July 30, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

The

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Vol. 45 • No. 31 • July 30-August 5, 2015

Who you fall in love with is not a choice.

How you fly with them is.

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SF Ballet @ Stern Grove

See page 9

Stripper-fellas

The

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

Vol. 45 • No. 31 • July 30-August 5, 2015

Courtesy Junior Mayema’s Facebook page

Courtesy Most Wanted Tattoo surveillance video

Junior Mayema, a gay refugee from Africa, needs to find new housing soon.

A still image from the video shows K.C. Haggard leaning into an SUV before she was stabbed.

Trans woman killed in Fresno

by Seth Hemmelgarn

F

resno police are investigating the death of someone who was stabbed on a city street late last week a person in an SUV. The victim – K.C. Haggard, 66, of Fresno – appears to have been transgender, although it’s not clear if that’s how Haggard herself identified. The Bay Area Reporter is referring to Haggard, who was wearing women’s clothing when she was killed, as a transgender woman out of sensitivity to the community.

The Fresno County Coroner’s office hasn’t yet determined the cause of death, but the agency says Haggard died at 2:52 a.m. Thursday, July 23.

Surveillance video from a nearby tattoo shop shows Haggard wearing a light-colored cardigan, a knee-length dress, tennis shoes, and a blond wig walking down the street. An SUV drives up to where she is and makes a left turn in front of her.

Haggard walks over to the vehicle and appears to talk for a few moments with someone inside. As she’s leaning toward the window, someone jabs at her throat. She lurches back, then walks off as the SUV pulls away.

Eventually, Haggard collapses on the sidewalk. Several cars drive by as she lay slumped against a signpost. A few people walking down the street stop to briefly examine Haggard before leaving the scene. An ambulance and a police car finally arrive several minutes after the attack.

In a news release, Fresno police said patrol officers responded at 2:20 a.m. last Thursday to a call about someone lying near the road at Blackstone and Cornell avenues. They found Haggard “suffering from an unknown type wound to the neck.” Emergency medical services took her to Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to police.

See page 5 >>

Strollin’ up the alley F

riends strolled South of Market streets at the Up Your Alley Fair Sunday, July 27. The leather and fetish event attracted thousands of people and is the warm-up for the larger Folsom Street Fair

that takes place September 27. People played Twister, donned various animal masks and fetish gear, and had a good time on a warm summer day. For more photos, see the BARtab section.

Steven Underhill

Housing a hurdle for LGBT refugees

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

an Francisco’s high housing costs are particularly problematic for LGBT refugees resettled to the Bay Area. Most come with little money, few or no local connections, and See page 7 >>

SF housing co-op for PWAs reopens

by David-Elijah Nahmod

M

arty’s Place, a residential co-op for low-income people living with AIDS, has reopened five years after it was shuttered. New residents said they were happy and relieved to have housing again after having been homeless for several years.

Marty’s Place was founded in 1993 by Richard Purcell, a Franciscan friar who came to San Francisco in 1989 to care for his brother, Marty, who was dying of AIDS. Purcell continued to use his brother’s apartment as a hospice for low-income people with AIDS until he found the current Mission property in 1993. (Due to client privacy, the Bay Area Reporter has been asked not to publish the home’s address.)

Before his own death in 2011, Purcell bequeathed the property to Dolores Street Community Services with the provision that it remains an affordable residence for people with AIDS. Now, after years of fundraising efforts by DSCS and the San Francisco Community Land Trust, Purcell’s final wish has been realized.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca, of the Housing Rights Committee, worked closely with the land trust to ensure that Marty’s Place reopened.

“I think that it’s an incredible continuation of an LGBT legacy,” Avicolli Mecca told the B.A.R. “It’s our community taking care of each other.”

Though the current residents are all gay men, women and straight people living with AIDS are welcome to apply. The building can house up to nine residents. There are currently five

Rick Gerharter

A welcoming backyard greets residents of Marty’s Place, a housing co-op for people living with AIDS in San Francisco’s Mission district.

people living at the house.

One of them is Dominik Mollica, 58, who tested positive for HIV in 1988. Three years ago he lost his rent controlled apartment in the Lower Haight after having lived there for 18 years.

“I felt betrayed by my landlord and lawyer,” Mollica said as he served coffee in the home’s

common dining area. “I developed PTSD and lost 225 T cells. I was pretty much a freaking mess, a wreck.”

Mollica couldn’t be more grateful for Marty’s Place. “It was a huge decision after living alone for 20 years, but I decided to take the plunge,” See page 4 >>

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<< Community News

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

t

San Francisco supervisors approve in-law units

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T

he San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week unanimously approved ordinances that will allow construction of in-law units in two districts. The legislation’s backers have promoted it as a way to increase rent-controlled housing supply.

The legislation follows that introduced by gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener last year, which allowed for units to be created in the Castro area, which is part of the district.

Tuesday, July 28, the city’s 11 supervisors approved proposals by Wiener and District 3 Supervisor Julie Christensen to allow the units in their districts. In-law units can be made from garages, large storage areas, basements, and other unused spaces. New units have to be added within a building’s existing envelope, and when the spaces are created in rent-controlled buildings, they have to be rent-controlled, as well.

In a news release after Tuesday’s vote, Wiener, whose district also includes Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, and other areas, said, “San

Khaled Sayed

James Timothy Weeg, who goes by Tim, stands in the construction area of a new in-law unit he’s building for his daughter and her wife.

Francisco is experiencing a severe housing shortage, and we need to identify new ways to add housing.

These in-law units are the most sustainable, low-impact way to add housing in our neighborhoods, and they are the most affordable type of non-subsidized housing available.”

Christensen, who represents North Beach, Russian Hill, and other neighborhoods, said, “For

District 3, the prospect of both creating new housing options, and expanding rent-control, is very exciting. As one of the densest districts in the city, this is a great step in providing a wide variety of housing opportunities while retaining the character of many of our oldest neighborhoods.”

Among other provisions in the legislation, the units must be creat-

ed from non-residential spaces, and they have to have their own kitchens and bathrooms.

According to data provided by the planning department, only two applications to build in-law units have been filed since Wiener introduced his first proposal for in-law units almost two years ago.

One of them is James Timothy Weeg, 67, who goes by Tim and lives in an Edwardian home on Henry Street in the Castro.

He estimated that he applied three months ago. He said he’s building the unit in his basement for one of his daughters and her wife, who had wanted to get an affordable condo in the city. The space, which is budgeted at about $300,000, will have a kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bathroom.

“I have no plans on renting” the unit, Weeg said. “It’s just going to be their unit. When my wife and I eventually go, the girls are going to get the house.”

He added, “I would not want to be a long-term landlord in San Francisco by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not on the table.”

He said he’s heard “horror stories” from friends who have been land-

lords and have been unable to get tenants out of units.

The in-law process has been “smooth” and “incredibly fast, partly because of [Wiener],” Weeg said.

He also credited city officials for being more open to having condos constructed along the Market Street corridor in recent years.

The planning department’s data says the “project is under review.”

Weeg had looked at creating an in-law unit 15 to 20 years ago, but at the time, he would have needed to add a parking space.

“We’ve never really needed, financially, to rent it out,” he said. “ ...

The basement was just empty.”

Asked about the low number of applicants for in-law units, Wiener said, “As with all housing approaches in San Francisco, there’s no such thing as an overnight” solution. He predicted, “We will see quite a few of these units be produced” and “over time,” the legislation will be “quite impactful.”

The board also previously passed legislation Wiener authored that allows new in-law units to be constructed in buildings that are undergoing mandatory or voluntary soft-story seismic retrofits.t

Funds set for Jane Warner Plaza

by Seth Hemmelgarn

C

ity officials recently approved $250,000 over two years to help improve Jane Warner Plaza, a beleaguered patch of concrete in San Francisco’s Castro district.

“We don’t have the money yet, and it’s technically an RFP [request for proposals] process,” Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, which oversees the plaza, said. “My understanding is it’s $125,000” a year for two years, “but we don’t have a contract. We don’t have anything yet.

That’s just what I’ve verbally been told.”

Since there’s no contract in place, “We haven’t defined exactly how we’re going to use the dollars,” Aiello said.

She added, “The city hasn’t even

asked us to send them anything yet,” such as details of how the CBD would spend the money.

However, Aiello said, “in broad terms,” the CBD would likely use some of the money to hire two atrisk youth through Larkin Street Youth Services or a similar local nonprofit that provides training and support to put young adults “back into the workforce.”

The youth would work a total of 50 hours a week to welcome people to the plaza, help keep the space clean and set it up for events, and perform other work. They’d also be assigned to Harvey Milk Plaza, which is across Castro Street from Jane Warner Plaza.

The CBD has brought entertainment to Jane Warner Plaza – including several weekends this summer –

and has worked to make the parklet an inviting place to hang out since it was created in 2009 by closing off a portion of 17th Street. Over the years, however, both plazas have faced complaints from residents and visitors about homeless people, public intoxication, bad behavior, and other concerns.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the Castro, said he obtained funding in the city budget for Castro Cares, a coalition of neighborhood groups, businesses, and programs designed to help link people to services and other assistance. He also secured money specifically for Jane Warner Plaza that’s meant to help activate the space.

He didn’t know how much funding had been approved and referred a reporter to Aiello for specific figures.

Aiello, who just returned this week from vacation, said nobody’s contacted the CBD lately to report trouble.

“It’s been kind of quiet,” she said.

“I know there are still people that choose to sleep there,” but “it’s an empty space, so people can sleep there. There’s nothing else happening at this point. That’s why we really want to activate this space and bring in some positive energy.”

Besides hiring at-risk youth, Aiello’s group would also use the money to cover staff time used to plan entertainment, nonprofit tabling, and other programming; and to add more lighting to the plaza.

Aiello said she has “no idea” if other groups will be able to bid on the funding, which may also come instead as an augmentation to an existing contract.

“To tell you the truth I don’t know how they’re doing it,” Aiello said.

“It’s way too early in the process.”

She hopes to get the money “as soon as possible. ... I imagine, the way things go with the city, it won’t

<<

Marty’s Place

From page 3

he said. “I needed a place to live.”

He said that his health is now improving. He pays 30 percent of his disability income for his room.

“I feel a sense of relief,” he said. “I can walk around the neighborhood without being attacked.”

He noted the bookstores and cafes nearby, which he enjoys.

Resident Michael Rouppet, 47,

Rick Gerharter

The blues band Dirty Cello entertained a small but enthusiastic crowd in Jane Warner Plaza earlier this month. The event was one of several free summertime concerts that are taking place in the plaza through September. The music series is organized by People in Plazas and sponsored by the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District.

be until September.”

The $250,000 is less than the approximate $313,000 the benefit district had requested.

“We’re happy with anything,” Aiello said. “We’ll make do. We’ll figure it out.”

Last Sunday, blues performer Pat Wilder came to the plaza, and similar events are planned. Wiener said he visited the parklet last weekend and “it seemed very active,” with “a lot of people.”

New outdoor furniture has been purchased. The CBD recently bought four tables and 12 chairs for the plaza for “a little over $2,000,” Aiello said.

The furniture replaces the red tables and chairs that had been used in the space. Aiello said the new tables and chairs are lighter, which give the CBD “more control over when we put them out and when we take them away.”

The furniture has been put out only on weekends right now, when there have been activities and someone’s been there to keep an eye on the space.

“So far, the reaction from people has been really positive,” Aiello said.

People have been coming to the plaza to have coffee and read the newspaper, and they’ve been asking if the tables and chairs will be available more often. Aiello said once the CBD has the money from the city and people to watch over the space, “then we’ll probably purchase some more tables and chairs.”t

became close friends with Mollica when both were homeless. Rouppet had been locked out of his own apartment, where he had resided for 20 years.

“I went from having a community in Alamo Square to living under a bridge,” Rouppet recalled.

“I wanted to understand how this could happen to a long-term San Franciscan.”

Rouppet said that he was quite ill while on the streets. Homeless

people cared for him. “The streets are a great equalizer,” he said. “I learned that there are pianists who are homeless. I met people who had mental health issues as a result of their circumstances.”

Rouppet watched his T cells drop, and said that he almost lost one of his feet.

“I could not be adequately treated because housing equals health care,” he said.

See page 9 >>

For more information on weekend activities at Jane Warner Plaza, visit the CBD website at www.castrocbd.org and click on “Visit the Castro,” then click on “Special Events.”

Community News>>

t SF man’s ’10 killing still unsolved

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

by Seth Hemmelgarn

F

amily and friends of a gay San Francisco man who was stabbed to death inside his Hayes Valley apartment five years ago this weekend are still hoping police will find the person responsible, but it’s not clear whether investigators have new information to go on.

Philip DiMartino, 36, was stabbed 48 times in the back in his apartment at 138 Hermann Street. Police have said they believe DiMartino was most likely killed July 30, 2010.

His body was found August 2 after a co-worker went to check on him.

A $25,000 reward from the mayor’s office has been available since 2011 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect responsible for DiMartino’s killing, but it appears to have had little impact.

“It is hard to believe that five years have passed,” Lisa DiMartino, DiMartino’s sister, said in response to the Bay Area Reporter’s emailed questions last weekend. “Phil’s family and friends miss him every single day. Our lives will never be the same.”

Police would say little this week about the case.

In response to numerous emailed questions, including whether any suspects have been identified and whether all the evidence, including DNA, has been tested, police spokesman Sergeant Michael Andraychak would only say, “Mr. DiMartino’s murder is an open and active homicide investigation.

In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, inspectors are not releasing any further details.” He added that police are “still following up on all available leads.”

In an August 2011 interview, Richard Martin, who at the time was a police homicide inspector, said, “We believe we have the suspect’s DNA that was left at the scene.”

Martin wouldn’t comment specifically on what kind of DNA evidence police have.

Police, who’ve said there were no signs of forced entry at DiMartino’s apartment, have also said that the suspect may have cut himself, most likely on the hand, during the attack.

The medical examiner’s office listed the cause of death as “sharp force injuries with blunt force injuries.”

According to the medical examiner’s report, two notes were found in DiMartino’s “living room that bore Spanish language.” Andraychak didn’t respond to a question this week about what those notes said. He also didn’t respond to

<<

Fresno

From page 3

The vehicle was described as “a light colored possible Saturn SUV with a moon roof and some kind of unidentified markings on the front passenger’s door.”

In an interview, Fresno police spokesman Lieutenant Joe Gomez said police don’t yet know exactly what happened before Haggard was attacked.

“I don’t believe the investigators have more than what’s in the video at this point,” he said.

Gomez noted there’s no audio to go with the video, and he didn’t know of any witnesses, so investigators don’t know what was said between Haggard and whoever was in the SUV. The weapon used in the killing hasn’t been recovered, Gomez said.

It’s not clear in the video exactly what the weapon was.

Tony Botti, a spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff ’s Department, said in an email Tuesday that

Courtesy Lisa DiMartino

Philip DiMartino in a December 2009 photo

questions about what the motive for DiMartino’s killing appears to have been or whether it looked like he’d met up with his killer for a date.

Lisa DiMartino said in a 2011 interview that she and others were “fairly confident” that her brother, who’d been a senior marketing manager for the Archstone apartment company, had gone to Badlands, a club in the Castro district, the night he’s believed to have been killed.

In her email exchange with the B.A.R., DiMartino said her brother was her best friend.

“Just the other day, I came across the card Phil had sent my mom thanking her for the cruise that the three of us took during the last Christmas we spent together, seven months before his passing,” she said.

“I cherish those happy memories of our last vacation and think about them often, along with all of the other great times we had together.”

DiMartino added, “I have absolutely no doubt that Phil would want us to try to move on and live life to the fullest. That has seemed almost impossible at times, but my parents and I are trying, for him.”

In a Facebook message this week, Philip DiMartino’s friend David Ruiz, 33, of Las Vegas, said, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about him. I miss his laughter and humor and just hanging out. I can’t believe it’s been five years. I still have hope that we will find the person who took him away from us. May you keep resting in peace.”

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the homicide unit at (415) 553-1145, the anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444, or text a tip to 847411 and type SFPD, then the message. The case number is 100704683.t officials could “only comment on the cause and manner of death. In this case, the manner is homicide and we have not yet ruled a cause.”

In an interview, Botti said officials wouldn’t release how many times Haggard had been stabbed, indicating that could jeopardize the investigation.

Police believe there’s only one suspect. According to the Fresno Bee, he is “described as a Hispanic man in his mid-to-late 30s. He was around 5 feet 9 inches tall and 150160 pounds with tattoos on both arms and short, dark hair.”

Gomez indicated police didn’t have the SUV’s license plate number.

‘Considerate, gentle’

A Paid Study for People Who Are HIV+ Smallpox Vaccine Study

What A study to develop a vaccine against smallpox for people who are HIV positive Who HIV positive adults, 18 to 45 years of age, with t-cells below 500 Pay Participants will receive 2-3 vaccinations and up to $1350 Details For more information, please call Erika at Quest Clinical Research – (415) 353-0800 or email erika@questclinical.com

Dr. Gerald Haggard, 62, who lives in Visalia, California, about 45 minutes south of Fresno, is K.C. Haggard’s brother.

K.C. Haggard, whose legal name, authorities said, was Kenton Craig Haggard, was “a quite considerate, See page 10 >>

www.questclinical.com

<< Open Forum

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

Volume 45, Number 31 July 30-August 5, 2015 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 • 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 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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t

More forward movement on Scouts

I

f you need to transition the culture of a large, bureaucratic organization to encourage gay participation, it looks like the person to call is Robert Gates. The former defense secretary played a major role in Congress’ ability to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” five years ago, and the military branches’ development policies that led to a smooth transition to open service by lesbian and gay service members 10 months later. This week, Gates, now volunteer national president of the Boy Scouts of America, was able to shepherd the Scouts’ national executive board toward finally dropping the organization’s ban on gay troop leaders. Gates, who assumed the Boy Scouts presidency last year, took months to orchestrate a plan that started with vetting the policy and ended with persuading members of the national board to approve it.

Two years ago, before Gates took the helm, the Scouts had allowed gay youth to participate in scouting, but kept the ban on gay adults. It was a decision that satisfied no one, and, as we noted at the time, made no sense. Once those gay youth grew up and became gay men, they’d be forced to leave an organization they loved.

Moreover, the gay adult ban sent a dangerous message to gay youth: you can be a gay Scout, but need to go back into the closet if you want to remain involved as an adult.

So thankfully, the Scouts’ national board realized it had an unworkable policy and changed it.

There is one large caveat that is concerning: the new policy allows for a religious exemption so that conservative church-based troops can continue to exclude gays.

Despite that compromise, the Mormon Church,

one of the nation’s largest sponsors of Scout troops, is considering leaving the organization.

As gay author and commentator Michelangelo Signorile noted this week, the problem with the religious exemption is that it allows people who would discriminate to keep discriminating. It’s the same issue that roiled Indiana and other states earlier this year, when Republican leaders decided that the best way to combat same-sex marriage is to allow businesses to discriminate against gay couples by citing their religious opposition. Despite the Mormon Church’s backing of a gay rights law in Utah this year, church leaders are not softening their previous stance in this case.

To be clear, scouting membership has declined in recent years. It fell by 6 percent in 2013, the year that openly gay youth were allowed, and fell by 7 percent last year. There are an estimated 2.4 million youth enrolled in scouting, the New York Times reported. But scouting is in decline for many reasons, including more activity choices for young people. The Times noted that the Boy Scouts are seeking to increase appeal by of-

fering new adventure camps and new merit badges in subjects like robotics and animation.

Overall, the Scouts’ decision to lift the ban on gay troop leaders is a welcome development. It’s the next logical step in the evolution of the Boy Scouts, and will enable gay Scout youth to grow into leadership roles in most parts of the country. The religious exception is a problem, and there will be challenges to it if gay adults are determined to be active volunteers. We think the national organization will eventually work this out.

California Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) struck the right tone in a statement she released after the national board’s decision.

“Today is another step forward for equality, with the Boy Scouts of America finally joining other youth organizations in ending its ban on gay leaders and volunteers,” Atkins, a lesbian, said. “I am hopeful we will see even more progress from the Boy Scouts going forward.

Because the lifting of the ban still allows some chapters to refuse gay leaders and volunteers, however, I’m sure we can expect some pockets of opposition to remain, much like we’ve seen with some county clerks refusing to issue marriage licenses. Given the ‘sea change’ the Boy Scouts noted in the decision to lift the ban, I believe that opposition will find themselves on the wrong side of history.”

We want youth organizations like the Boy Scouts – and the alreadyinclusive Girl Scouts – to succeed in today’s society.

Kids need structure in their lives and scouting provides valuable leadership and social skills that contribute to their healthy development. But such groups must be able to accommodate all youth – and all adults who want to volunteer their time and talents. With this week’s decision by the Boy Scouts, it has come closer to achieving that goal.t

We need to get our priorities in order

by Glenn LeCarl

W

hoa ... not so fast.

As the celebration of marriage equality winds down, our community appears poised to pivot toward, and bring the primary focus of our formidable influence, to the fight for passage of the newly introduced Equality Act, which would provide more comprehensive protections against anti-LGBT discrimination than its predecessor the Employment NonDiscrimination Act, which was long stalled in Congress. It may seem the obvious course. After all, as the saying goes, a gay or lesbian person can get married in the morning and fired in the afternoon, or refused a hotel room, be barred from senior housing, declined service in a restaurant, denied a joint auto loan, etc. However, there is a need more urgent, one literally of life and death – namely homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. The time is now that they are not just a priority at long last, but the top priority moving forward.

Fully 20 to 40 percent of the approximately 1.5 million homeless youth in America identify as LGBTQ, based on numerous studies. Over the past almost two decades that I have been engaged on this issue these dismal statistics have proven stubbornly resistant to change.

Studies also show that a youth’s LGBTQ identity is often a major contributing factor to becoming homeless, if not the cause altogether.

Once homeless, LGBTQ youth face myriad risks, including suicide, violence, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution, and substance abuse or dependence.

Greater access to LGBTQ-specific and LGBTQ-friendly services, with the necessary competencies and experience, are sorely needed. There are a number of amazing foundations and service organizations around the country, such as Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors Foundation, the Ali Forney Center in New York City, and Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco attempting to raise awareness and/or directly address the plight of home-

dent Non-Discrimination Act is a lessness among our youth. Yet these complimentary effort to address organizations have been de facto bullying and equal opportunity charged with the responsibility for in education. Another example is addressing a crisis that in scope and the advocacy around the Runaway scale is far beyond their resources and Homeless Youth Inclusion Act, and capabilities. which would help ensure that proMarriage equality is just the latest grams funded by RHYIA (which on the list of our most consequenmust be renewed) serve LGBTQ tial victories to date. HIV/AIDS Courtesy Glenn LeCarl youth effectively and without has gone from being a terminal to discrimination. potentially manageable chronic Glenn LeCarl We’ve all heard of ENDA and will condition (for those with access to be hearing much about the Equality life-saving medications), “Don’t Act, chances are the same cannot be said for Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Defense of Marriage SNDA or RHYIA. There is good reason for that.

Act have fallen, we now enjoy protections in For all the gains they have labored hard to help federal government employment and consecure, and for which they can be rightly proud, tracting, polls consistently show we have won the professional activist class of our commuthe hearts and minds of an ever-increasing nity has been ineffectual in advancing majority and corporate America largely the cause of homeless LGBTQ youth. has our backs. However, most naFurthermore, our national leadertional level successes have been to ship has consistently failed to emthe sole benefit of LGBT adults. brace a sense of urgency regarding My life partner, now husband, the crisis, let alone respond acof 16 years and I are no excepcordingly. This is shameful, espetion; our ability to be legally cially when you consider the vast married and have our relationwealth, power, access, and media ship recognized by the federal profile that have been marshaled government has been a huge by our community in securing the advantage to us personally. I am aforementioned victories. grateful for that. I am certainly Unless our national organizations and bigmindful, as well, of the ongoing and imporgest donors wake up and similarly prioritize tant efforts to address the numerous issues homeless LGBTQ youth, RHYIA and SNDA that remain before us in addition to passage will languish, services will remain inadequate of the Equality Act, including equal access to and overall progress will be incremental at adoption and countering so-called religious best. Absent that top level commitment going freedom legislation and executive orders. forward, we will have to ask ourselves what But when community leaders and pundits kind of community we are, what kind of a discuss the work ahead in the wake of Obergepeople we have become, that amidst such trefell v. Hodges, I am disheartened at what I do mendous success we neglect the most vulnernot hear. Homeless LGBTQ youth rarely, if able among us.t ever, rate a mention.

To be fair, our national leadership is not entirely AWOL. One example is the campaign Glenn LeCarl is a disabled veteran and to end anti-LGBTQ bullying, which may help U.S. Naval Academy alumnus based in Tallahassee, Florida. He can be reached at reduce a contributing factor toward homelessglennalecarl@gmail.com. ness among some LGBTQ youth. The Stu-

t

Letters >>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Another great Pride brunch

We’re pleased to report to the community that the 17th annual Pride Brunch honoring the 2015 SF LGBT Pride Parade grand marshals and honorees raised more than $32,000 in net proceeds for Positive Resource Center.

