June 16, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

The

www.ebar.com

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

SF mayor names trans adviser

by Seth Hemmelgarn

S

an Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has tapped Theresa Sparks, the longtime executive director of the city’s Human Rights Commission, as his senior adviser for transgender initiatives.

In a statement TuesRick Gerharter day, Lee said, “Human Theresa Sparks rights are transgender rights, and transgender rights are human rights. Theresa Sparks has been a leader in our city on human rights issues.”

In her new role, Sparks, “will keep San Francisco on the forefront of the world on transgender policy issues and LGBT rights,” Lee said.

A statement from the mayor’s office indicated that Lee is the first mayor in the nation to create such a position.

“It’s a great opportunity. ... I don’t think there’s any question this will be the first time See page 6 >>

Vol. 46 • No. 24 • June 16-22, 2016

Vigils mark Orlando rampage

Allan and Ken Scott hold candles at the San Francisco vigil Sunday for victims of the Orlando mass shooting.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

s thousands of people gathered at vigils around the Bay Area in recent days to mourn the 49 people who were fatally shot at a gay Orlando, Florida

nightclub early Sunday, organizers of San Francisco’s LGBT Pride celebration prepared to argue in court that they shouldn’t have to add security measures like metal detectors to the Civic Center festival.

Whatever happens at this year’s Pride, set

for June 25-26, last weekend’s massacre at Pulse nightclub, which also left 53 injured, has emboldened many in San Francisco.

“The hate that’s out there saddens me,” Sal See page 18 >>

Castro plans for no Pink Saturday

Pete Thoshinsky

by Seth Hemmelgarn

T Juan Hernandez speaks at a news conference hosted by Log Cabin officials outside San Jose City Hall June 8.

Gay GOPer mulls suing San Jose

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

gay Latino Republican is mulling whether to file a lawsuit against the city of San Jose due to being attacked after attending a Donald Trump rally.

Santa Clara resident Juan Hernandez was one of several supporters of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who were punched by anti-Trump protesters after leaving the June 2 event held at the San Jose Convention Center.

See page 17 >>

Rick Gerharter

People cheered in the streets at the 2012 Pink Saturday party.

South of Market neighborhoods were expected to meet Wednesday with Wiener and police officials to discuss plans for the city’s LGBT Pride celebrations.

Although the official Pride festival takes place in Civic Center near City Hall, thousands of people will make their way to the Castro and other neighborhoods throughout the weekend.

In an interview before the Orlando shooting, Wiener said his office has been meeting with police and other departments, and groups including Castro Merchants, on plans for June 25.

“We’ll be prepared,” he said. “There will be

Bar safety

In Wiener’s news release Monday, Tim Eicher, who co-owns the Castro bars Beaux, Q Bar, and Midnight Sun, said, “We are all saddened by the events in Orlando and pray for the people affected by the attack. With Pride right around the corner, we are doing everything possible to ensure that we keep our employees and customers safe.”

See page 21 >>

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his year marks the first time in almost three decades that there won’t be a planned celebration in San Francisco’s Castro district the night before the city’s LGBT Pride parade.

However, officials are still preparing for crowds and working to ensure safety Saturday, June 25, especially in light of the mass shooting at the gay Pulse nightclub early Sunday morning in Orlando, Florida. As of Monday, 49 people and the shooter had died in the incident, which is still under investigation.

Over the years, thousands of people have flocked to San Francisco’s main gay neighborhood to celebrate Pride. Every year, streets were shut down and DJs at multiple stages entertained masses of people.

But safety concerns led the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which had for years organized the party known as Pink Saturday, to call off their festival in 2015. The San Francisco LGBT Community Center then worked with the city to organize what they called Pink Party instead.

This year, there’s no official party, and the streets will remain open for most of the evening. Still, large crowds are expected.

In a news release Monday, Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the Castro, announced he’d bring together “members of the LGBT nightlife community and the San Francisco Police Department to address public safety concerns” raised by the Orlando shooting.

Bar and club owners from the Castro and

porta potties, and there will be a significant focus by the police to make sure everything is peaceful in the neighborhood.”

Captain Dan Perea, who oversees the Mission police station, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Wiener said bars aren’t being asked to close early.

When the Dyke March arrives in the Castro that Saturday night, he said, the streets would be temporarily closed, but they won’t be shut down for the whole night.

“Our plan is to transfer people onto the sidewalks and have a wonderful evening in the Castro,” Wiener said.

Dyke March rally programming is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. June 25 in Dolores Park.

The march will start at 6 p.m. at 18th and Dolores streets and head to the Castro.

“There will be a communication effort” to make sure people know there’s no street party this year, Wiener said, but he couldn’t say exactly what that would look like.

TRIUMEQ is a once-a-day pill used to treat HIV-1. TRIUMEQ should not be used by itself in some people. Take TRIUMEQ exactly as your healthcare provider tells you.

Is it time for you? Ask your doctor.

APPROVED USES TRIUMEQ is a prescription HIV-1 (Human Immunodeficiency Virus-type 1) medicine used alone or with other antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV-1 infection in adults. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. TRIUMEQ is not for use by itself in people who have or have had resistance to abacavir, dolutegravir, or lamivudine. TRIUMEQ should not be used in children under the age of 18.

TRIUMEQ does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. You must keep taking HIV-1 medicines to control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION What is the most important information I should know about TRIUMEQ? TRIUMEQ can cause serious side effects, including: • Serious allergic reactions (hypersensitivity reaction) that can cause death have happened with TRIUMEQ and other abacavircontaining products. Your risk of this allergic reaction to abacavir is much higher if you have a gene variation called HLA-B*5701. Your healthcare provider can determine with a blood test if you have this gene variation. If you get symptoms from 2 or more of the following groups while taking TRIUMEQ, call your healthcare provider right away: 1. fever; 2. rash; 3. nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or stomach pain; 4. generally ill feeling, extreme tiredness, or achiness; 5. shortness of breath, cough, or sore throat. Your pharmacist will give you a Warning Card with a list of these symptoms. Carry this Warning Card with you at all times.

If you stop taking TRIUMEQ because of an allergic reaction, never take TRIUMEQ or any other abacavir- or dolutegravircontaining medicines again. If you take TRIUMEQ or any other abacavir-containing medicine again after you have had an allergic reaction, within hours you may get life-threatening symptoms that may include very low blood pressure or death. If you stop TRIUMEQ for any other reason, even for a few days, and you are not allergic to TRIUMEQ, talk with your healthcare provider before taking it again.

Taking TRIUMEQ again can cause a serious allergic or life-threatening reaction, even if you never had an allergic reaction to it before. If your healthcare provider tells you that you can take TRIUMEQ again, start taking it when you are around medical help or people who can call a healthcare provider if you need one.

• A buildup of acid in your blood (lactic acidosis). Lactic acidosis can happen in some people who take TRIUMEQ. This serious medical emergency can cause death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you feel very weak or tired; have unusual muscle pain; have trouble breathing; have stomach pain with nausea and vomiting; feel cold, especially in your arms and legs; feel dizzy/light-headed; or have a fast/irregular heartbeat.

• Serious liver problems can happen in people who take TRIUMEQ. In some cases, these serious liver problems can lead to death. You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking nucleoside analogue medicines for a long time. Call your healthcare provider right away if you get any of the following signs or symptoms: yellow skin, or the white part of the eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark urine; light-colored stools; loss of appetite for several days or

longer; nausea; pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area • Worsening of hepatitis B virus in people who have HIV-1 infection. If you have HIV-1 and hepatitis B virus (HBV), your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking TRIUMEQ. A “flare-up” is when your HBV suddenly returns in a worse way than before. Worsening liver disease can be serious and may lead to death. Do not stop taking TRIUMEQ without first talking to your healthcare provider, so he or she can monitor your health.

• Resistant hepatitis B virus. If you have HIV-1 and hepatitis B, the hepatitis B virus can change (mutate) during your treatment with TRIUMEQ and become harder to treat (resistant).

• Use with interferon and ribavirin-based regimens. If you’re taking TRIUMEQ and interferon, with or without ribavirin, tell your healthcare provider about any new symptoms. Worsening of liver disease that has caused death has happened in people infected with both HIV-1 and hepatitis C who were taking antiretroviral medicines and interferon.

Who should not take TRIUMEQ? • Do not take TRIUMEQ if you: have the HLA-B*5701 gene variation are allergic to abacavir, dolutegravir, or any of the ingredients in TRIUMEQ take dofetilide (Tikosyn®) have liver problems What are other possible side effects of TRIUMEQ? • People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus may have an increased risk of developing new or worsening changes in certain liver tests during treatment with TRIUMEQ. Your healthcare provider may do tests to check your liver function before and during treatment with TRIUMEQ. • When you start taking HIV-1 medicines, your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you start having new symptoms after you start taking TRIUMEQ. • Changes in body fat can happen in people who take HIV-1 medicines.

• Some HIV-1 medicines, including TRIUMEQ, may increase your risk of heart attack.

The most common side effects of TRIUMEQ include: trouble sleeping, headache, tiredness These are not all the possible side effects of TRIUMEQ. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

Important Safety Information continued on next page.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

Please see Important Facts about TRIUMEQ on the following pages.

©2015 ViiV Healthcare group of companies. All rights reserved.

Printed in USA. 527405R0 October 2015

Not an actual patient. Testimonial is based on a collection of real patient experiences.

What should I tell my healthcare provider before taking TRIUMEQ? • Before you take TRIUMEQ, tell your healthcare provider if you: have been tested and know whether or not you have a gene variation called HLA-B*5701 have or have had liver problems, including hepatitis B or C infection; have kidney problems; have heart problems, smoke, or have diseases that increase your risk of heart disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes; drink alcohol or take medicines that contain alcohol are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRIUMEQ will harm your unborn baby are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you take TRIUMEQ • You should not take TRIUMEQ if you also take: abacavir (EPZICOM®, TRIZIVIR®, or ZIAGEN®) lamivudine (COMBIVIR®, DutrebisTM, EPIVIR®, EPIVIR-HBV®, EPZICOM, or TRIZIVIR) emtricitabine (Emtriva®, Atripla®, Complera®, Stribild®, or Truvada®)

• Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines (for example, antacids or laxatives; vitamins such as iron or calcium supplements; anti-seizure medicines; other medicines to treat HIV-1, hepatitis, or tuberculosis; metformin; or methadone), vitamins, and herbal supplements (for example, St. John’s wort). Some medicines interact with TRIUMEQ. Keep a list of your medicines to show your healthcare provider and pharmacist. Do not start taking a new medicine without telling your healthcare provider.

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT TRIUMEQ ® (TRI-u-meck) The risk information provided here is not comprehensive. To learn more, talk about TRIUMEQ with your healthcare provider (HCP) or pharmacist. Visit www.TRIUMEQ.com or call 1-877-844-8872 to get FDA-approved product information, including the Boxed Warning and Medication Guide.

What is the most important information I should know about TRIUMEQ? TRIUMEQ can cause serious side effects, including: • Serious allergic reactions (hypersensitivity reaction) that can cause death have happened with TRIUMEQ and other abacavir-containing products. Your risk of this allergic reaction to abacavir is much higher if you have a gene variation called HLA-B*5701. Your HCP can determine with a blood test if you have this gene variation.

If you get a symptom from 2 or more of the following groups while taking TRIUMEQ, call your HCP right away to find out if you should stop taking TRIUMEQ: Group 1: fever Group 4: general ill feeling, Group 2: rash extreme tiredness, or achiness Group 3: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, Group 5: shortness of breath, abdominal (stomach area) pain cough, sore throat Your pharmacist will give you a Warning Card with a list of these symptoms. Carry this Warning Card with you at all times.

• If you stop TRIUMEQ because of an allergic reaction, never take TRIUMEQ (abacavir, dolutegravir and lamivudine) or any other abacavir- or dolutegravir-containing medicines (EPZICOM®, TIVICAY®, TRIZIVIR®, or ZIAGEN®) again.

• Within hours of taking them, you could have life-threatening symptoms like very low blood pressure that might lead to death.

• If you stop TRIUMEQ for any other reason, even for a few days, and you are not allergic to TRIUMEQ, talk with your HCP before taking it again. Taking TRIUMEQ again can cause a serious allergic or life-threatening reaction, even if you never had an allergic reaction to it before. If your HCP tells you that you can take TRIUMEQ again, start taking it when you’re around medical help or people who can call a HCP if you need one.

• Build-up of acid in the blood, called lactic acidosis, can happen in people who take TRIUMEQ. Lactic acidosis is a serious medical emergency that can cause death.

Call your HCP right away if you get any of the following symptoms that could be signs of lactic acidosis: • feeling very weak or tired • feeling cold, especially in • unusual (not normal) muscle pain your arms and legs • trouble breathing • feeling dizzy or light-headed • stomach pain with nausea • fast or irregular heartbeat and vomiting • Serious liver problems can happen in people who take TRIUMEQ. In some cases, these serious liver problems can lead to death. Your liver may become large (hepatomegaly) and you may develop fat in your liver (steatosis). Call your HCP right away if you get any of the following signs or symptoms of liver problems: • your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice) • dark or “tea-colored” urine • light colored stools (bowel movements) • loss of appetite for several days or longer • nausea • pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or serious liver problems if you are female, very overweight (obese), or have been taking nucleoside analogue medicines for a long time.

• Worsening of hepatitis B virus (HBV) in people who have HIV-1 infection. If you have Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HBV, your HBV may get worse (flare-up) if you stop taking TRIUMEQ. A “flare-up” is when your HBV infection suddenly returns, worse than before.

Worsening liver disease can be serious and may lead to death. To help avoid this, do not run out of TRIUMEQ. Refill your prescription or talk to your HCP before your TRIUMEQ is all gone. Do not stop TRIUMEQ without first talking to your HCP. If you stop taking TRIUMEQ, your HCP will need to check your health often and do blood tests regularly for several months to check your liver.

• Resistant HBV If you have HIV-1 and HBV, the HBV can change (mutate) while you’re on TRIUMEQ and become harder to treat (resistant).

• Use with interferon and ribavirin-based regimens. Worsening of liver disease that has caused death has happened in people infected with both HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus who are taking antiretroviral medicines and are also being treated for hepatitis C with interferon with or without ribavirin. If you are taking TRIUMEQ and interferon with or without ribavirin, tell your HCP if you have any new symptoms.

What is TRIUMEQ? TRIUMEQ is a prescription HIV-1 medicine used alone or with other antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV-1 infection in adults. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. TRIUMEQ contains 3 prescription medicines, abacavir (ZIAGEN), dolutegravir (TIVICAY) and lamivudine (EPIVIR®). TRIUMEQ is not for use by itself in people who have or have had resistance to abacavir, dolutegravir, or lamivudine.

TRIUMEQ should not be used in children under the age of 18.

TRIUMEQ does not cure HIV-1 infection or AIDS. You must keep taking HIV-1 medicines to control HIV-1 infection and decrease HIV-related illnesses.

Who should not take TRIUMEQ? Don’t take TRIUMEQ if you: • have a certain type of gene variation called the HLA-B*5701 allele. Your HCP will test you for this before prescribing treatment with TRIUMEQ. • are allergic to abacavir, dolutegravir, or any of the ingredients in TRIUMEQ. See the full Medication Guide for a complete list of ingredients in TRIUMEQ. • take dofetilide (TIKOSYN®). Taking TRIUMEQ and dofetilide (TIKOSYN) can cause side effects that may be life-threatening.

• have liver or kidney problems.

What should I tell my HCP before taking TRIUMEQ? Before you take TRIUMEQ, tell your HCP if you: • have been tested and know whether or not you have a particular gene variation called HLA-B*5701.

• have or have had liver problems, including hepatitis B or C virus infection.

• have kidney problems.

• have heart problems, smoke, or have diseases that increase your risk of heart disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes.

• drink alcohol or take medicines that contain alcohol.

• are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRIUMEQ will harm your unborn baby.

Talk to your HCP if you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant.

• are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you take TRIUMEQ. You should not breastfeed if you have HIV-1 because of the risk of passing HIV-1 to your baby.

What other medications might interact with TRIUMEQ? Tell your HCP about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements.

Some medicines interact with TRIUMEQ. Keep a list of your medicines to show your HCP and pharmacist. You can ask your HCP or pharmacist for a list of medicines that interact with TRIUMEQ. Do not start taking a new medicine without telling your HCP. Your HCP can tell you if it is safe to take TRIUMEQ with other medicines.

You should not take TRIUMEQ if you also take: • abacavir (EPZICOM, TRIZIVIR, or ZIAGEN) • lamivudine (COMBIVIR®, DUTREBISTM, EPIVIR®, EPIVIR-HBV®, EPZICOM, or TRIZIVIR) • emtricitabine (ATRIPLA®, COMPLERA®, EMTRIVA®, STRIBILD®, or TRUVADA®) Tell your HCP if you take: • antacids, laxatives, or other medicines that contain aluminum, magnesium, sucralfate (CARAFATE®), or buffered medicines. TRIUMEQ should be taken at least 2 hours before or 6 hours after you take these medicines.

• anti-seizure medicines: • oxcarbazepine (TRILEPTAL®) • phenytoin (DILANTIN®, DILANTIN®-125, PHENYTEK®) • phenobarbital • carbamazepine (CARBATROL®, EQUETRO®, TEGRETOL®, TEGRETOL®-XR, TERIL®, EPITOL®) • any other medicine to treat HIV-1 • iron or calcium supplements taken by mouth. Supplements containing calcium or iron may be taken at the same time with TRIUMEQ if taken with food. Otherwise, TRIUMEQ should be taken at least 2 hours before or 6 hours after you take these medicines.

• medicines used to treat hepatitis virus infections, such as interferon or ribavirin • a medicine that contains metformin • methadone • rifampin (RIFATER®, RIFAMATE®, RIMACTANE®, RIFADIN®) • St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) What are other possible side effects of TRIUMEQ? TRIUMEQ can cause serious side effects including: • See “What is the most important information I should know about TRIUMEQ?” • Changes in liver tests. People with a history of hepatitis B or C virus may have an increased risk of developing new or worsening changes in certain liver tests during treatment with TRIUMEQ. Your HCP may do tests to check your liver function before and during treatment with TRIUMEQ. • Changes in your immune system (Immune Reconstitution Syndrome) can happen when you start taking HIV-1 medicines. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that have been hidden in your body for a long time. Tell your HCP right away if you start having new symptoms after you start taking TRIUMEQ. • Changes in body fat can happen in people who take HIV-1 medicines. These changes may include an increased amount of fat in the upper back and neck (“buffalo hump”), breast, and around the middle of your body (trunk). Loss of fat from the legs, arms, and face may also happen.

The exact cause and long-term health effects of these conditions are not known.

• Heart attack (myocardial infarction). Some HIV-1 medicines including TRIUMEQ may increase your risk of heart attack.

What are the most common side effects of TRIUMEQ? • trouble sleeping • headache • tiredness These are not all the possible side effects of TRIUMEQ. Tell your HCP if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

This Medication Guide has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Manufactured for:

by:

ViiV Healthcare Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

GlaxoSmithKline Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

Lamivudine is manufactured under agreement from Shire Pharmaceuticals Group plc Basingstoke, UK COMBIVIR, EPIVIR, EPZICOM, TIVICAY, TRIUMEQ, TRIZIVIR, and ZIAGEN are registered trademarks of the ViiV Healthcare group of companies.

EPIVIR-HBV is a registered trademark of the GSK group of companies.

The other brands listed are trademarks of their respective owners and are not trademarks of the ViiV Healthcare group of companies. The makers of these brands are not affiliated with and do not endorse the ViiV Healthcare group of companies or its products. ©2015, the ViiV Healthcare group of companies. All rights reserved.

Issued: September 2015 TRM:3MG

t

Community News>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Historical society gives media preview of new archive space

by Brian Bromberger

I

t may have been one of the few positive things to come out of the AIDS epidemic.

As the death toll rose, reams of historical memorabilia from the estates of dead gay men were being discarded in the trash. Fearing that memories of significant LGBT events would be erased, the GLBT Historical Society was founded in 1985 to “collect, preserve and interpret the history of GLBT people and the communities that support them.”

Now, a new milestone has occurred with the archives being moved to a new location at 989 Market Street, from the previous 657 Mission Street address. The rising cost of rent in the old building plus an inability to care properly for the safe preservation of the artifacts, which meant a hold placed on any donations, necessitated a new home.

While the official opening date is June 29, the historical society opened its bright facility last week to the media for a sneak peek with Joanna Black, managing archivist, and Terry Beswick, executive director.

The new location has twice the space – 6,500 square feet as opposed to 3,300 square feet – the histori-

cal society had in its former office, with many more shelving units and plenty of room to grow.

A more expansive reading room for researchers (and members of the public with a reservation) includes state-of-the-art digital workstations and a reference bookshelf, all of which makes it easier to access the catalogued material such as periodicals, papers, photographs, and oral histories. And small display exhibits may be set up there to show tantalizing tidbits of the archives, such as zines.

“We can accommodate more researchers and staff, as well as take on more projects like increased digitalization of collections and specialized workshops,” Black said.

In the huge storage room, there are still many boxes to be unpacked, and, as the collection is reshelved, staff are verifying each article and double-checking it made the trip from 657 Mission.

As one strolls through the aisles, names and memories seem to pop out of the stacks and one is transported back in time as there is material from deceased people like Marcus Hernandez, aka Mr. Marcus; Jose Sarria; Del Martin; Harold Norse; Leland Moss; Pat Bond; Leonard Matlovich; Mike Hippler;

Rick Gerharter

Managing archivist Joanna Black, left, and Executive Director Terry Beswick show two of Sylvester’s costumes that are in the collection of the GLBT Historical Society at the new archive space.

Hank Wilson; Geoff Mains, and Crawford Wayne Barton among many others.

Materials in the archives about those who are living include Phyllis Lyon, Tom Ammiano, Donna

Hitchens, and Mark Chester.

Black showed the late disco singer Sylvester’s elaborate costumes shrouded in sequins, complete with a feather hat. She then revealed an item not likely to make it into any museum show: the late playwright Robert Chesley’s pubic hair collection; each man’s hair stored in a spice jar with his name written on it. There is no comment on how or why such an endeavor was undertaken.

Yet as Beswick observed, “Each object tells a story. One of our donations came from a couple who had met in the balcony at a movie theater once a week in the 1940s.

One of the guys was drafted into the Korean War and had no way to contact his partner that he was leaving. In those days fearing media exposure or arrest, one didn’t give out addresses or telephone numbers so readily. Luckily they were reunited at the movie theater when he returned home. They attended the gay dance held on New Year’s Day 1965 at the California Hall on Polk Street that was raided by the police and started the LGBT civil rights movement here in SF, four years before Stonewall. And because of them we have some of those artifacts.”

Beswick declined to name the men.

Any keepsakes from before 1970 are especially sought after.

However, Beswick said perhaps the most prized item in the archives is the late Harvey Milk’s barber chair stored in the back of his old camera store on Castro Street.

“In all these precious mementos, we take our diversity and magnify it, as it goes out to the rest of the world,” Beswick said. “We can now expand our collection’s diversity, especially among underrepresented groups.”

The historical society has signed a seven-year lease on the new space, but Beswick envisions creating a new and larger LGBTQ museum of history and culture, to replace the small GLBT History Museum in the Castro that was never meant to be permanent, with the archives joined together in one building, so many more of their treasures can be openly displayed.

“The museum is the face and voice, but the archives are the heart and soul of our collection. They should be reunited,” Beswick said.t To read Terry Beswick’s Guest Opinion on the historical society’s plans for a larger museum, see http://ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op&id=566.

SF two spirit youth honored with Courage Award

by Heather Cassell

nized an LGBT drag show during a special rally at an Francisco two Mission High School spirit youth Pablo Rocelebrating queer youth. driguez received a Youth It was a hit that started a Courage Award from the tradition that continues Colin Higgins Foundatoday, he said. tion at a recent celebra“Pablo calls himself not tion in Los Angeles. an activist but a ‘curandRodriguez, 21, was Courtesy Colin Higgins Foundation ero,’ a healer,” James Roghonored along with two ers, board president of the Pablo Rodriguez other young people at the Colin Higgins Foundation, foundation’s 16th annual ceremony wrote in a statement to the Bay Area June 11 and spoke before the crowds Reporter. “And by helping heal others, at Los Angeles Pride last Sunday.

Pablo has demonstrated again and “Life is just a journey and I’m again that he is a rare combination of enjoying it. I’m loving it,” said Roguts, modesty, vision, and determinadriguez. “This award is wonderful.” tion. He embodies the highest ideals Rodriguez was selected for the of our award. We could not be proudaward for his work over the past er to have him as one of our Youth seven years improving the lives of Courage Award Winners for 2016.”

LGBT youth, especially those who The foundation is named for are undocumented and living in San Higgins, a screenwriter who started Francisco, like himself. it to support LGBTQ youth in unHe helped create two programs, derserved communities. He died in UndocuWorkforce at the Lavender 1988 of AIDS-related complications.

Youth Recreation and Information Rodriguez spoke to the B.A.R. Center, and the UndocuQueer dropwith a mixture of wisdom and exin center at the Communities in Harcitement about the awards ceremony. mony Advocating for Learning. The “I don’t feel like this is just my award drop-in center provides resources to but it’s theirs because they are continuyouth such as screenings for visas for ing to push me to do the work that I’m Deferred Action for Childhood Arcurrently doing,” he said about the rivals and other services. community that has supported him Since launching in 2013, 32 people and nominated him for the award. have gone through UndocuWorkforce, Rodriguez plans on hosting a which provides employment training community celebration and putand opportunities for undocumented ting the $10,000 award to good use, youth, according to Jodi Schwartz, excontinuing his work with undocuecutive director of LYRIC. mented youth, he said.

UndocuWorkforce is a project His mother is proud of him after a created with partner organization rough period of coming to terms with Causa Justa: Just Cause. her son’s two spirit identity, he said.

Starting in high school, Rodriguez, who is currently in the proJourney from Guatemala cess of applying for asylum, began Rodriguez was born and raised educating people about LGBT and by various family members in Guaundocumented youth issues. He temala until he was 14 years old. In gave about 60 workshops to teach2008, his family sent him to the U.S. ers, parents and youth that reached to be reunited with his mother, who an estimated 1,900 people. had come to San Francisco when he In high school, Rodriguez orgawas 6 years old.

S

Growing up he experienced severe alienation and isolation as a boy who didn’t fit into gender norms.

He was shuffled around from family member to family member.

It wasn’t until he came to the U.S. that he began to find the community and language – LGBT, bullying, discrimination – he needed to describe who he was and how he was feeling about himself.

“I didn’t know what this word was before, but I did know what

it felt like,” said Rodriguez, who learned English after he arrived in the U.S. “I did know what it was to be isolated and very disconnected from my culture, from the people, very disconnected from my school, very disconnected from my community, very disconnected from my family, and of course, very disconnected from my own mom.”

He came out to his mother when he was 16, explaining to her that he was queer, but then identifying himself as

two spirit and as a person who doesn’t feel male or female, said Rodriguez.

His mother didn’t respond well, he said.

“She didn’t understand. She thought I was a freak at first because this was the first time that she heard that I like the same sex [and] then I told her that ... I was neither of the two genders, so she really thought I was crazy.”

See page 6 >>

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

If you are a California resident and while located in California called Wyndham Rewards® or certain hotel brands, you could receive money from a Class Action Settlement A proposed $7,325,000 class action settlement has been reached in a lawsuit called Joyce Roberts v. Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, LLC, et al., USDC NDCA Case No. 12-cv-05083PSG. The lawsuit claims that Defendants’ third party vendor recorded telephone calls of persons calling certain toll-free reservations and customer-service lines without telling callers that the calls may be recorded, allegedly in violation of California law. Defendants have denied the claims. Nonetheless, Defendants and the Class Representatives have agreed to settle the dispute to avoid the uncertainty and costs of litigation.

The $7,325,000 settlement fund will pay eligible claims, notice and administration costs, attorneys’ fees and expenses, and the named plaintiff’s service award.

Who is a class member?

You are a Class Member if you are a California resident who, while physically located in California, called one or more toll-free telephone numbers associated with Wyndham Rewards®, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts®, Wyndham Grand® Hotels and Resorts, Wyndham Garden® Hotels, Travelodge®, Ramada®, Knights Inn®, Wingate®, Days Inn®, Super 8®, Baymont®, Hawthorn®, Microtel®, or Tryp® between May 1, 2011 and March 23, 2012, inclusive, were routed to a call center operated by a third-party vendor (Aegis), spoke to a representative and were recorded without notice.

What are my legal rights?

To receive a settlement payment, eligible class members must submit a claim. It is expected that eligible class members who submit a timely and valid Claim Form will receive at least $150 per qualified call but not more than $5,000 per call. The amount of each individual

settlement payment will depend on the total number of claims filed.

Whether or not you submit a claim, if the Court approves the settlement, unless you take steps to exclude yourself from the settlement, you will be bound by all of the Court’s orders. This means you will not be able to make any claims against Defendants or other Released Parties covered by the settlement.

If you wish to submit a claim, visit www.

CARecordedCallsSettlement.com or contact the Claims Administrator at 1-800-889-8319 to get a claim form. The deadline to submit claims August 18, 2016.

If you do not wish to be a member of the settlement class, you must submit a letter to the Claims Administrator at the address below postmarked by August 18, 2016. If you optout you cannot submit a claim form. Visit the settlement website for more information.

If you wish to object to the settlement, you must do so by submitting your objection to the Court in person or postmarked by August 18, 2016. Visit the settlement website for more information.

A final hearing will be held on October 18, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. to determine the fairness, reasonableness and adequacy of the proposed settlement and to award attorneys’ fees and costs and plaintiff’s service award. The motion for attorneys’ fees and costs and plaintiff’s service award will be posted on the settlement website after it is filed. You may attend the hearing, but you do not have to.

This is only a summary. For detailed information including the full text of the Settlement Agreement, the Class Notice and the Claim Form, visit www.CARecordedCallsSettlement. com, call 1-800-889-8319, or write to: Settlement Administrator at Hotels Call Recording Settlement c/o Rust Consulting, P.O. Box 2506, Faribault, MN 55021-9506.

1-800-889-8319 www.CARecordedCallsSettlement.com Hotel Call Recording Settlement Claims Administrator c/o Rust Consulting, P.O. Box 2506, Faribault, MN 55021-9506

<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

VALENCIA CYCLERY

Habitat for Humanity holds SF Pride event

t

by David-Elijah Nahmod

SPRING SALE ONinNOW! We’ve got more bikes stockV & abitat for Humanity GreaterAL H San Francisco recently held its ready to ride other We’ve gotthan moreany bikes in shop stockin&SF. CYC annual Pride event, commemorating its late founder, a gay man who ready to ride than shop in SF! MANY ON any SALE! SPRING died decades ago.

We’ve got m Founded in Georgia in 1976, ready to ride Habitat For Humanity is a nonprofit

which, according to its website, believes that “everyone, everywhere, should have an affordable place to call home.” Self-described as a “Christian housing ministry,” Habitat builds Hybrid/City new homes from the ground up and Hybrid/City Kid’s sells them at below market rates to lower income families.

