The Obamas put their rhetorical skills to work on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention August 20, as the presidential nominee’s native Bay Area punches above its weight in shaping the week’s proceedings.
See page 10 >>
HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson
Biden admin touts $1.4B for HIV programs
by Matthew S. Bajko
Federal health officials are touting $1.4 billion in funding for national programs that assist low-income Americans living with HIV in obtaining their necessary medications and health care. It comes as the 2024 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment kicks off in Washington, D.C.
Timed with the start of the HIV confab that has drawn 6,500 people to the nation’s capital, the Health Resources and Services Administration Tuesday morning announced the new allocation in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and HIV health care and support services under what is known as Ryan White’s Part B.
See page 10 >>
Silicon Valley Pride parade, festival to cap weeklong celebration
by John Ferrannini
Silicon Valley Pride week is in full swing, as the South Bay prepares for its annual parade and festival celebrating LGBTQ liberation. This year marks the 49th annual event, and organizers want people to “Get Loud.”
Leading up to this weekend’s parade, drag artist Kalypso won the Silicon Valley Pride Drag Queen Cooking Showdown Monday, which launched the week’s festivities.
“Cooking in full drag, with long hair, huge lashes, and high heels, is not something I’d recommend – but it sure makes for an unforgettable experience,” Kalypso stated to the Bay Area Reporter on August 20. “It was truly an honor to participate in this showdown, with the SV Pride community cheering us on. Winning was just the cherry on top.”
Programming Thursday, August 22, includes the Pobladores Night Market from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in downtown San Jose, featuring queer musician Lisa Dewey, said Saldy Suriben, a gay man who is chief marketing officer for Silicon Valley Pride. Concurrently, from 6 to 9 p.m., there will be a Silicon Valley Pride movie night showcasing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell.
Then, on Friday, August 23, from 6 to 11 p.m. there’ll be a Silicon Valley Pride kick-off party at the Continental Bar Lounge and Patio in downtown San Jose.
Weekend parade, festival
That’s all the prelude to the festival – Satur-
day, August 24, from 6 to 11 p.m. and Sunday, August 25, from noon to 6 p.m. – in downtown San Jose’s Plaza de César Chávez. The Sunday parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. from Julian and Market streets and makes its way to the plaza.
See page 10 >>
Retiring lesbian fire chief celebrates SFFD wins in her tenure
by John Ferrannini
Lesbian outgoing San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson said she is stepping aside amid health matters at a noontime news conference August 14 intended to highlight her trailblazing career.
“I’m retiring because I have some health issues and that’s all I’ll say about it,” she said in the Fire Commission meeting room at the San Francisco Fire Department headquarters on 2nd Street.
Later, in a media scrum outside, she elaborated. “I was just on all the time and, yeah, my body can’t do it anymore and I also know the department is in a really good place with the leadership that we have in place” to move forward, she said.
Nicholson has been public about a previous fight with an aggressive form of breast cancer that occurred in 2012.
In an interview shortly before she was sworn in as fire chief, she told the Bay Area Reporter 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.”
Nicholson’s retirement was announced in late July. Mayor London Breed appointed Nicholson in 2019. Nicholson has been with the department since 1994. Running for reelection, Breed will now have the opportunity to select a new fire chief, though that was not on the agenda as she gave remarks praising Nicholson at the news conference.
“Who would have thought we’d be fighting a once-in-a-hundred-year global pandemic?” Breed asked, referring to COVID. “The fire department was part of that response and Chief Nicholson stepped up.”
Former President Barack Obama delivered an address to the Democratic convention Tuesday.
CSPAN
Departing San Francisco Fire chief Jeanine Nicholson, left, and Mayor London Breed shared smiles at a news conference highlighting Nicholson’s career.
John Ferrannini
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority’s contingent marched in last year’s Silicon Valley Pride parade.
Sean Washington
MBA group reaches out to biz professionals
by Matthew S. Bajko
For nearly three decades Reaching Out MBA has been connecting LGBTQ graduate students as they seek their master in business administration degrees. Known as ROMBA, it is hosting its annual conference in Los Angeles next month under the theme of “Rainbow Connection,” a nod to the beloved song among the musical repertoire of a plush green frog with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Since launching in 1999, ROMBA has also maintained relationships with LGBTQ alumni of MBA programs but in a more informal manner than when they were in school. The nonprofit doesn’t have a paid membership structure, for instance, but does have a group on LinkedIn that numbers more than 3,500 people.
Looking to assist LGBTQ business professionals who are in their mid-careers, ROMBA decided to launch a new conference for such individuals. It will be held concurrently at its September gathering for MBA students.
The new offering has been dubbed Reaching Out PRIZM with the tagline “See your career in a new light.” It is geared for people two to seven years post their MBA program or a similar business development experience.
“We are very excited about launching PRIZM this year. It has been long awaited,” said Aidan Currie, a gay man who has been ROMBA’s executive director for six years.
The idea behind the new initiative is for ROMBA to be “reaching out more,” explained Currie. It is a way to continue to support the LGBTQ MBA students it has formed relationships with as they move up the corporate ladder.
pact in ways that feel additive in ways to things already in the ecosystem. PRIZM feels additive,” he told the B.A.R.
And rather than just say “goodbye” to the MBA students it works with upon their graduation, PRIZM is one avenue for ROMBA to continue to grow those relationships and continue to nurture LGBTQ business professionals, said Lenox.
“We should be helping people later in their careers to also have transformative moments,” he said.
Lenox, 45, first became involved with ROMBA two decades ago when he worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company. The firm sponsored the nonprofit and sent Lenox to its conferences to recruit new talent.
“We are moving beyond strictly MBA,” Currie, 48, told the Bay Area Reporter during a recent phone interview from Atlanta where he is based. “We know this is something our community is really looking for.”
PRIZM isn’t an acronym. Rather, it is inspired by how rainbows can occur when light is refracted by a prism. It is an analogy for how the conference attendees will be able to envision various career paths in their professional lives.
“It is a nice play on kind of light coming in to a prism and seeing a full rainbow of opportunities as you get through the conference,” explained Currie.
ROMBA is expecting to have around 150 people sign up for the inaugural PRIZM conference. The hope is this pilot program will be a success and become an annual offering.
“PRIZM hopefully will feel accessible over time to a lot more LGBT talent and have a ripple effect on their impact at work and to impact change in the world personally. It is something I am very excited about,” said gay San Francisco resident Jevan Lenox, who serves on ROMBA’s board and is the chief people officer for drug company Insitro.
It is an acknowledgement that ROMBA has not just been helping MBA students, said Lenox. That work is “only one specific lever” for the nonprofit, he added.
“Among the conversations on the board was we want to take the strengths of the organization and expand that im-
Later, when he enrolled in the MBA program at Harvard Business School in 2009, he attended ROMBA’s conferences as a graduate student. Throughout his career Lenox has remained involved with the group and joined the nonprofit’s board four years ago.
“I really believe in the cause of helping LGBT business talent develop and progress in their careers, and not just on an individual basis but also through systems change. We can help LGBT leaders be visible and be positive forces for change in the workplace and in societies,” said Lenox, a father of two boys, 4 and 6 years old, with his husband, Ryan Lenox, a real estate broker at Compass.
Via his job with McKinsey, Lenox spent three years working in Shanghai from 2005 to 2008, during a time when the police frequently raided gay bars and LGBTQ Chinese citizens faced harassment. Luckily, he had the support of his company to be out at work.
“Business can be a huge lever of change in many of these places,” noted Lenox, who had witnessed such a dynamic during his time as a board member of Out for Undergrad, a nonprofit that works with LGBTQ undergraduates in various fields.
Queer second-year Stanford MBA student Shikhar Sood, 29, who was born in India and grew up in several African countries and Great Britain, came out after attending the 2014 Out for Undergrad conference while earning a bachelor’s of business administration in finance and French from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.
“I came out the day the conference ended and was able to find my job consulting at Bain through that conference,” recalled Sood, who attended ROMBA
conferences on behalf of his company and sought it out once he decided to enroll in an MBA program. “I think an MBA is an amazing way to just have a very intentional time to reflect both professionally and personally.”
By becoming involved with ROMBA MBA students can find much more than just networking, stressed Sood, who is president of Stanford’s Pride group this year.
“For me, it is a platform and a way to connect with people beyond the professional sense. You can create long-lasting bonds and find other people who have gone through a similar experience and journey of being queer,” he said.
ROMBA also provides fellowships each academic year to more than 200 LGBTQ MBA students at 70 business schools and corporate partners. Each receives, at minimum, a $20,000 scholarship and is invited to attend a retreat for the fellows.
“There really is no place like ROMBA. It is just a way to walk into a room and be authentically yourself and be fully seen by everyone around you,” said current fellow Cullen Quigley, 28, a gay second-year MBA student at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
He is the first part-time USC student to be selected a ROMBA fellow, as he splits his time between Los Angeles and New York City where he works in advertising and marketing for Macy’s. Quigley decided to seek an MBA as a way to consider his professional path.
“I am really using an MBA for a career pivot,” said Quigley, who is interested in pursuing opportunities in the tech sector or consulting. “This has been a really great opportunity to see new things and also see the West Coast.”
The Ohio native learned about ROMBA when applying to graduate schools. His scholarship is helping to cover his tuition.
“I really wanted to get some West Coast business acumen,” said Quigley, who earned a B.S. in journalism from Ohio University in 2018. “I was going to be a weatherman.”
He has been out of the closet throughout his college years. Quigley has had no issues while on the campus of USC, and as vice president for conferences with his business school’s LGBTQ student group, helps put on various events.
“USC is a great school to be authentically yourself. There is a wonderful presence of LGBTQIA-plus individuals,” he told the B.AR. “We really are lucky, that’s why it’s so exciting ROMBA will be in Los Angeles this year. There is such a diverse community here.”
Depending on the size of their school, LGBTQ MBA students could find themselves the only out member of their two-year program, noted Lenox. Thus, via ROMBA, they can foster a network of contacts who could assist them post their graduate programs.
“To build that kind of community is really, really powerful,” Lenox said. “Historically, LGBT folks in business struggled with how to build a networking community in an environment where you are maybe sometimes very different and maybe the only one. What we know is it is very well established that communities and networks are what make people successful over time.”
Currie, who was born in London but grew up mostly in Toronto, attended his first ROMBA conference in 2010 while earning his MBA at the NYU Stern School of Business. He was then hired by Marriott International in its internal consulting group and convinced it to become a corporate partner of ROMBA.
“I was so impressed with the substance and style of the event. It had incredible education opportunities and was a lot of fun, too,” recalled Currie, who moved to Atlanta to work for a different hospitality company where he met his now-husband.
As he began to think about a change in careers, a headhunter called him about leading ROMBA. After being hired, he disbanded the nonprofit’s Boston office and had his staff use shared workspaces. Today, ROMBA employs five people in five states but none on the West Coast.
With the PRIZM conference, being held September 27-29, Currie said tickets have been priced to be affordable for LGBTQ professionals. The first 50 cost $300 and then the price increased to $400; any remaining after September 21 will cost $500. Attendees will also attend the main conference’s dinner, with keynote speaker this year being gay actor and TV series “Schitt’s Creek” co-creator and star Dan Levy.
“You don’t have to be part of a company paying a lot of money to kind of go join the event,” said Currie.
Students find valuable connections
The main ROMBA conference, taking place September 26-28, attracts more than 1,800 attendees and dozens of companies. For current students, tickets cost $250 until August 25 then go up to $300 if bought by September 20.
Quigley went to last year’s conference held in Chicago and described it as “an event of firsts.”
“So this could be the first time a student ever used their pronouns,” he said. “It could be the first time they are ever in a queer professional space. Or maybe it is the first time they have ever been out of the closet with fellow peers.”
Asked what his pitch would be to LGBTQ MBA students for attending a ROMBA confab, Quigley pointed to the camaraderie and networking potentials. He called it “a really great launchpad” for kicking off one’s MBA journey and learning from queer business leaders.
“It is really amazing to think no matter what main city I fly to now in the U.S., I have a small professional network and friends in all of those cities thanks to ROMBA,” he said.