A record attendance of 330 hosts, guests, and dignitaries enjoyed the hospitality of the Hotel Whitcomb, the lively music of the Dixieland Dykes +3 band, and hosted bars by Barefoot Wine & Bubbly and Tito’s Handmade Vodka. The bustling ballroom was an explosion of color thanks to rainbow flag decor by Tom Taylor, table arrangements by CoCo Butter and Deana Dawn, the exotic centerpiece by Ixia, and an 80-foot banner from World Pride in Toronto, compliments of Randy Arnold.

Special thanks to Wells Fargo, our loyal presenting sponsor, and lead sponsors Sterling Bank and Trust, Walter Leiss, 440 Castro, Julius M. Turman, Kent M. Roger and Daniel Hancock, Google, and Kevin Shanahan and Michael Montoya.

While the event could not happen without the support of PRC staff, hosts, LGBT media, and super volunteers Ingu Yun, Karin Jaffie, Joanie Juster, Michael Daniels, China Silk and a spirited morning crew, the honorees’ personal remarks are what make this annual event so special. This year’s included Felicia Elizondo, Judy Dlugacz, Brian Basinger, Belo Cipriani, Julia and Sam Thoron, Tita Aida, Patrick Carney, Jerome Goldstein and Tom Taylor, Mary Midgett, Monica Helms, Harry Lit, and Kris Hayashi of the Transgender Law Center.

Finally, thanks to the many donors to the successful raffle and silent auction and the generous winners. We look forward to working with SF Pride and PRC for our 18th annual Pride Brunch in 2016.

Gary Virginia and Donna Sachet San Francisco

Pope’s global warming Trojan horse

When Pope Francis welcomed Governor Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee last week to Vatican City for the pope’s summit on the environment and climate change [“Papal opportunity awaits Mayor Lee,” Editorial, July 16], the pontiff allowed Trojan horse Lee to sneak past Vatican gatekeepers.

As Kate Conger reported in “Revisionist Future” in the April 15, 2014 San Francisco Bay Guardian, Lee’s office “ordered the most effective strategies for achieving clean energy goals to be removed from [San Francisco’s] plan for combating climate change.” Conger reported that at the direction of Roger Kim, the mayor’s senior adviser

on the environment, the city’s Department of the Environment removed references to CleanPowerSF from the 2014 Climate Action Strategy report – likely at Lee’s direction – before the report was released to the public.

In a September 30, 2013 memo to Kim, former director of the Department of Environment Melanie Nutter wrote, “At the request of the mayor’s office, mention of PG&E’s 100 percent Green Power Option and SFPUC’s CleanPowerSF program were removed from the Energy Chapter [of the Climate Action Strategy].” Lee has long opposed CleanPowerSF to help campaign contributor PG&E, which stands to lose customers if CleanPowerSF proves successful.

Conger reported that when Lee was asked in March 2014 why reference to CleanPowerSF was removed from the report, he responded, “I don’t think I have a real answer for that.” When Supervisor John Avalos asked Lee to direct the Department of Environment to return CleanPowerSF to the Climate Action Strategy plan, Lee answered he could not, saying CleanPowerSF was “too problematic.”

A Civil Grand Jury July 2015 report notes political discord around CleanPowerSF – discord fomented by Lee on behalf of PG&E and labor union IBEW Local 1245 representing PG&E employees – has stymied the effort for over 11 years. Local l245 is attempting to place a measure on the November 2015 ballot to prohibit the city from using words like “green” or “clean” in CleanPowerSF marketing materials.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Resolution 0126-13 on April 24, 2013 urging the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS) to divest from its fossil fuel investments.

Two years later, SFERS Commissioner Wendy PaskinJordan is widely viewed as having slowed down SFERS’ divestment of fossil fuel investments. Recently, SFERS invested another $100 million in more extremely dirty fossil fuels, despite the supervisors’ resolution that also directed SFERS to cease-and-desist from acquiring new fossil fuel investments.

Our mayor has repeatedly proven he prefers PG&E’s dirty energy over CleanPowerSF. For that reason alone, the pope shouldn’t have invited him to Vatican City.

While Governor Brown said, “We are talking about extinction,” in his July 21 Vatican speech, we have Mayor Lee and union bullies quibbling over which words can be used in marketing materials, and deleting references to CleanPowerSF from the city’s own climate action plan. How Orwellian is Mayor Lee, in the face of possible extinction?

Patrick Monette-Shaw San Francisco

Vote for best Pride contingent compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee has announced that online voting is now open for people to choose the “absolutely fabulous overall” Pride contingent in this year’s parade.

Voting is open until 11:59 p.m.

Wednesday, August 21. The winner will be announced at SF Pride’s annual check granting party on August 29.

The nominees for absolutely fabulous overall contingent are Straights for Gay Rights, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, the Rhythm and Motion Dance Program and ODC School, Latinos de Ambiente, and Batala San Francisco.

In addition to the overall winner, SF Pride will select winners in several other categories, including absolutely fabulous, absolutely outrageous, absolutely fabulous individual, absolutely fabulous street act, absolutely fabulous marching contingent, absolutely fabulous musical contingent, and absolutely fabulous theme contingent.

To participate in the public vote,

<<

LGBT refugees

From page 3

uncertain job prospects.

They then find themselves competing for pricey apartments in the same pool of applicants as high-paid tech employees or waitlisted for a room at an affordable housing development.

Often their first home in America is a short-term rental offered at a discounted rate or free by a volunteer who has agreed to house LGBT refugees as well as asylum seekers.

visit http://www.sfpride.org/parade/parade-awards.html.

Nighttime shutdown for Muni Metro lines

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has announced that beginning Friday, July 31, work will commence on the radio replacement and blue light emergency telephone replacement projects and that the Muni Metro subway will shut down nightly from 10 p.m. until the start of morning service at approximately 5 a.m. During shutdowns, bus shuttles will provide substitution service between The Embarcadero and Saint Francis Circle from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Regular rail service will continue to operate at all surface stops. Muni Metro customers can board bus shuttles at the island F Line stops near the subway stations on Market Street.

The work is expected to end in January.

The radio replacement project will replace the old analog system and upgrade it to digital technology.

The new technology will expand the audio and visual “next stop” an“Our biggest challenge in helping these people is to find housing for them,” said Amy Weiss, the director of refugee and immigrant services at Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay. “They come with no employment history and no housing history. San Francisco is hard enough to find housing if you have an income. It is a huge problem for us and for them and to anybody resettling refugees.”

The agency is believed to be the only one in the country that has de-

nouncements in the subway and on trains that run above ground.

The blue light emergency telephone replacement project will provide direct access to emergency services in the event of a natural disaster or medical emergency. It will replace the 90 phones currently in the subway with 181 new, more advanced phones.

For more details, including additional information on service adjustments, visit www.sfmta.com or call 311.

Reno Pride coming up

Reno’s 19th annual Gay Pride Festival will be held Saturday, August 15 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Wingfield Park, 2 N. Arlington Avenue in the “Biggest Little City in the World.”

The festival will include entertainment, vendors, food and beverages, and more. Additionally, other Pride-related events will take place over the weekend in some of the resorts and casinos.

Festival admission is $5; children are free if accompanied by an adult.

Reno Gay Pride is produced by the Nevada Gay and Lesbian Visitors and Convention Bureau.

For more information, visit www. renogaypride.com.t

veloped a specific program to work with LGBT refugees. It began four years ago when a number of Iranian LGBT refugees, who had fled to Turkey, needed help resettling in the U.S. Since then the agency has worked with a number of LGBT refugees, mostly gay men from Africa and the Middle East. In November Junior Mayema arrived from Capetown, South Africa, where he had fled five years ago from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

See page 12 >>

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<< Politics

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

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Out candidates seek CA congressional seats

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wo out candidates are already running for congressional seats in California, with a third also eying a bid in 2016. None are from northern California.

Congressman Mark Takano (D-Riverside), whose election in 2012 marked the first time an out person won a seat in Congress from the Golden State, is seeking a third two-year term next November for his 41st Congressional District seat. A former educator, Takano, who is Japanese American, is the first, and so far only, LGBT person of color Atkinson for Congress Jane Philomen Cleland serving in Congress.

Congressional candidate In San Diego gay Marine Congressman Mark Takano Jacquie Atkinson veteran Jacquie Atkinson, a member of Log Cabin Repubin a report in February after Atkinlicans, announced in April that son met with GOP officials about ing, education, credit, and public she would run against Congressher bid, she could connect with the accommodations. man Scott Peters (D-San Diego) many service members stationed at “Passing this legislation is a moral for his 52nd Congressional District bases in the county as well as the imperative,” stated Takano. “It is seat. large military veterans community 2015. No American should be disAnd this month Garden Grove in San Diego. criminated against simply because Mayor Bao Nguyen not only came “I have served my country in of who they are. Bottom line.” out as gay but also said he was concombat and I am prepared to serve But with Republicans in control sidering a run for the 46th Congresmy county in Conof Congress, the bill has little chance sional District seat in Orange gress,” Atkinson said of passing anytime soon.

County. The current in announcing her officeholder, Congresscandidacy this spring.

SF Dems host Republican woman Loretta San“Whether it is wasting debate viewing party chez (D-Garden Grove), our money, failing to The San Francisco Democratic is running for U.S. Senaprovide for our secuParty is turning the first debate tor Barbara Boxer’s seat. rity or ignoring the between the 2016 Republican presiShe could still opt to seek struggles of working dential candidates into a fundraiser re-election to her House families, Congress is for its own coffers. seat, however, leaving completely broken and The local party is throwing what several candidates alcareer politician Scott it is calling a “Republican Debate ready raising money for Peters is the epitome of and Circus Watch Party,” in a nottheir bids to succeed her what is wrong with our Congress.” so-subtle dig at the large field of in limbo as Sanchez decides. She Peters expects his bid for a third GOP contenders in the race. At cannot seek both seats at once. term to be a tough fight, as his dislast count the number stood at 16 Born in a Thailand refugee trict chief of staff MaryAnne Pin– although not all will be invited camp, Nguyen came to the U.S. tar told a local reporter last week. to take part in the televised debate three months later and grew up in “We are pleased that he’s been next week – enough to fill a circus southern California. The Demoable to continue to draw a really clown car, as some commentators crat, elected last November, spoke broad fundraising base. This is rehave noted. openly for the first time about being ally the product of a lot of really In fact, a $50 ticket to the viewgay two weeks ago at a forum with hard work,” Pintar said in a story ing party that includes drinks and Ted Osius, who is also gay and the that aired on KPBS. “We’re in one games has been labeled the “Clown U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. of the toughest swing districts in Car Engineer.” General admission Afterwards, Nguyen told one the country and we’re always going tickets, which come with one drink, local reporter “several people have to have a tough race.” cost $25. asked me to run (for Congress) ...

Takano is expected to easily win The event, which the Alice B. so I want to hear from people what re-election next year to his RivToklas LGBT Democratic Club is they think.” Last week he told the erside County seat, as political co-hosting, will take place from 5:30 Bay Area Reporter he had yet to watchers consider him to be in a to 9 p.m. Thursday, August 6 at the decide, saying, “I’m exploring the safe Democratic district as he has Laborers International Union hall, possibility.” yet to draw any GOP opponent. located at 3271 18th Street in the As a political newcomer, AtkinAccording to the Federal Eleccity’s Mission district. son is facing an uphill battle in her tions Commission, Takano had To purchase tickets online, visit race for the San Diego seat. She re$156,776 in his campaign account https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reported raising just $40,465 for her as of the end of June. publican-debate-and-circus-watchbid by July, according to her latest In January, after Boxer anparty-tickets-17756991640. filing with the Federal Elections nounced she would not seek reCommission, and had a little more Correction election in 2016, Takano was menthan $20,000 in cash on hand. Her Last week’s column should tioned as a possible candidate to campaign did not respond to a rehave said that lifeguard Ed Harris succeed her. But he dismissed such quest for comment for this article dropped his bid for the state’s 78th a notion in a Facebook post and all by press time Wednesday.

Assembly District seat and has enbut announced his candidacy for An expert in improvised explodorsed in the race fellow Democrat another term in the House. sive devices, Atkinson served in Iraq Todd Gloria, a gay man serving on While he said the overtures with the Marines and later with the San Diego’s City Council. Also, the about a U.S. Senate run were “inCalifornia National Guard. Upon City Heights neighborhood is no credibly humbling,” wrote Takano, being wounded, she returned to longer in the district. The online “I cannot imagine a better job or Camp Pendleton in northern San version of the column has been greater honor than representing Diego County. She now works as a corrected.t the hardworking families of Riverportfolio manager in support of the side County in the U.S. House of Joint Improvised Explosives Device Web Extra: For more queer politiRepresentatives.”

Defeat Organization and is engaged cal news, be sure to check http:// He added that he is “so thankful to her partner, Annette Renee www.ebar.com Monday mornings for the opportunity my community GrandPre. at noon for Political Notes, the has given me to be their voice in Last November Peters eked out notebook’s online companion.

Washington, and acutely aware of a victory against gay Republican This week’s column reported on how much more is left to be done. former San Diego City Councilman the appointment of gay columnist That is why I will proudly seek a Carl DeMaio, who was hit with acJoel Engardio to the SF Dem third term in the House in 2016.” cusations of sexual harassment by Party’s oversight body.

Last Thursday Takano joined former staffers. Political pundits, so Keep abreast of the latest LGBT with a number of his congressional far, consider Peters’ seat to be safe political news by following the colleagues to introduce the Equality for Democrats in 2016 as he has a Political Notebook on Twitter @ Act, a comprehensive LGBT civil war chest of $740,919, according to http://twitter.com/politicalnotes. rights bill that would ban discrimihis most recent campaign filing.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call nation against LGBT Americans in But that could change. As the Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829such areas as employment, housHill, which covers Congress, noted 8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Pride 2015>>

t 40th annual Silicon Valley Pride to hit the streets

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

by Heather Cassell

that production of last year’s festival didn’t add to the organization’s debt from previous years and this year’s increase wasn’t outrageous. He told the B.A.R. that the board was actively tackling the debt.

“Things are moving in a very positive direction, far more positive than a few years ago,” said Campbell.

Organizers are accepting applications for festival booths and parade contingents. For more information, visit https://register.svpride.com/event/ event.php?title=Event+Signup.t

S

ilicon Valley Pride is taking its 40th celebration to the streets of San Jose.

The Pride event, themed “Looking Forward from 40,” is entering its fifth decade with a whole new street fair and parade on a new date – Sunday, August 30.

“We are psyched to show the community something new and something very, very different this year,” said Thaddeus Campbell, board president and chief executive officer of Silicon Valley Pride. “We are really excited about the festival. We are genuinely excited about the parade.”

This year marks many firsts for Silicon Valley Pride.

This is the first time in seven years that South Bay Pride goers will enjoy a parade prior to the festival.

It’s also the first time that the festival will take over San Jose streets with booths and stages, presenting live entertainment lining Almaden Boulevard between West San Fernando Street and Park Avenue.

Pridegoers will be dancing in the streets to Steve Grand (“All American Boy”); “Two Tons of Fun” Grammy Award-winning artist Jeanie Tracy; and international singer Debbie Holiday, all of who will grace the new Adobe stage.

The festival will also sell spirits along with its traditional beer and soda offerings, to partiers.

Campbell insists that the event will remain family-friendly, featuring a family garden area for parents and their kids, among other entertainment.

“We are a family-friendly event and, so therefore again, we want to make sure that we provide everybody the entertainment and also the refreshments [at the festival],” said Campbell.

To that end, organizers are working to find the right balance in terms of parade contingents and booths.

Campbell said they would limit the parade to 60-70 contingents.

“We want the parade to be high energy and a reasonable size,” he said in a text message. “We also want it to be under 1.5 hours. Short, sweet, high energy.”

Campbell also said booth vendors would be limited to about 100.

“We want to strike the right balance in each category that would allow our vendors to be successful as well as provide enough variety for our customers, the festival attendees,” he said.

Jo-Lynn Otto Jo-Lynn Otto

A festivalgoer shows his pride at last year’s Silicon Valley Pride festival.

Moving on to sunnier days

Board members of the Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose are hoping for an increase of 1,000 people to the Pride parade and festival this year to add to last year’s 3,000 attendees, wrote Silicon Valley Pride board member Andre Mathurin in an email.

Campbell hopes that strategic decisions, such as moving the festival date to when nearby San Jose State University and local community colleges are back in session, along with the parade and fair hoppers from the Italian Family Festa (August 29-30) happening nearby will boost attendance this year, he said.

Then there are the straight allies who have expressed increased interest in the Pride parade and celebration, Campbell pointed out.

“The outpouring and attention ... has been absolutely fabulous, which speaks very well to how diverse and accepting Silicon Valley is,” said Campbell. “That has been really amazing.

“I think that we will see a lot of increase in attendance from,” taking the parade out of Discovery Meadow and onto the streets, he added. “Then, of course, the parade.

So, if people are attending the parade [they] will spill over into the festival.”

The parade ends at the main entrance to the festival.

Increased attendance will hopefully translate into more ticket sales to help pay down the remaining debt from 2012 and 2013.

Mathurin confirmed Campbell’s affirmation that the festival’s new location didn’t affect the cost of producing the $152,000 event. That budget is about an $8,000 increase over last year, mostly to pay entertainers. Produc-

ing the parade will run an additional $8,000. The total cost for the parade and festival is estimated to be $168,000.

Additionally, Campbell told the B.A.R. that the committee put a “sizable dent” in Silicon Valley Pride’s debt from years past, but he wouldn’t

Thaddeus Campbell is the CEO of Silicon Valley Pride.

provide figures on the current debt being carried by the organization.

The Bay Area Reporter couldn’t locate current IRS filings for the Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose.

However, Mathurin confirmed

Silicon Valley Pride parade and festival takes place Sunday, August 30 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Almaden Boulevard between West San Fernando Street and Park Avenue. The parade begins at 10 a.m. at St. John Street and runs down Market Street to Park Avenue, directly into the festival, which opens at noon.

Advance festival tickets are available online for $10; tickets at the gate are $15. For more information, visit www.svpride.com.

Visit us at Silicon Valley Pride on August 30

David-Elijah Nahmod

Dominik Mollica, left, and Michael Rouppet are residents at Marty’s Place.

<<

Marty’s Place

From page 4

While homeless, Rouppet took part in AIDS/LifeCycle, raising $3,600.

“I was the only recognized homeless person to participate,” he said.

Now ensconced at Marty’s Place, he continues to do AIDS advocacy work by counseling at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. He works with a syringe access program and co-facilitates a harm reduction group on Mondays.

“I became a better activist on the streets,” he said. “I demanded my meds.”t Marty’s Place operates as a self-managed, democratic co-op.

Funding sources include the AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco. Donations are needed – the home’s living room currently has no furniture and some of the residents still need beds. Donation information can be found at http://www.sfclt.org. For housing information, contact the land trust at (415) 399-1490.

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<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

t

Assembly panel holds hearing on religious workers’ rights

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

bout 100 people attended an informational hearing organized by Assemblymen Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) and Mark Stone (D-Santa Cruz) to discuss workers’ rights at religious employers.

Ting’s office noted that the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing was held in part to talk about the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2012 Hosanna-Tabor ruling, has given religious employers wide latitude in how they treat their workers given the “ministerial exception” from anti-discrimination laws. This

exception has been a central issue with teachers at four Bay Area high schools administered by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, according to a release from Ting’s office.

Of concern to Ting and Stone were moral codes being enforced upon local Catholic schools by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who remains a strong opponent of same-sex marriage and reproductive rights. Hundreds of Catholics and supporters protested the archbishop’s morality proclamations at demonstrations in the city this spring.

Cordileone wants teachers in four

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Bay Area Catholic schools to sign morality clauses, which states that they agree that sex outside of marriage, homosexual sex, masturbation and pornography are “gravely evil.” Teachers are expected to convey these teachings to their students, as well as live by them. The schools in question are Sacred Heart Cathedral and Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, and Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo.

At the hearing, many teachers, some of whom said they were not Catholic, expressed concern that signing this clause was a violation of their personal rights, and that the clause puts the lives of LGBT students at risk.

“How do we balance out institutions’ sacrosanct right to religious freedom with the rights of workers?” Ting asked, as the July 23 hearing began in the Milton Marks Auditorium at the State Building in San Francisco.

“There are exceptions to laws,” said panelist Jeffrey A. Berman, an attorney with the Los Angeles-based firm of Seyfarth Shaw. “The government can’t dictate who speaks for the church. The church has a right to decide who speaks its message.”

Panelist Kathleen Purcell, an attorney and a former teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, was concerned about one religious group imposing its beliefs upon others.

“Freedom of religion is not freedom to discriminate,” she said.

Purcell said that she was told that adhering to church teachings in her personal life became a condition of her employment.

“I loved my job, but I could not put my name onto a contract that would strip people of their privacy,” she said. She also spoke of her personal conviction to treasure the lives of LGBT students and families.

“What happens when a gay stu10:17 AM dent sits in a classroom where gay families are referred to as unnatural?” Purcell asked. “A teacher by contract cannot respond. A lot of people are being hurt along the way.

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Fresno

From page 5

gentle person, and quite a thoughtful and quite a studious person. He knew a lot of different things about a lot of things,” Gerald Haggard said, using male pronouns to refer to Haggard.

He said K.C. Haggard “never” identified as transgender to him.

“He was recently cross dressing,” Haggard, a veterinarian, said, based on what K.C. Haggard’s neighbors and roommates have told him.

He never asked her about her identity, though.

“I thought if he wanted to tell me about it, that would be fine,” Haggard said. He also said K.C. Haggard never identified as gay to him and didn’t have a partner.

Gerald Haggard said he last spoke with K.C. Haggard Wednesday morning, the day before she died.

“He seemed fine,” Haggard said.

“He was looking forward to an interview” for a job at the Bee. It was “a run of the mill conversation,” he said.

Gerald Haggard said he had “no idea” why anyone would hurt K.C. Haggard.

“My brother was the type of person people liked, and liked to help ...

I don’t know of anybody that had a grudge against my brother. I assume that’s not why he was targeted.”

K.C. Haggard retired from being a security officer three years ago, and one year ago, she’d gone to Heald College to learn computer skills.

Rick Gerharter

Panelists speaking at the California Assembly Judiciary Committee’s informational hearing on workers’ rights and religious employers included, from left, Attorney Michael Blacher, former teacher Kathleen Purcell, attorney Jeffrey A. Berman, and law Professor Leslie Griffin.

I ask you what that means to LGBT students who are struggling with depression.”

She pointed out that some of those who signed the morality clause did so out of fear of feeding their families or keeping up with their mortgage payments.

“Ministerial exceptions are used to dismiss sexual, racial, and antigay lawsuits,” said panelist Leslie Griffin, a professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law in Nevada.

“Employers are trying to turn all their employees into ministers.”

Many attendees spoke up during the hearing.

“A science teacher should not have to teach religious doctrine,” said Michael Curran-Levett, a 15-year-old student at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Teachers spoke out against the archbishop’s plans.

“I always felt safe and protected,” said Erin Kayzer, a teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral. “I should not fear going to work each day. My personal life does not enter my classroom.

My employment should not enter my personal life.”

“I am dismayed at what the archbishop is trying to do,” said Kathy Curran, a Catholic schoolteacher

who said she attends Sunday Mass.

She also said that embracing all children was part of Catholic values.

“I comforted the father whose daughter cried all night because she was told that her gay dad was evil,” Curran said.

Added Gerry Garber, “If teachers cannot protect a child, that child is in danger.”

Ting admitted that more questions had been raised than answered at the hearing.

“In our country we prize religious freedoms and civil rights,” Ting told the Bay Area Reporter after the hearing. “The judiciary committee’s hearing clarified the laws affecting the employees of religious institutions. While religious institutions have the complete authority to choose their spokespeople and representatives, not everyone is a representative.”

Ting said that reclassifying employees as ministers could make it easy to take away workers’ civil rights.

“While rights should not be allowed to be taken away, how to protect these rights is unclear,” he said.

“What is clear is the harm being caused at the four high schools, to the teachers, students, and parents.”t

“It’s a loss for my family,” Haggard said, and “we feel deeply that he was a victim, and that he also was a real person. We don’t want the person lost in the headlines.”

He also said, “This is a loving family member who we miss, and we think that needs to be kept in mind, that he was victimized.”

Gomez, the police spokesman, said the killing isn’t being investigated as a hate crime.

“That’s always a possibility,” he said, but “right now we don’t have enough information to say it’s a hate crime.”

The Bee recently quoted Police Chief Jerry Dyer as saying, “The FBI will be assisting with this investigation and will help determine if this was, in fact, a hate crime.”

Haggard said he’s satisfied with the police investigation.

“I don’t know” whether the killing should be investigated as a hate crime, he said. “I’m hoping that the police are smart enough to figure that out, and if it is a hate crime, I certainly hope it is pursued as a hate crime.”

Asked what K.C. Haggard may have been doing on Blackstone at 2 a.m., Gerald Haggard said “that’s the one question” he and other family members have.

She got around Fresno by walking and taking public transportation. The area where Haggard was killed was “doable” on foot, “but it’s not the same neighborhood” where she’d lived, he said.

He said he didn’t know whether K.C. Haggard had been engaged in

sex work.

Gomez said the area where Haggard was killed is “known for high prostitution activity.”

He didn’t know what Haggard had been doing in the neighborhood at the time she was killed, and he didn’t know whether Haggard had been involved in sex work.

About 12 hours after Haggard was killed, Gomez said, the same vehicle was seen “maybe” two miles away, near Highway 99, and someone who appeared to be the same suspect was captured on video picking up a sex worker.