Jane Philomen Cleland The organization first became part of the public consciousness Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco workers took a break when former President Jimmy Cartfrom construction as they observed the third annual Stephen Black Road er, a devout Christian and LGBT Jacoby Build with Pride Day earlier this month.

Now Op ally, became one of Habitat’s supHAPPY porters – he made headlines when Ever y Thurs from Rosalynn Carter, which he he personally participated in the tended the Pride event. take 20% OFF a Road Mountain shared with the B.A.R. “I am deeply construction of new homes.

“Steve came from a background touched to know my brief meeting Being a Christian organization, of service,” said Kent Bloom, 59, JaThanks to Thursday our customers Now Open to 7pm! with Steve played a role in his foundHabitat was slow in becoming LGBT coby’s surviving partner. “That was ing of Habitat For Humanity Greater inclusive, but that changed thanks his upbringing.”

San Francisco,” the former first lady to the efforts of Stephen Blake JaBloom spoke of Jacoby’s careers Every Thursday in April between 4 & 7pm 2016 Project Open Hand wrote. “I appreciate your taking the coby, a gay San Francisco resident with the U.S. Naval Academy and as take 20% OFF all parts, accessories & clothing.* 1065 1077 Vale time to share Steve’s story with me.

Benefit Donation! who died of AIDS-related compli- & a pilot for United Airlines.

He also SALES 415-550*Sales limited to stock on hand.

Best wishes to you and Joe.” cations at age 36SPRING in 1991. Habitat’s recalled Jacoby’s dedication to makMon.Sat. 1 Joe is Bloom’s current partner. m San Francisco chapter embraces an ing Habitat for Humanity inclusive We’ve got valenci Together for 17 years, they work inclusive and diverse policy. even as to he knew that his life might ready ride toward honoring Jacoby’s legacy.

The organization is currently be drawing to a close.

Bloom asked that his partner’s last hard at work building an entire “Steve was a quiet and humble name not be published. block of new homes in the city’s man,” Bloom recalled. “He was deThe new homes are being conOceanside neighborhood – Habitermined to found this Habitat in a structed in an alley at 1 Capitol tat SF kicked off Pride Month by way that honored a variety of faiths Avenue – once the homes are comdedicating Friday, June 3 to Jacoby’s and included all people, regardless of 1065 & 1077 Valencia (Btwn 21st & 22nd St.) • SF Hybrid/City pleted and ready for occupancy, the memory.

This is Habitat SF’s third race, gender or sexual orientation.”

SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 alley will be named Habitat Terrace. annual Stephen Blake Jacoby BuildA meeting with former first lady A total of 28 homes are being built ing With Pride Day – many of the Rosalynn Carter, which occurred Mon.- Sat. 10-6, Thu. 10-7, Sun. 11-5 at this location. onsite construction workers were during a 1989 flight, went a long “The homes cost 30 percent of clad in Building With Pride T-shirts. way in helping Jacoby to achieve his the owner’s income,” Leja said, not“Steve founded Habitat’s San dream, Bloom said. ing that more Habitat homes are in Francisco chapter,” Kristine Leja, in- Road “He spent the last months of the works in Daly City, Redwood terim CEO for Habitat for Humanity his life leading public meetings, ValenciaCyclery_2x7.625_061616.indd 1 6/14/16 2:27 PM City, and Novato. The buildings are O Now Greater San Francisco told the Bay forming a steering committee and standard townhomes by design, feaArea Reporter as the work continued a board, and applying for incorpoHAPPY Ever Thur turingy a garage and bedroom on the behind her. “At the time Habitat’s ration from Habitat,” Bloom said. take 20% OFF ground floor level. A kitchen and main office felt that San Francisco “He was elected the first Habitat San dining area take up the second floor, was too liberal and too progressive.

Francisco board president in Sepwith another bedroom on the top Steve worked for three years to make tember 1991, and he presided over level. The homes come equipped sure that Habitat was inclusive, and the first meeting of a board that with washers and dryers.t to make sure that the values of San included many different religions as Francisco were represented in the well as LGBT people. Steve died five people who inhabit the buildings.” days after that first meeting.”

For more information, visit http:// 1065 & Jacoby’s surviving partner also atIn 2014 Bloom1077 received a letter www.habitatgsf.org. Vale

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Trans adviser

From page 1

the oversight panel’s president.

She said she’d also develop valenc She also was once CEO of the sex relationships with regional, na-

this high of a priority will be placed on transgender programs, such as someone who’s basically a direct adviser to the mayor of San Francisco,” Sparks, 67, said in a brief interview Tuesday.

She’ll start in her new position July 1. She said her salary would be about $180,000, the same as it is now.

Sparks was believed to be the city’s first transgender department head when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom selected her for the HRC post in 2009.

Prior to her work at that agency, Sparks served on the city’s Police Commission, including a stint as

BEGIN@

479 Castro Street , San Francisco • (415) 431-5365 • www.cliffsvariety.com

<<

Courage Award

From page 5

She kicked him out of the house.

He was still in high school. His best friend took him in. Finally, Rodriguez told his teachers what he was going through. They got child protective services involved. His mother eventually welcomed him home again, but it took some time.

“I realized that if I get angry about the situation things are not going to get any better and it was going to be really painful for her and for me,” said Rodriguez, who started finding ways to re-connect with his mother by offering her assistance with daily chores.

toy retailer Good Vibrations.

Sparks said her new job will include reviewing and overseeing city projects related to issues such as trans health care, violence prevention, education, and employment.

Among other things, she said, Lee wants her to “try to understand what they’re costing, and more importantly, what they’re achieving or not achieving.” She’ll also be tasked with identifying gaps in service delivery.

Additionally, Sparks’ efforts will involve cultural training for police, probation, jail, and other law enforcement agencies.

tional, and international agencies; community-based organizations; and private companies outside San Francisco.

Sparks offered praise for the work Lee’s already done, noting he was the first mayor in the U.S. to issue a ban on city employee travel to North Carolina after the state enacted its controversial House Bill 2 law this year, which prohibits transgender people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity.

There was no immediate word from the mayor’s office on who will replace Sparks at the Human Rights Commission.t

He isn’t mad at his mother for her reaction to him and her homophobia.

“I always responded with an act of love when she would scream at me. I would always remind her that, ‘Hey, I’m still your child,’” he said.

He blames centuries of colonization of his country and theft of Guatemala’s resources and eventually the forced amnesia of his people’s cultural and spiritual roots, he said.

“I’m going to blame it on the fact that there is 500 years of colonization that she has to deal with,” he said. “Five hundred years of this self-hatred toward her own people, toward her people who are just like me that we now call gay, lesbian, bi-

sexual, or transgender.”

He’s now reunited with his mother and living at home and currently working toward a degree in sociology at City College of San Francisco.

Other honorees

Two other young people also received Courage Awards. Andrew O’Donnell, 18, of Omaha, Nebraska, was raised Catholic and came out as queer to their family at a very young age and started a support group.

Landyn Pan, 20, of Orange, California had to come to terms with his gender and sexuality in the context of a conservative family and channeled his energy into various artistic talents.t

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<< Open Forum

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Volume 46, Number 24 June 16-22, 2016 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

LEGAL COUNSEL Paul H. Melbostad, Esq.

BAY AREA REPORTER 44 Gough Street, Suite 204 San Francisco, CA 94103 415.861.5019 • www.ebar.com A division of BAR Media, Inc. © 2016 President: Michael M. Yamashita Chairman: Thomas E. Horn VP and CFO: Patrick G. Brown Secretary: Todd A. Vogt

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

Advertising rates available upon request.

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

We will not be diminished

t

W

e will not be diminished by the protests over the light sentence the act of a deranged mass given to Dan White for assassinatmurderer, Omar Mateen – and ing gay Supervisor Harvey Milk yes, we will print his name – who and Mayor George Moscone. And shot up Pulse, taking 49 mostly gay of course, the modern gay rights Latino lives and injuring 53 others. movement was born from police We will not be diminished by violence at the Stonewall Inn in Mateen’s possible internalized hoNew York City on June 28, 1969. mophobia, and by the anti-gay comThese incidents occurred in gay ments of his father, Seddique Mir bars, which have always been a place Mateen, who in an interview said of refuge and community for us. It “God will punish those involved in wasn’t safe to hold hands in public so homosexuality,” and said it’s “not an we met our boyfriends or girlfriends issue that humans should deal with.” at the bar. It was risky to be out at We will not be diminished by work, but we could meet friends at the mainstream media that can’t the bar. The gay bar became a safe Rick Gerharter comprehend that the mass shoot- On Sunday, Castro resident Billy Curtis added his bouquet to the haven where we could be ourselves ing at the gay Pulse nightclub in growing memorial at 18th and Castro streets for the victims of the and create our own world away from Orlando is both homophobic Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting. the oppression of the straight world.

AND terrorism.

It often replaced church for a lot And we will not be diminished of people because decades ago, we for decades. We have been murdered by the likely failure of Congress to weren’t welcome there either. for who we are, for who we love, and pass any meaningful gun control The horrific murders in Orlando have for living our lives. On June 24, legislation. If the deaths of 20 first shaken that safe zone to its core in every gay 1973, 32 people died in an arson graders in Newtown, Connectibar in the world. People are understandably fire at the Upstairs Lounge in New cut couldn’t galvanize politicians, frightened, but we cannot give in to terror and Orleans’ French Quarter. Up until we doubt the deaths of 49 mostly stay home. We “can’t allow fear to silence us Sunday’s attack in Orlando, it had gay men of color will. That’s tragic. and push us back in the closet,” as Los Angeles been the deadliest known attack on Bringing back the assault weapons LGBT Center CEO Lorri Jean told CBS News a gay club in the U.S. In 1979 in ban would be a great first step, but this week. Jean’s right. Even as LA’s Pride paSan Francisco, uniformed police we’re not so naive as to think that rade last Sunday was also a potential target of stormed the Elephant Walk bar will a) actually happen and b) end mass violence – a man was arrested by Santa and beat up gays, in retaliation for gun violence.

Monica police after they discovered a cache of We’re not surprised in the least weapons and he said he was headed that Mateen reportedly had accounts to LA Pride – the crowds turned out, on gay hook-up sites and had visited grieved the loss of life in Orlando Pulse on multiple occasions. and made a defiant statement that When he called 911 from inside we won’t be silenced. the club and proclaimed allegiance We must continue to come out to the Islamic State, did he mean it? and go out. Thousands of LGBTs Was that just a cover for his anti-gay and our allies did, in fact, go out last hate crime? We may never know. If Sunday night to attend vigils in cithe was gay, we do know that interies across the country. We wanted to nalized homophobia kills – figushow our solidarity with our brothratively and literally. The national ers and sisters in Orlando, the same media may not understand how a way that they would have for us. gay person could commit such terWe have achieved so much progror against fellow gays, but we do. ress for our equality in the last sevAs the world is focused on Oreral years. But no setback or tragedy lando, it’s certainly worth noting will stop us from moving forward that the LGBT community has been and affirming our existence. We will the target of violence and murder not be diminished.t

My fathers, my family

by Dayashanae Romesburg

I

have two gay dads, named Don and David.

Having them as parents is normal for me. It might not be normal for other people. There was one person in my class – I just finished fifth grade – who said she would die if she couldn’t live with her mom. I would want to live with my mom too, but things are different. My birth mom and birth dad weren’t able to take care of me, so I got put in a foster home when I was still a baby. After that first foster home, I got put in three other ones before I was two and a half. Was anyone going to adopt me? Yes! That’s when I met my new parents – my dads.

One year and one day after our placement, I got adopted. I was with my dads forever!

I still have a great bond with my mom even though I got adopted. I see her and my birth brothers and sister a few times a year. We go roller skating and have barbecues all together, with my dads too. Since I was a baby, I’ve only been able to see my birth dad two times.

I have a very large family, including my adopted and biological parts of it. If you count all the people in my whole family, it makes around 40. I have a really good connection with most of them. I know them well and they know me well. That makes me feel cared for and loved. They don’t all know each other that well though.

One great memory I have is from a couple of years ago. On Christmas Day both sides of my cousins in my adoptive family came to see me.

They all knew who I was but at first kept staring at each other because they didn’t know one another. So I introduced them. After that, one set of cousins kept trying to steal me away from the other. All of my grandparents, aunts, and uncles on both sides of my adoptive family were doing the same things, in their adult ways.

Living with my dads is just like any other family. They are hard to deal with sometimes.

Sometimes we do fun things together. Other times we cuddle. I have a great set of parents.

Courtesy the Romesburg family

Dayashanae Romesburg with her dads, Don Romesburg, left, and David Mould.

They mean the world to me. I mean the world to them also. My two dads are amazing.

As a black girl adopted by two white gay dads, I appreciate being so different from all the kids at school. (Well, there is one other black kid at school with two white dads, too.) My sister is also foster adopted, and she’s mixed, Latina and black. She’s about 6.5 years younger than me (I’m 10 – can you do the math?). We get into conflicts sometimes, but we still love each other. She comes from different birth parents than me.

We see them too, a couple of times a year.

When I’m at school, I like to hang around the other black kids. Sometimes they say that

I talk like a white person. I say that the reason I do is because those are the people who are raising me and that there is no problem that I do. They ask me those kinds of questions because they don’t understand how it feels to be raised by people other than their biological parents or of a different culture.

I am glad to explain to them though. Explaining makes me feel special. I’m glad to be different.

I’m glad that my family is diverse.

I want to tell my dads “I love you.” Happy Father’s Day!t Dayashanae Romesburg and her dads, Don Romesburg and David Mould, live in San Francisco.

t

Letters >>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Debate reignited over Castro flag

For about four years, Scott Wiener and the Castro Merchants, with assistance from Cleve Jones and Gilbert Baker, adamantly opposed community control of the rainbow flagpole on public property at Harvey Milk Plaza.

They used bogus excuses to deny LGBT activists even a public debate about this incredibly vital piece of queer space and who has access to the flag, never mind using it as tool for education and greater acceptance.

It was more important for these leaders to show their contempt of certain activists and public space advocates, leading to barring the leather community from flying its pride flag at the plaza during Folsom Street Fair Week, and a GOP-like policy of saying no to any altering in how the rainbow flag is displayed in the plaza named for a man who wouldn’t have put up with such obstinacy.

Now, with about 100 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied friends murdered or brutally maimed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Wiener and the Castro Merchants took down the usual enormous rainbow flag on June 12, replacing it with a smaller version and flying it at half-staff out of respect for the massacre in Florida, for a paltry number of hours.

Shame on these Castro leaders for waiting until such a tremendous loss of life occurred before doing the right thing. It’s time to finally have a public debate about ceding control of this flagpole to the community and taking it out of the hands of politicians and business owners.

Michael Petrelis San Francisco

Flag lowered, then raised

Many who were grief-stricken over this week’s anti-gay violence in Orlando called on Castro Merchants and the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District to see

to it that the rainbow flag at Castro and Market be lowered out of respect for the loss of so many LGBTQ folk.

Quite surprisingly, the flag was unceremoniously lowered and a smaller rainbow flag flew quietly at half-mast Sunday.

Castro Merchants finally got it right. The flag and the decision to lower it to honor those who have been lost in the ongoing struggle for our rights has been embroiled in controversy for a number of years now with ownership and all decisions around its use being decided by the merchants’ organization, which cares for it.

Many of us have argued that the flag belongs to the people: not to Gilbert Baker, who designed it and will always have recognition for that inspired act, nor to the merchants who pay for its upkeep, nor to anyone else. Rather it belongs to LGBTQ people everywhere. It has been transformed into a symbol of the freedom of a people.

Then on Tuesday the merchants recanted their decision and took down the half-mast flag. They proclaimed on their Facebook page that the flag will always fly as a symbol of our undying, “unvanquishable” pride. Once again they got it terribly wrong. Flying the flag forever and regardless is not pride; it is hubris. It is casting a blind eye on the vicissitudes of life. It asserts they know more than the rest of the world and how most all other flags in it serve: Part of the just and proper use of a flag is its lowering in honor of the fallen-a single committed individual who has served the public or a group who have lost their lives in the service of freedom’s eternal stand in the face of hatred.

What will it take to open the eyes of this organization that holds the people’s flag captive? At this terrible juncture, for LGBTQ people in particular, there is still no clear answer.

God bless those who died and those who are injured and bring comfort to their friends and families.

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills www.SchneiderLawSF.com

415-781-6500 *Certified by the California State Bar 400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA

Isak Lindenauer San Francisco

Gay SF GOP chair says party could sway fall races

by Matthew S. Bajko

I

n last week’s San Francisco primary election, nearly 21,000 people voted for Republican Ken Loo in the race for the city’s state Senate seat.

The tally was nowhere near enough to allow Loo to advance to the fall election, when his two Democratic opponents will face off.

As of Wednesday morning, gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener was still holding on to a slim lead for first place in the race with 102,736 votes, or 45.51 percent. Close behind in second was District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim with 101,650 votes, or 45.03 percent.

Much has been made about Kim’s close finish, largely credited to her seizing on an endorsement from presidential candidate U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), whom she campaigned with in the final days leading up to the June 7 election. Her strong showing has led some to predict she will ride a wave of progressive support to victory come November.

But Loo’s supporters could play the pivotal role in deciding who succeeds gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who is termed out of office this year, argued Jason P. Clark, the first openly gay person to be named chair of the San Francisco Republican Party.

In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter a few days after the election, Clark predicted the candidate GOP voters were most likely to support in the runoff is Wiener, the more moderate of the two Democrats.

“It probably will not be Jane Kim,” said Clark, who had been the local GOP’s first vice-chair and took over as chair Wednesday, June 1.

Yet Wiener will need to court GOP voters, added Clark, if he wants their support come November.

“Scott had a rather narrow election win, a lot narrower than I think those observing it expected. A lot of people weren’t expecting Jane Kim to do so well. If he wants Republican votes, he has to do some work reach-

Courtesy Jason P. Clark

Local Republican Party Chair Jason P. Clark speaks to reporters on election night.

ing out to us because we will provide his margin of victory,” said Clark.

In the other high-profile Democrat versus Democrat race this fall for a U.S. Senate seat, Clark predicted Republicans in northern California would support state Attorney General Kamala Harris due to their familiarity with her when she was the district attorney in San Francisco.

And GOP members in southern California are likely to back Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) because they know her better, predicted Clark.

“Either one will have a tough job persuading Republicans that they will represent their interests in the U.S. Capitol,” said Clark, an attorney who works as a project manager at San Francisco-based Consilio, LLC. In terms of the presidential race, Clark said he is not ready to commit to voting for businessman Donald Trump, his party’s presumptive nominee in the race. Nor will he be attending the GOP convention in Cleveland next month.

“Until the convention, we don’t have a nominee. Trump has a lot of work to do to convince San Francisco Republicans he is the right candidate and the right man for the job,” said Clark, who had been backing

Ohio Governor John Kasich. “We know Hillary Clinton is the wrong person for the job. But just because Hillary is the wrong person, that doesn’t make you the right person.”

Clark, 35, is the second out chair of a local GOP party in the Bay Area: The first is believed to have been Paul Cummings in Alameda. In last week’s election Clark placed fourth for 11 seats on the Republican County Central Committee from the city’s 17th Assembly District.

Also winning seats from AD 17 were gay GOPers Chris Cheng, who placed third, Troy Bodnar (eighth place), and Barry A. Graynor (10th). It marks a record number of out LGBT members, said Clark, who is also president of the San Francisco Log Cabin chapter for LGBT GOPers.

Since 2011 Clark has been a member of the GOP central committee, at one point serving as the local party’s volunteer general counsel. In 2012 he unsuccessfully ran against gay former state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) for his legislative seat.

Over the last couple of years Clark has become the public face of the local GOP. Comfortable talking to the media, he was interviewed by all four of the local television stations on election night last week, as well as the local Univision affiliate.

Taking note was current Log Cabin California Chair John Musella, who last week called Clark “a media rockstar!”

“I don’t know if I am a natural,” Clark told the B.A.R. when it comes to being interviewed. “I don’t mind doing it.”

According to Matthew Craffey, president of the Los Angeles Log Cabin chapter, Clark is currently the only LGBT chair of a local Republican party in the state.

“Jason’s accomplishment, I think, is pretty amazing. He is completely capable of that role,” said Craffey. “I think he is going to be great in that role. I think it is a really good sign for the future of the California Republican Party that we are putting Jason in that role.”

See page 21 >>

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<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

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South Bay public defender stands by judge in assault case

by Sari Staver

A

s public support grows for the recall of Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky over his lenient sentence of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, Santa Clara County Public Defender Molly O’Neal disagrees.

O’Neal, 53, was appointed to the job by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors in 2013. A lesbian, she is one of the most prominent public figures – and possibly the only LGBT – to proclaim strong support for the judge’s recent decision to sentence Turner to six months in jail – with the possibility of parole after three months – after he was convicted of intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person and two related charges, all felonies.

In a statement from the public defender’s office, O’Neal called the sentence “totally fair, not out of line, given [the defendant’s] lack of a criminal record.” O’Neal added that she stood behind Persky because “the judge listened to everyone involved and made a difficult call.”

The crime, which took place in 2015 near a Stanford fraternity house, involves a 22-year-old woman, who has remained anonymous, who was found unconscious, bloody, and half naked by passersby.

Turner, who was banned from the university after Stanford conducted an investigation, contends that the woman had given her consent. A jury convicted him in March.

Since the sentencing was announced June 2, public outrage has grown. Within one week, more than 1.2 million people have signed online petitions demanding that Persky be recalled.

In her statement, O’Neal, the first openly gay person to hold the job, said, “We need to be very careful we’re not hanging judges out to dry based on one decision, especially because he is considered to be a fair and even-tempered judge.”

A firestorm of criticism has erupted over what many see as a lenient sentence by the judge, who made his decision after a recommendation by a parole officer. The parole officer recommended that the judge be lenient in part because the defendant was intoxicated and also because of his “sincere remorse and empathy for the victim” and his lack of a prior criminal record, according to court records.

Turner could have faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in state prison; the district attorney pros-

Santa Clara County Public Defender Molly O’Neal

Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office

Brock Turner was convicted of sexual assault.

ecuting the case urged the judge to impose six.

Michele Dauber, the Stanford law professor heading the effort to recall Persky, told the Bay Area Reporter that the sentence was “dangerous” and makes life less safe for women at Stanford and other college campuses.

Dauber, who was co-chair of a Stanford group that helped lead the process to review the school’s policy on sexual assault, explained that the decision was “not within sentencing guidelines.”

Dauber explained that one of the crimes for which Turner was convicted – assault with intent to commit rape – has a minimum guideline sentence of two years with a “sort of expected sentence being four years.”

It is also not eligible presumptively for probation.

But Persky, in granting probation after the jail term, found that this was an “unusual case” for several reasons, and that he was, prior to committing these crimes, “a very successful young man who had a great academic record and a lot of athletic ac-

complishment,” said Dauber.

But Dauber argued that Turner’s description “fits essentially every campus rape at Stanford, certainly, and many schools across the country.”

Persky’s decision “has essentially taken campus rape out of the category of things you can go to prison for, and awarded it a lighter sentence,” said Dauber. “This is absolutely an outrage,” she added.

The recall measure will be on the ballot next year, predicted Dauber.

The new group, http://www.RecallAaronPersky.com, started by the state political action campaign Progressive Women Silicon Valley, has launched a fundraising campaign to gather signatures to place the measure on the ballot, said Dauber.

“We are definitely going to do it,” she said. “We won’t know until next year if the citizens will vote to remove him.”

But O’Neal argues that the victim was vindicated by the jury verdict, “which sent a strong message that such assaults are not to be tolerated,” according to the statement from her office. “Nothing would be gained by sending Turner to prison,” she said.

O’Neal said she is appalled at the venom directed at Persky, whom she says has received multiple threats.

She noted that prosecutors could have declined to let Persky hear the case if they were concerned that his background as a Stanford graduate and assistant coach of the university’s lacrosse team would influence his decision. She also said that trying to recall the judge based on one decision is wrong.

“I stand with the judge,” O’Neal said.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen was disappointed with the sentence.

In a statement he released outside the courthouse, Rosen said, “The punishment does not fit the crime.

The predatory offender has failed to take responsibility, failed to show remorse, and failed to tell the truth.

It does not factor in the true seriousness of this sexual assault, or the victim’s ongoing trauma.”

Sandy Feinland, deputy public defender in the Sexual Assault Unit in San Francisco, noted in an email to the B.A.R. that the sentence is unusual because “in the current political climate, sentences for sex crimes are typically disproportionately harsh.”

But Feinland also wrote that the sentence is being mischaracterized as a “slap on the wrist.”

“Mr. Turner will not be done with his sentence after his jail term,” he See page 22 >>

<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

SF DJs join in Dance for Orlando Sunday compiled by Cynthia Laird

S

an Francisco’s nightlife community is coming together to help raise funds for the victims of the Orlando mass shooting at Pulse.

Forty-nine people died and 53 others were injured during the June 12 attack when a gunman opened fire inside the gay nightclub before being killed by police three hours later.

Dance for Orlando will take place Sunday, June 19 starting at 6 p.m. at 1015 Folsom Street. Organized in part by Gus Bean of Gus Presents, the evening will feature numerous DJs and all types of music. Juanita More, Honey Soundsystem, Sergio Fedasz, Marke Bieschke, Oscar Pineda, and many more performers, promoters, and the city’s nightlife family will be part of the benefit.

One hundred percent of proceeds go to Equality Florida’s official fund for victims.

Admission is $20 at the door.

Inforum to hold Black Lives Matter panel

Inforum, an innovation lab at the Commonwealth Club, will hold a panel discussion looking at Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQI community Monday, June 20 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Commonwealth Club offices, 555 Post Street in San Francisco.

The San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee is co-presenting the event. This year’s Pride theme is “For Racial and Economic Justice” and the panel aims to address the often-overlooked rights of the LGBTQ community, especially those of people of color.

Black Lives Matter is this year’s San Francisco Pride parade organi-

zational grand marshal.

Speakers will include Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and a community grand marshal of last year’s Pride parade, and Darnell Moore, senior correspondent at Mic and a writer-in-residence at the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice at Columbia University.

Barbara Smith, a black feminist author and activist, co-founder of the Combahee River Collective, and special community projects coordinator of the Equity Agenda, the panel for the City of Albany, New York, will moderate.

Premium tickets are $30 for members and $40 for non-members. General admission is free for members and $25 for non-members. To purchase tickets and for more information, visit http://www. inforumsf.org.

‘Bustin Out’ party at El Rio

The Transgender Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project will hold “Bustin Out,” a block party against the prison industrial complex, Friday, June 24 at two locations in San Francisco.

At El Rio, 3158 Mission Street, DJs CLR Jams, Lotus Sunboi, and Durt will spin tunes from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. At the Knockout, 3223 Mission Street, there will be a punk show from 7 to 9 p.m. with Jasmine Infiniti, SBSM, and Sissyfit. Organizers said that donations will also be accepted at the nearby Virgil’s Sea Room, 3152 Mission Street, meaning that there will be three parties within a block of each other.

The suggested donation is $10$25. The events are open to people 21 years and older.

Pete Thoshinsky

A person holds a candle during the San Francisco vigil for the victims of the Orlando shooting.

Trevor Project to hold SF fundraiser

The Trevor Project will hold its #ThisisMe fundraiser Thursday, June 23 at the Twitter building, 1355 Market Street in San Francisco. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit provides a confidential crisis intervention and suicide prevention line for LGBTQ youth.

The aim of the evening is for attendees to strut the runway in style to celebrate “you,” and includes celebrity entertainment, dancing, signature libations, food, and more surprises. Co-hosts for the evening will be Nya, from Fuse’s Transcendent reality show, and Billboard recording artist Brian Kent. Other special guests include Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indul-

on

gence, DJ Christopher B, Bay Area Reporter society columnist Donna Sachet, BeBe Sweetbriar, and Misa Malone from Beach Blanket Babylon. Frenchie Davis of American Idol fame will make a special appearance.

The party takes place from 7 to 10 p.m., although due to building security doors close at 8:30.

There is an after-party at Beatbox, 314 11th Street, from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. where Kent will be spinning and Davis will be performing.

Tickets to the runway and afterparty are $95. Tickets for the runway only are $80; tickets for the after-party only are $20. For more information, visit http://cities.thetrevorproject.org/event/a-night-outfor-trevor-san-francisco-2016/.

Pride honoree to speak at SF church

Joanie Juster, who’s being recognized by the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee with its Heritage of Pride 10 Years of Service Award, will speak at Calvary Presbyterian Church, 2515 Fillmore Street Wednesday, June 22 at 6 p.m.

Juster, a straight ally, has long been involved with HIV/AIDS causes, including the AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Funds, the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and the Shanti Project. She has also worked for other LGBT issues such as marriage equality.

The Reverend Victor Floyd will lead the pre-Pride service of song and joy, which is titled, “We’ve Come This Far by Faith.”

See page 22 >>

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<< Community News

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

t

Queering the conversation at race conference

by Heather Cassell

E

xperts and academics spoke with the Bay Area Reporter about the importance of queering the race conversation during the recent National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in San Francisco.

There was a strong queer presence among the 3,500 attendees at the May 30-June 4 conference where the main focus of the LGBTQ discussions was transgender women of color and gender identity with workshops titled “Transness and Gender Nonconformity in Latinx Communities” and “Queering Masculinity.”

Intersectionality of identities, LGBT parents, and the queer Caribbean were also on the program.

“I think that race is talked about in queer people of color communities,” said Tikesha Morgan, 40, a queer black woman who founded and is the outgoing chair of the LGBTQ People of Color Caucus at NCORE. “But ... maybe in the predominant white queer community it’s not talked about.

“I think that white queer communities need to do some work around that because race is still the issue that no one wants to talk about in this country,” continued Morgan, who is the director of the multicultural student affairs and GLBTQ student resources at Emerson College in Boston.

One of the issues of contention is that many people of color feel that white people in the U.S. believe that now that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide the struggle is over. For queers of color the fight is far from over, yet their laundry list of issues that remains to be addressed isn’t being discussed, Morgan said. Furthermore, same-sex marriage wasn’t even on the top of their list of rights.

“There are so many things on our list, ‘Why are they not talking about that?’ ‘Why aren’t they rallying about that?’” asked Morgan. “They now can sit and kind of sip their coffee because they feel like they’ve accomplished, because they’ve got their privilege.”

Aaron Parayno, 26, a gay Filipino man who is the assistant director of the Asian American Center at Northeastern University in Boston, agreed.

“After marriage equality passed last year, ‘Oh, the fight is done,’” he said. “No, it’s not done. People still don’t have job protection.”

“Trans women of color and the way that they are being killed,” added Michael Riley, 26, a queer black man who is the incoming chair of the LGBTQ People of Color Caucus at NCORE. “There’s an epidemic there.

