November 17, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 46 • No. 46 • November 17-23, 2016

Anti-Trump protests erupt in Bay Area

by Matthew S. Bajko

unday, December 4 gay state Senator Mark Leno’s time in the Statehouse will officially come to an end. The San Francisco Democrat is being termed out of office, Rick Gerharter having spent the last eights years represent- State Senator ing the state’s 11th Mark Leno Senate District and serving in the Assembly the six years prior. Come December 5 the man he endorsed to succeed him, gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, will be sworn into office. It will mark the first time since April 1998, when he was chosen to fill a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors, that Leno has not held public office. And it remains an open question if his name will appear on a future ballot. He has ruled out making a bid to become the first LGBT person elected to a statewide office by running for lieutenant governor in 2018. This week he endorsed state Senator Ed Hernandez’s (D-West Covina) bid for the position. Nor is he ready to announce running for mayor of San Francisco in 2019. Having decided not to contest Mayor Ed Lee last year, the 65-year-old Leno is being urged by a number of LGBT community leaders and progressives to seek the position when Lee is termed out of office. “I told him he has my undying support if he runs for mayor,” District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose name is often mentioned as a mayoral candidate, told the Bay Area Reporter this fall. Should he win, Leno would become the city’s first gay mayor. But he would face a host of issues, from homelessness to housing costs, with no easy solutions. During an interview last week with the B.A.R. in his district office overlooking the Civic Center and City Hall, Leno said he had yet to decide on running for mayor. “I really do not know what’s next,” said Leno. “I consider this a privileged time in my life, having worked intensely the last 40 years. This is a rare opportunity to take a deep breath and look at the world from a stop position rather than a whirling dervish.” Nearly everyone he meets these days is asking what he will do next, said Leno. As for entering the mayoral race, he is giving himself the next 12 months to mull it over and plans to make a decision by the end of 2017. “The question I am asking myself is what is meaningful to me, and what can I do to address that,” said Leno. See page 22 >>

Joshua Ramirez joined hundreds in the Castro last Wednesday to march against the election of Donald Trump as president.

by David-Elijah Nahmod

he Bay Area’s LGBT community joined thousands of other people in swift reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s unexpected win on Election Day. Protests have taken place regularly over the past week, from school students marching out

of class to thousands of people demonstrating in San Francisco and Oakland. As one group of anti-Trump protesters marched up Market Street from Civic Center last Wednesday, a group of several hundred members of the LGBT community gathered See page 18 >>

LGBTs across country react to Trump win Rick Gerharter

by Seth Hemmelgarn

“kept saying ‘Trump’s going to win,’” Rutherford said. ast Saturday, as people “The morning after, he’s knockmarched down San Francising on my door,” he said. Rutherford co’s Market Street protesting “closed the blinds and locked the Republican Donald Trump’s elecdoor,” but he could hear the man tion as president, James Robinson, making cheers like “He won,” and CEO of Free2Be in Huntsville, Al“We’re taking the country back.” abama, wept as he said, “I’m very “It was horrifying,” Rutherford proud of the people peacefully said. protesting in our big cities where The day prompted memories they’re able to do that ... I wish I of his first boyfriend, who’d been could be with them.” beaten to death. Like many LGBTs across the “I kept seeing him in the coffin country, Robinson, 53, is conwith the towel over his face,” and True Spain cerned about what Trump’s “his pants and the color of them administration may do. The Michelle Mathis, left, Richard Hames, Steven Tester, Maryann Dore, that day just kept flashing into my and Karen Lowe took part in a unity gathering in Hickory, North billionaire businessman’s rhetohead,” Rutherford, who’s originally Carolina Friday, November 11. ric during the campaign has from Florida, said. He also rememencouraged hostility toward bered seeing people die from AIDS. Clients who came in for regular appointLGBTs, Muslims, people of “I had flashbacks of people sitments the day after the election “were so trau- ting on the street ... they looked like they were color, immigrants, and other groups. matized our therapist felt the need to do risk People at LGBT organizations in several starving to death. No one would go up to them,” states said that the election has been tough on assessments on them” to try to ensure they Rutherford said. clients and heightened worries about funding, weren’t going to harm themselves, he said. Since last week’s election, he’s seen trouble just Vincent Rutherford, 52, who’s gay and serves outside Huntsville, with people driving around but they’ve also seen support. “Huntsville is by far the most progressive as director of Huntsville’s Rocket City Pride, with Confederate flags and signs saying “fags,” city in Alabama,” and the city is one of the most said the election “gave me flashbacks to the “Mexicans,” and the N-word should “get out.” progressive cities in the South, said Robinson, 1980s. ... I just had to lock myself in the house “I’m sure it will cool down,” but Trump’s that next day and try to deal with it. I kept havwhose organization provides counseling, advoelection “seems to have emboldened these peoing flashbacks to other horrible times in my life ple to feel free to do this. They feel the whole cacy, and other services. and being afraid.” However, he said, many LGBTs, especially country is on their side now,” Rutherford said. Making things worse was his neighbor, a transgender people, are still worried about how See page 7 >> Republican and retired Baptist preacher who’d a Trump administration may impact them.

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MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DESCOVY

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DESCOVY can cause serious side effects, including:

• Buildup of lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious medical emergency that can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: feeling very weak or tired, unusual muscle pain, trouble breathing, stomach pain with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold (especially in your arms and legs), feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and/or a fast or irregular heartbeat.

• Those in the “Most Important Information About DESCOVY” section.

• Severe liver problems, which in some cases can lead to death. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of these symptoms: your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow (jaundice); dark “tea-colored” urine; loss of appetite; light-colored bowel movements (stools); nausea; and/or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of your stomach area. • Worsening of hepatitis B (HBV) infection. DESCOVY is not approved to treat HBV. If you have both HIV-1 and HBV, your HBV may suddenly get worse if you stop taking DESCOVY. Do not stop taking DESCOVY without ﬁrst talking to your healthcare provider, as they will need to check your health regularly for several months. You may be more likely to get lactic acidosis or severe liver problems if you are female, very overweight, or have been taking DESCOVY or a similar medicine for a long time.

ABOUT DESCOVY • DESCOVY is a prescription medicine that is used together with other HIV-1 medicines to treat HIV-1 in people 12 years of age and older. DESCOVY is not for use to help reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 infection. • DESCOVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. Ask your healthcare provider about how to prevent passing HIV-1 to others.

• Changes in body fat. • Changes in your immune system. • New or worse kidney problems, including kidney failure. • Bone problems. The most common side effect of DESCOVY is nausea. These are not all the possible side eﬀects of DESCOVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking DESCOVY. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with DESCOVY.

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Community News>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Residents begin moving into 55 Laguna project by Matthew S. Bajko

7.625 in.

he first residents of a $16 million San Francisco affordable housing development intended for LGBT seniors began moving into their apartments this week, a month later than initially expected. The project, a joint venture between Openhouse, the LGBT senior services agency, and Mercy Housing California, which develops belowmarket-rate housing, is rehabilitating the former college building known as Richardson Hall, located at 55 Laguna Street a block from the LGBT Community Center. There will be a total of 40 residential units in the building, with one set aside for a resident manager. The remodel was slated to be complete by September with the first residents moving into their units in October, but construction delays pushed that timeline back. Eight units at 55 Laguna were set aside for people aged 55 or older who are living with HIV or AIDS at risk of homelessness. The city’s human services agency was responsible for referring potential residents through a separate selection process, and as of Tuesday, four of those households had yet to receive their final approval to move in. In July the city held a lottery to select the inhabitants of the other 31 rooms, which vary in size from studios to two-bedrooms. More than 1,800 people applied to live there, and due to anti-discrimination laws, the city could not restrict the lottery to solely LGBT seniors. As for how many of the people chosen through the lottery to live in the building identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, more than 60 percent do, according to Mercy Housing. Many lottery applicants chose to state their LGBT status on their application forms, while oth-

Rick Gerharter

The entrance lobby for the apartments at 55 Laguna, where residents began moving in this week.

ers have disclosed that information during the approval process. “We always understood the ideal was to have a resident population sort of primarily LGBT seniors to benefit from the services model but it would not necessarily be 100 percent. It would be a mixed community like all of San Francisco,” said Sharon Christen, a housing developer with Mercy’s San Francisco regional office. “We think we achieved that.” Tim Daniels, Openhouse’s interim executive director, could not be reached for comment this week. But in a brief email to the B.A.R. last week, he wrote that residents are starting to move into 55 Laguna and will continue to do so over the coming weeks. “The residents are slowly moving in the week of November 14th and the goal is to have all residents in the new building by the end of the year; Mercy is managing all of this,” wrote Daniels. 9.75of in.the residents Christen said most are expected to move into their apartments either the week after Thanks-

giving or in early December. Mercy is still working to approve the final eight households for the 31 units chosen through the lottery, she said. “A lot of people who applied chose not to further the application process, some because they were not ready to move. Others who had applied only did so because they wanted to show there was a need for LGBT-focused elder housing,” said Christen. Brian Basinger, co-founder of San Francisco’s Q Foundation who had fought to see the 55 Laguna project be set aside for low-income LGBT and HIV-positive seniors, said that he had yet to hear that any of his foundation’s clients of its AIDS housing programs had been picked to move into the building. “No one has showed up on my doorstep asking for a move-in deposit, which they normally do,” Basinger told the B.A.R. Tuesday afternoon. As for Openhouse, it expects to start moving into its new offices in the building, which total 2,700

square feet with the address of 65 Laguna Street, Monday, November 21. Due to a $1 million donation from the Bob Ross Foundation that was announced at the beginning of the year, the agency’s new community facilities will be named the Bob Ross LGBT Senior Center in honor of the B.A.R.’s founding publisher. The relocation of the staff from their temporary space in the Castro could be delayed, however, as Daniels stressed, “much work is still needed on the building.” He added that the builders and officials with Mercy and Openhouse are “all stressed these days” with ensuring all of the construction is complete by the end of the year. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will likely take place in late January or early February. The B.A.R.’s request to see the current state of the building’s interior was denied, as Daniels explained that Openhouse has “been asked not to do any tours at this point until all the construction punch lists are com-

plete, sometime in mid-December.” Construction of the $40 million project’s second phase, a new building with 79 units of affordable senior housing to be built on what is now a surface parking lot, should break ground next year. Fourteen of those units will be set aside for seniors age 62 or older living with HIV or AIDS at risk of homelessness, and one will be slated for a resident manager. Applications to apply to live in the building, which will have an address of 95 Laguna, should be made available sometime in 2017, according to Openhouse. The lottery to select the residents for the units likely will be held sometime in 2018. It is expected the same rules that governed this year’s lottery process will apply then. City officials had taken a number of steps aimed at giving LGBT seniors an advantage in the lottery for 55 Laguna. They reduced the window to apply down to roughly two weeks from the usual 30 days. They also set aside 16 of the units for people who either live in District 8, which includes the gay Castro neighborhood, or within a half mile of the project. Falling into that category was 382 applicants. People who live or work in San Francisco were also given preference for the units, making it near impossible for people with no current ties to the city to be selected. Applicants in this group totaled 1,361. According to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, which oversaw the lottery process, 13 of the applicants fell under the first preference category for people who were displaced from their homes in the city during the 1960s and 1970s. Another 16 applicants fell into the second preference category for eight of the units earmarked for See page 11 >>

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<< Community News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

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upporters and volunteers of the Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation joined representatives from six local nonprofit organizations November 9 during a wrap-up party to distribute over $215,000 raised by the foundation’s Real Bad, Reach, and Recovery parties that take place during the Folsom Street Fair, San Francisco Pride, and the Castro Street Fair, respectively. This year’s beneficiaries

included Dolores Street Community Services, LGBTQ Connection, the Trevor Project, New Conservatory Theatre Center, Project Homeless Connect, and the HIV Story Project/National AIDS Memorial Grove. Foundation officials said that at the conclusion of this year’s events, it has donated a total of over $2.5 million to nonprofit organizations over the years. Rick Gerharter

Baldwin gets leadership position by Lisa Keen

he U.S. Senate’s only out member earned a leadership spot Wednesday, as Senate Democrats re-organized following the November 8 election. Shortly after his election Wednesday as Senate Democrats’ new Minority Leader, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) announced Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) would take over as secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference (aka Senate Democratic Caucus). The position is charged with keeping minutes of the caucus meetings and helping organize its meetings. On the Senate organizational chart, it is the fourth ranking position among the Democrats. Baldwin replaces outgoing Secretary Patty Murray of Washington, who has served in the role for nine years. Murray becomes assistant minority leader, the third-ranking Democrat behind Schumer and Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois.