Asked if investigators have been able to identify the sex worker, Gomez said, “That part of the investigation is ongoing.” Police don’t have any indication of what happened to the sex worker.

According to the Bee, Dyer, the police chief, said that “based on Haggard’s dress, police believed the victim was a transgender person.”

But some have expressed concern about police using Haggard’s legal name and male pronouns. Asked about the perception of police being insensitive, Gomez said, “Why is it insensitive?”

“We have to deal with evidence, and not perception, and we don’t have evidence” of Haggard being transgender, Gomez said, adding, “what bearing would that have?” if Haggard did identify as trans.

“He’s been identified by the coroner’s office as a 66-year-old male, biologically male, and we have no See page 17 >>

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Community News>>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Cal program helps with FAIR Act development

by Elliot Owen

“During the focus group, it became clear that hiding the fact that these two men loved each other was limiting to the students’ ability to see the realities of life.”

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he Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, a California law that requires K-12 history and social science classes to include historical contributions of LGBT and disabled people, is still undergoing implementation, but some California teachers are already working to apply the mandate inside the classroom.

Alison Waterman, an Orinda middle school teacher, is one of them. On July 15, Waterman presented a preliminary sixth grade world history lesson plan that integrates FAIR Act requirements, to other California teachers participating in the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project, or UCBHSSP, a program that bridges K-12 educators with the academy.

When Waterman, a teacher of 20 years, was asked in January to participate in a four-month FAIR Act focus group organized by the Orinda Union School District and facilitated by UCBHSSP director Rachel Reinhard, she hadn’t yet heard of the act. But over the subsequent months, she developed a lesson plan to be taught under sixth grade’s required ancient Greece unit. Her lesson, titled “Struggles for Justice: Love, War, and Honor in Ancient Greece,” centers the relationship between Achilles, a Greek warrior, and his companion, Patroclus, in Homer’s The Iliad.

Waterman began her presentation at Cal by handing out her lesson plan to UCBHSSP participants.

Using excerpts from The Iliad that highlight the dynamic between Achilles and Patrocles, Waterman asked the other teachers to identify how war, love, and honor are exemplified within the specified wartime context, and how those elements illuminate cultural norms around

–Alison Waterman

Elliot Owen

Orinda middle school teacher Alison Waterman, who plans to integrate FAIR Education Act requirements into her classroom by spring 2016, helps facilitate a professional development workshop for the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project in Brentwood.

same-sex intimacy.

“Having studied ancient Greece in college,” Waterman told the Bay Area Reporter, “it was clear to me that the relationship between these two men was not just a friendship.

Prior to being involved in the FAIR Act focus group, I felt inhibited in thinking about how to present it to students because I didn’t want to get in trouble.

“During the focus group, it became clear that hiding the fact that these two men loved each other was limiting to the students’ ability to see the realities of life,” she added.

“For me, it’s become important to make the students’ first encounter with The Iliad one that opens them up to seeing the values of Greek culture reflected, and also those that we have today.”

Present during Waterman’s lesson was Don Romesburg, a gay man who’s department chair and associate professor of women’s and gender studies at Sonoma State University.

Romesburg, who also curates for San Francisco’s GLBT History Museum, led a talk prior to Waterman’s presentation on a report called “Making the Framework FAIR,” where he discussed the report’s proposed revisions to the current California K-12 History-Social Science Framework. The report, sponsored by the Committee on LGBT History, identifies problematic ways the law might be applied, and suggests ways of integrating the new required material into curriculum. In formulating her lesson plan, Waterman applied the suggestions made in the report.

“I appreciate the ways she encourages students to think about how male intimacy works,” Romesburg told the B.A.R., “and the ways in which war, honor, and love open that up. She invites ways to explore those things without sidestepping the possibility that this same-sex relationship could have a powerful romantic tie that superseded that with women.

It’s not to say, ‘let’s talk about sex between men in ancient Greece’ but rather ‘how might we think about the idea of love operating between two men in this context?’”

Waterman’s lesson doesn’t “out” Achilles or Patrocles, or depict either as a hero due to their sexual orientation. Instead, the lesson equips students with a new lens through which to more accurately view history – which the report suggests be the framework’s impact.

“The revisions encourages us to think about sexual and gender diversity as culturally-specific,” Romesburg told the UCBHSSP participants. “They aren’t static, but manifest in different ways in relation to other forces. [The report] pushes the framework toward a more nuanced understanding of sexuality and gender, a way to think about sexual and gender identity as fields of power and meaning-making, and asks how they change over time in context, and what their relationship is to today.”

Although the FAIR Act was signed into law July 14, 2011 and went into effect in January 2012, the state did not allocate funds toward its implementation, which meant educators were without direction for compliance. In spring 2013, Romesburg, then co-chair of the Committee on

LGBT History, and Carolyn Laub, then executive director of GSA Network, came up with the idea to formulate a strategy to ensure the best implementation possible. Academics in partnership with LGBT advocacy groups produced a finalized report suggesting comprehensive grade-bygrade revisions.

Currently, the California state Board of Education’s Instructional Quality Commission is addressing suggestions that came out of a public comment series on the framework’s revision late last year. In December 2015, the IQC will release a new framework that will undergo another public comment series. The final version is slated for completion March 2016.

Waterman, who plans to apply her new lesson plan by spring 2016 regardless of possible delays in the framework’s process, said she appreciates her school district being proactive about FAIR Act implementation.

“Although it’s a mandate,” she told the B.A.R., “there’s really no enforcement in place. Once the new framework is adopted and textbooks change to come in-line, I think we’ll see more and more classrooms doing things like this, but that’ll take a long time. I appreciate my district being ahead of the curve.”t

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<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

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Family Link marks 30 years

by Khaled Sayed

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nonprofit that has provided families of seriously ill loved ones with an inexpensive place to stay will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a benefit next week.

The Family Link operates a guesthouse in San Francisco’s Castro district where visitors with limited financial means can stay when they visit their loved ones who have lifethreatening illnesses or injuries.

The agency was established in 1985 during the early years of the AIDS epidemic but now includes other illnesses and injuries in its mission.

The benefit is scheduled for Saturday, August 8 at St. Aidan’s Parish Hall, 101 Gold Mine Drive in San Francisco’s Diamond Heights neighborhood. Family Link receives no government support or funding from HIV/AIDS or other nonprofit organizations.

“Our goal is to be a ‘home away from home’ where guests, staff, and volunteers together create an atmosphere of friendship, love, and care,” explained Sister Ruth Hall, 66, program director and co-founder of the Family Link.

Hall remembers 1981 when people started getting sick with a mysterious disease – before it was identified as AIDS or HIV – and started dying from it. Many of them were gay men.

In the beginning the Family Link used to house families of sick people in a tiny apartment at the convent run by sisters at the Episcopal Community of St. Francis. The guests normally stayed for just a day or two, before the person died.

“It was that quick, it was like a road accident,” Hall said. “There was no stigma, there was nothing.”

In 1985 the Family Link received its nonprofit status and went looking for a larger accommodation for guests.

Don Tobin, who was a friend of Hall’s, was a one-quarter owner of a building on Hayes Street, near Baker. Tobin allowed the agency to use his share of the building for a minimum rent so they could host people there, which they did for 10 years.

“Don Tobin told me that his family might need that someday,” Hall said. “In fact his parents did stay with us before he passed away.”

After Tobin died, the agency had to move.

“By the end of that 10 years we were paying half a million dollars in rent,” Hall said. “That sounds like nothing these days but it was a lot of money back than. We left that place with nothing but used furniture.”

12:30The Family Link bought its cur-

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LGBT refugees

From page 7

The university student had left Congo’s capital Kinshasa because his pastor mother had vowed to murder him for being gay. He headed for South Africa due to its reputation for having some of the strongest LGBT protections of any nation on the African continent.

Yet Mayema said he encountered xenophobic and homophobic attitudes there and was attacked one evening walking down the street. He also claimed that the local police beat him up when he sought them out to report being harassed by his landlord, as recounted in a story about Mayema posted online by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

UNHCR staff, after learning about Mayema’s alleged attack, referred his case for resettlement last summer. Four months later, according to the account, he was granted refugee status and, in November, arrived in the Bay Area where he received assistance from the Jewish agency and a local church-sponsored group in acclimating to his

Khaled Sayed

Family Link board members Darien De Lorenzo, left, Bob Brown, and Frank “Franzi” Latko join staff member Sister Ruth Hall and board member Dominic George at the home.

rent building at 317 Castro Street after the owner of the home died and left the building to AIDS Emergency Fund.

“The emergency fund knew that we needed a place, so they asked us if we could buy it,” Hall said. “We were able to get a mortgage and buy this building and we fixed it up.

That was in 1994.”

The house has six bedrooms, shared bathrooms, a kitchen area, dining area, an upstairs kitchenette, and garden area. Unfortunately, the home is not accessible due to it being on a hill and having stairs, according to the agency’s website.

Family members must be making a legitimate, verified, medically prompted visit. People can stay from one night to several months, depending on a patient’s situation and room availability, the website states.

The majority of the Family Link’s funding comes from individuals, many of whom stayed at the home at some point. The agency operates on a budget of $200,000. Hall is the only full-time paid staff, and she lives at the house and is on-call 24/7. There is also a part-time office worker and part-time cleaning person.

“We are the beneficiary of some bequests and local events,” Hall said.

“If anyone wants to donate they can do so online – via our website – or by check.”

Frank Latko, 72, a retired nurse who’s known by many as Franzi, has been a donor to the Family Link for nearly 30 years and worked on and off as a volunteer.

“I was a board member for 14 years, serving alternately as board president or vice president,” Latko said.

The nightly rate for someone to

stay at the home is a bargain, but even then, most people can’t afford it.

“We ask a nominal room fee of about $30 a night,” Latko said.

“However, most of the guests are unable to afford that and the cost is routinely waived. But many of our guests become monthly donors of whatever amount they can afford.”

Shanon Hodges, 50, was a San Francisco resident who moved to Los Angeles to look after his ill 68-yearold mother. Hodges decided to move his mother, who has Lewy body dementia, to Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco last year.

“I brought my mother to Laguna Honda because it’s the best place in California for someone with her condition,” Hodges said.

Hodges stayed at the Family Link after Michael Moore, a social worker at Laguna Honda, told him about it.

“My mother is dying. She was accepted there in October and moved in November 1. I was living in San Francisco at a motel,” Hodges said.

“I spoke to Sister Ruth – she is a true angel by the way – and I moved in to the Family Link the next day,” Hodges said. “I have been here for six and half months. The Family Link staff have been incredible to me and I couldn’t have done this without them.”t

new surroundings.

Of all the challenges he faced, “housing was the biggest problem,” said Mayema, 28. “Volunteers knew friends in San Francisco and begged them to give me a room in their house for a few months.”

For the first three months he stayed with a couple in the city’s Sunset district. When they left for a trip to India, he moved in with a woman whose son was away at college.

After that living situation came to an end, Mayema was accepted into a transitional housing program run by a San Francisco nonprofit. But he needs to find new accommodations

by September.

“In the U.S. I am facing homelessness,” Mayema told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview. “I don’t want to end up on the streets.”

It is a concerning prospect, said Mayema, because he is currently only working part-time as a cashier at AT&T Park, the Giant’s baseball stadium, and has been unable to find full-time work and is unsure how he can afford to pay market rate rents.

“I don’t make enough money,”

said Mayema, who would like to return to college and someday work in international law helping other refugees. “You need to have a job to survive. But it is not happening.”

The Family Link’s August 8 benefit takes place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. There is no admission cost, but donations are gratefully accepted. Organizers plan to display tributes, including messages from guests, memorials, and photos. If people want to participate and share information about a loved one, email info@thefamilylink.com. For more information about the agency, visit www.thefamilylink.com.

Church group offers help

Mayema has found social support and housing help from the Guardian Group, a committee formed by members of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco.

The group began in 2011 after a church member learned about the needs of LGBT refugees from the founder of ORAM, the Organization for Refugee, Asylum and Migration, according to Galen Workman, a cofounder of the Guardian Group.

The first person they helped was a gay Iranian living in Turkey they had first spoken with via Skype. In 2013 the 21-year-old arrived in the Bay Area as a refugee.

“It was heart breaking,” recalled Workman, 62, a gay man and 32-year member of the church. “He was in a rural area of Turkey with other refugees who didn’t know he was gay.”

See page 17 >>

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Travel>>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

Fall offerings abound in the Big Apple

Ashton Giese

Rooftop parties are popular summertime events in New York City.

by Ashton Giese

I

t’s been a cool California summer in New York, which means perhaps the heat might hit us now. Come enjoy smoldering late nights at some of the best parties on the planet, but only after your soul is warmed by the toppest of top-notch theater and your appetite satisfied by your choice of any cuisine from around the globe. Whether or not you’re visiting in August, September or later this fall, if the concrete jungle doesn’t keep you warm the people, events, and excitement will keep you on fire.

Where to disco nap and store your bag

Don’t yet have close friends willing to host you? It’s certainly always more fun to stay with a friend, but if you’re traveling with the beau or your friends, Hotel Tonight could be an easy last-minute option to find a solid room at slightly less than outrageous prices. Of course, now there’s Airbnb – and Mister Airbnb, if you want a gay host. But let me help you choose from NYC’s endless locales.

You’ll certainly get a good rate up in Harlem or Washington Heights; near the A-C-E or 1-2-3 subway lines you can zip down to “gay central” Hells Kitchen in 20 minutes (or get lazy and meet Colombia students at dive-bar Suite). Also you can crash across town in Astoria, Queens – always a thriving neighborhood – yet there’s only one real gay bar, Icon.

On the far-east side in Brooklyn, Bushwick will also be inexpensive if you enjoy the hipster experience.

Or if you’d rather see strollers than skateboards, stay with the lesbians in Park Slope (on Brooklyn’s south

side) and go out to Ginger’s.

From Brooklyn, at least you can reach New York’s newest “Times Square”: Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. Weekends here are jam-packed and the subway stop is filled with buskers. Enjoy good eats at Schmorgasburg (http://www.smorgasburg. com/) on Saturdays and any night of the week you will love the scruffy, hot hipster crowd at gay bar/club Metropolitan. Of course, if you truly want to live like a local, East Village is the best ’hood that feels like a neighborhood and where you’ll even find vegan pet food. Eat some of the most different food in the world – from Ukrainian Veselka (“Rainbow”) (http://veselka.com/) to fancy celebrity-favorite Japanese at Robataya.

Even more, from here, you can walk over to the West Village – arguably the world’s best place to wander. Stand in line for famous baker Dominique Ansel’s original cronut shop (usually sold out by 9:30 a.m.), browse at uber-designer boutiques and chill out in Washington Square Park as theater troupes, and piano and jazz musicians entertain you. In addition, if you walk south, you’re in the heart of all the big stores of Soho.

Get those designer tees at Uniqlo and Top Shop and dive into the New York dark, gray style at All Saints.

But of course the most popular location – with still OK rates – is the Times Square area (especially for those short weekend trips). This gives you access to the popular Hells Kitchen area as well as one last critical element of your New York adventure: Broadway.

See page 17 >>

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Ashton Giese

The Brooklyn Bridge is a favorite for tourists.

<< Community News

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

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Early treatment and PrEP touted at HIV confab

by Liz Highleyman

E

arly antiretroviral treatment and pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP – two elements of San Francisco’s Getting to Zero initiative – are keys to reigning in the HIV epidemic worldwide, and the city is at the forefront of showing how these can be effectively implemented, researchers reported at the recent International AIDS Society Conference in Vancouver.

The Getting to Zero Consortium aims to make San Francisco the first U.S. city to eliminate new HIV infections, HIV-related deaths, and HIV stigma using a three-prong strategy of expanded access to PrEP; rapid access to antiretroviral therapy, or ART; and retention of HIVpositive people in care.

Benefits of early treatment

In 2010 San Francisco became the first city to recommend antiretroviral therapy for everyone diagnosed with HIV regardless of CD4 T-cell count.

U.S. treatment guidelines adopted this recommendation in 2013 and the World Health Organization announced last week that its forthcoming global guidelines will do the same.

As reported lasted week, researchers at the conference presented data from the START trial, which showed that starting treatment immediately after diagnosis – rather than waiting until the CD4 count falls – reduced illness and death by 57 percent.

Another pivotal study (HPTN 052) confirmed that when HIV-positive partners in mixed-status couples started treatment immediately, the risk of transmitting the virus fell by 93 percent.

Christopher Pilcher from UCSF presented findings from a feasibility study of the RAPID program at San Francisco General Hospital, which aims to speed up the process

and reduce attrition as people move through the “cascade of care” from HIV diagnosis to engagement in care to starting ART to achieving undetectable viral load.

San Francisco has a well-financed HIV care system with highly experienced providers, but “no matter how well-resourced and coordinated, sequential care does take time,” Pilcher said. RAPID focuses on the “very left side of the continuum of care,” consolidating initial assessment, medical evaluation, and ART prescription into a single visit.

Pilcher’s team analyzed outcomes in a demonstration project of 39 newly diagnosed people who participated in the RAPID program between July 2013 and December 2014. They were compared to a historical control group of people who received standard care.

Pilcher described the RAPID participants as a “high needs” population at risk of falling through the cracks of the health care system. All were men, a majority were people of color, more than a quarter were homeless, and none had health insurance.

People are typically referred to RAPID by one of the city’s public HIV testing sites, generally on the day they receive their results. They get a same-day medical appointment and a taxi voucher to get to the SFGH clinic. After a brief medical exam they receive a five-day starter pack of antiretroviral medication and are encouraged to take their first dose on the spot.

Meanwhile, program counselors help participants establish ongoing insurance coverage. Most qualify for public coverage such as Medicaid or Healthy San Francisco, Pilcher told the Bay Area Reporter.

Pilcher reported that 90 percent of eligible patients opted to start ART on the day of their first visit.

On average it took about one day

program from SFGH and the San Francisco Department of Public Health clinics to all public and private providers citywide.

“Test-and-treat really means collapsing the care cascade,” said Nancy Padian from UC Berkeley at the conference’s closing session. “When they’re in your clutches, you put them on treatment.”

PrEP Demo Project

Liz Highleyman

UCSF researcher Christopher Pilcher

from the time they received their HIV test result to taking their first pill. In contrast, in the historical standard care group only about a quarter started treatment within the first week and about 60 percent did so during the first month.

RAPID participants achieved undetectable HIV viral load in a median of 56 days, versus 119 to 238 days for the standard care group.

Three-quarters had viral suppression after three months on treatment (compared with 38 percent in the standard care group) and 95 percent did so after six months.

Most participants were still engaged in care at the end of follow-up.

Pilcher said RAPID participants and providers both had “extremely positive” opinions about the program, and the resistance he had expected from providers reluctant to start people on treatment so soon did not materialize.

At a Board of Supervisors hearing in January, Diane Havlir, chief of SFGH’s HIV/AIDS division, said the city wants to expand the RAPID

Also at the conference, Albert Liu from SF DPH presented results from a trio of PrEP demonstration projects conducted at San Francisco City Clinic, the Miami-Dade County Downtown STD Clinic, and Whitman Walker Health in Washington, D.C. After the iPrEx trial showed that daily Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) PrEP reduced the risk of HIV infection for gay and bisexual men by 44 percent overall, or 92 percent among participants with measurable blood drug levels, the PrEP Demo Project was designed to see how well PrEP works in the real world.

Together the three Demo Project sites enrolled 550 at-risk gay and bisexual men and seven transgender women. Just over half came seeking PrEP themselves, while providers referred 46 percent. They received daily Truvada on an open-label basis (not randomized) for a year.

The average age was 35 years, with one in five being under 25. Nearly half were white, a third were Latino, and 7 percent were black. Risk factors included condomless anal sex with two or more partners, sex with an HIV-positive partner, or having a sexually transmitted disease.

More than three-quarters (78 percent) were still taking PrEP at the end of the one-year study. Adherence, determined by drug levels in dried blood spots, was generally good, but there were some notable disparities.

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While adherence reached 90 percent in San Francisco and 88 percent in D.C., it was only 65 percent in Miami. White participants had 91 percent adherence, compared with 77 percent for Latinos and 57 percent for blacks. Being homeless or having unstable housing also had a negative effect on adherence, bringing it down to 70 percent.

In contrast, having more condomless sex was associated with better adherence, showing that people at more risk were most likely to use PrEP consistently. Liu said that odds of achieving protective drug levels did not differ based on age, education level, or alcohol or drug use.

People who started PrEP did not have more sex partners, but they were more likely to have condomless sex as their length of time on PrEP increased. The number of participants testing positive for STDs declined during the first six months on PrEP, but then rose again to almost the starting level.

Only two people were newly infected with HIV during the study, both of whom had blood drug levels showing they took PrEP less than twice a week; studies indicate that four times a week offers adequate protection. (Liu did not say which cities the new HIV infections occurred in.)

Another PrEP study reported at the conference, ATN 110, looked at 200 young gay and bisexual men (age 18-22) in a dozen U.S. cities.

(It did not include San Francisco.)

It likewise found that adherence was lower among black men and higher among participants with the greatest risk of HIV infection. Adherence dropped off over time, suggesting that young people may benefit from more intensive adherence support.

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Community News>>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Artist shocked by arson on gay mural

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by Khaled Sayed

T

he artist who created an LGBT mural in the Mission district that has been vandalized multiple times said at a recent forum that he wasn’t surprised the art was damaged, but he was shocked by an arson attempt on the project.

Los Angeles-based artist Manuel Paul, a gay man who’s part of the Maricon Collective, created the Por Vida (For Life) mural that was installed at Bryant and 24th streets last month by Galeria de la Raza.

Por Vida depicts two lesbians looking at each other, a transgender man, and two gay men embracing each other. The mural was defaced three times in June, and on June 29 it was set on fire, leaving a third of the mural irreparably damaged. The strong response to the mural on social media and the vandalism have ignited conversations in the Mission around issues of homophobia, displacement, appropriation, and trauma within and outside the Chicano/Latino communities.

Galeria de la Raza hosted a community forum at City College of San Francisco’s Mission campus Saturday, July 25. The meeting included panel discussions and an examination of how art incites dialogue.

According to Paul, the digital mural installation was created to honor San Francisco Pride Month, and inspired by the work of queer people of color.

“I wanted to do it for the Maricon Collective supporters,” Paul said, “not just for the collective but for their audiences.”

Paul said that there were mixed reactions to the mural, and there was a lot of positive feedback, which is what he likes to pay attention to.

“The negative, I feel like it was a little bit extreme,” he said. “Because it was a mural that was going to be up there for a month, and I feel like some people didn’t have patience with it. They wanted it to be erased.”

Even though Paul anticipated that the mural would be vandalized, given the history of the murals that Galeria de la Raza hosted in the past, he didn’t think someone would set it on fire.

“Other murals at Galeria de la Raza got tagged up,” Paul said, “but I never thought of fire, or being torched.”

During the forum’s first session, some panelists spoke about their experiences coming out as queer.

Gay activist and artist Joey Terrell remembers his mom calling him queer without knowing that he was.

At the age of 15, he had an argument with her and yelled, “Yes, I’m queer.”

His mom broke down and cried, and said that she wished he was a

<<

Khaled Sayed

Artist Manuel Paul, who created the Por Vida (For Life) mural, was one of the speakers at a forum organized by Galeria de la Raza to discuss the art, which has been vandalized multiple times since its installation last month.

drug dealer or a thug instead.

“But she came around and now she is my best friend,” Terrell said.

Another panelist, muralist Carlos (Kookie) Gonzales, talked about how he used to be homophobic. He wouldn’t want to be seen with gay people. But now he is a supporter of LGBT people.

“Everyone has a gay person in their family,” Gonzales said.

Luciano Sagustume said that he came out as a lesbian, but after 10 years he realized that he was a transgender man.

“Before moving to San Francisco I never met a transgender person,” he said. “When I come out as queer, as a lesbian, it didn’t feel right to me till I realized that I’m a transgender man.”

He said that the mural represented him as a trans man, and he was sad to see the amount of negative attention it received.

“I never thought that it would get burned,” Sagustume said. “That is another level of hate.”

Muralist Nancy Pili, another panelist, urged Galeria de la Raza to include misguided young people who feel ignored and dismissed.

“I think one of the biggest problems is that these young Latinos feel that their history has been written by others,” Pili said. “We need to create workshops and help them show their work. We need to give them a space to tell their story.”

Ani Rivera, the gallery’s executive director and a queer Chicana who lives in the Mission, promised that Galeria de la Raza will continue to

do outreach to both supporters and opponents of the mural.

“The gallery’s neighbors are very concerned about their safety since Por Vida was lit on fire,” Rivera said.

The community forum was sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Chicana Latina Foundation, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Our Family Coalition.

Last week San Francisco police released video of the arson incident.

The video, from a surveillance camera at Galeria de la Raza, 2857 24th Street, shows someone in a black hooded sweatshirt or jacket with white stripes on the shoulders, black pants, white tennis shoes, and white gloves approaching Por Vida, pouring liquid on it, and lighting the fire, which burns for about a minute and a half before the footage ends.

According to Officer Carlos Manfredi, a police spokesman, officers responded to the scene at 11:10 p.m.

June 29, just after the fire started.

The suspect is described as a 6-foot-tall man, weighing 190 pounds and wearing a black cloth over the lower half of his face, according to police. He was last seen running south on Bryant toward 25th Street.