“It was kind of sexy for a minute and we were talking about it and now I think that we have kind of

Rick Gerharter

Tikesha Morgan, left, and Michael Riley, outgoing and incoming chair of the LGBT People of Color Caucus at the NCORE conference, respectively, spoke about broadening the conversation between queer whites and people of color.

fallen off in acknowledging there is something happening,” added Riley, about how people on the margins of the community face “a really unique cocktail of oppression.”

“We have to put that at the forefront,” he said.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg of issues queer people of color want to address and they want white LGBT people to take up the causes. However, as frustrating the race conversation is between queer people of color and white people, LGBT people of color want the conversation particularly because there are multiple identities that complicate and enrich the discussion. It’s not that they are against white people, acknowledging white social justice leaders who they appreciate and admire, but they want to be good allies to each other as well as to other marginalized communities, they said.

“The other important point, too, is that all of these forms of marginalization and oppression are so connected,” said Parayno. “So, you can’t say that you are only about LGBTQ rights and not be about race. These things don’t live in a silo. All forms of oppression are connected.”

Parayno pointed out that the conversation has been “absent” for a majority of the queer community that is white.

“Talking about allyship, even within our group we are horrible at it,” said Parayno. “At the end of the day most cisgender white gay and lesbian people can pass throughout this world and not feel a thing that the other folks are feeling.”

The important thing for queer people of color – and people of color overall – is for white people to know when to step back and listen and when to step forward and speak up on behalf of people of color.

“I think it’s knowing when to shut up in terms of being a white person in [these] spaces,” he said.

“I feel like sometimes, most times, white people tend to center it around them, like, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t know you feel so oppressed,’ and there are tears.”

Morgan said there are ways whites can help.

“I think that it’s kind of knowing when to listen, when to step back, and when do I need you to maybe talk to your white colleagues,” she said.

Parayno also spoke about the ways white people can be allies.

“Then on the flip side, it’s knowing when to speak up and knowing in which ways does your voice sometimes mean more and what can that do [to] help of color communities,” he said. “I think that is the piece that is missing.”

Heather Hackman, a queer white woman in her mid-40s who is the founder of the Hackman Consulting Group, which helps organizations and companies with diversity, equity, and social justice issues, agreed.

“White people have been born into systems that they didn’t create and are living out a history that they don’t really understand,” said Hackman.

The best way to address the issue is to recognize the truth of the history; that it wasn’t something modern day white people asked for; but nevertheless for 21st century white people to take responsibility for the past, but not coming from a place of guilt and shame, but a place of curiosity and humility, she said.

“We need to recognize what has happened, what has come before us, and the ways that affects my life today,” said Hackman, using the example of two candidates, one white and one a person of color with the same skills, interviewing for the

same factory job and if the hiring manager is white, the white person is most likely to get the job.

“That is the current and systemic and historic reality,” said Hackman.

“The sooner that we just understand it and take responsibility for it so that we can change it the faster we will see these systems change.”

She also recognized that bringing a queer eye to the race conversation lends to a “really rich and lived experience of a lot of fluidity.”

“This contemporary queer moment is deeply rooted in fluidity and complexity,” said Hackman, who has been examining social justice movements and race since 1992. “A narrow view is a problematic view and a post-modern queer complexity allows for deep criticism and a strong critique and fluidity at the same time.”

Oppression and privilege

At the same time, the academics expressed looking at their identities – oppression and privilege – at a more micro level. They recognized the ease of focusing on their oppressed identities and ignoring the ways they are privileged.

“As a straight person I think that I have a responsibility to work with others and leverage my privilege and to be conscious of it and not to use it in a way that is oppressive,” said Kristine Din, 28, a Filipino woman who’s senior assistant director of the Asian American Center at Northeastern University in Boston.

Din is careful about self-designating herself as an ally, preferring to wait until the community she’s working with anoints her as one. “I might not identify with the queer community, but I know what that marginalizing feeling is like, [but] ...

I don’t want to speak for the queer experience because I can’t, that’s not my narrative,” she said.

Riley, who is the workshop coordinator for the Center for Identity, Inclusion, and Social Change at DePaul University in Chicago, acknowledged the fact that it was his privilege to attend the conference because he has a master’s degree.

“It’s really easy for us to focus on our oppressed identities or marginal identities as opposed to thinking about the ways that we have privilege,” he said, stating that this way of thinking is “prevalent in gay communities.”

Queer and of color

Five years ago, Morgan was searching for others to talk about the intersectionality of queerness and race. She was eager not only to have the conversations but also to find community and feel safe at NCORE. Queer people of color weren’t feel-

ing safe to be who they are in the mostly straight convention.

“I felt uncomfortable and I was looking around and I was seeing my feminine-of-center men of color, my brothers who were being themselves, but I could see this caution in their face of them walking down the hall,” said Morgan, who identifies as being somewhere in between butch and femme. “We need to do something about that because that’s not OK.” Riley said that NCORE became the only conference where he could bring his whole self.

“Yes, it’s selfish, but also like sustaining life. That may sound dramatic and it may sound like ‘Girl, calm down,’ but, no, in all seriousness that’s saving lives,” he said, talking about when he first started going to the conference eight years ago that it was people who went to the conference who told him, “I can be unapologetically queer [and] I can be unapologetically black and have a career.

“No one else was telling me that. Everyone else was like, ‘Tone that down.

Don’t do this. Don’t talk like this. Why are you talking with your hands? Why are you swishing?’ Like stop,” he said about being the “good queer.”

Morgan said she needed to show conference attendees that she could be a successful woman of color in her field.

“That’s very important, not only doing the diversity work [but] doing anything in academia,” she said.

Five years later and now the outgoing chair of the caucus, she’s successfully attracted at least a hundred, if not more, queer people of color and allies to the caucus and it continues to grow every year, she and Riley said.

That growth is due in part to the support of the NCORE conference organizers, who were very receptive when Morgan approached them and they realized it was something that they hadn’t thought about previously, she said.

“I think they are proud of themselves for saying, ‘Oh yeah, we need to do this work,’” Morgan said.

Representatives of NCORE weren’t available to comment by press time.

As for the future, Riley hopes the space continues to be for community and for people to bring their whole selves rather than compartmentalize their identities as they continue to challenge and push NCORE as the conversation evolves.

“I want us to continue to be a space where you can bring your whole complicated, messy, nuanced self,” Riley said. “That’s so important to all of the work that we are doing.”t

Deaf, gay author’s novel looks at conversion centers

by Belo Cipriani

M

any people have great tales about how they came into the world. For César Baquerizo, the story of his birth includes a near death experience, surgery in a foreign land, and the loss of most of his hearing due to a reaction to medication.

“I suffered a condition called choanal atresia bilateral bone, which caused my internal outlet nostril to be closed.

My grandparents paid for an expensive operation that took me to the U.S.,” said the 30-year-old Ecuadorian writer.

Three days after his birth, Baquerizo had surgery at the Ear Center of Greensboro in Pennsylvania. And right after the procedure, he began a treatment of antibiotics that would

later claim most of his hearing. In addition to losing 90 percent of his audible range in both ears, Baquerizo had to use a device to clear his nasal cavity for the first couple of years of his life.

“I used an electric vacuum cleaner to wipe inside my nose for a while,” he recalled – a task that proved to be extremely inconvenient.

However, with the support of his family, who was determined for Baquerizo to enjoy a full life, he traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina at the age of 4, from his native Ecuador, to take language classes. At that time, he also received his first set of hearing aids, and began developing his speech.

But while Baquerizo relished in the support of his family for all things related to his disability, when

it came to his sexuality, psychologist to help him their bond was tested. “cure” his homosexuality “For me, being gay is a never materialized, it did natural part of who I am. serve as inspiration for his In the beginning, I didn’t debut book. A Safe Place feel a need to hide my true with You is a novel that sexuality ... until I was captures the experiences exposed to the prejudices of LGBT people at straight of others around me. Beconversion clinics in Ecuacause of these external dor. Based on newspaper influences, I wasn’t proud Author César accounts about the unof that part of who I am. Baquerizo lawful conversion clinics, I was ashamed, embarBaquerizo embarked on a rassed, depressed, and alone,” he said. journey to find these victims.

His family was shocked when, “When I first started writing the at the age of 20, Baquerizo said to Spanish version in August 2011, it them, “I’m gay.” was difficult for me to talk directly Initially, his parents wanted to send with the patients, because most of him to a psychologist for help, but the victims did not give their wherethey later refrained from doing so. abouts and their names for fear of “I’m so grateful they were so danger,” he said. quick to see the real me – the same Later, he was able to find the victims’ son I had always been,” he said. testimonies and the reports about the And even though Baquerizo’s illegal clinics from the Health Minisfamily’s idea of sending him to a try of Ecuador, which helped shape

Baquerizo’s characters in his novel.

A Safe Place with You was published in Spanish in 2013, and is now being released in English by Pen Name Publishing. Baquerizo will be launching his book tour this summer in conjunction with Pride festivities around the country.

Here’s the schedule: San Francisco, Books Inc., June 30 at 7 p.m.; Los Angeles, Book Soup, June 25 at 4 p.m.; Dallas, Barnes & Noble, July 9 at 2 p.m.; and New York, Bluestockings, July 14 at 7 p.m.t Belo Cipriani is the awardwinning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams.

He is a disability advocate, and is currently the national spokesman for 100 Percent Wine – a premium winery that donates 100 percent of proceeds to nonprofits that help people with disabilities find work. Learn more at www.belocipriani.com.

If you’re living with HIV, you may face another clinical challenge to healthy aging

Help Curb Excess Abdominal VAT Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) isn’t regular fat. VAT is a hard fat that surrounds organs, may be associated with serious health issues, and can be difficult to control with diet and exercise alone.

EGRIFTA ® (tesamorelin for injection) is the only FDA-approved treatment for excess HIV-related abdominal VAT EGRIFTA ® was shown to reduce VAT in 2 clinical trials of 816 total adult patients who received 2 mg of EGRIFTA ® or placebo (26-week Main Phase and 26-week Extension Phase).a Trial 1: 18% average reduction. Trial 2: 14% average reduction.

For additional trial details, see the full Prescribing Information at EGRIFTA.com.

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EGRIFTA® is not indicated to treat health issues beyond the reduction of excess abdominal VAT.

SELECTED RISK INFORMATION What is EGRIFTA ®?

• EGRIFTA ® is an injectable prescription medicine to reduce the excess in abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy. The impact and safety of EGRIFTA ® on cardiovascular health has not been studied.

• EGRIFTA ® is not indicated for weight loss management.

• It is not known whether taking EGRIFTA ® helps improve compliance with anti-retroviral medications.

EGRIFTA ® may cause serious side effects including: • Serious allergic reaction. Stop using EGRIFTA ® and get emergency help right away if you have symptoms such as a rash over your body, hives, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, swelling of your face or throat, fast heartbeat, and feeling of faintness or fainting.

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• Increase in glucose (blood sugar) intolerance and diabetes.

• Injection site reactions. Change (rotate) your injection site to help lower your risk for injection site reactions. The following symptoms around the area of the injection site can occur: redness, itching, pain, irritation, bleeding, rash, and swelling.

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Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

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Learn more at EGRIFTA.com

A Transformation From Within

IMPORTANT PATIENT INFORMATION The following is a brief summary only. See complete Prescribing Information at EGRIFTA.com or request complete Prescribing Information by calling 1-844-347-4382. This information does not take the place of talking to your doctor about your medical condition or your treatment.

What is EGRIFTA ® (tesamorelin for injection)?

• EGRIFTA ® is an injectable prescription medicine to reduce the excess in abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy. The impact and safety of EGRIFTA ® on cardiovascular health has not been studied.

• EGRIFTA ® is not indicated for weight loss management.

• It is not known whether taking EGRIFTA ® helps improve compliance with anti-retroviral medications.

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EGRIFTA ® may cause serious side effects including: • Serious allergic reaction. Some people taking EGRIFTA ® may have an allergic reaction.

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Your healthcare provider will measure your blood sugar periodically.

• Injection-site reactions. Change (rotate) your injection site to help lower your risk for injection-site reactions. Call your healthcare provider for medical advice if you have the following symptoms around the area of the injection site: • redness • bleeding • itching • rash • pain • swelling • irritation The most common side effects of EGRIFTA ® include: • joint pain • nausea • pain in legs and arms • vomiting • swelling in your legs • rash • muscle soreness • itching • tingling, numbness and pricking These are not all the possible side effects of EGRIFTA ®. For more information, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist.

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toll-free at

For more information about EGRIFTA ®, go to www.EGRIFTA.com or contact toll-free at 1-844-EGRIFTA (1-844-347-4382). ®

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t

Community News>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Transcendent stars relish Pride spotlight

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

he stars of Transcendent are taking a turn in the spotlight these days. Season 2 of their Fuse TV show started a couple weeks ago, and the women will be celebrity grand marshals at the San Francisco LGBT Pride parade later this month.

The popular reality series, about the highs and lows of five transgender women in San Francisco, is produced by the creators of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce. It follows the lives of Bambiana, Bionka, LA, Nya, and Xristina as they deal with family, boyfriends, health issues that are part of the transition process, and each other.

All five women are performers and servers at AsiaSF, the popular SOMA restaurant and cabaret that prides itself on offering “the time of your life,” according to its website.

“A true celebration of human diversity, our Asia SF restaurant experience brings you our world famous transgender stars – The Ladies of Asia SF,” states the venue.

According to Transcendent press representative Jeanne O’Keefe, the show’s freshman season was seen by over 2.5 million people, making it the second highest rated first season of any Fuse series.

“We knew we had something special when audiences embraced Transcendent out of the gate and the series garnered a GLAAD nomination in its inaugural season,” Michael Dugan, vice president of content for Fuse Media, told the Bay

Area Reporter in an email, referring to the GLAAD Media Awards.

“We couldn’t be more proud of our amazing cast and their bravery in sharing their life journeys.”

The stars were at AsiaSF recently to promote upcoming San Francisco Pride events.

On the surface, Transcendent is similar in structure to most other reality series. As in popular shows such as the Real Housewives franchise or Mob Wives, the cameras follow the women around as they live their day-to-day-lives. These scenes are juxtaposed with close-ups of the women as they address the camera – and the audience – about whatever drama is unfolding in that particular episode, which can include their personal conflicts with each other.

There are moments of high drama, but there are also sequences that are quite touching, such as Bambiana’s devotion to her mom.

Bambiana, who supplements her AsiaSF income by working at a salon, accompanies her mother to a doctor’s appointment – her mother has a heart condition – and Bambiana convinces her mom to try an alternative cleansing treatment that has helped other heart patients.

The devotion that mother and daughter display for each other is lovely – Bambiana at one point dutifully removes scantily clad photos of herself from Tumblr at her mother’s request.

Viewers also get an up close and personal look at the friendship between Nya and LA – in the premiere

Jane Philomen Cleland

Transcendent stars were at AsiaSF recently to promote the second season of the show, and included, from left, Bambiana; LA; Xristina; Larry Hashbarger, AsiaSF owner; Nya; and Bionka.

episode of season one, Nya accompanies LA to the doctor for LA’s first hormone treatments. In an email, Nya told the B.A.R. that she did not take her decision to appear on the series lightly, and that she isn’t interested in heightening the drama for the cameras.

“I’m not a very confrontational person and going into this series I told myself to be as authentic as possible and to stay true to myself,” Nya said. “Love not hate.”

Nya also talked about what made her decide to appear on television.

“Growing up I knew I was different and I always prayed to God and asked him why would he put me through such a hard life,” she explained. “I al-

ways told myself I had a purpose in life even if I didn’t know what it was yet. ‘God doesn’t make mistakes,’ I told myself. Being a part of Transcendent is my way of showing light on the trans community to better the world for the future generation.”

LA also said that she saw no need to exaggerate her emotions for the audience.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” she said in an email. “Nya and I actually had a conversation way back about this and our reason for joining the show was actually to be able to educate and inspire, not only the LGBTQ community, but make everyone realize that we are real people with real stories. In my

opinion, that makes us more relatable than any other show.”

LA added that her co-stars were her primary trans role models.

“They embody the essence of a true and confident woman and they are fearless and ready to rule the world,” she said.

Both women said that they were excited to see the rise of transgender people in the media.

“It’s so liberating to see,” said Nya. “The more we are out there in the media the better and we are on our way to win the battle of equality.”

They acknowledged the challenges many transwomen face in the housing and job markets and expressed their hope that discrimination would end.

“My community is no stranger to injustice,” said Nya. LA offered some simple advice for people who might be hesitant to accept transgender people.

“Get to know the person and don’t judge based solely from gender and what you see,” she said. “Dig deeper and not be shallow-minded.

If you were a person that matters, you would know that everybody matters.”t Transcendent airs Wednesdays at 11:30 p.m. and online at www. fuse.tv. In San Francisco, Fuse can be seen on Comcast channel 476, DirecTV channel 339, and Dish Network channel 164. San Francisco Pride weekend is June 25-26. For more information, visit http://www.sfpride.org.

Coach offers web series on queer body positivity

by David-Elijah Nahmod

B

ay Area resident Elizabeth Cooper describes herself as a cis queer white woman. She’s proud of who she is and wants everyone in the LGBT sphere to feel the same.

To help with that, she has launched the Queer Body Love Series, where, until mid-July, people can watch free daily interviews with experts in several fields.

“I’m a coach,” Cooper, 27, told the Bay Area Reporter. “I work primarily with queer and trans-identified folks to find peace and confidence with food, their bodies, and themselves.

I do that by primarily through live workshops, one-on-one coaching, and writing a weekly newsletter.”

Cooper said that body shaming and body-phobia is a problem in the community, as it has in all communities.

“It plays out in all communities in different ways,” she said. “I don’t think that the LGBT community at large is particularly more bodyphobic than mainstream culture.

If anything I think that I see more critical awareness of mainstream

<<

Gay GOPer

From page 1

As Hernandez, 38, a rehabilitation counselor, detailed on his Facebook page the morning after, he suffered “a broken nose, uncontrollable bleeding, and a bash to the head ...”

He criticized Democrats, sarcastically charging, “You sure are doing your party proud,” and contended that “law enforcement failed last night in San Jose.”

After Gregory T. Angelo, president of the LGBT political group Log Cabin Republicans, shared his post, it went viral and led to Hernandez being interviewed by Fox News host Megyn Kelly and penning a first-person account for the Washington Post.

“I still can’t believe how poorly the police handled the protests,”

ideals of beauty and weight.”

Cooper shared a few details of her own story. Born in Japan, she realized that she liked girls while in middle school.

“When my family relocated to Brazil my freshman year of high school, I suddenly lost my support system,” she recalled. “That, combined with culture shock, resulted in my completely repressing my own sexuality and shutting down my relationship to my body by eating as little as possible and exercising as much as possible.”

Eventually Cooper was able to accept and love herself.

“I’ve found peace and strength within myself through a combination of personal development tools and critical understandings of how culture impacted my relationship to food, my body, and myself,” she said.

“I aim to support others on that journey toward freedom using a holistic combination of support, ranging from offering guided meditation to coaching to tools for dissecting cultural influences and shifting those.”

Cooper noted that there can be a huge difference in how people he wrote. “I live by Levi’s Stadium, where the Super Bowl was. They had every single cop out there. Yet knowing the violence that’s been breaking out near Trump rallies, San Jose wasn’t prepared for it last week?”

The morning after the incident San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo issued a statement condemning the violence that took place while also praising the actions of his city’s police department.

“San Jose police officers performed admirably and professionally to contain acts of violence and protect individuals’ rights to assemble, protest and express their political views,” stated Liccardo.

“While it’s a sad statement about our political discourse that Mr. Trump has focused on stirring antagonism instead of offering real

feel about their political ideals and how they feel in relationship to their bodies.

“Within the LGBT community there are many sub-communities and also folks with intersecting identities, which will impact how they’re seen and treated by others,” she said.

“The dyke community has a history of fat activism, which I haven’t heard of as much in gay male communities, for example. I don’t have as

much experience with the gay male community, so I can’t speak to experiences within that demographic as much, although I have certainly seen extreme pressures toward certain body types. Femme folks face invisibility and sometimes discrimination within lesbian communities. Trans and genderqueer folks face people using the language of body positivity in damaging ways.”

To help alleviate the problem, Cooper has launched the Queer Body Love Speaker Series. It features an interview a day, posted at Cooper’s website.

“The series features 30 amazing experts, teachers, coaches and leaders in fields that touch body positivity,” she explained. “My aim is to provide people with inspiration, tools and ideas to move towards more self love in their lives, particularly in relation to struggles with food, body image and self worth.”

Visitors to the site are greeted with the words: “Claim peace and strength in the mirror and free your inner vibrant self.” Site visitors must enter their first name and email address in order to access content, but

membership is free. The series runs through July 15.

“I am a queer woman and as such the programming has been more heavily centered around women and people assigned female at birth,” Cooper said. “And I think a lot of the main ideas are still applicable to other communities.”

Cooper emphasized the importance of self-love in the aftermath of events such as the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, Florida, and the continuing murders of transgender women.

“Particularly in light of recent tragedies, supportive community can be so, so helpful,” Cooper said. “Another aspect of this series is the option to participate in a private Facebook group to get support and inspiration.”

People who want to participate can register at http://thequeerbodyloveseries.com/.

Those who are interested in contributing to the project can look at Cooper’s speaker packet: https:// docs.google.com/document/d/1h TvXP5ZPLDWAcgTl80yBHGKS8DbXJ6WW40G7kXaAe_I/edit heading=h.vwwj8l3mtk3q.t

solutions to our nation’s challenges, there is absolutely no place for violence against people who are simply exercising their rights to participate in the political process.”

A few hours later, Liccardo’s office released a second statement saying the police and district attorney’s office would be “proactively and thoroughly” investigating and prosecuting offenders. It also asked the public to share any videos or other evidence they had with the police.

“I condemn all acts of violence committed against people who exercise their rights to free speech and assembly, regardless of their political views,” stated Liccardo. “Nothing that Donald Trump says absolves those individuals of responsibility for their violent conduct last night.”

Upset with how San Jose officials had handled the incident, leaders

of Log Cabin’s Los Angeles chapter, whose president Matthew Craffey is close friends with Hernandez, as well as Angelo held a press conference last Wednesday, June 8 in front of San Jose City Hall.

“What we were really upset about from (Liccardo’s) response was he politicized it right off the bat,” Craffey told the Bay Area Reporter.

“Instead of saying it looks like there was a failure to provide proper security at the rally, they turned around and blamed it all on Trump’s fault.

They were taking no responsibility for the fact tons of people were brutalized at this thing.”

According to Hernandez’s accounts of that night, he and a friend were following police orders to take a certain route back to the nearby garage where they had parked their car when they walked into a large

group of protesters. About a block away from the garage, Hernandez and his friend where both surrounded by groups of men who began punching them.

“I was in fear, absolute terror and fear,” Hernandez told the B.A.R. in a phone interview last Friday, June 10.

“To me, it seemed like half an hour, but it was maybe 30 seconds of repeated punching. If I had to guess, I think three people, maybe four. I am not sure.”

When one of the punches landed on his nose and blood started “pouring out,” the people attacking him backed off, wrote Hernandez, giving him a chance to grab his friend and run to their car. His friend then drove him to the hospital.

“I am a lot better. Some of the bruising is going down, which is See page 22 >>

Elizabeth Cooper

<< Orlando Tragedy

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

t

Trump, Clinton offer differing reactions to Orlando attack

by Lisa Keen

P

resumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Monday that LGBT people should support his proposal to ban Muslims from the U.S. because Islamic groups promote violence against gays.

“Ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community,” said Trump, speaking on the campus of Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire June 13. He said presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “wants to allow radical Islamic terrorists to pour into our country – they enslave women, and murder gays. I don’t want them in our country.

“America must do more – much more – to protect its citizens, especially people who are potential victims of crimes based on their backgrounds or sexual orientations,” said Trump.

In what is being called the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, American citizen Omar Mateen, 29, a security guard from Fort Pierce,

Orlando victims

The following have been identified as the shooting victims at Pulse nightclub.

Stanley Almodovar II, 23 Amanda Alvear, 25 Oscar Aracena, 26 Rodolfo Ayala, 33 Antonio Davon Brown, 29 Darryl R. Burt II, 29 Jonathan Camuy, 24 Angel Luis Candelario-Padro, 28 Omar Capo, 20 Simon Carrillo, 31 Luis Daniel Conde, 39 Cory James Connell, 21 Tevin Eugene Crosby, 25 Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, 25 Deonka Deidra Drayton, 32 Leroy Valentin Fernandez, 25 Mercedez Marisol Flores, 26 Peter O. Gonzalez-Cruz, 22 Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22 Paul Terrell Henry, 41 Frankie Hernandez, 27 Miguel Angel Honorato, 30 Jimmy De Jesus, 50 Javier Jorge-Reyes, 40 Jason Benjamin Josephat, 19 Eddie Jamoldroy Justice, 30 Christopher Leinonen, 32 Alejandro Barrios Martinez, 21 Juan Chavez Martinez, 25 Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, 49 Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 Kimberly Morris, 37 Akyra Murray, 18 Geraldo Ortiz-Jimenez, 25 Joel Rayon Paniagua, 31 Jean Carlos Mendez Perez, 35 Enrique L. Rios, 25 Eric Ivan Ortiz Rivera, 36 Jean Carlos Nieves Rodriguez, 27 Xavier Emmanuel Serrano, 35 Christopher Sanfeliz, 24 Yilmary Rodriguez Solivan, 24 Edward Sotomayor Jr., 34 Shane Evan Tomlinson, 33 Martin Benitez Torres, 33 Juan Rivera Velazquez, 37 Luis Vielma, 22 Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, 37 Jerald Arthur Wright, 31

Pete Thoshinsky

A person holds a sign outside San Francisco City Hall during a candlelight vigil Sunday to remember the victims of the Orlando shooting.

Florida, entered an LGBT nightclub in Orlando at 2 a.m. Sunday and shot 102 people, killing 49 before police killed him. While Mateen called 911 during the attack and declared his allegiance with the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL), President Barack Obama said Monday there

<<

was not yet any “clear evidence” that the shooter was “directed externally” by any terrorist organization.

“It does appear that, at the last minute, he announced allegiance to ISIL,” said the president, “but there is no evidence so far that he was in fact directed. ... There is also no direct evi-

dence that he was part of a larger plot.”

Both Trump and Clinton delivered speeches Monday to address the implications of the Orlando attack.

Gregory Angelo, president of the national Log Cabin Republicans group, said Trump’s speech was “historic” because it marked “the first time in history a Republican presidential nominee made a direct and explicit appeal to the LGBT community.”

“Only time will tell if that translates to actual votes,” said Angelo, “but, in key states that will be decided by slim margins, a few extra votes from LGBT Americans could make all the difference.”

Log Cabin Republicans has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate, and Angelo underscored that his group “opposes an outright ban on all Muslims simply because of their religion.”

While Trump’s speech argued that the attack on the Orlando nightclub Pulse was the result of a “dysfunctional immigration system,” Clinton blamed it on a failure to restrict the availability of assault weapons.

Orlando

From page 1

Navarrette, 48, a gay man, said at a candlelight vigil Sunday night in the Castro. However, he said, “I don’t want people who hate to make me fearful. I want them to know they’re uniting us.”

Authorities have identified the gunman in Sunday’s rampage as Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, 29, of Fort Pierce, Florida. Orlando police say he started shooting around 2 a.m. He was killed about three hours later as he exchanged gunfire with officers.

The incident, which occurred on the nightclub’s Latin night, remains under investigation, and Mateen’s motives aren’t clear. The attack is being viewed as an anti-gay hate crime, but media reports say Mateen had visited the club and exchanged messages with men on gay hookup apps.

Mateen’s actions are also being viewed as domestic terrorism. Authorities have said that Mateen, an American citizen, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State when he made a 911 call from inside Pulse.

Another incident Sunday has also raised concerns as people celebrate LGBT Pride Month.

In Los Angeles, James Wesley Howell, 20, of Indiana, faces charges including unlawful possession of an assault weapon after being arrested Sunday morning.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a police lieutenant said Howell “told investigators that he was going to the [LA] Pride festival,” but the official said Howell “did not make additional statements about his intentions.”

SF Pride in court Thursday

Jane Philomen Cleland

About 500 people gathered outside Oakland City Hall Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil.

bag checks to screen the hundreds of thousands of people who’re expected to attend the celebration.

On Wednesday a judge issued a tentative ruling denying the injunction.

In May, three men injured in shootings at the festival in recent years filed lawsuits against SF Pride, claiming lax security resulted in their injuries. The men are asking for an injunction against the celebration unless the metal detectors and other changes are made. The parade would be allowed to continue.

Ryan Lapine is an attorney representing plaintiffs Freddy Atton, who was shot at the 2015 party, and brothers Mahlik and Monte Smith, who were injured as they fled a shooting at the 2013 festival.

In a brief he filed Monday, Lapine said, “In light of Orlando and attempts on LA Pride, the [SF Pride] Committee should employ each of

the SFPD’s demands. Instead, it argues that because ... it would be inconvenient to keep gunmen out of its event, the court should sanction business as usual with no screening for weapons and no gate security.

Atton – and his counsel – beg of this court to stop the violence.”

Lapine told the Bay Area Reporter Monday that “Pride shouldn’t shut down,” but the celebration should “utilize the minimal security steps the SFPD has been demanding since 2013.”

He also referred to court documents in which SF Pride’s attorneys say, “Transforming the celebration into a ticketed event with metal detectors, patdowns, and bag checks fundamentally changes the nature of the event as an open and public celebration of the LGBT community and LGBT rights, and it would violate the core values of San Francisco Pride.”

“My question is, what core values

Mateen was able to shoot a large number of patrons at Pulse by using an AR-15 assault rifle, a rapid-fire weapon developed for use by the military that can discharge up to 30 rounds per magazine clip. Federal law banned the sale of such weapons to civilians until 2004.

Noting that Mateen had been questioned by the FBI as a suspected terrorist, Clinton said, “If the FBI is watching you for suspected terrorist links, you shouldn’t be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked. And you shouldn’t be able to exploit loopholes and evade criminal background checks by buying online or at a gun show.”

“The terrorist in Orlando,” said Clinton, in a speech Monday, “targeted LGBT Americans out of hatred and bigotry. And an attack on any American is an attack on all Americans. I want to say this to all the LGBT people grieving today in Florida and across our country: you have millions of allies who will always have your back. And I am one of them.”

See page 21 >> are they protecting in refusing to screen for handguns at their event?”

Lapine said. “... They can allow everyone to attend, and attend safely while screening for weapons, and they’re choosing not to. It blows my mind.”

In response to the B.A.R.’s requests for comment, SF Pride spokesman Sam Singer said in an email, “We cannot comment on any current litigation. Pride works closely with law enforcement and city agencies and have had many meetings over the past several months regarding public safety and planning for the parade and celebration, as recently as this week. Pride is coordinating efforts with SFPD, and SFPD is working with local, state and federal law enforcement partners as well as other city agencies to plan for Pride. SFPD has indicated that there will be an increase in police presence at this year’s event. ... More details regarding security will be made available as we get closer to the event.”

Sergeant Michael Andraychak, a San Francisco police spokesman, said in a news release Sunday, “While there are no known threats” to the city, there will be more police in the city’s Castro, LGBT venues, and other places to ensure safety.

