent the governor this summer.
While there’s no budget item or provisional language specifically calling out the approved funds, the money is referenced in the Legislature’s version of the budget, noted the office of gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).
“Data collection is a high priority for the caucus,” said Wiener, who chaired the Senate Budget Committee this year and has been a leading proponent of improved LGBTQ data collection.
The funding is the latest effort by
Golden State lawmakers to improve the collection of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data by various state agencies. As the B.A.R. has previously reported, the gathering of SOGI information has run into myriad problems at the local, state, and federal levels.
The state’s auditor last year had called out the state health department for its failures in collecting LGBTQ health data, which it was required to have begun in 2016 under an earlier bill enacted by state lawmakers. CDPH has been working to address the issues cited in the auditor’s report, as it noted in the spring in its one-year response to the audit findings.
A bill making its way through the Legislature this session, authored by Wiener, would require CDPH to enact all of the recommendations included in the auditor’s report. Senate Bill 957 passed out of the Senate and is before the Assembly, which will take it up after it returns from its summer recess on Monday, August 5.
“We met with the entire leadership of CDPH because of our frustrations, so it is a high priority,” Wiener said of seeing the state agency address the deficiencies in its LGBTQ data collection.
As CDPH laid out in its budget request, it plans to allocate $180,000 this fiscal year, which began July 1, and next fiscal year to modify the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange, known as CalREDIE, for the collection of the SOGI data elements for all reportable diseases, and update the data
exports to provide the data for analysis. To do so, it needs to update approximately 60 paper forms.
CDPH will also allocate $200,000 this fiscal year to incur design, development, and testing costs associated with adding the collection of the intersexuality demographic to the California Immunization Registry, known as the CAIR system. It also plans to spend $100,000 next fiscal year for similar updates to two other relevant data systems.
Another $50,000 will be used by the Center for Health Statistics and Informatics to hire a programmer on a three-month contract this year to update the state health department’s Electronic Birth Registration System (EBRS) and its Vital Records Business Intelligence System (VRBIS) to meet the requirements of AB 1163. The work includes adding a question to collect intersexuality data to the list of voluntary selfidentified questions in the EBRS and Fetal Death Registration Module (FDRM).
“This proposal aligns with CDPH’s mission to advance the health and well-being of California’s diverse people and communities. Collecting and reporting data on intersexuality will allow the State’s health programs to better identify disparities and measure the effectiveness of programs to address them more accurately,” explained CDPH officials in their budget request. t
Senate Budget Committee Chair Scott Wiener
Courtesy Sen. Wiener’s office
One of the many masked participants who took part in the Clisson festival.
Dana Piccoli
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Those weird Republicans
It was Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz who started describing Republicans as weird and, wow, has it caught on. With one word, Walz summed up the GOP’s myriad foibles. It’s a succinct and apt descriptor. No wonder he’s reportedly on the short list for vice president for presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
It began with Walz’s recent appearance on MSNBC. “That stuff is weird, they come across weird,” Walz said, as CBS News reported. He followed up on CNN Sunday, saying, “I see Donald Trump talking about the wonderful Hannibal Lecter or whatever weird thing he is on tonight ... That is weird behavior. I don’t think you call it anything else.”
Trump has mentioned Lecter, the fictional psycho killer made famous in “The Silence of the Lambs” film (and novel by Thomas Harris), so often that he must believe the guy is real. As the Guardian noted, during a rambling tangent about immigrants last week, Trump said, “They’re coming from everywhere. They’re coming from all over the world, from prisons and jails, and mental institutions and insane asylums. You know, they go crazy when I say, ‘The late great Hannibal Lecter,’ OK? They say, ‘Why would he mention Hannibal Lecter? He must be cognitively in trouble.’ No no no, these are real stories. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb [sic]. He’s a lovely man. He’d love to have you for dinner.”
Suddenly, Democrats have a word of the moment in this momentous election and it’s sticking. Republicans don’t know how to handle it. Harris herself used it during a campaign stop in Massachusetts last weekend. “You may have noticed Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record, and some of what he and his running mate are saying is just plain weird,” she said. She said it again at a rally in Atlanta Tuesday that saw 10,000 people fill an arena. And when it comes to Republican running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance, well, he is just weird.
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, left, and former President Donald Trump appeared at a campaign rally July 27 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The backlash was swift, a new “childless cat lady” meme was born, and celebrities such as actor Jennifer Aniston, who’s been public about her own struggles with infertility, spoke out. Harris, of course, is stepmom to two children with her husband, Doug Emhoff. And even Emhoff’s ex-wife was quick to defend Harris, saying the three of them have co-parented the kids for the last 10 years. For Buttigieg, the smear was personal, and sad. As he said on CNN last week, at the time of Vance’s comments, he and his husband, Chasten, had just “been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey.”
In a 2021 clip with then-Fox host Tucker Carlson that has gone viral, Vance questioned Democrats – including Harris, gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) – for not having biological children.
“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Vance said.
“He couldn’t have known that, but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children,” added Buttigieg, who’s also reportedly being considered to be Harris’ running mate. Buttigieg and his husband are now the parents of 3-year-old twins. And Vance? After all the blowback, he doubled down, telling Megyn Kelly on her podcast that he was being sarcastic and was criticizing the Democratic Party for being “anti-family” and “anti-child.”
“I have nothing against cats,” he said. The thing is, it’s Republican policies that have harmed families. It’s Republicans who want to ban IVF, which has been used to create families for decades. Republican senators, including Vance, by the way, blocked a Democratic bill that would have federally guaranteed the right to IVF services. Democrats have for years tried to expand the child tax credit to lift poor children out of poverty, as Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell wrote.
Then, of course, there’s abortion. Trump nominated the three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who provided the votes to overturn Roe v. Wade two years ago. Ever since, however, the GOP has faced a backlash as people in states where abortion is on the ballot have voted to make it legal or, on the flip side, voted against curtailing access. In Harris, should she become the Democratic presidential nominee as expected, abortion rights advocates have a strong voice to rally the country. Polls, after all, show a majority of U.S. voters back reproductive services, including access to abortion.
Project 2025 in the deep freeze?
Think again
In a related matter, the conservative Heritage Foundation and hundreds of other far-right groups threw in the towel – sort of – Tuesday and said that they’re ending policy work on Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook for a second Trump administration that would be particularly harmful to LGBTQ people. Its policy director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing.
But don’t buy it for a minute. The criticism had gotten so bad that Heritage has been forced to backtrack –publicly, at least. Don’t forget that this document, all 900 pages of it, is already written. The policy work is largely done. If Trump wins, they’ll just dust it off and implement it anyway. Trump was angry at all the Democratic attacks linking him to Project 2025 – and with good reason. It was true and it was dragging him down. However, LGBTQs and others cannot stop explaining to people how dangerous this document is for all Americans. And while Democrats may have won the battle over this one, the war is far from finished. The Heritage Foundation reportedly released new talking points in recent days trying to distance Project 2025 from Trump, but as we noted a few weeks ago, former Trump officials’ fingerprints are all over this master plan.
As Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, stated Tuesday, “The Heritage Foundation and its leaders can run but cannot hide. No resignation will distract us from the dangerous Project 2025 plan they have put forward that would do irreparable damage to our democracy and strip away the progress we have made for LGBTQ people, people of color, women, and other marginalized communities.” It’s just another example of how conservatives are weird – they want to tell us how to live, what to do with our bodies, and who we can associate with, what events we can attend. That’s not freedom, that’s subjugation. t
What being American and gay means to me
by Delicia Niami
As a child of the 1970s, I grew up knowing that America was a melting pot where people come to make their dreams come true. I was lucky enough to be born here and have always, well, almost always, known what freedom meant.
When I was 4 years old, my biological father kidnapped me and took me to Baghdad, Iraq. The minute he got my brother and me onto Iraqi soil, my mother lost all rights. Mom utilized the help of the American Embassy, the FBI, the CIA, and many others to get us back. Our father agreed to send us back on my 5th birthday, March 6, 1976.
Returning home was magical. We celebrated all the holidays missed while we were in Baghdad, followed by a trip to Disneyland. Safety was a feeling that had eluded me for nearly an entire year in Iraq.
As we approached the entryway at the Magic Kingdom, we were greeted by archways on either side, promising adventure. We walked under the arch that read, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”
I knew I would never be ripped away from my mother, ever again. Walking through that small tunnel signified a magical passageway to my safety and well-being. I knew I was finally home, in America, the land of the free.
My heart breaks knowing that the extreme rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court will change the face of this country forever. I grew up in a world where hate didn’t surround us. Perhaps because the 1970s were about love since we were on the heels of the war-torn end of the 1960s.
been made, taking away all the achievements of the LGBTQ+ people.
Has all of our fighting been for nothing? NO WAY! Actually, this should reinforce the ongoing fight for freedom for our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters.
In my new book, “Not My Circus,” there is a section called “Freedom.” This chapter discusses my struggles as a gay individual and the eye-opening experiences I endured fighting for our freedoms. In one (or several) recent decisions, the groundwork has been clearly laid out to undermine the progress of the LGBTQ+ community. The extreme biases of this court can swiftly abolish the strides that have
This Supreme Court is lining everything up for former President Donald Trump to become a true dictator and rule this nation as a king rather than a president. That is unacceptable. For EVERYBODY! Anyone who cares about this country, the values it was born out of, and the principles it has stood for for so many years, it can’t all be for nothing.
Now is the time to join forces and stand united. Republicans, Democrats, independents, and everyone in between, regardless of race, sexual orientation, or gender identity, anyone who cares about peace, love, and freedom. We must band together and elect Kamala Harris as our president who will keep the peace in this nation.
I often ponder what life would have been like if my mother hadn’t gotten me out of Iraq. As a lesbian, I probably wouldn’t exist any longer. I don’t need to remind everyone of the horrific acts Trump has admittedly done and those for which he has been
found liable in civil and criminal courts. But I do not want to end up in an LGBTQ+ concentration camp, which is where it seems this country is headed. The fear is real, and people should not ignore the signs that are so blatant in front of our eyes.
I kiss the American ground I walk on because I know that I could have grown up in the war-torn dictatorship of Iraq. Every day, I am profoundly grateful for the freedoms I enjoy as an American, and my patriotism runs deep. However, I feel a growing sense of alarm as I witness these freedoms being eroded bit by bit.
While our freedoms are still intact, they are increasingly under threat. We must recognize the resilience within us to fight against forces like white supremacy that seek to undermine the values our nation was built upon. We are a country born of immigrants, a melting pot of cultures and dreams. It’s time to honor that legacy, respect the land we live on, and appreciate the profound gift of being born in the USA, the land of the free.
Together, we can ensure that America remains a beacon of hope, freedom, and opportunity for generations to come. t
Delicia Niami, a lesbian, is a prolific storyteller who overcame life’s challenges to pursue a career as a successful film and TV producer. As a survivor of the unimaginable and a fierce LGBTQ+ advocate, Niami empowers the disenfranchised and promotes human healing and acceptance through her work. Her latest book in the “ResilientAF” memoir series, “Not My Circus,” is being released August 1. For more information, go to delicianiami.com.
Niami will also be doing a meet and greet at Idyll Time Wines’ Dog Days of Summer Pop-Up, 3310 Woodward Avenue in Santa Clara, Thursday, August 8, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. (She will be sharing a booth with local Pride organizations.) Admission is free. For more information, go to https://tinyurl. com/3yz2d9e7.
Author Delicia Niami Courtesy Delicia Niami
Evan Vucci/AP
Jurado aims to return LGBTQ representation to LA City Council
by Matthew S. Bajko
S
ince the departure of its two gay members at the end of 2022, the Los Angeles City Council has been without LGBTQ representation. Ysabel Jurado is aiming to change that with her candidacy this year for the 15-member governing body’s District 14 seat.
The queer tenants’ rights lawyer pulled off an upset in the March 5 primary by placing first in the eightperson race. With little backing from LGBTQ groups and elected officials, she vanquished two state assemblymembers, Democrats Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo, who had also sought the council seat.
Jurado, 34, a single mom, also finished ahead of the disgraced incumbent, City Councilmember Kevin de León, by 398 votes. Caught on a secretly recorded tape making racist comments, which was leaked in 2022, de León ignored demands that he resign and saw several attempts to recall him fail.
Nonetheless, roughly 77% of primary voters cast ballots for a new council representative. To Jurado, the results signal there is strong support for a change in leadership. She is hopeful it will usher her into office come Election Day on November 5.
Ysabel Jurado is running for the District 14 seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
“That part of the campaigning and being a public figure is one I find harder to me. It is not the part I love the most,” admitted Jurado, who does have accounts on X, Instagram and TikTok.
“We didn’t have institutional support in the primary. What we were really finding was grassroots support from communities that have been neglected or not just approached in politics,” Jurado told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview about her candidacy.
That has since changed, with Jurado securing the Los Angeles County Democratic Party’s endorsement in the spring. It was a marked turnaround from her fielding questions ahead of the primary about her being a democratic socialist.
“They thought I was some scary dragon lady for sure – she is crazy –I was like a wild card to them,” said Jurado, who is self-employed and mounting her first bid for elected office. “Definitely, I was treated like a weirdo, which is fine.”
Having been labeled as “other” her whole life, Jurado said she took it in stride. She knocked on doors and talked to voters one-on-one. The conversations made it clear the “core values” she is fighting for are “democratic values,” said Jurado.
“I don’t think I am as much of a weirdo as they thought,” she told the B.A.R. “I think people just got to know me.”
In early July, the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund endorsed Jurado, naming her one of its “Spotlight Candidates,” and weeks later statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California also endorsed her candidacy.
While open about her interest in dating men and women with her family and friends, Jurado wasn’t out publicly until after she decided to launch her council bid. As she doesn’t identify as gay or bisexual, Jurado told the B.A.R. she wasn’t certain about how to explain her sexual orientation.
“Once the campaign started, I was still grappling with feeling like an imposter,” she explained, noting that the term queer felt “more relative to me.”
Being so open about her private life has been an adjustment, said Jurado, noting she never was very active on social media growing up. She is naturally a “very private person,” explained Jurado.
She also came out later in life, in 2021, during the second year of the COVID pandemic. As she is a single mom, Jurado said most people assumed she was straight.
“I was on a podcast,” recalled Jurado, “and the host said, ‘Wait, you are a member of the LGBTQ community? But, you are a mom.’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and explained that gay people can have children and be moms.”
She has an entire page (https:// ysabeljurado.la/issues/lgbtq/) on her campaign website devoted to various LGBTQ issues she wants to push for if elected to the City Council. Among them is establishing an LGBTQ advisory council; since 2016 the city has had a Transgender Advisory Council.
“We are needing a leader from our community and allies on the council to push that through,” she said.
Jurado also wants to ensure the needs of LGBTQ older adults, youth, business owners, and the unhoused are being addressed by City Hall and city-funded service providers. Asked by the B.A.R. about seeing Los Angeles join West Hollywood and San Francisco in having a drag laureate position to champion LGBTQ nightlife, Jurado replied, “I would love it.”
She held a Drag Ball fundraiser that drew more than 120 attendees and netted $20,000 for her campaign coffers. It served as part statement of “being who we are,” said Jurado, and also a sly ploy to engage people who are normally apolitical.
“We were bringing in people who wouldn’t normally engage in politics and tricking them into doing so by having fun,” said Jurado, who has also hosted a fundraiser with burlesque performers.
The 14th Council District includes Downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, and Northeast Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Eagle Rock where LGBTQ families have moved to in recent years in search of affordable housing. While there are no designated LGBTQ neighborhoods in the district, Jurado noted it has thriving queer communities heavily populated by LGBTQ people of color.
Gay former Los Angeles city councilmember Mike Bonin, who represented the 11th Council District, is supporting Jurado in the race. He had announced in early 2022 he wouldn’t seek a third term that year and then learned, due to the leaked recording, that de León had disparaged his family, including he and his husband’s adopted Black son.
Also among those endorsing Jurado is District 13 City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez
Two years ago, he defeated the gay incumbent, councilmember Mitch O’Farrell
Jurado, the daughter of undocumented Filipino immigrants, would be the city council’s first Filipina member. A native of Los Angeles, she was raised by her single mom in Highland Park.
As a teenager, Jurado had her daughter, Stella, who is now 15 years old. She put herself through college, first at Pasadena City College then UCLA and went on to earn her law degree from the UCLA School of Law. Her legal work has focused on stopping tenant evictions and fighting for community organizations and small businesses to keep their leases. She had lost her mom to cancer just weeks prior to starting graduate school. Jurado credits her drive to succeed and work ethic to the seven women, all roughly 4 feet tall in stature, who had a hand in raising her. The list includes her two grandmas, her mother, her mom’s three sisters, and Jurado’s cousin.
“I grew up in a family of strong, little women,” said Jurado, who is herself 4 feet 11 inches tall.
Along the campaign trail Jurado’s penchant for wearing “mom jeans” has attracted notice. She told the B.A.R. she buys her denim from the sustainable clothing brand Reformation and unashamedly pairs them with clogs.
“Did I know I wear mom jeans? I thought I was rocking a cute wide leg thing like all the kids are,” said Jurado. “On the back label on my butt pocket it says, ‘Smart Ass,’ so come on!”
Headed into the fall campaign, Jurado is following the same game plan as she had going into the crowded primary where she was seen as an underdog with no shot of winning. Although outraised two to one, she hit the pavement with her supporters, whom she has dubbed her ysabeyhive, and knocked on 85,000 doors of households across the district.
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“I am approaching this race like we did before with the same eagerness and work ethic to make sure we win in November,” said Jurado. “This election is not about me; it is about us.” t
Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, returns Monday, August 5. Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@matthewbajko. Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.
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Courtesy the campaign
So without further ado, here are this year’s winners.
Best Bookstore
Fabulosa Books
For the third year running, Fabulosa Books is the favorite bookstore of B.A.R. readers. It speaks to the love LGBTQs have for books in general, and their desire to support an independent bookstore.
Alvin Orloff, a gay man, has owned Fabulosa Books since 2021, when he bought the former Dog Eared Books in the Castro and rechristened it. Since he took over the business, Orloff has made the store into his own. In a campaign that began last year, Orloff has fought back against homophobic and transphobic book bans in conservative states by sending boxes of LGBTQ-themed books to community centers and other organizations, as the B.A.R. previously reported. .
In an email, Orloff said he and the staff were excited about the Besties award.
“We’re thrilled, honored, and delighted to receive recognition for doing what we love best: sharing our love of books and promoting LGBTQ+ literature,” he wrote. “And we’re happy to report that our staff and customers are super-energized about continuing the work of sending queer literature to conservative parts of the country through Books Not Bans.”
Orloff was especially grateful to the community and Fabulosa’s customers, “for helping with this crusade.” Patrons are invited to buy books for the boxes that the store then ships at its expense.
Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro Street, San Francisco. (415) 658-7015. www.fabulosabooks.com
Runner-up Green Apple Books
Best Bank or Credit Union
San Francisco Federal Credit Union
San Francisco Federal Credit Union is a repeat winner this year. SF Federal Credit Union offers a full range of financial services, from checking accounts and online banking to vehicle and home loans. When you become a member, you’re a part owner of the credit union, which gives you rights to elect members of the board.
Main branch: 770 Golden Gate Avenue (at Gough) San Francisco. (415) 775-5377. www.sanfranciscofcu.com
Runner-up
Chase
Best Barber Shop/Salon
Joe’s Barbershop
Joe’s Barbershop is a repeat winner in 2024. This popular establishment has been serving the Castro since 2004, when Joe Gallagher decided to open up shop. Gallagher continues to be “very proud” of the shop, and credits his loyal customers. Stop by for a trim, or make an appointment.
Joe’s Barbershop, 2150 Market Street, San Francisco. (415) 2559096. www.joesbarbershop.com
Runner-up
Castro Barber Lounge
Best Bicycle Shop
Valencia Cyclery
Valencia Cyclery has traded places with last year’s winner, Mike’s Bikes, to reclaim the top spot. Long a favorite of readers, Valencia Cyclery is centrally located in San Francisco’s Mission district. The store welcomes all cyclists. “We are proud to be known as the bike shop that gives honest, expert advice to everyone from beginners to advanced cyclists,” its website states.
Long a favorite of readers, the Apothecarium retains its top spot in the poll this year. Its mission is to provide members with quality cannabis in a welcoming environment with empathy, education, and ongoing support, its website states. “Our dispensaries are known for emphasizing education and customer service for seniors, firsttime dispensary visitors, and patients with serious medical conditions,” the website states. “We focus on providing our guests with in-depth, one-onone consultations from highly trained cannabis consultants. We also provide free cannabis education events that are open to the public.”
The Apothecarium, 2029 Market Street, San Francisco. (415) 5002620. www.apothecarium.com
Runner-up
SPARC
Best Place to Buy Furniture Ikea
Open for just under a year now, the Ikea store on Market Street in downtown San Francisco is already a repeat winner. Readers enjoy browsing the merchandise, checking out the Swedish meatballs, and, of course, assembling their furniture at home. Its coworking space, Hej! Workshop, opened earlier this year on the fifth floor of the building.
Ikea, 945 Market Street, San Francisco. (888) 888-4532. www.ikea. com/us/en/stores/san-francisco/
Runner-up Room and Board
Best Grocery Store
Trader Joe’s
Another longtime favorite with readers, Trader Joe’s can’t be beat for its selection of wines, cheeses, salads, and other unique and seasonal items. With food costs continuing to inch upward, Trader Joe’s prices often are the most economical.
Trader Joe’s, 555 Ninth Street, San Francisco, (415) 863-1292. Also various Bay Area locations. www.traderjoes.com/home
Runner-up
Rainbow Grocery
Best Gym Fitness SF
Fitness SF in the Castro is a regular winner in this category. The over 16,000 square foot facility offers two floors of tools and equipment to keep a person’s workout fresh and challenging, according to its website. From free weights to cardio, the gym has it all. The gym also offers nationally certified personal trainers at an additional cost. Its website promotes its three pillars of wellness: physical, mental, and social. “At the core of our mission is the belief that a gym should be more than a place to work out; it should be a vibrant support network for everyone,” the website states. Fitness SF Castro, 2301 Market Street, San Francisco, (415) 3486377.www.fitnesssf.com
Runner-up
24 Hour Fitness
Best Health Care Provider
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser is a repeat winner this year. The health care provider has long supported the LGBTQ community. Kaiser customizes its coverage and care for patients.
Kaiser Permanente. Locations throughout the Bay Area. https:// healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/ northern-california/front-door
Runner-up
UCSF
Best Thrift Store Out of the Closet
Out of the Closet is once again in the winner’s circle this year. Owned and operated by the Los Angelesbased AIDS Healthcare Foundation, there are outlets in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. The stores offer eye-catching items and select locations offer HIV testing. According to its website, 96 cents of every dollar made goes into providing HIV services in the U.S. and around the world.
San Francisco: Out of the Closet, 1295 Folsom Street, (415) 5587176; 1498 Polk Street, (415) 771-1503. Berkeley: 1600 University Avenue, (510) 841-2088. Oakland: 238 East 18th Street, (510) 2518671. https://outofthecloset.org/ Runner-up Community Thrift
Best Variety Store
Cliff’s Variety
There’s no stopping Cliff’s, a Castro neighborhood institution and longtime winner in this category. Co-owner Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally, is the current president of the Castro Merchants Association, and the store has long been involved in the neighborhood. It sells many unique items and carries seasonal merchandise and decorations for the holidays.
“You have the best readers,” Asten Bennett stated in a Facebook message. “We are so honored to be voted best variety store! Our buyers work really hard to make sure we have it all, because as you know, we like to say, ‘If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.’
“Thank you all for sharing your love with us,” she added.
Cliff’s Variety, 479 Castro Street, San Francisco. (415) 212-8400. https://cliffsvariety.com/
Runner-up
Just for Fun
Best Vintage/Consignment Shop
Crossroads Trading Co.
Customers can browse through racks of curated secondhand finds that are not only fashionable, but also sustainable, the company’s website states. “We buy, sell, trade and consign fashion every day and our inventory is continuously changing. From this season’s trends to one-of-a-kind vintage finds, we aim to carry the best of everything: women’s and men’s clothing, accessories, and shoes.” Stores are located in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose.
Crossroads Trading Co. Stores are located around the Bay Area. https://crossroadstrading.com/
Runner-up
Buffalo Exchanget
Fabulosa Books owner Alvin Orloff stands in his independent bookstore that is a favorite of Bay Area Reporter readers.
JL Odom
Joe’s Barbershop owner Joe Gallagher stands in his shop, which is a favorite of readers.
Rick Gerharter
Readers like San Francisco Federal Credit Union.
Courtesy SF Federal Credit Union
The Apothecarium on Market Street was voted best cannabis dispensary.
Scott Wazlowski
Fitness-SF is the readers’ choice for best gym.
Cynthia Laird
Trader Joe’s is known for a wide variety of salads and produce, as well as seasonal and unique items.
Cynthia Laird
Cliff’s Variety is a mainstay in the LGBTQ Castro neighborhood.
Scott Wazlowski
Ikea’s first San Francisco store, located at 945 Market Street, has been open for almost a year.
– which marked 45 years this year – had its annual Easter celebration chosen by Bay Area Reporter readers as the best LGBTQ event.
The celebration, which includes the marquee hunky Jesus and foxy Mary competitions, is obviously a longtime tradition. But in recent years, the return of the event to Mission Dolores Park, adjacent to the Castro; the urge to ditch COVID-era social distancing; and sunny weather have combined to make it the undisputed kick-off to spring in San Francisco.
“The Sisters are overjoyed with this honor,” Sister Roma stated to the B.A.R. “Easter in the Park, featuring the infamous hunky Jesus contest, is our anniversary celebration. We showcase local talent and It’s always free to thank the community for their love and support year after year. It feels so good to know that San Francisco loves this event as much as the Sisters love San Francisco!”
For its first two decades, the Sisters, an order of philanthropic drag nuns, held Easter in the Park at Collingwood Park, a small Castro neighborhood space in Eureka Valley. The celebration first started Easter Sunday 1979. The beginning of the Sisters can be traced to Ken Bunch (Sister Vicious PHB), Fred Brungard (Sister Missionary Position), and Baruch Golden. They went in full, traditional habits through the streets of San Francisco and down to the nude beach, according to the Sisters’ website. They were met with shock and amazement, but captured the public’s interest.
The founders came up with the name Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the group’s mission: to promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt. In 2022, Bunch was honored with a portion of Alert Alley near Dolores Park ceremonially renamed Sister Vish-Knew Way, as the B.A.R. noted at the time.
In 1999, on its 20th anniversary, the Sisters went big and closed down Castro Street for a block party that was met with strong resistance from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, which fought to have the street closure denied. (That led to gay then-Board of Supervisors president Tom Ammiano’s famous “walk a mile in my pumps” comment to thenfellow supervisor Alicia Becerril during a heated board meeting held in the South of Market neighborhood where the street closure was approved on a vote of 9-2.)
The Sisters party that year garnered international media attention and CNN aired footage from the event. After that, it was held at Dolores Park until 2014, when the park underwent renovations and the event moved to Golden Gate Park; it returned to Dolores Park in 2019. It was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.
Next year Easter will be Sunday, April 20. For more information, visit https://www.thesisters.org/
Runner-up Folsom Street Fair
Best LGBTQ Cultural District Castro LGBTQ Cultural District
The Castro was established as an official LGBTQ cultural district by the city in 2019, joining the Transgender District and the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District as the three catering to the queer community.
The Castro cultural district took a leading role in the fight to preserve the fixed, orchestra-style seats at the
Castro Theatre after Another Planet Entertainment took over operating the space in 2022, as well as advocating for the progressive Pride flag to be flown in lieu of Gilbert Baker’s six-stripe design rainbow flag at the site of the flag installation in Harvey Milk Plaza, which city supervisors are expected to landmark, as the Bay Area Reporter noted. While those efforts didn’t succeed, the forces opposed to APE’s plans did win some concessions, such as a
celebrate on a regular basis through participation in events in the Castro,” Aguirre stated. “Last fiscal year the district distributed more than $40,000 in small business grants (more than $132,000 since we began distribution) along with producing events. This fiscal year promises to be beneficial in that we continued with legacy events like the Pulse Memorial event and coproducing Harvey Milk Day. We will also organize an art show that centers LGBTQ historically significant subjects and people.”
For more information, visit https://castrolgbtq.org/.
Runner-up
Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District
Best LGBTQ Fundraiser AIDS/LifeCycle
B.A.R. readers selected AIDS/LifeCycle as the best LGBTQ fundraiser. The seven-day 545-mile cycling tour launches in San Francisco and arrives in Los Angeles just in time for the City of Angels’ annual Pride in June.
Over the past several decades, AIDS/LifeCycle has raised $300 million for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The event raised almost $11 million this year.
Cailin Corbett, ride director of AIDS/LifeCycle, told the B.A.R. that “this recognition is a testament to the unwavering commitment and passion of our participants, volunteers, and donors.”
“AIDS/LifeCycle is and always has been more than a ride – it’s a movement, a community, and a powerful force for change,” Corbett stated.
“Thank you to everyone who has ridden, volunteered, donated, and cheered us on year after year. This award belongs to you. Together, we are making strides toward a future without HIV and AIDS, and we will continue to ride with determination and pride. You belong here, and together, we will keep moving forward.”
AIDS/LifeCycle 2025 will be June 1-7.
For more information, visit https://www.aidslifecycle.org/.
Runner-up
pledge to continue queer programming at the theater, which is currently closed due to renovations.
The district was also chosen by readers last year, as Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person who is the district’s director, noted in a statement to the B.A.R. thanking the public, the newspaper, and updating about what the district is doing.
“We have experienced a resurgence of community events such as Pride and people coming together to
Reunion (The GLBT Historical Society’s annual gala)
Best LGBTQ Nonprofit LYRIC
LYRIC, a center for LGBTQQ+ youth, has been voted by readers as the best LGBTQ nonprofit.
It comes at a time that the center has faced a number of challenges. In 2022 there were bomb threats, as the B.A.R. reported, amid a nationwide backlash to the LGBTQ community. This year,
LYRIC beat back some reductions from the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, according to gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who told the B.A.R. that some proposed cuts were restored, along with funds for other nonprofits serving LGBTQ youth, amid the city’s budgetary woes.
As the nonprofit tries to raise money, LYRIC was the fiscal beneficiary of Juanita MORE!’s annual Pride party this year, which was a great success, bringing in more than $127,000.
Gael Lala-Chávez, a nonbinary person who is LYRIC’s executive director, was pleased with the organization winning in the readers’ poll.
“This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, volunteers, and the incredible youth we serve,” they stated.
“On behalf of LYRIC, I would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the Bay Area Reporter for honoring us with the ‘B.A.R. Bestie’ award for Best LGBTQ Nonprofit in San Francisco,” Lala-Chávez added. “This acknowledgment inspires us to continue our mission of creating safe, inclusive, and empowering spaces for LGBTQ
See page 13 >>
Ken Ferraris, right, won this year’s hunky Jesus contest as “Ken Jesus” at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s Easter party at Mission Dolores Park.
Steven Underhill
A rider crosses the finish line in the AIDS/LifeCycle fundraising bike ride.
From AIDS/LifeCycle FB
Tina Aguirre is the director of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District.
Fabian Echevarria
Rebecca Rolfe is the longtime executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.
Rick Gerharter
The SF Fury Unleashed A Division team traveled to Dallas in 2022 for the Gay Softball World Series. The team took second place in the A Division.
Steven Bracco
Gael Lala-Chávez is the executive director of LYRIC.
Courtesy Gael Lala-Chávez
LGBTQ Best of the Bay >>
youth in San Francisco. Thank you for believing in our vision and for helping us amplify the voices of youth in our community.”
For more information, visit https://lyric.org/.
Runner-up Transgender Law Center
Best LGBTQ Community Center
San Francisco LGBT Community Center
Moscone by former supervisor and police officer Dan White once again soured relationships between the communities. The role the softball league has in breaking down social barriers, however, continues to this day.
The league’s inclusive and open attitude has not come without controversy. In particular, three San Francisco players – LaRon Charles, Jon Russ, and Steven Apilado – helped to spearhead changes to the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association’s rules to include bisexual and trans players. The case was settled in 2011.
The league didn’t return a request for comment by press time.
For more information, go to http://www.sfgsl.org/.
Runner-up
SF Fog Rugby Club
Best Pro Sports Team
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants might be in second to last place in the National League West, but the team is first in the hearts of the B.A.R.’s readers, as it won in the best pro sports team category.
The team, which has won three World Series championships in the last 14 years, plays home games at Or-
acle Park on the city’s waterfront. The pleasant weather, unmatched views of the bay, and food options showcasing the crème de la crème of the city’s cuisine make an outing to the ballgame a summertime favorite for Northern Californians of all stripes.
The team is also known for its embrace of the LGBTQ community, having held a Pride recognition event for many years. This year, the commemoration took place June 15 in its game against the Los Angeles Angels. That love has been returned by queer fans, who can be seen sporting Pride-themed jerseys and hats that have been given away at the event from Fisherman’s Wharf to Ocean Beach and beyond.
Shana Daum, senior vice president of community relations and communications for the ballclub, thanked the B.A.R. and its readers.
“Thank you to the Bay Area Reporter and all the readers who bestowed this honor on us,” she stated. “The LGBTQIA+ community’s contributions to sports makes us so proud. We are humbled and extremely grateful for your support of the Giants over many decades.”
For more information, go to https://www.mlb.com/giants.
Runner-up Golden State Warriorst
Besties Travel and Weddings: Hawaii’s allure draws LGBTQ visitors <<
compiled by Matthew S. Bajko
Perennial favorite Hawaii continues to garner top honors as Bay Area Reporter readers’ favorite domestic getaway. And with travel to the Pacific island chain down this year compared to 2023, it is easy to find deals on flights and accommodations for fall travel.
According to the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, visitation to the Aloha State has been on a decline this year and well below that seen pre-COVID. In a May report, (https://dbedt.hawaii. gov/blog/24-33/) tourism officials disclosed that visitors had declined by 4.1% during the first five months of 2024 compared to the year prior. The 3,908,307 total arrivals also marked a 7.5% decrease from those seen in 2019 during the same timeframe.
Nonetheless, the stats do show gains from those seen five years ago. Total monthly visitor spending, at $1.41 billion, marked a 14.6% increase from that seen in May 2019.
“Though the U.S. market is weakening, arrivals in May 2024 were still 4.5 percent higher than the same month in 2019,” noted James Kunane Tokioka, the department’s director.
For those interested in learning about Hawaiian LGBTQ history, the Lei Pua ‘Ala Queer History Trail (https://www.queerhistoriesofhawaii. org/) continues to add sites to its list of important places for visitors to explore. During Pride Month local leaders in Honolulu unveiled a historic marker for the Glade Show Club that was once housed at 152 N. Hotel Street in the city’s Chinatown.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the venue provided a safe space for transgender and drag performers and served as a de facto home for the city’s LGBTQ+ Mahu community. It is now the inaugural stop for the LGBTQ history trail, which includes historic sites on the islands of O’ahu, Kaua’I, and Hawai’i.
“For too long our communities’ stories have been hidden, our contributions overlooked, our resilience taken for granted,” noted project directors Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer, adding that more places are to be added to the trail’s list of stops. “We’re looking forward to our team’s continuing work on the Lei Pua ‘Ala Queer Histories of Hawai’i project to make sure that our struggles and victories are not forgotten or erased from public memory.”
The Hawai’i Tourism Authority has a dedicated page for LGBTQ-specific travel information on its website at https://www.gohawaii.com/experiences/lgbtq
Runner-up
Palm Springs, California
Best Local DestinationGetaway
Russian River, California
Another yearly winner in this Besties category, the Russian River region continues to charm LGBTQ travelers looking for a sojourn between the rugged Sonoma County coast and the sun-drenched inland vineyards. One of three wine roads in the area runs through the Russian River Valley, with maps and winery information to be found online at www.wineroad.com/.
Change is constant in the LGBTQfriendly hamlet of Guerneville, which for decades has been welcoming out vacationers to the forested hotspot along the banks of the Russian River. For instance, the number of hotels marketed specifically to LGBTQ tourists has dwindled over the years while there has been an uptick in the number of LGBTQ-owned businesses.
Regulars of the R3 Hotel are hopeful it will remain a mainstay of Guern-
eville’s LGBTQ lodging scene. As the B.A.R. reported in late June, the property with its 23 guest rooms, a bar and restaurant, pool, and an event space was put up for sale with an asking price of $4.564 million.
The current owners have said they want it to continue to cater to LGBTQ guests as it has over the last four
decades. It is host to numerous pool parties for this year’s Lazy Bear Week, (https://www.lazybearweek.org/) which wraps up Monday, August 5. On the eve of the start to fall this year will be the annual Russian River Pride parade and celebration. (https:// www.russianriverpride.org/) It takes place Saturday, September 21.
For more information about the various LGBTQ offerings in the Russian River area, visit https://gayrussianriver.com/ Runner-up Napa (Wine Country)
Valor LX2 3-sided gas fireplace shown here with Murano glass, and reflective glass liner
The J. Watumull Planetarium at Bishop Museum in Honolulu is billed as Hawaii’s gateway to the stars.
Cynthia Laird
People carried a giant rainbow flag in last year’s Russian River Pride parade. Gooch
LGBTQ Best of the Bay >>
Best Place to Buy Rings/Jewelry
Tiffany & Co.
Amid the changing retail fortunes of Union Square, Tiffany & Co. remains a staple of the San Francisco shopping district. And B.A.R. readers continue to reward the 186-year-old company for not shuttering its West Coast flagship store.