Anyone with information in the case may call the police department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 5754444, or text a tip to 847411 and type SFPD, then the message. People may also contact lead investigator Sergeant Pete Shields of the Special Investigations Division at (415) 553-1133.

The case number for the June 29 incident is 150568699.t

An amended settlement has been proposed in a class action lawsuit claiming that StubHub, Inc. violated California law by recording and monitoring telephone calls made to its customer-service lines without informing callers that the call may be recorded or monitored. StubHub has denied the claims. After preliminary approval of the original settlement was granted on January 29, 2014, and after the notice and initial claims period expired on June 13, 2014, the Court declined to grant final approval of the settlement, but allowed to the parties to make some changes to the settlement and resubmit it for approval. This notice relates to the amended settlement, which the Court has preliminarily approved.

Who’s Included? The settlement includes everyone that called a StubHub customer-service line from a cellular or cordless telephone—while they were located within the State of California—and spoke to a StubHub customer-service agent any time between (1) January 27, 2011 and March 7, 2011, and (2) March 8, 2011 and February 1, 2012 (“Class Members”).

What Does the Amended Settlement Provide? If the amended settlement receives final approval, Class Members who submit a valid Claim Form will receive a monetary benefit to be determined after submission of all claims.

Payments will vary based on the date the StubHub customer-service line was called and the total number of valid claims submitted. For more information on the calculation of payments, visit the website below.

How Do You Get Benefits? You must submit a valid Claim Form by September 28, 2015. Claim Forms may be printed from www.StubHubSettlement.com or obtained by calling 1-866-893-8380 or by writing to StubHub Claims Administrator, PO Box 43249, Providence, RI 02940-3249. People who submitted valid Claim Forms during the initial claims period DO NOT need to their resubmit claims.

Your Other Options. If you do nothing you will be bound by the Court’s decisions and you will not get a settlement payment. If you do not want to be legally bound by the settlement and keep your right to sue StubHub for any claim resolved by this lawsuit, you must exclude yourself from it. The deadline to exclude yourself is September 28, 2015. If you exclude yourself, you cannot get a payment from the settlement. If you stay in the settlement, you may object to it by September 28, 2015. More information is in the class notice and Amended Settlement Agreement and Release available at www.StubHubSettlement.com.

The Court’s Fairness Hearing. The San Francisco Superior Court will hold a hearing in this case at 9:30 a.m. on November 19, 2015 in Department 302 to consider whether to grant final approval to the settlement, including a request for attorneys’ fees up to $312,500 and $12,500 in costs, and a $10,000 payment to Michael Saunders for his service as the Class Representative. If approved, these amounts will be paid out of the Settlement Fund before making payments to Class Members. You may appear at the hearing, but you do not have to. You may also hire your own attorney, at your own expense, to appear or speak for you at the hearing. The time and date of the final approval hearing is subject to change.

The final hearing date will be available at www.StubHubSettlement.com.

Want More Information? Call 1-866-893-8380, go to www.StubHubSettlement. com or write to StubHub Claims Administrator, PO Box 43249, Providence, RI 02940-3249.

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PrEP

From page 14

long study, all of whom had very low blood drug levels.

Speaking at an IAS press briefing, Liu recommended quarterly STD screenings while using PrEP and said strategies are needed to address racial and geographic disparities, as well as the need for stable housing.

“Our results strongly support the scale-up of PrEP,” Liu said. “PrEP adherence was higher among those who reported higher risk behaviors, which likely increased the costeffectiveness and impact of PrEP.” Addressing the issue of high STD rates among people taking PrEP, iPrEx investigator Robert Grant from the Gladstone Institutes recommended that PrEP should be integrated into comprehensive sexual health programs.

“People are ready for a conversation about STDs,” Grant said. “PrEP provides an opportunity for people to be tested and treated for STDs.”t

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<< Sports

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

You’re putting me in the hall of what?

by Roger Brigham

I

f you had told me a year ago that Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez, and I would all be inducted into the Hall of Fame the same weekend, I would have told you that was about as unlikely as the newly amped up Chicago Cubs being no-hit at Wrigley Field for the first time in five decades.

Well look at that: pigs are flying and hell just froze over.

The National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame held its induction reception at the LGBT Center on Halsted in Chicago Friday, July 24 for this year’s nine inductees. Gene Dermody of San Francisco and I were the only inductees who were able to attend.

The other inductees include transgender basketball player and activist Kye Allums; World Cup soccer player Megan Rapinoe; gay Major League Baseball umpire Dale Scott; world champion powerlifter Chris Morgan; and professional soccer star Robbie Rogers. Two deceased athletes were also inducted: former NFL player Roy Simmons, and former tennis star Helen Hull Jacobs.

How seven of those sports stars made it into the hall is obvious.

They generated headlines with their coming out stories, or performed at the highest level on the biggest stages under the brightest lights as openly gay athletes, or overcame entrenched homophobia to live their lives in defiance of accepted stereotypes – or did some combination of all of those things.

Which poses the question: How the hell did Dermody and I get in?

Dermody is the president of Golden Gate Wrestling Club. He’s the founder of Wrestlers WithOut Borders and has competed in every Gay Games, medaling in all of them

except the 1994 Gay Games, in which he was injured. He’s a founding member of Team San Francisco and is currently serving as a delegate for Team SF to the Federation of Gay Games, an organization for which he has put in three decades of volunteer work while serving as its president, sports officer, and officer of technology. Last year he was the winner of the Tom Waddell Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Gay Games.

Me? In 1982 I walked into the office of my managing editor at the Anchorage Daily News to tell him I was gay, a very quiet act of determination that made me the first openly gay sports editor at a major daily newspaper. In 2011 I founded Equality Coaching Alliance, a network for LGBT coaches and their supporters that now has more than 230 members. In the three decades between those events, I wrote passionately on social issues in sports while covering major sports events, I coached wrestling at high schools in California and Alaska, I joined Dermody in his volunteer work with Team SF, the FGG, WWB and Golden Gate Wrestling, and dabbled through the years as a recreational athlete in softball, rugby, track and field, wrestling, basketball, and soccer.

Dermody and I both came out the same year. Neither of us generated any headlines in doing so. We achieved no lofty attainments as athletes. Our volunteer work has been behind the scenes and out of the limelight. It has often involved taking stands, which made us unpopular with many other people working in our causes. We have found ourselves subject to more verbal abuse and derision from fellow LGBT sports supporters than we ever endured from mainstream individuals or institutions.

San Francisco Columbarium A cemetery for cremated remains in the City.

Bill Gubrud, left, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame, joined Bay Area Reporter columnist and recent hall inductee Roger Brigham at Wrigley Field for the no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs last Saturday as part of the weekend’s induction festivities.

“I don’t deserve this,” Dermody told me in our hotel room the night before the induction. “What can I say to anyone about why I am being inducted?”

“You’re being inducted in the Hall of Fame because you sought no fame,” I told him. “You’re being inducted because you did the things you didn’t want to do so that you could give others a chance to compete. Tell them about that.”

So that’s what Dermody talked about in his speech at the reception. Not about the courage it took to do what he loved to do, but the dedication and discipline it took to do the things he didn’t want to do.

Attending countless board meetings and teleconferences. Debating and drafting policies. Donating money and time. Organizing and advising countless sports clubs and teams and athletes. The very things most athletes turn their noses up at doing, but which if they are not done sports never become truly inclusive and meaningful and relevant.

Then I spoke about the importance of volunteerism. I told the Chicago audience about the critical role that city played when it stepped up at the last minute to be the host for the 2006 Gay Games and how the city’s residents saved the games by sacrificing their time and energy as volunteers. I talked about the vision Gay Games founder Tom Waddell had of harnessing the energy of volunteers to enable us to better our own community and prove our value to our heterosexist neighbors. I talked about how my return to wrestling was fueled by a self-centered desire to win glory, but ended up being rewarded when I discovered opportunities to help others instead.

I never talked about the invasive interviews I had to endure more than 30 years ago when Air Force officers wanted me to tell them about my sexual relationships with my then-boyfriend so they could be sure he was indeed a faggot they should discharge from active service in the pre-”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

t

era. I didn’t tell them about visiting a closeted friend in the hospital after he had been knifed and left for dead in the Kodiak wilderness, or consoling another friend at a gay bar in Anchorage after he had been mugged on his way home one night.

I didn’t tell them about the wounds I saw inflicted not on myself but on others, the wrongs that compelled me to leave the safety of my own closet and walk into my editor’s office, prepared to fight if necessary – the first steps down the path that led to the Hall of Fame.

I didn’t tell them about any of the stuff that motivated me. I urged them to do the right things for others because doing right is its own reward.

There were other highlights of the weekend. Bill Gubrud, executive director of the Hall of Fame, told the audience the organization was in preliminary talks with a major local LGBT organization to acquire a real brick-and-mortar presence in a museum. I got to spend a lot of time eating and talking with friends I had met when they were helping to organize the 2006 Gay Games and the Gay Games that have followed.

I was able to join the crowd for Out at Wrigley, the Chicago Cubs’ annual LGBT game at which the Cubs did their best to propel my beloved SF Giants back into the National League wild card race by going down hitless against the Philadelphia Phillies and Cole Hamels.

But for me the highlight I will remember most was the look in the faces in the audience when I spoke to them about volunteering to make sports possible for their LGBT brothers and sisters. The look in their faces that told me they understood what I meant when I said it was not enough to love sports, it was necessary to make sports accessible and supportive of others.

Now, that’s a Hall of Fame moment.t Information on the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame and past years’ inductees is available on its website at www. gayandlesbiansports.com.

Obama raises LGBT rights issue during Kenya visit

by Heather Cassell

P

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resident Barack Obama raised gay issues during his first trip to Kenya as president, much to the dismay of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Kenyatta claimed that the African country has other priorities – education, health care, infrastructure, and representation of women in society – before being able to tackle new ones, reported Time magazine.

“This is why I repeatedly say that, for Kenyans today, the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue,” he told reporters during a July 25 joint press conference with Obama. “Maybe once, like you have overcome some of these challenges, we can begin to look at new ones.”

However, Obama didn’t buy that argument, speaking after the two presidents’ warm closed-door meeting.

“As an African-American in the United States, I am painfully aware of the history of what happens when people are treated differently, under the law, and there were all sorts of rationalizations that were provided by the power structure for decades in the United

Associated Press

President Barack Obama, foreground, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the media after their historic meeting.

States for segregation and Jim Crow and slavery, and they were wrong,” Obama told reporters.

“I believe in the principle of treating people equally under the law, and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law and that the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation,” Obama added. “I’m unequivocal on this.”

Kenya, where Obama’s father was born, isn’t known for its progressive stance on LGBT rights. The country’s own political leaders attempted to pass a so-called Stone the Gays bill, modeled after one in neighboring Uganda, which passed the notorious “Jail the Gays” law that was ultimately struck down on a technicality by the country’s Constitutional Court.t A longer version of this column is online at ebar.com.

t <<

Community News>>

Fresno

From page 10

information at all that he was transgender, so you see the dilemma there,” Gomez said.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to be called that, and he can’t say either way now.”

Gomez added that information initially given to investigators when they did interviews was that it “was not the case” that Haggard identified as trans. He said he couldn’t share where investigators had gotten information.

Haggard had “just started” dressing in women’s clothing “in the last few months,” according to information police have received, Gomez said.

He wasn’t sure if investigators had reached out to the LGBT community about the killing.

Fresno County Superior Court records say Haggard pleaded guilty in 2011 to a charge of possession of a controlled substance. It’s not

<<

LGBT refugees

From page 12

The Guardian Group was later introduced to staff at the Jewish agency and now provides what assistance it can to the LGBT refugees, as well LGBT asylum seekers, the East Bay nonprofit helps resettle in the Bay Area. To date, the guardians have worked with a dozen people, all but one a man, equally divided between refugees and asylees.

In addition to housing help, they also try to foster social relationships for the new arrivals. They host dinners and other gatherings, explain how the city’s transit systems work, and assist with navigating government agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and Social Security Administration.

“A real problem for sexual minority refugees is how isolated they are.

None of them woke up wanting to go live in the United States,” said Workman. “The fact is the folks we are dealing with had to leave home. They get here and miss their homes, miss their families, miss their friends, miss their status in their home country, and they are very isolated.”

Over the last two years the group has raised $20,000, said treasurer Jay Roller, 68, a gay man who lives in Oakland who used to work for the church and is now retired. The money is used to pay for things like Muni passes, cellphones, and groceries, he said. Such assistance is especially needed for asylum seekers, who arrive

<<

Big Apple

From page 13

What’s on Broadway this fall

The now on-Broadway production of LGBT musical, Fun Home, is the current Tony Award holder for best musical, and also won awards for best actor, director, original score and best book. Not only is this a must-see for LGBT audiences, but also its intimate – though low-key – presentation will make you cry and laugh. It’s not a big number or big production show, but it’s special, cute and extremely well arranged for the Circle In The Square Theatre (where every seat is practically on stage).

However, Hamilton, recently viewer-approved by none other than President Barack Obama, is New York’s newest show. A most unexpected presentation, with Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s story told via hip-hop with a multi-ethnic cast, this unique show has become New York’s hottest ticket. Officially opening August 6 – yet already winning supreme acclaim in previews.

The other main event is campy Something Rotten, which seems to either be liked or hated by audiences – but it certainly won plenty of Tony Awards as well. For more options, you can always get tickets

specified what that substance was, but crack cocaine was listed as her drug of choice. Files indicate she spent several days in jail and was sentenced to probation, among other consequences. Other court records show minor vehicle code violations in 2007.

Whether Haggard was trans, worked as a prostitute, or used drugs “doesn’t matter,” Gomez said.

Investigators are working on the case “diligently, 24/7,” and “we’re going to find this guy.”

In his email, Botti the sheriff ’s office spokesman, said the coroner’s report “is still being written, and this remains an open homicide investigation. Therefore, nothing would be available to access for quite some time.”

In a Facebook post earlier this year about Rep’s Sports Bar in Fresno, Haggard said, “Hey calling TG girls amber says we can hang out there.”

In a Facebook exchange with the B.A.R., Gabriel Soto, the bar’s manin the country on a student or tourist visa and are unable to work while their asylee application is reviewed.

“We are limited in the number of people we can take on by two things: how much money we have to spend and how many people are willing to work with the newcomers,” said Roller. “Believe it or not, we have found most of them free housing in San Francisco. It is not easy, and every time one of them loses their housing, we pull our hair out and start over.”

Cheaper housing elsewhere

Eleven of the people the Guardian Group has helped remain in the Bay Area, while the first person they met recently relocated to Atlanta. He did so in search of cheaper housing and better job opportunities.

So far the move has been positive, as the 25-year-old found an apartment in the city’s Midtown neighborhood and is working as a bartender and waiter at a restaurant.

“I had 65 interviews in (San Francisco) to get a better job. None gave me job; I was really frustrated,” said Firooz, who asked that his last name not be used for fear his family still in Iran could be targeted by religious extremists due to his being gay.

While Firooz praised the Guardian Group for the help he received while in the Bay Area, he questioned the logic of trying to resettle refugees in such an expensive part of the country.

“Refugees in Bay Area not a wise decision. It is not good because Bay at the TKTS booth in Times Square (if you’re willing to wait in lines) to see Broadway staples The Book of Mormon, Kinky Boots, The King and I and many more. Remember that tickets for Wicked and The Lion King must be purchased months in advance. If you read The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time, you’re sure to love how producers made this a play. Of course, you can also see free shows all over, like Shakespeare in the Park or enjoy movies and evening events in Bryant Park.

You can still get some of the best seats in the house by attempting the lottery at any of the major shows for only about $30. Just show up two hours before showtime to enter a drawing; only one chance per person, but you can purchase two tickets if you win. I tried my luck at The Book of Mormon, and enjoyed staring up at the stars from the very front row. If you’re an app lover, check out “TodayTix” (http://www. todaytix.com/us/nyc) to join lotteries and see what’s playing.

After the show

Head off for a drink with your local friends at loungy Barrage, take in some drag at Hardware, or dance your butt off at Industry. For those of you who make the annual trip, Bartini has now closed, but the

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

ager, said, “I did not know K.C. personally and am saddened by such an act of violence.”

Video

Augie Rubio, 42, owns Most Wanted Tattoo. It was the shop’s surveillance camera that captured the footage of Haggard being attacked.

Rubio said he first saw the video “probably four hours” after it happened. The shop closes at midnight.

Rubio was still inside when the incident occurred, but he said he didn’t hear anything.

He said that through surveillance video, he’d known of Haggard being in the area, which is popular with transgender women, “for about the past two months,” but he hadn’t known her personally.

“He liked to walk at night, never during the day,” Rubio said, using male pronouns and adding that Haggard had always been alone and “minding his business.”

The prostitution in the neighborhood is actually about four to five blocks north of the spot where Haggard was stabbed, Rubio said.

Karen Adell Scot, who recently founded TransCare in Fresno to help people around the country transition, didn’t know Haggard, but she noted Haggard had recently created a Facebook page under her female name, K.c.

Scot, who’s transgender, dismissed any notion that Haggard had been engaged in sex work when she was attacked.

“She was a newly transitioned transgender person” who was out “test driving a female outfit” when she was killed, Scot said. “That’s what I think.”

Haggard “was being authentic, and she was probably new and scared,” and she probably had thought that she was in the area at “a quiet time” where nobody would see her, Scot said.

Scot also said it appeared to her

“A real problem for sexual minority refugees is how isolated they are. None of them woke up wanting to go live in the United States.

The fact is the folks we are dealing with had to leave home. They get here and miss their homes, miss their families, miss their friends, miss their status in their home country, and they are very isolated.”

–Galen Workman Area is not a good address for refugees. Because Bay Area is over, over, very expensive,” said Firooz, who taught himself English while living in Turkey though he admits he still struggles with the language. “I was trying to get better house opportunity; I couldn’t. I had to get out.”

The cost of living in the Bay Area is certainly a challenge compared to other, less expensive regions of the country, acknowledged Weiss, but those areas may not be as hospitable toward LGBT people and not a good location to send refugees already traumatized due to being persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“With LGBT refugees, the gay community is here. It is not in Ohio,” said Weiss. “We just welcome

them the best we can.”

Clair Farley, the associate director of economic development at the LGBT Community Center, said the San Francisco agency routinely fields calls from people around the world looking to move to the area. It now works with a local attorney to offer legal clinics for LGBT asylum seekers and tries to help both asylees and refugees find employment.

“We do see a lot of barriers in supporting folks who are looking for work, mainly because most of our employer partners we work with do require a work visa or some level of documentation,” said Farley.

“We have really had to think outside the box how to connect people to additional training or partner with people looking to hire folks.”

sporty Mr. Biggs has replaced it as a dancy, fun spot. Big-windowed Dive Bar Lounge is neither a dive nor a lounge but it’s new. Boxers HK is always a great standby, although its fabulous roof closes by 11 p.m.; it’s a good spot for afternoon happy hour. Of course, if you want dancers on the bar, country-themed Flaming Saddles is always popular with the preppy HK boys.

If you’re looking for that true club experience, dance with the sea of shirtless men at Viva Saturday nights or check into NSA Thursdays. If you like a more alternative party hit up Pretty Ugly at Diamond Horseshoe; I love the venue but the house-themed music is not always as easy for your dancing shoes.

Sorry ladies, even your club, Cubbyhole, gets a bit male-dominated on weekends but you can always hang in the West Village and sing along at Marie’s Crisis piano bar (if you can make it inside New York’s tiniest gay bar).

Summer and early fall Sundays are also filled with plenty of parties and gay spots for every crowd.

Twinks and twink lovers head to Summer Camp, everyone goes by Fly at the Monarch Hotel and if you’re looking for fancy you must check out the Standard Hotel rooftop, Le Bain. Finally, if you’re looking for muscly bears, head

to the Eagle’s rooftop. For a more low-key weekend day, enjoy bottomless brunch with friends in the Village at Agave, a picnic in Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park, or just a sunny spot on the Christopher Street Pier. Don’t forget to stop by the Stonewall Inn for a selfie at the first national LGBT landmark.

The bar, where patrons stood up to police harassment in riots that sparked the modern gay rights movement, was designated a New York City landmark in June.

Weekday parties are also constant in New York, and usually more interesting because you don’t get the “bridge and tunnel” crowd.

Promoter Michael Cohen hosts a number of parties and is famous for Phoenix Friday, which continues to be a critical spot in the East Village.

“I’m planning another classy Monday event again this fall,” Cohen said. He did a “dressy boys in suits” night last year at Beauty and Essex called Upstairs, but his current hot event is at Goldbar “EDW” (http://www.60by80.com/newyork/gay-bars/edw-every-damnwednesday.html) on Wednesdays.

Sadly, hipster “West Gay” is no longer going on Tuesdays, but you can head to Strut or splash around in the pool at Le Bain. If in need of cheap late-night drinks, Boiler Room has happy hour from 10

that more than one person was in the SUV captured on video.

A homeless man witnessed the attack, Scot said. Advocates have given his information to police, she said, but she declined to share his full name with the B.A.R. Haggard’s family is having a service for her Monday, and her remains will be placed in Visalia, where she grew up, Gerald Haggard said.

A vigil is planned for 6 p.m.

Thursday, July 30 at Fresno’s LGBT Community Center, 1067 North Fulton, in memory of Haggard and other transgender people who have been victims of violence. There will also be a march through the city’s Tower district.

Anyone with information in Haggard’s killing is asked to call police homicide Detectives Alfonso Castillo at (559) 621-2449 or Leonard Cabrera at (559) 621-2451. People can also provide information anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-STOP.t The center can also make referrals to housing providers or enroll those who are eligible into its own housing programs that help people access below-market-rate rental units.

But finding new arrivals affordable housing is vexing, said Farley.

“Unfortunately, I think in San Francisco there really isn’t a great housing solution,” she said. “In addition to employment, housing is the largest barrier any low-income person, including immigrants, has to navigate.”

More funding needed

What support the Jewish agency can provide to LGBT people resettled to the Bay Area is limited by its funding constraints, said Holly White, its director of grants and communications.

It receives $55,000 in grant funding from HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has a contract through the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. Another $14,000 comes from grants provided by the Horizons Foundation, which focuses on LGBT funding needs, and the group Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights.

The money helps pay for a parttime program coordinator, who could easily work full-time, said White. Another need is to hire a mental health clinician, added White, to work specifically with LGBT refugees, who are often sufSee page 18 >> p.m. to 4 a.m. everyday.

Of course, if you’re looking to network, or simply find a fun happy hour with smart, successful gays mid-week, check for events by Out in Tech, the NYC Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, or the Ivy League Alumni Network (who welcome more than just Ivy grads).

This fall also look forward to exciting events like the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s 25th anniversary and booze cruise for global LGBTQ rights (https://www.facebook.com/ events/751512078292753/) on the Hudson September 28 or for those gay geeks out there New York’s Comic Con October 8-11 is critical (http://www.newyorkcomiccon. com/).

Whatever you’re looking for, you can certainly find it in New York. Be sure to pick up the latest issue of the free Next magazine in the bars and restaurants to get the latest events and LGBTQ venues.t Ashton Giese currently resides in the East Village and authors a blog for LGBTQ travelers called GAYography, as well as a weekly travel news and advocacy GAYography brief. Contact him at @GAYographer on Twitter and Instagram or via Facebook.com/GAYgeography.

Discover more secrets to New York in the GAYography blog.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

<<

LGBT refugees

From page 17

fering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the trauma they have experienced.

“It is not enough. We do specific fundraising for the LGBT refugee program,” said White, who estimated the agency could easily use another $100,000 to hire additional dedicated staff. “We really need something like a housing employment specialist to help these people find housing and jobs.”

The needs are expected to grow as more LGBT people confront harassment and prejudice in their home countries and seek safety in the U.S. “We are anticipating more people being open in the refugee application process” about being LGBT, said White, “and getting directed toward us.”

One of the agency’s “biggest goals,” added White, is to rent a 1- or 3-bedroom apartment on a permanent basis where it can house LGBT refugees and asylees and help them establish a new life.

“But in this market that costs a lot of money,” said White.

For the time being, the agency relies on volunteers willing to house a person in a room in their house. It places people in San Francisco as well as Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

“We are desperately looking for help with housing,” said Weiss.

“Coming off the plane, for a refugee having a place to live with someone hosting, particularly a gay person, is an incredible gift.”

The agency arranges for the two parties to sign a written rental agreement, and the refugee pays about $200 in rent in order to maintain their government benefits.

“The model we have been using has been working well enough,” said Weiss. “We are able to get people in the door.”

Refugees receive eight months worth of welfare benefits, food stamps, and a little less than $2,000 total, which Weiss said is administered through the agency overseeing their resettlement. The money is meant to cover their first three months in the country, regardless of where they get settled.

“It is not a lot of money,” she noted. “The whole idea is it is not a welfare program to take care of people indefinitely. We are going to get you through the door and up and going on your feet.”

Determined to make a new life for himself, Mayema enrolled in a program that provides free counseling to refugees dealing with trauma. It has proven beneficial he said, even though he remains concerned about his job prospects and housing situation.

“I am trying to focus on the positivity and not thinking I won’t be safe,” said Mayema, who plans to apply for a green card in November.

“If you can’t fit in in San Francisco, one of the most gay friendly cities in the world, where are you going to fit in? You need to find your way.”