“The San Francisco Police Department has been meeting with SF Pride organizers for months to discuss safety and security for Pride weekend,” Andraychak said. “There are additional meetings scheduled in the weeks leading up to the event.

The department is working with our state and federal law enforcement partners and our number one priority for Pride is planning for safety and security at the event.”

He added that people are reminded, “If you see something, say something!”

See page 20 >>

Parisians mourn Orlando victims

Thursday (June 16), a San Francisco Superior Court judge may hear arguments over whether this year’s Pride festival should be called off unless the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee implements several security changes that San Francisco Police Department officials have recommended, including using metal detectors and

I

Gerard Koskovich

n response to a call from the Paris LGBT Community Center and the Inter-LGBT, a coalition of Paris-area LGBT associations, several hundred people gathered in the French capital on Monday evening (June 13) for a vigil in response to the anti-LGBT massacre that had taken place in Orlando, Florida less than two days before. In a Facebook invitation, the organizers dubbed the event “We Stand With Orlando” and noted that participants would come together “in tribute to the victims and in support of their loved ones.” Under cloudy skies and in view of the Eiffel Tower, speakers from numerous national and local LGBT organizations expressed their sorrow, their anger, and their will to continue the movement for LGBT equality. The LGBT news site http:// www.Yagg.com reports that similar vigils have taken place or have been announced in 27 other French cities.

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<< Obituaries

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

SF mayor’s former disability director dies

Dave Wheeler 1959 – 2016

Dave Wheeler, much loved former manager of the Edge, passed away in a Rome hospital May 29, 2016 at age 57. He was taken to the hospital May 4 at the beginning of a much-anticipated vacation in Italy with his partner of 18 years, Bert Hobbs.

Dave battled diabetes and various ailments, but he never dwelt on it and had a smile, a joke, and a warm welcome for all in his wide circle of friends and acquaintances.

Dave was born in Columbus, Ohio on May 25 1959 and grew up in the area. He married Julie Petruzzelli in March 1980. His daughter, Amanda, was born that December. In 1984 Dave moved his family to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to work for Sony as a recording studio equipment technician. In 1987 they moved to Nashville, Tennessee.

He traveled widely for work and met numerous recording artists. In 1992, he and Julie divorced and he moved to San Francisco.

Dave became friends with Eric Weinmann, the prior Edge manager with whom he shared a love for Elvis. When Dave took the job as manager he continued the monthly basket contest benefiting AIDS Emergency Fund hosted by his friend, Danny Williams. Dave went well beyond his job to support the community and make the Edge an enjoyable place to be. The Edge held numerous benefits while he was manager and he was usually there making sure things went well and to handle the lights and sound. You would often find Dave at the Edge in the afternoon standing precariously on the top of a ladder decorating or adding lights for an upcoming event.

Dave loved music and had an extensive collection of CDs and LPs, which he loaded onto a portable hard drive. He started playing oldies from his laptop on Sundays at the Edge. It became very popular. He was happy just seeing people enjoying his music. Dave was always glad to take requests and could find songs with only vague clues.

As any of Dave’s friends could tell you, he was a loyal and generous friend. He had a quiet demeanor but a devilishly fun sense of humor. And he always had a ready smile.

Besides Bert, Dave is survived by sisters, Jeanie Wheeler and Rhonda Cremeans; daughter Amanda Wheeler and stepdaughter Amelia Wonderly; as well as many cousins. His Castro family is immense and in deep grief over Dave’s unexpected passing.

Dave may be gone, but with so many people thankful to have known him, he will not be forgotten.

A celebration of Dave’s life is planned for Saturday, July 9 from noon to 3 p.m. at 440 Castro Street.

ebar.com

DaveWheeler_2x8.indd 1

6/14/16

San Francisco Columbarium

THE cemetery for cremated remains in the CITY!

With heavy hearts

Meet Your Neighbors

In Memoriam Orlando, June 12, 2016

You’re invited to mix and mingle with the people who will one day share your permanent San Francisco address.

by Seth Hemmelgarn

C

arla Johnson, a lesbian who until recently served as San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s Office on Disability director, has died. She was 56.

In a statement Monday, Lee said he’s “deeply saddened” by Ms. Johnson’s passing, and called her “a dedicated city employee for over 27 years and a champion for disability rights in our city.”

Ms. Johnson’s cause of death wasn’t released.

Lee said she had “significantly helped to improve the quality of life” for residents.

“In the last six years, she has led the Mayor’s Office on Disability and served as our city’s overall Americans with Disabilities Act” coordinator, he said.

According to her Facebook page, Ms. Johnson retired in April. She was married to Anna Kuperberg, a photographer. They were together for 17 years and lived in San Francisco.

“Her leadership has been instru-

<<

Friday, July 19, 2013 2—5pm

RSVP Required: (415) 752-8791

At no time have we ever had more PRIDE and stood taller with the LGBT community.

1 Loraine Court—San Francisco, CA 94118

SF Columbarium_2x7_060916+061616.indd 1

Orlando

Support for celebration

Pete Thoshinsky

The rainbow flag at Castro and Market streets was lowered to halfstaff Sunday in memory of the victims of the Orlando mass shooting.

right of freedom of assembly, freedom of belief, and freedom of speech,” SF Pride’s statement said, adding, “We must remain strong and vigilant in the face of such hatred. ... We are unbowed and unbroken by this attack, and will continue on in the memory of those who lost their lives for simply expressing their true selves.”

Mayor Ed Lee issued a similar statement saying, “Profound tragedies and acts of hate again leave us heartbroken, even numb and speechless. But we resolve today, more than ever, that love, strength and unity will always triumph over hate, fear and violence. San Francisco grieves with the people of Orlando, the LGBT community and the nation today.”

At Sunday’s vigil in the Castro, where thousands of people gathered, Brandy Jane Rose, a 22-yearold transwoman, said, “I cannot not give a shit anymore. I’m done with

nihilism, it’s time to be here. The fight is not over. You cannot back down. You cannot let them win.”

Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco noted that Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence told the crowd, “This turnout right here, right now in the Castro, this is what our community is about. And it will take more than one gunman or a million gunmen to take our community down. This is who we are. We are a community of love.”

In Oakland about 500 people gathered for a candlelight vigil last Sunday in the wake of the Orlando tragedy.

“I felt compelled to be here tonight,” said Bishop Yvette Flunder, a lesbian and senior bishop at City of Refuge United Church of Christ. “Killing the messenger only makes the message great. Make your voice loud.”t

Ira Lubell

Benito “Benny” Moreno

June 20, 1936 – June 12, 2016

March 17, 1937 – June 15, 2015

to encounter him on his strolls on Mission Street, or on 24th Street, his childhood neighborhood. His walks were a means of keeping fit, but more importantly because he was “young at heart,” he enjoyed life’s bustle especially if a young crowd was involved.

Benito is survived by his brother, cousins, many nieces and nephews, friends, and a family of choice that includes Luis de la Garza, Lupe Rodriguez, and Dian Villareal.

A commemoration of his life is scheduled during the annual Day of the Dead ritual procession in San Francisco’s Mission district November 2, 2016 at 7 p.m. at the corner of Bryant and 22nd streets. For more information contact nosolotaxi@hotmail. com or POB 14794, SF 94114.

David-Elijah Nahmod contributed to this report.

Obituaries >>

Dr. Ira Lubell, age 79, husband of Louis Judd Bonsignore, resident of San Francisco, passed away Sunday, June 12, 2016, at his residence.

Dr. Lubell was born June 20, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York and he was the son of Morris Lubell and Ana Kellemer Lubell.

Dr. Lubell graduated from Stuyvesant High School and Columbia College in the city of New York. He received his medical degree at SUNY Downstate and his Master of Public Health at Columbia University.

6/14/16 11:13 AM

mental in expanding the very big heart.” scope of the Mayor’s Office “Our office worked on Disability to become very closely with Carla a strategic partner in all on issues relating to major San Francisco initiaboth disability rights and tives that impact the disLGBT rights, and where ability community, includthe two intersect,” he said. ing ensuring accessibility Campos said Ms. in public housing and priJohnson “was a champiRick Gerharter vate establishments, digital on and critical part of alcommunications, software Carla Johnson lowing us to open Jazzie’s applications, and public Place,” at 1050 South Van events and celebrations, and advocatNess Street, last June. Jazzie’s Place ing for pedestrian safety and homeless is the country’s first adult homeless service delivery,” Lee said. shelter designed specifically to be The mayor added, “With a genwelcoming to LGBTs. erous heart, the kindest demeanor She helped guide officials through and a life dedicated to public serADA requirements that needed to vice, compassion and community, be met to open the shelter, and she her legacy will continue to live on in went “above and beyond to make our city.” sure that we had all the information Gay Supervisor David Campos and guidance we needed,” he said. did an in memoriam for Ms. JohnCampos added that Ms. Johnson son at Tuesday’s board meeting. “was also a very close partner in our In emailed comments to the Bay legislation to mandate that all sinArea Reporter, Campos called Ms. gle-stall restrooms in San Francisco Johnson “a truly remarkable woman See page 21 >> – passionate, intelligent, and with a

From page 18

Gay San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who called for Sunday’s vigil in the Castro, said Monday, “Of course we need to work hard to improve safety overall, not just at Pride, but at all our festivals.”

However, Wiener said, “The idea that we would shut down Pride or require security measures that would effectively shut down Pride makes no sense. When it comes to violence, the last thing we should be doing is curling up into a ball and 1:40 PM not celebrating our community.

Pride’s played such a critical role in our community. ... After Orlando, we need to be out in the streets fighting and embracing our community and showing our love.”

Wiener planned to talk Wednesday with the city’s police, LGBT bar owners, and others about safety preparations for upcoming Pride celebrations, which includes concerts, parties, and other events.

Like Wiener, District Attorney George Gascón also said it’s important for people to celebrate Pride.

Enhanced security measures should be explored, but it would be “a horrible mistake to shut down Pride,” he told the B.A.R. There should be “a bigger Pride this year than we’ve ever had,” and people should send the message that “we will stand together against hate, against intolerance, and against gun violence,” said Gascón, who appeared at a news conference Monday where state legislators discussed tightening gun laws.

SF Pride released a statement Sunday that said the “act of terrorism and hate against the LGBTQ community” in Orlando has left “a giant hole in our hearts.”

But the organization called on people to remain steadfast.

“Our democracy is built upon the

Wine & Cheese Open House

t

The world will be more boring without Benito “Benny” Moreno. He passed away on June 15, 2015 from complications of a stroke and problems with diabetes. He was born in San Francisco on March 17, 1937 and attended Mission High School.

You knew when Benito was around due to his mischievous antics, joking manner, and attention-getting ribald comments; “le dio gusto al gusto” (i.e., he had a great zest for life’s pleasures). You were certain

t <<

Community News>>

Trump

From page 18

Trump said that Clinton “can never claim to be a friend of the gay community as long as she continues to support immigration policies that bring Islamic extremists to our country who suppress women, gays and anyone who doesn’t share their views.”

“She can’t have it both ways,” said Trump. “She can’t claim to be supportive of these communities while trying to increase the number of people coming in who want to oppress them. ... Why does Hillary Clinton want to bring people here – in vast numbers – who reject our values?

Immigration is a privilege, and we should not let anyone into this country who doesn’t support our communities – all of our communities.”

Clinton has expressed support for allowing 65,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. in an effort to help alleviate “the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II.” Obama has called for the U.S. to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees. Trump has likened Syrian refugees to a “Trojan horse” and said the U.S. should not accept any.

The Orlando attack and the two major party candidates’ starkly different responses to it ensure that immigration and gun control will

<<

Pink Saturday

From page 1

Eicher said that he and others are working with police and Wiener to review bars’ security measures in light of the shooting.

“We have a well-trained and certified security staff at each of our venues and we plan to have significantly increased security staff throughout Pride, as we do every year,” he said.

“We also expect to roll out enhanced security procedures” after talking to Wiener’s staff and police.

Eicher said in an interview Monday that he doesn’t “anticipate any particular problems,” but “we want to do everything we can” to ensure

<<

Political Notebook

From page 9

He agreed with Clark’s analysis of the U.S. Senate race, telling the B.A.R. that if he “had to make a prediction, Loretta Sanchez is more acceptable to our members than Kamala Harris.” And Craffey is also undecided on if he will vote for Trump for president.

“For me, this has been such a tough election because the candidates I liked didn’t make it. Now I am in the awkward position to see if I can get my head around two candidates I am not really enthused about,” said Craffey. “I have decided I am not going to force myself to make a decision until closer to the election. I want to see what each of them does.”

He said he is open to voting for either Clinton or Trump or not voting at all.

“Each could still redeem themselves or make themselves even worse,” said Craffey. “I just have to see.”

Clark has always been a Republican and believes Log Cabin is making inroads when it comes to the party’s stance on LGBT issues.

“I think in many ways the party does have some progress to make.

But for almost all Republicans

<<

Disability director

From page 20

be all-gender restrooms.”

He said, “She approached this legislation as a leader in the disability rights movement, and also as a member of our LGBT community, sharing her own stories of being harassed in bathrooms due to her gender expression. It was largely because of her expertise and vision that this legislation is the strongest

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

be prominent issues in the presidential contest between Clinton and Trump. The attack will also likely focus continued attention to religious-based hostilities toward LGBT people.

Noting that Mateen appeared to have been “inspired by various extremist information that was disseminated over the internet,” Obama said Monday that organizations like ISIL “target gays and lesbians because they believe that they do not abide toward their attitudes towards sexuality.”

“Clearly there are connections between the attitudes of an organization like this and their attitudes toward tolerance and pluralism and the belief that all people are created equally,” said Obama, in remarks to a White House pool reporter in the Oval Office. “There are connections between this vicious, bankrupt ideology and general attitudes toward gays and lesbians and, unfortunately, that’s something that the LGBT community is subject to not just by ISIL but by a lot of groups ...”

Numerous media outlets quoted Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, as suggesting his son had expressed hostility toward homosexuality and had been angered recently by seeing two men kiss. CBS News reported that Seddique Mateen had himself

posted a video that showed him saying, “God will punish those involved in homosexuality.” But Seddique Mateen told CBS his son did not have the right to harm anybody.

A friend of Omar Mateen told the Washington Post that Mateen was “quite religious” but never mentioned any allegiance to the Islamic State. Mateen’s former wife told reporters Mateen was not a devout Muslim. But the FBI investigated Mateen’s connection to a man at his mosque in Fort Pierce, Florida, who executed a suicide bombing in Syria.

Media outlets also reported patrons of Pulse as saying they had seen Mateen at the LGBT nightclub on several occasions and some believed he was interested in meeting men.

Mateen’s parents immigrated from Afghanistan, but Mateen himself was an American citizen, born in New York and attended high school and a small state college in Florida. He had a state license to carry a concealed weapon, worked as a security guard, and had extensive training in the use of firearms.

The White House announced Monday night that Obama will travel to Orlando Thursday to “pay his respects” to the families of the victims “and to stand in solidarity with the community as they embark on their recovery.”t

safety for employees, guests, and the rest of the community.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m overly concerned,” he said. “It’s more that I’m cautious. I feel like we need to take any precautions we can.”

Eicher said that he and others “haven’t made any specific decisions about added security measures,” but his bar staff would be inspecting people’s bags, which they’ve done before.

They’re also considering adding metal detector wands, which would be new, as well as having off-duty officers outside some of the bigger venues.

Eicher said he wants people “to have a good time, to celebrate Pride, and be alert. Don’t let this act of terrorism stop us from living our lives

and celebrating our community. We will do our part to keep everyone safe just as SFPD will, and all the various city agencies. I just want people to come out and have a good time.”

Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, said Monday that Perea and Wiener have told her there would be “much more added enforcement Saturday night” and during the Pride celebration.

The police presence would be “more than what [police] had anticipated” before the Orlando shooting, Aiello said.

“I feel like they understand the gravity of the situation, and that they will step up,” she said.

“Everybody’s concerned” about

under the age of 40, when we poll them, same-sex marriage is almost universally supported,” he said.

He understands the symbolism of having a gay man chair the Republican Party in San Francisco. But he also downplays it as being more about the party valuing “people who pitch in and volunteer and put in the time and effort. I am one of many people who are very qualified to be chair.”

He added, “It is nice to have a chair where their sexuality really doesn’t matter. I think it shows that we are a very inclusive party in many ways.”

Lesbian candidates gear up campaigns

How to help Orlando survivors, honor victims

by Seth Hemmelgarn

S

everal efforts have been launched to help survivors of Sunday’s mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub and honor the memory of people who died.

Equality Florida’s Pulse Victim Fund – https://www.gofundme. com/PulseVictimsFund – had raised $4.3 million toward its goal of $5 million as of Wednesday morning.

“We are working with the city of Orlando, local partners, and the National Center for Victims of Crime, which deployed funds in both the Chattanooga [Tennessee] and Aurora [Colorado] shootings, to distribute the contribution from our Pulse Victim Fund (http://nationalcompassionfund.org/faq/),” the campaign’s Gofundme site says.

The San Francisco-based Rainbow World Fund is also raising money.

“We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Orlando,” the nonprofit said in an email to supporters. “Tragedies create many financial needs through loss of work, medical costs not covered by insurance, and funeral costs.

Rainbow World Fund is currently

safety, said Aiello, who attended a vigil for the Orlando shooting victims Sunday night in the Castro.

“Certainly last night people were talking about how do you stop this from happening in a bar? Anybody can walk into any bar and do this,” she said.

Aiello echoed Eicher’s remarks, saying, “I think we’re all grieving, and we’re all angry,” but “You have to keep living. ... I think that you have to just do what you have to do. You have to live.”

An event called Pink Saturday Unchained is planned for 3 to 10

Rick Gerharter

Kimberly Alvarenga, center, formally enters the District 11 supervisor race Monday at the registrar’s office as her wife, Linnette Haynes, left, and son, Oziah look on.

Lesbian municipal candidates in San Francisco and Oakland are gearing up their campaigns this month.

Monday, June 13 Kimberly Alvarenga officially filed to run for San Francisco’s District 11 supervisor seat in November, as Supervisor John Avalos is termed out of office this year. She collected the 1,000 signatures she needed to waive the $500 filing fee.

“Thank you to all of the countless volunteers who talked to voters by knocking on doors, standing on the street corners and attending

community meetings and events,” wrote Alvarenga in an email to her supporters earlier this month. “We collected over 1,700 signatures to make this happen. Together, we will also win in November!”

In March the city’s Ethics Commission announced Alvarenga had qualified to receive $20,000 in public funds from the San Francisco Election Campaign Fund once the elections department confirms that her name will appear on the November ballot. She was the first person in the race to be certified to receive public campaign funds.

Alvarenga, the political director

of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, and her wife, Linnette Haynes, have been together 17 years and live in the city’s Crocker-Amazon neighborhood, where they are raising their 3-yearold son, Oziah.

Her main opponent in the race is Ahsha Safai, who lost to Avalos in 2008 and is again seeking the District 11 seat, which includes the city’s southern neighborhoods of the Excelsior, Ingleside, Oceanview, Outer Mission, and Crocker-Amazon. He lives in the Excelsior with his wife, Yadira, and their two children, and also officially filed to run this week.

and most thoughtful legislation on inclusive bathrooms in the country.”

Wendy Phillips, executive director of Dolores Street Community Services, which operates Jazzie’s Place, also recalled Ms. Johnson’s efforts in helping to establish the shelter, saying she had “played a critically important role.”

“We had to meet extensive ADA requirements because it was in an old building, but she met with us to make sure we understood the

requirements and would be able to comply with them in a timely manner,” Phillips said in an email.

“She also prioritized the project for plan review because she was very committed to helping get a shelter open for LGBT people experiencing homelessness. She was truly a great public servant and community member.”

Ms. Johnson joined the Mayor’s Office on Disability in 2008 and was appointed director in 2014 after two

years as interim director. According to her city bio, she’d been working on disability rights laws since 1993 and a “member of the disability community since 1992.”

A graduate of the UC Berkeley, Ms. Johnson had over 30 years of experience in the construction industry, and she was a licensed general building contractor. She’d also worked at the city’s Department of Building Inspection.

Lee’s office said that donations on

working with organizations in Orlando that are providing aid to the victims and their families.”

Tax-deductible donations may be made through RWF’s website at http://www.rainbowfund.org.

Specify “Orlando.” Checks may be made payable to “Rainbow World Fund” and mailed to Rainbow World Fund, 4111 18th Street, Suite 5, San Francisco, CA 94114.

At 4:30 p.m. Saturday, June 18, at Galeria de la Raza, 2857 24th Street, San Francisco, a group of queer Latinx community members will have a culturally competent response to the loss of queer people of color at Pulse.

The event will feature speakers and performances from the Latinx, African-American, and Muslim communities.

In order to support the Galeria event “and to support unity,” a group calling itself Love and Solidarity will meet at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro and march to 24th Street, organizer Cleve Jones said.

“We’re asking people to bring signs, flowers, drums, and musical instruments,” Jones said. “No speeches, no politicians. Just people marching from the Castro to the Mission to show our support.”t p.m. June 25 in the parking lot across the street from the SF Eagle bar, at 398 12th Street.

A Facebook page for the event says that the Sisters are teaming up with the Eagle “to make Pink Saturday great again!”

The party will be “admission only,” the page says.

“We’re excited for this opportunity to create a joyful, sane alternative to the Castro for our community.”

More information wasn’t available Monday afternoon.t In Oakland lesbian City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan is hosting an arts reception and happy hour next week in support of her reelection bid this fall. Having lost her second bid for mayor in 2014, Kaplan is now running for a third four-year term in her at-large council seat.

Former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has hinted at running for the at-large seat, but hasn’t filed yet.

Kaplan’s event will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 22 at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, in downtown Oakland. Donations of $70 to $700 are requested.

To RSVP, visit http://kaplanforoakland.org/events/.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on gay Sacto councilman’s re-election win.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

Ms. Johnson’s behalf may be made to the Bayview Opera House “to commission a public artwork that celebrates the values of equity to be placed on the building’s grounds, or to support youth programming.”

Donations may be made online at http://www.bvoh.org. Click on “Fund a Dream.”

Checks may be made payable to Bayview Opera House Inc. at 4702 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94124.t

t

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

<<

News Briefs

From page 12

The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco will also participate in the service, which is open to the public. For more information, see the Facebook page, “We’ve Come This Far by Faith: Celebrating LGBTQ Equality.”

‘Revival’ dance party kicks off Pride weekend

A dance party to celebrate HIV/ AIDS long-term survivors will be held Thursday, June 23 at 6 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, 1661 15th Street (at Julian) in San Francisco.

Organized by Gregg Cassin and the Shanti Project, the event, called “Revival,” is free and will feature DJ Bill Strach playing some of the era’s greatest hits. A buffet dinner will be served.

In a news release, Cassin said that the Honoring Our Experience community, which is hosting the party, seeks to build a loving, healing community of long-term survivors and those who love them. Revival aims to smash stigma and isolation by bringing people together to break bread and break a sweat on the dance floor.

To RSVP, email Cassin at gcassin@shanti.org. For more information, check out the Facebook page at “Revival ... a community-building dance event hosted by long-term survivors.”

New nonprofit to honor trans leaders

The Transgender Endowment, a

<<

Gay GOPer

From page 17

nice,” Hernandez said. “I will have to wait until the swelling goes down more and then see if I need surgery.”

The public and media attention he has received over the last two weeks has been “insane,” said Hernandez, who at one time was a registered Democrat but switched to the Republican Party last year as he had been voting for conservative candidates since 2001.

He remains upset with the city of San Jose’s response. A number of attorneys have contacted him but he has yet to decide if he will file a lawsuit against the city.

“I am weighing out my options,” said Hernandez.

While he has been criticized by some within the LGBT community for supporting Trump, Hernandez said the overwhelming number of responses he has received have been supportive.

“It has been amazing, especially from the straightest of the straight guys who have expressed support and said it doesn’t matter if you are Latino or LGBT, it doesn’t matter.

Those are the ones that keep me going,” he said, adding that, “When people call me a sellout I don’t re-

<<

Assault case

From page 10

said. “He will face rigorous terms of probation, which include mandatory intensive counseling, lie detector testing and any other restrictions deemed appropriate. And any slip up will mean that he could face up to 14 years in prison. Most significantly, he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, which restricts where he can live, what jobs he can get, and ensures that his neighbors will always know his shameful status.”

In regard to the decision and the efforts to remove Persky, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, a gay legal group, said the organization “does not believe any judge should be disciplined or removed from office for a single decision in a single matter because such a prac-

new nonprofit established to help trans people access education and training to obtain employment, will honor three community leaders at a reception over Pride weekend.

Ann Thomas, Bamby Salcedo, and Barbra “Babs” Casbar Siperstein will all receive awards at the Saturday, June 25 event, which takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Laborers International Union, 3271 18th Street in San Francisco.

Thomas, who will receive the Media Visibility Leadership Award, is a trans activist from Los Angeles. Through her ties to the entertainment industry – she has appeared as an extra in shows, among other things – she has helped break down stereotypes of transgender women and helped introduce society to a positive media portrayal of them.

Salcedo will receive the LGBT Social Justice Leadership Award. She is a nationally recognized activist, advocate, and community organizer from Los Angeles. Salcedo has had a significant impact on achieving social justice for the migration, HIV, youth, incarcerated, and Latina communities.

Siperstein, who will be recognized with the LGBT Civil Rights Leadership Award, is from New Jersey and has had accomplishments in public service.

Tickets for the reception are $80 in advance (until 10 p.m. June 24) or $100 at the door, and can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2563728. For more information on the Transgender Endowment, visit http://transendowment.weebly.com.t spond too much. They are just doing it to attack; they want me to engage.”

He remains resolute in his support of Trump for president and believes he would be good on LGBT issues.

“I am still fighting for our rights but inside the Republican Party. I have not left that behind,” he said. “I am pushing on the inside to make sure that happens.”

Last week San Jose police announced they had arrested four individuals linked to the violence at the Trump rally, though Hernandez said none of the men were among his attackers. Log Cabin members praised the police officers for the arrests but remain critical of how security was handled at the rally.

“We hope this kind of violence on all sides stops,” said Craffey. “We hope city officials do a better job of making sure everyone, regardless of their political philosophy, is protected at future events like this.”

As for Hernandez, he said he would attend another Trump rally if the candidate returns to the Bay Area. Trump’s campaign, he said, has reached out to him about potentially attending the nominating convention next month in Cleveland.

“Would I love to go? Absolutely,” he said.t tice would remove the necessary independence of the judiciary.”

That said, BALIF noted that the impact of this particular decision undermines the severity of what happened to the victim and re-enforces white privilege in society.

“We convey our deepest sympathy to the victim and laud her strength in the face of severe adversity,” BALIF’s statement said.

“We share the community’s outrage at the seemingly disproportionate sentence given the sentences given to people of color and the minimization of the impact of Turner’s actions on his victim,” BALIF’s statement said.

“The one positive aspect to the disproportionate Turner sentence is that it has galvanized the broader community to focus on obtaining justice for victims of sexual violence, and the sentencing equity for all people, not just privileged white defendants.”t

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552121

In the matter of the application of: QI JIANG, 4239 21ST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner QI JIANG, is requesting that the name QI JIANG, be changed to ROGER QI JIANG. 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 19th of July 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037077500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CRÈME DE CLEANING SERVICE, 940 MCALLISTER ST #D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SIDON SOLOMON ABAI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037106800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAMONO DESIGN, 26 COSO AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAMON O’DONNELL. 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 05/23/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037111000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STEVEN BALLINGER FINE ART, 1459 18TH ST #281, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEVEN BALLINGER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/04/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037107000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DREAM QUEEN, 63 VALLEY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAURA L. KONNER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/23/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037102200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CHEF JIMMY’S CATERING, 2166 36TH AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CEVDET YANAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/19/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037101900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACCESORIOS 98 CA, 5627 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GUO JUN LIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037099200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INNER CITY HAULING & JANITORIAL, 47 MINERVA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIA M. MEJIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/17/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037102500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VISCERAL PHYSICAL THERAPY, INC, 750 GRAND VIEW AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed VISCERAL PHYSICAL THERAPY, INC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/16.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037101000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAUSE STORIES; ALLY VAULT; 1471 5TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE SAFDAR GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/18/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037094000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TACOLICIOUS, 2031 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LAIOLA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037099600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GENJI, 1765 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GENJI PACIFIC LLC (PA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/17/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037107100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: K-OZ RESTAURANT BREWERY, 121 7TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KEI AND OZ LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/23/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME

The Notice is hereby given that an order entered by the PanTerra D’Oro Ecclesiastical Court of the Ekklesia, county San Bernardino, California, on the April 5, 2016, bearing Court Record No. COTE.WRIT.0316.0016, a viewing of which may be examined at the office of the clerk, by written request sent for appointment posted to Clerk of Court, 305 North Second Ave, #197, Upland, California, near [91786] Non-domestic, zip exempt. Said Writ of Entry removes all temporary tenants from the Landed Estate of the body based on Petitioner’s right to secure his religious beliefs to assume the name of ‘Darren’ and/ or ‘Darren DeLeon’ (for identification purposes) forever sanctified from the ens legis legal styled name, ‘Darren James Michaels’ or any combination. Petitioner is forever detached from any reassignment of any liability associated to and not clothed with representative capacity with the said former legally styled name, ab initio.

All persons possessing an interest in this shall timely petition the court to show cause, why the court’s decree is not a settled matter and failing to do so, be it resolved that the matter is forever settled, Res Judicata. Any correspondence for Darren can be posted to General Post 300621, Fern Park, Florida near [32730] Non-domestic, zip exempt. Petitioner’s place of nativity is on the land of New York City, borough Brooklyn, union State of New York. Nativity day is December 30, 1960.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037118500

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552152

In the matter of the application of: LILLY WHITE, 1049 HOWARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner LILLY WHITE, is requesting that the name LILLY WHITE, be changed to TONY LATRONE WHITE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 26th of JULY 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037127500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAGIC UNDERGROUND; MAGIC UNDERGROUND SAN FRANCISCO; MAGIC ON THE SQUARE; SEBASTIAN BOSWELL III; 684 20TH AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual and is signed REED KIRK RAHLMANN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/03/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037129300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO MAGIC UNDERGROUND; SF MAGIC UNDERGROUND; MAGIC UNDERGROUND SF; 684 20TH AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REED KIRK RAHLMANN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/06/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037093300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DREAM HOLIDAY, 775 JACKSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIA HUANG JIANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/13/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037122600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: IRMA’S BARBER & BEAUTY SALON, 5465 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IRMA ELIZABETH TRIGUEROS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037128500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EMPAWTHY, 3215 20TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALISHA JEAN ARDIANA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/11/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/06/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037126300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MONKEI MILES, 1406 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MONICA URICK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/31/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KAMBARA PLUS DANCERS, 3828 21ST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YAYOI KAMBARA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/03/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/03/16.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552153

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037127700

In the matter of the application of: JIEYING WU, 5 SONOMA ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JIEYING WU, is requesting that the name JIEYING WU, be changed to JOSIE JIEYING WU. 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 28th of July 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552093

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SORTIE, 1001 TENNESSEE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed SASKIA MAURO & RACHEL HOOPER. 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 06/03/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037018900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUDREY 3 PLUS 1, 1034 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed AUDREY ROSE CO INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/28/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/28/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037125600

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037109700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EMPIRE MOVERS USA INC, 1888 GENEVA AVE #504, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EMPIRE MOVERS USA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/16.