They again have named it the best place in the city to purchase engagement rings, wedding bands and other finely-crafted jewelry. The company’s imposing storefront can be found at 350 Post Street.
For more information about its local store, visit https://www.tiffany.com/ jewelry-stores/san-francisco/
Runner-up
D&H Sustainable Jewelry
Best Wedding Photographer
Steven Underhill
Northern California native Steven Underhill returns as the winner of this category for the third year in a row. He is a staple at LGBTQ events around the city, with his photos published weekly by the B.A.R.
He also can be booked to take headshots and portraits. Via his events page on his website, where the photos are available for purchase, Underhill provides a photographic time capsule of San Francisco’s LGBTQ social scene over the last decade.
For more information, visit https:// www.stevenunderhill.com/
Runner-up
Raul Salazar
Best ReceptionWeddingVenue Legion of Honor
Once again, the city-owned Legion of Honor has won over B.A.R.
readers as the best spot in San Francisco for couples to exchange their wedding vows. It is one of two sites operated by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Perched atop Lincoln Park, which had been a cemetery from 1868 until 1909, the museum was dedicated and opened to the public on Armi-
stice Day, November 11, 1924.
Four different event spaces in or outside the neoclassical building can be rented out for wedding ceremonies. For evening affairs there is The Court of Honor outdoor entry area that can accommodate 450 seated guests or The Balustrade Lawn overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and
Marin Headlands, which has a capacity of 250 seated guests. Daytime nuptials can take place inside the museum’s Rodin Galleries, whose three connected spaces can fit 80 seated guests or 200 standing. Another option is the Terrace Level with its various indoor and outdoor spaces that can accommo-
to 350 guests. For more information, visit https://www.famsf.org/about/ weddings-private-events
Runner-up Julia Morgan Ballroomt
Photographer Steven Underhill
Steven Underhill
The Legion of Honor, seen here in 2020, is once again a reader favorite
Gary Sexton via Legion of Honor
Gay supe candidate victim of alleged hate crime
by John Ferrannini
Agay man running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is speaking out as the victim in an alleged Mission District hate crime after a suspect was arrested.
Trevor Chandler wasn’t initially identified in a news release sent by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office July 25, which stated Jeffrey Landon was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Landon, 58, is also charged with a hate crime.
“Mr. Landon is alleged to have shouted anti-LGBTQ slurs numerous times at a man walking on Harrison Street towards 24th Street in the Mission District,” the release stated. “The victim ignored Mr. Landon and continued walking on Harrison Street. Mr. Landon then allegedly followed him and continued to shout ob-
“The sign landed near the victim’s foot but did not cause physical injury,” the release stated.
“By the time the police arrived, he had left the scene,” Chandler said. “As I was giving my statement, he returned to the scene and they arrested him right there.”
NBC Bay Area reported on the incident July 26.
In a July 27 letter to supporters, Chandler thanked unnamed neighbors in the Mission who let him shelter in their apartment when the incident happened and others who sought to distract the suspect.
Landon’s next court date is an August 6 preliminary hearing, the DA’s office stated.
“The district attorney’s office moved to detain him pending trial because of the public safety risk he poses,” the release stated. “The court granted the motion without prejudice and will hear
“I consider myself a fairly stoic person and I’ve been surprised at how much it has shaken me,” he said. “It was pretty scary.”
He said it underscores a major theme of his campaign – the need for public safety.
“This is sadly too common,” he said. “Too many folks in San Francisco are experiencing incidents like this, and it reinforces why I’m so serious about safety in my campaign and I’m grateful for the SFPD and the DA, Brooke Jenkins, very quickly acting on this, and I’m going to keep going door-to-door. Nothing’s going to stop me from going out to talk to voters.”
Chandler was endorsed last week by the San Francisco Democratic Party as its No. 1 pick in the D9 race – longtime Mission neighborhood community leader Roberto Hernandez was the No. 2 pick by the party.
Chandler also thanked one of his op-
Another queer candidate in the race, Jackie Fielder, has frequently sparred
The State of California offers help for victims or witnesses to a hate crime or hate incident. This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs
Chen to have transit nom hearing post recess
by Matthew S. Bajko
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will decide the fate of a gay mayoral nominee to the oversight body for the city’s transportation agency in September. Mike Chen’s appointment to
the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors has been pending since May.
In the spring, Mayor London Breed had nominated him to succeed Lydia So, whom she had named to fill a vacancy on the city’s planning commission.
Chen would ensure the transit body has both LGBTQ and Chinese representation on it if confirmed to fill out So’s term through March 1. Its last out commissioner, gay Mission cafe and event space owner Manny Yekutiel, resigned in the fall. The mayor ap-
points the seven members of the SFMTA board, while the supervisors have confirmation power over her nominees.
The supervisors’ Rules Committee took up Chen’s nomination for the first time at its July 22 meeting. Due to “radio silence” from Chinatown transit advocates on Chen’s appointment, committee member and Board President Aaron Peskin, who represents the historic neighborhood as the District 3 supervisor, moved to postpone voting on the matter in order to allow them to weigh in.
District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, the rules chair, and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, its vice chair, agreed to do so. (Peskin and Safaí are both running against Breed in this year’s mayoral race.)
The matter could have returned to the Rules Committee on Monday, July 29, ahead of the supervisors’ summer recess. But after hearing from more groups who wanted a chance to meet with Chen, Safaí told the Bay Area Reporter that his nomination would be heard when the board returns in September. The Rules Committee canceled its meeting Monday.
“He was asked to do more outreach to stakeholders for the seat he is assuming – many in Chinatown but we’ve (heard from) more since the hearing that would like to meet with him like Glide Memorial’s Poverty Tow Coalition,” wrote Safaí in a texted reply.
Chen had said last Monday that he planned to reach out to Chinatown leaders but wasn’t sure he would be able to do so in such a short time span ahead of the supervisors’ meetings this week. He told the B.A.R. Monday he is moving forward with seeking confirmation.
“Yes, I plan to pursue the seat,” Chen wrote in a texted reply, noting the earliest date for his next hearing is September 9 but the scheduling of it is at Safaí’s discretion as committee chair.
Breed spokesperson Jeff Cretan told the B.A.R. that the mayor continues to stand behind Chen and wants to see him serve on the powerful oversight body.
“The mayor still fully supports Mike. She believes he would be a fantastic commissioner,” said Cretan, noting that he wasn’t opposed by anyone ahead of last week’s hearing. “It is unfortunate these meetings could not have happened sooner so he could be confirmed before the board recess.”
San Francisco Municipal Transportation board nominee Mike Chen will need to wait until September for his hearing before the Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee.
Chen, 33, is a data engineer at Coda Project, Inc. He and his boyfriend live in a one-car household in Lower Pacific Heights along the Van Ness corridor.
A member of the SFMTA Citizens’ Advisory Council since January 2020, Chen highlighted his role as a transit advocate during his successful campaign for a seat on the Democratic County Central Committee on the March 5 primary ballot. He then was elevated to the role of director of internal operations for the governing body of the San Francisco Democratic Party.
The DCCC members voted to support Chen’s SFMTA board nomination at their July 24 meeting. It passed with 21 members in support, three against, and eight abstaining.
When the Rules Committee members next take up the matter, they can either vote to support or reject seating Chen on the SFMTA board. They could also decide to move his nomination forward to the full board without a recommendation.
He needs at least six votes from the 11 supervisors to be confirmed. If seated, Chen will need to be reappointed next year to a full four-year term as an SFMTA commissioner and again go before the board for a confirmation vote. t
Courtesy the subject
Trevor Chandler, a candidate for the District 9 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is speaking out after an alleged homophobic attack against him
Courtesy the campaign.
SoCal bar closing amid apparent regulatory issues
by Ed Walsh
One of the Palm Springs area’s most iconic gay bars is closing this month and moving to Arizona. The owner of The Barracks Bar in Cathedral City is blaming burdensome local and state regulations, making it impossible to continue to stay in business.
The bar’s owner, Scott Murchison, posted on Facebook last week, “It is with profound sadness that we announce that The Barracks Bar that has existed as a staple of the Cathedral City LGBTQ+ Community for the past 31 years will officially close its doors for the last time at the close of business Sunday, August 4, 2024. The state of California is revoking our license to serve alcohol as of August 5, 2024.”
But a spokesman for the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control told the Bay Area Reporter on July 22 that no final decision has been made about the bar’s license.
“I can confirm that ABC originally received a public complaint regarding Barracks Bar and did open and conduct an investigation. At this time, no final administrative decision has been made by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control regarding Barracks Bar. Because this is an ongoing administrative case, there isn’t a whole lot more I can add,” wrote ABC spokesperson Devin Blankenship and an email to the B.A.R.
The spokesman forwarded the B.A.R. a 23-page complaint listing 66 counts against the bar for permitting lewd acts, nudity or partial nudity in the bar, and for allowing patrons to drink in the bar’s patio without an employee being present.
When asked if the ABC’s investigation was the result of a single complaint, the spokesman responded, “Our complaint process is anonymous and protected, so I’m not sure if it was a single or multiple complaints. But our ABC
agents looked into and saw that the allegations warranted an investigation, in which they made multiple visits.”
The detailed complaint documented alleged violations from November 2023 through February 2024 based on observations by inspectors for five different days with most of the complaints being noted on January 28 and February 25. Both of those days are Sundays, when the bar holds its popular beer bust.
On July 12, a week before the bar officially announced it was closing, Murchison wrote that he was negotiating with Cathedral City about an occupancy issue.
“Recently, the City of Cathedral City decreased our occupancy dramatically and placed us in the position of requiring us to invest in excess of $100,000 in upgrades to the extremely old building that we currently occupy. While we are negotiating with government officials and the landlord, we have been trying to create a safe and high-tech sound and energy dance club, as well as seeking to expand the Barracks brand nationwide,” wrote Murchison, who also owns the Palm Springs gay bar Dick’s on Arenas.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Cathedral City Manager Charlie McClendon wrote that The Barracks was only permitted occupancy for 49 people but that the city was working with the bar to help the business allow for a higher occupancy. The Barracks has space for many more than 49 people. It includes two large indoor areas, including one room with a pool table and seating, a large indoor dance floor, and a large open-air patio. McClendon said the city was working with the bar to help them increase the occupancy to 400.
The city manager wrote, “Building and fire codes allow local agencies to require fire sprinklers to protect the occupants, along with other improvements related to exit signage, panic hardware on exit doors, etc. These are
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common requirements that are necessary to protect public safety in larger establishments.”
McClendon added that the issues with the state ABC were not related to the building’s occupancy and that it was not his place to say what those issues were.
“I have also learned that the ABC process is not complete, there are still opportunities for the Barracks to respond and appeal any decisions made by the ABC. Whether or not they do so is up to them,” the city manager wrote.
Last month, in a Palm Springs gay men’s Facebook group, a member asked why the lights were so bright and there were no porn videos playing on the patio’s video screens during its popular Wednesday underwear night. Several group members responded that the bar was likely reacting to complaints from the ABC over rules violations regarding nudity and sexual activity, which sometimes happens in the dark corners and along the back wall of the patio.
California’s ABC regulations state: “No licensee shall permit any person to perform acts of or acts which simulate: (a) Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation, flagellation or any sexual acts which are prohibited by law; (b) The touching, caressing or fondling on the breast, buttocks, anus or genitals; (c) The displaying of the pubic hair, anus, vulva or genitals.”
When asked by the B.A.R. how much it cost the state to conduct the undercover investigation documenting the 64 counts against the bar, Blankenship responded, “Unfortunately, there is no way for us to break down the cost of the investigation. Undercover operations and investigations such as this one are a normal part of an ABC agent’s daily job duties. Each ABC regional office has a number of agents whose core responsibilities are to look into complaints regarding licensees.”
In an email to the B.A.R. on July 21, Murchison, the Barracks owner, responded, “I do not have any further comment than our previous statement on Facebook. Have a good week ahead!”
The owner wrote on Facebook that he has plans for the Barracks out of state.
“Please come and help us celebrate our last days in California and launch us into the world as we prepare for our continued life in our new home in Phoenix and beyond!” he wrote. A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help the Barracks workers. More than $15,000 had been raised as of July 30. To donate, go to https://tinyurl. com/yacu7xse. t
Barracks owner Scott Murchison stood outside his Eagle 501 Bar in Palm Springs in 2019. The bar is now called Dick’s on Arenas.
Ed Walsh
The Barracks Bar in Cathedral City is slated to close August 4. Ed Walsh
Funding woes, PrEP news heard at AIDS confab
by Liz Highleyman
The 25th International AIDS Conference kicked off Monday, July 22, in Munich, Germany with calls to redouble efforts to end the global epidemic as funding cuts and threats to the rights of LGBTQ people and other vulnerable populations jeopardize progress.
Sponsored by the International AIDS Society, the confab, which takes place every other summer, brought together more than 10,000 researchers, care providers, policymakers, advocates, and people living with HIV. But some would-be delegates were unable to obtain visas to attend, and the IAS recently announced that future meetings would rotate among five world regions to ensure equity and inclusion.
With the advent of highly effective antiretroviral treatment and longacting PrEP – including a new twiceyearly injection that showed 100% effectiveness in a study of young women in Africa – experts said there are now tools to end the epidemic, but many people still lack access.
“We’re seeing impressive innovation across the entire spectrum of HIV research,” but “science doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” IAS president Dr. Sharon Lewin told reporters ahead of the opening session.
“All around the world, we’re seeing an increase in regressive policies, attacks on human rights, the spread of misinformation, cuts to global health funding, and waning trust in international institutions, which are roadblocks to progress on ending HIV,” she continued. “To end HIV as a threat to public health and individual wellbeing, we need an evidence-based, human rights-based HIV response and a political climate that respects science.”
Snapshot of the epidemic
In advance of the conference, UNAIDS released its latest annual report, “The Urgency of Now: AIDS at a Crossroads.” (https://crossroads.unaids.org/)
The report shows that ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is still an achievable goal, but “success or failure will be determined by the actions taken this year,” UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said at a news briefing.
According to UNAIDS, 39.9 million people were living with HIV and there were 1.3 million new infections and 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide in 2023, falling far short of global targets. While AIDS-related deaths have dropped by more than half over the past decade, one person still dies of HIV every minute.
Nearly 30.7 million people are on antiretroviral therapy, but this too falls short of the goal of 34 million by 2025. Currently, around 9 million people living with HIV are not accessing treatment. UNAIDS estimates that 86% of people with HIV knew their status, 89% of people diagnosed were on treatment, and 93% of those had viral suppression in 2023. The global “95-95-95” targets call for all three metrics to reach 95% by 2030.
A study presented at the conference by UNAIDS economist Erik Lamontagne and colleagues showed that rapidly scaling up the global response could avert nearly 35 million new infections, nearly 18 million deaths, and “huge economic cost” between now and 2050.
But inadequate funding for the HIV response is a growing concern as the world’s resources are poured into wars,
Byanyima said. At the end of 2023, $19.8 billion was available for the response, about $9.5 million less than needed. In the United States, funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which provides HIV prevention and treatment in more than 50 countries, has been flat for a decade and is currently at risk of being cut. At the same time, poor countries are unable to fund their own domestic response due to crushing debt.
Despite progress on biomedical prevention and treatment interventions, social issues are proving more difficult to tackle, according to Lewin. A growing authoritarian backlash threatens vulnerable populations in many countries, from the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in Uganda to laws restricting reproductive rights and health care for transgender people in the U.S. Studies have shown that laws against same-sex relations and crackdowns on gendernonconforming people limit access to HIV testing, PrEP, and treatment.
“We have to tackle the discrimination and stigma that are pushing the most marginalized people away from life-saving services,” Byanyima said. “We need to get political leaders to stand on the right side of justice, to
decriminalize same-sex relations, decriminalize sex work, let people come forward to fight stigma and discrimination, and speak up against hate.”
Key research
Scientific highlights at the conference included a case report on the seventh person cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant for cancer treatment and two studies on the use of the antibiotic doxycycline every day – rather than only after sex – to prevent sexually transmitted infections, an approach dubbed doxyPrEP.
But a groundbreaking HIV prevention study garnered the most excitement. As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported when Gilead Sciences released interim data last month, (https://www.ebar.com/story.
php?333999) the PURPOSE 1 trial enrolled more than 5,300 adolescent girls and young women in Uganda and South Africa.
The study showed that the antiretroviral drug lenacapavir, given by injection once every six months, dramatically lowered HIV incidence compared with the background rate in the local population and was superior to daily PrEP pills. There were zero new infec-
tions among women randomly assigned to receive lenacapavir.
“These stellar results show that twice-yearly lenacapavir for PrEP, if approved, could offer a highly effective, tolerable and discreet choice that could potentially improve PrEP uptake and persistence, helping us to reduce HIV in cisgender women globally,” said presenter Dr. LindaGail Bekker of the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Lenacapavir is currently only approved as treatment for people with multidrug-resistant HIV. Before it can receive Food and Drug Administration approval for PrEP, it must demonstrate effectiveness in other populations. Results from PURPOSE 2, a parallel study of gay and bisexual men, transgender women and men, and nonbinary individuals, are expected in late 2024 or early 2025.
Bekker’s presentation received a standing ovation – and lenacapavir PrEP was hailed as a “game-changer” –but many fear that the new prevention tool will not be accessible to the people who need it most.
Lenacapavir for HIV treatment now costs about $40,000 per year, but the price could be brought down to around $40 with voluntary licensing and competition between generic suppliers, according to a study presented at the conference. Although lenacapavir PrEP is not yet approved in any country, activists are already demanding that Gilead license less expensive generic versions for low- and middle-income countries.
“In view of the company’s ongoing commitment to communities affected by HIV, we have been developing a strategy to enable broad, sustainable access globally,” Gilead said in a statement.
According to Byanyima, twiceyearly PrEP would be a crucial advance for people who must live in hiding and have difficulty accessing services due to repressive laws and for young women who fear domestic violence.
“This is not a Gucci handbag for rich people,” she said. “We are only six years away from 2030 and we still have 1.3 million new HIV infections per year. We want this miracle prevention to reach all those who need it now, not in six years’ time.” t
German researcher says another man is cured of HIV
by Liz Highleyman
Aseventh person, dubbed “the next Berlin Patient,” appears to be cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant for cancer treatment, according to a report at a press briefing ahead of the International AIDS Conference, which took place last week in Munich, Germany.
The anonymous man received a transplant to treat leukemia in October 2015. He stopped antiretroviral therapy in September 2018 and still has sustained viral remission nearly six years later, Dr. Christian Gaebler of Charité University of Medicine in Berlin told reporters.
This case is different because the man received donor cells with only one copy (known as heterozygous) of a rare mutation called CCR5-delta-32 that disables a receptor HIV uses to enter T cells. Most of the other people who were cured received stem cells with two copies (known as homozygous). Only about 1% of people of Northern European descent have two copies of the mutation, but about 16% have one copy, which expands the pool of suitable donors.
