June 18, 2015 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Looking for local lesbian history

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Brooklyn & Broadway beckon

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Yale grad’s essay blasts SFAF

Park’s popular ‘gay beach’ to close for facelift

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

senior essay by a recent Yale graduate blasts the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, questioning the nonprofit spending millions of dollars to establish a health center in the Castro Courtesy Linkedin catering to gay and Yale graduate bi men, and indicatDaniel Dangaran ing that many staffers feel dismissed by the nonprofit’s leadership team.

The analysis by Daniel Dangaran doesn’t name the AIDS foundation, but it’s clearly about the organization, which, with a budget last fiscal year of about $24 million, is the largest AIDS-based nonprofit in the city.

Neil Giuliano, SFAF’s CEO since 2010, indicated the essay was heavily flawed but confirmed that Dangaran spent weeks at the agency last summer. He offered little in the way of corrections and acknowledged there have been problems at the foundation.

“Any time you’re working with a diverse group of people in an often tough service delivery kind of work, you’re going to fall short of meeting people’s expectations from time to time,” Giuliano said in an interview this week. “We understand that, and we always strive to do a better job.”

SFAF, which was founded in 1982 and offers services ranging from syringe exchange to HIV testing, serves thousands of people a year as it works to cut new HIV infections in San Francisco.

Dangaran, who submitted the 59-page essay to fulfill a senior requirement for a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology, didn’t respond to multiple interview requests about the piece, which is dated April 23 and titled, “This Place Needs Some Harm Reduction: An Ethnographic Critical Analysis of an HIV/ AIDS Service Nonprofit in San Francisco.”

The essay was provided to the Bay Area Reporter anonymously in late May. Dangaran interviewed 32 AIDS foundation staffers as well as three people on the leadership team, which Dangaran defines as having four members: The CEO, the vice presidents of philanthropy and public affairs and of human resources, and the chief financial officer.

Additionally, Dangaran spent 250 hours of observation over nine weeks in the summer of 2014; “observed the administration” and 13 of SFAF’s 14 programs and services; attended meetings, workshops, and other activities; and volunteered with the foundation’s needle exchange sites and other services. (Dangaran said the 14th program was conducted in Spanish, which Dangaran doesn’t speak.)

See page 7 >>

Vol. 45 • No. 25 • June 18-24, 2015

Parkgoers enjoyed a sunny Sunday afternoon at the “gay beach” area in the southwest corner of Dolores Park June 14. The section is slated to close Thursday for renovation.

by Cynthia Laird

D

olores Park’s popular “gay beach” will close Thursday as crews prepare to begin renovating the last portion of one of the city’s most utilized green spaces.

The recently completed facelift of the park’s northern section opened June 18. The $8 million project features lush lawns, an accessible path, revamped tennis and basketball courts, and, to the relief of many, more public restrooms.

See page 14 >>

Activists recall 1990 AIDS confab

Rick Gerharter

by Liz Highleyman

New York City, but activists in San Francisco were already den June 1990, as the world’s leadmanding action around AIDS ing HIV doctors and researchthe previous year. By the summer ers gathered in San Francisco of 1990 ACT UP had spawned for the sixth International AIDS chapters across the country that Conference, the disease had killed came together for large national nearly 100,000 people in the U.S., demonstrations targeting the an estimated 8 million people Food and Drug Administration, worldwide were living with HIV, the Centers for Disease Control and no effective treatments were and Prevention, and the National available. Thousands of AIDS acInstitutes of Health, as well as tivists were there too, taking part in ensuring that people with HIV an unprecedented week of protests. had a voice at the annual InternaThose events will be rememtional AIDS conferences. bered this weekend at an ACT UP The week of action surrounding 25th reunion celebration featurthe 1990 conference had a different ing art and performances, a “livRick Gerharter theme each day, often ending in ing history” panel, a party, and a Activists use air horns to successfully drown out the speech of traffic-tangling marches and street memorial for deceased activists. blockades. Police presence was Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan on June “We demonstrated to our- 24, 1990 during the closing ceremony at the International AIDS heavy and many activists were arselves, one another, the larger Conference in San Francisco. rested, only to be cited and released LGBT community, San Francisco, in time for the next day’s action. and the nation that we had large “We brought issues of race, ima large part of the stigma of AIDS. We changed numbers of people from around migration, poverty, and sexism the country with the will and capacity to orga- the medical system forever, and we changed how into the discussion,” said ACT UP/SF member drugs are researched, developed, and approved,” Ingrid Nelson, now a nurse practitioner. “Huge nize and disrupt until there was a meaningful added Tim Kingston, a journalist who covered and numbers of queers from the community showed governmental response to the epidemic,” said participated in the protests. “Without ACT UP we former ACT UP/SF member Eric Ciasullo. “We up and got arrested for their first time and bewould have been at least 10, maybe 20, years be- came lifelong activists starting with that week.” empowered ourselves and demonstrated that our lives mattered and that we’d fight for them.” hind where we are with treatment options.”

Another participant said a focus was on A week of actions A bit of history quickening the pace for new treatments.

On that Tuesday before the conference 25 ACT UP was founded in March 1987 in “We attacked in and many ways eliminated See page 8 >>

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2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

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Jazzie’s Place opens J

azzie’s Place, San Francisco’s homeless shelter dedicated for LGBT adults, opened Wednesday, June 17. Some of the people involved in the project squeezed together to cut the ribbon on the 24-bed shelter, including Supervisor David Campos, left, Laura Guzman from the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, homeless czar Bevan Dufty, Brian Basinger from AIDS Housing Alliance/ San Francisco, Trent Rhorer from the city’s Human Services Agency, Wendy Philips from Dolores Street Community Services, and Mayor Ed Lee.

Rick Gerharter

SF politico faces child porn charges

by Seth Hemmelgarn

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well-known San Francisco political consultant who has supported San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and other local elected officials is facing charges related to child porn.

Juan Enrique Pearce, 41, who at least one acquaintance says is gay, pleaded not guilty in May to two felony counts of distribution of child pornography, and single counts of possession of child pornography, possession of over 600 images depicting children “engaged in or simulating sexual conduct” – including at least 10 images showing children younger than 12, possession of sadomasochistic child or youth pornography, and receiving or buying stolen property.

On Friday, June 12, Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman ordered Pearce, who’s out of custody on $400,000 bail, not to have contact with or photograph anyone under 18. The next court date in the case is August 25.

Bill Barnes, the gay man who’s running Lee’s re-election campaign but spoke to the Bay Area Reporter only as a community member, said he didn’t know Pearce “that well,” but the two men have been involved in city politics for years, and Pearce once told him that he’s gay. Barnes didn’t seem to recall exactly when that was.

Outside court last week, Pearce wouldn’t speak to the B.A.R. and walked away as a reporter asked if he’s gay.

Asked whether Pearce is gay, Edwin Prather, his attorney, said, “I don’t know whether that’s relevant.”

According to documents filed in May by Assistant District Attorney

Tel Aviv Pride spotlights Israel’s trans community

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Alexis Fasteau, in Februphy on one of Pearce’s ary, a man received mescomputers. sages through two Yahoo Several images showed Messenger accounts with “sadomasochism and the user name “Redenparticularly young victice,” which authorities tims,” according to court eventually determined documents, which offer was Pearce. graphic descriptions.

Pearce and the other The videos also allegCourtesy SFPD man exchanged mesedly contained sadomassages “about their sexual Juan Enrique Pearce ochistic acts on young preferences and fantaboys. One showed a sies,” the records say. boy aged 3 to 5 with his Pearce asked if the man was “look“face down bent over a flat surface ing to be friends with other ‘pervs,’” exposing his buttocks” and a strap and told him that he was “interested “wrapped over the back of his neck,” and turned on by” boys ages 8 to 12, holding him down. “and that he fantasizes about them a Inspectors also allegedly found couple times a week.” more than 100 photos of young He also allegedly told the man boys on Pearce’s iPhone who apthat “sharing a boy with another peared “unaware” that he was takman is really hot to [him],” asked ing their photos. In court last week, whether the other man was “lookPrather said the photos had been ing to explore 8-12,” and if he had taken for work purposes. photos to share.

A stolen city parking meter was When the man said, “No,” Pearce also found at Pearce’s home, accordoffered to send him child porn and ing to the records. asked him to “take a picture of his Pearce has also pleaded not guilty dick next to the photos and send it to two misdemeanor drunk driving back” to him, the documents say. counts and a speeding count from Pearce then allegedly sent two a November 2013 incident. As of pictures. One showed “a clearly premid-May, that case was pending. pubescent boy with his legs spread According to court records, poapart exposing his nude penis and lice stopped Pearce after he allegedly testicles,” according to the records. sped through 7th and Townsend The other photo depicted two boys streets at 50 to 60 miles per hour in who appeared to be 8 to 12. One his Porsche. His blood alcohol conlay naked on a bed “with his legs tent was over the legal limit. Pearce spread apart exposing his genitals.” made a statement included in court The second boy, who was clothed, documents that he’d hung out with fondled the first boy’s penis with his two friends in the Castro that night. hand “while looking at the camera.”

Court documents say Pearce Inspectors executed a search warchanged his name from John Henry rant on Pearce’s home in May and Pearce in 2003. Records also list his found 102 image files and 96 video name as Enrique J. Pearce and J. Enfiles of suspected child pornograrique Pearce.t

srael’s transgender community had much to celebrate at this year’s Tel Aviv Pride. Two days before the Pride celebration the National Labor Court banned discrimination based on an individual’s gender identity.

The June 10 decision, announced by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, a division of the Economy Ministry, came at the right moment for Israel’s transgender community as Tel Aviv Pride celebrated the “T” in LGBT. Eurovision 2014 winner Conchita Wurst, a gender-bending drag queen from Vienna, Austria, headlined this year’s celebration, which had as its theme “Tel Aviv Loves All Genders.”

Wurst “hopes that it will help

with the broader community’s understanding of the trans community,” she told reporters at a June 11 press dinner.

The transgender community’s largest organization, Ma’avarim, kicked off the June 12 parade, leading marchers down Bograshov to the Mediterranean Sea, where the parade flowed toward Charles Clore Park.

It was Tel Aviv Pride’s largest celebration to date, with a crowd estimated at 180,000.

“It’s really amazing and exciting,” said Elisha “Shuki” Alexander, the head of Ma’avarim (translated means transitions or passageways), a grassroots organization based in Tel Aviv. “It puts a focus on the community and a focus on the important issues that we face.”

Gabriella Yenis, a 31-year-old transgender lesbian woman who

Geena Dabadghav

Gabriella Yenis, left, celebrated Tel Aviv Pride with her girlfriend, Maura Finlay.

was celebrating Pride with her girlfriend Maura Finlay, 32, a bisexual woman, agreed with Alexander and was excited about Tel Aviv Pride celebrating the trans community.

See page 18 >>

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Volume 45, Number 25 June 18-24, 2015 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Steven Underhil Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Lance Roberts NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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<< Open Forum

t Assembly should pass aid-in-dying bill

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ne of the proposed laws in California that’s getting strong reactions from supporters and opponents is Senate Bill 128, or the End-of-Life-Option Act, authored by state Senators Bill Monning (D-Carmel) and Lois Wolk (D-Davis). The aid-in-dying bill is controversial because some people are against any form of assisted suicide, that is, having a doctor prescribe drugs to terminally ill people so they can choose when to end their own lives. The aid-in-dying issue was brought to the forefront late last year after Bay Area resident Brittany Maynard, who had terminal brain cancer, shared her own decision to die with the help of her doctor. Maynard moved to Oregon so she could access that state’s Death with Dignity law, which Monning and Wolk’s bill uses as a model. Maynard died last November. Her family supports the California bill, which passed out of the state Senate recently on a 23-15 vote.

It now heads to the Assembly, and that body should pass the bill when it comes up for a vote.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week passed a resolution in support of SB 128. Lead sponsor Supervisor John Avalos was joined by co-sponsors Supervisor Eric Mar and gay Supervisors David Campos and Scott Wiener.

The resolution noted that in the nearly 20 years since Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act went into effect, data “demonstrates the safety of the practice of upholding a patient’s right to self-determination.” It also states that “four other states – Washington, Vermont, New Mex-

ico, and Montana – have affirmed aid in dying practices through legislative or legal action.”

The supervisors also noted that San Francisco is a city that respects the diversity of perspectives on end-of-life decisions. The city also recognizes that the choices a person makes at the end of life are “inalienably grounded in that individual’s life experiences,” the board’s resolution stated.

There are safeguards in the bill.

SB 128 requires that two California doctors agree that a patient is mentally competent and has six months or less to live. The patient would have to discuss other treatment options, such as palliative care and pain control. A patient seeking to end their life would be required to make a written request and two oral requests at least 15 days apart; so the action would not happen immediately, and there is time if a patient changes their mind.

The death with dignity movement has gained a wider following in recent years,

thanks to medical advancement and more understanding of the issue. If people suffering from a terminal illness are mentally competent, they should be able to end their lives with dignity with the aid of a physician. Education around dying with dignity and changes in patient and doctor attitudes about assisted death have also helped people better understand the options. Last month, the bill received a boost in support when the California Medical Association dropped its opposition.

Opponents, mainly in the disability community, argue that vulnerable people may be coerced into ending their lives by heirs looking to profit or health insurers who find it less expensive to prescribe death rather than procedures that would sustain them for a longer period. These are both valid concerns, but we think the bill has enough safeguards to militate against those possibilities.

The other thing to keep in mind is this: back during the height of the AIDS epidemic, a lot of gay men would have opted for death with dignity rather than the immense suffering and pain they endured, when no real treatment options were available. The AIDS community has pioneered a lot of the practices now applied to help those with various diseases. As much as it has become recommended practice to sign advance health directives so that loved ones can carry out medical decisions should a person not be able to communicate, the End-ofLife-Option Act sets a clear protocol that patients and their doctors must follow to receive the medication.

We think it’s time for California to allow its citizens to have this option so they can avoid the late-stage suffering engendered by disease and die on their own terms.t

Here’s why we all need to thank Frank Kameny

by Carl Fillichio

He will be forever thanked by LGBT government workers like me for helping here would I be without the work usher in an age when we could serve openI love? ly, love who we love, and bring our full There is nothing more rewarding to selves to our work. But more than that: The me than working on behalf of American American people owe him a debt of gratiworkers. Serving U.S. Labor Secretary tude as well. Were it not for his decades of Thomas Perez is both an honor and a joy, advocacy, our country would be bereft of and I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished some of the sharpest minds and hardiest as a public servant during my “tour of duspirits overseeing the people’s business. ties” as a political appointee in the Clinton Even a mind as great as Walt Whitman’s and Obama administrations. The work is was wasted when he lost his government exhilarating, interesting every day, and has job soon after coming to Washington, become a central part of who I am. it’s said because of the notoriety of his But there was a time when it could have already-published Leaves of Grass. How Bob Roehr been taken from me in a heartbeat. Just many like him did we lose before Kameny? because of another, equally central, part Frank Kameny stands near an exhibit featuring some of How much good did we squander in those his early protest signs and other memorabilia that are of who I am. long decades of intolerance?

What is now unthinkable for me was part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Because of Kameny, we no longer have a bitter reality for Frank Kameny. An as- History’s collection during a 2007 opening reception. to ask. tronomer with a Ph.D. from Harvard and To help commemorate Kameny’s iners’ rights, 1963’s March on Washington for World War II veteran, Kameny was fired domitable spirit and contributions this Jobs and Freedom (and the Hall’s first openly from his U.S. Map Service job in 1957 simply Pride Month, in addition to inducting him gay inductee); Dolores Huerta, whose bones because he was gay. He never worked for a payinto the Labor Hall of Honor, we’re mountwere broken in the struggle for farm worker check again. ing a social media campaign called #Thankjustice (and the only individual living inMany know Kameny’s story here in WashFrank. We’re asking other LGBT federal ductee); Mother Jones, who prayed ington, where I live and work, and where he employees across the country and for dead mine workers, but fought made his home and ran as the first out conaround the world, and all fedlike hell for the living ones; and gressional candidate for the District’s seat in eral employees as well as our allies, the father of the American labor 1971. But he is less celebrated in other parts friends, supporters, and federal movement, Samuel Gompers. of the country. government customers and ownAnd now, Kameny. All his life That’s going to change. On June 23, Kameny ers (that means the American he was told he didn’t belong, is going to be inducted in to the Department people) to post the reasons Kaand he suffered for it mightily. of Labor’s prestigious Hall of Honor. meny matters.

He belongs now.

Like Cooperstown for our national pastime, Check out our video to learn Kameny took incremental our Hall of Honor immortalizes the giants more and add your voice and steps to change – for the better – renowned for the highest achievements in the story to thousands of others. Kathe nation’s largest employer: the United States counterweight to our pastimes – that is, our meny’s courageous efforts did more than help government. He played a pivotal role in the rework. The names of these inductees inspire LGBT federal employees. He had a significant moval of homosexuality as a mental disorder the same awe in those of us who are passionate effect on American work, all American workby the American Psychiatric Association. He about working families as Babe Ruth and Ernie places, and the lives of countless American organized the first protest for gay rights ever Banks do for baseball fans: Senator Edward workers. It’s time to #ThankFrank.t held in front of the White House, in 1965. He Kennedy, who did more to improve workers’ was a member of the first delegation to brief lives than any legislator in our history; Bayard Carl Fillichio is senior adviser to the the administration on LGBT issues inside that Rustin, the mastermind behind our city’s secretary of labor at the U.S. Department same White House, under President Carter. of Labor in Washington, D.C. most transcendent protest march for work-

W

Politics>>

t Report details home price increases in US gayborhoods

by Matthew S. Bajko

R

esidents of San Francisco’s Castro district are not the only ones to see housing prices skyrocket in their gayborhood over the last three years.

Homeowners in the country’s top 10 neighborhoods for gay men, and in nine of the 10 districts popular with lesbians, have all experienced a jump in home costs, many by double digit percentages.

According to Trulia, a San Francisco-based website that tracks real estate trends, home prices in neighborhoods favored by gay men have “gone on a tear” since 2012, growing on average by 23 percent. Palm Springs, the southern California desert community long a magnet for gay male retirees, has been one of the hardest hit.

The city’s 92262 ZIP code had the largest price increase per square foot, at 65 percent. The median price per foot is at $260. The 92264 ZIP code in Palm Springs came in third on the list, marking a 38 percent increase per square foot, with the median price $240.

At number two on the list is San Francisco’s 94131 ZIP code, which includes portions of Noe Valley as well as the Glen Park and Diamond Heights neighborhoods. It saw a 47 percent price increase per square foot. It has the third highest median price, at $768, among gay men neighborhoods.

The city’s 94114 ZIP code, covering the Castro and the northern half of Noe Valley, landed in fifth with a 36 percent per square foot jump in housing prices. At $948, its median price per foot is the highest of all the gayborhoods.

Detroit, Michigan’s 48069 ZIP code covering the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood, at 37 percent, saw the fourth highest increase in per square foot housing prices. Yet it has the cheapest median price per foot at $188.

Rounding out the list of ZIP codes are 90069 in West Hollywood (31 percent increase to $802); 75219 in Dallas’ Oak Lawn district (22 percent increase to $225); 33305 in Wilton Manors, Florida (17 percent increase to $292); 19971 in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (5 percent increase to $203); and 02657 in Provincetown on Cape Cod in Massachusetts (2 percent increase to $616).

As for lesbian neighborhoods, Oakland’s 94619 ZIP code covering Redwood Heights saw a 64 percent per square foot increase in housing prices between 2012 and 2015. Its median price per foot was $389 as of June.

Atlanta’s 30002 ZIP code, covering its Avondale Estates district, saw the second highest increase at 52 percent. Nonetheless, it has the lowest median price, at $173, among the 10 lesbian neighborhoods.

In third was Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, in the 02130 ZIP code, with a 37 percent spike in housing prices. Its median price is at $414.

The Castro’s 94114 ZIP code landed in fourth, and its $948 median price is by far the most expensive of all the neighborhoods preferred by female same-sex households.

Guerneville, the resort town north of San Francisco with a ZIP code of 95446, was fifth with 24 percent. Its median price stood at $335 as of June.

In sixth was the Northampton, Massachusetts ZIP code 01060 (10 percent increase to $216 median price); Rehoboth Beach’s 19971 ZIP

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Courtesy Trulia.com

The top five ZIP codes where gay homeowners live saw rising home values.

Courtesy Trulia.com

The top five ZIP codes for lesbian homeowners also saw rising home values.

code was seventh; Northampton’s 01062 ZIP code was eighth (3 percent increase to $196); and Provincetown’s 02657 ZIP code was ninth.

Its median price of $616 was the second highest among the lesbian neighborhoods.

The 10th neighborhood is the 02667 ZIP code covering the Cape Cod town of Wellfleet.

It was the only city to see a decrease in housing prices, which fell by 1 percent to a median price of $323 this month.

“The most surprising finding of the top 10 gay men neighborhoods and the top 10 lesbian neighborhoods was that four lesbian neighborhoods grew faster than gay men neighborhoods,” said Ralph McLaughlin, a housing economist with Trulia who authored the report, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

McLaughlin, who is straight and lives in Oakland’s Chinatown, calculated the share of households that are same-sex male couples and same-sex female couples in every ZIP code in America using the 2010 Census.

He then calculated the median price per foot of homes for sale on Trulia in the top 10 neighborhoods among men and women as of June 1, 2015 and compared it to June 1, 2012 to find out how prices have changed, both over time and relative to their metropolitan area.

The comparisons by metro area are even more staggering for certain neighborhoods than the jump in their median prices. West Hollywood and Provincetown are 123 percent and 119 percent more expensive, respectively, than their metropolitan areas, found McLaughlin.

“As it turns out, home prices in

almost all of the gayborhoods that we look at in this study are more expensive than their metros as a whole,” he wrote. “The only gayborhood that isn’t more expensive than its respective metro is Guerneville, north of San Francisco, CA, which is only 2 percent cheaper per square foot than its metro area.”

Yet when comparing the growth in price per foot between the gayborhoods and their metro areas, McLaughlin found that prices in many of the districts favored by lesbians outperformed those where gay men tend to cluster. Avondale Estates in Atlanta, Jamaica Plain in Boston, and Northampton in West Massachusetts have grown 35 percent, 28 percent, and 11 percent points faster than their metro area, he found.

The Castro, Provincetown, and West Hollywood saw negative growth of 13 percent, 19 percent and 26 percent, respectively, compared to their metro areas.

“Even though neighborhoods with the most gay men are more expensive, a larger number of gay women neighborhoods (six) have outpaced their metro areas than gay men neighborhoods (two),” he wrote. “And not only have prices in more gay women neighborhoods grown faster than their metro, they have grown by a larger amount.”

McLaughlin said there are several factors contributing to the better performance in lesbian preferred districts compared to the corresponding metro areas.

Their greater likelihood to be raising children, compared to gay men, and moving to areas with good schools plays a part. Another could be that lesbian neighborhoods were hit harder during the housing crash, he said.

See page 17 >>

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<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

t

Agencies assess services for HIV-positive seniors

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

s the number of people 50 years of age and older living with HIV in San Francisco continues to increase, AIDS agencies have teamed with aging providers to assess what services are needed for this unique segment of the city’s senior population.

According to the Department of Public Health’s most recent HIV Semi-Annual Surveillance Report, with data through December 2014, 58.4 percent of the 14,711 men living with HIV in the city are aged 50 and older. Among the 902 women living with HIV, 54.2 percent are 50 years of age or older.

Acria, a New York-based agency that runs the Center on HIV and Aging, is working with local leaders on the assessment of what services are needed for people as they age with HIV. Since January, Acria has been conducting informal interviews with HIV providers as well as aging providers.

It has also convened a focus group of people who have lived with HIV longer than 10 years and has teamed with the group Let’s Kick Ass (AIDS Survivor Syndrome), which advocates on behalf of long-term survivors of HIV and AIDS. Last week the agency held a twoday training for representatives from various HIV and aging providers to identify gaps in their services and to develop action plans for each.

The city’s Department of Aging and Adult Services and the Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco co-hosted the gathering.

“One of the big ones is aging providers are not prepared or not well equipped to deal with a situation where someone in the cohort age group 50 or older comes out about their HIV status. They don’t know where to refer them for services in general,” said Hanna Tessema, Acria’s HIV older adults technical as-

sistance manager. “Also, aging providers’ LGBT cultural competency is lacking.”

In November the city’s Long Term Care Coordinating Council reconvened an HIV and Aging workgroup to provide it with guidance on the needs of seniors living with HIV and AIDS. The workgroup’s members plan to assist with the needs assessment Acria is helping to oversee.

“I think it is needed in San Francisco, bringing together aging providers and HIV providers,” said Vince Crisostomo, who cochairs the workgroup and oversees the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s 50 Plus Network for gay, bisexual, and trans men over the age of 50.

Since launching over a year ago, the agency’s 50 Plus group now attracts upwards of 40 people to its weekly discussion sessions and its mailing list now numbers 400 men. As the numbers increase, the AIDS foundation is looking at how it can increase the services it offers to older HIV positive men.

SFAF was awarded grant funding from the State Office of AIDS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch a health navigation program for people living with HIV. The program, which should soft launch in August, will be housed at the agency’s new gay men’s health center it is opening in the Castro this fall.

“It will help folks from soup to nuts in navigating the medical bureaucracy, from getting insurance referrals to other care,” said Tim Patriarca, the foundation’s executive director of gay men’s health and wellness. “It will really enable us to put more attention in that area.”

Another new offering being considered is providing clients at the health center with general wellness coaching, said Patriarca.

“There will be a whole host of other support groups and services

Courtesy SF Budget and Analyst’s office

This graph shows the increasing number of people living with HIV/ AIDS in San Francisco through June 2014.

at the center which 50 Plus participants can engage in as well,” he said.

Need for more support groups

One need that has been identified already is for smaller, facilitator-led support groups for those aging with HIV or AIDS. The lack of such services, not just for HIV-positive men but for women and transgender people as well, has come up during the trainings Acria has been holding.

“It seems there aren’t enough services around support groups for older adults with HIV,” said Tessema. “Other people, rather than a support group to talk about HIV, want to find ways to socialize and integrate themselves into society, whether informally or formally, to get themselves out of isolation.”

For months Jon-Edmond Abraham, 64, a long-term survivor of HIV, has been advocating for various agencies to begin offering facilitator-led support groups specifically designated for seniors living with HIV. Although a participant of the 50 Plus Network, Abraham said he would benefit from more than just a social support group.

“We would be well served by a bit of attention and focus by having a

support group for us and our demographic,” said Abraham, who so far has been unsuccessful in joining one of the few support groups that are being offered. “It is the sort of situation where nobody seems to be concerned about us on that level. It is just not easy to swallow at all.”

Crisostomo said that SFAF is looking at providing smaller support groups, limited to eight to 12 people, for older men with HIV. “We hope to launch something around that in late summer or early September. The details are still being worked out,” he said.

One of the agencies Abraham had applied with was Openhouse, the nonprofit that focuses on LGBT seniors and offers a weekly support group for HIV-positive older men.

Seth Kilbourn, the agency’s executive director, told the Bay Area Reporter he could not comment about a specific individual.

But he did say the agency had purposefully capped the number of men who could participate in the group to no more than 15. And he stressed it is not meant to function as a therapy group.

“It is designed to help those folks to get together and talk about whatever issues they want to that week.

They can confront whatever issues they are confronting, on HIV but not always,” he said. “I do think there is a need for more programs and more activities and resources for long-term survivors. It is something we are definitely looking at.”

Another agency Abraham has been unable to access a support group at is UCSF’s Alliance Health Project. It currently offers seven peer-facilitated support groups for people with HIV, but none are currently designated specifically for seniors living with HIV. AHP director Lori Thoemmes, speaking in general terms, said everyone who applies to join one of the agency’s support groups is assessed to see if they would be successful in such a setting or should be referred to individual therapy.

“Some people are fine to be in a peer facilitated group. Lots of them aren’t,” she said.

At one point AHP had offered a support group specifically for longterm survivors of HIV and AIDS. But it disbanded it when the staff facilitator was let go by the agency amid a round of layoffs last year, and the agency does not have resources to revive it.

“We continue to be challenged with flat funding,” said Thoemmes.

“What do you stop doing if you want to start something new?”

Kilbourn said Openhouse also does not have the funding to provide all of the programs it would like.

“There are not enough resources at Openhouse and elsewhere for people to get what they need,” he said. “We really have to look at what kinds of activities, support groups, and social group services folks are really going to want.”

Acria’s assessment of what services are needed for seniors aging with HIV is not expected to be complete until later this year or in early 2016.

“This is a call to duty for anyone working in HIV and aging to be involved. Because the numbers continue to rise,” said Tessema. “A lot of people are committed to this and we can definitely do more.”t

EQCA, TLC launch trans education campaign

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

head of a possible ballot initiative next year that would legislate which public restrooms transgender people could use, Equality California and the Transgender Law Center have launched a statewide education campaign aimed at helping Californians better understand trans and gender non-conforming people and the issues they face.

While leaders of the two organizations stated in a letter soliciting donations that the effort “is no part of any political or legislative campaign and exists solely to change attitudes toward transgender Californians through research and education,” they also made reference to the potential ballot initiative.

In April, the Bay Area Reporter noted that the Pacific Justice Institute had submitted paperwork to state Attorney General Kamala Harris for title and summary review for the socalled Personal Privacy Protection Act. The initiative would require a person to use restrooms and other facilities in government buildings “in accordance with their biological sex.”

The letter from EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur and TLC Executive Director Kris Hayashi stated that the measure would target “not just the transgender community, but potentially anyone whose appearance does not match someone else’s standards of masculinity or femininity.”

A spokeswoman for Harris said

that the deadline for the office to issue a title and summary for the Personal Privacy Protection Act is June 23.

Transgender leaders and others have also pointed to the escalating violence directed toward trans women of color, and the continued housing and job discrimination that a lot of transgender people face.

According to a report released earlier this year by the Movement Advancement Project, National Center for Transgender Equality, and TLC, transgender people “experience pervasive discrimination at work.”

Courtesy EQCA “Between 13 percent and 47 percent of transgender workers report EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur being unfairly denied a job and 78 percent report being harassed, mispeople and the issues they face.” treated, or discriminated against at Hayashi and Zbur both said that work,” the report states. the campaign would be run by a It added that transgender workers steering committee representing the of color report higher rates of job diversity of California communities. loss and employment discriminaWhile the public education camtion compared to white transgender paign isn’t directly tied to any possiworkers. ble ballot measure, Hayashi offered Hayashi said that the public eduhis opinion on the Personal Privacy cation is needed now.

Protection Act. “There has been a tremendous in“It’s an unenforceable and uncrease in visibility for the transgender constitutional attack on transgencommunity recently that hasn’t been der people that would ultimately matched by a rise in public underput everyone at risk of harassment,” standing,” Hayashi told the B.A.R. Hayashi said. “It would require you “TLC and Equality California hope to prove your gender before enterthis public education campaign will ing a bathroom.” help combat some of the widespread He pointed out that anyone, misunderstanding about transgenincluding short-haired cisgender der and gender nonconforming

Courtesy Arcus Foundation

TLC Executive Director Kris Hayashi

women, could be forced to show ID before entering public restrooms.