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Schumer replaces outgoing Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who is retiring. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last month that Baldwin was on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s list of potential running mates. The paper said more than three-dozen names were on the original list. Baldwin was elected to the Senate in 2012, after seven terms in the

House, representing the Madison, Wisconsin, area. Her election to the House seat was the first time an openly LGBT person had been elected to Congress. Other LGBT members of Congress at that time had come out after being elected and serving several terms. Baldwin was on a list of 36 names sent from John Podesta to Cheryl Mills on March 12. The email, which was hacked and provided to WikiLeaks, does not identify the names as potential running mates but only “people worth looking at” and “people worth considering.” The list included Clinton’s tough Democratic challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who had just days before won the Michigan primary. At that point, Clinton had secured about half of the delegates she needed to win the nomination. There were also some names on the list that seemed very unlikely considerations for vice president: gay Apple CEO Tim Cook and both Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft fame.t

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Community News>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

Trans woman accused in Oakland triple slaying by Seth Hemmelgarn

San Jose transgender woman is accused in the brutal killings of an Oakland woman and her wife and son after the trio were found in their home early Friday morning. Dana Rivers, 61, who’s in custody in Santa Rita Jail, has been charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Patricia A. Wright, Charlotte Kuulei Reed, and Benny Wright. People who knew Patricia Wright described her as peaceful and said they couldn’t imagine why anyone would harm the family. Authorities haven’t discussed a motive. According to Oakland police, at 12:21 a.m. November 11, officers were dispatched to the 9400 block of Dunbar Drive to investigate reported gunshots. There, they found Benny Wright in front of a home. He appeared to have been stabbed. Two women were inside the home with apparent gunshot and stab wounds. The fire department came and tried to render aid, but the victims died. A probable cause document says, “As officers were [providing] aid to the victim, the officer heard a loud bang coming from the garage. Moments later [Rivers] walked out of the residence,” and the officer saw that she was “covered in blood.” Officers detained Rivers, and when they searched her, they found “ammunition in her pocket along with knives,” according to the document. She also “began to make spontaneous statements about her involvement in the murders.” Alameda County Sheriff ’s Department records indicate Rivers was arrested about nine minutes after police were dispatched to the home, which Rivers allegedly set fire to. She’s being held without bail. Police have declined to provide

Courtesy Alameda County Sheriff’s Department

Dana Rivers

more information about what happened at the family’s home. Along with the murder charges, Rivers also faces counts of arson of an inhabited structure and possession of metal knuckles, and special allegations including using a knife and a firearm, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint. The complaint lists Benny Wright’s name as Toto M. Diabu. Rivers was set to be arraigned Tuesday, November 15, but her case was continued to the next day in order to determine which attorney would represent her. Rivers made headlines in the

1990s when she transitioned while working as a teacher at a Sacramento-area school. Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Khari Campbell-Wright, Wright’s surviving son, said he knew Rivers. “I didn’t know the confines of what was going,” but “she was involved in a motorcycle gang,” Campbell-Wright said. “My mom had no part of it. My brother had no part of it,” he said, adding that his family had been in the “wrong place at the wrong time.” Campbell-Wright stood with Richard Wright, Patricia Wright’s brother, as he talked. Neither man would discuss the case further. People who knew Patricia Wright said Campbell-Wright has been away at college and wasn’t living at the home on Dunbar. Michael Campbell, CampbellWright’s father, said he didn’t know what had happened Friday morning. Campbell said Wright was “very smart” and “quiet. She was a good mom.” He didn’t want to talk about Reed. “We were not friends,” Campbell said. “I really don’t want to go into why.” However, he said, “She loved Khari,” and with her veteran’s benefits, “she was responsible for him

Patricia Wright, left, and Charlotte Reed in a photo posted to Facebook in 2015.

being able to go to school.” Campbell said that Benny Wright, who was Patricia Wright’s adopted son, was originally from West Africa. He was “real quiet,” Campbell said. “He had been through a lot.” Wright had just graduated from high school and planned to become a nurse, Campbell said. “He wanted to help people,” he said. Pamela Mack, 56, of Oakland, Patricia Wright’s first wife, was also at the courthouse Tuesday. In a phone

interview beforehand, she called her ex-wife “a quiet spirit” who was creative and enjoyed traveling. “She was a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, and an amazing mom,” Mack said. “She was just a really good person that didn’t deserve anything like this to happen to her.” “It’s hard to even think about, to wrap my mind around how someone could do something so vicious,” Mack said. The neighborhood where Wright and Reed lived appeared to be a quiet one. Several neighbors said they didn’t know the family, who’d lived in the house for a few years, and they didn’t know of any previous trouble at the house. A couple neighbors said there had been problems including burglaries and at least one car break-in in the area. Sheets of plywood had been placed over the garage door, at the house but there were otherwise no signs of fire. A sign next to the front door said “Char’s hair design and a place for change.” Michael Campbell said that in her hair business, Reed focused on LGBTs, especially transgender people. A motorcycle was parked in a small shed next to the house. Plans for a memorial weren’t available as of Tuesday morning.t

RHODA GOLDMAN PL AZA

Trump win

From page 1

‘Sheer terror’

In the rural town of Hickory, North Carolina Friday night, several people gathered for a “Unity in the Community” gathering. Michelle Mathis, 45, who identifies as queer, is a pastor at Hickory’s Olive Branch Ministry, which she runs with her wife, Karen Lowe, 50. “The concerns I’m hearing are just sheer terror,” Mathis said. “We’re seeing, even in the last couple days, an increased number of rebel flags that are flying,” and she’s heard of people with rainbow stickers on their cars being called “faggot.” “They’re doing that because the new president-elect has made it OK by his own rhetoric,” Mathis said. “He has made it OK to verbally accost individuals,” and he’s made it all right to physically attack LGBTQs, Latinos, Muslims, and others. Mathis said the area “usually” has an attitude of “live and let live,” but the atmosphere had already “gotten ugly” because of House Bill 2. That “had died down to a certain extent,” she said. Mathis was referring to the state law banning local cities from adopting non-discrimination laws and requiring transgender individuals to use public restrooms based on the gender assigned to them at birth. “The LGBTQ and ally community, it’s very strong in this area,” Mathis said. “Not everybody is out, but we do come together to support each other in times like this.” Kally Henson, 41, a transgender woman who lives in Hickory, said that so far, anti-trans comments haven’t been made to her. “I’m still transitioning,” Henson said. “I can pass fairly well, but at the same time I don’t want to risk something bad happening.” There are places she avoids. See page 14 >>

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<< Open Forum

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Volume 46, Number 46 November 17-23, 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 ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Peter Sailsbery – 415.829.8941 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Right on, Barbara B

efore retiring at the end of her term in January, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) is using her last few weeks to send a message to the country to consider the presidential election process. This week Boxer introduced legislation to abolish the Electoral College and use the popular vote to determine the winner of presidential elections. Her bill is a long shot passing the GOP-controlled Senate, to say the least, but Boxer is acknowledging the fact that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton currently leads President-elect Donald Trump by more than a million votes. Under our system, however, the winner needs at least 270 electoral votes to win; Trump won with 290 to Clinton’s 232. As Boxer noted in a news release, “Donald Trump will become the fifth president in U.S. history to lose the popular vote and still win the election.” The last time was the 2000 election, when Al Gore won the popular vote and George W. Bush won the presidency after a U.S. Supreme Court decision. “In my lifetime, I have seen two elections where the winner of the general election did not win the popular vote,” Boxer said, referring to 2000. “When all the ballots are counted, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a margin that could exceed two million votes.” Boxer went on to explain the problems with the Electoral College, which she called “outdated” and an “undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to be changed immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts.” This has long been a complaint with the Electoral College, which the Found-

ing Fathers created to prevent corruption in the presidential election process. Smaller states generally favor the system because it increases their advantage against larger states that would otherwise control presidential elections. And it happened last week – large states like California and New York voted for Clinton, but smaller states voted for Trump. Boxer noted that Trump himself once criticized the Electoral College: “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy,” he tweeted in 2012. During his 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, Trump said he wouldn’t mind some tweaks to the process. “A simple vote,” he said, and added that if “you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win.” But two days later he changed his mind. “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different,” he wrote on Twitter.

Boxer’s right, of course, in that the election could be decided by the popular vote. The system needs to be updated and one could argue that electors today are beholden to the parties, since they are nominated by the parties at their state conventions. While electors still can vote for whomever they want when they meet next month to ratify their votes, it’s obvious that they will select along party lines. There has been some talk of so-called faithless electors who could switch their vote, and that may happen, given the polarizing nature of the election. But the numbers won’t be there to alter the outcome. Boxer knows her proposal – which is actually a constitutional amendment that would need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years after its passage in Congress – is dead on arrival. Although it’s a symbolic move it focuses attention to an inequity that affects large states like California. Boxer has always been the state’s more progressive senator, and during her tenure she’s been a leader on issues like the environment (Trump doesn’t believe in climate change), women’s rights (Trump denigrates women), and LGBT rights (Trump said same-sex marriage is “settled” but is not likely to be a champion for us). She was against the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” back when taking such stands was uncommon for most national Democrats. She was one of only 14 senators to vote against DOMA. We’ll miss Boxer’s fiery spirit in the Senate, though we know her replacement, Senator-elect Kamala Harris, will continue to champion those causes and more. Boxer leaves a legacy as a fighter for equality. Her proposal to eliminate the Electoral College shows her commitment is undiminished even as she leaves office.t

In the new Trump world, California must fight for LGBTs by Scott Wiener

ast Wednesday morning, we in the LGBT community woke up in a different world – a dystopian world that demands we push back, fight, and stop the radical right-wing takeover of our government that is happening as you read this piece. After decades of progress, including eight years of the most pro-LGBT president in American history, we are faced with the nauseating reality that Donald Trump will be president of the United States. That Mike Pence, of extreme homophobic fame, will be vice president. That the Republicans will control both Congress and the presidency for just the third time since 1930. That one of the top altright leaders – racist, anti-Semite, xenophobic, misogynist Stephen Bannon – will be Trump’s top counselor. That Trump will immediately nominate a Supreme Court justice and may have the opportunity to name one or two more, cementing a right-wing court majority for a generation. These changes are certain to have profound impacts on LGBT people, particularly the most marginalized in our community. We will no longer have a president who goes out of his way to support our community and talk about us. We will no longer have an attorney general who speaks about transgender people from the heart. We will no longer have a vice president who goes on national TV and speaks truth about LGBT people. We are losing an administration that goes out of its way for our community, and gaining an administration and a Congress that go out of their way to undermine our community. Think a federal “religious freedom” law that eliminates state and local LGBT civil rights laws everywhere; federal education guidelines making it harder for trans and gender-nonconforming youth to be treated fairly and with dignity in school; gutting of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and other health programs that ensure people living with HIV, women with breast cancer, gay men seeking PrEP, and transgender people have full access to health care.

