December 1, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

LGBTs urged to stay safe

ARTS

Tony Yazbeck

Daniel Reichard

The

www.ebar.com

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

Vol. 46 • No. 48 • December 1-7, 2016

Crowdpleasing holiday tree Steven Underhill

Courtesy RWF

Pulse shooting victim Amanda Alvear, left, with her mom, Mayra Alvear

Cleve Jones speaks at Sunday’s 38th annual vigil for Harvey Milk and George Moscone.

by Brian Bromberger

Pulse survivors to light Tree of Hope

Jones shares his story

t’s not an exaggeration to say that longtime gay activist Cleve Jones has been involved with every major event in San Francisco’s LGBT movement since 1977, when he befriended and worked with Harvey Milk. That year Milk finally won his seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, making history as the first gay man elected to office in the city and California. But Milk would be gunned down a year later, thrusting LGBT people out of the closet and into the streets. This week, Jones’ memoir When We Rise was published, in which he recounts his eventful life. In addition to his work with Milk, Jones, 62, is also widely known for creating the AIDS memorial quilt, which today is a collection of more than 48,000 individual threeby-six foot panels, according to the Names Project Foundation. (Jones is no longer affiliated with the foundation.) In his book, Jones, a long-term HIV survivor, also delves into his early years in 1970s San Francisco with his adventures as a sexual liberationist, featuring passionate relationships with friends and lovers, and coping with prejudice and violence in a city that was not always welcoming to LGBT people. Jones recently met with the Bay Area Reporter to reminisce about gay life then and now. In 2000, Jones had co-authored a book on the quilt with Jeff Dawson entitled Stitching A Revolution. He said he wrote his memoir in part to discuss the changes that have occurred. “When I read Stitching, it didn’t feel like it was my voice and I was annoyed with myself for not having done it alone,” he said. “And so many extraordinary things have happened in the last 16 years. I was taking [director] Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, on a tour of the Castro, telling them all my stories and at one point he stopped and said I should write a book.” See page 14 >>

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Steven Underhill

crowd gathered at 18th and Castro streets Monday, November 28 for the lighting of the annual holiday tree. Sponsored by the Castro Merchants group, entertainment included members of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Bay Area

Reporter society columnist Donna Sachet, and gay officials Supervisor and state Senator-elect Scott Wiener and city Treasurer Jose Cisneros. Santa also made an appearance and handed out candy to children.

lka Reyes recalls being at Pulse nightclub June 12 with several friends. At one point, she went to get some water. “While I was standing in the bar, I heard a gunshot. I didn’t know if it was the music or if it was really a gunshot,” Reyes, 29, said. See page 19 >>

Milk, Moscone remembered at vigil by David-Elijah Nahmod

everal hundred people gathered at Harvey Milk Plaza Sunday night to remember gay former Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, who were assassinated at City Hall on November 27, 1978. Milk was the first out gay person elected to office in San Francisco and California. He was in office less than a year when he and Moscone were killed by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White. The mood was somber as an enlarged photograph of Milk was hung in the plaza, surrounded by flowers and candles. Many attendees spoke of what might have been had Milk and Moscone lived, and expressed their concerns regarding the possible rollback of civil rights laws and LGBTfriendly policies in the aftermath of Presidentelect Donald Trump’s victory. During the campaign, Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn marriage equality and Roe v. Wade, which guarantees women the right to an abortion. He also campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and called for a ban on Muslims who are not U.S. citizens entering the country. Trump has since backtracked on the marriage equality promise but stands by the others. The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented over 700 hate crimes against LGBTs, Jews, and Muslims since Election Day – a number of the perpetrators reportedly cited Trump as their influence for the behavior.

Steven Underhill

This year’s memorial to slain Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone drew a large crowd to the Castro Sunday, November 27.

“The memorial for Harvey and George takes on a deeper meaning with what’s happened on Election Day,” said gay former Supervisor and state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who was a friend of Milk and Moscone. “We can take a punch and we can give a punch, that’s why we’re here tonight.” The Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club organized the event. “Thirty-eight years ago our city was left in chaos and grief,” Milk club President Peter Gal-

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

lotta told the crowd. “There’s still an incredible sense of loss. We are feeling chaos and darkness as a nation and as a city. Tonight we are here with light and hope – we are here with one another in community.” As Gallotta spoke, attendees lit candles. Several people wept. “I’m proud to be part of a club that was started by Harvey,” Gallotta continued. “We keep Harvey’s legacy alive. In the days that follow we’re See page 19 >>

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What is TRUVADA for PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis)? TRUVADA is a prescription medicine that can be used for PrEP to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection when used together with safer sex practices. This use is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV-1 through sex. This includes HIV-negative men who have sex with men and who are at high risk of getting infected with HIV-1 through sex, and male-female sex partners when one partner has HIV-1 infection and the other does not. Ask your healthcare provider if you have questions about how to prevent getting HIV-1. Always practice safer sex and use condoms to lower the chance of sexual contact with body fluids. Never reuse or share needles or other items that have body fluids on them.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about TRUVADA for PrEP? Before taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must be HIV-negative. You must get tested to make sure that you do not already have HIV-1 infection. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are conﬁrmed to be HIV-negative. u Many HIV-1 tests can miss HIV-1 infection in a person who has recently become infected. If you have flu-like symptoms, you could have recently become infected with HIV-1. Tell your healthcare provider if you had a flu-like illness within the last month before starting TRUVADA for PrEP or at any time while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Symptoms of new HIV-1 infection include tiredness, fever, joint or muscle aches, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, night sweats, and/or enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or groin. While taking TRUVADA for PrEP to reduce your risk of getting HIV-1 infection: u You must continue using safer sex practices. Just taking TRUVADA for PrEP may not keep you from getting HIV-1. u You must stay HIV-negative to keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u To further help reduce your risk of getting HIV-1: • Know your HIV-1 status and the HIV-1 status of your partners. • Get tested for HIV-1 at least every 3 months or when your healthcare provider tells you. • Get tested for other sexually transmitted infections. Other infections make it easier for HIV-1 to infect you. • Get information and support to help reduce risky sexual behavior. • Have fewer sex partners. • Do not miss any doses of TRUVADA. Missing doses may increase your risk of getting HIV-1 infection. • If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away. u If you do become HIV-1 positive, you need more medicine than TRUVADA alone to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time. TRUVADA can cause serious side effects: u Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency. Symptoms of lactic acidosis include weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, nausea, vomiting, stomach-area pain, cold or blue hands and feet, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or fast or abnormal heartbeats. u Serious liver problems. Your liver may become large and tender, and you may develop fat in your liver. Symptoms of liver problems include your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, and/or stomach-area pain.

u You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver

problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking TRUVADA for a long time. In some cases, these serious conditions have led to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any symptoms of these conditions. u Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. If you also have HBV and take TRUVADA, your hepatitis may become worse if you stop taking TRUVADA. Do not stop taking TRUVADA without ﬁrst talking to your healthcare provider. If your healthcare provider tells you to stop taking TRUVADA, they will need to watch you closely for several months to monitor your health. TRUVADA is not approved for the treatment of HBV.

Who should not take TRUVADA for PrEP? Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you already have HIV-1 infection or if you do not know your HIV-1 status. If you are HIV-1 positive, you need to take other medicines with TRUVADA to treat HIV-1. TRUVADA by itself is not a complete treatment for HIV-1. If you have HIV-1 and take only TRUVADA, your HIV-1 may become harder to treat over time. Do not take TRUVADA for PrEP if you also take lamivudine (Epivir-HBV) or adefovir (HEPSERA).

What are the other possible side effects of TRUVADA for PrEP? Serious side effects of TRUVADA may also include: u Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider may do blood tests to check your kidneys before and during treatment with TRUVADA for PrEP. If you develop kidney problems, your healthcare provider may tell you to stop taking TRUVADA for PrEP. u Bone problems, including bone pain or bones getting soft or thin, may lead to fractures. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your bones. u Changes in body fat, which can happen in people taking TRUVADA or medicines like TRUVADA. Common side effects in people taking TRUVADA for PrEP are stomach-area (abdomen) pain, headache, and decreased weight. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRUVADA for PrEP? u All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare

provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis virus infection. u If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, talk to your healthcare provider to decide if you should keep taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Pregnancy Registry: A pregnancy registry collects information about your health and the health of your baby. There is a pregnancy registry for women who take medicines to prevent HIV-1 during pregnancy. For more information about the registry and how it works, talk to your healthcare provider. u If you are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. The medicines in TRUVADA can pass to your baby in breast milk. If you become HIV-1 positive, HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. u All the medicines you take, including prescription and overthe-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine. u If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA for PrEP, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include ledipasvir with sofosbuvir (HARVONI). You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRUVADA for PrEP including important warnings on the following page.

Have you heard about

TRUVADA for PrEP ? TM

The once-daily prescription medicine that can help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 when used with safer sex practices. • TRUVADA for PrEP is only for adults who are at high risk of getting HIV through sex. • You must be HIV-negative before you start taking TRUVADA. Ask your doctor about your risk of getting HIV-1 infection and if TRUVADA for PrEP may be right for you.

visit start.truvada.com

Community News>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Trump election raises housing, homelessness concerns by David-Elijah Nahmod

nity resources.” Cheu also said that it was too early in the budgeting process for the city to finalize strategies should certain significant funding streams be eliminated. Around 100 people attended the forum at the Castro Senior Center inside Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church at 110 Diamond Street. The meeting was divided into three groups. Elena Chavez Quezada, senior program officer for the Walter and Elise Hass Fund, led the homeless discussion. Clinton Loftman, who also works with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, facilitated the senior housing discussion. The HIV and housing discussion was led by Pastor Megan Rohrer of Grace Lutheran Church. Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District and Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee both participated in the homeless discussion. Aiello addressed the Castro Cares programs, which puts community monitors out onto the streets of the neighborhood to help lead them to the services they need. “Homeless outreach is about getting to know people,” she said. “How can that happen when monitors are out there for two hours every six months? While we’ve touched a lot of people there’s a gap. Something is missing. We’re not quite providing what the people need.” Avicolli Mecca said people need to fight evictions and see that more housing is built. “We need to decriminalize homelessness – we need to involve homeless folks in the discussion. Why is there no shelter in the Castro? Our community has a homelessness crisis,” he said. One homeless man who declined to give his name spoke up during

ederal funds for homelessness and housing programs could dry up under a Trump administration, leaving city officials scrambling to determine how the services can be maintained if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on promises he’s made to deport undocumented immigrants and penalize sanctuary cities like San Francisco. The city could lose as much as $1 billion per year in federal funding, leaving advocates concerned about where that shortfall would be made up and about how housing services would be provided to the homeless, seniors, immigrants, and others. Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors have reaffirmed San Francisco’s sanctuary city status, and Lee said at a unity rally after the election that San Francisco would remain a welcoming place for all, including LGBT people, people of color, and all religious faiths. Earlier this month, Brian Cheu, director of community development for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, held a forum to assess the housing needs of the homeless, senior, and LGBTQ communities. Also mentioned was how programs could continue being funded should the city lose its federal funding during a Trump administration. “Currently our department was asked to provide a summary of our current federal dollars and what it supports so that the mayor could better understand how a cut to our federal funding would affect our department,” Cheu said at the November 17 meeting. “The mayor will look at available funding sources to see how the general fund and other sources would be used to maximize the availability of existing services and avoid losing valuable commu-

Rick Gerharter

Brian Cheu, right, from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, speaks during a community meeting about strategies for addressing housing and community development needs in San Francisco.

the discussion. “We need to lean on the tech companies,” he said. “Make them come through with funding. It’s disgusting that we have so much wealth – there should be no one on the streets.” He also mentioned mental health concerns, noting that in his experience psychiatrists were shying away from homeless services because they could charge higher fees to tech workers. At the HIV table, people were expressing concern about the possibility of funding cuts. Several people mentioned that the housing policies that have been developed in Salt Lake City were a good model for San Francisco to follow. Salt Lake City – and the state of Utah – has decreased homelessness by 91 percent by increasing the services it offers and by sending more outreach workers into homeless communities. Rohrer spoke to the Bay Area

Reporter after the meeting. “Before the meeting, I thought the most emergent issue would be a response to the projected loss of $2 million dollars in HIV/AIDS housing funds due to federal recalculations,” Rohrer said. “After listening to the needs of advocates, service providers, and legal advisers supporting individuals with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco, I now understand that the potential loss of federal funding is across a wide range of important intersectional issues affecting vulnerable San Franciscans.” Rohrer, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said that they were pleased to learn about a new computer portal that will soon streamline the application process for low-income housing. The portal will also email individuals when housing that matches their criteria becomes available. At all three discussions, the scarcity of available housing was an on-

going issue. Some noted that the cost of building affordable housing has limited the city’s ability to match the needs of its low-income residents, while others argued that the city could build the housing regardless. A number of people expressed support for the city’s new Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, which aims to streamline all services under one roof. “While it’s always good to have discussions on this topic, the simple fact is that the city has to provide housing to the homeless,” Avicolli Mecca said. “Why is the city continuing to build luxury housing for the rich? We especially need housing for the homeless in the Castro. The LGBT community has high rates of homelessness and poverty – yet in the past six years no housing for the homeless has been built in the Castro area.” Aiello pointed out that a lot of the suggestions made at the meeting had been heard before. “The city knows what needs to be done,” she said. “It just needs the political will to do it. Optimism was expressed about the city’s move to bring all services under the new Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. I share that optimism, but strong leadership and the political will will be needed.” Cheu said that he was pleased with the meeting. He called the evening “an honest, civic dialogue about important issues such as civic housing, housing for HIV-positive folks, and the homeless.” “As we were holding the meeting in the Castro, these three issues are of key importance both to the city at large and specifically to the Castro community,” Cheu added. “There was a good mix of stakeholders represented, and that being said, there is always the need to have even more constituents present who are affected daily by these issues.”t

AFFORDABLE HOMES FOR SALE IN MISSION DISTRICT

11 “Below Market Rate” ownership units available in the Mission at Rowan, 338 Potrero Street, San Francisco, 94103

New Homes with Modern Design & Amenities 6 one-bedroom + den homes available without parking and with parking to households at or under 100% of median income

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Parking is an option available to BMR homebuyers. Homebuyers who elect parking will pay an additional monthly HOA of $641.41-$747.27 per month

Buyers households must earn no more than the income levels listed below: AFFORDABLE

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1 person

2 person

3 person

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Lottery Date T HU R S D AY, JANUARY 19, 2017 AT 4PM

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T U E S DAY, N O V E M B E R 29, 4 –5: 30PM

Location: MOH 1 South Van Ness Avenue, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103

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How to Apply: Please begin by going to HomeownershipSF.org/workshop-list for a complete list of housing agency homeownership class schedules and to sign up for a requisite class. Next, obtain a loan pre-approval for 338 Potrero Street from one of the SF MOHCD approved lenders listed on the website. Finally, download an application from Rowan’s website at rowansf.com/bmr or the MOHCD website. Applications are due by 5pm on Thursday, December 29 to one of the five approved housing agencies. Applications received after the deadline will not be accepted. All applicants are encouraged to apply. Lottery preference will be given to *Certificate of Preference, **Ellis Act Housing Preference holders and households that currently live or work in San Francisco. ADD’L HOA FOR PARKING

BDRM COUNT

BATH COUNT

SQ FT

FLOOR

PRICE W/ PARKING

MONTHLY HOA

PRICE W/O PARKING

1.5

772

$308,189

$678.03

$237,644

$747.27

303

845

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

304

840

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

205

DOWNPAYMENT REQUIRED 5% of sale price

308

831

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

310

1.5

667

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

403

845

$326,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

408

831

$326,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

501

1.5

676

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

510

1.5

673

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

601

1.5

676

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

602

1.5

673

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

By Polaris Pacific. Floor plans are drawn to varying scales to maximize visibility when printed. The floor plans, elevations, renderings, features, finishes and specifications are subject to change at any time and should not be relied on as representations, express or implied. Square footage or floor areas shown in any marketing or other materials is approximate and may be more or less than the actual size. Real Estate Consulting, Sales and Marketing by Polaris Pacific – a licensed California, Arizona. Colorado, Oregon and Washington Broker – CA BRE #01499250. *Certificate of Preference (COP) holders are primarily households displaced in Redevelopment Project Areas during the 1960’s and 1970’s, but may also include other persons displaced by Agency action. Please contact 415-701-5613 for more information.** Ellis Act Housing Preference (EAHP) holders are long term San Francisco tenants who were evicted because of the Ellis Act as defined by The Ellis Act Displacement Emergency Assistance Ordinance passed into law on December 18, 2013. Please contact 415-701-5613 for more information.

<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Safety seminar urges people to be alert, report crimes by David-Elijah Nahmod

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ationally, reported hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, LGBT people, and people of color spiked in the aftermath of the presidential election, and local community leaders held a safety seminar this week to address concerns in an era of President-elect Donald Trump. According to the Guardian, a U.K.-based newspaper, the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 867 hate crimes in the United States in the first 10 days following the election. Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence kicked off the seminar, held Monday, November 28 at SOMArts Cultural Center. About 100 people attended. “I’m not afraid. You’re not afraid. It takes courage to be gay and you are courageous to be here,” Roma said. Roma held up a Stop the Violence placard. She told attendees that if they were ever under attack in the Castro area, to look for the signs in store windows. “These are safe spaces where you can seek refuge,” she said. Attendees were also given whistles and urged to keep them in an easy-to-reach place whenever they were out in the neighborhood. San Francisco Police Captain Teresa Ewins, a lesbian and 21-year veteran of the department, spoke to the crowd. “I love it when people get pissed,” Ewins said. “When they get pissed they take action.” She emphasized the importance of people in the community getting involved. “People say it didn’t happen to me,” she said. “We have to stop doing that.” She also explained the difference between hate speech and a hate crime. For example, merely saying the word “faggot” – the captain added that she hated using the word – was not a crime. A crime is committed when the incident escalates into violence, theft, or property damage. She also emphasized the need to stand with different communities and for people to work with law enforcement. “Every police station should be welcoming to you,” Ewins said. “You can always ask to speak to a member of the LGBT community. If we’re going to stop people from coming to San Francisco to victimize the LGBT or immigrant communities then you must report it. We are a sanctuary city – we are not going to change as a city – we have to get the word

Kelly Sullivan

San Francisco Police Inspector Lenny Broberg holds a Stop the Violence placard that participating Castro merchants have in their windows to indicate the business is an LGBT safe space.

out to our immigrant community.” Roma added that the Sisters were there to help. “San Francisco values will never change,” Roma said. “You can turn to the Sisters if you need help – contact the Sisters, that’s what we do.” Ray Tilton, a gay man who won the Mr. San Francisco Leather in 1990, spoke of the two times he was assaulted. He also urged people to report all incidents. “I was assaulted in Guerneville in 1997,” he said. “And again in the Castro over Pride weekend in 2010. No one deserves to be assaulted or hated upon for being themselves.” Tilton added that it was important for people to learn the proper procedures for reporting hate crimes and for pursuing criminal prosecution against their attackers. Gay police Inspector Lenny Broberg, with the department’s Gang Task Force, also urged people to interact with the police. “SFPD has liaisons to every community – wherever you end up on the LGBT spectrum the San Francisco police are there for you,” he said. Greg Carey and Ken Craig of Castro Community on Patrol, a volunteer neighborhood watch group, spoke of the need for people to learn self-defense techniques. “See someone in trouble?” Carey asked. “Don’t pause. Blow the whistle. Call 911. We’ve lost the ability to help strangers – we need to relearn that. Learn to work with the police – our enemies are heavily armed and

filled with hate. Report every crime.” Carey also mentioned the importance of court appearances. “Testify is you’re a witness to a hate crime,” he said. “Juries often acquit without witnesses.” Carey said that Castro Community on Patrol’s insurance policy prevented them from offering protection outside of the Castro/ Duboce Triangle area. “We are ready to help other groups get started in other neighborhoods,” he said. “Will there be violence? Yes. Can we stop it all? No. Can we be a unified and visible presence and make a difference? Yes?” Carey and Craig then presented a 20-minute demonstration of simple self-defense techniques that people can use if they’re physically attacked. Craig also offered a few tips in how to avoid physical confrontations. “Plan your route when you go out, and have a back-up,” he advised. “Use the buddy system. Let people know where you are. Don’t make yourself an easy target. If something doesn’t look, feel, or smell right, then listen to that. Do whatever you need to do to avoid that situation. Exude confidence even if you’re not. Attract attention. Don’t let embarrassment prevent you from seeking help from others. Evasion is the best strategy.” Luke Adams, a gay clinical psychologist, talked about mental health and self-care. Adams feels that fake news on social media has decimated the community’s morale. “Avoid social media,” Adams suggested. “Choose two or three news sources that you trust and stick with them. Build friendship networks.” Adams also feels that some activists take on too much by becoming involved with too many causes. “Pick one issue so you don’t get overwhelmed,” he said. “Give yourself time to grieve if something happens. It takes three to five years to process through the grieving process. Don’t tell others or yourself to get over it. Seek help if you feel depressed or suicidal.”t Castro Community on Patrol will offer its next training January 21. For more information, visit www.castropatrol.org. Phone numbers people can call include the district attorney’s hate crime hotline, (415) 551-9595; the SF Human Rights Commission, (415) 252-2500; Community United Against Violence, (415) 777-5500; and Castro Community On Patrol, (415) ASK-CCOP.

SF man sent to prison for attack on lesbian by Seth Hemmelgarn

San Francisco man who’d been accused of trying to kill a lesbian by attacking her with a liquor bottle has been sentenced to state prison after pleading to a less serious charge. Tanrence Joe Owens, 32, had been charged with attempted murder and other counts after he allegedly struck Eraina “Ray Ray” Jones, who was 25 at the time, with a large glass bottle in September 2014, leaving her hospitalized for weeks with cuts to her neck and face. At a hearing in October, Owens pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in exchange for the other charges being dismissed. On November 22, a judge sentenced him to four years state prison. During her testimony at a 2015 preliminary hearing, Jones frequently struggled to remember

Courtesy SFPD

Tanrence Joe Owens

what had happened during the incident, and she acknowledged that details from other people had been mixed in with her own memories of what happened.

Owens and Jones had been staying with others at an apartment in the Potrero Hill neighborhood at the time of the attack, which she said came during a dispute over “two or three dollars.” Deputy Public Defender Alex Lilien, who at the time was Owens’ attorney, said during the preliminary hearing that he didn’t think “this was anything other than some type of explosive attack with a bottle.” “Nothing here shows a specific intent to kill other than the fact there was a serious injury that results from what I believe is one hit with the bottle,” Lilien added. “... I’m not seeing a deliberate, pre-meditated desire to kill here.” Asked at the time whether she thought Owens had been trying to kill her, Jones said, “I don’t know ... that’s for you to ask him.” Jones couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.t

Community News>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SF City College faces enrollment crunch by Matthew S. Bajko

an Francisco’s community college system is facing an enrollment crunch as it anxiously awaits word on if its accreditation will be upheld and if city leaders will make good on their pledge to offer free tuition to city residents. City College of San Francisco has seen its enrollment drop from more than 100,000 to less than 70,000 since 2012 due to the fight over its accreditation. The number of fulltime students has fallen from 33,000 to roughly 22,000 today, and the college’s administrators are facing a $35 million cut in state funding next year. For five years now City College, the state’s largest community college, has been at war with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The private accrediting body had threatened to revoke City College’s accreditation by July 2014 due to mismanagement by the school’s previous administration. The news led to legal and legislative fights both in California and Washington, D.C., with the ACCJC being found to be in noncompliance by the federal agency that oversees it. And California’s community colleges are looking to replace it with a different accrediting agency. Amid the ongoing controversy, the ACCJC last year granted City College special restoration status to give it time to address its compliance issues. A review committee visited CCSF in October, and the full ACCJC is expected to render a decision on the institution’s accreditation at its meeting in January. “The evaluation team and the commission believe that CCSF has the ability to resolve deficiencies and meet all the standards during the restoration period,” wrote ACCJC President Barbara Beno in an August 2015 letter to out City College Chancellor Susan Lamb. Speaking at a panel about CCSF Monday, November 28 organized by Congresswoman Jackie Speier (DSan Mateo), whose district includes the college’s main campus, gay City College board President Rafael Mandelman said he was hopeful the ACCJC would decide in the college’s favor next month, “so we can put this sorry chapter behind us.” While Mandelman stressed that City College is “open and we are accredited,” he also acknowledged that CCSF has “significant challenges we continue to face.” Key among them is the drop in enrollment, as well as funding, which has the college’s administration looking to cut 26 percent of its class schedule over the next five years. “I don’t see how to make those cuts and preserve City College as people see it,” said Mandelman, who last month won re-election to his seat on the City College board. Voters in November did agree to increase the parcel tax that funds City College to $99 and extend it for 15 years. And they also backed another ballot measure that will impose a transfer tax on property sold for more than $5 million that city leaders had pledged to use to make City College free for city residents. But there is talk of using the $45 million the transfer tax is expected to generate annually toward plugging the city’s looming budget deficit due to rising pension costs and the defeat of a sales tax measure last month. College leaders pledged to ensure that does not happen. Tim Killikelly, president of the college teacher union, AFT 2121, and a political science professor, said the parcel tax and “free city college are so critical for this institution moving forward.” He blamed most of the college’s

enrollment problems on the actions taken by the ACCJC. And he predicted students’ reluctance to enroll at CCSF would vanish overnight should the accrediting body come to a favorable decision on its accreditation next month. “Once the accreditation crisis goes away, we are ready to grow the college,” said Killikelly. Speier, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park), has

been a vocal advocate for CCSF. In a November 10 letter to an advisory body of the federal Department of Education, she compared the ACCJC to “Tomas de Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain.” On Monday she expressed optimism about City College’s future. “We have reason to be optimistic and hopeful of this great institution,” said Speier from the stage of the college’s Diego Rivera Theater. “It is more than open. It is stronger as a result of what has transpired.”t

Kelly Sullivan

Students walk on the main City College of San Francisco campus.

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<< Open Forum

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Volume 46, Number 48 December 1-7, 2016 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 EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Federal cuts can’t be made up in vacuum I

f President-elect Donald Trump stands by his threat to strip all federal funds from sanctuary cities, it will result in the loss of millions of dollars. Already, city officials are bracing for the impact by studying how such a drastic hit will affect the city budget. The short answer: it’s going to be painful. City Controller Ben Rosenfield has estimated that the city receives $478 million directly from the federal government. The San Francisco Chronicle reported those dollars fund everything from foster care and HIV/AIDS services to local law enforcement to public works. San Francisco International Airport receives nearly $30 million for capital projects and grants – a cut to that will impact tourism, one of the city’s biggest revenue generators and drivers of small businesses such as restaurants and other local attractions. The city has come to expect cuts to HIV/ AIDS services – the federal government does that every year. Under a formula imposed by federal officials, San Francisco has seen a steady decrease in funding because new HIV infections in the city have been trending downward for years. As we reported in April, City Hall has allocated more than $20 million since 2011 in local taxpayer dollars to cover the reduction of its share of Ryan White HIV/ AIDS Treatment Modernization Act funds. But even while AIDS officials know the cuts are coming, the shortfall of federal funding must still be replaced so that the city can continue to provide care and treatment to those living with HIV, and those who will seroconvert.

