March 24, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 46 • No. 12 • March 24-30, 2016

No Pink Party this year

by Matthew S. Bajko

W

ith relative frequency in recent years, news outlets have touted how more conservative areas of the U.S. are becoming home to growing populations Jane Philomen Cleland of LGBT residents.

Whether it be the Gary Gates yearly list of the “gayest cities” compiled

by LGBT magazine the Advocate, which often includes head-scratching locations most people couldn’t pinpoint on a map, to stories about San Francisco’s Castro district losing its LGBT residents, the impression given is that California and other liberal coastal states are no longer attracting as many LGBT people as they once did.

The latest round of headlines cropped up earlier this month after the website ConsumerAffairs.com released a map it said showed “LGBT people are moving to traditionally red states.” The website Daily Beast mirrored many news outlets with its coverage that posited, “LGBT people are leaving urban, coastal hubs for conservative cities.”

Ryan Daly, a content manager with ConsumerAffairs, told the Bay Area Reporter that the trend of where LGBT people are choosing to live mirrors that of millennials, which the map also tracked.

“People are leaving big expensive cities in search of mid-tier cities because it costs a little less to live there, the commute is a little shorter, and there are plenty of jobs,” said Daly. “A lot of those cities happen to be in red states.”

Yet the demographic data for LGBT people the map relies on tells a much different story, said Gary Gates, Ph.D., one of the most prominent researchers of the country’s LGBT community who recently retired from the Williams Institute, the LGBT think tank based at UCLA. “I don’t think it has anything to do with mobility,” Gates, who now lives in Seattle, told the B.A.R. “It has to do with visibility.”

What the data is showing, said Gates, isn’t LGBT people moving to cities in more conservative states but that LGBT residents in socalled “red states” are more comfortable being out of the closet in both their day-to-day lives and when answering survey questions.

“People often read it as the only way to get changes in LGBT populations is to get people to move there. That just isn’t true,” said See page 8 >>

by Seth Hemmelgarn

Castro Street was crowded during last year’s Pink Party as throngs of people turned out to celebrate Pride.

T

here will be no Pink Party in the city’s gay Castro district the Saturday before the annual LGBT Pride parade this June, marking the first time in more than 20 years the event hasn’t taken place in some incarnation.

As the Bay Area Reporter first reported on

its blog last week, following a March 17 meeting with key stakeholders, gay Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the Castro, said that there will be no street closures this year. In previous years, the streets were closed for the unofficial party, which this year would have been June 25.

See page 12 >>

Historical society gets new archive space Rick Gerharter

by Seth Hemmelgarn

S

an Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society has a new site for its voluminous archives.

Terry Beswick, the nonprofit’s new executive director, said the lease on space at 989 Market Street is expected to be signed this week.

“Our history is so rich. We really need a much larger space,” Beswick said of the historical society, which also runs the GLBT History Museum in the Castro district. He said the Market Street site “is a big leap in the right direction for us to adequately represent our community’s diverse histories.”

The archives hold about 800 collections of personal papers, photographs, audiovisual recordings, and other ephemera.

The nonprofit is looking to move in to the new archives location by May 16. The space is in the climate-controlled basement of a building that has housed offices for the tech firm Zendesk and other companies.

“It’s going to take us a while to settle in,” Beswick said. Getting everything set up “will probably take us until mid to late June. Our goal is to get it done before Pride,” which is June 25-26.

Money was a major consideration for the historical society. Beswick said rent on the current archives space, at 657 Mission Street, was going from more than $10,000 a month to about $25,000.

“We’ve got to get out,” Beswick said.

The rent for the new location is $15,840 a month, with a lease of seven years. The new location has approximately 6,500 square feet

Gareth Gooch Photography.com

Terry Beswick, the executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, is surrounded by guests at the GLBT History Museum’s fifth anniversary party January 29.

for archives and about another 1,500 for offices and conference space, Beswick said.

“It’s going to be a wonderful space for us to grow into. We’ve outgrown our old archives,” he said, and the historical society plans to expand its collections.

While the new site will help the historical society, it comes with “a significant increase” in

monthly costs, such as utilities. Beswick said the group would soon launch a fundraising drive through an online crowdfunding site and increased mailings.

Along with new space for its archives, the historical society has long been trying to im-

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

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<< Community News

t On heels of Books Inc. closure, Dog Eared to open in Castro

Rick Gerharter

Dog Eared Books owner Kate Rosenberger, left, and Nolan Ventura, who will be one of the employees at the new Castro Street location, are surrounded by books in the Valencia Street shop.

by Sari Staver

L

ess than a week after Books Inc. announced that its Castro location will shutter, longtime lesbian bookseller Kate Rosenberger is bringing her popular Dog Eared Books brand to the gayborhood in June.

Rosenberger, who’s been in the book business in San Francisco for three decades, plans to sell a mix of used, new, and remaindered books at 489 Castro Street, currently the home of Citizen Clothing, which has a lease through April 30. The location was home to A Different Light Bookstore from 1986-2011.

For the past 20 years, Rosenberger has owned Dog Eared Books at 900 Valencia, where her oil and acrylic paintings are on display on the walls.

Five years ago, she opened Alley Cat Books at 3036 24th Street. Rosenberger opened her first bookstore, Phoenix Books, in Noe Valley in 1985, which she sold two years ago.

Dog Eared Books in the Castro will be a general interest bookstore with “a lot of queer content” and a “very active calendar” of events, which could include readings, film screenings, and art shows, Rosenberger told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview in her bustling Valencia Street store.

The store will be open seven days a week and a used book buyer will be there every day, she said.

“I’m absolutely thrilled” to be opening in the Castro, said Rosenberger. “The Castro needs and

deserves a great bookstore and we are planning to bring it to the neighborhood.”

On May 1, when Rosenberger gets the keys to the 1,400 square foot space, she and several staff members will begin renovation of the store, set to open a month later. She hopes to feature her trademark “free box” in front of the store, which is a “favorite feature” of many customers, she said.

“And definitely some very comfy chairs,” she added. A back patio has “fantastic potential” to hold events, she said. A grand opening is set for June 20.

Joining Rosenberger on Castro Street will be two gay longtime employees, Alvin Orloff and Nolan Ventura. The business is recruiting three new employees, one of whom will work on Castro Street, Rosenberger said.

“We all love books and are real readers,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

Rosenberger, who said she’s in her mid-50s, began her career selling books in the early 1980s, when she took a job at Half-Priced Books in Berkeley, which has since closed.

“I’d had a number of horrible jobs” before that, she explained, “but from the first day, I knew I loved working in a bookstore.”

While competition from online sellers prompted many bookstores to close over the years, Rosenberger has managed to maintain profit-

ability, she said. Although both used and new books are available at lower prices online, “people shop here for the personal service,” she said.

“Most of my employees have been here for many, many years.

We’d like to think that we know our customers really well and have been successful at stocking titles we think they will like. I feel I have a responsibility to provide really good books,” said Rosenberger.

Many of the details about the store “will be decided when we find out what our customers want,” said Rosenberger. For example, she said, the store had not planned to have a children’s book section because there was one less than a mile away at Books Inc. But now that Books Inc. is closing in June that decision will be revisited, she said.

Chance encounter

The move to the Castro came about by chance, Rosenberger said.

With no plans to open another location, a commercial real estate agent suggested Rosenberger check out another empty storefront, which turned out to be too expensive.

While she was in the neighborhood, she noticed the “for lease” sign in the window at 498 Castro.

From her first conversation with Realtor David Blatteis, “I had a feeling this was going to work,” Rosenberger said.

See page 14 >>

SF set to collect data on sexual orientation, gender identity

by Sari Staver

A

new program to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity will be proposed by District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener.

Wiener announced the proposal during last week’s hearing on transgender youth at the Board of Supervisors finance and budget committee.

According to legislative aide Jeff Cretan, the proposal will require city agencies that provide health care and social services to collect and analyze data concerning sexual orientation and gender identity of the clients they serve. This will help quantify the needs of the LGBT population, identify services in which they are underrepresented, and track improvements in access to services over time, Cretan said in an email to the Bay Area Reporter.

At the hearing, Theresa Sparks, a transgender woman who’s executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, described another data collection program, already underway, which

Jane Philomen Cleland

San Francisco Human Rights Commission Executive Director Theresa Sparks speaks at last week’s hearing on trans youth.

is expected to yield similar information. That program, sponsored by the University of California system, will collect data on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, Sparks said.

The UC program began collecting such data on undergraduate applicants last year, she said. It has expanded to collect data on gradu-

ate students applicants this year and next year, on applicants for faculty and staff positions.

Other speakers at the hearing discussed results of two additional studies.

Kevin Gogin, director of safety and wellness school health programs in the Student, Family, and Community Support Department at the San Francisco Unified School District, said that a 2015 study estimates that approximately 1 percent, or 100, middle school students and 1 percent of high school students, or 150, identify as transgender. Gogin said annual studies over the past five years have yielded similar results.

Dr. Stephen Rosenthal, professor of pediatrics and medical director of the child and adolescent gender center at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, said a Boston study published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2012 estimated that 0.5 percent of the adult population self identified as transgender.

Rosenthal said that there is no data on the prevalence of self identifying transgender youth.t

Community News>>

t Santa Clara is first county in US to raise trans flag

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

by Heather Cassell

of solutions instead of attacking one another,” she added.

T

he sun came out Tuesday, along with more than 30 people, to watch as Santa Clara County became the first county government in the U.S. to raise the transgender flag.

Activist Lance Moore was also honored for his work on behalf of the South Bay’s transgender community.

The flag – blue, pink, and white stripes – will fly along with the rainbow flag in front of Santa Clara County government offices for the month of April in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility, which is March 31.

It also kicked off a month of events for the South Bay transgender community themed “More than Visible” (#morethanvisible).

“It just shows what a beacon we are here for everybody in California,” said gay Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager.

Maribel Martinez, a 35-year old queer woman who is the executive director of the Santa Clara Office of LGBTQ Affairs, agreed.

“It is our visual commitment to inclusion and empowerment of transgender communities,” Martinez told the Bay Area Reporter.

“We really want to raise the visibility of our LGBTQ communities and the transgender communities being a significant group, not only historically, not only for the LGBTQ movement, but also in its contributions here locally,” she continued.

Opening the flag raising ceremony, Martinez told the audience, “The transgender community is alive and thriving and it is imperative for us to see and engage and empower our transgender communities, with the flag raising we hope to honor the resilience of our trans communities and celebrate their contributions.”

Speaking to the audience, Yeager expressed excitement about recent developments in the transgender community, but he also noted the backlash against the community happening across the country.

“It’s so exciting what is happening in the trans community,” said Yeager. “Never before have people been able to discuss, be open [and] live the kind of lives that they want.

“For those of us who have been in the gay rights movement for almost all of our adult career we are used to [the backlash], we are used to the battle,” he said. “We know that over time and education we can change minds, but it only happens if we are open about who we are.”

Yeager noted that the rainbow flag has flown alongside the county, state, and national flags in front of the Santa Clara County government building every weekday since the

<<

Historical society

From page 1

prove how it presents exhibits in its museum, at 4127 18th Street.

The LGBT community deserves a “world class museum and archives,” Beswick said.

Reflecting a long-held desire by the organization, he said his goal is that by the time the lease on the museum expires in 2020, “we have a permanent space” for a combined museum and archives.

Beswick, a gay, HIV-positive Castro resident, co-founded ACT UP/ San Francisco in the 1980s and was the first national coordinator of the national ACT UP network, known as ACT NOW. He said he wants the historical society’s work to capture many things.

“We were fighting for acceptance, and we were fighting for integration,” he said, along with “the right to stay in Indiana. ... Let’s celebrate that.”

The nonprofit’s been working on an exhibit featuring the Compton’s

Pride and approval

Jo-Lynn Otto

Maribel Martinez, director of the Santa Clara Office of LGBTQ Affairs, left, joins Supervisor Ken Yeager and Lance Moore, partially obscured, in raising the transgender flag outside the county government building during a March 22 ceremony.

U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June 2015.

Moore, 55, has been an activist in the South Bay trans community for more than a decade.

“There has been a tremendous amount of progress for LGBTQ people, but we are also facing a really big backlash,” Moore told the audience.

“There are over 40 bills nationwide that are anti-trans and 26 of those are aimed at kids. So, visibility really counts. Pride really counts.”

Moore, who identifies as a man, but said he has a “transgender experience,” was being honored for his work in Santa Clara County’s transgender community. He founded the transgender men’s support group at the Billy De Frank LGBT Community Center six years ago.

He told the audience that he hoped that the flag would “serve as an inspiration” to people – from county employees to visitors – coming to Silicon Valley’s government offices.

Maybe they will “be inspired to take a moment and learn a little bit about trans lives and experiences,” he said.

“One thing that I have learned, when people are educated they are less afraid and when they are less afraid less scary things happen to us who don’t fit into those typical boxes. We certainly would like more of that,” Moore added.

Helen Chapman, a 56-year old ally who is running for the District 6 seat on the San Jose City Council this year, applauded the county’s celebration of diversity.

“It’s a wonderful celebration of diversity and sharing acceptance throughout the district and throughout the county,” said Chapman.

“It’s nice that we are a leader in Cafeteria riots. The 24-hour cafe at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets was the site of an August 1966 riot where transgender patrons stood up against police, who had been called to quell a disturbance. The exact date of the riot has been lost to history.

Beswick would also like to change the museum’s draw and educate more school students.

He said, “60 to 70 percent of visitors to the museum are people from out of town,” and, invoking the slain gay civil rights icon, he said, “A lot of kids today don’t even know who Harvey Milk was.”

Beswick also said, “In a new museum, I imagine an auditorium,” and he’s open to other suggestions.

“An attitude of saying ‘Yes’ to ideas is how the Castro Country Club survived,” Beswick said, referring to the sober space that hosts 12-step groups. Beswick had been a principal leader there since 2009 before joining the historical society in February.

See page 7 >>

that, because with so much hate and division going on in the rest of the country, let’s lead the way to start reducing that and come together to start to solve problems and be part

Members of the South Bay’s transgender community expressed pride in their county’s proactive and progressive stance for their community.

“It’s a pretty powerful statement that San Jose gets this honor to be the first in the country that acknowledges and dignifies our community with the raising of our flag,” said Aejaie Franciscus, 51, a transgender businesswoman who owns Sweet Forbidden and Carla’s Social Club and is a former director of the DeFrank center. “To establish that our identity exists. We are here. We haven’t gone anywhere. We are part of this community and deserve to be recognized.”

“It’s great that we are being recognized as people and not being marginalized,” said Bobbi Pierce, a 44-year-old transgender woman. “I just wish more people would be able to feel free to be themselves regard-

less of how everybody looks at them.”

In April, the South Bay will host a series of events for transgender visibility.

April 2, the county is hosting a Transgender Day of Visibility Celebration, 1:30 to 10 p.m. at the Billy De Frank LGBTQ Community Center, 938 The Alameda in San Jose. For more information, call (408) 293-3040 or visit, http://www. southbaytdov.dancingbull.net.

April 18, the county is launching its inaugural National HIV Testing Day to encourage transgender individuals to get tested for HIV/AIDS. Testing will be open to people at the following sites: The Crane Center, 976 Lenzen Avenue, Suite 1800 in San Jose, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.gettestedscc.org.

Asian Americans for Community Involvement’s Hope Program at the Billy De Frank LGBTQ Center, 938 The Alameda in San Jose. For more information, call (408) 2933040 or visit, http://hiv.aaci.org/ get-tested.t

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<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

Volume 46, Number 12 March 24-30, 2016 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Seth Hemmelgarn CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani Richard Dodds • Michael Flanagan Jim Gladstone • David Guarino Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel • Khaled Sayed Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Sari Staver • Jim Stewart Sean Timberlake • Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Lydia Gonzales • Jose Guzman-Colon Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Jo-Lynn Otto • Rich Stadtmiller Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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t

Pink Party’s future up in the air T

he Castro will be forced to take a break from the pre-Pride event most recently known as the Pink Party. Last week, Supervisor Scott Wiener met with representatives of the Dyke March, San Francisco LGBT Community Center, Castro Merchants, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, and other stakeholders and determined that there was no organization willing to manage the party this year. Last year, the LGBT community center stepped in after the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence decided to step away after two decades of running their original Pink Saturday party, citing increasing violence.

Anecdotal comments in reaction to our blog post last week that broke the story show that for residents of the Castro it’s a relief that there will be no Pink Party. Neighbors were tired of the rowdiness and public urination that typically occurred.

This year, they’ll get their wish for the Pink Party’s demise.

But it’s important to remember that Pink Saturday – as originally envisioned by the Sisters – grew out of a need to focus the spontaneous celebration in the gayborhood the night before the Pride parade.

In the absence of a formal street party people are still expected to congregate in the Castro. Wiener acknowledges the Pink Party was a “grassroots” event, driven by the community. So, if community members want the street party to return, they’ll need to come up with the next incarnation.

Next year could be a new beginning for the pre-Pride party if a producer steps forward. Under the

Sisters, Pink Saturday was always more successful when it had directed activities for the crowds, and a footprint that included Market Street to provide breathing room. More recently, the event has been contained along Castro Street, which can’t accommodate crowds safely. There’s also entertainment and security to consider. And most importantly, there must be community buy-in and local support. Organizing the massive event is labor intensive and expensive – around $200,000 according to city figures for last year. (The Sisters produced the event for free and spent $18,000 on paid security, according to a budget document released last year.) The payoff is a safe, fun event for the neighborhood and partiers the night before the Pride parade.

Although last year’s attempt to raise funds from gate receipts netted $14,000 that was distributed among 13 nonprofits, perhaps a

more robust effort to organize volunteers from nonprofits could raise more money for the community groups.

Everyone knows that crowds will flock to the Castro over Pride weekend and that the Dyke March, which takes place Saturday, June 25, will end in the neighborhood as usual. But the streets won’t be closed, aside from some temporary shutdowns to accommodate the Dyke March. Maybe that’s what Castro residents want. In the years since Halloween bit the dust in 2007, the neighborhood has become mellower on that night, instead of the throngs of people roaming the streets.

The Castro can be festive the night before Pride even without a street party, as people will discover this year. But if the Pink Party is to be reborn, it must be based in the community – participants at last week’s meeting were adamant on this point.

Wiener has been trashed in Facebook comments on our blog post but many fail to realize or appreciate the complexity of organizing a large outdoor event. Wiener admits that large crowds present safety problems for everyone.

He enlisted the center to save the party last year, but it was always doubtful the center would permanently produce the event because it does not fit its mission.

The center is about to start major renovations to its facilities and simply doesn’t have the resources to produce a street party.

So, there will be no Pink Party for 2016, but if the LGBT community still has its radical “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it” edge, maybe it will return next year, perhaps as a smaller, more intimate affair, or the next generation in a big brash street party. It’s up to us.t

Sisters’ Easter party is SF tradition

by Sister Roma

M

y memories of Easter growing up in Michigan flash before me in an array of blurry Polaroids taken by my grandmother, our family documentarian. The images show my Catholic family dressed in our Sunday best standing in front of St. Anthony’s Cathedral holding Palm fronds, giant Easter baskets my mother always lovingly filled with delicious treats and surprises, me holding a chocolate bunny destined to lose its ears first, and a fluffy white cake covered in coconut and decorated with jellybeans. For me Easter was always on par with Valentine’s Day, pleasant, but a day like any other with cards and candy.

Little did I know on Easter 1979, as I was opening die-cut bunny cards hoping a $5 bill would fall out, something was happening across the country in San Francisco that would change my perception of Easter – and my life – forever.

Three men, bored with the prevailing attitude of conformity and the “Castro Clone,” dressed in traditional nun habits and went out into the streets to challenge the world. They were Ken Bunch (Sister Vicious PHB), Fred Brungard (Sister Missionary Position) and Baruch Golden. They were met with shock and amazement, but captured everyone’s attention. In the fall of 1979 Edmund Garron (Sister Hysterectoria) and Bill Graham (Reverend Mother) joined Sister Vicious (now called Vish Knew) and Sister Mish to become the four founders of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Flash forward to 2016. The Sisters have now (in)famously celebrated our anniversary by throwing one of the city’s largest free open-air events for over two decades lovingly known as Easter in the Park. It all started sometime in the early 1990s in Collingwood Park with a small neighborhood picnic. On our 20th anniversary we decided to go big and applied for a street closure to hold a huge party on Castro Street. That request was met with major opposition from conservative Catholic groups who fought tooth and nail to have our street closure denied. The ensuing battle caught the attention of every local and national news outlet, including CNN, which followed us around the Castro with cameras, catapulting our little Easter party into the headlines. The

Rick Gerharter

Sister Roma takes the stage at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence 2014 Easter celebration.

Board of Supervisors granted our street closure and we held one hell of a party. Thanks to our friends at the Catholic League and all of the free publicity our anniversary celebration was now much too large for Collingwood, so we moved to Dolores Park.

It was in Dolores Park where, in addition to our beloved Easter Bonnet contest, we added our world-renowned Hunky Jesus contest. Once again the Christians were up in arms generating free publicity that made our numbers grow and cemented the Sisters’ Easter party as one of San Francisco’s most iconic annual traditions.

When Dolores Park went under construction we had to find a new home and turned to the most obvious choice, Golden Gate Park.

The sisters were worried. Hellman Hollow is so much lager than Dolores Park; would enough people make the pilgrimage out there to party with us? Those and other worries were put to rest when the Sisters debuted in Golden Gate Park on Easter 2014 to a record-breaking crowd. Depending on who you ask there were anywhere from 8,000-10,000 people cheering for that year’s Hunky Jesus! All I can tell you is that from my perspective, on stage as the emcee with my Sister Dana Van Iquity, it was

the largest crowd I’d ever seen. It was thrilling.

But it’s not the size of the crowd, the location, or the added bonus of pissing off the right-wing conservative Christians that makes the Sisters’ Easter in the Park one of San Francisco’s most beloved events. Thanks to the generosity of some of the city’s best entertainers, we put on a fun-filled stage show that includes live music, drag queens and kings, and ceremonies that provide a glimpse behind the veil of the Sisters. We hold our three contests, the jaw-dropping and hilarious Easter Bonnet contest, our relatively new and sultry Sexy Mary contest, and the legendary Hunky Jesus contest, all of which showcase the incredible talent, wit, and unique beauty of our community.

Most importantly, more than any church service I have ever attended at Easter (or any time for that matter), the Sisters have created an atmosphere of acceptance, joy, and love that welcomes everyone with open arms. Now, more than ever, it is a time to gather with other like-minded queers, friends, and families to celebrate the San Francisco that so many fear to be disappearing. We’re still here, the queers, the artists, the outcasts, the free spirits, the quirky, the poets, the rebels, the beatniks, the hippies, the queens, the dykes, the straight but not narrow, the people who are the living, breathing heart and soul of this amazing city. We’re still here and we’re showing the rest of the world how to celebrate Easter – San Francisco style.t Sister Roma, “the most photographed nun in the world,” is a 29-year member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and annual hostess/emcee of the Sisters’ Easter Celebration.

This year’s Easter in the Park takes place Sunday, March 27 at Hellman Hollow in Golden Gate Park. Children’s Easter is at 11 am. Stage performances begin at noon hosted by emcees Mutha Chucka, Kit Tapata, and Alex U. Inn. Easter Bonnet contest 1 p.m., Foxy Mary contest, 2, and Hunky Jesus at 3. Performances throughout the day featuring Private Idaho, Carly Ozard, Red Hots Burlesque, BeBe Sweetbriar, Momma’s Boyz and more.

t

Letters >>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Pink Party’s demise

The repressive “Castro-garchy” could have helped our wonderfully creative and hardworking Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in 2015 and earlier, when Pink Saturday needed such help [“No Pink Party in the Castro this year,” blog post, March 17].

Instead, this ruling elite maliciously refused aid, then diverted support away from the Sisters. Thereby they killed any organized

aspect of occurrences on the night of the Dyke March and before Pride Sunday. If order shall be replaced by chaos, who bears the blame?

The Castro-garchy fears creativity, artistry, spontaneity, live music, dancing, bare skin, and much more. They want market, not movement.

Out of the streets, and into the bars.

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LGBT Democratic clubs split on SF judicial race

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T

he city’s LGBT Democratic clubs are split on who should be elected this year to a vacant seat on the San Francisco Superior Court.

The members of the progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, at their meeting March 15, endorsed trial attorney and former Catholic school teacher Sigrid Irias in the three-person race for the local court’s Seat 7, whose current occupant, Judge Ernest H. Goldsmith, announced earlier this month he would retire effective April 14.

“It’s fantastic to see the broad base of support I have in this election campaign, including lawyers who’ve opposed me in court, students, and people from every part of the city,” Irias told the Bay Area Reporter in an emailed reply. “I’m honored by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club’s recent endorsement – the largest Democratic club in the city, it has a long history of standing up for the rights of all, regardless of economic or other circumstance.”

This week the more moderate Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club endorsed Paul Henderson, a gay man who is a TV legal analyst and Mayor Ed Lee’s deputy chief of staff and director of public safety, at its meeting March 21. The endorsement came just days after Henderson picked up the sole endorsement from the San Francisco Democratic Party.

“Throughout my 20-plus year career I have worked to ensure that our courts are fair and accessible and have been an advocate for greater transparency, understanding and diversity in the legal profession,” Henderson wrote in a Facebook post. “I have spent my life standing up for the common core values of equality, diversity, parity, fairness – and I am so grateful for those who have supported me along the way.”

Shut out from gaining the support of the city’s two main LGBT political groups was attorney Victor M. Hwang, a former San Francisco assistant district attorney who prosecuted hate crimes and is now in private practice.

Hwang had told the Bay Area Reporter he would pursue both clubs’ endorsements and hoped their members, as well as voters, would focus more on the candidates legal experience than their race, sexual orientation, or political leanings.

“I am by far the most qualified candidate in the race,” said Hwang.

“If you look at court experience, that is my strength.”

He echoed that sentiment in a recent post to his campaign Facebook page, writing that “sadly, some have chosen to value politics over qualifications. I hope you will join me in my grassroots campaign to put the most qualified candidate on the bench - the only one who has handled serious felony trials and practiced in both our criminal and civil courts.”

A third significant endorsement from an LGBT group in the race will be that of the legal group known as Bay Area Lawyers for Individual

Courtesy Irias for Superior Court Judge campaign

San Francisco judicial candidate Sigrid Irias

Freedom, or BALIF for short. BALIF secretary Peter Catalanotti told the B.A.R. that the group’s judicial committee was meeting with the candidates this week.

“The endorsement shall come out sometime soon,” Catalanotti wrote in an emailed reply.

As a leading voice for increased LGBT representation on the state’s courts – BALIF coauthored a report last summer that criticized the lack of LGBT judges on both the federal and state courts in California – it would seem Henderson, as the only out candidate in the race, would have an edge in the contest for BALIF’s endorsement.

Yet Catalanotti dismissed such an assumption, indicating all three judicial candidates have an equal shot at gaining BALIF’s support.

The judicial contest will be on the June 7 primary ballot. If none of the three candidates secures 50 percent plus one of the vote, then the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in November.

College board prez to launch campaign

Attorney Rafael Mandelman will officially kick-off his re-election campaign for a second four-year term on the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees next week.

A gay man who is the current president of the college board, Mandelman has been at the forefront of efforts to keep City College open and fend off its accreditation being revoked by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Due to the college’s troubles, the state appointed a special trustee to oversee it; the elected college board began regaining its power last summer.

Due to the uncertainty over its future, City College has seen its enrollment decline. Meanwhile, the college has been locked in contentious yearlong labor talks. Its faculty is demanding salary raises and threatening to strike if a deal isn’t reached.

Amidst this backdrop comes the fall election for four seats on the city college board. Mandelman is one of three gay men who have already announced their candidacies.

As the B.A.R. has previously

Courtesy Henderson for Superior Court Judge campaign

San Francisco judicial candidate Paul Henderson

reported, gay Mission district bar owner Tom Temprano is running again this year after falling short in his bid for a college board seat in November.