Sood pointed to the recruiting done by corporate employers at the conference as one main draw for why MBA students should attend. Being back on the West Coast will draw different companies this year; it was last held in the region in 2014 when ROMBA took place in San Francisco.
“L.A. gives us access to a lot of atypical employers or networks,” he said. “It is good we are mixing it up. It will be easier for people on the West Coast to attend, for sure, and for a fresh set of panelists and sponsors to be involved as well.”
The range of topics discussed at the conference can be “eye-opening,” said Lenox. In recent years sessions have focused on the issues transgender business professionals must confront, he noted as one example, with the panelists then able to make connections with trans and nonbinary MBA students.
“I am going on 20 years going to these conferences on and off and still it is not stale for me,” he said.
For this year’s conference, Quigley and Sood are one of 12 MBA students from across the country selected to help organize it and plan a certain topic track at it. Quigley chose tech and named one session “The 101 on Tech Recruitment.”
“Because we have the 101 Highway down in L.A.,” he said. “We are emcees as well and work with corporate partners to execute roundtables and presentations and mock consulting case competitions.”
He also had submitted this year’s theme inspired by the “Rainbow Connection” song from the 1979 film “The Muppet Movie.” Sung by Kermit the Frog, the song’s refrain about “the lovers, the dreamers and me” felt apt, said Quigley.
“I thought it was a perfect way to celebrate L.A.,” he explained.
Quigley also liked how rainbows “have nothing to hide,” a fitting message for the MBA attendees.
“Sometimes the best thing to do is jump in. What better way to do it than with people who see you for who you are and accept you?” asked Quigley. “Go where you are celebrated. One hundred percent that is what Reaching Out has done for me.”
To learn more about the ROMBA conferences and the organization itself, visit its website at https://reachingoutmba.org/ t
ROMBA Executive Director Aidan Currie spoke at an event for the organization.
Courtesy Aidan Currie
The 2024 ROMBA student organizers, with Cullen Quigley and Shikhar Sood standing next to each other in the middle, meet ahead of this year’s conference.
Courtesy ROMBA MBA student Cullen Quigley Courtesy Cullen Quigley
Reaching Out MBA Executive Director Aidan Currie, left, joined ROMBA participants at an event.
Courtesy Aidan Currie
Member of the Stanford Health Care LGBTQ+ community
At Stanford Health Care, we are pioneering care specifically for the LGBTQ+ community. From preventive wellness to gender-affirming care, including innovative specialized surgical techniques, our LGBTQ+ Health Program sets the standard. We are even home to the first large-scale, long-term national health research study of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S.
Learn more about our LGBTQ+ Health Program at stanfordhealthcare.org/lgbtq
WHO declares mpox an international emergency << Health News
by Liz Highleyman
The World Health Organization on August 14 declared that the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and nearby countries is a public health emergency of international concern.
Advocates say the burgeoning outbreak is worsened by neglect from wealthy countries and inequitable access to mpox vaccines.
This is the second time the global health organization has declared an mpox emergency. It also did so in 2022 during a global outbreak that included cases in the U.S. and elsewhere.
While cases outside of Africa still occur, though at a much lower level, the number of infections, particularly in the DRC, led the WHO to make its second declaration.
The current outbreaks in the DRC involve Clade I mpox, a strain of the virus that has historically had a higher mortality rate than Clade II, which was responsible for the global outbreak in 2022. Clade I has not yet been detected in the United States – so far, Sweden is the only country outside Africa to report a confirmed case – but health officials are concerned about international spread.
“The detection and rapid spread of a
new clade of mpox in eastern DRC, its detection in neighboring countries that had not previously reported mpox, and the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond is very worrying,”
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing. “It’s clear that a coordinated international response is essential to stop these outbreaks and save lives.”
Meanwhile, Clade II mpox continues to circulate at a low level in the U.S.,
primarily among men who have sex with men. As of early March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tallied more than 32,000 total cases, resulting in 58 deaths. In San Francisco, 21 cases have been reported so far this year, according to the SF Department of Public Health.
“At this time, mpox cases in San Francisco remain very low. The current seven-day average for mpox cases is currently zero. At this time, mpox detections in San Francisco’s wastewater are significantly below levels seen during the 2022 outbreak,” according to a DPH statement sent to the Bay Area Reporter. “SF DPH continues to monitor developments regarding Clade I mpox along with our federal and state partners. We will continue to update the community if further actions are needed to protect health.”
Mpox in the DRC
Prior to the 2022 global outbreak, mpox was known as an uncommon disease in western and central Africa, where it largely affected children. According to an August 12 WHO situation report, there are concurrent ongoing outbreaks in the DRC. More than 15,000 cases and over 500 deaths have been reported so far this year. But due to inadequate health infrastructure and
civil conflict, mpox testing has been limited, and there are wide discrepancies between suspected and laboratoryconfirmed cases.
In areas of the DRC where mpox is endemic, the traditional picture still holds. Clade Ia mpox is transmitted through multiple routes, primarily close physical contact and contact with wild animals. Children have accounted for a majority of cases and deaths.
At the same time, an outbreak in eastern DRC caused by the newly identified Clade Ib mpox appears to be spreading mainly through sexual contact. Unlike the 2022 Clade II outbreak, however, cases have included similar numbers of men and women, many of whom are sex workers and their clients.
Beyond the DRC, Clade Ib mpox has been reported recently in nearby Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. Clade I mpox is considered more deadly than Clade II. During the 2022 Clade II outbreak, the overall fatality rate was low, at around 0.2%. But mpox can be more severe in people with advanced HIV, and most people who died in the U.S. were Black gay men with AIDS. Historically, fatality estimates in African countries have ranged up to 10%, but mortality depends on the availability of medical care, so it’s hard to compare wealthy and low-income countries.
“The current upsurge of mpox in parts of Africa, along with the spread of a new sexually transmissible strain of the monkeypox virus, is an emergency, not only for Africa, but for the entire globe,” said Dr. Dimie Ogoina, who chaired the emergency committee that recommended the WHO declaration. “Mpox, originating in Africa, was neglected there, and later caused a global outbreak in 2022. It is time to act decisively to prevent history from repeating itself.”
Mpox vaccination
Mpox is mainly transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, including sex, hands-on caregiving, and contact between members of a household. It can also spread through saliva, respiratory droplets at close range, and contact with materials such as clothes or bedding used by people with mpox lesions. Airborne transmission without close contact appears to be rare.
At this time, the CDC assesses the risk posed by the DRC outbreak as “very low” for the U.S. general population and “low to moderate” for gay and bisexual men and those in their sexual networks. Experts “do not believe that a similar scenario of transmission is likely in the United States” due to limited travel from the DRC, smaller and less crowded households, better access to improved sanitation and health care, and the lack of animal reservoirs.
Nonetheless, federal and local health officials urge people at higher risk to get vaccinated regardless of whether a local outbreak is underway. These include gay and bisexual men, transgender and gender-diverse individuals, people living with HIV, those on PrEP, sex workers, and others in their sexual networks. There is currently no vaccine shortage, and San Francisco’s health department offers it to anyone who wants protection from mpox.
Two doses of the Jynneos vaccine should be given at least four weeks apart, but people who received only a single dose in 2022 can get the second dose at any time and do not need to restart the series.
“The two-dose mpox vaccine provides the best protection against mpox, including Clade I,” according to the DPH statement. “Booster doses are not recommended at this time for those who have completed the two-dose series. In addition, mpox vaccination is not recommended at this time for those who have previously been infected.”
The antiviral drug TPOXX (tecovirimat) is recommended for mpox treatment. The medication is effective against Clade II mpox, but data released last week suggest that it may not work as well against Clade I. The study did show, however, that adults and children in the DRC who received good supportive care had a lower risk of death.
While mpox testing, vaccines, and treatment are now readily available in the U.S., this is not the case in the DRC and other affected countries in Africa. WHO is working with national health officials and partner organizations to increase access, but cost, stigma, transportation and distribution logistics, overstretched health facilities, and displacement of refugees present barriers to mpox prevention and care.
The Treatment Action Group, a U.S.-based HIV/AIDS advocacy organization, supports WHO’s mpox emergency declaration but was critical of the global health system in general.
“The limited access to vaccines, tecovirimat, and other essential health commodities this far into the current outbreak is yet another demonstration that the existing global health system cannot guarantee the human rights to health and scientific progress for all. Major reforms and a reallocation of resources are necessary,” TAG said in a statement.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Courtesy WHO
Gay former go-go dancer pleads guilty to SF murder Community
by John Ferrannini
Agay man accused of fatally stabbing his boyfriend was sentenced to 15-years-to-life in prison after pleading guilty, according to a news release from San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.
Othman Almuttalaby, 33, had denied those charges in the past, pleading not guilty November 15, 2017, the Bay Area Reporter reported at the time
He had worked as a go-go dancer, porn actor, and fitness trainer, according to people who knew him.
As part of the plea deal to seconddegree murder, Almuttalaby agreed to waive three years of credit at the end of his sentence. He has been in custody since his arrest, according to the DA’s office.
“I would like to thank the victim’s family and friends for their faith, patience and trust in my office to get justice for their family,” Jenkins stated in a news release. “Their strength, courage, and resolve never wavered and serve as inspi-
SFFD From page 1
It was in those challenging times Nicholson showed why she’d been the right choice, the mayor said.
“She got the job done,” Breed said. “She was a hands-on chief. She helped the firefighters of this department.”
Breed praised Nicholson and the department’s work on street crisis response teams, a key initiative of her administration meant to provide help for people with behavioral health crises without involving police.
“San Francisco was the first to do that work – and the work you did to put in place the street crisis response teams ... has been a model to other parts of the country,” Breed said.
“I’m happy for your retirement but I know you won’t be far away,”
ration to all of us fighting for justice on behalf of victims and survivors of crime.”
Almuttalaby was accused of killing
Breed concluded.
Nicholson, in turn, thanked the mayor. When she had to hold back tears thanking department and city leaders she said, “There’s no crying in baseball.”
“I just put my foot on the pedal and got going,” Nicholson said of her work ethic, adding that when she was selected as fire chief she felt she’d “won the lottery.”
Nicholson said she was proud of the fire department’s new training facility in Hunters Point.
“I just won’t be using it,” she said.
“That’s a bummer.”
Nicholson was pleased that in her time as chief the department had hired 640 new people in a department of 1,700-1,800. She said that the SFFD has “grown EMS and community paramedicine to meet demand in the city.”
“Now we’re a young department but we’re tight. We got through COVID,
Keith Harris, 48, who was found November 2, 2017 on the floor of his apartment at 340 Hayes Street – two days
we staffed APEC, whenever something needed to be done, you did it,” she said, referring to last November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference that drew world and business leaders to the city.
Nodding to her status as the first LGBTQ chief, Nicholson praised her department’s work in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“A lot of that was born from where I came from,” Nicholson said. “I’m from the time of the consent decree, when the department was ordered to diversify, and I’m a woman in a man’s profession. ... also being of the LGBT community, I’ve had an insight into discrimination and that has helped me understand all different communities.”
In 1988, a federal court issued a consent decree to the department, ordering it to hire a workforce of at least 40% mi-
after he’d last been seen alive.
Almuttalaby was living with him at the time, according to court records. Prosecutors alleged that early November 1, Almuttalaby attacked Harris while he slept.
“Mr. Almuttalaby seemed to be motivated by the belief that the victim would leave him after they had discussed admitting Mr. Almuttalaby to a mental health facility to treat depression,” the DA’s office stated. “The victim’s body was discovered by police on November 2, 2017, after concerned co-workers alerted the building manager when the victim failed to show up for work. The building manager entered the locked apartment, discovered blood, and immediately called the police.”
Almuttalaby tried to flee in an Uber but began vomiting inside the vehicle, causing the driver to stop and call 911, prosecutors allege, adding Almuttalaby was found unconscious in the Uber and transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
norities and 10% women. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that by 1995, the department was 31% minority and 5.3% women.
More recently, Nicholson defended 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 jury verdict in favor of the city. (https://www.ebar. com/story.php?ch=news&sc=legal&id =328481&title=sffd_trial:_fire_chief_ nicholson_blasts_plaintiff_from_the_ stand)
When the B.A.R. asked for her greatest accomplishment, Nicholson didn’t want to name just one.