“Worse, the initiative actually encourages people to harass others by offering a $4,000 bounty to anyone who finds someone in the ‘wrong’ bathroom,” Hayashi said.

He was referring to the part of the proposal that would allow individuals to file a civil claim for violation of privacy against a government entity or a person for “willful violation” of the act, with violators potentially liable for no less than $4,000 in damages and attorney’s fees. A person whose privacy “was violated while using facilities,” or who was unable to use facilities because of a violation under the act, would be able to seek

damages through the state courts.

Zbur addressed the necessity of an education campaign.

“We have seen efforts across the country that are taking aim at the trans community in order to restrict their rights,” Zbur said. “This points to the need to educate the public.”

Sending speakers to schools and producing public service announcements for television were among the possible ways for the campaign to reach people, Zbur said.

“It depends on funding,” he said.

“We want to identify the stories that will help the public to best understand the transgender community.”

Budget information for the new public education campaign wasn’t immediately available.

Zbur said that transgender people and their friends and family are welcome to contact EQCA to share their stories.

“There will be a wide range of activities,” said Hayashi of the education effort. “Research and outreach across California, work with community and faith leaders, a field campaign with door-to-door, oneon-one conversations, and support for trans people to share their stories on air, in print and in social media.”

Hayashi said that the needs of trans immigrants, youth, low-income people, and people of color would be prioritized.t Cynthia Laird contributed to this report.

t <<

From the Cover>>

SFAF

From page 1

Questions over men’s center

Since 2012, SFAF has been working to open a new men’s health and wellness center at 470 Castro Street.

Dangaran quotes an AIDS foundation discussion group leader as saying clients were “appalled” that SFAF was “renovating a building for millions of dollars that we don’t own, and that could’ve housed every homeless, HIV-positive person in the city.”

The former Yale student quotes another person as saying, “Gay men get nice, clean, pretty facilities. Folks who use drugs, who may be brown, may live on the streets, may be dirty, like, good fucking luck if they’re gonna get thought about in however the agency moves forward.”

At an SFAF board meeting last summer, Dangaran wrote, a leadership team member asked the board for a $4 million increase on projections for the center, which already had a fundraising campaign goal of $10 million.

The increase “was granted with minimal discussion,” Dangaran wrote.

“Even so,” the agency’s leadership team “has flat-lined or reduced the funding of their various prevention services, for the most part,” Dangaran wrote. “Their counseling program and prevention services experienced reduced funding, and the increase in needle exchange and housing and financial benefits were due to additional contract funding, not organization funding.”

In the essay, Dangaran expressed sympathy for staff.

“Most of the staffers seemed proud to be doing their work, even though their clients brought such difficult lived realities to the table.”

However, during Dangaran’s time at the organization, “it became clear” that the nonprofit’s leadership “does not share the understanding and sympathy for their diverse clientele that many staff members of the programs and services department so evidently hold in their hearts.”

For example, one staffer is quoted as saying needle exchange workers felt like the AIDS foundation’s “redheaded stepchildren.”

Dangaran also wrote that harm reduction, which typically refers to not insisting people completely abstain from drugs or alcohol, “is in a tenuous position” with the AIDS foundation, “because it attempts to challenge certain behaviors – and certain stigmatization of race, class, gender identity – that remain strongly rooted in the primarily white, middle class, cisgender leadership of the organization.”

Of the staff Dangaran interviewed, 20 felt leadership team members “didn’t prioritize or value their work.”

One staffer quoted in the essay said, “As far as the upper leadership team, I think they’re very disconnected. ...

They have no idea what the programs are doing – not just ours, but every program – or what their needs are.”

The staffer suggested that change had resulted from economic shifts.

“The bad economy forced the fact that we had to have a board of directors that could bring in a lot of money, because we were losing funds from a lot of other sources. ...

But the board of directors and upper management is very disconnected.”

(Dangaran used pseudonyms for SFAF staffers. The B.A.R. strives to avoid unnamed sources and used only a limited selection of anonymous quotes for this story.)

Among other recommendations, Dangaran suggests that a “newly founded transgender group” at the foundation “needs to be its own standing program, and expand in size and capacity,” adding “Transgender women deserve to be a high priority of any HIV/AIDS service organization because of the disproportional risk of HIV transmission that they face, especially given the overlapping demographics of trans sex workers and drug users.”

The AIDS foundation didn’t make any clients available to talk to the B.A.R.

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SFAF irked by findings

discrimination.” The B.A.R. wasn’t able to The study and its findfind any record of the ings have clearly upset the lawsuits that Dangaran nonprofit. mentioned.

In response to an emailed Other than the apinterview request, James parent non-existent Loduca, the agency’s vice lawsuits, though, it’s not president of philanthropy clear what in Dangaran’s and public affairs, tried to Rick Gerharter paper is inaccurate. dissuade the B.A.R. from Asked in an interview writing about the essay.

SFAF CEO Neil if there were other errors “I’m surprised the B.A.R. Giuliano he wanted to talk about, would consider a grad stuGiuliano said, “No.” dent’s draft thesis newsworHe also said he didn’t yet know thy. We’ve followed up with Daniel whether there are any specific and his professor to point out the changes he’d make at his agency. many inaccuracies and factual er“We don’t really look at it that way,” rors in the essay. We were assured Giuliano said. “It’s an opportunity to it was a draft that would be revised, learn. It’s an opportunity to grow. So although we’re unsure of the timing we appreciate that. That’s a good opof that,” he said. portunity, and we’re going to take it.”

Nothing on the essay provided to The nonprofit, which has 140 the paper indicates it’s a draft. employees, is “always” working to Loduca declined to provide the list be “as inclusive and reflective of the of revisions he mentioned, saying in diversity that is San Francisco as we a text exchange, “Neil can highlight can,” he said. some of the glaring factual errors in Giuliano also said he’s receptive the paper when you chat ... “ to hearing staffers’ concerns.

In emailed comments before “I have an open door policy here,” the interview, Giuliano said he was he said. “I receive feedback from “happy” to talk about the essay, but people throughout the organization the statement he included would be all the time.” “all I have to say about it.”

That includes criticism from “We’re talking about an undergrad people who feel that they’re not liscollege student’s paper,” he added. tened to.

In his statement, Giuliano said, in “Usually they share that when I’m part, that SFAF “was not provided listening to them,” he said. an opportunity to fact-check the The B.A.R. contacted several curstudent’s thesis paper prior to initial rent and former staff of the AIDS circulation, and the student has since foundation, but none provided referred to this version as a draft.” comment for this story.

As Loduca had suggested, GiGiuliano said Dangaran, who’d uliano added that the copy the AIDS had a desk outside his office, interfoundation got contained “a numviewed him for about 20 minutes. ber of significant factual errors.”

Among other things, Dangaran He noted as an example that talked to him about life as the gay Dangaran wrote, “On the account former mayor of Tempe, Arizona. of discrimination and bias, three Dangaran, a self-described “darkdifferent executive assistants to the skinned, Filipino-black gay Yale CEO actually sued the organization student” wrote there had been “no for discrimination based on gender, predetermined agenda” when emand won their cases.” barking on the project.

Giuliano said that “the foundaAsked in an email exchange what tion has never been sued by forhad made him decide to give Danmer employees for gender bias and

garan so much access, Giuliano said, “We believe in continuous learning and supporting students in their academic work, fully aware of and open to the critical inquiry that comes with that commitment.

“One can’t support a student’s learning experience if one limits their ability to inquire; openness and transparency are core values at SFAF.” The nonprofit has given students similar access before, and it would do so again, he said.

Support for research

Dangaran said in the essay that it wouldn’t be circulated beyond Yale’s departments of anthropology; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; fellowship staff; “acknowledged mentors;” and the AIDS foundation “because of commitments to privacy.”

The Cohen Summer Public Service Fellowship, the John Linck and Alanne Headland Linck Fellowship, and the Solomon Research Fellowship in LGBT studies, which are all associated with Yale, provided funding for the research, Dangaran said.

The B.A.R. wasn’t able to confirm the Cohen fellowship’s support.

In response to an email, Kathryn Harbinson, a senior administrative assistant at Yale’s Ezra Stiles College Master’s Office, wrote, “I can confirm that Daniel did receive a 2014 Linck Fellowship” from the college “to conduct an ethnographic study of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.”

Yale’s website lists Dangaran as a 2014 Solomon fellow.

In the essay’s acknowledgements, Dangaran credited numerous people, including anthropology staff and others, for their assistance.

None of them responded to the B.A.R.’s interview requests.

Marleen Cullen, who works in the anthropology department, said Dangaran had been an anthropology major at Yale College, where See page 18 >>

<< Community News

t Bookstore event promotes LGBT young adult titles 8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

by Matthew S. Bajko

Not only are the neighborhood’s demographics changing, with more children now living in the Castro, pointed out Landsberger, adult patrons are increasingly interested in LGBT titles marketed for younger readers.

“Definitely, we want teens,” said Landsberger. “But we surely recognize adults read these too.”

The LGBT YA authors panel is believed to be the first of its kind to be hosted by Books Inc. The bookstore has presented talks by several individual authors of LGBT YA titles over the last year.

Also taking part in next week’s event is Ilene Gregorio, the author of None of the Above, published in April by Balzer and Bray, HarperCollins’ children’s book imprint.

The book is inspired by an intersex youth Gregorio met while attending Stanford’s medical school.

“I was afraid initially, when I submitted it, I didn’t know if editors would think there was an audience for it,” said Gregorio, 38, who is straight and of Chinese descent.

Yet she quickly found a publisher.

The most problematic aspect with the roll out for her book, now in its second printing, was how to market it, said Gregorio.

“You can love something or think it has merit. But if you can’t figure out how to make everyone pick it up, it will not do well,” she said.

Gregorio, a urologist who lives outside of Philadelphia, is a founding member of the We Need Diverse Books campaign and its vice president of development.

“One of the things we have learned is a diverse book is just a good book,” she said.

Too often “these books are pigeonholed,” said Gregorio, into a certain niche category and booksellers believe it is of value only to peo-

ple in that group. They falsely think people only like to read books that mirror their own selves, she added.

“But that is not true. The best books offer you windows into other people’s lives,” said Gregorio.

The nation’s readers are also growing more diverse due to demographic changes, and they are looking for characters that resemble themselves in the books they read.

That was what prompted Charaipotra to team up with Clayton, who is African American, to write their debut novel and launch Cake Literary, a boutique book development company.

“Frequently, we never saw ourselves in books as kids,” said Charaipotra. “There was not much diversity. There is still not a lot of diversity.”

Their book presents a particular problem for publishers to market since it features not only characters with different ethnic backgrounds but also various sexualities. The book’s cover art is purposely designed so as to not feature any of the characters and instead is a generic pink and black graphic cover.

“To have characters with more than one issue is always going to be a harder sell to the powers that be,” said Charaipotra.

But if marketed correctly, YA books featuring diverse characters can become hits with readers, argued Gregorio.

“Writers can write diverse books but publishers have to buy them and sales teams have to know how to sell them so they are available,” she said. “The lifecycle of a book is very short. If it doesn’t sell well the first month it will be off the shelves.”

Having stores such as Books Inc. promoting a wide selection of YA titles and the backing of the national library group, which is hosting a number of panels regarding the We Need Diverse Books campaign, is critical to ensuring such books are successful, said Gregorio.

“It is absolutely essential,” she said.

They also should be promoting diverse books all year round, said Charaipotra. Booksellers needn’t wait until it is Black History Month or Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month or Pride Month to feature diverse titles and display such books with their covers facing out on store shelves.

“If we keep doing it that way diversity will be a niche market,” she said. “We don’t want that. A book is a book is a book.”

The authors panel will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 25 at the Books Inc. 2275 Market Street location in San Francisco’s Castro district.t

PISD member Waiyde Palmer.

On Thursday activists called attention to how the local “San Francisco Model” of communitybased services and volunteer care was stretched to the limit as the number of people with AIDS grew relentlessly.

Friday’s action focused on women and HIV/AIDS, including the need for more women-specific research and services. Some demanded more attention to lesbians and woman-to-woman HIV transmission (despite the lack of any evidence that this was occurring). The activists blocked downtown streets, held a sit-in, and 140 people were arrested – the largest number during the week.

Saturday featured a large coalition march during the day and a spontaneous evening street party in the Castro that would later be acknowledged as the first Pink Saturday.

“ACT UP had staged a brilliant series of forceful and creative protests throughout the week of the

AIDS conference,” community historian Gerard Koskovich recalled in his history of the event. “By Saturday evening, the activists were ready to celebrate – and they were in no mood to be pushed around.”

On Sunday, the final day of the conference, activists stormed Moscone Center and shouted down Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan, the highest-level administration official that deigned to attend, while President George H.W. Bush himself opted for a Jesse Helms fundraiser.

“It was the first time AIDS researchers and activists were on the same page – everyone there was pissed off with a U.S. government whose response to the epidemic was to ban people with HIV from coming to the country instead of working to expedite research,” Kingston recalled.

“But the problem was there were no drugs in the pipeline. We had finally gotten ourselves inside their doors, but there was no main attraction.”

See page 17 >>

R

aziel Reid, the author of the award-winning When Everything Feels Like the Movies, at first struggled to find a publisher willing to embrace his book.

Its protagonist, whom Reid describes as a “gay, 15-year-old queen who has a razor-sharp tongue,” and the book’s sexual themes were deemed “too gay” and “too provocative” that would only cater to a “niche market.”

“It was very difficult to get published. Literary agents, publishers wouldn’t take a chance on it,” recalled Reid, 25, in a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I think there is still a perception among agents and publishers that LGBT literature is a niche market even though a lot of straight readers read a lot of LGBT young adult fiction.”

Arsenal Pulp Press eventually agreed to publish the book, which first came out in Canada in October and was released in the U.S. in April.

Reid, who grew up Manitoba and now lives in Vancouver, went on to win his country’s prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award, which came with a $25,000 cash prize and provoked a backlash among some who argued the honor should be revoked due to his book’s adult themes.

“The critics keep bringing up the graphic language, sexuality, and alleged vulgarity of my narrator Jude,” said Reid, who came out as gay at the age of 18. “They don’t understand that is part of our culture.”

Reid will be in San Francisco next week to discus his debut novel on a panel with other authors of LGBT young adult fiction hosted by Books Inc.’s Not Your Mother’s Book Club,

Rick Gerharter

Tanya Landsberger, manager at the Castro location of Books Inc., stands next to a display of books featured in the Not Your Mother’s Book Club held at the store.

the local bookstore chain’s literary salon series.

The talk aims to highlight the We Need Diverse Books campaign, begun last year to promote a wider array of titles for children and young adults.

Joining him on the panel will be Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, the co-authors of Tiny Pretty Things, about a diverse group of students at an elite ballet school.

HarperCollins’ HarperTeen imprint released the book in May. “We have been doing a lot of talking about diversity. But you can never talk about it enough,” said Charaipotra, 38, a straight married mother whose family is from India’s Punjab region. “San Francisco during Pride week is the perfect place to have a strong conversation about diversity. It is the ideal place for it.”

The author discussion, being held

the evening of Thursday, June 25, coincides with June being GLBT Book Month, now promoted under the auspices of the American Library Association, which is holding its 2015 annual conference in San Francisco next week. A number of panels and events tied to the gathering are focused on the campaign to promote the publication of more diverse books.

“In the past year, at least, there has been a huge movement to bring more diversity to YA. Not just LGBT but also different ethnicities and lifestyles,” said Anna Billings, the coordinator for the Not Your Mother’s Book Club. “It is about creating novels for teens that teens can see themselves in. Not your traditional blonde hair, blue-eyed white male protagonist.”

Bookstores have an important role to play in that regard, said Billings, by promoting diverse titles.

“We have to make a movement as booksellers to put them front and center and make sure customers are aware of them,” she said. “It is not just about how to present them as a book about gay teens and why you should read it. It is more about saying this is a really great adventure story and it happens to have a gay teen in it. We are making a conscious effort to carry more of these books and to display them openly.”

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Tanya Landsberger, the manager of Books Inc.’s Castro store, said the local bookseller has been trying to increase its overall selection of young adult books, in addition to expanding the number of LGBT YA titles it carries.

“We have been working with the campaign We Need More Diverse Books as well,” said Landsberger. “It is not just LGBT YA books, which has markedly increased in the past few years, the children’s section overall is getting bigger.”

<<

SAN FRANCISCO LOS ANGELES NEW YORK TORONTO

AIDS confab

From page 1

years ago, ACT UP, sex worker activists, and others demonstrated outside the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in the Financial district, protesting the ban on HIV-positive people traveling to the U.S. Because of these restrictions, the sixth conference was the last to be held in the U.S. until 2012, after President Barack Obama lifted the ban.

On Wednesday, as the conference opened, an affinity group dubbed People with Immune System Disorders, or PISD, scaled the barricades surrounding Moscone Center, demanding that people living with HIV have a say in setting the research and treatment agenda.

“As a person living with AIDS, I believed the only way to get through the pandemic and ensure the survival of our people and culture was to be in ACT UP and on the front lines fighting for our access to treatment, civil rights, and dignity,” said

Tallulah Photography

Canadian young adult author Raziel Reid

t

Community News>>

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Projects preserve Bay Area’s lesbian past

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by Matthew S. Bajko

C

oncerned that the Bay Area’s lesbian past was quickly disappearing, Oakland resident Lenn Keller put out a call in April 2014 for anyone with stories to tell and ephemera to donate to contact her.

So began the Bay Area Lesbian History Archives Project. It grew out of a talk Keller had given a few months prior about the need to preserve “Bay Area lesbian legacies” and what was being done in regard to Bay Area lesbian history preservation.

As she notes on the project’s website, “Currently, little representation of lesbians exists in local archives.

Some are almost out of space, creating a critical and immediate need for a local facility to preserve and process the activist, cultural, and community history of lesbians from the last sixty years, and into the future.”

Keller, 63, a photographer and filmmaker, in 1975 moved to the Bay Area. Six years later she began documenting the Bay Area lesbian scene, with a special focus on lesbians of color, and other marginalized communities through photography, film, video, and oral history.

Her collection of lesbian archival material includes posters, fliers, and other memorabilia. It is modeled after the Lesbian Herstory Archives located in Park Slope, Brooklyn and the June L. Mazer Archives in West Hollywood, billed as “the largest major archive on the West Coast dedicated to preserving and promoting lesbian and feminist history and culture.”

The Bay Area collection, said Keller, “is not just for the lesbian community and it is not just for the queer community. I feel it is for everybody.”

Her goal is “to house it, to preserve it, and to make it accessible to everyone.”

Eventually, Keller would like to lease or purchase a building, most likely in Oakland or another East Bay city, where she can process the various items she is gathering and make them available online “for the enrichment of the public.”

There already is the GLBT Historical Society, which maintains an archive accessible to researchers and others in downtown San Francisco and operates a museum in the city’s gay Castro district. The preservation group traces its beginnings to the early days of the AIDS epidemic when gay community members began saving the belongings of the hundreds of men dying from the little understood disease.

There is also the San Francisco Public Library’s GLBT Archival Collections, which houses the papers of many LGBT people and organizations, some of which is held on behalf of the GLBT Historical Society.

Since her collection has a more regional focus, Keller does not see her project as competing with the already established LGBT archives.

“There is a whole lot that has not been captured,” said Keller, who is unsure of how many items she has amassed for the local lesbian archive and is starting to catalogue it.

Lexington Club history

One project with a specific focus that touches upon the more universal approach Keller has taken in documenting Bay Area lesbian history is the Lexington Club Archival Project. It is described by its founders as “documenting the stories, sounds and images of San Francisco’s iconic queer and lesbian bar, the Lexington Club.”

After 18 years of serving up drinks in a small, corner Mission

Fabulous

Bernal Heights Edwardian!

Matthew S. Bajko

Lenn Keller, the founder of the Bay Area Lesbian History Archives Project, displays copies of some of the archival material she has already collected.

district dive bar, the Lexington closed April 30. It was the last fullfledged lesbian bar in the city.

After news of its pending closure broke last fall, documentary filmmakers Susie Smith and Lauren Tabak decided to create a celluloid record of the Lexington’s history.

“I heard about the closing via a Facebook post and had a deeply emotional reaction,” said Tabak, even though it had been a while since she last visited the bar, citing “Netflix, domestic partnership, you get older” as the cause of her absence. “Nonetheless, I felt a deep sadness.”

They captured the bar’s last days with their cameras and have been filming interviews with its patrons and employees – 40 to date – in addition to collecting old photos, videos, and other ephemera from the Lexington’s heydays. This summer the filmmakers plan to visit New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and New Orleans “to collect more stories from the lesbian diaspora,” said Tabak.

They also have stacks of old Polaroids taken at the Lex over the years, a collection of hundreds of photos of patrons that needs to be organized.

“We feared the project would be overly nostalgic,” said Tabak. “But it is a way to grieve and memorialize the space and show the public the importance of queer spaces. If the trend continues, younger people will be asking what is a lesbian bar?”

Assisting on the project is Diana Yip, 26, a queer woman born and raised in San Francisco who had only been to the Lexington once before it closed.

“There is no substitute for a peerto-peer, in-person community,” said Yip, adding that helping to gather patrons’ recollections “allowed me to live the Lex experience through those stories. It has given me a chance to be part of a community I missed out on.”

Separate from the video project, former patrons of the Lexington have been raising money to install a plaque in the sidewalk in front of the building that housed the bar.

The project has drawn backing from San Francisco Beautiful, the Board of Supervisors, and San Francisco Public Works.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $5,400 toward a total goal of $6,500 to pay for the creation of the plaque, which is currently being produced, as well as its installation.

“This is an opportunity for us all to give back and say thanks, and to immortalize its presence on 19th and Lexington,” notes a message on the donation page. It adds that, “Remember – we never had to pay a cover or drop a dime. All we had to do was show up and walk in. Now’s our time to give back.”

Both the Bay Area lesbian archives and Lexington Club film archival projects were featured at a kick off event held June 10 for California Pride: Mapping LGBTQ Histories. The online database, which is crowd-sourced and hosted by History Pin, features places and sites of significance to the LGBT community throughout the Golden State.

Anyone can add a specific site to the map – found at http://www.historypin.org/project/469-californiapride/ – as well as post photos, other images, or videos that correspond to the address. Already people have posted about LGBT places in Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, and Eureka.

One posting recalls the history of the former Los Guilucos School for Girls in Santa Rosa, which housed “delinquent and wayward” teenagSee page 14 >>

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War Against Prevention

The

By Michael Weinstein President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation One of the greatest legacies of the AIDS movement has been the successful promotion of safer sex. While behavior modification is never 100% effective, HIV prevention in the United States and abroad has been a remarkable success story with certain groups such as gay men and IV drug users.

Current levels of HIV infection in the United States, while unacceptably high, are a fraction of what they were at the height of the pandemic. For more than 30 years, the condom has been at the center of the prevention movement. We have demonstrated measurable success in our fight against HIVâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;37 percent of people living with HIV globally are on treatment and HIV incidence is decliningâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but now is not the time to give up on condoms.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), an anti-HIV medication called Truvada used to prevent HIV infection, was first recommended by an FDA committee three years ago this month. Three years of promotion later, Truvada has not caught on with medical providers or patients. Gilead Sciences, the maker of Truvada, has spent tens of millions of dollars pushing PrEP through the FDA, even funding community groups and providers to promote this drug.

However, a recent report found that only 5,200 prescriptions were written in the fall of 2014 in the United States. The American Academy of HIV Medicine recently released a poll showing that 95% of their members were concerned that their patients would not adhere to taking Truvada regularly as recommended by the FDA. In the debate surrounding PrEP, emotional appeals for sexual liberation have trumped medical science. Every published study that has been done on PrEP has shown major problems with efficacy. First, in the most successful of all of the published studies more than half of the patients did not take the medication as directed. In fact, study patients who were most at risk for HIV were the ones least likely to take the drug regularly. Second, the two PrEP studies that exclusively focused on female patients had to be halted because there was simply no benefit found. And third, the largest study conducted among men who have sex with men (MSM) showed only 42% efficacy. Two European studies on intermittent use in gay men have yet to be published but showed very high rates of STDs and poor adherence.

The concerns found in these PrEP studies would be nonexistent if the patients wore condoms. Condoms not only prevent HIV, they prevent other serious sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that increase the risk for HIV. Truvada only protects against HIV.

In a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1, three out of four MSM used a condom during their last sexual encounter with a casual partner. We are lucky the majority of MSM still use condoms because STIs like syphilis have reached levels not seen since before the AIDS epidemic. Gonorrhea is now antibiotic resistant in parts of the world, and Chlamydia is very often asymptomatic. There are twenty million new STDs every year in the US, and none of them can be prevented with PrEP. No matter how irrational it seems, when Gilead Sciences first sought approval for PrEP the company contended that Truvada would be used exclusively with condoms. That message has been thrown out the window with PrEP advocates such as Damon L. Jacobs, the creator of the PrEP Facts website, who brazenly asserts, people want to experience the maximal pleasure with the minimal consequences. They want to have more connections, with fewer barriers. They want to feel heightened physical sensations, with lowered medical risks. Public health be damned.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation is not against PrEP. Truvada can absolutely be the right decision for specific patients who, in consultation with their doctors, decide this is the best choice.

However, the entire body of scientific data demonstrates that Truvada will not be successful as a mass public health intervention. Yet, that is exactly what PrEP advocates, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommend.

The question is: What will become of the condom culture that has been so hard fought since the beginning of AIDS? No one can argue that men would prefer to have sex without condoms, but there are compromises we must make for the benefit of ourselves and society. While we cannot tell consenting adults that they must use condoms, we can tell them the truth. If you have multiple partners or your partner has multiple partners, the most effective protection for yourself, your partners, and your community is a condom. Mass PrEP administration is a dangerous experiment that is not supported by medical science and is currently resisted by doctors and patients alike.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation is not against progress or innovation. We have another incredibly powerful tool to prevent HIV infection: any person who is HIV-positive, whose virus is undetectable, is 96 percent non-infectious to others. This is great news for sevrodiscordant couples where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is HIV-negative. Yet, in the United States only 40 percent of HIV-positive people are even seeing a doctor for their HIV and only 30 percent are undetectable. If every person with HIV in the United States knew their status, went on treatment, and had their viral load under control there would be no new HIV infections. This is common sense, which is why we are shocked that many AIDS activists propose to take government funds dedicated to HIV treatment and transfer the money to PrEP. Protecting the public health is a sacred trust based on scientific data, not emotions or personal desires. AIDS Healthcare Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position on PrEP has stirred a storm of controversy in some quarters. However, we believe that in the end, science and real-world experience will prove us right. In the meantime, we will continue to promote the use of condoms, testing, and treatment as the most effective means of controlling HIV and other STDs.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV Risk, Prevention, and Testing Behaviorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System: Men Who Have Sex With Men, 20 U.S. Cities, 2011. HIV Surveillance Special Report 8. Retrieved online: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/HSSR_8_NHBS_MSM_PDF-03.pdf 1

<< Community News

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

t

Emerging, returning talent to headline Fresh Meat fest

by Khaled Sayed

G

roundbreaking performances by a transgender opera singer, gay ballroom champions, and a gender-bending boy band are all on tap for this year’s Fresh Meat Festival.

The festival, taking place Thursday, June 18 through Saturday, June 20, features a lineup of some of the nation’s history-making, trailblazing transgender and queer artists, said choreographer Sean Dorsey, a trans man who curates and produces the event, now in its 14th year.

“This year, we’re presenting world-class artists who are trailblazers, pioneers, and on the cutting edge of American performance,” Dorsey said in a news release.

One of those artists is Breanna Sinclaire, who is the first transgender woman to receive a master’s degree in the opera program from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Sinclaire, 25, with a mezzo soprano voice, was a headliner at last year’s Trans March.

A native of Baltimore and a graduate of the esteemed Baltimore School for the Arts, Sinclaire earned her bachelor’s of fine arts degree at the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, under the tutelage of Maria Fortuna Dean and former Cirque du Soleil star Kate Conklin. At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she studied under Ruby Pleasure.

Two years ago Sinclaire moved to San Francisco after receiving a scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Living far away from her family, she tries to keep in contact.

“I am still in touch with my family, but for them it’s still a process. I have not spoken to my father in six years. My mother and I are working on our mother-daughter relationship. I got my SRS two months ago and she is finally pulling through,” Sinclaire said, referring to sexual reassignment surgery.

Sinclaire has performed in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges, Rameau’s Platee, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Bernstein’s West Side Story. She has also been part of some special projects in Los Angeles, at the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theatre (Meredith Monk’s Songs of Ascension) and at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Zachary Sharrin’s Time Bodies).

She was most recently seen performing as Carmen in “Melons!

Coupons!” from Carmen.

Among many people who inspire her is Jessye Norman, the native Georgian opera singer who gained fame for her roles in Aida and Les Troyen and became one of the most popular opera singers in the world.

“Jessye Norman has the most incredible, unique sound,” Sinclair said. “Her musicianship is on point and she is articulate and educated.”

Sinclaire said that she’s look-

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ing forward to her upcoming performances.

“I am so honored to be one of the chosen performers for Fresh Meat Productions,” she said. “Each performer has a story to tell and it is important to get these stories out.

Sean Dorsey has a vision for trans and queer performers, and this show demonstrates his passion.”

The young opera singer has a lot of hopes and dreams for her career.

“I want to sing in opera houses, concerts, travel the world,” Sinclaire said. “But I do want to develop my own scholarship fund for trans musicians. Music is my truth and I want to be an advocate for my community.”

In recent weeks the Caitlyn Jenner story has been all over the mainstream media. Jenner, who was already well-known as an Olympic athlete and reality TV show star, has drawn much attention for her gender transition at age 65.

“This is what the world needs,”

Khaled Sayed

Trans opera singer Breanna Sinclaire

Sinclaire said. “There are many trans individuals who have stories that need to be heard. The more visibility the better the world will see who we are as a community.

The world is slowly changing. I’m

not going to say she’s the face of the movement, but now her visibility makes her part of the movement.

Hopefully her reality show – there will be a positive outcome to this.”

Other highlights of the festival include Robbie Tristan and Ernesto Palma, one of the world’s most successful same-sex ballroom dance duos; The Singing Bois, which is described as part boy-band, part Rat Pack; transgender comedian Natasha Muse; Dorsey’s partner, Shawna Virago, a trans woman who is a musician celebrated for her striking lyricbased songs; Sean Dorsey Dance; and Colombian Soul, a Colombian folkloric dance company founded by artistic director Adriana Sanchez.t The Fresh Meat Festival takes place at Z Space, 450 Florida Street (between 17th Street and Mariposa) in San Francisco. All shows start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15-$25, sliding scale, and can be purchased at www.zspace.org.

Clean and green District 8 at workday

by Cynthia Laird

C

astro area and other District 8 residents are invited to help tidy up the neighborhood ahead of Pride weekend, with the city’s Community Clean Team workday Saturday, June 20.

Jimmer Cassiol, with San Francisco Public Works, said people should meet at the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, 4235 19th Street, at 8:30 a.m. to register and check in.

There will be a short program and then beginning at 9:30 volunteers will fan out across the district, which also includes the Glen Park, Noe Valley, and other neighborhoods.

Cassiol said that 19th Street, from Collingwood to Diamond, will be closed from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the event.