The winner of that race was Alex Randolph, a gay man who was tapped by Mayor Lee last year to fill a vacancy on the college board. He is now seeking a full four-year term.

Mandelman’s re-election campaign kick-off will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 30 at gay club Oasis, 298 11th Street. Donations of at least $25 are asked of attendees and can be made online at https://rafaelmandelman.nationbuilder.com/donatecitycollege.

B.A.R. to co-host state Senate race debate

The B.A.R. will serve as a co-host of a debate next month with the candidates for the city’s state Senate seat.

Both the Alice and Milk LGBT Democratic clubs are co-sponsoring the April 6 debate between gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim. They are both looking to succeed gay state Senator Mark Leno (DSan Francisco), who is termed out of his Senate District 11 seat this fall.

B.A.R. news editor Cynthia Laird will moderate the debate, which is geared toward LGBT voters, residents of Wiener’s supervisor district and residents of board President London Breed’s District 5. B.A.R. society columnist Donna Sachet will serve as the co-host of the debate, one of several the two Democratic candidates plan to hold ahead of the June primary.

The debate is open to the public and will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, located at 290 Dolores Street at 16th Street in San Francisco.

DCCC membership proposal sent to committee

After failing to receive the twothirds majority it needed, a proposal that would automatically award the city’s Democratic supervisors ex-officio seats on the local party’s oversight panel, similar to those given to state and federal lawmakers, was sent to committee.

As reported in last week’s Political Notebook, Democratic County Central Committee member Alix Rosenthal authored the proposal in See page 12 >>

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6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

Book looks at 2008 Oxnard school shooting

by Brian Bromberger

I

t was a brutal, shocking murder that brought daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to tears, telling her viewers, “You can be killed for being gay. We need to change the message. We must fight hate.”

The crime in question was the homicide on February 12, 2008 in Oxnard, California of 15-year-old Larry King, a Latino youth who just two weeks prior had started wearing women’s clothes, makeup, and stiletto heels (allowed under a California law that prevents gender discrimination) and identifying as Leticia.

Brandon McInerney, 14, had walked into the computer lab and in front of his teacher and the rest of his eighth grade class, quietly stood and shot King twice in the head with a .22-caliber revolver he had taken from his home.

King died in the hospital two days later.

Now trying to make sense of the slaying, psychologist and New York University Professor Ken Corbett, a leading expert on gender and masculinity, has written a new book, A Murder Over A Girl: Justice, Gender, Junior High about the trial that followed three years later. In San Francisco recently for a reading and conversation with UC Berkeley post-modern theorist Judith Butler, Corbett, 62, met for an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

When asked why he devoted more than five years to this disturbing case, Corbett, a gay man, said that the perfect storm of poverty, race, sexuality, gender, and gun violence at the heart of the crime, fueled by ignorance and fear, had intrigued him as it encapsulated issues facing the country.

“Psychology has lost its place in public discourse, other than selfhelp, and I wanted to restore that

Brian Bromberger

Larry King was killed by a classmate in 2008.

imbalance,” Corbett said. “I’ve had a long-standing interest in boys and masculinity and this case features two teenaged boys, one identifying as a girl and the other referred to as a ‘normal’ boy throughout the trial.”

King’s birth mother was a 15-year-old drug-addicted prostitute. Adopted at age 2, by his 10th birthday he had come out as gay and was being bullied by his classmates due to his effeminacy. In 2007, he was removed from his adoptive home due to allegations of abuse and placed in a group home residential treatment center.

McInerney had been raised by drug-addicted parents, Corbett’s book states. His mother, prior to her wedding, shot his father and then years later his father shot his mother in front of him. The house was full of guns and McInerney was an expert marksman. His story, too, was filled with abuse and neglect.

Two days before the murder, King allegedly walked onto a basketball court during a game and in front of his teammates, asked McInerney to be his valentine. It was widely reported in the media but Corbett stated that there was no evidence outside of hearsay presented at McInerney’s trial to support this contention.

However, the day before the

Author Ken Corbett signs copies of his book about the King case during a recent visit to San Francisco.

shooting, King passed McInerney in the hall and called out “love you baby.” Citing sexual harassment and tired of the ridicule from classmates due to King’s comments, McInerney killed him, Corbett’s book states.

Hung jury

The trial resulted in a hung jury with five jurors voting for first- or second-degree murder and seven jurors opting for voluntary manslaughter. One of the chief issues bothering the jurors was that McInerney was tried as an adult, despite having been asked during jury selection if they could still render a guilty verdict. Corbett’s interviews with the jurors after the trial showed most of them could not and did not do so.

The other chief obstacle was a majority of the jurors subscribing to the defense’s claim that King’s behavior toward McInerney constituted sexual harassment, “even though there was no evidence for that claim and in fact not one kid, who were all compelling eyewitnesses, could recount a moment when Larry had been sexually provocative,” Corbett said.

The defense implied that King needed to be stopped and McInerney became the one bullied, not King.

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Corbett doesn’t think that ordinary reasonable boys, even if one were to grant the highly dubious claim of sexual harassment, would with premeditation and clear intent shoot someone in the back of the head twice in front of 27 other people. Corbett believed the jury got so wrapped up with sexual harassment that it never dealt with the homophobia issue. In fact, one juror later wondered where are the rights of McInerney, who was being harassed.

Finally, Corbett said, the defense cleverly conflated King’s gender transition to be sexual, making no distinction between gender and sexual identity. Transgender issues were never discussed. Corbett felt the court didn’t have a way to speak about King other than calling him gay. Many of the jurors could not conceive a 14-year-old as a murderer, so Corbett believed this factor, along with homophobia and transphobia, played into the jury’s decision.

Corbett believes the King case matters for several reasons.

He pointed to last year’s statistic that “23 transwomen of color were murdered and almost none of those cases were filed as hate crimes and all but one were committed by a man, so this is not an isolated issue.”

“Also, we do a lousy job in this country of taking care of children.

Both of these boys suffered horrendous abuse and neglect,” Corbett said. “There was massive institutional failure. Brandon had a limited psychological self, unable to express his emotions, talk much, and isolating himself. He had a conduct disorder. The boys will be boys mentality is bad psychology. We have to be much smarter about who boys are.

“Imagine masculinity as a football field with a majority of men and boys on the 50 yard line but there are still many others scattered throughout the whole field and in order to compre-

t

hend masculinity we need to understand everyone on that field,” he said.

Trans kids are 41 times more likely to commit suicide, much higher even than gay and lesbian kids, Corbett said. He asserted, “Schools need to step up to what is happening developmentally, providing both real sexual and gender education.”

“We need to understand who kids are instead of pushing them into a normative gender binary box where you can be only male or female,” he said. “Facebook now recognizes over 50 genders and people might be puzzled or disturbed by that fact, but I say, good. We should be overwhelmed by gender, which overwhelms us on a daily basis. Better to be overwhelmed and conscious rather than unconscious and doing things like gay-bashing or murdering someone.”

After the district attorney announced that McInerney would be retried, a plea-bargain was reached and he pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder and voluntary manslaughter. McInerney received a 21year prison sentence.

Corbett said that he attempted to speak with McInerney while he was writing the book.

“He refused to talk to me and has not mentioned the case, even to his family,” Corbett said. “He has never expressed any remorse, although his mother now recognizes that what he did was murder, perhaps the only moment of redemption in this case.

“Many of the jurors later felt that Brandon’s life would be cut short if he went to prison. But no one seems concerned that Leticia’s life had been cut short,” Corbett said, using female pronouns for King. “Her life mattered and it takes an unusual kid to resist powerful binary norms and she was courageous in trying to give voice to her identity. One of the reasons I wrote the book was to give Leticia back her life.”t

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Community News>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SF Pride forum lauds African-American LGBTs

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

he organization that puts on the San Francisco Pride parade has started promoting its 2016 theme a few months early and recently hosted a well-attended forum about the contributions of LGBTQ African-Americans.

“Pride’s theme, ‘For Racial and Economic Justice.’ sets the tone for everything you’ll see on stage,” said George Ridgely, executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, offering an introduction to the March 8 program. “The idea is to shed a light on the most marginalized among us. We can’t rest until equality is secured for every one of us.”

The evening, titled “African American Contributions to LGBTQI Culture and the American Experience,” was hosted by Pride board member John Weber, a gay man and former chair of the Imperial Court of San Francisco.

“Forget about me,” Weber said, as he pointed to his roster of speakers, though his panelists credited Weber with organizing the event. Before the speakers began, musician Kippy Marks mesmerized the audience with a performance of “Breath,” a solo violin piece that he composed.

<<

Historical society

From page 3

Strengthening the foundation

Beswick said he’s been tasked to “shore up the foundation of the organization” and implement “a vision for the future.” He’s been talking to staff, board members, and people in the community to discuss what’s needed.

The organization’s budget is $600,000. “Some of it is confirmed

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“This is about the contributions of African-Americans,” Weber said to the crowd of about 100 people at the Excelsior library branch.

“LGBTQ African-Americans are often hidden, rewritten, or they put our messages into their mouths.

We want to tell our stories – this is the first step to starting other conversations.”

One of the first stories shared was a surprising one about the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France to the United States in the late 19th century. According to historians, the model for the statue was an African American slave.

Kenneth Monteiro, Ph.D., dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University and a gay man, spoke of the lack of services for African American men during the early years of the AIDS crisis. He also acknowledged some notable LGBT African Americans from the past, including author James Baldwin, poet Audre Lorde, and Pat Norman, the first AfricanAmerican lesbian to run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in 1984. Monteiro also recalled Bayard Rustin, an organizer during the civil rights movement who worked closely with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and who is often income,” Beswick said, while “some of it is based on projections.”

He said he’s been talking to major donors, and people are interested in supporting the organization.

Beswick said he wants to reach out to people “who have not had direct involvement with the organization” and increase the base of supporters.

“Usually people will only give if they have a stake in the organization,” he said.

Small donations sustain the nonprofit, and it’s “just as important

End of Quarter

Flooring

Rick Gerharter

Panelists at San Francisco Pride’s forum on African-American contributions to the LGBTQI experience included, from left, Kenneth Monteiro, Ph.D., dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University; Micah Lubensky, manager of community mobilization at MSM Global Forum; Vixen Noir, singer and performance artist; Kippy Marks, violinist; and Pride board member John Weber.

written out of civil rights histories due to his homosexuality.

A film clip of Rustin was shown.

Micah Lubensky, Ph.D., is the manager of community mobilization at the Global Forum on MSM and HIV. He is also the co-chair of the planning committee for the Bay Area event Generations: Black LGBTIQQ History Experiences 2016.

“As a mixed race kid in southern California, I didn’t know the stories,” Lubensky, who’s gay, said.

“Collective history is important: it effects our self-esteem. Our community deserves these landmarks.”

Lubensky named other AfricanAmerican LGBT-identified people who have made an impact on history and culture, such as Laverne Cox, the first African-American trans woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award for her work in the acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.

“If it weren’t for these people’s impact on culture, where would we

to have those individuals investing in the organization” as people who give larger sums, he said.

Along with other ideas, Beswick said, “We’re exploring the possibility of bringing back the annual gala this year.” (The group’s Unmasked fundraiser hasn’t been held in the last couple years.)

The historical society has two full-time staff. Beswick, whose position is half time and whose salary is at $42,500, plus benefits, said whether he’s eventually paid for working full time “depends on

whether people step up to support the organization.”

Brian Turner, a historical society board co-chair, said in an email, “Terry is doing really well. He’s a great fit for the GLBTHS, is highly motivated and came to us with valuable experience in leading a local nonprofit. The other directors and I are very happy he’s on board.”

Beswick took over from Paul Boneberg, another AIDS activist who was the longtime historical society executive director. Boneberg announced his departure last April

be?” Lubensky asked.

Singer, songwriter, and recording and performance artist Vixen Noir spoke of her work in empowering queer and bisexual women of color.

“Just stay true to who you are and do your thing,” she said. “That is how we change the world.”

Marks paid homage to black classical musicians who came before him, pointing out that many historical African-Americans who were known for accomplishments other than music were in fact musicians, such as 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

The program concluded with a performance from drag entertainer Sable Jones, who wowed the audience as she worked the crowd to the tune of “Encourage Yourself,” a powerful soul-gospel ballad by Donald Lawrence.

Pride board member Joey “Cupcake” Stevenson told the Bay Area Reporter that the evening delighted her.

“It’s an exciting time in LGBTQI civil rights because we are beyond the marriage narrative and can work on things that really matter,” said Stevenson. “Marginalized queer folks to the front, always leading the movement. It’s a great time to be a radical queer in San Francisco and these alliances are crucial.”t amid calls for his resignation. He had been criticized for his leadership and donor relations.

Asked about the problems at the historical society, which last year marked its 30th anniversary, Beswick said, “It’s hard for me to comprehend.

I wasn’t around back then.” He’d only been “peripherally aware” about the troubles, and he said, “I haven’t asked a lot of questions about that.”

The nonprofit has “an extremely engaged board of directors,” BesSee page 14 >>

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<< National News

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

t

Garland has ruled against gays in court cases analysis by Lisa Keen

But the Federal Communications Commission had banned the operation of such small stations – known as microbroadcast stations – because they were causing interference with major radio stations that served the broad general public. Szoka operated the radio station in defiance of the ban and without ever applying for a radio operator’s license. The FCC ordered him to stop broadcasting and to pay an $11,000 per day fine for every day in defiance.

In Grid Radio v. FCC, Szoka filed suit in federal court to challenge the order, and jurisdictional issues brought the case before the D.C. Circuit. Szoka said the ban on microbroadcasting violated the Communications Act of 1934 and his First Amendment rights to serve a community that was “not adequately served” by full-power stations. The panel rejected his first claim, noting that Szoka never applied for a license, then rejected his First Amendment claim.

“Valuable as Grid Radio’s broadcasts may have been,” stated the 2002 panel decision penned by Judge David Tatel, “we think it clear that the commission had no obligation to consider the station’s individual circumstances before shutting it down.”

The panel said the FCC was simply enforcing a ban on microbroadcasting.

“Permitting Szoka or anyone else to operate without a license as a means of challenging the microbroadcasting ban ... could produce the very chaos ... the licensing regime was designed to prevent.”

In the second case, Turner v. Department of the Navy (decided in

2003), Petty Officer Jim Turner sued the secretary of the Navy to overturn his “other than honorable” discharge. In 1994, when the military’s policy of banning openly gay people was still in place, several of Turner’s male peers on the USS Antietam accused him of making sexual advances. The ship’s captain and an administrative board declared him guilty and discharged him. A Board for Correction of Naval Records said there was insufficient corroboration of the charges and recommended his record be cleared. But a deputy assistant secretary for the Navy rejected that recommendation.

Turner sued in federal court, echoing the BCNR’s finding that the evidence against him had been insufficient. Turner also argued that his captain violated the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulations by initiating an investigation without “credible evidence” and that an investigator violated the policy by asking one of the sailors about his sexual orientation.

The appeals panel, which included Garland, noted that Turner had “a respectable record of seven years of military service” and that the charges against him initially seemed more like “inflamed” interpretations of “horseplay.” But it upheld a federal district court, saying proper procedures had been followed. The decision was written by senior Circuit Judge Stephen Williams.

In the third case, Garland was on a panel with then-appeals court Judge John Roberts Jr., who now serves as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was International Action Center v. U.S. The 2004 decision addressed a lawsuit filed by a coalition of groups and individuals who opposed “racism, sexism, oppression of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people.” It sued federal and local law enforcement personnel for injuries inflicted on protesters at President George W. Bush’s first inaugural parade. The protesters said that, while engaging in “lawful, peaceful activity” along the parade route, undercover officers struck them and sprayed them with pepper spray.

The lawsuit alleged that supervisors of the undercover officers should be held personally liable for their injuries. The supervisors argued they had qualified immunity and a three-judge panel that included Garland agreed. Roberts wrote the panel opinion, saying plaintiffs failed to establish that the police supervisors were guilty of

misconduct in their training and supervision of police, rather than “mere negligence.”

Jon Davidson, national legal director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the three gay-plaintiff cases “don’t tell us very much about his judicial philosophy or views of constitutional and legal issues relating to sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.”

Lambda Legal and many groups and court enthusiasts are poring over Garland’s record now, and many will likely find details that will encourage or encumber their support for the nominee.

For instance, the Boston Globe reported Saturday that Garland, “under pressure from a leftist group” during the 1970s Vietnam protest era at Harvard undergraduate school, asked a student-faculty committee to consider having a campus referendum on whether the school should allow ROTC back on campus. He then later voted against holding a referendum. That left the existing ban intact. Without predicting how Republican senators might react, the Globe noted, “any whiff of an antimilitary record will raise red flags for Republicans ...”

More likely, it will prompt Republicans – if they ever give Garland a confirmation hearing – to quiz him over a similar ROTC flap that emerged six years ago during the confirmation hearing for the last new justice, Kagan. Kagan had been dean of Harvard Law when Harvard had a policy of barring recruiters from campus because of the military’s policy of banning openly gay people. During her confirmation hearing, Republican senators grilled her about it. Kagan said she found a way to let military recruiters have “full access” to students while still enforcing the school’s ban against sexual orientation discrimination.

The military’s ban no longer exists and most campuses no longer bar military recruiters but, if Kagan’s confirmation can be somewhat of a guide, Garland – or the next Supreme Court nominee – can expect to field questions from Republican senators asking whether he is a “legal progressive,” whether he thinks the Supreme Court was right to strike down state bans on marriage for same-sex couples, and religious objections to antidiscrimination laws that protect LGBT people. And if history can be a guide, the nominee’s answers will likely leave everyone guessing until they’re on the high bench.t

“I think from my experience the Castro has fewer queer folks these days. That is based on my experience living there, being in the neighborhood, and seeing who is walking around,” said longtime queer housing activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca.

“But I don’t know that there are fewer queers in the city overall.”

Gay Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen, whose city just approved funding for its first LGBT senior housing project, said that the state’s capital draws LGBT people from across the country. He has met people who relocated there from Washington, D.C., Nevada, and Denver, as well as the Bay Area.

“California’s openness to LGBT people is exemplified in the diverse and integrated community we have in Sacramento,” wrote Hansen in an email. “There’s no doubt in my mind that many LGBT people and families are coming here for the inclusive culture and opportunities to enjoy a high quality of life.”

Sacramento LGBT Community Center Executive Director Donald L. Bentz, who has lived in the city’s Midtown for 18 months, told the B.A.R. that “from the first day,

it felt overwhelming LGBT, but in a co-existence context. There’s a good mix of orientations, identities and ethnic minorities all living, shopping and working in relatively peaceful harmony.”

He agreed with Gates’ contention that as more people embrace their sexual or gender identity, they are more likely to self-report in a survey.

“In some of the regions reporting a population gain, was it really that LGBT people are moving there or were always there and are just now comfortable identifying as LGBT in a survey?” asked Bentz.

Matthew Craffey, who grew up in the Los Angeles region and is president of the city’s Log Cabin California chapter, told the B.A.R. that since he came out 17 years ago he has seen the city become more accepting of LGBT people.

“When I came out in 1999, LA didn’t necessarily feel like a welcoming environment to those of us who were gay. I was still taught not to hold hands with a boyfriend in public or risk being a target of violence, and outside of WeHo it was hard to meet or get to know any other members of the LGBT

community,” wrote Craffey in an email, referring to the gay enclave of West Hollywood. “Fast forward to 2016, and I feel it’s completely different. Most of my neighbors are gay, my co-workers, and much of the leadership at work is openly gay, and I seem to meet other gay people wherever I go.”

He added that he increasingly meets LGBT individuals and couples moving to Los Angeles “from other parts of the country to start a business, or buy a home since it’s relatively affordable compared to other cities such as SF or NYC, and that has likely been part of the shift as well.”

Six years ago Luke Klipp left San Francisco for Los Angeles to live with his now husband, and over the ensuing years, he said a good portion of the city has become very LGBT friendly.

“Wherever we go, we see other guys and gals holding hands out on the town, in a restaurant who are clearly LGBT,” said Klipp.

He has also met other new arrivals not only from the Bay Area but also Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Washington state.

J

udge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, has ruled against gay plaintiffs three times.

This is the kind of record that might usually guarantee that Republican senators would be eager to confirm him. It might also be the sort of record that would prompt LGBT groups to urge a more cautious review.

Although the Human Rights Campaign expects to support Garland’s nomination, it and other LGBT groups and leaders, such as Senator Tammy Baldwin (DWisconsin), are taking some time to study his record before endorsing his nomination. But most Senate Republicans are, for the moment, standing firm in their refusal to consider the nomination – at least, not until they calculate that Garland would be a better nominee than the next president might select. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) promised Sunday “that’s not going to happen.”)

“I cannot imagine that the Republican-majority Senate, even if it were soon to be a minority, would want to confirm a judge that would move the court dramatically to the left,” McConnell told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.

And that seems to be the growing assessment of Garland: that, despite a relatively moderate to conservative record, he would become part of the Supreme Court’s liberal bloc.

New York Times legal reporter Adam Liptak says political scientists believe Garland would be “well to the left” of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy is the justice who has provided the key swing vote for the Supreme Court’s most historic decisions in favor of equal rights for LGBT people.

“He would be the fifth member of a liberal bloc on the court,” said Liptak, in a video accompanying his March 17 article.

University of Chicago Law Professor Eric Posner said he thinks Garland “seems liberal” on civil rights.

Much of this speculation appears to be based on an analysis that found justices tend to vote based on the ideology of the president who appointed them. Garland, who has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for 19 years, was appointed

by Democratic President Bill Clinton. But that’s not a foolproof conclusion. Kennedy was appointed by

<<

LGBT CA residents

From page 1

Gates. “Much bigger changes come from more LGBT people willing to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. LGBT people don’t move at rates any different than the rest of the population.”

In terms of the LGB population in California – data on transgender residents continues to be lacking – the most recent data shows it has increased. Gates pointed to the results of the California Health Interview Survey, which showed a near doubling in the percentage of adults who identified as LGB in 2003 versus 2014.

AP

Senator Patrick Leahy, left, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, met last week with Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland.

President Ronald Reagan. And Justice William Brennan, one of the Supreme Court’s most liberal justices, was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Garland clerked for Brennan from 1978-79.) Retired Justice David Souter, who ended up voting with the liberals in several high-profile cases, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush.

On the day Obama announced Garland’s nomination, the Human Rights Campaign issued a statement, calling him “highly qualified.”

But the LGBT rights group stopped short of an endorsement. HRC’s legal director Sarah Warbelow said the organization would make an official endorsement decision after it does its own examination of his record and after Garland gets a hearing from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“President Obama has a history of appointing pro-equality Supreme Court justices,” said Warbelow, referring to Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. “We are confident that, in Judge Garland, we will find another associate justice to the Supreme Court who stands on the side of fairness and equality.”

Gay cases

Garland has an extensive record.

He has participated in thousands of cases. Three of those cases had gay plaintiffs, but all three failed to get the relief they sought from threejudge panels that included Garland.

The first case involved an Ohio man, Jerry Szoka, who operated a low-power FM radio station in 1997 specifically to reach gay men and women and the arts community in Cleveland.

“California hasn’t lost LGBT people. The percentage of LGBT people has gone up over time,” said Gates.

It was 2.7 percent in 2003 and 4.5 percent in 2014. In actual numbers, the population of LGB Californians went from 631,000 13 years ago to 1,140,000 in 2014.

“The California health survey has been asking about sexual orientation since 2002. It definitely has been going up over time,” said Gates.

Residents of various California cities say they haven’t noticed any decrease in the overall LGBT population. But they have noticed where LGBT people are living in those cities has been changing.

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See page 13 >>

t

Election 2016>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Gay support for Clinton not enough in Utah as Sanders wins

by Lisa Keen

S

alt Lake City’s popular new lesbian mayor, Jackie Biskupski, supported Hillary Clinton during Tuesday’s Democratic caucus in Utah, but it wasn’t enough as Senator Bernie Sanders took that contest.

Sanders also won the Idaho caucuses, helping him regain some of the momentum he lost last week when Clinton scored a five-state sweep.

Meanwhile, some LGBT Republicans are beginning to feel “lost” as their two leading candidates seem unacceptable to most, and the trailing third candidate seems too far behind to catch up except through a fiercely divisive convention. Some are even considering voting for Clinton.

Clinton took Arizona March 22 and, in so doing, picked up more delegates there (41) than did Sanders in Utah and Idaho combined (35). But Sanders’ large margins of victory in Utah and Idaho, coupled with winning 40 percent of the vote in Arizona, gave him six more delegates than Clinton at the end of the day. Overall, Clinton now appears to have 71 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination; Sanders has 39 percent.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump continued his controversial march to his party’s nomination Tuesday, picking up all of Arizona’s delegates. But Texas Senator Ted Cruz won Utah. (The GOP held its caucus in Idaho earlier.)

Going into this week’s contests, Trump had 55 percent of the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure that party’s nomination. His closest competitor, Cruz, had 33 percent.

The only other GOP hopeful, Ohio Governor John Kasich, had 12 percent. After Tuesday night, Trump has 60 percent of the delegates he needs. Cruz has 38 percent. Kasich remains at 12 percent.

Biskupski told reporters she endorsed Clinton because she thinks the former senator and secretary of state has more experience, more detailed plans, and will be better able to work with Republicans.

“She’s the only one with a proven track record of delivering real results and she’s exactly the kind of leader we need in the White House,” said Biskupski, in a statement about Clinton March 11.

Biskupski hit the trail for Clinton, going door-to-door in Salt Lake City last Saturday. She published an op-ed piece in the Salt Lake City Tribune on Saturday that gave Clinton credit for “laying the groundwork for the health care philosophy our nation has increasingly embraced – a principle that no one should be left behind.”

And she singled out that Clinton “declared to the world that the lives of women and girls are critically important and that LGBTQ people are entitled to dignity and respect.”

Some news reports indicate that both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns are already turning their focus onto the probability that Trump will carry the GOP mantle.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that 22 “liberal groups” have “united behind a campaign to stop Mr. Trump.” It said a “senior Democrat who has spoken with Clinton campaign officials and others in the party” said the strategy involves “enlisting the Muslim, Hispanic and gay communities in an effort to paint Mr. Trump as a divisive force in American politics.”

National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey was one of 21 individuals and one union that signed onto a March 15 letter organized by Moveon.org, urging “anyone who opposes bigotry” to respond to Trump’s “threat to the America we love” by engaging in “a massive nonviolent mobilization.”

The letter said Trump “peddles”

AP

Hillary Clinton won the Arizona primary but came up short in caucuses in Utah and Idaho.

attacks on immigrants, “attacks on LGBTQ rights, and more.”

The national gay Log Cabin Republicans group issued a news release earlier this month saying it thinks Trump is “all over the place” on marriage equality.

LCR President Gregory Angelo issued a statement and video saying, “it’s encouraging to know that [Trump] has attended a same-sex wedding, opposes discrimination against gay people in the workplace, and told a lesbian reporter that the LGBT community can expect ‘for-

AP

Bernie Sanders won convincingly in Utah and Idaho Tuesday.

ward motion’ on equality” if Trump is elected president.” But he said he is “deeply” concerned that Trump also said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn the 2015 marriage ruling.

Matthew Shuman, head of the Log Cabin chapter in Arizona, said that, “Especially since Senator [Marco] Rubio departed the race,” LGBT Republicans “feel lost.”

“Early on, many in the gay Republican circles were certainly drawn to a particular candidate, and now, with the existence of only two viable

candidates, we’re not that sure,” said Shuman. “Of the two candidates, it’s easy to see that Senator Cruz is firmly against gay marriage and the advancements we’ve made ... leaving us with Donald Trump. I suppose the one benefit to Mr. Trump is that he does not care either way on the issue of gay rights, marriage and advancements made.”

Shuman said he’s “heard a lot of people within our community would rather vote for Hillary than Donald Trump,” but he speculates Trump will pick up the votes of some Demo-

crats who won’t vote for Clinton.