In the matter of the application of: ISABELLA BORJIGIN SUN, 132 SANTA ANA ST, SAN PABLO, CA 94704, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ISABELLA BORJIGIN SUN, is requesting that the name ISABELLA BORJIGIN SUN, be changed to QIWEN BAO. 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 30th of June 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAREZONE INSURANCE SERVICES, 3175 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CAREZONE FINANCIAL SERVICES LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/02/16.

MAY 26, JUNE 02, 09, 16, 2016

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016

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Legal Notices>> NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF DAVID JOSEPH DYROFF IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-16-299887

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DAVID JOSEPH DYROFF. A Petition for Probate has been filed by STEPHEN COWAN C/O JOSHUA C. PEACOCK, ESQ. SBN 257257, THE PEACOCK LAW GROUP, LLP, 291 JOAQUIN AVE, SAN LEANDRO, CA 94577, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that STEPHEN COWAN 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: JULY 12, 2016, 9:00 am, Rm. 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 later 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: JOSHUA C. PEACOCK, ESQ. SBN 257257, THE PEACOCK LAW GROUP, LLP, 291 JOAQUIN AVE, SAN LEANDRO, CA 94577; Ph. (510) 483-3400.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF STEPHEN WAN IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-16-299872

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of STEPHEN WAN. A Petition for Probate has been filed by CHI LING WONG AKA GILLIAN WAN c/o SONIA M. AGEE, ESQ. SBN # 164560, ROPERS MAJESKI KOHN & BENTLEY, 50 W. SAN FERNANDO ST #1400, SAN JOSE, CA 95113 in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that CHI LING WONG AKA GILLIAN WAN 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: July 05, 2016, 9:00 am, Probate Department Rm. 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 later 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: SONIA M. AGEE, ESQ. SBN # 164560, ROPERS MAJESKI KOHN & BENTLEY, 50 W. SAN FERNANDO ST #1400, SAN JOSE, CA 95113; Ph. (408) 947-4889.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036769000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: P.J. CONNNOLLY CONSULTING; LIBERTY HILL COMMUNICATION; METAMORA NETWORK SYSTEMS; 862 DOLORES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by P.J. CONNOLLY. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/15.

JUNE 02, 09, 16, 23, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037122900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GENJI SUSHI PTH, 450 RHODE ISLAND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GENJI PACIFIC LLC (PA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037102300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUMPHREY’S JOINER LAW GROUP, LLP, 584 CASTRO ST #720, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by a limited liability partnership, and is signed JONATHAN JOINER & BENJAMIN HUMPHREYS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/11/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/16.

JUNE 09, 16, 23, 30, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037141200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MV CONSTRUCTION; MCV PROPERTIES, 467 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICHOLAS VRIHEAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/14/16.

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JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037137500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TUSCAN PROPERTY SOLUTIONS, 143 POPE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GINETTA LUCCHESI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/13/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/16.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037135500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PEOPLE CHANGE GROUP, 15 RICO WAY #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LISA MARIE FELICE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/10/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/16.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037137100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LITTLE ONES, 315 MONTGOMERY ST 9TH FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIA DEL PILAR ALVARADO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/16.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037110900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FISHER WEISMAN COLLECTION, 1101 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FISHER WEISMAN INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/16.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037132800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE UPS STORE #2255, 588 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INJP, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/08/16.

JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037130400

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JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037137000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UPBEAT MUSIC CAMP, 518 1/2 LINDEN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH M. RODRIGUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/16.

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32

Joneses town

Gallery stroll

30

Out &About

Film Hawk

27

O&A

27

Vol. 46 • No. 24 • June 16-22, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Frameline turns 40 in style

by David Lamble

F

rameline at 40, the self-proclaimed “King of queer film festivals,” offers 155 works, features, shorts, documentaries, American- and foreign-produced, screening June 1626 at the Castro Theatre, the Roxie Theater, the Victoria Theatre, the Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley, and the Landmark Theatres Piedmont in Oakland.

See page 33 >>

Scene from Australian director Neil Armfield’s Holding the Man.

Life is a postingenue ‘Cabaret’

Courtesy Frameline

by Richard Dodds

T

here’s buyer’s remorse and survivor’s guilt, and you can add to that celebrity chagrin. Randy Harrison tasted some of that when he was cast at age 22 as the giddily adorable Justin Taylor in Showtime’s Queer as Folk. Just two years out of college, he became famous in the groundbreaking series as the character dubbed Sunshine by surrogate mother Sharon Gless. He was part of the band of gay buddies going through coming-of-age paces in Pittsburgh, where all roads seemed to lead to the mirror-balled discotheque Babylon. Now Harrison’s new Babylon is the Kit Kat Klub, where he holds court as the emcee in the SFbound tour of Cabaret.

See page 26 >>

E D I PR

Randy Harrison, formerly of Queer as Folk, is playing the emcee in the touring revival of Cabaret headed for the Golden Gate Theatre.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

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<< Out There

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Out There signature playlist

by Roberto Friedman

S

ometimes Out There pulls up a stool at a bar where the pianoplayer knows us and, unbidden by us, will launch into one or another of our signature tunes. “It was just one of those things, just one of those crazy flings. One of those bells that now and then rings, just one of those things. It was just one of those nights, just one of those fabulous flights. A trip to the moon on gossamer wings, just one of those things.” (“Just One of Those Things,” Cole Porter)

Knowing OT to be a CP fan, the Kidder on the Keys tries another one. “Let the poets pipe of love in their childish way, I know every type of love better far than they. If you want the thrill of love, I’ve been through the mill of love: Old love, new love, every love but true love: love for sale.” (“Love for Sale,” CP) Something about the subject matter lulls us into a nostalgic reverie. “Yesterdays, days I knew as happy, sweet, sequestered days. Olden days, golden days, days of mad romance and love. Then gay youth was mine, truth was mine, joyous,

free and flaming life, forsooth, was mine. Sad am I, glad am I. For today I’m dreaming of Yesterdays.” (“Yesterdays,” Jerome Kern & Otto Harbach) “I gave myself to sin, I gave myself to Providence, and I’ve been there and back again, the state that I am in.” (“The State That I Am In,” Belle & Sebastian) “On and on the rain will fall like tears from a star. Like tears from a star, on and on the rain will say how fragile we are.” (“Fragile,” Sting) “The operator, she tells the time, it’s good for a laugh. There’s always radio, and for a dime I can talk to God, Dial-a-Prayer: Are you there?

Do you care? Are you there?” (“In the Winter,” Janis Ian) “I walk along the street of sorrow, the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, where gigolo and gigolette can take a kiss without regret so they forget their broken dreams.” (“Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Al Dubin & Harry Warren) We be-stir ourselves, must keep awake in dangerous times. “Wake me up with a slap or a kiss, There must be something better than this.

I don’t see how it can get much worse. What do we have to do to send the river in reverse?” (“The River in Reverse,” Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint) The velocity of Trump: “Coming in under the cover of darkness, how high can we build this wall? I could’ve said more but it would have seemed heartless.

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How tight can we close that door?” (“Broken Promise Land,” EC & AT) Life in San Grandisco, with $5 pickles. “Is this the High Life? Then why did they swipe my credit card?

Is this the High Life? I don’t think so!” (“The High Life,” Marcella Puppini) It’s often so hard to keep track these days. “I just can’t believe all the things people say: Controversy. Am I black or white, am I straight or gay? Controversy. Do I believe in god, do I believe in me? Controversy.” (“Controversy,” Prince) Prince was always a huge fan of Joni Mitchell, one of the few pop stars who approach the same level of poetry and influence. He does an amazing cover of “A Case of You” from Blue on the all-celebrity-cover A Tribute to Joni Mitchell (Nonesuch, 2007). On that album, Caetano Veloso sings Joni’s “Dreamland” from Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter for all time. “Walter Raleigh and Chris Columbus come marching

t

out of the waves, and claim the beach and all concessions in the name of the suntan slave. I wrapped that flag around me like a Dorothy Lamour sarong, and I lay down thinking national, with dreamland coming on.”

Let Joni have the last word. “Don’t interrupt the sorrow, darn right. He says, ‘We walked on the moon, you be polite.’ Don’t let up the sorrow, death and birth and death and birth.

He says, ‘Bring that bottle kindly, and I’ll pad your purse. I’ve got a head full of quandary and a mighty, mighty thirst.’” (“Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow,” JM) Just space to offer our congratulations to Lavender Tube columnist Victoria Brownworth, whose novel Ordinary Mayhem won the Lambda Literary Award for best Lesbian Mystery last week, in a tie with Tarnished Gold by Ann Aptaker (both from Bold Strokes Books). VB’s writerly talent is no mystery to us.t

Randy Harrison

From page 25

“There was an aspect of guilt of getting this really great job,” Harrison said of the QAF gig that began its five-season run in 2000. “I went to theater school, and I grew up respecting people who learned by doing the classics. It’s really old school, but that’s how I felt getting this big job at 22. I felt that I then had to pay my dues.”

And at regional theaters across the country, he played leading roles in such meaty plays as Equus, The Glass Menagerie, Amadeus, Waiting for Godot, Twelfth Night, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, and other modestly paying stage roles. “I needed to lay a deeper groundwork for myself as an artist, and Queer as Folk financially put me in a situation where I had freedom making decisions for my artistic career.”

When Harrison, now 38, heard that a new tour based on the recent Broadway revival of Cabaret was being cast, he laser-focused on landing the role that Joel Grey had created on Broadway in 1966, and that Alan Cumming brought back to Broadway in 1998 and 2014 in director Sam Mendes’ down-and-dirty reimagining of the musical. “I had been definitely more of an ingenue because I was so young-looking, so even though I loved the show, I didn’t think very much about playing the role,” he said. He definitely didn’t want to be the Aryan kid who sings “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” “When I heard they were looking for an emcee for the tour, I suddenly realized, oh my God, I’ve actually aged into a character actor,” Harrison said. “I started working on the material, and even after I auditioned and not knowing if I’d get a callback, I kept rehearsing the numbers.

I knew I’d be crushed if I didn’t even get a callback.”

While the emcee in the original production of Cabaret was a smarmily seductive character painted in sexually ambiguous makeup, the revival with Alan Cumming out-smarmed what Grey had done.

What was hinted at for 1966 audiences no longer needed the nudgenudge, wink-wink treatment.

This nightspot of the post-Kaiser,

Courtesy Showtime

Randy Harrison, right, became the young lover of Gale Harold’s playboy character in the U.S. version of Queer as Folk.

pre-Hitler Berlin represented a decadent society ready to party like it was the last big bash on earth.

While there is a traditional book musical surrounding the cabaret scenes, all of Harrison’s are selfcontained musical numbers that obliquely comment on the rise on Nazism. Some songs from the original stage show have been eliminated, while songs written for the screen version have been incorporated.

The main crossover character between the inside and outside worlds of the Kit Kat Klub (Andrea

Randy Harrison had to wait out his “ingenue” years before he felt ready to play the emcee in Cabaret.

Goss in the tour) is a demi-talented chanteuse known as Sally Bowles, who becomes lovers with an English writer with autobiographical ties to Christopher Isherwood, creator of the source material in The Berlin Stories. The character, straight as an arrow in the early Cabaret, is now bisexual.

Harrison was given considerable latitude to find his own take on the emcee, and he arrived at rehearsals “just throwing out ideas left and right.” He mainly worked with Cynthia Onrubia, the associate choreographer on the Alan Cumming revivals and now the guiding force for all the numbers staged at the Kit Kat Klub. “She didn’t necessarily tell me how to play it, but told me what impact each moment needs to have,” Harrison said. “Once I figured out the structure of the show, then I filled it up with as much as I could of myself and ideas and humor and intelligence. This is a role that rewards taking risks, and if you’re fully behind it, you can do no wrong.”

When we spoke on the phone, the show was on a brief hiatus that gave him a chance for a short vacation along the Mexican Caribbean coast.

The tour restarts in Las Vegas before its arrival in San Francisco, but he’ll only be playing the first few days of that stop. “Then I’m going to Pride in Toronto to do a sort of Queer as Folk thing for that weekend.” He’s See page 32 >>

t

Film>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Frameline Award honors Bob Hawk

by David-Elijah Nahmod

W

atching Film Hawk, the new documentary that honors the life, work and legacy of Bob Hawk, viewers might wonder why the Bay Area film legend isn’t better-known to the public, and to the industry he’s devoted much of his life to. Hawk, who once programmed the Castro Theatre, has spent the last three decades championing independent cinema.

As the opening moments of Film Hawk reveal, it was Hawk who brought filmmaker Kevin Smith to the attention of distributors. A teary-eyed Smith thanks Hawk for a career that’s included Clerks (1994) and the bisexual romantic comedy Chasing Amy (1997). Hawk, openly gay, has produced or consulted on a number of LGBT-themed films.

Many directors rely on his vast insight and knowledge of cinema in order to make their work more accessible to their audience.

Films Hawk has worked on include the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); The Celluloid Closet (1995), a documentary that recalls the gay subtext found in many Golden Age Hollywood films; and Small

Town Gay Bar (2006), about a gay bar in the Mississippi Delta. Always up for a diverse array of cinematic challenges, Hawk’s lengthy resume includes Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story (2007), a documentary honoring the legacy of B-movie maker/showman William Castle, who made millions offering drive-in fare to audiences before earning the industry’s respect as the producer of the classic chiller Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

On Saturday, June 18, Hawk returns to the Castro when the Frameline LGBT Film Festival screens Film Hawk at 3:30 p.m. Hawk will be presented with the Frameline Award, the festival’s highest honor.

Speaking to the B.A.R. from New York, where he currently lives, Hawk recalled his days at the Castro with great fondness. “It was the local moviehouse for the burgeoning gay community,” he said. “This began in the pre-VHS days. The Castro was primarily a calendar house, it was mostly different double features every night.”

He remembers that if the double bill was gay favorites like the Hollywood classics All About Eve and The Women, the theater would need to open the balcony. Simultaneous

Courtesy Frameline

Bob Hawk (right) in directors J.J. Garvine and Tai Parquet’s Film Hawk.

with his Castro job, Hawk worked at Film Arts Foundation, where he curated an annual film festival featuring works by Northern California film and videomakers. This festival lasted for 21 years.

“These two jobs were supposed to be half-time,” Hawk recalled with a laugh. “I was actually doing two full-time jobs, but I was younger in those days. I didn’t get much sleep,

but I was learning tons and building my future.”

Hawk credits one man for getting him started in the film business, former Castro Theatre owner Mel Novikoff, who passed away in 1987.

Hawk refers to Novikoff as “the godfather of art-house exhibition in San Francisco.”

New Jersey native Hawk lived in New York City during the 1960s,

where he worked as a stage manager for many acclaimed off-Broadway productions. He soon became a familiar face in San Francisco when he began bringing some of those shows to the Bay Area. “I eventually became burnt out on stage managing, and returned to San Francisco in the mid70s during the great gay migration,” See page 34 >>

Transgender trailer-park matriarch

by Sari Staver

M

eet Jheri Jones, a 76-year-old transgender trailer park matriarch looking for love in Mississippi’s Bible Belt. Jones’ ultimately heartwarming story, including her emotional reunion with her four sons after a lengthy estrangement, can be seen at the Roxie Theater on Saturday, June 18, at 1:30 pm during the Frameline LGBTQ film festival. Earlier this year, the documentary screened to a sold-out audience at the New Mission Theater during the San Francisco International Film Festival.

The film, directed by Moby Longinotto, a heterosexual British filmmaker who’d never met a transgender person before filming the movie, was made possible by grants from the San Francisco Film Society and from Frameline.

“The Joneses is a beautiful look at an unforgettable Southern matriarch and her enduring bond with her adult children, offering a rarelyseen perspective on class, family, resilience and acceptance,” said Des Buford, director of exhibition and programming at Frameline.

Filmmaker Longinotto, who makes television documentaries in the UK, heard about Jones through a mutual friend, John Howard, who met Jones while researching his book, Men Like That: A Southern Queer History, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1999. With a grant from Britdocs, Longinotto made his first trip to the Bible Belt. “As soon as I met the Joneses five years ago, I was captivated

by Jheri and her family, and knew I wanted to get their story on film.”

For Jones, the idea of appearing in a film was decidedly unappealing. “I never liked the idea” of being filmed, said Jones in an interview with the

Bay Area Reporter. “I thought, ‘This is my personal life. I’m not going to share it with the world.’ But Moby wore me down with his persistence, and I reluctantly went along with it.”

But when she saw the 80-minute film at its international premiere with Longinotto last spring in San Francisco, “It was one of the most moving moments of my life. The response of the audience absolutely floored me.” After the two appeared onstage and received a standing ovation, “People rushed up to hug me, many with tears in their eyes, thanking me for doing the film.”

Longinotto was also happy with the reception. “This is one of those projects you don’t make for the money. I just want people to see the film,” he said.

Jones’ early years began with an “idyllic childhood” on the 60-acre family farm in Smith, Miss. Jones, born Jerry Ray, was one of six children, and remembers “an absolutely wonderful childhood.” Jones married at 19, got a bachelor’s degree in education, and settled in rural Mississippi, where she got a job teaching elementary school. “I loved my job. But I’d been running away from feelings that something was really wrong in my life, not sure exactly what it was.”

When Jones became attracted to one of the male teachers, “I thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m gay.’” Finally, at age 36, “something snapped,” she said.

“I realized that I wanted to live my life as a woman, and also realized it would mean giving up my wife and my teaching job.”

Much to her shock and disappointment, it also meant giving up her relationships with her children, when her ex-wife refused to let her have any visitation rights. “That, of course, was the toughest part,” she said. “But at

that point, there was no looking back.

“Transitioning in Mississippi back then was very tough,” she said.

“For a number of years I was crossdressing, but initially I didn’t have any medical people to help me with the process. It was a difficult and scary journey.”

In the early 1990s, when Jones was in her 50s, she fell in love with a straight man, and the couple had a six-year relationship. “We were in

love, but it turned out he was actually very homophobic,” leading to the dissolution of the relationship.

Shortly after their breakup, Jones’ children, now adults, contacted her, and they reconciled. Much to Jones’ surprise, two of the boys came out to her as gay. “We’ve been a family again for the past 22 years,” says Jones, noting that she and her gay sons are involved in a local LGBTQ rights organization.

Finally, in her 60s, Jones saved enough to complete her gender confirmation surgery. As for romance, Jones says there have been a couple of relationships with straight men.

“It’s difficult,” she said. “It’s been my experience that heterosexual men have a difficult time with transgender women. I suppose they’re scared.

“I’m still looking,” Jones said. “But I’m 76 years old now, and there aren’t that many shopping days left.”t

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Courtesy Frameline

Jheri Jones, 74, is the matriarch of The Joneses, director Moby Longinotto’s documentary playing the Frameline film festival.

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<< TV

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Historic happenings on the lav tube W

e are old enough to have seen many of the most dramatic American events on TV in our lifetime. As a kid we saw the moon landing on the family’s black-andwhite TV as we lay on the livingroom rug. We saw the Vietnam War. The fall of Saigon. Nixon flashing the peace sign as he left Washington, D.C. after being the first and only president to resign from office.

We saw the planes fly into the twin towers and saw them fall. We saw the levees give way in our old hometown of New Orleans after Katrina. In 2009 we watched the inauguration of the first black president. June 26, 2015, we watched the clerks running out from the building where we had once covered the U.S. Supreme Court as the nation’s first out lesbian newspaper columnist, and saw them hand the briefs and statements to the waiting cadre of press. SCOTUS had legalized same-sex marriage.

On June 7 we watched yet another historic moment: the victory speech of the first woman ever to become the presumptive nominee of a major political party. Prior to Hillary Clinton’s speech there was a video that began with the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 on women’s suffrage, and included photos and voices of notable women Shirley Chisholm, Gloria Steinem, and Coretta Scott King. There were also voices of trans women and lesbians, and our faces were represented in the video montage. Clinton mentioned us in her speech, mentioned our struggles, affirmed that she had our backs.

It’s always difficult to articulate what it means to have been invisible for so long and to suddenly be seen, but it’s breathtaking. The June 7 speech was breathtaking.

On June 9, the parade across our TV began early and ran late into the night. By the time it was over, all the Democratic heavyweights from Pres. Obama to Sen. Elizabeth Warren had endorsed Hillary Clinton.

The cavalcade of support played out in real time on TV, starting when Sen. Bernie Sanders arrived at the White House for a meeting with Obama. He was greeted like the head of state he had hoped one day to be, swarmed by photographers and the national press corps as Obama put his arm around him and led him into the Oval Office.

Eight minutes after Sanders left, CNN ran the video Obama had recorded Tuesday and intended to release the night of Clinton’s victory speech. But Sanders had called

Obama on Tuesday, requesting the president meet with him and wait to endorse Clinton. With the generosity and fairness he’s shown throughout the 14 months since the primary began, Obama waited. But the endorsement was yuuuge, as we say now.

Obama said he wanted America to know “#ImWithHer.” He said it was hard to be president, and he knew Hillary would be great at it. “In fact, I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She’s got the courage, the compassion and the heart to get the job done. I’ve seen her judgment, I’ve seen her toughness, I’ve seen her commitment to our values up-close.” Obama also praised Sanders in his video for “shining a light on income inequality” and other issues, and for bringing first-time voters into the process.

The Diplomat-in-Chief also said both Democrats were “patriots who love this country,” and asserted that embracing the message of both candidates was “going to help us win in November.” He said that sharing those values would “make the Democratic Party stronger, and it will make America stronger.”

Obama said that Clinton and Sanders share a vision for America “that is hopeful, that is big-hearted.

An America that is strong and fair.

Those are the values that unite us as Democrats, those are the values that make America great. Those are the values that are going to be tested in this election.”

It was a beautiful speech of the sort Obama is known for, simple oratory with clearly defined points of reference. It was meant not just to applaud and endorse Clinton, but also to give credit to Sanders and to woo his often-unruly supporters.

But most importantly, by repeatedly referencing the values, judgment and fairness of Democrats like himself, Clinton and Sanders, the speech was meant to draw a stark contrast between the left and the right in this election, in a week when Donald Trump was under pressure from Republican leaders to stop making racist and sexist comments and redefine himself as more presidential.

Obama’s endorsement was hardly unexpected. He’s been all but stating his support for Clinton for months now, and his former press secretary had given interviews on the networks back in April saying that there was no question Obama expected Clinton to be the nominee. Last month, Vice Pres. Biden had made a similar statement in an interview on GMA. Obama’s endorsement was followed by Biden’s. Then, in an exclusive interview on MSNBC’s

STUFF!

by Victoria A. Brownworth

President Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton on all the media last week.

The Rachel Maddow Show, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a darling among white progressives, gave a forceful endorsement of Clinton. Warren has been in a fierce Twitter war with Trump since the “Acela Primary” April 26, which put Sanders mathematically out of the running for the nomination. That night, Warren had declared a sotto voce endorsement for Clinton on Twitter, but like Obama and Biden, was maintaining overt neutrality until the voting was over. To Maddow, Warren said, “I am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next president.”

It was a lengthy and slightly contentious interview with Maddow, who has not concealed her adoration for Sanders, who has appeared on her show several dozen times this year. With rumors swirling about whom Clinton will choose for a running mate and the interest in an historic two-woman ticket, Maddow asked if Warren felt capable of being commander-in-chief, since the role of VP is largely back-up in case anything happens to the president. Warren, who is only a year younger than Clinton and who is fairly new to politics having only been in the Senate since 2013, gave an emphatic yes. CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC reported Warren met with Clinton on June 10, adding to the speculation she might be The One. The cavalcade continued when Obama was the single guest on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, cracking jokes, waxing nostalgic about his presidency, and promoting Clinton with references to her being “wicked smart” and “a great friend and colleague.” When asked

by Fallon what he thought about the Republican nominee, Obama said, “We’re very happy with their choice,” adding that his main role in the general election will be to remind voters that “this is not reality TV.” Game on.

The long positive TV news cycle was a first for Clinton, who has received more than twice as much negative reportage as any other candidate, which when you consider one of those candidates is Trump, is truly astonishing. No doubt that tide will turn soon enough, but Clinton seems to be all smiles as she gives interview after interview.

One interview with the presumptive nominee that shocked us was with ABC News Chief Political Correspondent and GMA host George Stephanopoulos, who hammered Clinton on guns, as if her gun control stance is a bad thing. Stephanopoulos even pulled up a clip of Clinton testifying on gun violence back in 1993 (she looks shockingly young and deceptively demure) before a Senate committee. She was being grilled by then-NJ Sen. Bill Bradley, who had just been trounced by Bill Clinton in the 1992 race, so there was some misplaced animosity there. In the clip, which ABC might as well have gift-wrapped for Trump’s oppo, Clinton is calling for a gun tax, particularly on automatic weapons.

It was odd to see the man who

had been Bill Clinton’s White House Communications Director in such a contentious mode with Clinton. She seemed surprised by it as well. The gun focus came after Trump made news for saying at a rally, “Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment. Hillary Clinton wants to take your guns away, and she wants to abolish the Second Amendment.”

When twinks attack

The clash between Noah Galvin and Colton Haynes isn’t at the level of the Clinton-Trump Twitter wars, but it’s been intense. Galvin is the adorable star of ABC’s terrific new sitcom The Real O’Neals. The 22-year-old is openly gay and very outspoken. In a scathing interview on June 9 he called out Colton Haynes, star of MTV’s Teen Wolf and the CW’s Arrow.

As we have noted for a long time in this column, gorgeous hottie Haynes needed to come out. His gayness was as well-kept a secret as Rosie O’Donnell’s two decades ago.

When Haynes danced around it last month in an interview, we all assumed he would get better at it over time and feel more comfortable being openly gay. But Galvin, who is five years younger than Haynes and thus far less careful than other (closeted) gay stars, called Haynes’ not-quite-coming-out coming out “fucking pussy bullshit.” Galvin said, “That’s not coming out. That’s like, enough people assume that I sleep with men, so I’m just going to slightly confirm the fact that I’ve sucked a dick or two.” Galvin added that Haynes’ decision to address the rumors he’s gay is “not doing anything for the little gays but giving them more masturbation material.”

Oh. (BTW, stop saying the pword and the c-word, boys, women don’t like it. It’s misogynist Trumpism.) Galvin had also called out all of LGBTQ Hollywood (and Modern Family Emmy winner Eric Stonestreet, who is not gay, whose portrayal of Cam Galvin called “inauthentic.” Walking such bold statements back is easier said than done, but Galvin tried, issuing an abject apology on Twitter: “The entire interview I gave to Vulture has hurt the LGBTQ community and the industry I feel truly fortunate to be a part of. My only intention was to try and empower and promote honesty, but I fully understand that comments I made were brazen and hurtful.” Brazen was a good choice of words.

For his part, Haynes was furious, noting on Twitter that he’d praised “this kid” for his work on The Real O’Neals, and had said Galvin should win an Emmy. “Let me just clarify, I’ve never met this kid, so for him to judge me without even meeting & having no idea the struggles I’ve been through or where I come from is absolutely uncalled for and quite frankly embarrassing on his part.

Shouldn’t we all be supporting each other? Enjoy all of your success.

You’re young, kid, hopefully you’ll

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eventually learn a thing or two.

Good luck.”

This fight puts the whole issue of coming out in Hollywood in bold relief. Was Galvin right or wrong?

We have long wanted more out stars in Hollywood. On June 7, Robin Roberts, whom we had nudged to come out for more than a decade before she finally did at 53, interviewed Bobby Brown about his new memoir detailing his life with late wife Whitney Houston. He revealed what we had always known, another not-so-well-kept secret: Houston was bisexual and had a long lesbian affair with her best friend and assistant Robyn Crawford.

The closet still remains painful, and being gay is not embraced by everyone. Supergirl star Jeremy Jordan is getting help from Haynes in his quest to rescue his cousin Sarah from a Christian ex-gay program in Texas. Yes, those horrors are still around. Jordan has put out a plea on Twitter and Facebook to “Save Sarah,” and has a GoFundMe page devoted to it. His cousin is only 17.

Meanwhile, if we didn’t watch BBC World News every night on PBS we wouldn’t have known that Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu’s daughter Rev. Mpho Tutu just married her longtime partner Marceline van Furth in the Netherlands. The June 9 announcement was both exciting and fraught.

Sadly, the rules of the South African Anglican Church ban “homosexuals” from the priesthood. Tutu van Furth’s marriage forced her to give up her license.

“It was hard for me to give up my [priest’s] license, it felt incredibly sad,” said Tutu van Furth, whose father was unable to bless the marriage due to the ban. “My father campaigned for women’s ordination, and so every time I stand at the altar I know that this is part of his legacy, It is painful, a very odd pain, to step down, to step back from exercising my priestly ministry just because of who I love.”

We weren’t sure what we were supposed to think about the long Throwback Thursday segment on the June 9 episode of Access Hollywood that featured Bruce Jenner.

No, we’re not misgendering. It was a segment from 1996 replete with the then-Olympic athlete who had just fathered his sixth child, with the entire Jenner-Kardashian brood.

There was lots of kissing, including a dramatic scene where then-Bruce takes Kris in his arms, dips her back, kisses her passionately and tells her how much he loves her. Jenner also talks about being a father and having teenaged daughters. The clip was from Jenner celebrating the 20th anniversary of his Olympic status.

We understand Jenner’s role as reality TV star is such that there’s a lot of footage from prior events in the former athlete’s life. But even the show’s hosts seemed confused by the cognitive dissonance of the glowing new father holding his baby daughter and being romantic with his wife, and the star of I Am Cait.

These scenes from a former life that Jenner now asserts was always female should perhaps be retired.

We’d like to know what Jenner thinks about this. Also if GLAAD and others have a stance. When we are so careful not to use “dead names,” it seems transphobic to be showing long scenes from a trans person’s prior life. A conundrum as more famous people come out, but an issue that should be addressed.

So for politics galore, the occasional gay sighting and/or cat fight, plus a plethora of new shows you should watch this month, notably BrainDead, American Gothic and Feed the Beast, hell yeah, stay tuned!t

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Music>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Academic moods at the symphony

by Philip Campbell

S

an Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas returns to the podium at Davies Symphony Hall this week for concerts featuring Stravinsky’s thrilling Petrushka and composer John Adams’ powerful setting of Walt Whitman’s The Wound Dresser. MTT’s back in the nick of time, after a fortnight of pedestrian appearances by two usually more adept guest conductors. Their programs were not unsatisfactory, just surprisingly disappointing. Thankfully, both were rescued from instant amnesia by exciting guest soloists.