Participants should wear appropriate clothing, including closedtoe shoes, and sunscreen. Bringing a reusable water bottle is highly recommended. People should leave their valuables at home.

Tasks include planting, cleaning, and greening projects.

People can volunteer as part of a neighborhood group. Lunch will be provided for participants. RSVP is required for lunch and people should contact Cassiol at jimmer. cassiol@sfdpw.org to get their group on the list. People should

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also note if there are any food restrictions, accessibility concerns, or if they plan to bring small children.

Additionally, as part of the Gigantic 3 event, people can also get rid of unwanted junk on June 20, from 8 a.m. to noon, at the following locations around the city: Diamond Street (between 28 and 29th streets); West Sunset Playground parking lot (Quintara between 40 and 41st avenues); Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling, 900 7th Street (at Berry); and Lake Merced, Sunset Circle, Lake Merced Boulevard at Sunset Boulevard.

People can also get up to five gallons of free compost, courtesy of Recology, on Diamond Street (between 28th and 29th streets).

Prom for LGBT seniors in Hayward

LGBTs who are over 50 can dance with their same-sex partner, spouse, or friend at the Senior LGBTQ Prom Friday, June 19 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Hayward Area Senior Center, 22325 North 3rd Street in Hayward.

With a theme of “Black, White, and Bling,” the prom is a chance for LGBT older adults to enjoy themselves in a festive setting. Attendees are asked to “dress to impress” and there will be prizes for best dressed couple as well as a lifetime achievement award.

There will be hors d’oeuvres and a unique “mocktail” (non-alcoholic) bar. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

The senior prom is sponsored by the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District. For more information, contact (510) 881-6766 or visit www.haywardrec.org/seniors and click on “upcoming events.”

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The creator of the award-winning photo essay book, Speaking OUT: Queer Youth in Focus, will be in the Bay Area June 24-29 to participate in various events, including San Francisco Pride weekend.

Rachelle Lee Smith, a lesbian, created the book to explore a wide spectrum of experiences told from the perspective of a diverse group of young people, ages 14-24, who identify as LGBTQ. Each portrait is presented with a stark white backdrop, acting as a blank canvas, where each subject’s personal thoughts are

handwritten onto the final print. With more than 65 portraits photographed over 10 years, Speaking OUT provides rare insight into the passions, confusions, prejudices, joys, and sorrows felt by queer youth.

The book was published last year

by San Mateo publisher Reach and Teach, an imprint of Oakland publisher PM Press.

In April, an exhibit of the photographs was vandalized at the University of Connecticut, prompting a rally by the university and local community. According to Smith, the vandalism incident is still being investigated.

It included inappropriate drawings on photographs in the exhibit and the message “God hates the gays” written in the exhibit’s sign-in book.

During her Bay Area visit, Smith will make several appearances. They include: Laurel Book Store, 1423 Broadway in Oakland, Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m.

Human Rights Campaign Action Center and Store, 575 Castro Street, San Francisco, Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m.

Reach and Teach Bookstore and Cultural Gift Shop, 144 W. 25th Avenue, San Mateo, Friday, June 26 at 7 p.m.

The Queer Youth Space at the Pride festival, Civic Center Plaza, Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28 during the day.

First Presbyterian Church, 1140 Cowper Street, Palo Alto, Sunday, June 28 at 7 p.m.

Smith will also do a reading and signing during the American Library Association’s conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, Monday, June 29 from noon to 1 p.m.

Tenderloin Tessie seeks Pride helpers

Tenderloin Tessie, the nonprofit that provides holiday meals to those in need, is itself in need of volunteer help for two Pride weekend events so that it can raise funds for the dinners.

Board President Michael Gagne said that volunteers are needed for the Pink Party on Saturday, June 27 and the LGBT Pride festival Sunday, June 28.

Those interested in helping at the Pink Party must be 18 years or older and attend a mandatory training on either of two dates: Saturday, June 20 at 3 p.m. in the Rainbow Room at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street; See page 18 >>

<< Community News

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

California bill would allow aid in dying

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

California bill that would allow mentally capable adults who are dying from a terminal illness to ask for aid-in-dying medication is moving through the state Legislature.

Senate Bill 128, known as the End of Life Option Act, by Democratic Senators Bill Monning (Carmel) and Lois Wolk (Davis) recently passed out of the Senate 23-15. Two senators didn’t vote. The legislation is now in the Assembly.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 11-0 Tuesday June 16 to support the bill.

Monning praised the Senate vote in a statement.

“I am gratified that my colleagues in the Senate support a compassionate option for terminally ill patients who are making difficult end of life decisions in their final days,” he said in a June 4 news release.

Wolk stated, “With the passage of SB 128, we are one step closer to ensuring Californians have access to all options to limit suffering at the end of life.”

The act would establish criteria that a patient who’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness would have to meet before they could be prescribed the medication. It’s modeled after an Oregon law and other states that have aid-in-dying options.

Michael Saum, 35, a transgender man who lives in El Monte, California, volunteers with Compassion and Choices, which is one of SB

<<

‘Gay beach’

From page 1

“It’s been a long process,” gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the park, told the Bay Area Reporter.

The project will now “quickly move to the southern half,” Wiener said.

“During renovation, the gay beach will be closed,” he added.

That was confirmed by San Fran-

128’s supporters.

In 2007, the group says, Saum was “initially diagnosed with a brain tumor” and last August, his doctors confirmed his cancer had come back.

“Michael’s doctors told him he will likely die painfully within the next few months from the Stage IV brain cancer that has spread throughout his body,” a news release from Compassion and Choices says.

In a phone interview last week, Saum said he felt “pretty sick.”

“My head hurts really bad today, and I’m very nauseas,” he said, adding, “You don’t realize the importance of this bill until you’re in this position” and you’ve been “told you’re going to die no matter what,” as he has.

“Why can’t I just end it before I have to go through more pain and suffering?” Saum asked.

He said he doesn’t have plans to end his life, and he’d make those arrangements “only if that bill goes through, before I actually die, and I don’t see that happening.”

The legislation would only apply to California residents. Among the criteria people would need to meet before getting their medications, two independent physicians would have to confirm a prognosis of six months or less to live and that the patient is mentally competent enough to make their health care decisions.

Medications would have to be selfadministered. The legislation would establish felony penalties for anyone who coerced or forged a request.

Additionally, health care procisco Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Connie Chan.

“The south side will begin construction as soon as the north side is open, and the entire park is expected to complete renovation and open to the public in fall 2016,” Chan said in an email.

That means that the hundreds of parkgoers who hang out at the gay beach section of the park, with its sweeping views of the city, will need to

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Courtesy Compassion and Choices

Michael Saum, a terminally ill trans man, sits next to a container holding his medications.

viders would be protected from civil or criminal liability, as well as professional disciplinary action, if they fulfilled requests from people who are terminally ill and mentally competent.

In San Francisco, gay Supervisors David Campos and Scott Wiener are among those backing the resolution supporting the legislation.

The city “recognizes that the choices a person makes at the end of life are inalienably grounded in that individual’s life experiences,” and also “recognizes that the practice of aid in dying is a desirable medical choice for many terminally ill, mentally competent adults,” the resolution says, in part.

Mixed views

find other options for several months.

A visit to the area last weekend drew a variety of responses from people.

“We’ll find a beautiful spot on the other side of the park,” said Elliot Christopher, 26, a gay man.

Marcus Wilson, 27, said renovations are needed.

“More trash cans are needed, but we want the park back by the September-October warm weather,” Wilson, a gay man, said optimistically.

Others had hoped the gay beach section would remain open during the summer.

“My hope was that they’d leave it open for summer, but it’s good for the long term,” said Alex Sayda, 23, a gay park visitor.

Wiener said that the improvements to the southern part of the park are greatly needed, and will also include more restrooms and outdoor urinals, or pissours.

“There are three to four times the number of restrooms,” Wiener said, speaking about the park as a whole. The previous small restroom was way over capacity and that “led to people urinating everywhere, including outside people’s homes.”

The northern portion now boasts 27 restroom stalls, up from four.

Jake Gilchrist, project manager for the renovation, pointed out the beautiful new six acre lawn and the ADA accessible pathway in the justreopened northern part of the park during a media tour last week. The pathway runs from 18th and Dolores streets to the children’s playground on the south side.

The Helen Diller Playground, which was renovated a few years ago, will remain open, Chan said.

One of the things that held up completion of the northern part of

<<

Lesbian history

From page 9

ers, many of whom were lesbians.

When a dozen of the residents were transferred in March 1953 to the Mendocino State (psychiatric) Hospital for “engaging in homosexual practices,” according to the posting, the remaining women rioted.

The mapping project is an off-

There are mixed views on SB 128.

Opponents include the coalition Californians Against Assisted Suicide.

Marg Hall, of coalition member of Communities United in Defense of Olmstead, a Bay Area grassroots disability rights group, said the bill “threatens to limit the choice of people who already have limited choices because of economics.”

Hall, 67, a lesbian who lives in Berkeley and has health problems that include chronic pain, said she doesn’t think the legislation can be fixed.

“There’s a deep, deep level of social justice concern when you mix very cheap options with the health care system that’s currently still in-

t

fected with the profit motive,” she said. “... Profit is so much a part of our health care system in this country, and introducing this policy change will generate issues” for people with disabilities and others.

Hall’s group is named after a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling related to the rights of disabled people.

The California Medical Association had historically been opposed to physicians helping patients end their lives, but in May, the group announced that it was taking a neutral position on SB 128 and dropped its longtime opposition.

“As physicians, we want to provide the best care possible for our patients. However, despite the remarkable medical breakthroughs we’ve made and the world-class hospice or palliative care we can provide, it isn’t always enough,” CMA President Dr. Luther F. Cobb said in a statement. “The decision to participate in the End of Life Option Act is a very personal one between a doctor and their patient, which is why CMA has removed policy that outright objects to physicians aiding terminally ill patients in end of life options.”

The association switched its position after some changes were made to the bill.

“Ensuring that participation in the End of Life Option Act is completely voluntary and that patients have the necessary protections has resulted in sound policy that we’re now able to remove opposition from,” Cobb stated.t

Rick Gerharter

Jake Gilchrist, project manager for the renovated northern section of Dolores Park, pointed out the beautiful new lawn and the ADA accessible pathway during a media preview last week.

the park was some vandalism that occurred in March after someone, or a group of people, entered the cordoned off portion of the park, hot-wired a construction cart, and did donuts on the newly sodded field. That damaged part of the newly installed irrigation system, rec and park officials said. The vandals caused about $100,000 in damage.

In a separate incident in February, vandals broke glass bottles in the sand at the children’s playground, forcing the city to order clean sand.

“There was severe vandalism,” Wiener said.

The total cost for the renovation project is expected to be about $20 million, with the money coming from park bonds and the city’s general fund. About $1.5 million was donated by the Mercer Fund for the playground retrofit.

As workers prepare to start on the gay beach section, parkgoers were adjusting to the change.

“We were just talking about that, where is everyone going to go?” said Pernell Myers, 23, whose partner is Sayda. “I guess we’ll migrate north; I think other parts of the park also have great views.”

Wiener said people shouldn’t worry too much about the shortterm change, saying a “temporary gay beach” would likely develop in the northern portion.

“The gay beach will be back,” he said.t

shoot of the work being done by Donna Graves and Shayne Watson, the authors of a citywide LGBTQ historic context statement for San Francisco now under review by city planning and historic preservation staff. After the women revise the 355page draft document, they expect to publicly release it sometime this fall ahead of official adoption by the city.

“We knew that these histories can’t

get told without people’s personal stories,” said Graves, a public historian based in Berkeley who is straight.

“It is important to get them now. So many structures and places that hold these histories are being replaced.”

One of the lost places featured on the California Pride map is Maud’s, a lesbian bar that was located at 937 Cole Street in San Francisco’s Cole See page 18 >>

David-Elijah Nahmod contributed to this report.

Dolores Park Works, a grassroots group that worked with the city on the renovation project, is planning an opening event for Thursday, from 3 to 7 p.m. Dubbed “Love Dolores,” the “silent disco party” will be held at the entrance at 18th and Church streets.

For free headphones, RSVP to rpdinfo@sfgov.org.

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<< Sports

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

The Gay Games come calling

by Roger Brigham

I

t has been three short weeks since I wrote a column declaring the Gay Games dead after Gay Games X in Paris in 2018. Since then, there has been such an awakening of protest and outrage that who knows – maybe the grand old games will be saved from the jaws of destruction.

I received so many requests for the report from a working group that was studying the possibility of combining the Gay Games and the World Outgames and questions about where people could find the agreement signed by the Federation of Gay Games with the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association to produce a single event together in 2022 that I created a website, www.futureofgaygames. wordpress.com, where people could access those and other documents.

A Facebook page, www.facebook. com/SaveGayGamesSports, was created where people could post news, comments, and concerns about the future of the Gay Games.

Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, daughter of Gay Games founder the late Tom Waddell, was so concerned about the possibility of the Gay Games being folded into a human right conference event with the World Outgames that she launched

Kissed

by Belo Cipriani

T

he first time I saw two men kissing was on the 6 o’clock news. I was 9 years old, a fourth grader, and couldn’t take my eyes off of the bearded men. Wide-eyed and speechless, I looked toward both sides of the living room, hoping someone in my family would give me some clarification. My older sister was on the phone, completely engrossed in her teenage banter, while my little sister worked intensely on her pony puzzle.

The men on the screen broke away from each other and then began to answer the newswoman’s questions.

a “Keep the Gay Games Alive!” online petition at www.change.org.

And for the first time since Team San Francisco issued its counterproposal to keep the Gay Games alive, an active email discussion broke out in the FGG’s assembly about members’ desires to keep the Gay Games going.

That flurry of social media discussion prompted the FGG to publish the working group report and the FGG-GLISA agreement on its www.gaygames. com blog along with the full Team SF proposal and an open letter in response to my May 28 column, which confirmed what I wrote – the FGG does not have firm plans in place to continue the Gay Games past Paris – while making the erroneous assertion that the Team SF proposal was contained in the working group’s original report. FGG Co-Presidents Kurt Dahl of Chicago and Joanie Evans of London also announced they would host a series of questionand-answer calls with Gay Games stakeholders regarding the one quadrennial event discussions.

I participated along with about 14 other callers in the first of those discussions Sunday, June 14. The call got off to a rocky technical start when many where unable to connect, so after 40 minutes of downtime the call was relaunched.

“So how long have you two been together and what brought you to San Francisco Pride?” asked the pinched and pale reporter.

“We just met,” announced one of the guys in a British accent.

Wanting some answers, I crossed the living room and stepped into the kitchen.

My mom was pulling the garlic bread out of the oven when I began to tell her about the two men, who had just met, and were kissing like men and women did in the movies.

My mom set the hot bread on the yellow-tiled counter, her expression joyous.

“Sometimes,” she started to say, “men kiss men and women kiss

Federation of Gay Games CoPresident Joanie Evans

It lasted about another 80 minutes.

I wrote last month that discussions about a merged event had caused concerned Gay Games loyalists to remove about $700,000 in Gay Games bequeathals from their wills.

Team SF delegate Gene Dermody, winner of the 2014 Tom Waddell Award and an active voice among the FGG’s Honorary Lifetime Members, said that as word of the GLISA agreement has spread that amount is now up to about $2 million.

The co-presidents were asked if they were contacting elderly HLMs to talk with them about their concerns to provide reassurances and see if they would not retain the Gay Games in their wills. Evans said there were no such efforts being taken yet.

There were far more questions than answers on the call. After

Evans described the timeline that the board was following in its discussions, she and Dahl struggled to provide definitive answers.

“At this point, no decision has been made at all,” Dahl said regarding the efforts toward one unified event. “The [working group’s] Cologne report is only a recommendation. It could end up being something completely different.”

Dahl also said the board had engaged a Los Angeles law firm to do a pro bono legal review of the working group report, the FGG-GLISA agreement, and relevant board minutes. That followed a previous email exchange in the assembly membership when it became apparent that GLISA does not have nongovernmental organization status (the equivalent of an American nonprofit status). Even the governing documents for GLISA have been removed from the organization’s website.

The site selection process for 2022 is supposed to begin this year, but no one could say for certain what the name of the event prospective hosts would be bidding on would be or if the current mechanisms for overseeing sports operations would remain the same.

“I would expect that it would remain the Gay Games for now,” said Shamey Cramer, an FGG board member and a member of the FGGGLISA working group.

“We are going to respect the legacy of the Gay Games,” Dahl said.

t

“Smaller sports have been the backbone of the games. We recognize that the small sports have a concern and we won’t lose sight of that.”

“My input into this is to ensure the FGG is the leading force in” the transition process, Evans said.

The presidents were pressed about how they could verify who were the members of GLISA, with Team Seattle representatives noting they had been listed in the past as members of both GLISA and GLISA North America even though they never belonged to either organization. They were asked if they had seen a final financial report from the 2013 World Outgames in Antwerp.

They were asked if there was any line the FGG board would not cross in its negotiations, such as the name of the event or the mission.

Evans’ answers took on a sameness as the minutes rolled by.

“Nothing’s set in stone.” “We can’t answer that now.” “That’s still to be determined.” “We can’t do anything until we know.”

Sadly, it was not the message of reassurance Gay Games supporters were seeking. What we have is a wager being made with an organization of undetermined membership and undetermined legal status with a mission that differs radically from the participation-focused sports mission of the Gay Games. The FGG says the letters MOU stand for memorandum of understanding.

I’d say at this point, they stand for mountains of uncertainty.t

It was tough to imagine women and there’s notha place without Pride in ing wrong with that. Sadly 2009. Then, all of a sudthough, not all countries den, I sensed his body allow men to kiss men or draw closer and his lips women to kiss women. So, press against mine. For a they come to San Francisco few seconds, it seemed as to be free ... That’s what though the entire street ‘Pride’ means – it means quieted down and only he freedom.” and I existed.

Since that day, I looked He pulled away and got at the Pride events as a pamy number. We did the rade for freedom. And as polite thing and promised I got older and began to Jane Philomen Cleland to call, knowing full well date men, I always thought neither one of us would. about those two bearded Belo Cipriani hugs his guide dog, Oslo.

Heather spoke into my guys on the evening news ear and told me that when – especially since I, too, “Belo,” my friend Heather called, I kissed the guy, a local TV crew hoped to have a little freedom to kiss a “there’s this guy I want you to meet. recorded the make-out session. I stranger during Pride.

He’s hot!” couldn’t help but laugh. As I rejoined But for good or for ill, I always We pushed passed the crowd and our other friends, I thought back to had a boyfriend around the Pride then I felt a rough hand squeeze the bearded guys and realized I had festivities and it wasn’t until I was my hand. He then grabbed my become them.t blind that I attended San Francisco fingers and ran them down his Pride as a single dude. chiseled chest and spoke to me in As I stood on Market Street with Portuguese.

Belo Cipriani is a freelance jourmy white cane, listening to the panalist, the award-winning author His name was Rafael and he was of Blind: A Memoir and Midday rade go by, I wondered if I would visiting from the Azores. I could tell Dreams, and a spokesman for meet a guy. Nestled among a boisby his voice that he was happy to be in Guide Dogs for the Blind. He was terous group of lesbians, I reflected San Francisco – away from his island. voted best disability advocate in on how hard it is to meet people in “We don’t have Pride in the the Bay Area in 2015 by SF Weekly. public when you can’t see. Suddenly, Azores,” he shared, squeezing my Learn more at BeloCipriani.com.

I felt a hand tug at my arm. hand some more.

Obituaries >> John Piper July 9, 1932 – June 13, 2015

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

John Piper moved from Arkansas to the West Coast while serving in the Navy in the 1950s. John’s career as an electrician brought him to Washington, Oregon, and northern California, and then, in the mid-1960s, he settled in San Francisco, where he quickly adapted to this vibrant and eclectic city.

John was devoted to his Yorkies, walking them to Duboce Park several times a day for many years. He seemed to know everyone in the neighborhood, and everyone seemed to know him. He was also well known for his wonderful sidewalk sales. Friends were always welcome to stop by his house on Noe Street, and would very often be treated to John’s home cookin’. John had a great love of country music, acquired in his childhood, and he attended the concerts of his favorite artists whenever they were in town.

John died peacefully at home, and is survived by his life partner, Eddie Palaz; by his sister, Helen Willis, of Oklahoma; by many nieces and nephews, and by the very many friends who loved him dearly. John will be missed, but he will always be in our hearts.

Bill West June 12, 2015 In the early morning hours of June 12, 2015, our friend Bill West was released from his earthly pain and became a “bird in a golden sky.”

Bill was an amazing man whose persona ran the gamut from angel to asshole. A diverse conversationalist, and brilliant political scientist with an acid wit, Bill was a devoted lifelong Republican who belonged to various party organizations here and in his native Orange County. He was a longtime resident of the Derek Silva community and an early and long-term survivor of AIDS, having being diagnosed in 1981. He lived through those days which were the best of

times (when our community really came together) and the worst of times (when someone we knew died daily). No self-pity for Bill; he believed in the credo “the beat goes on,” so toward the end he suffered stoically and mostly in private. Two days prior to his release from pain he checked into Laguna Honda Hospital for respite. There he entered into eternal rest.

I know he would want to thank those on that dedicated staff made his homegoing as comfortable as they could, as well as his nurse, Jasmine, at Westside, who moved so quickly to get him admitted, as well as his in-home support staff worker, Selma. He leaves the supportive staff at Catholic Charities to cherish his memory: Kevin Featux, Erwin Barrios, Joseph Northington, and his dear Clare Melvin, as well as Mercy housing staff, Teresa Flores, Wendy Martine, Walter, and his beloved Yolanda Warren, and close friends Jeffrey, Darrel, Marie, John, “Country,” and Sandra.

With Bill’s flight comes not an ending, but a new beginning. Because he’s where he wants to be, he’s where he needs to be.

t

Community News>>

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Cheer SF marks 35 years

I

Jane Philomen Cleland

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t’s been 35 years since the LGBT-identified pep squad, Bay Area Raw Rahs, started cheering at various events, including the Gay Games. The group became Cheer San Francisco in 1996 and celebrated its milestone anniversary with a party Sunday, June 14 at the E and O Kitchen and Bar in downtown San Francisco. Today, Cheer SF and its affiliated Cheer for Life Foundation have gay and allied members. The organization was recently named San Francisco’s official cheerleading team by the Board of Supervisors. Cheer SF member Darwin Choy, left, presented the Board of Directors Award to Michelle de la Paz, who was congratulated by reigning Empress of San Francisco, Khmera Rouge.

Reunion event details

AIDS confab

From page 8

The Friday, June 19 event – “What’s Your Damage?” – will be After that protest ACT UP an evening of art, performance, members and conference deland discussion about how egates – including some promqueers and activists who struginent researchers – joined the gled through the AIDS crisis of annual Pride parade as it prothe 1980s and 1990s are survivceeded down Market Street. ing in the present day (8:30 p.m. at Magnet, 4122 18th Street).

Other summer actions The Saturday, June 20 living The 1990 AIDS conference history panel will feature memLiz Highleyman protests were not the only debers of the original ACT UP/ fining event of the summer. Eric Ciasullo, center, was about to get San Francisco – Ciasullo, Jorge The first National Bisexual arrested during one of the protests during Cortinas, Crystal Mason, Mike Conference, held the same the 1990 International AIDS Conference in Shriver, and Laura Thomas week, drew nearly 500 partici- San Francisco.

– discussing what went on bepants. The San Francisco chaphind the scenes of the protests ter of Queer Nation formed Nelson. “One of our fears was that and their legacy for today (4:30 soon thereafter, building on the AIDS might become a two-tiered p.m., San Francisco LGBT Commuactivist energy. epidemic, and that’s exactly what is nity Center, 1800 Market Street).

ACT UP/SF, however, split in the happening now. We have effective The panel will be followed by a fall, with some members wanting treatments, but we don’t have equal party at Cafe Flore, a frequent hangto focus on HIV treatment while access.” out of ACT UP members in the late others favored a broader social But for many of those who lived 1980s and early 1990s (8 p.m., 2298 justice agenda. The former group through the 1990s – both long-term Market Street). started ACT UP/Golden Gate (later HIV/AIDS survivors and their HIVOn Sunday, June 21 there will be renamed Survive AIDS), while the negative loved ones and supporta memorial to remember ACT UP latter group dwindled in numbers ers, the grief of those years are not members and other activists who and eventually became dominated forgotten. participated in the 1990 actions.

by AIDS dissidents.

“I was so sure at the time that The ceremony will take place in the By the late 1990s, effective new transforming my grief to anger, and Audre Lorde Room at the Women’s drug cocktails began to restore then using the anger to fuel my acBuilding, where ACT UP/SF met at health and allow many HIV-positive tivism was a solution to the trauma the time, followed by a march to the people to resume more normal lives, of losing friend after friend,” said Castro (12:30 p.m., Women’s Buildand the focus of AIDS activism Rebecca Hensler, who founded the ing, 3543 18th Street). shifted to ensuring access to the new secular grief support website Grief “It was like a war, except it was treatments for underserved people Beyond Belief after losing her infant invisible to the rest of society,” said in the U.S. and the millions living son. “We were surrounded by a soNelson. “I think those of us who are with HIV worldwide. ciety that at best didn’t care and at still here, who are able to, feel a sense “We didn’t have the word ‘interworst hated us and wanted us dead, of obligation to speak up about it. sectionality’ back then, but that’s so there were infinite reasons for We want people now to learn from what the ACT UP/SF philosophy anger. But now I think it is finally what we accomplished, and also was all about. It wasn’t enough to time for AIDS activists – those of us from our mistakes. And we are just demand ‘drugs into bodies.’ still here – to come together and talk passionate about honoring and reYou had to ask ‘whose bodies?’” said about our loss and our sorrow.” membering our fallen comrades.”t

<<

Political Notebook

From page 5

As lesbian households have recovered, “they are seeking out houses so the demand is greater than in other neighborhoods,” added McLaughlin.

Also impacting the figures could be that places like Noe Valley and the Castro were already expensive places to live, he said, and therefore weren’t hit as hard as other areas during the recession.

“Those areas remained a lot more expensive than other areas in the Bay Area,” said McLaughlin. “When the economy recovered, they were not likely to grow as fast as other areas hit harder.”

The full report can be read at http:// www.trulia.com/trends/2015/06/ gayborhood-watch/.

Gay man elected prez of CA teachers group

Having served the last four years as vice president of the California Teachers Association, Eric Heins will become its president Sunday, June 26. He is the second openly gay person to serve in the position.

Heins, 57, will lead the 325,000-member employee union, one of the state’s largest and most powerful, as it continues to fight for increased funding for California’s public schools.

“Even though we are the seventh largest economy in the world, we are

still 46th in the nation in per pupil funding,” Heins told the B.A.R. in a phone interview.

He first joined the CTA board of directors in 2007 and monitored education issues as CTA’s liaison to the state Board of Education. Since becoming a union officer, Heins has been on an extended leave of absence from his job as an elementary school teacher in the East Bay city of Pittsburg.

Heins and his husband, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist David Glenn Swor, have been together 12 years and married last year. The former San Francisco residents are now living in Malibu, though Heins spends most of his time traveling the state to visit school districts and the CTA’s headquarters in Burlingame.

“I live in every hotel in California, that is what it seems like,” said Heins.

After graduating from Chapman College in Orange County with a music degree, Heins then earned a master’s in language and literacy education and a reading specialist credential from UC Berkeley. Born in Amsterdam, he speaks fluent Dutch.

Gay SF Dem party leader resigns

Arlo Hale Smith, a gay man who for 31 years has served on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, resigned this week for health reasons ahead of its meeting Wednesday night.

Smith was first elected in 1984 to

the DCCC, on which he has represented the city’s western Assembly District. The committee runs the San Francisco Democratic Party, selects one of its members as party chair, and decides whom to endorse in political races.

Smith, 60, informed current party chair, Mary Jung, Monday, June 15 that he had decided to immediately step down with less than a year left in his current term. In a brief phone interview with the B.A.R., Smith cited “old age” as a contributing factor.

“I am not feeling in good shape,” he said. “I was hospitalized three weeks ago. They tested me and everything came back clear.”

He said he had asked Jung to appoint an LGBT person to his seat. Jung did not respond to a request for comment by press time Wednesday.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 Pride gear hawked by politicians.

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.

SAN FRANCISCO

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

Are you comfortable leavingWine that final decision & Cheese Open House Friday, July 19, 2013 2—5pm to someone else?

RSVP Required: (415) 752-8791

There are available niches in the new 1 Loraine Court—San Francisco, CA 94118 Hall of Olympians and a few stained glass locations in the original building.

You can stay in the City “Forever”.

Make the choice yours.

Call 415.752.7891 Visit us at One Loraine Court in the heart of the Richmond COA 534

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

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Lesbian history

From page 14

Valley neighborhood from 1966 to 1989. Since 2009 former Maud’s patrons have gathered at the site, now home to the bar Finnegan’s Wake, the Saturday of Pride weekend.

This year’s reunion will take place from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 27. During the event Graves and Watson will be teaming up with StoryCorps to record reminiscences from six of the Maud’s regulars.

Not only will the recordings become part of StoryCorps’ OutLoud initiative, snippets of them will be added to the Maud’s pin on the California Pride map.

“As far as we know, the Maud’s reunion is the only event of its kind in the country where an LGBT bar’s

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News Briefs

From page 12

or Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m., also in the Rainbow Room.

To volunteer, go to http:// w w w. s i g n u p g e n i u s . co m / g o /60b0845ada62f4-pink and choose Tenderloin Tessie and then email Gagne at tenderlointessie@yahoo. com with your name, time(s), shift(s), and jobs you signed up for.

For the Pride festival on Sunday,

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SFAF

From page 7

undergraduates go, and had graduated “recently,” although she wasn’t permitted to say exactly when.

Dangaran’s Linkedin profile, which uses gender-neutral pronouns, says the former Yale student attended Yale University from 2011 to 2015, graduating with honors.

Castro health center

In October 2012, SFAF announced plans to merge its Magnet health center; the Stonewall Project, which provides drug counseling programs; and the Stop AIDS Project, which focuses on HIV prevention, into one location. The agency had hoped to move into the space, which is at 470 Castro Street, in October 2013.

From the outside, at least, it looks

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Out in the World

From page 2

“It’s kind of cool that it shines a light on us,” said Yenis, who lives outside of Haifa, San Francisco’s sister city in northern Israel.

It meant to her, “That we exist.

That we are not just outsiders ... we are a part of society. We should be known about. There’s no reason to hide what we are and who we are as a people.”

Friday’s Pride was a temporary celebration for Israel’s transgender community as it still has much work ahead of it to reach equality, as two separate reports have found.

Reality check

In March, the Economy Ministry found that 68 percent of the transgender community experienced discrimination at work. Some of the discrimination included forcing transgender employees (39 percent) to dress according to their legally documented sex at birth, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees (39 percent) also experienced discrimination, according to the report, which was released at a conference on equal employment opportunities.

The survey received 400 respondents.