Jimmy LaSalvia, founder of the now-defunct GOProud gay conservative group, said he’s supporting Clinton. Acknowledging that, for most of his political career he was “the ultimate Republican team player,” LaSalvia penned an essay last December saying he now believes that, “For me and other fiscally conservative, culturally modern voters who care about America’s place in the world, Hillary Clinton is the obvious choice for president in 2016.”

Meanwhile, the campaign focus shifts now to Washington state, where 118 Democratic delegates are up for grabs in caucuses this Saturday. Democratic caucuses will also take place Saturday in Alaska (20 delegates) and Hawaii (34) before the next big primary for both parties: Wisconsin April 5.

Candidates are also beginning to prepare for a big delegate showdown in New York state April 19.

Democrats have 291 delegates at stake; Republicans 95.

The Clinton campaign will hold its first national LGBT fundraiser in New York March 30. And gays were a presence last Saturday at a rally in New York to protest Trump. Reports were a favorite chant was, “Donald Trump, go away, racist, sexist, anti-gay.”t

<< Community News

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

t

Federal recognition sought for four SF LGBT historic sites

by Matthew S. Bajko

H

istoric preservation officials are seeking federal recognition for four sites in the city that played a role in the history of San Francisco’s LGBT community.

Listing on the National Register of Historic Places is being sought for Glide Memorial United Methodist Church and the building that once housed the Japantown YWCA, the Bay Area Reporter has learned.

A third site to be nominated for the register should be chosen in the coming weeks.

“We want the three to be as diverse as possible,” said Timothy Frye, the planning department’s historic preservation officer.

The planning department in November learned it would receive a $55,000 Underrepresented Communities Grant from the Department of the Interior. The funds will be used to hire consultants to write National Register of Historic Places nominations for the three sites.

Yet the announcement by the federal agency and the National Park Service was largely overlooked at the time. And a news release about the funding did not specify which sites were being nominated.

It merely stated the grant would “support the preparation of three National Register nominations and a citywide inventory for properties associated with the advancement of civil rights for African-American, Asian-American, Latino American, LGBTQ populations, and women.”

Initially, the city’s planning department had included the Women’s Building among the trio. But a separate effort is now underway to seek a National Historic Landmark designation for the structure located at 3543 18th Street near Valencia Street.

“I have been talking with the National Park Service for a while now about how compelling it is as a place of national significance. They have come to agree,” said Donna Graves, a public historian based in Berkeley who co-wrote the historic context statements for both San Francisco’s Japantown and LGBTQ community.

Graves has received some funding to complete the paperwork required for the landmark designation through the National Park Service’s LGBTQ Heritage Initiative, which earmarked funding specifically for LGBT landmark nominations.

“I convinced them the site is really significant in LGBTQ history but also in the history of people of color and women’s history, all of which have been under-represented in our federal program,” said Graves.

“What is great about this building is

it encompasses such a broad sweep of recent history.”

Becoming a National Historic Landmark is one of the highest designations at the federal level a property can receive outside of being named a national monument or park site. According to the park service, there are just over 2,500 historic places that “bear this national distinction nomination.”

As for the Women’s Building, it was founded in 1971 by a group of women that included a number of lesbian leaders, such as Roma Guy and her wife, Diane Jones. It moved into its current building in the fall of 1979, where it has hosted numerous meetings of LGBT groups and conferences over the years, such as the inaugural African American lesbians “Becoming Visible” gathering in 1980.

“Although not an exclusively lesbian organization, the Women’s Building of San Francisco ... is one of the anchors of the history of women, feminists, lesbians, and queer and progressive groups more generally in San Francisco,” notes the city’s LGBTQ historic context statement, which Graves, who is straight, co-wrote with Shayne Watson, an architectural historian based in San Francisco who is lesbian.

The building is so connected to the city’s women’s movement and lesbian community that the route of the annual Dyke March during Pride weekend has historically included that stretch of 18th Street between Guerrero and Valencia. A change in the official route last year that bypassed the Women’s Building led numerous marchers to break away and walk by the site in protest.

It already has city landmark status, and Women’s Building officials are excited about the prospect of it receiving national recognition.

Tatjana Loh, the building’s development director for nearly 10 years, told the B.A.R. there are two reasons that come to mind for why it deserves being a federal landmark.

“Number one just for the prestige of that recognition of all the history that has happened here for women, for marginalized populations, and for the structure itself and the mural,” said Loh, referring to the MaestraPeace Mural that adorns the facade of the building and was created by eight female muralists in 1994. “It also seems to be a wonderful opportunity for Donna to put all of that big history together. It is kind of spread around in different places.”

Trio of city sites will be nominated

Frye told the B.A.R. the trio of

faith leaders and LGBT people in the early 1960s. Their outreach led to the creation in December 1964 of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, notable for being the first group to use the word “homosexual” in its name.

“Glide Memorial Church’s involvement in homophile activism was extraordinary in the mid1960s,” noted the document.

The church and its leaders not only established a welcoming place of worship for LGBT people, but they have been at the forefront of various LGBT equality fights, from protesting police harassment to arguing for marriage equality, and caring for people living with HIV and AIDS. For the property nominations to move forward, the State Historical Resources Commission must first approve them. Its recommendation for listing on the National Register is then sent to the State Historic Preservation Officer for approval.

The Keeper of the National Register in Washington, D.C. makes the final determination within 45 days after receipt of the nomination from the state officer.

Jane Philomen Cleland

An effort is underway to seek a National Historic Landmark designation for the Women’s Building in San Francisco.

city sites being nominated for listing on the National Register tie into the three historic context statements the city has adopted, which cover the African-American community in addition to Japantown and the LGBTQ community.

He is in talks with National Park Service officials on what the third site will be in place of the Women’s Building. He expects the grant agreement to be finalized within the next couple of months.

“One of the factors for choosing them was their ties to LGBT history,” said Frye.

Neither the Japantown Y, located at 1830 Sutter Street and now occupied by the private, nonprofit childcare center Nihonmachi Little Friends, nor Glide church, at 330 Ellis Street in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, are designated as city landmarks.

Frye told the B.A.R. that planning staff has yet to engage directly with officials of either group about their building’s being nominated but that Graves had and both “are open to pursuing this.”

According to the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation, a property owner’s permission is not needed to request that the site be listed on the National Register.

However, the office notes on its website that the property “may not be listed over the objection of the owner.”

The Japantown Y site, in May 1954, was where the pioneering gay rights group the Mattachine Society hosted its first convention, according to the city’s LGBTQ historic context statement. Designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, it was built in 1932 by first generation Japanese immigrant women.

Due to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the building came under the umbrella of the American Friends Service Committee. It was included on the list of properties identified in the LGBTQ history document as possibly eligible for listing as a city landmark or included on the California Register and/or the National Register of historic properties.

Cathy Inamasu, Nihonmachi’s executive director, did not respond to the B.A.R.’s request for comment by press time Wednesday.

According to a history of the Japanese bilingual childcare provider posted to its website, when it bought the historic building in

March 2002, amid a settlement of a lawsuit the community had filed in an effort to save the building after the local YWCA had put it up for sale, it agreed as part of the purchase agreement it had a “responsibility to protect and promote the historic legacy of its Issei (first generation) women founders.”

Leaders of Glide declined, through a spokeswoman, the B.A.R.’s request for an interview, citing their having limited information about the plan to seek listing of the church.

According to Frye, Glide’s church and several other buildings its foundation owns are listed as contributors to the National Register district of historic sites known as the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District, which was created in 2009.

“It doesn’t specifically talk about why the building is significant for LGBTQ history,” noted Frye.

As detailed in the city’s LGBTQ historic context statement, Glide’s pastoral leaders were instrumental in fostering a dialogue between

Bayard Rustin apartment listed

As the B.A.R. has noted in previous stories, there are only a handful of sites in the U.S. that are federally recognized for their ties to LGBT history or figures.

According to a list compiled by the National Park Service – which can be found online at http://www. nps.gov/histor y/heritageinitiatives/LGBThistory/list.html – there are two LGBT sites designated as National Historic Landmarks: the Stonewall Inn gay bar in New York City and the Henry Gerber House in Chicago.

There are now five sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, all of which are on the East Coast. The most recent to be listed, which has yet to be added to the park service’s website list, is the apartment the late gay African American Quaker and civil rights leader Bayard Rustin lived in at 340 West 28th Street in Manhattan.

Due to the work of Mark Meinke, a gay man who founded the Washington, D.C.-based Rainbow HisSee page 13 >>

Jane Philomen Cleland

National landmark status is being sought for Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, located in the Tenderloin.

t

Community News>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Homeless center in Castro suggested

by Seth Hemmelgarn

W

hen San Francisco Supervisor David Campos recently introduced a resolution calling for the city to declare a state of emergency on homelessness, he said he wanted to see more Navigation Centers in the city.

Now, a longtime queer housing activist has said that he’d like to see one of the facilities in the Castro district.

The Navigation Center in the Mission, which allows people to bring their belongings and pets and stay with their partners, has won wide praise. But while some city leaders expressed support for the idea of having another center in the Castro, all indicated it would be tough to actually open one.

Mayor Ed Lee announced Wednesday that the city would open a new center at the Civic Center Hotel, 20 12th Street. The site will start accepting clients in two months.

In a March 7 news release, Campos said he’d ask the other supervisors “to move as quickly as possible

Rick Gerharter

The site of a former church at 2135 Market Street has been mentioned as a possible site for a Navigation Center.

to activate a provision in state law, usually reserved for disasters like floods and earthquakes, allowing the city to take emergency action to build additional Navigation Centers on city owned property.”

He added that he’d soon propose a requirement that six more Navigation Centers be built in the next year.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a longtime queer activist who works at the city’s Housing Rights Committee, said in a recent interview that he’d like to have a Navigation Center in the largely gay neighborhood.

“It’s all in my head right now,” Avicolli Mecca, a Castro resident, See page 14 >>

Tadaima Japanese gathering takes place in San Jose compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

adaima Bay Area will hold its first conference of LGBTQs and allies Saturday, April 2 from 8:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at San Jose State University, 1 Washington Square, in San Jose.

Tadaima, meaning, “I’m home” in Japanese, is an organization for LGBTQ people, families, and allies interested in the intersections of the Japanese-American LGBTQ experience.

A variety of sessions are scheduled, including “Trans Plenary: The Journey to Living Out Loud,” “LGBTQQ Identity and Island Conformity: Departure from Hawaii to Mainland USA,” and an artists panel. Other workshops will discuss movement building in the JapaneseAmerican community, and LGBT 101.

Scheduled presenters include Amy Sueyoshi, associate dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University; Michelle HondaPhillips, the daughter of Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose) and the mother of a trans child; Kristy Oshiro and Queer Taiko, the Reverend Elaine Donlin, and many more.

SF State associate dean Amy Sueyoshi

The cost to attend is $30 general admission, or $10 for students, and $5 for SJSU students. To register, visit www.tadaimabayarea. org.

The conference is sponsored in part by the Asian Law Alliance, the Pride Center and Gender Equity Center at San Jose State, and the Buddhist Church of San Francisco.

Tenderloin Stations of the Cross

Temenos Catholic Worker and

Father River Damien Sims will hold the 15th annual Tenderloin Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, March 25, from noon to 2 p.m.

People should meet on the Polk Street side of Civic Center in front of City Hall at McAllister and Polk.

The walk is being held to remember “that Jesus Christ is crucified daily in our midst in the suffering to those who have no home, health insurance, food, or a living wage,” Sims said in a news release.

For more information, contact (415) 305-2124 or temenos@gmail. com.

Library friends group readies for spring sale

The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library will hold its sixth annual spring big book sale Wednesday, March 30 through Sunday, April 3 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Fort Mason Center’s Festival Pavilion. All items on Sunday will be $1.

Organizers said that over 250,000 books and media, in over 75 categories, will be priced to sell at $3 or under.

A preview sale for Friends members takes place Tuesday, March 29 from 4 to 8 p.m.

Proceeds from the book sale supSee page 13 >>

January 19, 1968 – March 4, 2016 James Murphy, 48, passed away after a heroic battle with emphysema, lung cancer, and pneumonia on March 4, 2016, surrounded by loved ones, at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco.

James moved from Bakersfield to San Francisco in 1987 and pursued a degree in fashion at both the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) and the Louise Salinger Academy of Fashion, now part of the Art Institute of California.

In San Francisco, James’ creative life truly flourished as he designed and produced garments for a number of local designers as well as his own collections under the monikers Murdoc James and Grey Roger. He even had a brief stint crafting costumes for The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies. Aside from fashion, James enjoyed sci-fi novels, classic

1993 - January 15, 2007

On Monday, January 15th, “Jefty”, with his three two-footed friends, Bob, Sunny and Gary by his side, was put to sleep. Born around 1993, he was originally rescued from the streets by an elderly lady. He was FIV+, so his expected lifetime was unknown. After caring for him with shots and a checkup, she put him up for adoption. Sunny saw her ad and adopted him, and in 1994 he was introduced to Bob. Originally he had no name, but on a rainy weekend trip to the Russian River, his name was found in the book Tim and Pete, written by the late James Robert Baker. Jefty, originally skittish, became a calm and warm companion over the years, although he never got used to being given a bath!! He also was very territorial, willing to go after any cat or dog in his space. In early 2000 he had to stay with Gary’s three cats for two weeks, and a fortress of cardboard walls had to be created to keep him separated from Gary’s cats who were just eager to be his friend! Last November, Jefty didn’t sound well, and it was found he had lymphoma. Medication, plus lots of loving care and attention, kept him going until his time was up. A few days later, a friend told us about the story Rainbow Bridge from petloss.com. We all now know he’s healthy again, and waiting for us to join him to cross Rainbow Bridge together. Jefty, we all deeply miss you!!!

San Francisco Columbarium

THE cemetery for cremated remains in the CITY!

Planning for the inevitable is easy to “put off.”

Meet Your Neighbors

You’ve made choices throughout life.

You’re invited to mix and mingle with the people who will one

Obituaries >> James Murphy

“Jefty” Dern-Fisher

cars, Bond movies, new wave music, walks in Golden Gate Park, and spending time with friends, his longtime partner, and the cats he’d adopted over the years.

James is survived by family, friends and his partner of 16 years, Josh Rotter. He will be truly missed by all those whose lives he touched.

Donations may be made in James Murphy’s memory to the San Francisco SPCA: https://www.sfspca.org/.

Dennis Piper August 21, 1947 – March 16, 2016 Our community lost a kind and caring man when Dennis Piper lost his lengthy and valiant battle against pancreatic cancer. Born in Maryland to the late Betty and Leslie Piper, Dennis was the second of seven children. His sisters Jeanne, Michelle, Sandra, and Vanessa, and brothers Brian and Dwayne

survive him. He also leaves the two greatest joys of his life: his son Kim, and grandson Nikolai, both residing in Denmark.

Dennis had a special affinity for art: professionally, as a production manager at UCSF, and personally, as member of San Francisco’s Fine Arts Museums. He would share his artistic talents, occasionally gifting a friend with a piece he would paint in his own small studio at home.

Over his many years in San Francisco, Dennis had two lengthy and devoted relationships. He lost Ed Paul, his first partner of over 15 years, to AIDS in the mid-1990s.

Ernesto “Sonny” Padilla, a widely known musician and songwriter, passed in 2007.

Besides the many whose paths Dennis crossed in life, he leaves a small, extended family of very close friends: Daniel Stingle and Isaiah Carter, Rich Nyhagen, Michael Polansky, Scott Peterson and Jim Fleming, and Mario Torrigino.

Rest in peace, my friend. While you were taken far too soon, you lived your life as a true gentleman and left your stamp on all our hearts.

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<< Sports

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

Dahlin sets local Dolphin Club record

by Roger Brigham

D

uke Dahlin grew up swimming in the warm waters off the sunny beaches of the north shore of Oahu in Hawaii. This month he set a Dolphin Club record in Polar Bear competition for swimming in the white-capped wintry waters of the San Francisco Bay. Dahlin, 67, was one of 76 Polar Bear swimmers to complete 1.5-mile swim from the San Francisco Yacht Club to the Dolphin Club in Fisherman’s Wharf on Sunday, March 20. Nothing terribly remarkable about that except that a) it was the last swim of the winter season; and b) it marked 400 miles swum in the three winter months by Dahlin.

That’s 400 miles swum between December 21 and March 21, with no wet suits or fins. That’s nearly five miles a day, every day, for three months straight, and it shattered the club record of 356 miles held by three others.

As Dahlin emerged dripping on the beach around 8 a.m. Sunday, he was greeted with cheers, whistles, a Hawaiian lei, and a martini.

“Three months sober!” he kidded his teammates as he toasted the moment.

<<

Pink Party

From page 1

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence had produced what was known as Pink Saturday for nearly two decades. Last year, however, the Sisters decided to end their oversight of the street party due to concerns about violence. A sister and his husband were attacked in 2014, while Stephen Powell, 19, died after being shot toward the end of the party in 2010.

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center last year helped the city with what became known as Pink Party, but the center has opted out this time.

Many have expressed concern over the years that people would flock to the neighborhood regardless of whether there’s an actual party happening.

Wiener said that the city will be prepared for “lots of people” who are used to coming to the neighbor-

Now, you have to wonder why folks would put themselves through such icy hell with nothing at stake other than personal pride. For Dahlin, it has to do with knocking down goals and being comfortable in his own skin.

“I had eight other siblings,” Dahlin told the Bay Area Reporter. “We lived by the beach. We swam, we dived, we set nets. It was a very traditional Hawaiian upbringing.”

But Dahlin also suspected there was something not so traditional about him, so he joined the military thinking it would help him with his confusion and help him become straight.

“I never knew what gay was,” Dahlin said. “I thought ‘homosexual’ meant putting on a wig and a dress. So when I was 18, I joined the Navy. I saw people I might be like. I thought it might shake me up and help me be straight. Instead it was the complete opposite.”

He met his partner, Joel Smart, while in the service and after he got out joined him in San Francisco.

Forty-four years later, they’re still together and still here, now married.

Dahlin also danced most of his life; when he stopped, he suddenly discovered terrible pain in his joints and was told he had arthritis. His hood and that his office will work with the San Francisco Police Department, Castro Merchants, and other city agencies to plan for the increased crowds.

“We’re very accustomed in the Castro to having nights when a lot of people are coming into the neighborhood,” and having “crowded sidewalks and crowded bars,” he said.

Officials are focused on making the evening “a safe and festive night” celebrating “the spirit of pride,” Wiener said. “We’ll be having regular interdepartmental meetings with various city departments and also the merchants and neighborhood groups to ensure we have good security and safety in the neighborhood that night.”

Wiener said he couldn’t predict whether Pink Party will ever return.

“The key for me and for a lot of people is that Pink Saturday, from its inception, was always driven by the community, largely by the Sisters of

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44 Gough Street, Suite 204, San Francisco, CA 94103

Roger Brigham

Duke Dahlin prepares to greet friends after his Sunday swim in the San Francisco Bay resulted in 400 cumulative miles between December 21 and March 21 for a new Dolphin Club record.

cure: a return to swimming.

He began in the mid-1990s with fellow gay swimmers with San Francisco Tsunami, then got into competitive masters swimming.

“I just got burned out,” he said. “I was too focused on personal records and being competitive. And when I would go to other masters events I wouldn’t see Tsunami swimmers there.”

Perpetual Indulgence,” he said. It was a “grassroots, community-driven event, and to me that’s very important. That’s what made Pink Saturday successful for so many years.”

He added, “At some point, there’s either a community effort to drive the event or there isn’t, and right now, there isn’t, and so that’s why the event is not happening.”

For years, people in the neighborhood have complained about the evening bringing trash, crime, and human waste to their neighborhood.

“We’ll make sure there’s enough security, and we’ll also work with the neighborhood around Porta Potties,” said Wiener, who said his goal is to have the city pay for the toilets.

Cautiously optimistic

The decision not to have the party this year has left Castro resident Daniel Bergerac, president of the Castro Merchants business group, cautiously optimistic.

“I know there are residents just outside the footprint of Pink Saturday who are celebrating this decision,” Bergerac said in response to emailed questions. “They dealt with too many years of trash, vomit, and piss at their front door as a result of Pink Saturday.”

Bergerac, who owns Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub at 536 Castro Street, said, “I think Pink Saturday/Party got too big for its own good.”

He said he hadn’t yet spoken with Mission Station police Captain

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Political Notebook

From page 5

response to the growing number of sitting supervisors seeking seats on the body. Nine of the current 11 supervisors are running in the June primary election for the 24 seats on the DCCC. But due to the upcoming election, it was expected that the membership change would not pass at the DCCC’s March 16 meeting.

After it was voted down, gay DCCC secretary Matt Dorsey’s proposal to send it to the bylaws committee was approved.

Since he opted not to seek re-election to his DCCC seat this year, Dorsey has asked party chair Mary Jung to replace him as chair of the bylaws committee and allow someone who wishes to continue serving on the committee to oversee the discussion.

t

In 1996 he started swimming in the bay and then decided to join the swimmers with the Dolphin Club in 1997.

“I was told the club was homophobic,” Dahlin said. “Never happened.

They’ve been so accepting of people such as myself. For me, it’s all about swimming. I’m really proud of who I am, but I am more than gay. I’m a swimmer and I like to hike and I like to do art. I’m many people. They’ve been so supportive of me through this whole Polar Bear season. It’s great for our community to know there are clubs like this. You’ve got to earn respect, you don’t just get it.”

Through the Dolphins, Dahlin has rekindled his love for open water swimming.

“I love open water swimming,” Dahlin said. “It’s so different than swimming in a pool. You never know exactly what you’re going to get; you can’t predict anything. I have so much joy swimming in the ocean as opposed to being in the pool. It’s not about racing a clock. The destination is as important as the journey.”

The Dolphins like to do crazy stuff, like swim the English Channel or the Straits of Messina, and they hooked Dahlin into their training.

He started training with the distance competitors in 2000 and completed a cross-Tahoe swim that year in preparation for his first English

Channel attempt in 2001.

Which failed.

“Seventy-five percent of channel swimmers don’t make it,” he said.

“Everything has to be just right. You just never know what you’re going to get.”

His second attempt at the channel in 2003 was a success. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is so sweet!’” he said.

He participated in a relay swim from Sacramento to San Francisco.

He swam around Manhattan Island.

And then this year he found himself up at 7 every morning, plunging back in as he churned his way toward the club record.

“Sometimes when you get up to do it it’s so dark when you get in the water you can’t tell what’s going to be there,” he said. “Sometimes it was rough as hell. But you just say, ‘This is it. This is part of the challenge.’

You have to be totally focused on what you want to do and how you have to do it. I could have finished a lot sooner, but I decided to taper off a few weeks ago. I had been dong five miles a day, then started to cut down to four miles, then three, then two.”

And then there were no more miles to swim. Just sand between his toes, flowers around his neck, a glass in has hands, and cheers from the dock. The destination is indeed as important as the journey.t

Daniel Perea, whose district oversees the neighborhood, but “I’m sure he’ll have plenty of police officers on the street. ...” Perea didn’t respond to emailed questions and wasn’t available by phone.

“People have been coming to the Castro the day before Pride for years,” Bergerac noted, and he said, “canceling the event will not stop this from happening. But like Halloween, it will dampen the celebration. We will have to wait and see how having the streets open affects business.”

The Castro’s streets used to be closed off each Halloween, but that was stopped in 2007 after that party raised increasing safety concerns. Since then, Halloween night in the Castro has become much more mellow.

“As a community, we need to thank the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence for the years of organizing” Pink Saturday, and the LGBT Community Center for stepping up last year,” Bergerac said. “This is also an opportunity for the next generation to take over the reins and create a new, exciting event.”

have the capacity to continue producing the street party.

“They don’t have the staff and it’s not a core part of what they do,” he said.

Wiener said that the pre-Pride street party was never an official city event and that other groups had not offered to put it on.

“There’s no other community group that’s stepped up to do the Pink Party,” he said.

Rebecca Rolfe, the center’s executive director, said in an email, “The center was honored to produce the Pink Party in 2015. With a number of important program initiatives underway, including the anticipated upgrades to our building and expansion of our youth services, our resources are fully committed for 2016. We are excited to support our community partners, including San Francisco Pride, the Dyke March, and the Trans March in producing strong, inclusive and fabulous Pride celebrations here in San Francisco.”

The Dyke March, which also takes place the Saturday before Pride, is expected to take place and Wiener said that “temporary street closures” would be created for the end of the march, which is in the Castro.

One of the Sisters said last year that the group was considering doing multiple Pride weekend events in the Bay Area but outside San Francisco this summer. The organization didn’t respond to interview requests for this story.t

Center’s involvement

Last year, at the request of Wiener, the LGBT Community Center stepped in to oversee the event, which was renamed the Pink Party and held earlier in the day. Wiener said last Thursday that the center, which is planning for a major interior remodel of its upper Market Street building this spring, doesn’t

Dorsey noted in an interview after the vote with the B.A.R. that any proposal that expands the current number of DCCC seats would require a change in state law.

Jon Golinger, who is seeking a DCCC seat this June and has led several fights over waterfront developments in recent years, advocated for the current members to reject Rosenthal’s proposal and instead consider a “package of reforms” for how to ensure party activists can continue to serve on the DCCC along with elected leaders.

He added there is also concern about how the seats of the supervisors elected to serve on the DCCC would be filled should they be given ex-officio status. Under current rules, the party chair nominates people to fill vacancies and the DCCC then votes to approve

or reject them.

“People want reform but not in the middle of an election,” said Golinger.

The issue could come back before the DCCC as early as its April 20 meeting.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 a second gay GOPer seeking state office this year.

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.

t <<

Community News>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

LGBT CA residents

From page 8

“California hasn’t lost LGBT people. The percentage of LGBT people has gone up over time.”

“I wouldn’t say it draws people by virtue of being an LGBT destination,” he said. “It is the entertainment capital for TV and movies, so it draws a lot of pole interested in entertainment, a number of whom happen to be LGBT.”

–Gary Gates, Ph.D.

ConsumerAffairs map questioned

Just looking at the ConsumerAffairs.com map, which can be viewed at http://www.consumeraffairs. com/movers/#moving-trends-lgbt, it appears to indicate that the LGBT populations of two California cities dipped slightly and in two other urban centers, it increased.

The map says that the LGBT population in San Francisco was at 6.5 percent in 1990. In 2014 it was 6.2 percent. The data for San Diego’s LGBT population was at 3.11 percent in 1990 and 3.9 percent two years ago.

Sacramento’s LGBT population was at 3.21 percent in 1990 and was 3.9 percent in 2014, the map shows.

In Los Angeles, the LGBT population increased from 2.97 percent in 1990 to 4.6 percent of the population in 2014, states the map.

According to ConsumerAffairs, it analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Gallup data to create an interactive map displaying migration patterns for important demographic groups.

“What this data really shows is not so much growth in population that we are measuring. It is more the

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LGBT historic sites

From page 10

tory Project, the residence was listed March 8, days ahead of what would have been Rustin’s 104th birthday on March 17.

As noted in the online description of the home, found at http:// www.nps.gov/articles/Bayard-Rustin-Residence.htm, Rustin lived in apartment 9J in Building 7 of the new Penn South Complex in the West Chelsea section of Manhattan from September 11, 1962 until his death in 1987. Not only “his longest and most permanent place of residence as an adult,” according to the listing, but his partner, Walter Naegle, who moved there in 1977, “continues to reside there, preserving the apartment almost exactly as Rustin left it.”

The listing of several other sites is now pending, according to LGBT preservationists and historians.

Tuesday Meinke announced that the New York State Board for Historic Preservation had approved the landmarking of Julius’, one of the oldest gay bars in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village located at 159 West Tenth Street. It will now be nominated for listing on the National Register.

Also on Tuesday the Pennsylvania

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News Briefs

From page 11

port literacy and learning at the library.

For more information, visit http://www.friendssfpl.org.

SF’s Community Initiative closes down

The Community Initiative, a volunteer-run group for gay men, is closing down, Executive Director Doug Sebesta announced in an email last week.

The initiative was started 12 years ago as a way to build community among gay men in the city. It held activities such as the popular Wilde Chats weekly get-togethers for men to discuss current events and issues, health forums, and other events.