Rick Gerharter

Hundreds attended a candlelight vigil in Harvey Milk Plaza November 9 to protest the election of Donald Trump as president.

I could go on, but you get the point. We didn’t ask for this fight, but the fight came to us. And, fight back we will. We cannot afford another 1980s, when Ronald Reagan’s refusal to respond to the HIV pandemic ripped apart our community as so many of our brothers died. We cannot afford another George W. Bush demanding a federal constitutional amendment to enshrine us as second-class citizens. California has a huge role to play in fighting back – defending our own community and standing in solidarity with immigrants, people of color, women, religious minorities, people with disabilities, and all the other swaths of America that Trump, Pence, and their ilk disparage and attack. California is the sixth largest economy in the world. We represent 15 percent of the country’s population. We have a long and deep track record supporting LGBT people, other marginalized groups, and working people. We are the world capital of innovation. We must stand tall and provide a powerful, progressive counterbalance to the destructive forces that are descending on Washington and too many

state capitols across the country. As your recently elected state senator, I promise you that I will be part of that fight, for our own community and for other communities. We have much work to do: • If Trump and the Republicans in Congress follow through on their threat to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, California should adopt its own version and should also explore adopting a single-payer system. We cannot backslide on our commitment to health care access. • California must continue to be on the cutting edge of supporting transgender people, including full health care access, protecting access to restrooms and other accommodations, ensuring full equity for transgender students, and supporting families that want to do right by their trans kids. • California must continue to stick up for LGBT families, who will be under attack in various parts of the country, LGBT seniors, and our large population of at-risk and homeless LGBT youth. • California must ensure access to health care for people living with HIV, including backfilling Ryan White cuts and ensuring funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. These programs are a health care safety net for many low-income people with HIV. • California must lead on harm reduction efforts, since this administration and Congress will be hostile to these efforts. You’ll recall it was Pence – when he was governor – who allowed HIV infections to explode in one area of Indiana because of his refusal to allow needle exchange for IV drug users. California must protect needle exchange, expand access to PrEP, and ensure women have access to birth control and the HPV vaccine. • California must continue to be a state of refuge for people fleeing persecution, whether internationally or from the many parts of this country that are now being empowered to discriminate and harm LGBT people and others. California has power. We have fight. And, fight back we will. Let’s do it, and let’s win.t Scott Wiener is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was elected last week to the state Senate. He takes office in early December.

Open Forum>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Time to move on

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or the last 10 days San Francisco and its LGBTQ community have been paralyzed. Our sense of reality has been suspended. How could this be? How did it happen? How did this country put into its highest elected office – make the most powerful leader in the free world – an individual whose sense of self is gauged by ratings, self-adoration, and a tenuous grip on reality? How did we elect, by popular vote, a woman who is one of the most qualified candidates for president in modern times and, through our quirky colonial institution of the Electoral College, make president an individual who is possibly the least qualified candidate in our history – a racist, bigot, selfproclaimed misogynist who stands against every value upon which this country was founded? We’ve seen people express those feelings in peaceful protests here in San Francisco and across the country. Right now it seems hard to believe that after so many months of ugliness that our country will find a way to come together and move forward. Every journalist, media personality, blogger, intellectual, academic, and most people in this country and around the world have their own opinion on how this happened. But at this point, the how really doesn’t matter. It’s time to just get over it and move on. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has been speaking to groups around the city over the last few days, helping them cope and addressing their fears. His message is very clear, and I quote: “We must remember, San Francisco will always be San Francisco. “We will continue to fight for what we believe is right, we will continue to lead on the tough issues that many shy away from, and we will continue to be a beacon of light for anyone

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Mayor Ed Lee, flanked by members of the Board of Supervisors and city leaders, speaks at a unity rally Monday, November 14 in the Rotunda of City Hall.

who is in search of acceptance, a safe haven, and community. “We will always be a city to find refuge. We will always be a sanctuary city. It is in our DNA. “Nothing will ever change this. “I am confident that we will come together bound by the values we cherish and are known for across the nation, values of inclusiveness, tolerance and compassion for one another and other communities. “We will not compromise these values. These values are what will carry us forward and we will move forward. “San Francisco has been on the forefront of so many issues – immigrant rights, anti-racism, LGBTQ rights, affordable health care for all, environmental stewardship, and more. “We know that strong cities can help inspire the future. Together, let us push San Francisco to be that strong city for this nation and for all people around the world. “We are stronger together and together we can show the nation and the world what we have always

known, anything is possible when we are united for the common good.” San Francisco is a minoritymajority city, speaking more than 100 languages and dialects. San Francisco’s elected and appointed leadership is comprised of an Asian-American mayor; supervisors of many backgrounds, including Asian-American, African-American, and Latino; a Cuban-American district attorney; a Japanese-American public defender; a Latino city attorney; a gay Latino treasurer; an African-American city administrator and acting police chief; a female sheriff and fire chief; and LGBTQ people at every level of government. Our diversity is our strength and central to our core identity. We must stand together, take care of one another, and keep each other safe. The LGBTQ community in San Francisco is strong. We lit the torch of queer freedom at Compton’s Cafeteria three years before Stonewall. We created the internationally recognized symbol of LGBTQ Pride with the rainbow flag. We sent a message to the world of the See page 12 >>

#StrongerTogether by James Loduca

even money in politics? # S t ro n g e r To g e t h e r ast Wednesday, we means women, the unawoke to the unthinkdocumented, Muslims, able. We watched in dis#blacklivesmatters, Native belief last Thursday as Americans, LGBTQs, peoPresident-elect Donald ple with disabilities, and Trump met with President everyone threatened under Barack Obama in the Oval a Trump administration. Rick Gerharter Office, while reports of What if we showed up for hate-fueled violence made each other every time one James Loduca us feel less safe in our of our rights was under communities, in our own attack and in the process formed the homes. We struggled to get our bearlargest progressive coalition in history? ings in a world turned upside down. #StrongerTogether means people I remember feeling this way folwho voted for Trump. Senator Elizalowing the 2008 passage of Proposibeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said tion 8 in California. It was as if the it brilliantly: “I believe the majority hate and intolerance that I knew exof Trump supporters voted for him isted far away had keys to my house not because of his racist, miand walked right in. That felt like an sogynistic, xenophobic, and insurmountable setback, but it also homophobic rhetoric, but emboldened us. In the years to folin spite of it. There are millow, we mobilized, organized, and lions of Americans who fought like never before. We won feel so left behind by leadhearts and minds. Today, same-sex ers in Washington that marriage is the law of the land. Trump’s empty promise That experience is helpful context to upend the system comas we ponder what it means to be pelled them to overlook #StrongerTogether. vile and dangerous hate speech.” To me, #StrongerTogether means Imagine a movement where there progressives and moderates alike. are no villains, just people who What if all the energy and resources share far more in common than used by Democrats to attack one the things that divide them. Imaganother this election were rediine a movement where instead of rected to mobilize more voters in “unfriending” someone we disagree neighborhoods with historically low with, we have a strategy for listenvoter turn out? ing, forging a common understand#StrongerTogether means acing, and growing stronger because tivists and executives. What if we of it. Imagine a movement led by harnessed the power of pro-equality the words of our beloved late poet companies to help take on tough laureate Maya Angelou who faconversations about full LGBT mously wrote: “We are more alike equality, a living wage, equal pay, or my friends, than we are unalike.”

We cannot discount the very real threat of extremists who will use this moment to legitimize bigotry. We must remain vigilant, watch out for one another and quickly mobilize against hate speech when we see it. That is vitally important. But the extreme voices on the right (and left) don’t represent the majority of us who will ultimately drive our country forward. This week has reminded me of advice from my feisty Latina mom. “Son,” she explained, “there will be times when the wind is at your back. Enjoy them, because they do not last. The headwinds will come, and you will be tested. That is when you bring the fight, because the headwinds remind you who you really are.” The headwinds are here, and they are mighty. The election is over, but our hardest – and most important – work is ahead. Now more than ever, we must work together to protect the hard-fought progress we’ve won in the past eight years. It will be difficult, and it will test us. Most importantly, it will take all of us. Never forget, our rally cry is Stronger Together. Let’s show the country what San Francisco is made of.t This week, James Loduca has supported Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Immigrant Law Center. He lives with his partner in Noe Valley and plans to attend the Million Woman March in Washington D.C. on January 21.

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<< Politics

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Wide field of LGBT leaders eye vacant SF supervisor seat by Matthew S. Bajko

he November 8 election results have yet to be certified, but lobbying is already underway to influence the selection of the next District 8 supervisor representing the Castro, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, and Glen Park at City Hall. Gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener is headed to Sacramento come December, as he holds a commanding lead against District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim in their race for the state Senate’s District 11 seat. As of Wednesday morning Wiener was in first place with 52.2 percent of the vote. And barring a surprise turnaround in last week’s elections, it appears San Francisco will not have an elected LGBT supervisor come January for the first time in nearly four decades. Neither of the two out supervisor candidates won their races last week, an outcome that does not appear will change as the remaining ballots are counted. In January, when gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos’ term expires, it will mean not only that the Board of Supervisors will be bereft of any LGBT members, but also that there are no Latino members. No Latino or Latina supervisor candidate was elected this year to succeed Campos or District 11 Supervisor John Avalos, who is also termed off the board this year. Thus, Mayor Ed Lee is facing intense pressure from both the LGBT and Latino communities to find someone to represent them when he names an appointee to serve out the remaining two years of Wiener’s term. It is expected the person will not be sworn in until January, so they could potentially serve a total of 10 years if elected to full four-year terms in 2018 and 2022.

Former Mayor Frank Jordan faced a similar situation in 1993 when lesbian Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg left to join President Bill Clinton’s administration. The board had also seen its sole Latino supervisor, Jim Gonzalez, be defeated in the November election of 1992. In the end, Jordan named Latina lesbian Susan Leal to the vacant board seat. So far Lee’s office has yet to comment about the appointment process. Mayoral spokeswoman Deirdre Hussey declined to respond to the Bay Area Reporter’s questions about when the new supervisor will be named or if the mayor is committed to picking someone from the LGBT community.

name is Daniel Enrique Bernal, is half Columbian, allowing the mayor to check the Latino and LGBT boxes in one pick. He is also the former partner of Lee’s senior adviser Tony Winnicker, and as a top aide to Pelosi for nearly 15 years, Bernal is well known within the district and the city at large. As for Randolph, he told the B.A.R. last week that he would like to be named to the supervisor seat and looks forward to speaking with the mayor about doing so. He is also well known in the district, having served as the campaign manager of gay former District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty’s re-election bid in 2006 and, years later, worked for him as an aide at City Hall. He also worked for former Mayor Gavin Newsom as his liaison to both District 8 and the LGBT comLeading candidates munity at-large. Born and raised It is widely expected that the mayor in Hamburg, Germany, Randolph’s will name an LGBT leader as Wiener’s mother is German and his father, successor, as the District 8 seat has who is black, is American. Ranlong been considered the LGBT comdolph, who is married to U.S. Naval munity’s seat at City Hall. Among officer Trevor Nguyen, would be the leading candidates are two gay the city’s first out African-American men with long political ties to the supervisor should he be appointed city’s more moderate camp: to the vacancy. Dan Bernal, chief of staff Lee had appointed Ranin Democratic Minority dolph to a vacancy on the Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San City College of San FranFrancisco office, and Alex cisco Board of Trustees in Randolph, who just won 2015. After winning elecelection to a full term on the tion last fall to serve out city’s community college the last year of the term, Rick Gerharter board. Randolph won a full fourIf selected Bernal, Dan Bernal year term on the college who did not respond to board last week. requests for comment, Another gay man menwould be the city’s first tioned for the seat is Conor HIV-positive superviJohnston, chief of staff to sor, having lived with the board President London virus for 26 years. He and Breed. He just helped his his husband, interior deboss beat back a progressigner Dan Burns, live sive challenger to win her in the Mission Dolores second term on the board. Rick Gerharter neighborhood. While his boss is part of City Hall watchers note Alex Randolph the board’s moderate bloc that Bernal, whose full that often votes with Lee,