Uninspired results were most apparent in the recent program led

by DSH veteran conductor James Conlon. Ordinarily, he makes a strong impression, but his latest visit seemed labored, and the orchestra was only fitfully responsive. The program started with a rather long-winded albeit earnest introduction meant to explain the

historical context and signifihad better expect to be carded. cance of Benjamin Britten’s SinThe lovely passagework and crisp fonia da Requiem (1940). Conlon attack in the wisely chosen caurged listeners to understand denzas proved the young pianist’s the sorrowful motivation for the maturity. It isn’t surprising that composer’s concise and effective he has already earned internawork, but couldn’t resist soundtional attention for his perforing a bit pompous himself. The mances of Chopin. right intentions misfired, setting Beloved pianist and conductor an academic mood for an emoVladimir Ashkenazy made his Keith Saunders tional piece. way back to the podium at DSH Dan Steinberg for LA Opera Pianist and Britten’s impassioned music for his latest appearance with the conductor Vladimir SFS the week before, with a promwas played well enough. The Guest conductor Ashkenazy. seasoned pros of the SFS could James Conlon. ising all-Russian bill of fare. There probably sight-read if they had is no disputing Ashkenazy’s grasp rhythmically propulsive score. The to. Unfortunately, while Conlon of the repertoire, and a lifetime only trouble was, it all went in one looked to be in charge, the musiof enjoyment of his performances, ear and out the other. cians seemed less interested. You both conducting and at the keySandwiched between the Britten will never hear a bad performance board (especially at the piano), has and Dvorak, Canadian pianist Jan from the orchestra, only occasionprimed us for high expectations.

Lisiecki made his SFS debut playally less-inspired ones.

Of course, even a master can sufing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. That was certainly the take-away fer an unexpected off-night, and so 22 in E-Flat. Lisiecki’s poised and impression of Dvorak’s Symphony it seemed with the performance of clearly articulated performance was No. 8, which filled the largest porTchaikovsky’s mightily dramatic in pleasing (and rather endearing) tion of the bill and concluded the Symphony No. 4. Again, the SFS can contrast to his gawky stage appearconcert. We heard a big, stylistiprobably play this with their eyes ance. He may be old enough to cally disjointed rendition of the closed, and the recent workmanlike order a drink in California, but he characteristically melodic and rendition almost proved the point.

Audience response was wildly enthusiastic, however, meaning the Finale is a surefire thrill, loud and fast enough to raise the dead, no matter what. During the extended ovation, Ashkenazy finally held the score up to the audience like a sacred book.

He was right; it is in the writing.

The more deserved standing ovation of the evening was already accorded to cellist Alexey Stadler before the intermission. His penetrating reading of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 burned itself into listeners’ brains with an intensity and pathos that silenced any criticisms of his technique or pacing. The sheer theatricality of the young Russian cellist’s interpretation erased audience distraction and suspended time. I may have other favorite artists in mind when hearing Shostakovich’s astonishing score, but they didn’t pop up during the compelling performance

by Alexey Stadler as he made his memorable US debut with the SFS.t

Soaking up lesbian sounds

by Gregg Shapiro

W

hen SOAK (aka Bridie Monds-Watson), a queer, Irish singer-songwriter at the end of her teen years, sings, “A teenage heart/is an unguided dart/We’re trying hard/to make something of what we are” on “B A Nobody,” she knows what she’s talking about. Her debut album Before We Forgot How To Dream (Rough Trade) wears its Tegan and Sara influences on its tattoo-sleeve. That’s not a bad point of reference, especially since SOAK takes that inspiration and runs with it on songs “Blud” and “Garden.” But SOAK has her own unique voice, and drenches listeners with it on “Sea Creatures,” “Hailstones Don’t Hurt,” “Shuvels” (sic), and the instrumental interludes “A Dream to Fly” and “If Everyone is Someone – No One is Everyone.”

After more than a dozen years, Terri Binion returns with the gutwrenching The Day After the Night Before (terribinionmusic.com), an album of loss and survival. In opening track “Long Way Back,” Binion sings, “It’s a long way back to feeling good/it’s a long way back to feeling better.” Judging by what she’s been through, she knows what she’s singing about. The 11 songs, which return her to “that shining shoreline,” were created in the aftermath of the death of her wife and the ensuing legal battle, as well as the loss of both of her parents. Binion gives Mary Gauthier a run for her money when it comes to serious subject matter, but she’s never maudlin or overly sentimental. Grief-stricken songs “Burden Song,” “Tiny Little Land Mines,” “Walking in Circles” and “My Satellite” succeed by being both personal and universal.

Released in late 2015, Sprained Ankle (6131) is the stunning debut by out singer-songwriter Julien Baker. Sparse and exquisite, the nine songs are an exciting introduction to Baker as a solo artist (she also continues to play in the band Forrister). Haunting and hypnotic songs “Blacktop” and “Something” become a part of your very being.

Baker also knows when to vary the sonic presentation, as she does on the soaring “Brittle Boned” and the

breathtaking piano and vocal closer “Go Home.”

To call lesbian singer/songwriter Tret Fure a women’s music legend and pioneer isn’t an exaggeration.

Her creative affiliation with the legendary Olivia Records label and her own outstanding catalog of recordings have earned Fure a well-deserved place among artists such as Meg Cristian, Holly Near, Cris Williamson (an ex of Fure’s) and others. On the vivid Rembrandt Afternoons (Tomboy Girl), Fure augments her trademark folk sound with the choir-driven anthem “Freedom,” the Cajun-spiced “Tender,” the country accent of “Riverbank” and the comfy pop of “Slipper Mood.”

We have Mark “Uptown Funk” Ronson, of all people, to thank for the renewed interest in funk. If there’s any musical justice, lesbian drummer Nikki Glaspie and her band The Nth Power will get some much-deserved attention for their new album Abundance (thenthpowermusic.com). Applying less than subtle religious imagery to most of the songs, The Nth Power is at its most persuasive when it keeps the energy level high, as on “Right Now,” “Only Love” and the instrumental “Altar Call.”

Approaching her third decade of making music for a living, lesbian singer-songwriter SONiA (of disappear fear fame) knows how to work a room. A compelling live performer, SONiA’s studio albums have come close to capturing the energy that emanates during her concerts. But as anyone who has attended a SONiA show can attest, there’s nothing like hearing her perform live. SONiA has released a handful of live recordings over the years. The double-disc Live at Maximal (soniadisappearfear.com), recorded at a sold-out solo show in Rodgau, Germany, is the latest and most ambitious. In addition to a pair of covers (Lennon’s “Imagine” and Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”), the songs are a cross-section of SONiA’s solo work and early disappear fear favorites (“Sexual Telepathy,” “Washington Work Song”).

When prolific queer singersongwriter Rachael Sage sings

“Heaven (Is a Grocery Store Clerk),” the opening track on her new “ballet-pop” album Choreographic (MPress), we can’t help but believe her. She’s that certain of it. Singing about the “French doors” of her fearfulness on “French Doors,” Sage continues to grow in new and interesting ways. The fascinating rhythms of “Try Try Try” and “I Don’t Believe It,” as well as the commercial power pop of “Learn To Let You Go” and “It Would Be Enough” are good examples. If you didn’t know better, you might think the breakup song “Clear Today” was a vintage Elton John tune, while the

strings on “Five Alarms” increase the heat of the song. The mournful “7 Angels,” also featuring a string section, includes lyrics sung in English and Hebrew. Sage’s reverent cover of Carole King’s “So Far Away” can be found as a bonus track on the iTunes version of Choreographic.

For a long time, making cool music for kids (and by extension, the parents who often have to listen to it) has been the province of straight artists such as Barenaked Ladies, They Might Be Giants, Ralph’s World (Ralph Covert), Farmer Jason (Jason Ringenberg) and Dan Zanes.

In recent years, queer acts Django

Jones (featuring ex-members of Girlyman) and Laura Doherty have proven that not only can LGBT folks start their own families, they can also make family-friendly music. Add “electro-kindie” artist The Singing Lizard (aka Liz DeRoche) to the list.

Club Called Awesome (Alphabeat), The Singing Lizard’s delightful third album, brings the beats to the party.

Feel free to dance and sing along to “Peace Sign,” “Beat Bot the Robot,” “Chugga Chugga” and “Growing Up.” The “who you are is wonderful” message of the album’s centerpiece “Be Yourself” is one to which queer folks of all ages can relate.t

<< Out&About

O&A

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Thu 16 Yosimar Reyes @ Galeria de la Raza

Compassion-arts

by Jim Provenzano

A

s we mourn those lost from the horrific violence in Orlando, Florida, take sustenance from life-affirming local arts events. Fight hatred with love, compassion, and creative expression. Celebrate the queer, the homo, the lesbian, the trans. Celebrate now, and don’t stop.

For more events, visit us online at www.ebar.com. For nightlife, check out On the Tab in BARtab.

Thu 16 Comedy Returns @ El Rio Tom Ammiano, Karen Ripley, Ronn Vigh, Yuri Kagan and Lisa Geduldig perform stand-up at this stellar supergay Pride comedy night. $7-$20. 8pm.

3158 Mission St. at Precita. (800) 8383006. www.elriosf.com

Frameline 40 @ Castro Theatre Opening night of the 40th anniversary San Francisco International LGBTQ Film festival. Kiki (7pm), gala (10pm) $75. 429 Castro St. www.frameline. org www.castrotheatre.com

Fresh Meat Festival @ Z Space The 15th annual festive variety concert of queer and transgender modern and traditional dance (Hula, Flamenco, ballroom, voguing, bachata), live music, circus acts and more features AXIS Dance, Sean Dorsey Dance, Star Amerasu and many more. $15. 8pm. Thu-Sun. (ASL interp. June 17, gala recepton June 18). 450 Florida St. at 17th. www.freshmeatproductions.org

Kingdom! @ Beatbox The award-winning drag king hip hop vocal ensemble performs at a benefit for the SF Trans March. $10 and up.

7pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

The Invisible Hand @ Marin Theatre Company Bay Area premiere of Ayad Akhtar’s political drama about a banker in Pakistan forced to show his kidnappers how to play the stock market. $10-$58. Tue-Sun 7:30pm.

Thru June 26. 397 Miller Ave. Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre June 16: Frameline LGBT Film Festival opening night Kiki (7pm) and Holding the Man (9:30). Thru June 26. $11$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Plan 9 From Outer Space @ La Val’s Subterranean, Berkeley Impact Theatre’s wacky stage adaptation of Ed Wood’s cult classic scifi horror film, considered one of the worst of all time. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru June 18. 1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. (510) 224-5744. www.impacttheatre.com

Queer as Fuck @ Bindlestiff Queer Asian and people of colorthemed and performed short works of theatre and performance. $10-$25.

June 16-18, 23-25. 8pm. 185 6th St. 255-0440. www.bindlestiffstudio.org

SF Public Canvas @ Hasting School of Law Amazing outdoor vertical dance project on the walls, with projections; performed by Bandaloop, The Village Impacts and Illuminate. BYO chair/ mats. Free. 9pm. Thru June 19. 333 Golden Gate Ave. www.sfpubliccanvas.org

The Untamed Stage @ Hypnodrome

Vegas in Space @ Victoria Theatre

Eating Pasta Off the Floor @ The Marsh

25th anniversary reunion screening with cast members of the cult classic locally-produced drag scifi camp film, hosted by Peaches Christ; part of Frameline’s LGBT Int. Film Fest. $12$15. 9:30pm. 2961 16th St. www.peacheschrist.com www.frameline.org

Maria Grazia Affinito returns with her comic solo show about ItalianAmerican family life and her mother’s history. $20-$100. Thu 8pm, Sun 5pm.

Thru July 24. 1062 Valencia St. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

The Wild Party @ Victoria Theatre Ray of Light Theatre Company’s production of Andrew Lippa’s dark musical based on Joseph Moncure March’s epic poem about a Manhattan party gone horribly wrong. $15-$40. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru June 11. 2961 16th St. www.rayoflighttheatre.com

Sat 18 Butch: Portraits by Meg Allen @ Glamarama Allen’s exhibit of photo portraits of masculine lesbians. 304 Valencia St. Thru July 3. www.megallenstudio.com www.glamarama.com

The new musical by Scrumbly Koldewyn takes us back to Weimarera Berlin, with a Cabaret/Cockettes styled two-act show of songs, dances and bawdy pre-Fascist abandon, with special guest performers each night. $15. Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru June 11. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

Ethnic Dance Festival @ Palace of Fine Arts Theatre

The Village Bike @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

LGBT Chronicled: 1933-2016 @ Harvey Milk Photo Center

Shotgun Players’ controversial new production of Penelope Skinner’s drama about intimacy and connections. $23-$35. Wed-Sun Thru July 3, then in repertory with Hamlet. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. shotgunplayers.org

Yosimar Reyes @ Galeria de la Raza Acclaimed two-spirit Mexican poet and spoken word artist perform solo shows and staged readings of Prieto, his work about growing up queer in Eastside San Jose. $20. 7pm. Also June 17 & 18. 2857 24th St. www.prieto.eventbrite.com www.galeriadelaraza.org

Fri 17 Ben Vereen @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Broadway, TV and film legend performs Steppin’ Out, his one-man show full of classic songs. $65-$85.

8pm. Also June 18, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsathtenikko.com

A Dreamplay @ Exit on Taylor Cutting Ball Theater’s production of August Strindberg’s innovative surreal play about a woman who dreams of becoming Indra’s daughter, and descends to earth to experience human emotions. $10-$50. Thu 7pm.

Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru June 19.

277 Taylor St. www.cuttingball.com

Grey Matter @ The Marsh Julie Katz’ new solo show about various workers at an IT company forced to confront a moral decision. $20, $35-$100. Thu & Fri 8pm. sat 5pm (8:30pm after May 21). Extended thru July 9. 1062 Valencia St. themarsh.org

For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday @ Berkeley Rep

38th annual festive fascinating and diverse array of local and international ethnic dance companies perform in three programs. $33-$48. Thru June 19. 3301 Lyon St. 392-4400. www.worldartswest.org

Opening reception for a large group exhibit of photos documenting Bay Area LGBT lives, with drag performances hosted by Peaches Christ. 4pm-9pm. Tue-Wed 4pm-8pm.

Thu 1pm-9pm. Sat & Sun 12pm-5pm.

Thru July 7. 50 Scott St. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org

New Spring exhibit of oddly-shaped succulents, cacti and fat plants. Thru Oct. 16. 100 John F. Kennedy Drive, Golden Gate Park www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Mon 20 Black Lives Matter, LGBTQI Forum @ Commonwealth Club Members of the activist social justice group, a Grand Marshall organization for this year’s Pride march in discussion: Alicia Garza, Darnell Moore, Aria Sa’id, and Barbara Smith. $15-$40. 6:30pm. 555 Post St. www.commonwealthclub.org

Major @ Piedmont Theatre, Oakland Bay Area premiere of the new documentary about longtime trans activist Miss Major; part of the Black Queer Arts Festival. $15. 7pm. 4186 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. (510) 2397197. SpectrumQueerMedia.com

Thu 16

Theatre Rhinoceros’ production of Noël Coward’s comedy of a man with a boyfriend and girlfriend vying for his attention. $10-$15. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sat 3pm. Extended thru July 2. 215 Jackson St. at Battery. (800) 8383006. www.therhino.org

Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen @ Exploratorium

LGBT Chronicled: 1933-2016 @ Harvey Milk Photo Center

Opening Party @ Dog Eared Books Baruch Porras-Hernandez MCs the opening party of the new used bookstore in the Castro, with guest readers Armistead Maupin, Rebecca Solnit, Peter Orner, Brontez Purnell, and more. 6pm-10pm. 489 Castro St. www.dogearedbooks.com

New exhibit of the amazing walking sculptures that resemble giant insectlike creatures. Thru Sept. 5. Free-$25.

Pier 15 at Embarcadero. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Thu night 6pm-10pm, 18+). 528-4893. www.exploratorium.edu/strandbeest

Pride Art Show @ 611 Hyde

Sun 19

Queerest Library Ever @ SF Public Libraries

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

Love Wins @ GLBT History Museum Jim Obergefell, lead plaintiff in the 2015 United State Supreme Court case that established marriage equality in all 50 states, in conversation with Shannon Minter, a lawyer for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, discusses his new book, coauthored with Debbie Cenziper. (VIP reception at Equality Win, 6pm, $100. Book event 7pm, $20.) Also, Dancers We Lost: Honoring Performers Lost to HIV/AIDS, a new exhibit of photos and ephemera, curated by Glenne McElhinney, about Bay Area dancers who died of AIDS. Thru Aug. 7. Also, Feminists to Feministas : Women of Color in Prints and Posters, a new exhibit of illustrations depicting LBT women of color from the 1970s to today. Thru July 4. $5. 4127 18th St. www.dancerswelost.org/exhibit/ www.glbthistory.org

Queer Words @ Folio Books Queer Young Adult Speculative Fiction, a reading and discussion with authors Skye Allen, Andrew Demcak and Tim Floreen; refreshments, door prizes, too. 7pm. 3957 24th St. facebook.com/queerwordsreadings/ www.foliosf.com

Will Durst @ The Marsh The political comic’s updated solo show, Elect to Laugh: 2016, adds topical jokes about the bizarre election season. $15-$100. Tuesdays, 8pm. Extended thru July 26. 1062 Valencia St. 282- www.themarsh.org

LGBT Asylum Project Party @ Oasis

The outdoor performance series returns, with varied acts each weekend. June 18, 1pm: The Damfino Players. June 19, 11am: Mary Delave.

Castro St. at Market. www.castrocbd.org

Present Laughter @ Eureka Theatre

Tue 21

Wed 22

Live in the Castro @ Jane Warner Plaza

Kathleen Chalfant stars in Sarah Ruhl’s drama about a family facing a father’s death and reconnecting to childhood dreams. $29-$61. Tue, ThuSat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru July 3. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Exhibit of works by local artists (Andrew Fisher, Thomasina DeMaio, Brian Moore, Matt Pipes, Morris Taylor, Elliott C Nathan & James Swainson) at the intimate gallery.

Thru June 30. 611 Hyde St. www.facebook.com/611Hyde/

Hormel at 20: Celebrating Our Past/ Creating Our Future, a dual exhibit of archival materials celebrating the two decades of the LGBTQ collections.

Thru Aug 7. 100 Larkin St., 3rd floor, and at the Eureka Valley Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16th St. www.sfpl.org

Enjoy international music, complimentary drinks and appetizers, a silent auction, and special musical performances, Velocity Circus and more, at a fundraiser for the non-profit dedicated to providing pro-bono legal representation for LGBT immigrants who are fleeing persecution and seeking asylum in the United States. $40-$60, $250.

8:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis. com

Rumer Willis @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The TV and Broadway actress performs her acclaimed new cabaret show, of jazz, rock and classic songs, with a 3-piece band. $50-$70. 7pm.

Also June 23, 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsathtenikko.com

Thu 23 Magenta Party @ CounterPulse Housewarming and fundraiser for the dance-performance space’s new home, with live performances, art silent auction, cocktails, and DJed dancing. Magenta attire (to match the fab exterior paint job) encouraged. $30-$100. 6pm-9pm. 80 Turk St. counterpulse.org/event/magenta

Perverts Put Out @ Center for Sex and Culture Pride Week reading of sexy prose and poetry, with Greta Christina, Sherilyn Connelly, Gina DeVries, Daphne Gottlieb, horehound stillpoint, Na’amen Tilahun and Xan West, and cohosts Carol Queen and Simon Sheppard. $10-$25. 8pm. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Sampson: A Tough Act to Follow @ UC Robertson Auditorium

Red Velvet @ SF Playhouse SF Playhouse’s production of Lolita Chakrabarti’s drama about Ira Aldridge, the 1833 first British African American stage actor. $20-$120.

Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru June 25. Kensington Park Hotel 2nd floor, 450 Post St. 6779596. www.sfplayhouse.org

The Wild Bunch @ SF Conservatory of Flowers

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Fri 17

Vegas in Space @ Victoria Theatre

Sampson McCormick, the stellar social-commentary stand-up performer, is the subject of a new documentary about the challenge of being Black and gay in show business.

7pm. 1675 Owens St. www.sampsoncomedy.com

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DVD>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Brideshead Revisited revisited

by Brian Bromberger

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t the heart of Those People, the new DVD released by Wolfe Video, is a parable that begins the film. To illustrate one of his paintings to his classmates, Charlie (Jonathan Gordon) invokes a wealthy man who owned a turtle he loved so much, he decorated its shell with expensive gems. But the weight of the jewels crushed the turtle. The parable is a commentary on 23-year-old Charlie’s obsessive relationship with his best friend Sebastian (Jason Ralph), and what can happen if one loves too much. Those People was one of last year’s Frameline showcase features, and it deserves the praise it received.

Writer-director Joey Kuhn, who presented this film as his thesis for a film degree, is off to an auspicious start.

The movie is loosely inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, even using the same characters’ names. Charlie corresponds to Charles Ryder, the 1920s Oxford student-painter who falls in love with Lord (Sebastian) Flyte, the beautiful, dissolute son of a declining rich aristocratic family. Brideshead depicts a veiled homoerotic relationship that tends to frustrate LGBT readers and viewers because it is understated, almost encoded,

reflecting Waugh’s older, Catholicinfused disapproval of his younger homosexual flirtations. Kuhn has reimagined the Ryder/Flyte relationship as an openly gay one and set it on contemporary New York’s gilded Upper East Side.

Charlie is a Jewish painter from a well-to-do family finishing his thesis for a masters in fine arts. He has been pining for his handsome best friend Sebastian, who cares for him, even relies on him, yet keeps him at a distance romantically. They are part of a tight group of rich friends socializing together in various straight and gay permutations. The other big influence on Kuhn is Metropolitan, Whit Stillman’s 1990 satire of the amorous adventures of Manhattan’s debutante society. Sebastian, the reckless, narcissistic, uberwealthy party boy, is in crisis mode because his father, in a Bernie Madoff-like scheme, has been imprisoned for swindling his peers out of millions, becoming New York’s most hated man. Sebastian is chased by paparazzi questioning whether he knew of his father’s defrauding. He suffers drunken fits of anger, secluding himself in their swanky apartment.

Charlie moves in with Sebastian, probably with the hope they will become romantically involved. Instead

they sit on the floor gazing into each other’s eyes as they recite tonguetwisting lyrics from Gilbert & Sullivan’s “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from The Pirates of Penzance. This is about as erotic these two guys will get, aside from an aborted three-way, when, celebrating Halloween at a bar, Charlie tries to crash in on Sebastian’s one-nightstand with a paramour in a Dracula costume. Both his mother and his art teacher warn him this is an unhealthy relationship, with Sebastian prophesying, “When you stop loving me, you’re going to realize what a terrible person I am.” Meanwhile, Sebastian goes to visit his imprisoned father, with devastating results.

Charlie meets Tim (Haaz Sleiman), a Lebanese classical pianist moonlighting as a musician in what appears to be the West Village’s Marie’s Crisis bar. Tim almost immediately falls in love, with Charlie more cautiously following suit. Jealousies and darker feelings emerge as Sebastian realizes he may no longer be able always to count on Charlie.

Tim confronts Charlie on his hopeless relationship, especially after he is offered a job with the San Francisco Symphony and wants Charlie to move there with him, saying “everyone has a Sebastian in their

lives.” How this romantic triangle plays out is the crux of the movie.

Those People is most charming in how it normalizes homosexuality, where being gay is not the focal point. The film is really about how 20somethings make the transition into adulthood in their search for love and happiness. For

a low-budget picture, this is a gorgeous production, the cinematography of Leonardo D’Antoni giving it an elegant, burnished look. His use of a 1970s-era lens makes it feel like an expensive period piece. All the acting is first-rate by an attractive cast. For a debut effort this is an impressive achievement.t

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<< Fine Art

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

What’s up in the June art galleries?

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by Sura Wood

A

n unconventional emerging photographer, a gifted painter who died too young, and a filmmaker who keeps his eyes glued to the ground are among the artists exhibited this month at local galleries.

Anglim Gilbert Gallery Presence Known, a solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper by the late San Francisco figurative artist Joan Brown, who died at 52 in a 1990 accident, focuses on the techniques and subject matter that consumed her during the 1970s, when her paintings in particular trumpeted bold colors and intricate patterns.

Once married to sculptor Manuel Neri, and part of a coterie of Bay Area artists that included Jay DeFeo, Bruce Conner, Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira and her teacher, Elmer Bischoff, Brown was swept up in the fervor of a burgeoning feminist movement, but it was the events of everyday life, intimate moments with her son, husbands and lovers, and later, her spiritual voyage of self-discovery that arrested her artistic attention. The works, dating from 1974 to 1981, feature strong female figures, many of them selfportraits. Through July 2; anglimgilbertgallery.com.

Fraenkel Gallery Christian Marclay, the Swiss-American video artist, composer and punk rock enthusiast who delighted audiences with The Clock, his epic 24-hour film-clip montage that marked the passage of time, is back with a set of six new animations. A twist on the tradition of street photography, they’re comprised of thousands of still images Marclay shot of detritus on the pavement in London, then edited together into sequences.

When played back at a rapid speed, the flickering images give the illusion of movement, recalling

Courtesy of Anglim Gilbert Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and the Chinese Culture Center

“The Bicentennial Champion” (1976), oil and enamel on canvas by Joan Brown.

“Wu Yong Fu, Man in Yellow, Xiaobeilu Pedestrian Bridge, Guangzhou, China” (2009) by Daniel Traub.

19th-century flipbooks. Through June 25; fraenkelgallery.com.

Bass & Reiner Gallery Ivan Iannoli’s photographic assemblages and new light projections examine the nature of images and strategies involved in the art of constructing them. His layering of translucent materials produces a multitasking exercise for the eye, echoing the visual panoply of daily life where one must decipher a battery of images that overlap, conceal and play with one another.

A purplish pyramid sits in the lower right corner of a dramatic night scene of snow-dusted pines in one work; in

The ambitious photography exhibition of 1,600 images, which explores who has true authorship of a story and can legitimately lay claim to memory and perception of cultural history, includes three artists, based in different parts of the world, whose archives of re-contextualized found photographs interpret China’s past and present. Parisian photography collector Thomas Sauvin’s “Beijing Silvermine” consists of snapshots culled from a cache of several million salvaged negatives, taken between 1985 and 2005; Hong Kong resident Kurt Tong’s project “The Queen, The Chairman and I” reconstructs his ancestry through pictures assembled from family albums, intermingled with his own color photographs; and the half-Chinese New York-based photographer and filmmaker Daniel Traub’s more contemporary “Little North Road” is a portrait of globalization and the intersection of cultural identities. The pictures, shot by a pair of itinerant street photographers, show a cross-section of mostly affluent African immigrants who traversed a pedestrian footbridge in the Guangzhou metropolis, which has the largest African population in the country. Originally co-curated with SF Camerawork and exhibited at their respective venues, only the show at CCC has been extended. Through Aug. 13; c-c-c.org.

SF Camerawork 2016 Baum award winner Sune Woods, a nontraditional photographer who’s shaking up the medium, creates photographs, collages and video installations through an intriguing meld of appropriated and original images.

Purportedly exploring sociological trends, imperialism, et al., the results

another, narrow color strips border a sun shower, glare and moisture glazing silvery branches. Incorporating elements of collage, painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture, and contrasting color with black & white, the San Francisco-based artist mediates mediums and materials such as acrylic, glass, wood, light and paper, raising doubts about what we’re actually seeing. Through July 2; bassandreiner.com.

Chinese Culture Center Gallery If it somehow escaped your notice, you now have until mid-August to catch Retrieved: The Art of Looking Back.

I am the future of the LGBT community.

I was married to a wonderful woman for 30 years. Now it’s time to be who I really am. Now I’m happy, authentic, and dating a wonderful man. I read EDGE on all my devices, because I have a whole future to look forward to - and that’s where I want it to be.

The person depicted here is a model.

Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Randy Harrison

From page 26

feeling more comfortable with reidentifying the role that gave him stardom but from which he then wanted to distance himself.

“I was definitely excited to build a career outside of it, but the show was so important for so many people that I can’t ignore. Toronto [which stood in for Pittsburgh during filming] is a city I have nothing but affection for.” Harrison will also be in San Francisco during its Pride celebrations, and he’s excited to be here during the festivities. “I’m like a celebrity grand marshal,” he said.

“I guess I’ll be in a car waving at people, like the queen I am.”

He’s in negotiations to stay with the show at least through its Toronto

are halfway between bizarre and mysterious. What appear to be wrinkled, soiled pages torn from a magazine are pinned on a wall adjacent to an image of a hand with claws for fingernails covered in scaly black fishnet (“Mistaken for the Enemy,” 2015); a human finger protrudes from a trashed NASA spacecraft hanging from a warehouse ceiling (“Landings,” 2015); and crinkly, colored origami papers, perhaps from a freshly unwrapped present, are crushed together (“Metallic Taste in Mouth,” 2016). This ain’t your daddy’s photography. Through June 25; sfcamerawork.org.

Heron Arts So, what of all those white-color criminals who’ve been getting away with buckets of money, if not murder? Well, they’re immortalized, along with their infamy, in the rogues’ gallery of Captured: People in Prison Drawing People Who Should Be. In an illustration of the adage “It takes one to know one,” prison inmates have depicted CEOs guilty of outright stealing, corporate malfeasance, doing damage to the economy, environment and other nasties. On the short list: the Koch Brothers, the Chairman of Goldman Sachs, the GM executive responsible for the faulty ignition switches that caused 124 deaths, the former head of BP, and Sepp Blatter, the corrupt, recently deposed President of FIFA. The portraits, accompanied by details of the subjects’ crimes, and rap sheets of the artists who “captured” them, are on view through June 30, and compiled in a 60-page book that’s already sold 1,000 copies. Who said crime doesn’t pay? (Proceeds went to the Sanders campaign.)

Through June 30; heronarts.com.t run early next year – another chance to reconnect with his QAF home – and then it’s back to auditions in New York. “I imagine that Cabaret will open some more doors for me on Broadway,” he said.

Harrison’s desire to become a professional actor dates back to when he saw Sandy Duncan in a touring production of Peter Pan. “Even at 5 years old, I knew the flying wasn’t real,” he said. “But I was young enough that I really thought the proscenium was a portal into a land where magic happened. That sounds so lame right now, but I was really obsessed.”t Cabaret will run June 21-July 17 at the Golden Gate Theatre.

Tickets are $50-$212. Call (888) 7461799 or go to shnsf.com.

t

Books>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Young transitions

by Jim Piechota

transgender teens must endure to fully live their true selves.

Award-winning writer and public speaker Donna Gephart admits that she wrote the feel-good, promising ending of her rewarding novel Lily and Dunkin well before she wrote the actual story itself. Inspired by both the documentary I Am a Girl and her son Andrew’s brain condition, Gephart’s tale revolves around Lily Jo (born Timothy), an eighth-grader struggling with gender dysphoria who prefers to live life as a girl. Her life has been made whole by the inclusion and unconditional acceptance of her family and friends, yet she has dreams of

eventually coming out to the rest of the world. She befriends Norbert Dorfman, whom she quickly renames Dunkin (in honor of his favorite hangout, Dunkin’ Donuts), a boy caught in the throes of bipolar disorder. The pair click on a variety of levels immediately, even throughout Dunkin’s strained attempts to become part of the basketballobsessed crowd.