Supervisor David Campos this week called for $5 million to provide legal representation to undocumented immigrants who face deportation. While that is the type of forward thinking that we appreciate, it’s also the type of policy work that shouldn’t be done in a vacuum. Rather than deal with the potential loss of federal dollars in a piecemeal way, the Board of Supervisors should establish an organized, comprehensive response. The city can’t effectively govern if every supervisor suddenly steps forward with multimillion-dollar proposals. Campos hopes to expedite his $5 million allocation to the public defender’s office as soon as December 13, his last meeting on the board before being termed out of office. Campos, a gay man and one of the advocates for backfilling the HIV/ AIDS shortfall every year, surely knows that the city budget must cover other departments too, regardless of whether Trump follows through on what he’s said. The city also needs

to take into account a big budget hole that was created when voters defeated Proposition K, the sales tax increase. The board had assumed it would pass – generating around $150 million for transportation and homeless services – and included that now non-existent money in the current budget allocations. There is also a looming $5 billion shortfall in the city’s pension costs, the Chronicle noted. Possible solutions include raiding the soda tax revenue, which can be redirected but which backers promised voters would go to health-related purposes. That’s about $7.5 million next year and $15 million in 2018-19, the paper reported. In short, there are a lot of moving parts to the city’s financial machinery, and the smartest thing would be to convene a working group or for the board’s budget committee to begin outlining the hard choices the supervisors and mayor will have to make. Another important player will be the incoming District 8 supervisor. That person must be prepared on Day 1 to determine what federal funds could be lost under Trump and its effect on the LGBTQ community, in addition to the aforementioned expected HIV/AIDS reductions. The looming Trump presidency scares a lot of us. And because Trump often contradicts himself, it’s unclear what he will actually do. But his Cabinet choices so far are not LGBTfriendly, and they will have the ability to reverse federal policy for a number of issues, including health care and immigration. In the face of Trump’s impending administration San Francisco city leaders cannot be divided. The city must stand united against Trump and his appointees who want to turn back the clock and punish cities that value all people.t

We survived Reagan, we will Trump this by Jim Mitulski

n election night, I sat in a bar in Boston where I now live and work, watching the returns with my younger gay Baptist minister friend from Cambridge. Times have changed – Baptist ministers can drink, be openly gay, while I have forsworn substances for some time now and am the pastor of a largely straight, white, liberal, suburban mainline church. But we were there to celebrate a Hillary Clinton victory. At 1 a.m., just as it became almost certain that Donald Trump would win, the power went out. A total blackout. The lights didn’t come back on for several hours and it matched our mood. I blurted out, “We survived Reagan. We’ll survive this!” But my young Baptist minister friend looked at me with a blank, uncomprehending stare, as if I had made a flippant joke. I was serious. My friend had barely been born when Ronald Reagan took office. Without minimizing the real feelings of people whose genuine and legitimate terror at the present moment and the real threat that the incoming administration’s incompetence and indifference on health care issues represents, this is the time to bear witness. World AIDS Day is the time to tell the old story and to tell some new stories, too. It’s a day to say, “No more AIDS deaths.” We are wily strategists ready to use the power of love that is stronger than death. No more AIDS deaths. Here’s one old story: In 1986, right-wing politician Lyndon LaRouche and his followers placed Proposition 64 on the California ballot. This is a state with a history of anti-Japanese prejudice that resulted in the concentration of Japanese and Japanese-American residents and citizens just 40 years earlier. If successful, it would have forcibly concentrated people with HIV in California, in the same way we are currently passively allowing immigrants among us to be collected and deported with no protest or intervention. The gay community and our allies banded together and Prop 64 failed. We did it then, and we need to do it now. And we have the organizing examples of Occupy and Black Lives Matter and the opportunity to build coalitions to make sure that we do not give into this madness for one day more. World AIDS Day is about solidar-

Jim Mitulski

An AIDS quilt panel hangs in the Congregational Church of Needham United Church of Christ.

ity: chanting “Estamos con Ustedes” and “Black Lives Matter” is an additional way of saying, “Act Up, Fight Back, Fight AIDS.” The Sunday after the election, I went from church to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Facility at the Boston County Jail and participated in a vigil and protest so that the detainees could see and hear us and we could hear them. I learned this in my days of AIDS activism. Listen, I know something about not giving up hope when things seem hopeless. I held the hands of hundreds of people as they died. And though it took a toll, I have no regrets about never giving up. We have to summon that capacity again. World AIDS Day calls us to find that deep well inside us and not give up. We have better medicine today. People no longer need to die of HIV/AIDS. But more people have died than ever before, nationally and internationally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that one in two black gay men and one in four Latino gay men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime. It is a leading cause of death for black women in the South. HIV/AIDS prospers where there is poverty, racism, sexism,

and homophobia. It isn’t a medical condition; it is a social and stigma condition. Look at the shocking lack of response our country and other countries have exhibited toward Zika. The Republican government and the Roman Catholic Church in their shared disregard for poor women and Latinas and their access to contraception and abortion callously refused to act in rational public health ways. This past summer I came back to Berkeley to teach a class at Pacific School of Religion, the most liberal seminary in the country. My United Methodist theologian colleague Dr. Donald Messer and I had the brightest future religious leaders who were learning about the future of the AIDS epidemic from the pioneers of San Francisco’s activist community. Laura Thomas taught them about safe injection; Masen Davis brought them news from the United Nations High Level Meeting on Human Rights about transgender rights; Bishop Yvette Flunder and the Reverend Dr. Penny Nixon brought them a religious update. And a prominent activist from an Asian country described using what he learned in San Francisco in order to smuggle the most recent HIV drugs into his country. African-American poet Adam Dyer shared with them about the intersection of race and the arts and sexuality. At the end of the class, student Blythe Barnow preached a sermon in which she proclaimed passionately in words that continue to haunt me, words that have defined my own life since my diagnosis and that of so many of my friends, many no longer alive, but words that now give me hope, even after the Trump election: “Every year is an AIDS year.” Yes, every year is an AIDS year, but this year is going to galvanize us like none other and be our best year yet.t The Reverend Jim Mitulski is the interim senior minister of the Congregational Church of Needham United Church of Christ. Previously he was pastor for 15 years of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco and former cochair of the San Francisco Mayor’s HIV Planning Council. He lives in Boston. He can be reached at revmitulski@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter: @revmitulski.

Letters >>

Taking the low road

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

The most zealous critic of Michael Weinstein I know had no trouble supporting Jane Kim for state Senate, so while I have doubts about the validity of your analysis of the role of Weinstein played in the defeat of Kim, I find it interesting that you made the attempt to prove that the Scott Wiener campaign was the victim in the “vicious” campaign run against him [“A sharp rebuke to AHF,” Editorial, November 24]. When Kim asked the Wiener campaign to sign a pledge to run a positive campaign he didn’t just say, “No I’m keeping my options open.” He replied, “Jane Kim doesn’t want me to be able to use her name in my campaign, what is she trying to hide?” and then went on to speculate about which votes might hold the

key. He was not just taking the low road, but showing which ruts were going to provide the mud he intended to sling. His use of the word “vicious” to describe the campaign against him reminded me of the scene from Casablanca where the policeman is “shocked” to learn there is gambling going on as he is handed his winnings. The ad implying that domestic abuse was a value Kim shared with Ross Mirkarimi was repulsive. What I found so disillusioning about this election was from the top of the ballot to our local offices it seems that the election went to those who took the low road to new depths. Bill Wilson San Francisco

Kaplan joins oil pipeline protesters by Matthew S. Bajko

akland at-large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan and her wife, Pamela Rosin Kaplan, spent the Thanksgiving holiday week camped in a van at Cannon Ball, North Dakota, along with thousands of other protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Coming off a hard fought reelection win, Kaplan decided at the last minute to drive the nearly 1,610 miles to assist the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in demonstrating against the planned oil pipeline through its reservation. Since April the tribe has been blocking construction of the project in order to protect its sacred lands and water supply. “The fact that the pipeline previously was proposed to go through a white area and residents opposed it and said, ‘We don’t want it in our backyard,’ so they moved it to an area where it would impact Native land is emblematic of the issues we need to speak up against,” Kaplan told the Bay Area Reporter in a phone interview this week. “And even more so with the new president coming in.” Seeing parallels between the tribe’s fight over the pipeline route and the protests in Oakland over shipping coal through the city’s port, Kaplan in September took part in a rally in front of Oakland City Hall against the oil pipeline project. She also authored a resolution that the City Council unanimously passed that month putting Oakland on record as being opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline. “I think we really see an intersection here of some of the most crucial issues facing our nation,” said Kaplan. “In one place we have the question of whether we are ever going to do anything about climate change, which is getting worse and worse and worse, faster than people expected. It is essential to stop the process of increasing our reliance on the most deadliest of fossil fuels.” The couple arrived at the main protest camp, called the Oceti Sakowin Camp, Monday, November 21 after a two-day drive and stayed through Saturday, November 26. They brought with them more than $2,000 in supplies for the protesters, including food, firewood, propane, axes, and two extra-duty sleeping bags they donated after using them throughout the week. “We camped in the main water protectors camp that has now been threatened by the Army Corps of Engineers,” said Kaplan. “When we arrived there were about 5,000 people. Over the course of the week it grew to about 10,000 people.” During the day temperatures ranged between 36 and 41 degrees, while at night it fell to 12 degrees. The women had come prepared

Courtesy Facebook

Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan spent Thanksgiving week joining protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

with heavy winter coats, hats, and boots. “I should say to anybody thinking of going, do not go unless you are fully equipped with winter gear. You need to bring both clothing and what you are going to sleep in as well as food,” said Kaplan, adding that during her week at the camp people arriving unprepared was “a significant problem.” She also advised those planning to take part in the protest should keep in mind it is an indigenous people-led movement and they need to follow their lead. Due to the influx of protesters over the holiday break, there were complaints of the visitors treating it more like a vacation than an action to protect sacred tribal lands. “Non-Native activists are welcome but absolutely are expected to follow the leadership of the indigenous people. They should not make up their own actions,” said Kaplan. “This is an action over water protection as well as tribal treaty rights; it is not a music festival; it is not Burning Man. People really need to come fully prepared for what it is. Otherwise don’t go and send money if you want to help.” During their stay, Kaplan and her wife lent a hand in winterizing the camp, in particular the medical area where protesters are treated for hypothermia and injuries from being hit by water cannons, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. They also spent time at the large two-spirit camp within the site, which has a large rainbow flag flying over it. “There were significant numbers of LGBT people present in the camp. That was also interesting to see,” said Kaplan. Energy Transfer Partners, the builder of the $3.8 billion project, has insisted it will not reroute the pipeline, and the army corps had given a deadline of Monday, December 5 for protesters to clear out of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, which

is not on tribal land but property managed by the federal agency. On Monday Republican North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple ordered an emergency evacuation of the site due to the harsh winter conditions. But last week the army corps said it would not forcibly remove the protesters, who have vowed to remain in place. “They are saying they are not going to leave. The standoff could go on for months,” predicted Kaplan. “How do you evict 5,000 people?” To learn more about the protest, or to donate funds, visit http:// standwithstandingrock.net/.

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Dufty, Wiener to be sworn in

Less than a month after winning their races, two gay San Francisco lawmakers will take their oaths of office in the coming week. This Friday, December 2, former San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty will be sworn in to his District 9 Seat on the BART Board of Directors. Dufty defeated two challengers to win the open seat as gay BART board member Tom Radulovich opted not to seek re-election. Joining Dufty at the 4 p.m. ceremony will be Lateefah Simon, who defeated incumbent BART board member Zakhary Mallett and several other challengers in the race for the District 7 Seat on the Bay Area transit agency’s oversight body. Judge Teri L. Jackson, the incoming presiding judge of the San Francisco Superior Court, will administer the oaths of office. The ceremony will take place in the BART Board Room on the third floor of the Kaiser Center 20th Street Mall, 344 20th Street, in downtown Oakland, a short walk from the 19th Street BART station. To RSVP, email bevan.dufty@gmail.com. Lesbian BART board member Rebecca Saltzman, who won reelection to her District 3 Seat, told the B.A.R. that swearing in ceremonies are only held for new members of the board and isn’t planning an event. Then, on Monday, December 5 at noon in Sacramento, state Senatorelect Scott Wiener will take his oath of office with his fellow state legislators during a ceremony at the Statehouse. Wiener bested his opponent, District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, to succeed termed out gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) in his 11th District Seat. Later that night Wiener is hosting a celebration in San Francisco’s Castro district to mark his inauguration. It will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Swedish American Hall, located at 2174 Market Street. To RSVP, email victor@scottwiener.com.t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. The column returns Monday, December 5.

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<< National News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Trump leaves AIDS advocates feeling anxious by Liz Highleyman

he election of Donald Trump has left many people with HIV, their medical providers, and advocates feeling uncertain and anxious. Although Trump said little about HIV during the presidential campaign, his opposition to the Affordable Care Act and his conservative Cabinet picks suggest many of the advances of the Obama years may be rolled back. But all agreed that it is hard to predict specific details. “There are serious threats to Medicaid, insurance marketplaces, and Medicare looming,” said Anne Donnelly of Project Inform. “The plans are also an attack on entitlement programs, which, of course, means that when you most need them, there will not be enough money to cover people.” Tim Horn of Treatment Action Group listed other areas of concern including National Institutes of Health funding for HIV vaccine and cure research, looser Food and Drug Administration approval requirements, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention support for health departments and community-based organizations, the Ryan White HIV/ AIDS program, the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and even provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. “What’s really concerning is that we now have the most conservative and potentially dangerous federal government in U.S. history,” Horn told the Bay Area Reporter. “Fortunately, there’s a history of bipartisan support for federal programs addressing the prevention and care needs of people living with and vulnerable to HIV. We need activism now more than ever.” Advocates are equally wary of

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was governor of Indiana during a 2015 HIV and hepatitis C outbreak traced to opioid injection. In Congress, Pence was among the first legislators to propose defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides HIV testing and other sexual health services in addition to reproductive health care. “We now have a vice president who set the conditions for an HIV outbreak in his state by ignoring the signs of a potential epidemic,” said Gregg Gonsalves of Yale’s Global Health Justice Partnership. “After the epidemic started he refused to act and started praying. By the time his prayers were over and he decided to allow needle exchange, close to 200 people had gotten infected and his actions were too little too late. He cost his state millions of dollars by his willingness to let ideology trump public health.” This week Trump nominated Congressman Tom Price (R-Georgia), an orthopedic surgeon who has repeatedly attempted to repeal the ACA, as secretary of Health and Human Services – a position that oversees the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the CDC, the FDA, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the NIH. Advocates are also worried about what a Republican Congress will do once it is free of President Barack Obama’s veto power. For example, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) has expressed a desire to dramatically restructure the Medicare program for seniors, replacing it with tax credits to purchase private insurance.

Threats to the ACA

Throughout the campaign Trump promised to repeal and replace the ACA, though he offered

t the Nex u o Y Are

Hero?

Courtesy ABC News

AIDS advocates are concerned about what President-elect Donald Trump will do to health care programs.

little detail about what he planned to replace it with other than “something terrific.” The Congressional Budget Office estimates that repealing the ACA could leave 22 million Americans without health coverage. Trump and his allies in Congress have suggested that they wish to keep popular features of the ACA, such as allowing young people to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26 and banning exclusion of people with pre-existing conditions, while getting rid of less popular aspects like the insurance mandate. But most health policy experts think these cannot be separated. “Because repealing Obamacare has been an ongoing Republican mantra and a focal point of Trump’s campaign promises, it is hard to see how they could completely back off,” said Donnelly. “And unfortunately there are a number of things that they can do that don’t require a majority vote.” Republicans currently hold a majority in both the House and Senate, but not by a wide enough margin to pass most legislation on their own.

However, they can use the reconciliation process – which requires only a simple majority – to quickly reverse aspects of the ACA that involve federal spending, such as the subsidies that enable many low- and middle-income people to afford insurance. “In a climate of uncertainty, will insurance companies pull out? They’re already leaving exchanges, but will that happen at a greater rate?” asked Wendy Armstrong, chair of the HIV Medicine Association. “There could be a collapse, even if the ACA is not fully repealed, before a replacement is sorted out.” One Trump proposal is to switch Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) from an individual entitlement program to block grants to states. Medicaid covers about 40 percent of people with HIV and is responsible for 30 percent of all federal funding for HIV care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Before the ACA expanded Medicaid to cover people up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level – in states that opted to do so – HIV-positive people generally had to become sick enough to be considered disabled before they qualified. States are allowed to use Ryan White funds to cover Medicaid or private insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-pays for people with HIV. But if Medicaid funding shrinks, that puts the onus back on the joint federal-state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, or ADAPs, which pay for antiretroviral medications but not general health care. “Ryan White has had great bipartisan support over the years and there hasn’t been talk of dismantling it, but any cuts to the ACA or Medicaid will make Ryan White ever more important for HIV care and wrap-around services,” Armstrong told the B.A.R.

Global funding and harm reduction

Some advocates predict that global HIV/AIDS funding, such as PEPFAR, could fare better than domestic programs. “George Bush got PEPFAR started and it’s always been considered a bipartisan thing,” said Hilary McQuie of HealthGAP. “But Paul Ryan has proposed cutting billions from discretionary funds, and that covers global health funding. It seems very unlikely under Ryan’s budgets that we’d get the $2 billion extra we need to ramp up the response to end AIDS by 2030.” McQuie also expressed concern about the return of restrictions in place during the Reagan and Bush years that hampered global AIDS prevention and care efforts. “Abstinence-only, anti-gay policies, the anti-prostitution pledge, harm reduction not being funded – these threaten the ability to reach the key populations we need to reach most if we’re going to end the epidemic,” she told the B.A.R. A Trump administration could undo some of the progress in harm reduction that has occurred under the Obama administration, including rescinding the ban on needle exchange funding and a shift toward treating drug addiction as a public health rather than a criminal justice issue. Efforts to go further – such as opening supervised injection facilities – appear even more remote.

A time for activism

Beyond dismantling specific health services, the communities at greatest risk for HIV also face further stigma and marginalization, including threats to same-sex marriage, denial of transition-related care for transgender people, criminalization of See page 15 >>

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Community News>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Stud, Castro Country Club get legacy status

Courtesy Stud Collective

The iconic South of Market gay bar the Stud received legacy business status this week from the Small Business Commission.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

wo iconic LGBT businesses in San Francisco – the Stud bar and the recovery-based Castro Country Club – could get some help after the city’s Small Business Commission granted them legacy business status. Among other benefits, a legacy business’s landlord may get grant money if he’s willing to enter into a 10-year lease. The commissioners voted 5-0 Monday, November 28 to support the businesses. Two commissioners were absent. The legacy business registry is the result of Proposition J, which was approved last November. It defined a legacy business as those that have operated for more than 20 years and that the Small Business Commission has found have significantly contributed to the history or identity of a particular neighborhood or community and would face a significant risk of displacement. The Stud has been in business since 1966, when it opened at 1535 Folsom Street as part of the “Miracle Mile,” a group of leather

bars that lined the street and made the South of Market neighborhood famous. Since 1987, it’s been at 399 Ninth Street, a building a few blocks away that was constructed in 1906. The bar has hosted everyone from blues singer Etta James to actress and musician Charo, and in the mid-1990s, it became the original home of the long-running Trannyshack drag show. Trannyshack “would go on to grab the attention of journalists and clubgoers around the country, helping to define 1990s nightlife and drag culture,” a report submitted by the bar’s backers says. Citing Trannyshack founder Heklina, the report says the party “rose out of the ashes of the AIDS crisis. It brought together many of the defining elements of the queer San Francisco nightlife scene at the time: its gender-irreverent drag sensibilities, punk-rock rebellion, and the pain and fear fueled by the AIDS crisis, as well as an expression of resiliency and hope.” As other gay bars in the city have shut down over the years, the Stud, which is still regularly packed with its Some Thing drag revues, has been facing changes, too. An adjacent property that once was the site of a bus parking lot has been transformed into condominiums. Current Stud owner Michael McElhaney announced in July that the bar’s building had been sold, and performers and others formed the Stud Collective in an effort to save it. (The collective will announce its next steps at a community meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, December 6 at the Stud.) “As SOMA is rapidly built out with new developments,” such as the neighboring condos, the report says, “the Stud’s architecture 9.75 in. and stature stands unique against a shrinking sky.” The bar’s backers added that its placement at the corner of two

“major thoroughfares” – Ninth and Harrison streets – “allows for the prominent placement of a gay flag in a neighborhood that is not exclusively gay. ... That flag stands as testament that San Francisco has a commitment to not only tolerance but also to the acceptance, protection, and celebration of its gay community.”

At Monday’s hearing, drag performer Honey Mahogany referred to President Barack Obama’s remarks after the June massacre at Orlando, Florida’s Pulse nightclub, where Omar Mateen fatally shot 49 people and wounded 53 others. Obama said the gay club had been “a place

of solidarity and empowerment.” Mahogany said the Stud’s filled that role for 50 years. It’s been “a place for patrons of all stripes,” including men, women, and every gender in between, she said, and “that ethos continues today.” It’s also been a venue “where See page 18 >>

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<< Community News

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neighborhood support for its move. “We are very happy to be open But SPARC and its supporters, again and hope it doesn’t take long he gay-owned medical mariincluding the Lower Haight Merfor our neighbors to see that we are juana dispensary SPARC has rechants and Neighborhood Associaback in business,” said Joel Freston, Every Thursday April between & 7pm EveryinThursday in 4April between 4 & 7pm opened its Lower Haight storefront tion, or LOHMaNA, said they had SPARC’s public affairs manager. *Sales limited to stock on hand. Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm take 20%take OFF all parts, accessories & clothing.* 20% OFF all parts, accessories & clothing.* following a four-month closure followed the letter of the law and According to Freston, the Haight Now Open Thursday to 7pm! take 20% OFF all & parts, accessories & clothing.* take 20% OFF all parts, accessories clothing.* after its next door neighbor, Love ultimately prevailed. Street store plans to renovate the *Sales limited to stock on hand. limited to stock on hand. appealed the *Sales to stock on Computers, hand. *Sales limited to stock on*Sales hand. limited Haight Last July, after the satellite location space, enlarging the interior to allow SPRING Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm city’s approval of the dispensary’s had only been open a few weeks, the the shop to carry most of the same got business license. take 20% OFF all parts, accessories We’ve & clothing.* city’s board of appeals asked SPARC inventory sold at the SOMA head- m SPARC re-opened November 18 at to close until it could hear the appeal, quarters. Approval of the plans to ready to ride *Sales limited to stock on hand. 473 Haight Street (between Fillmore which was recently denied. renovate is expected in the coming and Webster) after the city’s board of SPARC’s main dispensary at 1256 weeks, Freston said. appeals denied the neighbor’s appeal. Mission (between 8th and 9th streets) “If you’re in the dispensary busiPreviously known as the San Franwas founded by Erich Pearson, a gay ness in San Francisco, you know 1065 & 1077 Valencia (Btwn (Btwn 21st & 22nd St.) •St.) SF SF cisco Patient and Resource Center man who has been cultivating marithat the planning and permitting 10651065 & 1077 Valencia 21st & 22nd 1065 (Btwn &• 1077 Valencia (Btwn St.) •but SF now just calling itself SPARC, the & 1077 Valencia 21st &415-550-6601 22nd St.) •21st SF &•22nd SALES 415-550-6600 REPAIRS juana in northern California since he process is complicated,” Pearson Hybrid/City SALES 415-550-6600 •REPAIRS REPAIRS 415-550-6601 SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 SALES 415-550-6600 •Thu. 415-550-6601 dispensary is open from 2 to 10 p.m. moved here over 18 years ago. Pearson said in an interview. “The process Mon.Sat. 10-6, 10-7, Sun. 11-5 1065 & 1077 Valencia (Btwn 21st & 22nd St.) • SF Mon-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-5 It is expected to begin opening at 10 Mon.Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 is a member of the city’s cannabis lefor dispensaries is arduous, overly Mon.Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 Mon.- Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 a.m. within the next few weeks. galization task force and is a founding complicated, and lengthy.” SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 The 500 square foot storefront was board member of the National Can1065 & 1077 Valencia (Btwn 21st & 22nd St.) • SF See page 13 >> Mon.- Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 open for just a few weeks, beginning nabis Industry Association. SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 last June, when neighbors complained Mon.- Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 that the dispensary had used a loop- Road hole to open and had not gotten

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gay man is returning to San Francisco to 1077 lead the Golden 1065 & Vale Gate National Recreation Area. SALES 415-550 Craig Kenkel was named actMon.Sat. ing general superintendent of the valenc sprawling national park area that spans three counties: Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. According to a news release from the National Park Service, the GGNRA is one of the country’s largest national park units in an urban area. Kenkel, 56, previously served as superintendent of San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park as well as deputy superintendent Courtesy GGNRA and chief of cultural resources at GGNRA Acting General GGNRA. Most recently, he was the Superintendent Craig Kenkel superintendent of Cuyahoga Valley National Park in northeast Ohio. Kenkel will arrive in mid-DeOne of the most controversial cember, following the departure of issues facing GGNRA is its proAaron Roth, who was named posed rule for off-leash and associate regional direcon-leash areas for dogs. Dog tor for facilities and advocates maintain the lands for the Park Serproposal would severely vice’s Intermountain limit where dogs could Region. roam off-leash – and “GGNRA is one of the in some places would country’s most dynamic be banned altogether – and innovative parks,” while GGNRA officials Kenkel said in a statemaintain that the rule ment. “I have a huge change is needed to admiration for its staff, ensure protection of park resources. partners, volunteers, and visitors, and I am excited to return as the Maitri names new ED National Park Service heads into its Maitri Compassionate Care has next century. announced it has hired Michael The Park Service marked its Sorensen as its new executive direc100th anniversary in August. tor. The Castro-area hospice said in The Park Service noted that a news release that he would begin Kenkel’s 33 years with the agency work next month. includes extensive experience in managing parks in urban areas. See page 19 >>

National News>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

CDC, UNAIDS release World AIDS Day updates by Liz Highleyman

n advance of World AIDS Day (December 1), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNAIDS released new figures on the state of the HIV epidemic in the United States and worldwide. The updates show that new HIV cases have fallen in the U.S., but gaps remain on a global level. “The declines seen in this report suggest that national HIV prevention efforts are paying off, while signaling the urgent need for intensified prevention among young people and men who have sex with men,” said Eugene McCray, director of CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.