Breed in 2012 did knock out Lee’s board president Gary Virginia, District 5 supervisor appointee, biwho is HIV-positive and ran unsucsexual Latina housing rights activist cessfully for the seat in 2000. Christina Olague, and he may not He has been promoting an online be so inclined to elevate her top aide. petition to drum up support for Asked about the board vacancy, his being named to the seat. As of Johnston told the B.A.R., “We just Tuesday afternoon, more than 100 finished a long, tumultuous campeople had signed it. paign, which I’m very happy LonCollege board president Rafael don won. I’m still trying to process Mandelman, who won re-election what happened nationally. The rest last week, has indicated he would like is just gossip.” to run again for the D8 seat, having Although no woman has been able lost to Wiener in 2010. Last week he to win the D8 seat since the board told the B.A.R. he was taking a waitelections reverted back and-see approach on how to being district based the vacancy issue played in 2000, two lesbians are out before making any anamong those mentioned nouncement about a superas possible picks: Rebecca visor bid. Prozan, who lost her Planning Commissioner bid for the seat against Dennis Richards, a longWiener six years ago, and time Duboce Triangle Zoe Dunning, whom Lee Courtesy Rebecca Prozan resident and neighborhood named to the city’s library Rebecca Prozan leader, is also eyeing a poscommission. sible run for the D8 seat. Prozan, who now works While considered more to for Google as its chief of the left of Wiener, Richards public policy and governnoted he has been able to ment affairs, said, “I’d be work with Lee’s adminishonored to be chosen,” tration and the board on when asked if she was inadvancing development terested in the vacancy. projects since joining the As for Dunning, she oversight body, on which he Rick Gerharter told the B.A.R. that “after serves as vice president. a lot of self-reflection and Dennis Richards “I would love to do it,” careful consideration,” she he said about being named had decided not to seek supervisor. “I have been inbeing considered for the vacancy. volved in community activities and She pledged to “stay active in public service nearly 25 years.” service in other ways, but not in local Another name floated as deservelected office.” ing of being named to the D8 seat Neither was able to retain their is longtime gay and AIDS activist seats in June on the body overseeCleve Jones, who is also HIV-posing the local Democratic Party, itive and works with the hotel workwhich could give the mayor pause ers union Unite HERE. The Castro in selecting them. And both of his resident, who lost a 1992 bid for past picks for board vacancies were supervisor and was mentioned as a women who went on to be defeated. possible candidate for the D8 seat Several gay men considered part in 2002 and 2010, is releasing his of the city’s progressive camp have memoir in late November. expressed interest in the seat. The Asked about the vacancy, Jones most public has been former Pride joked, “As if Lee would appoint me!”t

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Community News>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

TL pop-up shop offers help for homeless by Seth Hemmelgarn

an Francisco’s Tenderloin Museum is hosting a pop-up shop where people can donate jackets, toiletries, and other items to those who are homeless. At Crack and Cider, which opened Thursday, November 10, and will be available until December 23, people can purchase a card for whatever merchandise they’d like to have donated. A $10 card buys a thermal set with gloves, socks, and a hat. A $12 card means a homeless woman will get conditioner, a brush, and other items. The shop also offers products for people’s dogs and other things. Cards distributed by the shop, which first opened in London, explain the unusual name by including the quote, “People don’t give me money because they just think I’ll spend it on crack and cider.” “After hearing this from one of thousands of Londoners sleeping on the street, we knew there must be something we could do to help,”

Crack and Cider co-founders Charlotte Cramer, of San Francisco, and Scarlett Montanaro, of London, said on the card. Cramer said in response to emailed questions that items in San Francisco would be distributed mostly through Hospitality House, which offers shelter and other services, and Lava Mae, which refurbishes old buses to offer showers and bathrooms. “We hope that as we grow our presence in the Bay Area we’ll be able

to work with other shelters and organizations to help serve their guests with our products,” Cramer said. After the shop’s London debut was featured on http://www.Producthunt.com, she said, people in San Francisco persuaded her and Montanaro to open here. “Given the global reach and gravity of the homelessness issue in San Francisco it made sense for it to be our first city stateside,” Cramer said. She added, “We also recognized, in addition, the disparity of wealth,

which the city is oftentimes villainized for, makes it a great place for Crack and Cider to be present: we want to give the privileged a way to show that they care.” Cramer and Montanaro spent $600 from their savings to launch Crack and Cider, which is now “selfsustaining,” Cramer said. Thursday night, the shop sold $480 worth of stock, which is equal to almost 100 items. In a phone interview, Lava Mae’s Deborah Schneider said she’s “de-

lighted” about Crack and Cider opening locally. “We believe everybody has the right to hygiene,” Schneider said. “Everybody has the right to be clean. ... Our homeless have enormous needs. Crack and Cider is a great addition to the landscape of organizations we have working already in San Francisco.” The Tenderloin Museum is located at 398 Eddy Street. For more information about Crack and Cider, visit https://crackandcider.com.t

Rick Gerharter

Crack and Cider is a new popup shop inside the Tenderloin Museum where, through people’s purchase of cards, items are procured for people who are homeless.

Friday memorial Sunday

Wayne Friday

Steven Underhill

riends of the late Bay Area Reporter political editor Wayne Friday want to remind people that a celebration of his life will be held Sunday, November 20 at 4 p.m. at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Friday, 79, killed himself October 12. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and his health had faltered in the weeks before his death. Friday penned the B.A.R.’s popular Our Man Friday column for many years, taking over from Harvey Milk after he was elected supervisor. Friday retired from the paper in 2004. He had also been an investigator for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and served on the San Francisco Police Commission. Some of Friday’s friends have set up a Gofundme account to help cover memorial expenses. To donate, visit https://www.gofundme.com/ wayne-friday-memorial.t

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55 Laguna

From page 5

people who have more recently been forced out of their homes due to an Ellis Act or owner move in eviction. According to Openhouse, everyone who applied for 55 Laguna should have received a postcard in August detailing their waitlist status if they were not chosen to be among the first residents of the project. As vacancies in the building become available, those on the wait list will be contacted in order to see if they qualify to move into the units.t

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10/26/16 9:41 AM

<< Election 2016

12 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Out candidates win big in state races by Lisa Keen

Candidates for state legislative seats fared much better: 74 percent of the 89 candidates won. Among the winners was newcomer Daniel Hernandez, the aide who helped save the life of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Arizona) during a 2011 shooting incident in Tucson. Hernandez won a seat to the Arizona state House. Toni Atkins, who was term-limited out of her position as speaker of the California Assembly, won a seat in the state Senate. And, among the incumbents

to win re-election, Minnesota state Representative Karen Clark was reelected for the 18th time, retaining her title as the longest serving lesbian in any state legislature. Clark, who was first elected in 1980, serves the south Minneapolis area. In local office elections, 33 out of 60 LGBT candidates won. Among them was newcomer Jimmy Flannigan, who unseated an incumbent for a seat on the Austin, Texas City Council. Kim Ogg, a lesbian, beat out an incumbent to become the district attorney of Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston. And half of 16 LGBT candidates for elective judicial seats won election Tuesday. In Washington state, lesbian Mary Yu won re-election to her seat

on the Washington Supreme Court. But the biggest victory by far November 8 for the LGBT community was that of Brown, in her first run for governor of Oregon. Brown won with 51 percent of the vote. Her Republican challenger took 44 percent, and three other candidates took the remaining 5 percent. “Kate Brown’s win in Oregon is one for the history books,” said Aisha C. Moodie-Mills, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which works to elect LGBT candidates. Brown, a bisexual, is the first openly LGBT person to be elected as governor anywhere in the country. (The first LGBT person to serve as governor was Jim McGreevey, who came out as gay after being elected governor of New Jersey and then resigned office.) Brown has been elected a state representative, a state senator, and then twice as Oregon’s secretary of state. She stepped into the governor’s position in 2015, after thenGovernor John Kitzhaber resigned following an ethics scandal. Although married for almost 20 years to her husband Dan Little, Brown, 56, has embraced opportunities to help the LGBT community. She told the Washington Post November 9, “I will, within my role at the National Governors’ Association and other organizations

like the Western Governors Association, continue to use that voice and my experiences as a member of the LGBT community, as well as my female voice to help us push forward as a nation.” The 188 LGBT candidates on the ballot November 8 were spread out in 36 states plus the District of Columbia. California had the greatest number of LGBT candidates by far, with 50; followed by Washington State with 10, and Georgia with nine. Twenty-nine of California’s 50 LGBT candidates won election, including four members of the state Assembly and four to the state Senate. San Francisco boasted the largest number of LGBT candidates in California –12 – of which seven won. One candidate this year came out during his re-election campaign: North Carolina state Representative Cecil Brockman (D) of Greensboro publicly acknowledged being bisexual in an interview with his local paper November 3. Brockman, 32, was running unopposed for his seat in the General Assembly. Brockman told the News & Record, “I always felt that I tried to stick up for the LGBT community, even when I wasn’t ‘out.’ I want to do more on my part, to be stronger and admit to the world that I’m actually a member of this community as well.”t

reality for millions of queer people around the world. We married same-sex couples over a Valentine’s Day weekend as the world looked on in amazement. We survived “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” We survived one of the greatest pandemics of our time. We survived marriage discrimination. We survived health care inequality. We survived violence and police brutality. We survived Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W Bush. We

can survive Donald Trump. The time for mourning is over – enough already. It’s now time to look to the future, plan, strategize, and work together to plan our defense and continue to push for progress. Over the next weeks and months, every day is going to be LGBTQ Pride Day. Raise the flag, show our colors, and support one another. Be a catalyst to bring all of our diverse San Francisco communi-

ties together, queer and straight, documented or not, all nationalities, races, colors, and creed. Put aside our differences and acknowledge that everyone is in this together and we are stronger together. Remember, once there was a gay boy in Altoona, Pennsylvania, who looked to San Francisco for hope. He is now married and has children of his own and is once again looking to us for strength and leadership. Like it or not, San Francisco has to

demonstrate again. And always that hope is alive. I was reminded of this Monday at the mayor’s unity rally when the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus sang, “We are gentle and loving people and we are singing, singing for our lives. ...” and those of queer people everywhere.t

ate Brown became the first openly LGBT person to be elected governor, winning the office in Oregon November 8. Elsewhere in the nation, there were only a few scattered “firsts” to be celebrated, and 61 percent of 188 openly LGBT candidates this year won their races. By comparison, in 2012, out of 152 LGBT candidates on the ballot, 77 percent (118) won, while 22 percent (33) lost. In addition to Brown, the winners included Leslie Herod, the first openly LGBT African-American elected to the Colorado House of Representatives; Carlos Guillermo Smith, the first openly LGBT Latino to be elected to the Florida state Legislature, representing Orlando; and Sam Park, the first openly gay man to be elected to the Georgia Legislature. All six incumbent LGBT members of Congress won re-election November 8, but none of the 12 other LGBT candidates for federal office won. Two sought U.S. Senate seats, and 10 sought House seats. The one candidate who polls suggested would likely win – businesswoman Angie Craig – fell short. Craig won 45 percent of the vote, while her opponent, radio talk show host Jason Lewis (R), won Minneso-

Guest Opinion

From page 9

human cost of AIDS with the AIDS quilt. We showed the world how to respectfully mourn the relentless violence against trans people of color by creating the Transgender Day of Remembrance. We displayed our pride through music by founding of the first gay men’s chorus in the world. We created programs for LGBTQ equality that are now a

Oregon Governor Kate Brown spoke to supporters last week following her historic win.

ta’s 2nd Congressional District with 47 percent. Eight percent of the vote went to an independent candidate.