More community support needed

Yet the government and local LGBT community, said Mayema, could do more to support LGBT refugees and asylees find housing.

This fall he may move in with a friend he met who lives in the East Bay or he has thought about moving to Portland as he has heard rents are less expensive there.

“Staying at someone’s house is not what you want,” he said. “There needs to be some housing facility for them.”

Brian Basinger, the founder and director of the AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco, called the housing situation for refugees “depressing.” In early 2014 he organized a meeting at the LGBT Community Center to bring together local leaders interested in coordinating a solution.

Although connections were made,

Basinger said there is still a need for “a coordinated and collaborative effort to prioritize and address the specific housing needs of asylum seekers and refugees. It is something that needs to happen, definitely.”

He pointed to development agencies focused on specific minority groups, such as the city’s Chinese and Latino communities, as a model for what the LGBT community needs to form. The groundwork has been laid, Basinger noted, by his agency and others focused on housing for LGBT seniors, youth, and people living with HIV or AIDS. “But we still need a massive LGBT housing organization,” he said. “We have other communities that have housing organizations with tens of millions of dollars in budget and they just do housing.”

Lewis Nightingale, who attended the meeting called by Basinger, agreed. He and his husband hosted a gay man from Turkey seeking asylum for five months in their home while they tried to find him more permanent housing.

“During that time we repeatedly reached out to our social media contacts for someone to offer him the next place or help out or something. We were surprised to receive no response; no one offered,” said Nightingale.

Having befriended several gay Russians in the Bay Area, Nightingale saw how critical the housing needs are especially for LGBT asylum seekers.

“People arrive without warning.

They don’t announce before they are coming; they basically show up,” he noted. “We need to have a way to house them, at least temporarily, so they can stabilize their situation.”

Most people he contacted about the issue, said Nightingale, gave him “almost universally negative” advice.

“The reason was twofold, I would say. We already have our own significant population of low-income people and homeless population,” he said. “Also, there was a sense asylum seekers are choosing the most expensive place to come to in the country and it is difficult to raise money for housing in such a market. The advice was to urge them to go elsewhere, somewhere cheaper.”

Undaunted, Nightingale created a Facebook page called “Housing for Asylum Seekers” where people able to can offer temporary housing.

LGBT refugees and asylees are arriving in the city at a time when there already is a need to house thousands of homeless LGBT people, said Basinger, whose agency has worked with six LGBT refugees over the past 11 years.

“I think every LGBT person in the world has a right to experiencing San Francisco values. What it feels like to have social acceptance and be celebrated for who they are. Every human being deserves that,” said Basinger.

“But our infrastructure is not in place.

We have not invested in our values.”

What is needed, said Workman, is for the local LGBT community to rally in support for LGBT refugees and asylum seekers similar to how it came together to fight AIDS. “We have no real response to the international persecution of sexual minorities,” he said. “I wish we had a San Francisco response to this as we did to the AIDS crisis. The need is huge.”

Added Weiss, “We are looking to work with anybody who wants to partner with us to help figure this out.”t To donate to or join the Guardian Group, visit its website at http:// www.refugeeguardiangroup.org or call Workman at (415) 647-8830.

For information about volunteering with the Jewish services agency, visit its website at http://www.jfcs-eastbay.org/ or call volunteer coordinator Kathryn Winogura at (925) 927-2000.

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Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036564600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEIPPEL COACHING & CONSULTING, 1059 UNION ST #E, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHELSEY ANNLYN SEIPPEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036563300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LE COULOIR, 1537 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MASHAV SHELEF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036555900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GARLIC LUVRS SPREAD, 984 OAK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIC C. JOHNSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036554000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOMA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, 364 TENTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES E. MEKO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/00. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036550700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: R.L. CABINET, 541 GIRARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LI, ZIRUI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/26/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036561600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PAINTED MONKEY, 4200 18TH ST #103, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHADOW MORTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036562900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROWDYPENCIL.COM, 32 TERRA VISTA AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115-3850. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed RICHARD J. FOSSELMAN & NANCY G. GOLDENBERG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/12/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036552400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SELLING ENERGY; SF GREEN SPACE; 657 MISSION ST #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ENERGY EFFICIENCY FUNDING GROUP, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/29/15.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/29/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036561800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRAVEL DARLINGS, 2745 WEBSTER ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TRAVEL DARLINGS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036552100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MIND’S EYE INTERNATIONAL FILM ACADEMY, U.S.A.; MIND’S EYE INTERNATIONAL FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY; MIND’S EYE CLOTHING COMPANY; 1719 30TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed YING ROYAL INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION (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 06/29/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036558900

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036535700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROCKET POSTCARDS, 605 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CLIC, 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 07/02/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SILVER SPROUTS, 1901 JERROLD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed GRUBMARKET INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/15.

JULY 09, 16, 23, 30, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC15-551311

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036546900

In the matter of the application of: MARIA YAROSLAVOVNA BEZCHINSKY, 1324 WILLARD ST # 206, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARIA YAROSLAVOVNA BEZCHINSKY, is requesting that the name MARIA YAROSLAVOVNA BEZCHINSKY, be changed to MARIA HITRAYA-LOW. 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 10th of September 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036574200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LOMBARD NAIL SPA, 2447 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HA PHUONG QUAN. 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 07/13/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036560100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIENNA TRADITIONAL MEDICINE, 4052 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEPHANIE RAE HANEY. 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 07/03/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036567600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GAY THERAPY CENTER, 538 HAYES ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ADAM D. BLUM. 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 07/08/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036562800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: POCO LOCO TAMALE COMPANY, 563 2ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PATRICK BRITTEN VENTURA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THERAPEIA, 1801 BUSH ST LOWER WING, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RANGNEKAR CHIROPRACTIC INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/25/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036551600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALPHAPUP OFFICE; BLITZ; BLITZ ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN; BLITZ SAN FRANCISCO; BLITZ SF; 435 JACKSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DESIGN BLITZ (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/11/2011. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/29/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036568800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MILLER GLOBAL TRAVEL, 1949 GREEN ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MILLER GLOBAL TRAVEL INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036566000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARUM TEA, 1886 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed NOVO INTERNATIONAL 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 07/08/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF THOMAS FENNER DALLMAN IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-15-298529

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VIKING PHOTO, 1219 2ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LEIF HEILBERG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/15.

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of THOMAS FENNER DALLMAN. A Petition for Probate has been filed by ANN DALLMAN in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that ANN DALLMAN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate.

The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: August 18, 2015, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing.

Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court.

If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: HEATHER R. STONEMAN, ESQ. (SB#214917), JEWEL & STONEMAN, LLP, 220 MONTGOMERY ST #678, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104 Ph. (415) 394-6800.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015

JULY 23, 30 AUGUST 06, 13, 2015

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036563600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AGD ENTERPRISES, 2227 FILBERT ST #10, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEXANDER DEA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/06/15.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036563400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MS DEALS, 501 41ST AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHAEL SARKISSIAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/06/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036568400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANGELINA- PALM READER, 3127 GEARY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LOLA NICHOLAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on12/12/98. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/15.

JULY 16, 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036565900

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 FILE CNC-15-551362

In the matter of the application of: ORS DENES CSASZAR, 531 BAYSHORE BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ORS DENES CSASZAR, is requesting that the name ORS DENES CSASZAR, be changed to ORS CSASZAR. 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 29th of September 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 FILE CNC-15-551361

In the matter of the application of: JOSE MINORU MORRISON, 2 TOWNSEND ST #2-403, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOSE MINORU MORRISON, is requesting that the name JOSE MINORU MORRISON, be changed to GARY MINORU MORRISON. 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 29th of September 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 FILE CNC15-551355 In the matter of the application of: JOHN DAVID SCHRAMM II, 261 OXFORD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOHN DAVID SCHRAMM II, is requesting that the name JOHN DAVID SCHRAMM II, be changed to JOHN DAVID DAIGLE SCHRAMM II. 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 29th of September 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 FILE CNC15-551354

In the matter of the application of: KENNETH MICHAEL DAIGLE, 261 OXFORD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KENNETH MICHAEL DAIGLE, is requesting that the name KENNETH MICHAEL DAIGLE, be changed to KENNETH MICHAEL SCHRAMM DAIGLE. 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 29th of September 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102 FILE CNC15-551356

In the matter of the application of: YELENA BERDICHEVSKY, 99 LUPINE AVE #302, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YELENA BERDICHEVSKY, is requesting that the name YELENA BERDICHEVSKY, be changed to HELEN DE FRANCESCO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 29th of September 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036572400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A NEW INDULGENCE BEAUTY, 1145 DIVISADERO ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MALKIA M. GEORGE-WATKINS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/13/15.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036572100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036577700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PAPILLO MASSAGE, 155 HARRIET ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHARLES STEVEN PAPILLO. 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 07/15/15.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036571400

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE BAGEL BAKERY CAFE, 151 TOWNSEND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHEA SOK MAY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/15.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036577801

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAI FENG CHINESE HERBAL; HAI FENG TRADITION CHINESE MED; 1818 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZHUSEN LIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/15.

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JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035920800

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: HAI FENG CHINESE HERBAL, 1818 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by RU HAI LIANG. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/2014.

JULY 23, 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036588000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACE DEUCE BAIL BONDS, 3327 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID ANTONIO RICHARDSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/22/15.

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JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036587000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GEECHED OUT PRODUCTIONS, 2275 19TH AVE #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SHARON BRIDGFORTH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/15.

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036582100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC, 333 ONEIDA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REBECCA BRADSHAW. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/17/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/15.

JULU 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036594500

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This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANET DEHART. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/10/15.

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This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RATPACK SF LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/02/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/23/15.

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R i c k 41 5. 82 1 . 1 792

JULY 30, AUGUST 06, 13, 20, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036558500

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Round Midnight

27

Alexander: Great!

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Out &About

Champagne thrills

26

O&A

23

Vol. 45 • No. 31 • July 30-August 5, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

Garden party in Stern Grove

by Paul Parish

E

ven Stern Grove is looking dry this year. Last Sunday’s free outdoor performance by the San Francisco Ballet, with their full orchestra, on the natural-amphitheater stage of the city’s often fog-bound park, was danced under more hot sun than I can remember in 20 years of attending the event. Several thousand people, it looked like, brought their picnics and spread out on the lawn, on the terraces, and up the cliff behind us into the eucalyptus trees, where it looked like they had to dig their heels in to keep their purchase on the steep forest floor.

But nobody seemed to be complaining. Well, some of the babies cried, but that’s part of the deal when an entertainment like this is free and whole families can come out.

The audience was on the move throughout the show. Latecomers looking for places kept perching on the low stone walls and getting shooed away by park officials. It was a never-ending dance that competed (along with birds, bees, and dragonflies) with the SFB dancers for your attention.

See page 29 >>

San Francisco Ballet dancers WanTing Zhao and Carlo DiLanno in Myles Thatcher’s Frayed.

Erik Tomasson

Once in love with Amy

by Sura Wood

A

my Winehouse, the soulful British singer/ songwriter whom Tony Bennett once called the best jazz vocalist of her generation, had it all: a big, heart-rending voice, fame and success, none of which saved her from the inner demons that overtook her, or the downward spiral into drug and alcohol addiction that led to her death four years ago. Most of what is known about Winehouse comes from tabloids and magazines, her music, and most recently, Asif Kapadia’s heartbreaking documentary Amy. But who was this fragile, prodigiously talented young woman, mercilessly hounded by the paparazzi, whose autobiographical songs such as “Rehab,” “You Know I’m No Good” and “Back to Black” still haunt listeners, and whose life came to a tragic and very public end at the age of 27?

See page 22 >>

Portrait of Amy Winehouse by Mark Okoh, Camera Press London. Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait is on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

Courtesy CJM-SF

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

ASIAN ART MUSEUM

JUN 5–AUG 16, 2015 W W W. A S I A N A RT. O R G

#28CHINESE

28 Chinese is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Presentation at the Asian Art Museum is made possible with the generous support of China Art Foundation, Gorretti and Lawrence Lui, Silicon Valley Bank, The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Fund for Excellence in Exhibitions and Presentations, William Mathews Brooks, Lucy Sun and Warren Felson, and an anonymous donor. Media sponsor: The California Sunday Magazine.Image: Rain-washed Sky, 2008, by Lan Zhenghui (Chinese, b. 1959). Ink on Xuan paper mounted on canvas. Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami. © Lan Zhenghui.

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

Summer spirits in victuals & art

by Roberto Friedman

A

warm summer night earlier this month in San Francisco.

Out There and our personal-size pizza Pepi found our way down to the Embarcadero, invited to a dinner at the Americano restaurant in the Hotel Vitale.

Executive Chef Josua Perez’s menu concentrates on small plates and seasonal Italian cuisine. We started with bruschetta with grilled Pacific prawns and romesco, a Catalan sauce; and Monterey calamari and butter beans in a spiced tomato sauce with grilled bread. Our waiter brought us sampler plates of the house spaghetti with wild gulf shrimp and English peas, in tarragon and crème fraiche.

All was a definite yum.

Pepi had hanger steak with roasted mushrooms in bearnaise, with onion rings, while OT downed fried game hen with housemade kim chee in yogurt. All of this washed down

in art set all around the center’s indoor space and grounds, including the garden path, streetside loading bay, theater, Bay Gallery and Main Gallery. This year, Night Light doubled as “homage to the Bay Area’s rabble-rousers, trouble-makers, independents and outliers,” in conjunction with Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces, an exhibition on view in SOMArts’ Main Gallery through Aug. 20.

The gallery says it best: “Making a Scene spotlights a rich history of Bay Area artist-run, independent and alternative spaces, as well as the pioneers and contemporary trailblazers of social justice.” An Urban Masquerade Parade invoked the spirits of late gay art-makers Sylvester, Ed Mock, Marlon Riggs and other trailblazing artists. Self-described “ecoSexuals” Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens were there in the loading dock with their seven-monitor Pollination Pod, a mobile museum of alternative sexual identity that looked to us like a party van.

Among the attractions on view inside was Media Burn by Ant Farm (Chip Lord, Doug Michels, Curtis Schrier, Uncle Buddie), classic video art satirizing the media through spectacle. The piece includes footage of their legendary 1975 Independence Day performance at the Cow Palace in SF in which a pyramid of television sets was stacked, doused with kerosene, and set ablaze. Then a modified 1959 Cadillac El Dorado Biarritz, piloted by

with a Sonoma Cutter Chardonnay, a Brancott Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and one from Provenance in Napa Valley. Dessert was rhubarb upside-down cake with orange blossom strawberries for Pepi, and a scoop of vanilla gelato for OT. Americano has been one of our favorite goto spots ever since the Hotel Vitale opened.

Sometimes the outdoor patio overlooking the waterfront can be packed with partying groups, but the restaurant’s interior is always a model of calm. The fare, intriguing but unpretentious, suits our adventurous but unfussy palate. We’ll be back.

Light show

Then we were off to Night Light: Multimedia Garden Party 2015 at SOMArts Cultural Center, a night full of stimulating art installations, performances by 27 artists, and digital and cinematic projections by 30 artists. It was a celebration of light

<<

Amy Winehouse

From page 21

Through her favorite books (Nabokov, Dostoyevsky and Bukowski were on her reading list), her record collection, vintage memorabilia and numerous family photographs, Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait, a new exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, offers an intimate, unusually personal perspective of Winehouse’s brief life, seen through the loving eyes of her older brother; his poignant recollections, which serve as narration, appear throughout the gallery.

A bittersweet homage by a brother wanting to reclaim the sister he knew, this modest show, organized by the Jewish Museum London in close collaboration with the family, presents the private Amy, whose big

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Courtesy of Zeina Barakeh

Animation still from Scenarios of Breaking Down a Wall by Zeina Barakeh, part of Night Light at SOMArts Cultural Center.

two drivers, smashed through the pyramid, destroying the TV sets.

A real-time installation of a work

by American experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin, who uses found film footage to create one-ofa-kind environments, filled a sideroom. Another stalwart of the Bay Area art scene, René Yañez, founder and former Artistic Director of Galería de la Raza in the Mission District, exhibited archival material as well as an altar installation. Yañez was one of the first curators to introduce the concept of Mexico’s Day of the Dead to the US with a 1972 exhibition at the Galería; it contin-

ues to this day. Also exhibiting and of specifically LGBTQ interest were Pomo Afro Homos, the Queer Cultural Center, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. All good stuff. More info: somarts.org.

career and terrible troubles remain largely offstage. It highlights formative influences such as her beloved grandmother, Cynthia, who as a glamorous young bohemian in the 1950s dated jazz musician Ronnie Scott. She conveyed a passionate love of music to her young granddaughter, as well as a flair for fashion, though Amy’s signature beehive hairstyle and heavy eyeliner were borrowed from early 1960s American girl groups like the Ronettes. “I just dress like it’s still the 50s,” reads a quote in a section devoted to fashion that includes bare cocktail dresses that accentuated her tiny frame; a sexy polkadot halter number; a racer-back tank-top worn with leopard print cut-offs; and a pink satin, custom bowling jacket. A special glass case houses the strapless, Luella Bartley Midnight-blue, lotus-petal sequin mini-dress, paired with sky-high Christian Louboutin patent leather heels, which she wore for a performance at Glastonbury in 2008.

Wow! In another photo, a beaming

Amy, clearly reveling in the perks of stardom, poses beside a stack of shoeboxes.

Amy, the descendent of Eastern European Jews who immigrated to England in the late 1800s, grew up in the North London suburb of Southgate in a home filled with music. Her father, Mitch, a cabbie with thwarted musical ambitions who exploited his daughter’s success, listened to Frank Sinatra, and Alex introduced her to jazz pianist/composer Thelonious Monk. She soon developed sophisticated tastes for gospel, soul and jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and her musical hero, Tony Bennett.

‘Times’ goosed

Our favorite New York Times correction of the summer: “Because of an editing error, an article on July 5 about the return of fur to fashion runways rendered incorrectly the name of a coat with a coyote-trimmed hood.

It is made by the company Canada Goose; it is not a Canada goose coat.”

Honking right.t

See page 24 >>

On the web This week, find Victoria A. Brownworth’s column “Looking at race on the lavender tube” online at ebar.com.

NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER E M E RG ING ARTISTS PROG R AM P R E S E NTS

ADAPTED FROM THE PL AY SALOME BY OSCAR WILDE AND OPER A BY RICHARD STR AUSS

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Courtesy CJM-SF

A young Amy outside her Grandma’s flat in Southgate, photographer unknown. Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait is on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

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Theatre>>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Vulgarity with bubbles

by Richard Dodds

C

hampagne White is misunderstood and also mispronounced.

The newlywed is now Mrs. White Juan Spritzer, but mostly it’s White Wine Spritzer that gets served up.

But this ongoing annoyance for Champagne becomes secondary when, after nearly a day of holy matrimony, she becomes a widow framed for her husband’s murder.

Cue the musical sting. Champagne White, stripper-cum-detective, is back in business.

We first met the star of the seedy and spooge-festooned Sha-BoomBoom Room early last year, when Shit and Champagne became a runaway hit at Rebel Bar. A sequel was pretty much inevitable since D’Arcy Drollinger was not only the star but also the author, director, and a primary producer. A lot of arm-twisting was probably not needed to bust out the Champagne once again, this time at Oasis. The flavor of Champagne White and the Temple of Poon is slightly smoother than its predecessor, but it is still a brut – to pillage one of the show’s abundant puns.

Let’s say it is the bouquet that has mostly changed, from fecal to flora, as the earlier plot had Champagne tracking down drug dealers who hooked their clients with “booty bumps” of crystal meth that came with unfortunate soiling side effects.

Now it’s a line of designer body fragrances – including pumpkin spice potpourri crafted especially for what Oprah likes to call her “vajayjay” – and more sinisterly, an addictive new brand of perfume that turns its users into raving addicts.

The new show doesn’t have the same oh-no-they-didn’t shock effect, but the laughs come at you from all directions amid gasp-worthy vulgarity that, paradoxically, can also be both childish and childlike.

After all, the villain of the piece is harvesting G-spots from the inmates at her lady prison as a part of a plot to rule the world. For victims of a G-spot-ectomy, all body odors disappear and not even pumpkin spice potpourri can aromatize a vajayjay.

Returning to the role of Champagne White, Drollinger rules the stage as the flashy, vulgar, outspoken blonde babe with martial arts skills in addition to her talent as an ecdysiast. Her plans to quit the stripper’s life are sidetracked when once again confronted by her archnemesis. That would be Pixie Pardonne Moi, known as Dixie Stampede in Shit and Champagne, who has rebranded herself as purveyor of a perfume made for huffing and collector of those magical pearls from furry clams.

Blessedly, Matthew Martin is back as the fiend, providing Drollinger with a worthy foil who can knock

Gareth Gooch

D’Arcy Drollinger, left, and James Arthur must face the judge (Steven LeMay) after being framed for murder in Champagne White and the Temple of Poon at Oasis.

out opponents with a chorus-line high kick and tap dance in a gorilla outfit when necessary. Martin creates instant power as the devilwears-Prada villainess, and also gets to do a fun turn as an orange-is-thenew-black cellblock mama. Steven LeMay is another welcome returnee from the first Champagne show, playing four roles but most memorably Champagne’s gal-pal Mandy, inspiring a ridiculously funny dance routine set to Barry Manilow’s song of the same name.

A third repeater is Nancy French, as a stripper and announcer of

scenes who demonstrates the skill needed for acting bored in a comic way. James Arthur creates his own swirl of comic energy as Champagne’s snap-queen confidant Sergio, and Adam Roy plays the straight man, as it were, as a cop with the hots for Champagne.

Drollinger’s script gleefully grabs at whatever low-hanging humor is available, much of it from a 70s television and movie mentality.

Some jokes get big laughs, some seem happy enough with groans, and there are but a few that elicit the dreaded sounds of silence. Some

the composer’s lifelong penchant for mixing moody dramatics with tuneful songs.

Aging divas or college kids with lots of bad makeup have usually tackled the neurotic title role, but time has not been kind to the threadbare score, and without strong directorial help, the banality of the libretto is simply unsatisfactory. Director Peter Kazaras couldn’t make much of the story of a charlatan who falls victim to her own scam, and his lack of vision left the small cast to their own devices in making sense of the shaky scenario.

Conductor Mark Morash was more helpful, leading the orchestra in a confident performance that supported the singers without swamping them, and adding some rhythmic drive.

Mezzo-soprano Nicole Woodward is too young for the role of Madame Flora, and she was not helped by a lack of acting believability. The part often reverts to cruel spoken passages, and Woodward’s shrill delivery was unconvincing.

Her voice, however, is up to the composer’s demands, and she ultimately triumphed with a strong portrayal of the character’s mental decline in her big final aria.

Soprano Madison Leonard, as the medium’s daughter Monica, tossed off the highlight “Monica’s Waltz” (even Renee Fleming has recorded it) with accuracy and a pleasing tone. Her acting duties were also executed well.

The role of the mute gypsy boy Toby was performed by Australian tenor Alasdair Kent (though Menotti could have asked for any vocal register). He did the best he could under the circumstances, and was rewarded for his efforts later when he actually got to sing in Gianni Schicchi.

Watch the YouTube video of the elderly opera if you really want to know what atmospherics can do for The Medium. We suspect director Kazaras was distracted, using all his energy on Puccini in this production. His energy paid off big-time with a rowdy, tightly drilled and genuinely funny take on the beloved

composer’s witty and jaundiced view of a venal bourgeois Florentine family and their reaction to the exclusionary will of a rich dead relative.

Kazaras moved the action forward to 2014, and made the family a hilarious collection of Eurotrash stereotypes, including a loathsome tween-ager taking selfies with his uncle’s dead body, and a chainsmoking, stiletto-heeled in-law taking the deceased’s pulse.

The biggest comic joy in the belly-laugh-filled show was South Korean baritone Kihun Yoon in the title role. Wearing jogging gear and a sweatband (that revealed matching gray temples when removed), he used his big, expressive voice and wonderful comic timing to actually make us root for the rather nasty character. At least we could understand his plea to the audience when, in a Weekend at Bernie’s moment, he sat with the dead Buoso and asked for our indulgence of his actions as really just an attempt to salvage his daughter’s romance.

The ensemble was uniformly inspired, and they delivered Puccini’s

scenes are just too short to create comedic momentum, and no doubt add extra challenges for the furious backstage changes in and out of Tria’s costumes. Cast and crew do get occasional respites with surprisingly slick large-screen videos produced by Richard Neveu that culminate in a Bullitt-style chase scene through the streets of San Francisco.

Champagne White and the Temple of Poon is designed to take advantage of any missed lines, bungled sound cues, and occasional shoutouts from the audience. Director Drollinger doesn’t seem to discourage actors from letting the audience know they are on the verge of breaking up when something goes awry, but caution must be applied before spontaneous break-ups begin to feel part of the program.

These occasional indulgences aside, the new adventures of Champagne White are one big happy hoot. And this time, for me at least, the vague sense of nausea produced by the previous show is gone along with the booty-bump skid marks.

Of course, we don’t want any future Champagne installment to be actually tamed. This bubbly is best served lewd, shrewd, and merrily skewed.t Champagne White and the Temple of Poon will run at Oasis through Sept. 12. Tickets are $25-$35. Call (415) 795-3180 or go to sfoasis.com.