HIV throughout the lifecycle

The UNAIDS report, released November 21, shows that an estimated 36.7 million people were living with HIV worldwide at the end of 2015. More than 18 million of them are receiving antiretroviral therapy, but that number is still exceeded by the number who remain untreated, many of whom are not aware they are infected. The World Health Organization estimates that about 40 percent of people living with HIV do not know their status. To encourage wider testing, WHO this week released new guidelines supporting HIV self-testing. “Millions of people with HIV are still missing out on life-saving treatment, which can also prevent HIV transmission to others,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. “HIV self-testing should open the door for many more people to know their HIV status and find out how to get treatment and access prevention services.” Deaths due to HIV/AIDS saw a 27 percent decline since 2000, falling to 1.1 million in 2015, according to the UNAIDS report. And as HIV-positive people survive longer thanks to effective treatment, the number of older people living with HIV has increased. An estimated 5.8 million HIVpositive people are over age 50, accounting for about 17 percent of adults living with HIV worldwide, the report says. In early epicenters of the epidemic like San Francisco, more than half are over 50. The number of new HIV infections fell to 2.1 million in 2015, about a 35 percent decrease from 2000, according to the report.

Some of the greatest progress has come from reducing mother-toinfant transmission during pregnancy and breastfeeding, with infections among children cut in half since 2010. But new infections among adults stopped declining around 2010, and are in fact now rising in some areas. Women age 15-24 are particularly vulnerable to HIV in some parts of the world, and experts estimate that more than 1,000 young women become infected each day. New infections continue to increase among gay and bisexual men and among people who inject drugs – up by 12 percent and 36 percent, respectively, from 2010 to 2015 – and have plateaued among sex workers and transgender people. The report underscores the “critical need to reach key populations with prevention and treatment programs that meet their specific needs throughout their lives,” UNAIDS said, but “total funding levels are far below what is needed.”

New HIV cases fall in US

The CDC released its latest HIV Surveillance Report this week showing that new HIV diagnoses have decreased in most population subgroups. At the same time, the number of people living with HIV has

Eugene McCray

reached an all-time high. The report looks at both numbers and rates of new HIV diagnoses in 2015, as well as trends from 2010 to 2014. The 2015 data is still considered preliminary and is not included in the five-year trend analyses. HIV diagnosis rates have fallen for both men and women, but men are still about five times more likely than women to be diagnosed with HIV (24.2 versus 5.4 per 1,000 people), largely due to the high rate among gay and bisexual men. Men who have sex with men account for about 70 percent of both total and newly diagnosed HIV

cases. Gay and bi men had the highest number of new diagnoses in 2015 – more than 26,000 – compared to about 3,000 men who acquired HIV via heterosexual contact and 1,400 via injection drug use. The CDC does not calculate diagnosis rates for these categories due to uncertainty about the total number of gay men or people who inject drugs in the population. African-Americans, Latinos, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and whites all saw declines in their diagnosis rates, while American Indians and Asians saw an increase. But African-Americans continue to have the highest diagnosis rate: 44.3 cases per 1,000 people, compared to 16.4 among Latinos and 5.3 among whites. Blacks account for 42 percent of people living with diagnosed HIV, despite making up only about 13 percent of the total U.S. population. Diagnosis rates decreased in all four geographic regions of the U.S. Yet the South continues to bear the brunt of the epidemic, with 16.8 cases per 1,000 people in 2015, compared to 9.8 in the West, 11.6 in the Northeast, and 7.6 in the Midwest. One of the only groups to see an increase in HIV diagnoses was young adults age 25-29. Diagnosis rates were stable for people age 20-24 and

decreased for all other age groups. People age 25-29 were also the age group most likely to be diagnosed in 2015, at 33.2 cases per 1,000. The number of HIV-positive people diagnosed with AIDS decreased overall, as did mortality among people diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. As more HIV-positive people live longer, HIV prevalence – all new and existing infections combined – increases, reaching 955,081 at the end of 2014. As seen in UNAIDS global figures, older people make up a growing share of those living with HIV in the U.S. The 50-54 age group accounted for the largest proportion of people with diagnosed HIV at the end of 2014, while the greatest increase was seen in the 65 and older age group. “One encouraging sign is that HIV prevalence – the number of people living with diagnosed HIV – reached an all-time high at the end of 2014, largely because fewer people are dying of HIV than ever before,” McCray said. “This signals that our efforts to improve care outcomes are having a positive impact. It is also encouraging because we know that when people’s HIV is suppressed by treatment, they are unlikely to transmit infection to others.”t

Together, we can achieve your possible.

SPARC

From page 12

The SPARC team chose the Haight Street location for expansion because it was an “underserved community,” Pearson said. The nearest dispensary was the Apothecarium, a mile away in the Castro, he said. At a neighborhood meeting last August (http://ebar.com/news/article. php?sec=news&article=71799), a number of Lower Haight neighbors complained that SPARC did not do adequate consultation before opening and sneaked into the neighborhood by qualifying for the previous tenant’s exemption from city rules prohibiting dispensaries within 600 feet of a school. The dispensary Good Fellows vacated the space last summer. Azam Khan, owner of Love Haight Computers at 473-A Haight Street, threatened to move his business to SOMA if the dispensary reopens. “I’m pro-marijuana,” he said, “but if most of the people on my block didn’t want me to move in that should be the end of the story.” At press time, the Bay Area Reporter was unable to reach Khan to see if he still plans to move his business. But Freston pointed out that there are many indications that the See page 17 >>

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14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Jones

From page 1

He said that originally he had planned two parts. “But as I began to recreate the conversations in these stories, I realized that not just LGBT people, but Americans in general, don’t read or respect history, so I wanted younger people to know what life was like before we were normalized, decriminalized, mainstreamed, and made another demographic subset to market products to.” He said the book focuses more on his life before AIDS. Jones also believes that Donald Trump’s election makes his book even more relevant, calling his memoir remembrance with a purpose. “I posted on Facebook well over a year ago that people needed to stop laughing at Trump because he could win,” Jones said. “I was frightened and the reality of his winning loomed over me as I finished the book, that everything we have accomplished can be swept away in the blink of an eye. It’s not rhetoric or hyperbole and anyone who reads history knows I’m telling the truth. This book is not an exercise in nostalgia, but which strategies worked, which didn’t and how is it possible that we were criminals when I was born yet we got to where we are today. In light of Trump, how do we defend these gains?” He said the top priority for the LGBT movement “is recognizing that everything we have accomplished is hanging in the balance and can be swept away with breathtaking speed. I take no comfort from any reassurances. We have crazy people in charge of all three branches of government. The second priority is to organize, defend what we have, and protect each other.” As for Trump himself, Jones doesn’t mince words. “I’m horrified. It’s an unmitigated disaster,” he said. “I think I won’t live long enough to see this damage repaired. I’ve been very angry all week and not just with the people who voted for Trump but some of the smug white liberals I’m hearing from. I posted on Facebook that the next person who tells me to relax, that we survived Reagan and Bush, will get slapped. Most of my friends did not survive and there are the hundreds of thousands I did not know who were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by the wars and coup d’etats we supported. I think it’s 1933 Germany.” When asked what lessons he learned as an activist that may be applicable to dealing with Trump,

Brian Bromberger

Cleve Jones holds a copy of his new memoir, When We Rise.

Jones replied, “In the aftermath of the election, people began to put out different ideas how to respond and were attacked by others. Two days ago, thousands of people spent the better part of the day arguing about whether or not they should wear a safety pin to show their disapproval of Trump. Whether it’s civil disobedience, writing letters to the editor, running candidates, or defeating ballot measures, there are people out there who will attack you, call you an idiot, and tell you none of this works. “The reality is that all these tactics can be effective,” he continued. “We need to do all of them and find a way to encourage people to find something that they are comfortable with and sustain it. With our collective attention span diminishing daily, it’s important for people to know what it means to be in this for the long haul and endure criticism.”

divisions and the gay movement I grew out of had solidarity with the woman’s movement, the civil rights movement, and the antiwar movement. If you are LGBT, you need to be actively opposing racism, war, and poverty and if you aren’t, then there is either something wrong with your heart or you are just not paying attention.” In aligning with other social justice movements, Jones believes every LGBT person needs to reach out respectfully to people who don’t look like them.

are the first words in his memoir: “I was 15 when people were calling me faggot. I didn’t know what it meant so I looked it up and discovered I was sinful, sick, and could go to prison if I was caught or be lobotomized. Both my parents had had surgeries, so there were painkillers and sleeping pills in the house. I would steal them very carefully, one pill every other week so they wouldn’t notice, until I had quite a stockpile. That stockpile was there because I felt at one point I would get caught, be exposed, and I would kill myself,” Jones writes. “... Then I read in Life magazine that there was a gay liberation movement. There were other people like me who lived in large numbers in places like San Francisco and they were fighting the police. So I flushed the pills down the toilet.” Jones is in a new relationship with a young man who came out recently, though he declined to share the man’s name. “The message that saves lives is come out, find your people, don’t be frightened, be fabulous,” Jones said. “The movement again saved my life a second time when I was dying of AIDS: no T cells left and I could barely walk. Thanks to the ACT UP movement storming the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and Wall Street, I got into one of the first

“The message that saves lives is come out, find your people, don’t be frightened, be fabulous.” –Cleve Jones

Working with others

Jones is adamant that the LGBT movement doesn’t exist independently from other struggles. “Much of my life and career comes out of identity politics,” he said. “I’m proud to be a gay man and part of this community. I love what queer people bring to the world, but I’m not a single-issue person.” Some political leaders such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (I) have called for an end to identity politics in the days since the election. Jones doesn’t agree. “Rejection of identity politics at its core is a denial of empathy,” he said. “If our capacity for empathy with other human beings is limited, defined, or restricted by skin color, heritage, or sexual orientation, then we are well and truly fucked. We’re not strong enough to allow these

“Let’s go back to the notion of the 99 percent and be clear who and what our enemies are,” Jones said, referring to the vast majority of people who do not live in the top 1 percent. “Commit to defend each other and make that commitment to yourself and make it public. If Trump is going to deport, we must defend these immigrants. It appears that violent attacks on Muslims and transgender people are going up, so we need to defend them unequivocally. Let’s be prepared to fight these people in the courts, in the streets, in the voting booths, everywhere.”

Owes his life to movement

Jones is certain that he owes his life to the movement. In fact those

protease inhibitor clinical trials that saved my life – and I’m not being melodramatic.”

AIDS

When asked about the December 1 observance of World AIDS Day, Jones smiled because it was the brainchild of someone he knew and loved, Dr. Jonathan Mann, head of the World Health Organization’s Global Program on AIDS, who died in a plane crash in 1998. However, Jones is wary of San Francisco’s Getting to Zero initiative, which aims to reduce HIV transmissions to near zero by 2020. “It’s a great goal, but we’re nowhere near it,” he said. “I would say after Trump’s election the notion of getting

to zero anytime soon is ridiculous.” According to a recent report from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the city saw 255 new HIV diagnoses in 2015, the lowest level since the start of the epidemic. Jones said the two pressing AIDS issues, both in the U.S. and globally, are stigma and access. “The social stigma is so powerful it dissuades people from getting tested and silences people from sharing their stories,” he said. “Young people don’t want to reveal their status to their peers and lack the solidarity my generation had. The stigma is a powerful deterrent to accessing care and the financial cost of getting that care. Look at PrEP, of which I’m a strong proponent, yet the population that needs it most, people of color, are not getting it. “We see young African-Americans in Atlanta, gay and bisexual men showing up at public hospitals with pneumocystis pneumonia, full-blown AIDS, their immune systems completely destroyed and this is their first contact with health care. Stigma and access are complicated by homophobia, racism, and poverty,” Jones said.

Harvey Milk

So much of Jones’ early life was impacted by Milk. It was the most exciting time of his life and he is eager to talk about it with young people. “I want them to know he was an ordinary guy. He had a lot of enemies and many queens couldn’t stand him – he could be quite acerbic – but he was neither genius nor saint, a bad businessman with a poorly run camera store who lost many elections,” Jones said. “Yet he was one of the first dozen of our people to be elected, but his real significance was that he was our first shared martyr. With being murdered, losing our lives to suicide, drugs, or alcohol, there is hardly any shortage of martyrs in the LGBT community, but Harvey was the one we all heard about. At the time of the film Milk [2008], recognition of Harvey was disappearing really fast and young people didn’t know who he was.”t Cleve Jones will be reading and signing his book at Strut, 470 Castro Street, Saturday December 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. For a review of Jones’ book, see page 25 in the arts and culture section. When We Rise is also the partial inspiration for the forthcoming ABC miniseries of the same name from screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and executive producer Gus Van Sant to be broadcast in February.

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December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Holiday gift ideas abound for cannabis users by Sari Staver

Chambers also said shoppers can buy cannabis themed wrapping paper ($20 per roll) as well as cannabis holiday cards ($7-$10) which include an attached plastic case which can hold a couple of buds. Chambers said the Apothecarium was finalizing its plans to offer gift-wrapping and delivery for the holidays. Boutique manager Marcella Sanchez, a 32-year-old lesbian, said for those with a flexible budget, an item from the newly arrived Marley Natural collection would be one of her top choices. Marley Natural has a line of over a dozen smoking accessories, ranging in price from $35 to $162, all crafted from sustainable American Black Walnut and hand blown glass. For those on a budget looking for an LGBTthemed gift, Butch and Sissy have made enamel lapel pins ($10) with a cannabis leaf in rainbow flag colors. The company will also be making Apothecarium logo pins that will be on sale during the holidays, she said. If the Apothecarium is too upscale and trendy for you, stroll down to the Twilight Zone, the neighborhood smoke shop at 237 Church Street, where you’ll find hundreds of pipes, made of every imaginable shape, size, and material, including a selection of penis shaped pipes, from $29.95 and up. The store also carries lots of smoking paraphernalia, including rolling papers, pipe cleaners, ashtrays, and storage containers. Twilight Zone is open daily, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

ift shopping for the marijuana users – medicinal or otherwise – in your life? Dozens of new products are on the shelves, from the ridiculous (14K gold rolling papers) to the sublime (a coordinated set of smoking utensils and accessories made from sustainably grown American Black Walnut and hand blown glass). In between, there are gifts that are practical (an iPhone case that has space to carry a handful of joints), tacky (a gigantic penis shaped smoking pipe), and educational (books on everything from how to roll a blunt to how to grow your own pot). On “Green” Friday, the Bay Area Cannasseur went shopping to preview the options available this year. We began our expedition at the Apothecarium’s new gift boutique, located inside its mediSari Staver cal marijuana dispensary at 2029 Marcella Sanchez, left, and Chase Chambers of the Apothecarium stand beside some of the items Market Street, across from Safeway. available at the dispensary’s boutique. While you still have to be a registered medical marijuana patient to shop at the dispensary, the boutique • Pot Culture: An A to Z Guide to is open to the public, from 10 a.m. Stoner Language and Life by Shirley to 9 p.m. daily. Halperin and Steve Bloom ($5); Once inside, we sent an emergen• Official High Times Pot Smokers cy text to Santa, asking him for one Handbook, featuring 420 things to of the three-inch concrete and cork do while you are stoned by David “flue” pipes by URB ($55), which Bienstock ($9.50); are already sold out on the com• How to Roll a Blunt for Dumpany’s website but available here in mies by R. Prince ($6.50); pink, black, or gray. • Marihuana: The Forbidden The boutique has a dozen other Medicine by Lester Grinspoon, handcrafted pipes (all under $100) M.D. ($8.50); as well as a two-pack of 14K gold • Romancing Merry Jane: A year rolling papers ($20). For in the life of a failed maribig spenders, the boutique juana grower by Michael carries the classic GermanPoole ($7.50); made Storz and Bickel • Weed-O-Pedia: A digital Volcano vaporizer totally dank A-Z Reefer ($600) considered the Rolls Reference by Will B. High Royce of vaping hardware. ($7.50); For shoppers who already • Humboldt: Life on have their medical mariAmerica’s Marijuana Fronjuana paperwork in order, tier by Emily Brady ($7.50). the options at the ApothThere are also a handecarium multiply, since you ful of cannabis cookbooks, can also shop for flowers, from $6.50 up. edibles, and concentrates. And for those of you For such people, Apothreading this column and ecarium general manager are prevented from going Sari Staver Chase Chambers suggested out shopping because you an Alchemy Holiday Well- Holiday cards at the Apothecarium come complete are suffering from a serious ness Pack, which includes a with a small case for that extra gift. case of “couch lock” (i.e. battery powered vaporizing super stoned), you’ll find pen with either two ($75) or thousands of other cannafour ($150) cannabis oil and bis-related gifts online. botanical extract cartridges, packed If your gift recipient is a bookOne that we liked very much was in a reusable canvas carrying case. worm, you’ll find a wide range an iHit iPhone 6 case, on sale for Chambers, a 32-year-old gay man, of used books on cannabis right $20.99 at www.GrassCity.com. pointed out that proceeds from next door at Aardvark Books, 227 According to the website, the the sale of wellness packs benefits Church Street, open daily from case looks and functions like an orFriends Outside, an organization 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. dinary phone case, but also features that supports families of people who While there are dozens of more a removable odor free storage comare incarcerated. up-to-date cannabis books pubpartment that is designed to hold Chambers, who worked at Peet’s lished this year, available on Amaup to five pre-rolled smokes or a prior to switching from the cofzon, we found many unusual titles package of your rolling papers,” fee to the cannabis industry, also of vintage cannabis books. perfect for parties, concerts, and pointed out one of his favorite pieces Some of those that we’d be festivals.”t of Apothecarium swag, a vacuumthrilled to find under our tree sealed glass storage container to keep include: Bay Area Cannasseur runs the first your flowers at maximum freshness • Spliffigami: Roll the 35 Greatest Thursday of the month. To send column ideas or tips, email Sari Staver for $15. “The same way people Joints of All Time by Chris Stone at sari@bayareacannasseur.com. should store coffee,” he said. ($6.50);

AIDS advocates

From page 10

people who use drugs, and increased risk for undocumented immigrants. “The kind of divisiveness we’ve seen during the campaign and in the weeks after the election makes me worry that more stigma and less acceptance will make our vulnerable patients less willing to access HIV prevention services and drive them away from pursuing care,” said Armstrong. Advocates stressed that proposed changes to the ACA and Medicaid are not yet in effect and may not be for quite some time. The annual

ACA open enrollment period is underway now, until December 15. “Sign up for health-care coverage – the more people who are receiving health care, the harder it becomes to dismantle it,” Donnelly urged. “Start speaking up about your health care and why it matters to you and how the ACA and Medicaid expansion have helped you. Now is the time to be telling your story and organizing others to tell theirs.” Calling upon their experience during the worst of the AIDS years, people with HIV and their advocates are spearheading activism against Trump’s agenda. In the days after the

election HIV advocates launched an Activist-Led Emergency Response Team, and a Capitol Hill protest is planned for World AIDS Day. “No one knows how bad the new administration could be in its intents or in its effects, but it could be very bad indeed,” said Mark Harington of TAG. “We must forge ahead nonetheless in the face of these challenges and arm-in-arm with our allies and comrades who are facing essentially the same struggle. Too many lives are at stake, too much progress has already been achieved, and too many new discoveries are within our grasp to turn back now.”t

415 -500 -2620

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16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Anti-gay trend seen in Trump picks so far analysis by Lisa Keen

resident-elect Donald Trump’s selection of an education secretary who is affiliated with the far right, anti-LGBT leadership in Michigan continues a troubling trend. First came his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, who referred to progressive women as “a bunch of dykes” and published numerous essays referring to “faggots.” Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was opposed to allowing same-sex couples to marry, and his Attorney General nominee Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) has opposed every effort in the Senate at ensuring LGBT citizens have equal rights and protection from discrimination. Then last week came Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, who was a lead supporter of an anti-

same-sex marriage ballot initiative in Michigan, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. So far, Trump has not nominated any openly LGBT people or LGBTfriendly people for his top administration positions. Here’s a quick look at his initial appointments of special concern to the LGBT community thus far:

Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon

The position: This is a new position so nobody knows yet how much control or influence Bannon will have over the new president. The person: Bannon is a Harvard Business School graduate and chairman of Breitbart Media, which publishes a political website Bannon called the “platform of the alt-right,”

Courtesy CNN

Stephen Bannon

Courtesy Wikipedia

Reince Priebus

an ideology closely linked to white supremacist positions. Bannon told the Wall Street Journal it was also a platform for “proponents of restrictions on gay marriage.” He took over as the Trump campaign’s CEO less than three months before Trump won the Electoral College vote for president. The concerns: He blamed the unpopularity of conservative women political figures like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and Ann Coulter on a concerted effort at character assassination by “a bunch of dykes.” And Breitbart’s website, under Bannon’s leadership, has included frequent essays by Milo Yiannopoulos, a selfidentified “screaming queen” who argues such things as, “gays should pipe down and get back in the closet” and giving straight people “permission to say gay, faggot, and queer.” Signs of hope: Bannon told the Wall Street Journal that Breitbart is also a “platform” for “the conservative gay community” and Breitbart Senior Editor Joel Pollak says Bannon seeks out talent “regardless of distinctions of race, gender, religion, sexuality, or any other kind” and notes that the website includes “gay writers.”

tention. The current COS, Denis McDonough, helped usher in the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The person: Priebus, as chairman of the Republican Party, toed the party line on opposition to marriage equality. The concerns: The Republican Party platform developed under Priebus’ tenure as chairman is perhaps the most hostile to the LGBT community of any previous ones. He has said he does not believe gays deserve the civil right of marriage equality. And Jimmy LaSalvia, founder of the now-defunct GOProud, said Priebus refused to meet with the conservative gay group for fear of angering the anti-LGBT Family Research Council. The thread of hope: On Meet the Press in May 2012, Priebus said he thinks gays “deserve equal rights in regard to, say, discrimination in the workplace ... and hospital visitations ...”

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos

The position: As head of the U.S. Department of Education, the secretary sets the agenda for promoting educational excellence, establishes policies that affect federal aid to schools, collects data to help guide policies, and directs attention to various issues. Under the Obama administration, Secretary John King issued a guidance statement (with the Department of Justice) to say that Title

The position: Traditionally, this is the president’s gatekeeper: the person who decides what issues and people get the president’s at-

IX prohibits discrimination based on transgender status. Previous Obama Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued a letter saying that the federal Equal Access Act requires schools receiving federal funds allow gaystraight alliances to form. The person: Betsy DeVos is a longtime donor to right-wing causes and was a leading supporter of a 2004 ballot campaign against marriage equality in Michigan. DeVos is married to Dick DeVos Jr., the retired CEO of the Amway corporation (now called Alticor), against which gay activist Fred Karger organized a boycott because of the family’s donations to various anti-LGBT efforts around the country. The concerns: DeVos could reverse the Obama administration’s position on Title IX and could issue a different interpretation of the requirements of the Equal Access Act. The thread of hope: DeVos pushed back against an even more extreme anti-LGBT right-wing activist Dave Agema in his bid to become Republican National Committeeman for Michigan in 2014. Agema called gays “filthy,” claimed they were responsible for most murders in large cities, and said the Russian government’s prohibition on gay “propaganda” was a common sense policy. DeVos said the comments reflected badly on Republicans and called for Agema’s resignation. “Leaders have a responsibility to create an inclusive, welcoming party,” DeVos told the Detroit News.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Courtesy Wikipedia

Betsy DeVos

Jeff Sessions

The position: This is the position charged with seeing that U.S. laws are enforced and that all Americans have access to the fair and impartial administration of justice. The current See page 17 >>

Sports>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Heavy lifting by Roger Brigham

ay Games X in Paris in 2018 will be the first Gay Games not to offer powerlifting. Now, activists are working to ensure that one of the most iconic of LGBT sports does not disappear from the global stage. Chris Morgan, a world champion powerlifter and Gay Games ambassador who got his start in the sport when he trained for the 1998 Games in Amsterdam, and Dominic Patmore are organizing the inaugural LGBT International Powerlifting Championships to be held July 2830, 2017 at Bethnel Green Weightlifting Club in London. “I have a long experience of organizing events, within British powerlifting, so the LGBT International Powerlifting Championships is not really a new thing for me,” Morgan told the Bay Area Reporter. “We are actually using the infrastructure that is used for the London Divisional Championships. I’m also organizing coaching workshops and seminars in 2017, which is something new and they will be focused on promoting and developing LGBT strength sports long term.” Being an organizer, however, means Morgan will not be competing. “If you’re a ‘meet director,’ there is absolutely no opportunity to compete yourself on that particular weekend,” Morgan said. “I’ll not be lifting myself in the LGBT International Powerlifting Championships, because this championships is about the success of LGBT powerlifting on a whole and it’s important that this event runs efficiently.” Indeed, if organizers hope to get powerlifting reestablished in the Gay Games, they will need to show the sport can be run more efficiently and cost effectively than in the past. In the first few Gay Games, powerlifting drew almost as many female competitors as male – one of the few sports to have close to gender equal-

Trump picks

From page 16

attorney general, Loretta Lynch, has filed suit against the state of North Carolina for enacting an anti-LGBT law (House Bill 2). She also joined the Department of Education in interpreting Title IX as covering gender identity. Her predecessor in the Obama administration, Eric Holder, announced the administration would enforce, but not defend, the Defense of Marriage Act as constitutional. The person: U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions has a 20-year history of opposing equal rights for LGBT people. As senator, he has opposed every measure seeking to protect LGBT people and supported every measure seeking to diminish their rights. With the exception of one vote, he has opposed every openly LGBT judicial nominee. The concerns: Sessions can be expected to undo the DOJ’s interpretation of Title IX as including discrimination based on gender identity. He is also likely to with-

SPARC

From page 13

new dispensary does, in fact, have community support. Currently, said Freston, SPARC has over 3,200 active members who live in the surrounding 94117 ZIP code. Some 150 of those people have written letters of support, he said. And at each of three prior community meetings, the majority of speakers were in favor of the project, he said. Freston explained that SPARC

Courtesy Chris Morgan

Powerlifter Chris Morgan stands in front of No. 10 Downing Street.

ity. The past few quadrennial cycles, however, the number of women participating has dropped to around 25 percent, and sanctioning bodies imposed strict drug testing policies that were out of step with the other Gay Games sports that deemphasized drug testing in order to ensure the most number of athletes, especially those with special health issues, would have the opportunities to compete. With hosts unwilling or unable to bear the cost of random drug testing in powerlifting, those costs were being passed on to competitors – and then drove down registration numbers. “The LGBT International Powerlifting Championships is the first step to creating a workable model that can be adopted by Gay Games host cities,” Morgan said. “Similar to the sports of swimming, soccer, and rugby, we plan to hold our annual championships in years one through three, and then in the fourth year we hope to participate in the Gay Games. It’s important that LGBT powerlifting is able to organize its own affairs and is able to support the host city by being able to contribute sufficient participants to make the Gay Games powerlifting a success.”