If readers can forgive Gephart’s creation of a too-precious gem in the perfect Lily (trans readers won’t find much to relate to her, unfortunately), the story will entertain and enlighten, primarily with the constant struggle of youth battling

for control over their bipolar behavior. It’s written with heart and tremendous empathy, a wonderful rumination about the hidden benefits of unusual friendships between misfits, and the importance of sharing kindness and expressing compassion to others at all stages of life.

Finally, TLC network reality star and trans activist Jazz Jennings has published a frank, endearing lifestory, I Am Jazz, which makes a terrific companion volume to her groundbreaking television series.

The book recounts Jazz’s acknowledgment of her female identity way back in preschool, and her struggles to create a safer space for herself and others like her in schools across the nation. A newspaper article caught the eye of television producers eager to interview Jazz and her amazing family.

The author speaks from the heart, and is open about her struggles with hereditary depression and the slings and arrows of an otherwise average teenage life. Her serialized television program delves into more specific territory, including addressing haters, and how Jazz must endure surgery in order to prevent the onset of male puberty.

There’s definitely thematic variety in these three selections. While they each bring something different to the bookshelf, collectively they instill some much-needed hope and visibility for a better, more tolerant future for the transgendered population.t

gratefully, it’s not banal.

Truth in advertising: in this otherwise frank book there is, wisely, no explicit sex between the men beyond what could be some frottage, clothed and standing, and a presumptive erection or two. If dewy eyes and wet kisses count, those too.

But the author has the sense to keep two of the giants of American literature out of each other’s respective (marital) bedrooms – though barns

and outdoor spaces are another matter – and away from our prying eyes.

Neither author is diminished

by Beauregard’s excursion, and the novel whets your appetite for the works by both men that Beauregard mentions and that you haven’t read – and virtually compels re-reading of Moby-Dick and The Blithedale Romance. But as the two men’s loves are in no way equal (the fulcrum on which Beauregard’s story rocks), neither are their ways as writers and individuals, and Hawthorne, who seems almost spoofed in Beauregard’s Melville’s first regard, comes off the better of the two in a number of ways, principally emotional maturity and sexual integrity.

Altogether plausibly, Beauregard’s Melville is wholly without gay self-hatred – but at the price of not being able to see anything beyond his personal desires and obsessions. He’s not reliving, but rather, stuck in his own neglected childhood, and everything about him is childish in that way that is often true of the greatest artists. There are lovely, memorable children throughout this book, but for Melville they’re little more than barriers to his access to Hawthorne; there is no greater child than Melville, and he’s a petulant one at that.

Also preposterous, but in ways that are calculated to make you love him the more. The depiction of a love-besotted, barely clad Melville marching sweatily through the snow at night to see the object of his mania, his make-believe lover with the gall not to answer his overheated letters, is wrenching in its pathos and easily this novel’s finest and truest scene.

Elsewhere, it’s not the lofty language of the great authors’ century, but rather, Beauregard’s that perplexes and deflates. It’s the chief peril of any historical novel, and while it doesn’t defeat Beauregard, it frequently blunts or waylays his writing. Particularly in the first third of the book, when it’s still gathering steam, infelicities of language confound. In an early episode of Melville’s torment, “The Sirens were singing celestial odes of Hawthorne in Herman’s ears, piercingly beautiful songs beckoning him to Lenox; but he saw the possibility of crashing against the rocks, as well, and he recognized that it would be better to lash himself to the mast for the duration of a breakfast than destroy himself through foolish haste.”

If you found that in actual prose

by Melville or Hawthorne, you’d work with it or around it. In Beauregard’s novel, it’s just embarrassing to read.t

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo; Flatiron Books, $17.99 Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart; Delacorte Press, $16.99 Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings; Crown Books, $17.99 s the transgender rights movement, its increased presence and acceptance, and the prominence of gender fluidity have fast become mainstream at home and throughout the media, more meaningful reading material has emerged as well, particularly for young adults who are just beginning to embark upon this often difficult, challenging, multifaceted journey.

Here are three newly released books for young adults with transgender themes that are noteworthy for their compassionate and fresh approaches to individuality, acceptance, self-discovery, friendships, and relationships.

Inspired by her experiences as a trans woman, Tennessee author Meredith Russo’s touching teenage love story If I Was Your Girl features Amanda Hardy (born Andrew), a transgender teen who moves in with her father in Lambertville, TN, after enduring a physical attack and school bullying, which precipitates a suicide attempt. She has been living as a girl for many years and is now hoping to finish high school under the radar and remain relatively

A

unseen by her classmates.

Along comes Grant, a friendly, handsome guy who takes a liking to Amanda. The pair heat up quickly, though she knows her secret will cast a shadow on their relationship until the truth is revealed. Friends, particularly Bee and Virginia, help, but in the end, it’s Amanda’s obligation to come clean to Grant.

Russo’s fiction displays believable, real-life situations for transgender teens, including stresses about fitting in, sexual orientation, awkwardness, and being “stealth” (physically undetectable as a transgender person). She doesn’t sugarcoat the problematic transformation

Melville in love

by Tim Pfaff

I

t’s love at first sight for Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in Mark Beauregard’s new novel The Whale: A Love Story (Viking) – and likely shock and awe for most of its imagined readers. Surely Beauregard is banking on the idea that most of his audience – who may have survived high school passages through MobyDick and The Scarlet Letter – will be startled to learn of the men’s charged friendship, into which it is not hard to read a homoerotic subtext. And even those to whom that idea is not new may be awed, for good and ill, by the Hawthorne we first see, albeit through Beauregard’s Melville’s eyes (note the levels of refraction in the lens): “Hawthorne’s features were so fine that they could have belonged to a woman: eyebrows that prettily framed his coffee brown eyes; a hawkish Roman nose; sensuous red lips, the bottom lip a wide devouring flare; and waving chestnut hair that fell in ringlets behind his ears.”

Little surprise that by the end of the next, short chapter, “Herman forgot all about his whale manuscript, and he forgot about his debts and even about his wife and son and mother.

He forgot about himself. The only thing he knew for certain was the radiance of Nathaniel Hawthorne.”

The real-life Melville famously dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne “in token of my admiration for his genius.” Quite a token, that, and Beauregard gives an imaginative account about how that admiration may have taken wing over the years 1850-51. In an afterword he notes his book’s basis in a body of letters from Melville to Hawthorne (none in the other direction survives) – a few of which he uses in the story, and a few tawdrier ones Beauregard makes up – that have that unmistakable scent of Melvillian manlove.

Saturated and high-flown as it is, it’s not, in fact, an unusual tone for 19th-century men to strike in correspondence.

What we know of Wagner’s correspondence with queenly King Ludwig, his major sponsor, could lead a 21st-century reader who reads it to think theirs was a torrid affair, though the (to say the least) sex-positive Wagner was, for all his kinks, a ladies’ man (even if it doesn’t tax the imagination that he may have lain back and thought of Mathilde as Ludwig hummed his praises). Beauregard knows how to read that language, and his speculative answer to what might have been between Melville and Hawthorne does not claim to be conclusive, and

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Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Alex Anwandter’s You’ll Never Be Alone.

Frameline 40

From page 25

Holding the Man Australian director Neil Armfield brings Aussie actor/activist Timothy Conigrave’s 1995 memoir to the screen in a passionate drama that bridges decades (1970s-90s), a schoolboy crush turned adult relationship that must overcome family disapproval, and the resistance many of us feel being thrust back into that turbulent period when HIV/AIDS was a certain death sentence. Buttressed by a stellar Down Under cast: Ryan Corr is Tim and Craig Stott is John, supported by Australian vets Guy

Pearce and Geoffrey Rush. Based on a book completed only days before its author’s death. (Castro, 6/17) You’ll Never Be Alone This debut drama from Chilean pop star Alex Anwandter is a powerful if deeply disturbing experience for an American LGBTQ critic. The set-up is impeccable: Juan (Sergio Hernandez) has spent a quarter-century running a small but innovative mannequin factory where he lovingly crafts human-appearing figures. Juan’s true love is his beautiful 18-yearold son Pablo (Andrew Bargsted), who imagines himself becoming a See page 34 >>

<< Film

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Queer culture & politics unfolding

t

by David Lamble

T

his 40th edition of the world’s premier queer film festival is also the leading showcase for LGBTQ nonfiction films, rivaled only

by Berlin and Sundance. With the bulk playing on the Castro Theatre’s 40-foot screen in a 10-day glut, around 30 titles put most of reality TV to shame. There’s often the added bonus of having the filmmakers present for post-screening Q&As. Political Animals This detailed, at times hilarious and moving biography of four hyperpolitical lesbian lawmakers unfolds in a setting many of us thought we knew: the California State Assembly chamber in Sacramento. As co-directors Jonah Markowitz & Tracy Wares make perfectly clear, there’s more than 75 miles separating the goodold-boy pols dominating the lower body of our state legislature and us 21st-century LGBTQ political activists. It’s to the credit of both the filmmakers and their highly skilled, articulate subjects that the often-arcane political game practiced in our state capitol is made so understandable that we come to admire even more the efforts of the four women – Carol Migden, Sheila Kuehl, Jackie Goldberg and Christine Kehoe – to secure basic human and civil rights for millions of queer California citizens. The film’s comedy high point is its presentation of Assembly floor debates in which we get to experience the homophobic, sexist and downright boorish conduct of several of their Republican male colleagues. The filmmakers devise vivid graphics to demonstrate the ongoing battles for the ever-elusive 41 votes needed to pass a bill. (Castro, 6/19; Elmwood, 6/20) Kiki Sara Jordenö’s extraordinary opening-night film both continues and builds on the legacy of Jennie Livingston’s pioneering 1990 LGBTQ doc Paris Is Burning, a film that called attention to flamboyant “drag balls” staged by young men

<<

Bob Hawk

From page 27

he recalled. “I worked in a restaurant while volunteering for an anti-Briggs initiative.” (The Briggs Initiative was a 1978 California ballot initiative backed by anti-gay Senator John Briggs, which sought to ban gays from teaching in public schools.)

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Frameline 40

From page 33

fine arts dancer, and who is supplementing his art-school education by teaching choreography to neighborhood kids. Pablo is dating a local lass, Mari (Astrid Roldan), but his passion lies with his sexual bouts with an age mate, Felix. Trouble comes in the form of a band of bullying hoodlums, reminiscent of the native Fascists in charge of Chile under the dictator Pinochet.

Anwandter based his story on a neo-Nazi-style assault against one of his fans. Told in a sparse, visually literate style, the film suffers only from a lack of emotional catharsis. In several scenes, petty-minded Chileans – an aging harpy with romantic designs on Juan, a teenage thug who stands by while his buddies nearly kick Pablo to death – show their true colors. Advisory: scenes of vividly simulated anal sex. (Castro, 6/16, 22) From Afar First-time Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas carves a dark tale from the confusing interactions between a brutal Caracas street thug, Elder (Luis Silva), and a middle-aged denturemaker, Armando (Alfredo Castro), who pays to dominate bad boys without physically penetrating them. Against the backdrop of

Courtesy Frameline

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from directors Jonah Markowitz & Tracy Wares’ Political Animals.

Scene from director Deborah Esquenazi’s Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four.

of color, events where these young queer kids carved out safe spaces of artistry and camaraderie amidst an otherwise trans/homophobic world.

Kiki picks up on the voguing style of street-dancing 25 years later, when the NYC drag scene has gained new visibility, and when a NYC mayor won his first election on the appeal of his bi-racial teen son’s Afro. Kiki reveals the immense progress and the significant hurdles that still confront the queer community in our largest and most diverse metropolis.

(Castro, 6/16; Piedmont, 6/24) Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four Director Deborah Esquenazi’s brutally candid doc on this latter-day American witch-hunt begins with a sorrowful face and the words, “I’ve always wondered where the story they came up with actually came from.

Where did it all begin? And I wish I had an answer for you, but I really don’t. All I can do is speculate.”

Filmmaker Esquenazi slices, dices and ultimately redeems a tabloidworthy tale involving a quartet of teenage girls whose friendships and burgeoning romances were undermined by familial jealousy and revenge. Perhaps only in a town

where an exploitation film like Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S. could play for weeks at a suburban shopping mall would such a grotesque miscarriage of justice go unredressed for almost a generation. Four lives were upended under a barrage of media-fed homophobia worthy of 1950s-era McCarthyism. (Castro, 6/20; Piedmont, 6/23) Gay USA The late Artie Bressan grew up alongside childhood friend and Celluloid Closet author Vito Russo on the streets of Manhattan, actually on a street that would later become the heart of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Bressan, a great student of comedy guru Frank Capra, dreamed of bringing a Capra-style vision to feature fiction films with gay characters and storylines. Bressan’s career was tragically curtailed by AIDS, but not before he left a nine-film body of work that included the last cycle of gay male erotic features shot on film; Abuse, a physician-funded pioneering drama on child abuse; 1985’s Buddies, the first full-length AIDScentered gay drama; and finally, Gay USA, a compilation of footage from 1977 Gay Pride parades. Gay USA is the centerpiece of the program

Flashback 1977: Frameline’s Founding Year. (Roxie, 6/19) Film Hawk When I think of queer film maven Bob Hawk, recipient of an overdue tribute at Frameline 40, I recall long-ago nights at the Castro when, in the company of our boyfriends, we would imbibe the movie palace’s repertory fare, marked by a growing array of LGBTQ films.

Back then, Bob’s efforts to create a uniquely Bay Area film scene produced the Film Arts Foundation, generator of grants to newbie filmmakers including myself. Bob was never keen on blowing his own horn, so it was heartwarming to see him listed as co-producer of Trick, a nifty 1999 gay-boys-in-love date-night movie. The live tribute to Bob Hawk will be followed by the screening of JJ Garvine & Tai Parquet’s bio-doc Film Hawk. (Castro, 6/18) The Pearl The ruggedly masculine world of America’s Pacific Northwest provides an intriguing backdrop and cultural counterpoint to the struggles of four brave souls to finally embrace the female identity they’ve concealed from the world for most of their lives. From a furtive attire change in a car in the dead of night to a trans-friendly weekend

conference where these womenin-transition are taught new social and vocal skills, co-directors Jessica Dimmock & Christopher Lamarca provide an intimate guide to a changing gender universe where nothing is quite what it once seemed to be. (Victoria, 6/19) Out Run Co-directors S. Leo Chiang & Johnny Symons take us inside the growing pains of possibly the world’s only queer political party, the Philippines’ new queer congressional party Ladlad. The filmmakers flash back to a time prior to the country’s 2013 national elections. Under the Philippines’ election laws designed to increase minority representation in the national congress, a new political party must get a certain number of votes in order to have a crack at winning between one to three seats. Many Ladlad members and candidates have emerged from the country’s growing number of out trans women, a particularly oppressed group in a country obsessed with macho values. A poignant moment unfolds when a newly out 47-year-old gay man running for congress is urged to be more macho by a conservative female voter. (Castro, 6/19)t

At about this time Hawk attended a work-in-progress screening of the groundbreaking gay documentary Word Is Out, where he first met the makers of The Times of Harvey Milk.

“Since 1996 I live in New York City again and thus closer to my family,” Hawk said. “In some very concrete ways I am a New Yorker, though I think that San Francisco

will always be my spiritual home.

I’ve always been queer no matter where I am, but there’s nothing as high or as magical as being queer in San Francisco.”

So Hawk returns to the city where his film career began. “I’m amazed that it even exists,” he said of Film Hawk. “I cannot be objective about it, but I trust filmmakers J.J. Garvine

and Tai Parquet because I’d worked with them before. I just talked for hours about all facets of my life, uncensored and unfiltered. Needless to say, it’s rather gay.”

After decades of guiding filmmakers towards winning awards, it’s Bob Hawk’s turn to be honored. “I am absolutely thrilled to be receiving the Frameline Award on this

40th anniversary of the festival,” he said. “Frameline is embedded in me on so many levels. I have not only championed independent film in general, but LGBT films especially.

I know they’ve changed and saved lives, and at times have lifted us up. I’m honored to have whatever part I’ve played in this to be acknowledged.”t

a class-stratified post-Hugo Chavez Venezuela, whose citizens are reevaluating the fruits of Chavez’s revolution, Elder and Armando lurch towards some kind of intimate familial bond that defies any easy definition, and appears to fetishize power on both sides, as both men struggle to trust the other and, for that matter, themselves. Elder asks Armando if his father ever beat him, and if he would beat his own kids if he could. The older man shakes his head “No” to both questions, while the kid snarls, “I would beat them as hard as I could, to show them how full of shit the world is.” (Victoria, 6/22; Elmwood, 6/23) Summertime French helmer Catherine Corsini takes us back to the heady days of post-Gaulist France (1971) when every aspect of the social contract – political, sexual and economic – seemed ripe for a radical revision. The rural-raised Delphine (Izia Higelin) is eager for a feminist revolution but just as stimulated by blonde firebrand hottie Carole (Cecile de France). This drama, in French with English subtitles, sizzles with fleshy close-ups to the beat of 70s rock and shots of a vibrant French countryside.

(Castro, 6/17; Piedmont, 6/23) Girls Lost From Sweden’s Alexandra-Therese Keining comes a film fable perfectly in sync with our

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Alexandra-Therese Keining’s Girls Lost.

genderbending times. Based on a popular Swedish young adult novel, Girls Lost borrows from Shakespeare and Harry Potter to create a world where three girls assume the armor of boy identity both to fend off bullies and to discover what it’s like to be true to yourself and transcend your limits. Enacted by a talented young cast, with a hip Euro soundtrack and

magical special effects. (Victoria, 6/18; Piedmont, 6/25) Being 17 French master Andre Techine, whose 1994 classic about French adolescents set in the poisonous aftermath of the French war in Algeria Wild Reeds set the bar high for movies where teen characters grapple with adult dilemmas, returns with a rural drama about two teen

boys forced to overcome racial differences and complicated personal histories to forge a bond neither could have imagined. The stories of Thomas (Corentin Fila) and Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein) should let us better appreciate our small-world LGBTQ universe. (Castro, 6/21)t More next week. frameline.org.

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40

On the Town

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On the Tab

Shining Stars

Vol. 46 • No. 24 • June 16-22, 2016

kissing & Bars

Orlando mass shooting struck a gay sanctuary

by Jim Provenzano

“I Southern Nights

f you can’t wrap your head around a bar or club as a sanctuary, you’ve probably never been afraid to hold someone’s hand in public,” wrote Jeramey Kraatz in one of the more asture of social media quotes that has swept the internet since the mass murder of 49 people at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida.

See page 42 >>

Christopher Leinonen, 32, and Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, were among the 49 people who lost their lives June 12 at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.

Barrett Foa

The Broadway boy’s a cabaret man, too

by Jim Gladstone

“A

fter seven years of being a featured actor,” quips Barrett Foa, who brings his cabaret act to Feinsteins at the Nikko on Friday and Saturday of Pride Weekend, “It’s nice to get back to being self-indulgent again.”

See page 37 >> Barrett Foa

E D I R P

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

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36 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Rumer Willis Rising star makes her Feinstein’s SF debut

by David-Elijah Nahmod

R

umer Willis has lived what some might call a charmed life.

The daughter of Hollywood royalty, her parents are movie stars Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. To her, they’re just Mom and Dad. “It wasn’t until I was older that I realized it was different,” she said of her Tinsel Town childhood. “I had nothing to compare it to. It didn’t seem different.”

Now, Willis has followed her parents into the “family business.” She’s made numerous film appearances, has performed on Broadway and appeared in a well-received cabaret act at Cafe Carlyle in New York.

On June 22 and 23, Willis brings her act to Feinstein’s SF. In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Willis spoke of her love for classic jazz and blues artists such as Etta James, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Al Green and others.

“She sings with such heartache,” Willis said of James. “She sounds like she’s handing you her heart.”

Willis added that she adores Green’s persona. “He’s got such swag,” she said. “He’s able to make music that touches you in such a deep way. I like jazz, blues and soul.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

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genres. I hope to find more ways of the plum role of Roxie Hart lieve it’s happening,” she said. “I love expressing myself. I hope to explore in Chicago, and cut the rug knowing that people are able to take more options as new opportunities during Dancing With the something away from my work. I’m come up.” ▼ Star’s twentieth season. glad I was able to do this show.”

“It was an amazing expeFew performers have been able rience,” she said of Dancing. to perform in such a wide variety of Rumer Willis at Feinstein’s at the “They asked me to do it; it venues. For Willis, it’s been a perfect Nikko, 222 Mason St. June 22, 7pm and June 23, 8pm. $50-70. $200 was a great way to learn how combination. food/drink minimum. to dance and perform live.”

“I like them all, they’re all very www.feinsteinsatthenikko.

On May 19, 2015, Willis different,” she said. I find something ticketfly.com/calendar and her dancing partner Valthat I like in each of the creative entin Chmerkovskiy were crowned the season’s champions. It was soon after this victory that Willis joined the cast of Chicago.

Rumer Willis performing at The Cafe “It was incredCarlyle in New York ible,” she recalls of her Great White Back in the day people seemed Way debut. “It’s to sing because they’d die if they an experience you always didn’t. There was so much passion, dream about as a kid. I so much conviction.” never expected, as a kid Though we can assume that the watching that show, to be music of these singers will be heard in it. It was a dream come in Willis’ Feinstein’s show, she’s not true.” talking. “I like it to be a surprise,” And then there’s the she said of her song selection. applause which BroadAt 27, Willis is already a seasoned way performers receive at performer. In addition to several curtain call. film roles, she’s now a regular on the “Its one of those crazy Left: Rumer Willis on Dancing With the Stars. Right: Rumer Willis in Chicago. popular Freeform series Pretty Little moments; you can’t beLiars, has starred on Broadway in

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Barrett Foa performing at last year’s Tony Awards.

<<

Barrett Foa

From page 35

Behind every joke, of course, is a little truth.

New York born-and-bred, the openly gay Foa –best known for playing operative Eric Beale in the ensemble of the stalwart CBS drama NCIS: Los Angeles– is a theater kid at heart.

Foa, 38, made his Broadway debut fifteen years ago in the original cast of Mamma Mia! and has also played Princeton/Rod in Avenue Q (Foa was the first non-puppeteer specifically trained for the show) and replaced Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Leaf Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. “Television has given me a cushion,” he says, “So I can get back to singin’ and dancin’. I’ve really missed the immediate gratification of laughs and applause that you get from a live audience.”

“To be honest, that’s why I started putting this show together,” says

Foa, who debuted his new act in April at Los Angeles’ Rockwell and played Feinstein’s New York venue, 54 Below, earlier this month.

“Cabaret is really the most selfindulgent of all the art forms,” he says, suggesting that it may also be

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 37

and antidote-of-sorts to disappearing into formulaic procedural television.

“I’ve dipped my toe into cabaret a bit before, doing some numbers in collaborative shows with a group of friends at Ars Nova and the Duplex in New York, but this is my first full show.”

Called Grin and Barrett, the show began with Foa assembling a long list of his favorite songs.

“These are all songs that make me happy every time I hear the first chords play,” he said. He pared the song list down to dovetail with a group of anecdotes he wanted to share about his life in and out of the theater.

“It’s not your mother’s cabaret,” he says, noting that the show includes songs by James Taylor, Randy Newman, Rufus Wainwright and other pop composers as well as theater music. “I need it to appeal,” he jokes with a faux drama queen sneer, “to laypeople as well.”

Molding his own show also gave Foa an antidote to the relative shapelessness of ensemble TV series work in Los Angeles compared to a live theater schedule.

“On Broadway, you know exactly where you need to be every night.

Barrett Foa with his Avenue Q puppet character.

You plan brunch at 11 and dinner at 5. But with a series, you can have a 13-hour day and you don’t necessarily know when you’re going to start or finish. Over time, things have got a little more regular at NCIS and we usually work from very early in the morning and get off at 6 or 7. Its been interesting for me to have an evening at my disposal instead of providing someone else’s entertainment.”

Music, man

As he makes clear in his cabaret act, Foa loves getting to lose himself in a character and looks forward to moving back to Manhattan after NCIS: LA runs its course.

“People used to want to cast me as romantic characters like Hero in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum or Rolf in Sound of Music. But I Barrett Foa working a hot nerd look. don’t think those are the roles for me any more. I’m celebrating their one-time profesready to be a quirky leadsor, Brent Wagner, before his retireing man.” ment.

Last summer on hiatus, Foa test“Every year I’m out of college I ed those waters, playing Harold Hill realize how important it was to me. in a successful Connecticut producThat program really gave me my tion of The Music Man. “It was a life.” blast,” he recalls, “And I was really And that life, Foa makes clear, has grateful to have a chance to play a live theater at its heart. lead like that.”

“My heart and soul are in New The show also held some nostalYork. I want to be on stage and I gic value for Foa, who performed want to be closer to my family. I a smaller role in the show while have a seven-year-old nephew, and I studying theater at Northwestern want to be more to him than ‘Uncle University. Also in that cast were Barrett from California.’”▼ friends and fellow Broadway actors, Gavin Creel (Hair) and David Burtka (now husband of Neil Patrick Harris).

Foa has fond memories of the Northwestern program and this past May 16, he joined dozens of fellow graduates in a New York concert

Barrett Foa performs at Feinstein’s at the Nikko June 24 at 8pm, June 25 at 7pm. $45-$65. $20 food/drink minimum.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinsatthenikko. ticketfly.com/

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

38 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Celebrating proudly

by Donna Sachet

W

hy, why, why? The recent horrific night of violence in Orlando has so many of us baffled by questions. As more information comes to light, some of those questions will be answered, but the root hatred that led to such a crime remains inexplicable to us. Stay united as a community, cling to each other, and be sure that those closest to you know how much you cherish them.

With all this weighing on our collective mind, this is not an easy column to write.

Sunday’s Mr. and Miss Gay Pageant at Oasis saw Mr. Gay Yayy Winn and Miss Gay Lily Rose step down to a house full of enthusiastic attendees. Co-emcees John Weber and Mercedez Munro kept the event moving at a lively pace with anniversary productions, command performances, and the competition for the new title-holders.

When all was said and done, Jethro Patalinghug and Piper Angelique emerged the winners with Ruby Red Munro first runner-up for Miss Gay. These newest titleholders now join Reigning Emperor Salvador Tovar and Reigning Empress Emma Peel for a year of Imperial Court actitivies.

For more photos, see Steven Underhill’s Shining Stars on page 47.

The impromptu vigil that followed at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro brought the Orlando tragedy into clearer focus with brief speeches from State Senator Mark Leno, Mayor Ed Lee, City Supervisors David Campos and Scott Wiener, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus lifted the hundreds assembled in song, as they have for nearly 40 years at event after event.

In light of all this, some will caution us to lower expectations for our upcoming Pride Parade and Celebration, but we are certain that would be a mistake. We cannot allow an irrational act of senseless violence to undermine our hardfought victories. So, as promised, here is your guide to our personal

BARtab

A young man in a glittering cap listens to singing and speeches at the vigil commemorating the victims of the Orlando nightclub shootings; the vigil and march led from the Castro to San Francisco City Hall.

picks among the many San Francisco Pride events to attend.

Monday, June 20, 6:30PM, dig into the issues raised by Black Lives Matter at a symposium at the Commonwealth Club, moderated by Barbara Smith and joined by Alicia Garza, Darnell Moore, and Aria Sa’id. Among all the celebrations, this is a chance to zero in on this year’s Pride theme, For Racial and Economic Justice.

Let’s not forget the letter B under our LGBTQ umbrella! On Wednesday, June 22, you are invited to Bi-BQ: B+, A Pride Event for the Rest of Us. This event features a 3:30PM picnic in Dolores Park followed by screenings of bi-shorts at the Roxy Theatre.

Thurs, June 23, the inimitable Heklina invites you to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park at 6PM for NightLife’s annual celebration of SF Pride, this time with a tribute to David Bowie, Prince and the best of glam rock.

That same night, here’s a brand new event that sounds incredible.

Join celebrity hosts Sister Roma,

Honey Mahogany, BeBe Sweetbriar, and this social animal for #ThisIsMe at the Twitter Global Headquarters, 1355 Market Street, 7-10PM, benefiting the life-saving services of The Trevor Project. DJ Christopher B spins, the Ladies of AsiaSF dance, and Beach Blanket Babylon’s Misa Malone performs, while signature cocktails flow, delicious food is served, and cameras go into overload. After the main event, recording artist Brian Kent takes us back to Beatbox where a special performance by Frenchie Davis awaits.

Friday, June 24, it is time to turn our attention to the letter T in LGBTQ. Gather in Dolores Park midday for brunch hosted by LYRIC and OpenHouse, performances and speeches from 3-6PM, and Trans March at 6PM to Taylor and Turk Streets to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots, a fierce event preceding Stonewall by three years. The celebration continues at El Rio afterwards.

Friday and Saturday, June 24 and 25, the SF Gay Men’s Chorus brings you Heartthrobs: Biggest Boy Band Ever, saluting those unforgettable groups and the music they created.

Special guests Well Strung, the singing and stringing quartet, add to the choral menu. Concerts are at 8PM both nights with a 2:30 matinee on Sat. at Nourse Theater, 275 Hayes Street.

Very early Saturday morning, June 25, Patrick Carney asks your assistance in assembling the Pink Triangle atop Twin Peaks and vis-

▼

Both photos: Steven Underhill

Left: Mercedez Munro questions Piper Angelique at the Mr. and Miss Gay Pageant at Oasis. Right: Jethro Patalinghug in a dashing suit before winning the 2016 Mr. Gay Pageant title.

ible throughout the City. Starting at 7:30AM, a dedicated team of volunteers will spread sheets of pink fabric to create a giant pink triangle, evoking the painful memory of Nazi persecution, but reclaiming this symbol as a proud emblem of our ongoing struggle for equality and recognition. At 10:30AM, elected officials, celebrities, and just plain folks will unveil the final product.

The 18th annual Pride Brunch is also on Saturday, June 25, 10-2PM, at Hotel Whitcomb and benefits Positive Resource Center. Here’s your chance to hear brief remarks from each of the attending Grand Marshals and Honorees of SF Pride while rubbing shoulders with LGBTQ movers and shakers, sipping Barefoot bubbly and Tito’s handmade vodka cocktails, enjoying music by Dixieland Dykes + 3, selecting from

The Pink Triangle, installed annually atop Twin Peaks and visible throughout the City, needs volunteers. Join this visually powerful project.

25

$

EIGHTH

1933 MISSION ST. www.medithrive.com SELECT TOP SHELF STRAINS Only individuals with legally recognized Medical Cannabis Identification Cards or a verifiable, written recommendation from a physician for medical cannabis may obtain cannabis from medical cannabis dispensaries. Expires June 3, 2016.

a silent auction, and indulging in a gourmet brunch buffet. Along with our co-host Gary Virginia, we invite you to one of the friendliest, liveliest parties of the week.