State level races

Courtesy Facebook

Daniel Hernandez won his Arizona House seat last week.

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Theresa Sparks is San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s senior adviser for transgender initiatives.

Community News>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 13

Castro sober space hires new executive director by Sari Staver

fter an intensive seven-month search for a new leader, Billy Lemon has been named executive director of the Castro Country Club, a nonprofit that is a hub for San Francisco’s LGBT clean and sober community. On September 1, Lemon, a 44-year-old gay man, took the reins at the Edwardian house at 4058 18th Street where the club is based. Last year the club drew over 40,000 visits for 12-step meetings, peer counseling, job training, and social support. The club operates a Peet’s cafe with free Wi-Fi and a back patio that is open to the public from early morning till late at night, 365 days a year. There are some 40 12step meetings each week, including groups specifically for women, people of color, and people living with HIV and hepatitis C. Lemon, who had been working in the club’s cafe since last January, had been a volunteer for two years prior to that. “After a thorough search for the right leader, we discovered that the solution was right under our nose, and that Billy was exactly what we were looking for,” Carlos Perea, chairman of the club’s 17-member advisory board, wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. “We wanted someone with personality, ambition, fortitude, vision, and an understanding of our mission. We were seeking someone who could step up to challenges with confidence and conviction,” said Perea, who has been volunteering with the organization for the past 13 years and has been on the board for the past four. Lemon’s predecessor, Terry Beswick, who is now executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, said, “Billy Lemon personifies everything the Castro Country Club is about: service and humility, with a big dose of humor and fun. “While the club does a lot of other things nowadays, it is so important that it stays rooted in its origins: providing a sober social space in the Castro for LGBTQ people as an alternative to the bars and clubs,” Beswick added. “As long as there is alcoholism and addiction in the queer community, the work will continue to be very challenging. Fortunately, Billy brings a very big heart to the job.” Beswick said he sees some of his predecessor, the late Dan Cusick, in how Lemon approached his job working at the cafe. Lemon, who credits the Castro Country Club with helping him get and stay sober after a “10-year run” with drugs and alcohol, had previous restaurant management experience, leading him to apply for the job working in the cafe. “It was a natural fit,” he said. But when Beswick resigned from the club just one month after Lemon started work there, “I thought OK, I’m getting a new boss. I did not even think about applying for the job,” he said. As the only paid employee on staff, Lemon said, “I just decided to step in and step up” to help the board keep the organization running smoothly while they searched for an executive director.” Lemon put in 60-hour-plus workweeks and helped the board with fundraising and managing other club programs, including the club’s volunteers. When several board members suggested he apply for the vacant position, “The thought of filling Terry’s shoes was pretty frightening,” Lemon said. Beswick, he noted, is widely credited with taking the organization “out of the red” shortly after he took over in 2008.

“Terry has been the voice of In addition to having prices the country club and has the 30 percent lower than the comrespect of everyone in the competition, “on a nice day, this munity,” said Lemon. patio is an oasis,” he added. After a series of formal inter“There is nothing any nicer anyviews, the board offered Lemon where in the Castro.” the job, which pays $50,000. On most summer weekends, Running the country club the patio is rented to people havinvolves supervising 200 voluning celebrations, often marking teers and managing a budget their sobriety anniversary date. of $350,000 Lemon said. The “We’re almost always San Francisco AIDS Foundation booked,” Lemon said. Potlucks serves as the club’s temporary are planned for the Thanksgivfiscal agent. ing and Christmas holidays, he In an interview with the added. B.A.R. just 10 weeks into the While the club began prinew job, Lemon said, “I’m marily as a safe place for LGBT honored to have been given the people in recovery, it has seen an opportunity to help build the increasing number of straight country club so that down the allies using its services, as the road, we will be here for people neighborhood has changed. who are looking for support” in “Everyone is welcome,” getting and staying sober. Lemon said. Sari Staver Of his accomplishments to As for challenges ahead, date, Lemon said he is most Executive Director Billy Lemon sits in the Lemon says he “hates to think” proud of the club’s successful patio area of the Castro Country Club. about lease negotiations, alfundraising campaigns this year, though that day is still several including a record-setting annual years away. The club continues to be cash gala, where over 200 people at“We have the same financial flow positive, a trend that began tended a formal dinner at the Green issues as everyone else who rents under Beswick’s leadership, said Room in the Veterans Building. The space in our increasingly expensive Lemon. When the cafe opened in annual event, which began in the city,” he said. 1983, “we were the only coffee shop basement of Most Holy Redeemer The club will soon launch an in the neighborhood,” he noted. Catholic Church, has “grown signifiend-of-the-year fundraising drive, “Now there are 13.” cantly” over the years, said Lemon. hoping to raise $15,000. Current

and prospective donors will be contacted via email and those interested in contributing can do so at the club’s website, http://www.castrocountryclub.org. Working with the board, Lemon has applied for the club to become a “legacy business,” which would mean the city’s legacy business program would help subsidize costs. In the short term, Lemon is looking forward to hiring someone to help manage the cafe and the volunteer program. “We are most definitely understaffed right now,” he said. Perea said the organization has “complete and unwavering confidence” in Lemon. “It was also important for the Castro Country Club to embrace what our recovery community is all about – helping people to know their true worth, and show them how the skills they already have, and their abilities, contain all the makings of success,” Perea said. “After this past election, we are more grateful than ever that we have a strong leader of our organization and the safe haven of the Castro Country Club where we can surround ourselves with love, acceptance, tolerance, and sobriety,” he added.t

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<< National News

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Trump says marriage is ‘settled’ but LGBTs remain on guard by Lisa Keen

resident-elect Donald Trump said in a post-election interview that marriage equality is “settled” and “it’s law,” and he expressed no interest in pursuing an agenda to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down state bans on marriage licenses for same-sex couples. That was welcome news to many LGBT people, as were the rumors Monday that Trump is considering naming a gay man to a cabinet-level position. But neither piece of news was enough to assuage the deep concern of most LGBT legal activists that the incoming Trump administration is poised to inflict enormous damage to civil rights gains from the past eight years for LGBT people. Trump’s comment on marriage equality came in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl. This was Trump’s first interview since winning enough states November 8 against Democrat Hillary Clinton to lay claim to 290 electoral votes. (Clinton won the popular vote but, under the Constitution, the candidate with 270 electoral votes wins.) Stahl told Trump that LGBTQ people are “expressing fear” of his impending presidency. Trump interrupted to express surprise about this, noting that he “mentioned” LGBT people during his speech at the Republican National Convention. “Everybody said that was so great,” added Trump. “I have been, you know, I’ve been a supporter.” At the GOP convention in July, Trump vowed to do “everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful, foreign ideology.” He was referring to the massacre at the Orlando LGBT nightclub Pulse by Omar Mateen, an American citizen whose parents emigrated from Afghanistan. But Trump sent other messages during his campaign that suggested his administration would not be a beneficial one for the LGBT community. He said he would appoint a Supreme Court nominee in the mold

Trump win

From page 7

“Trying to stay safe is going to be that much trickier for the next little while,” said Henson, who’d felt safe before the election. “The LGBT community had a pretty good thing going,” she said, “... but I’m not sure how that’s going to go now.” True Spain, a 29-year-old lesbian, said she’s felt safe in Hickory, but she

Courtesy CBS

President-elect Donald Trump talked to 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl in an interview broadcast Sunday.

of the late Antonin Scalia, who had the most anti-gay voting record of any justice in history. He said the treatment of transgender people in regards to public restrooms should be “left to the states.” He said he would sign the anti-LGBT First Amendment Defense Act. And he vowed to “cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum, and order” issued by President Barack Obama. Some of those affect the LGBT community. Charles Moran, a gay businessman in Los Angeles who was a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention, said Trump’s remarks about marriage equality being settled law are “consistent with his comments during the campaign.” “We knew it would be a non-issue with him, and he won’t be distracted from his core mission of securing our borders, strengthening our economy, and fixing Obamacare,” said Moran, referring to the Affordable Care Act. “He is a modern Republican, and I’m happy to see he’s fulfilling on his commitment to put this decisive issue behind us. It’s good for the gays, good for the Republican Party, and good for America.” Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said, “There is no reason to believe that Trump intends to go after marriage equality, and it would be very difficult for him to do that. “I am much more concerned

about his threat to undo protections for LGBT federal employees and students, deport large numbers of immigrants, privatize Medicare, turn Medicaid into block grants, and remove any checks on the misuse of police violence,” said Minter. Stahl did not press Trump on any LGBT matter other than marriage in her interview, but Minter and other LGBT legal activists are “extremely concerned” about a truckload of issues, not just marriage equality. “The Trump administration has the ability to affect an awful lot more than the fundamental right to marry,” said Camilla Taylor, an attorney and spokeswoman for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. She noted the Trump administration could wreak havoc over important gains for LGBT people under the Obama administration, including its filing a lawsuit against the LGBT-hostile North Carolina law House Bill 2, the interpretation of Title IX to protect gender identity, and its willingness to stand up for LGBT equality in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. “This is a terrifying time to be an LGBT activist,” said Taylor. And while Trump may say that marriage equality is a matter of settled law, Taylor said activists must anticipate the possibility that antiLGBT forces will attempt to mount new challenges against marriage as

called Trump’s victory “heartbreaking.” “I was absolutely devastated at the repercussions I will face as a lesbian in North Carolina,” said Spain, who recently moved from Georgia. She noted that as in many states, LGBTs can still be fired from their jobs, lose their homes, and face other problems because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. “We’ve achieved marriage equality,” she said, but there’s “always that fear” Trump and his administration

will end same-sex marriages.

Mountain West

The election scared people in Montana, too. “Initially, we were all kind of devastated,” said Eric Gilmour, the volunteer coordinator at the Great Falls LGBTQ Center, which operates on about $15,000 a year and provides support groups and other services. “It’s gotten really difficult to find grants, because everyone thought

they have against Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to seek an abortion. “It’s very unlikely we’ll see the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision overruled,” said Taylor, in reference to the high court’s ruling in 2015 that state bans on marriage licenses for same-sex couples were unconstitutional. “But, there are a number of ways in which a hostile administration could try to chip away at those rights. We’re extremely concerned.” Like Taylor, Gary Buseck of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders doesn’t think the Supreme Court is poised to overturn its decision on marriage equality. But he, too, sees the prospects for anti-LGBT activists to employ Roe v. Wade type strategies to undermine it. “Even without a Trump presidency, we have those who oppose marriage equality and have been working and will continue to work to reverse our gains,” said Buseck. “I am sure they continue to look for vehicles to set the question up for Supreme Court review in the future.” That increases worry around who Trump will appoint to the Supreme Court seat vacated in February when Scalia suddenly died. LGBT legal activists are concerned that a Scalia-like appointee, confirmed with relative ease by a Republicandominated Senate, could be on the bench when many upcoming battles arrive. The court has already accepted a case over Title IX protections for transgender students and it is likely to take up one of several cases over whether religious beliefs can be used as an excuse to deny services to LGBT people in restaurants, hotels, and other public accommodations. Even beyond the court, LGBT legal activists are concerned that Trump may reverse executive orders signed by Obama that ensured protections for LGBT people in important areas, including federal employment, health care, and basic recognition of their relationships in hospitals. In 2014, Obama signed an executive order (E.O. 13762) prohibiting contractors who do business with the federal government from discrimi-

nating based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The same order also added gender identity to an existing order (E.O. 13087, signed by President Bill Clinton) that prohibited discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation. Obama also signed a memorandum in 2010, directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that all hospitals receiving Medicaid and Medicare enable LGBT patients to designate their partners and families for visitation privileges. He also signed a memorandum in 2009, directing federal agencies to extend “as many benefits as possible under the law” to gay federal employees with same-sex partners. And every June during his administration, Obama has signed a Pride Month proclamation. Anti-LGBT activists have been calling on Trump to reverse the Departments of Justice and Education memorandum, interpreting Title IX as prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity. They also want him to reverse a determination by Health and Human Services that require insurance providers to cover gender transition medical expenses. Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported last Friday that gay PayPal founder Peter Thiel, another Trump delegate to the convention, is joining the Trump transition team. And the Associated Press reported Monday morning that Trump is considering appointing Richard Grenell as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The position has been considered part of the president’s Cabinet in most administrations (but not those of the two Presidents Bush) and is currently held by Samantha Power. Grenell, who is a political commentator for Fox News and was a Trump delegate to the GOP convention in July, was an adviser to 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Grenell resigned that position after only two weeks, reportedly after “a full-court press by anti-gay conservatives” to get rid of him.t

everything’s gotten so great in the United States” that funders are devoting more resources to LGBTs in developing nations. “We’re just thinking maybe we can keep our chin up for four years,” until the next presidential election, Gilmour said. “I’m tired of fighting, but I’ll keep on fighting.” Despite the fears, many said that since last week, people including straight allies are reaching out to offer help.