The championship will not be sanctioned by any governing body but will use recognized rules, weight classes, and age groups. Lifters will compete in one of three groups: “closed category” for members of any internationally recognized drug tested powerlifting or strength federation; “open category” for lifters of other federations and lifters who do not currently belong to any powerlifting federation; and “novice category” for lifters who have never competed in powerlifting competition. HIV-positive athletes on medications and trans athletes using medications are encouraged to enter the open category. There are no tournament qualifiers for the championships; lifters are welcome regardless of experience, ability, sexuality, gender, or health status. The 2017 championships are being held the weekend before the Brighton Pride Festival. The 2018 championships are scheduled to be the weekend before the opening of the Paris Gay Games. When the Gay Games emerged in the 1980s, no recreational sport was more central to the mission and the emerging needs of our sports community. HIV and AIDS were killing off hundreds of our community leaders. Many fighting back with the adoption of healthier lifestyle choices took up weight resistance training as their exercise of choice and a means of improving their sense of self-worth. In essence, Gay Games powerlifting awarded medals to athletes lifting to stay alive. When international anti-doping measures started being adopted in sports, three Gay Games sports – powerlifting, bodybuilding, and wrestling – were caught in the crossfire. Already relatively cost inefficient because of the small numbers of individual athletes involved, the sports had the potential to be even more cost prohibative because of differing demand for drug testing. A desire to ensure a “level playing field” in bodybuilding and powerlifting, where drug abuse was a serious competitive issue; and a safe playing field in wrestling, where

of Appeals struck down a similar ban in Virginia. The concerns: The rumor mill floated gay Republican Trump delegate Ric Grenell as a possible choice for this position. The selection of Haley sugAmbassador to the gests there is now very little Nikki Haley U.N.: Nikki Haley prospects for an openly The position: This posigay person to be part of tion represents the U.S.’s position Trump’s cabinet. and interests on issues affecting the The thread of hope: During global community. The current her response to President Barack ambassador, Samantha Power, led a Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Roundtable Strategy Session on Inaddress, Haley said the Republican ternational LGBT Rights at the U.S. Party would “respect differences in Mission headquarters. Her predecesmodern families,” a statement many sor, Susan Rice, led efforts to have the interpreted as a sort of acceptance U.N. Human Rights Council to adopt of same-sex marriages. And she said a resolution to decry “violence and of a North Carolina-style HB 2-like discrimination ... against individuals bill in the South Carolina Legislabecause of their sexual orientation ture, “I don’t believe it’s necessary.” and gender identity.” “We’re not hearing of anybody’s The person: South Carolina Govreligious liberties that are being vioernor Nikki Haley opposed marriage lated, and we’re again not hearing equality and defended her state’s ban of any citizens that feel like they’re on marriage for same-sex couples being violated in terms of freeeven after the 4th Circuit U.S. Court doms,” she said.t draw the federal government’s lawsuit against North Carolina and could even support the state’s position. The thread of hope: None identified as yet.

had signed a memorandum of understanding with the neighborhood association earlier this year after it was determined that SPARC was legally grandfathered in regarding zoning and that there was existing public support for SPARC based on testimony at two public meetings. The MOU contains guidelines, including provisions to ensure onsite security, hours of operation, and other stipulations regarding prohibition of onsite smoking and membership denial of customers

who resold or redistributed medical marijuana. More than half a dozen speakers, many who live in the neighborhood and some who are medical marijuana patients, said that they believe that having a dispensary in the neighborhood would actually improve safety, help neighborhood businesses by adding to the foot traffic, and be convenient to neighborhood residents who would have a dispensary within walking distance.t

steroid-related injuries were a serious concern, keyed discussions in each of those sports leading up to the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago. In the end, three different solutions were reached. Wrestling introduced skin checks and visual screening that knocked steroid users out of the tournament before they even got on the mat. Bodybuilding allowed athletes to compete in either tested or untested categories. Powerlifting remained the only sport to require testing – which made it difficult to market itself to the HIV-infected athletes who needed the sport the most.

Now the plan is to call together sports leaders and figure out how to best serve the community and help the sport of powerlifting thrive. As a veteran of many such discussions on drug testing and how best to build inclusive sports programs, I know the discussions will be intense and heated – diverse, passionate voices clambering to be heard. Kudos to the lifters for taking up the task.t For information on the championships, visit http://www. lgbtpowerlifting.org.

in the Grove

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ColumbariuM Communities accord respect Families bestow reverence. Historians seek information and Our heritage is thereby enriched.

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<< Community News

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Transgender elder looks back on her life by David-Elijah Nahmod

andi Guerrero wants to share her story. For many years the transgender woman was a performer at Finocchio’s, the legendary San Francisco drag club that closed in 1999 after a run of more than 60 years. “I worked at Finocchio’s from 1965 through 1973,” Guerrero, 73, recalled during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter from her room at San Francisco Health Care and Rehabilitation, where she was staying while recuperating from a recent fall. “I also worked at La Cage at the Sahara in Las Vegas, and many other places.” Guerrero achieved popularity for performances in which she impersonated Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, the two reigning sex symbols of 1960s Italian cinema. “I did Gina’s dance from the movie Solomon and Sheba,” Guerrero said. “My mother came to see me – she and my stepdad were totally accepting.” Guerrero acknowledged that she’s had it much easier than many other transgender women. “It’s a very difficult and complicated choice,” she said. “So many of my friends that made the transition are gone. Most did not live long because it’s a hard life. Unless you have

a strong family foundation, which I had, or a strong spiritual base, transitioning does not open doors. Some transgender women married heterosexual men but the relationships did not last because the guys could not cope.” She also cited “botched surgeries” in countries such as Thailand as a contributing factor to the shorter lifespans among transgender women – those surgeries often caused chronic and even life-threatening health issues, she said. Born in New Orleans, Guerrero was 16 years old when she realized she was female. “I had to be taken out of gym class because the boys would beat me up in the shower,” she said of her youth. “Finally they just had me hand out the towels – I still got to see them naked.” She smiled as she recalled that memory. “My mom took me to see a psyRick Gerharter chiatrist,” Guerrero said. “The docCandi Guerrero holds a photo of tor told mom that I was transsexual, herself as part of the performance not homosexual.” troupe at Finocchio’s. It was in 1962 that Guerrero dressed in full drag for the first said. “It doesn’t take much talent to time. “I was still living as male,” she do that. The girls don’t get paid anyrecalled. “I won a prize for drag and more, instead people throw dollar was asked if I had ever thought of bills at them. In my day we belonged going to Finocchio’s.” to a union, the American Guild She takes great pride in the fact of Variety Artists. We made good that she always sang in her own money and had health coverage.” voice when onstage. Guerrero’s transition began in “Nowadays they lip sync,” she

1970 when she started taking female hormones under the care of her doctor. “I did not have the full surgery,” she said. She made this decision after talking to a doctor in Honolulu, where she was living and working at the time. Her doctor admitted to having seen her out at the local shopping mall – Guerrero had not seen him. “You are lovely,” the doctor told her. “Do really think if you butcher yourself it will make you happier?” Guerrero told the doctor that, no, the surgery would not make her happier. She felt fine as she was, and continued to live as a woman and to earn a good living by performing in clubs. “The minute I came to San Francisco everything fell into place,” she said. “My true essence came out. If you don’t live as who you are then you are suppressing yourself.”

Trans visibility

Though she’s happy by the recent rise in transgender visibility, she acknowledges that it can still be a hard life for many. “San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, the big coastal cities are relatively safe,” she observed. “People in the South and the Midwest have it rough.” As she spoke, a nurse came into Guerrero’s room to serve her lunch.

Guerrero said that she was scheduled to return home in a few days. “I want LGBT seniors to know that this place is here,” she said of San Francisco Health Care and Rehabilitation. This place saved me.” She described it as “a rainbow,” with patients from many different cultures and nationalities – it was a safe space for LGBT people, she noted. Azita Houshangi, director of marketing for San Francisco Health Care and Rehabilitation, told the B.A.R. that the facility is a “168-bed skilled nursing facility that is Medicare and Medi-Cal certified.” “We also specialize in HIV and palliative care patients,” Houshangi said. “Our staff is professionally trained to provide the highest level of customized care to these patients while valuing their dignity, privacy, and respect. We are proud to be an LGBT-friendly facility.” Guerrero, who was interviewed shortly after the election, expressed her support for those who were marching against President-elect Donald Trump. Guerrero recalled marching with Jane Fonda and Harvey Milk many years ago. “I’m glad to see so many people out marching,” Guerrero said. “It reminds me of a quote from Gloria Steinem: ‘The older I get, the more radical I get.’”t

Tanzania targets HIV/AIDS organizations in gay crackdown by Heather Cassell

anzania’s Minister of Health Ummy Mwalimu has, in recent months, accused some HIV/AIDS organizations of attempting to “normalize” same-sex relationships between men. He alleged that the government had been tipped off about some organizations’ so-called promotion of homosexuality. Earlier this year police raided two United States-funded HIV/ AIDS organizations, seizing patient records and medical supplies. The accusations and raids are a part of a larger crackdown on the country’s LGBT community, experts said. In August and September government officials threatened to arrest people connected to anyone gay on social media and have threatened to ban groups that “promote” homosexuality, reported the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “If there’s a homosexual who has a Facebook account, or with an Instagram account, all those who ‘follow’ him – it is very clear that they are just as guilty as the homosexual,” said Paul Makonda, the regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city. Homosexuality is illegal and punishable up to 30 years in prison in Tanzania. In spite of the crackdown, the minister said that HIV/AIDS services for girls, drug users, and other high-risk groups would continue. About 1.4 million people in the country are living with HIV, reported Reuters.

Legacy status

From page 11

queers and artists could come let their hair down and be themselves,” Mahogany said. “... The Stud remains a place where all are welcome,” whether it’s on the stage or on the dance floor. Stud supporter Matthew DeCoster, 51, told commissioners that he hadn’t planned to speak, but then he noticed the candle wax on his shoes from the previous night’s vigil to honor slain gay icon Harvey Milk

HIV prevalence among gay men is estimated to be about 25 percent higher than average. Some HIV experts estimated about 30 percent of gay Tanzanian men are HIV-positive. They expressed concern about the forced closure of the U.S.-funded HIV/ AIDS educational, testing, and treatment programs. They believe it will escalate the number of transmissions among gay men and HIV/AIDSrelated health issues for gay men already infected due to lack of access to these services. This appears to be the first time that any country has ever refused funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief since the $65 billion program began in 2003. The program has been successful in Tanzania. The overall AIDS rate has fallen from 12 percent to 5 percent in the East African country. More people than ever have received treatment in the last five years rising from 289,000 to more than 700,000, Reuters reported. “This is essentially denial of services to people who are at the highest risk of contracting HIV, there’s going to be a lot of implications,” said John Kashika, of Community Health Education Services and Advocacy, a nongovernmental organization. Fear has spread throughout Tanzania’s LGBT community. The director of the U.N. program on HIV/ AIDS in Tanzania, Dr. Warren Naamara, said that people will stay away from health centers and therefore not get help. “In the short term, there are people who won’t go to [health] service

and Mayor George Moscone. DeCoster recalled the late 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic was decimating the community and he and his first boyfriend used to go to the Stud every week. People at the time were “terrified and needed community and solidarity,” he said. He added that he didn’t think anybody commenting on behalf of legacy businesses was against development, and it’s possible to keep the city’s “original delicious fruit filling and still add to the beautiful pie that we have.”

Al Jazeera

An HIV/AIDS clinic in Tanzania

centers, and if they aren’t on antiretrovirals, what happens? It’s a major concern,” he said. A 29-year-old HIV-positive gay man who was receiving education and treatment said he hadn’t received his medication for two weeks and he’s afraid to go to a public hospital, reported Reuters. “It’s clear that the government doesn’t care whether we live or die,” a 22-year-old gay man told Reuters. Both men declined to provide their names to protect their identity. The virus has been shown to rebound in people once they stop taking the medications. “These interruptions in treatment are very dangerous,” said Naamara. U.S. officials working on the situation are hopeful that HIV/AIDS services for gay Tanzanians will resume operation soon. Experts close to the situation said that Makonda is considering programs that are appropriate for gay men.

saw shirtless men in a Kalibata City apartment complex, police entered an apartment where about 50 members of the Islam Defenders Front had already barged in yelling, “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), reported the Jakarta Post. Homosexuality isn’t illegal in Indonesia, however, religious groups have been calling for a ban on LGBT people and anti-LGBT sentiment from the government to citizens has been on the rise this year. The incident is still being investigated to determine if a crime actually occurred, Raden Prabowo Argo Yuwono, spokesman for the Jakarta Police, told the media following the raid on Sunday. Police confiscated the men’s smartphones, condoms, and HIV antiretroviral drugs during the raid, reported the Post. This is the second raid of a private residence following tips and pressure by conservative groups.

UN expert warns of online attacks on LGBT people

Indonesian police raided an alleged “gay sex party” November 27 and arrested 13 men in South Jakarta. Allegedly tipped off by a member of an extremist religious group who

Addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg at a November 22 meeting on LGBTI equality, the United Nations’ independent LGBT expert Vitit Muntarbhorn warned of the proliferation of hate speech and “rampant” attacks on social media along with discrimination and violence against LGBT people. “We are currently witnessing a proliferation of hate speech, often rampant in the media and on social media networks, which fuels antagonism steeped in homophobia, and transphobia,” said Muntarbhorn. “Instances of murder, killings, rape, mutilation and other cruel

Also approved for legacy business status Monday was the Castro Country Club, at 4058 18th Street. Founded in 1983, the nonprofit offers numerous 12-step meetings and other services. “Upon its founding, the Castro Country Club quickly became a sober destination in the neighborhood which eventually expanded with the onset and spread of the AIDS epidemic when the space became a second home for men and women living with and impacted by AIDS,” according to documents filed with the club’s

legacy business application. In response to an email from the Bay Area Reporter after Monday’s meeting, Billy Lemon, the nonprofit’s executive director, said, “In a city where the rising costs of rent create feelings of uncertainty, the legacy business registry will offer us assistance in negotiations with our landlord. The recognition by the Board of Supervisors, the Historic Preservation and Small Business Commissions just reaffirm what we already know to be true. The Castro Country Club remains relevant and

Indonesian police breakup ‘gay sex party,’ arrest 13 men

treatment are well documented in various parts of the world and by many sources,” he said. LGBTs continue to face challenges and human rights abuses around the world simply for wanting “to be what they are.” Homosexuality is criminalized in nearly 80 countries in the world, including some that punish same-sex relationships with death. He noted that transgender people are “violated in multiple forms,” and intersex people haven’t been recognized until recently. Intersex people are born with ambiguous genitalia or extra chromosomes. “The vortex of violence and discrimination, in their multiple forms, often starts in the home, at school, in the community and in the surrounding environment, with violations breeding violations,” Muntarbhorn said. Muntarbhorn vowed to press for action under the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He outlined five key actions he plans to take to press for change: decriminalizing same-sex relationships; no longer treating LGBTI people as if they have a “problem” or “disorder;” recognizing people’s status; clarifying misconstructions and misinterpretations; and integrating gender and sexual diversity and teaching empathy from childhood onwards. He also noted that the problem couldn’t be resolved without a change in political and cultural attitudes and beliefs.t Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at Skype: heather.cassell, or oitwnews@gmail.com.

vital and impacts the community we serve in a positive way.” Commission President Mark Dwight said before Monday’s vote on the Stud, the Country Club, and several other businesses, “This is the best part of our job.” He also remarked on “how important” the businesses “are to the character of our city.” Gay Commission Vice President Stephen Adams told the business representatives, “Every one of you is deserving, and you’re all awesome.”t

t <<

Community News>>

Pulse survivors

From page 1

Someone next to her told her to get to the floor, then she was pushed. “While I was going down to the floor I saw my pinky,” she said. “One of the bullets took it off my right hand.” As she lay on the floor, she heard people “screaming for help” and gunshots. “People were telling me to act dead, so I was,” by not moving and keeping her face down, she said. Reyes didn’t know how long she’d been down, but eventually, she saw a shadow next to her. “It was him, and that’s when he shot me in my back eight times,” she said. Reyes was one of the 102 people that Omar Mateen, 29, shot at the gay Orlando, Florida nightclub before he died in a shootout with police. Forty-nine of his victims died, while 53 survived. Reyes will be at San Francisco City Hall Wednesday, December 7 to light the Rainbow World Fund’s Tree of Hope. Mayra Alvear, whose daughter, Amanda Alvear, was killed at Pulse, will also take part in the tree lighting, along with her husband, Daniel Alvear and Pulse survivors Angel Torres and Angel Colon. The tree, which this year is dedicated to the Pulse victims and survivors, features origami cranes with wishes on them. It has been a holiday fixture for more than a decade. In a news release, Jeff Cotter, executive director of the San Francisco, LGBT-based Rainbow World Fund, which provides humanitarian assistance around the globe, said,

Milk, Moscone

From page 1

going to need each other more than ever. We need to fight like hell to make sure that all we’ve gained is not lost. We cannot let unfettered bigotry and hatred ruin our country.” A number of local dignitaries then addressed the crowd. “We needed a wake-up call,” gay outgoing District 9 Supervisor David Campos said. “We haven’t come as far as we thought we have. The Democratic Party has lost its way – we need a party that actually stands for progressive principles. If they come after one of us they come after all of us. We must stand up for the rights of immigrants, for women, for people of color. Harvey was about fighting for everyone.” Former Supervisor Harry Britt succeeded Milk on the Board of Supervisors after the assassinations. “I remember that day better than I remember last Sunday,” Britt said, as he fought back tears. “It’s important to let the world see our love – we came together that night, that was the night the club changed its name.” The Milk club had been co-

News Briefs

From page 12

Sorensen, who has a master’s degree in public administration from Portland State University, most recently served as the executive director of health centers at the National University of National Medicine in Portland, Oregon. He oversaw the business and community affairs of its 20 academic health centers, which offer integrative primary care and classical Chinese medicine. According to a news release from Maitri, Sorensen has provided a range of services to many organizations, including as director of development and communications at the Cascade AIDS Project and helping the Coalition of Community Health Clinics expand health care safety net services. He has raised more than $20 million in the last decade for the Native American Rehabilitation Association, Native American Youth and Family Center, and most

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Memorial

On December 12, Mayra Alvear, 56, plans to take a cake to Pulse to mark what would have been her daughter’s 26th birthday. Alvear, who lives in Tampa, Florida, said she’s been to Pulse multiple times since the shooting. “I feel a sense of peace when I go there, a sense of belonging in that place, when I’m there, and meeting everybody that goes there, because they want to memorialize them,” Alvear said, crying as she spoke.

“They don’t want them to be forgotten. That’s something I’m looking to keep going.” Alvear said that her daughter, who was straight, was at Pulse with several friends June 12. Amanda Alvear called her parents and left a message to say she planned to stay at a friends’ house that night. Her mother didn’t hear about what had happened until 7:30 the next morning. “I had a feeling that something was going to happen to her,” Mayra Alvear said. “I always prayed to God to protect her when she was going out of the house.” Despite her concerns, though, she “never expected” something like the shooting would happen. According to news reports, Amanda Alvear, who’d been using Snapchat to capture what had been a fun night, continued recording as

Mateen started shooting. “She was amazing,” Alvear said of her daughter. “She was such a good girl. She was a good daughter. She was an excellent friend. ... She loved the gay community so much. All her friends were gay.” Since her daughter was killed, Mayra Alvear has faced other challenges. Daniel Alvear has heart problems and has recently had three procedures done. She’s gotten to meet some of the other victims’ families, and she said they’ve “become very close. ... We want to fight for the kids, for their legacy.” Alvear’s hoping to work with the other families to help tighten gun laws. Reyes, who wasn’t able to walk for about two months after she was shot, is doing physical therapy and said, “I’m doing much better.” “Never stop believing in God, because if it wouldn’t be for him, I wouldn’t be here,” Reyes, who’s bisexual and lives in Kissimmee, Florida, said. She expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support since the shooting and said, “I’m just really thankful to have another opportunity to be alive.” Alvear said there’s been an “overwhelming feeling of support and love, and people showing that they care, that they’re going to keep fighting to help the community to change things. It’s just amazing people still remember them,” she said of her daughter and other victims. “As a mother, you don’t want your kid’s life to go in vain, so this is to me the most amazing thing someone can do for my daughter.”

founded by Milk in 1976 as the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club. “For me it’s the realization of what that life meant,” Britt continued. “So that no other gay kid would have to go through that kind of shit when they grow up.” Kimberly Alvarenga, a lesbian who recently lost her bid to become District 11 supervisor, said she stood with undocumented immigrants. “My struggle is your struggle,” she said. “My strength is your strength. I stand with undocumented immigrants and the Muslim community.” Zahra Billoo represented the local Muslim community. She wore a hijab, the traditional headscarf worn by Muslim women. “There have been reports of attacks on mosques all across the country,” she said, referring to a recent news story in which a mosque received a letter threatening to do to Muslims “what Hitler did to the Jews.” “This is about all of us,” Billoo added. “Black, Latino, Muslim, and LGBT. There have been hate crimes right here in the Bay Area.” The names of trans people murdered in 2016, as well as the 49 LGBT

people killed on June 12, at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, were read. Gallotta acknowledged the presence of current gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, who will be sworn in as San Francisco’s state senator next week. A number of people in the crowd booed the mention of Wiener, who stood on the sidelines and did not speak. Community activist Bruce Beaudette took issue with the booing. “Why were the people that booed Weiner’s name ignored?” Beaudette posted on Facebook. “Everyone who spoke last night brought up our need as a community to come together and fight against the rising push to take away our rights. And that we need to reach out to other communities which share our passions for equality and justice. But how does excluding a gay state senator make sense. Sure he has some different core constituents, but they would also be against Trump and [Vice President-elect Mike] Pence.” Gallotta responded to the Bay Area Reporter’s request for a comment regarding Beaudette’s post. “This year’s vigil carried even more meaning given the election

of Donald Trump and the fear and anxiety many of us are feeling in the LGBT community,” Gallotta said. “We must maintain our rights to freedom of speech and our speakers and attendees at the vigil were expressing that right. I do think we need to come together as a community now more than ever. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still speak out and hold our elected officials accountable when it comes to the issues and values we believe in. That’s what democracy is all about.” Wiener, who defeated Milk clubbacked candidate Jane Kim, was unfazed by the episode. “We just came out of a hard fought race, and people have strong feelings,” he told the B.A.R. “It’s a free country and people can express themselves however they’d like, including booing. If an elected official can’t take getting booed he or she should find a new profession.” Wiener also expressed the need for unity due to the changes taking place at the national level. He said that the LGBT community needed to push back against Trump. “In the [state] Senate I’ll work hard to move a progressive agenda

forward and look forward to working with our community, including those who didn’t support me in this election.” One of the final speakers at the vigil was longtime activist Cleve Jones, who was a personal friend of Milk’s and recalled seeing his body at City Hall after the shootings. “I was 24 and I had never seen a dead body before,” he said. “All I could think of is that it’s over – he was like a father to me and he was a leader for our people. But we marched to City Hall with our light and I knew that it wasn’t over – it was just beginning.” After the vigil, mourners marched down Castro Street to Milk’s former camera store at 575 Castro, which is currently occupied by the Human Rights Campaign. “It’s a great privilege to close this memorial service to my good friends Harvey and George,” said former Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver, who served on the board with Milk. “We just suffered a great political defeat, but it’s not over until the last of us gives up. I will be here until I no longer can be here and I hope you will be here to.”t

recently the Cascade AIDS Project. “We are delighted to welcome Michael Sorensen to Maitri,” board member Jill Stockwell said in the release. “His background in health services and fundraising will ensure a seamless transition. We look forward to working with him to carry out the organization’s strategic vision.” Sorensen was not made available for an interview. The news release did not state his age, how he identifies, or his salary. He will take over December 19 from Michael Smithwick, who announced his retirement a few months ago. One of the agency’s most pressing concerns is finding a tenant for its 4,000 square foot ground floor commercial space. Maitri’s ground floor space has been mired in controversy since Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which operates a chain of Out of the Closet thrift shops,

settled an eviction lawsuit with Maitri over its rejection of a rent increase in 2015. Maitri then endured harsh criticism earlier this year when it announced plans to lease the space to a sex offender rehab company, without giving nearby residents a heads up. That deal fell apart after a neighborhood uproar, and the space has remained vacant. Maitri said that Sorensen will be attending the agency’s holiday open house Saturday, December 17 from 2 to 5 p.m. at 401 Duboce Street in San Francisco and people are welcome to stop by and meet him.

cilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, BART board member Rebecca Saltzman, and Alameda County Superior Court Judge Victoria Kolakowski were all successful in their re-election bids. They will be joined by John Bauters, who won a seat on the Emeryville City Council November 8. The meeting takes place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Health and Human Services Resource Education Center, 1905 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland.

by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “We are hoping that the fine forgiveness program will be successful in helping us not only reduce outstanding fines but also bring back folks that we want to be able to use the library,” City Librarian Luis Herrera said in a news release. “The library’s fine forgiveness campaign supports the values of equity and inclusion that mirror San Francisco’s values.” Library officials said that recovering overdue materials increases the availability of materials for circulation, and reduces material replacement costs. An estimated 55,000 patrons currently have outstanding fines, representing approximately $4.5 million in overdue fines. When the library last offered an amnesty program in 2009, it received more than 30,000 overdue items, waived $55,000 worth of fines, and welcomed back thousands of patrons.t

“Every year special guests come to light the tree and celebrate the power of hope – how essential it is to our survival, our healing and humanity. RWF’s philosophy is that we are one human family. Having Ilka and Amanda’s parents here is a special honor – they are family, and their being here helps us all move forward in healing. It is my hope that our San Francisco community will really turn in a show of support and affection” for Reyes and the Alvears. Reyes doesn’t remember much about what happened immediately after she was shot, but she remembers hearing people’s screams. She later learned that she was on the floor for three hours. As she was taken away in an ambulance, she said, “I started praying, saying, ‘I’m not a bad person. If I’ve ever done anything wrong, I’m sorry.’ ... I was feeling I was losing my breathing.” She woke up in the hospital. Four of the friends she’d gone to the club with, including two who were her best friends, died. She and four other friends lived.