Originally known as the Gay Men’s Community Initiative, the organization started off as a project of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. It became an es-

Williams Institute/Gary Gates, Ph.D.

Survey data shows sexual orientation identity and same-sex sexual behavior has increased in the U.S. between 1992 and 2014.

rate of growth,” said Daly. “So San Francisco being flat, yes it is good.

You are clearly maintaining the rate of growth; I would be really surprised if that changed. But it is flat, it is not growing.”

Gates, however, accused the website of plagiarizing a study he released last year. And he told the B.A.R. that the ConsumerAffairs. com map should not be read as changes in a city’s LGBT population because the data sources measured two different things. The 1990 census data refers to same-sex couples in a given city, whereas the 2014 Gallup data measured the number of people who identify as LGBT. Historical and Museum Commission announced it had selected 23 new state historical markers, including one to be placed in Philadelphia honoring Barbara Gittings, described as an “early LGBT leader who was instrumental in having homosexuality removed from its classification as a mental illness and promoting the inclusion of gay publications in libraries across the nation.”

Gittings died in February 2007 at the age of 74. A dedication ceremony of the marker is planned for 11 a.m. Monday, July 25 at the corner of 21st and Locust streets.

The blue-with-gold-lettering signs can be found across the Keystone State. One found directly across the street from Independence Hall in downtown Philadelphia marks the site of the Annual Reminder, a gay rights demonstration Gittings helped organize that took place each July 4 from 1965 to 1969. Another can be found in front of the building that housed Philly’s LGBT bookstore Giovanni’s Room, now the home of Philly AIDS Thrift.

Meinke was also successful in January in securing local historic landmark status for the Washington, D.C. house at 219 11th Street, S.E., which was the headquarters in the 1970s of the Furies Collective, an influential lesbian feminist group. He tablished nonprofit in 2007. It was always run by volunteers and didn’t have paid staff.

In an email to the Bay Area Reporter, Sebesta said three factors led to the decision to end the group.

“Opportunities for grant funding for the gay men’s community development work we did basically disappeared a number of years ago,” Sebesta said, “and our community-based fundraising efforts just didn’t cover our meager operating expenses.”

Additionally, he said it got harder to get the volunteer help that was needed. Finally, Sebesta said that he and a few other longtime members decided it was time for them to pull back.

He said that while there were younger men on the board, they did not have the time to take over the initiative.

“We tried to get a few different men who were very capable to take

“The bottom line is that the consumeraffairs.com map is useless,” Gates told the B.A.R. “It presents the data incorrectly and implies that these incorrect data tell us something about LGBT mobility, which they most certainly do not.”

Daly acknowledged to the B.A.R. that the map is based on the same publicly available data sets, “the only two that really exist that give us much insight into this population,” as Gates had used in his paper.

“We compared these two disparate sets of numbers using the same common method of analysis and came up with similar results, which is not uncommon. So, what I’m say-

ing is we came by it honestly and are sorry he feels that way,” he wrote in an emailed reply.

He added that “it’s fair” for Gates or anyone else to disagree with their conclusions about the data.

“But I would say this: his assertions make the same point we are, that the U.S., as a whole, including traditionally red states, are becoming more accepting toward LGBT individuals, making it less important for them to settle in traditionally LGBT-friendly areas,” wrote Daly.

During a phone interview about the map, Daly said there is no way to discern where LGBT people are moving from and moving to.

“That is just not information either of those polls provided,” he said. “I think what we have, kind of, it is conjecture of course for the most part. It kind of seems to follow the national trend of younger people and professionals moving away from cities where the cost of living is prohibitive.”

The only way to know that information is for more federal surveys to ask participants if they are LGBT. Efforts to add such a question to the 2020 U.S.

Census, however, were unsuccessful.

There is a federal inter-agency task force looking at how to improve measurement of sexual orientation and gender identity on federal surveys, said Gates, noting that the census bureau “is playing an active role in that.”

“I wouldn’t prioritize the decennial census. Another annual survey they do is the American Community Survey. That is the survey we would want to push harder to get LGBT questions on it,” said Gates.

He added that some progress has already been seen, such as a question about sexual orientation being added in 2014 to the National Health Interview Survey. There is now a push to see gender identity be added.

And Gates said it is “looking very optimistic” that questions about sexual orientation and gender identity will be added this year or next to the National Crime and Victimization Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“Once you get on a couple of these federal surveys, it makes it a little easier to push with other agencies,” he said.t

is now seeking the property’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Will Roscoe, Ph.D., a San Francisco-based community organizer, is pushing the National Register of Historic Places to amend the listing for the Wheelwright Museum in New Mexico so it includes the involvement of two-spirit leaders in the founding of the museum, specifically that of co-founder Hastíín Klah, a respected Navajo traditionalist who was a nádleehí, the Navajo term for a third gender or two-spirit person.

“As both a medicine man and a weaver, Klah bridged the roles of men and women. In the 1920s and 1930s, his masterful tapestries helped win recognition for Navajo art worldwide,” Roscoe noted in an

email. “The documentation for the museum’s NRHP certification does not mention Klah’s two-spirit status.”

The New Mexico Historic Preservation Office is expected to consider the proposed update for the listing April 8. Roscoe has asked supporters to email New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer Jeff Pappas, Ph.D., at jeff.pappas@state.nm.us on why Klah’s background should be added to the museum’s listing.

If passed at the state level, then Roscoe will submit the amendment to the National Park Service for final approval.

As for the National Historic Landmark LGBTQ Theme Study and proposed framework, which the B.A.R. first reported on in January 2014, it should be released this June, accord-

ing to lead author Megan Springate.

It is part of the National Park Service’s LGBTQ Heritage Initiative, which has also been encouraging members of the public to submit nominations of places important to the country’s LGBT community for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places or to be designated as a National Historic Landmark.

One outcome of the initiative has been the push to see President Barack Obama designate the area around the Stonewall Inn as the country’s first LGBT national monument. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made headlines last week when he sent Obama a letter March 16 urging him to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish a Stonewall Inn National Monument.

“The struggle for equality touches us all and our National Monuments are an excellent apparatus for telling America’s history,” wrote Garcetti. “I hope that by designating Stonewall as a National Monument we preserve a part of history that has long lived in the shadows.”

For more information about the push to create what would be the first LGBT unit within the National Park Service, visit https://www. npca.org/advocacy/5-a-nationalpark-for-stonewall.t

over the directorship of the organization, but there are few people who can be both willing and able to work for free,” Sebesta explained.

He added that the group hopes the work will continue in some other form that gives gay men from all cultural backgrounds and economic means “the ability to come together in the spirit of fun and frivolity to meet new friends and to develop new relationships and families.”

The advisory group was started by former police chief George Gascón (now the city’s district attorney) in late 2010. Its purpose is to provide an effective liaison between the LGBT community and the police department’s command staff. The LGBT forum was one of about a dozen established at the time, Craig said, but is one of the few that remains active today.

The group meets monthly, usually at a police station, and has also met at venues in the community at the invitation of neighborhood groups or businesses. All meetings are open to the public.

Permanent members include Craig, Greg Carey of Castro Community on Patrol, Jasmine Gee of the Trans March and Transgender San Francisco, Brian Hill of the San Francisco FrontRunners, and individual members Trey Allen and Kyle Wong.

SFPD members who participate include Captain Teresa Ewins, a lesbian

who oversees Tenderloin Station; Sergeant Marquita Booth, from the SFPD Pride Alliance; Sergeant Candiece Lewis, the SFPD LGBT liaison; and Officer Broderick Elton, the department’s transgender liaison.

Craig said that among other projects, the forum successfully developed and deployed the LGBT Safe Zone project, which district police stations adhere to and that guarantees that any member of the LGBT community will be treated with respect, dignity, and compassion by police department staff.

People interested in joining the forum should be able to commit to the two-hour monthly meetings and sub-committee projects as needed.

Those interested in attending the upcoming meeting should email Craig at kencraigca@gmail.com and check out the group’s Facebook page, “San Francisco LGBT Forum.”t

“I hope that by designating Stonewall as a National Monument we preserve a part of history that has long lived in the shadows.”

– Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor

SFPD LGBT advisory forum seeks members

The San Francisco Police Department’s Chief ’s LGBT Community Advisory Forum is seeking new members, said Ken Craig, a forum member with Community Patrol Service-USA. The group’s next meeting takes place Monday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m. at SFPD’s Northern Station, 1251 3rd Street.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

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Historical society

From page 7

wick said, and there have been a lot of changes since last year. Ten of the 13 board members are new.

In an email, Beswick offered “big kudos” to Turner, “who took the lead in negotiating the seven-year

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Dog Eared

From page 2

Blatteis told the B.A.R. that at least six other tenants were very interested in renting the space, “but when the owners spoke to Kate, they knew who they wanted in the space,” he said.

Rosenberger said the thought of moving to the Castro “was almost too good to be true.”

“We asked ourselves, ‘What could go wrong?’ and ‘Are there any red flags?’ but we couldn’t come up with anything,” she said. “The landlord did everything possible” to make the move work.

Rosenberger declined to specify the rent she’ll be paying, other than to say it was “at market.”

Despite her optimistic outlook for locally owned independent bookstores, Rosenberger said she is “well aware” of the “gigantic” rent increases that can cause a business owner to close. Several years ago, Rosenberger’s Valencia shop got a 50 percent rent increase, she said, “but we’ve managed to stay afloat.”

Looking ahead, she said, “if another such increase were to come, at least now I feel safe because now I have a location in the Castro.”

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Homeless center

From page 11

said, and a “feasible” location hasn’t been identified, but he pointed to a survey of the city’s homeless population last year that found almost 2,200, or about 29 percent, identified as LGBT. In an interview, Campos, a gay man, also referred to the homeless census data, and said, “having a Navigation Center in District 8 is something that should be seriously looked at.”

While some residents and merchants in the area, who’ve worried about having homeless people there, would likely balk at the idea of having a navigation facility in the neighborhood, Avicolli Mecca said having “a place where you transition people into housing, that’s the goal of the Navigation Center. I think if people understand that in the neighborhood, people will support it.”

He also added, “I want it to be done right, and I do want the neighborhood involved in shaping this if we do it in the Castro.”

Asked what he thought of having a Castro Navigation Center, Bevan Dufty, the gay former supervisor who represented District 8, which includes the Castro, and who retired last fall after serving as Mayor Ed Lee’s point person on homelessness, said, “I think it’s all dependent on the location.”

He suggested it could be done in a part of District 8 other than the Castro.

But Dufty, who helped open the Mission Navigation Center last year, said that before any location were picked, neighborhood outreach and consensus would be crucial.

Otherwise, he said, “It’ll just whip things up,” and the conversation centers “around ‘I don’t want this here.’”

He added, “Any Navigation Center that’s going to meaningfully serve the neighborhood is probably going to have to have a focus on crystal methamphetamine,” which he said, “everyone knows is a big contributor to the situation in the Castro and adjacent neighborhoods.”

Dufty said that when he was a

lease on our behalf ” for the new archives space.

He added that the historical society also “got some great support from the city-funded Nonprofit Displacement Mitigation Program with a technical assistance grant that helped us find the space and work out all the details.”t

History of site

Castro Street hasn’t had a bookstore of any type in the last five years, said Gerard Koskovich, a local queer historian. On Koskovich’s Facebook page, he pointed out that at one time, there were four: A Different Light, The Love That Dared, Crown Books, and Books Etc. Another gay bookstore, Walt Whitman, was on Market Street between Castro and Noe from 1982-1987. A gay-friendly bookstore, Paperback Traffic, was at 558 Castro from 1977-78, when it moved to Polk Street, until it closed in the 1990s.

A Different Light was once a “grand institution,” Koskovich wrote on Facebook. Throughout the 1980s and into the late-1990s the store was a “vibrant cultural center,” with frequent in-store events and exhibitions, he said. It also served as a meeting location, mail drop and message center for a number of adhoc radical queer groups, Koskovich wrote.

But beginning around 2000, when the store was sold to new owners, came a “long, sad decline” when stock “shifted increasingly toward remainders and sidelines – notably rainbow-pride trinkets of all sorts – and toward porn DVDs,” he wrote.t supervisor, he’d wanted “to replicate North Beach Citizens,” a nonprofit in another famous San Francisco neighborhood that provides housing and other services, in the Castro.

A call to the agency wasn’t returned.

‘Open to talking’

Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District, said, “I think that people are open to talking about” a Castro Navigation Center, but “I think it would be an uphill battle, to tell you the truth.”

Aiello, whose group addresses safety, retail development, and other issues, said where in the neighborhood a center could go is “the big question.”

She suggested the former church at 2135 Market Street as a possibility, but noted there are a number of steps in front of the building, making it inaccessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The building’s owner didn’t respond to an interview request.

Daniel Bergerac is president of the Castro Merchants business group and owns Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub at 536 Castro Street. He said he hadn’t seen enough data on the Mission Navigation Center’s impact to say whether he’d support having a site in the Castro.

“We need to look at the bigger picture of there not being any housing before we start looking at ‘Let’s set up more Navigation Centers,’” Bergerac said. “You can open up a dozen Navigation Centers, but if there’s no housing, they’re not going to do any good. You have to have housing, and we don’t have any housing for people.”

Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener echoed those remarks.

“The city’s focus needs to be on permanent housing solutions, first and foremost,” Wiener said.

However, he said he’s “always open” to having needed human services “in the Upper Market area,” whether they’re for homeless people or others.

“It’s unclear to me where would be a viable location in Upper Market,” he said, “but I think the entire city needs to be concerned for homeless services.”t

t

Legal Notices>> SUMMONS: FAMILY LAW, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: SANDRA BJORK RUDOLFSDOTTIR YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: KEVIN ANTHONY NASH CASE NO. D-559231

Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and petition are served on you to file a response (form FL-120) at this court and have a copy served on the petitioner.

A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), California Legal Services website (www. lawhelpca.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

NOTICE: Restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.

FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. The court mat order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party.

The name and address of the court are SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, CENTRAL DIVISION, FAMILY COURT, 1555 6TH AVE., SAN DIEGO, CA 92101.

The name, address, and telephone number of the petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney, is:

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036955700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SKALLIWAGS PET CARE, 1186 FLORIDA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GLYNIS RADELMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/24/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAURI PHOTOGRAPHY, 1000 PENNSYLVANIA AVE #8, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MAURIZIO BRONZETTI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/25/16.

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036974400

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036989500

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MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036978500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TSM GENERAL CONTRACTOR, 5191 3RD ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed THOMAS STOCKDALE MILLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/81. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/16.

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036978300

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The following person(s) is/are doing business as: METTA, 421 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PAPERO INC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/22/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/16.

MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036953200

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036979700

KEVIN ANTHONY NASH, 3875 FLORIDA ST., SAN DIEGO, CA 92104; (619) 384 - 9130.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MR. NICE WHEELS. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RASIKH WAZIRALI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/23/16.

MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036961700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ANITA B:SPA. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ANITAFACIAL, 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 02/26/16.

MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036963100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAFE HOUSE. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KIRKHAM STREET SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/29/16.

MARCH 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-551899

In the matter of the application of: MICHAEL LEE WOODIN C/O GINA GEMELLO, SBN 282964, AIDS LEGAL REFERRAL PANEL, 1663 MISSION ST #500, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MICHAEL LEE WOODIN, is requesting that the name MICHAEL LEE WOODIN, be changed to MICHAEL LEE BROKAW. 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 14th of April 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-551921

In the matter of the application of: YIN FUN CHOY, 516 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YIN FUN CHOY, is requesting that the name YIN FUN CHOY, be changed to CHRISTY YIN FUN CHOY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 28th of April 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NAVAJO CARE HOME, 108 BOSWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed REYNALDO SALAZAR & CONCEPCION R. SALAZAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/16.

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 NOTICE OF FAMILY COURT ACTION IN THE FAMILY COURT FOR THE STATE OF DELAWARE IN AND FOR SUSSEX COUNTY FILE NO: CS16-01334

To: Robert Dervaes, Respondent Petitioner, Kristine Dervaes has filed a Petition for Custody against you in the Family Court of the State of Delaware in and for Sussex County on February 25, 2016. If you do not file an answer with the Family Court within 20 days after publication of this notice, exclusive of the date of publication, as required by statute, this action will be heard in Family Court without further notice.

Petition No.: 16-06297 dated 03/09/2016, signed Thomas E. Gay, Esquire, Stumpf, Vickers & Sandy, P.A., 8 West Market Street, Georgetown, Delaware 19947. Phone (302) 856-3561 To: Robert Dervaes, Respondent Petitioner, Kristine Dervaes has filed a Petition for Divorce against you in the Family Court of the State of Delaware in and for Sussex County on February 25, 2016. If you do not file an answer with the Family Court within 20 days after publication of this notice, exclusive of the date of publication, as required by statute, this action will be heard in Family Court without further notice.

Petition No.: 16-06597, dated 03/09/2016, signed Thomas E. Gay, Esquire, Stumpf, Vickers & Sandy, P.A., 8 West Market Street, Georgetown, Delaware 19947. Phone (302) 856-3561

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-551887

In the matter of the application of: TERESA HART LAU, 1339 20TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TERESA HART LAU, is requesting that the name GREYSEN JOSHUA CHAU, be changed to GREYSEN JOSHUA LAU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514, Room 514 on the 10th of May 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-551937

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BOF COMPANY, 215 14TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRENDAN O’FLAHERTY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/02/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/16.

In the matter of the application of: JOANNE MICHELLE RAMIREZ, 909 FRANKLIN ST #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOANNE MICHELLE RAMIREZ is requesting that the name JOANNE MICHELLE RAMIREZ, aka JOANNE M. RAMIREZ, aka JOANNE RAMIREZ, be changed to JOANNE MICHELE CUENCA. 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 3rd of May 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016

MARCH 10, 17, 24, 31, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036970100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036959800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KING’S CONSTRUCTION CO, 319 HOLLOWAY AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAK KIN LO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/14/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/14/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036977400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HRMONIK, 2261 MARKET ST #450A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANN JEAN-PHILIPPE DUTREUIL. 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 03/08/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036985200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DROMONE TRUCKING, 945 TARAVAL ST #142, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FECHIN MCCORMACK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/10/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/10/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036991700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: POKE BAR, 1355 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BLUBERD 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 03/15/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036983700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NORCAL CARPLANET INC, 2200 CESAR CHAVEZ ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NORCAL CARPLANET 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 03/09/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036993300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUSHI HON, 2598 HARRISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MINS GROUP, 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 03/15/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036982100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BJ’S ELECTRIC BIKE TOURS; JB ROAD BIKE TOURS, 2715 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AMERICAN SCOOTER & CYCLE RENTALS (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/09/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/09/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036992700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOL AMBIANCE, 5522 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FLORAL AMBIANCE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036968801

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRYAN ROBERTS SALON LLC; PRIMA FACIE, 561 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BRYAN ROBERTS SALON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/11/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/02/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036988300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE LOST CHURCH LLC, 65 CAPP ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE LOST CHURCH LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/14/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036980200

The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037003300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PAN AMERICAN, 730 O’FARRELL ST #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MOJITO EFFECT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUSHI RAW #3, 682 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NEW CONCEPT SUSHI INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036982300

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036984700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: UNIVERSAL MARTIAL ARTS ACADEMY, 4348 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UNIVERSAL MARTIAL ARTS ACADEMY (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/09/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036976000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CUSTOM FIT, 1844 MARKET ST, RETAIL #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CUSTOM FIT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/07/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/07/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036951500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RADDISH, 3201 23RD ST #102, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RADDISH INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/22/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036951400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOMA, 3201 23RD ST #102, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NOMA LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/22/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/22/16.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016, STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-033314300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DIOGENES, 1000 PENNSYLVANIA AVE #8, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by MAURIZIO BRONZETTI and signed by MAURIZIO BRONZETTI. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 02/01/11.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034577300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: DOLCI BEAUTY, 1521 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by HOA - LAVIE BEAUTY INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/12/12.

MARCH 17, 24, 31, APRIL 07, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036987400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THUNDERDOG; THUNDERDOG DESIGNS; THUNDERDOG PET CARE, 4620 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIC FLANIKEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/11/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037002600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA MOTO JAVA, 498 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MIKE RITTER, ANALUCIA MERCEDES CARRERA & KIMBERLY DANNER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036998400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NOMAN COFFEE CO, 438 TEHAMA ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed NICHOLAS DANBY, ALEX REYES, RUBEN MARQUEZ & DIEGO GOMEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/15/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/17/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036979200

Classifieds

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AD ART, INC; AD ART SIGN COMPANY; AD ART ELECTRONIC SIGN SYSTEMS; AA SIGN & LIGHTING MAINTENANCE, 150 EXECUTIVE PARK BLVD #2100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AD ART, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/30/03. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/10/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL, 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036989400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PORK EXCHANGE, 1471 17TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SOALFOOD INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/14/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/14/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037003000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KAYLA JEANNE AESTHETICS, 1905 UNION ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KNKI LLC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/24/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/21/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036990900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 9TH ST PUB, 399 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CITY COMMERCIAL INVESTMENTS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/23/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL, 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036998500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAI CUISINE, 185 CHANNEL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GENJI PACIFIC, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/17/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037003600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A-GAME EXPRESS LLC, 615 JOHN MUIR DR #420, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed A-GAME EXPRESS 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 03/21/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036998300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROOH, 333 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GOOD TIMES RESTAURANTS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/17/16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036469400

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Legal Notices>> STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036621100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: YUMWOK, 1650 HOLLOWAY AVE #C134, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by INOODLES LLC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/07/15.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 STATEMENT OF WITHDRAWAL FROM THE PARTNERSHIP OPERATING UNDER USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-032269000

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SUSHI RAW #3, 682 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by NEW CONCEPT SUSHI INC (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 09/23/09.

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MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 The

Classified Order Form

Deadline: NOON on MONDAY. Payment must accompany ad. No ads taken over the telephone.

If you have a question, call 415.861.5019. Display advertising rates available upon request.

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The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: FLOURISH SKIN CARE AND WAXING, 1905 UNION ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123.

This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by KNKI LLC (CA).

The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/06/15.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-036992800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INOODLES, 1650 HOLLOWAY AVE #SB106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed INOODLES LLC, (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/15 /16.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035854600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE WOMEN’S BUILDING, 3543 18TH ST #8, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE WOMEN’S CENTERS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/93. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/08/16.

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: KAZU TRADING CO, 1333 PACIFIC AVE #K, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by GARSON LAU. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/14.

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016

MARCH 24, 31, APRIL 07, 14, 2016

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Colossal collision

21

Sergei pride

Passion play

22

Out &About

20

O&A

19

Vol. 46 • No. 12 • March 24-30, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Revolutionary Bay Area impresario

by Sura Wood

P

eter Coyote once described the formidable rock impresario Bill Graham as a cross between Mother Teresa and Al Capone. It’s a good line that encapsulates Graham’s demons and dualities: the gruff Mephistopheles and the benevolent, let’s-get-it-done den mother to the druggy, narcissistic musicians he sometimes managed and befriended; the generous philanthropist who organized multiple benefit concerts and the domineering, abrasive figure with a hair-trigger temper who nonetheless inspired a loyal staff and the affection of his sons.

See page 20 >> Ken Friedman, Bill Graham between takes during the filming of “A 60s Reunion with Bill Graham: A Night at the Fillmore,” Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, 1986. Chromogenic color print.

Courtesy of Ken Friedman

Flights of musical fancy

Trajal Harrell dancers Thibault Lac, Ondřej Vidlář, Stephen Thompson, Perle Palombe, Christina Vasileiou, and Camille Durif Bonis performed The Ghost of Montpelier Meets the Samurai at Zellerbach Playhouse.

Trajal Harrell’s Tanztheater

by Philip Campbell

B

by Paul Parish

M

arch madness is with us in the dance world.

Big things are happening everywhere.

See page 27 >>

British composer Simon Dobson’s works were featured in a Curious Flights program.

ritish clarinetist Brenden Guy founded Curious Flights in 2013 to find and perform new and unusual music in the musically rich Bay Area. As the organization’s Artistic Director, he programs distinctive works from everywhere, but keeps a special focus on his native U.K. See page 26 >>

Orpheas Emirzas

T.P. Cresswell

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

“EXHILARATING . . . IMPOSSIBLE TO RESIST!” Photos by Kevin Berne.

—San Francisco Chronicle

ACT-SF.ORG | 415.749.2228 A.C.T.’S STRAND THEATER

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016 2pub-BBB_BAR_031016.pdf

1

2/23/16

<< Out There

3:31 PM

t

Chlorinated choreography

by Roberto Friedman

E

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

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ven though its two dances were repeats from last season’s fare, San Francisco Ballet’s Program 5 at the War Memorial Opera House was an unadulterated delight. Out There attended last Friday night’s performance.

Dances at a Gathering is a masterpiece by choreographer Jerome Robbins set to timeless piano music by composer Frédéric Chopin. Set on a bare stage, its dancers identified only by the color of their costumes, the piece plays out as the dancers cavort singly, in pairs and groups, to Chopin’s mazurkas, waltzes and other solo piano pieces ably performed on Friday night by pianist Natal’ya Feygina. Our eye was caught especially by Vanessa Zahorian (Pink), Taras Domitro (Brown) and Luke Ingham (Purple), but all 10 SFB dancers distinguished themselves.

Then choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s multimedia Americana extravaganza Swimmer returned from its world premiere last season, and OT was happy to welcome it back. To a grab-bag of music by composers Shinji Eshima, Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan, and Gavin Bryars, Possokhov offered a reverie of Mad Men-era American suburbia as seen through Russian eyes.

Very loosely set on a short story by John Cheever, with odd digressions into J.D. Salinger, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov and Edward Hopper, the piece packs a solid visual and musical punch. On Friday night, SFB principal dancer Joseph Walsh was

Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet dancers in choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s Swimmer, part of this season’s Program 5.

a black-haired bombshell packed into a blue swimsuit. He has a helluva backstroke.

Concrete poetry

It’s only because we were in Amoeba Records to pick up another CD that we came across a used copy of late American composer Robert Ashley’s last opera Concrete (Lovely Music, 2008). Big Ashley fan here, since we first encountered his seminal “opera for television,” Perfect Lives. We snapped up the 2-CD Concrete at once.

It’s classic late Ashley, a libretto for four voices who sing their lines in a given tempo with their choice of pitch, speech nuance and inflection. Its various parts alternate between “discussions,” fugue-like compositions for mixed voices, and arias in the form of solo stories, distributed equally to the singers. The stories follow from the reminiscences of an old man, as indicated the title of the first piece, “The Old Man Lives in Concrete.”

It’s hard not to take the title both literally – i.e., the concrete of the old man’s urban environment – and figuratively. That is, there is nothing abstract about Ashley’s work, it’s all told in concrete anecdotes set in specific times and places. The four singers, Joan La Barbara, Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, and Jacqueline Humbert (orchestra live mixing and processing: Tom Hamilton), are all regulars in Ashley’s operas, and they each bring a distinctive style and voice to the material.

One anecdote, from the solo See page 19 >>

LA confidential

by Jim Piechota

I Met Someone by Bruce Wagner; Blue Rider Press, $27.95 nown for penning such gems as the PEN/Faulkner award finalist The Chrysanthemum Palace; Wild Palms, which became a popular miniseries; and the David Cronenberg-directed Maps to the Stars, actor, screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist Bruce Wagner excels at skewering and satirizing the Hollywood lifestyle and those who revel in it. His new novel I Met Someone, while flustered and haphazard, is a for-fans-only effort primed for those with an acquired taste for name-dropping and excessive exposition.

At the core of his latest book is

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the story of Dusty Wilding, a multiAcademy-Award-winning actress who risked the longevity of her career by coming out as a lesbian. When her wife Allegra miscarries their muchanticipated baby, Dusty embarks on a desperate search to find and reunite with Aurora, the daughter she gave up for adoption while a misled teenager.

It takes wading through a good first third of the book for the plot to kick in after dinner parties where peyote, “totally life-changing” Burning Man attendance, and entheogenic ayahuasca rituals are randomly discussed with great if artificially induced enthusiasm (and in italics). There’s mystery and intrigue in the other two-thirds of the novel, but much of that comes submerged in a stew of meandering musings.