“My greatest accomplishment? I don’t know that I would rank them,” she answered. “I think they are all so important. Having a training center is
Assistant District Attorney Danielle Hilton prosecuted the case.
“Although nothing will ever alleviate the pain of losing such a kind, generous and charismatic son, brother and friend, I hope this resolution is able to bring closure for this wonderful family,” Hilton stated. “I am proud to stand among the people who came from far and wide to show support for this victim. The loss is tragic, but the strength and resilience within this community is overwhelming.”
Harris had been an engineering manager at Automotive Mastermind. Almuttalaby had been suicidal in the weeks before the killing, but unnamed friends who spoke to the B.A.R. at the time described themselves as shocked at the turn of events.
Almuttalaby was represented by attorney Malcolm Smith, who did not immediately return a request for comment.t
imperative for this department but I also believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion is imperative for this department. Giving young people an opportunity to do what we do and giving them the skill set to do what we do. Disaster preparedness and training for that is super important. I don’t think I can come up with one thing. Maybe that’s a lame answer, but every piece plays a part in this department to make us what we are and I’m just super proud of all the work that’s been done.”
Fire Commissioner Steve Nakajo told the B.A.R. that Nicholson did her job with distinction – “serving the people of San Francisco in all capacities, street crisis response teams, suppression, and all the programs she mentioned in terms of equity.” Nicholson departs at the end of the month. t
Othman Almuttalaby, left, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in San Francisco Superior Court for killing his partner, Keith Harris, in 2017.
From FB
Volume 54, Number 34 August 22-28, 2024 www.ebar.com
PUBLISHER
Michael M. Yamashita
Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013)
Publisher (2003 – 2013)
Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003)
NEWS EDITOR
Cynthia Laird
ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR
Jim Provenzano
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl
Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell
Michael Flanagan •Jim Gladstone
Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen
Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno
David-Elijah Nahmod • J.L. Odom • Paul Parish
Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel
Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro
Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner
Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood
ART DIRECTION
Max Leger
PRODUCTION/DESIGN
Ernesto Sopprani
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jane Philomen Cleland
Rick Gerharter • Gooch
Jose A. Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja
Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe
Shot in the City • Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson
ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS
Christine Smith
VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING
Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937
NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863
LEGAL COUNSEL
Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.
Bay area reporter
44 Gough Street, Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94103
Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.
Advertising rates available upon request.
Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.
Dem convention exudes energy
S o far, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago has been a healing balm after the anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women dystopian affair that Republicans staged last month in Milwaukee. Monday night’s speakers – including former U.S. senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, women who spoke about their reproductive crises, and even Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who borrowed star player Stephen Curry’s “night night” move to express how he feels about former President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump – delivered a unified message that the country must vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in November. Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee who narrowly lost the Electoral College to Trump (she won the popular vote by almost 66 million votes, nearly three million more than Trump), lit into the former president, telling a prime time audience that Democrats now have him “on the run” against Harris.
As a former prosecutor, Harris “locked up murderers and drug traffickers. She will never rest in defense of our freedom and safety,” Clinton said. “Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial. And when he woke up, he made his own kind of history – the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.”
And, of course, President Joe Biden, who selflessly decided to withdraw from the race and endorse Harris only a month ago, received a long standing ovation before he gave a fiery speech that touted the Biden-Harris administration’s many accomplishments while also passing the torch to his vice president. While his speech was long – and the convention ran late, pushing it out of primetime on the East Coast – it was important that those in the United Center and watching at home heard about all of the things the administration has done in one term. Biden mentioned lowering the price of insulin for seniors, creating jobs, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and gave a nod to the LGBTQ community. “And here’s what else I believe in protecting – your free -
dom ... your freedom to love who you love,” the president said.
And Biden’s right that a Harris-Walz administration will continue many of those policies. The convention’s first night also featured up and coming Democratic stars, and we were impressed with Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), who injected energy into her speech. One of the founding members of “the Squad,” a group of progressive lawmakers, Ocasio-Cortez showed why she’s the smartest of the bunch and has grown while in office.
Despite Trump’s many efforts to portray himself as a supporter of the working class, OcasioCortez has seen right through that fantasy. He would “sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends,” she said. OcasioCortez also clapped back at Republicans who say she should go back to tending bar. She said she’d be happy to “any day of the week, because there is nothing wrong with working for a living.”
But more importantly, Ocasio-Cortez was one of the speakers who pointed out the obvious. “In the next 78 days we must pour every ounce, every minute, every moment into making history on November 5,” she said. “But we cannot send Kamala and Tim to the White House alone. Together, we must also elect strong Democratic majorities in the House and Senate so we can deliver an ambitious agenda for the people.”
And that’s the point. While Harris has reset the presidential race in terms of being nearly even or ahead of Trump in battleground states, according to recent public polls, it’s Democratic control of Congress that is also key. The party has an uphill climb to keep the Senate, mainly because West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (who has no party affiliation but caucuses with Democrats after leaving his longtime party earlier this year) is not seeking reelection and that seat will almost certainly go red. Montana is another danger zone, as Democratic incumbent Senator Jon Tester is in a real fight against a wealthy Republican in a reliably red state. There are other close Senate races in Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada that Democrats must win.
Then, there is this reality check from the leader of a pro-Harris super PAC. Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward, told Reuters that their own surveys show a less “rosy” picture and that Democrats face much closer races in key states.
McLean said Pennsylvania remains the most consequential state in the group’s analysis, and he called its Senate race a “coin flip” based on its polls, the news service reported. He said that Harris must win one of three states –Pennsylvania, North Carolina, or Georgia – to win the White House.
And he warned that Harris has yet to fully rebuild the Biden coalition of Blacks, Hispanics, and young voters that brought him the White House in 2020, Reuters reported.
McLean also said polling shows the public wants more detailed policy positions from Harris. That is likely to come soon, and in
See page 10 >>
Kamala Harris for president
by Gabriel Haaland
For the queer and trans community living in the South outside the Blue Wall of states, like me, the past couple of years have become increasingly dangerous, especially for trans folks and drag queens. Tens of thousands of trans folks have moved out of the South because of the increasingly hostile environment, including the loss of gender-affirming care for trans people and bans on drag queens. Put simply, MAGA people and their candidates want to eradicate trans folks and drag queens from public life, and as he did in his first administration, former President Donald Trump will actively pursue regressive anti-LGBTQ policies as outlined in Project 2025, the game plan for his second term.
With the Project 2025 plan on the table, and the risk of Trump being elected, some in the queer and trans community in the South have even left the country out of the legitimate fear of a Trump presidency and a fascist state. Also, the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision granting Trump total immunity for official acts has raised the stakes considerably. Immigrants, trans people, and drag queens are the targets of the MAGA crowd, and their bigotry and hate would be unleashed under Trump.
Recently, Mark Robinson, the MAGA candidate for governor in North Carolina, went so far as to say that some folks ought to be killed, and he meant us. The founder of Project 2025 went even further and threatened that Trump’s election would be a second American Revolution but that it would be bloodless if the left allowed it just to happen. I’m guessing if we just submit to our oppression quietly, we won’t be shot?
Project 2025 is also intended to dismantle the safety net for things like Social Security and disability and the regulatory system that protects our environment and us from unchecked corporate power. In this context, it is more important than ever to defeat Trump, and it will take all of us together to do so.
As the first female Black and South Asian candidate to head the Democratic national ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential bid will shatter the highest glass ceiling in all of American life. Moreover, when fulfilled, her bold and progressive economic
agenda will rival former President Barack Obama’s health care plan in terms of importance for working families. With her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, it is undeniable that a HarrisWalz administration will be champions of working families, and protect and expand reproductive and LGBTQ rights.
That all said, Harris may be a challenge for some progressives because of her association with President Joe Biden and his stance on Gaza, but she has distinguished herself from his position. While it is fair and right for people to push her hard on this issue, it was powerful that Harris asked the leaders from the uncommitted movement to meet with her before the recent rally in Michigan. And while her first response in Michigan upset some, we could see the influence of the uncommitted movement, in the way that Harris responded the next time at a rally in Arizona when people were protesting for Gaza. Instead of shutting people down, or saying that protesting was helping Trump, she said that what they were protesting was important, and then she said she was working for an immediate ceasefire.
Even before she ran for president after Biden withdrew in late July, Harris was one of the earliest
high-profile leaders in the administration to call for an immediate ceasefire, which she did in March. She also delivered the sharpest rebuke against Israel’s handling of aid flows into Gaza and described the conflict as a “humanitarian catastrophe” for innocent civilians. And privately, according to reports, she has told Biden and other top officials that the administration needed to take a stronger stance against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and focus on a long-term peace to the decades-long conflict.
Her recent decision to choose Walz as her running mate instead of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, something unexpected for her, was a huge nod to those who care deeply about Gaza, as well as labor, progressives, and young voters. Not to mention Walz’s LGBTQ, reproductive justice, and progressive accomplishments in Minnesota that have become the same policy wins Trump and Fox News constantly rail against when discussing his qualifications, with a unique and pointed anger toward his policies supporting transgender rights. Walz is like a younger, even more queer-friendly progressive version of Senator Bernie Sanders. Harris and Walz’s strong commitment to unions, working families, the civil rights of all our communities, and lifting up the middle class is why Sanders, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), labor, and progressives have stepped up to support them. As in France and England, progressives and labor need to work in coalition with the center-left to defeat fascism. The threat is real. Recently ProPublica discovered dozens of training videos to teach the MAGA army of operatives who will infiltrate the so-called deep state to dismantle it. So in these perilous times, we need to come together to do both: Defeat the lethal threat of fascist forces here in the United States and push for an immediate ceasefire, which can only be done by electing Harris and Walz. I ask everyone to vote for Harris and Walz like our lives depend on it. Because, for many of us, it does. t
Gabriel Haaland, who is trans, is the former president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and a union activist. They now reside in Asheville, North Carolina, where they are a member of Queers 4 Voting Rights, a grassroots, antiracist group.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke to delegates Monday, August 19, the first night of the party’s convention in Chicago.
Courtesy DNC
Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York energized the crowd at the Democratic convention Monday, August 19 in Chicago.
Courtesy DNC
Gay former Mt. View councilmember Clark seeks 3rd term
by Matthew S. Bajko
Four years ago, gay Mountain View City Councilmember Chris Clark was required to step down due to having served two back-to-back, four-year terms on the governing body. The youngest person ever to serve on his seven-person council when elected in 2012, Clark was the first, and so far only, LGBTQ member of the Silicon Valley city’s council.
Under his city’s term limit rules, Clark, who turns 41 next month, could have run for a council seat in 2022. But he opted not to challenge the incumbents, his former council colleagues, who were up that year.
With two of the four City Council seats on this year’s November 5 ballot open, Clark decided to jump into the race. He is one of nine candidates seeking the seats, which are voted on citywide.
If elected, Clark would once again be the sole out member of the council. He could also seek a fourth term come 2028. Part of his reasoning for wanting to serve again is continuity of knowledge on the council, as the current members will all be hit with the same term limit rule either this year or coming election cycles.
“I was on the fence about running again,” Clark told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview this month. “But a bunch of folks encouraged me to run, and I realized I missed it.”
Two years ago, he was named to the city’s planning commission, reviving his direct involvement in development issues impacting Mountain View. Advocating for more housing being built, including homes affordable to those in the middle class, is a top area of concern for Clark, who intentionally made it his first priority on his campaign website.
“Housing affordability is a perpetual issue here in Mountain View,” noted Clark, who has been a homeowner in the city since 2012.
The state has given the city of more than 81,000 people a target of constructing 11,000 units of new housing by 2030. With the downturn in the local economy, including tech industry layoffs, and developers faced with increased costs to build, Clark said it is unclear if the number will be reached.
“Right now, it is going to be more of a struggle just from where the economy is right now to meet those goals,” said Clark, noting the city itself doesn’t build housing but puts “the frameworks in place” for developers of both market rate and affordable housing to do so. “Hopefully, the economy turns around.”
Clark grew up on a farm along the Mississippi River on Illinois’ western border with Iowa. He has lived in Silicon Valley since 2000 in order to attend Stanford, which he graduated from in 2005 with a degree in political science.