Birthday

Courtesy RWF

Pulse survivor Ilka Reyes

Stonewall club to celebrate election wins

The East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club will celebrate the victories of several successful local LGBT candidates at its December 14 meeting. Berkeley school board member Judy Appel, Oakland City Coun-

SF library announces fine forgiveness program

The San Francisco Public Library will offer a fine forgiveness program from January 3 through February 14. During this six-week period, late fees will be waived on all returned books, CDs, DVDs, and other materials, regardless of how long overdue. The amnesty period was unanimously approved November 15

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced in November that the South Florida city would purchase Pulse nightclub for $2.25 million and turn it into a memorial. “I honestly don’t know what to say about that,” Reyes said of the plan. “... I don’t know if I could go in. It’s really hard to explain that.” She has been to the club since she was shot, though, and said, “It’s a lot of emotions... You think, ‘What should I have done?’ but at the same time you don’t really have any options to do much, because everything was so fast.” Alvear supports the memorial plan “100 percent,” so that “everybody from everywhere around the world can come and show their love and their respect and their support.” “It was a safe haven,” she said of the club. “It was a beautiful place. ... My daughter used to love going there.” Asked about whether she’s had any contact with Mateen’s family, Alvear said, “That is something that has come through my mind. I’ve been thinking about it. I’m still thinking of what would come out of that, and I don’t know.” An official tree lighting ceremony and party will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Special guests include San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the Consul General of Japan Jun Yamada, the Grammy Awardwinning San Francisco Boys Chorus, and others. The tree, which is already up, will be on display until January 3. People can submit their wishes at http://www.worldtreeofhope.org.t

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Classifieds The

Movers>>

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037307100

Celebrating 33 Years of Fabulous Travel Arrangements! 4115 19th Street San Francisco, CA 94114

11am-5pm (PST) M-F, Closed on Weekends

415.626.1169 www.nowvoyager.com

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Household Services>> CLEANING PROFESSIONAL –

27 Years Exp. (415) 794-4411 Roger Miller

RAMBO WITH A VACUUM – Housecleaning Richard 415-255-0389

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Notices>> THANK YOU ST. JUDE –

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. St. Jude, worker of miracles, pray for us. St. Jude, helper of the hopeless, pray for us. Say prayer nine time a day for nine days. Thank you Jesus and St. Jude for prayers answered. Publication must be promised. S.W.

Legal Notices>> SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT RFP NO. 6M4516 EXTENSION OF TIME FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District has extended the time for receipt of Proposals until the hour of 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 6, 2016, at the District’s Offices, Attention: District Secretary, 300 Lakeside Drive, 23rd Floor, Oakland, California 94612 (by Hand Delivery), or to the District Secretary’s Office, P.O. Box 12688, Oakland, CA 94604-2688 (by U.S. Mail), for Temporary Help Services, RFP No. 6M4516, as more fully described in the RFP Documents. Dated at Oakland, California, this 23rd day of November, 2016. /S/ Patricia K. Williams Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 12/1/16 CNS-2950484# BAY AREA REPORTER

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319900

415 861-5381 Tech Support>> MACINTOSH HELP * home or office * 25 years exp * sfmacman.com

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PC Support Ralph Doore 415-867-4657

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All Devices Technical Support Apple and Microsoft Serving San Francisco communities Zack Shahin, P.E. ZackShahin@outlook.com (415) 240-9924

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(415) 441-1054 Large Truck

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROBOT BOY PRODUCTIONS, 2166 45TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EDGAR GARCIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037330200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO THERAPY SERVICES, 45 FRANKLIN ST #213, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEXIS STRICKER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037334600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CLEAN LINE CONSTRUCTION, 1580 GREAT HWY #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DANIEL CLAYTON HEKKEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/04/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IMPECCABLE BOOKKEEPING, 1675 26TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KAMALJIT BAINS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/13/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037338100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO DETACHMENT, MARINE CORPS LEAGUE, 401 VAN NESS AVE #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102-4521. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed BARRY L. MARQUARDT & HENRY ROSE JR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS SF EMBARCADERO, 2 EMBARCADERO CENTER, LOBBY LEVEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EMBARCADERO FITNESS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA MOVERS LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE INC., 1888 GENEVA AVE #504B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CALIFORNIA MOVERS LOCAL & LONG DISTANCE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037332500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIMPLE MOVE SF, 1888 GENEVA AVE #504B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SIMPLE MOVE INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037330400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CITY COUNTER, 115 SANSOME ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CITY COUNTER, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037348500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OCEAN BEACH SF, 2117 48TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY MALIA STANFORD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037346700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KEANE EYES GALLERY, 3040 LARKIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed ROBERT L. BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/90. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/14/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037311400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DSG STUDIOS, 564 MONTEREY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANN MARIE GARVIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037337900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AAA SOLAR AND DEVELOPERS; GOLDEN GATE SOLAR AND DEVELOPERS; 130 POPE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YOSHIRO MIKUMO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AA BACK FLOW TESTING, 127 KINGSTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN BENETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037331200

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037336600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INTOACTIONS, 1850 PAGE ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117-1910. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REINHOLD A. STEINBECK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RIENA KIM, 4052 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RIENA Y. KIM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/07/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/16.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

Legal Notices>> SUMMONS SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: PATRICIA RAMPE (AKA TRICIA RAMPE), AN INDIVIDUAL; MICHAEL BAKER, AN INDIVIDUAL; GETARTUP, INC., A DELAWARE CORPORATION; AND DOES 1 TO 20, INCLUSIVE. YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: JENNIFER ODELL CASE NO. CGC-15-546031

Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www. courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp) your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www. courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The name and address of the court is: San Francisco Superior Court 400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 94102-4515. The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

ANDY I. CHEN, 2310 HOMESTEAD ROAD, SUITE C1 #429, LOS ALTOS, CA 94024-7302; (650) 735-2436. Date: May 28, 2015; Clerk, by De La Vega-Navarro, Rosaly, Deputy.

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 STATE OF MAINE DISTRICT COURT OF LEWISTON CIVIL ACTION DOCKET NO.: FM-16-291

LESLIE KOVALAKIDES, Plaintiff, v. JESUS GUITERREZ, Defendant. The matter of Leslie Kovalakides v. Jesus Guiterrez is pending in the County of Androscoggin, Lewiston, Maine. The action is for divorce. Plaintiff is represented by Attorney Sheilah R. McLaughlin, 124 Maine Street, Ste. 216, Brunswick, Maine 04011. The Family Matter Summons and Preliminary Injunction states that Plaintiff has filed an action against Defendant for divorce. If Defendant wants to oppose this action, he must serve a written answer to the Complaint within 20 days after the day he receives notice by publication to the Lewiston District Court, 71 Lisbon Street, P.O. Box 1345, Lewiston, Maine 04243-1345, and to mail a copy of his answer to Plaintiff’s attorney at the above address. This order shall be published once a week for 3 successive weeks in Androscoggin County in the following publication: a San Francisco newspaper within 20 days after the date the court granted the Order for Service by Publication. Dated 10/13/16.

DECEMBER 01, 08, 15, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552540

In the matter of the application of: TIMOTHY WAYNE ARNETT, 182 HOWARD ST #141, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TIMOTHY WAYNE ARNETT, is requesting that the name TIMOTHY WAYNE ARNETT, be changed to JAX LELAND MCCLOUD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 12th of January 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037347600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PMR PRIME, 350 TOWNSEND ST #405, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INTERNET 404 TECHNOLOGIES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/14/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037320400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SPEAK E Z (CA), 455 UPPER TERRACE #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SPEAK E Z (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRIDE ROOFING, 650 SOUTH VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAFAEL ALATORRE HUERTA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/24/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/24/16.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035765000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: CHINO, 3198 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by CHINO-AMERICANO LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/04/14.

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037355400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA KIWI BABY, 566A GROVE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRITTANY HOOPER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/21/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037348900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE RENTAL GAL; BAY AREA RENTAL ADVISORS; BAY AREA REAL ESTATE ADVISORS, 1998 PACIFIC AVE #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAMELA O’BRIEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/06/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037346200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GERMAN’S ELECTRICAL SERVICES, 1008 LARKIN ST #304, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GERMAN EDUARDO LOPEZ SANCHEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/14/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/14/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037350100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRAND X ANTIQUES, 570 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIMOTHY J. FLINT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/09/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/16/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037327800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE JACKSONFULLER TEAM; SF MODERN CONDOS PROJECT, 2282 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALABAMA NAPLES, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037353700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ABRAMS TOWING, 585 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO AUTO BODY, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/16.

NOV 24, DEC 01, 08, 15, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037351200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DOES ARCHITECTURE, 22 MONTEZUMA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIC D. STATEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/17/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037357800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PRO VET WARE, 3450 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARI ERIC ROZYCKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/23/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037360100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: Y MIKUMO CO, 130 POPE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YOSHIRO MIKUMO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037360400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CONSULT OUR SOURCE, 1628 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID W. AGUILAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037355900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAIR BY TERI ANNE, 2444 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TERRI KEMNITZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/21/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037363500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ZAKHRABOV MOTORS, 1317 EVANS #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OREN ZAKHRABOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/29/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/16.

DEC 01, 08, 15, 22, 2016

Mahler insights

Big gay TV

Out &About

Tangled lives

O&A

Vol. 46 • No. 48 • December 1-7, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Gotta sing! Gotta dance! by David-Elijah Nahmod

ony Yazbeck was born to dance. The Broadway veteran received a Tony Award nomination for his fancy footwork in the 2014 revival of the 1944 musical On the Town. He’s also been seen as Billy Flynn in Chicago and opposite Broadway superstar Patti LuPone in Gypsy, among many other roles. Television viewers would know him from Smash, All My Children, As the World Turns, and in the concert version of the musical South Pacific for PBS’ Great Performances. See page 22 >>

Tony Yazbeck steps into the spotlight at the Venetian Room.

Bay Area Cabaret

Pictures in the cinematic cave by Erin Blackwell

hirty thousand years ago, Europeans painted horses on the walls of caves. That was their cinema. And it’s still playing to crowds of curious tourists trying to understand the human experience. See page 30 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS } PRESENTED BY

NOV 25 - DEC 11, 2016 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

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eople on deadline, crazy writer types and polyamorists all benefit from having structure in their lives, even on vacation. We used happy hour in the lounge of our Washington, DC hotel to structure our days last week, and there at the Carlyle we saw the museum-quality exhibit Larry Rivers in Collaboration, 1923-2002. Rivers and Kenneth Koch were a great gay artist and poet of the New York School, and this exhibition featured several of their collaborative collages composed of Rivers’ drawing and Koch’s poetry. Here are two lyrical samples. “O French/Ice-cream! balconies of deserted stuff! The hills are/Very underwear, and near ‘to be’/An angel is shouting, ‘Wilder baskets!’” – The Dirty Beautiful Jingling Pajamas (with K. Koch) (1968), collage in Plexiglas box. (For Wilder.) “In my loafers I ‘wint’ to jail to see my brother/Perish in his ‘little’ loafers beside the iron fountain/ The milkman referred to yes’tiddy as the Electric Chair./I want to whoosh/Down an armchair, inch of the summer sunlight,/And find my brother, the grayed one, still reading his newspaper/And using his toothbrush, or using his toothbrush. Goodbye!” – Perish in his Little Loafers (1970), collage in Plexiglas box. DC is such a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, too bad that its citizens don’t get any representation in either house of Congress. Now that the reactionary right and the generals have seized federal power, DCers won’t be getting satisfaction anytime soon. While we were in town, the House of Reps stripped protections against discrimination toward gay people from a defense bill. Once you make it OK to violate the civil rights of Muslims, Mexicans and gays, anyone could be next on the chopping block. From the new roof terrace of the renovated East Building of the National Gallery, a kick-ass view of architect John Russell Pope’s West Building dome and that great phallic symbol, the Washington

Larry Rivers Foundation

Kenneth Koch and Larry Rivers, Collaboration (1994), collage.

Monument. Inside, delicious Rothko paintings, Barnett Newman’s Stations of the Cross and a Calder survey in the tower galleries. Plus Matisse cut-outs, Modern Art 1900-25, 1910-8; American Art, 1900-50; and French Painting, 1890-1940. An all-star line-up. In the West Bldg., a great retrospective of Stuart Davis, the most important American artist of the 20th century’s first half (Warhol being that of the second half). As Davis was “the artist of the Jazz Age,” Swing Era jazz music wafted through the galleries. We took a docent tour of the NG in Spanish. Because Out There knows a lot about the modern art our docent described, it was easy to understand when she said, “Jackson Pollack comprendió la importancia del gesto.”

We went to see the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series at the Phillips Collection, then spent a day wandering around the embassy district. Some of the most elegant buildings belong to smaller countries: Estonia, the Sultanate of Oman. Were touched to see a plaque on one, “Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt lived here, 1912-20,” now the residence of the ambassador of Mali. It was much like, stamp collecting as a boy, we marveled at how the most extravagant stamps often came from smallest nations, such as Yemen. We lingered by the Brazilian embassy to overhear some of the staff because we love hearing Portuguese, the way it presses the tongue against the palate. That night, the bartender at the Carlyle had saved the last bottle of Malbec for us. “The Argentine Embassy is just down the street, so if need be, we can go raid their wine cellar.”t

Tony Yazbeck

From page 21

“It was a huge deal,” Yazbeck told the B.A.R. as he recalled his Tony nomination. “When you get nominated, you feel like you’ve won. It was very unexpected.” Yazbeck, who will be performing his one-man show with Bay Area Cabaret at the Venetian Room on December 4, began his career as a child. “I was 11 years old in Gypsy,” he said. “I didn’t want to just perform, I wanted to affect people. That’s why we all do what we do.” It was a learning experience for the young Yazbeck. “During Gypsy I was living in Bethlehem, PA, commuting to New York, doing my homework in the car and backstage,” he said. “That experience taught me discipline – it was great training. I worked with great people, and I wanted to stay in New York. New York was home to me, it was where I could communicate.” Yazbeck also said that he’s not had any problems connecting with audiences even though his musical style is firmly rooted in Broadway’s past. “It’s not difficult to find audiences,” he said. “You can always communicate when you sing and dance in a truthful way. I’m introducing songs to a new generation – these songs were the pop music of their eras. But I still validate that there’s great music right now. We See page 23 >>

Bay Area Cabaret

Tony Yazbeck brings his one-man show to the Venetian Room cabaret in the Fairmont Hotel.

Theatre>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

It’s complicated

SAN FRANCISCO

GAY GA Y MEN'S CHORUS

Mario Parnell Photography

Madeline HD Brown is a playwright who asks a former lover played by Louis Parnell to direct her autobiographical new script in 3Girls Theatre Company’s production of Entanglement.

by Richard Dodds

n a scene late in Entanglement, a new play by AJ Baker, one character says to another, “Why didn’t you just tell me?” It seems a very rational question, given the lengths taken to communicate an answer that ultimately arrives in a few sentences. But this easy way out would deprive us of an entertaining play that’s a dramatically scenic route to get to a destination not as far away as it seems. A car trip is an apt analogy for a play in which the metaphorical passengers of various familial relationships are packed together as closeness brings about arguments, frustrations, rivalries, detours, and disputes over which routes best to take. In this case, the man at the wheel is a theater director who rightly objects to backseat drivers. But when the meddler is not only the producer, author, and star of the play, but also the former lover of the director, steering can become a challenge. Entanglement is a play about putting on a play, and that inner play’s raison d’etre is not about the audience that will supposedly see it at the SF Fringe Fest, but about delivering a message from the fictional author to the fictional director. That play is also titled Entanglement, but the real one is being presented at Z Below by 3Girls Theatre Company, of which Baker is the artistic director. Twenty years before the play begins, a love affair between a student and her professor burned brightly but briefly and left deep scars. Luke, that former professor, is now a worldweary theater professional with diminishing opportunities. He doesn’t quite understand why his one-time lover Emma has sought him out after all these years, but he thinks Emma’s script shows promise that stokes his play-doctor predilections. And therein lies at least one of the rubs. Because every word in Emma’s script and how she wants to deliver them are part of a very specific message meant for Luke, rehearsals devolve into verbal battles whenever a change is suggested by her colleagues. And there’s more baggage along on this theatrical ride. Emma’s

Tony Yazbeck

From page 22

can all live in the same boat.” Yazbeck cited On the Town as his personal favorite of all the shows he’s done. “It has a special place in my heart,” he said. “I first did it eight years ago at City Center in New York – I did two ballads and a 10-minute ballet. It felt like a marathon!” He must have done something right. Yazbeck’s work in On the Town earned him rave reviews from The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and the Associated Press. When Yazbeck steps into the spotlight at the Venetian Room he’ll be sharing some of the lessons he’s learned from his many years in the

real-life husband is playing her partner in the play, and the couples both real and fictional are in fractious relationships. Add in Luke’s comely young daughter who’s working as his assistant director, and who is much more convincing when subbing for Emma in love scenes with her husband, and the speed bumps only get bigger. Baker briskly mixes humor and tension in her script, with a sense of a mysterious agenda hanging over it all. The play-within-a-play metatheatrics take on an unscripted dimension with Louis Parnell playing the director of the fictional Entanglement while directing the actual Entanglement. His work is admirable in both positions, but is more visibly noteworthy playing a man of the theater who has been worn down by devotion repaid with slipping success. Whenever Parnell is on stage, and with little flamboyance, he pulls us in with an understated wisdom that seems to churn within. Parnell is in good company all around. Madeline HD Brown delivers on an interesting challenge as Emma, the playwright and actress with an ax to grind, who needs to be a good performer in the scenes outside her play while hitting the wrong notes when rehearsing the dialogue that she wrote. Chad Deverman brings an edgy presence to his role as Emma’s husband, who is her reluctant costar in the play she has written. As the director’s daughter, Heather Gordon is a likably comic minx and a shrewd operator. Julian Green pulls a lot of nuanced humor from the small role of the tech guy who is an uneasy witness to the temper-prone rehearsals. Early on in the play, Emma talks about a quantum mechanics theorem of entanglements, stating that once two particles have become entangled, what happens to one will always affect the other. It’s an unnecessarily high-tone way of stating the obvious precept that echoes of a love affair messily ended years ago can still reverberate. We don’t need a physics lesson to tell us that.t

THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF SFGMC

Entanglement will run through Dec. 17 at Z Below. Tickets are $35. Go to 3girlstheatre.org.

theatre as he tells the story of his life. “I’ll be singing Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, as well as the more contemporary tunes of Joni Mitchell and Coldplay,” he said. “I’ll be sharing a little bit of my journey and entertaining with old MGM standards and my tap shoes.” Yazbeck added that he gets excited as he prepares to perform. “I sometimes feel like I was born in the wrong era,” he said. “I like to challenge myself and see how I fit into contemporary times. I’ll be turning some of those songs on their heads!”t Tony Yazbeck plays the Venetian Room, The Fairmont Hotel, SF, Sun., Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m. Tickets ($58): www.cityboxoffice.com

JANE LYNCH

DANIEL REICHARD

MEGAN HILTY

December 8 – 10

December 11

December 16 – 18

For tickets: feinsteinsatthenikko.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street | 855-322-2738

<< Music

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

World-class Mahler explorations by Philip Campbell

ovember at Davies Symphony Hall began and ended this year with two world-renowned orchestras bringing performances of two Mahler symphonies to a town already well-acquainted with the epic works of the great composer. The San Francisco Symphony has built its own highly praised Mahler tradition for years, guided most notably by current longtime Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. His profound exploration of the rich canon has already yielded many unforgettable concerts, awardwinning recordings and fascinating documentaries. MTT’s journey with Gustav Mahler and the SFS is far from over. This coming January, a semi-staged event featuring the cantata Das klagende Lied (Song of Lamentation) will be performed three times at DSH with visual projections, costumes and lighting adding to the experience. It might have seemed Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker were bringing coals to Newcastle when we learned the former was devoting a program to the Mahler Ninth and the latter was conducting the less frequently performed but still relatively familiar Seventh during their guest appearances here. Comparisons between interpretive approaches were unavoidable, but they also provided additional insights to a complicated

Gustavo Dudamel led the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

genius always as enigmatic as he is enthralling. I grew up in L.A. with the LA Phil during the Zubin Mehta and Carlo Maria Giulini years, so the vigorous orchestra always has a special place in my heart. The magnificent home designed for them by Frank Gehry crowns the Music Center today, but I won’t forget those magical times in the old Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. New generations of Southland concertgoers are finding fresh relevance in serious music-making thanks to the charismatic Gustavo Dudamel and his exciting combination of musical intelligence and passionate involvement. I confess to finding his Mahler performances rather unsubtle in the past – never less than committed

Simon Rattle led the Berliner Philharmoniker.

and adventurous, but often willful. The meditative and somber Ninth Symphony has a quality of dark inevitability that one wouldn’t usually associate with Dudamel’s previously more animated podium technique. He has obviously matured since his first explosion upon the scene, and his recent performance proved it. The orchestra followed him superbly, with exceptionally strong section-playing that still blended impressively well. The final pages of breathless departure faded less into tranquility than into unfathomable emptiness. At the center of the prolonged silence, Dudamel and his musicians slowly returned with the rest of us to a feeling of shared acceptance. Just what the doctor ordered for these troubled times, and

a warm reminder of the abilities of my former home team. Most recently, Simon Rattle also demonstrated the power of Mahler to engage and inspire, with a magnificent performance of the composer’s self-proclaimed journey from darkness to light: the mysterious, tricky and wonderfully unpredictable Symphony No. 7. Like Dudamel, Sir Simon has been conducting Mahler for years. His recording of the Seventh with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, taken from live performances over 20 years ago, signaled the presence of a real champion and world-class interpreter. The CBSO is fine, but frankly couldn’t match the technical superiority Rattle required. Listen to the Seventh with

MTT and the SFS to find the unanimity and lushness he was aiming for. With the Berlin Phil, often called the world’s greatest orchestra, the established star conductor has found an ideal partnership for the quirky No. 7. Any problems with the score were nonexistent during the Berliners’ visit, and Rattle’s vision was triumphant. The mixture of clarity and depth, power and transparency, never lagged. Rattle and the players made every burst of color or sudden shift to darkness feel both spontaneous and sensible. The bizarre, dreamlike qualities of the inner movements were magical. The boisterous gusto of the Finale can turn to vulgarity in the wrong hands and disjoint the narrative, but we wouldn’t want it to be too wellmannered either. If coherent chaos isn’t incongruous, Rattle and the virtuoso musicians of the legendary Berlin Phil achieved it beautifully. Simon Rattle ends his tenure as chief conductor of the orchestra in 2018. He has held the position and served as artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonie since 2002. He becomes Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra in September 2017. As Principal Guest Conductor of the LSO, Michael Tilson Thomas continues to lead the orchestra in concerts in London and on tour. Wouldn’t you love to hear MTT and Sir Simon share their thoughts on Mahler and the Brits? We certainly marvel at their results here.t

Small change in the opera world by Tim Pfaff

ast summer was rocky on the opera stock market. If you want to damage a stock, say the word “cancellation.” It feels like only yesterday (it was 1974) that Montserrat Caballe was in town to make her San Francisco debut as Norma and, from her station at room service, cancelled the run one performance at a time. She was a legendary “canceller” who, like the pianist Martha Argerich, seemed only to up the excitement around her subsequent appearances. Not all are as lucky. Cancelling role debuts dents the reputation of even the best singers; true or not, the message is no-can-do. Last summer, during a Dresden role debut as Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin that was as creditable (it’s on YouTube, on its way to stores) as it was unlikely, Anna Netrebko cancelled Norma – not just the two new productions that were mounted for her this season, but the role, as well as what was to have been her Bayreuth debut as Elsa this coming summer. Then the only other singer currently as bankable as she, Jonas Kaufmann – who had previously startled the horses by cancelling his first Berlioz Enee at Covent Garden

– cancelled everything: his first Elgar Gerontius in Berlin, his first Offenbach Hoffman in Paris, and a run of Lohengrins and Meistersinger Walthers, all in the interest of taking care of a physical problem with his voice. With a 2017 debut as Verdi’s Otello in the offing, no one else is feeling better, despite the tenor’s assurances he will

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return to the stage Nov. 22, a date no American could love, not that he sings here anymore. Unintentionally adding insult to injury, both singers released muchhyped solo albums. The Russian diva became the umpteenth singer (including Kaufmann) to release a CD entitled Verismo (DG). Its kitschy cover (Anna as the Ice Princess Big Bird) argued against its opening track, Adriana Lecouvreur’s “I’m a humble servant of art,” but it hardly mattered since everyone who cared went directly to her first recording of the Turandot killer “In questa regia.” A bearded Kaufmann, suggesting a Pavarotti with looks, dropped Dolce Vita (Sony), a collection that looked like the Neapolitan songs his Italian tenor forebears had taken to the bank, but actually a perplexing if vocally classy bit of musical slumming. The singers have some making up to do with their adoring publics. Kaufmann has been singing lots of verismo onstage of late (incomparably, to my ears), but although it’s an article of faith in the opera world that singing Puccini is vocally risk-free if done correctly, I can’t think of a singer who’s made good on that. Still, most of Kaufmann’s

cancelling to date really has represented radical self-care in the vocal department, and all but the most disgruntled of festival ticket-holders are willing to let him cuddle those cords – in exchange for that Otello and a Tristan. It’s like anything else in 2016: anything could happen. It’s hard to imagine the target audience for Dolce Vita. Not only are there precious “Neapolitan songs,” some are from Italian movie soundtracks, and a good number sound like tunes you’d find on the jukebox of a New Jersey Italian family restaurant. Of the 18 songs, I found that only “Volare” would not go down, no matter how hard I tried. But he pulls off the sobs and crooning intrinsic to this fare with taste, and there’s an unmistakable honesty in his striving to do no more than put over a song. For me it was enough to revel in the sound of one of the most glorious voices of our century in a completely relaxed state. Once or twice. Die-hard opera fans will be better served by his Andrea Chenier in the Coven Garden outing of the production seen in SF this fall, which was due to drop on SF opening night, but Warner kindly delayed release a month. Netrebko’s Verismo arrives with

predictable fanfare, with the look and sound of the kind of diva disc Terry McEwen used to produce. As it ends with a complete Act IV from a studio Manon Lescaut (with her hubby, effete tenor Yusif Eyvasov), I chose to reserve comment until after her first Puccini Manon at the Met on Nov. 14. I heard the broadcast from the beginning, but when she made her vocal appearance, I thought there had been a cast change and I had missed the announcement. It was like hearing a veteran character soprano vamping a teensy tramp wannabe. The beat in the voice is now pronounced, pitches are proximate at best, there is no legato line, and occasionally she summons the small change for a money note. It’s all there, meticulously sound-shopped by the engineers, in Verismo. I was in the house when she made her SF-American-international debut in 1995, when she gave notice of a thready soprano with an almost chilling accuracy of coloratura. A frighteningly inaccurate singer with a plush, plummy voice and PR that goes back to the Kremlin has replaced her. I, for one, would rather she got directly to Turandot – not opposite Kaufmann’s inevitable Calaf, please – and be done with it.t

Books>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Passionate advocate

Welcome the season with Chanticleer's profound and joyful mix of holiday music, from the Renaissance to spirituals and carols

A Chanticleer Christmas

by Brian Bromberger

When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones; Hachette, $27 leve Jones is a San Francisco star, an activist and grass roots organizer for 40 years who could only have been produced in this city. His new memoir When We Rise: My Life in the Movement is a love song to San Francisco, but a city vastly different from the one where Jones arrived in 1974. There is an implicit critique that the magic welcoming spell that SF cast on earlier gay refugees has lost some of its sparkle and allure, but the city’s central role in the LGBT movement is indisputable. One could say the same about Jones. Underlying this book is the realization that LGBT people changed the world, and it is not hyperbole that Jones had a significant role in this transformation. His memoir traces his development as an activist and gay consciousnessraiser, but also as critic-at-large. Escaping his family in Scottsdale, AZ, after contemplating suicide thinking he was the only gay man, born again after reading a Life magazine article about gay protesters in SF, he found a home here, as well as sexual liberation, helping to make the Castro a sanctuary for gay émigrés despite no degree, training, or apparent skills. In explicit detail Jones etches out the partying, dancing, drugs, and uninhibited sexual freedom characteristic of the early 1970s, but also the instant camaraderie of finding a new friend on every street corner. Drag queens in the neighborhood called him Betty Blender. Jones describes first meeting disco singer Sylvester at 3 a.m.