While these rare cases have become regular headline-grabbers at the International AIDS Society’s annual meetings, the risky and expensive stem cell transplant procedure will never be an option for most people living with HIV. But researchers hope the knowledge gained will lead to more widely available strategies for a functional cure.
“All these cases are important scientifically – with every case, you learn more about what’s possible, and therefore what could be mimicked in an intervention,” IAS president and conference co-chair Dr. Sharon Lewin said at the briefing.
Berlin and beyond
The original Berlin Patient, former San Francisco resident Timothy Ray Brown, received stem cell transplants to treat leukemia in 2006. Acting on a hunch, his doctors found a donor with two copies of the CCR5-delta-32 mutation. Brown underwent intensive chemotherapy and radiation to prepare for
the transplant, killing off existing malignant immune cells to make room for new ones from the donor. Afterward, he developed near-fatal graft-versushost disease, which occurs when donor immune cells attack the recipient.
Brown stopped antiretroviral treatment, but his viral load did not rebound. Over the years, researchers tested his blood, gut, and other tissues, finding no evidence of functional HIV anywhere in his body. At the time of his death from recurrent leukemia in September 2020, he had been free of HIV for more than 13 years.
Experts initially assumed that Brown’s cure was attributable to donor stem cells with a double CCR5-delta-32 mutation. More than a decade ago, Dr. Timothy Henrich, now at UCSF, reported that two HIV-positive men in Boston who received transplanted stem cells without the mutation appeared to control HIV for several months after stopping antiretrovirals, but eventually they experienced viral rebound.
Like Brown, three other people –Adam Castillejo (the London Patient), Marc Franke (the Düsseldorf Patient), and Paul Edmonds (the City of Hope Patient) – were also cured after receiving stem cell transplants to treat leukemia or lymphoma from donors with a double mutation. All of them remain off antiretroviral therapy without viral rebound, their cancer is in remission, and they will appear together at the conference.
But in 2022, researchers reported that a woman appeared to be cured after receiving a mix of umbilical cord stem cells with the CCR5-delta-32 mutation and cells without the mutation from a relative. And attendees at last summer’s IAS Conference on HIV Science heard about an anonymous man in Geneva (https://www.ebar.com/ story.php?327102) who appears to be cured after a transplant of wild-type stem cells with no copies of the mutation.
Despite having just one copy of CCR5-delta-32, the new Berlin Patient has maintained an undetectable viral load since stopping antiretrovirals more than five years ago. What’s more, he has no detectable HIV DNA in peripheral blood cells, gut biopsies tested negative, he has no HIV-specific T cell responses, and his HIV antibodies are declining. Although Gaebler is hesitant to declare a cure, he said that if the man was going to experience viral rebound, it likely would have happened by now.
Clues to a cure
Researchers are still trying to figure out why these seven people were cured after stem cell transplants while other attempts have failed, as there does not seem to be a single decisive factor common to all cases. In addition to the donor’s CCR5-delta-32 status, the type of conditioning therapy prior to the transplant, the severity of graft-versus-host disease, the size of the pre-existing viral
reservoir, and differences in individual immune response may all play a role.
Gaebler said that the immune response of the donor stem cells likely depleted the reservoir of latent HIV in his patient, while using stem cells with a single copy of the mutation provides “an additional safety layer.”
Henrich thinks the conditioning regimen and graft-versus-host reaction may be key, while using donor cells with one copy of the mutation leaves the virus with fewer targets.
“By dramatically reducing the pretransplant HIV reservoir and maintaining this reduction over time with beneficial graft-versus-host effects, long-term remission remains a possibility for a small number of people even without CCR5-delta-32 homozygous donor cells,” he told the Bay Area Reporter.
Stem cell transplantation is an arduous procedure, which limits it to people with advanced cancer, but each new case provides clues that could lead to more widely applicable interventions for long-term remission. Some researchers, for example, are exploring whether gene editing approaches such as CRISPR could be used to delete or disable CCR5 receptors to make an individual’s own immune cells resistant to HIV.
“These cases are inspirational to both people living with HIV and scientists,” Lewin said. “We need to give people hope but make it realistic.” t
Dr. Christian Gaebler reported at the AIDS 2024 conference in Berlin on one of his patients who appears to have been cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant to treat cancer.
From X
UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima spoke at the AIDS 2024 conference in Munich, Germany.
Liz Highleyman
Fauci talks about AIDS, COVID during SF visit
by Liz Highleyman
With his new memoir a national bestseller, Dr. Anthony Fauci was in San Francisco recently to talk about his accomplishments and regrets over half a century as a leading national health official.
Speaking to a capacity crowd at Manny’s, the gay-owned cafe and event space in the Mission district, Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was in town June 25 to promote his new book, “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service” (Viking).
While Fauci, 83, is best known to the general public as the face of the government’s COVID response, many locals admire him for his leadership on HIV/AIDS, to which he devotes the bulk of his nearly 500-page tome.
Fauci gave several shout-outs to the city in his interview with Dr. Diane Havlir, chief of the HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine Division at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Fauci “was a hero among medical scientists decades before he became a household name,” Havlir said. She recalled the time in 2010 when she told him that the city would offer immediate treatment (https://www.ebar.com/story. php?104616) to everyone diagnosed with HIV, bucking the consensus at the time. “That’s a bold move,” Fauci replied. Before long, universal treatment became the global standard of care.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Fauci joined NIAID after completing his medical residency in the late 1960s, embarking on a successful career developing effective treatment for a deadly autoimmune inflammatory disease. His combined training in infectious diseases and immunology proved invaluable when the AIDS pandemic struck.
In the summer of 1981, a copy of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (https://www.cdc. gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ mm5021a1.htm) landed on his desk, describing a group of five young gay men in Los Angeles with a strange type of pneumonia. “I got chills looking at this,” he recalled. It appeared to be a brand-new disease, and based on its epidemiology, it was spreading by sexual contact.
Soon very ill young men began arriving at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. During the “dark years,” with no good treatments, it felt like “putting Band-Aids on a hemorrhage,” Fauci said. Although discouraged by mentors who thought it would derail his career, he said his shift to AIDS “was the best thing I ever did in my life.”
Fauci was appointed director of NIAID in 1984, a position he agreed to accept only if he could continue his research and patient care. He soon came under fire from people with AIDS
who were consumed by pain, fear, and anger. Writing in the San Francisco Examiner in 1988, the late ACT UP co-founder Larry Kramer called him an “incompetent idiot.” But Fauci listened to the activists, and “they made perfect sense,” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘if I were in their shoes, I would do exactly what they were doing.’”
Fauci described a 1989 town hall meeting in San Francisco where Project Inform founder Martin Delaney – “the intellectual, cerebral version” of Kramer, he said – convinced him to publicly support a “parallel track” that allowed people who did not qualify for clinical trials to access experimental therapies. After a protest at NIH headquarters, Fauci invited several activists to the table. “It turned out to be one of the greatest collaborations of an advocacy group with the scientific and regulatory community,” which to this day serves as an example for people with other diseases, he said.
Fauci, who describes himself as non-political, is proud of working ef-
fectively with seven presidents from both parties.
In the late 1990s, Fauci persuaded former President Bill Clinton (D) to start the multidisciplinary NIH Vaccine Research Center. Despite decades of research, the hope for an HIV vaccine remains unrealized. For years, Fauci told audiences at AIDS conferences that he believed such a vaccine was possible, but the failure of several large clinical trials (https://www.ebar.com/story. php?330306) has dampened his certainty. Nonetheless, basic science done at the center laid the groundwork for the development of COVID vaccines in less than a year.
Fauci offered enthusiastic praise for former President George W. Bush (R), who launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, in 2003. After visiting Africa in 2000 and seeing that people there were still dying like they did in the U.S. in the 1980s, Fauci decided something needed to
be done. “Fortunately, for me, for the world, for Africa, for all of us, President George W. Bush felt exactly the same way,” he said. The program, which provides HIV prevention and treatment in low-income countries, has been credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide.
COVID pandemic
As Fauci dealt with Ebola virus and Zika virus outbreaks during then-President Barack Obama’s (D) administration, he began to see hints of the politicization of public health that would define the COVID era. Fauci first heard about the coronavirus early in January 2020 when a reporter called him and said something strange was going on in China.
As the face of the pandemic response, Fauci was lauded by many, and his likeness appeared on candles, socks, and doughnuts. He graced the cover of a fashion magazine (InStyle), threw out the first pitch at baseball games, and did a memorable Instagram interview with Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. But he also took the brunt of criticism about lockdowns, shifting advice on masks, school closures, and vaccine mandates. Eventually, the vitriol reached a point where he and his family received death threats and required a security detail.
Such precautions were evident at Manny’s. The windows of the community space at 16th and Valencia streets were covered, and the audience was subject to bag checks and metal detectors reminiscent of major stadium events. After Fauci’s talk, onlookers on the sidewalk craned their necks over a police cordon as he was whisked away in a black SUV.
Dr. Diane Havlir, left, chief of the HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine Division at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, interviews Dr. Anthony Fauci at Manny’s, where he was promoting his new memoir.
Liz Highleyman
The war unleashed as a result of the attack has killed at least 39,000 Palestinians as Israel has conducted an extensive bombing campaign and a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of destroying Hamas, which has governed the enclave – one of the two Palestinian territories, along with the West Bank – since 2007.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has stated the goal of the war is “the destruction of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities.”
Penzel, citing October 7, agrees.
“We have a duty to protect our people,” he said. “We can’t let organizations who massacre just keep going.”
Differing opinions
But not everyone in Israel agrees that the destruction of Hamas is possible. Some are saying they’d accept a ceasefire if the hostages are returned. The Associated Press reported July 7 that protesters blocked highways on the nine-month anniversary of the massacre, demanding Netanyahu step down.
Gilad Korngold, whose son Tal Shoham is a hostage in Gaza, went so far as to tell reporters on the press trip that “I don’t care about Hamas.”
“The war must be stopped now,” he said. “There’s no price for our hostages.”
The June 23-27 trip the B.A.R. participated in was paid for by the American Middle East Press Association, a nonprofit that states it seeks to serve as “a trusted resource for journalists looking for experts and spokespeople on the current conflict and beyond.”
AMEPA brought two American reporters on the press trip, “Wartime in Israel,” with its counterpart, the Europe Israel Press Association, which itself brought 22 journalists from the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Neither organization is funded by the Israeli government, nor was there any preapproval of interview questions, article topics, or requests to view articles before publication.
Hostage families speak out
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum works out of a skyscraper in Tel Aviv, a short walk from Hostages Square, where art installations, posters, handwritten notes, and even a mock tunnel meant to simulate those under Gaza where some of the hostages are believed to be held remember those in Hamas captivity. Ubiquitous stickers and posters on street signs, cars, homes, and businesses – as well as yellow ribbons on lapels – keep the hostage crisis front-of-mind for Israelis.
In the forum’s office, the international press met with Korngold along with Luis Har, who was kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak and held hostage until his rescue after 129 days, and Dani Miran, the father of hostage Omri Miran.
The forum does not take a position on Israeli government policy in order to represent the widest number of hostage families, according to Daniel Shek, former Israeli ambassador to France
and consulate general to the Pacific Northwest of the United States based in San Francisco.
“Wherever you stand on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, what is happening here, the fact these people are abducted in Gaza is simply not right,” Shek said. “It’s simply not right. It’s a humanitarian issue that is universal. You can continue fighting for the Palestinians after this is made right.”
Shek translated for Har, who was speaking in Hebrew.
“The captors at the beginning were very aggressive and were tough, but there were different groups of captors with different roles,” Har said. “The guy who was with us in the place where we stayed the longest – the guy they called him the landlord – he told us we were abducted in order to exchange us for Palestinian prisoners.”
Har and the landlord developed almost a rapport until Har’s rescue by an IDF raid in February.
“The truth is he kept us safe even from his colleagues,” Har said. “The others were tougher, they were yelling at us not to come close to the window, silenced us, but he made sure it never went over to real violence. With him I had discussions, real conversations, but not with the others.”
Miran told the story of his son’s kidnapping by Hamas from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Miran has three sons and a daughter; his son Omri is married with two daughters. He called October 7 “the darkest day of my life.”
“The distance between Nahal Oz and the border of Gaza is 700 meters, less than half a mile,” Miran said in Hebrew, speaking through a translator. “Around 6:30 in the morning on Saturday I opened the television and saw the red alert, which means missiles are coming into Israel. So I called my son, Omri, to ask how he and the family were because I usually worry when these things happen. And my son Omri said, ‘There are a few missiles. ... Don’t worry.’”
Miran said he saw videos released by Hamas showing the carnage of that morning throughout southern Israel.
“I called my son again,” Miran said. “I said, ‘What is happening?’ and my son says, ‘I’m standing by the window and I see the whole kibbutz is full of terrorists.’ So Omri says he’s with his wife and two little girls in the safe room. He himself went to the kitchen to get two knives because he had no arms with him. That was the situation.”
Miran got the last text from his son around 11 a.m.
“What do you think I felt at that moment, when there was no answer from my son?” he asked. “I felt that moment when there was no answer from my son that everyone was killed. I had no control over my feelings.”
At 6 p.m. Miran got a call from the mother of his daughter-in-law, who lived in Sderot, another southern Israeli city. She said her daughter and the two girls were OK but Omri “was abducted and taken as a hostage to Gaza,” Miran recalled.
While he was grateful the rest of the family was alive, Miran said he asked himself “What am I going to see now with my son?”
All three agreed that the government’s aim should be the return of the
remaining hostages.
“Hamas is an idea,” Korngold said. “Israel didn’t do anything about Hamas for 30 years. We have to say it and say it and say it.”
That sentiment repeats a statement made a few days prior by IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who in a disagreement with the Netanyahu administration, said in an Israeli TV interview that, “Hamas is an idea. … it’s rooted in the hearts of the people – anyone who thinks we can eliminate Hamas is wrong.”
Ehud Yaari, senior Arab affairs commentator and analyst for Israel’s Channel 12 News, told the international reporters that Israeli troops don’t need to be on the ground in Gaza in perpetuity to prevent another October 7.
“The battle against Hamas will continue,” Yaari said about the day after. “Different intensity, different deployment, but we are going after them, and there is no debate between the opposition and Bibi [Netanyahu]. If a squadron pops up, they’ll get killed.”
With at least 60,000 Israelis still displaced in the north due to Hezbollah (which, like Hamas, is allied with Iran) rocket attacks from Lebanon since the October 7 attacks, the winding down of the Gaza operation may come sooner than later.
But Yaari said to expect that without a hostage deal. President Joe Biden and both Democratic presumptive presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican presidential nominee urged Netanyahu to take a hostage deal on the table during his U.S. visit last week.
“It’s up to Sinwar,” Yaari said, referring to Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza. “It’s very clear if the Israelis get the hostages, they’ll eventually get to him.”
Asked about that scenario where all the hostages don’t get released, Korngold said, “It could happen. We have to start with something. If you say ‘no, no, no,’ I don’t care about Sinwar or Hamas. They have to do everything to release the hostages.”
Yaari characterized the war as Israel’s greatest crisis since independence, painting a picture of Hamas and Hez-
bollah waging a war of attrition (as opposed to an all-out attempt to destroy Israel) at the behest of Iran, which is fighting for dominance of the region against Saudi Arabia, and major nonNATO U.S. allies Egypt and Jordan.
Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shi’ite group, joins the Houthi movement in Yemen and various armed Shi’ite groups in Iraq and Syria, as well as Hamas in an “axis of resistance” to Israel and American interests in the Middle East, Reuters reports.
Israeli, US governments clash on settlements
Yaari was critical of the Netanyahu administration for allying with right-wingers and undercutting the judiciary’s independence. Among the right-wingers are National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said he supported the “voluntary departure of the residents of Gaza.”
There have been no Israeli settlements in Gaza since the IDF’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005. But Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered a major obstacle in the peace process and the establishment of an independent Palestine, and have been condemned by the U.S. and United Nations as violating international law.
The U.N. reported that over 500 people have been killed since October 7 by Israeli security forces and settlers.
In February, Biden imposed sanctions on “persons undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, doesn’t agree with the U.S. and international position on West Bank settlements, telling the international press unequivocally during a briefing in Jerusalem that “there is no future for a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria,” referring to the West Bank.
“Judea is the core of the Jewish nation,” he said.
The B.A.R. asked Chikli how Israel can expect continued American support going forward as the countries’ disagreement on the matter widens.
“America,” he sighed. “We still have very good friends in the Democratic Party. You have congressmen such as Ritchie Torres [a gay, pro-Israel Democrat from New York] and others. They support a two-state solution, and I said I don’t have a problem with anyone who supports a two-state solution.”
Chikli continued that the two-state solution had been proposed several times to no avail.
“Maybe after 100 years, it’s time to rethink the two-state solution,” he said.
“In America, we have very good friends in the Democratic Party. I hope we have bipartisan support. I don’t know about the future after what we saw on U.S. campuses.”
Since October 7, there’ve been thousands of arrests at over 50 schools that have seen demonstrations against Israel, as reported by Politico, in the most widespread campus unrest in five decades. Only one of three elite college presidents who testified before Congress last month still has a job after all
three declined to say definitively if calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ policies, an event referenced by Chikli as he continued his answer.
“I think that’s a big deal,” he said. “It’s too early to point out what’s going to happen.”
The B.A.R. directed the question back to the issue of settlements.
“I think it’s OK to have different opinions,” he said. “It depends on public opinion. Where is America headed? … It’s too early to make statements. We are in the event.”
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Returning to Tel Aviv from the Negev, Penzel discussed Israel’s efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In addition to the 39,000 killed (Israel claims 14,000 of those were combatants), between 10,000 and 21,000 are missing, over 87,000 wounded, and 1.9 million (90% of the population) displaced. Over half of the dead are reportedly women and children.
There are significant shortages of every supply in Gaza – water, food, fuel, medicine, and medical supplies.
The World Health Organization “noted outbreaks of acute respiratory infections, scabies, lice, diarrhea, skin rash, chickenpox, and hepatitis associated jaundice,” according to a February report, which also showed over 1,000 patients in need of kidney dialysis, over 200,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, and over 152,734 cases of diarrhea. Over half the cases of diarrhea were in children under five – a rate that had risen 23 times in just two years.
“Since the beginning of the war, 35,000 trucks have carried humanitarian equipment into the Gaza Strip,” Penzel said June 25 (that number, according to a running total on an Israeli government website is now 38,870 as of July 8.)
Penzel said that 680,000 tons of “humanitarian equipment, including water, food, and medical supplies” were delivered (that number is now 734,475, according to the website as of July 8.)
There’ve been 130 airdrops containing 9,809 packages, according to the website. The countries leading in donations are Germany, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Jordan, France, the U.S., the Netherlands and the U.K. CBS News reported five people were killed and 11 injured in March when an aid package’s parachute failed to deploy.