Robinson, who along with his Free2Be role co-hosts what he says is “Alabama’s only liberal talk radio show,” said that at last week’s Veterans Day parade, “We had 14 people in our little contingent,” and many of them were non-LGBTQ allies. “We’re anticipating an increase in overall support,” he said. “People are realizing marriage equality was not the end of everything we needed ... We’re anticipating people are going to come out even stronger.”t

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November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

nterested people can sign up now for the annual Santa Skivvies Run that benefits the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. The run takes place Sunday, December 11 and starts at Noe and Market streets in the Castro. Check in is from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. and the run starts at 11. Organizers said that everyone is welcome to participate: naughty or nice, young or old, fresh-faced newbie or longtime Skivvies veteran. People can pull on their favorite festive costume, or strip down to their undies to raise awareness and fight HIV/AIDS. People should wear running shoes. Registration is $45 and there is a suggested fundraising goal of $250. For more information, visit http://santaskivviesrun.org/.

Help LGBT seniors for Thanksgiving

Openhouse is now raising money for its Fall Feast that provides a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for LGBT seniors with turkey, stuffing, and other home comforts. Openhouse noted that most of the city’s LGBT elders lack the social or family structures others enjoy during the holidays. The organization’s goal is to raise $3,000 by Friday, November 18 to help cover the cost of the feast. Donations of any size are welcome and can be made by visiting https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/ openhouse-2016-fall-feast.

SleepOut to raise funds for homeless youth

same name, looks at the history and successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic. He tells the story of grassroots activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. “Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments,” publicity materials for the book state. The materials also note that not since the publication of the late Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On has a book “measured the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.” Shilts’ 1987 book recently was in the news when scientists debunked his central claim that Canadian flight attendant Gaétan Dugas, a.k.a. Patient Zero, was responsible for sparking the epidemic in the U.S. According to researchers, it turns out that a new genetic analysis shows that HIV

Steven Underhill

Participants get ready to take part in last year’s Santa Skivvies Run in the Castro.

likely spread from the Caribbean to New York around 1971 and from there to San Francisco around 1976. France, who has written for the New York Times and other publications, is the co-author, with former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, of The Confession, which tells the story of McGreevey’s life and coming out as a gay man. How to Survive A Plague will be released November 29.

Berkeley seeks commissioners

Gay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington encourages interested residents in the city to apply for various commission appointments ahead of the new council members and mayor being sworn in next month. Three new council members were elected last week, and they each get to appoint 39 commissioners, Worthington said. Other council

members also have appointments to make, he said in a news release. Additionally, Mayor-elect Jesse Arreguin, a straight ally, will be sworn into office December 1, becoming the city’s youngest mayor, at age 32, and its first Latino mayor. Worthington said that Arreguin and new Councilmembers Cheryl Davila, Ben Bartlett, and Sophie Hahn’s first regular meeting will be Tuesday, December 13. On Tuesday, November 29, the City Council will hold a farewell tribute to thank outgoing Councilmembers Max Anderson, who opted not to run for re-election; Laurie Capitelli, who didn’t run for re-election because he ran for mayor; and Darryl Moore, a gay man who was defeated in last week’s election. A special election will be called for the District 4 seat, which Arreguin is vacating since he won the mayoral race. For the commission seats, people can nominate themselves or someone they think would be an excellent volunteer commissioner. To learn more about the city’s commissions and an application form, visit http://cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/ Commissions/Commissions__ Applications.aspx. See page 21 >>

Together, we can achieve your possible.

Local executives from tech companies and others will take their sleeping bags and sleep on the street in solidarity with the homeless youth of Oakland during Covenant House California’s SleepOut Friday, November 18. The leaders will also raise funds for the program, which has 30 beds for homeless youth, including many who identify as LGBTQ. So far, more than $51,000 of Covenant House Oakland’s $75,000 goal has been raised, according to the website. There will be a similar event at the organization’s Hollywood location. People will start meeting at 7:30 p.m. Friday and the sleepover ends Saturday at 6 a.m. Covenant House is located at 200 Harrison Street. For more information about participating, or to donate, visit http://covhou.convio.net/site/ TR?fr_id=1774&pg=entry.

HIV testing at Port bar

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation will sponsor an HIV testing event Saturday, November 19 at the Port bar, Oakland’s newest LGBT bar located at 2023 Broadway. According to Nicholas ClementsLindsey, AHF pharmacy representative for the East Bay, there will be an open bar from 2 to 6 p.m. for patrons who get tested. In addition to the bar and AHF, cosponsors of the “Dirty Dock Party” include ImpulseSF, the Office of AIDS Alameda County, Steamworks, and Cal-Pep. Sable Jones is hosting and DJs include Dylan Mahoney.

The difference between impossible and possible often starts with a person saying, “I think I can.” At U.S. Bank, we think you can too. And with our online tools and resources, we’re here to help in every way we can. Find your possible at a U.S. Bank branch, call 800.825.BANK (2265), or visit financialgenius.usbank.com

AIDS book author to speak in SF

David France, the author of the soon-to-be-released How to Survive A Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS, will be in San Francisco speaking about the book Wednesday, November 30 at 7 p.m. at Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue. France, creator of the Oscarnominated documentary of the

<< National News

t Orlando to buy Pulse nightclub site, build memorial 18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

by David-Elijah Nahmod

rlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has announced that the South Florida city will purchase Pulse nightclub for $2.25 million and turn it into a memorial. The popular LGBT nightspot was the site of a June 12 mass shooting after Omar Mateen opened fire and took the lives of 49 patrons, many Latino and most LGBT-identified. Another 53 people were injured. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter in U.S. history. The city will turn the site into a permanent memorial to honor those who were killed that night. “There’s a lot of people who are making a visit to the site part of their trip, part of their experience of Orlando,” Dyer told the Orlando Sentinel November 8. The goal is to “create something to honor the memory of the victims that are de-

WalterPro4755/Flickr via SFGN

Outside Pulse nightclub, a memorial has grown since the June 12 shooting there.

ceased and those that were injured, and a testament to the resilience of our community,” he said. According to South Florida Gay News, the Pulse site is still visited

daily by mourners. The city plans to reach out to the community for input in how the memorial should be constructed. Equality Florida, the state’s LGBT

rights group, applauded the plan. “The Pulse memorial has the potential to be a beacon for the LGBTQ community across the country,” Equality Florida public policy director Hannah Willard told the Bay Area Reporter by phone. “The massacre at Pulse touched the hearts of so many around the world, and I commend the city of Orlando for seeking to memorialize the lives of those we lost and amplify the stories of LGBTQ people in Orlando.” Residents of South Florida expressed their approval of the plan. “I think Orlando purchasing Pulse and turning it into a memorial is an excellent idea,” said Alan R. Henry, a 62-year-old gay man in Port St Lucie, which is in the Orlando area. “The news of that horror affected me deeply, although I never go clubbing anymore. Whatever Orlando and the rest of the people involved want to set up there, will be better than trying to reopen it as a

dance club. My heart goes out to all the survivors, and friends and families of the victims.” Henry also said that Mateen, the Pulse shooter, was from his town. Brendon Lies, 26, a transgender man in Wilton Manors, Florida, also said that he was deeply affected by the Pulse shootings. “What happened at Pulse left me with very serious pain,” he said. “Like a smaller, more targeted 9/11, it was an assault on our community, but we came together across the world in order to heal. For many people, Pulse is already a landmark. I’m grateful that we’ll be able to pay our respects there for many years to come.” Dyer said that Pulse would most likely not be changed for another year. Funds are currently being distributed to victims and their families. The Associated Press reported that the victims’ estates will get $350,000 each.t

Anti-Trump protests

From page 1

near Harvey Milk Plaza to express their opposition to the presidentelect, who has promised to deport undocumented immigrants and overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that guarantees abortion rights to women. In an interview on 60 Minutes Sunday, Trump said same-sex marriage was “settled,” but LGBT activists and legal experts remain extremely concerned about marriage equality and other rights Trump could roll back. (See story, page 14.) In the Castro, there was applause, cheers, and tears as activists and community members vowed to never go back to the days when LGBT people had no rights and were forced to live in the closet. “We’re going to march in solidarity with workers and undocumented immigrants who are on the front lines of this nightmare,” activist Gregg Cassin told the crowd. Longtime activist Cleve Jones took the microphone to address the crowd as the protesters waiting for the other group to arrive. “We’re going to march to 24th and Mission to show solidarity with the immigrant community, which is

Jo-Lynn Otto

A group of people met Friday, November 11 at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center to strategize in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election as president.

in the most immediate danger from this assault,” Jones said as people applauded. “We have been thinking about this all day long. We’ve cried, some of you have prayed. We’re angry, we’re fearful – if you’re not fearful you’re not paying attention. And don’t tell me we got through Reagan and we got through Bush – too many of my brothers did not.” Jones was referring to the inaction

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of the Reagan administration during the peak years of the AIDS epidemic, which decimated the gay community, and of the opposition to LGBT equality from Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. “We know what we’re up against,” Jones said. “And we know that the only way we will survive is if we stick together, love each other, respect each other, and have each other’s backs.” Women also addressed the crowd. “I’m a lesbian, and I’m a woman of color,” said Ruth McFarlane, director of development and community engagement at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “We need to have more voices in this struggle on the mic. We need to make sure that women have a voice. We need to break that glass ceiling. I encourage if you are a woman or a femalebodied person, step up. Step into your leadership. If you’re a person of color, a transgender person, an immigrant, an undocumented person, we are here for you – it’s time for you. This is your moment.” McFarlane also said that at a legal meeting that took place at NCLR that morning, it was concluded that marriage equality laws are safe. But experts have considered that those rights could be chipped away by Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. “We must show love to all the communities we belong to,” she said. Laura Diven, an attorney for the Modesto Family Law Center, fought back tears as she reminded people that not all of California was a safe haven. “Don’t forget people in places like Modesto and Riverside,” she said. A number of straight allies joined the Castro protesters, including 22-year-old Will Meckfessel. “I’m absolutely terrified,” Meckfessel told Bay Area Reporter. “Not just for myself, but for everyone. No one really knows what will happen. It’s disturbing that this buffoon has

control of our armies – he’s been given a blank check.” Sister Rosemary Chicken of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence also spoke to the B.A.R. “We’re entering into really dark times and we need to stick together and hold it together,” Chicken said. “We have to find a way to get through this. A line has been drawn.” As the Market Street demonstrators arrived, the two groups stood in the center of Castro Street. Led by Jones, the march began amidst shouts of “ACT UP! Fight Back!,” which was the rallying cry for ACT UP, the AIDS action and activist group that rose to prominence during the 1980s. As the protesters, now numbering several thousand, made their way up 18th Street, neighborhood residents came to their front doors and windows and cheered. “I’m horrified, disgusted, and frightened in watching the rise to power of this authoritarian bully,” David A. Diaz, 50, a gay man who lives in the neighborhood, said as he marched. “My parents were forced to leave their homeland, Cuba, as they watched a dictator take over their country, and it feels strange that 50plus years later, I’m finding myself faced with a similar decision. I will continue to march, as long as they remain peaceful, and don’t become violent or excuses to loot or destroy the city. I don’t think that’s productive.” Ernie Lafky, a 53-year-old straight ally, shouted, “Out of the condos and into the streets” as the marchers walked passed condo developments. “I’m here because I’m incredibly angry and frustrated with this country,” he said. “I’m a techie. Techies need to get out of their condos and show they care because I know they do.”