He moved to Mountain View in 2008 and has worked for several tech companies. He is chief operating officer at OpenResearch, formerly Y Combinator Research, though is taking some time away to focus on his campaign this fall.
For eight years he worked at OpenAI, as its first COO then its head of nonprofit and strategic initiatives until stepping down in the spring. The company has been at the forefront of advancements in artificial intelligence, something Clark has been asked about by voters as he campaigns.
He told the B.A.R. he is proud of the work he did at the company, in particular helping it sign leases for office space in downtown San Francisco. It did so as other companies were leaving the city’s financial district post changes in work from home policies brought on by the COVID pandemic, he noted.
“It was good to feel like we were one of the growing sectors in San Francisco
and to be able to help with some of what was going on there,” said Clark. “Hopefully, things will continue to pick up as the economy improves.”
The health crisis hit just as Clark was in his final year on the council. His last meeting was held via Zoom, which he said, “felt a little strange.”
His two former colleagues who are now also termed out of office, Councilmembers Margaret Abe-Koga and Lisa Matichak, have endorsed him this year.
“I am eager to jump back in,” said Clark. “A lot of projects I started working on my last four to six years got put on hold during the pandemic. I am eager to get back in and work on some of those.”
Also among his early endorsers is gay former Santa Clara County supervisor Ken Yeager
“I am so excited that Chris decided to run again. He was much too young when he was termed out of office,” Yeager, the first LGBTQ person to serve on his countywide board and the San Jose City Council, told the B.A.R. “With a few more years behind him, he will be even more effective on the council.”
Congressmember Anna Eshoo (D-San Jose) is also supporting Clark’s candidacy.
“Chris Clark is an unwavering champion for Mountain View,” stated Eshoo, who is retiring from Congress this year.
“Throughout his 15 years of dedicated public service, he has earned a reputation for judicious leadership and consensus building. I am proud to endorse him.”
One highlight of his tenure as a councilmember was when Clark, at the time serving as Mountain View’s mayor, met then-President Barack Obama when he landed at the city’s Moffett Field. A fellow mayor ribbed him about how much longer Obama had spoken to him.
ing closely with our schools and youth was really important. I am proud of that,” said Clark, who led the push to have his city annually fly the Pride flag. “I hope to continue that here in Mountain View and Santa Clara County.”
Other council races with LGBTQ candidates
There is at least a sextet of LGBTQ candidates seeking council seats on the November 5 ballot in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, following the decision in the spring by gay Morgan Hill City Councilmember Rene Spring not to seek reelection.
In the South Bay, bisexual Palo Alto human relations commissioner Katie Causey is seeking a council seat, while queer Sunnyvale City Councilmember Alysa Cisneros is running for a second, four-year term. Cisneros is being challenged by government consultant Jim Davis for her District 2 seat, while Causey is one of nine people running for four citywide council seats up this fall.
While he fights in court against perjury charges due to allegedly leaking a confidential 2020 grand jury report about the city’s contentious dealings with the San Francisco 49ers over the football team’s stadium built in Santa Clara, gay City Councilmember Anthony J. Becker is seeking a second, four-year term in his District 6 council seat. Two people are running against Becker, whose trial has faced repeated delays and is set to be assigned to a new judge on September 9. (Becker has pleaded not guilty.)
On the Peninsula two out councilmembers are both seeking second, four-year terms. Bisexual South San Francisco City Councilmember James Coleman, serving this year as mayor, is facing a challenge from university finance manager Avin M. Sharma for his District 4 seat. Queer, nonbinary Chicanx Redwood City District 3 City Councilmember Lissette Espinoza Garnica is being opposed by public health professional Isabella Chu Garnica is officially launching their reelection campaign at 10 a.m. Saturday, August 24, at Redwood City’s Andrew Spinas Park. After hearing from several speakers and the candidate, attendees will be asked to canvas the homes of voters.
“Going door-to-door is a crucial part of our outreach strategy and we need your help to come out on top, especially since we are facing opposition,” wrote Garnica in an emailed invite to supporters.
Correction
“I think President Obama talked to me for 64 seconds,” recalled Clark.
He plans to march this Sunday in the Silicon Valley Pride Parade with a contingent. When he spoke with the B.A.R. Clark had yet to decide which one.
“I won’t be a one-person show,” he said in terms of having his own contingent.
His appearance at it is part of his ground game for his campaign. While Clark told the B.A.R. he feels positive about his electoral chances, he added he isn’t taking anything for granted.
“We won’t leave anything to chance. We are going to play here to win, obviously,” said Clark.
With LGBTQ issues, particularly involving transgender youth at schools, coming under renewed attack, Clark told the B.A.R. he looks forward to once again providing leadership for the local community as an elected official.
“Having a visible queer person on the council who is also committed to work-
Last week’s column should have reported that gay San Francisco TreasurerTax Collector José Cisneros is the first and only LGBTQ man to serve in one of San Francisco’s seven citywide municipal elected positions. His lesbian predecessor, Susan Leal, was the first LGBTQ person to do so and, to date, the only out woman elected to such a post. The online version has been updated.t
Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on LGBTQ issues being front and center at the Democratic National Convention. 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) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.
Former Mountain View city councilmember Chris Clark is running again to represent his city.
Courtesy the campaign
SF rec and park updates webpages with LGBTQ site names
by Matthew S. Bajko
In the heart of the LGBTQ Cas -
tro district sits the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, a much-used San Francisco Recreation and Park facility. Inside the building on Collingwood Street is the Mark Bingham Gymnasium named in honor of the 31-year-old gay rugby player who lost his life fighting the hijackers on United Flight 93 during 9/11.
The rec center’s outdoor baseball diamond at the corner of 19th and Collingwood streets is named in honor of Rikki Streicher, a lesbian who owned several bars catering to queer women in the city beginning in the 1960s. Streicher, who also helped to launch the Gay Games, lost a battle to cancer and died in 1994 at the age of 68.
At nearby Corona Heights Park, which overlooks the Castro district, is the Bill Kraus Meadow and Pathway. A gay man and congressional aide, Kraus played an instrumental role in organizing the city’s LGBTQ community politically in the 1970s and 1980s until his death at age 38 in early 1986 after contracting meningitis.
While signage at the pair of city park sites bears the names of the three LGBTQ luminaries to designate the trio of park facilities, the online homes for the parks had been a different story. Until this week, neither website used the names of the people who are celebrated with the naming honors.
People landing on the homepage for the Eureka Valley Recreation Center had found generic names
listed for its gymnasium and baseball diamond. Clicking on the link for the gym brought up a page that omits Bingham’s name, which was approved in 2002, and merely refers to the Eureka Valley Recreation Center – Gymnasium.
The same omission of Streicher’s name is found on the page for the athletic field. It uses the generic name of the Eureka Valley Baseball Diamond for it, though it was named after Streicher in 1996.
As for the official digital home of the Corona Heights Park, it had made no mention of the Bill Kraus Meadow and Pathway, which was so christened by park officials in 1986. Nor is the meadow or pathway designated on a trail map for the hillside locale.
The Kraus meadow is the trian-
Helen of Joy
10/16/1924 – 8/12/2024
In memory of my mother from her middle child
In the gilded light of the highest noon
A giddy girl
Flirts with her
Handsome husband to be
Let’s go with Joy
Your middle name
Young bride
Young mother
The party gal dubbed “Best legs” in high school
The few French phrases
You mastered like a pro
“Il n’ya pas de quoi”
Rolling off your tongue
And yes some Yiddish too
Your maraschino cherry cake
Fresh from the oven
Warm with vanilla scent
Studded with walnuts and Bursting with sweet red juice
Your Swedish meatballs
Swimming in perfectly seasoned tomatoes
Glistening thin onions
Both delicate and hearty
Just like you
The well worn bootlegged paperback of Lady Chatterly’s Lover Hidden in your desk drawer
gular shaped patch of lawn at the park entrance on Museum Way and Roosevelt Way. The Kraus pathway begins at that intersection and leads toward a fenced-in, off-lease dog play area that has its own page on the park’s website.
The Bay Area Reporter noticed the online omissions of the three park sites named for the local LGBTQ icons in covering the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission’s decision to name the new greenspace set to open at Natoma and 11th streets as Rachele Sullivan Park. It is the first such recreational facility named after a leader in the leather and kink community. Sullivan, a cis straight ally and native San Franciscan, was a traditional Filipina healer and leatherwoman who
The screaming bold type of the hardcover The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
All the bedfellows and Longfellows
Filling the bookshelves That told a story And now As then The gilded light returns As once your hair had shimmered In the sun
Lifting you up Shining so bright Guided by love
Welcome home
died in 2022 at the age of 54. Tamara Barak Aparton, deputy director of communications and public affairs for the city agency, said the online omission of the names was an oversight when asked about it August 20 by the B.A.R.
“Thanks for flagging, we’re on it! Definitely not intentional,” wrote Aparton in an emailed reply.
Online sites fixed
By late afternoon Tuesday, the agency had updated the main pages for the two park sites to include the names of the three LGBTQ honorees and brief bios for them. Now, when people land on the main site for the Eureka Valley rec center, they encounter a graph about Streicher.
“A silver-colored plaque is located on the south end of the Eureka Valley Playground, dedicated to Rikki Streicher, one of the founders of the Gay Olympics. The softball field was renamed to honor Streicher, and the plaque was dedicated on December 15, 1996,” notes the site.
The graph for Bingham notes, “A simple plaque with his name gives a nod to the story of United Airlines Flight 93, where all of the jet’s passengers, including Bingham, were killed on September 11, 2001 as part of a terrorist plot that also brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City and a portion of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Bingham and other passengers aboard the ill-fated flight thwarted hijackers’ plans to direct the plane at other targets in DC.”
On the Corona park website the agency added a photo of a bulletin board that bears Kraus’ name. Below it is a blurb explaining the image.
“Bill Kraus Meadow, a triangular shaped patch of lawn at the park entrance at Museum Way and Roosevelt Way, is named in honor of one of the city’s most prominent political leaders and gay rights activists.
Bill Kraus Pathway leads from the meadow towards the park’s off-leash dog area. Both the meadow and pathway were dedicated in Kraus’s honor in 1986,” it states.
As of Tuesday evening, the individual webpages for people wanting to reserve the rec center’s field and gym had yet to be updated to use their proper names. As for the online map of Corona Heights Park, it should be updated with mention of the Kraus meadow and pathway by week’s end.
Aparton noted that across the agency’s more than 230 parks, there are approximately 150 features honoring individuals. They run the gamut of various greenspaces, from hills, gardens, groves, and trails, to facilities such as playgrounds, maintenance yards, yacht harbors, carousels, gates, and stables. A number of the agency’s athletic properties also are named after people, such
as batting cages, tennis courts and golf courses, not to mention various benches, fountains, piazzas, and plazas.
“While not all of these park features are listed on our website, we recognize the stories of the people they commemorate are important to tell,” wrote Aparton, who linked to several of the agency’s social media posts about Bingham, including a 2021 one on Facebook.
“We are currently working with our historian in residence to verify the details of many of our older renamings so we can expand our website to better reflect the diversity of those honored within our parks.”
Hiccups
It is not the first time there has been hiccups with how city agencies are honoring LGBTQ place names.
As the B.A.R. noted in 2013, a community effort had been launched that year to install signage about Kraus and the park amenities named after him. The bench with a plaque honoring Kraus that had been installed in the park ended up being painted over, leaving park users for years being unaware of the existence of the Bill Kraus Meadow and Pathway.
At San Francisco International Airport there continue to be questions about how the aviation facility is referring to its Harvey Milk Terminal 1 named after the late gay supervisor assassinated in 1978. As the B.A.R. reported in 2018, airport officials faced concerns about the wording and font size to be used for the Milk terminal signage, leading to there now being an impossible-tomiss sign for Harvey Milk Terminal 1 on the facade of the structure.
More recently, a B.A.R. reporter noticed that the narration used inside SFO’s AirTrain ferrying people to the terminals did not use the official name for the Milk terminal and merely called it Terminal 1. Nor had it been updated to refer to the nownamed Senator Dianne Feinstein International Terminal.