As if to prepare readers for the long ride ahead, Wagner describes his main character as “a 53-year-old, makeup-free movie morningstar, beatific and unadorned, half-astonished she’d survived, fragile and unbreakable, childlike, ancient, with lustrous, hard-core, wide-open heart – redoubtable warrior-queen and doubting heroine.” Seemingly unedited passages like these overheatedly address such issues as Allegra’s postmiscarriage quasi-suicidal “amniotic misery,” cheating lesbians, and modern-day police detectives who embody a newfound “colorful rep as snappy dressers, men’s men who weren’t afraid of a little bling.”

Wagner, true to form, remains chatty but freeform in his literary expression. Dusty and her plot go on the back burner in favor of bringing some overwritten monologues, run-on sentences, nonsensical wordplay, and an exhaustive menagerie of A-list celebrity mentions to their boiling points. What

Wagner does do well is also on fine display. He is masterful in the art of acerbically descriptive glorification: a talk show host is armed with a “dead whore smile,” “coasting” on 25 mg of Trazodone HCI. These quips will bring a smirk to even the neophyte Wagner reader.

Wagner’s latest is again an overpolished rhinestone of indulgent fiction about the self-absorbed, banal, TMZ-sensationalistic nature of Hollywood and the celebrity way of life. It’s a gilded, overcaffeinated, nearly-400-page insinuation of the notion that “privacy wasn’t dead, reality was – but sure was tough to kill.”

Fans don’t read Wagner for introspection. If the story doesn’t grab you, there are Kardashians and pop-up supermodel Gigi Hadid, West Hollywood doyenne Lisa Vanderpump, Kendall and Kylie, and “fallen” cougars to keep your eyes open. Some readers will find this novel a mess of plot and indulgent word vomit. Others will revel in the splendor of the Bruce Wagner experience, which resembles spending an afternoon downing iced quad espressos with a manic, gossipy reality-show addict.t

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Theatre>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

Dancing through the goalposts

by Richard Dodds

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is father runs a noted modern dance ensemble, but Mike just wants to play football. “I’m the only son in the history of the United States who disappointed his father by choosing football over dance,” says Mike, aware that he is living a kind of Billy Elliot-in-reverse life.

Or, more accurately, was living it until he wound up in a wheelchair from a spinal injury.

In Andrew Hinderaker’s Colossal, Mike tells his physical therapist that he got hurt on the field in an act of love, trying to protect the fellow player he thought of as his soulmate.

He’s also trying to convince himself that it was a noble gesture rather than a careless maneuver that landed him in the wheelchair. But, he must admit, the fellow player on his college team has never visited him in the 10 months since the injury.

Colossal may be astride trending topics but it doesn’t come across as an issue-bound drama. Hinderaker’s play, receiving its West Coast premiere at San Francisco Playhouse, is able to pack a mighty punch into its 85 minutes by creating its own dynamic format for the storytelling. It’s as if we are in the stands above a gridiron, with the stage covered in artificial turf, a scoreboard with an operating clock, and eight burly guys padded up in protective gear running plays that are sometimes in slow motion, reverse, or stop action. The

mental highlights reel is controlled

by Mike, constantly replaying the critical scrimmage in his mind but always hitting pause just before the calamitous collision takes place. He is stuck, and it’s up to his therapist, his father, and himself to get out of this psychological loop.

Colossal, which had its world premiere in 2014, is clearly a challenging undertaking, and SF Playhouse’s production scores mightily as divergent components come together as the game clock fatefully clicks toward zero. This is a production where the work of the director and choreographer must frequently overlap, and Jon Tracy and Keith Pinto, respectively, present a seamless picture that includes a pre-show drum team thundering out accompaniment for a team practice, the carefully staged football plays that can freeze at any time, and a wonderful moment when the players transform into a modern dance troupe.

The essential dramatic kernels still need to take root amid the spectacle, and director Tracy is able to nurture these moments as well.

Amid the large cast are only a few roles for whom distinct characters have been developed. But these actors and their scenes provide the production with a heartfelt grounding that leads to a simple final scene that produces a wave of emotion.

Delivering his performance from a wheelchair, Jason Stojanovski as the older Mike projects a melding of

Jessica Palopoli

Jason Stojanovski, left, as an injured former college football player, gets a running commentary from Thomas Gorrebeeck as his younger self in Colossal at SF Playhouse.

sorrow, anger, longing, and, finally, a move toward a reconciliation of his emotions and his reality. Thomas Gorrebeeck deftly plays young Mike in the flashback scenes as he deals with his disappointed father and the teammate he hopes will become his lover, and, at times, even gets into arguments with his older self.

Cameron Matthews has several potent scenes as Marcus, the fellow player who is frightened of being outed if he spends too much time with Mike.

Robert Parsons cuts a forlorn figure as Mike’s dad, a dancer past his prime who had hoped his son would follow in his steps. Sensitive work by Wiley Naman Strasser shows how Mike’s physical therapy can offer more than simply physical recovery.

In an unusual production such as this, there are more creative roles than usual that call out for citation, including Bill English’s set design, Kurt Landisman’s lighting, Dave Maier’s stunt choreography, Brooke

Jennings’ costume design, and Alex Hersler’s percussion orchestrations.

SF Playhouse’s production of Colossal pulls all of these creative components together, and to say it scores a touchdown is tempting but too facile a wordplay. But the production is still a winner.t Colossal will run at San Francisco Playhouse through April 30.

Tickets are $20-$120. Call (415) 9596 or go to sfplayhouse.org.

Communication breakdown

Kevin Berne

Allison Jean White and James Wagner, as neighborhood newcomers, share tales with Rebecca Watson and Rod Gnapp as a married couple who share more than a last name with their unexpected guests in ACT’s The Realistic Joneses.

by Richard Dodds

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s technological obsolescence accelerates, there are more and more closets where boxfuls of tangled cables are stashed away.

They once connected something to another thing, and someday they may connect something else to another something else. But probably not. That’s what it can feel like in the quirkily amusing, vaguely disturbing The Realistic Joneses, as communication has become a box of words looking vainly for compatible fits. Will Eno’s recent Broadway play is well-served by the strong production now at the Geary Theater.

“It seems like we don’t talk,” says a middle-aged wife to her husband, who testily points out that this very

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Out There

From page 18

piece “Interchangeability,” caught our queer ear. The old man tells the story of a musician in his jazz band: “At one of his club engagements the saxophone player meets a woman/ who is the first woman for whom he

conversation sufficiently proves that they do talk. “No,” she forlornly replies. “We’re sort of throwing words at each other.” And so their vacant volleying would continue but for the unexpected arrival of a younger couple, new neighbors who come bearing a gift bottle, they proudly note, of European wine. Actually, adds the husband, its provenance is “just outside of Europe,” which is a clarification that does the opposite.

Both couples share the surname, and both have landed in this same small town for a shared reason. Both Bob and John Jones suffer from the same rare degenerative neurological disorder that leaves them adrift as they await the next shoe to drop.

The older Bob uses aggressive crankiness to deal with the fictional

Harriman-Leavey Syndrome, while the more blithely aimless John just calls it the Benny Goodman Experience.

Eno doesn’t dwell on medical ramifications, instead rolling out a series of short scenes featuring various permutations of the four Joneses in often-misaligned conversations. “You have a lot of composure,” John tells Jennifer at one point. “Thank you,” she replies.

“Oh, you took that as a compliment – okay.” The seemingly predictable patter spurs double takes as disconnects arise from dialogue that our minds have already begun sketching out that then swerves into unexpected directions.

There is considerable humor in these tilted conversations, but

has any affection./Her name is Billie./He takes her home after the engagement/and sees her a few times afterwards.

“One night he gets a call from the Los Angeles police./The policeman says that they have in custody/a man who is charged with philandering,/ possibly prostitution/and various

other charges./The man tells the police that our friend will put up the bail money./The policeman says the man’s name is William.

“Our friend says he knows no man named William./The policeman says that the man/tells the police that our friend will know him as Billie.” Interchangeability indeed.t

eventually the surprise wears off as their patterns become predictable.

Things do happen over the course of the 100-minute play, among the more dramatic the discovery of a dead squirrel in the shrubbery that provokes a variety of reactions. There is also the hint of an extramarital encounter, but nothing much comes of that. In the end, no answers are found, no mysteries unraveled, no problems solved.

But still it’s an enjoyable journey even if the traveling distance of the narrative can be measured in inches rather than miles.

In ACT’s production, finely tuned by director Loretta Greco, there is a quartet of excellent performances. Rod Gnapp is utterly convincing as Bob, the grouchy of the two Mr. Joneses, who uses a flattened delivery as a defense mechanism. His Mrs. Jones, Jennifer, is the main recipient of his behavior born of fear and frustration, and Rebecca Watson gives the character nuances as she slides through anger,

frustration, concern, and a touch of desperate lust.

Despite their own issues, Bob and Jennifer recognize that the newly arrived John and Pony Jones are an off-kilter pair with a dubious backstory. James Wagner plays John with an almost aggressive whimsy, engaging for us and annoying for Bob Jones. John’s wife, Pony, is a spacey ingénue whom Allison Jean White plays with convincingly happy-sad polarities. In a moment of discontent, she says, “I feel like I should go to med school or get my hair cut or something.”

In the end, the Joneses couples do find common cause in lawn chairs beneath a canopy of stars. Gazing toward the unknown, they realize that its imperturbable muteness is slightly more bearable when you have company.t The Realistic Joneses will run through April 3 at the Geary Theater. Tickets are $25-$105. Call (415) 749-2228 or go to act-sf.org.

<< Film

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

Queer Russian genius does Mexico

by David Lamble

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isenstein in Guanajuato, opening Friday at the Roxie, is an ambitious, highly stylized, fictionalized dramatization of the legendary Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s strange sojourn south of America’s border into Mexico. About 50 minutes into the film, British filmmaker Peter Greenaway imagines his often misunderstood, frequently persecuted subject submitting, with some protestations, to a night of anal congress with his slim young Mexican guide. The elfin 30-something Mexican insists that Eisenstein’s creative worries must be vigorously addressed in the bedroom.

Guide: “You have left it a little late, Sergei. But it doesn’t matter. Better late than never.”

Segei Eisenstein: “Better never late.”

“You are far from home and off your home initiation route.”

“I cannot.”

“Cannot what, why not?”

“Because I’ve argued with myself repeatedly that this cannot be the way. I have reached my accustomed point, and this is where I stop.”

“It used to be where you stopped, it isn’t any longer.”

“This is where I get off the train.”

“Sorry, no station.”

“Then I will have to jump.”

“Jumping off from a moving train could be dangerous, and your prick tells you: You have a first-class ticket to continue the journey.”

Strand Releasing

Finnish actor-filmmaker Elmer Bäck is a fleshy delight as Eisenstein in Guanajuato, in director Peter Greenaway’s film.

“My prick is a stowaway, an even sadder clown than me. He wears a clown’s helmet.”

“He is a wiser clown than you.

Follow where he leads. And if you won’t lead, let me. I am the guide. I will be at the back of the train.”

The London-born Greenaway, never the most prolific of film artists, returns after a long absence with a mature if frisky work, his own unique perspective on the long exile of the queer Russian cinema genius, here depicted in 1931 attempting to film in Mexico. Just as Eisenstein’s creative life was misunderstood; just as he fled one set of masters – the fathers of the Russian Revolution, ultimately Uncle Joe Stalin, a truly severe critic whose

opinions were delivered with severe prejudice; just as he would flirt with and ultimately be spurned by Hollywood’s immigrant moguls, themselves not sufficiently removed from Mother Russia or Uncle Joe; just as his most memorable work would be criticized as either too timid or too subversive by tastemakers on several continents; our long neglected queer hero Eisenstein has finally found a sensibility that lets him be himself: queer, frizzy-haired, Jewish, pranky, and forever fleeing for more hospitable climes and sponsors.

Back to the bedchamber. As Eisenstein lets himself be mounted by his diminutive young guide, he discovers the peculiar mix of stabbing pain and guilty pleasure that

this profound act often brings.

Director Greenaway turns the bedroom into a stage in which pleasure comes disguised as both pain and perhaps a premonition of his own early death (Eisenstein would succumb to a heart attack in 1948).

Eisenstein: “Oh it hurts, I’m going to vomit!”

Guide: “That’s what every virgin must say. That’s what the virgin of the New World said.”

“I’m bleeding!”

“So you are.”

“Bleeding makes me vulnerable!”

“It does, but you have no reason to feel concerned unless you’re a hemophiliac. You’re not a member of the Russian Royal Family, are you?

Are you a Romanov? Europe gave

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Mexico many things, and perhaps Mexico gave only one thing back: [a stage whisper] Syphilis! It was long known as a Spanish disease, then the Spanish gave it to the French. Then it was known as a French disease.

The French soldiers took it back to France, and it was everybody’s!”

With its witty montage, explicit bouts of homo-fucking staged as if in a boxing ring, Eisenstein in Guanajuato is a queer feast for all the senses.

It’s a film that demands that we open ourselves up to receive pleasure, pain and everything else the cinema gods have deemed suitable for a truly nonsentimental education.

Eisenstein in Guanajuato joins Greenaway’s misunderstood, underappreciated 1989 masterpiece The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover as a high-risk adult meal that engages all our senses as fully as the acts in its bedroom set-piece.

The 35-year-old Finnish actorfilmmaker Elmer Bäck is a jovial, fleshy delight as Eisenstein in full mid-life crisis mode. Mexican-born actor-theatre artist Luis Alberti is an impish pleasure as Eisenstein’s guide/tormentor. Alberti’s theatrical background greatly contributes to Greenaway’s vision of Eisenstein as a man whose life was its own tormented art. I rank Eisenstein right up there with the very best of Peter Greenaway’s unique cinema, including 1987’s Belly of an Architect and his startlingly unconventional 1991 take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero’s Books.t

Out in the open: Joel Grey’s memoir

by Tavo Amador

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s he reveals in his engaging, candid autobiography Master of Ceremonies (Flatiron Books, $27.99), Joel Grey (nee Joel David Katz, 1932) was 10 years old when he first acted on his physical attraction for boys, exchanging furtive embraces with the 16-year-old elevator operator in the apartment building where his family lived. A few years later, he was sharing physical intimacy with his first cousin Burton, but they kept it a secret.

He grew up hearing his large, closeknit, competitive extended Jewish family referring to gay men in derogatory terms, notably the Yiddish faygelech, which literally meant “fluttering birds.” Being attracted to boys wasn’t a good thing.

In high school, he was involved with girls, boys, and Paul, the handsome Cantor at his synagogue. Then Paul married a girl whom Grey had dated, devastating the teenager. Paul arranged threeways with his wife and Grey until she objected. She filed for divorce, threatening to name Grey as correspondent. Frightened, he told his parents. He saw the pain in his volatile mother’s eyes. He apologized and reached out. “Don’t touch me,” she snapped. “You disgust me.” She walked out of the room. His father, popular entertainer Mickey Katz, was more sympathetic.

Understandably, that experience

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Bill Graham

From page 17

A polarizing, larger-than-life persona in the Bay Area rock scene of the 1960s and 70s instrumental in developing the careers of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and the Allman Brothers, among others, Graham finally gets his very own show. Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution, by far the most successful of the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s recent forays into the Jewish intersection

was central to his life. Hitherto, his mother, who pushed the willing boy into show business starting at the celebrated Cleveland Play House, lavished attention on him, ignoring his younger brother. Her violent mood swings were fearsome, however; making her happy was paramount for young Grey. But her reaction upon learning about Paul taught him a painful lesson: her love wasn’t unconditional. She withdrew it as quickly as she offered it. He realized he could only rely on himself.

He began performing at 10. It was an escape from the stress of pleasing his mother, yet earned her approval.

It allowed him to be someone else, someone not attracted to boys. That attraction, and being Jewish, made him feel like the “other.” He desperately wanted to assimilate, to live a “normal” life.

He worked in nightclubs with his father, celebrated for singing popular songs with a Yiddish accent. He also appeared on popular television programs of the 1950s (December Bride, The Ann Sothern Show) and an occasional movie, like Come September (1961), starring Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida. He longed to work in the legitimate theatre, but that world seemed closed to him.

He had affairs with women, but men were more desirable. Yet being openly gay would have ruined his career. In 1958, he married actress

Jo Wilder, whom he deeply loved.

Like him, she was Jewish. Like him, she wanted an acting career.

But he coerced her to give it up – he wanted children and expected her to rear them. They suffered a tragic loss of an infant son; then daughter Jennifer, now a successful actress, was born. They adopted son James, today a highly regarded chef.

In 1965, Hal Prince cast Grey as the Master of Ceremonies in the brilliant Kandler and Ebb musical Cabaret, based on John Van Druten’s I Am a Camera, which he adapted from gay author Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Diaries. He based his interpretation on the memory of a seedy, vulgar, bigoted nightclub performer. The show was a hit, and Grey won a Tony Award.

He repeated the part in the dazzling 1971 Bob Fosse movie, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, making him one of the few performers to win both awards for the same role. One of the best sections of the book deals with his battles with the egomaniacal, controlling Fosse over how to play the character. Grey prevailed.

In 1968, he starred in George M!, a musical based on the life and career of George M. Cohan. It ran for 427 performances, and he toured with it. He also toured with Cabaret co-star Liza Minnelli, worked in

major supper clubs, including San Francisco’s Venetian Room, and appeared regularly on television.

Although he loved being a husband and father, his feelings for men became more difficult to suppress.

Finally, he told his wife. Like his mother, she walked out. They divorced in 1982, a painful event. They didn’t speak for many years. His children, however, were accepting. His mother refused to acknowledge it.

As always, acting helped. In 1985, he played a gay man battling AIDS in the revival of Larry Kramer’s The

with popular music, chronicles an immensely entertaining history. The exhibition is essentially a scrapbook, with numerous onstage and candid backstage photographs of musicians such as Bob Dylan with Joan Baez, Levon Helm, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at the Fillmore East, Aretha Franklin, the first R&B performer to headline the Fillmore West, and a dual portrait of Grace Slick and Janis Joplin that leaves one wondering if there was any oxygen left in the room after the shoot. It also includes a bevy of psychedelic posters and playbills, a fragment of the Fender Stratocaster

guitar smashed by Hendrix at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and treats like Joplin’s paisley bell bottoms, pink feather boa and tambourine, Santana’s custom 1970s guitar, and Keith Richards’ leather boots, hastily repaired with duct tape by Graham during the Rolling Stones’ 1981 tour.

In contrast to the museum’s Amy Winehouse show last year, a missed opportunity where the singer’s huge, heart-rending voice was strangely absent, this time around there’s plenty of music by bands Graham fostered, and headphones positioned around the gallery so that visitors can

listen to playlists from their concerts.

The exhibition is enlivened considerably by tasty anecdotes and quotes from and about the man himself, drawn from Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out, an autobiography written with Robert Greenfield, and extensive interviews with family, friends and associates. It helped that the gravelvoiced Graham, a natural storyteller who knew how to work a room, was refreshingly blunt and tact-free. He remembers the year he managed Jefferson Airplane, for example, as “the longest year of my life.”

Normal Heart. It was a liberating experience.

Grey continued to work in television and appeared as the Wizard in the smash Broadway musical Wicked. He fell in love with a younger stage manager, whom he identifies as Eddie. Ironically, the relationship ended because Eddie couldn’t accept being gay. He wanted to marry a woman.

While well-written and wellillustrated, the book, co-authored with Rebecca Paley, would have benefited from better copyediting. For example, he writes that on opening night of Cabaret, Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi Cola CEO Alfred Steele, came backstage to congratulate him. Steele had died in 1959, six years earlier. Similarly, he discusses touring with George M! in the context of legendary Broadway stars like Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, and Alfred Drake regularly touring in their hit shows. Merman only toured with Gypsy, and only because she thought it would help her land the movie role. (It didn’t.)

Still, these are minor criticisms.

Grey learned early on to conceal who he was. He did so because nothing mattered as much as his career. Master of Ceremonies, while not a tell-all, is a frank account of an examined life, written by a mature man who has learned to accept himself. That’s noteworthy.t What lifts the proceedings above the standard-issue rock memorabilia show and yet another nostalgic trip down memory lane, though the latter will be counterculture nirvana for fans of the era and its music, are not only those pointed recollections, available in the master’s voice on the audio guide and excerpted on wall labels, but Graham’s personal origin story; his complex psychology, and how a war waif childhood and flight from the Nazis shaped him, tantalizingly touched on here, could have See page 25 >>

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Music>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Passionate provocateur

by Tim Pfaff

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hen Rene Jacobs says that he has recorded the familiar, “beloved” final version of a piece, as he has with his new recording of Bach’s St. John Passion (Harmonia Mundi), it gets your attention. It’s been his practice more often than not to upset the apple cart, and after, many of his historically informed counterparts would say, overloading it with apples of an immodest array of varieties. Back when I was getting my indoctrination in “authentic” early-music practice, he was seen as the fox in the original-wood henhouse, and for many of his decisions about how to “fill out” scores their composers would only have sketched, assuming that performers would complete them according to circumstances of performance, he was greeted as a vandal.

That he has loved being a provocateur has never been in doubt, any more than that some of his versions of things have either constituted recomposition or were just way over the top. As a showman, he’s never been dull, if frequently maddening. But to subtract his enormous contribution to the enterprise over two generations would be the real vandalism. He’s an interventionist, big time; this is not news. If you take your Bach, or the music of any other composer, neat, there are plenty of other barstools to sit on and pontificate, or gnash your teeth.

From mine, it seems, strikingly like the repertoire and everbroadening range of performance practices in which he works, that Jacobs is aging well. Periodically he’ll let rip with something like his uproarious recreation of Emilio de Cavlieri’s Rappresentatione di

anima et di corpo from 1600, just before opera and oratorio emerged distinct forms. His 2015 Harmonia Mundi recording of it has to be heard to be believed; sometimes you swear you’re hearing kazoos. But the likelihood of my taking his recordings over a competitor’s today is high, recently reinforced by his Mozart opera Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail, which just walked away from out conductor Yannick NezetSegiun’s ironically “straighter” version with a starrier cast.

Jacobs’ St. Matthew Passion of 2013 was revelatory, period. Like the work itself, his new St. John Passion is less ambitious in creating the actual acoustic of the piece, the sound in space the way a listener would hear the piece in real church context. But it’s every bit as fine and, in its comparatively unflashy way, as convincing, almost devastating. It’s

precisely in its most open opportunity to go for devastation – Bach’s evocation of the roiling earth at the moment of Jesus’ death – that you’re not dashing off to review your earthquake insurance. This is uncommonly elevated stuff, Bach’s depiction of and response to the crucifixion and burial as recorded in John, and it’s precisely in Jacobs’ restraint that the eloquence comes.

There’s detail galore in the performance, but never more than you can process, and none of which, once heard, you’d forego.

Jacobs gets clobbered most for his augmentation of the continuo instruments (cellos, viols,

harpsichords-fortepianos-organs, lutes, etc.) that “accompany” the smaller vocal forms such as recitatives and arias, and the average church nave would have Jacobs’ continuo section here sitting on top of one another. But everywhere in music now, accompaniment isn’t what it used to be, and its executants See page 25 >>

“Scream” and “Butterfly,” staking her claim on the dance-floor.

St. Lucia (aka Jean-Philip Grobler) bypasses Bowie and goes straight for Tears for Fears and Thompson Twins on his second album Matter (Columbia/Neon Gold). Backed by a synth and beatsdriven band including his wife Patricia Beranek, St. Lucia focuses on the nostalgic dance-floor on the 11 tracks. Of particular interest are clubby tracks “Rescue Me,” “Help Me Run Away” and “Dancing on Glass.”

Ten years after releasing its acclaimed debut album, Editors return with the strongest album of its existence, the stunning In Dream (PIAS). Editors have mastered the art of sounding of the moment

while honoring the new wave of the past.

Whether aiming for the dance-floor on “Our Love” and “All the Kings,” or artfully sculpting a mood on “Ocean of Night,” Editors are a dream come true. The double-CD edition features eight bonus tracks.

Like some firstwave new wave bands, Givers incorporate a number of musical influences, including Afro and world beat, zydeco (they’re from Louisiana), glitch and fuzz, on second album New Kingdom (Glassnote).

The disc showcases some great mixed-gender vocal give-and-take (check out “Sure Thang,” “Wishing Well” and “Lightning”) while giving Tiffany Lamson plenty of room to strut her own stuff.t

New wavy

by Gregg Shapiro

N

ew wave music and the acts associated with the genre have managed to hang tough over the years since the musical style reached its peak in the mid-1980s and then was revived again in the late-20th/ early-21st centuries. Gary Numan, one of the forebears especially in terms of synthesizer use, even experienced a bit of a career resurgence when he toured with Nine Inch Nails a couple of years ago. More recently, Numan’s recordings have become the subject of a vinyl reissue campaign via Beggars Banquet’s catalog and archive department known as The Arkive. The Pleasure Principle (Beggars Banquet) from 1979, for example, mastered

from HD digital 96/24 transfers of analogue tape, contains Numan’s massive hit single “Cars” as well as classic tunes “Observer,” “Conversation” and “Engineers.”

You can hear David Bowie’s influence on Art Angels (4AD), the latest acclaimed album by Grimes (aka Claire Boucher). Considered by some to be Bowie’s true spiritual successor, Grimes has a way of putting art into her art rock. Beginning with the theatrical opener “Laughing and Not Being Normal,” to straightforward new wave-revival dance numbers “Flesh Without Blood,” “California” and “World Princess Part II,” Grimes takes being weird seriously. She isn’t afraid to merge the mood of the past with the mind of the present on standouts

<< Out&About

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

O&A

Fri 25

Sean Hayes in Act of God

by Jim Provenzano

R

epeating a moment, a movement, a morsel of music, artists perform repetitive rituals to perfect their presentations. From empowering to laugh-filled, enjoy whatever springtime ritual you like. As usual, for nightlife events, head over to On the Tab on page 34.

Jim Cox

Thu 24 The Addams Family @ Berkeley Playhouse Brickman, Elice and Lippa’s fun musical adaptation based on the Charles Addams characters. $25-$40.

Various times thru April 17. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 8458542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

The Boys From Syracuse @ Eureka Theatre 42nd Street Moon’s new production of of the classic Abbot, Hart, Rodgers musical comedy adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors. $25-$75. Wed & Thu 7pm.

Fri 8pm. sat 6pm. Sun 3pm. Thru April 17. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndstmoon.org

Jee Leong Koh @ Modern Times Bookstore The Singapore-born queer poet shares new work from his fifth collection.

7pm. 2919 24th st. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Fri 25

Blessed Unrest Festival @ CounterPulse

Shotgun Blast Festival @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley

An Act of God @ Golden Gate Theatre

The Medea Project, the women and prison social justice theatre and music ensemble, performs along with other artists, with workshops and panels, at the dance-theatre nonprofit’s new space. $20-$35. Various events/times thru Mar. 27. 80 Turk St. www.themedeaproject.weebly.com www.counterpulse.org

Variety of plays, drag shows, dance, theatre and comedy. $15-$20. Thru March. 1901 Ashby Ave. shotgunplayers.org/Online/blastival

Sean Hayes ( Will & Grace ) stars in the touring production of David Javerbaum’s hilarious Broadway comedy about God, who explains, well, everything. $ Tue-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Sun 1pm & 6:30pm. Thru April 17. 1 Taylor St. at Market. www.AnActofGod.com www.shnsf.com

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Rituality Swimmers @ Marin Theatre Company

The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs; now with new characters like Sia and Bernie Sanders. $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted.