Young singers served by intimacy

by Philip Campbell

T

he Merola Opera Program’s summer festival recently offered two one-act operas on an enticing double bill at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason. If ever there were an example of the importance of the valued organization and its renowned success rate, this was especially impressive. The charming Cowell, with its gracious staff and fabulous location (oh, that view of the Golden Gate!), is not the perfect venue for fully-staged opera (there is no orchestra pit), but the intimacy of the house serves the young singers well, and the excellent sightlines and use of supertitles also help capacity crowds to enjoy every precious minute.

Choosing Gian Carlo Menotti’s

hoary exercise in occult lunacy The Medium to open the bill proved inept, but at least it offered a strong contrast to the winning second half.

Puccini’s tight little farce Gianni Schicchi deserves and got a thoroughly satisfying performance that showed just what fresh talent can do when the material is solid to begin with.

Menotti used to hold sway many years ago as an American composer even if his provenance and musical language remained steadfastly Italian. His rather simple writing is undeniably attractive and listenable, sort of watered-down Puccini with an occasional dissonance thrown in for a “modern” touch. The Medium was an early work that enjoyed success as a television broadcast on Studio One in 1948, and it showed

Kristen Loken

Monica (Madison Leonard) looks on as Madame Flora (Nicole Woodward) goes into a trance in Menotti’s The Medium, presented by the Merola Opera Program at the Cowell Theater.

punchlines and Kazaras’ sight gags to perfection. As the young lovers, soprano Cree Carrico and tenor Christopher Bozeka excelled with large-scale lyrical voices that will certainly fill the War Memorial easily as the Merola season concludes.

Her lovely aria “O mio babbino caro” was accomplished exquisitely, still including the knowing wink, and Bozeka’s big voice as Rinuccio rivaled Yoon’s for audience approval.

We couldn’t neglect mentioning the trio of women Tara Curtis, Kathryn Bowden and Ashley Dixon for their marvelous contributions, but everyone onstage (and in the orchestra) deserved the extended ovation. The only pity was the show was only scheduled for two performances. That might be an inducement for opera-lovers and anyone on the lookout for new talent to seek tickets for the Merola production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale coming up at the Cowell Theater in early August. The Merola Grand Finale comes later in the month, Saturday, August 22 at the War Memorial Opera House.t

<< Film

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

Philosophical conundrum

by David Lamble

U

ntil Irrational Man, the new Woody Allen thriller/comedy about a philosophy professor who discovers he needs to murder a stranger in order to feel more completely alive, I’d never especially cottoned to the actor Joaquin Phoenix. Lacking the life-altering beauty of his late brother River, Joaquin appeared to be the emotional equivalent of a clenched fist, a seemingly reluctant performer, not naturally drawn to the sometimes awkward exposure of the camera that is part of the brutal bargain leading to film-world stardom.

In Irrational Man, Phoenix becomes the latest of Woody’s latematuring philosopher heroes, in this case a man stuck unhappily in the philosophy department of a small New England liberal arts college.

As with most of Woody’s reluctant boys-into-men, Abe Lucas is more hung up about his inadequacies in the bedroom than in the classroom.

“I haven’t been able to perform in a year. I can’t write, I can’t breathe!”

This confession to a student (Emma

Stone) leads Abe to a desperate act that hearkens to that cranky old 19th-century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This very Woody version of a Dostoyevskian madman is pitched in precisely the way most likely to appeal to the director’s loyal fans, while predictably infuriating Woody-haters.

Abe is by no means the finest of Woody’s existential everyman. He lacks the brooding intensity of Martin Landau’s family physician who gets away with the murder of his female lover through sheer chutzpah (Crimes and Misdemeanors), the incendiary good looks and sexual charisma of Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ homicidal tennis pro (Match Point), and the high spirits and annihilating self-absorption of Cate Blanchett’s downwardly mobile divorcee (Blue Jasmine). Abe is at best an idiot savant in the high-stakes game of murder as a means of personal growth. It doesn’t require a spoiler alert to tip you off to the fact that this guy is going to fall and fall hard for his crimes. The pleasure of Irrational Man comes in experi-

Sabrina Lantos, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Left to right: Emma Stone as Jill and Joaquin Phoenix as Abe in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man.

encing that unraveling with all the obligatory pratfalls. Since we’re on campus, it’s appropriate to declare that this Woody passes muster with at best a gentlemanly “C” grade.

Woody does once more come through for his female performers, with memorable licks provided

by Emma Stone and Parker Posey as the women in Abe’s life. Also, the handsome young British actor Jamie Blakely is quite fetching as a young student essentially cockblocked by Abe’s hoarding all the eligible women on campus.

The years have taken their toll on

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Woody along with his still vigorous fan-base. Since the train wreck of his breakup with former muse/lover Mia Farrow, Woody has been forced to shop each new script around to the ever-growing ranks of this new century’s new faces. Some of the results have been Oscar-caliber brilliance. Others, like Phoenix, merely get the job done. As with 1995’s vastly superior Mighty Aphrodite, this is a Woody comedy where the creator feels the need to use a chorus of voices to clue us into aspects of Abe’s character either underwritten or underwhelming as performed.

Cheer up, Woody lovers, help is on the way. Next year’s entry will feature the awesome young comic performer Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg seemed very much at home in his first outing as the young man with double female trouble in 2012’s To Rome with Love. This is an artistic marriage that one could feel coming ever since the Queens, NY-born performer’s breakout turn as a Woody-worthy nervous kid in Noam Baumbach’s family gem The Squid and the Whale.t

Considering the Queen of Camelot

by Brian Bromberger

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story by Barbara Leaming; Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, $27.99 n the last paragraph of his unflattering best-selling biography of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis 25 years ago, C. David Heymann wrote of his subject as an everlasting mystery. “One question remains: What is Jackie really like?

And the answer is: We may never truly know.” In her new biography of Jackie, Barbara Leaming suggests she has solved the enigma by showing that after the assassination of her husband Jack, much of her behavior can be explained by the fact that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Leaming lists all the symptoms Jackie exhibited that are telltale signs of PTSD: overwhelming sadness, depression, constant flashbacks and reliving the trauma over and over again, nightmares, negative reactions to noise and crowds, drinking, and thoughts of suicide. Nine months after Dallas, Jackie described herself as “a living wound.”

Leaming makes a persuasive case that in the devastating murder of Jack “everything she had painstakingly created and made herself known had been snatched away in an instant.” Jackie was tortured by the irrational erroneous obsession that in the 8.5 seconds in-between the first and third shots, she could

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<<

Amy Winehouse

From page 22

A short video in the exhibition of a rambunctious teenage Amy, already a charismatic stage presence, fronting a concert at theater school, where she briefly matriculated, and the images of a healthy, full-faced rebellious girl smiling back in photographs are quite a contrast to the troubled young woman whose unraveling played out in the relentless glare of flashbulbs. But if you’re looking for clues in her family history as to what led to her addiction, her disastrous taste in men, or the bulimia that reduced her petite physique to skeletal proportions, you won’t find it here.

Her parents’ divorce, for instance, isn’t even mentioned. Neither will you hear her songs inside the gallery, though a video of her performance of “Back to Black,” delivered at a

have saved her husband.

Her Chanel dress soaked in blood and holding Jack’s brains in her hands, Jackie’s life was irrevocably altered.

Leaming’s book is not a full-scale biography of Jackie. If you want a detailed, salacious outlay of her entire life, this is not the book to read. Leaming has two short chapters on her background before Jack, another skimpy one on the White House years, but the majority of her analysis focuses on Dallas and the hellish year following the assassination, where in addition to starting a new post-First Lady life as a single mother of two children and being hounded by the media and the public, Jackie had to contend with Pres. Lyndon Johnson’s and brotherin-law Robert Kennedy’s attempts to use her for political purposes. In that first year, she repeatedly said, “I consider my life over, and will spend the rest of my life waiting for it really to be over.”

Leaming paints an overall picture of a hard, mostly sad existence: the acrimonious divorce of her parents that drove a wedge between Jackie and her philandering bisexual father Black Jack; a largely (until the last month) unfulfilling marriage to a man often absent, frequently ill, and perpetually unfaithful to the point

of humiliation; and the loss of two babies, plus an earlier miscarriage.

Then there is the disastrous union with her second husband Aristotle Onassis, and an unsuccessful attempt to provide safety and security for her and her children after Robert Kennedy’s assassination sent her fleeing from those awful Dallas memories.

Leaming’s depiction is mostly sympathetic, but Jackie is revealed

small concert in Dingle, Ireland, in 2006, when she was at the height of her powers, plays at the entry to the show. The justification for leaving her music out of the equation, made by the London-based curator and her brother, is they wanted to create a space Amy would have been comfortable living in. But the choice robs the experience of a potent energy resource. The raw emotional power of her voice, which can move listeners to the edge of their seats, is why most of us care and mourn her loss, and it’s the raison d’etre for an exhibition.

Although overly long, Kapadia’s documentary provides a broader, more nuanced portrait and trajectory of an ambitious, vulnerable young woman who lived fast and died young, through clips and grainy home movies from childhood on, observations from Amy’s former manager, and early, live-performance

footage that’s electrifying. The film also makes viewers inadvertently complicit in the humiliating spectacle of her meltdown, as she’s exploited by hangers-on, like the drug-addicted parasite of a husband whom she loved beyond reason, or when she falls down drunk during a concert gig, with the paparazzi, like a pack of hyenas, never far behind, driving her half-mad. Trying to escape the horde, she takes an island vacation, only to have her father show up with a film crew in tow. In the movie’s most touching scene, where she’s in the studio recording a duet with Bennett, she’s flustered and as jittery as a high-strung thoroughbred. Recognizing her anguish, the seasoned, generous old pro gently coaxes and reassures her, bringing her back to her art. Maybe, with age and maturity, she could have found her way there, but time ran out.

as a real woman with vices, especially emotional coldness, snobbery, and shopaholicism. The widow whose emotional control at Jack’s funeral became a symbol of resolute strength that helped heal the country was later branded almost a traitor for deserting America when she moved to Greece with Onassis. It was only toward the final five years of her life that she regained the legend/icon status she enjoyed in the 1960s. By then she had created her own life; become an accomplished book editor; found happiness with another wealthy (though married) man, financier Maurice Templesman; and, with money from Onassis’ estate, built her own mansion on Martha’s Vineyard.

In 1980 at a New York City dinner party, when asked by gay British poet Stephen Spender what she considered her greatest achievement, Jackie replied, “I think it is that after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane. I am proud of that.”

Her victory over the assassination trauma came by her being able to rigidly control her surroundings and her life, a necessary healing element for PTSD according to Leaming. One missing element in her book is the critical role motherhood played in

her recovery. Also, Leaming downplays the feminist interpretation of a woman who finally rejected her finishing school Miss Porter’s indoctrination of the debutante using her acquired knowledge and graces in service of a rich and successful husband; and began to rely on herself, rather than the older, powerful men who surrounded her with adoring gazes and bulging wallets.

Jackie has always been a gay icon.

Certainly her beauty, charm, elegant taste, and diva manner contributed to that status, as did the media who constructed her. She was instrumental in creating the false Camelot image of the Kennedy years and her own role as queen. Twenty-one years after her death from nonHodgkin’s lymphoma (the cancer she couldn’t control) at 64, we are still intrigued by this woman, perhaps forever frozen in time, stuck in that lapsed moment of the Zapruder film, condemned to sit forever in that doomed motorcade beside her martyred husband. For all Leaming’s claims to having found the tabula rasa to unlock Jackie’s aura, she remains a Sphinx. Outside of the post-assassination interviews she gave to Theodore White and William Manchester to help shape posterity’s historical assessment of Kennedy, she never spoke to the press, only adding to her mystique. That deafening silence, perhaps standing in for her dead husband, appeals to LGBTQ people, who for many years were shushed up, unable to reveal their true selves.t

‘No Good’

Smith, who appears in the guise of a grinning, cigarette-smoking, derby-wearing canine piano player.

It’s always worth going out of one’s way to keep up with the wickedly imaginative, dark-side-of-themirror work of the wonderful San Francisco artist Jennie Ottinger. In her installation “Mouth to Mouth” (2015), she takes on the wholesale appropriation of black music by whites and the African-American chanteuses whose legacy Winehouse built upon, through dolllike cut-outs of girl groups like the Supremes and the Ronettes, along with dismembered body parts – feet, calves and mouths open in song – that are pasted on the wall.t

In You Know I’m No Good, a small companion show also at CJM, three contemporary artists train their sights on the flip side of celebrity, deconstructing the Amy Winehouse phenomenon with wit and wisdom. New York-based Rachel Harrison’s colored pencil drawings portray Amy with outsized purple or blue hair in the company of artists ranging from Picasso and Willem de Kooning to Gertrude Stein. Local artist Jason Jagel, who has designed cover art for rap and R&B musicians, has contributed three works including “Crepuscule with Another Amy” (2015), a cartoonish fictional history referencing figures in black American music that shaped the foundation for Amy’s persona and singing style, like Thelonious Monk and Harlem stride pianist Willie “The Lion”

You Know I’m No Good and Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait run concurrently through Nov. 1 at CJM-SF.

Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secret language Immerse yourself in the colors of nature. Discover how color can attract, warn, camouflage and communicate in this vibrant new exhibit.

Get tickets at calacademy.org Generously supported by

COL_BayAreaReporter_9.75x16.indd 1

7/28/15 2:48 PM

<< Books

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

Midnighter’s writer

by Gregg Shapiro

G

ay comic-book readers and fanboys rejoice. Midnighter has arrived, or returned, depending on your perspective. Launched in early June just in time for Pride month, the Midnighter series, written by out writer Steve Orlando, heralds the first gay male superhero to headline a mainstream comic. If Midnighter’s name is familiar, he’s been around and gay since the late 1990s, marrying his husband Apollo in 2002. But in the hands of gay writer Orlando, and with his own saga, Midnighter is going to be doing things he’s never done before, and going places he’s never been.

Gregg Shapiro: Do you remember the first comic book you ever read?

Steve Orlando: Yes I do, actually.

It was West Coast Avengers #16. It features Hellcat and Tigra having a fight over who gets to be Tigra, and was called A Tale of Two Kitties.

Did it have a profound effect on you?

Yes, but comics in general have.

That was a book I bought at a flea market in New York. It’s not like it was a new-run book, like on new comic-book day. But the excitement and what I now know as the modern-day takes on myth (at the time I thought it was cool, people punching each other) appealed to me. It drove me to buying more modern books. When you’re young you don’t know a lot of things, and I didn’t realize they were making new versions of these things. Once I walked into a Waldenbooks, which I think is a fossil company now, and started buying comics off the spinner rack, I got into the serialized aspect and discovered a kind of storytelling that I really enjoy.

Do you describe yourself as a comic-book geek?

Maybe more of an evangelist about why new people should try

Russian gay-bashing

comics. I’m often the nerdiest guy in the room. I’ve sometimes brought up characters in editorial that are deep in the book. Those are the characters I love. There are no really bad characters, they just haven’t found the right take yet. I do love digging deep in the book and finding something that can have new life breathed into it.

For people who aren’t comicbook fans but are excited about the prospect of Midnighter, a gay character, having his own book, where can they go to get the complete back story?

All you’d really need to do is read any of the collections that put together The Authority, Issues 1-12.

You can buy it on your iPad or phone, or find it in hard copy, The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. They’re the creators of the character. If you wanted extra credit, you could get the previous volume of Stormwatch from 1998, the character’s first appearance. If you wanted extra extra credit you could read select issues of the previous Midnighter series before the character was bought by DC Comics. I specifically like Midnighter 8 by Christos Gage and John Paul Leon. It’s a story like the one we’re doing in the book now, it acknowledges his grander scheme as this world-exploiting character, but it’s also a very human story, it understands the caring underneath his violent exterior. If you read all of those, you’d be fantastic.

What’s the genesis of the name Midnighter?

When I read it, I always thought they were playing off Batman and Superman. Superman is the sun god, so you have Apollo. I took Midnighter as being a play on the opposite. Midnighter also means when you’re working overnight or starting at Midnight. When Warren was creating the character, it seemed as though he was going for these primal-type names. Saying them evokes the primal sense of the character. Midnighter is the last guy you want to see in the middle of the night. That’s what the character, and I think his name, is about.

Midnighter was in a long-term relationship that has since ended.

Yes, before the character was bought by DC and integrated into the DC Universe, he was in a longterm relationship.

by David Lamble

W

atching Jonathan Taieb’s seductively lensed Moscow crime drama Stand (TLAReleasing) reveals an attractive young Russian male couple, Anton and Vlad. One evening, while driving home to their Moscow apartment, the boys hear a loud sound in a park next to the snowcovered highway. Vlad (Andrey Kurganov) demands they stop the car and investigate. Anton (Renat Shuteev) is nervous about straying off the path in a city where anti-gay hooligans prowl the streets and spew forth their visceral hatred of “fags” on the nightly TV news. Later Anton and Vlad learn that a young man was brutally beaten to death that night, and the local police haven’t a clue as to his killers.

Stand, written by Constance Fishbach & Frederic Jean-Jacques, then dissolves into a drama that is part erotically charged (Anton and Vlad’s night bed-romps) and part Russian Hardy Boys-style detective tale. The plot slips into a higher gear when Anton and Vlad discover where the victim’s mother resides.

The spikey-haired Anton whis-

pers to his blond-haired boyfriend: “Are you ready?”

“Always ready.” They ring the bell and enter the yard of the dead boy’s mother. “But let me do the talking.”

The mother opens her door.

Vlad speaks. “We’re here about Nicolay. Our names are Anton and Vladislav. We’d like to help you concerning your son’s death.

Do you have a moment to talk?”

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“We’re journalists, and we’d like to find out who committed this crime.”

“There’s nothing to find out.”

The mother slams the door in their faces. As Anton and Vlad trudge back through the snow, they hear a tapping at the side window. A young woman hurls an object their way. The note reads, “I’m his sister. I can help you.”

Stand draws us into a criminal/ cultural investigation that is both scary and riveting. The script has references to both new-fangled techno toys (Google glasses, anyone?) and old-fashioned Russianstyle thuggery. The ending is stunning as well as extremely depressing. One of a kind!

Widescreen Stereo Dolby Digital, Russian, English subtitles.t

t

He is now single and playing the field. Is it necessary for Midnighter to take any precautions when being intimate with others, or is he immune from STDs? Definitely not. There is a shot of him using condoms and being safe. I think it’s important to know that he’s being safe, but I think it’s important to have a sex-positive book because it’s a problem that’s coming up in the community. There’s nothing wrong with confident gay male sexuality.

In the context of the story, when you met Apollo and Midnighter in 1998 they were already together off-page for five years. The fact is, real relationships are work, and sometimes people move too fast. From my point of view, since Apollo was Midnighter’s first boyfriend ever, I love the way they bounce off each other. You get to see how they learned to become the people they are.

Is there a target audience for the Midnighter series?

We are looking to give a sort of icon to the queer community. It’s vitally important that he’s a gay man in the book. The messages I’ve been getting from people since Issue 1 came out have been wonderful, people saying they didn’t have the strength to come out and after they read the book they were able to. People have said that they’ve

Courtesy DC Comics

Scenes from writer Steve Orlando’s Midnighter series.

been waiting 30 years to see someone like them lead a book. To me, that’s what comics should do. In the 1930s it was Superman. He was an immigrant, and we had a strong immigrant population saying, “This guy’s fighting for us!” In the 60s you had Peter Parker [Spiderman], who had all of these superpowers, but had trouble with his girlfriend.

A reader could think, “Oh, he has problems just like me.” You pick up this pop-culture myth, and wow, you can see yourself in it. That wow moment is something that everyone deserves. This is something for the queer community. That’s comics doing the job of comics. At the same time, I don’t want people to read the book simply because it has a gay male lead. That implies there’s not anything else interesting about him.

Do you listen to music while you draw?

My true understanding of Midnighter is related to music and to punk. If you’ve read interviews with Henry Rollins, he talks about how people always ask him if he’s gay. I read one where he finally said, “If I was gay, it wouldn’t be a problem. If I was gay, there wouldn’t be a closet.

I would have exploded the closet and kicked down the door and used the shard to stab someone in the face.” That broke me and how I understand Midnighter today. There’s no closet for him. He’s out as a gay man, as a superhero. He’s not lying about himself ever, he never does.

On a day-to-day basis, I have really weird habits as to what I’m listening to. A lot of people need silence.

For whatever reason, I listen to a fair amount of white noise. I’ll put on long dramas that I don’t have to worry about, so I can calm my mind and focus it. Lou Reed was a strong

influence when I was trying to find a point of view for the character. Lou is a good role model for Midnighter.

He was experimented on as a youth, and his past is robbed, and that’s what turned him into Midnighter.

Lou Reed was given electroshock therapy when he was young. There’s a through-line there.

Between Fun Home and Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, non-traditional illustrated characters are having an impact on theater. What do you think about that?

I think it’s great! Comic characters are like these pop-culture totems. Comic books are their natural habitats, but seeing them break out into other mediums is not a bad thing. Movies are a communal experience, and the same goes for theater. Seeing that these characters can do great in places other than comic books is great. You’re bringing the characters’ themes to a new medium, allowing people to experience them with other people.

If there’s a Midnighter movie, who would you want to play the lead?

I’ve seen people online saying they would like to see it be Tom Hardy. Probably because he’s reportedly had same-sex experience and likes to take seminude selfies and commits himself to roles. That would be a great idea. When I first started thinking about it, I took the easy answer and thought it might be fun for Matt Bomer to play him because he’s like a Greek god. I think I like Hardy more because there is an edginess and danger to Midnighter that I think he could get across. Matt Bomer is gorgeous, but he looks like he should be piloting a yacht instead of blowing one up.t

t

Fine Art>>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Alexander the Great & Greek love

by Tavo Amador

Philip was assassinated, perhaps by a former male lover, one of several the king had. The challenges facing Alexander were extraordinary. Yet he retained the loyalty of his nobles and his soldiers, and expanded his empire. At his death, however, it was divided among his key generals.

Even Alexander’s critics acknowledge his brilliance as a military strategist, and heroic, indeed inspiring, leader of armies. There is less agreement about how he would have governed his vast, multi-ethnic empire had he lived longer. Did he want to unify diverse peoples? Is that why he ordered his aides and soldiers to marry Persian women?

He himself married an Afghanistani chieftain’s daughter. Was this why, to the dismay of the Macedonians, he adopted Persian clothing, including pants? Or were these necessary to maintain order while he pursued his insatiable ambition to conquer as many lands as possible? He stopped at India, but only when forced by his weary soldiers to turn back.

Equally controversial is his personal life, specifically his relationship with his lifelong intimate, Hephaestion (356-324 BC). Was he, in a modern sense, “homosexual?”

The question isn’t easily answered, since “homosexuality” and “hetero-

A

ristotle tutored him. He became king of Macedonia at 20. At 30, his unprecedented military victories made him ruler of an empire stretching from modernday Greece southward to Egypt and eastward to India. He founded many cities, most notably Alexandria, and spread Hellenistic civilization. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) is among the most famous and controversial figures in history, and in the West, probably the bestknown ancient ruler. Sadly, all the information we have about him is from authors writing centuries after his death, although they based their works on older, and in some cases contemporary material.

He was born in Macedonia. His father, Philip the Great, was an outstanding military leader who envisioned conquering Persia. He subjugated Athens, Thebes, Sparta, and other Greek city-states. Alexander’s mother, Olympias, was one of Philip’s many wives. Their marriage was a political alliance, but they clashed.

Fiercely independent and ambitious for her son, Olympias must have been remarkable, or else little would be known about her.

Macedonian politics were violent.

Classical busts of Alexander the Great and Hephaestion: lovers.

sexuality” as social constructs didn’t exist before the 19th century. Romantic relationships between men in the ancient world were commonplace, dating back to Minoan Crete (2700 BC-1400 BC). They flourished in Periclean Athens (ca. 400 BC), Sparta, and Thebes, among other city-states. They may be described as homoerotic. No shame was attached to them. Indeed, they were the idealization of romantic love. Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Poseidon, and Herakles had boyfriends.

Pairs of male lovers fought in the armies of Thebes and Sparta. These relationships likely included a sexual component.

Often, these homoerotic relationships were between a young man in his 20s and a teenage boy, theoretically pre-pubescent. Because they have been traditionally presented that way, many writers have argued that Alexander and Hephaestion, who were the same age, weren’t lovers. But James Davidson in The Greeks and Greek Love (Random

House, 2007) demonstrates that male couples frequently were peers.

For example, lovers Harmodius and Aristogeiton (d. 514 BC) killed Hipparchus, an Athenian tyrant. In gratitude, the city erected a statue of the heroes near the temple of Olympian Zeus. The original no longer exists, but a Roman copy in the Archeological Museum in Naples depicts two handsome, muscular youths, both of whom are clearly post-pubescent.

Most ancient sources agree that Alexander was attracted to young men. According to Plutarch, Hephaestion was the man whom “Alexander loved most of all.” Their relationship was all-encompassing.

They drank, hunted, and campaigned together. Hephaestion acted as Alexander’s Chief of Staff.

It was most likely sexual.

Alexander claimed descent from his favorite hero, Achilles. In the Iliad, Achilles becomes enraged when his intimate companion, Patrocles, is killed. While Homer never explicitly calls them lovers, that is how they were perceived in antiquity. Achilles’ operatic grief over his beloved’s death implies they were lovers.