SFO also hasn’t updated its online references to the Feinstein terminal. As of Tuesday, its webpage with information and maps about the airport’s four terminals had yet to reflect the new name for the International Terminal. It had been changed to properly refer to the Milk terminal.
In June, SFO spokesman Doug Yakel had told the B.A.R. that airport officials had taken updating the AirTrain script under consideration. But this week, he said doing so wouldn’t be possible, nor did the airport intend to update the online map.
“There are time constraints on the AirTrain announcements, so no plans to make a change there. Same goes for the static maps in the interest of simplified information,” Yakel told the B.A.R. Tuesday. t
Thirty friends and political colleagues came out to Corona Heights Park above the Castro district in January 2014 to honor the late gay political activist Bill Kraus with an informational sign of his life and a map of the Bill Kraus Meadow and Pathway.
Rick Gerharter
The baseball field at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center is named after the late lesbian Rikki Streicher.
Matthew S. Bajko
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
Imane Khelif is a professional boxer from Algeria. You have likely heard a lot about her lately.
When she was a young girl, her fa ther didn’t much like her deep interest in sports, saying in a BBC Sport interview that “he did not approve of boxing for girls.” Khelif, however, persisted. She’d commute by bus for training, selling scrap metal and bread to afford the trip.
In 2017, she made it to her first cham pionships, finishing 17th in the women’s lightweight event at the 2018 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships. By 2020, she was an Olympic level athlete, being the first female boxer to represent Algeria.
Then, in 2023, at the Inter national Boxing Associa tion’s Women’s World Boxing Championships, controversy struck. Khelif found herself disqualified shortly after defeating Russian boxer Azalia Amineva. With the disqualifica tion, Amineva’s undefeated streak was allowed to continue.
I should mention that the IBA is deep ly tied to Russia, so much so that the In ternational Olympic Committee revoked its recognition of the IBA.
The IBA claimed that Khelif had failed eligibility tests for the competition, but did not fully specify what those tests were. Some had speculated it may have been due to her testosterone levels being too high to compete, and others claiming she has XY chromosomes. To date, the IBA has kept its tests, and the results, shrouded in secrecy.
Khelif again represented Algeria in the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris. The IOC, reported the Associated Press, felt that the IBA testing was “so flawed that it’s impossible to engage with it,” and had determined that Khelif “was born fe male, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, [and] has a female passport.”
Then came her second-round bout against Angela Carini of Italy.
The fight lasted all of 46 seconds, with Carini taking two punches before she withdrew from the event in tears. Carini also refused to shake Khelif ‘s hand after the bout.
Though Khelif is not transgender, questions immediately sprung up online about her gender.
Author turned virulent transphobe J.K. Rowling was quick to chime in, show ing a photo of Khelif trying to comfort Carini after the fight, claiming that Khelif was displaying “the smirk of a male who’s knows he’s [sic] protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the dis tress of a woman he’s [sic] just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s [sic] just shattered.”
Keep Informed. Stay Empowered.
Likewise, Elon Musk, well on the road to be better known for his own brand of online toxicity versus his businesses, shared a tweet from Riley Gaines showing a photo of Carini and writing, “Men don’t belong in women’s sports #IStandWithAngelaCarini.”
Gaines, I should note, tied for fifth place in 2022 with trans swimmer Lia Thomas.
Gaines has since built a following as a fighter against trans inclusion in sports.
to go on to win gold at the games, or would they have been stripped of the right to compete?
I am without a comfortable answer to this, other than to know that we still have a very long way to go before we’ll see trans equality at the Olympics. t
Gwen Smith won a silver medal at the company retreat. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com
The Bay Area Reporter has been the LGBTQ community’s trusted source for political coverage and advocacy since 1971
As we enter the 2024 election season, we’re proud to continue our legacy of empowering the LGBTQ community with in-depth political reporting and thoughtful analysis.
Starting September 5, we will begin our highly anticipated 2024 election endorsements. Every week until October 31, we’ll bring you our expert evaluations and our fought over – and sought after – endorsements, helping you make informed decisions at the ballot box.
Don’t miss out on the insights that matter—whether it’s local races, statewide contests, or national elections, the Bay Area Reporter has you covered.
Subscribe to our free weekday email newsletter today and be part of the conversation. Your vote is your voice—make it count with the Bay Area Reporter.
up: www.ebar.com/newsletters
The LGBTQ community’s votes are crucial in this election, and the Bay Area Reporter is the most trusted voice in reaching this influential audience and the only LGBTQ media outlet in the San Francisco Bay Area market that endorses candidates for public office.
Secure your print and digital advertising space and ensure your campaign resonates with our dedicated readers. Don’t miss the opportunity to make an impact—partner with the Bay Area Reporter and connect with voters who will make a difference this November.
Olympic gold medal boxer Imane Khelif
Christine Smith
“When we talk about affordable medications, one of our top priorities at the Health Resources and Services Administration is making sure that everyone we care for who is living with HIV gets the antiretroviral therapy they need to live a long and healthy life. We know what works and we know how to reach the communities that need these drugs – we just need to make sure they are affordable,” stated HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “That’s what our HRSA Ryan White Program delivers every day in communities across this country. We make lifesaving and life-sustaining medications and treatments affordable and accessible for individuals with HIV who struggle to pay for this care.”
While the Bay Area Reporter initially had been told that Johnson had allotted time for media interviews Monday afternoon, a HRSA spokesperson said she was unavailable due to her preparations for the speech she is giving at the HIV conference. The gathering’s theme is “Innovating to End the HIV Epidemic: Empowering Communities, Expanding Partnerships, Implementing Interventions.”
According to the breakdown of the funding released August 20, California is receiving $101,654,726 in ADAP funding and $155,440,630 for Part B programs. In 2023, California received an ADAP award of $101,663,845 ADAP and a total Part B award of $151,644,223.
The information isn’t broken down by Eligible Metropolitan Area. HRSA officials didn’t respond Monday to the B.A.R.’s question about what the area comprising San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin counties is receiving.
ADAP helps cover the cost of people’s HIV medication, including their copays and co-insurance costs, and the premiums for health insurance that covers HIV medication. More than 500,000 people, over half of those diagnosed with HIV in the U.S., receive Ryan White services each year.
Without the program’s financial assistance, HIV medication could cost an individual more than $40,000 per year, putting it otherwise out of reach, noted federal health officials. HRSA falls under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“This funding makes it possible for people with HIV to access life-saving medication and treatment that are
Admission to the festival is $5 per day, and the “Rocky Horror” showing has the price of the ticket to the movie theater, but otherwise “all of the Silicon Valley Pride week events are free of charge,” Suriben said.
Silicon Valley Pride had been called San Jose Pride until 2014, when the name was changed to be more inclusive of the towns of the Santa Clara Valley and the Peninsula, and their growing populations due to the tech boom, said Suriben. It covers both Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, though San Mateo County hosts its own Pride event in June.
With temperatures this weekend expected to be in the 80s Sunday afternoon, Silicon Valley Pride organizers are asking participants and attendees to take precautions against the heat.
“We highly encourage folks to hydrate, especially during the day festival,
“Effectively reaching populations at risk for sexual transmission is an
<< Editorial
From page 6
fact started last Friday when Harris spoke about her economic policy, which is aimed at lowering costs for American families. Those include a plan to reduce medical debt
Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, state attorney general, and California’s junior U.S. senator, will formally accept the party’s presidential nomination Thursday. Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will speak Wednesday night.
Former President Barack Obama evoked themes of unity across partisan divides late Tuesday in a nod to his 2004 convention speech that put him on the national political scene.
“When we uphold our values, the world’s a little brighter; when we don’t, the world’s a little dimmer, and dictators and autocrats feel emboldened, and over time we become less safe,” the former president said. “America can be, and must be, a force for good –discouraging conflict, fighting disease, promoting human rights, protecting the planet from climate change, defending freedom, promoting peace. That’s what Kamala Harris believes –and so do most Americans.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama,
proven to improve health outcomes, reduce HIV transmission, and save lives,” stated HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm, who announced the Ryan White funds during her remarks at the opening plenary of the HIV conference. “We are incredibly proud of the department’s leadership of the federal effort to end the HIV epidemic in the United States and advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy.”
Because of San Francisco’s success in stemming new HIV infections over the last decade, it has seen its share of Ryan White funds decrease as the program’s funding formula prioritizes areas of the country where HIV is not locally under control. According to the city’s recently released 2023 HIV Semi-Annual Surveillance Report, there were 132 new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco in 2023, a decrease of 22% from 2022 when there were 167 new HIV diagnoses. (The numbers are preliminary and could increase when the official report for 2023 is published this fall.)
Last year, according to a former leader of the city’s HIV/AIDS Provider Network, San Francisco’s allocation from the federal Ryan White program was $16 million, with the city kicking in
and wear, of course, your sunblock and sunscreen,” Suriben said. “Another aspect, too, is we encourage folks to take public transportation using the VTA light rail station or buses. If you wanted to park, you can find parking in many downtown San Jose garages near the
essential element of the response to mpox, and in this context right-wing forces globally promoting criminalization of sexual and gender minorities – which include prominent American organizations – are not
for millions of Americans, a cap on prescription drug costs, a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers, and a child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life, as the Washington Post reported. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/ business/2024/08/16/kamala-har -
on the other hand, evoked her husband’s 2008 election win and themes of hope and change.
“America, hope is making a comeback,” she said, referring to the vibe shift since Harris’ ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket. Then, she took the fight to Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, accusing him – in either of the Obamas’ most direct language yet – of racism.
“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” the former first lady said of Trump. Then, referencing Trump’s previous remark about immigrants taking “Black jobs,” she added, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” to the roar of the delegates.
The former president also ribbed Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes” while making a hand gesture about size.
Sal Rosselli, a gay San Francisco delegate, told the Bay Area Reporter that
$24 million in local funds to maintain the full amount for Ryan White HIV services in the city at $40 million, as the B.A.R. noted last July.
In May, Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) had announced San Francisco would see $1.6 million in Ryan White funding this year, as the B.A.R. had reported.
Nonetheless, in the city’s budget, Mayor London Breed and the supervisors used local revenues to backfill the $197,850 reduction San Francisco received this year in its Ryan White Part A funding.
The HIV conference is held biennially and happens to coincide this year with the Democratic National Conference taking place in Chicago. At it, Vice President Kamala Harris will formally become her party’s presidential nominee.
If elected, Harris is expected to continue to support the country’s various HIV and AIDS programs. HRSA supports critical HIV care and medication in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and six U.S. Pacific territories.
Last December 1, on World AIDS Day, the Biden-Harris administration
Jam in the 1980s. A press representative for Lisa Lisa did not return a request for comment.
Suriben said that for the first time, the festival is adding a third stage along Park Avenue. The first two stages are the main stage and the hip-hop and R&B stage; this year there will also be a “Hey Girl” stage.
Suriben said that since 2018, Silicon Valley Pride has used “Hey Girl” as a “subbrand of our organization amplifying female-identified individuals in the LGBTQ+ community that includes lesbians, bisexual women, trans women, any female-identified folks.”
festival grounds and the parade. There’s a free 90 minutes – 90 minutes is free to park – in downtown San Jose, and you can find more info at parksj.org.”
The headliner of this year’s Sunday festival is Lisa Lisa, who rose to fame as one-third of the band Lisa Lisa and Cult
only viciously bigoted and morally reprehensible but an international threat to public health.
“In TAG’s view, the present situation is at least partially the consequence of lingering inequalities
ris-2024-policy-child-tax-credit/)
Harris is also calling for restoring the Biden administration’s child tax credit that expired at the end of 2021, the paper reported. That raised the benefit for most families from $2,000 per child to $3,000.
Harris only started her presidential campaign last month, and it has
the Obamas “knifed it out of the park.”
“So inspiring, lending all Americans to do their part to elect Kamala and Tim [Walz],” Rosselli added.
SF, California take center stage
Forged in the fire of San Francisco politics together, it was former mayor and current California Governor Gavin Newsom who delivered the Golden State’s delegates to Harris during a ceremonial roll call at the convention Tuesday.