Dec 10-23

Oakland: 12/10 @ 8:15pm Cathedral of Christ the Light, 2121 Harrison Street Petaluma: 12/11 @ 5 & 7:30pm St. Vincent’s Church, 35 Liberty Street Carmel: 12/13 @ 6 & 8:30pm Carmel Mission, 3080 Rio Road Sacramento: 12/15 @ 8pm Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, 1017 11th Street San Francisco: 12/17 & 12/23 @ 8pm St. Ignatius Church, 650 Parker Street Berkeley: 12/18 @ 8pm 1st Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana Street Santa Clara: 12/22 @ 6 & 8:30pm Mission Santa Clara, 500 El Camino Real Cla

activist came in handy as the AIDS crisis descended on the city. In 1983, Jones co-founded the SF AIDS Foundation, commenting that activists cried every day for 10 years. HIV-infected himself, wondering how long he had to live, it didn’t

“The movement gave me hope and it is that hope which sustains me, hope for justice and equality, hope for the children that will follow us.” –Cleve Jones in the Haven restaurant: “Don’t be scared child, I don’t bite, unless you want me to.” Regular trips to the bathhouses bolstered his selfesteem and sense of his own attractiveness. He became a part-time hustler to help make ends meet. He met Harvey Milk in the Castro, and Jones found his mentor in life and politics. The chapters featuring Milk are the best in the book. When Milk was elected supervisor in 1977, Jones worked as a student intern in his office and began studying political science at SF State University. With the assassination of Milk on Nov. 27, 1978, Jones was converted into an activist, helping to organize the silent candlelight march from the Castro to City Hall to mourn his death. The White Night Riot protesting the light sentence given to Milk’s killer became a benchmark event for Jones as he used his anger to advance the goals of the movement. In his speech that night in Civic Center, he outlined the agenda for the rest of his life: “That is why we will not rest until Harvey’s dream is fulfilled: when lesbians and gay men of every age, race and background come out to join in the struggle with all of us who seek lives of freedom, dignity, and joy. We are deadly serious, we grow daily in power, and we will not be stopped.” Soon after, he worked in State Assemblyman Art Agnos’ (later Mayor of SF) office. His on-the-job training as an

stop him from continuing his social justice work. In preparing for the 1985 Candlelight March in honor of Harvey, he birthed the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest community art project in history, to commemorate the thousands who had died of the disease. The first panel was for Jones’ best friend, Marvin Feldman. There are only a few chapters devoted to the Quilt, since he wrote a book on the Names Project in 2000, Stitching a Revolution. Continuing his work as a labor activist on behalf of hotel workers with UNITE!, Jones participated in the early stages of overturning California’s Proposition 8 and legalizing same-sex marriage. For those wanting to know what it was like to live in gay SF during the carefree 1970s, Jones gives you a ringside seat. He provides current events for each year to give context to simultaneous gay milestones. Jones seems particularly concerned with reaching younger generations who are not into history, reminding them of the bravery, fortitude, and persistence of those who preceded them. Throughout the book are transcripts of speeches Jones gave through the years. Though disheartened at times, he remains a reluctant idealist, wondering if our society is too polarized to pursue the just society envisioned by the countercultural 60s. This unvarnished, painful, uplifting, and at-times outrageous memoir is a testament to endurance under pressure,

both Jones’ and the movement. Jones states emphatically that the movement saved his life and gave him purpose, as well as connecting him to the community he came to love. Jones’ journey mirrors that of the movement itself, wounded but still vital. He writes, “The movement gave me hope and it is that hope which sustains me, hope for justice and equality, hope for the children that will follow us; hope that someday soon, we may rise.” Jones’ extraordinary courage never allows the obstacles he faced to overwhelm or dissuade him. We May Rise illustrates how far we have come as a people, but it’s not shy in pointing out how far we still have to go. Jone is always opinionated in castigating other gay players and strategies. His genius is that he wasn’t content to observe historical events, but hell-bent on ushering them in. We’re all beneficiaries of his passionate, dedicated activism.t

Tickets available through City Box Office: 415-392-4400 or online: www.chanticleer.org

D I D

Y O U

M I S S

U S ?

NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER

Avenue

“A local tradition” SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL

“Hilarious” FOR ALL EVENTS

THE MUSICAL MUSIC & LYRICS BY ROBERT LOPEZ & JEFF MARX

BOOK BY JEFF WHITTY

BASED ON AN ORIGINAL CONCEPT BY ROBERT LOPEZ & JEFF MARX

DIRECTED BY DENNIS LICKTEIG MUSICAL DIRECTION BY MATTHEW LEE CANNON ORCHESTRATIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS BY STEPHEN OREMUS

DEC 2, 2016 – JAN 15, 2017 BUY TICKETS AT NCTCSF.ORG BOX OFFICE: 415.861.8972 25 VAN NESS AVE AT MARKET ST AVENUE Q is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684. www.MTIShows.com Avenue Q has not been authorized or approved by the Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content.

<< TV

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

End-of-the-year gay moments by Victoria A. Brownworth

e are moving into that dead zone between season finales and the new season starting in January and February. So December is the ideal catch-up time for series you missed. After this election we recommend binging House of Cards, Veep and BrainDead over the holidays to keep prepped for the January Inauguration. It wouldn’t be the holidays without some big extravaganza on the tube, and Dec. 7 NBC brings it with Hairspray Live! This is our last big gay moment of the year, so let’s revel in it. Scripted by Harvey Fierstein based on the Broadway musical of the John Waters film, the show has an extraordinary cast of Oscar-, Tony, Emmy- and Grammy-winning stars, some gay, some not, all very gay-friendly. Maddie Baillio stars as Tracy Turnblad, Fierstein plays Edna Turnblad, Martin Short plays Wilbur Turnblad. Kristin Chenoweth, one of our fave LGBT allies, is Velma Von Tussle. Other cast members include Ariana Grande, Derek Hough, Jennifer Hudson, Sean Hayes, Andrea Martin, Rosie O’Donnell, and Ricki Lake. Hairspray Live! is destined to be one of the most memorable of evenings. As the year draws to a close, season finales have been coming fast and furious. We were intrigued to see Father Marcus (Ben Daniels) about to get picked up by another man (sexy, bearded and definitely of age) in a bar last episode on Fox’s stellar The Exorcist. We knew Marcus was gay, we were just waiting to have it revealed. This show is so transgressive, and we would love to see gay sexuality in the priesthood addressed outside of the pedophile priest scandal. It’s our Catholic contention the priesthood is a mostly gay profession. Father Marcus is hot in a different way from Father Tomas (Alfonso Herrera), but both men are dealing with their own desires as they try to combat Evil. How those desires impede their success is an underlying motif of the multilayered Exorcist. We look forward to more now that Angela/Regan is herself possessed. There are so few lesbians on the tube, that to paraphrase It’s a Wonderful Life, every time there’s a new one an angel gets her wings. So how thrilled were we that Supergirl now has a new resident lesbian in Alex, Supergirl’s older adoptive sister? We were angry for a full season after Grey’s Anatomy killed off Chyler Leigh’s character, Lexie. So we were glad to see Leigh resurface on Supergirl in what was so obviously

(to us) going to be a queer role as Alex. Alex has been sad, and we’ve seen that sadness before: it’s the “I’m basically the only lesbian on this series” sadness. In the episode “Crossfire,” Alex revealed herself. Detective Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima, playing the dual role of woman of color and lesbian) was dumped by her girlfriend. Alex invited her out for drinks, which Maggie thought was a date. Maggie, thinking it was way too soon, told Alex she didn’t realize Alex was a lesbian. Alex insisted she wasn’t a lesbian and left in a huff. But it turned out being a lesbian was her secret. By episode’s end, she’d come out to Maggie in an emotional four-tissue scene about trying to be perfect and never quite achieving that goal. It was a scene many of us have lived: everything in our lives is right, except we just weren’t connecting with the opposite sex. Then finally the lightbulb went off. Exciting and terrifying. When Alex tells Maggie she never wanted to be intimate with anyone, she reveals she didn’t realize the problem was she didn’t want to be intimate with men. Supergirl executive producer Andrew Kreisberg spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the decision to have Alex come out. “What I’m interested in is that I want Alex to be happy. There was always this sadness about her last season that we’re getting underneath now. No one should ever feel like they’ve got a secret inside of them. The idea that, in going through this, even if it is painful, Alex is going to come out the other side a happier and more complete person.” It makes us happy, too. We always like to see more than one token LGBT person on a series. Now Maggie can have someone to be lesbians with. And maybe more. Annalise’s (Viola Davis) peripatetic sexuality has long been a focal point of How to Get Away with Murder. Davis’ stellar performance was the first African American woman to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Davis and her character are the heart of HTGAWM, and Davis takes up a lot of space on the screen because almost no one on TV acts as well as she does. Some of the cast can match her extraordinary range: Cecily Tyson, who was just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Famke Janssen (Eve) and Liza Weil (Bonnie) are all extraordinary. But Davis is the star. There would be no show without her. Annalise divested herself of both Eve and Nate (Billy Brown) this

NBC-TV

The Hairspray Live! cast, coming to NBC on Dec. 7.

season. It was only a matter of time before she honed her predatory bisexuality at someone new, but Bonnie? Annalise has been by turns fiercely protective of her longtime assistant and inexplicably hateful. These two women mirror each other in ways the show is just beginning to address. But we were unprepared for Annalise to kiss Bonnie in a moment of pure what? Desire? Vulnerability? Manipulation? For Annalise, sexuality is as much a weapon as anything. To the question posed by the season finale – Who was under the sheet, killed in the fire at Annalise’s house? – we had guessed the answer. But nothing could have prepared us for Annalise and Bonnie together. Is there no one Annalise won’t use? Emotionally fragile Bonnie seems like crossing a line even for Annalise. Whether it was just a moment or a beginning of something bigger, we won’t know until next season. But this is how one does a cliffhanger right. We also won’t know what Connor and Oliver are going to do about that why-did-they-break-up-again breakup. Oliver was definitely glad to discover Connor was not the one under the sheet, but will that lead to a much-needed reuniting of this gay couple? In our opinion this breakup was the season’s worst plot twist, even if it did bring more gay men and hot sex scenes into the show. Fix it. As for Famke Janssen, we aren’t likely to see Eve return to HTGAWM to rescue Annalise from herself, as Janssen will be starring in her own series next season. She will play Susan Scott “Scottie” Hargrave, head of Halcyon Aegis’ Grey Matters branch, a covert mercenary organization with teams of operatives in the spin-off of NBC’s CIA/black ops thriller The Blacklist. The Blacklist: Redemption got a backdoor pilot this season and is expected to parallel the hit series in similar ways. Ryan Eggold, who played the despicable, compellingly genuine Tom Keen on Blacklist, joins the new series in the role of Hargrave’s son. As we know from Blacklist, Keen is one hella operative. And as we know from NBC’s Grimm, mother-son relationships can be dark. We love Janssen in anything, so while we aren’t sure about this new series, we will certainly give it a look. Syfy’s latest thriller Incorporated debuted Nov. 30 to give us something fresh to watch. Executive produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Incorporated is meant to scare the pants off you with technofear. It’s 2074, so near and yet so far. Mega-corporations have become a globalist nightmare, exerting unprecedented control over their

employees. The series stars Alison Miller (Kings), Ben Larson (Reign), with Dennis Haysbert, Julia Ormond and Eddie Ramos. Vikings came back Nov. 30 for the second half of season four on History. If you need something historical, epic and Game of Thrones-ish on the off-season, this is just your cup of mead. Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) is fighting for his life, and Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) is deciding to be a lesbian. Be still our Scandinavian heart. Vikings was also renewed for a fifth season, and the always sexy-stellar Jonathan Rys Meyers (The Tudors) joins the cast. This past week also saw a TV death (a real one), a couple of queer controversies and a major award. Florence Henderson died of heart failure on Nov. 25. Henderson’s iconic role as Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch made her the beloved mom for a generation of TV viewers. In real life Henderson was a staunch defender of gay rights years before it was popular and a much-beloved figure for the LGBT community. Henderson has been a staple on TV for decades, and before that had been a star of Broadway musicals. She was the first female guest host on The Tonight Show in 1962 and was the Today show “Today Girl,” doing light weather and news. In 2010 Henderson, who never looked anywhere near her age, guested on Dancing with the Stars at 76. It was as Carol Brady that Henderson became America’s mom. Brady Bunch gave us TV’s first blended family. While the show was not a ratings-grabber in its five seasons (1969-74), it achieved a cult status in syndication and through myriad Brady movies. At some point Carol Brady (and the effervescent, opinionated Henderson) became America’s surrogate mom of LGBT kids. Henderson’s co-star, Robert Reed, who played Carol’s husband Mike, was gay and died from complications of AIDS in 1992. Henderson was a fierce supporter of AIDS and LGBT causes and much beloved by our community. She performed annually at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. (In her most recent performance she grabbed a few crotches, and Fox News promoted one of the pics, of Henderson wearing a white pantsuit, as Hillary Clinton crotch-grabbing! That shot is still making the rounds on Twitter in one of the year’s fake news stories.) There are several fantastic videos of Henderson’s Broadway Cares performances on YouTube, including last year’s “There’s Nothing Like a Dame.” Watch those performances in her honor. In a 2014 interview with Gay Star

News, Henderson opined that if Brady Bunch were being made today, she hoped the Mike Brady character would be openly gay. “At the time we did the show, they wouldn’t have addressed that,” she said. “But if the show were on today, I think it would definitely be addressed.” RIP Mrs. Brady, you will be missed. If the Parents Television Council had anything to do with it, Henderson’s dream of a gay-themed Brady Bunch would never happen. The anti-gay hate group announced last week that The Real O’Neals, about an openly gay Catholic high school student, is “the most profane show on TV.” Uh oh. We can’t have characters sounding too much like real life. “It’s bad enough that children are increasingly exposed to vulgar dialogue on television. It’s even worse that they’re seeing the vulgarity coming directly from the lips of other children,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “This troubling new trend should concern every family, given the inarguable evidence that children are influenced by what they see on TV.” The Real O’Neals may not be suitable for younger kids, but it is certainly well within the PG-13 guidelines. The idea that this innocuous feel-good sitcom is the most profane show on TV is absurd and all about how anti-gay groups view gay characters on TV. We interviewed Bex Taylor-Klaus a few years ago when she was still a teenager and starring as a teenage lesbian character, Bullet, on AMC’s The Killing. We knew she was a lesbian then, but she either didn’t know or just wasn’t ready to reveal it. So it was with great joy that we witnessed the talented young Scream actress come out as a lesbian in a simple tweet: “hello my name is bex and yes the rumors are true I am v gay.” Adorable. The 22-year-old star has been rumored to be gay in part because of her major roles, from Bullet to a lesbian basketball player on House of Lies, to her current role as a bisexual high school student on MTV’s Scream. Taylor-Klaus was livestreaming on YouNow with a Q&A session after coming out, and told one fan she was “absolutely terrified” about coming out. But, she explained, “Part of why I’m coming out is because there’s so much hate and fear in and around the LGBT community right now, and it’s important for us not to halt progress out of fear. Yes, it’s a scary time, but we need to stand up and say, even if you are afraid, I’m not afraid, or even if I am afraid, I’m strong. I am who I am, and you can’t take that away from me.” Brava. See page 27 >>

Fine Art>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

No direction home

The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York

Ana Mendieta, Energy Charge (1975). 16mm film, color, silent.

The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York

Ana Mendieta, Creek (1974). Super 8 film, color, silent.

by Sura Wood

soul divided, a woman without a country, Ana Mendieta died young and left behind a body of work suffused with a yearning that couldn’t be soothed. Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta, featuring 21 of the artist’s short, mostly silent Super 8 films and videos, and three suites of photographs related to them, now at BAMPFA, has the effect of making viewers complicit in enigmatic rituals that feel simultaneously foreign and familiar. Her signature “earthbody” aesthetic, imbued variously with fire, water, animal blood and the cruel sting of abandonment and emotional amputation, penetrates the consciousness, and lingers there. Born in Havana, Mendieta was one of 14,000 Cuban children sent to the U.S. as part of an American refugee program. Wrenched from her parents in 1961, at the age of 12, she lived in a succession of foster homes in the Midwest before attending the University of Iowa. Her art became a vehicle for reconciling her dual identities and healing a gnawing sense of displacement after being uprooted from her native country, culture and family, and thrust into a strange alien world. In films that both confound and captivate, one sees her attempting to salve old wounds through the physical merging of her body with the timeless natural landscape, connecting to the history of the earth and an

Lavender Tube

From page 26

We were reminded of just how far we’ve come when Pres. Obama awarded Ellen DeGeneres the Presidential Medal of Freedom right before Thanksgiving. This was Obama’s final award ceremony before leaving office. His voice caught, and DeGeneres cried, as the president explained the importance of her role as an openly lesbian actor on TV before anyone else was out on the tube. Referencing Ellen’s 1997 Time magazine cover with her photo and the caption, “Yep, I’m gay!” Obama said, “It’s easy to forget now, when we’ve come so far, where now marriage is equal under the law, just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago.” DeGeneres had been blackballed from performing after she came out. Obama put DeGeneres’ life’s work in historical context, explaining “just how important it was, not just to the LGBT community, but

irretrievable past. Whether she might have found her way “home,” or what resolution, if any, she might have ultimately achieved, we’ll never know. She fell to her death from the 34th floor of her Greenwich Village apartment and died at the age of 36 in what was deemed a tragic accident, though the actual cause has been the subject of speculation and a cause célèbre among some feminists. Her husband, sculptor Carl Andre, was charged in her murder, and acquitted. In the course of an all-too-brief career from 1971-85, Mendieta worked across mediums in sculpture, drawing, installation, performance and photography, but her quietly hypnotic, original films – she produced over a hundred in the sprint of a single decade – have not garnered as much attention. They’ve been restored, digitized and transferred to Blu-ray, processes that have enhanced their pictorial quality. One or two are screened in loops on 10 projectors that ring a spacious, darkened room in the museum, a place of exile, cunning and silence (to paraphrase James Joyce) that allows the artist to cast her unsettling magic spell. Mendieta’s self and body are often front-and-center, whether she confronts the camera, smearing her naked body with blood (Blood Inside Outside, Old Man’s Creek, Sharon Center, Iowa, 1975), an act that suggests menstruation and the rituals of Afro-Cuban Santiera, or for all of us to see somebody so full of kindness and light, somebody we liked so much, somebody who could be our neighbor, or our colleague, or our sister, challenge our own assumptions.” Obama said DeGeneres “reminds us that we have more in common than we realize.” He said women like her “push our country in the direction of justice.” He noted the impact her coming out had on her career and the strength and courage it took to take that action. “What an incredible burden that was to bear, to risk your career like that. People don’t do that very often. Then to have the hopes of millions on your shoulders,” Obama said, his voice catching. “Ellen counters what too often divides us with the countless things that bind us together,” Obama said. She “inspires us to be better, one joke, one dance at a time.” So for Harvey Fierstein in drag, and Viola Davis kissing women, and brave young actors paving the way by coming out, you know you really must stay tuned.t

sets her silhouette on fire, which she has etched in white chalk on the ground, branded on trees or molded with underbrush and dried mud, then burned in a funerary rite on a riverbank (Birth (Gunpowder Works), Iowa, 1981). Many of the films are only three or four minutes in length or less, yet they deliver intimations of mysterious, unseen forces at work of the kind ancient civilizations once spun into matriarchal earth cults. In the oddly affecting Burial Pyramid (1974), a piece she made in Yagul, Mexico, Mendieta is buried under a pile of boulders. As she begins to slowly shift and heave, as if awakening from a deep, potion-induced

sleep and throwing off the shackles of time, several rocks roll away and expose her upper torso; we’re left to wonder if she’ll emerge a full-blown goddess. Creek, shot in Mexico the same summer, offers a vision of transporting peace. The camera hovers above an Edenic scene, where Mendieta, floating on her stomach in a startlingly clear mountain stream, is sheltered by a forest primeval, her arms extended alongside her head, her face turned to the side, her form supported by – and one with – the burbling water flowing downstream over her body. It’s sublime, while Mirage (Iowa, 1974), one of the few works engaged with narrative, in this case her painful separation from her mother and homeland, is as visceral, profane and psychologically fraught as the latter piece is pure and serene. Apparently pregnant, sitting in a wooded glade

and gazing into a mirror propped up in the grass, she reaches for a knife, cuts her stomach and extracts handfuls of feathers from her belly. Fire is a recurring motif. That primitive, exhilarating and destructive earth element rears its head in the magnetizing Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece) (Oaxaca, Mexico, 1976). Announced by shards of light and ignited by a series of explosions, a fiery human form attached to an armature glows brighter and brighter in the night, triggering a raft of associations – a blazing effigy, a witch condemned to the stake, ritual sacrifice – before burning itself out and disintegrating into embers. The illuminated heart is the last to go. It’s brief but spectacular, much like the career of the artist who created it.t Through Feb. 12. Info: Bampfa.org.

I am the future of the LGBT community. I’m gay.

I’m 22 years old and I’m an exchange student from Spain. Going to college here means a fun time, lots of hard work and getting to see new things. It also means a chance to really be myself. My parents are supportive of my sexuality, and my host family here is a couple with two teenage boys. Nobody cares if they’re gay or straight. I’m excited to be part of a world where that can be true. I am the future of the LGBT community. And I read about that future every day on my Android tablet. Because that’s where I want it to be.

The person depicted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

<< Out&About

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Decemblance by Jim Provenzano

O&A

ecember doubts and joy, Arts events and more, oh boy. Still unbelievin’ it’s the holiday season.