Penzel alleged that Hamas “steals the equipment” meant to go to the people of Gaza. Israel “takes care of its enemies people while being in jeopardy itself,” he said, conceding that “the international community doesn’t see it that way.” t
[Editor’s note: This is the third of three articles stemming from reporter John Ferrannini’s recent trip to Israel.]
A photo of Shani Nicole Louk, 22, was still up in June at the Nova festival site that was attacked by Hamas last October 7. She was a German-Israeli whose body was paraded through Gaza City in a viral video.
John Ferrannini
Dani Miran, left, father of Omri Miran, a hostage in Gaza, spoke at a press briefing with international reporters in June. He was joined by rescued former hostage Luis Har; an unidentified translator; and Gilad Korngold, whose son is also a hostage in Gaza.
John Ferrannini
Lee receives IAS award for AIDS work Community News>>
compiled by Cynthia Laird
Congressmember Barbara Lee re-
ceived the inaugural award that is named in her honor from the International AIDS Society during its AIDS 2024 conference in Munich, Germany.
Lee (D-Oakland), who serves as ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, received the award July 26. It recognizes the extraordinary contributions of elected officials who have demonstrated significant political leadership and commitment in the fight against AIDS. The award was named in honor of Lee as its first recipient, a news release from her office stated.
To be presented every other year at the AIDS conference, the Barbara Lee Political Leadership Award seeks to celebrate elected officials who embody unwavering dedication, courage, and compassion in the political arena, the release noted. This award is also a call to action for current and future political leaders to persist in the fight against AIDS, the release stated.
“Receiving this award is truly such an honor,” Lee stated. “This award is not just a recognition of my work but a testament to the collective efforts of many. It honors the courageous individuals living with HIV who have shared their stories and demanded action, the activists who fight everyday for progress, and lawmakers around the world, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who have the courage to step out and do what it right.”
“This work has been decades in the making. I remember speaking to President [George W.] Bush in the White House, and I was gratified that he understood the need to take action,” she added. “Despite us not agreeing on much of anything, I felt as though he clearly understood what was at stake and our urgent need to save lives. But even then, as the weeks went on, we needed to keep fighting to keep this at the top of the todo list.”
Lee recalled that she mobilized the Congressional Black Caucus to write to Bush in December 2002, asking him to move quickly on the response. The next month, Bush used his State of the Union address to call on Congress to pass the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR. Bush signed the bill into law that May. Since then, PEPFAR has been lauded as an effective program and has been credited with saving 25 million lives across the globe.
“I was fortunate enough to meet the first person to receive PEPFAR treatment while in Uganda,” Lee stated. “I witnessed firsthand the potential for this program to save lives across the globe.”
“But our work isn’t over,” Lee continued. “We have made so much progress. We’ve been able to save 25 million lives by working together, no matter the political affiliation. We haven’t quite yet beat this pandemic, but I know we can reach our goal of achieving an AIDS-free generation by 2030. Let’s keep struggling, organizing, fighting, until we end HIV everyone, everywhere.”
According to the IAS, the criteria for future award recipients will include the following:
Leadership and Advocacy: The recipient must be a current or former elected official who has exhibited exceptional leadership in developing laws and policies that aim to eradicate AIDS, including securing funding for research, prevention, and treatment.
Commitment to Justice: The recipient must have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to social justice, particularly in ensuring access to healthcare and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Bipartisan Collaboration: Shown an ability to work across the aisle, engaging and uniting politicians from various political backgrounds and beliefs towards a common goal in the fight against AIDS.
Community Engagement: Actively involved in community engagement, working closely with affected individu-
als and groups, listening to their needs, and representing their voices in political discussions.
And, lastly, Global Perspective: Recognized the global nature of the AIDS crisis and contributed to international efforts, fostering global solidarity and action against the pandemic.
Horizons opens nonprofit grant cycle
Horizons Foundation has announced that its flagship community issues grant program for LGBTQ nonprofits is now accepting applications.
According to an email to support-
ers, community issues grants are open to all LGBTQ nonprofits and fiscally sponsored LGBTQ organizations/programs that meet eligibility criteria and are based within one or more of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties –Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
In line with Horizons’ 2020 strategic plan, the community issues program accepts applications from: LGBTQ-primary organizations (defined as an organization whose mission includes the LGBTQ population as the primary focus of the work; whose staff
and board predominantly reflect the LGBTQ community; and which primarily serves LGBTQ people) with a budget under $1 million.
Horizons will also consider applications from non-LGBTQ organizations with LGBTQ-focused programs that have annual program budgets of $1 million or less if the applicant can demonstrate that the program serves a specific area in the nine-county Bay Area where LGBTQ-primary organizations do not provide sufficient, comparable services or reach a specific LGBTQ population.
New this year is that Horizons is accepting community issues grant applications for bisexual programs that primarily serve 65% or more of the bi sexual community, housed within an LGBTQ primary organization of any organi zation budget size (includ ing organizations with an annual budget over $1 million).
elders; and organizations and programs that primarily serve LGBTQ refugees and asylees.
For complete information and to apply, people can go to https://tinyurl.com/ tp2rse3z. The deadline to apply is Monday, August 26.
Rainbow center to hold Pride in the Plaza
The Rainbow Community Center in Contra Costa County will hold its annual Pride in the Plaza festival Saturday, August 17, from noon to 6 p.m. at Todos Santos Plaza, 2175 Willow Pass Road in Concord. The afternoon festival will celebrate the LGBTQ community and allies. This year’s theme is “Colors of Love.”
In addition to the aforementioned bisexual programs category, Horizons stated that it would prioritize transgender-primary organizations and LGBTQ people of color-primary organizations; organizations and programs that primarily serve LGBTQ youth or LGBTQ
The Rainbow center is also working to raise $50,000 this summer to help it provide services and meet expenses for the festival, which costs about $20,000 to produce, the center’s website noted. While the Pride festival is free to attend, donations are welcome. So far, the center has raised almost $19,000 of its goal, according to its website. To donate, go to https://tinyurl.com/ yr8ba6pt t
Congressmember Barbara Lee spoke at the AIDS 2024 conference in Munich July 26, where she received the inaugural Barbara Lee Political Leadership Award.
Courtesy Congressmember Lee’s office
Supes OK contract extension for PRC
by John Ferrannini
T
he San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously July 30 in favor of an extension of PRC’s emergency financial assistance program for three years (from 2025 to 2028) and to increase the funding ceiling by $5.3 million.
The Budget and Finance Committee had unanimously approved the Department of Public Health’s funding request July 24, sponsored by the city’s three gay supervisors –District 4’s Joel Engardio, District 6’s Matt Dorsey, and District 8’s Rafael Mandelman – at its July 24 meeting.
Dorsey had told the B.A.R. the matter would be voted on by the full board after it returns from its August recess. But, as it turned out, the matter was approved 10-0 July 30. (District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton was excused.)
“Positive Resource Center does great work for our community, and I think its emergency financial assistance grant program for people with HIV or AIDS is money well spent,”
Dorsey had told the B.A.R. July 24. “In most cases, these grants help
Just days after the most recent burglary of Que Rico, California Governor Gavin Newsom urged Oakland officials to reconsider their police pursuit policy, stating in a news release, “Although some California jurisdictions allow vehicle pursuits for only certain crimes (e.g., felonies), Oakland is an outlier by imposing exceptional restrictions on OPD’s ability to police criminal activity, generally permitting pursuits only for ‘violent forcible crimes,’ as defined in OPD’s policy, and
page 19
Fauci’s penultimate chapter on former President Donald Trump’s (R) administration is entitled, “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not.” At first, his relationship with Trump was “really good,” he said, but it deteriorated by the summer of 2020 and worsened in the run-up to
Castro flag
page 4
The amendment was proffered “so it is very, very, very clear if questions arise in the future, as they have from time to time in the past,” Mandelman said.
Gay former D8 supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who was friends with Baker, spoke during public comment at Monday’s hearing.
Sheehy recalled when he, Baker, and others approached then-mayor Willie Brown with the idea of the flag as an art installation during the 1997 Castro Street Fair.
“Gilbert grabbed a couple of us and said, ‘Let’s go do it,’” Sheehy recalled. “He grabbed the mayor with his entourage. ... Mayor Brown had gone in big on the idea of monumental artwork. … When Gilbert was pitching the mayor, his eyes lit up and you can tell this fit with his vision. He turned to his staff and said, ‘Make this happen.’”
And happen it did, on the 20th anniversary of Milk’s election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that November.
“He was a public artist, and this is his one remaining piece of public art,” Sheehy said of Baker.
Terry Asten Bennett, a straight ally who, as the president of the Castro Merchants Association, is the current custodian of the flag, explained why it shouldn’t be flown at half-mast.
“There are buses and cars on Market Street,” said Asten Bennett, co-owner of Cliff’s Variety. “But more than that, it’s a symbol of hope Gilbert wanted all the
beneficiaries avert potentially catastrophic outcomes like evictions and utility shutoffs. It’s a small amount of money to help stabilize people facing near-term financial challenges, and it’s ultimately more cost-effective for taxpayers to help people avoid more serious crises. I’m proud to be a cosponsor, and I hope it earns unanimous support at the board.”
Engardio and Mandelman did not return requests for comment.
The agreement was increased by
crimes involving firearms.”
Newsom continued that there is an “extreme danger to the public in allowing criminals to act with impunity, and the reckless driving associated with sideshows and other criminal acts is a significant threat to public safety – as witnessed regularly by the public in viral videos and news coverage.”
Critics of police chases, however, maintain that the pursuits cause unnecessary deaths and injuries if an innocent victim is struck during an incident.
Earlier this year, San Francisco voters passed Proposition E, which, among
the November election. While Trump himself went from cursing Fauci to praising him, his staff and millions of his fans were furious, accusing him of undermining the president. Despite his respect for the office of the presidency, Fauci felt he had to correct Trump’s misinformation. “I had my own personal integrity to preserve,” he said. Even after his retirement at the end
world to see. … I think it’s so important for our whole community, our city and the world that we preserve this flag in perpetuity and make sure this beacon of hope flies above the Castro forever.”
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the city’s historic preservation commission unanimously approved landmarking plans in May. But under its proposed ordinance, flags other than the rainbow banner could be flown. During a discussion at their May 15 meeting, the commissioners talked about what procedures would have to be followed for that to happen. The installation is located at Harvey Milk Plaza, seen as the front door to the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Mandelman had stressed to the B.A.R. that his intention is to landmark the six-stripe rainbow flag popularized by Baker.
Planning Department staff member Moses Corrette said back in May that some in the community wanted other
$5,365,891 to $15,359,513.
Nicolas Menard, a legislative analyst, said at the July 24 meeting, “This agreement allows PRC to provide financial assistance to lowincome people living with HIV.”
“We … did not identify any issues,” he continued. “We also believe the budget request makes sense relative to the financial award and number of clients served. We recommend approval.”
No supervisors or members of the public spoke on the matter before it passed July 24.
Tasha Henneman, PRC’s chief of policy and government affairs, told the B.A.R. that the contract extension and increase is fairly typical of large contracts between the city and service providers.
“This needed to be done because the multi-year contract exceeded $10 [million],” she stated in an email. “This occurs fairly frequently with larger multi-year contracts and is simply an extension of funding for our clients. The program is in high demand and this is Ryan White funding.”
The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act is
other things, loosens their police department’s policy on vehicle pursuits.
Carrillo also set up a GoFundMe, which has raised $380 of a $5,000 goal as of press time July 30.
Carrillo stated he is calling for an end to the police pursuit policy and for “City Hall to step up and do more for small businesses before more leave due to the crime in Oakland.”
He is also hosting a free benefit event outside the club from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, August 3. The 15th Street Music and Drag Festival will feature Mistress Isabelle Brooks, a drag queen who compet-
of 2022, Fauci continues to face accusations – on social media, in the conservative press, and at congressional hearings – about issues ranging from his role in covering up an alleged lab leak of the coronavirus, which he denies, to funding cruel experiments on beagles.
The political division around COVID and the resulting erosion of trust in science are among Fauci’s big regrets. Like
flags flown from the flagpole from time to time, mentioning the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and said the original proposed ordinance made a provision for a certificate of appropriateness to allow that to happen.
Cultural district director Tina Aguirre reiterated to the B.A.R. July 23 that the district is supportive of the landmarking effort with the change that Mandelman proposed.
“Our work is to counter measures that erase queer and trans people, places, and culture, especially in the Castro,” Aguirre stated. “While we would have appreciated an opportunity to have the Progressive Pride flown, we acknowledge that Gilbert Baker’s flag plays a key role in the world and remains a powerful signal that San Francisco is a haven for us. We honor Gilbert Baker and the Pride flag.”
The Progress Pride flag refers to a variation of the rainbow flag that includes a chevron of black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes that specifically represent people of color and the trans community. It was designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018.
Baker, who died in 2017, had long insisted his flag represented everyone, saying, “what I liked about the rainbow is that it fits all of us. It’s all the colors. It represents all the genders. It represents all the races. It’s the rainbow of humanity.”
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Baker co-created the first rainbow flag with friends Lynn Segerblom, a straight ally who now lives in Southern California, and James McNamara, a gay man who died of AIDS-related complica-
the United States government’s program to provide federal funds to the states and local municipalities for uninsured, under-insured, and lowincome people with HIV. Some of that goes to the emergency financial assistance program, which provides financial assistance to indigent San Franciscans with HIV.
“The goal is to alleviate financial burdens and improve quality of life by providing financial assistance for move-in expenses, unexpected utility bills, medications, phone services, or other barriers impacting their medical care,” Henneman stated.
“Last year 1,294 clients living with HIV accessed EFA and $1,139,836 in emergency funds was awarded.”
Several years ago, PRC took over the old AIDS Emergency Fund, which used Ryan White funds as well as other donations to provide emergency financial assistance to clients living with HIV/AIDS. PRC’s program is similar.
Henneman stated the program is in high demand. The additional funds are unrelated to PRC’s financial woes of a couple of years back, she stressed.
ed on the 15th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” There will also be music and food. Free tickets are available on Eventbrite.
OPD asked anyone with information to contact the burglary unit at (510) 238-3951, and to send any useful videos or photos to cidvideos@oaklandca.gov.
The investigation remains active.
Lesbian Oakland councilmember at-large Rebecca Kaplan and Oakland District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife, who represents the area where Que Rico is located, did not immediately return requests for comment.
Fife’s opponent, Warren Logan, a gay
everyone involved in the pandemic response, he made some errors, which he was sometimes slow to acknowledge. He admits that he and other health officials should have made it clearer from the beginning how little was known about the virus and that recommendations would change as information evolved.
“If you have a society that doesn’t have any faith in the scientific process,
tions in 1999. Baker and his friends came up with a rainbow flag design that had eight colored stripes, with one version also sporting a corner section of stars to mimic the design of the American flag. It debuted at the 1978 San Francisco Pride parade.
“It really is a three-person, not a oneperson, flag making. Everybody played their part and then some,” Segerblom told the B.A.R. in a 2018 phone interview from her home in Torrance, southwest of Los Angeles.
Baker would go on to eliminate the stars and reduce the number of colored stripes to six. Over the ensuing years, Baker turned that standard six-color banner into an international symbol of LGBTQ rights.
Baker died unexpectedly in 2017 at the age of 65, and the foundation created in his name donated a segment from one of the first rainbow flags that flew in front of San Francisco City Hall during the 1978 parade to the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the Castro, where it is now on public display.
In 2022, as the B.A.R. previously reported, the Gilbert Baker Foundation had hired architectural historian Shayne Watson, a lesbian who is an expert on the city’s LGBTQ history, to conduct research on how the flagpole came to be as a first step toward declaring it a city landmark.
Other speakers at hearing
In addition to Sheehy and Asten Bennett, three other people spoke in the time allocated for public comment, all of whom supported the proposal and the amendment.
“This is not related to our financial debt repayment plan with the city,” she stated. “Over the past year, PRC has undertaken a significant transformation to become stronger, more resilient, and more effective. This process included an extensive restructuring to strengthen our financial position as an organization. As part of this transformation, we’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the City and County of San Francisco’s Controller’s Office, the Department of Health Services, and the Board of Supervisors to repay our debt.”
In 2022, the city provided millions in emergency funding to PRC so it could avoid shutting down residential facilities, as the B.A.R. reported.
The San Francisco Standard reported in March that the PRC’s agreement includes a $7.7 million payment to the city, part of which involves the city acquiring the property at 333 Seventh Street in a real estate transaction worth $3.3 million. t
man, did respond July 30. He called the safety issues Que Rico has faced a “travesty.” “Unfortunately, it’s a story that I’m hearing all too often from many business owners,” Logan continued. “Our LGBTQ businesses, and all local businesses, deserve a clean, safe, and vibrant Oakland where they can thrive and continue serving the diverse communities that make our city unique. It’s clear that we need changes in our approach to public safety, including a greater level of coordination and technology integration, that will make a meaningful difference in combating crime.” t
particularly a society that is really torn apart by misinformation and disinformation,” he said, “people are so used to hearing things that are not true that they don’t know, or even care anymore, what’s true. And once you get to that, then you have an erosion of society, erosion of the social order, and I think an erosion of democracy.”t
Harry Breaux, who introduced himself as a Castro ambassador, said that the six-stripe rainbow flag popularized by Baker should be a uniting symbol for the community. He quoted the late drag queen and Latino veteran José Julio Sarria’s famous refrain, “United we stand, divided they catch us one by one.”
“The Gilbert Baker flag is the seed from which these many flags have sprung,” said Breaux, a gay man and long-term HIV survivor. “It is the one symbolic flag that can unite all the individual expressions that have divided us, and I sincerely hope it will.”
Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is the executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District, and Ralph Hibbs, a gay man who’s on the CBD board also spoke. Hibbs, in his capacity volunteering with the foundation, read a statement from Beal, who could not attend due to a death in the family, saying that Russian President “Vladimir Putin has threatened to wipe the rainbow flag from the face of the earth” and “in China people have been arrested for flying the rainbow flag.”
But “the rainbow flag is more than a prominent political symbol, it is an important work of art. As a work of art, it stands on its own and deserves landmark status,” he said.
Aiello said people come from around the world to see the flag flapping above the windy Market Street thoroughfare.
“Visitors come from near and far to marvel at the flag,” she said. “It needs to be flown 24/7.”t
<< Latino club
Fauci
Terry Asten Bennett speaks at Monday’s hearing.
Screengrab from SFGovTV
PRC will receive an increase in federal funding for its HIV emergency financial assistance program
Courtesy Revel
Besties Nightlife
by Michael Flanagan
Whether you’re up for a show, down to get dirty or just need a good stiff drink, our readers who voted in our annual Best of the Bay survey have recommendations for you as to where are the best places to go. With options that span the bay and venues new and old you’ve got a lot of choices.
The variety of options will make you realize that perhaps our recent experiences with solitude have made us all a bit hungrier for time with the community. Rejoice! We’ve got it. With that in mind, let’s take a tour through the Besties Nightlife venues and events.