A separate report on the transgender community conducted by Dr. Ruth Gopin of Clalit Health Services Gay Clinic found that 40 percent of transgender people are employed full-time and 30 percent are employed part-time. Another 30 percent of transgender individuals are unemployed. Out of the transgender individuals who are em-

former patrons reclaim the space every year to honor and remember their history,” Watson, an architectural historian based in San Francisco who is lesbian, wrote in an email. “It’s an incredibly poignant example of grassroots preservation and a very sweet event.”t

Legal Notices>>

To learn more about the Maud’s reunion, visit its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ events/980402068671089.

MAY 28, JUNE 04, 11, 18, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036485100

For more information about the Bay Area Lesbian History Archives Project, visit its website at http://labryshealthcarecircle. com/ace/balhap.html.

To learn more about the Lexington Club Archival Project, visit http://www. lexingtonclubarchivalproject.org/.

volunteers can be any age. Three shifts are available: early, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; middle, from 12:30 to 3 p.m.; and late, from 3 to 6 p.m.

Interested people should contact Gagne at (415) 584-3252 and let him know which shifts they’d like to work.

Gagne said that the more volunteers Tenderloin Tessie gets for both events, the more money it can make for the organization. The organization feeds on average 1,000 people at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas each year.t like most of the work on the building is done, but Giuliano said this week that he didn’t know when the health center would open or what the total cost would be.

“It’s not done, but we’re making good progress,” he said, despite delays. “... The community is going to be really, really well served.”

Giuliano suggested the slow movement has been related to other development going on.

There’s “a lot of construction going on in the community, and ours is one,” he said.

AIDS foundation staff have previously talked about getting licensing for the facility as another factor in the timeline. Asked about that, Giuliano said there have been “different kinds of delays.” There’s “no one reason,” he said, but “a combination of a lot of different things.”t ployed, 57 percent are working in minimum wage jobs. Last December, Israel raised its minimum wage from 4,300 shekels ($1,076) to 5,000 ($1,252) per month, according to the Economy Ministry.

Employment discrimination is only part of the story. According to Gopin’s findings 70 percent of the transgender community experiences verbal abuse and about half of the community reported being physically attacked (48 percent of trans men and 55 percent of trans women).

Marina Meshel, a transgender woman, stood up against her employer, who she believes fired her due to her gender identity. She filed a lawsuit against the Center for Educational Technology, where she was employed. The case made it all the way to the judges in the NLC. The parties compromised with each party maintaining its position.

Stepping up

However, the Israeli government has stepped in to help improve transgender individuals’ lives by instituting an employment program for transgender youth, said Alexander.

“Discrimination still exists, but since the past six years there are changes,” said Alexander, a 38-year-old selfidentified gay trans boy who has been a transgender activist for 10 years.

“There’s [an] employment empowerment program for trans youth funded by the state and the municipality.”

Last year, the Israeli government made major changes to the process for transgender individuals to receive the state sponsored sex change operations they need making it easier, Alexander added.t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036494500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: URBAN PACIFIC DENTAL ASSOCIATES, 450 SUTTER ST #2640, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed WENLI LOO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/19/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROOMSTORM, 5758 GEARY BLVD #545, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WALKSOURCE, INC. (DE). 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 05/15/15.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAREFIELD DESIGN BUILD, 766 VALENCIA ST 3RD FLR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ONE INCH TO THE LEFT, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/15.

MAY 28, JUNE 04, 11, 18, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036490600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DUTCHMAN’S FLAT, 601 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MORTAR & MASH ONE, LLC (DE).

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 05/20/15.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PEARL, 601 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MORTAR & MASH ONE, LLC (DE). 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 05/20/15.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AQUA SPA, 14 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118-2418.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AQUA SPA, LLC (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 05/18/15.

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: REVEILLE COFFEE ROASTERS, 610 LONG BRIDGE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SHY GIRL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/15.

MAY 28, JUNE 04, 11, 18, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036474000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUSHCONCERTS, 1 AVENUE OF THE PALMS #131, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MAMALAYLA, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/11/15.

MAY 28, JUNE 04, 11, 18, 2015 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF JUANITA TENORIO IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-15-298805

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of Juanita Tenorio aka Juanita Cole Tenorio. A Petition for Probate has been filed by Anthony G. Tenorio in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that Anthony G. Tenorio 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: June 22, 2015, 9:00am, Dept., Probate, 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 latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: Melvin Neal, 633 West 5th Street, Suite 2800, Los Angeles, CA 90071; Ph. (213) 683-5331.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 2015

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036481500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NORTHERN SKY HEALING, 201 DUNCAN ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KATHLEEN WHITING. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/14/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/14/15.

MAY 28, JUNE 04, 11, 18, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036511600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ITAFIT, 1910 JACKSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SERGIO MELISSANO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/29/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036479400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACUTE SALON, 3450 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LINDA THOMAS-MAYFIELD. 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 05/13/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036504700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE AVENUES SPA, 3929 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HENRY H. NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036505400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAPIULI ARTS, 171 LIBERTY ST #401, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KENNETH LEAF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036503800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALEX ILNICKI CONSULTING, 3876 CALIFORNIA, UNIT 3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEXEI LEON ILNICKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036503100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO BALLOONS, 533 BAKER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CLIFF COURRIER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036489900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OCTAVIA; CLEMENT; NOIR LUXE; SUMMER & SAGE; AVA; CAMILLA; HAYES; 3130 20TH ST #225, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed STRAPLESS INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/19/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION

The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Ultrasonic Rail flaw Detection Testing, Request for Proposal No. 6M3286, on or about June 12, 2015, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, July 21, 2015.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED

The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (hereinafter referred to as “BART” or “District”) intends to engage the services of a (“CONTRACTOR”) to Provide bi-annual (2X per year) ultrasonic rail-flaw testing services of all BART main line and yard, running rail track system (two hundred and thirty mile (230) legacy base, plus in 2017 an additional thirty miles (30) of new extensions) and any additional trackage determined by the Project Director. The District presently intends to enter into a five-year Agreement with the CONTRACTOR selected.

A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 7, 2015. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 a.m., local time, at BART Offices located at 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor – Conference Room #1700, Oakland, CA. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting will be explained. All questions regarding these programs should be directed to Muriel Owens, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 4647326 – FAX (510) 464-7673. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, and to confirm their attendance by contacting the District’s Contract Administrator, telephone (510) 464-6543, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS

(Available on or after July 12, 2015) Copies of the RFP may be obtained: A PDF version of the RFP will be sent to all firms on the Interested Parties List at time of advertisement; or 1. By E-mail request to the District’s Contract Administrator, Aminta Maynard, at amaynar@ bart.gov 2. By arranging pick up at the above address. Call the District’s Contract Administrator, (510) 464-6543 prior to pickup of the RFP. Dated at Oakland, California this 10th day of June 2015. /s/ Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 6/18/15 CNS-2762663# BAY AREA REPORTER

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NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF YOSHIO NOGUCHI IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-15-298823

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of YOSHIO NOGUCHI. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JUNJI SUZUKI in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. County of San Francisco.

The Petition for Probate requests that JUNJI SUZUKI 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 01, 2015, 9:00A.M. Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102 Civic Center Courthouse. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing.

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

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: EDWARD S. MIYAUCHI (SBN 230553), MARSHALL SUZUKI LAW GROUP, LLP, 150 SPEAR ST #725, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105 Ph. (415) 618-0090.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, 2015 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“BART” or District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals to provide Construction Management Services for BART Projects, Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M8110, on or about June 12, 2015, with proposals due by 2:00 P.M. local time, Tuesday, July 7, 2015.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting for professional services of consulting firms or joint ventures (“CONSULTANTs”) to provide Construction Management Services in support of various BART Projects. Caveat: This is a companion RFP to RFP No. 6M8104. Prospective primes who are being recommended for awards under RFP No. 6M8104 will be ineligible for award under RFP No. 6M8110, and any subconsultants proposed under one of the prospective primes for RFP No. 6M8104 will be ineligible for award as a prime on RFP No. 6M8110.

The two (2) selected CONSULTANTs shall assist and advise the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District in construction management, procurement activities, and related tasks associated with BART design-bid-build and design-build projects, or other delegated work assignments in accordance with the requirements as specified in the Scope of Services of the Request for Proposals (RFP). Professional services to be provided by CONSULTANTs may include program management, design review, construction management and associated administrative tasks, cost management and scheduling for BART projects, quality control/quality assurance, procurement services, claims management and dispute resolution assistance, emergency response, and agreement administration services.

A list of typical projects for which the CONSULTANTs may provide services includes facilities (stations and buildings), yards and shops, mainline and yard infrastructure, parking and intermodal access, systems (train control, transit power, controls and communications), and rail vehicle support for standard BART and eBART/DMU equipment.

Work is expected to be performed over the next five years, contingent upon funding availability.

Estimated Cost and Time of Performance: The District intends to make two (2) separate stand alone awards as a result of this RFP. Each of the two (2) anticipated agreements shall not exceed $15,000,000.

The term of each agreement entered into pursuant to the RFP will be five (5) years. A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 A.M., local time, in the District’s Board Room located at the Kaiser Center Mall, 344 – 20th Street, Third Floor, Oakland, California 94612. At this meeting the District’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program will be explained.

Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled PreProposal Meeting and to confirm their attendance by contacting the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, telephone (510) 464-6390, prior to the date of the Pre-Proposal Meeting.

Networking Session: Immediately following the Pre-Proposal Meeting, the District’s Office of Civil Rights will conduct a networking session for subconsultants to meet with the potential prime consultants for DBE participation opportunities.

Proposals must be received by 2:00 P.M., local time, Tuesday, July 7, 2015 at the address listed in the RFP. Submission of a proposal shall constitute a firm offer to the District for one hundred and eighty (180) calendar days from date of proposal submission.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after June 12, 2015) Copies of the RFP may be obtained: By written request to the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, BART Procurement Department, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612.

By arranging pickup at the above address.Call the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, (510) 464-6390.

Electronic version (PDF) of the RFP may be obtained by sending an E-mail request to the District’s Principal Contract Specialist, Ms. Irene G. Gray, igray@bart.gov. Your firm will also be placed on the RFP Interested Parties List (“IPL”) for receipt of Addenda and Question/Response Letters.

By attending the Pre-Proposal Meeting and obtaining the RFP at the meeting.

Dated at Oakland, California this 9th day of June, 2015. /s/ Jacqueline R. Edwards Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 6/18/15 CNS-2762367# BAY AREA REPORTER

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036496600

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036525000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036513600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MYMY, 1500 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DOWNTOWN MY MY, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AGUILERA TRUCKING, 1065 IOWA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JUAN ANTONIO AGUILERA. 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 06/09/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIERRA TRAINING AND YOGA, 864 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SIERRA KELLOGG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/10/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/02/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036501900

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036496100

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036505000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KNOW RESEARCH LLC, 605 MARKET #505, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KNOW RESEARCH LLC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/15.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036517300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ACTISYNC; SERAPHIM PORTAL; OITATIO; THE HAPPY CEO; INSPIRED ALTERNATIVES; 45 BROSNAN ST #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALEX OMAR JOERG BRANDIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/03/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036515400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VILLYSF, 2795 41ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JILL MYERS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/02/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036522100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WEB REVAMP, 18 BEAVER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BERNARD ARIAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/08/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-15-551220

In the matter of the application of: MICHAEL YINGXIAN HUANG, 418 SILVER AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MICHAEL YINGXIAN HUANG, is requesting that the name MICHAEL YINGXIAN HUANG, be changed to SKY YINGXIAN HUANG. 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 11th of August 2015 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 04, 11, 18, 25, 2015 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINSTER ESTATE OF DAMIEN DONGSUN KIM IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-15-298833

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DAMIEN DONGSUN KIM. A Petition for Probate has been filed by CRAIG KIM in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.

County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that CRAIG KIM 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: JUN 29, 2015, 9:00A.M. Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94104, Probate Branch.

If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: HEATHER R. STONEMAN, ESQ. (SB# 214917) JEWEL & STONEMAN, LLP, 220 MONTGOMERY ST #678, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104 Ph. (415) 394-6800.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, 2015 PUBLIC NOTICE

Pursuant to Section1988 of the Civil Code, notice is hereby given that One Of A Kind will cause to be sold at Public Auction at Ghirardelli Square 900 North Point San Francisco, CA 94109 following described property deem to have been abandoned by One Of A Kind Retail Store.

INVENTORY: Woodworking of Bruce Abbott incl. bowls, vessels, jewelry boxes, pens, letter openers, misc. decoration items, carved animal and abstract carvings and all inventory of store & storage area. Said Public Auction will take place online only at www.huismanauction. com and begins ending at 10AM on Tuesday, June 30, 2015. Auction conducted by Huisman Auctions, Inc. 209-745-4390 CA Bond # 0447219

JUNE 11, 18, 25, 2015

Classifieds The

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ZAMAN CLINIC, 3600 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAUHEED ZAMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/22/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AURORA SKIN SOLUTIONS, 352 6TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHELLE ESTANISLAO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/28/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036517600

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036527300

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036517400

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036528000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ESPANA IRON WORKS, 1318 FITZGERALD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GABRIEL CANEDO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/04/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/04/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JUST THE LITTLE THINGS, 601 VAN NESS AVE E805, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JUST THE LITTLE THINGS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/13/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/03/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036515000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INDEX REALTY, 4194 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TOMMY GALLEGOS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/18/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DAN KRAMER LAW GROUP, 633 BATTERY ST #110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DJK LAW GROUP, P.C. (CO).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/11/15.

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036518900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HEALTHY PLACES, 5128 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MELANIE LOFTUS CONSULTING LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/02/15.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ENGEL & VOELKERS SAN FRANCISCO, 582 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SAN FRANCISCO REAL ESTATE HOLDINGS INC. (UT). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/12/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/04/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036518500

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036510800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OREILLYS IRISH BAR & RESTAURANT, OREILLYS BAR, OREILLYS IRISH PUB & RESTAURANT, OREILLYS PUB, OREILLYS PUBLIC HOUSE, 1237 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 1237 POLK STEET, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/03/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/04/15.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-033347202

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SERAPHIM BLUEPRINT, 45 BROSNAN ST #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by ALEX OMAR JOERG BRANDIN. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/14/2011.

JUNE 11, 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF BULK SALE

(Notice pursuant to UCC Sec. 6105 and 6106.2) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a bulk sale is about to be made.

The name(s), business address(es) to the Seller(s), are: KEVIN CHEN, Doing Business as: TATTLEFISH, 3409 Geary Blvd. San Francisco. All other business name(s) and address(es) used by the Seller(s) within three years, as stated by the Seller(s), is/are: KAIJU EATS. The location in California of the chief executive office of the seller is: 3409 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94118. The name(s) and address of the Buyer(s) is/are: GUANGLIANG LIANG, 520 Summer Ln., San Pablo, CA 94806 and JINGU WEI, 16321 Mateo St., San Leandro, CA 94578. The assets being sold are generally described as: All stock-in-trade, fixtures, equipment, leasehold, and leasehold improvement of Japanese restaurant business and are located at: 3409 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94118. The bulk sale is intended to be consummated at the office of: To, Long & Associates, Attorneys At Law, 311 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118 and the anticipated sale date is 07/07/2015. The bulk sale is subject to California Uniform Commercial Code Section 6106.2 The name and address of the person with whom claims may be filed is: To, Long & Associates, Attorneys At Law, 311 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118, and the last date for filing claims shall be 07/06/2015, which is the business day before the anticipated sale date specified above.

Dated: 06/12/2015 Kit To, Esq./s/ Kit V. To, Attorney at To, Long & Associates.

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036532800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOG CITY K-9, 68 PALM AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIK BALIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/15.

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036531900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EARLY CHILDHOOD THERAPY SPECIALIST/INTERVENTIONIST, 2232 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SUSSETTE MEJIA-VALENTINI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/15.

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036521400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: METALBOB TRAINING, 1001 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT VECCHIARELLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/15.

JUNE 18, 25, JULY 02, 09, 2015

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALA RESTAURANT, 149 FELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LA MILPA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/01/15.

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31

Color commentary

Operatic women

Vol. 45 • No. 25 • June 18-24, 2015

www.ebar.com/arts

Find your Frameline bliss

by David Lamble

F

rameline turns 39 this year, and the world’s greatest LGBTQ film festival displays some brilliant new tricks in a program that is probably the most women- and transpeople-friendly ever. Below are some quick picks for the first week of a festival that runs June 18-28 at the Castro, Roxie and Victoria Theatres in San Francisco, and at the Elmwood and Piedmont Theatres in the East Bay. Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party doesn’t waste any time getting down to the things that really matter to its pink-skinned, red-haired, slightly devious birthday boy, Henry (Cole Doman), about to turn 17. The very first words from Henry’s lips as he lies next to hunky straight boy Greg (Joe Keery) demonstrate the wonderfully slutty mindset of this son of a freshly ordained pastor.

“How big is yours?”

26

Out &About

Prep world

29

O&A

24

“Soft or hard?”

“Hard.”

“Oh, I don’t know, the last time I checked it was, like, six inches, but that was, like, in early seventh grade, so it probably grew, it’s like seven or probably eight.”

“Do you want to measure it now?”

“I’m not hard.”

“Oh.” “Are you?”

“No.” “How big are you?”

“Oh, like, six-and-a-half.”

The opening six minutes, complete with a discreetly staged but very earnest jack-off, seductively embeds us into Henry’s world. It’s an everybodyknows-everybody’s-business community of coastal Southern church folk who don’t seem to suspect just how close the clean-cut birthday boy is to living out the urban homo fantasies promoted in XY magazine.

Scene from director Stephen Cone’s Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party.

See page 22 >>

Courtesy Frameline

Dateline: Troy & Carthage

by Philip Campbell

T

he San Francisco Opera’s ambitious summer season opened recently with a Sunday matinee of a (virtually) complete The Trojans (Les Troyens) by Hector Berlioz. Meeting the massive challenges of the physical production without a hitch and brilliantly showcasing a cast of internationally recognized artists, the venerable old War Memorial Opera House certainly put the grand back into grand opera.

With a runtime of approximately five hours including two intermissions, some demands are made on the audience as well, but given the historical significance of the event and the outstanding presentation, even the many standees

throughout the house endured to the final curtain, always a good sign. When the dazzling marathon was over, everyone still had energy to cheer marvelous mezzo-soprano Susan Graham at an affectionate post-performance celebration honoring the 25th anniversary of her debut with the company and the presentation by General Director David Gockley of the San Francisco Opera Medal.

Hard to believe La Graham has been singing for local audiences for a quartercentury now, especially after witnessing her remarkably fresh-voiced and beautifully paced performance as Didon (Dido) in The Trojans at Carthage, the lengthy second part of the two operas that comprise Berlioz’s complete masterwork.

See page 28 >>

Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as Didon in Act V of Berlioz’s Les Troyens.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS } Spring and summer mean later sunsets and later hours at the Asian Art Museum. We’re open ‘til 9 PM on Thursdays and for just $5 after 5 PM, you can spend an evening in our beautiful building enjoying the galleries, special exhibitions, fun talks, lively gatherings and intimate hangs with artists. On first Thursdays, there are even cash bars, DJs and more. For details, visit www.asianart.org/thursdays

AT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM

$5 AFTER 5PM

<< Out There

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

We can see the future & it’s gay!

by Roberto Friedman

I

t’s the most marvelous time of the year, LGBT Pride Month. Rainbow flags are a-flappin’, gay tourists are a-fappin’, our famous Pride issue is just about a-wrappin’, and the Frameline film festival is a-tappin’ on our shoulder.

We were lucky to score a ticket to last Friday night’s performance of San Francisco Opera’s alreadylegendary production of Berlioz’s Les Troyens. While soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci appears most nights as the unheeded prophetess Cassandra, that night we enjoyed Michaela Martens, equally splendid in the role. The five-hour evening in the Opera House is a vivid experience to be sure. At the first intermission, after Act II, we saw the San Francisco Symphony audience arrive at Davies Hall across Grove Street for their concert. At the second intermission, after Act IV, we saw the SFS audience exiting – and we still had another hour-and-a-half to go!

Surely the Trojan War itself was shorter.

On another topic, one of Out There’s pet peeves about society’s current state of sub-literacy derives from publicists touting “advanced notice” or asking for “advanced coverage” for their clients. It’s as clueless as people who use “impact” as a verb. Anyway,

here’s advance word on the forthcoming book Gay Directors, Gay Films?: Pedro Almodóvar, Terence Davies, Todd Haynes, Gus Van Sant, John Waters by Emanuel Levy, coming out from Columbia University Press in August. Per the Press: “In the book, Levy, a former Variety critic and film professor, examines the work of five innovative filmmakers, tracing their impact on cinema and culture. Kirkus Reviews has said ‘each profile engagingly holds readers’ attention, and as a collective, they bespeak the raw power of creative gay voices creating genre-straddling, often taboo material.’”

Three of the featured directors

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Michaela Martens as Cassandre (Cassandra) in Berlioz’s Les Troyens.

have new films being released in Fall 2015: Terence Davies’ Sunset Song, Todd Haynes’ Carol starring Cate Blanchett, and Gus Van Sant’s Sea of Trees starring Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts. So an in-depth look at their work seems pretty well-timed.

Now an advance item for operalovers as the end of SF Opera’s summer season fast approaches. Beginning Wed., July 8, the Metropolitan Opera will present Summer Encores, featuring select performances from the Met’s Live in HD series in more than 500 movie theaters across the US. The 2013 Summer Encores series offers screenings of four popular Live in HD offerings.

Per Met press relations, they are: La Traviata (Wed., July 8, 7 p.m.)

Natalie Dessay stars as the tragic courtesan Violetta Valéry in Willy Decker’s innovative modern-dress staging. Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi leads the tragic love

<<

story, which also stars Matthew Polenzani as the lovesick Alfredo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as his disapproving father, Giorgio Germont.

La Fille du Régiment (Wed., July 15, 7 p.m.) Natalie Dessay is the title tomboy in Donizetti’s comedy, with Juan Diego Flórez as Tonio, the soldier who is willing to go to great lengths (and sing 9 high Cs) to win her love. The supporting cast includes Felicity Palmer as the Marquise of Berkenfield, Alessandro Corbelli as Sulpice, and the late Tony Award-winning actress Marian Seldes, in her Met debut, as the Duchess of Krakenthorp. Marco Armiliato conducts.

The Merry Widow (Wed., July 22, 7 p.m.) Last season’s runaway hit in cinemas, Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman’s lavish new staging of Lehár’s effervescent operetta stars soprano Renée Fleming as Hanna, the widowed Parisian millionairess. Sir

t

Andrew Davis conducts the stellar cast that also includes baritone Nathan Gunn as Hanna’s lover, Danilo; tenor Alek Shrader as the young nobleman, Camille de Rosillon; and baritone Sir Thomas Allen as the scheming Baron Zeta. Broadway star Kelli O’Hara, currently in Bartlett Sher’s new production of The King and I, makes her highlyanticipated Met debut as the Baron’s coquettish wife, Valencienne.

Aida (Wed., July 29, 7 p.m.) One of the most beloved operas of all time, Aida sets a heartbreaking love triangle against the backdrop of an empire at war. Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska made a spectacular Met debut as Aida, the enslaved Ethiopian princess, opposite two major stars: tenor Roberto Alagna as the war hero Radamès, and Olga Borodina as the pharaoh’s daughter Amneris, Aida’s formidable rival. George Gagnidze sings Amonasro, Aida’s cunning father, and Štefan Kocán is the imposing Egyptian priest Ramfis. Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi conducts.

A list of participating national and international theaters, as well as showtimes, can be found by visiting metopera.org.

Finally, we were invited to dinner with Ovid Napa Valley winemaker Austin Peterson offering up the fruit of the grape, paired with creations from chef Melissa Perello at Octavia.

Both parts of this equation were hot tickets. Peterson shared his expertise and Ovid’s 2009 and 2012 Hexameter vintages, as well as barrel samples from the 2013 crop. They went down well. Perello’s chilled squid ink noodles, butter bean & young garlic soup, and Brandt Farms beef ribeye were exquisite. Eternal wows for the old OT taste buds.t

Frameline 39

From page 21

The Southern-raised writer/director Stephen Cone’s delightfully frisky exploration of queer-trending New South church folks The Wise Kids (Frameline 36) won him a slew of liberal fans. Now he returns with an equally ecumenical dose of playful antics. Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party offers randy kids around a backyard pool with easy access to boxes of wine. It promises to be one of the most uninhibited 87 minutes at Frameline 39. (Castro, 6/19) I Am Michael We get another odd glimpse of gays and church folks flirting with a highly improbable harmonic convergence in director Justin Kelly’s festivalopening drama. James Franco stars as a famous queer-youth magazine publisher who shocks his friends and readers by rejecting his devoted boyfriend and his life’s work to take up Bible study and the life of a happily hetero-married smalltown pastor. Kelly and Franco strive mightily to soften our hostility to a real-life character whose “moment of truth” represents a symbolic and hurtful slap in the faces of an army of devoted activists.

To a once-big-time fan of XY magazine, I Am Michael was simultaneously fascinating and hard to watch. It’s a kind of parallel universe to the lives and careers many of us have pursued, with the climax as a kind of train wreck in which a difficult-to-understand individual walks into a new life that’s usually depicted in queer film as black comedy or derisive satire. (Castro, Opening Night, 6/18) The Summer of Sangaile Lithuanian director Alante Kavaite manages in 84 breathless minutes to give us a richly poetic visual timeline of a teen girl’s battle to overcome her deepest fears and go for the best that is in her. At 17, Sangaile is at times little more than a jagged bundle of nerve-endings. It’s when Sangaile

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Justin Kelly’s I Am Michael.

meets an older, more adventurous young woman, Auste, that life starts to make dangerous sense. In the course of a truly magical summer, the girls touch everything in each other and in their small world – the local airfield, the massive electrical towers feeding the grid, Sangaile’s posh home, Auste’s richly decorated, modest apartment. They risk their bodies, their friendship, and their futures to overcome a fear of flying dangerously high. Director Kavaite juxtaposes Sangaile’s impulsive cutting her arms with her breakthrough moments tumbling through the air in a small plane that seems so close to crashing.

Like all great cinema experiments, The Summer of Sangaile reminds us of other masterworks: Brewster’s bid to fly within the Houston Astrodome in Robert Altman’s towering Brewster McCloud, and early stabs at film poetry from Texan dierctor Richard Linklater such as the incendiary Dazed and Confused. (Castro, 6/23) Summer Nights French director Mario Fanfani ponders the double life led by a seemingly staid bureaucrat in the provincial city of Alsace.

The year is 1959, and France is embroiled in a bitter war against Algerian guerrillas, while on weekends Michel is living large as a transvestite artist in an underground club.

Michel’s glorious transition into his psychic double, the refined bourgeois lady Mylene, says a lot about the sexual, gender and identity wars that have roiled the Western world for the past century. As the West stripped itself of colonies, it also started confronting religious and imperial barriers to new definitions of liberty, fraternity and equality.

Michel/Mylene is given a delicious dual spin by the agile French actor Guillaume de Tonquedec in a performance that for some may recall the transgressive MC in Cabaret. (Castro, 6/24) Fun in Boys Shorts This “appointment TV”-worthy gay male shorts program returns with 80 minutes of quick strokes, some of which assume a kind of New Yorker cartoon wit and spot-on gotcha wit.

Pop-Up-Porno: M4M Stephen Dunn makes a uniquely sexy statement in a fully adult animation.

Open Relationship Spanish director Carlos Ocho leads his sexy married gay guys through a semantic tussle as they explore opening up their relationship to “threeways” and “boys night out” escapades.

The Little Deputy Trevor Anderson finds a perky way to share a long-ago memory of his now-dead dad.

See page 25 >>

ASIAN ART MUSEUM JUN 5–AUG 16, 2015 28 Chinese presents artwork from 28 of the most notable Chinese artists working today—from internationally acclaimed stars like Ai Weiwei to the newest generation of game changers like Liu Wei and Xu Zhen. The exhibition presents a multiplicity of perspectives and practices, including painting, photography, new media and breathtaking installation, like Zhu Jinshi’s Boat—a 40-foot creation you’re invited to walk through.

W W W. A S I A N A RT. O R G # 2 8 C H I N E S E

28 Chinese is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Presentation at the Asian Art Museum is made possible with the generous support of China Art Foundation, Gorretti and Lawrence Lui, Silicon Valley Bank, The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Fund for Excellence in Exhibitions and Presentations, Lucy Sun and Warren Felson, and an anonymous donor.

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<< Theatre

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

Chorus of young male voices

by Richard Dodds

T

hey are singing in the rain, after a sort, but as water rains down on these five teenagers, they are also singing about the pain. Living away from home at a boys’ boarding school, their relationships with their parents under various strains, they harmonize on “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” in the gym shower. The water pouring on their naked bodies suggests a purifying ritual, a moment in which the private becomes the communal, and it is one of the most striking moments in Choir Boy, a play made up of striking moments.

But the harmony is only temporary, a reprieve from frictions both typical of adolescent habits and special to the circumstances to these students at Charles R. Drew Prep.

The school has a distinguished history of mentoring African-American youth, and endowments needed to underwrite this education partly come from the renown achieved by its a cappella choir. The five students who make up this choir carry not only high expectations for their own futures, but also some responsibility for the school’s ongoing financial well-being. Add an obviously gay kid into a student group that sees itself as righteous, and at a school worrying about appearances, and pressures are pushed to a breaking point.

Marin Theatre Company is presenting the area premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s recent play, an intriguingly different look at contemporary black society than he previously presented in The Brother/Sister Plays, a trilogy that Marin Theatre helped produce locally five

Kevin Berne

Fellow students played by Jaysen Wright, left, and Forest Van Dyke don’t know what to make of the school choir leader played by Jelani Alladin in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy at Marin Theatre Company.

years ago. Those plays, set amidst the Louisiana bayous, mixed ancient mythologies and often-stylized dialogue into their contemporary settings. The characters in Choir Boy speak more realistically, but there is something of a time-warp insularity to these contemporary lives.

It’s in this netherworld that the play’s subtext of homophobia exists.

The stern but thoughtful headmaster is not so much disapproving as astonished that any gay relationships could even flicker at his allmale boarding school. But the slurs that the merrily effeminate student Pharus Young endures in the very first scene are definitely part of our modern vernacular. They set forth a

cascade of turmoil at the school.

McCraney’s play is an assemblage of scenes that finds its glue in the spirituals the choir performs between the scenes. The songs have relevance to the specific moments in which they are performed, and as stand-alone attractions, they are a joy to hear in the quintet’s passionate performances under Darius Smith’s musical direction. That passion for both the music and the choir is what pushes the play forward, even as it heads off into detours.

In its 100 minutes, the play tells its different stories in numerous scenes.

It’s not all about Pharus and the limp wrist the headmaster is forever chastising. One particularly potent scene

involves the chorus members heatedly debating the history of spirituals, and what their legacies bring to those singing them today. The sum of the scenes, however interesting unto themselves, doesn’t necessarily pull together into a cohesive whole.

Still, it is an impressive production that director Kent Gash has mounted on the Marin stage.

He previously staged the play in Washington, D.C., and he brings that helpful experience to the current production. The only wrong note comes at the beginning, when Pharus is heckled while singing the school anthem, and the whispered slurs come booming out of the theater’s sound system. It’s a confusing

t

start that soon sorts itself out.