678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Forgotten Cities: The Power of Melanin, an exhibit of powerful photo portraits of Black Americans. Thru April 16. 1427 Broadway, Oakland. www.bettiono.com

To Kill a Mockingbird @ Hillbarn Theatre, Foster City

Buyer & Cellar @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

The Unfortunates @ Strand Theatre The amazing must-see darkly comic blues-gospel-hip hop musical tells of Big Joe, a tough-talking soldier cursed with giant hands, who must face his dead friends and battle a plague in the Underworld. $35-$95. Tue-Sat 7:30pm. Wed, Sat Sun 2pm. Thru April 10. 1127 Market St. 749-2228. www.act-sf.org

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre

Kevin Rolston performs his threecharacter solo show with a different take on gay lives. $25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru April 16. 1117 Market St. www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/2194657

Hotel Burlesque @ Exit Theatre

Word for Word, the company that performs great short fiction, takes on Emma Donaghue and Colm Tóibín stories. $20-$55. Wed & Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru April 3. 470 Florida St. (866) 811-4111. www.zspace.org

Sun 27

Red Velvet and Amanda Ortmayer’s new play about unlikely characters banding together to solve a murder mystery, before they too become ghosts. $15-$25. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru April 2. 156 Eddy St. www.theexit.org

ODC/Dance Downtown @ YBCA

Easter in the Park @ Hellman Hollow, Golden Gate Park

The How and the Why @ Aurora Theatre, Berkeley

New dance works by Brenda Wat., KT Nelson and Okada, with commissioned scores. $25-$80. ThuSat 7:30pm. Sun 5pm. Thru March 27. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. www.odcdance.org www.ybca.org

The Realistic Joneses @ Geary Theater American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Will Eno’s Broadway hit comedy about neighbors whose language collapses as they struggle to know each other. $25-$105. Special nights thru the run. Thru April 3. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

San Francisco in Ruins @ Tenderloin Museum Exhibit of paintings by local artist Jacinto Castillo depicting old San Francisco. March 24: screening of You Don’t Know Jack: the Jack Soo Story (pioneering Barney Miller actor). Free/ donations. 6:30pm reception, 7pm shows. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm, $6-$10 ($15 includes walking tour). 398 Eddy St. 351-1912. tenderloinmuseum.org

Steven Underhill

Uninhibited About Sex @ Jewish Community Center New series of shows, lectures, talks and more, all about sexuality. Mar. 24: Bawdy Storytelling ($27-$37, 8pm).

Thru May 31. 3200 California St. 2921200. www.jccsf.org

Vanishing Ice @ David Brower Center, Berkeley Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art 1775-2012, a historic group exhibit of old and contemporary images. 6:30-8:30pm.

Curator lecture 7pm. Mon-Fri 9am5pm. Thru May 11. 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.browercenter.org

Word Week @ Various Venues Tenth anniversary mini-festival of books and local & Noe Valley authors.

Mar. 24: queer authors Genanne Walsh and Wayne Goodman on How to Get Your Book Published. Mar. 25: Queer Words: LGBT Authors, with Wilfredo Pascual, Anne Raeff and Roberto F. Santiago. Other Noe Valleyarea events at Folio Books, 3957 24th St. Thru March 26. www.foliosf.com

Sat 26 Colossal @ SF Playhouse Andrew Hinderaker’s visually striking stage play, with hunky male actordancer-jocks, about football, dance, disability and recovery. $25-$100.

Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri &Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm, Sun 2pm. Thru April 30. 450 Post St. 677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Deal With the Dragon @ The Costume Shop

Feminists to Feministas : Women of Color in Prints and Posters, a new exhibit of illustrations depicting LBT women of color from the 1970s to today. $5. Thru July 4. Reg, hours Mon, Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm5pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Night Vision, Silence @ Z Below

Regional premiere of Tony-winning gay playwright Terence McNally’s about the mother of a deceased gay man who visits his surviving partner, who now has a family. $25-$45. Wed-Sat 8pm.

Sun 2pm. thru April 3. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Spare Stage presents performance of the award-winning British gay playwright Alan Bennett’s monologues. $5-$25.

Fri & Sat 8pm, Sun 4pm. Thru March 27.

2901 Mariposa St. www.sparestage.com

J. Conrad Frank stars in Jonathan Tolin’s hilarious solo show about an actor working in Barbara Streisand’s underground shopping mall. $20-$45.

Previews thru Mar. 25. Thursday night pre-show trivia & piano with Joe Wicht thru April. Thru April 24. 25 Van Ness Ave, lower level. 861-8972. www.nctcsf.org

Feminists to Feministas @ GLBT History Museum

Mar. 24: Disney’ The Little Mermaid sing-along various times thru March 29. Mar. 30: pre-Code lost classics Island of Lost Souls (6:15), Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde (7:45) and Freaks (9:45).

Mar. 31: Fellini’s City of Women (6pm, 8:45). $11-$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Mothers and Sons @ New Conservatory Theatre Center

Talking Heads @ Royce Gallery

Brittsense @ Betti Ono Gallery, Oakland

World premiere of Rachel Bonds’ contemporary play about the strange oddities of modern life. $10-$58.

Tue-Sun 7:30pm. Also some matinees.

Thru March 27. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. www.marintheatre.org

Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel gets an East Bay production. $25-$48. Thru March 27. 1285 East Hillsdake Blvd., Foster City. (650) 3496411. www.hillbarntheatre.org

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West Coast premiere of Sarah Treem’s ( House of Cards) drama about two women biologists who clash over evolution and gender theories. $35$45. Tue 7pm. Wed-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru May 22. Harry’s UpStage, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 8434822. www.auroratheatre.org

Jesus Christ Superstar SingAlong @ Victoria Theatre Enjoy the film adaptation of the hit musical with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Bad Flower Productions, with a Chunky Jesus costume contest. Proceeds benefit the Trans March. $15-$35. 7pm. 2961 16th St. www.brownpapertickets. com/event/2511040

Macbeth @ Berkeley Repertory Theatre “The Scottish play,” Shakespeare’s classic tragedy about a murderous royal couple, stars Conleth Hill and Frances McDormand. $45-$145. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru April 10. Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St. berkeleyrep.org

Oscar de

THE RETROSPECT

Oscar de la Renta’s designs celebrated confidence. See more than 130 ensem pay tribute to one of the most beloved a

M A R 1 2 – M A Y 3 0, 2 0 1 6

This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with the colla Renta LLC. Presenting Sponsors: Cynthia Fry Gunn and John A. Gunn. Director’s Circle: D Circle: Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, The Diana Dollar Knowles Foundation, Marissa Ma and Yurie and Carl Pascarella. Benefactor’s Circle: Paula and Bandel Carano, Stephanie a Marcus, and Jennifer and Steven Walske. Patron’s Circle: Mrs. Carole McNeil, Mrs. Komal Sh Mary Beth and David Shimmon, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph O. Tobin II. Additional support is Hopper Fitch, and Mr. and Mrs. William Hamilton.

Photo: Steven Meisel / Art + Commerce

FAMSF_OSDLR_BAR_Mar_PremIsland4c_final.indd 1

Queer Open Mic @ Modern Times Bookstore

Baruch Porras-Hernandez and Blythe Baldwin cohost the lively reading and performance series. 7pm. 2919 24th st. 282-9246. www.mtbs.com

Risk Is This @ Cutting Ball Theatre Experimental plays festival returns, with original unusual stage works. $20- $50 full pass. Fri & Sat thru March 26. 277 Taylor St. 525-1205. www.cuttingball.com

Take This Hammer @ YBCA New exhibit of nearly dozen local activist-artists who work in different media. Thru Aug. 14. Also, The Sprawl, the Amsterdam-based design team Metahaven’s immersive video installation about the mutation of propaganda. Free/$8. Thru April 3. Also, Kevin Cooley’s Golden Prospects, a visual survey of water and waste in California. Thru April 3. $8-$10. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Divine Invasions @ Krowswork Gallery, Oakland Six male artists exhibit works inspired by “the Divine Feminine.” Thru April 6. 480 23rd St. www.krowswork.com

Hidden Gold @ Asian Art Museum Hidden Gold : Mining its Meaning in Asian Art, thru May 8. Also, China at the Center: Rare Ricci and Verbiest World Maps; Extracted: a Trilogy of Ranu Mukherjee (thru Aug. 14); Chinese Laquerware (thru July 31); Elephants Without Number (thru June 26), and more. Free-$25. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

Inked Kenny @ Mr. S Leather Photo exhibit of images of tattooed and masculine men. Thru April 30.

Mon-Sun 11am-8pm. 385 8th St. www.InkedKenny.com www.Mr-S-Leather.com

t

Out&About>>

Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Gardens See beautiful floral and foliage displays, trees and plants in various beautiful gardens specific to region. Expect amazing new growth and blossoms following the rainy days. Daily walking tours and more. Free-$15. Tours, lectures, classes and more. Open daily, 7:30am-sunset. Golden Gate Park. 6611316. www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

On Clover Road @ The Rueff SF Playouse’s production of Steven Dietz’ thriller about a lost mother and daughter. $20. Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm. Thru April 16. Upstairs studio at The Strand Theatre, 1127 Market St. 677-9596. sfplayhouse.org

Other Cinema @ ATA Gallery Weekly screenings of unusual, rare and strange short films and videos. $8. 8:30pm. 992 Valencia St. 6480654. www.othercinema.com

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

SFHiking Club @ Joseph Grant Country Park

Architecture of Life @ Berkeley Art Museum/ Pacific Film Archive

Join GLBT hikers for a 10-mile hike to Antler Point in Joseph Grant County Park. Hike through wildflowers near Mt. Hamilton. Leashed dogs welcome.

Bring water, lunch, layers, hat, sunscreen, hiking shoes and poles.

Carpool meets 8:15am at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 740-9888.

Also March 27 at Mt. Diablo for a 9-mile hike (8:45am meet). www.sfhiking.com

New art and film museum, designed

by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with more than 200 new and ancient works dating back 2,000 years. Free-$12.

Thru May 29. 2625 Durant Ave., Berkeley. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Wicked @ Orpheum Theatre Stephen Schwartz’ mega-hit Tonywinning musical based on the novel about the ‘other story’ of Oz and the witches Glinda and Elphaba returns. $80-$238. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Sun 7:30pm. Thru April 16.

1192 Market St. www.shnsf.com

Garden Railway @ Conservatory of Flowers New exhibit of floral displays inspired by the centennial anniversary of the 1915 Pan-Pacific World’s Expo, with SF scenes in miniature train and architectural installations with hundreds of dwarf plants. Thru April 10. Also, permanent floral displays, plants for sale, and docent tours. TueSun 10am-4pm. $2-$8. Free for SF residents. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Flower Show @ Macy’s Union Square 70th annual large-scale floral exhibit in the department store, with special events thru April 3. 170 O’Farrell at Powell. www.macys.com/flowershow

OutLook Video @ Channel 29 The weekly LGBT TV show, with updates on current events. 9:30pm. www.outlookvideo.org

Oscar de la Renta @ de Young Museum Stylish new retrospective exhibit of the world-famous fashion designer’s gown on display, as well as archival photos and materials; Thru May 30.

Other exhibits of modern art as well.

Free/$25. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.famsf.org

Pierre Bonnard @ Legion of Honor Painting Arcadia, thru May 15. Also, Sublime Beauty: Raphael’s Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn (thru April 10); also World in a Book, A Princely Pursuit and other exhibits. Free/$15.

Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Linciln Park, 100 34th Ave. 750-3600. www.legionofhonor.famsf.org

e la Renta

Charlie Varon and cellist Joan Jeanrenaud perform Varon’s storytheatre work about seeking human connection in a high tech world. $35$45. Sat. 8:30pm Sun 2pm. Thru April 17. 1062 Valencia St. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Sister Spit Tour @ Oasis The women’s powerful reading series stops back home along their tour, with Jezebal Delilah X, Julia Serano, Nikki Darling, Juliana Delgado Lopera, Cassie J. Sneider, Virgie Tovar and Maisha Z. Johnson. $10. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. sisterspit.com sfoasis.com

Wed 30

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley

Dave Eggers: Idaho @ Jules Maeght Gallery

The iconic New York dance company returns for its annual residency and three-program concert series. $36$145. Tue-Sat 8pm. Also Tue 3pm, Sat 2pm. Thru April 3. Bancroft way at Dana, UC Berkeley campus. (510) 6429988. www.calperformances.org

ArtCare Reception @ Veterans Building Friends of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s fundraiser reception includes Mayor Ed Lee bestowing the 2016 Mayer’s Art Award to prolific gay author Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City). $2500 and up. 5:30-8pm. Green Room, War Memorial Performing Arts Center, 401 Van Ness Ave. artcaresf.org

Bring It Home @ SFAC Gallery Bring It Home: (Re)Locating Cultural Legacy Through the Body, a large group exhibit of works; thru May 7.

Also, Susan O’Malley’s Do More of What You Love, thru May 7; Also, Enter: 126: Coalescence by Annette Jannotta and Olivia Ting; thru Dec. 17.

Free. Tue-Fri 11am-6pm. War Memorial Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Ave. sfartscommission.org/gallery

Sat 26

Color of Life @ California Academy of Sciences

3/9/16 7:52 PM

Sun 27

Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley

Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth; new exhibit focuses on vibrantly colored species of octopus, snake fish and other live creatures.

Special events each week, with adult nightlife parties many Thursday nights. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Duane Cramer @ Strut SF

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

Exhibit of photos by the prolific photographer, of men of color who are open about being HIV-positive.

3rd floor. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Easter in the Park @ Hellman Hollow, Golden Gate Park

Without Type @ SF Center for the Book

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s annual big outdoor show includes an early kids’ celebration and egg hunt (11am), followed by live entertainment (Mamma’s Boyz, BeBe Sweetbriar, Dottie Lux, Carly Ozard), ceremonies, the Hunky Jesus, Foxy Mary and Easter bonnet contests.

Dress in your festive Easter/Pagan colors! 12pm-4pm. 50 Overlook Drive. www.thesisters.org

Without Type: The Dynamism of Handmade Letters, an exhibit of handmade books and paper works.

Thru April 3. Mon-Sun 10am-5:30pm.

375 Rhode Island St. www.sfcb.org

Solo exhibit of commissioned acrylic-on-wood art by the awardwinning, bestselling local author (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). Thru May 7. 149 Gough St. 549-7046. julesmaeghtgallery.com

Ghosts/Ships @ MOAD Cheryl Patrice Derricote’s new exhibit of works visualizing the global slave trade. Also, Alison Saar’s Bearing, the acclaimed artist’s sculptures of Black women as a centerpiece. Free-$10.

Thru April 3. Museum of the African Diaspora, 635 Mission St. moadsf.org

Mel Shaw: An Animator on Horseback @ Walt Disney Family Museum New exhibition showcases 120 artworks and designs by the prominent Disney animator, whose own life was full of adventures. Free (members)-$20. Thru Sept. 12. 104 Montgomery St., The Presidio. 3456800. www.waltdisney.org

Natural Beauty @ Marin Center Natural Beauty: The Art and Artists of West Marin, a group exhibit of paintings, water colors, landscapes and paper works depicting Northern California. Repection Jan. 20, 6pm.

Thru March 30. 10 Ave. of the Flags, San Rafael. www.marincenter.org

Prince Rama @ Starline Social Club, Oakland The ultra-cool electro duo performs. $10-$12. 9pm. 645 West Grand Ave. princerama.com starlinesocialclub.com

Science Exhibits @ The Exploratorium Visit the fascinating science museum in its new Embarcadero location. Free$25. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Thu night 6pm-10pm, 18+). 528-4893. exploratorium.edu

Mon 28

aboration of Oscar de la Diane B. Wilsey. Curator’s ayer and Zachary Bogue, and Jim Marver, Neiman hah and Mr. Gaurav Garg, provided by Mrs. George

Second Time Around @ The Marsh

Tue 29

Unearthed: Found + Made, featuring Jedediah Caesar’s geological sculptures; thru April 24. Free/$15.

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

d the best in us—beauty, optimism, and bles in the first major retrospective to and influential fashion icons of our time.

Dual exhibit of works exploring the challenging representation of the forgotten, including Flint, Michigan residents, and Syrian men executed for being gay. May 8. 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org

The Medea Project at the Blessed Unrest Festival @ CounterPulse

Unearthed: Found + Made @ Oakland Museum

TIVE

Rodney Ewing, Jamil Hellu @ Berkeley Art Center

Fri 25

Spring Big Book Sale @ Festival Pavillion Sister Spit Tour @ Oasis

Patti Lupone @ SFGMC Fundraiser The Broadway legend performs at a special VIP fundraiser for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, at the home of Ann and Gordon Getty. $1000 and up. 6pm-8pm. www.sfgmc.org

Roman Vishniac Rediscovered @ Contemporary Jewish Museum New exhibit of photos from the prolific documenter of Jewish life in eastern Europe. Thru May 29. Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution (thru July 5). Other exhibits about Jewish culture include In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art—Jenny Odell and Philip Buscemi, thru Jul 5; Lamp of the Covenant: Dave Lane and Pour Crever by Trimpin, Hardly Strictly Warren Hellman, ongoing.

Lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

Will Durst @ The Marsh The political comic’s updated solo show, Elect to Laugh: 2016, adds topical jokes about the bizarre election season. $15-$100. Tuesdays, 8pm. Thru April 19. 1062 Valencia St. 282- www.themarsh.org

Friends of the SF Public Library’s 6th annual massive sale of books, CDs, DVDs and more. 10am-6pm daily thru April 3 (members preview Mar. 29).

Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd. www.friendssfpl.org

Thu 31 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online & cable interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. Check for times on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ pages/10-Percent/66629477326 www.ComcastHometown.com

Black Virgins are Not for Hipsters @ The Marsh Berkeley Echo Brown’s hit solo show about desire and doubt moves to the company’s East Bay theatre. $20-$100. Thu 8pm Sat 8:30pm. Thru April 23. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels Wheeled fun at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate,” including Saturday’s Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

<< TV

24 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

Woman who brings joy to late-night TV

by Victoria A. Brownworth

W

e need TV. Dramas, sitcoms, dramedy, the occasional reality TV series. RuPaul’s Drag Race provides the best escape, although we do not like two eliminations in one week. The cooking shows always make us feel like we aren’t quite up to par when eight-yearolds are making ceviche or bird’s nest soup. No more MSNBC, which has become a mirror image of Fox News: all white, all in the bubble. We miss Melissa Harris-Perry, the last black commentator, who was forced out two weeks ago. It’s been a slow, sad breakup with Rachel Maddow, but we realized we wouldn’t have stayed this long if she hadn’t been a lesbian.

The presidential primary season has been grueling and has produced some of the worst TV we’ve seen in a while. We were actually pleased that Donald Trump gave the order of no more debates on the GOP side, since we have just had enough. On March 18, our fave GOP presidential race dropout, SC Sen. Lindsey Graham (when is he going to come out?), leveled one of his deadpan comments. We loathe Graham’s politics, but he’s a funny, acerbic guy, and we wish he’d made it to the main stage just for that. In January, Graham described the abject loathing of TX Sen. Ted Cruz this way: “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate and the trial were in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” Now Graham’s in the unenviable position the rest of America’s in of deciding which GOPer is more repugnant. Asked by MSNBC’s Maddow whether he preferred Cruz or Trump as the Republican nominee, Graham said, “It’s like being shot or poisoned. What does it really matter?” But pressed

by CNN on March 18, Graham acknowledged he’s been forced to the dark side of tepidly supporting Cruz.

Graham said Cruz is “certainly not my preference,” and he’s “had many differences with” him, but “Trump is worse.” And so Graham is supporting Cruz. No more bon mots in the foreseeable future.

Comedy has been thin with regard to the presidential campaign, perhaps because we are so weary of some of the players. Even the SNL skits have worn us down, despite the superb stylings of out lesbian comedian Kate McKinnon

as Hillary Clinton, Larry David as Bernie Sanders, and Darrell Hammond as Donald Trump. McKinnon doing Hillary doing Sanders was also good.

We’re already tired of Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert, and we’ve been over Bill Maher and his Islamophobia for a long time. We can still get it up for Larry Wilmore and The Nightly Show. And one of our late-night faves is James Corden and The Late Late Show. But the former is a far better rep of Jon Stewart’s legacy than Colbert, whom we can no longer watch. And Corden is the gayest non-gay man in the history of TV. If you haven’t seen his Carpool Karaoke, time to sit down and watch.

We’re still laughing from Sia – yes, Corden wears the same wig.

In a video for EW this week, Corden said until Mariah Carey agreed to do it, everyone turned him down. But after her, everyone wanted to do it, including the great Stevie Wonder and Justin Bieber at his most adorable.

Corden told EW, “The guest who surprised me the most was Stevie Wonder, because we were told very strictly that we only had an hour, and we just shot for two-and-a-half hours because he just kept saying, ‘I’m having a great time, let’s do another one!’” Corden has starred in a few musicals and can actually sing, and is just so sweet and naturally, ebulliently funny, he’s a joy to watch.

How is he not gay?

Corden notwithstanding, the big joy of late night these days for the political and non-political is Samantha Bee. We’re not sure why it’s taken our entire lifetime for there to be a woman with a late-night political/comedy show, but it probably had something to do with the patriarchy and misogyny. But we digress.

Samantha Bee is the true heir to Jon Stewart. The 46-year-old Bee spent 12 years as a “correspondent” on The Daily Show, and she cut her teeth on politics. One of her signature roles was getting people to make themselves look ridiculous while talking about their careers or passions. In a spot called “Tropical Repression,” Bee hoisted Ed Heeney, a Florida politician running his campaign for the House of Representatives based on opposition to gay rights, on his own petard.

Heeney says, “I want to be known as an average guy.” He goes on to

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Samantha Bee’s new show on TBS, Full Frontal, is nearly perfect.

explain how “the gays are an alien army within,” and are moving up from Miami to pollute the heteronormativity of Ft. Lauderdale. Bee asks if he’s homophobic. He says he’s “homonausic.” Gays make him sick. It gets better as he explains how lesbians have taken over both the pool tables and the women, because their “creamy white skin” is “predatory.’ Bee manages to keep a straight face throughout.

Another fave perfect for this election season is NILFs (News I’d Like to F#@k), which deconstructs news anchors based on sexiness. “CNN has the wholesome girl-next-door NILFs, the kind you can bring home to meet your mother. MSNBC has the dirty-over-30 NILFs. Fox has the filthy NILFs who will report anything. They’re the Hustler of NILFs.” Bee’s new show on TBS, Full Frontal, is nearly perfect. Bee brings all the tricks of the trade she mastered on The Daily Show and uses them to full advantage. It’s fabulous. After so many years of having no voice on late night, women finally have Bee, who is not afraid to say the f-word, feminist. Her show’s theme song is Peaches’ “Boys Wanna Be Her.” Yeah.

No shade to Chelsea Handler, who did have her Comedy Central show Chelsea Lately for seven seasons, and whose new show Chelsea will premiere on Netflix in mid-May. Handler was the bawdy, foul-mouthed, laugh-out-loud bad girl for a long time, but never got the same attention as Bee, possibly because when her show debuted a decade ago, people still weren’t ready for “a woman.” Hmm, where have we heard that? (Handler also has a four-part documentary series, Chelsea Does, that dropped on Netflix in January.)

Bee has taken on the GOP, especially Trump, and on one episode held a funeral for the Republican Party. A native-born Canadian, she celebrates having just become an American citizen and has told interviewers she’s excited about voting in her first election. As for whom she supports, she’s cagey about that, but told Rolling Stone, “I think it’s very dismissive to assume people are just voting [for Hillary] with their vaginas. But, you know, we’re all very used to being dismissed, so it sort of makes sense.”

On her March 14 show, Bee did a segment, “Greetings, Trump Supporters!” in which she took on a group of Trumpers. The welleducated kind, not the Duck Dynasty ones. It’s hilarious. Discussing Trump cancelling a rally for fear of violence, Bee says, “Having left his balls in his other pants.” Bee is told by one of the Trumpers, “He’s got sort of a simplistic but evocative language that I think speaks to

a lot of people at almost a limbic or a primal level.” Limbic. To which she replies, “So you acknowledge that Trump is speaking to our lizard brains?” Eventually, she is driven to drink. You don’t have to have a vagina to watch. Bee brings it.

Spring forward

Lucky for us, since we need TV right now, there’s more than just Bee to look forward to. Now there are multiple TV seasons, including one called “Spring,” which never existed before. A few new shows and some old faves are worth a look.

The season finales of American Crime and How to Get Away with Murder left us shaking our head.

We don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who might have missed either, but these were two of the best gay male storylines of the season, and in the case of American Crime, possibly ever.

We’re caught up in The Family, which is dark as hell but utterly addicting. We really wish it hadn’t been moved opposite The Good Wife, but that’s why the DVR was invented.

The many layers raise questions about what constitutes desire and where the lines between desire and criminality get breeched. We were queasy initially that viewers would read the pedophilia as homosexuality, but we think the show makes the distinction clear. Andrew McCarthy is extraordinary as Hank Asher, the pedophile, and Alison Pill does yeowoman work as Willa Warren, the daughter who takes over the management of her family at 13. The whole cast is strong, the layering of the story is compelling, the questions of what constitutes right and wrong and the myriad of grey areas leave the viewer thinking about each episode long after.

We have not been keeping up with Hulu as much as we would have liked, but one series we are watching is the limited-series dramatization of Stephen King’s novel 11.22.63.

The science fiction thriller is executive produced by the stellar J.J. Abrams and King himself, as well as Bridget Carpenter, who developed the project for Hulu. The series stars the still-sexy James Franco as Jake Epping, a recently divorced English teacher from Maine who is given the chance to travel back in time to Texas circa 1960, where he attempts to prevent the assassination of JFK. Once in the past, Epping becomes attached to the life he makes there.

This series is primed for the election season and has many dark twists, this being Stephen King. The cast includes some standout actors like Oscar winner Chris Cooper, Tony winner and out lesbian Cherry Jones, and Emmy-nominated out gay actor T.R. Knight. Well worth watching.

Another limited series debuting April 19 on AMC is an adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Manager, which has been updated to the present day, and which looks riveting. Former British soldier Jonathan Pine (the always superb and, here, surprisingly sexy Tom Hiddleston) is recruited by Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), an intelligence operative.

He is tasked to navigate Whitehall and Washington, DC, where there is an alliance between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. He must infiltrate the inner circle of arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie), Roper’s girlfriend Jed (Elizabeth Debicki), and associate Corkoran (Tom Hollander).

The series is written by British playwright David Farr and directed

by Oscar winner Susanne Bier, who’s given the show a dark and brooding look as befits the subject. Laurie, whom we loved to hate for years on House, fairly leaps off the screen here as the larger-than-life Roper.

“War is spectator sport,” Roper tells us, and we see the wheels turning.

This is a man who is always plotting. When Roper says, “Anyone can betray anyone,” we know he means anyone can be pushed beyond the limits of decency to whatever lays on the other side. We have missed Laurie a lot as an actor, and here he’s a much more complicated villain than the emotionally stunted yet brilliant House. And he isn’t forced into an American accent like he was on House. This is definitely not one to miss. Set the DVR. Which you will have to do anyway, since another compelling new series debuts in exactly the same time slot on the CW, April 19. Containment is another thriller, of a different stripe. The series takes place in Atlanta and focuses on what happens when a vast urban quarantine takes place following a mysterious, deadly epidemic. Based on the top-rated Belgian series Cordon, Containment gets top billing in the network’s prime timeslot behind ratings giant The Flash. This is definitely one to watch, though it’s unsettling as hell.

Seeing how life is altered under the circumstances of unseen, unknown, yet deadly contagion reads as both metaphor and reality, given the world of dirty bombs and biological warfare and new viruses appearing out of the bush all the time. This one will be hard for many of us who lived through the deadliest wave of the AIDS epidemic to watch, but it’s a cautionary tale for our time.

So for the endless politics, the sometimes funny, sometimes poli-comedy shows, for new and returning dramas and some spot-on entertainment, you know you really must stay tuned.t

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DVD>>

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 25

Same-sex couple out of time

by David Lamble

O

ne of my four picks for 2015’s top film, Carol, with six Oscar nominations (Actress, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Costume Design, Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay), has just arrived in Bay Area stores in a handsome DVD edition from the Weinstein Company.