Fri 2

All Aunt Hagar’s Children @ Z Space

946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips @ Berkeley Rep

Classic & New Films @ Castro Theatre Dec. 1: Last Men Standing, a World AIDS Day screening ($20, 7pm). Dec. 2: Life of Brian (7:30) and History of the World Part I (9:20). Dec. 3: Silent Film Festival; six films, all with live accompaniment. (silentfilm.org). Dec. 4: Disney’s animal animated Robin Hood (1pm, 3pm). Dec. 4: Bugsy (5:30) and Casino (8pm). Silence, with director Martin Scorsese (SF Film Society member: www.sffs. org). Dec. 6 & 7: Rick Prelinger’s Lost Landscapes of San Francisco (7:30, www.longnow.org). Dec. 8: La La Land with Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, & John Legend in person. $20-$25. 8:30pm. $11-$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Michael Morpurgo and Emma Rice’s rousing play about a seaside British family whose house is invaded by WWII U.S. soldiers after D-Day. $29$97. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Jan. 15. Roda Theatre, 201 Addison St., Berkeley. berkeleyrep.org

Adler Fellows @ Herbst Theatre SF Opera presents a dozen new opera students performing a variety of works, with the Opera Orchestra and conductor Jordi Bernacer. $30-$65. 7:30pm. 401 Van Ness ave. www.sfopera.com

Thu 1

The Golden Girls @ Victoria Theatre Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger, Matthew Martin and Holotta Tymes return in Christmas episodes of the hilarious and popular drag stage adaptation of the hit sitcom about retired women in Florida. Special guest stars Dec. 1-3. $30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Dec. 23. 2961 16th St. at Mission. www.goldengirlssf.com

Linda Eder @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Broadway and pop singer-actress returns with a new cabaret show of Christmas songs from her holiday albums. $90-$110. 8pm. Dec. 2, 8pm, Dec. 3, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

The King and I @ Golden Gate Theatre The touring production of the Lincoln Center Theatre four-Tony-winning production of the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein musical about a schoolteacher and the King of Siam. $55-$225. Tue-Sat 8pm. Many 2pm matinees. Thru Dec. 11. 1 Taylor St. www.shnsf.com

Performing Diaspora @ CounterPulse Sammay and Dana E. Fitchett perform new movement works. $20-$35. ThuSat 8pm. Sun 3pm. 80 Turk St. www.counterpulse.org

Visit dozens of galleries, cafes, and even gay Port Bar for receptions, exhibits, with food trucks and live and DJed music, The Great Wall of Oakland projected art and more. 6pm9pm. www.oaklandfirstfridays.org

The Jewelry Box @ The Marsh Brian Copeland returns with his solo show about his misadventures in buying his mother a Christmas present on the ‘mean streets’ of Oakland. $30-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm. Thru Dec. 17. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Sons of the Prophet @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning and Pulitzer Prize Finalist comic family play about suffering and redemption gets a local production. $25-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 18. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. nctcsf.org

Star Trek Live @ Oasis

Gay San Francisco @ Tenderloin Museum Jonathan Raymond’s previously lost documentary depicting queer life in San Francisco 50 years ago (1965-1970). Free. 7pm. Also, the first major temporary exhibition, The Unseen World of the Tenderloin: Rare Historic Photographs 1907-71 (thru Jan. 16). Also, Quiet Lightning reading series Dec. 5, 7:30pm. Holiday Bazaar, Dec. 8, 6pm-9pm. with music, refreshments, sale items and treats. 398 Eddy St. 351-1912. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Closet Monster @ Alamo Drafthouse

First Fridays Art Murmmr @ Downtown Oakland

Thu 1 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones’ drama set in 1950s Washington, DC involves a Korean war veteran determined to solve a murder. $20-$58. Tue,Wed,Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru Dec. 11. 450 Florida St. www.zspace.org

Fri 2

Gay San Francisco @ Tenderloin Museum

Avenue Q @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Lopez & Marx and Whitty’s hilarious puppets-for-adults musical comedy returns, with two different casts, and a New Year’s Eve show, too. $20-$60. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Jan. 15. 25 Van Ness AAve., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Cirque du Soleil @ AT&T Park The amazing Canadian circus company performs another dazzling show, Luzia, a Waking Dream of Mexico. $49 and up. Tue-Sat 8pm. Also various matiness thru Jan. 29. 74 Mission Rock St. www.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia

“Mirror, Mirror,” a new episode of the hilarious live adaptation of the classic scifi TV show, stars Leigh Crow, Honey Mahogany and other talents. $25, $35 and $225 VIP champagne tables. 7pm. Most Wed-Sat thru Dec. 10. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Summer in Sanctuary @ The Marsh NPR radio host Al Letson performs his solo show about working as a community writing teacher in Florida. $20-$100. Fridays 8pm. Saturdays 8:30pm. Thru Nov. 26. www.themarsh.org

Kristina Lee, Sam Rubin @ New Valencia Hall What’s next after Trump’s victory, a discussion with a queer poly-sci student and disability rights activist. $2-$5. 7pm. 747 Polk St. socialism.com

Fred Frith Trio, Rova @ St. Cyprians Church

Larry Kramer: In Love and Anger @ Dignity SF

New experimental music from the talented musicians. $16-$20. 8pm. 2097 Turk St. 454-5238. www.noevalleymusicseries.com

Screening of the documentary about fierce gay and AIDS activist Larry Kramer’s personal life. 6:30pm. 1329 7th Ave. dignitysanfrancisco.org

Inversion: Circus Disobedience @ Kinetic Arts Center, Oakland

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Live circus-theatre show about civil disobedience and justice. $24-$75. Sat 4pm & 8pm. Sun 3pm & 7pm. Thru Dec. 18. 785 7th St., Oakland. www.kineticartsproductions.com

Kronos Quartet @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The acclaimed local ensemble performs music by Philip Glass, Anna Meredith, and other composers. $36$68. 8pm. Bancroft Way at Dana, UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

Magic Makers @ Humanist Hall, Oakland Queer art, craft & healing fair with 60+ vendors of jewelry, art, herbal blends, tarot, acupuncture and more; disabled first at 12pm. Gen. admission 1pm-6pm. Also Dec. 4. 390 27th St. at Broadway, Oakland. www.queermagicmakers.com

Mincing Words @ The Marsh Tom Ammiano returns to the stage with his comic solo show about his life in politics. $20-$100. Thu 8pm, Sat 5pm. Extended shows Dec 3 & 10. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Paradise Street @ Exit Theatre Clive Barker’s unusual Christmas play gets an American premiere production; two British brothers debunk miracles on a mystical street on the eve of its demolition. $20-$30. Thru Dec. 17. 156 Eddy St. www.theexit.org

SoMa Now and Then @ Various Locales Joe Landini’s site-specific outdoor solo dance and tour of South of Market gay bars and cruise spots of yesteryear. $20. Sat & Sun 3pm. Thru Dec. 4. Start at SF Eagle, 398 12th St. www.pushproductions.org

Watermelon Woman 3.0 @ Center for Sex and Culture Group exhibit of diverse art works celebrating director Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking African American lesbian film. Thru Jan. 6. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Daughters of the Dust @ Landmark Opera Plaza SF; Shattuck, Berkeley 25th anniversary screening of Julie Dash’s beautiful film about a 1900s African-American Peazant family, and their last summer before moving north. 601 Van Ness Ave.; 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. landmarktheatres.com/san-francisco/ film-info/daughters-of-the-dust

Equus @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros’ production of Peter Shaffer’s compelling drama about a psychoanalyst treating a teenage boy who has a strange relationship with barnyard horses. $15-$40. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Dec. 10. 215 Jackson St. at Battery. www. TheRhino.org

Shotgun Players perform Edward Albee’s classic drama about disgruntled married college town couples. $25-$40. In repertory thru Jan. 22. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Mon 5 Rhino in the Castro @ GLBT History Museum Theatre Rhinoceros’ reading of Ann Garcia-Romero’s Juanita’s Statue, a crossdressing farce. Also, various exhibit of LGBT history, including Noche de Ambiente, a mini-exhibit of Latino/x LGBT history, curated by Juliana Delgado Lopera and Ángel Rafael Vázquez-Concepción. $5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Sticky Pages @ Center for Sex & Culture Gay authors Andrew Demcak, Richard May, and Rob Rosen read some erotic stories. Free/refreshments and door prizes. 7:30pm. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Tue 6 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online and cable interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. 7pm. Thu-Tue 11 & 11:30am & 10:30pm. www.ComcastHometown.com

Fabian Echevarria @ Strut Fotohodo, an exhibit of the local gay photographer’s work. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Godless Perverts Social Club @ Wicked Grounds Discussion group for participating in a resistance movement from an atheist queer perspective. 7pm-9pm. 289 8th St. www.wickedgrounds.com

Wed 7 A Christmas Carol @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s popular annual large-scale stage adaptation (by Cary Perloff and Paul Walsh) of Charles Dickens’ holiday story about Ebeneezer Scrooge. $25$120. pm. Tue-Sat 7pm. Wed, Fri Sat 2pm. Sun 1pm & 5:30pm. Thru 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Thu 8

Closet Monster @ Alamo Drafthouse Stephen Dunn’s award-winning new film about about a young gay man overcoming tragedies while discovering himself, with Connor Jessup, Aaron Abrams and Isabella Rossellini. Various times daily through Dec. 8. 2550 Mission St. www. drafthouse.com/calendar/new-mission

Gerald Casel Dance @ ODC Theater

Thu 8

Next Time, I’ll Take the Stairs @ Joe Goode Annex

Sat 3 Cleve Jones @ Strut The veteran activist’s release event for his new memoir, When We Rise: coming of Age in San Francisco, AIDS, and my Life in the Movement. Signed copies for sale; reading and reception. 5pm-8pm. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Food Justice Activism @ MOAD A celebration of the free breakfast program for children created by the Black Panthers, with chef Bryant Terry, coffee, mixed breakfast, live music and discussion. 10am-12pm. Exhibits: Where is Here, A Matter of Fact, and Urban Africa. Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission St. www.moad.org

Sun 4 Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley Enjoy weekly same-sex tango dancing and a potluck, with lessons early in the day. $7-$15. 3:30-6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St., Berkeley. (510) 8455352. www.finnishhall.com

Joyce DiDonato @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley The mezzo soprano performs In War and Peace: Harmony Through Music, a concert of Baroque arias, with Vivienne Westwood costumes and dance by Manuel Palazzo. $40-$175. 3pm. Bancroft Way at Dana, UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

The company performs Cover Your Mouth When You Smile, with choreographer Na-ye Kim, Thirdperson, and Fluster. $20-$30. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Dec. 10. 3153 17th St. www.geraldcasel.com www.odcdance.org

Next Time, I’ll Take the Stairs @ Joe Goode Annex 13th Floor Theater company performs Jenny McAllister’s dance-theatre work; three adult siblings find their way into a mysterious world inhabited by two duplicitous strangers. $15-$40. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. 401 Alabama St. www.13thfloortheater.org

When a Killer Stalked the Castro: The Doodler Murders @ GLBT History Museum Journalist Elon Green presents an illustrated talk about the Doodler murders, when an apparent 5-time serial killer stalked the Castro neighborhood. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Film>>

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

A very Castro December by David Lamble

he Castro Theatre presents a mix of repertory and holiday programming, with takes on the Christmas season ranging from Monty Python’s Life of Brian to the traditional Christmas Eve program from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Life of Brian (1979) In their prime the British comedy troupe Monty Python were irreverent about every subject imaginable, but none was subjected to more spoofing than traditional religious beliefs. In this delicious parody the Pythons give us a rival savior, a guy named Brian, whose misadventures in the Holy Land include hilarious riffs on themes like the meaning of the Crucifixion. History of the World Part I (1981) Mel Brooks wrote, directed and starred in this uneven assault on human history assisted by such comic luminaries as Sid Caesar, Harvey Korman, Dom DeLuise and Cloris Leachman. The piece meanders from the Stone Age through the French Revolution, with results that depend on what you think is fair game for ridicule. (both 12/2) Bugsy (1991) Barry Levinson orchestrates a colorful bio-pic of gangster Bugsy Siegel (Warren Beatty) with the assistance of Beatty’s real-life spouse Annette Bening and a splendid supporting ensemble including Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliot Gould, Joe Mantegna and Richard Sarafian. Casino (1995) Martin Scorsese stages a star-studded history of Vegas in the early 70s: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Dick Smothers and Kevin Pollak. (both 12/4) Bullitt (1968) Director Peter Yates had an embarrassment of riches at his disposal for this taut police procedural: star action hero Steve McQueen in his prime, the

hills of San Francisco to launch one of the greatest car chases in American film history, and a third-act climax at the city’s airport that’s still not been topped. Dirty Harry (1971) Clint Eastwood created a peerless copvigilante in the person of Harry Callahan. The Don Siegel-directed shoot-em-up came out when the American Right was responding to college campus protests, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and a sense that America was going to the dogs. The first and best of the series that created a grass-roots push for Eastwood to run for President (he refused) as well as fueling the lawand-order politics of Nixon, Reagan and Trump. (both 12/9) North by Northwest (1959) Arguably the best of Alfred Hitchcock’s American period, this Ernest Lehman-penned adventure benefits from an absurd plot, a slick and funny turn from Cary Grant, railroad dining-car chatter, and a climax atop a recreation of Mount Rushmore that still can produce chills. All this and a memorable Bernard Herrmann score. The Trouble with Harry (1955) Possibly the most deftly funny entry in Hitchcock’s greatest American period, Harry is the body that won’t stay buried. The screen debut of Shirley MacLaine, this richly staged tapestry unfolds amidst autumn leaves in an eccentric New England landscape. (both 12/10) The Lady from Shanghai (1948) An underappreciated work from Orson Welles’ first decade, this Rita Hayworth vehicle features Welles’ masterpiece wall-of-mirrors sequence, filmed at SF’s Ocean Beach’s Playland amusement park. Gilda (1946) Charles Vidor helmed this revenge-themed drama with Hayworth, Glenn Ford and George Macready. (both 12/11) Cash on Demand (1961) Peter

Warren Beatty as the title character in Barry Levinson’s Bugsy.

Cushing is gripping as a bank manager facing peril because would-be robbers have abducted his wife and daughter. A rare film from Britain’s Hammer Studios not in the horror vein. The Ice Harvest (2005) John Cusack is Charlie, a Wichita, KSbased lawyer who works for the Mob. Charlie and his pal (Billy Bob Thornton) decide to steal $2 million of the Big Boss’ (Randy Quaid) money, starting a series of Christmas Eve pratfalls involving a stripclub performer (Connie Nielson). (both 12/14) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) This Frank Oz-directed black comedy features a nerdy flower-shop worker (Rick Moranis) who stumbles upon a diabolical plant with human attributes and a secret desire to take over the world. Ellen Greene and Moranis have great chemistry, evidenced by the film’s show-stopping set-piece “Suddenly Seymour.” Based on the 1960 Roger Corman cult film (produced in two days) starring a then-unknown struggling actor named Jack Nicholson. The Three Amigos (1986) Steve

Backstage dramas by David Lamble

vation opens just as members of a small Hollywood-based theatre company are taking their bows for a show that’s well-received by the small paying crowd. What their fans don’t realize is that the company is on the verge of a financial meltdown where each performance may be their last. It’s the latest in a long line of very independent films from the fertile imagination of Henry Jaglom, an indie pioneer of such early-1980s edgy comedies as Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?, which featured a breakout role for Jaglom discovery Karen Black. An indication of where this production is rooted creatively comes in a small scene in which a female manager receives a tarot-card reading from a member of the production staff. The scene would feel at home in one of Woody Allen’s less ambitious productions such as Small Time Crooks. But Woody would be sure to let you know he was only kidding. The atmosphere in this shot-onvideo production will strike a chord with fans of small struggling theatre companies, troupes that rank above dinner theater but below the standards of even Off-Off-Broadway. Ovation benefits from a spontaneous, live-as-we-watch-it feel, but at same time, the quality of the acting is more akin to cable-access TV. At one point a middle-aged performer starts wailing, “There’s a spirit in this building, a bad spirit!” Amen to that, sister! Sadly, the production gets shakier as we pass the half-hour mark. The camerawork is okay, but what the camera is recording wouldn’t pass muster for your

Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short sparkle as a trio of silentscreen cowboys whose mission is to save a small Mexican village from bandits. (both 12/15) Mamma Mia (2008) A terrific international cast has a great time with the Swedish group ABBA’s greatest hits, strung together by the slenderest of possible storylines. With Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranski. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) Australia’s Stephan Elliott gives us an exuberant, campy road trip. Three drag performers commandeer an RV bus for a very entertaining trip through the Aussie Outback. With Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and grand drag dame Terence Stamp. (both 12/16) The Shining (1980) Stephen King’s horror novel is brought to the screen by Stanley Kubrick, featuring a campy, over-the-top performance from Jack Nicholson (“Here’s Johnny!”) and nifty supporting turns from Shelley Duval and Scatman Crowthers. The famous trailer featured elevator doors opening to unleash a river of blood. The Mosquito Coast (1986) Harrison Ford spearheads this dystopian drama as a man who takes his young family to a small South American country with a mad vision of leaving corrupt consumer society and creating a new utopian one in the jungle. Charismatic River Phoenix recreates a version of his nomadic biological clan’s early journeys, along with Helen Mirren, Martha Plimpton and Andre Gregory. (both 12/17) Singin’ in the Rain (1952) A

film that fits everything the Castro represents, this Gene Kelly/Stanley Donen-directed gem contains in its title sequence three minutes guaranteed to cheer up the grumpiest soul, as Kelly taps his way through a studio-created rainstorm. Along with An American in Paris, this is Kelly’s true legacy piece. The Gang’s All Here (1943) Busby Berkeley, a Kelly predecessor, displays the lively style of choreography and musical arrangements that kept civilians and soldiers entertained through the long painful years when the outcome of WWII was very much in doubt. (both 12/18) Casablanca (1942) “We’ll always have Paris.” No film from Hollywood’s classic studio period has more quotable lines than Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart’s most memorable role has survived intact over 75 years, the one-time “B-actor” emerging during WWII as an iconic screen figure, a genuine liberal who didn’t buckle during the postwar red scare. (12/20) Gremlins (1984) This Steven Spielberg-produced live-action cartoon is rambunctious and silly in all the right ways. Spielberg’s talent has been to embody America’s suburban spirit in all its facets, and this spunky story, where evil creatures take over a typical American kitchen, is an example of his magnificent silly side. Trading Places (1983) SNL alumnae Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd are a stockbroker (Aykroyd) and street hustler (Murphy) who swap jobs, with hilarious results. (both 12/21) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) Frank Capra’s brilliant evocation of everything Christmas has come to mean for generations of Americans. It ushered Air Force bomber pilot Jimmy Stewart back to civilian life, setting the stage for his glorious 50s work for Hitchcock, Anthony Mann, Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder. (12/22) The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus give three performances of Home for the Holidays. (12/24: 5, 7 & 9 p.m.) Sing-along Sound of Music (1965) Director Robert Wise creates the definitive film version of one of Broadway’s most popular musicals, a show that walks the line between inspiration and corn. With Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Marni Nixon and Eleanor Parker. (12/26-1/1)t

Rainbow Film Company

Scene from director Henry Jaglom’s Ovation.

average high school senior play. At the center of the film is Jaglom regular Tanna Frederick as the fictional ensemble’s featured actress Maggie Chase. Unlike earlier Jaglom productions shot on film, Ovation was filmed with a high-definition videocamera that gives the proceedings the feel of a network-TV soap opera. At times I half-expected Dustin Hoffman’s character from Tootsie to put in an appearance. Ovation’s hybrid quality is illustrated by a small moment in the loft that serves as the company’s sound booth where Maggie is hanging out with Miles, her baby brother and the company’s sound technician. Maggie: “It’s so peaceful up here. It’s a great place to think. It’s like your own little man-cave. Do you have everything you need?” Miles: “I’m fine.” Maggie points to a small tattoo on his finger. “May I ask? That tattoo in

the form of a question mark.” “When I look at this, it reminds me of the power of my thoughts to change every single part of my experience. I mean, you don’t control your reality, your reality controls you.” Miles takes charge of backstage reality when he beats an actor who’s attacking one of the actresses with a two-by-four. What ensues after this “assassination” takes Ovation over the cliff it’s been heading for all along. Jaglom fans are advised to rent one of his earlier productions, such as 1989’s New Year’s Day or 1990’s Eating, a film that explored food disorders. Jaglom is also the author of My Lunches with Orson (Metropolitan Books, 2013), detailing his long-running association with the troubled film genius Orson Welles. Ovation opens Friday at SF’s Opera Plaza Cinemas and the Camera Three Cinema in San Jose.t

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30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Day of Silents

From page 21

Here in town, you can enter a cave called Castro and lose yourself in the spell of black-and-white images flickering as if by firelight. There are some horses, chiefly ridden by scary Cossacks, and some horsepower in the form of elegant early automobiles. But mostly a line-up of films redolent, resonant, and relevant to our current crises. What better opiate than A Day of Silents from the Silent Film Festival people, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. Different from the Others (1919) is different from the other films in being agit-prop undiluted by aesthetic concerns. Yes, we have the magnificent ruin that is the face of young Conrad Veidt to gaze upon and marvel at, but the supporting cast and camerawork are uninspired except by earnest social-issue concerns. Magnus Hirshfeld, the great German sexologist whose library was the first Hitler burned, is present in a cameo to show he can’t act. Anita Berber, the fiery cabaret genius of Weimar, is inexplicably excised from the surviving fragments of this historic document. Sit back and ponder 50 minutes of the downhill spiral of a concert violinist blackmailed for homosexuality, whose suicide is politically redemptive. (4:45 p.m., accompanied by Donald Sosin)

Sadie Thompson (1928) is a great character created by the very gay W. Somerset Maugham in a short story called Rain, later adapted for the stage and screen. Again, we’re treated to a fragment in this restoration, and alas, it’s the final over-thetop switcheroo climax that’s missing. Gloria Swanson co-produced this star vehicle enabling her to go from happy hooker to redeemed Madonna to prospective Australian domesticity. Director Raoul Walsh, before he lost an eye, co-stars jauntily, but Lionel Barrymore gives the great puritanical patriarchal performance. Filmed on Catalina but set in Pago Pago, a U.S. Navy outpost, this story blazingly skewers erotic hypocrisy. (9:15 p.m., Sosin) Strike (1925) is the day’s main event, being Sergei Eisenstein’s first film, in which the high-art road for 20th-century filmmaking was established. Pre-Revolutionary Russia is dissected in this portrait of collective action by factory workers, and here’s where the Cossacks come in, thrillingly, chillingly riding horses through buildings. This is agit-prop raised to a chaos of conflicting forces in which discourse explodes into kaleidoscopia. See footage of cattle being slaughtered intercut with state suppression of striking workers. Watch water hoses send peasants scurrying for shelter. Think about that pipeline on Native American land. Take a hip flask of

vodka. (2:15 p.m., Alloy) In a stunning juxtaposition, The Last Command (1928) is a requiem for Old Russia, given the bourgeois melodramatic treatment in an ironic Hollywood-studio framing. Emil Jannings, who has the heft of an opera bass and the sensitivity of a kitten, plays a Grand Duke who falls for a lady revolutionary and winds up as an extra on a film set. William Powell tries to look serious as a revolutionary who recognizes the Grand Duke’s picture in a pile of headshots and casts him as the doomed general he was. Director Joseph von Sternberg, a Viennese Jew, revels in the contradictions of patriotism. (7 p.m., Alloy) So This Is Paris (1926) is the requisite Lubitsch paean to happygo-lucky husbands and wives whose marriages thrive on lies, wheedling, champagne, and fancy dress. The cast is fantastic, performing this soufflé of romantic comedy with a lightness of touch indicating hidden core strength. In Eisensteinian mode, an extended montage features black jazz musicians and white-stockinged legs kicking up a delirious Charleston in a vast nightclub. (12:15 p.m., Sosin) Chaplin at Essanay (1915) features the master English clown in shorts. (10 a.m., Sosin) Far from being silent, all films are live-accompanied, and you can hear people laugh, cry, and eat popcorn.t

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On the Town

Karrnal Knowledge

Shining Stars Vol. 46 • No. 48 • December 1-7, 2016

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

Daniel Reichard

The Jersey Boy and Midtown Man sings holiday classics by Jim Provenzano

e’s the kind of man some mothers wish we would bring home for the holidays; sharp-dressed, cleancut, and his versions of seasonal classics will brighten any gathering. A star of the original 2005 Broadway production of Jersey Boys (the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons), Daniel Reichard has also been performing as part the vocal group Midtown Men, a talented male quartet that includes Jersey Boys actor-singers whose suits are as dashing as their stage presence. See page 32 >>

Daniel Reichard and friend. Dirty Sugar Photography

On the Tab December 1-8

he last month of this year offers some respite and culture for the mid-holiday-weary. Benefits, bar invasions, costumed capers, quality concerts, and queens on ice should swirl up your spirits. See page 31 >>

Thu 8 Drag Queens on Ice @ Safeway Holiday Ice Rink

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32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Daniel Reichard

nieces and nephews and counting, and now some dogs. The frustrating part is that it’s so chaotic at Christmas that it’s hard to get quality time with each other, but we all do our best. I think it’s best to do things over the holidays with your family: go to movies, play games, go out to eat, go to a bar, take walks. We always get along better when there’s more going on.

From page 31

Lucky New Yorkers may have seen Reichard’s popular holiday concerts at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Birdland and other venues, or got a chance to see Reichard’s 2003 portrayal of gay artist Keith Haring in the musical Radiant Baby, along with earlier roles in Forbidden Broadway and Forever Plaid. Now, Bay Area fans can enjoy a personal holiday concert by Reichard at Feinstein’s at the Nikko on December 11. We chatted via email as the actor-singer was preparing for his trip, and his conitnuing tour with The Midtown Men. Jim Provenzano: You’ve starred on Broadway and now you’re bringing back your intimate holiday-themed show. What was the inspiration for this concert? Daniel Reichard: Well, I actually started doing my holiday show while I was in the original Jersey Boys on Broadway as a creative outlet while appearing eight shows a week as Bob Gaudio. This year, I’m presenting my ninth Christmas show in The Big Apple, and I got so excited writing it that I decided to bring it to the west coast for one night at Feinstein’s. We will play my hometown of Cleveland for two nights as well. Let’s face it, the end of this year has been such a frenzy of negativity, fear, and sadness for so many people. There’s the old Jerry Herman lyric, “We need a little Christmas, right this very minute.” With this show, I wanted to go back to basics and remind myself what I love about the season: the nostalgia, the music, the storytelling, and the hopefulness. Many of us have mixed memories of the holidays and singing. I remember being in avery unintationally silly grade school Nativity show. Were you in any wonderful or awful holiday musical performances as a kid? I think we all have mixed memories of the holidays in general, and yes, the childhood pageants are very vivid memories for me. I come from a huge family with eight brothers and sisters, and dozens and dozens of cousins. Every year, my family reunites in Cleveland, and of course, there will be the annual Christmas play, recreating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. My pinnacle performance was playing a very flamboyant archangel Gabriel, who was one half Liberace and the other half a professional wrestler. I was an interesting kid.

Daniel Reichard with his fellow Midtown Men.

New York City at B.B. King Blue Club & Grill. Any unusual tour tales? That’s a whole other story: We’re on our seventh consecutive tours (We’ve yet to play San Francisco) with over 600 concerts to our resume. We’ve produced and recorded two albums and two PBS specials. We are all over the place, and it has taught me so much about the country. We’ve met so many nice people and literally sung in hundreds of cities so we’ve seen what America is made up of.

Daniel Reichard singing in the Midtown Men show.

Are there any holiday songs you hated as a kid that you now like to perform? Wow, that’s a great question. I don’t think so. If anything, it’s the opposite, really. There are songs like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” that I liked as a child, and I really don’t care for those ones at all anymore. Which song do you most get requests for at holiday gatherings? My renditions of “Winter Wonderland” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” are becoming very popular, as they really reveal my personality. They are on my little holiday album, Daniel Reichard’s Under the Mistletoe. My family, though, loves when I sing the classics like “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “O Holy Night.”

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Is your Guide to Christmas show different than the holiday and Feinstein’s shows? I would like to think that my shows are different, because I am not afraid to show who I am during them. I’m not trying to be anyone else or like anything else. I’m presenting my very own personal nightclub act. This is not simply a cabaret show, presenting songs and stories. It is a full act with a through line; an emotional, musical, and spiritual journey. And I try to be funny…try!

Your native city Cleveland, Ohio was recently voted one of the best cities to live in. And you’re performing a holiday show there. What do you like to do when you return to Cleveland? Family time? The Reichard family is intense. We have my parents, my many siblings and spouses, nineteen

You’re performing a lot with the Midtown Men, next in January in

Daniel Reichard performs at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, December 11, 7pm. $20-$50 ($20 food/drink min.). Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.danielreichard.com www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

Daniel Reichard (left) with the original cast of Jersey Boys in 2005.

San Francisco:

www.megamates.com 18+

How are you planning to make the yuletide gay? I love watching my favorite movies, It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, listen to my favorite albums, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together and A Charlie Brown Christmas to name a few, and besides doing my holiday shows, connect with my amazing friends and appreciate the gift of living. I don’t think of the holiday season as the end of the year. I think of it as the time to renew my spirit of love, compassion, and hope for the year ahead.t

After playing Keith Haring in the musical Radiant Baby, did you end up with any Keith Haring art or memorabilia? My apartment in New York City has Keith Haring wallpaper, and art all over it. The most valuable memorabilia I have was given to me by the head of his foundation, the inspiring Julia Gruen, after the show closed: a real Haring paintbrush with paint on it. I love it.