And as much as I admired the palpable exuberance in Jelani Alladin’s performance as Pharus, I also found it sometimes confusing as well. For most of the play, his effeminacy is unobtrusively manifested, but occasionally Alladin’s Pharus breaks into over-the-top camp that doesn’t ring true. His schoolmates are all vividly conceived, with Jaysen Wright on the honor role for his sensitive yet bemused performance as Pharus’ jock roommate. Both actors played these roles in Gash’s Studio Theatre production in Washington.

As Pharus’ main tormentor, Dimitri Woods is a scary bundle of anger, while Rotimi Agbabiaka gets laughs as the bully’s slow-witted lackey.

Forest Van Dyke plays a meek student aspiring to the ministry before a stunning explosion of pent-up truth. Ken Robinson is a convincing beacon of authority as the headmaster, and Charles Shaw Robinson has an easygoing charm as a veteran white educator pulled out of retirement – at least until he is broken by what he sees as racially self-loathing hostilities amid the choir boys.

Jason Sherwood’s scenic design makes a handsome statement, looking something like the Oval Office if it were repurposed into a vintage gentlemen’s club with a mahogany veneer. Portraits of recognizable black icons ring the room, with Barack Obama getting three spaces.

But strangely, the play just doesn’t feel like it exists in a time or place where Obama is president.t Choir Boy will run through June 28 at Marin Theatre Company.

Tickets are $20-$58. Call (415) 3885208 or go to marintheatre.org.

Hellraising high jinks

by Richard Dodds

W

hen you’re in hell, a little breathing room is always appreciated. Club Inferno has found that breathing room at the Hypnodrome, where it can fully spread its not-so-angelic wings in Thrillpeddlers’ production of the rock-ndrag musical.

Club Inferno was first seen in 2000 at a now-shuttered SoMa nightclub.

Its ambitions were bigger than the small stage at the Paradise Lounge could accommodate, and some crossover casting between perform-

ers and musicians also hampered the material’s ability to strut its stuff.

But with a history of staging elaborate Grand Guignol bloodfests and, more recently, extravagant revivals of Cockettes musicals, Thrillpeddlers gives Club Inferno a happy new home for its deviltry.

Created by Kelly Kittell (concept, book, and lyrics) and Peter Fogel (music and lyrics), the musical uses Dante’s Divine Comedy to tell the tale of a glam rocker’s journey through Hades. The 14th-century poet wrote about the nine circles of hell, each labeled for a different

sin, and that provides a convenient structure for a musical that is partly a showcase revue. In each circle, Dante finds herself in the company of a dead celebrity of different vintages with some connection to the designated transgression. Cleopatra is among the lustful, Mama Cass is with the gluttonous, and Lucretia Borgia hangs with a violent breed.

Thrillpeddlers majordomo Russell Blackwood is well-versed in smoothly directing large casts through multiple scenes of extravagant exuberance, and it’s a skill well-suited to Club Inferno with its furious changes in tone, characters, and locale. Fogel’s music is a rockbased pastiche of styles that can find echoes in the Mersey Beat, psychedelia, Rocky Horror, or bubblegum pop, and Marilynn Fowler’s choreography playfully captures the steps of the appropriate madness.

A show like Club Inferno is designed to let performers revel in individual flamboyance, and most of the cast hits the right high notes. As Dante, the fatally injured rock diva Peggy L’eggs (aka Matthew Simmons) has a fabulously comic trashiness suggesting a melding of Charo and Joanna Lumley’s AbFab character as she is transported by “hellivator” through the circles of hell. Birdie-Bob Watt plays Xaron, Dante’s primary guide through hell, with a sly world-weary impatience and idiosyncratic timing. Watt is also the show’s musical director, contributor of additional material, and is sometimes at the keyboard with a fierce band led by Steve Bolinger.

Among other performance highlights, there is the always vivacious Noah Haydon as Cleopatra, multilimbed Hindu goddess Durga, and Marie Antoinette. In the latter role, he is joined by Zelda Koznofski as Jayne Mansfield and David Bicha as

davidallenstudio.com

Birdie-Bob Watt, left, plays a guide through hell for a recently deceased rock diva played by Peggy L’eggs in Thrillpeddlers’ production of Club Inferno.

Isadora Duncan as a headless trio separated from their still-prancing bodies. Bicha may have the strongest voice in the cast, both as Duncan and later as the roof-raising evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who has a bit of Baby Jane Hudson about her. As welcome as ever, Leigh Crow reprises her roles from the 2000 production as Mama Cass and Lucrezia Borgia. Adding a shot of testosterone, John Flaw plays Dante’s chaperone Virgil.

Another asset of having Thrillped-

dlers revive your show is getting its costume expertise, with Glenn Krumbholz, Jim Kumiega, and Tina Sogliuzzo designing the hellacious outfits this time around. The wigs and makeup that Flynn DeMarco devised are also a big plus for a show that both comfortably fits in and merrily stretches the Thrillpeddlers canon.t Club Inferno will run through Aug. 8 at the Hypnodrome. Tickets are $30-$35. Call (415) 661-1260 or go to hypnodrome.org.

t

Film>>

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

The butch mystique at Frameline

by Erin Blackwell

A

ll lesbian love entanglements start to resemble each other, as do the films that attempt to capture the falling-in and falling-out of states of mutual attraction and repulsion, loneliness and sex, orgasm and threesomes. That’s okay, since behavior that repeats across cultures stands the best chance of crossing borders, opening minds, and reaching hearts. Frameline, an international festival of LGBTQ films, proudly represents the multinational movement to project images of queer experience, locally hosted by neighborhood cinemas Castro, Roxie, and Victoria in San Francisco; Oakland’s Piedmont, and Berkeley’s Elmwood, starting tonight, June 18.

Liz in September (Castro, 6/19; Piedmont, 6/22), directed by Fina Torres, is a sultry, somewhat sluggish melodrama adapted from Jane Chambers’ milestone play Last Summer at Bluefish Cove (1981) and moved to Venezuela. Chambers got lesbian lives onto the New York stage by sticking to conventional dramatic structure, so even when new they were already creaking. In this ensemble piece centered on a cancer diagnosis, three lesbian couples hang out at singleton Margot’s beachside B&B, eating, drinking, winking, and nudging. Intense, raven-haired, sinewy, plaid-shirted, motorcycle-riding, scuba-diving, competitive-jogging, fish-catching Liz goes after Eva, a pretty young wife who’s lost her young son.

There’s lots of champagne-fueled camaraderie amidst tropical greenery near open water and a coral reef, piano and strings, SUVs, handpainted walls, black-and-white flashbacks, and a glimpse of a full moon amidst the clouds.

The Russian and Austrian coproduction Olya’s Love (Roxie, 6/20) only plays once, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and the Roxie’s not that big. This documentary has all the oomph one hopes for in a queer romantic narrative and none of the filler that so often causes dyke films to implode in puddles of self-and-

<<

Courtesy Frameline

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Fina Torres’ Liz in September.

Scene from producer-directors Kirill and Ksenia Sakharnov’s Olya’s Love.

other-absorption. Olya Kuracheva is a tall, willowy femme, urban queer activist with chocolate brown dreds, wolf-blue eyes, and an infectious je ne sais quoi masking an aching need to lead an expansive life of integrity. The love of her life is short, muscular, butch handyman Galya Galeeva, who makes small repairs to Olya’s small Moscow apartment, crisscrossed with their undies and T-shirts drying on clotheslines.

They’re adorable, they’re in love, and they’re fighting for their rights.

Producing-directing combine Kirill and Ksenia Sakharnov move easily from Olya and Galya’s intimate private lives to the pushback on the streets after passage of Russia’s 2014 anti-gay-propaganda bill, aka the “On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development” law. Olya is a sympathetic, charismatic, passionate young woman whose heart is destined to break both for herself and for her country.

S&M Sally (Roxie, 6/21; Victoria, 6/26) stars writer-director Michelle Ehlen of Butch Jamie fame, known for her urbane spin on the comedy of subtle self-humiliation, L.A. style.

This naughty rom-com tracks Jamie’s bumbling descent into bondage and fire play with her subletting girlfriend Jill, who’s been around the BDSM scene and finds Jamie’s attempts to wriggle in and out of es-

Scene from director Alante Kavaite’s The Summer of Sangaile.

capades mildly amusing. Ehlen has a lock on communicating butch existential angst, the fear of non-self in the presence of a dom, with a slight lift of the eyebrows and a freezing of the eyes, hysterical. The highlight might be Jill in white corset leading Jamie in tuxedo T-shirt on a leash around a club. It takes a particular comic chutzpah to pull off such slender material.

All About E (Castro, 6/22; Piedmont, 6/24), directed by Louise Wadley, could be considered a multiculti lesbian spin on The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), updated and grafted onto the perennially crowd-pleasing chased-by-gangsters genre. When people get in trouble in Australia, they head for the Outback, and so it is with E, a daughter of homophobic Lebanese immigrants and wife to her gay best buddy. When the couple find a bag full of money in a taxi and discover their flat’s been trashed, they get the hell out of Sydney. The road trip coincidentally leads E back to the levelheaded, selfaccepting, blonde ex-girlfriend she ditched to stay in the closet.

Sworn Virgin (Roxie, 6/22; Elmwood, 6/24), co-produced by Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Albania, and Kosovo, offers a fictional glimpse of an ancient tradition of women allowed to live openly as men within a strictly patriarchal culture. Laura

Courtesy Frameline

Bispuri’s film starts with Mark’s boat trip and bus ride to Milan, to the apartment of childhood friend Lila, now married with a teenage daughter intrigued by the weird newcomer. Flashbacks to his remote Albanian village document Mark’s incremental transition from tomboy to patriarch. The scrawny, withdrawn, slouching, squinting Mark finds work in a parking garage, gets his own apartment, tries on bras, and has furtive sex in a men’s room.

The Summer of Sangaile (Castro, 6/23) is stunning on so many levels it’d be a shame to tear the thing apart just to be able to name its

Frameline 39

From page 22

Tradesman’s Exit You may love the unexpected catharsis possible for some viewers of this twisted fairy-tale about a handy guy who finds it hard to let go, to the extreme displeasure of his exasperated ex.

Drag Mama A little boy and a “Fairy Drag Mama” have some nifty fun in Australian Benjamin Strum’s dark-humor fairy-tale excursion.

One Year Lease Brian Bolster recalls his most annoying landlady via his old answering-machine tapes.

The name Rita may never sound the same after this one.

Pipe Dream The teen son of two gay male daddies has a terrifying bout of size issues, which are uniquely resolved with the aid of an unusually understanding girlfriend.

Mini Supreme A world-weary drag queen creates a scene at a little girl’s beauty-contest pageant. Will especially appeal to fans of Little Miss Sunshine. (Castro, 6/20, 28) Fun in Girls Shorts The girls get their “really big show” in this 87-minute, deli-like sample plate of lesbian humor.

11 Life Lessons from an Awesome Old Dyke Allison Khoury mediates this big advice from a very butch old dyke from Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

V is the Warmest Color is director Anna Margarita Albelo’s spoof of a female creature, “the Vagina,” who stirs up quite a hornet’s nest of ambivalent feelings among a gaggle of out lesbians.

Be Here Nowish: Episode 2 Nata-

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Jenni Olson’s The Royal Road.

lia Leite and Alexandra Roxo comically exploit the possibilities of the one-night-stand from hell.

Whatever We Want To Be The free-swinging Dylan gets a taste of her own chutzpah from the very shrewd dyke Sam in this funny bar tale from Stephanie Williams.

Code Academy Nisha Ganatra’s inventive sci-fi short is a brilliant finale with implications that cry out for full-length feature exploration.

(Castro, 6/20, 28) That’s Not Us William Sullivan directs this Fire Island-set improvisational couples comedy, constructed from the scripts the three couples created to show how tough it is to keep romance alive, no matter how attractive your partner might be.

(Castro, 6/21) Those People Director Joey

Kuhn zeroes in on a combustible male erotic trio, inviting comparisons to the characters and privileged environs of Evelyn Waugh. (Castro, 6/19) In the Grayscale Chilean director Claudio Marcone draws us into the early mid-life crisis of a Santiago architect when he leaves his hetero marriage for a fling with a male tour guide. (Victoria, 6/23/; Castro, 6/28) A Woman Like Me No filmmaker expects that her last work, perhaps her most vital, will be an empathetic portrait of her own death from breast cancer. Alex Sichel begins her report to us before we glimpse her face with a piece of Buddhist mediation on death. “The point is, we’re all going to die. It sounds so obvious, but that’s the point that I won’t accept. Somehow I’m going to

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from directors Christine Zeidler & John Mitchell’s Portrait of a Serial Monogamist.

be the exception. It’s crazy!” Completed by sister filmmaker Elizabeth Giamatti, A Woman Like Me speaks to mortal beings across the universe.

(Roxie, 6/20) The Royal Road Jenni Olson’s evocative film poem to California’s most fabulous highway, the 600-mile-long El Camino Real, begins where all good films about film should, by quoting the master Billy Wilder from his 1950 masterwork Sunset Blvd. The image of William Holden’s character floating upside-down and very dead in Gloria Swanson’s mad character’s swimming pool is too good to improve on, and so far nobody has.

But Olson makes a very imaginative and tres literary stab by beginning

constituent wonders. Sangaile is another in a series of troubled butches, who cuts her inner arms with the sharp point of a metal compass in the privacy of her parents’ designer chalet. Director Alante Kavaite isn’t in it for the gore, don’t worry. Fortunately, the poor little rich girl meets a populist femme at an airshow who sweeps her off her feet. Auste’s bohemian universe is the perfect cure for Sangaile’s social alienation. The camera, the costumes, the sensitivity of this co-production from Lithuania, France, and the Netherlands evokes the healing dream world of true love.t her journey with the chapter heading, (1) “My Hollywood Love Story.”

Yes, friends, we all have them, and Olson’s don’t disappoint.

Many moons ago it took me four hours to complete the drive from an East San Jose radio station to my Castro-area flat. I was working on a radio doc on the slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. I was so exhausted I had to pull over every 30 minutes for a quick cat nap in my news car. Imagine my pleasure when Olson’s The Royal Road proves a speedy delight, without rest stops or sleepy moments. (Castro, 6/19; Elmwood, 6/22) How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) Thai director Josh Kim explores the impact his country’s military draft lottery has on one working-class family. (Castro, 6/20) All About E Australian director Louise Wadley builds her feature around the life of a top Sydney club DJ. (Castro, 6/22; Piedmont, 6/24) Alto Mikki del Monico’s debut feature has a uniquely queer-friendly angle on a New York mob-family tale. (Roxie, 6/23) Beautiful Something Joseph Graham offers multiple takes on Philadelphia boys in love. Beautiful Something becomes a night in the lives of gay characters of all ages, with time flashbacks that resemble those in the Gus Van Sant classic Elephant. (Castro, 6/22) Portrait of a Serial Monogamist Canadians Christine Zeidler & John Mitchell explore Toronto’s See page 32 >>

<< Out&About

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

Out &About

O&A

Thu 25 Ian Mackinnon at Heart of Pride

Fairyland

by Jim Provenzano

M

agical creatures are starting to appear, the super-queer and the ultra-fey. These appearances are all building up to the final weeks of Pride celebrations.

Thu 18 Abbey Road Night @ Martuni’s Maria Konnor hosts the third Thursdays sing-along night at the intimate martuni bar, this time with a group performance of the entire Beatles album, with Andy Woodhouse (bass) and Marilyn Mitchell (guitar).

6:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Barbary Coast Revue @ Balancoire The third season of the popular cabaret show returns, with Danny Kennedy as Mark Twain, a cast of diverse performers, and new guest performer Connie Champagne.

Thursdays weekly thru June. $14-$64.

8pm. 2565 Mission St. at 22nd. www.BarbaryCoastRevue.com

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh Echo Brown’s comic solo show follows a young women’s impending sexual encounter, and its political implications. $20-$35. Thu 8pm. Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru July 25. 1062 Valencia St. at 22nd. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

The Book of Mormon @ Orpheum Theatre The mega-hit musical comedy (nine Tony Awards and a Grammy) by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez returns. $60-$225. Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru June 27. 1192 Market St. (888) 746-1799. www.BookofMormonTheMusical.com www.shnsf.com

The Cable Car Nymphomaniac @ Eureka Theatre FOGG Theatre’s hit musical comedy about wild news headlines from San Francisco’s past, including sex-crazed gal, returns. $30-$35. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru June 28. 215 Jackson St. www.cablecarnympho.com

Club Inferno @ Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious rockin’ production of Kelly Kittell and Peter Fogel’s glam rock musical spin on Dante’s The Divine Comedy, where the road to fame can be hell, literally! $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 8. 575 10th St. at Bryant. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Sampson McCormick, Karen Ripley, Bobby Golden, and host Lisa Geduldig tell jokes you don’t have feel guilty to laugh at, with a special Pride theme. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. (800) 838-3006. www.elriosf.com

Dr. Katrina Kimport @ Books Inc. The author of Queering Marriage: Challenging Family Formation in the United States reads from and discusses her new book. 7pm. 2275 Market St. 864-6777. booksinc.net

Frameline 39 @ Various Cinemas San Francisco’s International LGBTQ Film Festival, with opening and closing nights at the Castro Theatre, screenings also at The Roxie, The Victoria, and The Rialto (Berkeley) and Piedmont (Oakland). Thru June 28. $12-$160 full pass www.frameline.org

Fresh Meat Festival @ Z Space The 14th annual trans-inclusive mini-festival of dance, music and comedy includes opera singer Breanna Sinclaire, acapella band The Singing Bois, folkloric dance with Colombian Soul, the sassy Natasha Muse, samesex ballroom champs Robbie Tristan and Ernesto Palma, singer-songrwiter Shawna Virago, and Sean Dorsey Dance. $15. 8pm. (ASL Interp. June 19). Thru June 20. 450 Florida St. at 17th. www.freshmeatproductions.org www.zspace.org

Full Frontal Comedy @ Lookout Yuri Kagan headlines a night of comedy at the castro bar, with Chey Bell, Carrie Avritt, Kelly Lynch and host Valerie Branch. Dinner and drink combo $12. Door $5. Show 8pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Grey Gardens, the Musical @ Gough Street Playhouse Custom Made Theatre’s production of Scott Frankel, Doug Wright and Michael Korie’s musical based on Maysles’ brothers’ disturbing documentary about Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, and their sad decline into obscurity and poverty. $20-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru June 21. 1620 Gough St. at Bush. 7982682. www.custommade.org

Julia Fordham @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko British singer performs music from her hit album Porcelain, and other songs, with accompanist Grant Mitchell. $35-$50. ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 6631063. www.juliafordham.com www.ticketweb.com

Love and Information @ Strand Theater

Thu 24 Mariette Pathy Allen’s TransCuba

The inaugural performances at American Conservatory Theatre’s new satellite theatre; Carol Churchill’s kaleidoscopic play captures the dizzying array of electronic communication that helps and hinders true human connection. $40-$100.

Tue-Sat 7:30pm [note earlier curtain time]. Wed & Sat 2pm. Sun 2pm & 7pm. Thru Aug. 9. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

t

QueerFail Festival @ The Luggage Store Radar Presents a four-day mini-fest of alt/queer readings, shot films, drag and more, including author Michelle Tea and Jack Halberstam, Virgie Tovar, Maggie Nelson, Brontez Purnell, Ali Liebegott and others Closer “Epic Fail” with a dozen-plus Sister Spit readers and performers in Jack Kerouac Alley (261 Columbus Ave), June 21, 2pm. Free-$5.

998 Market St. Thru June 20. www.luggagestoregallery.org www.radarproductions.org

(X)change @ Counterpulse New mini-series with performers from Zürich and locals sharing unusual performance works, including June 19’s Some Thing at The Stud bar.

Thru June 21. www.counterpulse. org/?tribe_events=xchange/

Sat 20

Lesbian/Gay Chorus performs with SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band

One Man, Two Guvnors @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Porchlight: Flip the Switch @ Verdi Club

Richard Bean’s comic update on Carlo Goldini’s The Servant of Two Masters, with biting one-liners, satire, live music and a bit of cross-dressing, is about a doltish butler who’s trapped between two bosses. $29-$89. Wed & Sun 7pm. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru June 21. 2025 Addison St. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

The fascinating storytelling series celebrates 13 years with a special edition: Kelly Beardsley (BART operator), Tara Jepson (actor comic skateboarder), Scott Kravitz (animator) and David Lynch (restauranteur). $15-$20. Drinks available. 8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. www.porchlightsf.com www.verdiclub.net

Fri 19 Absolutely Fabulous @ Exit Theatre Drag performances of scripts of the Jennifer Saunders comedy show this time include episodes “Poor” and “Birth.” $12-$25. 8pm. June 19 & 20, 26 & 27. 156 Eddy St. www.eventbrite.com

ACT UP Fought Back @ Magnet, LGBT Center, Women’s Bldg Three days of panels, discussions, performance, visual displays and memorials, focusing on the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power’s 25th anniversary of protesting and changing the course of AIDS at the 6th International AIDS Conference in 1990 in SF. Various times. Thru June 21. www.facebook.com/groups/ acfupreunion2014sf

AT THE ASIAN

Each and Every Thing @ The Marsh

Spring and summer mean later sunsets and late ‘til 9 PM on Thursdays and for just $5 afte architecture, galleries, special exhibitions, fun t artists. On first Thursdays, there are even cash programs. For more, visit www.asianart.org/t

Solo performer Dan Hoyle returns with his acclaimed show about about the slow-tech movement and how personal interactions outweigh technology. $20-$100. Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm, Sun 5pm. Thru July 18.

Mainstage Theater, 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Ethnic Dance Festival @ Various Venues 37th annual four-weekend dance festival of contemporary and traditional works by local and international companies. $15-$48.

2nd & 3rd weekends at Palace of Fine Arts. Week 3 (June 21) at YBCA. Thru June 27. www.sfethnicdancefestival.org

Faith Prince @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

6.18

The Tony-winning musical theatre actress performs Have a Little Faith, her collection of favorite songs from her past, present, and future. $40-$55 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Also June 20, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

NO WORLD

A SCREENING WITH HERB TAM AND 28 CHINESE ARTIST FAN LU

A Little Night Music @ Geary Theatre Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s lilting musical (based on the Ingmar Bergman Swedish film Smiles of a Summer Night) gets a lovely local production by American Conservatory Theatre, starring Patrick Cassidy, Emily Skinner, Karen Ziemba; directed by two-time Tony nominee Mark Lamos. $20-$140. Tue-Sat 8pm.

Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. (Out With A.C.T. June 3). Thru June 21. 415 Geary St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

Mount Misery @ Exit on Taylor Cutting Ball Theatre’s production of Andrew Saito’s drama about the Edward Covey plantation, where Frederick Douglass lived as a teenage slave; the property was later purchased by U.S. Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The play brings the two men together. $10-$50. Thu 7:30pm, Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm, Sun 5pm. Extended thru June 21. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

Outside the Frame @ Brava Theater Alternative film festival of social justice and politcally-themed queer shorts, features and documentaries, which includes pro-Palestine anti-Isreal Occupation films; presented by Queers for Palestine. All films are free. Thru June 21. 2781 24th St. outsidetheframefest.org

Passersby @ Hotel Rex First reading of Ben Montrym’s new musical, a high school comedic parody, at the hotel’s elegant lounge.

Cocktails and small plates available. $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 8571896. www.societycabaret.com

Stanley Clark @ Yoshi’s Oakland The master jazz bass guitarist performs with his band at the elegant nightclub/restaurant. $34-$64.

8pm & 10pm. June 20, 7:30pm & 9:30pm. June 21, 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Sat 20 Backstage @ Swissnex Lectures, round table discussion and performance/talk with Keith Hennessy about gender/queer research and law. $10. 12pm-5pm. 730 Montgomery St. www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. Reg: $25$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 4214222. beachblanketbabylon.com

Danny Creed @ Hotel Rex The vibrant pianist-singer tells travel tales, with accompanying songs, at the hotel’s elegant lounge. Cocktails and small plates available. $25-$45.

8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

t

Out&About>>

The Birthday Party @ Phoenix Theatre

Radical Presence @ YBCA

Harold Pinter’s darkly comic play about two strangers who invade a private party is produced by the award-winning Off Broadway West Theatre Company. $25-$40. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru June 27. 414 Mason St. #601. (800) 838-3006. www.offbroadwaywest.org

Don’t Dream It…Be It! @ Harvey Milk Photo Center Opening party and group photo exhibit of drag, theatre, music and gay life by multiple artists, including Daniel Nicoletta, Marques Daniels, Molly DeCoudreaux, Nicole FraserHerron, Sara Gobets, Jose A. Guzman Colon, Michael Johnstone, and others.

Reception with DJed music and host Peaches Christ at 6pm-10pm. Thru July 18. 50 Scott St. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org

Subtitled Black Performance in Contemporary Art, this new exhibit explores identity in a variety of media. $5. 12pm-10pm. Thru Oct. 11. Also, New Filipino Cinema June 11-June 28.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Robin Flower, Libby McLaren @ Freight & Salvage, Berkeley The folk duo perform music from their new CD, One Plus One. $23-$25. 8pm.

2020 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 6442020. www.thefreight.org

SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band @ Palace of Fine Arts Theatre The Lesbian/Gay Chorus joins the band, along with guest ensembles, for a 37th annual Pride Panama-Pacific Centennial concert, featuring music written for the 1915 S.F. World’s Fair. 5pm world’s Fair film. 7:15 book talk about the Fair; 8pm concert. $25. 3301 Lyon St. 255-1355. www.annualprideconcert.org

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

Sun 21 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

Beyond Marriage: a Bold LGBTQ Agenda @ New Valencia Hall SF Socialists host a homemade brunch and discussion about the human rights needs beyond same-sex marriage. $8. 12pm-4pm. 747 Polk St. wwww.radicalwomen.org The weekly LGBT TV show, with updates on current events. 9:30pm. www.outlookvideo.org

Pacific Worlds @ Oakland Museum

Queer Ballroom @ Symbolic Dance Same-sex dancing, with lessons, open floor dancing and fun. 4pm-9pm. 672 South Van Ness Ave. 305-8242. www.QueerBallroom.com

er hours at the Asian Art Museum. We’re open er 5 pm, you can spend an evening with our talks, lively gatherings and intimate hangs with bars, DJs and more. Here are some upcoming thursdays

Mon 22 30 Years of Collecting Art That Tells Our Stories @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit of collected drawings, paintings and sculptures from three decades of queer donations, guestcurated by Elisabeth Cornu. Free (members)-$5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Tender Ness @ Martuni’s

6.25 7.02 7.23

ARTISTS DRAWING CLUB: TESTIMONY

WITH ELIZA GREGORY

MEMES, PUNS, AND SELFIES:

A LOOK AT CHINESE DIGITAL CULTURE

ARTISTS DRAWING CLUB: YOUR PIECE

WITH AHREE LEE

Asian Art Museum Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture

200 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 @asianartmuseum

Marga Gomez @ Center for Sex & Culture The lesbian comic presents the newest version of Pound, her lez-sploitation film parody solo show. $12-$15. 5pm & 8pm. Also June 21. 1349 Mission St. www.margagomezpound. brownpapertickets.com

Melancholy, a Comedy @ The Marsh Sara Felder’s solo show about a lesbian college student’s romantic entanglements while researching Abraham Lincoln’s depression. $15$100. Sat 5pm. Sun 7pm. Thru June 28. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www. themarsh.org

Out for Sustainability Picnic @ Golden Gate Park Join OUT4S for an outdoor hangout and BBQ to connect LGBTQ folks interested in environmental and social action. Free. 12pm-2pm. Dahlia Dell, Golden Gate Park. www.out4s.org/ picnic-sf-2015/

Summer Solstice @ Daughters of the Goddess, Lafayette Women-only Dianic celebration of the earth, Midsummer, seasonal changes.

Details at: www.daughtersofthegoddess.com

Trouble Cometh @ SF Playhouse Richard Dresser’s dark comedy about two executives stuck in an existential crisis as a deadline looms. $20-$45.

Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm.

Sun 2pm. Thru June 27. 450 Post St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Wuvable Oaf @ Isotope Comics Ed Wolf showcases his new collection of sexy wacky gay bear comics, hot off the press; tunes by DJ Bearzbub. 7pm.

326 Fell St. 621-6543. www.isotopecomics.com

Xenia (screens June 24), one of the featured films at Frameline 39

OutLook Video @ Channel 29

New exhibit focuses on the contemporary lives of and historic cultures of Pacific Islanders and California; thru Jan. 3. Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact thru Sept 20. Also, photographer Marion Gray: Within the Light thru June 21; Free/$15.

Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

ART MUSEUM

Thu 18

Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley

Crooner performs a variety of genres; art song, cabaret, classics and ballads.

7pm. 4 Valencia St.

Veronica Klaus @ Oasis Our local award-winning chanteuse performs her hailed Peggy Lee Songbook concert, with the Tammy Hall Trio. $25. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 24 Follies @ Oasis Holotta Tymes hosts the new weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Long-Term Survivor Project @ SF Camera Work Exhibit of AIDS-themed works by Hunter Reynolds, Frank Yamrus and Grahame Perry; Programs about HIV survivorship. Thru July 18. 1011 Market St. 487-1011. www.sfcamerawork.org

Portraits and Other Likenesses @ Museum of the African Diaspora Exhibit of contemporary works and historic exhibits of African cultures, with a shared group of works from SF MOMA. Thru Oct. 11. Free/$10. 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore Barch Porras-Hernandez and Blythe Baldwin cohost the wild reading and performance series, with special guests. 7pm. 2919 24th St. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Tue 23 Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.”

Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday’s Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

John Bankston @ Rena Bransten Projects Exhibit of colorful cartoon-like paintings by the local gay artist. Thru July 3. 1639 Market St. 982-3292. www.renabranstengallery.com

Orquesta Victoria @ Various Venues Several performances by the amazing Buenos Aires 12-piece tango orchestra – with tango dancers – in a CD release party and Bay Area concert tour. June 23: $5, 7pm reception at Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission St. June 24: $26-$30, 8pm, Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. June 25: $20-$25, 8pm, Mission Cultural Center.

June 26: $26-$32, 8pm, Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter. June 27 in San Anselmo, June 28 in Palo Alto.

734-6478. VillaCrespoProductions.com

OUTspoken @ City Hall Outspoken: Portraits of LGBTQ Luminaries, an exhibit of photographs

by Roger Erickson. Ground floor, North Light Court. Thru Sept. 11. 1 Carlton B. Goodlet Place. sfgov.org

Thu 25 Double Duchess @ Oasis The hip hop/bounce duo - Krylon Superstar and davO- perform live, very live versions of their new CD, All Eyes on Me, with back-up dancers and beguiling visuals. $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Heart of Pride @ SafeHouse Arts Celebrate mid-Market queer arts at two nights of performances – Ian Mackinnon’s Gay Music Revolution (June 25, 8pm), Evan Johnson’s Pansy (June 26, 8pm) and a Go Bang!

T-dance with DJs Rabbit Sonic, Mezame, Steve Fabus, Sergio Fedasz, Prince Wolf and Bus Station John (June 27, 12pm-9pm). 1 Grove St. www.safehousearts.org

Jarrod Spector @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The very talented vocalist, who starred as Frankie Valli in the hit musical Jersey Boys, performs his new cabaret show, A Little Help From My Friends, which includes songs by Valli, The Beatles, Queen, Billy Joel and others. $35-$50 ($20 food/drink min).