In the first act, we meet 20something retail clerk Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), finding her way through the byzantine social rules for women in the workplace as a toy department sales associate at the Manhattan branch of Bamburgers department store. It’s Christmas 1951, America is at war in Korea, and the young clerk finds herself assisting a beautiful blonde divorcee Carol (Australian-born Cate Blanchett) trapped in the dying embers of a loveless marriage of convenience to a brutish businessman (Kyle Chandler).

Carol’s freedom is held in check by her desire to retain visitation

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Bill Graham

From page 20

made for a fascinating exhibition of its own.

Born in Berlin in 1931, the son of Russian Jews, Graham, nee Wolodia “Wolfgang” Grjonca, spent his early years in Nazi Germany. (His childhood photo ID card with swastika and the Reich’s eagle insignia is on view.) Shortly after the Hitler Youth came calling, his mother put him on kindertransport to France in 1939; it was the last time he saw her. She died on her way to Auschwitz. One of his five sisters died there; another, also deported to the camp, miraculously survived. Initially sheltered in French chateaux for Jewish orphans, Graham

rights to the couple’s young daughter. In this era, husbands could hire private detectives (“dicks”) to dig up moral turpitude evidence against their ex-wives. Enraged exhubby Harge Aird presses to have Carol declared unfit to see her child based on her past relationship with another young woman, Abby (Sarah Paulson). Remember, this is also an era when women attracted to other women didn’t necessarily have a polite word for who they were.

Blanchett and Mara hold us in their grip as an out-of-time samesex couple in queer writer/director Todd Haynes’ strongest drama to date. Haynes deftly evokes the forces of hetero-oppression, with a strategic child custody battle displaying how far we have come since the 1950s, when LGBT folks had few rights “real people” needed to respect. Haynes (Far from Heaven) sets his story in a Douglas Sirk (Written on the Wind) stylized world of hard-drinking, boorish men and desperate, witty women.

The film is based on the 1952 novel The Price of Salt from the now-legendary lesbian novelist Patricia Highsmith (Hitchcock fans first embraced Highsmith’s fiction in the 1951 b&w classic Strangers on a Train), who published the book under the pen name Claire Morgan. The story stood out in the Eisenhower era for its happy ending. Highsmith’s publisher requested that she use the pen name to avoid spoiling her primary identification as a crime-fiction writer. Ironically, the women in Carol or The Price of Salt were in their day considered criminals or worse. Curiously enough, Highsmith’s novel may have inspired the Russianborn Vladimir Nabokov in writing Lolita, with its tortured male protagonist Humbert Humbert enthralled by his teenage adopted daughter/nymphette.

In the outstanding supporting cast, Jake Lacy is Therese’s wouldbe young boyfriend (he wants to

soon boarded a boat in Lisbon bound for the U.S; 11-years-old and weighing 55 lbs., he arrived in New York City in 1941. His teenage years were spent in the Bronx with a foster family, and he bussed tables at Catskills resorts, where he decided to become an actor. Though he abandoned that dream, he held onto a love of theatricality that he would bring to his rock spectacles, with their light extravaganzas and dancing in the aisles. Eventually he wandered into the budding hippie wonderland of San Francisco, as many did back then, and produced his first fundraiser, in 1965, for the San Francisco Mime Troupe; the rest, as they say, is rock & roll history.

Orphaned and living by his wits at a young age resulted in an

intestinal fortitude, tenacity and emotional torment he carried into adulthood. “He was from many places, and he wasn’t a peaceful man,” observes his oldest son, David, who fondly remembers the father to whom he bears a striking physical resemblance. “He didn’t find peace anywhere except in San Francisco, where he felt safe, and safety was paramount to him. Over the years, being here, he mellowed.”

It’s ironic that Graham escaped the Nazis only to be killed in a helicopter accident at the age of 60. But hey, he had one hell of a rich rocking life along the way.t Through July 5. Check out thecjm. org for a list of related talks and events scheduled throughout the run of the show.

sweep her off on a honeymoon trip to Europe); and the film’s only sympathetic male character, Dannie McElroy, is played by John Magaro, currently seen in the final season of

The Good Wife (CBS) and as an aspiring rock singer in Sopranos creator David Chase’s feature debut Not Fade Away (2012). Here Magaro comes across as the film’s lone good guy, a young photographer working his way up the ranks at The New York Times who gives Therese a chance to see the paper’s photo files, inspiring her to seek out photography as a profession.

Magaro has a gentle touch and subtle grace in virtually any role you might cast him in. His casting is another example of director Haynes’ sublime touch.

Bonus features: Behind-thescenes gallery has cast and crew discussing the time warp-like, then-and-now implications of this moving same-sex love affair.

Q&A with cast and filmmakers: a revealing series of clips with stars Blanchett and Mara, director Haynes, and screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, who recalls her own friendship with author Highsmith during the famed novelist’s final years.t

Courtesy of Iconic Images/Baron Wolman

Baron Wolman, View from the audience: The Rolling Stones at Day on the Green, Oakland Coliseium Stadium, Oakland, CA, July 26, 1978. Gelatin silver print.

Collection of Robert Wedemeyer

Robert Wedemeyer, Note from Donovan to Bill Graham, San Francisco, November 1967. Offset print with inscribed ink.

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St. John Passion

From page 21

are asked to be greater participants, to easily audible gains. Jacobs’ selection of instruments to be deployed for each number varies according to expressive needs. The first time this superbly played St. John stabbed me was when a pungent assortment of them produced some almost bizarrely sinister sounds under Jesus’ challenge under interrogation, “If I have spoken evil [uebel], say where.”

Most of the performers, including the Akademie fuer alte Musik Berlin and the equally superb RIAS Kammerchor, are from Jacobs’ regular stable of collaborators, and the sense of deep ensemble shows everywhere. It’s hard to imagine the other vocal soloists who would assent to the merciless demands Jacobs makes of them. The alto aria “Es ist vollbracht,” sung immediately after Jesus sings the same words (“It is finished”), is as agonizingly slow as I’ve heard it. Countertenor Benno

Schachtner not only manages it but also sings with rhythmic freedom and a palpable ache. Soprano Summae Im seems taxed to the limit in her first aria, then responds in Part II with a “Zerfliesse, mein Herze” in which she does some vocal sobbing while engaging with the instrumentalists as if they were among the mourning disciples. Werner Guera lets just enough of the dauntingly high lines of the Evangelist “show,” that is, communicate the strain in the text.

The role of Jesus is relatively small, but Jacobs gives it to one of his real discoveries, baritone Johannes Weisser, and gives him the baritone arias to boot. We haven’t heard vocal honesty like this since the early days of Cecilia Bartoli. Weisser is as penetrating as the spear that drains Jesus’ side. The aria with chorus “Mein teuer Heiland”/”Jesu der du warest tot,” immediately after Jesus gives up the ghost, is both at the limits of what’s endurable and ineffably consoling. That’s authentic Bach.t

STORM LARGE

LAURA OSNES

KAREN MASON

April 14 - 16

April 22 - 23

May 6 - 7

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

<< Books

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • March 24-30, 2016

Swimming in the mainstream

by Brian Bromberger

Making Out in the Mainstream: GLAAD and the Politics of Respectability by Vincent Doyle; McGill-Queen’s University Press, $34.95 t may have been the climax of GLAAD’s (formerly Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) prestige. GLAAD presented its 2000 Vanguard Award, given to a member of the entertainment or media community who has significantly promoted equal rights for LGBT people, to actress Elizabeth Taylor.

In her acceptance remarks, after declaring “any home where there is love constitutes a family, and all families should have the same legal rights,” she added, “What it comes down to is love. How can anything bad come out of love? The bad stuff comes out of mistrust, misunderstanding, and from hate and ignorance. Thank God GLAAD works to fight this!” But as Vincent Doyle, a Canadian assistant professor of media and cultural studies at IE University in Spain, contends in his new book Making Out in the Mainstream, this moment may have been the tipping point between GLAAD’s old activist political strategy and its new market-oriented public relations approach.

Based on 18 months of field research including participant observation, in-depth interviews, and archival analysis carried out at GLAAD’s New York and Los Angeles offices from 2000-01, Doyle’s work is as much a history of GLAAD as a study of its LGBT media activism, including a profile of its awards

I

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ceremony and organizational responses to controversial public figures such as Dr. Laura Schlessinger and Eminem. GLAAD was formed in New York City in 1985 to respond to negative AIDS reporting and incendiary attacks on gay men written by the New York Post. Beginning as a militant grassroots organization with direct-action demonstrations against homophobia, within two years GLAAD was shifting its approach to insider strategies to gain access to media companies so it could be transformed into a national media-advocacy lobbying group, complete with a corporate-trained executive board and director. Doyle features extensive interviews with lesbian Joan Garry, who was executive director during the pivotal years of 1997-2005, when this shift in principles occurred, as well as a vast budget expansion reflecting its popular success.

Doyle argues that “earlier coming out strategies – the dismantling of the closet, the right to sexual privacy – were largely supplanted by the politics of making out: promoting representations of gay and lesbian people compatible with a social order that defines good citizenship in terms of self-betterment through consumption, middle-class respectability, professionalism, and entrepreneurialism.” In short, rather than dismantling oppressive structures, closer relationships are formed with dominant corporate entities by deploying a cultural politics of respectability, promoting the idea that LGBTQ people feel the same about “life, God, and country” as heterosexual Americans.

GLAAD gladly entered the world of big-money politics, publicity consultants and litigators, complete with splashy awards and celebrity endorsements, all promoting the new homonormativity, meaning dominant hetero assumptions and institutions are upheld. As for GLAAD’s mission, this meant “representations that would not offend white, middle-class, conventionally gendered, mainstream norms of respectable behavior.”

As Doyle notes, critics question whether such sanitized positive images promote real social change, and might actually promote new kinds of exclusions, as radical elements were pushed aside. This is why the Queer as Folk cable series, with its gay promiscuous sex and recreational drug use, created an identity crisis for GLAAD. Relying on corporate funding led to the 2011 scandal where GLAAD lobbied the FCC on behalf of AT&T, one of its financial backers, severely questioning its credibility as an independent critical tool.

With the huge advancements in LGBTQ civil rights secured since 2001, many have questioned whether GLAAD should dissolve, a victim of its own success. Doyle rejects this view but does repeat the queer critique of the politics of respectability, that such gains come at the cost of reinforcing exclusions on the basis of race, class, gender, and sexual norms. Doyle says we need to be more critical of mainstreaming.

Mainstream integration is needed, but so is challenging the heteronormative status quo by allowing possibilities for self-definition.

Curious Flights

From page 17

Last Saturday, Curious Flights’ second concert of the season continued its “Transatlantic Crossings” initiative, an ongoing mission from the start, with a bill presenting composers from both sides of the pond.

The first half tested the acoustics of the concert hall of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a few pieces utilizing elements of electronica, intended for listening rather than dancing.

Ironically, the opening fanfare for eight trumpets, the U.S. premiere of Crystal by specially featured English composer Simon Dobson, proved ear-splitting without amplification or samples. As a call to attention, it was brief and blazing, but the hall couldn’t comfortably hold it.

Dobson meant to evoke “the visual aesthetics of crystal,” but the performers only shattered glass.

Dobson’s next work fared better.

A Modulation on Plymouth Sound (Curious Flights World Premiere Commission) was performed by Brenden Guy, clarinet & electronics.

The electronics create the sounds of the body of water, and the clarinet joins to temper them to a human understanding. It is beautiful, even when the sound effects threaten to overwhelm the instrumentalist.

Maybe that is part of the point.

Tension Study No. 1 by Samuel Adams followed, and five years after composition it shows the promising roots of the young composer. He downplays his heredity (son of John

Adams, the most-performed living composer), but he is obviously uniquely talented. It is typical of the composer’s evolving style: probing and abstract. The musicians of Living Earth Show – Travis Andrews, electric guitar; and Andy Meyerson, vibraphone – made the original commission, and they performed it admirably.

Best-known on the program and probably throughout the new music scene, composer Mason Bates was up next with Red River from 2007.

It was a welcome opportunity to hear his chamber music. We are

/lgbtsf

more accustomed to the big electroacoustic works for orchestra. All of the composer’s stylistic signposts are easily apparent. Electronica, as usual, is subtle almost to the point of needlessness, but it adds bite to Bates’ familiar hesitations and rhythms. Smart and ambitious, Red River also sounds suitably American. If we have to refer to program notes to follow his detailed narrative, Bates still supplies an experience that allows us to imagine our own.

The second half spotlighted two more Curious Flights commissions – Metanoia by Robert Chastain, and The Wireless by Noah Luna – and another U.S. premiere by Simon Dobson, Another World’s Hell. The Wireless was the least impressive. It was puzzling to understand the inspiration; odd to find someone nostalgic for a time he could only know from his elders.

Evoking the spirit of radio days, the music is a pleasant pastiche but not much more.

Chastain’s Metanoia may be

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While geared towards an academic audience, especially in the jargon-laden opening and closing chapters, Doyle’s case studies giving him access to the inner workings of GLAAD are quite readable, even compelling in places. Doyle also updates, with very recent interviews with Sarah Ellis, the new executive director, the now-dated

2000-01 material, the core of the book. By using GLAAD as an example of the need for “non-dominant sexual and gender iconoclasts living in a hyper-mediated, hyperconsumerist world to think for ourselves and form alliances with others,” Doyle has already delivered one of the most thought-provoking books of 2016.t

referring to a change of mind or a psychotic break, and he used the big San Francisco Wind Ensemble to make his statement to powerful effect. The work is darkly sonorous and unexpected. The composer managed to say a lot in a short time.

The night ended with a bang as Dobson’s imagining of the dystopian cabaret in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World filled the room with woozy saxophones and cartoonish melodies that recalled composers ranging from Bernstein to Stravinsky. It is a big, lush piece, aching for a performance at the British Proms.

Liquid Interface and The B-Sides, commissioned by the SFS. All three have been performed in Davies Symphony Hall, and the Orchestra’s in-house recording label, SFS Media, has now assembled them into a gorgeously recorded Super Audio CD. The old guard and curious young’uns have both embraced Bates, dazzled by the sight of his MacBook and drum pad onstage.

Everyone is intrigued by his sampling, even if using sound effects in acoustic works is hardly new. His music is still ambitious, tunefully appealing, and above all, accessible.

If Bates seldom makes a strong emotional or intellectual impact, he can still be considered an innovator. His introduction of electronica to the concert hall, which he calls a “new section” of the orchestra, “the world’s greatest synthesizer,” is important and subtly effective. All works on the new disc are musically satisfying, but I wouldn’t suggest a first listening in sequence. Bates’ intentions are a little pretentious at times, and the individual scores do not always supply corresponding gravitas.

Despite the programmatic narrative, some of the best music on the disc can be heard in the brief, simple, and wittily crafted sections of The B-Sides. Delightful pop references can veer close to film music, but who’s complaining?

Shimmering textures and strong rhythmic impulses thrill the ear and transport the imagination for a joyful ride. Liquid Interface actually works better than it did in DSH. Field recordings (breaking of ice chunks in “Glaciers Calving”) sound bigger. Alternative Energy also benefits from the superb audio engineering.

The first major commercial release of orchestral works by Mason Bates is a high-spirited introduction to a brave new world of electroacoustic music. The digital revolution isn’t so frightening after all, and resistance is futile anyway.t

Mason Bates: Works for Orchestra; San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, music director and conductor; Mason Bates, electronica. Recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall, Jan. & Sept. 2014 (SFS Media Stereo Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc) When Michael Tilson Thomas decides to bet on talent, he goes all in. Luckily, with Mason Bates, a composer with a skyrocketing career, he hit the trifecta. For over a decade MTT has championed him with an advocacy that benefits all. Bates embodies the very demographic symphony marketers long for: young, hip and techno-savvy. He has even enjoyed success as a club/ lounge DJ. The video of his collaboration with MTT and the London Symphony Orchestra performing Mothership (with improvisers from the YouTube Symphony) uploaded in 2010 and has over three-quarters of a million views.

As the second-most performed living composer in the United States, he has been composer-inresidence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was named the first composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts through the 2017-18 season. Major electro-acoustic commissions include Alternative Energy,

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Dance>>

Trajal Harrell

From page 17

In Berkeley, Cal Performances presented the hot New York choreographer Trajal Harrell. He’s 39, African-American, queer, from Georgia, a student of bell hooks at Yale, theoretically adept at the 33rd degree, and creates Tanztheater in the voguing idiom. At his show in Zellerbach Playhouse The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai – which was nearly sold out several weeks before it opened, so hot was the press – they finally got down to voguing after about 30 minutes of prolegomenon. First Harrell rose to speak.

“I am Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue,” he said in tones that could not have been bettered by Peggy l’Eggs, and read Congress for not funding the arts. Well, needless to say, we loved that.

Soon a willowy – and I have never in my life seen so willowy – white guy took the microphone and admitted, “I am Trajal Harrell.” He began answering the puerile questions asked by the emcee-with-theFrench-accent as they perched on a table that looked like it had been borrowed from Project Runway.

There was adorable byplay as each tried to find a cushion somewhere to sit their bony bootrays down while the emcee asked “Trajal” mind-crushingly banal questions

March 24-30, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

about what we were about to see, The Ghost of Montpelier and the Samurai, which “Trajal” said was unfortunately not ready to present, and so they would do another piece, Cannes Amour. Et cetera.

What is impressive about Harrell is his insistence on the freedom of the artist to lie. He gets it: they use their imaginations, they tell the truth about the truth. That is what they do. This links him to the Renaissance neo-Platonists, who claimed that “the truest poetry is most feigning” – i.e., “all artists lie in order to show you the truth.” Plato complained of it; the neo-Platonists approved of it. Oscar Wilde went further and said the best poets steal from the dead.

I think this is what Harrell is up to, but his show was so maddeningly provoking, I’d have to see more. Once the dancing began, the voguing and the costumes they were “walking” looked wonderful.

Stephen Thompson stopped his zig-zagging traverse and cut a number of terrifying balances, technically astounding changes of balance, which he could always sustain, while the five other dancers pranced like fillies, high on the balls of their feet, modeling a collection of surprisingly good-looking clothes, since they’d made them all themselves.

Monsieur Lac would look good in anything, but he looked especially beautiful in a black thong variously

Erik Tomasson

San Francisco Ballet dancers in Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering.

revealed by floating crepe draperies.

He was especially fine as the boy in a man-boy duet with Socrates – or perhaps it was Telemachus/Mentor – that came at the end of the show and seemed to be what we’d been made to wait for. The older man, straight out of Aristotle’s Nicomachaean Ethics, who had a white beard and hair and “kept” his face as if he were wearing a mask, was danced by Ondrej Vidlár, who had a soft power in the thigh, and instep

and voluptuous rotation at the elbow. They were joined by the “real” Harrell, who was draped in a purple toga.

The impostures were often hamhanded, the “put-your-hands-together” bullying of the audience in particular. There were times I found myself thinking, “Trisha Brown was truly witty. This is not.” And yet, I was glad Cal Performances had brought them. Harrell is a new country heard from, he has a

remarkable mind, and though I did not like this, I want to see him again.

ODC/SF opened their winter season downtown, dancing, according to my spies, gloriously. Certainly the glamorous women pictured in their ads look just the way women want to look right now, and I can’t wait to see them, but I have not gotten there yet.

Midweek SF Ballet opened a mixed bill at the Opera House with a splashy novelty, Yuri Possokhov’s Swimmer, that saved the day after a weak performance of Jerome Robbins’ neo-classic Dances at a Gathering where the women simply did not “bring it” to us. Despite the defiant cheers I heard all around me, they sounded like fans of Nureyev’s used to, applauding themselves.

Curious thing: Michael Smuin’s work was sincere and tasteless in much the same way as Possokhov’s Swimmer. Song for a Dead Warrior was no less sincere, no less astute a commentary on the way we live now, and similarly over-the-top; and similarly, San Francisco loved it. He was a better artist than history allows. Possokhov is a truly imaginative man; my taste does not always coincide with his, but no choreographer bats higher than 300. I do not love Swimmer, but most everybody else does. I see it has been nominated for an Izzie Award. Monday night (which as of this filing has not come yet) will tell us if he won.t

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32

34

On the Town

39

On the Tab

www.ebar.com V www.bartabsf.com

Shooting Stars Vol. 46 • No. 12 • March 24-30, 2016

by Jim Gladstone

“M

y mom took me to see Annie at the Curran Theater when I was eight years old,” remembers Lesli Margherita, the Fremont-born Broadway breakout who’s back on native turf with her new cabaret act, Broad, at Feinstein’s at the Nikko this weekend.

See page 30 >>

Lesli Margherita in her cabaret show, Broad.

by Michael Flanagan

W

hen does gossip become history? Richard “Sweet Lips” Walters wrote a column in the Bay Area Reporter from April 1, 1971 till June 24, 2010, first called “Sweet lips Sez” and eventually shortened to “Sweet Lips.” The column included what you would expect from a gossip column such as blind items, innuendo and witty comments. But somewhere along the way it became much more than that.

In the past half year I’ve found myself referring to the column a few times, once to find out exactly when the Overpass became Marlena’s and another time to find out when the New Bell Saloon moved into the *P.S. on Polk Street. Along with the gossip and chit chat, Lips documented the history of gay bar culture and so much more during his four decades in print.

See page 31 >>

Sweet Lips at her Tzarina crowning in 1973, official title Czarina de Turk and Portland and Empress of Puerto Vallarta.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS } Photo: RJ MUNA

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Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

30 • Bay Area Reporter • March 24-30, 2016

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<<

Lesli Margherita

From page 29

“I’d been taking dance classes,”she recalls, “but I had never sung in my life. I was fearless though. I wanted to be up there immediately!”

“That was it!” says the youngest of four sisters who remembers “always playing the clown at home, always bugging them, trying to make them laugh. They were already in college when I was little and I wanted them to notice me.”

More than 20 years later, Margherita’s acclaimed Broadway debut –as Mrs. Wormwood in 2013’s multiple Tony-winner, Matilda– provided an ideal vehicle for her unusual combination of strengths in comedy and choreography.

As it turned out, eight-year-old Margherita had both a solid singing voice and parents willing to support her enthusiasms. In short order, she was winning roles in Bay Area community theater and professional productions.

In high school, she spent summers singing and dancing in revues at Great America in Santa Clara, a gig that paved her way to a part-time job performing at Disneyland while studying at UCLA. One of the requirements of the well-regarded UCLA theater program is that students are not allowed to take on professional acting jobs Top: Lesli Margherita in Matilda. while enrolled in the depart- Bottom: Lesli Margherita ment.

Margherita, already energin her circuitous path to a longgized by a steady diet of limelight, dreamed-of Broadway debut. took a pass, opting to major in “I won the role because people dance and eventually switched to were making assumptions about my pre-law to acquire some safety net ethnicity. A lot of the cast’s first lanskills. guage was Spanish, and half of the But a net was hardly necessary. lyrics to my songs were too. I had to Margherita took a year-long break learn everything phonetically. Evenfrom college after being cast for a tually, after it was clear I was doing national tour of A Chorus Line. And well, I came clean and told everyone almost immediately after graduation, ‘Hey, I’m margherita the pizza, not she won a plum part in Fame LA, a the cocktail!”

1997-1998 syndicated television rePicked up by British underwritboot of the hit film and earlier series. ers, Zorro! the Musical toured the For close to a decade after Fame, UK for six months of working out Margherita carved out a steady career the kinks before opening on the in regional theater and a solid array West End in 2008. of small film and television roles, in “The most flamboyant display everything from Chicago Hope and of personality comes from Lesli The King of Queens to horror feature Margherita, who flashes her eyes Boogeyman 2 to voiceover singing in and other parts of her anatomy animated children’s videos. with the gayest of abandon” wrote In the midst of her journeyman one of many fawning critics, whose film efforts, Margherita was apeyes seemed to go as wide as Little proached to participate in workOrphan Annie’s when they took in shops for a flamenco-driven, her performance. A less salacious tongue-in-cheek Zorro stage musireviewer wrote, simply, “Leslie Marcal with music by the Gipsy Kings. gherita steals the show.”

“Nobody really thinks of Los Angeles as a theater town,” Margherita Brits & Broadway notes, “But the producers wanted The show may have been stolen, to work on it here because they but the success was hard-earned, thought they would find great Laand Margherita won a 2009 Olivier tino talent.” award for Best Supporting Actress Thus, in a tale that combines two in a Musical. classic Hollywood tropes—superWhile working on Zorro ficiality and happy endings—Lesli throughout the UK and in London, Margherita came to play Inez, the Margherita developed close friendgypsy queen, a role that would beships with lots of folks in the Brit-

t

ish theater scene who were simultaneously delighted and appalled by her unvarnished forthrightness.

“The joke over in London when I was going out with my castmates was that I was so very American, no reserve at all, just an out-there personality.

Not veddy British!”

In 2010, after Margherita had returned to California and was drawing strong reviews for leads in Man of LaMancha and Kiss Me Kate, one of her British pals called, excited about Matilda, a new musical based on the Roald Dahl children’s book, then playing at the Royal Shakespeare company.

“There’s a part,” the friend told her, “That’s just perfect for you!”

Mrs. Wormwood, the neglectful mother of the titular character, is a low-class, high-brass, coarsemouthed comic gem.

“She’s all about sparkles and hair and bigger is better,” says Margherita. “And she has a really big dance number. There aren’t a lot of roles where you get to be funny and do serious dancing.”

Margherita had her agent begin to put out feelers long before a New York transfer was even announced.

Ultimately, the American actress who first found real stardom on the West End soon found herself playing a beastly Brit on Broadway, winning cheers for a crowd-pleasing feature number with lyrics altogether befitting the one-time baby sister.

You’ve gotta be loud, loud, LOUD! You’ve gotta give yourself permission to shine, To stand out from the crowd, crowd, crowd!

All that brass and sass, with a touch more class, is on display in Broad, Margherita’s tribute to some of the unconventional female performers with whom she feels a kinship.

“I love Mae West. Sophie Tucker.

Eartha Kitt. Chita Rivera, Bette Midler, of course. All of these strong women who did songs that were funny and, for their time, raunchy.”

Margherita has an impish sense of impropriety herself, not to mention a passing resemblance to Sarah Silverman, playfully displayed in a behind-the-scenes video blog she made for Broadway.com as Matilda prepared for its opening (Search “Looks not Books” on YouTube).

The reach of YouTube, combined with the fact that Matilda had a built-in audience of tweens and teens who had grown up with the Dahl book, has led to Margherita’s having a huge comment-crazed adolescent fan base on social media.

“I love them,” she says. “I mean, I was a huge theater geek when I was a kid. I would have killed to be able to tweet Chita Rivera. I try to reply to them when they say something notable, and I will always try to at least ‘like’ or ‘favorite’ their posts.”

But Margherita also has some strong opinions to share with the Glee generation.

“There is nothing more disheartening for a performer than looking out into the audience and seeing phones held up in front of people’s faces. It really keeps them from being there in the moment and creating that feedback loop between the stage and the audience that gives live theater so much of its specialness.”t Lesli Margherita performs Broad at Feinstein’s at the Nikko. $40-$60.