Best Cabaret Venue Oasis
Runners-up
Martuni’s, Feinstein’s at The Nikko
Best Dance Club Oasis
Runners-up
Beaux, DNA Lounge
Our readers say Oasis is the place to be for both performance and dance, and it’s no wonder. From the immersive “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Sqream: A Musical Drag Parody” to the drag theater version of “9 to 5,” a reprise of their show
“Bitch Slap!” (their take on Dynasty) and special events like Lady Bunny’s “A Very Blue X-mas,” the venue has gotten rave revues for performances in the last year that always draw crowds.
Dance parties like the Nachspiel queer techno party and the Queer Cowboy’s disco dance continue to make Oasis’ dance floor the favorite of bay area folks. Whether you are there to watch the show or to be the show, Oasis remains the favorite both for cabaret and dancing. www.sfoasis.com
Best Drag Show Princess at Oasis
Runners-up
Reparations at Oasis, Tie: The Monster Show at The Edge/Big Top Sundays at Beaux Princess, Oasis’ dance party and drag spectacular, comes in at the very pinnacle of Bay Area drag events in this year’s poll. With performances in the past year by Plasma from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Glamamore, Nymphia Wind, Lisa Frankenstine, Kochina Rude and Madd-Dogg 20/20, the entertainment never stops.
Tito Soto, drag prince of the West Coast, has outdone himself as the producer of Princess this year. The competition in this category between Princess and Reparations is often fierce, but this year, Princess snatches the crown!
Aby Jim Gladstone
ny local resident knows that San Francisco and the Bay Area offer a plethora of arts events, performing companies, and favored venues. Here are the best of winners and runners up voted by our readers. Best Art Museum
Runners-up
SF MOMA
GLBT History Museum
Between mid-March and early this month, visitors to the de Young were in luck. A trifecta of phenomenal exhibitions, all up and running simultaneously. The couture artifacts in “Fashioning San Francisco” (through August 11), the stunning photographs of “Irving Penn,” and the moving thought experiments in “Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care” took viewers along a continuum from the concrete to the conceptual with each exhibit inspiring reflection on the others. Other ongoing exhibits have always showcased the best in pop, modern and indigenous art. www.famsf.org
Best Nature Science Museum California Academy of Sciences
Runners-up
Exploratorium
SF Botanical Gardens
Travel from the rain forest to deep space while sipping cocktails and listening to live music. The Academy’s Thursday evening NightLife events have made a post-pandemic comeback. Sure, we love kids, but sometimes it’s nice to have an adults-only moment with that albino alligator. www.calacademy.org
Best Small Art Gallery
Harvey Milk Photo Center
Runners-up
Queer Arts Featured, Tenderloin Museum
Secreted away on Scott Street in Duboce Park, this underappreciated gem features queer-themed group shows, hosts artists’ talks, and houses a library of photo books for guests to peruse. With both traditional darkroom equipment and a digital lab, the center also offers photography classes to the community. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org
Oasis won Best Dance Club, Best Cabaret Venue, and Best Drag Show, Princess (here, slaying at the 2023 Princess Pageant).
Oasis, Disco Daddy and more winning nightclubs, bars and events
Best New Venue The Stud
Runners-up
Best Nightlife Event
Disco Daddy at SF Eagle
Runners-up
Mango at El Rio,
Daytime Realness at El Rio
DJ Bus Station John is the Disco Daddy in question and he’s a musical institution in San Francisco nightclubs, with ongoing shows at both the SF Eagle and Aunt Charlie’s. His forte is classic and rare disco and his musical selections are always surprising, entertaining and make you move your feet. Add the charm of a cellphone and camera-free zone, as his events are, and you can understand that Disco Daddy transports its dancers to another world. It’s obviously a world that they love. Congratulations Disco Daddy. www.sf-eagle.com
Mother Zhuzh
When The Stud reopened in April 2024, longtime patrons wondered if that new bar would live up to the name or the previous locations. Well, wonder no more. With a wonderful outdoor space as well as an ample dancefloor and performance space, the new Stud is a dream come true and is our reader’s favorite new bar. With events like the opening, which featured performance, and musical sets by decade from the ’60s on, to Forever Queer Pride with dancing and drags, The Stud hits all the right notes with our readers and is their favorite new venue for a night out. We missed you, Stud. Welcome back. www.studsf.com
Best Castro Bar
Twin
Peaks
Runners-up
440 Castro Lookout
There are bars that just feel like home. For many of our readers, the Castro bar that typifies that homey feel is Twin Peaks. Whether you’re whiling away a lazy afternoon, meeting friends or showing off the neighborhood to tourists, it’s a lovely place that always feels welcoming. Now having been open for more than half a century, it’s such an institution that visiting dignitaries like Queen Maxima of the Netherlands stop by here when they visit San Francisco.
Congratulations to Twin Peaks for being number one in the hearts of Bay Area Reporter readers. www.twinpeakstavern.com
We are honored to be recognized as the Best Ballet Company by the readers of the Bay Area Reporter.
Best SoMa Bar
SF Eagle
Runners-up
Oasis, Hole in The Wall
With monthly events like the Tom of Finland leather gear and erotic art night, Adonis (a muscle fetish night), Filth, an evening for “nasty pigs and
filthy animals,” and the award-winning Disco Daddy, the SF Eagle knows its audience, and our readers love the SF Eagle. Wrestling the crown from last year’s winner Oasis, it’s the Eagle’s year to soar. On bended knee we submit our congratulations humbly, sirs. www.sf-eagle.com
Left: Best Nightlife Event: Disco Daddy at SF Eagle, which also won Best SoMa Bar Right: Pups and a leather daddy at the SF Eagle’s Filth night
Gooch
Above: Gooch Middle: Georg Lester Below: The White Horse
Cornelius Washington
<< Besties Nightlife
From page 26
Best East Bay Bar
White Horse Bar
Runners-up
Que Rico
Club 1220
Perennial East Bay favorite the White Horse again wins this category as the favorite bar of our readers in the East Bay. And really, it’s no wonder, as the bar has stood the test of time.
Having been in business since the 1930s, it’s seen the poet Jack Spicer get in a fight there in the ’50s, had Gay Sunshine protests in the ’60s, and pretty much nothing but love from the ’70s on.
A lesbian-owned bar since 2023, it continues to serve up high end cocktails, beer and wine as well as mocktails for those going alcohol-free. The new owner has installed a better sound system and a larger dance and performance space, so it’s clear the bar is investing back into the community and they love it.
With events like Queer Match (Sapphic speed dating), performances by the Rebel Kings and DJs like Lady Ryan and Olga T providing the soundtrack, it’s no wonder the bar remains tops. Well done once again. instagram.com/whitehorsebar/
Best Cocktails
Martuni’s
Runners-up
Blackbird
Town Bar & Lounge
Whether you like your martinis dirty or not, and whether you have them with gin or you’re a heretic like me and have them with vodka, our readers agree that there is no better place on either side of the bay for a good stiff drink.
Martuni’s returns as the winner of this category this year and it’s no surprise. If your tastes run toward sweet drinks, there are sour apple martinis, creamsicle martinis and a variety of lemon drops and Cosmopolitans. If you really must, they have beer, too. If you’re lucky, you’ll be there on a show night and hear some wonderful tunes as well, or one of the monthly literary events. www.facebook.com/martunissf/
Best Beer Selection
Pilsner Inn
Runners-up
SF Eagle
Toronado
The Pilsner Inn features 28 beers on tap, so you’re bound to find something you like. Current offerings include a Grapefruit Sculpin IPA, Delirium Tremens Belgian Strong Golden Ale, Moose Drool Brown Ale and Huck It Blonde, to mention only a few. The bar
has a lovely back yard garden area, and there is a pool table, darts and pinball too. But really, it’s the beer selection that’s caught the attention of our readers and returned the Pilsner Inn to the top spot on the list once again. www.pilsnerinn.com
Best Wine Bar Blush
Runners-up
Swirl Decant SF
Blush returns once more to win
the best wine bar category, and it’s really no surprise. Aside from the wonderful wines, this wine bar specializes in an atmosphere that makes you want to return again and again. With live music Tuesday through Thursday, Tarot Readings and art from local artists on the walls, the
bar is a treat for all the senses. The extensive menu of bubbles, whites, reds and roses is available via their website and the vineyards really span the globe. Congratulations to Blush.
www.blushwinebar.comt
HOLIDAY GAIETY
friday, December 13
’Tis the season to be merry and gay! Co-emceed by conductor Edwin Outwater and drag sensation Peaches Christ, this adult-themed holiday variety show guarantees an evening of festive fun and fabulous flair. Hear holiday hits played by the San Francisco Symphony and be regaled by a star-studded lineup of iconic guests, delectable vocalists, and drag queens galore! This program includes mature content.
Left: Martuni’s again won Best Cocktails; here Joe Wicht and Katya Smirnoff-Skyy perform.
Middle: The Pilsner Inn’s winning beer selection Below: Best Wine Bar is again Blush.
BARtab
Georg Lester Blush
Sean Dorsey Dance
Best Ballet Dance Company
San Francisco Ballet
Runners-up
Alonzo King Lines Ballet
Smuin Contemporary Ballet
With its world premiere production of “Mere Mortals,” a contemporary reimagining of the Pandora myth, San Francisco Ballet walked the walk that every large legacy performing arts organization loves to talk: They brought in new, younger audience members with smart and surprising work. Choreographer Aszure Barton, electronic composer Floating Points, and a brilliant design team gave us ballet by way of the Matrix. They did all this while maintaining a season of classics like “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker.” www.sfballet.org
Best Modern Dance Company
ODC/Dance
Runners-up
David Herrera Performance Company
In programs presented at their own Mission District theater and downtown at YBCA, the Bay Area’s premiere modern movement company once again offered a heady mix of provocation, emotion, and abstraction, with tightly focused pieces inspired by everything from climate change to vintage animation. www.odc.dance
Best Ethnic/International Dance Company Theatre Flamenco Of San Francisco
Runners-up
Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu Likha-Pilipino Folk Ensemble
Led by artistic director Carola Zertuche, the company’s production, “Pasajes Flamenco,” brought a longform cinematic fluidity to the Spanish dance-music hybrid more traditionally performed in short discrete bursts. Education remains a fundamental part of the company’s work, with classes offered for both children and adults. www.theatreflamenco.org
Best Classical Venue Davies Symphony Hall
Runners-up
War Memorial Opera House
SF Conservatory of Music
So long, Salonen. The city’s music lovers will miss departing conductor Esa-Pekka and his ambition, but nothing is likely to keep them away from our beloved San Francisco Symphony and its harmonious home. Heck, even COVID couldn’t keep them away. The Symphony actually reported higher attendance rates this season than prepandemic. Bravo, Davies devotees! www.daviessymphonyhall.org
Best Live Music Venue The Fillmore
Runners-up
Fox Theatre
Greek Theatre
However illogically, the ten crystal chandeliers dangling from a twostory high ceiling somehow lend this iconic auditorium a homey vibe. (Where’s home? Hearst Castle?). Still, with a capacity of 1,315 fans (almost a thousand fewer than the Warfield),
it’s one of the smallest spots to catch big rock names in the city. Have a juicy apple, and don’t forget to check the historic concert posters in the upstairs lounge. www.facebook.com/thefillmore
Best Small Music Venue El Rio
Runners-up
Cafe Du Nord
Ivy Room (Albany)
More than whoever happens to be playing or DJing, it’s the community vibe, the cheerful queerdos, and that phat patio that make this spot a winner this year and every year. As a little DuDu told me: “Her name is El Rio, and the dancing’s out of hand.” www.elriosf.com
Best Theatre Company American Conservatory Theatre
Runners-up
New Conservatory Theatre Center
Berkeley Repertory
A.C.T. brought in some heavy hitters this year, from the Broadwayaimed Motown musical “The Hippest Trip” to recent Broadway veterans “A
Strange Loop” and “The Lehmann Trilogy.” Locally born provocateur Kristina Wong gave sassy soapbox in “Sweatshop Overlord.” But the biggest swing of all was “Big Data,” a thrillingly confrontational original commission helmed by A.C.T. Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon that sizzled the synapses. Wait! Wait! There’s more: From August 1-11, A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory is mounting a rare production of “Carrie: The Musical.” www.act-sf.org
Best Choral Group
San Francisco
Gay Men’s Chorus
Runners-up
Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, Chanticleer
Since winning last year’s Bestie, the SFGMC has not only performed its regular slate of crowd-pleasing Bay Area concerts. The Chorus also celebrated the grand opening of their new permanent home at The Pansy L. Chan and Terrence D. Chan National Queer Arts Center in the Mission, and brought hope to the heartland with summer concerts in Iowa and Nebraska. www.sfgmc.orgt
Left: The de Young Museum’s ‘Fashioning San Francisco’ exhibit Middle Left: California Academy of Sciences’ domed rain forest Middle Right: Harvey Milk Photo Center Right: San Francisco Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall
Sexton
ODC/Dance Right: Theatre Flamenco
Fillmore
Academy of Sciences
Harvey Milk Photo Center San Francisco Symphony
ODC/Dance
Explore the curious connections of California. From towering redwood forests to vast deserts, breathtaking coasts to bustling cities, discover the surprising relationships among species, people, and places in our majestic state.
t << LGBTQ Best of the Bay
Besties dining
by Jim Gladstone
Food, glorious food. Your Bay Area dining options, day or night, are almost beyond countable, but our readers chose their favorites, many of them familiar and repeat winners, along with some new delicious options. Scoot up to the table and dig in.
Savoring the buffet by the Bay
Best Castro Restaurant
Anchor Oyster Bar
Runners-up
Poesia
Tie: Dumpling Kitchen/Mama Ji’s
While Anchor has been shucking in the Castro since 1977, it took the closure of past Bestie repeat-winner
Catch to make room for another seafood specialist as champion.
The win is overdue. Pricey? Yes, but the cioppino is the best in town, and good values can often be found among the blackboard specials. Treat yourself to a solo dinner at the counter.
www.anchoroysterbar.com
Best Late Night Restaurant Orphan Andy’s
Runners-up
Grubstake, Nopa
Ready to get adopted by a twink and his septum-ringed bear-friend?
At this seemingly unbeatable Besties hall-of-famer, it’s always time for a breakfast milkshake or a fluffy threeegg dinner entrée. With coffee. Black. By the gallon. Keep it together, pal. The sun’ll come out tomorrow. orphan-andys.restaurants-world.com
Best Brunch Starbelly
Runners-up
Cafe Mystique, Devil’s Teeth Bakery
A tip of the mimosa to Starbelly serving brunch every day. While the offerings are expanded on weekends, the popular restaurant has a selection of brunch items available seven days a week until 4 p.m. Don’t let the menu categories limit you, though: Order the corn pizza and ask for a couple soft eggs on top.
www.starbellysf.com
Best Upscale Restaurant Rich Table
Runners-up
Mr. Jiu’s, Spruce
Adventurous cooking without pretentious twaddle? Yes! Fine dining and fun dining are successfully intertwined at Rich Table. Their porcini mushroom doughnuts with raclette cheese sauce have been a hit at Outside Lands for years. The Chef’s Selection tasting menu is one of the best prix fixe offerings in town at $120. www.richtablesf.com
Best Asian Restaurant Farmhouse Kitchen
Runners-up
Basil Thai, Sushi Sato
Kaleidoscopic décor, vibrant Isaan flavors, plus chummy queer-friendly staff make a midweek meal at Farmhouse Kitchen a welcome escape hatch from the routine. It’s your party, go Thai if you want to. www.farmhousethai.com
Best South Asian Restaurant Mandalay
Runners-up
1601 Bar & Kitchen, Dhamansara
This year, after four decades in business, this Burmese gem in the Richmond was recognized with an America’s Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation, its honor shared in San Francisco with only Swan Oyster Depot, La Taqueria, Yank Sing and the Tadich Grill. The tea leaf salad and Moo Hin Nga (fish chowder) are must-orders. www.mandalaysf.com
Best Italian Restaurant Flour + Water
Runners-up
La Ciccia, Cotogna
Not your nonna’s red sauce joint, F +W combines pasta and produce with distinctive California flair: Orechiette are tossed with dill pesto, shishito peppers, green peppercorn and pistachios; pickled stonefruit and sesame are incorporated in a pork tortolletti preparation; and squash agnolotti are paired with fresh basil. www.flourandwater.com
Left: Anchor Oyster Bar Middle: Farmhouse Kitchen Right: Starbelly
Photos courtesy of the restaurants
Left: Rich Table Right: Orphan Andy’s
Photos courtesy of the restaurants
Above: Mandalay Below: Flour + Water chefs
Photos courtesy of the restaurants
t LGBTQ Best of the Bay >>
Best Mexican Restaurant Nopalito
Runners-up
Puerto Alegre, Elena’s
Celebrating its quinceañera year, Gonzalo Guzman’s authentic, creative kitchen continues to thrive amidst a million bellybomb burrito joints. The pozole, panuchos and huitlacoche huarache are stand-outs on a uniformly excellent menu. There are no clichés in this cooking. www.nopalitosf.com
Best Middle Eastern Restaurant La Mediterranee
Runners-up
Noosh, Beit Rima
Editors’ bets were on Beit Reima, but if there’s going to be a sentimental choice among the restaurant Besties, one can hardly begrudge readers’ affection for La Med. It has long warmed hearts in addition to tempting tastebuds. A dependable friend in the Castro since 1981, La Med has been a safe space to gather around tables crowded with tasty small plates and fresh pita, through an epidemic, a pandemic and onward. Loyalty is a two-way street. www.lamednoe.com
Best Soul Food Restaurant
Brenda’s Oakland
Runners-up
Hard Knox Café, Everett & Jones
Barbecue
The newest jewel in the crown of queer restaurateur couple Brenda Buenviaje and and Libby Truesdell is
the East Bay sister of Brenda’s French Soul Food and Brenda’s Meat and Three. Serving fried chicken and beignets three meals a day, Brenda’s also offers the region’s most authentic Po Boy sandwiches, a tasty array of creole entrees, and homemade cream biscuits. www.brendasoakland.com
Best Bar Menu Hi Tops
Runners-up
Lookout, Jolene’s
Make like a torch with your corndog, horndog! There’s gay Olympic sports bar snacking on tap at our gold medal winner. Pair pole vaulting with cauliflower on a stick, breakdancing with buffalo wings, and basketball with fries dunked in dip. Just remember to wait 20 minutes after finishing those Killer Nachos before taking in synchronized swimming. www.hitopsbar.com
Best Bakery/Patisserie
Arizmendi
Runners-up
Tartine, Bob’s Donuts
On Wednesdays, the Sunset location of this worker-owned cooperative business features a cheddar onion cornbread in full loaves and face-stuffing rolls that are worth going out of your way for. Selections vary at the Mission branch, but both outposts do fine work on the sweet and savory fronts. Try the cowgirl cookies, Wolverine rolls and take-and-bake pizzas. www.arizmendibakery.com
Best Dessert/Ice Cream
Mitchell’s Runners-up
Bi-Rite Creamery, Humphry Slocombe
While the Mitchell family no longer has its dairy farm on the edge of Noe Valley (Can you imagine?), they’re still dishing out 16% butterfat ice cream, made fresh in-store every day. They don’t offer Salt and Straw-ish stunts like Ti-D Bowl Swirl and Existential Crunches, preferring the curatorial
finesse of making two distinct coconut flavors (buko and macapuno) and showcasing Philippines-sourced fruit in their lucuma, lychee, and their bestselling mango scoops.