Other actions

In Oakland, protests last week re-

sulted in some looting and vandalism, forcing Mayor Libby Schaaf to plead for peaceful demonstrations. In San Jose, LGBTs gathered at the Billy DeFrank Center last Friday and offered to look into training and resources for the South Bay community. Meanwhile, protests continued throughout the week. Last Saturday a small group gathered in Dolores Park to sing songs of peace and to offer hugs to those in need of healing. On Sunday there was a sit-in at 555 California Street in the Financial district, a building that is partially owned by Trump. Also on Sunday, thousands gathered around Oakland’s Lake Merritt to form a human chain of solidarity around the entire lake – more than 13,000 people expressed interest on the event’s Facebook page. Protests continued in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, home to many Latinos and immigrants. Daily marches have also taken place in various San Francisco neighborhoods, including the Castro, Civic Center, and Ocean Beach. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck have all said that their cities will remain sanctuary cities. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has urged protesters in his city to continue their actions. At a unity rally Monday morning in City Hall, Lee acknowledged many people are frustrated, but vowed that San Francisco will remain “a city of refuge, a city of sanctuary, and a city of love.” “We promise to be a city that’s always welcoming,” the mayor said. “There will be no walls in our city.” He said the city would help protect immigrant families, LGBTQs, and others. On his Twitter feed, Trump called the protests “unfair.”t

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<< Sports

20 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

The men in the arena

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Athlete Ally’s Hudson Taylor

the men’s soccer and cross country teams at Harvard were discovered earlier this month to have been writing lewd, misogynistic “scouting reports” on female athletes for years. Then over the weekend, we learned that members of the wrestling team at Columbia were making incredibly offensive racist, sexist, and homophobic comments in a group chat the past few years. The university immediately canceled the team’s season-opening match as it launched an investigation. On Tuesday, it announced the season has been suspended. After screenshots of the Columbia wrestlers’ chat were published by student-run www.bwog.com university officials told the site, “Columbia University has zero tolerance in its athletics programs for the group messaging and texts sent by several members of the men’s varsity wrestling team. They are appalling, at odds with the core values of the university, violate team guidelines, and have no place in our community.”

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Or, for that matter, any community. Still shocked at the divisions in our society at play throughout the entire presidential election cycle? Consider that one of these rich, white, and entitled gentlemen from Columbia wrote, “People in Africa still can’t tell time and that’s why even if we gave them free aids medicine they wouldn’t be able to use it properly.” Or, “Columbia bitches feel entitled to something when in reality they are all ugly socially awkward cunts.” Or, writing about Columbia social gatherings, “I hope someone actually gets sexually assaulted.” Of course, several internet intellects were quick to state that such Neanderthal behavior is encouraged and inspired by President-elect Donald Trump’s excusing of his own sexual assault comments as mere “locker room talk” – but this behavior has been going on years before the athletes had heard those Trump comments. As a high school wrestling coach, I encounter teachable moments on sexism and other discrimination almost daily. For instance, last week a potential recruit said that he was worried that he might have to wrestle a girl. Last year a black wrestler told me he wanted to forfeit his next tournament match rather than compete against a wrestler from a school for the deaf. Before that a freshman wrestler once similarly said he did not want to wrestle a girl in his weight class. In each instance, I did not cajole, shrug and accept, and enable with a hearty laugh. I took the time to have a Socratic dialogue with each athlete to show where his reluctance or prejudice was in direct conflict not See page 21 >>

Remembering author, disability advocate Marta Russell by Belo Cipriani

What would your story be?

Robert Hasty

decade or so ago while I was training to wrestle in the 2006 Gay Games, a teammate with Golden Gate Wrestling was talking about the repulsive recruiting tactics he encountered by universities when he was coming out of high school. The incident he mentioned that stood out was one at a state school in rural California. He was chatting with some of the college wrestlers about what the school was like, what the program was like, and what the town was like. Another recruiter pulled up in a pickup truck, got out and asked, “So, have you gotten this guy laid yet?” Variations of this incident were repeated as he made the round of schools, he told us. At the time, I hadn’t heard many things like that. I assumed it was an artifact of a win-at-anycost culture at a few scholarship programs, probably more commonplace in the cutthroat world of hyper-competitive football. I cynically thought about how little life in those towns or studying at those schools must have to offer if that was dangled as a prime inducement. But now we see evidence of it all over: objectification and exploitation of women is virtually hardwired into the culture and social interaction of one male college sports program after another. An assistant men’s basketball coach at Louisville lost his job over allegations he was arranging for hookers for players. Louisiana State University dropped notable administrators after allegations cropped up about repeated sexual assaults by football players there. As I wrote last week,

arta Russell (1951-2013) was a California-based writer and disability rights advocate best known for her thought-provoking book Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract – a look at the marginalization of people with disabilities in the labor market. Russell, who was not an academic, was published in several scholarly journals, and both influenced and inspired generations of activists, teachers, and artists. To honor Russell’s legacy, Ravi Malhotra, 45, associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa, has put together an anthology that features today’s leading voices in disability studies. The collection, titled Disability Politics in a Global Economy: Essays in Honor of Marta Russell, has contributors reflect on Russell’s influence in their own research and careers. “While we never met in the flesh, we collaborated on an article that appeared in the British journal the Socialist Register,” said Malhotra. “I was shocked when I heard Marta had died in 2013. I felt she never got the recognition she was due and it was important to honor her legacy.” Malhotra is quick to point out that unlike a lot of disability activists who focus their work around cultural studies or identity, Russell focused her research efforts on political economy – making her work

John Scheele

The legacy of disability rights advocate Marta Russell will be honored with a new book.

truly unique and deeply important for the disability field. “Most disability scholars have ignored political economy. By focusing entirely on cultural studies or identity, the class dimensions of disablement are missed. This trend is, of course, true across the social sciences, but it is a particular problem in disability studies,” said Malhotra. One of the book’s contributors, David Connor, a 54-year-old gay man from Manhattan and a professor at Hunter College in the City University of New York, believes that it was Russell’s sharp ideas and straight-forward communication style that make her truly memorable. “In many ways, although the cliché is overused, she had the gift of ‘telling it like it is’ in terms of how

disabled people are positioned, limited, and contained in a society that sees their needs being at the end of the line,” he said. Connor, who taught in the public school system in New York for 18 years, is grateful for Russell’s contribution to special education. “Marta was one of the first people that I read who asked, ‘Why be normal?’ As we share, her ideas became instrumental in developing the theoretical framework for DSE [Disability Standards for Education] that has helped critique special education in its limited and, frankly, damaging understandings of human differences,” he said. Other contributors include celebrated Oakland writer Anne Finger, and distinguished scholar Suzanne Stolz, who, along with Malhotra, will be present at the West Coast book launch and discussion panel Thursday, November 17, at noon on the fifth floor of the California Institute of Integral Studies campus, 1453 Mission Street in San Francisco. For more information, contact Sara M. Acevedo, diversity and disability advocacy fellow at CIIS at sacevedo@ciius.edu or (415) 575-6385.t Belo Cipriani is a disability advocate, a freelance journalist, the award-winning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams, the spokesman for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the national spokesman for 100 Percent Wine – a premium winery that donates 100 percent of proceeds to nonprofits that help people with disabilities find work. Learn more at www.belocipriani.com.

t <<

Community News>>

News Briefs

From page 17

SFPD district stations launch sock, blanket drive

The San Francisco Police Department is seeking the public’s help to provide clean, dry socks and blankets to people without homes during the winter months. Officers with the Park Station’s Homeless Outreach Team have gathered socks and blankets for homeless

Trans employees

From page 6

When Farley moved to New York City, her problems continued. “I couldn’t even find a job as a busser,” she said, realizing that people were uncomfortable with “my voice, my presentation, my self-expression.” Roni Lee Height, a transgender woman who previously was an executive at Chevron in San Francisco, said, “the good outweighed the bad” when she transitioned at work. While her boss helped her develop a workplace plan, several women in her department wanted her to continue to use the men’s bathroom. “Most people were supportive and welcoming,” she added. Marnie Florin came out three years

Jock Talk

From page 20

just with his own stated values, but his best self-interest. Little victories on the road to progress, but obviously obscured in the bigger picture by the sheer ubiquitousness of it all. The biggest shocker was that this latest scandal occurred in the Columbia wrestling program, which has been blessed in recent years to have feminist activist and LGBT advocate Hudson Taylor on its coaching staff. Taylor had worn a Human Right Campaign logo on his head-

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

people for more than six years. Donations of socks and clean blankets (new or gently used) are accepted 24 hours a day until November 30 at Park Station, 1889 Waller Street (at Stanyan). Donations should be marked “Park Crockett Drive.” Central Station is also collecting socks through December 31. Donations can be brought directly to the station, located at 766 Vallejo Street (between Powell and Stockton streets).

Age March 2016

ago as gender neutral while at Columbia Business School in New York City. Florin, who uses the pronoun “ze,” realized peers “were a bit confused” and “had many questions.” Florin created a Transgender 101 training. When Florin began work as a global process manager at Google, ze and a colleague developed a training program that has been given to over 2,000 employees worldwide. Florin also has a consulting company (http://www.marnieflorin. com) that can customize similar programs for other companies. At Google, said Florin, “my manager is amazing” and “my team is the best I’ve ever encountered.” Often, it’s a matter of exposure, Florin said. Even in the Bay Area, there are people who believe they

have never met someone who identifies as transgender or gender neutral. Prior to working as staff attorney at the Transgender Law Center, Sasha Buchert, a transgender woman, worked at Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s chief LGBT advocacy organization. Six months into her transition, Buchert said that she was uncertain whether she had to take any formal steps, such as a name change, to legally use the women’s bathroom. “I loved the organization but it would’ve been helpful if somebody had been able to tell me that the law said I could use whichever” matched my gender preference, Buchert said.

gear in the NCAA I wrestling championships his senior year before founding Athlete Ally in 2010 – the same year he started at Columbia. “Over the next three years, I coached part-time while building Athlete Ally,” Taylor wrote in the Columbia Spectator. “I spoke to the team about my work and the important role athletes play in either perpetuating or dismantling systems of bias and oppression. As a result of going through CU Safe Zone training, the Columbia wrestling office proudly displayed a Safe Zone program sticker in the form of a rainbow flag on our door. Our locker room

Trans-e-Motion Fresno is hosting its 11th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance observance Sunday, November 20 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Fresno (aka Big Red Church), 2131 N. Van Ness Boulevard in Fresno.