Also June 26. 8pm. hotel Nikko, 222 Mason st. (866) 663-1063. hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx www.ticketweb.com

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s Sip a cocktail and enjoy the poetry of writers Dean Kostos, Blythe Baldwin, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, and Joe Wadlington, with host James J. Siegel.

No cover or drink minimum. 7pm8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Night Begins the Day @ Contemporary Jewish Museum

Wed 24 Queer Youth in Focus

Queer Youth in Focus @ Laurel Books, HRC Store Touring version of Rachelle Lee Smith’s Connecticut LGBT youth photo exhibit (vandalized by homophobes in its first showing) and photo book comes to the Bay Area. Laurel Books, June 24, 7pm, 1423 Broadway, Oakland (www.laurelbookstore.com).

HRC Store, June 25, 7pm, 575 Castro St. Other California venues (check website) www.rachelleleesmith.com/ speakingOUT/

Tom Bianchi @ Scott Nichols Gallery Fire Island Pines: Polaroids 19751983, a sexy and historic exhibit of the famed gay photographer’s early Polaroids and prints (reception with Bianchi June 25, 5pm). Tue-Sat 11am5:30pm. Thru July 15. 49 Geary St. 4th floor. 788-4641. www.scottnicholsgallery.com

Subtitled Rethinking Space, Time, and Beauty, the new exhibit focuses on 25 contemporary thinkers, scientists and designers; curated by Renny Pritikin; thru Sept. 20. Also, Tzedakah Box, Bound to be Held: A Book Show, Lamp of the Covenant ; lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12.

Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 6557800. www.thecjm.org

Revival @ St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church Page Hodel spins classic grooves at this Shanti-sponsored HIV survivor gathering. 6pm light dinner. 7pm10pm dancing. 1661 15th St. at Julian. www.shanti.org

TransCuba @ Rayko Photo Center Photo exhibit of the prints by Mariette Pathy Allen of Cuba’s transgender residents. Also, in the side gallery, Jamil Hellu’s “Darrin,” a series of homoerotic photos of his partner.

Reception for both, 6pm-8pm. Thru July 31. 428 3rd St. 495-3773. www.raykophotocenter.com To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

<< TV

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

Pride is the new programming

by Victoria A. Brownworth

J

une is Pride Month. We would love to see LGBT programming all over the tube, but alas, the portal to that parallel universe has yet to open, even on a Joss Whedon show or Orphan Black. The gayest thing you are going to see for Pride is season 3 of Orange Is the New Black, which debuted ahead of itself on June 12 and which you can see any time you want, episode by episode, or binge the whole season on Netflix. The show that launched Laverne Cox (and put her in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum this week) and a host of other relatively unknown actresses of color is back with a vengeance. We love OITNB, and we are oh-so-happy that Netflix brought the new season out for Pride.

Other than OITNB, there is a wee bit of Pride programming on the tube, but like Netflix, you’ll have to search for it and pay for it. Nevertheless, some of it might just catch your (gay) fancy. According to Comcast, “Frameline has selected an eclectic mix of LGBT independent film titles that will be made available to Xfinity TV subscribers on Xfinity On Demand, and online to the general public at Xfinity.com/LGBT.” HBO has always had some gay programming over the years. For Pride month they are hawking their classic gay wares by giving us glimpses on YouTube and Twitter that showcase previous LGBT movies and specials with gay (and one lesbisexual) narratives under the heading LGBT on HBO: Every Story. Every One. It’s not a lot, though, and hardly “every story,” so don’t get too excited. Plus, HBO is still pushing Girls as their “lesbian” show. Uh, no. Not even close. Just because women are having sleepovers doesn’t mean they are actually lesbians, no matter what Lena Dunham thinks “queer” is.

HBO is going to be airing some of these past treasures (check your listings). They tout Looking, of course, Girls (see above), and Angels in America (fabulous, but really, how many times can you watch this without the ugly cry?), as well as some documentaries (The Out List, and previews of the upcoming Larry Kramer documentary). There is also the Emmy-winning feature film The Normal Heart, and HBO’s big lesbisexual bio pic about Bessie Smith, Bessie, which debuted on HBO to almost no fanfare last month (why didn’t they just save it for Pride month?) when we were in ICU with a pulmonary embolism.

Bessie was directed by black director Dee Rees, who previously directed the lesbian feature film Pariah, which we loved. That film debuted at Sundance and won numerous awards, including the 2012 GLAAD Media Award. Rees’ new film, the story

of which was written by her and As children we hear relatives the renowned Horton Foote, is say that they could “eat us up,” a star vehicle for Queen Latifah, we are so adorable. Hannibal an icon in her own right, as the never got out of that phase. famous bisexual blues singer.

But unlike the crass utterance Oscar winner Mo’Nique plays of Hopkins’ Hannibal “I ate Ma Rainey. Khandi Alexander, his liver with some fava beans who tore up the small screen and a nice Chianti,” or his last season as a terrorist who crasser commentary to Clarice was also Olivia Pope’s mother Starling that he could smell on Scandal, plays Bessie’s older her c***, Mikkelsen’s Hannisister, Viola. Rees wanted to bal is a Michelin star chef. His incorporate Bessie Smith’s bimeals are prepared with the sexuality into the film, and in an delicacy of a Renaissance man. interview last month with HuffNo matter how offal the dish, PostLive and another with BET, it is presented exquisitely, with Rees said she created the charsauces au jus, edible flowers acter of Lucille (Tika Sumpter), and brightly colored heirloom one of Smith’s lovers in the vegetables. A ceviche with a film, to give viewers a picture of fern frond and a cannabis leaf.

Smith’s bisexuality and her love A pate of liver (human liver) for women as well as men. with a bed of plum-colored “Lucille is a composite charlettuce, ripe, sensual figs and acter, kind of a made-up charan artful scattering of blackCourtesy Netflix acter,” said Rees. “I knew that berries. A darkly comedic pot Bessie had had relationships Laverne Cox in Orange Is the New Black. pie with the lid removed. Only with both men and women, if we look closely do we see it and I wanted to show her as is a miniature pastry replica and black communities by telling a woman who took humanity on a of Hopkins’ Hannibal’s face mask, Oprah that she doesn’t like labels case-by-case basis. She loved who propped against the meaty stew inand doesn’t like to be called either she wanted to love.” side the pastry shell.

African American or lesbian, she is Rees also noted that the fluidity Hannibal spends hours on his both, and that should, along with of sexuality among black entertainfeasts, and presentation is everything. her dramatic hairstyles and flair for ers in the 1920s was well-known The incomparable beauty of the doing some out there things on the and not hidden. “People, especially dishes somehow cuts the horror of show, bring in the missing demoentertainers, I think they watching his guests eat other humans, graphic The View has exhibited this freedom unknowingly. Even Eddie Izzard’s Dr. been searching for. that really empowered Abel Gideon ate his own flesh in the Also on the tube for them. They all have lyrseason 3 opener. We understand that Pride month is the reics about gay and lesbian Hannibal might not be for everyone. turn of gay showrunner people,” Rees said. “It’s On some level the homoerotic dance Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal interesting because I between Hannibal and Dr. Will Graon NBC, which debuted feel like maybe in some ham is so deeply closeted that we season 3 on June 4 to ways they were more should be bothered by it; yet their overwhelmingly rave freer with that expresobsession with each other and Will’s reviews. We were an sion back then than repeated failed attempts at heterosexearly fan of this show, they are even now.” uality are just so compelling. which is not like anything else on Bessie is definitely worth watchIf you need non-stop action, lots the tube. Beautiful, lush, interior, ing for Pride month or any month. of dialogue and interstitial comedy, grisly, intensely homoerotic, HanniQueen Latifah is just extraordinary.

Hannibal is not the show for you. We bal is not just a cannibalistic feast, As good as she was in Chicago, she is understand that Dialogues with the it is a sumptuous visual, aural (that all that and more in Bessie.

Cannibals might not be everyone’s Brian Reitzell score is extraordimorsel of marrow. But if you are nary) and intellectual repast.

Lesbian view willing to let this show wash over you Yes, Hannibal is a horror show.

ABC’s The View is still playin all its visceral glory, you will be reBut the interior landscape of the ing musical hosts as the network warded. It’s just the most extraordishow (the June 11 episode had virdecides whether or not to scrap nary drama on the tube. Fuller’s mad tually no dialogue over the course the long-time ratings- and Emmygenius is indeed mad. But intensely, of its dreamy, surreal hour) and the grabber. But the short-lived return breathtakingly mesmerizing. cinematic quality pull the viewer of Rosie O’Donnell and other flareWe just have to say how much into this shadow world where law ups at the show have made for a we enjoyed the très gay 2015 Tony enforcement fails to enforce and dicey season. Yet just in time for Awards on CBS. Tony winners Alan has no power over the consummate Pride month, The View has brought Cumming and Kristin Chenoweth (and consuming) mass murderer in a new lesbian co-host, the highly had pitch-perfect chemistry and that is Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Mads controversial Raven-Symone of The camped it up brilliantly. Cumming, Mikkelsen is simply genius as the Cosby Show and That’s So Raven one of our fave gay stars, opened the cannibal who feeds his men and fame and just this season, Fox’s hit show wearing a lavender shorts suit women bits and pieces of his endrama Empire. and said, “Good evening, ladies and emies, his friends, themselves. His Raven-Symone has been a guest gentlemen, and those of you who is a brilliantly understated perforco-host 37 times, and at 29, now don’t identify as either.” Perfect. mance. Where Anthony Hopkins joins Whoopi Goldberg, Nicolle Chenoweth, who has always been a camped and vamped up Hannibal, Wallace and Rosie Perez as the friend to our community, was the Mikkelsen goes in the opposite diyoungest member of The View perfect foil to Cumming all night, rection. His Hannibal is calm at all team. Although Raven-Symone lost graciously in the midst of the times. In the opening scene of the famously angered both the LGBT evening (she was up for her role as June 11 episode, Mikkelsen’s HanniLily Garland in On the 20th Cenbal takes a small, scythe-like knife tury), and moved seamlessly on. and pulls Will (Hugh Dancy) to him For us, the five big wins for our in the most visceral of embraces. He old pal, lesbian cartoonist, memoirholds Will tight, tighter, tightest. His ist, MacArthur fellow and all around hand grazes Will’s face, his mouth Dyke To Watch Out For Alison brushes his neck, all as he plunges Bechdel, for Fun Home, was fantasthe knife into his liver in the most tic. Bechdel’s lesbian memoir turned sensual and sexual of scenes. Make musical, about growing up lesbian no mistake, this is erotica of a highly with a closeted gay dad, took best stylized and, if one looks too closely, musical, best book, best direction deeply disturbing nature.

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The Trojans

From page 21

The first two acts are titled The Capture of Troy and feature a very different but likewise agitated leading lady at the center of attention.

For most of the run, soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci sings the part of Cassandre(a), mythic princess of Troy, cursed (everyone thinks she is crazy) with the gift of prophesy.

Michaela Martens will make her SFO debut in two performances as she portrays Virgil’s legendary partypooper, but, while Antonacci scored

thrillingly in a role she is already famous for, there is little worry the production will diminish without her.

With so much to recommend it, original director David McVicar’s masterful exercise in crowd control and gripping spectacle should prevail, especially if the musical values stay at such a high level. There is much to thank conductor Donald Runnicles for in that department. The former music director of the SFO and himself a recipient of the San Francisco Opera Medal in 2009 has returned to the podium for the entire run. His reputation for mastery of the long

t

and best actor in the brilliant Michael Cerveris (who also co-starred this past season on The Good Wife).

One of the most moving scenes during the Tonys was Sydney Lucas, the 11-year-old actress who plays Small Alison in Fun Home, singing about the excitement of seeing her first lesbian. It’s a remarkable performance and for those of us who are gay, just emotionally gutting.

Every so often we win, and win big.

Bechdel’s win, Fun Home’s win, was a win for our people. If you missed the Tonys, some of the best bits are available on YouTube, including Cumming and Chenoweth reversing roles for The King and I, with Chenoweth, 4’11”, as the King, and Cumming, just under 6 feet, in a lavender ball gown with a bonnet as Anna. Priceless. And oh so gay.

Speaking of gay, we were sorry to see the black lesbian chef T Gregoire not win Hell’s Kitchen this week (she came in second to the unbeatable Meghan Gill, who was incredible). It would have been a great Pride month moment. But we have to say how much we appreciate how there are always lesbian and/or gay contestants on Gordon Ramsay’s cooking shows.

This season of Hell’s Kitchen had several gay contestants, including Nick, who made it to the final six, and there are gay contestants on Master Chef.

We loved watching the butch T rule the kitchen, and we loved seeing her partner and daughter in the family segments and the finale.

These moments of realness matter to us, and are an aspect of Pride we know matter to those still hanging close to the closet as they watch from Middle America. So brava to T Gregoire for being out and proud and getting this close to the win.

Finally, Pride month may be half over, but the summer season is just ramping up, and new shows and returning faves will continue to air throughout the coming months.

One of the best dramas debuted June 13 on BBC America and should not be missed. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a limited series based on the stunning first novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. The book, which we loved, is “an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, based on the premise that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange.” Peter Harness (Wallander) has adapted the quixotic 1,000-page novel for the small screen, and it is brilliant. The perambulations of the two men of the title, the way fantasy is melded into everyday life, the suspension of disbelief in which magic is a very real if covert art – it is all compelling.

With Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan) as Mr. Norrell and Olivier-winning and Tony-nominated actor Bertie Carvel (Miss Trunchbull in Matilda on Broadway) as Jonathan Strange, this is a tour de force.

So for as much gay as you can find here and there, for the new and the returning, for a riveting performance

by Queen Latifah (when, oh when, will she come out?) and for some sumptuous eats on Hannibal, you know you really must stay tuned.t form is wonderfully maintained, and he received some of the most heartfelt and thunderous ovations of the afternoon. Runnicles’ control may have smoothed over some of the exquisite orchestral detail, but his timing still allowed for appreciation of the big arias and choruses without dawdling or rushing things along.

Ian Robertson’s SFO Chorus also assumed their most demanding assignment in years with characteristic aplomb. The epic starts and ends with big choruses, and extended See page 31 >>

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Fine Art>>

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Rainbow effect

by Erin Blackwell

C

olor is in the eye of the beholder, which is to say the mind or brain. Depending on whether you’re a honeybee or a finch, an octopus or a green tree boa, life will offer you wildly varying existential delights, torments, and terrors. You will either see as a predator, be seen as prey, or both. Homo sapiens yankee, to give our subspecies a name, is so blinded by the artifice of pixels, patterns, and publicity, we tend to overlook that master colorist of Planet Earth sometimes called Nature.

The California Academy of Sciences seeks to refresh our memories and expand our understanding in the newly opened Color of Life.

Cal Aca Sci, as it’s known, spent years brainstorming and $3 million making their in-house, multi-kiosk, infotaining grab-bag of naturebased spectacle comprising specimens living and dead, aquariums, terrariums, aviaries, video, audio, interactive screens and cameras, bleachers, a disco, and a black vinyl pouf. According to boyish and high-powered director of exhibits Scott “Tigger” Moran, the theme of Color began as biodiversity, aka the inescapable interdependence of all living things. This fact of life, routinely dismissed by corporations and property developers, was judged insufficiently exciting as the basis of a show that will run years.

As Moran explained to a petulant adult whining about the lack of indepth signage, 50% of visitors are families with kids. Indeed, the security-guarded members’ preview I attended was gridlocked by two-seater prams. Such is show biz.

There’s a lot to see, hear, touch and wonder at. more than I could take in during two hours of expert chaperoning by the bright minds who devised the show. Kyra Bowling, senior exhibit project manager, said the trick was to render the story of Color in ways that appeal to all learning modalities: tactile, verbal and visual. She oversaw a dozenplus designers whose individual contributions merge seamlessly: architecture, interactive gizmos, graphics, and content. Not to mention the special needs of live specimens, who need fresh water, tidy environments, full mouths. Ah, the wizardry of exhibitry! The hidden pipes, wires, and thermometers!

The result is slickly deceptive.

The live star of the show is the female Hawaiian Day Octopus, a creature whose neural network is the envy of our brains, able to change color at will, instantly, as well as skin

texture. Must be seen to be believed!

Her species was described by the late, great marine biologist Jacques Cousteau as “somehow ethereal, and at the same time elaborate, elegant, and mischievous.” Lady Gaga, not her real name, was caught off the coast of Oahu, where she is said to be “common,” an insult refuted by a minute in her captivating, albeit captive company. Although she might never know the thrill of having sperm introduced into her mantle cavity by a mate’s hectocotylus arm, she could inspire children who can’t keep their hands off the glass to grow up to be environmentalists.

She’s got a one-year average lifespan to achieve that goal.

The electronic star of the show is something out of a 1950s sci-fi film: two semi-circular walls wrapped around a black vinyl pouf for the weary. The walls are huge, gently curved flatscreens that respond not to touch but to color-coded strings running top to bottom. These can be plucked, tapped, or strummed to emit notes and call forth images of correspondingly colored animals.

Not being burdened by a need to know how the effect is achieved, I simply marveled at the magic. This could become the go-to show for partakers of medical marijuana.

While others pluck away, watch groovy colored bubbles from the comfort of a pouf.

Color reminds us that how we see and are seen is one of life’s great mysteries. No matter how much rational minds think they can explain, they’ll never fathom the infinite creativity of Nature. From the aesthetic standpoint, which is to say emotion as an end in itself, color is endlessly compelling. Van Gogh’s genius lies in an obsessive application of color in evocation of the energy emanating from natural forms. To stand before his sunflowers or starry sky, cornfields or crows, is to feel the essence of what it means to be creature among creatures alive under the sun.

If he’d been a scuba diver, he’d have painted those multicolored bastions of biodiversity called coral reefs. One welcome note of doom in this otherwise upbeat carnival is a photo of a coral reef leeched of color by Death, courtesy of polluting humans. Let it be a lesson to us.t CAS, Golden Gate Park, SF. $34.95 for adults; $29.95 youth 12-17, seniors ages 65+, students with valid ID; $24.95 for children 4-11; free for children 3 and younger. Mon.Sat., 9:30 a.m.- 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. calacademy.org, (415) 379-8000.

David Liittschwager

Surge damselfish (Chrysiptera leucopoma). This yellow fish darts in and out of coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, its colorful pigments flashing vibrant hues.

presented by

THE SING-ALONG JUNE 26, 8 P.M. JUNE 27, 3 P.M. JUNE 27, 8 P.M. NOURSE THEATER with guest artist BREANNA SINCLAIRÉ

TICKETS AT SFGMC.ORG OR (415) 392-4400 California Academy of Science

Green tree python (Morelia viridis). When baby green tree pythons first stick their snouts out of their leathery eggs, they’re vibrant yellow or brick-red. As they mature, these color-change artists turn green.

SEASON 37 IS SPONSORED BY

THE OFFICIAL AIRLINE OF SFGMC

<< Music

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

The golden touch

by John F. Karr

H

ere’s a pair of new Broadway cast albums: one classic show is reconstructed, while another is deconstructed.

First is a recording I’ve been waiting for all my life, and I’m not kidding. It’s amazing that decades had to pass before a complete recording of The Golden Apple was made (especially when NYC’s Encore series has been so suitably well-equipped for the job). The show was a smash in 1954, and you’d better get its OBC [Original Broadway Cast] if you don’t know it. You’ll find you do know the score’s stand-out ballad, “Lazy Afternoon.” To fit the constricted length of that vinyl LP, only 45 minutes of the show were recorded. Now we have all 135 minutes, on a double-CD set recorded by PS Classics during live performances by the Lyric Theatre of Irving, Texas.

A regional theatre, yes, but with an impressive and thoroughly professional talent pool. The performers may lack the unique eccentricities and quirks of the irrepressible performers heard on the 1954 OBC (how can you beat Kaye Ballard, Jack Whiting, Stephen Douglass, Charlotte Rae?), but the Texas talent

are excellent singers who flesh out their characters just fine.

The show was composed by Jerome Moross, whose most famous work is the sweeping theme from the movie The Big Country. And here’s the show’s gay connection. The Golden Apple has lyrics by John Latouch (pronounced, Latoush), who also wrote lyrics for Cabin in the Sky, The Ballad of Baby Doe, and for Candide (but not for “Glitter and Be Gay,” as most people think; that’s by Richard Wilbur). Touch, as he was known, has been described as a charmer and a drunk, outrageously out (at least by 1940s standards), and a thorough scamp. I remember reading his scurrilous lyrics for naughty supper-club songs. He was the lover of poet Kenward Elmslie, and died while working on Candide, in 1956, only 42 years old. Officially, from a heart attack, but I suspect that ol’ devil, drink.

The Golden Apple tells the story of the Iliad and the Odyssey, reset in a rustic, turn-of-the-19th-century America. For instance, traveling salesman Paris carries off farmer’s daughter Helen in a hot-air balloon. And while the setting is novel, it’s the show’s form that is unique.

In the entire history of the musical, there isn’t another show completely

through-composed in a pop vernacular of waltzes, reels, rags, blues, stomps, and vaudeville numbers.

Even the recitative can set toes tapping (I wish Andrew Lloyd Weber had paid some attention while writing the intolerable Phantom of the Opera recit). It’s a little overwhelming on first hearing, a tsunami of show tunes. Remember, there is no book, per se; it’s all lyrics, and it’s all music. A popera.

The first act’s “Windflowers” is as tender and lyric a ballad as Baby Doe’s “Willow Song.” But I veer toward Act II. It’s such a wonder, in the sweep and surge of its melodic invention, and the sheer toe-tapping joy of its set-pieces.

When Ulysses’ men win the fight to get Helen back, defeated local Mayor Hector plots revenge in a splendid soft-shoe. He’ll knock off Ulysses’ men one by one, throwing all the lures of the big city at them in the form of a series of music-hall turns. There’s Circe, the woman

without mercy, and the procuress, Madam Calypso (sung by a performer with the throaty allure of Ann Reinking). There are the con men Scylla and Charybdis (with a Gallagher and Shean routine in which Latouch tickles us with Scylla, villa, chinchilla, gorilla, and sars’parilla), and there are the Sirens, seducing with a Hawaiian spoof (“let’s spoon-a, spoona, spoon-a, in a goona, goona, goona lagoon”).

For Ulysses’ ultimate return home, the recording restores the composer’s original bittersweet ending, replacing the 1954 reprise of the show’s main love duet. The producers back then insisted on the show having a happy ending. The actual happy ending is that we can now hear The Golden Apple in its full, adventurous, and rather fantastic form.

Now, what about the other album’s deconstruction? I haven’t seen this show An American in Paris, but an uncomfortable lis-

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ten to its OBC suggests it’s a fine souvenir for those who have. As a separate entity, I found its numbers shrill and shredded. Over half the album consists of instrumental Gershwin concert pieces. They’re fine to accompany a ballet one is watching, perhaps, but with abridgments, mash-ups, reduced orchestrations and tinny recorded sound, anybody in their right mind would prefer Lenny B. and the New York Philharmonic. That leaves 11 songs that whisk by in 37 minutes. They’re mostly the same Gershwin standards that have been recycled and recycled again in a couple of recent shows. In an effort to make them seem fresh, they’re subject to convoluted arrangements that switch to another ostensibly novel effect every four or eight bars, with dance arrangements that sound sorely distressed. I doubt I’ll ever listen to this clangorous album again. Unless seeing the show makes me want to hear a souvenir.t

Family affairs

by Jim Piechota

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson; Graywolf Press, $23 n her last literary foray The Art of Cruelty, LA-based poet, author, and critic Maggie Nelson creatively examined the conundrum of whether exposure to acts of cruelty desensitizes us and exacerbates our capacity for barbarity. Her new book The Argonauts delves into Nelson’s struggles with becoming sober, finding love, and creating a family, all while pondering art and sharing a few introspective thoughts on the notion of nor10:17 AM malcy.

The book veers in and out of Nelson’s private life with her love interest, the nomadic transgendered artist Harry Dodge, going into their efforts at babymaking and familycentric happiness, then shifting to social ruminations and thoughtprovoking, digressive critical theory. From the beginning, it’s clear she has a lot on her mind. When she declares her love for Dodge, it is done while engaging in some rather rough anal sexplay with “my face smashed against the cement floor of your dank and charming bachelor pad.” A few steamy afternoons are spent together on Christmas vacation in San Francisco, “smack in the middle of the cracked-out Tenderloin.” Nelson compares her “I love you” to Dodge with “the Argonaut renewing his ship during its voyage without changing its name.”

An intensely private person, Dodge, upon reading the first draft of the book, feels as if her representation of him throughout the text is tarnished somehow. He “has told me more than once that being with me is like an epileptic with a pacemaker being married to a strobe

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light artist,” Nelson writes. She ponders gender fluidity. Dodge, who identifies as male, was born female and began testosterone hormone therapy during Nelson’s pregnancy, both of them emerging with new bodies and changing purposes.

“Our bodies grew stranger, to ourselves, to each other.” That doesn’t mean that the journey was an effortless one, especially for Dodge, whose identification still lists him as female. “When a guy has cause to stare at Harry’s driver’s license or credit card, there comes an odd moment during which their camaraderie as two dudes screeches to a halt.”

Nelson dismisses her own pregnant physical shape as “obscene,” radiating “a kind of smug autoeroticism: an intimate relation is going on – one that is visible to others, but that decisively excludes them.”

Careening from one subject to another, Nelson addresses the “sharply private activity” of breastfeeding, and comments on life from a renter’s perspective, “which in-

volved never lifting a finger to better my surroundings. When it gets to be too much, you just move on.”

Nelson’s discussion on heteronormativity and the “decriminalization of homosexuality” is sparked by a Snapfish photograph of her, seven months pregnant with Iggy, posing with Dodge and his son, at Christmastime. A friend comments that the picture is so traditional that it doesn’t seem like a queer family at all. There follow pages of lucid thought on family, gender, perception, and the valiant LGBTQ movement for radical equality. “If we want to do more than claw our way into repressive structures, we have our work cut out for us.”

Nelson writes best about her own family. A night’s outing to a trapeze-burlesque show with a fivemonth-old strapped to her chest is met with rejection by the “jovial Australian bouncer,” who contends that the show is 18+ and her child in a sling would nix other patrons’ “adult night out,” with its cultivated “cabaret atmosphere.”

Nelson also processes themes of pregnancy, childbirth, and feminism by referencing German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s epic disquisition Bubbles, and poet-activist Mary Oppen’s autobiography Meaning a Life. Other references pluck novelist Jonathan Franzen out of the mix for his depiction of women and a reference to “aging-female insecurity” in his novel Freedom.

For such a slender volume, the book contains a lot of heady subject matter on the nature of sexuality, the elements that comprise a contemporary family unit, assimilation vs. revolution, and how the exploration of one’s personal identity can become both an inward process and an outward declaration.t

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Music>>

June 18-24, 2015 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Women of courage & humanity

by Philip Campbell

T

he San Francisco Opera’s world premiere of Two Women (La Ciociara) by Italian composer Marco Tutino opened last Saturday to a tumult of grateful cheers and wholehearted applause. The enthusiastic ovation could be heard coming from both sides of the curtain at the War Memorial Opera House.

The second offering in the company’s 2015 summer season, cocommissioned by SFO and Teatro Regio di Torino, triumphantly vindicates the mission of general director David Gockley, conductor Nicola Luisotti and director Francesca Zambello to create an instantly accessible music drama for audiences made wary of new works by too many hit-and-miss experiences.

Inspired by Alberto Moravia’s novel and Vittorio De Sica’s 1960 film starring producer Carlo Ponti’s wife Sophia Loren, Tutino and Fabio Ceresa have fashioned a libretto encompassing the author’s political philosophy and the film director’s gritty neo-realism that still allows abundant lyrical expression.

Brimming with melody and lush orchestral detail, the “neo-romantic” composer’s score may be more aptly described as “neo-verismo.”

Considering the many horrific aspects of the story, it is amazing to discover so many soaring interludes and catchy tunes within the intense drama, but Two Women is an Italian opera after all, and the ultimate message of reconciliation merits the rich and moving musical background.

Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci (also singing in the summer season’s blockbuster The Trojans) has more than enough strength and passion to make an unforgettable impression as Cesira, La Ciociara (or roughly The Woman from Ciociara) of the title. Surprisingly diminutive, Antonacci is still bigger than life as a complicated woman of indomitable courage and humanity. She commands the stage in her grueling assignment with a performance that will likely define her much-admired career. Thanks to her, Cesira will also probably be

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Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Anna Caterina Antonacci as Cesira and Sarah Shafer as Rosetta, Cesira’s daughter, in composer Marco Tutino’s Two Women.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Anna Caterina Antonacci as Cesira at the fountain in Two Women.

remembered as Tutino’s best writing for the female voice in his current catalog of 15 operas.

Soprano Sarah Shafer as Cesira’s daughter Rosetta is also effective, convincingly portraying the torment and vulnerability of a 16-yearold robbed of her innocence. The tender sympathy she drew from the audience was real.

In smaller roles, current Adler Fellow mezzo-soprano Zanda Svede and Buffy Baggott are also compelling as the young mother Lena and the oblivious Italian mama Maria.

Avowedly influenced by Verdi, Puccini and Richard Strauss, the composer has also supplied some wonderful writing for the men.

American tenor Dimitri Pittas (SFO debut) as the young intellectual Michele is heartbreaking in his steadfast loyalty and moral conviction.

Baritone Mark Delavan as the detestable Fascist spy Giovanni (a role invented for dramatic contrast in this realization) recalls his recent star turn as Scarpia in SFO’s 2014 Tosca, with convincing menace. He was good enough at being bad to earn hisses from the audience at the final curtain.

Baritone Edward Nelson (Adler Fellow/SFO debut) scores as a young American Air Force lieutenant, and bass-baritone Christian Van Horn is also noteworthy as the

heartless Nazi field marshal Fedor von Bock. Making his SFO debut in the second act, Italian singersongwriter Pasquale Esposito as an Italian singer is naturally authentic.

The first act takes a while to grip the audience, but the longer second half builds momentum to an intense level of connection. When the saga reached the shattering pivotal episode of the mother and daughter’s gang rape by Moroccan soldiers (mercifully offstage), everyone was utterly (and sometimes audibly) involved.

Francesca Zambello’s direction is predictably efficient (only occasionally fussy), and her cinematic device of staging dual scenes side-by-side proves highly effective in Act II. The sets by Peter J. Davison and

the lighting by Mark McCullough are more than serviceable, and the action moves with technical ease, but the evocative projection design

by S. Katy Tucker makes the strongest impact. Actual WWII footage underlines the sorrow and the pity of Italian refugees overwhelmed by the atrocities and confusion of war, and Tutino’s score is beautifully in synch.

When plot devices threaten to turn a little too pat near the end (no spoilers from me), the stage picture frames the beautiful reunion of mother and child finally in a transcendent vision of hope. It seems like a return to the essential musical power of opera may be the most innovative aspect of Two Women.t

The Trojans

From page 28

crowd scenes require exceptional acting and singing abilities. Dressed in the rich costumes of designer Moritz Junge and moving believably in step with revival director Leah Hausman’s careful re-creation, they added great dramatic impact.