www.mitchellsicecream.com
Best Coffee Shop
Manny’s
Runners-up
Spike’s, Cafe De Casa
Super java meets social justice at studly Manny Yekutiel’s eponymous Valencia corridor mash up of café, community center, bookstore and event space. There are four nights of Democratic Convention watch parties scheduled for later this month. www.welcometomannys.comt
Besties Restaurants
page 30
Left: Nopalito Middle: La Mediterranee Right: Brenda’s Oakland
Photos courtesy of the restaurants
Above: Hi Tops
Below: Arizmendi bakers
Photos courtesy of the restaurants
Left: Mitchell’s Right: Manny Yekutiel (2nd right) and staff
Photos courtesy of the restaurants
<< LGBTQ Best of the Bay
Besties Nightlife People
DJs, comics, queens and kings
Below
Below
Best
by Michael Flanagan
It’s always a big treat to work on the Besties because of all of the talent you see here. We’ve got comedians, performers, DJs, dancers and photographers. What an impressive roster. Congratulations to all of our winners, to the runners-up and to the community for participating in choosing them. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
Best Comic Marga Gomez
Runners-up
Jesus U Better Work
Lisa Geduldig
Marga Gomez returns to the top spot as the funniest person under the LGBT rainbow. This year she has been touring “Swimming with Lesbians,” which is about a more than three
Best Drag Queen
D’Arcy Drollinger
Runners-up
Sister Roma
Peaches
Christ
D’Arcy Drollinger treated us to the character Drew Buriedmore in this year’s “Sqream” among many other roles. But her most prominent notoriety this past is that of being dubbed San Francisco’s first Drag Laureate. The owner of the Oasis (among many other credits) has won this year’s Best Drag Queen title from the B.A.R.’s readers. Congratulations on a well-deserved award to a community treasure. www.darcydrollinger.com
Best Drag King
Tie: Madd Dogg 20/20 &
Alex U. Inn
Runner-up
Leigh Crow
Well, this is cool: Best Drag King winner of 2022 and 2023 share the title in 2024! Alex U. Inn is a founding member of the hip hop drag troupe Momma’s Boyz and has been co-organizer of the People’s March and rally. Madd Dogg 2020 participated in Princess Pink Saturday and ruled the Ducal Court of the Golden Beaver. Let’s hope for synergistic performance energy this year as we congratulate the winners. www.shugdoggproductions.com www.facebook.com/alex.u.inn
Best Faux Queen
Miss Shugana
Runners-up
Trixie Carr
Fauxnique
Aside from being Grand Duchess 45 (2017 -2018) and winner of the San Francisco Faux Queen pageant in 2017, Miss Shugana is co-owner and producer for Women’s Weekend at the Russian River in 2024 and is the life partner of the other coowner and producer Best Drag King co-winner Madd Dogg 2020 – how messhuggneh is that? Here’s hoping that this honor is just the beginning of the fun for their upcoming events. Mazel Tov!
www.shugdoggproductions.com
Best Bartender
David Delgado (The Cinch)
Runners-up
Captain Ficcardi (The White Horse)
Bernadette Fons (The Stud)
Best Live Band Middle Aged Queers
Runners-up
Lolly Gaggers, Lipstick Conspiracy
They call themselves a “supergroup of seasoned punks” that are (in the words of Alternative Press) “fighting for the rights of underserved and marginalized people” and when they were last in New York at Bowery Electric “Full Time Aesthetic” said “When the Middle Aged Queers roll into town, you know the party is about to get started.”
A political band that knows how to party – our readers say hell to the yes. www.middleagedqueers.com
Best Gogo Dancer
Emerson Silva
Runners-up
Chad Stewart, Paul William
“Resident dancer in the best clubs and circuit parties” is the tagline Silva uses online. As a dancer who does
that, with cheer and sexy appeal, he also works with Broadway Bares SF/ Equity Fights AIDS. Our repeat Bestie-winning hunk continues to both entertain and provide contributions to the community. Congratulations and keep up the good work. www.instagram.com/gogoemerson
Best Nightlife Photographer Gooch
Runners-up
Steven Underhill, Tie: Shot in The City/Kid With a Camera
Fresh off of his participation in the “Pride for The Rest of Us” show at San Francisco Gallery and “Not Just Rainbows: The Art of Deidre DeFranceaux and Gooch” at the Minnesota Street Project, the massively talented and prolific photographer returns again as the winner of the Bestie. Keep doing what you’re doing, Gooch. Our readers love it. www.photosbygooch.comt
hour tour in which Gomez morphs into a variety of hilarious characters that captured both the hearts and the funny bones of our readers. www.margagomez.com
Best DJ
Bus Station John
Runners-up
Tie: Sergio Fedasz / Page Hodel
Bus Station John is the power behind both Tubesteak Connection at Aunt Charlie’s and Disco Daddy at the Eagle. He’s been called legendary by no less than the SF Chronicle, and our readers wholeheartedly concur. With an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure and tasty music all the way back to the beginnings of disco, he is an amazing DJ and is truly loved by the readers of the B.A.R. www.facebook.com/scott.tobereal
One of the driving forces behind the bar that reminds us that there is still community on Polk Street, the winner of the 2023 Best Bartender award returns for a second year (will he make it a threepeat?). Delgado has been a popular bartender in the area for more than a decade and this is a well-deserved honor. Well done, sir. facebook.com/thecinchsaloon
Best PerformerNightlife/Cabaret
Katya Smirnoff-Skyy
Runners-up
Suzanne (Kitten on The Keys)
Ramsey, Kippy Marks
Hardworking cabaret performer and actor Katya Smirnoff-Skyy is the monthly host of Katya Presents at Martunis (naturally) and starred in the New Conservatory Theater Center’s “Ruthless!” this year, as well as Ray of Light Theatre Company’s production of “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.” Thanks for being a true force in keeping cabaret alive in San Francisco. www.russianoperadiva.com
Above Left: Marga Gomez, here in her show ‘Swimming with Lesbians,’ again won Best Comic.
Above Right: Bus Station John is dubbed Best DJ.
Upper Middle: D’Arcy Drollinger, Best Drag Queen
Lower Middle Left / Right:
Madd Dogg 20/20 & Alex U. Inn tied for Best Drag King.
Left: Miss Shugana won Best Faux Queen.
Right: Katya Smirnoff-Skyy won
Nightlife/Cabaret Performer.
Above Right: FBFE Lower Middle Right: Terry Scussel
Above: Emerson Silva was voted Best Gogo Dancer again. Middle: Middle Aged Queers won Best Live Band.
Below Left: David Delgado, The Cinch’s Best Bartender
Below Right: Best Nightlife Photographer Gooch
Above: Marques Daniels Below Right: Gooch
New Works Festival
by Jim Gladstone
Next summer, a new musical, “Five & Dime” will premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. This month, Bay Area theater fans can get a closeup look at the show in the late stages of its gestation.
Sort of like an ultrasound screening, though that’s a sub-optimal parallel, given that Shakina, one of piece’s co-writers, who will also play one of its leading roles, is transgender.
“I hope that people from across the whole trans and queer community will show up to support this show and this story,” the playwright said in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
“Five & Dime” – an adaptation of“Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” a film and play both directed by Robert Altman – is one of four scripts that will be presented in staged readings followed by audience talkbacks later this month in TheatreWorks’ 21st Annual New Works Festival at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre. Three of the four have queer themes and queer playwrights.
Incubation
The development of new plays and the cultivation of emerging playwrights are touchstones of the Bay Area theater scene. In addition to the New Works Festival, which has helped usher shows by Steven Schwartz, Marsha Norman, and Duncan Sheik into the world, development showcases are regularly presented by the Bay Area Playwright’s Foundation, Magic Theatre, PlayGround and other organizations.
Most plays go through many revisions before full productions are ever (if ever) produced. Staged readings like those at the New Works Festival can provide work with exposure to potential producers while offering playwrights the opportunity to see their work through the eyes of professional actors and directors, not to mention dedicated theater lovers whose feedback is essential as a script goes through many drafts.
Change is good
“I always like to ask the audiences at these readings what they think they’d remember most from the play a week after seeing it,” said queer playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter about “A Driving Beat,” their play in the New Works Festival.
“Knowing if there are particular scenes or lines of dialogue they’ve keyed in on is really helpful. I also think it’s important to hear if audience members are confused by anything. There are a couple of changes that this play has gone through because of feedback I received at earlier readings that made me realize I needed to clarify certain aspects of the script.”
“A Driving Beat” tells the story of a 14-year-old boy and his mother on a cross-country road trip, during which the action regularly shifts between the present and memory. Ramirez Puckett has made refinements to ensure that the timeframe of any given moment is clear to audience members.
Ramirez Puckett knows that despite the Palo Alto reading coming “late in the development of this play, almost seven years in” more changes will occur.
“I’m feeling like there needs to be some expansion at the end of the play. Right now, the characters get to the end of their trip and the play ends, too. I think there’s a little bit of room to deal with some of what happens after they arrive.”
Ramirez Puckett has been working on these additions in the weeks prior to coming to the festival from her current home in New York (She studied playwriting at Julliard after growing up in the South Bay).
“We have two readings a week apart at the festival. So, I’ll see how the new material lands the first time, and then probably make some more adjust-
Taking
ments before the second reading. If they wanted to, people could come to both and see how things change.”
The evolution will continue until the play receives its premiere production at the Flint Repertory Theatre in Michigan.
Writing recognized
“There’s a surprise at the very last moment,” said Vichet Chum, speaking to the Bay Area Reporter about his script, “Liebling,” also featured in the New Works Festival. The play’s story concerns the relationship of two boyfriends with very different senses of themselves within the Asian-American diaspora.
“One of the things that’s important to me in the readings is to see whether it makes sense to the audience. In past readings there have been people who didn’t pick up on it, or who asked me to explain what was going on.”
Chum, who was raised outside of Dallas by Cambodian immigrant parents, studied at the Brown University/ Trinity Theatre drama program. After graduation, he moved to New York, planning to pursue an acting career, but quickly discovered that “the audition opportunities I was getting as a queer Asian man were just so diminishing. I felt like this was a problem I wanted to be part of solving, so I shifted my focus more to writing.”
Overlapping identities
“In conversations with audiences at earlier readings of ‘Liebling,’ I’ve wanted to make sure that I’d written these queer Asian characters as compelling people who the audience can root for as a couple but also understand as two very different individuals. One is Cambodian American, and the other is bi-racial, Chinese American and German.”
In discussing “5 & Dime,” Shakina said she hopes that the show, which she co-created with Ashley Robinson and Dan Gillespie Sells, registers as “not just a trans story.”
“It’s really about sisterhood that crosses between trans and cis women. I want to set a model for how we can
better understand and show up for each other as sisters in the communities where we live.”
“5 & Dime,” “A Different Beat,” and “Liebling” will each be presented twice over the course of the festival. The second staged reading of each will take place over the course of a single day, Saturday, August 17, providing local theatre afficionados the opportunity to participate in the development of all three shows as they progress toward their world premieres.t
TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival, August 9-18. $25-$65. Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. theatreworks.org
Left: Playwright/actor Shakina in ‘5 & Dime’ Middle: Playwright Jordan Ramirez Puckett Right: Playwright Vichet Chum
Reed Flores
Thomas Brunot
Brittanie Bond
Brontez Purnell
by Jim Provenzano
Award-winning queer author, dancer, choreographer and musician Brontez Purnell will break out a new style when he performs classic blues songs written and performed by his great uncle J.J. Malone at the Berkeley Art Museum on August 16. The concert is presented in conjunction with the art exhibit “A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration.”
In a phone interview from his West Oakland home, Purnell, known more for his punk music, discussed his inspiration for switching music genres for this performance honoring his uncle.
“We’re going to do some of his earlier stuff, and some of his funk-leaning stuff from the ’70s,” said Purnell. “The band is drummer Sean Teves and bass player Taifa Nia, the two guys who normally back me up, but we’re probably going to hire one or two session players. We’re still working out the sound, so I want to see how it goes. If it goes really well, there is this real piece of my heart that would love to make a tribute album to my uncle.”
Music roots
Music runs in his family. Purnell’s great-grandfather, “Hard Rock” Charlie Malone, was an accomplished bottleneck guitarist who performed nationally on the 1930s “Chitlin Circuit” through segregated states. He was the father of musician J.J. Malone (19352004), who performed with multiple musicians over several decades from his early years in Alabama. His later move to Oakland led to more success. Along with penning hit singles and four albums, the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist started Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland with fellow musician Troyce Key. Events have come full circle. Recently, Purnell performed at that
Author, choreographer and musician to perform his great-uncle’s blues music at Berkeley Art Museum
nightclub with his punk band, The Younger Lovers. That band made its debut at BAM in 2009. He’s also been in other bands like Gravy Train!!!!
I’ve done lots of stuff at the Berkeley Art Museum,” said Purnell. “It’s always a groovy, fun place. I love it.”
Born in Triana, Alabama, Purnell, now 42, said that as a child he enjoyed a nurturing environment for his blooming artistry.
“My parents, my mom in particular, were very music and literature-based,” he said. “I think they put that kind of fire in my soul. You know how, some-
times as a child, you feel these weird dreams that your parents had that maybe they didn’t get to fulfill? My mom would come home from work and lock herself in her room and she would write plays. And I think she tried to write a book in the late ’80s. My dad was very into music. We had a lot of guitars around. So yeah, my life as a musician and a writer; I do think I am fulfilling a dream of theirs also.”
Art forms and flow
How does he decide whether to create a song, a novel, a film or a zine (his
other many talents)?
Purnell said, “Anything I’m thinking of has the potential to be all of it. Inspiration comes from so many places, but I think the different projects, they tell you what they want to be. I just work from there. It’s about a flow, an improvisation, kind of a sixth sense.”
Asked about his renewed interest in his great-uncle’s music, Purnell said, “When I moved to the Bay Area and I said the word blues – I live with all these white hipster boys – so when you say blues, their only reference is redbellied scratch guitar. Growing up in Alabama, my only reference for blues was the electric blues. Because I grew up in the ’80s, I grew up with current blues. There are no recordings of my great-grandfather, ‘Hard Rock’ Charlie, but maybe he sounded like that.
“But I knew my uncle J.J. and his earlier stuff. I have one of his 7-inch record from the ’60s, an original song he did called “Sail On,” and that one’s pretty rock and roll, actually. His stuff with The Rhythm Rockers gets really bluesy.
In the’70s, he was on the soundtrack for a movie, “Black Girl,” with a song called “No World for Dreamers.” “It’s A Shame” and “Danger Zone” are closer to when blues moved into a funk era with congas and all this type of stuff. So yeah, the sound definitely morphed across four or five decades.”
Arsenal of thought
Along with his upcoming concert, Purnell, who won a Lambda Literary Award for his witty sex-packed novel, “100 Boyfriends,” said he’s finishing up a science fiction novel.
“I’m also planning to record some more music next year,” he said. “I just need to go into the studio and get it together. But I’ve done so much in the span of two years, I’m starting to think maybe I could just rest for a bit. But yeah, I’m always working, always playing gigs. So yeah, you’ll definitely be getting more music and writing out of me.”
Asked if he thinks creativity is genetic, environmental, or perhaps both, Purnell said, “A friend and I were just talking about analytical philosophy, and the new science says there’s absolutely no way to separate those two things. If it was genetics, there’d probably be a few more in my family, but I was definitely supported around it, too. I definitely had the spark for it. I felt like I couldn’t live without it.”
As we shared experiences in dance and writing, Purnell made a connection between the two art forms. While he took traditional ballet classes for several years, his own choreography often relies on non-dancers and more contemporary movement styles.
“So much of ballet is like weird poetry,” he said, “because the instructor will say things like, ‘Push your toes to press up.’ It took me almost eight years to understand that it’s just a certain way you move your musculature and your toes to align yourself perfectly to relevé.
“Connecting these weird, poetic things helped me move. There’s something about the vernacular of it that we take for granted in everyday life. It has to be dreamed into your system. Learning the other language of that, there’s no way ten years of that didn’t go into this arsenal of thought in writing that happens now.”t
Brontez Purnell performs the music of J.J. Malone, and some of his own songs, at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2155 Center St. August 15, 7:30pm, Free-$14. www.bampfa.org instagram.com/brontezpurnell
Brontez Purnell
Brontez Purnell
Tameka Whetstone and Brontez Purnell in one of his punk bands, The Social Lies
J.J. Malone
J.J. Malone and Troyce Key, Eli’s Mile High Club, Oakland, California
Mark Sarfati, Wikipedia
Willi Carlisle
by Gregg Shapiro
For the longest time, queer country and folk music fans didn’t have much good music by queer artists from which to choose. Sure, country music provided them with plenty of divas, including Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire, to worship. Willie Nelson was the closest thing to a leftie as could be found in the genre. Whereas folk music was a bit more welcoming to both queer followers and performers.
Much has changed with more country artists coming out, from Lavender Country, Chely Wright, Ty Herndon, and Billy Gilman to Brandy Clark, TJ Osbourne, Brandi Carlile, Jaime Wyatt, Orville Peck, Amethyst Kiah, Jake Blount, Melissa Carper, and Brooke Eden, to name a few.
If Arkansas-based Willi Carlisle isn’t on your radar yet, he should be. Not only do Carlisle’s distinctively poetic lyrics separate him from most of the pack, but as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, his talent is sure to make a lasting impression. Carlisle, whose remarkable new album “Critterland” (Signature Sounds), was released earlier this year.
Gregg Shapiro: Willi, I’d like you to say a few words about your musical influences in the folk, country, and LGBTQ+ music worlds.
Willi Carlisle: Welp, I’m an interdisciplinary artist, so my influences are pretty varied! Classic American authors like Walt Whitman and Melville, folksingers Utah Phillips and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, as well as many writers in our contemporary Americana scene. Recently, Anna Tivel, Adeem the Artist, Tyler Childers. I’d also count outliers like the puppeteers Peter Schulman and Micheal Sommers, folk punks like Apes of the State and Defiance! Ohio, plus drag
queens and clowns everywhere. A newspaper once called Walt Whitman “a queer occultist or a blethering yokel,” and I thought I’d try to be both.
You received an MFA in Poetry from the University of Arkansas. There have been some wonderful queer visiting writers at the school including Robin Becker and Natalie Diaz. With whom did you study while in the MFA program?