“We believe the future happens in California first,” Newsom intoned from the convention floor. “And, Democrats, I’ve had a privilege for over 20 years to see that future taking shape with a star in [an] Alameda courtroom by the name of Kamala Harris. I saw that star, I saw that star fighting for criminal justice, racial justice, economic justice, social justice. I saw that star shine even brighter as attorney general of California, as a United States senator, and as vice president of the United States of America. Kamala Harris has always done the right thing – a champion for voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, the rights for women and girls.”
recommitted itself to the country’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
One of its goals is to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
A key strategy toward ending the HIV endemic in the country is helping people living with HIV access antiretroviral therapies and reach viral suppression of the disease. Doing so means they are unable to sexually transmit HIV and can live longer and healthier lives, note federal health officials.
In 2022, 89.6% of Ryan White HIV/ AIDS Program clients receiving medical care were virally suppressed, compared to 69.5% in 2010, according to HRSA.
“Going forward, we are committed to continuing this work and reach even more individuals who are not yet engaged in care but need this vital help,” stated Johnson.
For a full list of fiscal year 2024 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part B and AIDS Drug Assistance Program award recipients, go to https://tinyurl.com/ mtfvh2j3
For more information about HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, visit ryanwhite.hrsa.gov. t
ebrate, whatever your interpretation of ‘Get Loud’ is,” Suriben explained. “Get out there, and get loud in being your authentic self.”
The newly opened Queer Silicon Valley Gallery in downtown San Jose will be welcoming visitors from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday during the Pride celebrations. It is located in a ground floor space of the United Food & Commercial Workers Building at 240 South Market, Suite 10 across from Cesar Chavez Park.
“We’re also going to have a family garden, which consists of activities for children and also family activities, which includes the drag queen story time, and also acts to support the folks who have family or any folks with children,” Suriben said.
The “Get Loud” theme is a nod to the upcoming elections, Suriben said.
“‘Get loud’ is your interpretation of getting out to vote, getting out to cel-
from responses to the 2022 mpox outbreak, which saw vaccines and other resources concentrate in the global north with relatively little attention devoted to addressing the drivers of mpox in the DRC and
“In its inaugural show, Queer Silicon Valley by BAYMEC Community Foundation is proud to present an archival exhibition of ephemera and historical trinkets from the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus and Rainbow Women’s Chorus that will run through November 24th,” wrote gallery founder and BAYMEC Community Foundation Executive Director Ken Yeager in an email touting the first space for the South Bay’s LGBTQ history.
For more information, visit svpride. com t
other endemic areas,” the TAG statement added.
For more information about mpox vaccines in San Francisco, go to https://tinyurl.com/43auspke. t
been a whirlwind as people get to know her. Democrats, however, can’t get complacent because of the large enthusiastic crowds she’s getting at campaign rallies – to the utter consternation of Trump. This race is still very close. And while Trump may be “on the run,” as Clinton said, he’s not backing down, nor are his MAGA supporters. Long after this week’s convention is over, the hard work begins to sustain the momentum until Election Day. And voters cannot forget the congressional races that will determine how much a Harris-Walz administration can accomplish. t
Bay Area LGBTQ delegates and conventiongoers have been using the opportunity they have to network with Democrats nationwide this week in Chicago to workshop exporting that California future elsewhere. The B.A.R. has been keeping in touch with them through their convention journeys.
“It’s been great getting to meet Democrats from all over the country, especially those from red states,” Honey Mahogany, a Black queer, trans delegate who until earlier this year was chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, stated to the B.A.R. August 20.
“They are doing the Lord’s work fighting for democracy, human rights, and policy changes in places where it isn’t easy, and I find that really inspiring,” added Mahogany, who is now the executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives. “We know that many people vote with their heart and that messaging is also incredibly important in an election, but it’s been great to hear about the actual policies that Democrats are fighting for that will make a huge, positive difference in people’s everyday lives.”
Emanuel “Manny” Yekutiel, a gay man who owns the eponymous cafe and event space in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, told the B.A.R. he is at the convention as part of his capacity as a fundraiser for the Harris Victory Fund after he’d hosted Harris and first lady Jill Biden.
Yekutiel said that rather than asking San Franciscans if they’re OK, Harris’ nomination has led Democratic regulars to be more kindly disposed to the city after years of national coverage of “doom loop” fears.
“San Francisco is being celebrated, which is kind of nice,” Yekutiel said in an August 20 phone interview. “Yesterday, they had a video about Kamala Harris’ upbringing and Oakland, San Francisco, featured prominently. It was cool and almost kind of – exciting is an understatement – humbling, maybe, to see our city and our area put up there on the big screen for the entire world to see, and the pride and love with which she was speaking about it. It felt kind of uncommon given the last few years and how people talk about the Bay Area.”
See page 11 >>
<< Silicon Valley Pride From page 1
People enjoyed the night market that was part of last year’s Silicon Valley Pride festivities.
Roy Leonard
Mpox
by Brian Bromberger
The SF Queer Film Festival (SFQFF) returns for its fourth version, August 23-25, with its accompanying 64 movies, shorts, and web episodes. It’s not an exaggeration to say the festival is still in the process of finding its voice and groove as a more “intimate” festival.
Amir Jaffer, the Executive Director of SFQFF comments, “Obviously, Frameline is the queen mother of all LGBTQI+ film festivals and we can never match its prestige and popularity. But there’s so much more content than ever before that even Frameline can’t screen every wonderful option they are provided.” The three days are packed nonstop with films with few breaks provided.
Jaffer adds that some of these films have been denied a Frameline submission. A good portion of SFQFF are clearly low budget movies. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad, but because prestige films are now digital, the rough edges tend to stick out more prominently. Jaffer claims there were so many quality content movies, even SFQFF had
SF Queer Film Festival
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.
rom-com revolving around gay Asian fashion designer Bobby Love, famous for his fantasy couture and hats that will remind long-time SF residents
of “Beach Blanket Babylon.” Love meets Trevor (Adam Huss), a down and out singer-songwriter, who’s being haunted by the ghost of his sister after her tragic death. Love is infatuated with Trevor, despite having a jealous long-time
Hidden Flora,” follows Roxii (Luca Silver) a nonbinary/trans romantic, who wants to be loved. We watch a long string of boys and men who populate their love life. Roxii seems to have terrible taste in guys, most of whom treat them miserably. It’s hard to empathize with a character that
‘A Moment for Love’
‘Hidden Flora’
Crowded Fire Theater’s ‘Shipping & Handling’ t << Theater & Drag
by Jim Gladstone
Messily we roll along. That’s the feeling audience members will share as they endure the unfocused, overlong “Shipping & Handling,” a major misfire by Crowded Fire Theater which runs through September 7 on the Magic Theatre stage at Fort Mason.
Unless they walk out at intermission, which several spectators actually did on the opening night of this locally grown production, the sort of occasion that normally generates kumbaya-ish enthusiasm and obligatory standing ovations.
Written by Star Finch, whose deliciously ambitious “Josephine’s Feast” was a highlight of last year’s Magic season, and co-directed by Lisa Marie Rollins and Leigh Rondon-Davis, “Shipping & Handling,” like “Merrily We Roll Along,” features a meta-theatrical narrative told in reverse order.
It took more than four decades of ungainly productions for the storied Sondheim musical to find its feet, but “Shipping & Handling” will need a clean beheading and the amputation of its legs if it hopes to survive beyond this debut.
Spunky in the middle
The play’s relatively healthy heart is its central second act, essentially a solo performance art piece, in-
geniously conceived by Finch and performed with both generosity and simmering reserves of rage by Rolanda Bell, who manages to remain compelling in her presence even when the script forces her to silently hold the stage through an epic, unnecessary longueur of silent audience participation.
Bell’s unnamed character is a playwright addressing the audience at a post-curtain presentation after the premiere of her show, which, she ex-
encounters often feel like waterboarding to a playwright, asked to respond to questions as if she is a monolithic anthropomorphization of an entire race and gender, and as if a single play somehow offers a distillation of everything she possibly has to express.
More is less
Along with gleefully vivisecting the talkback form and lip-service liberal theater audiences, Finch slips in the seeds of potentially fascinating conversations that attendees might cultivate after leaving the show:
Is racial trauma epigenetically transmitted? Is AI developed by today’s ruling classes inherently doomed to replicate today’s prejudices? Do plays by Black authors achieve mainstream success only if written “in the tempo the liberal non-profit algorithm is looking for?”
plains, wrestles with themes of Blackness, feminism, spirituality and artificial intelligence.
The notion of a one-act play in the form of a post-show talkback is brilliant, so long as it’s performed for theater-savvy audiences. These often squirm-inducing sessions of spectators’ self-aggrandizing bloviations disguised as earnest questions for the artist are ripe for satiric dramatization, especially in the case of plays about people of color performed for affluent white audiences.
Finch smartly has Bell’s playwright explain that she’s wrested control of the talkback, dismissing a moderator, who would presumably aim to create a bridge of kid-gloved etiquette between the playwright and her inquisitors.
Inquisitors, as Bell’s moderator makes clear, is the right word. By the time she shares an experiment that involves passing a jar of water through the audience, she’s made it clear that these
Unfortunately, rather than leaving these intellectual threads to dangle, sizzling, in audience members’ minds
as they leave the theater, Finch tries to weave them into something more cohesive, sandwiching her rewardingly exploratory second act between a first and third that end up adding little but running time.
There is some terrific sci-fi-evocative costuming by Brooke Jennings; sound design by Miles Lassi; and lighting design by Ray Oppenheimer in the third act, which gives us the play discussed in the Act II talkback. Its action tacks between incoherence and redundancy of points made more clearly earlier.
And the first act, an afterparty yakfest among the actors who play robots and their overlords in Act III is all throat-clearing.t
‘Shipping & Handling’ by Crowded Fire Theater. $20-$95. Through Sept. 7. Magic Theatre, Landmark Building D, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd. www.crowdedfire.org
“In 2020, the US Library of Congress requested and was granted permission to archive this website for generations to come,” said Mo.
Mo B. Dick has also flirted with being a movie star, having been cast by John Waters in his 1998 film “Pecker.”
“He handpicked me for his film ‘Pecker,’ where I played T-Bone the stripper with a drag king twist,” Mo said. “I was the first character that he worked with for that film and it was an incredibly memorable experience for me as well as being one of the very best highlights of my life. It is an honor and a privilege to call John a friend.”
Mo has been a regular at the SF Drag King Contest for years, he and Frottage have been friends since 1996. And in the 1990s Mo’s New York City group The Men of Club Casanova performed at many events in San Francisco.
“I’ve had a great affinity for SF,” said Mo. “I was influenced by an article in SF Weekly written by Amy Linn in 1995. The article highlighted many notable SF drag kings such as Elvis Herselvis, Fudgie Frottage, SF luminaries Stafford, Jordy Jones, and musician Anderson Toone. The article also mentioned bisexual Buddhist Frances Vavra, who was a secretary by day and drag king by night. Her transformation was astounding. I quickly realized my initial belief that drag kings were only ascribed to butches or lesbians was a falsehood. This cemented my decision to become a drag king.”
This year’s contest will serve as a fundraiser for Rocket Dog Rescue and PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), two organizations that are near and dear to Frottage’s heart. PAWS is a volunteer-based organization that provides for the comprehensive needs of companion animals for low-income people with HIV/AIDS and other disabling illnesses. Rocket Dog Rescue is also volunteer-run. They save dogs
from being put down at overcrowded shelters and find them loving homes. Frottage told the B.A.R. that he has a deep love for animals.
“The unconditional love they have has kept me sane,” he said. “Both are wonderful organizations. I adore Muttville as well and just adopted another Pomeranian from them on Pink Saturday.
Frottage is sure that contest attendees will have a great time.
“I work my ass off to produce a great show,” he said. “The audience always has a fantastic time. It’s important to have fans who appreciate a good laugh, and who get that Kinging is just as valid as any art form.”t
28th Annual San Francisco Drag King Contest, September 8, 7pm, Oasis, 298 11th St. $25 advance, $40-$55 general admission, VIP seating available. www.sfdragkingcontest.com
The show will stream online for $20 at www.watch.sfoasis.com
<< Drag King Contest
Left: Drag king Mo B. Dick Right: Helixir is one of the judges at the Drag King Contest.