Then, cross Market Street for the SF Pride Celebration which on Saturday is a bit smaller, more family oriented, and relaxed.

Alternatively, head South of Market, first for Reach at Oasis, 3-8PM, a fabulous tea dance with DJ Bret Law and lighting and lasers by Sean Hertel. That naughty poster is certainly a tempting invitation to dance the afternoon away.

At 6PM that night, the Dyke March steps off from 18th and Dolores Streets, giving full recognition to the letter L in our LGBTQ Community. A rally in Dolores Park precedes the march.

Later that night, Beatbox, soon to be but a memory, celebrates five years with DJ Paul Goodyear, celebrity hosts Sister Roma, BeBe Sweetbriar, and this columnist, and a show-stopping performance by the legendary Pepper Mashay.

Oh, the memories from this versatile community space! Thank you, Beatbox, for five years of dances, weddings, memorials, movie premieres, video shoots, cabarets, comedy, and more!

The 46th Annual Pride Parade takes off down Market Street at 10AM on Sunday, June 26. This is the granddaddy of them all, with more contingents, more floats, more musicians, more variety, and more pride than any other parade in the world!

Grandstand seating is available in Civic Center, but go to the SF Pride web site to reserve your seat (www.sfpride.org).

We’ll be positioned with multiple cameras providing live commentary with Michelle Meow and field reporters BeBe Sweetbriar and others. That coverage will be telecast

by KOFY-TV that night starting at 7PM, so watch for your close-up.

The Pride Parade winds up at Civic Center where the Pride Celebration continues and multiple stages, information booths, food and drinks, and thousands of celebrants await.

While in Civic Center, don’t miss the VIP Party at City Hall’s Rotunda starting at 2PM. Yes, you must have a ticket and they are limited in quantity, so act now.

Imagine live headliner entertainment, light food and drink, and hundreds of your friends wandering through the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall.

And for a fitting finale to your Pride Weekend, head over to 620 Jones for Juanita More!’s infamous Pride Party benefiting Queer LifeSpace from noon to 10PM, where hundreds of those under the spell of Juanita and full of SF Pride will celebrate with abandon.

With so much to do, it will be easy to become exhausted, so watch out for yourself and those around you.

Stay hydrated, use sunscreen, and grab some rest when you can. And it is probably a good idea to take Monday off. Happy Pride!▼

Patrons of Beatbox ha

aving fun.

<< On the Tab

40 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

▼

Don’t let hatred stop you.

Pick out your rainbow gear.

Choose a color, or choose all of them.

Vanquish violence.

Be fabulous and vigilant.

Look out for your friends.

Be safe, but don’t hide.

Be smarter, be better, be queerer.

Photo by Dot

Be fierce.

On the Tab June 16-23

Sat 21

Donna Persona wows

at Spice Rack @ Club

OMG

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 41

Thu 16 Kingdom! @ Beatbox

Thu 16

Sex and the City Live @ Oasis

Bad Habits @ Bruno’s

D’Arcy Drollinger and crew perform new episodes of the HBO comedy about four women in Manhattan. $25 and up. 7pm and some 9:30pm extra shows. 2-drink min. Thu Sat Thru July 2 (some nights off). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Monthly LGBTQ night (3rd Thursdays) hosted by roving party promoters, with DJs Ms Jackson and Lady Ryan.

9:30pm-2am. 2389 Mission St. www. eventbrite.com www.brunossf.com

Bulge @ Powerhouse

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Grace Towers hosts the fun sexy night. $100 cash prize for best bulge. $5-$10 benefits various local nonprofits. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

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

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

The interactive downstairs sex show features local porn stud Dylan Strokes (before his June 17 & 18 stage shows with Max Cameron). $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the retro music night. No cell phones on the dance floor, please! $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com Tobacco 3.pdf 1 6/6/2016 1:18:42 PM

Céu @ Great American Music Hall

Friday Nights @ de Young Museum

The vibrant Brazilian bossa nova-soul singer performs with her band. Kauf opens. $26-$31. $51 with dinner.

9pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

Season 12 of the fun art parties returns, with the Oscar de la Renta exhibit, live music and drinks. 5:30pm9pm. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, www.deyoung.famsf.org

Dylan Strokes, Max Cameron @ Nob Hill Theatre

Friday Nights @ Oakland Museum

The two local porn studs perfrom onstage sex shows. $25. 8pm & 10pm. Also June 18. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

The family-friendly night events returns, with exhibit tours, dancing, food, drinks, and live music. $7-$15.

5pm-9pm. 1000 Oak St. www.museumca.org

See page 42 >>

Fri 17

FBFE

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On the Tab>>

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

Ben Vereen @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The Broadway, TV and film legend performs Steppin’ Out, his one-man show full of classic songs. $65-$85.

8pm. Also June 18, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsathtenikko.com

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

Thu 16 Bulge @ Powerhouse

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Tom Ammiano, Karen Ripley, Ronn Vigh, Yuri Kagan and Lisa Geduldig perform stand-up at this stellar supergay Pride comedy night. $7-$20. 8pm.

3158 Mission St. at Precita. (800) 8383006. www.elriosf.com

Keshet Pride Happy Hour @ The Residence Join members of the LGBTQ Jewish social organization for pre-Pride drinks. 6pm-8pm. 718 14th St. www.keshetonline.org

Kingdom! @ Beatbox The award-winning drag king hip hop vocal ensemble performs at a benefit for the SF Trans March. $10 and up.

7pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Maria Konner @ Martuni’s Enjoy jazz, blues and rock with the local entertainer’s 3-piece band, cocktails and no cover. 6:30-8:30pm, and open mic. 4 Valencia St.

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show.

DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

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

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Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. June 9: Twilight Zone Nightlife with DJ Mark Gorney, artist Andrew Zuckerman and marine magic. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

379-8000. www.calacademy.org

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

1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Seth Sikes @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The acclaimed New York cabaret singer premieres his concert, Seth Sikes Sings Liza Minnelli, a night of the actress-singer’s most popular music. $45-$65. $20 food/drink min.

8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

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<< On the Tab

42 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

Georg Lester

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux. May 20 is a Dolly Parton tribute night. $10. 7pm10pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf. com Also Sunday brunch shows (see Sun.) www.redhotsburlesque.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. $7.

10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis The queer hip hop monthly night features DJs davO and Val G. $10-$12.

10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.swaggersf.com www.sfoasis.com

Sat 18 Beta @ 626 Jessie

<<

On the Tab

From page 41

Gay Pride Dance @ Hayward Senior Center LGBTQ Pride celebration and party, with DJ Billy Bradford, hors d’oeuvres, mocktails, photo booth. $25. 7pm10pm. 22325 North 3rd St., Hayward.

(510) 881-6766. www.haywardrec.org

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

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

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

<<

Kissing & Bars

From page 35

That first step inside a gay bar, that first kiss between two girls, that first sighting of a trans or drag performer, are rites of passage for most of us, whether magical or awkward.

It’s a part of coming out and coming of age.

But for two men, one who shot 100 people, killing half of them in Orlando, and another who was caught before bombing Los Angeles Pride, their own internalized homophobia turned outward to violence.

What they may not have expected was the resultant outpouring of compassion and anger from around the world.

Homophobia and Tragedy

Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, and his 32-year-old boyfriend, Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, were among the 49 people who lost their lives June 12 in the one of the worst mass shooting in American history.

As reported by JoeMyGod, ser-

Ladies of San Francisco @ Club OMG Galilea hosts the weekly “old school drag show” with guest performers and DJ Jack Rojo. $4. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

TMI Storytelling @ Geoffrey’s Inner Circle Confessional storytelling, this time themed “Guilt,” hosted by Gina Gold, featuring Sister Rosemary Chicken, Abdul Kenyatta, Patrick Ohslund, Doug Corvell and Sir Remy Martin. 8pm. 410 14th St., Oakland geoffreyslive.com

Wesla Whitfield @ Hotel Rex The talented jazz singer performs with the Mike Greensill Trio. $35-$60.

8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Sat 18

50th Anniversary @ The Stud The historic SoMa bar celebrates five decades, with a private early party, then dancing to DJ mixes from five decades. $10. 10pm-4am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Beta @ 626 Jessie Fog City Pack presents Mark O’Brien, Kevin O’Connor and Astro DJ at the cruisy play-space kink and leatherthemed dance night. $10-$15.

10pm-4am. 626 Jessie St. www.facebook.com/fogcitypack

Black Tie Pride @ Level 13, Oakland Enjoy host Gabby Valentino’s glamorous upscale Pride event with a VIP cocktail party (8pm) live performance by Kaylah Marin (of Kingdom!), appetizers, drink specials; dance party 9pm-1:30am, with DJs Purple Pam and Jac a Tac. $20$200. 341 13th St., Oakland. www.eventbrite.com www.level13oakland.com

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland Latin, hip hop and Electro music night.

June 11, Banda Tierra Del Sol performs live. $5-$25. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

The mash-up DJ dance party, with four rooms of different sounds and eight DJs; June 18 is Electric Bootie Carnival, with DJs From Mars, Monster Drag Show, Adrian A, Glitterazi 5-year anniversary, DJ Paul Goodyear and more. $10-$15.

9:30pm-3am. 375 11th St. bootiesf.com dnalounge.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night.

8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious. June 18 is a Madonna tribute night. $15-$25. 10pm-2am.

298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Nitty Gritty @ Beaux Weekly dance night with nearly naked gogo guys & gals; DJs Chad Bays, Ms. Jackson, Becky Know & Jorge T. $4.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Saturgay @ Qbar Stanley Frank spins house dance remixes at the Castro dance bar. $3.

9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com The monthly drag and fun show (3rd Sat.) presetns Fun-tasia, with Miss Mary Merkin KaiKai Bee Michaels, Sue Veneer, Hollow Eve, Shane Zaldivar, Elyse Elaine and more. $4. 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Enjoy Latin, hip hop and electro, plus hot gogos galore, and a big dance floor. April 29: Violeta and Jacqueline La Gata. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Soul Delicious @ Lookout

Manimal @ Beaux

Sun 19 Derrick Barry at Big Top @ Beaux

Midnight Show @ Divas

Brunch, booze, sass and grooves, with the Mom DJs, Motown sounds, and soul food. 11am-4pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.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

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

vices still need to be planned by the distraught families, but they want the two to be side-by-side when loved ones bid farewell, said Guerrero’s father, who has the same name as his son.

“I think my son wanted to do that. That’s why,” the elder Juan Ramon Guerrero, 61, said through tears. “I don’t care what the people think. I don’t care.”

A GoFundMe account has been raised for their funerals, and others have raised three million dollars in just a few days.

Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez was at Pulse Sunday morning with his partner, Oscar Aracena, who was also killed in the shooting. Also among the dead are a mother of 11 who twice survived cancer, a 31-year-old drag king and DJ, and young Latino and Latina people who were simply having a night out.

In the aftermath, it was reported that crime scene investigators had to ‘tune out’ the cacophony of ringing phones coming from bodies

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge

Spice Rack @ Club OMG

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

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

▼

See page 44 >> still strewn about the scene of the massacre.

In Los Angeles, in a separate thwarted mass killing, James Wesley Howell, from Indiana, had a trunk full of explosives and weapons. He planned to attack Pride celebrations held this past Sunday, and according to reports, had a history of violent crimes, including threats against his ex-boyfriend.

Yes, he is gay. And so was the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, according to multiple sources. That this is not surprising indicates how familiar many of us are with deeply closeted people, mostly men, who lash out in acts of homophobia because of their own fear and self-hatred.

The difference between a single gaybashing and this crime is guns; high-powered assault weapons that have no place anywhere outside of a war zone.

But when a gay nightclub becomes a war zone, will LGBTQ people stand up against the rightwing Republicans –and even some Democrats– who continue to cowtow to

their maniacal NRA lobbyists and allow the readily available assault weapons to kill more?

Even the governor of Florida refused to admit that the massacre was directed at LGBT people. This deliberate omission, like so many others from hypocritical religious and political loudmouths, is another form of homophobia in a country where the survivors of the Pulse mass murder could be fired from their jobs for being gay.

As Michelango Signorile wrote for Huffington Post, “Hate crimes against LGBT people haven’t dissipated since the arrival of marriage equality and have in fact been on the rise in recent years. Whatever [Mateen]’s other beliefs or allegiances, that bedrock of homophobia is part of what drove him to carry out a brutal mass shooting. This terrible tragedy is a reminder of the threat of violence against LGBT every day, and why we must always remain vigilant.”

But vigilant how? More than 100 gun murders took place in the past

June 12 vigils in San Francisco (left), in Orlando, Florida (center), and flowers and candles at the Homo Monument in Amsterdam (right).

week, and more than a thousand this year.

While we find fault with our elected officials for repeatedly failing to change laws –and the antiquated Second Amendment– we do find acknowledgment of our struggle from around the corner to The White House.

Toxic Masculinity and Violence

Gun violence has targeted everybody from schoolchildren, to black churchgoers, to Sikhs, to military bases. The myth that armed civilians could have done anything to stop them is absurd.

Amanda Marcotte’s Salon.com article focuses on the troubling growth of violent masculine aggression. “The idea that a bunch of drunk people dancing around a nightclub are safer with loaded weapons on their bodies is clearly not coming from a rational place, but from a place of deep insecurity and gender weirdness that treats phallic symbols like they are magical totems,” she wrote.

▼

Read more online at www.ebar.com

20 of the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting.

“Our country is saturated in guns, and yet the mythical ‘good guy with a gun’ who is promised to stop mass shootings has yet to actually produce himself. That is because the ‘good guy with a gun’ is a myth, propped up to justify toxic masculinity’s obsession with guns, and nothing more.”

In response to an SF Gate article about the killer’s “complicated” past, author Armistead Maupin wrote, “Is it really that complicated?

The most viciously anti-gay people often turn out to be closet cases, whether they’re crazed killers or Republican congressmen. That’s what self-loathing does.”

Since many of us have experiences of antigay violence, of abuse from families, religion and politicians, is it so unthinkable? We like to think of our bars as a safe space, but violent crimes, muggings and gay-bashings occur in the Castro and South of Market districts on a weekly basis. And the gay-friendly DNA Lounge only last week had a (thankfully false) bomb threat.

Still, we cling to the hope that we can continue to create our own spaces.

Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, since 2004, has been a beacon of love and support for the LGBTQ community.

Its owner, Barbara Poma, is one of that LGBT community’s biggest allies, a fact evidenced by the story behind Pulse Nightclub.

Last year, Florida Agenda included Poma on its list of LGBT people in the state of Florida who are influential game-changers. Poma is one of the few, if not the only, straight allies included on the list. In 1991, Barbara Poma’s older brother John, who had introduced her to Fort Lauderdale’s club scene, succumbed to his battle with AIDS. In honor of him, she opened Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub with business partner Ron Legler.

The value of such spaces has become a focus as well. Gay Latino author Justin Torres wrote an eloquent essay for The Washington Post about the significance of a Latin Nights at gay nightclubs.

“You know what the opposite of Latin Night at the Queer Club is? Another Day in Straight White America. So when you walk into the club, if you’re lucky, it feels expansive. ‘Safe space’ is a cliché, overused and exhausted in our discourse, but the fact remains that a sense of safety transforms the body, transforms the spirit. So many of us walk through the world without it. So when you walk through the door and it’s a salsa beat, and brown

bodies, queer bodies, all writhing in some fake smoke and strobing lights, no matter how cool, how detached, how over-it you think you are, Latin Night at the Queer Club breaks your cool. You can’t help but smile, this is for you, for us.”

Local Vigil one of Hundreds Worldwide

At the solemn vigil held in the heart of the Castro district on June 12, former state Assembly member Tom Ammiano had harsh words for what he described as “laissez-faire homophobia” and the National Rifle Association.

“NRA? ‘National Real Assholes.’

Is that a gun in your pocket? ‘Cause I’m not happy to see you. You know, I’m old, I’m queer, I’m weary and I’m full of gay blood,” he said. “But we are going to fight back and continue, and continue and continue.

This all started with a kiss. A simple but pure act of intimacy. So let’s have a kiss.”

Ammiano then shared kisses with both Mayor Ed Lee (who was booed during his speech) and Interim Police Chief Toney Chaplin, on the lips, to wild cheers.

Local media host Michelle Meow pointed out the omissions that surround the community targeted, and also how People of Color were slighted at the vigil, even when the

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 43

majority of victims were Latino.

“A majority of the names have been released of those who were murdered at Pulse in Orlando and they are mainly Latinx or Latino.

The Latinx/Latino community also needs our support and solidarity. I don’t know what happened at the SF Vigil, I was just happy that community was coming together during a tragic time. “ Meow continued, “Have we displaced so many Latino people in this city that they don’t exist in our minds anymore? Many thanks to Latinx leaders like Sup. David Campos, Isa Noyola, Bobbi López who pushed their way onto the platform to speak. The Latino community is grieving/mourning too. Please don’t add to the erasure/invisibility of LGBTQI people of color.”

Local gay poet and architect Alan Martinez spoke at the San Francisco vigil, and in an expanded Facebookposted version of his speech, raised the issue of guns.

“Why is the NRA fighting so hard to protect the right to own assault weapons? We all know what this is really about. There is a certain element of the American population that is reserving its ‘right’ to declare civil war on Latinos.

“There is a certain element of the American population that is reserving its ‘right’ to declare civil war on Black people. There is a certain element of the population that is reserving its ‘right’ to declare war on queers. There is a certain element of the population that is reserving its ‘right’ to intimidate, subjugate and terrorize women with violence and

“Gun control!” “When do we want it? “Now!” One can’t help but wonder if that maniac ever thought he would inspire so many towards unity, that thousands upon thousands would gather to reject his contorted selfhatred turned violently outward and turn it around, to light up Sydney Harbor and the Eiffel Tower in rainbow colors.

Smaller yet effective reactions were captured by local designer Curt Janka, whose ongoing Facebook album of people kissing in the Castro also includes straight people.

“A kiss should never be something to be feared,” he wrote. “Love is always good. Love conquers hate.

Let’s flood the internet and media with positive displays of love. Thank you to all the folks on the street that helped me spread love. Not everyone shown is a couple or even LGBTQ, but the smiles I got for even asking them to participate lifted my heart in ways I cannot explain.”

Janka, like many others, is spreading the word through kissing phocots and social media hashtags #SpreadLove, #TwoMenKissing and #TwoWomenKissing.

Voices of Nightlife

People in our nightlife community were among the most outspoken.

Justime, a local DJ whose monthly Oakland events aspire toward a safe queer space, wrote, “Each one of us is reliving the bullying, the murders, the suicides, the AIDS epidemic, the transphobia and loss that continually plagues our people.

Western and American imperial-

ing as you can possibly be and spread your love from the mountains of Tennessee and the dance floors of New York City to people all around the world. Revel in your faggotry.”

Juanita More, a nightlife icon in the Bay Area, wrote in her group email, “It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of such a massive tragedy.

Many people have reached out to me asking what they can do to help.

One thing you can do is show support for the local LGBTQ community in Orlando.”

More linked a list of Orlandobased and national organizations on Huffington Post.

“I also urge everyone to share how you feel about the deaths in Orlando with your family, friends, even the person in line at the grocery store.

Share the love you have for your community. Share your coming out story. The world must hear your story. It must know that we exist. It must know that we are made of love.”

Justin Vivian Bond, whose first incarnations of queer cabaret rose from the bars of San Francisco and on to global fame, wrote a stirring call for resilience.

“Fuck the terrorists, religious extremists, forces of oppression and their spiritual sickness. They are a death cult. Our response is and always has been to love, laugh, sing, and live on! I’m writing this with tears in my eyes but I know they’ll dry and we will never be defeated.

“Bless those whose lives were so brutally taken this weekend, bless their lovers and their families, and we are all their families. This is not

“The shooter targeted a nightclub where people came together to be with friends, to dance and to sing, and to live. The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub. It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights.”

—President Barack Obama threats of violence.”

Despite the violent acts committed, around the world, peaceful demonstrations prevailed.

Thousands turned out on Monday night for vigils. From Amsterdam to London, Omaha to Orlando itself, mostly quiet rituals were observed. New York City’s Sheridan Square also saw thousands attend, amid a chant, “What do we want?

ism is destroying our world. We are led to believe in the myth of power above all else, with its xenophobic and capitalist agenda.

“Please do not lose faith in humanity,” he added. “Our fight will be won with love, kindness, compassion and healing. The world needs us two-spirit shamans. Please do not be complacent.

“Be as queer and non-conform-

over and we will never quit being who we are fiercely, proudly and joyously. We rage, we rise, we never forget. Live life to the fullest every day you can and love radically. Love as radically and hard as possible.

Blessed be.”

Therapist and partime bartender and nightclub dancer Aram Kirakoshian wrote with a word that may seem harsh to some, but which, for others, is a form of defiant claiming, a rage against the failed attempts at oppression.

“I AM A FAGGOT, and I have never been more proud to be a FUCKING FAGGOT,” he wrote.

“You will never take that away from me. Not with guns, not with hate, not with fear, and not with fearmongering. Happy Pride, my brothers and sisters. I love you, I hurt with you, and I will dance with you till the fucking bitter end.” ▼

To donate directly, visit www.gofundme.com/ PulseVictimsFund.

Contigo, a queer Latinx fundraiser for Orlando, presented by Hard French, with DJed music and live acts, will be at El Rio, June 16, 7pm. $5-$25. All bar proceeds also go to the victims fund. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Curt Janka

Some of San Francisco designer Curt Janka’s spontaneous kissing photos.

Dance for Orlando, a fundraiser with 100% of proceeds going to Equality Florida’s official fund for the shooting victims and their families, takes place June 19 at 1015 Folsom Street. Dozens of DJs from the Bay Area will participate. $20. 6pm-4am. www.1015.com

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44 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

On the Tab

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Shot in the City

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Sugar @ The Cafe Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Thomas Jay @ Hotel Rex The accomplished local jazz singer performs with his three-piece band. $30-$50. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Sun 19

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

920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits (Check the website for a list of recipients). 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Big Top @ Beaux The fun Castro nightclub, with hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals.

June 19: Britney Spears impersonator and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Derrick Barry performs. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Sun 19 Tom Temprano and Heklina at Daytime Realness @ El Rio

Gaymer Meetup @ Brewcade

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

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 Weekly two-stepping and linedancing fun, with lessons and DJed music (not just country).

5pm-10:30pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Luis.

7pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Finger Bang/Station @ Oasis The tea dance for “ladies, lezzies, bois, girls, and everything in between,” with DJs Campbell, China G, and Rosegold, with an open rooftop patio, $8-$10, 2pm-7pm.

Followed by Krylon Superstar’s glam punk funk night with Big Dipper, Grace Towers, Trevor Black, and The Living Earth Show. $10. 7pm-2am.

298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

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

Dance for Orlando @ 1015

3rd anniversary of DJ Bus Station John’s disco-licious tea dance, and Pride Week kickoff, at the famed leather bar; extra addition June 26. $5. 7pm-1am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

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

Monday Musicals @ The Edge

Heklina’s birthday is celebrated, with DJs Carnita, Stanley Frank, Jeremy Castillo and Elaine Denham, plus drag acts by Kylie Minono, Matthew Martin, D’Arcy Drollinger and others.

BBQ while it lasts. $8-$10. 2pm-8pm.

3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle

Karaoke Night @ SF Eagle

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

Daytime Realness @ El Rio

Fundraiser with 100% of proceeds going to Equality Florida’s official fund for the shooting victims and their families. Dozens of DJs from the Bay Area will participate. $20. 6pm-4am.

1015 Folsom Street. www.1015.com

The weekly LGBT video game enthusiast night includes big-screen games and signature beers, with a new remodeled layout, including an outdoor patio. No cover. 7pm-11pm.

2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Wed 22 Velocity Circus at The Asylum Project benefit @ Oasis

Opulence @ Beaux Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Latin music, drag shows, dancing and more. 7pm-1am. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Mon 20

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night. 9pm1am. 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

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

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

Tue 21

Al Di Meola @ Yoshi’s Oakland The jazz-soul guitar virtuoso performs with his band at the elegant nightclub-restaurant. $39-$139. 8pm. thru June 24 (also 10pm June 23 & 24). 510 Embaracdero West, Oakland.

(510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

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

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Sun 19

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

courtesy Sundance Saloon

Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

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On the Tab>>

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 45

Wed 22 Bedlam @ Beaux

New weekly event with DJs Haute Toddy, Guy Ruben, Mercedez Munro and Abominatrix. Wet T-shirt/jock contest at 11pm. $5-$10. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Benjamin Clementine @ Great American Music Hall The amazing British vocalist-pianist performs music from his acclaimed debut album, At Least For Now Now. Harry Duncan opens. $21-$45 (with dinner). 8pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

Bone @ Powerhouse New weekly punk-alternative music night hosted by Uel Renteria and Johnny Rockitt. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Tue 21

Maria Konner cohosts Sexy Squares @ Oasis

Bandit @ Slate Bar New weekly queer event with resident DJ Justime; electro, soul, funk; cocktails and food available. $3.

2925 16th St. www.facebook.com/ BanditPartySF www.slate-sf.com

Block Party @ Midnight Sun

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

OutLoud @ Oasis

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

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

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

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

Guest-host Peggy L’Eggs with storytellers Jack Shamama, Qween, Miel Valencia and Scarlett Letters. $10.

7:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Sexy Squares @ Oasis Under the Golden Gate’s saucy gay version of the Hollywood Squares game show, with nine guests (Sebastian Keys, Jon Shield, Daisy Ducati, Race Bannon, mr. Pam, Max Cameron, Ruby Vixen, Jack Strano, D’Arcy Drollinger) and hosts Sister Roma and Maria Konner, and DJ Sergio Fedasz. $20-$25. 7pm-10pm.

298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland

The classic intimate drag show with Collette LeGrande, Ruby Slippers, Sophilya Leggz, Bobby Ashton, Sheena Rose, Kipper, and Joie de Vivre. RSVP for seats. No cover.

9:30pm-11:130pm. 133 Turk St. 4412922. www.dreamqueensrevue.com

Floor 21 @ Starlight Room Juanita More! presents a new weekly scenic happy hour event, with host Rudy Valdez, and guest DJs. No cover, and a fantastic panoramic city view.

5pm-9pm. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG

LGBT Asylum Project Party @ Oasis

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

Irene Tu and Jessica Sele cohost the comedy open mic night for women and queers. No cover. 6pm-8:30pm.

4 Valencia St.

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

Meow Mix @ The Stud

Underwear Night @ Club OMG

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

Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4.

10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

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

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

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle

Thick n’ Juicy @ Lookout

Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm.

398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux Ladies night at the Castro dance club.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rumer Willis @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The TV and Broadway actress performs her acclaimed new cabaret show, of jazz, rock and classic songs, with a 3-piece band. $50-$70. 7pm.

Also June 23, 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.feinsteinsathtenikko.com

Shit Talk @ Oasis Yuri Kagan’s weekly comedy night with special guests. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Truck events presents a night of muscle studs dancing, with gogos Claudio and Adam, DJ Juan, muscle boy shots, and a special show at midnight. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. at Market. www.lookoutsf.com

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. 9pm2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. 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

See page 46 >>

Dream Queens Revue @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Women’s Dianic solstice ritual and celebration. www.daughtersofthegoddess.com

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall

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

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland

Man Francisco @ Oasis

Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Summer Solstice Celebration @ Lafayette Locale

Hysteria @ Martuni’s

Wed 22

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West

Enjoy international music, complimentary drinks and appetizers, a silent auction, and special musical performances, Velocity Circus and more at a fundraiser for the non-profit dedicated to providing pro-bono legal representation for LGBT immigrants who are fleeing persecution and seeking asylum in the United States. $40-$60, $250. 8:30pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Man Francisco @ Oasis The sexy, funny weekly male burlesque show features handsome talents who strip it al(most) all off; choreographed by Christopher James Dunn; Mr Pam MCs. $20. 2 Two-drink min. 9:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 22

Benjamin Clementine @ Great American Music Hall

46 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 16-22, 2016

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<< On the Tab

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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. 829-2233. www.virgilssf.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, Jenna Riot DJs the Pride cocktails, fish, Kick-Off @ Virgil’s Sea Room frogs, food and fun. June 23: Pride Nightlife: Heklina Man Haters hosts a drag night tribute to Prince @ The White Horse, Oakland and David Bowie; DJs Juanita More Enjoy queer comedy with Ash and Leah Perloff, plus vogue class Fisher, Irene Tu, Jessica Sele, Luna with Jocquese Whitfield. $10-$12.

Malbroux, Dash Kwiatkowski, 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Jennifer Dronsky. &.70 (women)-$10 Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. (men). 7:30pm. DJed dancing www.calacademy.org 9:30pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave., Picante Oakland. www.manhaters.org www.whitehorsebar.com @ The Cafe Lulu and DJ Marco’s Latin night with The Monster Show sexy gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 2369 @ The Edge Market St. www.cafesf.com The weekly drag show with themed Pride Kick-Off nights, gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at @ Virgil’s Sea Room Collingwood. www.edgesf.com Lexington Presents hosts a queer women’s night with DJs Jenna Riot, My So-Called Night Chelsea Starr, Lady Ryan, and the Lex @ Beaux patio bars. $5. 9pm-2am.

Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly www.virgilssf.com ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ Queer Karaoke night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and @ Club OMG enjoy 90-cent drinks. ‘90s-themed Dana hosts the weekly singing attire and costume contest. No cover. night; unleash your inner American 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. Idol. 8pm. 43 6th St. www.beauxsf.com www.clubomgsf.com

Thu 23

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On the Tab

From page 45

Thu 23

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the racy night with a $100 wet undies bulge contest at midnight. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Magenta Party @ CounterPulse Housewarming and fundraiser for the dance-performance space’s new home, with live performances, art silent auction, cocktails, and DJed dancing. Magenta attire (to match the fab exterior paint job) encouraged. $30-$100. 6pm-9pm. 80 Turk St. counterpulse.org/event/magenta

San Jose:

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates

Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Groove on wheels at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.” Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10.

Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5.

554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

Music night with local and touring bands. May 26: Homobiles and Year of the Fist, with Juba Kalamka.

9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night; 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover.

9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. QbarSF.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am.

6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Wed 22 Claudio, featured gogo dancer at Thick n’ Juicy @ Lookout

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 16-22, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 47

Shining Stars Steven Underhill photos by

Mr. and Miss Gay Pageant @ Oasis

T

he Mr. and Miss Gay Pageant, held at Oasis on June 12, saw Mr. Gay Yayy Winn and Miss Gay Lily Rose step down to a house full of enthusiastic attendees. Co-emcees John Weber and Mercedez Munro presented performing acts and the competition for the new title-holders. Jethro Patalinghug and Piper Angelique won the titles for 2016, with Ruby Red Munro first runner-up for Miss Gay. www.imperialcouncilsf.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

DR. TIMOTHY SEELIG, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

r e v e d n a b y o b t s e g g i b JUNE 24 8 p.m. june 25 2:30 + 8 p.m. nourse Theater featuring well-struNG the singing string quartet

TICKETS: SFGMC.ORG OR 415-392-4400 Season 38 is presented by