Of the other excellent members of the cast, tenor Bryan Hymel showed remarkable stamina and ringing purity of tone as Didon’s tormented lover Enee (Aeneas).

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke also (and predictably) delivered a sympathetic portrayal of Didon’s sister Anna. Baritone Brian Mulligan as Cassandre’s skeptical betrothed Chorebe (Coroebus) was especially strong, holding up to Antonacci’s pyrotechnics with comparable passion, and Adler Fellow tenor Chong Wang sang a hauntingly beautiful lament in the last act as Helenus (he sang the role of Hylas in Part 1).

In keeping with the full presentation of the vast score, ballet interludes were included. An athletic ensemble of acrobats and dancers fleshed out the surprisingly mediocre maneuvering of the production’s original choreographer, Lynne Page (associate choreographer here: Gemma Payne).

The famous Royal Hunt and Storm opening Act IV sounded great, but was confusing in context with the dancers attempting gamely to further the plot in a vague combination of mime and dance routine. It was a small complaint amidst the many

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Tenor Bryan Hymel as Enee in Berlioz’s Les Troyens.

amazing theatrical and musical riches.

The monumental sets by Es Devlin and the vivid lighting by Wolfgang Gobbel (Pia Virolainen for SFO) are themselves a worthy reason for attending.

The reasoning behind McVicar’s moving the action to the period of the composition, and costuming Trojans and Greeks in attire of the Crimean War, seemed somewhat needless (okay, history often does repeat itself), but at least it afforded the design team free rein. A grim and spooky vision of doomed Troy and a gorgeously sundrenched contrasting picture of Carthage were simply eye-popping, and we wouldn’t want to miss that breathtaking mechanical Trojan horse, either.

The Trojans continues at the War Memorial Opera House on Sat., June 20; Thurs., June 25; and Wed., July 1.t

FAITH PRINCE

SIMPLY BARBRA

MELISSA MANCHESTER

June 19 - 20

June 27 - 28

July 10 - 11

For tickets:www.feinsteinssf.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street 855-MF-NIKKO | 855-636-4556

098286.01_HNSF_2015_Bay_Area_Reporter_6-18 ROUND #: MECH Trim: 5.75in x 7.625in

Bleed: none

Live: 5.75in x 7.625in

Color Space: CMYK

<< Music

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • June 18-24, 2015

Transmusical trance

by Tim Pfaff

C

onspirare’s new recording of Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles (Harmonia Mundi) feels like far more than just the latest issue in the series by this exemplary American chorus led by its brilliant, out director, Craig Hella Johnson. In keeping with the work’s subject matter, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain, this recorded performance feels more like a culmination, a recognition of having reached a stage on a journey.

It’s a summation of the musicians’ ambitious, multifaceted and scrupulous work to date in a work that asks everything of them, and returns more. A feeling of ritual hangs over Path of Miracles from beginning to end – it emerges from, and falls back into, deep silence – and this consummately virtuosic piece quickly becomes, for the listener and surely for these a cappella choristers, a transmusical experience, an hour-long trance.

About that beginning. You’re nearly a half-minute into the piece before there’s an intimation of sound. Seemingly wordless, and at first not definitively the sound of

<<

Frameline 39

From page 25

lesbian scene from the perspective of a high-voltage TV producer who enters each affairette with a prewritten breakup speech. (Victoria, 6/20; Roxie, 6/27) Seashore Brazilians Filipe Matzembacher & Marcio Reolon follow the plight of teen boys Martin & Tomaz when the death of Martin’s grandfather initiates an exploration of their huge country and the boundaries of their friendship. Hitting a roadside rest stop, the boys engage in some frisky horsing

human voices, a widening tendril or vector of sound gathers energy that, despite there being no pauses of any kind, grows steadily, and increasingly rapidly, into a shatteringly loud, multi-lingual hymn to Santiago, a plea for divine help. The plea peals out twice, before you have pause to wonder (if you do) how a chorus of mixed voices can sustain that swelling sound without break over minutes. What you don’t hear is breathing, compounding the mystery.

In a fascinating note, Talbot – a British composer of a broad spectrum of music, all of it to one degree or another theatrical – explains that while still a student, he heard on the radio a choir of Taiwanese Bunun aboriginals performing just such a transcendent chant, building from within, and decided then that if he were ever to write a choral work, it would begin that way. Path of Miracles, commissioned by the British chorus Tenebrae and first performed and recorded in 2005, did just that. What seems remarkable now is that it is a feat that could be repeated, let alone as rapturously as Conspirare has.

A close friend made the actual, physical pilgrimage to Santiago de

Compestela a few years back, and the more modern miracle of Facebook allowed a fortunate number of us to follow his daily journey. In Talbot’s music, at once deeply grounded yet unearthly in the best sense, there’s no mistaking his having literally been on that path, too, communicating musically from four of its principal stations, Roncesvalles, Burgos, Leon and Santiago itself. “We sleep on the earth and dream of the road,” the chorus sings wearily to poet Robert Dickinson’s English text. “We wake to the road and we walk.”

At one level, it’s a work of confounding complexity. Texts, in addition to Dickinson’s poems, include verses in Greek, German, Latin and 13th-century French. Often those texts overlap. The mix is so heady, so intoxicating, that sometimes you’re several lines into a stanza in English – sung as clearly as you could expect human voices to render it – before you realize it’s your own language, only to have it evaporate into another tongue, or what feels at times like “absolute” music. The strangeness of saints’ lives – in this case that

around, with accompanying salty language.

“You’re not running away!”

“Get off!”

“Faggot!”

“Animal.”

“Animal? Don’t you know how to curse? Silly.”

“Stinky.”

“Sour dick.”

“Hairy butt.”

The talk soon turns to miniature golf, with all the infantile/teen slang of getting it in the right hole in the fewest possible strokes. The fact that these very cute teen boys are rapping in Brazilian with is odd

cadences adds juicy frisson to what could be a real festival hit. (Victoria, 6/21; Castro, 6/25) Two 4 One Adam, a successful transitioning MTF transman, suddenly finds himself drawn back into his old life and old body when an ex-girlfriend, Miriam, asks him to help her get pregnant. Adam takes a very long walk off an unexpectedly short pier when the insemination process renders him pregnant at precisely the moment when his new male identity is about to be rewarded with an engineering job at a very macho-centered firm. Canadian Maureen Bradley covers the gender

I am the future of the LGBT community.

I’m gay.

I’m 20 years old. I’m out to my parents. I love parties, the beach, and believe it or not, sports. I have a boyfriend, and we like to laugh at dumb online videos.

But I also read the news. I care about the planet. I’m studying Engineering at college. I voted in the last election and and I campaign for marriage equality.

Someday I might want to have kids.

I am the future of the LGBT community. And I read about that future every day on my smart phone. Because that’s where I want it to be.

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

of Saint James, “His arm in England, his jaw in Italy” and his soul everywhere along this pass through the Pyrenees – rubs elbows with geography and theology.

The choral writing, which transits the range from the penumbral, rumbling, black-bass sound redolent of Russian liturgical music to the most evanescent of treble ostinatos, seems constantly changing, mystifyingly unified and consistently at the limits of what human voices can do – all without sounding gratuitously extreme. Rhythms, too, are intricate, pulsing, overlapping, waterfront with this quirky comedy on transgender identity that’s challenged by home-insemination baby-making. (Victoria, 6/20; Elmwood, 6/25) After Love Austrian director Marc Jago presents a noir-influenced B&W love triangle involving revenge in the world of rent boys and call girls. (Roxie, 6/24) Carmin Tropical “They say your actions and the past always return hand-in-hand. And I say it because having to come back and explain things I once did isn’t among my priorities. I don’t think anyone should be judged for their mistakes, especially when you’re not old enough, or are too inexperienced to understand something called life.”

Rigoberto Perezcano directs one of the festival’s darkest dramas, about the murder of the central character Mabel’s best friend. This exciting mixed-genre fiction piece revolves around the life and feelings of Mabel, a Mexican transwoman.

(Roxie, 6/19) Floating! The story kicks off with two German lesbians, Jana & Katha, in bed discussing which of them is to be inseminated to produce their desired bundle of joy.

Before you can blink, Katha has been abducted by friends and coworkers to a lake resort, where she meets Momo, their potential male sperm donor. Uncomfortable with this – Katha wants to raise the kid in a brave new world where there are no male daddies – Katha soon finds herself intoxicated on good wine and surprisingly drawn to an old male flame. Director Julia C. Kaiser explores the semi-comic crises that bedevil this “perfect” lesbian couple on the verge of marriage and childbirth. (Roxie, 6/21) Liz in September “Death is God’s greatest betrayal!” This portentous catchphrase whirls through the mind of Eva as she drives from Caracas to join her husband and son for a summer vacation retreat.

Car troubles intervene, and the kindly gas station/repair guy directs Eva to stay with a feisty group of lesbians while he puts her car up on the rack. Venezuelan director Fina Torres updates Last Summer at Bluefish Cove for a Caribbean cluster of friends. Liz is the one unattached girl at what promises to be a party-down affair. (Castro, 6/19; Piedmont, 6/22) Guidance Canadian director Pat Mills’ feature-film debut observes the pratfalls of a former child star,

t

sustained in some overarching pendular balance. These musicians, who can do anything, seem only to revel in it, never calling attention to themselves while building vaulting cathedrals of sound.

The second time I listened to the piece, it was clear how barely I had scratched its surface the first time, and so with each listening. Still, that first time I had listened, transfixed, for the entire 60 minutes, kept safe from mind-wandering.

In context, what’s as remarkable is how personal the music – and singing – is. It’s not just that when individual voices or sections lift out of the larger fabric the effect is beautiful. But Talbot’s vivid, individual music at its largest, its busiest, never loses sight of the human element, of people, and then collectives of them, undertaking a journey of the soul. The final section, capturing the experience of the pilgrimage’s goal, joins a pair of hymns to a stanza that speaks eloquently of the whole: “We have walked out of our lives/ To come to where the walls of heaven,/ Are thin as a curtain.”t David Gold, as he assumes the identity of a high school guidance counselor named Roland Brown.

This droll satire builds on the firm premise that English Canada itself is an absurd domain. In the opening scene we observe our hero recording a commercial on self-esteem for straight women in a seedy studio.

David’s take is interrupted by the engineer.

“David, cut, cut. David, are you drunk again?”

“No, I just had a little drink at lunch.”

“It’s 9:30 in the morning.”

“So? I don’t judge when you eat lunch.”

“Okay, I was going to wait until after the session to tell you this, but apparently our female customers would like the voice of a heterosexual man feeding them their affirmations!”

“Excuse me?”

“Think about it. These women want a straight man to tell them how to love themselves.”

“I’m not gay, I just have a gentle voice.”

“David, you’re gay. Accept yourself as you are, and all your problems will disappear.”

“I don’t have any problems. I don’t have a drinking problem.”

“And your denial problem.”

“I’ve never liked working with you.”

“Okay, you’re fired!”

A character who bottoms out in the first two minutes of a dark comedy is worth sticking to for the whole nutty 80-minute ride. Anyone who hires this guy as an example for the youth deserves everything they get.

Rated H for hilarious homo satire.

(Castro, 6/23) Jason and Shirley Stephen Winter dramatizes the tensions behind the scenes of a 60s cinema verite classic. In 1967, Shirley Clarke scandalized and excited New York’s underground cinema buffs with Portrait of Jason, an Oscar-winning provocation based on 12 hours of interviews with a queer African American. Jason Holliday appeared to lay it all out for the Jewish woman director: a lifestyle fueled by booze, pills and outsized ambitions. With a cast headed up by Bryan Webster and Sarah Schulman, Winter attempts to demythologize the grand act of mutual manipulation. (Victoria, 6/23)t frameline.org

39

40

Pre-Pride parties

41

Flippered Out

NIGHTLIFE

SPIRITS

DINING

Hitched cocks

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

LEATHER

PERSONALS Vol. 45 • No. 25 • June 18-24, 2015

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

Edge Media

BARtab

&

beckon

NYC nightlife and entertainment this summer

Robbie Sweeney

Background: Grand Army Plaza herald’s Brooklyn’s entrance to Prospect Park Foreground Cut-Out: Darren Criss in Hedwig and the Angry Inch MidGround Top: Dancing at Lovegun. Mid-Ground Bottom: Zanele Muholi’s queer-themed portraits at Brooklyn Museum

Joan Marcus

BARtab

by Jim Provenzano

T

hey say that Brooklyn is the Oakland of Manhattan. While the comparison certainly has its flaws, there is a sort of fraternal affair on either side of the water for the two regions. And even a new East Bay housing project has been dubbed Brooklyn Bay. Here is a plan for a fabulous summer escape east, where we share the joys of Brooklyn’s cultural and natural splendor, with a hot weekend dose of Manhattan and Brooklyn clubs, and Broadway hits with a queer edge.

See page 34 >>

eOn the–T5abf June 18 2

H

M

ultiple events in one day, sofa-surfing friends in from out of town, parties and dances and shows; RSVPs and will-calls … on whose phone? Whose phone is ringing? Request to join the ‘Boycott Pride for its Facebook sell-out’ posted on Facebook?

Will a Supreme Court decision ruin your brunch?

The rainbow tempest is in a swirl. Get the deets here before you go gaily forth. FULL EVENT LISTINGS START ON PAGE 36

Thu 25 Double Duchess @ Oasis

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

ASIAN ART MUSEUM

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

#28CHINESE

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

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

34 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2015

t

fronds, Venus Fly Traps, and even a display of ornate bonzai trees showcased the floral diversity of our planet.

Among the plates identifying flora in the greenhouses and adjacent rose gardens are a few possible drag names like Chanelle Floribunda and Silver Queen.

Art Abounds

BARtab

Top two photos: The placid Prospect Park includes a lake, open fields and fine florals. Bottom two photos: Exhibits at the Botanic Gardens include greenhouses, bonsai exhibits, a rose garden and Japanese gardens.

<<

Brooklyn & Broadway

From page 33

While one can certainly recall the stereotypes about Park Slope, seeing some of them in bloom is amusing and a bit of a relief. It’s nice.

The heart of Park Slope, 5th Avenue, is near many parks, cultural venues and late nights amusements.

Yes, the baby stroller, toddlerscooter, double-dog-walker clusters at intersections make it all seem like a sidewalk daycare center. But the expanses of trees on residential blocks, the array of beautiful churches, and the occasional back yard afternoon counter any disdain towards the hipster cafes.

Numeorus restaurants have an appeal, but if visiting for more than a nights, pick up some groceries at the nearly Key Foods, one of several nearby. Although the Brooklyn gays may not be quite as visible as in Chelsea, the Key Food even had a stack of issues of Gay City News.

Speaking of which, publications to read before and during your trip include Gay City News (www.gaycitynews.nyc), Next (www.nextmagazine.com) and Get Out (www.getoutmag.com), along with The New York Times and others, of course.

Nature calls

Walking or biking tours around Brooklyn lead to trails along the piers, and through winding park treks. With its gates at Grand Army Plaza serving as an awesome en-

trance, Prospect Park, Frederick Law Olmstead’s minor masterpiece (compared to Central Park), includes open fields (mostly empty, with clusters of kids playing at recess games), a cute lake with resident swans and geese, and lots of open and shady space for relaxaton.

Prospect Park is of course much smaller than Central Park, but retains that balance of natural and tarted up landscaping. Open fields echoed with the joyful screeches of packs of school children at recess, and a lone reader under a huge elm (or oak?) proved the tranquility of the fields. At a corner of the park near the small zoo, a historic house from ‘ye olden farming dayes,’ a large circular water fountain, a roller rink and a carousel offer diversions.

But it’s really about the surprising amount of park space in this area.

Of course, my own curiosity about plants and trees could have been solved with a few apps, including Leaf Snap and Plant Net. The phone apps let you take a photo and identify the species.

Plants of all types were identified by small nameplates throughout the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, (www. bbg.org) which are adjacent to Prospect Park, across Flatbush Avenue.

This highly manicured park includes a rose garden, Japanese minilake and landscaping that’s quite beautiful.

The greenhouse displays of tropical, desert and other climates were amusing and fascinating. Huge

Near the Botanic Garden entrance, the Brooklyn Museum beckons with a stately edifice and five floors of historic and contemporary fine art classics (www.brooklynmuseum.org).

Also, the museum isn’t as crowded as Manhattan venues, and visitors can enjoy many minutes alone in a room to contemplate the beauty of several classic works, and discover new ones as well.

Modern exhibits included an expansive exhibit of works by JeanMichel Basquiat, another focusing on South African photographer Zanele Muholi’s documentation of LGBT lives, including a glamorous butch lesbian wedding. Even Judy Chicago’s impressive classic The Dinner Party remains breathtaking.

The Egyptian rooms were deliciously spooky, with sarcophigi, statues, and more, and included a thousands of years old scroll of The Book of the Dead.

The serene and spacious arrangement of paintings around the big atrium offers many classics. Along with a Henri Fantin-Letour and a few Monets, atrium showcases a ring of classic portraits and impressive lesser known works.

In other wings, among those of gay interest, the homoerotic lesser-known classic, gay painter John Koch’s The Sculptor.

A contemporary favorite was Sanford Biggers’ Blossom, a playing piano with a tree growing out of it.

Along with hundreds of treasures, one can find Rodins at rest, Nouveaus Tiffany lamps, and even a smaller version of Antoine Bourdelle’s Herakles hidden away in the glass cases of the fascinating Visible Storage Room, where works not on display are, well, still on display in glass cases.

Brooklyn bars

BARtab

The Brooklyn Museum’s exhibits include Top Left: Sanford Biggers’ Blossom Top Right: John Koch’s homoerotic masterpiece The Sculptor and Bottom: Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party

Brooklyn bars include Left: Ginger’s, Right: Metropolitan, and Insert: Spectrum.

After the quiet museum serenity, the borough’s streets energize anew.

For a more urban appeal, areas near the Clock Tower are busy as any major train intersection would be Atlantic Terminal will take you anywhere, from Manhattan to Long Island. Nearly discount stores, a show arena, and a constant flow of traffic rival Manhattan’s.

But there are plenty of other amusements in the Brooklyn side.

But what about the Brooklyn bars?

See page 35 >>

t <<

Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 18-24, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

Brooklyn & Broadway

From page 34

For a solid jukebox selection, friendly staff, and classic cocktails, Excelsior caters to gentlemen and can be relaxed in its early hours, and the outdoor patio and garden are sweet. But the bar, which has receieved top honors from many local publications, gets a bit rowdy for its drag shows hosted by Lavinia Draper and at benefits for local charities. 390 5th Ave. www.excelsiorbrooklyn.com Women into women don’t have to be redheads but are especially welcome at Ginger’s, where their G-spot is located at 363 5th Avenue.

Popular Happy Hours, Karaoke nights, and Bingo are among their events. www.gingersbarbklyn.com For unconventional nightlife, the intimate Happy Fun Hideaway attracts all manner of queer folk since it opened a year ago, specifically for its weekly Fade to Pink parties, Gurl and the after-party for the annual Bushwig Drag Festival. 1211 Myrtle Ave. www.facebook.com/HappyfunHideaway Among the newer clubs, Lovegun offers trashy fun with Manhattan style. The owners of Eastern Bloc, Bedlam and Atlas Social Club (including Anderson Cooper’s beau Benjamin Maisani) gave the space a complete makover/under (with tacky graffiti and neon signs), and many travel to Brooklyn just for their drag shows, hot gogo guys and drinktastic events like Trigger, Trade and Drink & Draw. 617 Grand St. www.lovegunnyc.com For a relaxed afternoon of beer and barbeque, Metropolitan’s big yard provides ample space for its ten-year history of attracting diverse

Joan Marcius

Top Left: Broadway Tony winner Fun Home. Bottom Left: the witty Something Rotten. Right: Justin Vivian Bond’s Swallow Your Pride.

patrons. Alternative rock and electro, plus disco days and the Wednesday Girls Girls Girls night provide fun to shake it up, too. 559 Lorimer St. www.metropolitanbarny.com Over in East Williamsburg, the ultra funky Spectrum is both a makeshift nightclub and a community art center with dance and wrestling classes. Nightlife events range from

drag and glitter raves to cabaret shows and costumed club kid-fests.

May’s Ova the Rainbow was a recent success. 59 Montrose Ave. www.facebook.com/TheSpectrumBK Despite its scifi underground tunnel look, This n That is cozy, with a long bar, ample booths, and a range of events to amuse. Rage is the wilder of events, along with Truth or Bare, Take It Off, and Thorgy, a raucous drag show. 108 North 6th St. www.thisnthatbrooklyn.com You just missed the thousands of gay comic nerds who dressed up and had fun at Brooklyn’s for the first ever FlameCon, held at the Grand Prospect Hall on June 13.

Check out the fun comics and their plans for 2016 at www.flamecon.org Also, Brooklyn’s warehouse-filled area, complete with a little bridge over a canal, offers late night ice cream on a rooftop, live bands and barbeque, gallery parties, and even a game bar with shuffle boards. While not specifically LGBT, these venues welcome any patrons looking for fun.

Juicy Apple

Brooklyn’s Flame Con

EDGE Media

Manhattan bar highlights: Top: Fly Sundays at Monarch, Bottom: Brut at Santos Party House

Of course, a trip to Manhattan’s a part of any New York adventure.

Broadway offers a wide array of fabulous shows. Some have particularly gay themes that’ll please.

The multiple Tony winner Fun Home, based on Alison Bechtel’s acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel, is enjoying a burst of deserved acclaim. With songs like “I’m Changing My Major to Joan,” the lesbian teen elements are heartfelt, along with the family tragedies.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the Tony-winning Broadway revival of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s transgender rock musical, is a favorite among LGBT fans, and deservedly so. Adding Darren Criss as the star in this edition only made it more fun. With contemporary inside-Broadway jokes, and a few Criss-specific one-liners, the San Francisco-born Glee actor embodied the role and obviously had fun. Near front-row audience members like myself got an up-close view of his antics, including spits of bottled water, a lap dance and some bawdy face-licking. The woman whom he slurped that night may never recover! Criss plays Hedwig through July 19, after which Taye Diggs takes on the wiggy role.

Other current Broadway hits include Kinky Boots, Something Rotten, Finding Neverland, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and the long-running powerhouse Wicked are just a few of your many theatrical choices. For more listings,

visit www.playbill.com However, Times Square itself may induce a sudden case of the crowd-phobia after emerging from the 42nd Street subway. Snap a few photos, photo-bomb a group snap session with the Naked Cowboy (who still isn’t naked), and divert your path from the tourist hordes around the Hard Rock Cafe.

Although more pedestrianfriendly with its central parklet, the entire area’s still a bit much. I did get a snap of Mickey Mouse and Minnie, who only days later was arrested for brawling with a Hello Kitty character.

Off and really off Broadway, other shows include the vast array

of Pride Weekend events. Former San Franciscan turned international sensation Justin Vivian Bond’s new show, Swallow Your Pride at The Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub June 27 and 28. www.justinbond.com You just missed Brooklyn’s Pride celebrations from June 7-13 – yes, they have their own smaller festival – www.brooklynpride.org And New York’s Pride takes place the same as San Francisco’s, June 28.

And like ours, there are hundreds of rainbow-themed events, including the classic massive Dance on the Pier and the Parade. www.nycpride.org See page 42 >>

<< On the Tab

36 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2015

Throwback Thursdays @ Qbar

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

Enjoy retro 80s soul, dance and pop classics with DJ Jorge Terez. No cover.

9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

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

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Hardbox @ Powerhouse

The wild queer hip hop party with DJs Boy_friend, DavO and Kelly Lovemonster your host. $10. 10pm2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

Music with local and touring bands June 18: Pretty Gruesome, The Rinds and The Hammerbombs. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. 11th anniversary night!! $4.

10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Fri 19 Faith Prince @ Feinstein’s

On the Tab

From page 33

Thu 18

Barbary Coast Revue @ Balancoire The third season of the popular cabaret show returns, with Danny Kennedy as Mark Twain, a cast of diverse performers, and new guest performer Connie Champagne.

Thursdays weekly thru June. $14-$64.

8pm. 2565 Mission St. at 22nd. www.BarbaryCoastRevue.com

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Muscle porn stud Nick Capra leads the very interactive event in the strip club’s downstairs arcade. $10. (Capra also performs onstage June 19 & 20).

729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Sampson McCormick, Karen Ripley, Bobby Golden, and host Lisa Geduldig tell jokes you don’t have feel guilty to laugh at, with a special Pride theme. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. (800) 838-3006. www.elriosf.com

Fauxgirls @ Infusion Lounge Classic drag revue (3rd Thu) with Victoria secret. Mini minerva Lulu Ramirez and other talents; dinner seating 7pm, show 8pm. 124 Ellis St. 421-8700. www.fauxgirls.com

Full Frontal Comedy @ Lookout Yuri Kagan headlines a night of comedy at the castro bar, with Chey Bell, Carrie Avritt, Kelly Lynch and host Valerie Branch. Dinner and drink combo $12. Door $5. Show 8pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland

Karaoke Night @ The Stud “Sing Til It Hurts” the new weekly night with hostess Sister Flora (Floozy) Goodthyme. 8pm; happy hour drinks til 10pm. 10pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night.

Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Fri 19

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

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

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Boy Bar @ The Cafe

Nick Capra @ Nob Hill Theatre

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Dancing Ghosts @ Cat Club

Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90cent drinks. ‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Enjoy a Dead Can Dance tribute (and CD giveaway) and dark tribal night at the monthly darkwave/goth DJed event with Xander, Tomas Diablo, Panic and Fact.50. $5-$8. 9:30pm2:30am. 1190 Folsom St. at 8th. www.dancingghosts.com

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Faith Prince @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

Sex & The City Live @ Oasis The popular drag parody performances of episodes from the HBO show about four Manhattan gal pals. $25 and up. Thu-Sat 7pm. Thru June 26. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

Thirsty Thursdays @ The Cafe Drink specials, Top 40, gogo studs and no cover. 9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

The Tony-winning musical theatre actress performs Have a Little Faith, her collection of favorite songs from her past, present, and future. $40-$55 ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm. Also June 20, 7pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Gay Wine Weekend @ Sonoma Wineries The annual popular weekend of tastings, dinners, parties and more takes place at several wineries and scenic restaurants. $75-$360. Partial proceeds benefit the SonomaCounty AIDS Network. Thru June 21. www.outinthevineyard.com

Passersby @ Hotel Rex First reading of Ben Montrym’s new musical, a high school comedic parody, at the hotel’s elegant lounge.

Cocktails and small plates available. $25-$45. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. 8571896. www.societycabaret.com

Porchlight: Flip the Switch @ Verdi Club The fascinating storytelling series celebrates 13 years with a special edition: Kelly Beardsley (BART operator), Tara Jepson (actor comic skateboarder), Scott Kravitz (animator) and David Lynch (restauranteur). $15-$20. Drinks available. 8pm. 2424 Mariposa St. www.porchlightsf.com www.verdiclub.net

Queer Sphere @ Club BnB, Oakland Meet & greet, happy hour and upstairs dancing with the LGBTQ BDSM folk. No cover. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.queersphere.net www.bench-and-bar.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 12pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. 10pm2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Stanley Clark @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Homo Thursdays @ Qbar Franko DJs the weekly mash-up/ pop music night. No cover. 2 for 1 well drinks, 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

The master jazz bass guitarist performs with his band at the elegant nightclub/restaurant. $34-$64.

8pm & 10pm. June 20, 7:30pm & 9:30pm. June 21, 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Julia Fordham @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Fri 19 Colin with Gehno Sanchez Aviance at Hardbox @ Powerhouse

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays. 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

The muscled daddy porn stud performs solo (8pm) and with Jon Shields (10pm). $25. Also June 20.

729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

The saucy women’s burlesque revue’s weekend show; different musical guests each week. $10-$20. 7:30pm. 314 11th St. Also Wed. nights at Oasis (298 11th St.). www.redhotsburlesque.com

Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

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

Red Hots Burlesque @ Beatbox

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm-8pm.

1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

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

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show continues, with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon

Manimal @ Beaux

Midnight Show @ Divas

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

Sat 20

The festive gogo-filled dance club, with host Lulu, features Latin pop dance hits with DJs Speedy Douglas Romero and Fabricio; no cover before 10pm. $6-$12. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. 2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

British singer performs muisc from her hit album Porcelain, and other songs, with accompanist Grant Mitchell. $35-$50. ($20 food/drink min.). 8pm.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 6631063. www.juliafordham.com www.ticketweb.com

Gehno Aviance brings boxer shortsclad gogos and boxing machismo to the demo fights and the cruisy SoMa bar, with grooves by DJ Guy Ruben; sports gear encouraged. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes host the weekly night with DJ Philip Grasso, gogo guys, drink specials, and drag acts.

10pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Cornelius Washington

<<

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Steve McQuarry & Tribu @ Cadillac Hotel Jazz concert with the six-piece local band. No cover. 12:30pm. 380 Eddy st. www.CadillacHotel.org

Fri 19 Nick Capra @ Nob Hill Theatre

Bourbon & Blanche @ The Residence Patty McGroin and Kit Tapata host and perform at a drag king and drag queen variety show, with Kylie Minono, Tora Hymen, and Piper Angelique. $5. 8pm. 718 14th St.

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland Get groovin’ at the weekly hip hop and R&B night at their new location. $8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway.

(510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Danny Creed @ Hotel Rex The vibrant pianist-singer tells travel tales, with accompanying songs, at the hotel’s elegant lounge. Cocktails and small plates available. $25-$45.

8pm. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.societycabaret.com

Don’t Dream It…Be It! @ Harvey Milk Photo Center Opening party and group photo exhibit of drag, theatre, music and gay life by multiple artists, including Daniel Nicoletta, Marques Daniels, Molly DeCoudreaux, Nicole FraserHerron, Sara Gobets, Jose A. Guzman Colon, Michael Johnstone, and others.

Reception with DJed music and host Peaches Christ at 6pm-10pm. Thru July 18. 50 Scott St. www.harveymilkphotocenter.org

Precompression @ American Steel Studios, Oakland Burning Man party at a huge art warehouse, with art cars, live performers, DJed music, food trucks, drinks and a fun Playa feel without the dust; Burner attire welcome. $20-$35. 6:30pm-2am. 1960 Mandela Parkway at 20th St. (510) 7767694. www.americansteelstudios. com www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/1673336

High on the Hog @ Epic Steak Benefit for Guide Dogs for the Blind includes a pork barbeque, a Pino Noir tasting, live music with The Henry Coopers, all in a scenic outdoor downtown venue. $65 and up. 1pm4pm. 369 Embarcadero St. 369-9955. www.epicsteak.com

June 18-24, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 37

Mon 22

Daniel Nicoletta

t

On the Tab>> 50 by 50 Tasting Party @ Universal Café

Sip and try new Pinot Noir wines from the Napa winery owned by Devo cofounder Gerald Casale, who will attend the event. 5pm-8pm. 2814 19th St. www.universalcafe.net

Monkey Business @ The Stud

Beat It! @ Oasis

Enjoy hijinks with host Phatima Rude, and deep house grooves with DJ Chris C. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Get back to the ‘80s at the retro dance night, with a black light room, and rad gnarly drink prices. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Mother @ Oasis

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe

Heklina’s weekly drag show night at the fabulous renovated SoMa nightclub; plus DJ MC2 and guests.