See page 29 >>

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<< Out&About

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 30-August 5, 2015

Thu 6

Out &About

O&A

Emily Brown/Catalyst @ ODC Theater

Thu 30 Barbary Coast Revue @ Balancoire The third season of the popular cabaret show returns, with Danny Kennedy as Mark Twain, a cast of diverse performers, and new guest performer Connie Champagne.

Thursdays weekly thru September. $14-$64. 8pm. 2565 Mission St. at 22nd. www.BarbaryCoastRevue.com

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh Echo Brown’s comic solo show follows a young women’s impending sexual encounter, and its political implications. $20-$35. Thu 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru Sept. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Club Inferno @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious rockin’ production of Kelly Kittell and Peter Fogel’s glam rock musical spin on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, where the road to fame can be hell, literally! $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru Sept. 12. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 3774202. www.hypnodrome.org

Each and Every Thing @ The Marsh Solo performer Dan Hoyle returns with his acclaimed show about about the slow-tech movement and how personal interactions outweigh technology. $20-$100. Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm. Thru Aug. 22. Mainstage Theater, 1062 Valencia St. at 21st.

282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Judy Gold @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Emmy Award-winning actress, writer and comedian returns with her latest batch of insightful wit and comedy. $25-$40. 8pm. ($20 food/ drink min.). Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.judygold. com www.ticketweb.com

Our Lady J @ Oasis The Gospel of Dolly, the fab chanteuse’s tribute to Dolly Parton, with a gospel choir! $20. 10pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Obscura @ La Val’s Subterranean, Berkeley Christian Cagigal returns with his touching solo show about family, magic, and tales of the occult; it includes some amazing sleight of hand. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 8. 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. www.impacttheatre.com

SF International Jewish Film Festival @ Castro Theatre Festival of feature, short and documentary films, by and/or about Jewish people around the world. $15 and up. Thru Aug. 9. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

W. Kamau Bell @ The Marsh, Berkeley Acclaimed comic and commentator performs Home by 10, his solo show about current events. Partial proceeds benefit Hearts Leap Preschool. $15$50. Thursdays, 8pm. Thru July 30.

2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Risk is this

by Jim Provenzano

E

njoy a splashy array of traditional, innovative and edgy arts events this week. For rock concert and cabaret-type stuff, go to www.ebar.com and On the Tab in the BARtab nightlife section.

Fri 31 Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.).

421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Company @ SF Playhouse Local production of the classic 1970s Stephen Sondheim musical about a perpetually single Robert and his notso-happily married friends. $35-$12.

Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 12. 450 Post St. 6779596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Fiddler on the Roof @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley

Pacific Worlds @ Oakland Museum

Berkeley Playhouse’s production of Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s worldwide hit musical about a Russian Jewish family and their hard-lost traditions at the turn of the century. $25-$60. Fri 7pm, Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Thru Aug. 2. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. berkeleyplayhouse.org

New exhibit focuses on the contemporary lives of and historic cultures of Pacific Islanders and California; thru Jan. 3. Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact thru Sept 20.

Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Freedomland @ Various Venues

The Printer’s Eye @ Asian Art Museum

SF Mime Troupe’s musical satire of government invasions and political corruption; also at multiple Bay Area locales thru Sept. 7. www.sfmt.org

The Printer’s Eye: Ukiyo-e, from the Grabhorn Collection. Other fascinating exhibits as well. Free (members, kids 12 and under)-$15. Tue-Sun 10am5pm. 200 Larkin St. asianart.org

Heather Brandeburg @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents the talented New York singer, who performs her Streisand tribute concert, My Favorite Barbra. Cocktails and spmall plates available. $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Justin Sayre @ Oasis The witty comic performer returns with The Meeting, his hilarious parody of “the gay agenda.” $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Romeo and Juliet @ Various Venues San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s annual summer outdoor performances begin with the classic tragic romance.

Fri-Sun 7:30pm. Various venues thru Sept. www.sfshakes.org

Pamela Z @ Royce Gallery

Fri 31

Company @ SF Playhouse

Sally Kellerman @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran actress and singer performs her new cabaret show, A Little Jazz, A Little Blues, A Little Rock and Roll. $25-$40. 7pm. ($20 food/ drink min.). Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. ticketweb.com

Showcase of vintage postcards and 1000s of other items. Free. 10am6pm. Also Aug. 2, 11am-5pm. 9th Ave at Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park. www.vintagepaperfair.com

Top Girls @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

Exdysis: The Molting of a Cucarachica @ Galeria de la Raza

Sat 1 Anne Deavere Smith @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre The award-winning performer presents her solo show, Notes From the Field: Doing Time in Education, the California Chapter; with music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby. $25-$89. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm, Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 2. Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley.

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

Darth Vader and Friends @ Cartoon Art Museum Exhibit of original artwork from the amusing Star Wars comic books by Jeffrey Brown. Thru Sept. 12. Other exhibits, also thru Sept. 655 Mission St. www.cartoonart.org

30 Years of Collecting Art That Tells Our Stories @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit of collected drawings, paintings and sculptures from three decades of queer donations, guestcurated by Elisabeth Cornu. Free (members)-$5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

New Works Festival @ Thick House 3Girls Theatre Company’s 4th annual showcase is themed Risky Women: Having Fun and Wreaking Havoc, with more than a dozen new stage plays and solo shows. Free/RSVP. Varuous times thru Aug. 9. 1695 18th St. www.3girlstheatre.org

Opening reception for Xandra Ibarra (aka Chica Boom)’s exhibit of costumes, photos, fake products, and other items as a form of parodic character disintegration. 6pm. WedSat 12pm-6pm (Sun til 5pm). Thru Sept. 6. 2857 24th St. www.galeriadelaraza.org

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s Season 6 of the music competition continues with the Best Male Crooner night. Bring sheet music for two songs. Russ Lorenson judges. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

Disney & Dali @ Walt Disney Family Museum New exhibit documenting the unlikely collaborations between Salvador Dali, the Surrealist artist and Walt Disney, the cartoon icon; curated

by Ted Nicolaou. Thru Jan. 3. Also, Tomorrowland and other exhibits. 104 Montgomery St, The Presidio. 3456800. www.waltdisney.org

Exdysis: The Molting of a Cucarachica @ Galeria de la Raza

Wed 5 Breaking the Code @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhino’s return engagement of Hugh Whitmore’s acclaimed stage play about the life and sad death of Alan Turing, the gay code-breaker credited with helping end World War II. $10-$30. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm.

Thru Aug. 8. 215 Jackson St. www.TheRhino.org

Follies @ Oasis Holotta Tymes hosts the new weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Man Francisco @ Oasis New all-male striptease revue with a storyline of San Francisco’s history, from the Gold Rush to the tech boom.

Weekly thru Sept. $20. 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Salome, Dance for Me @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Trixxie Carr’s beguiling solo musical show loosely based on Oscar Wilde’s play about the dancing biblical temptress. $20-$25. $90 includes private front row table and bottle of wine. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 29. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

Emily Brown/Catalyst @ ODC Theater The Bessie Award-winning choreographer’s new work Shore, about ancestry, nature and community, is performed. $30. Thu-Fri 8pm. Sat matinee. Thru Aug. 8. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. odcdance.org

Fantastic Negrito @ The Chapel

Fri 31 Del Shores @ New Conservatory Theatre

Tue 4 Barnaby’s Babes @ Oasis

Sun 2

Sat 1

Thu 6

Vintage Paper Fair @ SF County Fair Bldg.

The innovative musician-performer presents Memory Trace, a new work epxloring electronic aspects of memory. $10. Fri-Sun 8pm. 2901 Mariposa St. www.pamelaz.com

Shotgun Player’s production of Caryl Churchill’s witty play about an ‘80s British employment agency and its women through history. $5-$25. Wed 7pm. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Aug. 2. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley.

(510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Mon 3

A Family Portrait features images of and ephemera from the estate of the deceased soul singer; Thru Nov. 1. Other exhibits as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

The acclaimed gay playwright performs Singularly Sordid, his solo show art, life and love. $25-$40. 8pm.

Also Aug. 1. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

The inaugural performances at American Conservatory Theatre’s new satellite theatre; Carol Churchill’s kaleidoscopic play captures the dizzying array of electronic communication that helps and hinders true human connection. $40-$100.

Tue-Sat 7:30pm [note earlier curtain time]. Wed & Sat 2pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Aug. 9. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike to Bass Lake and Alamere Falls at Point Reyes National Seashore for spectacular views of the coast.

Carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. (510) 841-3826. www.sfhiking.com

Amy Winehouse @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

Del Shores @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Love and Information @ Strand Theater

SF Hiking Club @ Bass Lake

t

Burlesque, comedy and drag show with a variety of performers. $15-$25.

8pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

OUTspoken @ City Hall Outspoken: Portraits of LGBTQ Luminaries, an exhibit of photographs

by Roger Erickson. Ground floor, North Light Court. Thru Sept. 11. 1 Carlton B. Goodlet Place. www.sfgov.org

TransCuba, Jamil Hellu @ Rayko Photo Center Photo exhibit of the prints by Mariette Pathy Allen of Cuba’s transgender residents. Also, in the side gallery, Jamil Hellu’s Darrin, a series of homoerotic photos of his partner. Thru July 31. 428 3rd St. 495-3773. www.raykophotocenter.com

The amazing blues singer –traditionals sounds with contemporary lyricsperforms with his band. $15. 9pm.

777 Valencia St. www.fantasticnegrito.com www.thechapelsf.com

Hardcore Cronenberg @ YBCA Three months of weekly screenings of David Cronenberg’s artful unusual films. Thursdays 7:30pm, repeats Sundays 2pm. Thru Sept. 5. Free (members)-$8. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts screening room, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Luke James @ Yoshi’s Oakland The hot new “organic soul” singer performs at the stylish East Bay nightclub/restaurant. $24-$55. 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. officiallukejames.com yoshis.com To submit event listings, email events@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

t <<

Dance>>

July 30-August 5, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

SF Ballet

at a fête champêtre. For those 10 minutes I was riveted, didn’t notice anything but the dancers, and when Balanchine kept adding more and more dancers to the stage for the bombastic polonaise that finishes the thing off, and Vanessa Zahorian led her squad of kicking, turning, wheeling Rockette-like corps de ballet, with all those men doing double airtours, they set the audience on a roar.

This was followed by a sexy

adagio, Frayed, our first sight of the “contemporary” duet that helped SFB soloist Carlo DiLanno win the Erik Bruhn Prize in last year’s competition. His partner WanTing Zhao and the pianist Mongo Buriad helped sustain the mood of decorous lust in this well-crafted vehicle, made for them by the prolific and talented Myles Thatcher, who is also a gleaming dancer in the corps de ballet.

Then came Solo, a mercurial, perpetual-motion romp set to Bach that requires three human dancers to perform it, since doing the whole thing would kill anybody except Mercury himself. They were Wei Wang, James Sofranko, and the god-like Gennadi Nedvigin.

The show closed with a crowdpleaser, Val Caniparoli’s Lambarena, which fuses ballet with WestAfrican rib- and pelvic-isolations, and often achieves a spinal fluidity that is intoxicating to see. I don’t have the statistics, but Lambarena has entered the repertory of a huge number of dance companies and has become one of the most-performed contemporary ballets.

Caniparoli made the piece for the San Francisco Ballet’s United We Dance Festival in 1995, which commemorated the drafting and signing of the United Nations charter in the Opera House here in San Francisco at the end of World War II. (Hence UN Plaza.) The piece succeeds because it is a sincere and moving response to the music by Pierre Akendengué and Hughes de Courson, which is an electronic layering of traditional African music on top of music of J.S. Bach, created in homage to Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s work at the hospital he founded, Lambarena, in Gabon.

Many purists don’t like it, even (perhaps especially) those who do like the neo-classical ballets of Balanchine that incorporate a lot of

BC, after Alexander’s triumph in the Battle of Issus, Darius, Great King of Persia, fled, leaving his family, including the Queen Mother, behind.

When she and her attendants came before Alexander, she, noting that Hephaestion was taller and betterlooking, knelt before him. When advised of her mistake, she began apologizing, but Alexander elegantly comforted her, saying, “This one, too, is Alexander.”

Also left behind by the Great King was his boyfriend, the beautiful eu-

nuch Bagoas, who soon found his way into Alexander’s bed. Bagoas’ presence doesn’t rule out physical intimacy between Alexander and Hephaestion. In any case, they remained inseparable.

Nothing demonstrates Alexander’s passion for Hephaestion more than his reaction to his death. En route to Ecbatana in modern Iran, Hephaestion developed a virulent fever. After battling it for a week, he seemed better, but upon eating food, relapsed and died, suggesting he had

Typhoid. Alexander had thought he was improving, and thus was away.

He rushed back, but failed to arrive before he died.

Alexander’s grief was overwhelming. In a rage, he ordered Hephaestion’s doctor executed. He cut his own hair. He commissioned an enormous funeral pyre. Inconsolable, he drank excessively and wept uncontrollably. Hephaestion was given divine honors, and memorials to him were built. Alexander was planning more memorials when he

From page 21

Under these circumstances, the ballet’s light-hearted program seemed perfect summer-festival fare – especially since it’s, as always, our only chance to see our world-famous ballet company during the summer, which they usually spend touring the world, making themselves even more worldfamous. It was extremely well-danced.

They led off with Rush, a light, bright, sparkling affair by the Royal Ballet-trained Christopher Wheeldon set to Bohuslav Martinu’s Sinfonietta la Jolla, which has some of the atmosphere of the pretty seacoast town it’s named after. SF Ballet debuted Rush at the Edinburgh Festival a dozen years ago, where it was a smash. It’s still delightful; the slow center movement had a heavenly flow in the expansive phrases shaped by Sarah Van Patten and Anthony Vincent, while in the allegros the fleet corps de ballet was led in sharp, rapidly unfolding patterns by newcomer-soloist Lauren Strongin (with Hansuke Yamamoto) and newly promoted principal dancer Dores André (with Joseph Walsh).

After an intermission came a trio of bravura pieces: The powerful music of Tchaikovsky, which underlay the first (an abridgement of Balanchine’s Theme and Variations) made you realize what it takes to really command your attention

<<

Alexander the Great

From page 27

Plutarch wrote that soon after arriving in Asia Minor (ca. 334 BC), Alexander and Hephaestion visited the presumed tombs of Achilles and Patrocles. Many tributes were paid to the dead heroes. These included Alexander “crowning” Achilles’ tomb and Hephaestion “crowning” that of Patrocles. The implications are obvious.

Plutarch also writes that in 333

Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet dancers Sarah Van Patten and Anthony Vincent in Christopher Wheeldon’s Rush at Stern Grove.

African moves. It is “middle-brow,” and it is too long. Nevertheless, I’d argue that it’s a good ballet, even as it’s possible to admire Schweitzer’s humanitarian work while deploring colonialism. The main reason to like Lambarena is that it develops the American style of dancing in a new way. For a hundred years, since the Charleston conquered the polka, American dancing has been African-inspired. Lindy-hop, jazz, swing, rock-and-roll, hip-hop, for a hundred years American popular dancing has been African-American.

Caniparoli collaborated with the West African dancer/drummer team Dr. Zakariya Diouf and Naomi Johnson-Diouf, directors of Oakland’s Diamano Coura Dance company, and teachers at Oakland’s Malonga Casquelourde Center for the Arts, who continue to conserve the specifically African material when the ballet is set on a new company.

The great thing is, dancers love to do it. It gives them material they can just tear into. Ellen Rose Hummel’s phrasing took my breath away.

Sunday we saw blazing performances by everybody in the piece, right down to the corps: everyone was wonderful, but the men took the cake. Frances Chung, Kimberly Braylock, Ms. Hummel, Anthony Vincent, James Sofranko, and Wei Wang led the dance. Miranda Silveira and Sean Orza also deserve honorable mention.t died, only eight months later, perhaps from grief as much as anything else.

Unless new evidence is uncovered, the exact nature of Alexander’s sexual orientation (to use an anachronistic term) will never be known.

Nonetheless, a reasonable interpretation of extant sources, studied within the context of the sexual mores of Classical and Hellenistic Greek societies, leads to the conclusion that his erotic feelings were primarily directed at males.t

ASIAN ART MUSEUM ENDS AUG 16

28 Chinese explodes narrow concepts of contemporary art in China, presenting 48 artworks from 28 of the most notable Chinese artists working today—from internationally acclaimed stars like Ai Weiwei to the newest generation of game changers like Liu Wei and Xu Zhen. These artists embody a multiplicity of perspectives and practices, including painting, photography, new media and breathtaking installation, like Zhu Jinshi’s Boat—a colossal 40-foot creation you’re invited to walk through. See it for $5 on Thursday nights. W W W . A S I A N A R T . O R G # 2 8 C H I N E S E Asian Art Museum Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture

200 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 415.581.3500

28 Chinese is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Presentation at the Asian Art Museum is made possible with the generous support of China Art Foundation, Gorretti and Lawrence Lui, Silicon Valley Bank, The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Fund for Excellence in Exhibitions and Presentations, William Mathews Brooks, Lucy Sun and Warren Felson, and an anonymous donor. Media sponsor: The California Sunday Magazine. Image: Unnamed Room No. 2 (detail), 2006, by Chen Wei (Chinese, b. 1980). Archival inkjet print, edition 3 of 8. Courtesy of Rubell Family Collection, Miami. © Chen Wei.

Media sponsor:

34

35

On the Tab

39

Shows & Bows

NIGHTLIFE

SPIRITS

DINING

Up Your Alley

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 31 • July 30-August 5, 2015

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

Stripper- fellas Man Francisco undresses history

Man Francisco’s opening number.

On a scale from Vegas Chippendale to The Nob Hill Theatre’s “Touch Our Junk,” Man Francisco –the new weekly male striptease show at Oasis– falls squarely in the middle.

Which is to say, while its production values are a bit rough around the edges –more Nob Hill Cinema spit than Magic Mike polish– Man Francisco’s content is, well, squarer than one might expect from the producers of such outré nightlife events as Mother.

See page 32 >>

Pacific nights

The Lion Pub and other lost gay dens

by Michael Flanagan

The famous Lion Pub ad, illustration

by Richard Roesener aka “Dale Hall.” A framed print hangs at The Cinch Saloon.

Visitors to Pacific Heights could be excused these days for thinking there is little gay about it, save for the gay colors on Victorians like the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square.

But this was not always the case.

From the 1970s through the middle of last decade, there were three watering holes and one hotel with a saloon that were specifically geared toward gay patrons. The rise and fall of those establishments relates to much of San Francisco history – some See page 33 >> familiar and some not.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS } Spring and summer mean later sunsets and later hours at the Asian Art Museum. We’re open ‘til 9 PM on Thursdays and for just $5 after 5 PM, you can spend an evening in our beautiful building enjoying the galleries, special exhibitions, fun talks, lively gatherings and intimate hangs with artists. On first Thursdays, there are even cash bars, DJs and more. For details, visit www.asianart.org/thursdays

AT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

$5 AFTER 5PM

PhotobyDot.com

by Jim Gladstone

32 • Bay Area Reporter • July 30-August 5, 2015

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

t

make a novel night out for Not that this thematic “I thought the cast was her book group. conceit is what’s drawmostly going to be trained Co-bookworm Margot ing audiences of close to dancers,” recalls Geoff Bennoted: “This is a bit lighter 100 paying customers on jamin, thinking back on a than our recent discussion Wednesday nights at 9:30. first round of try-outs this of The Orphan Master’s “We are here to learn past spring. “But some of Son,” Adam Johnson’s Puthe history of San Francisthem just weren’t at ease litzer Prize-winning story of co,” said Finnish software with the whole idea of auNorth Korean politics and specialist Samuli –tongue dience interaction and lap human rights violations. practically piercing his dancing.”

The likes of women’s book cheek– before the openAfter the hour-long show, groups and bachelorette paring night performance. audience members can purties are part of the demo“Oh yes, we are paschase lap dances; $30 buys a graphic that the Oasis mansionate about history,” full song’s worth of wriggly agement hopes to attract in chimed in fellow Finn, dry-humping from the permaking Man Francisco “an Pirkka, who looked less former of one’s choice. only-in-San Francisco tourist than disappointed in the “And some of the guys lure, along the lines of Beach lack of pedagogy –and who only had gogo experiBlanket Babylon.” pants– when a buff dancence were just so smoking But local gay men are the er was grinding on him hot,” Benjamin added. “My club’s bread and butter. And twenty minutes into the goal is for this to be a really they may have a little more show. erotically charged show, and trouble warming up to the It’s when the performyou can’t teach that. You can hokier, theatrical aspects ers come off the Oasis teach dance steps, though.” of this show when a constage, shedding both cos“I’ve been amazed at how sistently rawer, specifically tumes and decorum as quickly they’ve come along,” homoerotic performances they booty pop, flex and says the show’s choreog–sometimes featuring the wriggle up close to audirapher Christopher Dunn same performers featured ence members that the –a veteran Las Vegas show here– are so readily available show emits its most bedancer and current compain venues around town from lievable whiffs of testosny member at Dance TheBeaux to the Powerhouse. terone. ater of San Francisco– who PhotobyDot.com “This is a work in prog“We’re all very sexhad less than ten rehearsal PhotobyDot.com ress,” says Benjamin. “Oasis positive,” explained Colin sessions to put twinkle toes Thomas Rodriquez offers a naval strip.

Colin Stack-Troost strips down is welcoming to all audiences, Emerald, the buff caston beefaroni following an to the bare essentials. but it’s certainly possible that member whose solo rouAnother difference between gogo open call audition. “They’ve Man Francisco could get gayer in the tine has him playing a and stage show that was highly evifilmed me doing the steps on their future.”t top-hatted Victorian-era dent on Man Francisco’s opening iPhones so they can practice at Stripper-fellas mogul, and whose tongue rarely night was the gap between dancers’ home on their own.”

From page 31 stops dancing around his mouth for comfort levels in being undressed That said, audiences should exMan Francisco is each Wednesday the length of the show. and getting undressed (There is no pect group routines to be less Busthrough September at Oasis. $20.

In a city where male sexuality is 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. full nudity; the cast of five strips to

by Berkeley than high on constant, simmering www.sfoasis.com G-strings). school musical. display, it’s tough to gener“I’m already stripped “I actually did do muate an authentic hormonal down when I’m doing a sicals in high school,” says rush in the context of a proclub,” says Rodriguez, who crowd favorite Thomas scenium stage and a narraalso works as an engineer.

Shumacher, who gets tive concept skimpier than “Trying to take the coshis dinghy in swing the strippers’ G-strings. tumes off without stumduring the show’s naval The show’s subtitle is The bling or tripping is definumber. “But I haven’t Evolution of the San Frannitely more awkward for danced in coordination sexy Man, and the group me than dancing around with other people since and solo routines that make in my underwear.” then. When I do gogo up the evening follow a But it’s undie-clad unat The Edge, the moves loose chronologic trajecdulation that the audience are very close in, and it tory. seems most interested in usually feels like I’m just “I started to think about anyway. dancing for myself or the evolution of the city,” “I love putting dollar for one person. What we explained Oasis co-owner bills in those shorts,” said have to learn here is how Geoff Benjamin shortly a straight thirtysomething to open things up wider, before the show’s July 15 woman who asked to be keep timing in sync with opening, “and I realized that identified only as Lena, the other guys and dance your typical male striptease and who was spotted for the whole room to numbers can fit into that tugging the dancers’ elaswatch. On a good night story pretty easily.” tic waistbands forward at a club, the gogo dancAnd so, from the flannelenough from their torsos ers are just part of the shirted miners of an opento get a good view of their energy, not the center ing Gold Rush routine to stripper poles. of attention. Sometimes World War II Navy boys, Lena had read about I think I could fall right from bell-bottomed hippies the show on the 7X7 weboff of my box and no to a bespectacled nerdcore site –Oasis is marketing it one would notice. When Silicon Valley guy, a bevy of PhotobyDot.com PhotobyDot.com to straight women as well you’re on stage here, evSan Francisco stereotypes as gay men– and decided Liam Spinyang in the opening number of eryone is paying attenare cursorily trotted out, Aram Kirakosian sports Little Devil boxers Man Francisco would Man Francisco. tion to your moves.” as a hot fireman. then promptly disrobed.

<<

PhotobyDot.com

The sexy cast of Man Francisco strips down.

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 30-August 5, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 33

Pacific nights

From page 31

The three bars in Pacific Heights were the Lion Pub (2062 Divisadero), the Alta Plaza (2301 Fillmore) and J.J.’s Piano Bar (2225 Fillmore).

In the nearby Western Addition was the Alamo Square Saloon (600 Fillmore). The saloon was housed in Hotel Casa Loma (610 Fillmore), which for a time advertised itself as a gay hotel in the Bay Area Reporter.

The Painted Ladies provide a clue to the history of the neighborhood.

Gay historian Gerard Koskovich related that in his research he discovered “there was a gay residential enclave from the late 1950s into the mid-1990s in the Alamo Square area.” He pointed me to Will Fellows book A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture. In an interview in that book, Richard Reutlinger confirms Koskovich’s observation: The exterior of the Lion Pub. “A lot of gay people down this way and all around Alamo Square had established the Alamo Square A slight mystery remains as to why Longtime San Francisco resident Neighborhood Association in the Roesener used the pseudonym Dale Tom Libby responded, “It’s Richard early 1960s.”