Heidi Calvert
Kane C. Andrade
Jasmine Milan Williams, Tierra Allen, and Cat Brooks in ‘Shipping & Handling’
Jay Yamada
Cat Brooks and Davia Spain in ‘Shipping & Handling’
Jay Yamada
‘Ganymede’ - unrepentant and proud
by Gregg Shapiro
According to wackadoodle
preacher and ex-gay Pastor Royer (David Koechner) in co-directors Colby Holt & Sam Probst’s “Ganymede” (VMI Worldwide), a Ganymede is an unrepentant homosexual.
As is so often the case in the world of religious fanaticism, the word doesn’t appear in the New Testament, and has its roots in Greek mythology.
But that doesn’t stop Royer, or the equally crazy parents of high school senior and wrestling star Lee (out actor Jordan Doww), put-upon Floy (Robyn Lively), and power-hungry county commissioner Big Lee (Joe Chrest), from putting the tormented teen through hell.
“Ganymede” opens with a brutal suicide, when an unidentified man, with a chain around his waist attached to two cinder blocks, steps off a dock into a lake and drowns. The man is
page 13
Another film with an unlikable lead character is “Moving In: A Modern Musical.” The sassiest and sluttiest exotic dancer, Max (Evan Wilhelm), is in trouble and crashes at his bestie Zoe’s (Susie McCollum) place. However, he develops a crush on her boyfriend Ethan (Dekkin Walter). He will go to any lengths to get what he wants. Ethan and Zoe are going through a rough patch where Zoe can’t commit to Ethan.
Yes, it’s a soap opera. The musical numbers add nothing to the narrative but are very catchy and make the film entertaining. Almost every supporting character (friends and employees) are given their own song. It shouldn’t work, but it does. Surprisingly enjoyable, you might even be tempted to dance in the aisles or your living room.
later identified as Neal (Pete Zias), the gay, older brother of Floy. For the most part, Lee’s classmate Kyle (Pablo Castelblanco), who is out
A gay version of “The Odd Couple” is the inspiration for the slice-of-life comedy “F.L.Y.” about two former exes, Max (Trent Kendrick) and Rafael/Raf (Rafael Albarran) who haven’t seen each other in five years. Then they get stuck together in lockdown at the start of the COVID pandemic. To complicate matters, Max has a boyfriend. Rafael is a budding drag star. Opposites attract, or do they?
The question is whether the two will reunite, as both characters have their annoying traits. F.L.Y. stands for First Love Yours, which will also be the title of the screenplay Max is writing. Many of the supporting characters appear on Zoom, including Max’s kick ass grandmother. “There’s nothing more important than loving families exactly as they are.” The ending is unexpectedly poignant. It was only a matter of time that there would be a gay pandemic story, but ultimately the plusses outweigh the negatives.
also supportive of Kyle. The same holds true for guidance counselor Ms. Kimpton (Anna T. Schlegel).
Kyle, who is attracted to Lee, signs up to do litter pickup, as part of his school’s community service requirement, because it’s also something Lee does. When Kyle and Lee are confronted by school bullies Bobby (Deaton Gabbard) and closet-case Justin (Brady Gentry) while picking trash in a park, Lee defends Kyle, even going so far as to break Justin’s nose.
at school, has a better life. His mother Kim (Sofia Yepes), a nurse, completely and unconditionally accepts Kyle. His best friend Bree (Marissa Reyes) is
One of the few documentaries at the festival, but a winner, is “A Long Way from Heaven,” a history of queer students at Brigham Young University (BYU), the educational institution owned by the Mormons. Most of that history has been ugly, including at least 15 students who committed suicide and the use of electroshock therapy until the mid-1990s.
In February 2020, in conjunction with the release of a new online handbook, the ban on homosexual behavior was removed. Queer students thought they could come out and display ordinary public displays of affection, but within a month the section that had been removed, was reinstated.
A year later, to show support for LGBTQ students, the iconic Y on the nearby mountain was lit up in rainbow colors. The lights were planned through a Google document and conspirators only used their initials to avoid identifying any of the culprits. The film deals with the fallout from that action.
Viewers might ask why any LGBTQ student would want to remain there, but many don’t even become aware of their sexual orientation or gender identities until college because the all-pervasive Mormon culture is so repressive. It’s an ongoing struggle but you will be rooting for the students all the way. Kudos for the bravery of former Mormon college students David Sant and Taylor Pace for their investigative filmmaking that is nothing short of riveting.
Kuch Sapney Apne” (translated as “Dreams Such as Ours”) from India is the best narrative feature at SFQFF. It concerns a gay couple, Kartik and Aman, from Mumbai, who dream of being able to marry each other legally in the near future. Kartik goes off to study in Sweden and has a fling with a fellow student that puts his relationship with Aman into jeopardy.
The film centers on the key importance in India of gaining parental approval of one’s coupling. Kartik’s mother wholeheartedly embraces the couple, while his father rejects them, causing a rift in the parent’s relationship. The mother leaves and goes to live with Kartik, while his father declines and suffers a stroke. There are a few short Bollywood type musical interludes.
It’s two hours and too long, but the characters are beautifully rendered, with Mona Ambegaonkar and Abhay Kulkarni outstanding as the parents. The movie shows in a heartwarming fashion how all relationships, queer and straight, are challenged when faced with uncomfortable truths but love will help them resolve their struggles.
“A Wonderful Life” is a Christmas-themed film revolving around sad sack Bailey (David McMahon), a
But this kind of school bullying is nothing compared to what Lee endures at home. Big Lee, who wields his title in town like a weapon, is a religious zealot. He has manipulated Floy, who is at his mercy, into thinking that her late brother Neal’s homosexuality is in her bloodline and that she may have passed it on to Lee. Meanwhile, Big Lee has his own secret which is revealed late in the movie.
As it turns out, Lee shares Kyle’s
feelings of attraction. Unfortunately, because of his restrictive upbringing, Lee is constantly struggling with what can only be described as inner demons that occasionally manifest themselves in the (rotting) flesh. Ultimately, what sets “Ganymede” apart from other movies about queer teens coming out in religiously conservative households, and the dreadfulness of conversion therapy (including ECT), is the way the screenplay, written by Holt, interweaves elements of horror, which are often presented as Lee’s psychosis. These scenes can be distracting at first, but they eventually begin to stand out less. Without giving away too much, “Ganymede” does reward viewers with a happy ending. However, getting there does take some patience. Fortunately, Doww and Castelblanco make it worthwhile. Rating: Bt
www.linktr.ee/ganymede_movie
single man who’s caring for his ailing mother. A tragic accident has killed his dog, and his boss just told him he will lose his job at the end of the year.
Then his mother informs him that Greyson (Ben Stobber), his childhood best friend, is coming to visit them after 30 years. Greyson is also single and living with his mother, but they hope to relocate to Florida to escape the harsh cold climate. Bailey and Greyson will spend time together and realize how much they have in common, as they sort through their unresolved feelings.
This film is a loose gay reimaging of “It’s A Wonderful Life.” You can figure out the ending after the first half hour. The movie is schmaltz personified. Yet it does profile small-town LGBTQ people rarely seen in mainstream films. And it is refreshing to see a romance between Bailey, a bear type and Greyson, an ordinary looking guy, with neither the six-pack Grecian gods we normally see in queer films. “A Wonderful Life” is actually ideal Christmas fare that with some
cash
to
Read the full feature, with trailers, on www.ebar.com.
www.sfqueerfilmfest.com
Massage>>
BLACK MASCULINE & HANDSOME
Very discreet, hung, also friendly and clean - fully vaccinated. In/out. Cedric 510-776-5945. All types welcome. No blocked numbers please.
infusion
spruce up the sets, could easily stream on the Hallmark Channel.t
<< SF Queer Film Fest From
Pablo Castelblanco and Jordan Doww in ‘Ganymede’
VMI Worldwide
Above: ‘Moving In: A Modern Musical’
Middle: ‘F.L.Y.’
Below: ‘A Long Way from Heaven’
Above: ‘Kuch Sapney Apne’
Below: ‘A Wonderful Life’
Killing them softly
by Victoria A. Brownworth
We had really been deeply invested in the front-burner lesbian storyline on “General Hospital” between Alison “Blaze” Rogers (Jacqueline Grace Lopez) and Kristina Corinthos-Davis (Kate Mansi) since last fall. We can’t remember the last time there was a true lesbian coupling on a daytime soap, but it has been forever. Maybe since “Guiding Light” went off the air. And it has been such a rich and complex storyline, too. And both actresses are terrific in their respective roles. And because Kristina is a central character in two families of main characters as the daughter of mobster Sonny Corinthos (Maurice Benard) and attorney and journalist Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn), there was no chance she was going anywhere. Plus, Kristina has a long queer history, so this wasn’t a passing phase she was going through.
Soap drama
But then the accident happened. Who could possibly have predicted such a cataclysmic shift in storyline as the “GH” writers having eight-monthspregnant Kristina get into an altercation with Sonny’s ex Ava Je rome (Maura West) and fall through Ava’s window at the Metro Court? Kristina fell a story into the pool, landing face and stomach first as horrified pool-goers watched. Josslyn’s quick thinking as a lifeguard saved Kristina’s life. But the injuries sustained by the baby were too much and she did not survive.
The Lavender Tube on
the loss of her baby, the baby she had nurtured and talked to and protected even in recent weeks from her own sister and TJ, who she saw as a less stable couple than she and Alison. Oh.
Perhaps the break up was inevitable after the accident. We watched Alison’s controlling mother whisk her away from the hospital when Kristina was still in surgery, asserting this was no place for her as it was just family. Because queer relationships are never viewed as familial by straight people, especially not Alison’s manager/mother, the homophobic Natalia Rogers-Ramirez (Eva Larue).
And then the hospital itself failed Alison when she returned there, also not recognizing the relationship and not letting her in to see Kristina because she was not “family.”
Nor did Kristina and Alison’s relationship. A devastated Kristina who was already having trouble imagining herself giving up the baby she was carrying for her sister Molly and Molly’s partner TJ was now fully immersed in
But Kristina never asked for Alison, either. Never asked to see the woman she was building a love relationship so deep with that the two had navigated Alison’s mother Natalia public outing of Alison and all that had entailed. Kristina never asked to see the woman
with whom she fantasized raising the baby she was carrying.
When a chance to tour as an opening act for a Latino singer presented itself in the midst of this tragedy and chaos, Alison said no. Thus, a tearful but still meddling and homophobic stage manager Natalia went to Kristina’s room in ICU (she could get in, but Alison could not...) and begged her to “let my daughter go.”
When Alison finally sees Kristina, who brought her the soft throw they used to cuddle under on the sofa in Kristina’s apartment (“I brought you something that smelled like home”), Kristina had already made up her mind to break up with Alison.
In the most devastating part of the exchange, she refers to her not as Ali but as Blaze. We could see the knife to the heart on Alison’s face.
And then it was over. A final kiss goodbye. A request by Alison for Kristina to please call her if she wanted or needed her and she would come running. After the door closes on Kristina’s hospital room, she gathers the throw to her and sobs uncontrollably. How much loss can one young lesbian take?
Orphan age
There’s no lack of imagination in the lesbian storyline that we discover is the foundation for much of the plot of AMC’s amazing spin off of the beloved five-season sci-fi series “Orphan Black,” “Orphan Black: Echoes.” This series is barreling toward its season one finale, so we are going to limit what we say here, but this is perhaps the most beautiful and heartbreaking lesbian storyline we have ever seen.
The question posed again and again throughout is: What would you do to keep the lesbian love of your lesbian life alive? We hope never to be faced with that question.
Hospital,’
The relationship between Dr. Kira Manning (Keeley Hawes), a scientist, and her wife, Dr. Eleanor Miller (Rya Kihlstedt), a neuroscientist, is deep and lasting, some would argue eternal. They have a child together, Lucas Manning (Jaeden Noel). Everything is lovely until Eleanor develops the devastating early-onset Alzheimer’s and all that entails. The heartbreak of being forgotten by the person you love most in life is nigh-on unbearable and Kira can’t bear it, so she does something she shouldn’t.