March 25, 8pm. March 26, 7pmHotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. leslimargherita.com www.ticketweb.com

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

March 24-30, 2016 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

you serve as these decoys do on to take down – and the look old enough. If you have money would go to charity. the slightest doubt, please These “hangings” becard them as not only the bar came protracted bacchabut the server gets a stiff fine.” nals that would go over a As a bartender, he would weekend’s time. Walters help gay runaways with odd wrote in 1989, “This weekjobs like sweeping the street end, April 1 and 2, brings in front of his bar. about the twentieth hangCoy Meza, who eventuing of Sweet Lips and of ally became Walters’ carecourse it probably won’t giver and ghost writer in the take again. The madness last years of his life, met Lips starts at the Kokpit…with when he was a fifteen-yeara luxury bus taking you old runaway in San Francisco to many interesting places in the 1970s and benefited around town...the tour from his big heart. leaves at 10 am and makes Meza recounted hearing all, yes all, the following from Lips how he and José water holes: the Gangway, Sarria would dress in drag the Polk Gulch Saloon, the and bang pots together in New Bell Saloon and then front of bars to raise money on to Kimo’s penthouse for the mental health orgafor a sumptuous buffet nization that eventually beprepared by Marlena and came New Leaf (often with staff…and onto the White bar owners giving them Swallow, then to the popumoney just to get them to lar Yacht Club. If you are move). still with us it’s on to GilmSarria also got Lips inore’s…then on to the Gate volved in the Tavern Guild bar, then the Hob Nob… early on, and his columns and finally back to the trace that history too. About Kokpit.” this aspect of his life Meza Sweet Lips at her Tzarina crowning, flanked by Sweet Camp said, “Lips was a bell ringer Empress Mame of Portland Lips did not approach and activist hidden under a The Second Hanging of Sweet Lips, promoted drag seriously – it was a gossip columnist.” in the March 15, 1972 Bay Area Reporter about how he became that bell ringtruly camp undertaking for er. Meza told me that age 19 he was Hanging Lips him. He once rode into Polk Gulch kicked out of the Navy for being gay That persona served the commuon the back of a motorcycle in full 1991 he warned “Attention: I have Sweet Lips shortly before Pearl Harbor. He told nity well when Lips began writing drag. Meza told me that the blunt just been notified by Dick Pearson

From page 29 Meza that he returned to San Franabout charity for the KS Foundation and vulgar humor was part of his of the Cinch Bar that the police cisco on a ship with many of the (before it became the AIDS foundabartending routine as well. Lips figdepartment and the ABC are usIt is really no surprise that he men he had served with, except that tion) early in 1983. ured if you could take an insult and ing underage decoys to purchase could so accurately document the they were in body bags.

Lips’ personal history tells much give one back that you’d be able to liquor, so do be very careful who community. He worked at a dizzyOccasionally the gossip columstand up to the police if they showed ing number of bars in his time in nist and activist both presented up in a bar.

San Francisco. themselves at once. In a column All the while Lips was promot“Yes, I am still doing my two-hour entitled “Gilmore’s Goes Straight” ing the community. In 1974 he put shifts on Saturday and Sunday at the (August 23, 1993) he reports: together a hand-drawn map with Yacht Club and no I don’t think I’m “By now you all know that Gilthe bars and baths on it which he overworked,” he wrote in May, 1989. more’s new owner has fired all of distributed for free. In a Aug. 1974 Bars he worked at included Sally the help – except I quit first – and he advertised it, “Flash..Flash…you Stanford’s Valhalla (in the ‘50s), the also has thrown out all of the gay can now obtain the famous Sweet Paper Doll (later in the ‘50s), the periodicals as it is no longer a gay Lips map of San Francisco at the Opera Club (in the ‘60s), the Kokestablishment. It is a shame as it was Kokpit and the Gangway…so if you pit, Ginger’s Too, Kimo’s, Googie’s, a wonderfully mixed bar for 15 years want a copy, do drop by and ask for Gilmore’s, the Rendezvous, the Hob and everyone got along so well – but one…remember, it’s FREE.” Nob, Susie Q, the Gangway and times do change.”

Late in Lips’ life, Meza became his Ginger’s Trois.

Whether because of Lips’ wrath caregiver and would push him in his Working at gay bars in the ‘50s or poor business sense, Gilmore’s wheelchair around to clubs to get and ‘60s and with characters like closed and became the Hyde Out the dish. They developed “Lips’ club Stanford gave Lips a strong social within a year. of spies” to tell them what the dirt conscience which he displayed both It would be a mistake to think was around town. Meza would read in his personal life and his column. that Lips was a bleeding heart that him what he wrote to see if he apHe would often drop warnings into occasionally donned a dress, howevproved. The collaboration worked his work. er. A large part of his draw was that well. Meza remembers receiving a “Remember to stay out of the he was so much fun. letter from an eighty-year-old from Golden Gate Park restrooms as they He told Vector in 1973 that when Florida telling Lips, “Glad you’re Paul Bentley and Sweet Lips arriving outside the Kokpit for one of are being carefully watched,” he he worked for Bill Plath at the Opwriting gay again.”

Sweet Lips’ Hangings. wrote in Feb. 1983. And in March, era Club, “He just couldn’t bring (Read Sweet Lips’ farewell colhimself to call me ‘acid umn in the B.A.R. here: http://www. lips’ so he gave me the ebar.com/artscolumns/artcolumn. name ‘Sweet Lips.’” php?sec=sweetlips&id=113) And the name and Historians could do much worse the reputation that than to look at these columns which came with those lips trace the openings and closings resulted in annual of bars, the concerns of the LGBT “hangings” of Sweet community and the lives of people Lips – actually the both known and unknown. Lips’ hanging of a paintcolumns speak to us even today in ing of Lips (that looks our post-gay world and reminds disturbingly like Bette us (from 1978), “As Jose would say, Davis as Baby Jane ‘United we stand; divided they’ll Hudson) which paget us one by one.’ Remember this trons would then bid all.”t

<<

Sweet Lips’ ‘70s gay bar map.

Richard “Sweet Lips” Walters visited by Rep. Mark Leno on his 80th birthday party at The Cinch.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • Bay Area Reporter • March 24-30, 2016

Bon Temps, tout!

t

by Donna Sachet

this second half was mind-blowing, Executive Chef Kelly MacDonald the opportunity to emcee often creating unimaginable juxtapaired with Napa Valley wines, carethe 10th anniversary celhe spirit of New positions of wonderful live perforfully selected and explained to us by ebration of the Castro/ Orleans Mardi Gras mances with tightly orchestrated local vintners.

Upper Market Commuis alive and well in San video devices. We left with smiles of As famed Napa wineries and lush nity Business District at Francisco, as long as we appreciation. green scenery passed by the winthe old Patio location on have Krewe de Kinque, dows, we soaked up the ambiance of Castro Street. the local club that lives luxurious train travel, evenWe must say by the motto “Laissez tually taking a quick tour of that the building les bon temps rouler!” or the other cars, including the looks incredible “Let the good times roll!” kitchen with observation with soaring sky This year’s annual windows. Returning to the lights, brand new Bal Masque XIII: Saints Napa depot, Daft-nee and banquettes, and & Sinners was held at her dancers greeted us with inviting multiple Beatbox, featuring colora lively show and dancing seating levels, desful Mardi Gras décor, a into the night. tined to return Cajun buffet, silent aucFortunately for us, Osto iconic status. tion and raffle, entercar Enriquez was on Elected officials tainment galore, and this hand to safely and soberly were well reprecolumnist as emcee. The drive us back to the City. sented with State event benefited Jazzie’s This was the sixth annual Senator Mark Place, the new LGBT LGBT event for the Napa Leno, City Superhomeless shelter.

Valley Wine Train and it visor Scott WieDJ Tweaka Turner now comes with our most ner, City Treasurer kept the crowd pumped hearty recommendation.

Jose Cisneros, up and headlining enDon’t miss the next one!

Catherine Arbotertainer Ethel Merman na from California was honored with the Upcoming Events Assembly member Celebrity Grand MarThis Saturday, we’ll be David Chiu’s ofGareth Gooch shal designation. Other popping into Martuni’s fice, Rafael Manstand-out entertainers Newly crowded King XIII Sergio Fedasz and Queen around 7PM for a new show delman, and Alex included Kitty Tapata, XIII China Silk at Krewe de Kinque’s Bal Masque XIII Randolph all on by the enormously talented Deana Dawn, Lady Cuki at Beatbox.

Jason Brock, showcasing hand.

Couture, Ehra Amaya, television theme songs.

Various Castro Kippy Marks, Diana After that, we plan to head restaurants proing their crowns to King XIII Sergio Wheeler, Nicole Monsoon, Garza, to Diva’s in the Tenderloin vided bite-sized tastes, Les Fedasz & Queen XIII China Silk, as John Weber, and Grand Duke Aja for the last shift of VictoNatali offered complimentathe entire membership assembled Monet-Ashton & Grand Duchess ria Secret before she retires ry wine, and Coffee Weavers, on stage for a closing tableaux.

Olivia Hart. from the nightly grind.

Laser Away, and Fitness SF Krewe de Kinque is out there Handsome and coopAnd you know what Sunpresented raffle prizes. Proall year long hosting erative gogo dancers day is; Easter Sunday and ceeds from raffle tickets and events, including benrounded out the eye time to celebrate with the a quick live auction benefited efits at The Edge in the candy. Glimpsed enSisters of Perpetual IndulCastro Cares, a program of Castro every third Satjoying the festivities gence at Hellman Hollow the CBD providing addiurday of the month from were Kevin Lisle, CoCo in Golden Gate Park. At tional law enforcement and 4-7PM. If Mardi Gras Butter, Barry Miles, Erin 11AM, the emphasis is on homeless outreach services Both photos: Patrick Gallineaux puts a smile on your Lavery, Cory Vaughan, children with an old-fashin the neighborhood. face, keep an eye out Jon Paul, Sebastian WilExecutive Director of the Top: Donna Sachet, Patrick Gallineaux and Skye ioned Easter egg hunt. After for their next fun-filled son, James Holloway, that, it is the bonnet conCBD, Andrea Aiello, shared Paterson aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train. party!

Phil Ruth, and Joseph some fascinating details Left: Sister Roma, Donna Sachet and Simon Pal- test, the Hunky Jesus and Although we rarely commit to Nunez.

Foxy Mary competitions, about the work of the orga- czynski along the Napa Valley Wine Train Tour. a Sunday afternoon event, usually As the finale of the evening, King and non-stop entertainnization, presented a special exhausted after two shows at The XII Gio Adame & Queen XII Cotment! Always a good time. award of recognition to Alan Starlight Room, we could not resist ton Candy ended their reign, passWine Train The following Sunday, April 3, Beach-Nelson for his support, and Last Saturday’s Napa Valley Gay we attend the Investiture of our introduced handsome Ryan HudWine Train was a refreshingly differrecently elected Cheerful Unicorn son, representing the event’s title ent experience! We met an excited Emperor of the 4th Wave Salvador sponsor, The Apothecarium. group of about a hundred attendTovar & Powerfully Appealing SilAlso attending were Police Capver Throated Empress of Change ees at the depot in Napa, greeted by tain Daniel Perea, China Silk, LeEmma Peel at Oasis from 4-7PM. lovely hostess Daft-nee Gesuntheit, andro Gonzales, J.R. Fisher, Jeff We expect some of the prescribed two adorable dancing boys, and Doney & Xavier Caylor, Natalie formality, but lots of fun and frivolCheryl Stotler, official Wine DirecMattei, Ken Hamai & Jack Henity as well. These two are already off tor and Retail Buyer. yon, Mark McHale, Gary Virginto a great start, representing the ImAmong the crowd were Sister ia, and Deana Dawn. All in all, a perial Court here and as far away as Roma, Benjamin Eye & James great afternoon out of the rain with New York City a couple of weekends Smith, Carl Hack & Jeff Mauk, friends from our Castro neighborago.

Don Berger, Kirsten Kruse, Amy hood.

Mark your calendars now for the Meyers & Lou Fischer, Co-Chair The Castro Farmers’ Market is Bay Area Reporter’s 45th Anniversaof the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Demoonce again open for business at ry Party and Bestie Awards party at cratic Club, and Ken Henderson & the intersection of Market, Noe, Oasis on Thursday, April 7, 6-9PM. Joe Seiler of the Richmond/Ermet and 15th Streets every Wednesday More than 3,000 readers enthuAid Foundation which benefited from 4-7PM. We joined Steve Adsiastically voted on their favorites from this event. ams, Anna Damiani, Jose Cisneros, in community, arts, and nightlife.

Accompanied by Patrik GalDaniel Bergerac, and others for the Who will be a winner? Who will lineaux and Skye Paterson, we official ribbon-cutting last week. be bitter? Just kidding! Plan to then boarded one of the train’s It looked like business was already join us for this annual party and beautifully restored Pullman cars brisk, as neighbors chatted amicelebration.t for a relaxed six-course dinner from ably and anxiously enriched their healthy eating habits.

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At the Ballet

At the specific request of friends Billy Repp & Tom Taffel, we spent last Thursday night at the San Francisco Ballet with Erika Atkinson, once again reminded of the world class dance performances so readily available here in the City! The first half of the evening was Dances at a Gathering, all glorious Frederic Chopin piano music, masterfully played by Roy Bogas, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, and danced with artful skill and splendid whimsy by members of the SF Ballet. It was breathtaking.

The second half was Swimmer, an amazing blend of videos on a scrim, minimal set pieces, intense modern music, and unpredictable dance sets, all reflecting water themes, choreographed by Yuri Possokhov.

If the first half was breathtaking,

Gareth Gooch

Recently elected Cheerful Unicorn Emperor of the 4th Wave Salvador Tovar and Powerfully Appealing Silver Throated Empress of Change Emma Peel will celebrate their Investiture at Oasis on April 3.

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Celebrate the Bay Area Reporter’s historic 45th Anniversary with us!

2016 Besties party at Oasis Thursday, April 7 from 6pm to 9pm.

With guest-host Shawn Ryan The singer-actor-director stops into town before his Great American Music Hall show with Andrea Marcovicci on April 9.

PERFORMANCES BY: Connie Champagne – elegant Judy Garland tribute Veronica Klaus – popular local chanteuse Kingdom! – drag king hip hop ensemble Hosted bar drink specials 6pm-7pm • Oasis SF, 298 11th Street at Folsom

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<< On the Tab

34 • Bay Area Reporter • March 24-30, 2016

On the Tab

Rachelle Ferrell @ Yoshi’s Dynamic pop and R&B vocalist (and former back-up singer) performs three nights of concerts. $36. 8pm & 10pm.

Mar. 26: 7:30pm & 9:30pm. Mar. 27: 7pm & 9pm. 510 Embarcadero west, Oakland. (510) 238-9200. www. yoshis.com rachelleferrell.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall

March 24-31

Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Fri 25

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Music night with local and touring bands.. 24: Dance Party Boys with Flexx Bronco and The Perishables. $8. 9:30pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Trixie Mattel @ Oasis The drag performer’s Make-Over Party includes a show and meet & greet. No cover. 10pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

M

arch came in and it’s going out. Have you lived it up, lived it out, lived?

We want to live, and enjoy life with you. So many bands are performing this week, it’s a feast of acoustic, rock, punk and queercore fun.

Thu 24 Ongina hosts Lip Sync Battle @ Lookout

Thu 24

After Dark @ Exploratorium Adult parties at the interactive science museum. Cocktail cash bar. $10-$15.

6pm-10pm. Pier 15 at Embarcadero. www.exploratorium.edu

Bulge @ Powerhouse

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

Ongina hosts the new monthly event, with viewing of the Spike TV show (10pm) and live competition afterward; 4 acts per night; bring your own music (phone, USB, CD). 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show.

DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Lesli Margherita @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The award-winning Bay Area-born hilarious musical theatre singer performs her one-woman show, Broad. $40-$60. 8pm. Also Mar. 6, 7pm.

Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.leslimargherita.com www.ticketweb.com

Themed event nights at the fascinating nature museum, with DJed dancing, cocktails, fish, frogs, food and fun. $10-$12. 6pm-10pm, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Shenanigans @ Oasis Queer monthly performance and dance night, this time with a “Forbidden Island” theme; dress up, watch, and participate. $7. 10pm2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. liveshameless.com www.sfoasis.com

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

Manimal @ Beaux com Gogo-tastic dance night starts off

Fri 25

Friday Nights @ Oakland Museum

Purim Party @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Night at the Jewseum celebrates the holiday, with the ska band Monkey, 90s DJed tunes, cocktails from monarch, noshes from Anda Piroshki, funny hats and more. $donations/free for members. 6pm9pm. 736 Mission St. www.thecjm.org

Rafael Alencar @ Nob Hill Theatre

The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux. March 25, Death

by Femme: femme fatales, evil queens and siran and villains; cocktails and DJ Rosegold; hosted by Magnolia Black. $10. 7pm-10pm. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. Mar. 25 features Donna Personna and many more. 8pm10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Yuck @ Great American Music Hall

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

Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire

Sat 26

Midnight Show @ Divas

The super-hung Brazilian porn stud shares his very interactive solo strip shows. $25. 8pm & 10pm. Also Mar. 26. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Fri 25

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre

Lip Sync Battle @ Lookout

They Might Be Giants @ UC Theatre, Berkeley

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. 10pm-2am.

133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Grace Towers hosts the fun sexy night. $100 cash prize for best bulge. $5$10 benefits Groundswell Institute, the queer retreat camp. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Super-hung porn stud Rafael Alencar rouses the horndogs at the interactive downstairs event, before his stage shows March 25 & 26 ($25). $10. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. thenobhilltheatre.com

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your weekend. $5. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Some Thing @ The Stud Mica Sigourney and pals’ weekly offbeat drag performance night. $7.

10pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

They Might Be Giants @ UC Theatre, Berkeley The popular clever two-time Grammywinning pop band performs. $30. 8pm.

2036 University Ave., UC Berkeley campus. www.theymightbegiants.com

The family-friendly night events returns, with exhibit tours, dancing, food, drinks, and live music. $7-$15.

5pm-9pm. 1000 Oak St. www.museumca.org

Gogo Fridays @ Toad Hall

Hot dancers grind it on the bar at the Castro bar, with a dance floor and patio. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

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

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

Ladies of San Francisco @ Club OMG Galilea hosts the weekly “old school drag show” with guest performers and DJ Jack Rojo. $4. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubOMGsf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland

Thu 24 Rachelle Ferrell @ Yoshi’s

Enjoy Latin, hip hop and electro, plus hot gogos galore, and a big dance floor. March 18: Valentino’s Electro Birthday Bash, with hot gogo guys & gals, Lulu Ramirez and Jacqueline La Gata, and DJ Carlitos. $10-$20.

9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Thu 24 Trixie Mattel @ Oasis

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On the Tab>>

March 24-30, 2016 • Bay Area Reporter • 35

Soul Delicious @ Lookout

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Marques Daniels

Brunch, booze, sass and grooves, with the Mom DJs, Motown sounds, and soul food.

11am-4pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Sat 26 Industry @ Beatbox

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

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

Whiskies of the World @ SF Belle Hornblower Yacht Taste the finest whiskeys at a VIP reception; partial proceeds benefit Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, aboard a luxury (docked!) yacht. $130 and up. 6pm-9pm. Pier 3 at Embarcadero. www.whiskiesoftheworld.com

Sat 26

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

Boy Division @ Codeword The monthly (4th Sat.) gay New Wave dance night celebrates the ‘80s grooves and new electro mixed in by DJs Zander, Andy T, Six and Panic. $5$8. 9:30-3am. 917 Folsom St. www.codeword-sf.com

Club Rimshot @ Club BNB, Oakland The weekly hip hop and R&B night. 8-$15. 9pm to 4am. 2120 Broadway. (510) 759-7340. www.club-bnb.com

Industry @ Beatbox Joe Gauthreaux and Jamie J Sanchez DJ Gus Presents’ popular dance night, now at the SoMa club. $20. 10pm3am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com www.industrysf.com

Jallen Rix @ Oasis The sex educator and performer brings his sex-positive solo show, Stake in the Ground, to the popular nightclub/ cabaret. $30. 7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.doctorrix.com www.sfoasis.com

Yuck, Vaadat Charigim, Big Thief @ Great American Music Hall Jason Brock’s TV Theme Song Show @ Martuni’s Enjoy fabulous vocal renditions of beloved TV show theme songs, performed by the powerhouse singer, with Dee Spencer and Nikki Arias. $25. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. www.jasonbrock.info

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s weekly drag show night with different themes, always outrageously hilarious. Mar. 26: a Nicki Minaj tribute. $15. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Nitty Gritty @ Beaux Weekly dance night with nearly naked gogo guys & gals; DJs Chad Bays, Ms. Jackson, Becky Know and Jorge T. $4.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

The Queers @ Bottom of the Hill Enjoy a thrashy fun pop, punk, art rock night with the Queers, Annie Girl & The Flight, The Memphis Murder Men and The Nerv. $12-$14. 9pm. All ages. 1233 17th St. 626-4455. www.bottomofthehill.com

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

Three fun pop bands with different styles perform. $17. $42 with dinner. 9pm. 859 O’Farrell St. www.slimspresents.com

Sun 27

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits (Check the website for a list of recipients). 3pm-6pm.

Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www. sf-eagle.com

Big Top @ Beaux The fun Castro nightclub, with hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $5.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.Beauxsf.com

Sat 26

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG

Jallen Rix @ Oasis

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Luis. 7pm2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Jock Sunday/Easter Party @ Lookout AIDS/LifeCycle Team Rest Stop 4 hosts a fundraiser with a pop-up brunch served by Terrill’s House Catering (11:30am-3:30pm), hot gogo jocks, DJ Bret Law 3pm to 6pm and Salazar 6pm-9pm. $2. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Femme, Xtravaganza @ Balancoire Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant; shows at 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:45pm. After that, T-Dance drag shows at 7pm, 10pm and 11pm. 2565 Mission St. at 21st.

920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

See page 36 >>

Sat 26 The Queers @ Bottom of the Hill

Afternoon Delight @ the New Parish, Oakland

DJ Justime and crew -Trevor Sigler, Adam Kraft, The Synthe Tigers and guest performer Grace Towers- bring out the Easter Sunday sun & fun at the outdoor patio T-dance. 3pm8pm. 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. www.thenewparish.com

I am the future of the LGBT community.

I’m 26 and transitioning.

I have a lot going on - I don’t need to be mocked, misgendered, or marginalized, and I don’t have time to hunt out news that matters to me.

That’s why I read EDGE on my Android tablet.

I’m being true to my future - and that’s where it will be.

Sat 26 Jason Brock @ Martuni’s The person depicted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

<< On the Tab

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PhotoByDot

36 • Bay Area Reporter • March 24-30, 2016

Tue 29 Meow Mix @ The Stud

<<

On the Tab

From page 35

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

Mon 28

Drag Mondays @ The Cafe

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

Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko’s weekly drag and dance night, with 9pm RuPaul’s Drag Race viewings. 9pm-1am.

2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Jock @ The Lookout

Epic Karaoke @ White Horse, Oakland

Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Mondays and Tuesdays popular weekly sing-along night. No cover. 8:30pm1am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 6523820. www.whitehorsebar.com

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

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany’s weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, with 9pm RuPaul’s Drag Race viewings. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.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

Opulence @ Beaux

Sun 27 Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

Ra Ra Riot, PWR BTTM @ The Independent Our favorite new queer rock-punk band returns, opening for the power pop band. $20. 8pm. 628 Divisadero. www.pwrbttm.bandcamp.com www.theindependentsf.com

Sunday’s a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

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

2200 Market St. www.brewcadesf.com

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

Weekly dance night, with Jocques, DJs Tori, Twistmix and Andre. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

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

Tue 29

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

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 Weekly two-stepping and linedancing fun, with lessons and DJed music (not just country). $5.

6:30-10:30pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

Sunday Mass @ Oasis Team Unpopular’s AIDS/LifeCycle fundraiser with cocktails, raffles, performances from the team, and lots of cyclists in Lycra! Donations. 8pm.

298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Wed 30 Prince Rama @ Starline Social Club, Oakland

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On the Tab>>

March 24-30, 2016 • Bay Area Reporter • 37

Man Francisco @ Oasis

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle

The sexy, funny weekly male burlesque show returns; choreographed by Christopher James Dunn; Mr Pam MCs. $20. 2 Two-drink min. 9:30pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom.

795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Kollin Holts hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm.

398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.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

Tue 29 Hinds @ Rickshaw Stop

Cock Shot @ Beaux

Hella Saucy @ Q Bar

Shot specials and adult Bingo games, with DJs Chad Bays and Riley Patrick, at the new weekly night. No cover.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

Elvis Costello @ Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa The pop genius performs classic and new songs from his solo Detour album, and classic hits. $69-$85.

8pm. Person Theater, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. www.lutherburbankcenter.org

High Fantasy @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Weekly drag and variety show, with live acts and lip-synching divas, plus dJed grooves. $5. Shows at 10:30pm & 12am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. auntcharlieslounge.com

Hinds @ Rickshaw Stop The acclaimed new indie rock allwomen band performs at the fun club; Cotillon and Ice cream also perform. $12-$18. 155 Fell St. at Van Ness. www.rickshawstop.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 also take it all off. $20. 9pm.

729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

Tue 29

Trivia Night @ Hi Tops

Elvis Costello @ Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa

Play the trivia game at the popular new sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Una Noche @ Club BnB, Oakland

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

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

Weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, and drink specials. $4.

10pm-2am. Preceded by Open Mic Comedy, 7pm, no cover. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Wed 30 Bedlam @ Beaux

New weekly event with DJs Haute Toddy, Guy Ruben, Mercedez Munro and Abominatrix. Wet T-shirt/jock contest at 11pm. $5-$10. 9pm-2am.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Bone @ Powerhouse New weekly punk-alternative music night hosted by Uel Renteria and Johnny Rockitt. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. powerhousebar.com

Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

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

Floor 21 @ Starlight Room Juanita More! presents a new weekly scenic happy hour event, with host Rudy Valdez, DJs Vin Sol and Rolo. No cover, and a fantastic panoramic city view. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St. www.starlightroomsf.com

Latin Drag Night @ Club OMG Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez. 9pm-2am.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

PhotoByDot

Gaymer Night @ Eagle

Underwear Night @ Club OMG

Wed 30 Man Francisco @ Oasis

Prince Rama @ Starline Social Club, Oakland The ultra-cool electro duo performs. $10-$12. 9pm. 645 West Grand Ave. www.princerama.com www.starlinesocialclub.com

See page 38 >>

38 • Bay Area Reporter • March 24-30, 2016

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On the Tab

From page 37

Pussy Party @ Beaux Ladies night at the Castro dance club.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch and vote as newbie strippers compete for $350 in cash prizes. $20.

Show 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell.

397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.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

Trixxie Carr @ Oasis The performer brings her tribute to The Cure to the nightclub’s stage. $15-$30. 7pm. Also March 30. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com

Oakland:

San Jose:

(510) 343-1122 (408) 514-1111 www.megamates.com 18+

Way Back @ Midnight Sun

Gym Class @ Hi Tops

Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. 9pm2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Enjoy whiskey shots from jockstrapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 5512500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440 Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

Thu 31

Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the racy night with a $100 wet undies bulge contest at midnight. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Fou Fou Ha! @ Oasis The splashy fun circus Vaudeville dance and music ensemble performs their new show, Whoa, Man! $20.

7pm. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 7953180. www.sfoasis.com

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s The popular new monthly literary series, hosted by James J. Siegel, this time features writers Kwan Booth, Ocean Capewell, Lewis DeSimone, José Luis Gutiérrez, and musical guest Dawn Oberg on piano. No cover or drink minimum. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

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

Carnie Asada hosts a new weekly ‘90s-themed video, dancin’, drinkin’ night, with VJs Jorge Terez. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks.

‘90s-themed attire and costume contest. No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

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

Picante @ The Cafe

PWR BTTM opens for Ra Ra Riot @ The Independent

Thu 31 Fou Fou Ha! @ Oasis

My So-Called Night @ Beaux

Nap’s Karaoke @ Virgil’s Sea Room

Sun 27

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates

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<<

(415) 430-1199

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

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol.

8pm. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle

Groove on wheels at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the “Godfather of Skate.” Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm.

Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm-5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5. Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

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

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night; 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Shooting Stars

March 24-30, 2016 • Bay Area Reporter • 39

photos by Steven Underhill Gameboi SF @ Rickshaw Stop

G

ameboi SF, the monthly third-Saturdays dance party, wowed again, with a vibrant young crowd, DJs spinning pop, dance & electronic grooves, and cutie-pie gogos at their Spring Mixer, held March 19. Held at The Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell St. at Van Ness Ave.), the party packs the intimate club each month. www.facebook.com/GAMeBoiSF/ www.rickshawstop.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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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

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

Brian had his HIV under control with medication. But smoking with HIV caused him to have serious health problems, including a stroke, a blood clot in his lungs and surgery on an artery in his neck. Smoking makes living with HIV much worse. You can quit.

CALL 1-800-QUIT-NOW.

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HIV alone didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cause the clogged artery in my neck.

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