Hall, but it may have simply been to Roesener, who was the chief scienThe first bar in the neighborhood distinguish his commercial art from tific illustrator for the Field Muwas the Lion Pub. In an August 1989 his scientific and professional art. seum in Chicago, before moving B.A.R. article, then owner Kelley ElA native of Kokomo, Indiana who to San Francisco to pursue his own lis said, “The Lion has gone through moved to Chicago in 1969, Roesener artistic career. He was a dear friend, a lot of changes since its opening 20 had articles on his erotic art in both and extremely talented.” Libby and years ago. We’ve gone from preppy Blueboy and In Touch for Men magRoesener had known each other bar to a dance bar to a hippie bar to azines and had a one man show in both in Chicago and in San Francisleather and back to preppy.”

New York as far back as 1975. He was co, where Roesener moved in 1977, I remember it as being very a lead twirler for the San Francisco the same year that an entire series of preppy when I visited in the bar in Gay Freedom Day Marching Band Lion Pub ads appeared in the B.A.R. the ‘80s. It was then the domain of (they continued through 1979). and Twirling Corps for several years that now rare commodbefore his death from AIDS on ity known as the sweater July 23, 1985. queen.

Alta Plaza Bar joined the I asked Ron Williams, neighborhood in 1977. In an author of San Francisco’s August 1990 B.A.R. article, Native Sissy Son, for his then manager Manuel Lago memories on the bar. said, “We started a bar for “I was in the Lion Pub friends and it just took off and on many occasions in the got popular.” The bar opened early ‘70s and remember a second level in the ‘80s. the owner; very horny and Alamo Square Saloon and handsome. The bar had a Casa Loma Hotel opened in rough start because of the 1980. J.J’s Piano Bar was the competition that was going last addition to the neighboron in the Castro at the time. hood, opening in 1987. In They advertised a lot. The an article from 1990, there Lion poster became a very are hints of the future of the popular icon. A few short neighborhood. The B.A.R. blocks away was another reported that on Thursday popular neighborhood bar, and Fridays there was a larger Club Dori on Presidio, just percentage of straight visioff California Street.” tors (even though the same I had wondered for article reports that it drew a some time about the artlarge number of show people ist for that poster (a copy as well – from Beach Blanket of which hangs on the wall Babylon and Les Miserables, of The Cinch). It’s credited which was playing in town at Rick Gerharter as “Dale Hall.” After many the time). dead-end searches, I asked Dave Vivian holds a breakfast platter at the Alta The decline of the gayborRon’s friends online if any Plaza Bar in June 1990. hood in Pacific Heights and of them knew the artist. environs was remarkably swift. Alamo Square Saloon closed in 1991. Hotel Casa Loma changed hands (the current owners were unaware when I contacted them that it had ever been a gay hotel).

Alta Plaza had become distant enough from the community that when it changed hands (in May 1999) there wasn’t even an article about it in the gay press. It was The San Francisco Chronicle that reported that it was becoming a noodle bar.

The last of the bars to go was the Lion Pub. They continued to have listings in Damron Guides until 2005. It exists to this day, but the clientele has changed.

And the story of Richard Roesener may give us a clue to the demise of this section of gay San Francisco.

Many men who went to these bars died, and those left either stopped going or moved from town.

We should remember these bars and their time, for as Ron Williams told me, “Neighborhood bars like the Lion Pub and Club Dori were important, since many gay men Rick Gerharter lived in this part of the city and Top: Two guys enjoying lunch in the Alta Plaza Bar didn’t always have to go to the CasBottom: Exterior of Alta Plaza. tro, Polk or South of Market during week nights.”t

Another in a series of provocative Lion Pub ads by “Dale Hall.”

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Media Sales Executive San Francisco, CA

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BAR Media, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to promoting a culturally diverse work environment.

<< On the Tab

34 • Bay Area Reporter • July 30-August 5, 2015

July 30August 6 2015

Valeria Branch’s new weekly comedy night, where she embodies her faux queen character Pia Messing for some offbeat wit, this week with Kurt Weitzmann, Karinda Dobbins, Samantha Gilweit and Zack Chapaloni. $5. 8pm-10pm. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Cub Scout @ Oasis LA DJs Chris Bown, Victor Rodriguez and Conor spin. $5. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.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

Sat 1

Hard Fridays @ Qbar

Sally Kellerman @ Feinstein’s

B

la bla nightlife emergency bla. If you’re a tad exhausted from last weekend’s festivities, you’re not alone. Gird your loins for yet more entertainments of a noctural mission.

Thu 30

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Champagne White and the Temple of Poon @ Oasis D’Arcy Drollinger’s sequel to the hilarious hit comedy Shit & Champagne, with a women’s prisonthemed parody and suspense-filled action-comedy show. $25-$200 (four-person VIP table). Thu-Sat 7pm.

Thru Sept 12. 298 11th St. www. sfoasis.com

Chemical Brothers, Brodinski @ The Armory Hard San Francisco features internationally known electronic music stars and DJs. $50. 8pm-3am. 333 14th St. www.hardfest.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men’s bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Homo Thursdays @ Qbar Franko DJs the weekly mash-up/ pop music night. No cover. 2 for 1 well drinks, 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Judy Gold @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Emmy Award-winning actress, writer and comedian returns with her latest batch of insightful wit and comedy. $25-$40. 8pm. ($20 food/ drink min.). Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.judygold. com www.ticketweb.com

Karaoke Night @ The Stud “Sing Til It Hurts” the new weekly night with hostess Sister Flora (Floozy) Goodthyme. 8pm; happy hour drinks til 10pm. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show continues, with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.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

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Our Lady J @ Oasis The Gospel of Dolly, the fab chanteuse’s tribute to Dolly Parton, with a gospel choir! $20. 10pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Thirsty Thursdays @ The Cafe Drink specials, Top 40, gogo studs and no cover. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover.

9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music with local and touring bands.

398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Todd Rundgren @ City Winery, Napa The indie rock icon performs as part of his Global tour. $45-$65. 8pm.

1030 Main St., Napa. (707) 260-1600. www.citywinery.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

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

Sat 1

Justin Sayre @ Oasis

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland DJed tunes, gogo hotties, drag shows, drink specials, all at Oakland’s premiere Latin nightclub and weekly cowboy night. $10-$15. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland Get groovin’ at the weekly hip hop and R&B night at their new location. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Heather Brandeburg @ Hotel Rex Society Cabaret presents the talented New York singer, who performs her Streisand tribute concert, My Favorite Barbra. Cocktails and spmall plates available. $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

The witty comic performer returns with The Meeting, his hilarious parody of “the gay agenda.” $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s weekly drag show night at the fabulous renovated SoMa nightclub; plus DJ MC2 and guests.

August 1: Britney vs. Christina! $10-$15. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Renaissance Faire @ Discovery Meadow, San Jose Enjoy olde tyme fun, with beer, food, music, jousts, demos, historical costumery galore, knights and ladies and fun. $8-$18 (parking $5). Also Aug. 2. 10am-6pm. Woz Way at S. Almaden Blvd. www.sanjosefaire.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Lulu, Jacki, and Vicki cohost the festive gogo-filled dance club that features Latin pop dance hits with DJs Speedy Douglas Romero and Fabricio; no cover before 10pm. $6-$12. 9pm4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

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

Party Nights @ Club BnB, Oakland

Dominic Garcia

On the Tab

Comedy Noir @ Balancoire

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Different events each week; 1st Fri: Taboo with DJ Harness. 2nd: Menage with DJ Rapture. 3rd: Seduction Feroce, a burlesque cabaret show (9pm). 4th: Bleu Sugar shows with hotess Miss Lady Lana. July 30: eightyear anniversary party. 8pm-2am.

2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Phases @ Rickshaw Stop The new pop band described as “West Coast Blondie,” headline a bill with Max and the Moon, Air Bag One, and PopScene DJs. $13-$15. 9pm. 155 Fell St. at Van Ness. www.phasesmusic.com www.rickshawstop.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox The saucy women’s burlesque revue’s weekend show; different musical guests each week. Also Wednesday nights. $10-$20. 7:30pm. 314 11th St. www.redhotsburlesque.com www.beatboxsf.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Tainted Love, For the Masses @ Bimbo’s The two 80s cover bands share a bill at the fun North Beach club. $25.

9pm. 1025 Columbus Ave. 474-0365. www.bimbos365club.com

Sat 1 Intergalactic 3-Way @ Factory

Intergalactic 3-Way @ Factory Comfort & Joy, Glamcocks, BAAHS (Big Ass Amazingly Awesome Homosexual Sheep), and Camp Beaverton, the leading queer Burning Man crews, present a massive groovy collaborative dance party, with glow-light décor by Chickpea and others), three dance floors, multiple DJs (Mark O’Brien, Bradley P, Andrew Gibbons, Justime, Gehno Aviance, Taco Tuesday and more), a space-age themed dress code, a make-up makeover booth, chill space, and out of this world fun. $20-$50. 10pm-6am. 525 Harrison St. .intergalactic3way.eventbrite.com www.playajoy.org

Sally Kellerman @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The veteran actress and singer performs her new cabaret show, A Little Jazz, A Little Blues, A Little Rock and Roll. $25$40. 7pm. ($20 food/drink min.). Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.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

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Sugar @ The Cafe

Xcess Thursdays @ The Café Frisco Robbie and Persia’s dance and pop music night gets the weekend started, with gogo guys and gals, plus drink specials and guest DJs. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Fri 31

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

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

Sun 2 Sat 1 Renaissance Faire @ Discovery Meadow, San Jose

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits. 3pm-6pm.

Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 30-August 5, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

Shows and bows

Steven Underhill

Performers, guests, and a shirtless silent auction hunk at Help is on the Way XXI: Hooray for Hollywood.

by Donna Sachet

A

s loyal readers of this column undoubtedly know, the Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation’s annual Help is on the Way is one of our favorite events, offering top quality entertainment in a wonderful venue while raising significant funds for good causes. Last Sunday’s Help is on the Way XXI: Hooray for Hollywood, benefiting the SF AIDS Foundation and Meals on Wheels of San Francisco, did not disappoint.

We attended with the Reigning Emperor Kevin Lisle (handsome and attentive) and Reigning Empress Khmera Rouge (stunning in gold lace and socially adept) who continue to be the pride and joy of the Imperial Court of San Francisco.

The lobby of the Palace of Fine Arts was beautifully draped in white fabric and dangling crystal beads with an extensive silent auction displayed amongst samplings from various restaurants, specialty drink bars, and lively music by DJ Sergio Fedasz of Go Bang.

After photos with Marilyn Monroe from Madame Tussuaud’s Wax Museum, we chatted with early arriving guests including Gala CoChairs Sophie Azouaou and Ashley McCumber, Host Committee members Aubrey Brewster, Joel Goodrich, Dan Joraanstad & Bob Hermann, and Doug Waggoner, and VIP Underwriters Bob Dockendorff, Neil Giuliano, John Rosin and Frank Stein.

Once inside the theatre, Ken Henderson & Joe Seiler greeted the crowd and introduced Richard Blum, who shared greetings from his wife Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The stately Susan Anton opened the show with a rousing production number with dozens of dancers, followed by songs by Paula West, Leanne Borghesi & Soila Hughes of B.O.O.B.S!, Sony Holland, Jake Simpson, and Loretta Devine.

Nikki & Ethan White delivered a haunting dance interpretation to Jacques Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas” and John Lloyd Young and Kimberley Locke left the audience stunned with their vocal talents.

Although intermission provided most an opportunity to continue socializing, we had to dash backstage to prepare for a cameo appearance in the second act.

After a brisk and successful auction coordinated by the dapper Liam Mayclem and a stirring song

by Constantine Maroulis, everyone settled in for the highly anticipated runway show of Hollywood costumes lent for the evening by Hollywood Revisited. Projected on

a screen above the stage was a photo of the original costume worn by a well-known star. Seconds later, that costume appeared on stage modeled by the likes of Elisabeth Thierot, Svetlana Jilenko, Tatiana Takaeva, Jessie Amoroso, Brenda Zarate, Jan Wahl, and yes, this humble columnist. Channeling Linda Evans at the height of her Dynasty career, we strolled out in a black velvet, off the shoulder, puff-sleeved, whiteembroidered Nolan Miller original design; we will admit, it was hard to give it back.

The show returned with more glorious singing, incredible violin artistry by Lea Bourgade, rousing dance by Salsamania, comedy by Scott Nevins, and a bittersweet segment featuring the always crowdpleasing Carole Cook and a rare stage appearance by her husband Tom Troupe. All in all, this was one of Director David Galligan and Musical Director Michael Orland’s best!

At the reception afterwards, we hobnobbed with many of the performers, Board of Directors members Patrik Gallineaux, David Grabstald, Skye Paterson, and Beth Schnitzer, and attendees Lu Conrad, Gary Virginia, Mario Diaz, Marilyn Levinson, Matthew Mello, Randy Schiller, Jerome Goldstein & Tom Taylor, Walter Leiss, and Ari Kalfayan.

Mark your calendars now for a once-in-a-lifetime event: OpenHouse’s Jose Sarria Community Celebration and Love Roast of Absolute Empress XXV Marlena at the LGBT Community Center on Thurs., Aug. 20, 6PM. Don’t worry. With a host committee that includes China Silk, Bob Glas, JP Leddy, Jerry Coletti, and Joel Evans, this much loved community

icon will not suffer too much; it is a Love Roast, after all. Please join us to pay homage to this wonderful friend.

While we’re promoting people and things in which we believe, give your attention and support to David Lassman and Jethro Patalinthug’s documentary film 50 Years of Fabulous, highlighting the remarkable history and ongoing work of the Imperial Court of San Francisco. As the film reaches its completion, they need widespread support to cover final expenses. Go to www.50yearsoffab.com for more details.

There’s a new drag show in town: Holotta Tymes brings you Holotta’s Follies every Wed. at 7PM at Oasis. At our first visit last week, the cast included Cassandra Cass, Kendra Monroe, Jealousy, and Bobbi Pinn. Holotta’s extensive professional background, which includes the world famous Finocchio’s, is evident throughout this fast-paced, high energy, crowd-pleasing production. Plan a Wednesday there soon.

And speaking of drag shows, Sunday’s a Drag at The Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in Union Square is celebrating ten years of success on Sunday, August 9. We’ll do our regular 11:30AM and 2PM brunch shows, followed by a special anniversary show that night. Doors open at 7PM with delicious hors d’oeuvres and specialty drinks.

The show starts at 8PM, including all six regular cast members and a few surprises along the way. We’ve designated Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS) as the beneficiary for this special anniversary show.

We thank you for supporting this show for ten years and want to see you there on August 9. Seats are limited, so get your regular or VIP tickets at www.eventbrite.com now.t

Steven Underhill

Top Left: Donna Sachet onstage at the REAF gala, in a Nolan Miller gown. Top Right: Veteran comedienne Carole Cook. Bottom: The cast of Help is on the Way XXI in the concert’s finale.

<< On the Tab

36 • Bay Area Reporter • July 30-August 5, 2015

On the Tab

From page 34

Brunch @ Hi Tops Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Cabaret Showcase Showdown @ Martuni’s Season 6 of the music competition continues with the Best Male Crooner night. Bring sheet music for two songs. Russ Lorenson judges. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

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

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

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Morning After BBQ @ Oasis The weekly barbeque brunch on the newly opened rooftop deck, with Mimosas and Bloody Mary cocktails.

11am-3pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Irish Dance Night @ Starry Plough, Berkeley Weekly dance lessons and live music at the pub-restaurant, hosted by John Slaymaker. $5. 7pm. 3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. www.thestarryplough.com

Karaoke @ The Lookout Paul K hosts the amateur singing night. 8pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.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

Mash Up Mondays @ Club BnB, Oakland Weekly Karaoke and open mic night.

9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 7597340. www.club-bnb.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

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

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.” Other nights, too. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.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

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

FBFE

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Sunday Brunch, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; shows at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:45pm. After that, T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st.

920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Sunday Brunch @ Thee Parkside Enjoy $12 bottomless mimosas from 10am-3pm at the fun punk rock bar.

1600 17th St. 252-1330. www.theeparkside.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Sunsation Sundays @ Oasis Outdoor T-dance on the roof of the popular SoMa club, with DJs Alexander and Brian; hosts Terrill and Mutha Chucka. $7. 3pm-7pm? 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Mon 3 Beat It @ Oasis

80s music party, with black light, cheap beer and acid-wash jeans welcome. No cover. 8pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night, 2014’s last of the year. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night include 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

Hysteria @ Oasis Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the new comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 5 Pussy Party @ Beaux

Opulence @ Beaux New weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s

Meow Mix @ The Stud The weekly themed variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents; MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7. Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Kingdom of Sodom/Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Underwear Night @ 440

Retro Night @ 440 Castro

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

Participatory strip and stripper night. $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com Jim Hopkins plays classic pop oldies, with vintage music videos. 9pm-2am.

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Tue 4

Switch @ Q Bar

The “lezzie queer dance party” brings out the femmes and butches. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. 864-2877. www.qbarsf.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

Barnaby’s Babes @ Oasis

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland

13 Licks @ Qbar

Burlesque, comedy and drag show with The Century Sisters, Fou Fou Ha!, Magnoliah Black,The Tartlettes, Bohemian Brethren, The Phishnets, Elyse Elaine, Sgt. DieWies, house orchestra Bachmann’s Band and host Selma Bawdy. $15-$25. 8pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Bombshell Betty & Her Burlesqueteers @ Elbo Room The weekly burlesque show of women dancers shaking their bonbons includes live music. $10. 9pm. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Weekly women’s night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

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

Underwear Night @ Club OMG Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials; different hosts each week. $3. 10pm2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 30-August 5, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 37

Oh, Brad!

Box covers for Bad Brad’s Fetish and Dis/Connected.

Sailor Chad Knight asks for handouts, in a Fetish screengrab.

by John F. Karr

M

become an organic element of the scene, heightening its effect. It puts me in a trance, and I love it (and meaty Dolph).

In the next scene, barrel-chested and thickly furred Les Stine services a trio of slimmer and smoother (that is to say, more conventional) performers.

And in the concluding episode,

y favorite sexo is a Holy Grail of hardcore. If you can find a copy of Brad Braverman’s Fetish, you’re blessed by the gods of porn.

Brad Braverman –known to fans of his erotic videos as Bad Brad– was born in Oakland, raised in Denver, and died in Los Angeles in January of 1995 from the complications of AIDS. He was 34 years old.

Like Brad’s other three movies, Fetish doesn’t always welcome in its viewers. Its provocative imagery has been manipulated with purposefully jerky viewing, disjunct editing, hallucinatory lighting, reversal of negatives, and ecclesiastic pace. Matter of fact, he does everything I dislike when anyone else does those things, and I’ve railed them; you know, the artsy stuff. The difference between “anyone else” and Brad is that Brad’s an artist. In his hands, the effects don’t seem misplaced.

Brad wrote, produced, directed, and edited his handful of films with a small collective of friends. So it’s not always easy at this distance to tell exactly what his work on a particular video might have consisted of. Most assuredly, though, it was his vision that was being captured.

Fetish was Brad’s first film. It took home a couple AVN Awards when it was new, and, as I said, it’s one of my favorite flicks. Despite the worn down, second-generation image on my copy of a commercial VHS tape –don’t ask how I lost the actual thing– I’m always surprised to find the movie still so impressive when I watch it.

The mood Brad instills in his performers, and the results he gets from them, are unique among directors. He may be employing mainstream porn vets, but he doesn’t bring mainstream means to filming them.

No one speaks during Fetish.

But with the moody music and quirky sound effects, speech isn’t missed.

The movie opens with a guy (Chad Knight) buffing up his motorcycle. He’s soon buffing his bone, and then getting boffed by another cyclist.

Then there’s a classic strip tease by incredibly sexy Dolph Knight.

He slays me. Vintage porn is projected against him and on the wall behind him as he performs. Top: Beefy beefcake: this Dolph Knight The footage is distressed and our strip isn’t the one he does in Fetish. viewing interrupted and distort- Bottom: In a Falcon Studio movie, Rob ed in so many ways, yet so con- Cryston shows off a tantalizing tan line. sistently, and rhythmically, as to

a Dom interrogates and subjugates his boy; pretty hot stuff.

Divine dicks Dis/connected is a little easier to view, despite its being grounded in metaphor. Brad said he was looking for “divine transformation of my carnal spirit.” The movie’s three scenes concern handsome Wes Daniels, in a funky Tenderloin sort of apartment, having visions of guys, and for one scene, actually watching some French sailors across the street with his binoculars.

Before that, and in another apartment, we see Bill Marlowe –at his most blond, sleek, chunky-cocked sexiness– futilely attempting to resist the seduction of a vampire. Well, who wouldn’t cave to Aiden Shaw?

Marlow’s been making porn since 1989, and though his hair has fallen out and his face fallen down, he’s still at it and still sexy. Though his performance with Shaw in Dis/connected is a nightmare of sex, what most commentators have noted is the scene’s supposed necrophilia (said Bad Brad, “That’s my ultimate seduction: getting someone to watch an act of necrophilia.”).

After Marlowe has cum and is dead, the vampire keeps fucking him. But a vampire is already dead, aka, Undead, so it’s really a reverse sort of necrophilia. Or a double dead duo debauch, even more disturbing than initially imagined.

The French sailor’s voyeur is Rob Cryston. I was always a fan of this little toughie, despite the number of shoddy movies he made for cheapo companies.

Cryston’s perpetual deep tan ended abruptly where the most skimpy Speedo ever worn by man had left its mark. He doesn’t have a large cock, but even so, it must have been difficult, if not impossible, to keep it within the confines of so teeny a bikini.

The sailors, wearing their cute hats and butt-hugging uniform pants, are on shore leave, and get together in a shabby room to toss back some beer, and get some R&R. This is a traditional pathway to paradise, which of course leads to a group fuckathon. It’s steamy, alright. Despite unconventional filming techniques, you cannot quarrel with this version of Querelle.

So, it you’re at a garage sale, cleaning out some closet, or wherever, and come across VHS tapes of these two movies, or of Brad’s Hush and Raw, get them!

And then get it them me.t

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38 • Bay Area Reporter • July 30-August 5, 2015

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On the Tab

From page 36

Wed 5

Booty Call @ QBar Juanita More! and her weekly intimate –yet packed– dance party. $10-$15. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Bondage a GoGo @ Cat Club The (mostly straight) kinky weekly dance night, where fetish gear is welcome; DJs Damon and Tomas Diablo play electro, goth, industrial, etc. 9:30pm-2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. www.bondage-a-go-go.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

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Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm.

398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

The party for Jewish gay guys and their friends and admirers returns. $5.

9pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Weekly women’s happy hour, with allwomen music and live performances, 2 for 1 drinks, and no cover. 5pm-9am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rainbow Skate @ Redwood Roller Rink Weekly LGBT and friends skate night, with groovy disco music and themed events. $9. 8pm-10:30pm. 1303 Main Street, Redwood City. www.rainbowskate.net www.facebook.com/rainbowskating/

Rookie Night @ Nob Hill Theatre New talent night at the historic strip club; contestants sign-up 8pm, for a $200 first prize. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Way Back @ Midnight Sun

New weekly all-male striptease revue with a storyline of San Francisco’s history, from the Gold Rush to the tech boom, performed by sexy local hunks. Weekly through September. $20. 9pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Personals

Mazel Top @ Oasis

The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Man Francisco @ Oasis

ebar.com

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle

Holotta Tymes hosts the new weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

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

408.514.1111

Weekly screenings of vintage music videos and retro drink prices. Check out the new expanded front window lounge. 9pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440 Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

The dearly missed Cookie Dough’s weekly drag show continues, with themed events and cute gogo guys. $5. 9pm2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Thu 6 Fantastic Negrito @ The Chapel

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

Thu 6

After Dark @ Exploratorium The adult fun in the science museum this month is themed Illusions; with interactive exhibits, painter Alexa Meade, cocktails and fun. $10-$15.

6pm-10pm. Pier 15. www.exploratorium.edu

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (with a contest at midnight), and dance beats spun

by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Porn stud Rafael Alencar hosts the interactive play event in the downstairs arcade at the historic strip joint (Alencar performs onstage Aug. 7 & 8, 8pm & 10pm). $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Fantastic Negrito @ The Chapel The amazing blues singer –traditional sounds with contemporary lyricsperforms with his band. $15. 9pm.

777 Valencia St. www.fantasticnegrito.com www.thechapelsf.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland Weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Luke James @ Yoshi’s Oakland The hot new “organic soul” singer performs at the stylish East Bay nightclub/restaurant. $24-$55. 8pm & 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. www.officiallukejames.com www.yoshis.com

Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun.

August 6: live music with Alvvays and GRMLN, DJed sets by Jamie Jams and Rocky Roxana. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Thursday Night Live @ Eagle Live bands- usually, rock, punk and always good- perform at the famed leather bar. 8:30pm first band. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Eleventh anniversary year of the retro disco night with a fun diverse crowd, and disco master DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

shooting stars

July 30-August 5, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 39

photos by steven underhill Up Your Alley Street Fair The annual Up Your Alley Street Fair brought out a wide array of kink fans, and those who just like to watch the occasional flogging. The “dirty little brother” of the much bigger Folsom Street Fair saw a few thousand folks enjoying food, beverages, DJed grooves, and a wide array of fetish fashion choices. For info about other related events, visit www.folsomstreetevents.org.

More event 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

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