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Have you ever brought a partner home for a holiday dinner? How did that go? Yes. I think the key to successfully bringing your significant other home to your family is to strive for that balance of being both attentive and relaxed. You don’t want to force people to get along. You have to let the dynamics play themselves out. Just the same, you have to be sensitive and realize it’s a gift to share your family and main squeeze all at the same time. Just act natural, dammit!

At his apartment’s piano, Daniel Reichard with Keith Haring wallpaper.

t <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

On the Tab

From page 31

Thu 1 Academy of Friends @ Williams Sonoma The nonprofit that hosts the annual Oscar party hosts a cocktail reception at the home furnishing store. $20. 6:30pm-8:30pm. 340 Post St. www.academyoffriends.org

After Dark @ Exploratorium Adult cocktail party at the interactive science museum, Dec. 1 with a ‘Glow’ theme. Dec. 8: Resonance and visual motion with composer Narielle Jakobsons. $10-$15. 6pm-10pm. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. www.exploratorium.edu

Dining Out for Life @ Sonoma Restaurants Enjoy a dinner out in Sonoma at any of 87 participating restaurants, with partial proceeds going to Sonoma AIDS/HIV nonprofits. www.fftfoodbank.org/events/diningout-life/2016-restaurants

Karaoke Night @ The Stud Sing along and sing out, Louise, with hostess Sister Flora Goodthyme. 8pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Kingdom of Sodom @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down with the strippers at the very interactive sexy party with a Best Cocksucker competition; cash bar, live acts 10:30pm. $15. 9pm-late. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show. DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. Dec. 1: Feel the Force NightLife, music by Bayonne (live), DJ sets by Mozhgan and Gilligan Moss. Dec. 8: Holiday Bazaar NightLife, Silent Disco plus music by Make It Funky DJs. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Picante @ The Cafe Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol. 8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Queer Space @ Port Bar, Oakland ZsaZsa Lufthansa hosts a World AIDS Day night, with reading excerpts from Angels in America, The Normal Heart, poet Essex Hemphill, plus performers Maurice Andre Sanchez, Brian Alexis Vouglas, Elise Naceur, Shannon Harger, J. Jha and Mark Baum. 6pm8pm. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Thu 1 After Dark @ Exploratorium

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Fri 2

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Lewis Black @ The Masonic

Music night with local and touring bands. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. No cell phones on the dance floor, please! $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Fri 2 Magik Magik @ Swedish American Hall

Fri 2 Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Boy Bar @ The Cafe Gus Presents’ weekly dance night, with DJ Kid Sysko, cute gogos and $2 beer (before 10pm). 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sat 3 Go Bang @ The Stud

Fri 2 DJ Chelsea Starr at Polyglamorous @ Oasis

DTF Fridays @ Port Bar, Oakland Various DJs play house music at the new gay bar’s weekly event. 9pm2am. 2023 Broadway. (510) 823-2099. www.portbaroakland.com

Gogo Fridays @ Toad Hall Hot dancers grind it at the Castro bar with a dance floor and patio. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun The popular video bar ends each work week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Hard Fridays @ Qbar DH Haute Toddy’s weekly electro-pop night with hotty gogos. $3. 9pm-2am (happy hour 4pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Lewis Black @ The Masonic The darkly ascerbic comic/truthteller performs his The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Naked Truth Tour. $45$75. 8pm. 1111 California St. lewisblack.com www.sfmasonic.com

Magik Magik @ Swedish American Hall Local orchestral composer/conductor Minna Choi’s new solo project is performed. $15. 8pm. 2174 Market St. www.apeconcerts.com

See page 35 >>

Propaganda.indd 1

10/24/16 1:05 PM

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Tented treats, tributes & tree-lightings By Donna Sachet

et your tickets now for Cirque du Soleil’s latest incarnation titled Luzia: A Waking Dream of Mexico! This sensational performance showcases incredible acrobatic and gravity defying acts on a rotating stage with fantastic lighting effects and lively music. Opening night was packed

with VIPs, including Denise Hale, Audrey Joseph, Charlie Zukow, Dan Bernal & Dan Burns, Lynne Winslow, and Lu Conrad. We wore out the word “Wow,” as act after act amazed and astounded. Special technical effects involving water defy description. See it for yourself in the spectacular tent behind AT&T Park through January 2017.

These Onesie Parties at Lookout have become legendary and the most recent one on November 28 caused a line down the block and around the corner! The concept is for everyone to wear their version of a onesie, some cute and cuddly, many tight and sexy. All the while, money was being raised, this year for Suicide Prevention, finally totaling over $2000. The Onesie Contest at midnight gave many the chance to strut their stuff and earn the adoration of the crowd. Talk about a party with a purpose. The packed crowd never let up, having an uproarious good time for an important purpose. Birthday best wishes go out to Absolute Empress XXV Marlena who hosted a party last Saturday at Twin Peaks, packing the place with fellow Empresses, Emperors, and other mere mortals. Even years after her bar in Hayes Valley closed, Marlena continues to be an important and much beloved figure in the LGBTQ Community and the City at large. Wayne Friday, long-time political columnist for this publication, Gay rights pioneer, public servant, and friend to many, received a suitable send-off at Herbst Theatre last Sunday. Attendees included many elected officials who had benefited from his counsel and advice, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, State Senator Mark Leno, City Supervisors David Campos and Scott Wiener, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the Honorable Carol Migden, and Bevan Dufty who emceed the event. We were honored to add a song to the event, along with Sharon McNight. To be in the same room with Anne Kronenberg, Dan Nicoletta, Allan Baird, Rink Foto, Steven Underhill, and so many others who had played a part in Wayne’s life was truly memorable. The reception in the Green Room afterwards gave everyone a chance to exchange a few favorite stories and sample some refreshments. If anything about the event would have made Wayne smile, it was the horse-mounted uniformed guard outside the War Memorial Building, signifying the passing of a significant San Franciscan.

Upcoming Events

Sunday’s a Drag, now in its 11th year at The Starlight Room, produced the first of our holiday shows, titled Miracle on Powell Street, this past Sunday to adoring crowds. Make your reservations now for this special salute to the holiday season, including a bountiful gourmet brunch and professional drag shows

Steven Underhill

State Senator Mark Leno, Donna Sachet, Sharon McNight and Ron Huberman at the Wayne Friday memorial at The Herbst Theatre.

Georg Lester

Cuddling up at the Onesie Party at The Lookout.

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus concerts are coming up.

at 11:30AM and 2PM every Sunday, and prepare to be amazed. This Monday, don’t miss Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation’s Help is on the Way for the Holidays XV at Marines’ Memorial Theatre, benefiting Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center and Larkin Street Youth Services. Enjoy members of the touring cast of The Lion King and The King and I, Sam Harris, Maureen McGovern, Sharon McNight, Jason Graae, Jason Brock, Paula West, and Carly Ozard, singing their hearts out for you with holiday tunes and seasonal favorites. You can always count on REAF to deliver top quality performances with genuine heart. On Wednesday, December 7, we head to City Hall to light the Rainbow World Fund’s World Tree

Steven Underhill

Cirque du Soleil’s new show, Luzia: A Waking Dream of Mexico.

Cast members from How to Succeed in Business… at last year’s REAF Help is on the Way concert.

of Hope, covered with carefully folded origami cranes with personal wishes written on them. Starting at 5:30PM, music by the San Francisco Boys’ Chorus and Veronica Klaus accompanied by Tammy Hall will fill the Rotunda. Then at 6PM, we share emceeing honors with ABC-TV’s Cheryl Jennings as Mayor Ed Lee exchanges origami peace cranes with the Deputy Consul General of Japan, Jun Yamada, and we hear comments from origami artist Linda Mihara, Rainbow World Fund Founder Jeff Cotter, and two individual directly impacted by the violence in Orlando, Ilka Reyes Malpica and Mayra Alvear. Finally, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will offer their unique blessing and everyone is invited to enjoy the lighting of this beautiful and symbolic tree. The following night is the hilarious Drag Queens on Ice presented by Alaska Airlines at the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square. Crowds gather at 8PM on Thursday, December 8, to marvel at a variety of drag queens, tackling the ice with various levels of skill. We’ll be the drag queen on the mic, not on the ice. And then it’s time for music with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ Babes in Joyland at Nourse Theatre and the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band’s The Fantastic Adventures of Captain Nutcracker at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. So get out there and celebrate the holiday season at the events of your choice. There’s nothing like Christmas in San Francisco!t

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

On the Tab

From page 33

Manimal @ Beaux Gogo-tastic dance night starts off your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Midnight Show @ Divas Weekly drag shows at the last transgender-friendly bar in the Polk; with hosts Victoria Secret, Alexis Miranda and several performers. Also Saturdays. $10. 11pm. 1081 Polk St. www.divassf.com

Polyglamorous @ Oasis DJ Chelsea Starr is the guest, with residents Mark O’Brien and M*J*R at the groovy dance cuirse night. $7-$10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux will titillate and tantalize. $10-$20. 8pm-9:30pm. 399 9th St. Also Sunday brunch shows at PianoFight Theatre, 4pm. redhotsburlesque.com studsf.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. Also Fridays. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. hitws.com

Some Thing @ The Stud

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

Dance Party @ Port Bar, Oakland Enjoy relaxed happy hour cocktails early (open at 5pm) and later dancing in the cozy back room at the newest LGBT bar. Daily 5pm-2am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Weekly show with soul, funk and Motown grooves hosted by Carnie Asada, with DJs Becky Knox and Pumpkin Spice. The yummy brunch menu starts at 12pm, with the show at 1pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

The R&B singer performs mature new songs with his band. $59-$89. 7:30 & 9:30pm. Also Dec. 4, 6pm & 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Frolic @ SF Eagle The fursuit night has moved from The Stud. DJ NeonBunny leads the DJ roster for the animal costume fun night. Precede by Woof the canine fetish unit, 3pm-5pm. $5. 8pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. frolicparty.com www.sf-eagle.com

Go Bang @ The Stud

Vibe Fridays @ Club BnB, Oakland

Holiday Parade of Lights @ Downtown Guerneville

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland Latin, hip hop and Electro music night. $5-$25. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. club21oakland.com

Sat 3

El DeBarge @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Super disco mixes from Sergio Fedasz, Steve Fabus, Prince Wolf, with guests Elaine Denham and Robin Simmons. $5-$10. 9pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Sat 3

Tony Yazbeck @ Venetian Room

Drag Me to Brunch @ Lookout

Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat themed drag performance night. $7. 10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

House music and cocktails, with DJs Shareef Raheim-Jihad and Ellis Lindsey. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Sun 4

Annual festive holiday parade in the Russian River’s main street. 7pm. www.russianriver.com

Lee Fields & The Expressions @ Mezzanine The fantastic soul and R&B/pop singer performs with his band; Lady Wray and Holy Hive open. $25. 8:30pm. 444 Jessie St. www.leefieldsandtheexpressions.com www.mezzaninesf.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge

El DeBarge @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular drag show. Dec. 3 is a Rihanna tribute night. $10-$15. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Nitty Gritty @ Beaux Weekly dance night with nearly naked gogo guys & gals; DJs Chad Bays, Ms. Jackson, Becky Know and Jorge T. $4. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Pretty in Ink @ Powerhouse Show off your tattoos at the inkthemed night. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Saturgay @ Qbar Stanley Frank spins house dance remixes at the intimate Castro dance bar. $3. 9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Sex, Drags & Rock n Roll @ Midnight Sun Third anniversary of Mutha Chucka’s monthly fun drag show at the Castro bar, with Dulce De Leche, Laundra Tyme, Scarlett Letters and BeBe Sweetbriar. 10pm-1am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

DJs Mysterious D and guests spin at the mash-up DJ dance party, with four rooms of different sounds and eight DJs. $10-$15 and up. 9:30pm-3am. 375 11th St. bootiesf.com dnalounge.com

SF Gay Mafia @ Marina Bar

Bounce @ Lookout

Soul Party @ Elbo Room

The gay men’s group is organizing a ‘takeover’ of a straight bar. Evening. www.evensi.com/page/ sf-gay-mafia/10003874338

Dance music with a view at the Castro bar. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 5527788. www.elbo.com

Cabanoir @ Hotel Rex Jessica Fisher, John Rinaldi, Shannon Wolfe, Cole ThomasRedus and others perform a holiday-themed cabaret show with cocktails and a three-course meal. $100-$150. 8pm. Also Dec. 10 & 17. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night. $5-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Sugar @ The Cafe Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sat 3 La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland

Sun 4 Afternoon Delight @ The New Parish, Oakland The monthly daytime patio T-dance includes local craftmakers and food, this time with a Woodland Creatures theme (costumes optional), and DJs E. Feld, Bradley Portnoy, and Lisa Rose, plus host Justime. $8. 3pm-8pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. www.thenewparish.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon Enjoy daytime partying with bears and cubs, plus fundraisers for the SF Fog Rugby team. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Sat 3

Frolic @ SF Eagle Peter Hernandez

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. $10. 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

See page 37 >>

Sat 3 Lee Fields & The Expressions @ Mezzanine

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

36 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

Liebestuds Risky vintage porn flick ‘Killing Me Softly’

In Killing Me Softly, Jack Wrangler’s last breath escapes with the music’s final ebb.

by John F. Karr

can’t figure what put me in mind of director Francis Ellie’s 1979 porno, Killing Me Softly. Maybe it’s because I’m working downtown this Christmas season, where I’m consumed with having to wrangle the murderous crowds. In Killing Me Softly, you see, Jack Wrangler reaches consummation in murder. Like many films of its day, Killing Me Softly is actually a silent movie, with dubbed in moaning, slurping, and sometimes even smatterings of actual dialogue that the actors mouthed during filming and foley-ed into their lips during postproduction. Which they usually did, as they do here, yay verily clumsy. Prolific filmmaker John Amero helmed some notorious

heterosexual sexploitation flicks during the 1960s, and used Francis Ellie as the nom de gay porn for the overheated all-male films he ground out during the ‘70s, with movies like Kiss Today Goodbye, Boots and Saddle, and The Death of Scorpio. We all tuned in to see his frequent stars, Jack Wrangler, the singular Scorpio, and the sensationally pretty George Payne. Amero still lives in New York, where he’s been working on his biography, From Porn to Primetime – My Thirty Year Search for a Happy Ending. It was promised for publication in 2015, and has yet to appear. Killing Me Softly concerns a fella who is decidedly not a pillar of society. The Duchess of Krackenthorp will not be inviting him to dine. He’s a tortured soul who can only achieve orgasm by killing his sex partner as

soon as they’ve shot their own load. Which, as far as the climax of a sex act goes, could be considered a solecism. A distinct breach of manners. Charles is this character’s name. He’s played by Stanley Richards, who never made another sexo, far as I can tell. In the movie’s first scene, he picks up Jack Wrangler. Jack had a fantastic cock, superbly hard and of serious girth, but his acting was, well, strenuous. The omniscient narrator of Killing Me Softly tells us that he’s playing a successful actor. Ah, yes Jack, in your dreams. The guy went into porn precisely because he wasn’t a successful actor. Prowling a New York city pier, Jack picks up Charles. Typical of the day’s movies, they’re only allowed seven minutes to whip it up. To their credit, they do just that. Charles goes to town on Jack’s juicy wang, and then fucks him pungently. Since he’s already fallen in love with Jack, he forgoes cumming, and so doesn’t have to kill him. And after all, Jack’s needed for the finale. So Charles goes out on a spree. He has six minutes of sex with blond, slender, smooth and uncut

A publicity photo for Killing Me Softly shows Stanley Richards preparing to strangle Snapper Foster.

Giuseppe Welch, on those crumbing and now fabled piers. There’s any number of spacious, sunny corners of the piers to make out in, but they choose a cramped water closet that’s knee-high in refuse. What is this predilection gay men have for making out in johns? At any rate, as soon as Giuseppi cums he gets strangled, and dies in seconds. You’ll see, people sure die quickly in this flick. Then comes the movie’s best scene, which is generously allowed a full 13 minutes, during which Charles and the jovially named Snapper Foster go at it full tilt. Snapper’s thickly mustached, with tight balls, meaty

Stanley Richards and Johnny Kovac find love and death in view of the Twin Towers, and on the Brooklyn Bridge, in Killing Me Softly.

cock, and tight cockring. He sucks and sits on Charles’ cock, and gets his ass good and plowed. Then he dies, real quick. An impressive bit of guerrilla filmmaking is next. In broad daylight on the Brooklyn Bridge, Charles whips down John Kovac’s shorts, slips a cock up his ass, and fuckety-fucks him. Pretty impressive. As if it’s a competition between actors for quick death, Mr. Kovach is out in a flash. Now we cut to Jack’s apartment, where he learns from a newspaper that his lover’s a serial strangler. “I want you to make love to me,” he whispers to Charles, his dubbing almost matching his lips, before adding ominously, “For the last time.” While Charles desultorily undresses, Jack mixes him a drink. You know, some guys just can’t hold their arsenic. Or, in this case, their barbiturates. Whammo, there are a couple minutes of surprisingly hot sex. Even knowing a double death was arriving, I marveled at the quality of Jack’s cock, as well as the receptiveness of his ass. It gets a powerful, if brief, pummeling. But then, blammo, he’s dead, as Charles falls across Jack’s chest to his own poisoned death. And herein I found the real reason I’d remembered Killing Me Softly all these years. Sure, it’s memorably crazy for a story to expect us to be aroused by sex scenes we know will end in a murder. That’s entertainment? I mean, how can I cum while some guy’s getting strangled? But more than that, it’s the filmmaker’s audacity. As the guys down their poisoned drinks, what should well up on the soundtrack but the Liebestod from Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. In the opera, this “love death,” is an erotic event that signals the two lovers’ consummation of their love in death. That’s quite a bit to ask in a porn movie. And yet, it’s so skillfully accomplished, an interplay of music and action, delivered with precise editing, that’s perhaps never been equaled in porn. I’m so glad I watched it again. You’ll find it on a commercial DVD, at VOD sites, and one site where it’s streamed for free.t

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

On the Tab

From page 35

Big Top @ Beaux The fun Castro nightclub, with hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Blessed @ Port Bar, Oakland Carnie Asada hosts a cabaret night, with DJ Pumpkin Spice. 9pm-2am. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www.portbaroakland.com

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Luis. 7pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Drunk Drag Broadway @ Oasis Enjoy performances of show tunes by drag queens and kings. $15-$20. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Femme Brunch @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch buffet, bottomless Mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant, with live entertainment and DJ Shawn P. $15-$20. 11am-3pm. After that, Femme T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 37

Tony Yazbeck @ The Venetian Room The star of On the Town’s Tonynominated revival performs a biographical music and tap dance solo show. $47-$58. 7:30pm. Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason St. 392-4400. www.bayareacabaret.org

Toys for Tots @ St. Regis Ballroom Large annual holiday party with music and drinks; dress up, business chic, cocktail attitre; bring two new unwrapped kids’ toys to donate. 4pm7pm. 3rd St. at Mission. ToysForTots. SF@gmail.com

Sat 3 SF Gay Mafia @ Marina Bar

Winterfest @ The Village SF Bicycle Coalition’s annual big party, fundraiser and auction, DJed music, beer, food and lots of bike art and products. $20-$60. 6pm-10:30pm. 969 Market St. www.sfbike.org www.eventbrite.com

Mon 5 Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night. 9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany’s weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Help Is on the Way for the Holidays XV @ Marines Memorial Theater Fifteenth annual REAF holiday concert features the vocal talents of Sam Harris, Jason Graae, Jason Brock, Paula West, Maureen McGovern, Sharon McNight, Carly Ozard, cast members from touring productions of The Lion King and The King and I, plus more. $60. After-concert VIP reception. $125 and up. 6pm. silent auction, 7:30pm show, 9:45pm after-party. 609 Sutter St., 2nd floor. helpisontheway.org

Karaoke Night @ SF Eagle

Sun 4

Sing along, with guest host Nick Radford. 8pm-12am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Winterfest @ The Village

Mule Mondays @ Port Bar, Oakland

Mon 5 Jason Brock at Help Is on the Way for the Holidays XV @ Marines Memorial Theater Steven Underhill

Anita Brown

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Enjoy frosty Moscow Mule cocktails in a brassy mug, specials before 8pm. 2023 Broadway, Oakland. www. portbaroakland.com

Weekly drag and variety show, with live acts and lip-synching divas, plus DJed grooves. $5. Shows at 10:30pm & 12am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Musical Mondays @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm-2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Hysteria @ Martuni’s Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

No No Bingo @ Virgil’s Sea Room Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Into the Wood @ Oasis

Tue 6 Mr Pam’s Into the Wood @ Oasis

Opulence @ Beaux Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s

Tue 6

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht. 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market.

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar Steven Underhill

GlamaZone @ The Cafe Pollo del Mar’s weekly drag show takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Helmet @ The Independent Metal-art-thrash band performs. Locl H opens. $22-$25. 8pm. 628 Divisadero St. www.theindependentsf.com

Jock @ The Lookout Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. NY DJ Sharon White from 3pm-6pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm-1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night includes big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm. 2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Sacred Cocktails @ The Lookout Drinks and discussion about the election: What are you doing with your fear? 6:30pm-8pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. the440.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of music videos, concert footage, interviews and more, of popular pop stars. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Gaymer Night @ Eagle Gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar

Tue 6 Bandit @ Lone Star Saloon New weekly queer event with resident DJ Justime; electro, soul, funk, house. No cover. 9pm-1am. 1354 Harrison St. www.facebook.com/BanditPartySF www.lonestarsf.com

Queer dance party at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Prolific porn director mr Pam tells ribald true tales of her career and life. $10. 8pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud The weekly themed variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents with MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7. Show at 11pm. 9pm2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down as the strippers also take it all off. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Pere Ubu @ Slim’s The alt-rock band performs classics from their new CD set, including songs from 1975-1982. Obnox opens. $25. $45 with dinner. 8pm. 333 11th St. www.slimspresents.com

Retro Night @ 440 Castro Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am. 44 Castro St. www.the440.com

See page 38 >>

Donna Sachet often hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45. 11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Sunday Brunch @ Thee Parkside Bottomless Mimosas until 3pm at the fun rock-punk club. 1600 17th St. 2521330. www.theeparkside.com

Tue 6 Retro Night @ 440 Castro Rich Stadtmiller

Tue 6 Pere Ubu @ Slim’s

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

38 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 1-7, 2016

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On the Tab

From page 37

Queer Jitterbugs @ The Verdi Club Enjoy weekly same-sex (and other) swing dancing, with lessons, social dancing, ASL interpreters and live music. $15. 9pm-11:45pm. 2424 Mariposa St. at Potrero. verdiclub.net

Tap That Ass @ SF Eagle Bartender Steve Dalton’s beer night happy hour. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Trivia Night @ Port Bar, Oakland Cranny hosts a big gay trivia night at the new East Bay bar; drinks specials and prizes. 7:30pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland

Bondage-a-Gogo @ The Cat Club The weekly gay/straight/whatever fetish-themed kinky dance night. $7$10. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.bondage-a-go-go.com www.catclubsf.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. No cover. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Kollin Holtz hosts the open mic comedy night. 5:30pm-8pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Girl Scout @ Port Bar, Oakland The new weekly women’s happy hour and dance night with DJ Becky Knox. 6pm-10pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Underwear Night @ Club OMG

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG

Wed 7 Bedlam @ Beaux Weekly event with DJ Haute Toddy, hosts Mercedez Munro and Abominatrix. Wet T-shirt/jock contest at 11pm. $5-$10. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

San Francisco:

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Nip @ Powerhouse

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Nipple play night for the chesty types. Free coatcheck and drink discount for the shirtless. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Enjoy whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar. 10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. HiTopsSF.com

Rookie Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Kick It @ DNA Lounge

Audience judges new stripper recruits, who compete for $300 in prizes. $15. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Kandi Love, Northcore Collective and Plus Alliance’s weekly EDM, flow arts dance night, with DJs; glow drag encouraged. $5-$10. 9pm-2am. 375 11th St. www.dnalounge.com

Thu 8

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

LGBT Pub Crawl @ Castro Weekly guided tour of bars. $10-$18. Meet at Harvey Milk Plaza, 7:45pm. Also morning historic tours on Mon, Wed, & Sat. www.wildsftours.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels Groove on wheels at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.” Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St. at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. QbarSF.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands. Dec. 1: Floating Goat’s record release party. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Comedy Showcase @ SF Eagle

Vicky Jimenez’ drag show and contest; Latin music all night. 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4. 10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

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Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Jane Lynch @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Thu 8 Drag Queens on Ice @ Safeway Holiday Ice Rink The annual fun show of drag royalty singing, lip-synching and dancing on the ice at the Union Square rink, with Mutha Chuka, Paju Munro, Kylie-Pop, BeBe Sweetbriar, Sister Roma, Queen Dilly Dally, Khmera Rouge and Mahlae Balenciaga with MC Donna Sachet. 8pm-9:30pm. www.unionsquareicerink.com

Jane Lynch @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The brilliant star of stage, screen and comedy returns with her Swingin’ Little Christmas cabaret concert. $90$110. ($20 food/drink min.). Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat 7pm. Thru Dec. 10. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Concert for Kids @ Masonic Hall Band of Horses, Blind Pilot and The Revivalists perform at a benefit for UCSF Benioff Childrens’ Hospital. $25$68. 7pm. 1111 California St. www. lewisblack.com www.sfmasonic.com

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night; tonight makes it the longest running queer night in SF history! 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

X @ The Independent The popular art rock band led by Exene Cervenka and John Doe performs four nights of shows, with different opening bands. $35-$99 VIP. Thru Dec. 11. 8pm or 9pm. 628 Divisadero St. www.xtheband.com www.theindependentsf.com Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

SHINING STARS

December 1-7, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 39

Photos by

Steven Underhill Donna Sachet’s Songs of the Season @ Halcyon S

ongs of the Season, Donna Sachet’s 24th annual music benefit for the AIDS Emergency Fund, found a glamorous new home at Halcycon (314 11th Street, formerly Beatbox) for shows November 28-30. Sharon McNight, Brian Kent, Jason Brock, Dan O’Leary, Brooke Michael Smith, Dyn4mix, Kippy Marks, Abigail Zsiga and Leanne Borghesi sang holiday music with winsome and ebullient flair. Host Sachet also sang in a resplendant white gown. The holiday event raises thousands for the AIDS/HIV nonprofit. More photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

A UNIQUELY SAN FRANCISCO NUTCRACKER

DEC 10–29

BUY TICKETS TODAY sfballet.org

ADDED PERFORMANCES Due to popular demand, we have expanded our schedule this year— get great seats when you buy today.

LEAD SPONSORS The Herbert Family The Swanson Foundation MEDIA SPONSORS

SPONSORS Yurie and Carl Pascarella Kathleen Scutchfield The Smelick Family