June 20 theme is Men in Make-Up (Kiss, Bowie, Boy George). Also, Glamcocks host an early party in the front Fez Room! $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night, 2014’s last of the year. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Out for Sustainability Picnic @ Golden Gate Park Join OUT4S for an outdoor hangout and BBQ to connect LGBTQ folks interested in environmental and social action. Free. 12pm-2pm. Dahlia Dell, Golden Gate Park. www.out4s.org/ picnic-sf-2015/

Robin Flower, Libby McLaren @ Freight & Salvage, Berkeley The folk duo perform music from their new CD, One Plus One. $23-$25. 8pm.

2020 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 6442020. www.thefreight.org

Tom Temprano Campaign Kickoff @ Oasis Drag, dancing and democracy at the fundraiser for the local gay political activist and club owner, with hosts Heklina and Sister Roma, DJs Taco Tuesday, Stanley Frank, Steve Fabus and more. $01. 1pm-5pm.298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Sat 20 Don’t Dream It...Be It! @ Harvey Milk Photo Center

Sun 21

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. 3pm-6pm.

Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Big Top @ Beaux Joshua J.’s homo disco circus night, with guest DJs and performers, hotty gogo guys and drink specials. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.BeauxSF.com

Brunch @ Hi Tops Enjoy crunchy sandwiches and mimosas, among other menu items, at the popular sports bar. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Daytime Realness @ El Rio Celebrate Heklina’s birthday bash, with performances by Sexitude, D’Arcy Drollinger, Kim Burly, Matthew Martin and others. DJs Carnita, Jenna Riot, MC2. BBQ while it lasts. $8-$10.

2pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle

Fri 19 Stanley Clark @ Yoshi’s

Celebrate two years of DJ Bus Station John’s delicious retro grooves. $5.

7pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Father’s Day Brunch @ Anzu Enjoy bottomless beer at the Hotel Nikko’s elegant bar/restaurant. 11am2pm. 222 Mason St.394-1100. www.hotelnikkosf.com

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

Salsa Sundays @ El Rio Salsa dancing for LGBT folks and friends, with live merengue and cumbia bands; tapas and donations that support local causes. 2nd & 4th Sundays. 3pm-8pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

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

2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

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

Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; shows at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:45pm. After that, T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Sunday Brunch @ Thee Parkside Enjoy $12 bottomless mimosas from 10am-3pm at the fun punk rock bar.

1600 17th St. 252-1330. www.theeparkside.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Mash Up Mondays @ Club BnB, Oakland Weekly Karaoke and open mic night; 9pm-2am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 7597340. www.club-bnb.com

Monday Musicals @ The Edge Sing along at the popular musical theatre night; also Wednesdays. 7pm2am. 2 for 1 cocktail, 5pm-closing.

4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

Mr/Miss Gay San Francisco @ Oasis

Ed Wolf showcases his new collection of sexy wacky gay bear comics, hot off the press; tunes by DJ Bearzbub. 7pm.

326 Fell St. 621-6543. www.isotopecomics.com

The Imperial Court and reigning Mr and Miss SF host a fun pageant and fundraiser. $25. 5pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Networking cocktail event at a scenic downtown rooftop for LGBTQ entrepreneurs. $10. 6:30pm. 44 Tehama St. www.startout.org

Tender Ness @ Martuni’s Crooner performs a variety of genres; art song, cabaret, classics and ballads.

7pm. 4 Valencia St.

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 23 Block Party @ Midnight Sun

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

Cock Shot @ Beaux Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey’s Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm. 500 Castro St. at 18th. 431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Gaymer Night @ Eagle No cover gay gaming fun on the bar’s big screen TVs. Have a nerdgasm and a beer with your pals. 8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Ink & Metal @ Powerhouse Show off your tattoos and piercings at the weekly cruisy SoMa bar night.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Meow Mix @ The Stud The weekly themed variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents; MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7. Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Strip down as the strippers do as well. $20. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Orquesta Victoria @ Various Venues

Morning After BBQ @ Oasis

Wuvable Oaf @ Isotope Comics

StartOut @ Galvanize

Wuvable Oaf @ Isotope Comics

No cover, no food, just drinks (Mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc.) and music. 2pm-9pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Dance, drink, cruise at the Castro club.

9pm-2am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Sat 20

Sunday Brunch, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire

Liquid Brunch @ Beaux

New weekly barbeque brunch on the newly opened rooftop deck, with Mimosas and Bloody Mary cocktails.

11am-3pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Sugar @ The Cafe

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s

Dance it up at the popular twiceweekly country-western night that includes line-dancing, two-stepping and lessons. $5. 5pm-10:30pm. Also Thursdays 6:30pm-10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. at Industrial. www.sundancesaloon.org

The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers.

DJed dance music 3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

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

New weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

Jock @ The Lookout

Saturgay @ Qbar

Opulence @ Beaux

Sat 20 Flower & McLaren @ Freight & Salvage

Several performances by the amazing Buenos Aires 12-piece tango orchestra – with tango dancers – in a CD release party and Bay Area concert tour. June 23: $5, 7pm reception at Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission St. June 24: $26-$30, 8pm, Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. June 25: $20-$25, 8pm, Mission Cultural Center. June 26: $26-$32, 8pm, Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter.

June 27 in San Anselmo, June 28 in Palo Alto. 734-6478. www.VillaCrespoProductions.com

See page 38 >>

<< On the Tab

Rich Stadtmiller

38 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2015

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440

Jarrod Spector @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

The very talented vocalist, who starred as Frankie Valli in the hit musical Jersey Boys, performs his new cabaret show, A Little Help From My Friends, which includes songs by Valli, The Beatles, Queen, Billy Joel and others. $35-$50 ($20 food/drink min).

Also June 26. 8pm. hotel Nikko, 222 Mason st. (866) 663-1063. hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins.aspx www.ticketweb.com

Thu 25

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the weekly gogotastic night of sexy dudes shakin’ their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (with a contest at midnight), and dance beats spun

by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Sun 21 Fun times at El Rio’s Daytime Realness

<<

Underwear Night @ Club OMG

On the Tab

From page 37

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

44 Castro St. www.the440.com

Switch @ Q Bar Weekly women’s night at the stylish intimate bar. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

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

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops

Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials; different hosts each week. $3. 10pm2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Veronica Klaus @ Oasis Our local award-winning chanteuse performs her hailed Peggy Lee Songbook concert, with the Tammy Hall Trio. $25. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 24 Booty Call @ QBar

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

Juanita More! and her weekly intimate –yet packed– dance party. $10-$15. 9pm-2am. 456 Castro St. www.qbarsf.com

Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

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

Double Duchess @ Oasis The hip hop/bounce duo - Krylon Superstar and davO- perform live, very live versions of their new CD, All Eyes on Me, with back-up dancers and beguiling visuals. $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Karaoke Night @ Club OMG Dana leads the weekly amateur singing night. 8pm. No cover. 43 6th St. 896-6473. www.clubomgsf.com

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s Sip a cocktail and enjoy the poetry of writers Dean Kostos, Blythe Baldwin, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, and Joe Wadlington, with host James J. Siegel.

No cover or drink minimum. 7pm8:30pm. 4 Valencia St.

Megaphone @ Temple Dance party in the downstairs floor of the downtown club, with DJs Chelsea Starr, Digital Wildlife, Juan, and Lady Kraft. $8. 9pm-2am. 540 Howard St. www.templesf.com

Tue 23 Veronica Klaus @ Oasis

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Hella Gay Comedy @ Club OMG Nasty Ass Bitch (aka Charlie Ballard) hosts a Pride edition of his LGBT and allies comedy show, with gay, queer and straight people all being funny. $10. 8pm. 43 6th St. 896-6473. www.ClubOMGSF.com

The dearly missed Cookie Dough’s weekly drag show continues, with themed events and cute gogo guys. $5.

9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

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

424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Pride Kickoff @ Virgil’s DJs Jenna Riot, Workalook and Lady Ryan shake up the grooves with former Lexington Club staffers who take over the bar for this Pride party. $5. 9pm2am. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Follies @ Oasis Holotta Tymes hosts the new weekly variety show with female impersonation acts, and barbeque in the front Fez Room. $20. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

Steven Underhill

PHOTOGRAPHY

Open Mic Comedy @ SF Eagle

415 370 7152

Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm.

398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Weekly women’s happy hour, with allwomen music and live performances, 2 for 1 drinks, and no cover. 5pm9am. 2344 Market St. beauxsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ Oasis The weekly women’s sexy strip show, with special guests. $15-$25. 8:30pm11:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. www.sfoasis.com

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall 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

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland Weekly LGBT and straight comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

La Garconne Gala @ SOMArts Natalie Coblentz and Stroker Production’s upscale butch dyke, drag king ball, where formal attire is de rigeur (not actually). Live music

by Lindsay Katt, Raven Marcus, Lex; drinks, dancing, photo booth, a fashion show of works by several designers, and more. $30-$80. 6pm-3am. 934 Brannan St. www.somarts.org

Revival @ St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church

Page Hodel spins classic grooves at this Shanti-sponsored HIV survivor gathering. 6pm light dinner. 7pm10pm dancing. 1661 15th St. at Julian. www.shanti.org

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 Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Tue 23

Delicious Sichuan specialties Tasty Dim Sum made fresh daily in-house

Orquesta Victoria @ Several Venues

Great selection of Belgian beers & California wines

Ji’

MaMa “As long-time residents of the neighborhood, we look forward to welcoming you to Mama JI’s.”

Kent Taylor

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Sum Dim

ner

& Din

4416 18th St. (Douglas & Eureka) San Francisco • (415) 626-4416 Visit us at www.mamajissf.com

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 18-24, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 39

Pre-Pride parties

Steven Underhill

Attendees at the Pride Board party at LGBT Center.

by Donna Sachet

S

hanti’s Margot Murphy Breast Cancer Program has become a well-respected and life-changing program, as evidenced by last Saturday’s Double Down for Shanti casino-styled gala at City Club.

The ornate Julia Morgan-designed space with its Diego Rivera wall painting was the perfect setting for elegant dress and free-wheeling gambling.

The program began with a welcome from event Co-Chair Christopher Wiseman and heartfelt testimonials from a client and a volunteer focusing on the essential services the Breast Cancer Program provides, including volunteer home visits, taxi vouchers, hands-on personal services, and irreplaceable human interaction.

An extensive silent auction, passed hors d’oeuvres, and specialty bars rounded out the evening. We seemed to fare quite well at the blackjack table with Brian Kent’s able advice. Also attending were Miguel Bustos & Alex Rivera, super volunteer Joanie Juster, and the always elegant Joy Bianchi Venturini, swathed in red with marabou feather trim.

We happily attended the annual ceremony at City Hall to raise the Gay Flag on the Mayor’s balcony.

This year, our flag appropriately shares space with a large Warriors banner, saluting the incredible progress of our Bay Area basketball team.

Mayor Ed Lee spoke briefly as the flag was raised and then spoke again inside City Hall, recognizing many of those present and awarding special citations to Tita Aida, recipient of this year’s Teddy Witherington Award, and Gary Virginia, President of SF Pride’s Board of Directors.

It was a gaggle of San Francisco movers and shakers assembled, including Police Chief Greg Suhr, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff Steve Kawa, City and State Chief of Protocol Charlotte Schultz, Consul General of Ireland Philip Grant, SF Pride Parade Grand Marshals Belo Cipriani, Felicia Elizondo, and Brian Basinger, Bevan Dufty, Deana Dawn, Sister Roma, Rebecca Prozan, and Alex Randolph.

While the previous week’s Pride Kick-Off Party (which raised over $24,000 for SF Pride, by the way) may have been the first official Pride event, the flag-raising at City Hall makes it really official: San Francisco welcomes the 45th annual LGBTQ Pride Parade and Celebration coming on June 27 & 28!

On June 10, the Board of the LBGT Community Center opened the doors for its Pride Party, featuring an incredibly talented belly dancer, whimsical caricaturist, food, drink, and music.

Executive Director Rebecca Rolfe warmly welcomed a diverse crowd and a single success story from someone who has used the Center’s services again confirmed the amazing power of this community asset.

We ran into Roberto Ordeano, Rafael Mandelman, Christopher Lopez, Dana van Iquity, Matt Buchanan, Marc Pretcher, John Hunter Zowine, and so many others, anxious to get the Pride season started and happy to do so in this wonderful building on Market Street. The open air patio/deck was the place to be as the sun set and the sky filled with the colors of the Gay Flags waving up and down the wide boulevard.

We wiled away the rest of the evening at Musical Wednesday at The Edge with VJ Brian Kent and a gang of his buddies. Out on a Wednesday with nothing to do?

Look no further!

On June 11, we headed to Fort Mason for Petchitecture, the annual gala of Pets Are Wonderful Support (PAWS), where socially trained dogs mix freely with equally trained human guests for a fun time and a great cause. This setting seemed to work much better than some past hotel ballrooms, allowing for freer movement, high ceilings, and lots of mingling. There was no shortage of glamor, however, with a huge red carpet running the length of the warehouse-like space. In the company of Will Whitaker, we hobnobbed with Nic Harurkar, Mike Herner, Beverly Ulbrich, Ken Gorczyca & Lorenz Obwegeser, and previous Executive Director of PAWS John Lipp.

Pride Parade Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshal Felicia Elizondo gave a moving address, highlighting an incredible life of service and emphasizing her own love of this organization. The inimitable Lenny Broberg then skillfully and rapidly auctioned off eight valuable prizes, including a hotly contested Burning Man package which the sponsors generously doubled.

Next up was the Bay Times Pride Party, again at the Center, where a wonderful photographic exhibit hangs. These photos were commissioned by that paper with the theme of kisses between all sorts of members of our community at last year’s Pride Parade; the joy captured therein is unmistakable.

Hostesses Betty Sullivan & Jennifer Viegas kept the wine and food

coming as emcees Zoe Dunning and Rafael Mandelman kept the program moving. We helped to distribute a number of raffle prizes to delighted attendees and Gary VIrginia gave a brief peek at upcoming excitement awaiting us at this year’s Pride Parade and Celebration.

Threaded throughout the night was the theme of women’s music with a finale performance by the legendary Cris Williamson, who pulled the audience closer together and sent them into the night with a song on their minds.

Well, there’s no turning back now! Pride is here and the following is only a slice of the many activities and events available, but the ones where you will most likely see this columnist.

Tonight, June 18, from 6-8PM, our co-host of the live television coverage of the Pride Parade, Michelle Meow, starts a new family friendly pre-Pride event in conjunction with Our Family Coalition at Pacific Fertility Clinic, 55 Francisco Street. Expect delicious food by JJardine Catering, liquid refreshments, family entertainment, and lots of your friends!

Tomorrow night, we’ll start at the St. Regis Hotel for Mark Rhoades’ annual Pride Party, always elegant and packed with the best dressed crowd, but by invitation only. This one is sponsored by PG&E and benefits Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation (yes, a new name for a broadened goal).

Following that, we’ll rush over to Civic Center for the celebration of 100 years of City Hall, that glorious building where so much of San Francisco’s history has occurred.

With two stages of live music, food trucks, and an unbelievable light show, you won’t want to miss this.

Sunday night from 4-7PM at Oasis, it is the Mr. and Miss Gay San Francisco Pageant, an event of the Imperial Council which has been going on for over 40 years! Come watch Tyler Nelson and Kipper Snacks complete their year and cheer for your choice for the next title-holders. With this setting and this organization, you know it will be a fabulous event.

As the final weekend comes and all the major Pride events occur, we want to make special mention of the upcoming Elton John concerts by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the newly formulated Pink Party in the Castro, the four-year anniversary of Beatbox Saturday night with Debby Holiday, and the 17th annual Pride Brunch from 11AM-2PM on Saturday, June 27, at Hotel Whitcomb.

Somehow, we’ll still wake bright and early to co-anchor the iHeart Media live television coverage of the Pride Parade.

Space limitations prevent us from elaborating much more, but take these suggestions as must-attend events and branch out from there.

Let’s make the 45th Pride Parade & Celebration the best ever!t

Vic Narurkar

Vic Narurkar, Donna Sachet, a cute canine and Mike Hirner at Petchitecture at Fort Mason.

ebar.com

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

40 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2015

Flippered out

by Krissy Eliot

W

hen spiritual teacher Veenaa Saynana invited me to do a story on the Laughing Dolphin play party, the title got my attention. On the East Coast, where I’m from, you can’t sell something called “Laughing Dolphin” to an adult, unless it’s an alternative daycare facility or a cheesy phone app. So the fact that a naughty party with that name could survive as a bi-weekly event intrigued me.

When I asked her what inspired the title, Saynana said Laughing Dolphin is her spiritual name, and the dolphin represents playfulness, sensuality, creativity and immense joy. The dolphin’s laughter signifies the release of oxytocin, a hormone that triggers positive feelings of relaxation, trust and love.

Because there’s a lot of fear and shame around sex, Saynana created a Tantra-based party for people to release whatever sexual fear is holding them back and embody the joyful dolphin.

“There are people who want more and have already been through the whole ‘get fucked’ thing,” Saynana said. “Their consciousness is moving in another direction. They want fucking from the heart.”

Saynana spoke so passionately about how she believed the party could create connection and love that my skeptic mind wanted to believe it too.

I wondered: could a heart-centric play party with complete strangers be pure, honoring and all about love? I didn’t buy it, but I was willing to try it.

The party was being held at Guava, a hippie event space in Emeryville with psychedelic art and comfy couches. When I arrived at the event, I was given a name tag and instructed to write “bird,” “cat,”

t

Play party strangers get too frisky

or “dog” on it. The label I chose would indicate my willingness to engage in sexual touch. If I chose bird, that meant I didn’t want to be touched at all. If I was a cat, I was pickier about who I’d want touching me. And if I was a dog, that basically meant people could rub my belly should the spirit move them.

After giving the 15 people who came to the event a once over, I opted for cat.

I wasn’t attracted to anyone there, but I was willing to give someone a casual pussy-pat for the sake of experience.

Life coach Asha Stokes, a pretty blonde in a flowy dress, was there to help Saynana facilitate the process, and stood at Saynana’s side when she addressed the guests. Saynana explained that she became a spiritual Krissy Eliot healer after mending her own emotional wounds Spiritual teachers Asha Stokes and Veenna Saynana getting in touch with their sensual sides before the event began. from childhood, which I respect. She then said gathering. she could “see people’s auras from However, I was not expecting across the world,” which made me Saynana to put on Usher’s “Yeah!” circumspect. and make the women dance around Saynana explained the importhe men in a circle. I was also not tance of consent, and expecting a man 30 years older than said that nobody had me to form a perfect O with his lips to engage in any activand coo in the direction of my body. ity that made them unI did not love myself after this comfortable. She laid dance. And I wasn’t the only one. the ground rules, and as she beamed confidently Touchy feely around the room, I Some guy from Vegas stopped could tell she expected participating in the activity half-way people to follow them. through, and said, “I do OneTaste’s After introducorgasmic meditation, and this is tions, we engaged in weird, even for me.” “hot meditation,” which was a lot When it finally came time to of heavy breathing and moaning. engage in heart-centric touch, we Then it was time for “The Dance of watched Stokes and Saynana do a Loving Yourself,” and that involved demonstration.

Stokes rested her dancing to instrumental music. hands on Saynana’s crotch, chest This, I expected from a hippie-esque and head, and they both did a lot of heavy breathing. It seemed innocent (surprisingly innocent for a play party), and when we were instructed to try it, I readied myself for a pretty tame time. A fool, I was.

We got into groups of three, and I ended up being partnered with Krissy Eliot a 40-something bald dude and a Spiritual teachers Asha Stokes and Veenna Saynana pose for a 60-something skinny guy; both had photo after the Laughing Dolphin. selected “dog” for their name tags.

I laid down on some pillows on the floor, while Skinny breathed hot, wet breath in Guy sat on a pillow behind my ear and said: “Cuddling my head and Bald Dude sat is great, but I could make it down in front of me. Skinny so much better for you.”

Guy was supposed to be the I scrambled from the pile “sacred witness” and watch before it could get worse.

Bald Dude politely rest his I believe Saynana’s goal hands on my chakras. to create a safe space for That wasn’t what happlayful sexuality is bold, but pened. unrealistic for someone like Bald Dude basically tried me.

I think Laughing Dolto finger me through my phin could work in a group pants, poking and prodding of trusted friends, but it’s my cooch like he was trying silly to assume a 25-yearto shape a particularly dry old girl won’t become prey ball of clay. I looked up at in a pile of horny strangers.

Skinny Guy who obliviously For what it’s worth, everystroked my ears and cooed one else appeared to be feelwith his eyes closed. ing happy, pleased and un“Was this supposed to violated, so I could have just be happening?” I thought, been dealt a bad hand (and unsure if I should kick Bald finger).

Dude in his shiny head.

Or it could be that dolI had paid close attention phins are nothing but mamto the demo, and it didn’t photo mals, and will do like they seem like Stokes had been do on the Discovery Chanfingering Saynana through nel.

A brief conversation on her clothes. Perhaps Bald consent won’t change that.t Dude knew that the barrier Promotional flyer for the Laughing Dolphin event. blocking my heart wasn’t Learn more about sarcasm and fear, but the the Laughing Dolphin at fabric of my tight nylon Everyone other than me seemed www.veenaasaynana.com. pants. Is this what love is supposed blissfully happy and couldn’t conto feel like? It was over before the cat tain their hippie moaning. People Readers can contact Krissy by in me could scratch him. spooned and it seemed kosher email at thekrissyeliot@gmail.com At the end of the event, it was and view her previous work at enough — until some old guy time for a 15-person cuddle session. www.krissyeliot.com. wiggled his finger into my crotch,

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

June 18-24, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 41

Hitched cocks

by John F. Karr

for a LaRue film, shoots his load into the mouth of an appreciative Duran.

James Hamilton’s pale white body makes stark contrast to swarthy David Benjamin, as they rub together jock-clad bones, whisper dirty things, spit in each other’s mouths, eat ass as if starvation has set in, lick boots and throw a shouting, noisy fuck between a power fucker and a power bottom.

Now, as for Brett Bradley’s award

I

picked up Chi Chi LaRue’s recent #Leather to check out the scene that had earned Brett Bradley a Grabby Award for Best Solo. I’m not sure what the hashtag in the movie’s title title has to do with things, other than being trendy. The movie has no techy or twittery references. But its first scene set my gonads atwitter, that’s for sure. And the rest of it’s pretty good, too.

We know from past excursions that a leather sex movie by Ms. LaRue will be dark-hued. In this one, the camera passes over standard clues of excess behavior garbed in signs of excess masculinity: shadows, chains, stained concrete floors, a screen entirely filled with a leather-encased groin, a man in a sling.

To underline the movie’s menace, the image is suddenly blanched to the black and white of 1940s noir, which slowly bleeds back into color. Then, as if to confirm the movie’s artsyness, the camera makes full back and forth passes along the man’s body, sorta like that swinging overhead lightbulb at the end of Psycho. It’s a little disorienting. The image is purposefully grainy; the performer’s face butch in its pitted roughness.

Who is this lowering lovely, so firmly grasping a king size cock? It must be Mr. Bradley, engaged in his well-rewarded (if not overly rewarding) JO. He’ll return briefly in between the subsequent three scenes, as if he’s imagining them (his routine is offered in unbroken entirety as a bonus).

C1R

Chest punch and tit grab—Johnny Hazzard mauls Logan Vaughn, in #Leather.

and I love seeing Johnny feast on the fleshy nips that ride tauntingly atop Logan’s bosomy pecs. Logan is such a succulent lad. Johnny grows more fierce, and launches into jock gnarling and basket mauling, followed by testicle tonguing, ball-slapping, and attempts at scrotum-swallowing.

As ball torture goes, it’s mild, but effective.

Johnny’s deep-throating makes Logan gasp loudly. Logan’s cock is very beautiful, with that early morning pink that’s a treasurable

feature of most blonds. It’s shorter than expected of a porn star, but stiff, and rises from a shaved terrain that’s lickably smooth as a chrome cock ring I wish was encircling it. When Logan later gobbles Johnny’s handsome cock, I’m upset to see his pierced tongue.

I’ve never understood how a vertical pole in one’s mouth can assist cocksucking. Oh, well.

Logan being Logan, he’s soon proffering his ass. Johnny kneads those bulging cheeks, licks butthole ‘til it’s sloppy, and sucks that sphincter. This causes a heightened arousal in Logan that’s obvious, and may cause a similar reaction in viewers. The sight of his white cheeks framed by the straps of a black jock are a sure trigger for a viewer’s bonerization.

So there’s been plentiful time spent on what most sexographers see as obligatory steps to be vaulted over in their RTF (Rush to Fuck).

I thank Chi Chi for delivering this amount of mood setting and performer bonding foreplay, at least, as it’s devoutly performed by Johnny and Logan.

And then, as a segue to propel the action forward toward fucking, there’s a sweep across the screen of animated or CGI-ed chains. This device will be used again, judiciousC1R ly. Wow. Imagine an actual bit of It’s fierce kisses for James Hamilton and David Benjamin in #Leather. filmmaking craft in a sexo! Thank you, Chi Chi. Johnny’s bone beats against Logan’s balls, and begins to After this prologue of omiflirt with the now beslinged nous bazooka-banging, we bottom’s butthole. Johnny alsuddenly see Logan Vaughn, in ternates ass-probing with cockdog collar and black jock, in a sucking. He’s good, that Johnny, grungy dungeon. Twenty-eight and after he deftly slides his year old Logan is voluptuous, cock into Logan, he rocks the meaty-breasted and even meatsling back and forth, to Logan’s ier bubble-butted (check out impaled delight. his surprising bio -his father Fine views from below the was an ordained preacher- at boys attest to the skill of Logan’s AlsGayPornStars.com to read ass at letting go and once again his explanation for how, though grasping the plunging cock. he identifies as str8, he became Johnny cums all over Logan’s a devotee of, expert in, and concock, eats it up, and then, finger stant pursuer of anal sex with up Logan’s butt, presides over men; ah, the roundabout ways his partner’s beating off. After we come to the sex acts we like). climax, Johnny scoops up the Johnny Hazzard approaches, precious prize and feeds it to the purveying brooding intensity, now spent bottom. and looking nearly as lean, a litThere you have it. A scene tle more muscled, but certainly effective enough that you’ll as crisp as he did at his debut 12 be licking clean your own finyears ago (he was then 26). He gers, and leaving the rest of the teases Logan with almost-kissmovie for tomorrow. I’ve spent es, but relents into lubricious so much time on this scene betongue swapping. Logan pours cause it’s the best in the movie, himself into lingering lip-loving and the longest, at a half hour. as Johnny punches his chest, Not that there’s anything an act that’s come to confer to complain about with when greater Butch on both puncher C1R Tony Orion tops desirable Sean and punchee, but which always Duran after making ingenious makes me think of Tarzan con- We can’t show you Brett Bradley’s best asuse of leather straps for cock set, but believe us—it’s big. versing with a pal. tugging, and then, surprisingly Logan’s sure got a nice chest,

for Best Solo. It’s a good one, but it’s not the best. I’ve seen other solos this year that had more visceral energy, along with better performance technique and awareness of presentation. Was that award based entirely on the size of Mr. B’.s dick?

A good deal of it that we’d like to see is wrapped in Brett’s hand. I realize you can’t JO without wrapping your mitts around your bits, but can’t you let me see all of it once in a while?t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

42 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2015

Personals

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Brooklyn & Broadway

From page 35

Manhattan bars

Clubbing is thriving in the Big Apple, with more than 140 gay bars, stray bars, and special nights at all kinds of venues. For an updated list, our partners Edge Media have the full list of venues. (www.edgenewyork.com/nightlife). But are a few: For rooftop views, Fly Sundays at Monarch serve tasty mimosas and brunch. The new event kicked off in May. Boxers rivals our SF Hi Tops with its sexy sports theme, with two locations.

Non-traditional bar scenes include Brut (at Santos Party House, 96 Lafayette St.), which attracts the circuity muscle men, bears, cubs and leather folk and goes late with some sexy interaction.

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For cocktails with a zing, and a hunky staff and gogo crew, check out Evolve.

Some smaller East Village venues pack in the fun, like Nowhere Bar and Arrow Bar. Also compact yet packed with neo-burlesque and vaudeville style, The Slipper Room fulfills its mission of classy lowbrow shows.

For old school show tune crooing, Marie’s Crisis is still downstairs in the West Village.

Blunt and cruisy, the Cock Bar shoves its sexy self upon you with salacious nights.

For a bit of Folsom New York style, Folsom East invades West 28th Street June 21. www.folsomstreeteast.com

Sexy sidebars

“So, where’s the beefcake?” one Facebook pal asked after hearing

Left: Broadway Bares Right: Adonis Lounge beefcake.

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about my trip. For those with a penchant for pulcritude, gogo guys, strippers and semi-private parties will quench your desire for some booty-shaking. Times Square may be forever Disney-fied, but a sexy time for fans of a good bump and grind can be found.

Let’s start classy with Broadway Bares. The hugely successful, acrobatic and splashily sexy strip show performed by Broadway’s cutest performers and special guests, annually sells out well in advance. The next one is June 21 at Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, with a Top Bottoms of Burlesque theme.

Find out what’s under those sailor suits (On the Town), clip-on ties (The Book of Mormon) and leopard puppets (The Lion King) when Broadway’s best male and female dancers bare (almost) all for the HIV/AIDS charity. www.broadwaybares.com

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Speaking of burlesque, although not Tony Award material, Chris Harder shows a lot more in his porn videos, but his burlesque nights in New York City bring back a lot of tease. His shows have been at Therapy Lounge, WestWay and The Slipper Room. For updates, visit his website, www.chrisharderfilms.com For an up close strip experience, Adonis Lounge boasts some of the physically biggest performers, albeit mostly straight trade. Big spenders are welcome here after the $10 admission, where the pricey private dances reveal more muscles. www. theadonislounge.com/nyc/ No, it’s not what is used to be, as those who recall the meat packing district of even Greenwich Village’s glory (hole) days.

For a stroll down memory lane, the Hellfire Tours, led by eccentric SM photographer Efrain John Gon-

zalez, includes an underground former club scene stroll accompanied by his expansive talk, with iPad photos from the area’s heyday of straps, chaps and butt slaps.

Nightlife usually goes a bit later for many events, like 4AM. But returning to Brooklyn won’t cost you a mint’s worth of cab money. The N, Q, R and other trains run all night (catch up, BART!), so get a Metrocard and you’ll be fine.

Still, although the main borough appears to be safer, a few odd incidents reminded us of the dirty old New York days, including a 2AM trash can-tossing drunk at a Papaya Dog who was chased off by the bat-wielding staffers. One person hooted, “How totally New York!”

So, folks, be careful and have fun when you visit Brooklyn, Broadway and beyond.t

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shooting Stars

June 18-24, 2015 • Bay Area Reporter • 43

photos by Steven Underhill Beer Bust

@ SF

Eagle

W

hat’s Sunday without a proper beer bust? While several other bars offer tap beer for fundraisers, the daddy of them all takes place each Sunday at the SF Eagle. From 3pm to 6pm or later, the mostly male patronage gets its buzz on while supporting local nonprofits. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com 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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