People make much of my master’s degree in poetry [laughs]! I enjoyed some aspects of it, but frankly spent more time with a fiddle under my chin than with a pen in my hand. I moved to Arkansas to be a folksinger, and the MFA was perhaps a means to an end, even if I didn’t see it at the time.
I called a square dance or played old-timey music a few nights a week. I studied with Geffrey Davis, Kentuckian Davis McCombs, the neo-formalist Geoffrey Brock, the late Ellen Gilchrist, and, briefly, Henri Cole. I was not a great student, but I adored my colleagues. Closeted and struggling in Arkansas, I was mostly chasing music and love.
Have you published a fulllength poetry collection or chapbook?
Nah. Maybe someday.
Does your background in poetry have anything to do with the inclusion of spoken word tracks such as the title cut from “Peculiar, Missouri” and “The Money Grows on Trees” from “Critterland?”
Sure! But “Peculiar” is my attempt to do a song in the tradition of dozens (if not hundreds) of talking blues story songs, too. “Money Grows on Trees” might be spoken word, but it’s a badman-ballad like the ones I heard sung about local legends all over Arkansas.
Which is to say, vernacular poetry and songs have always been in our world, our tradition. The most common question I get is the difference between poetry and music, and there’s none. No difference! Lord, let me eschew obfuscation and yank the highfalutin chain of our histories out of every lowly lover.
To my ears, songs such as “I Won’t Be Afraid,” “Life On the Fence,” and “Your Heart’s A Big Tent,” from “Peculiar, Missouri” and “The Arrangements” and the title tune from “Critterland” wear their queerness on their denim sleeves. Do you have a sense of how these songs been received by folks in the LGBTQ+ community?
They seem to like ’em. Because I’m a “daywalker,” and spent most of my life passing as straight. I guess I got pretty good at writing queer-coded things. Our audience is diverse and welcoming, and that’s my favorite thing about my work. As many bi/pan/yes/and people do, I often don’t feel “queer enough.”
I’ve never been part of certain queer subcultures or visibility movements. For me, being queer always lived at truck-stops, on Craigslist, while couch-surfing, and frequently involved being afraid, closeted, and tough. It never presented itself in a “respectable” way, so I feel very seen when other LGBTQ+ people like it. At the heart of queerness is a relationship to love, friendship, and sex that goes beyond procreativity, marriage, property, or gender. If I get to sing that into the world, I’m happy.
How do you think these songs have been received by non-LGBTQ+ folks in the folk and country music world?
Honestly? People rarely notice they’re queer songs. Or maybe they do but stay hushed about it? In one instance, the brilliant writer Steacy Easton (whose debut memoir “Daddy” I’m stoked to read) said my song “Tulsa’s Last Magician” was queer.
They’re right, but someone took umbrage, said that they thought it was a song about a working-class guy and not a “gay thing,” said he was bummed that he’d missed the point. Thing is, the song is both queer and working class. Sometimes straight folks seem to think if something isn’t straight that they’re not allowed to connect to it. Hooey like that keeps our worlds too far apart.
Speaking of which, it was a pleasant surprise to hear musician and ally Darrell Scott playing on most of the songs on “Critterland.” How did that collaboration come to be?
We wanted to work with a dynamic writer and multi-instrumentalist, a DIY-doer, and man of letters. Darrell fit the bill perfectly. We talked about poetry and literature most of the first night, forgetting to work on songs. [Laughs] Honestly? My management put us in touch. I’m new to this industry and travelled the country playing in honky-tonks without any support or industry bona fides for the better part of a decade before I could’ve found my way into Darrell’s studio.
Many of your songs have a cinematic quality which made me wonder if any of your music has
been used in any movies or TV show.
Nah [laughs]! Wouldn’t that be cool though?
Is there a style of music that you listen to for your own enjoyment that might surprise your fans?
I’m pretty eclectic! I’ve enjoyed the rise of Chappell Roan this year, and also like grindcore, extreme metal, doom metal, and polka. I’m not an ex-
pert in any of this stuff and refuse to be too knowledgeable.
Even though she’s missing an S, could there be a Willi Carlisle and Brandi Carlile collaboration in your future?
[Laughs] Just sitting here waiting on the call! Let’s do this, Brandi.
www.willicarlislemusic.com
(last
We hope you can join us at one of our upcoming performances: Oct 11, 2024: Unplugged with Sidra Bell Nov 30-Dec 8, 2024: The Velveteen Rabbit Apr 10-13, 2025: Dance Downtown odc.dance/calendar
Photo by Shawna Sarnowski
Musician Willi Carlisle
Courtesy Willi Carlisle
Willi Carlisle performing
Courtesy Willi Carlisle
‘Sing Sing’ Coleman Domingo stars in
by Brian Bromberger
It’s a striking opening scene when presumably we’re watching an actor take command of center stage and beautifully, flawlessly recite a passage from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” But as soon as he takes a deserved bow, the camera follows him and his fellow performers exiting with guards and returning to their cells. We immediately learn these men are all incarcerated at New York’s notorious Sing Sing correctional facility.
A24’s gripping “Sing Sing” is based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program started at Sing Sing in 1996, which was broadcast to the world via John H. Richardson’s “Esquire” article, “The Sing Sing Follies.”
The film follows incarcerated members as they stage a play from its inception to its opening night. RTA allows participants to explore and nurture their vulnerability through creative endeavors, whether it be theater, music, dance, etc.
Divine inspiration
The opening actor is the film’s main protagonist, John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), who’s serving time for a murder he claims he didn’t commit. He’s preparing legally for an upcoming clemency hearing based on new evidence that might exonerate him. Divine G is one of RTA’s co-founders. He’s a role model serving on the steering committee, who not only acts but writes plays performed by RTA, basically its artistic manager.
The group’s director Brent Buell (heartfelt Paul Raci) is an outside volunteer who also writes some of RTA’s plays. After the success of “Midsummer,” Divine G, along with his best prison buddy, Mike Mike (Sean San Jose, co-founder of SF’s Campo Santo) and Brent, recruit Clarence “Divine
Eye” Maclin (who plays himself and is a co-writer of the screenplay), a guarded tough guy drug dealer who aggressively collects and extorts his debts, but can also quote from “King Lear.”
For the troupe’s next production, Divine Eye suggests rather than performing a play written by Divine G, they do a comedy, which rattles Divine G. Brent will pen the goofy timetraveling musical farce “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” (actually written by the real-life Brent Buell) taking role suggestions from the other actors, including pirates, an Egyptian mummy, Hamlet, gladiators, Old West gunfighter, and Freddy Krueger.
A crisis will occur during rehearsals when Divine G experiences a yelling crying meltdown revealing his inner pain, questioning whether he can continue in the production.
‘Am I OK?’
by Joshua Polanski
The long-awaited Dakota Johnson lesbian rom-com, “Am I OK?” finally premiered on Max two years after its festival premiere. The cute film about coming out later in life is directed by the sapphic married couple Stephanie Allynne and Tig Notaro, the latter of whom makes a spectacular cameo in a role only she could have played as a hammock retreat instructor, and is led by a mostly female and queer-friendly crew. St. Vincent (credited as Anne Erin Clark) even contributes to the film’s music.
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Emotional life raft
Director/writers Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley volunteered in RTA and interviewed past and present RTA members for the film’s point-of-view. Aside from professional actors Domingo, Raci, and San Jose, the rest of the cast are non-professional RTA alumni playing versions of themselves.
The film functions almost like a docudrama since viewers witness the acting exercises, interpersonal dynamics and techniques to get the men to explore locked down feelings, all hallmarks of RTA. RTA creates a safe space, a “psychological and emotional life raft” for its members or as one of the incarcerated remarks, “We’re here to become human again, to put on nice clothes, dance around, and enjoy things not in our reality.”
The screenplay has its clunky mo-
ments and the pacing can be a bit too languid, especially in its therapeutic moments. Also, one wishes there was more background material on how these convicts wound up in the facility, especially Divine G, but it can be argued that we’re presented with the men as they are now, not as criminals, but as they attempt to reinvent themselves with dignity intact.
Domingo is having a spectacular year with his Best Actor nomination for “Ruskin” as well as his compelling “Mister” Johnson in the musical film “The Color Purple.” His Divine G is stupendous and it’s almost inconceivable he won’t be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar early next year. He expresses the full range of Divine G’s emotional development and self-enlightenment, whether it be transcendence, affability, or fury. He performs brilliantly with the “non-actors.” It’s a breakout role
Dakota Johnson stars in a film about coming out in your 30s
“Am I OK?” is the sort of warm, feelgood LGBTQ movie dependent on its adhesion to the simplest depictions of queerness, especially coming out of the closet, and that’s both one of its great banes and boons.
Johnson, in addition to helping to produce through her company TeaTime Pictures, plays Lucy, a 32-yearold Angeleno woman just now realizing that she likes women more than she likes men. It may be another queer film about coming out, but at least this one feels authentic and delivers a more infrequently told coming out story than the usual late teens or early 20s awakening.
Her best friend, the possibly bicurious Jane (Sonoya Mizuno), just announced a work promotion that will move her to London; their relationship takes a hit in the aftermath. As she openly and honestly navigates queer sexuality for the first time in her life, she does so with a timid innocence and an awkward, straight-faced quirky humor that’s reminiscent of Notaro’s stand-up personality and her role as Reno in “Star Trek: Discovery.”
Funny but awkward
At its best, the combination of Johnson’s delivery with Lauren Pomerantz’s
positioning him as one of today’s foremost gay actors. Macklin has an electric edgy energy, so you’re never sure how he’ll react from scene to scene. It’s an impressive, auspicious debut. Probably in line to win awards as one of 2024’s best films, this small indie upends the standard prison drama with its usual clichés. You might think you should watch this movie because it will be good for you, but it’s enrapturing and powerful despite its harsh surroundings. “Sing Sing” will make your spirit soar, reminding us that there is goodness and kindness in the world.t
Read the full review on www.ebar.com.
‘Sing Sing’ screens in Bay Area cinemas starting Aug. 2. www.a24films.com
writing makes for hilarious one-liners and social interactions so intensely awkward that her dry deliveries turn into something resembling a skit. At its worst, we get lines like “Ice cream is different than vagina… otherwise it would be called vag-ice cream.”
The lesbian awakening emerges from “Am I gay?” internet quizzes and a failed friendship with a male friend that ends when he moves in to kiss her and she “catapulted off the bed,” using his phrasing. A new crush at work also helps her figure things out. Jane leaving for London creates a new urgency for Lucy to figure life out and to pursue happiness before her source of stability leaves. She’s dependent on her friend so much that it grows burdensome even for the viewer, but it works
without being dangerously toxic (for the most part) because Jane is a naturally authoritative person.
In the film’s most detailed and meaningful representation of a lesbian coming-out experience, after sex, the next day at work Brittany mentions that she’s glad they had that fun “experience.” Brittany shows no willingness or interest in being with a woman and only wants to try a new kind of thrilling intimacy.
There’s nothing wrong with sexual experimentation, of course. There may even be a convincing argument that the screenplay minimizes the possibility of Brittany’s bisexuality by leaning into the dehumanizing language of “experience,” as if sleeping with a woman is a fun thing to check
off one’s errand list rather than a full sexual orientation.
“Am I OK?” kind of fizzles out without a bang. There is no coupling between the leads (and perhaps that’s for the better), nor even a clear sense for Lucy’s next steps. The filmmakers want us to believe her life makes sense now, and that the path to happiness sits right before her. But she still has more questions to face than answers prepared. In real life, sexual actualization is important but not ultimate and Lucy, one way or another, will learn that the hard way.t
Read the full review on www.ebar.com.
www.max.com
Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno in ‘Am I OK?’
Emily Knecht, courtesy of Sundance Institute
Left: Coleman Domingo in ‘Sing Sing’ Right: A scene from ‘Sing Sing’
Both photos: A24 Films
t << Books & Kink
Donna Minkowitz
by Michele Karlsberg
Donna Minkowitz has been a dynamic force in the literary world for decades. She is a writer, teacher of memoir writing, a writing coach, a journalist, a radical activist, and the originator of the literary open mic series called Lit Lit.
Her memoir, “Ferocious Romance,” won a Lambda Literary Award, and “Growing Up Golem” was a finalist for a Lammy and for the Publishing Triangle’s Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award. A former columnist for the Village Voice, Minkowitz writing has also appeared in the The Nation, Salon, Slate, and The Advocate.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing Donna throughout this journey, witnessing her thrive and garner prestigious awards, while also sharing her expertise. One of her memoirs, “Ferocious Romance: What My Encounters with the Right Taught Me About Sex, God, and Fury,” delved into the world of the right-wing Christian Fundamentalist organization the Promise Keepers. Her writing highlighted, in a funny and harrowing way, her absolute fearlessness as a journalist and social critic.
Her debut novel, “Donnaville” is set in “the city of Donna’s mind,” where all the characters except her partner and a “tourist” character are parts of her. The city is outwardly verdant and pleasant – attractive to visitors – but it also has a hidden, central prison. Some of the characters run the prison, and others are hoping to burn the place down. Still other characters, of course, are incarcerated there.
In advance of its October release from Indolent Books, Minkowitz discussed the inspirations behind her multi-singular-character novel.
Michele Karlsberg: Why did you choose the title “Donnaville?”
Donna Minkowitz: Since I was very young, I’ve been obsessed with the
idea of the mind as a city. As a teenager, I read a poem by Delmore Schwartz that says, “the mind is a city like London,/Smoky and populous. It is a capital/Like Rome, ruined and eternal…”
I wanted to see what my mind – what my self – would be like if it were a city. What would the divisions between rich and poor be like? Would there be aggressive cops who hurt people? Would anyone rebel against them? What would sex and love and flirting be like in there? Would the economic system be oppressive?
Some of this imagining came about because I realized there was some kind of prison inside me in which parts of myself were imprisoned, and sometimes even tortured. I really wanted to destroy this prison, but in order to do that, I had to see it clearly first. I knew
it was only through exploring it that I could learn how to tear it down.
I also knew there were a lot of beautiful things in my city – groves of flowers and fruit, some courageous people – and I wanted to put them in as well.
How queer is Donnaville?
Very queer! I like to say that the only heterosexual character is a horse. Everyone else (including the llamas) are bisexual, gay or lesbian, and/or nonbinary. There’s a goddess in the book called the divine mother, and she’s pretty much a lesbian who gets involved with several of the other female characters.
If you identify as a queer woman, and all the characters are parts of you, why are gay men so promi-
On that level, the book is a big romp across different genders and sexualities. There are three lesbian characters in addition to the goddess, and two gay men and a bisexual one, as well as a child who doesn’t yet know her sexuality. And sometimes the lines get crossed – sometimes people get attracted to people outside their official sexual orientation, people they’re not “supposed” to be attracted to.
Tell me more about the characters that aren’t you. Yes! Tourism is a big part of Donnaville’s economy, and there’s an important character named Hylas who’s a tourist. That means that unlike most of the characters, he’s not a part of me. He gets into a relationship with one of the protagonists, which is a way of illustrating what it’s like to get into a relationship with me.
nent in the story?
I actually identify as both female and nonbinary (always queer though). But in my life, I have sometimes felt like a man and sometimes like a woman. Even though I strongly identify with the specific history and culture of being a woman, gay men have always loomed large in my imagination. My wife says I must have been a gay man in a previous life. I often think gay men are sexy, and I like their personalities.
Also, my wife, who I call E in the book, is present as a character. Relationships are a major theme of this book. How to share your real self with others, how to honor your own needs but also make room for the needs of another person.t
“Donnaville” will be available this October, from Indolent Books. You can pre-order now and also find out about her upcoming Kickstarter. www.indolentbooks.com www.donnaminkowitz.com
Photo by Steven Underhill
Think kink! The annual Up Your Alley Street Fair, known as Folsom Street Fair’s “dirty little brother,” took place on July 28 in South of Market. Revelers included Furries, kinksters, a variety of merchant booths, drinks and food, DJed music, Steamworks’ naked Twister games, and even a few caged gogo dancers. www.folsomstreet.org
Journalist and author Donna Minkowitz Rena
‘Ways and Means’
by Laura Moreno
Set in 2016 in New York City, “Ways and Means” is about money and becoming aware of the personal dramas caused by it. Author Daniel Lefferts, 35, paints a compelling picture of the strange things cold-hearted capitalism spawns, including the growing threat of disharmonious social forces. But it’s quite a feat that the book is also written with great compassion.
The writing itself is razor-sharp and quite complex. Lefferts has delivered a literary novel that is also a dark comedy, a thriller in the mold of John Grisham, and a 21st-century love story. It’s also a book about longing for home, as well as a sobering satire of the current American political and economic landscape.
The protagonist is greed-driven finance major Alistair McCabe. He has $100,000 in student debt, no job offers, and an urgency to provide his much-loved mother with enough money to break out of her middleclass existence.
Self-conscious about his social status, he spends his student loan money seeking to impress his peers with just the right beautifully coordinated wardrobe. But ironically, out in the real world where people are really hurting financially, the too-brightand-clean look may no longer always be an asset.
Alistair’s father’s extreme ambition, we are told, killed him. And Alistair is determined to follow the same path. Without inquiring about what a lucrative new job entails, Alistair finds work for a fracking billionaire through a shady Eastern European character. The work is “finance-adjacent,” helping the poor with “free enterprise. The freest you can imagine.” But he soon discovers his employer’s treasonous plan to destroy the government’s social safety net, and benefit from the resulting misery.
Predictably, the young man ends up having to run for his life from his lunatic billionaire boss. The problem Lefferts highlights is not so much money as people’s lack of love and respect for themselves, putting the value of money ahead of their own lives and well-being.
Each of the characters has their own unique psychological relationship to money and a self-awareness that makes them endearing.
The free competition of capitalism was a revolutionary, egalitarian idea when it was first implemented in New England, but it only works when tempered by the guiding principles liberty, equality, real charity, and a solid education for all. Otherwise, capitalism inevitably devolves into a predatory economy that enslaves everyone but the top 1-3%, cannibalizes itself, and returns to feudalism.
“Ways and Means” is also a love story between three young men. The protagonist is dating an artistic male couple who are still trying to figure out what role they want to play in the
world. The book centers on the spiritual dynamics of their relationship, and the deference that for the most part makes for smooth relations between them.
Together the trio end up burning through the million dollars Mark’s
family set aside for him, so now Mark must work for his family’s mobile home empire. True to the overarching themes of greed and decency in the book, masks fall, fake smiles run out and the situation spirals into violence when his family discovers Mark deals fairly and ethically with their low-income tenants.
Jay, another character in the book, is something of a caricature of an apolitical artist trying to ride the wave of the MAGA movement by painting bacchanalian scenes of men in working class crimson hats. All in all, “Ways and Means” is a brilliant read and a satisfying exploration of the complexities of life in contemporary America.t
‘Ways and Means,’ a novel by Daniel Lefferts, $28, Abrams Books www.abramsbooks.com www.daniellefferts.com