That’s when Kira puts her mad scientist skills to Mephistophelian use and wow–what a storyline we get out of this tragedy. We cannot recommend this series highly enough; on AMC, AMC+, BBC America and Amazon Prime.
Possessed
“The Deliverance,” the latest film from out gay director Lee Daniels reunites him with Andra Day and Mo’Nique. The Netflix original is based on a true story of demonic pos-
session. It is a story about all the layers of possession experienced by people in historically marginalized communities who go unheard and unseen. Possession is very much a metaphor in this film for the racism, misogyny and classism which drive the lives of these characters.
Day plays Ebony, an alcoholic mother of a Pennsylvania family whose children purportedly became demonically possessed. Glenn Close is Alberta, Ebony’s hyper-religious mother. Mo’Nique is a tour de force as Cynthia Henry, a social worker from hell.
After moving into a mysterious house, a struggling mother (Day) must face down her demons in order to save her children’s souls. “The Deliverance” also stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Miss Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Caleb McLaughlin, Tasha Smith and Omar Epps. The film was released in select theaters on August 16, 2024, and will stream on Netflix on August 30. Any film by Daniels is worth watching and the powerhouse performances are extraordinary.t
Going out
GioTographer
Princess at Oasis
Jacqueline Grace Lopez and Kate Mansi in ‘General Hospital’ ABC
Rya Kihlstedt and Keeley Hawes in ‘Orphan Black: Echoes’ AMC
Mo’Nique, Glenn Close and Andra Day in ‘The Deliverance’
Verdi’s ‘Macbeth’
by Tim Pfaff
Giuseppe Verdi’s “Macbeth,” the first of his three great Shakespeare operas, was an enormous success when new (1847) but fell out of fashion for the better part of a century. Its rejuvenation in the 1950s was the co-product of symphony-class conductors and powerhouse sopranos (Maria Callas only one of them) in the role of Lady Macbeth. The new production of “Macbeth” at the 2023 Salzburg Festival had both, warranting a video (Unitel Editions) likely to divide audiences but sure to please lovers of opera as drama.
When Franz Welser-Möst withdrew from the production for health reasons, the baton was caught by a dream successor, out conductor Philippe Jordan. The match of any other “Macbeth” conductor in our time, Jordan leads a performance so theatrical and vivid that its silences speak as loudly as it sounds.
Ineluctably propulsive and sinister to its corners, Jordan packs his reading of the score with skittering, acidic, strings, eerie, weeping winds, and disconcerted and disconcerting brass. But its genius is in its masterful pacing, foreshadowing the play’s horror and depravity from the start and then leading it to its subsequent and final blood-stained tragedy. There is as much dark magic in the pit as onstage.
But then…
The production is by Krysztof Warlikowski, one of the leading directors of opera in Europe, guaranteed to raise controversies galore. True confession: I’ve so hated Warlikowski’s work until recently (the 2021 Munich “Tristan,” to be precise) that I’ve passed on seeing operas I love when he is in charge, adding and subtracting sometimes pivotal elements and generally indulging the sensational as the primary instrument of meaning.
It remains to be seen whether this Salzburg “Macbeth” newly mints me as a True Believer, but I barely exhaled through the opera’s four acts by dint of being completely absorbed in the drama. The ever-fading purist in me surrendered to the stage, almost eagerly letting go of bygone principles such as the putative wrong-headedness of inserting people or distracting business that are not in the libretto. You go with his “Macbeth” or you don’t, and I went –and often found myself thinking it was a production Verdi would have applauded.
As always, I could use the rest of my available space recounting Warlikowski’s interventions, and the temptation
to do so is nearly irresistible. But without having to work at it, I found myself marveling at the through-lines of his interpretation, the very word interpretation mild in context, and the dramatic achievement they together underwrote.
To judge by the flapper hair-dos and Art Deco designs, the action is updated to the 1920s or -30s, with a few anachronisms thrown in for good or for ill, but generally adding theatrical spice. Signature Warlikowski touches augment instead of desecrating the proceedings. Warlikowski has a near fetish for the free-standing but fully operational sink, and I sank when I first saw Lady Macbeth burning her husband (Vladislav Sulimsky)’s letter in the waiting porcelain. But somehow the inevitability of its deployment in the Lady’s futile hand-washing scene Shakespeare’s “out, out, damned spot”) somehow justifies the other occasions that it is rolled out onto the stage.
Before long, I was captivated by the Warlikowski thumbprints, if only in exchange for his manifest willingness to forgo using cartoon animals in central scenes. By the time the Lady makes her mad-scene entrance, purportedly carrying her bedside lamp, I
duction makes telling use of videos superimposed on the stage picture, and Gregorian’s tearful endurance of the damning diagnosis follows the black-and-white video enactment of her squirming on the exam table, its stirrups planted forebodingly.
Not kid-friendly
Warlikowski doesn’t litter the stage with packs of kids not specified in Shakespeare, but the many we do see tug at our alarmed hearts. Arguably, the director goes too far in having the Lady presage her own murder of the threatening youngsters by poisoning bleachers of them, their bodies lined up at the lip of the stage once the killing is over.
But then there are touches of genius. Banco (the wooly-voiced Tareq Nazmi) is the first to fall, but the son whose violent death he spares reappears to haunt the mad Macbeth in the guise of a half-dozen adolescent actors wearing outsized heads resembling Banco’s. When they take Macbeth’s place at the banquet table, his fright is as convincing as it is patent.
own mad scenes and turning pivotal notes into snarls and barks. The production powerfully underscores the way in which the king’s own murderous impulses take over for his scheming wife’s.
Gregorian confirms her reputation as today’s leading singing actor. She sports a different dress in each act (wonderful costumes by Malgorzata Szczesniak). In the first she changes downstage in front of us and subsequently manages all the business Warlikowski assigns her masterfully, with no disruption of the vocal line. She hasn’t made her mark previously in the coloratura repertoire, but here she delivers it as if to the manner born.
She looks so different in the succeeding acts that her appearance reflects her own disintegrating person. When she and Macbeth wave to the public at the new king’s coronation, she’s the spitting image of Nancy Reagan, and with her hair up in extravagant curls for the celebratory banquet, she’s a lookalike for mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, purveyor of her own stage magic.
was delighted that Asmik Gregorian came onstage holding a gooseneck desk lamp that cast a bright, horrid light on Shakespeare’ blood-soaked action.
Such touches are innumerable but to a remarkable degree support the opera’s big themes, more likely to be minimized if not altogether passed over in more traditional stagings. Children –unborn children, murdered children, and others regarded as threats to the Macbeths’ hegemony–hold sway over this production.
Barely has the opera begun before Lady Macbeth, visiting the doctor we find in Shakespeare, has the infertility that torments her confirmed. The pro-
Dolls litter the scene. At that banquet, the Macbeths’ housekeeper –the curly-gray-haired Grisha Martirosyn a dead ringer “The Golden Girls” Sophia, whose frequent interventions provide black-comedy relief throughout the production– lifts the lid on the presenting silver platter to reveal a dead-child doll ringed by cooked apples. She also operates a girl doll run through with knitting needles a la St. Sebastian, who becomes a minor if deeply disturbing character. But Salzurg’s child actors are a brilliant lot, tugging at our hearts while rehearsing our own mad scenes, none of them now gratuitous presences.
What’s going on here?
The Macbeths are hair-raisingly good. The “find” of this production is Vladislav Solimsky, whose lacerating baritone is so secure he plays with it, breaking the rules of good singing by scooping up and down the notes in his
Also, Figaro
Unitel has simultaneously released a video of the Salzburg 2023 Mozart “Le Nozze di Figaro,” hewing to the modern view of Mozartian comedy as no laughing matter. With an ideal cast led by conductor Raphaël Pichon, it’s the “Figaro” some of us have waited a lifetime for.t
Giuseppe Verdi, “Macbeth,” 2023 Salzburg Festival, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and associated musicians, Philippe Jordan, conductor, Krsystof Warlikowski, director, Unitel Editions. www.unitel.de
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Le Nozze di Figaro,” 2023 Salzburg Festival, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and associated musicians, Raphaël Pichon, conductor, Martin Kusej, director. www.unitel.de
Left: Asmik Gregorian in Verdi’s ‘MacBeth’ Right: Vladislav Sulimsky in Verdi’s ‘MacBeth’
Both photos: Unitel
Patrick Nathan’s ‘The Future Was Color’
by Gregg Shapiro
Of all the LGBTQ novels I’ve read during the summer of 2024 (some of which were unfinishable), there are only two I’ve been consistently recommending without hesitation. The first is “Housemates” by Emma Copley Eisenberg. The second is “The Future Was Color” (Counterpoint, 2024) by Patrick Nathan. I’m getting choked up just thinking about the beauty and scope of this novel, all of which fit neatly into 209 pages.
Spanning a nearly 80-year period, from the 1940s to the present day, Lambda Literary Award finalist Nathan takes readers from Los Angeles (Hollywood) to New York to Las Vegas to Paris, all the while seamlessly incorporating significant historical events, as he tells the extraordinary story of protagonist George, a gay Hungarian immigrant.
Your new novel “The Future Was Color” is divided into four sections: Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, and Paris. Were they written in the order in which they appear in the book?
They were. I knew from the beginning that the book would have a New York interlude, a sort of origin story for George, and that the interlude would take place between his time in Los Angeles and his night in Las Vegas. The idea to end it in Paris came a little later, but I was still working on the LA section when I realized where to take it.
So, I wrote the LA section with all these other places in mind, and then New York, then Vegas, etc., as a sort of vertical structure. Generally, with fiction, I find it difficult to jump around or write out of sequence. For me, it has to build, and there has to be some urgency or excitement to keep me moving toward those other sections. If I were to write the end, for example, because I felt that day like writing the end of the novel, what would I work toward? It helps me keep the book free of filler, I guess.
Each section incorporates historically significant subjects. The Red Scare/McCarthyism and the Hungarian Revolution (Los Angeles), World War II and concentration camps (NY), the nuclear bomb test (Las Vegas), and AIDS (Paris). Are you a student of history or did you become one for the purpose of this book?
I guess part of writing the book was realizing just how much in love with history I’ve always been, or at least have been for the last several years. My reading habits are pretty broad, and most of what appears in the novel is information (I like to call it texture) that I’ve picked up over years of reading.
The only specific or methodical research I did for the book was reading Kevin Johnson’s “The Lavender Scare,” to get a sense of the climate or mystique surrounding cruising at the time as well as how the public reacted to the various arrests (some of them sting operations), and Victor Sebestyen’s “Twelve Days,” for details about the Hungarian Revolution, about which I knew pretty much nothing until I began writing this book. The rest of the book’s research is the same research I do for any novel, which is to look at maps, check various dates or times, and in one case verify the chemical composition of semen.
With that in mind, would you say that this is your most researched book?
I wouldn’t, actually. While my pre-
Author Patrick Nathan
vious book, “Image Control: Social Media, Fascism, and the Dismantling of Democracy,” was also a product of interest rather than scholarship, the additional research required to synthesize all those disparate topics and
obsessions was, comparatively, quite extensive. I had a reading list that just kept growing and growing; the more I read, the more I added to it until eventually I just had to give up and call the book finished.
An unnamed narrator guides us through the story of George Curtis, a queer Hungarian immigrant who becomes a successful Hollywood screenwriter. Why did you choose to utilize the un-
named narrator device?
Initially, this was a style issue, a rhythm issue. I can’t really move forward with any piece of writing – story or novel or essay – without having the voice, so it takes me a long time to get past the first paragraph, then the first page. I rewrite and rewrite and rewrite those opening lines until they sound right to me.
My earliest attempts at the first pages of this novel were in the close third-person, but the voice still wasn’t showing up, no matter how many times I tried to get at it. It wasn’t until I started inserting those recursive phrases – “he told me,” or “George said,” or “I remember,” – that the sentences felt breezy enough, that the narrative opened up enough, for me to actually keep going and tell the story. t
Read the full interview at www.ebar.com.
‘The Future Was Color’ by Patrick Nathan. Counterpoint Press. $26 hardcover, ebook 13.99. www.counterpointpress.com www.patricknathan.com