In an email, organizers said the focus of the event is a memorial honoring trans people who have been lost over the past year due to hate crimes or suicide. It will include a reading of names. On Friday, November 18 at 7 p.m., the group will hold a rally, vigil, and sidewalk march for trans rights and awareness in the city’s Tower district. It will start at the Fresno LGBT Community Center, 1067 N. Fulton Street.t

Despite the progress, speakers

agreed there were challenges ahead. Farley said staff at the LGBT center get calls from employers inquiring about how they can be more welcoming to transgender or genderqueer applicants or workers. Sometimes, an employer will be in the midst of developing workplace policies and “tell me they’ll start hiring non-binary people once the policy is in place,” she said. “That is just not acceptable.” Farley also bristled at the concept of “preferred pronouns.” “It’s not a preference,” she said. If company management is willing to allow an employee to change their last name after marriage, “why do they think they can say no to a transgender person who

wants to use new pronouns,” Farley explained. Andy Williams, PG&E’s vice president for safety, health, and the environment and an executive sponsor of the company’s PrideNetwork, promised to triple the number of attendees at next year’s Out at Work gathering. “Education is imperative,” he said. “If we needed motivation, we have it now in spades. Let’s commit to educating everyone we can.” Williams also urged the audience to consider donating to the nonprofit organizations co-sponsoring the event, the LGBT Community Center’s Trans Employment Program and the Transgender Law Center. Both “do great work,” he said.t

wasn’t Donald Trump’s locker room – at least as far as I could tell. The guys minded their words in front of the coaches and seemed genuinely in tune with the values of inclusion and respect I promoted through Athlete Ally. The Class of 2017 were firstyears in my final year coaching. The contents of their group chat, which I had no idea existed, came as a chilling shock to me. It exposed an ugly underbelly I could have guessed was there but didn’t see.” We all see it now. “Maybe we were looking in the wrong places,” Taylor wrote. “Maybe our privilege blinded us. Maybe our

vigilance pushed that kind of language out of the locker room and into cyberspace. Maybe our conversations focused too much on optics and not enough on attitudes. Maybe we talked too much to them and not enough with them. And now, we’re left asking why and what to do about it.” Obviously one thing is to recognize these individual anecdotes as parts of a larger sinister pattern and deal with it aggressively and resolutely. “Recent surveys show that one in five women experience sexual assault on college campuses,” Taylor wrote. “Let me repeat that: Women

assume a 20 percent chance of experiencing sexual assault when they step onto campus for orientation in their first year. At best, the wrestling team is condoning that fact, at worst, they are promoting it. Every day a new college enters a state of emergency with regard to how women, people of color, and LGBT folks are treated on campus.” Myself, I endeavor to double down on my efforts to create a safer and more inclusive environment whenever I can – and to engage in dialogue not just with those who agree with that, but, more importantly, those who don’t.t

People can celebrate pride for all ages by taking part in Age March 2016 in San Francisco Sunday, December 4. The march begins at noon at Gough and Union streets, ending at Union and Fillmore streets. Barbara Rose Brooker founded the march several years ago to bring attention to age discrimination. Scheduled speakers include gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell.

Challenges

The march is free. Children, pets, and friends are welcome. To register and learn more, visit www.agemarch-sf-2016.eventbrite.com.

Fresno trans observance

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Information Session

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

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

Pricing

BMR UNIT #

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

BDRM COUNT

BATH COUNT

SQ FT

FLOOR

PRICE W/ PARKING

MONTHLY HOA

PRICE W/O PARKING

1.5

772

$308,189

$678.03

$237,644

$747.27

303

845

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

304

840

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

205

DOWNPAYMENT REQUIRED 5% of sale price

308

831

$362,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

310

1.5

667

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

403

845

$326,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

408

831

$326,757

$633.92

$292,213

$703.17

5% of sale price

501

1.5

676

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

510

1.5

673

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

601

1.5

676

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

602

1.5

673

$326,772

$572.17

$256,227

$641.41

5% of sale price

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

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Leno

From page 1

To keep himself in the public eye over the next three years, friends have suggested Leno run in 2018 for Fiona Ma’s seat on the Board of Equalization, since she is running for state treasurer, or to become the state’s insurance commissioner. Neither is of interest, he said. “I have never run for an office I didn’t passionately want to do,” said Leno, adding that he doesn’t “need to run for office just to stay in office.”

Long list of achievements

Leno is leaving the state Legislature with an impressive list of accomplishments. His legislative record on LGBT issues alone runs the gamut from sponsoring the first marriage equality bill to be approved by a state legislative body to adopting transgender non-discrimination laws, requiring the state’s public schools teach about LGBT subjects, and creating Harvey Milk Day each May 22 in honor of the gay former San Francisco supervisor, the first out LGBT person to win elective office in the city and state. “Looking back at Mark’s time in both the Assembly and Senate, it is hard to imagine a legislator in the country who has done more to advance LGBT rights. So many firstof-their-kind bills were carried by Mark,” said gay Palm Springs City Councilman Geoff Kors, formerly the executive director of statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California. “It is an amazing legacy.” Now working as the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ government policy director, Kors credited Leno’s success to his willingness to listen to and address his fellow lawmakers’ concerns about his proLGBT legislation. “Mark would spend hours and hours with colleagues talking to

“It has been a remarkable, unexpected ride, and I have enjoyed every minute of it.” –State Senator Mark Leno them about why this mattered and helped them work through their issues. He would do it in such a powerful and emphatic way,” recalled Kors. “Those one-on-one conversations, which Mark never talks about, is how we got the votes and was critical in passing these bills.” Leno chalked up the numerous LGBT legislative wins he helped shepherd to his “personal good fortune and historic luck” in entering the state Legislature at a time when EQCA was resurgent and a record number of out lawmakers were serving in the Capitol. “I arrived in 2003 just as Equality California was re-inventing itself. We in California had some of the fewest legal protections for our community than other states,” recalled Leno. “Over the 14 years I have been able to be there, we are now number one. It was going to happen those 14 years whether I was there or not. I got to be there.” Other legislative successes Leno is proud of include raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2022; restricting access to cellphone records without a warrant; and advancing the use of renewable energy, particularly solar, in the state. He said it wasn’t until serving in elected office that he discovered his inner policy wonk. And it is what he will miss most about being a lawmaker, “the ability to impact public

policy decision-making. It is a rare opportunity,” he said. He won’t miss having to fight the same vested interests, such as the real estate lobby, the pharmaceutical industry or insurance companies. “There is the sad phenomenon of banging one’s head against the wall, but that is part of the job,” said Leno. “You just suck it up and keep on going.” In those instances, Leno said he turned to President Abraham Lincoln’s comment, “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed,” for inspiration. “Yes, there are very powerful forces out there. But by rallying public support, anything is possible,” said Leno. “And that is the beauty of our democracy.” As for his biggest disappointment while in Sacramento, Leno told the B.A.R. it was failing to pass what he considered “very modest” reforms to the Ellis Act in order to stop property speculators from evicting tenants, particularly those in rentcontrolled units, in order to flip the buildings. The defeat was due to the real estate lobby, which doesn’t “give an inch,” said Leno. “They are a powerful force.” His championing of the issue helped Leno win over progressives in San Francisco, as he was labeled a moderate during his time on the

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552356

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552425

Board of Supervisors. Queer housing rights activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca, who often clashed with Leno at City Hall, told the B.A.R. that he is “very sad” to see him now leaving office. “Mark has been a great friend to the tenant community,” he said. “We appreciated all of his efforts to get rid of the Ellis Act. Even though we weren’t successful, we appreciated he stuck his neck out. He blossomed much more in Sacramento than he did in San Francisco.” Leno acknowledged that his priorities have shifted leftward on the political spectrum during his time in office. He went from being pegged a moderate in City Hall to “tapping off the left edge” as soon as he arrived in the Legislature. “I have come to embrace the opportunity to fight for the underdog,” said Leno. “The corporate interests do not need my help; enough of my colleagues are helping them.”

A neighborhood champion

One issue Avicolli Mecca praised Leno for supporting during his time as a supervisor – he was first appointed to an at-large seat and then ran for the District 8 seat when the supervisors reverted to being elected by district in 2000 – was providing services to homeless youth in the Castro. It was an issue that inflamed the city’s gay neighborhood, with many residents and business owners opposed to such programs being based in the Castro. Leno and Tom Ammiano, a gay man who formerly held the District 9 seat on the board “were the two supervisors who really helped us in the late 1990s when we set up those three winter shelters for homeless queer/trans youth, as well as the free meals program and the shower project at Mission High,” Avicolli Mecca noted in an email. “I had issue with him because he often voted with the

mayor and supported more moderate candidates like the Alice B. Toklas club did, but he was good on homeless issues while supervisor of my district ...” That past policy fight was a distant memory at the November meeting of the Castro Merchants, as the business association’s president Daniel Bergerac presented Leno and his longtime district aide Anna Damiani certificates of honor for their assistance over the years with myriad neighborhood concerns. “Our local hero,” said Bergerac. “He has been a tireless advocate for our neighborhood and LGBT issues.” Known for handing out state proclamations, and city proclamations as a supervisor, with some joking he had a press in the trunk of his car in order to crank them out, Leno stayed true to form and honored the Castro Merchants with a framed proclamation designating it as his Senate district’s small business advocates of the year. Leno noted he has been a small business owner himself for close to four decades as the proprietor of Budget Signs, which he started in 1978 with his late life partner, Douglas Jackson, who died in 1990 due to AIDS-related complications. He recalled how his life had changed overnight from being a community leader, co-chairing the campaign to raise the millions needed to build the city’s LGBT Community Center, to being named to the vacant supervisor seat roughly two decades ago by former Mayor Willie Brown. “Yes it has been 18 years since Willie Brown dropped me into political office,” said Leno, a longtime resident of Noe Valley. “It has been a remarkable, unexpected ride, and I have enjoyed every minute of it.”t

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552472

In the matter of the application of: DANIEL ADRIAN VALCHAR COFFEY, 1346 ALABAMA ST #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DANIEL ADRIAN VALCHAR COFFEY, is requesting that the name DANIEL ADRIAN VALCHAR COFFEY, be changed to DANIEL GEORGE VALCHAR COFFEY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 29th of December 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037311500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GEHRUA, 643 MASON ST #8, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEANETTE MARIE YOUNGER. 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 10/18/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037313300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE GAME PARLOUR, 1534 19TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BENSON CHIU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037318300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GLOBALPERFORMANCE.BIZ, 1245 CALIFORNIA ST #602, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMIN RANJBAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/24/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/24/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037312800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EYE PLUS LASH, 555 SUTTER ST #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIEASHA BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/18/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016

In the matter of the application of: KENNETH BURT PERFIT, 1591 22ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KENNETH BURT PERFIT, is requesting that the name KENNETH BURT PERFIT, be changed to KENNETH BURT PERFITT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 6th of December 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552477

In the matter of the application of: GLORIA JEAN MABALATAN, 2609 MARKET ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner GLORIA JEAN MABALATAN, is requesting that the name GLORIA JEAN MABALATAN, be changed to JASMYN GLORIA MABALATAN-WEISSMAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 15th of December 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552439

In the matter of the application of: KARL PRELOVSKY JACOBSEN, 381 TURK ST #305, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KARL PRELOVSKY JACOBSEN, is requesting that the name KARL PRELOVSKY JACOBSEN, be changed to KARL PARKER SANDORA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 8th of December 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

In the matter of the application of: ROBERTO LOBO FILHO, 160 EDDY ST #425, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROBERTO LOBO FILHO, is requesting that the name ROBERTO LOBO FILHO, be changed to ROBERTO DO CARMO GUIMARAES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 22nd of December 2016 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037299400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DISTRICT 3, 704 FILBERT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JORELL CORPUS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/07/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037316300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GHOST CAT STUDIOS, 2261 MARKET ST #450A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAY MARSTON RUBIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/15/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/21/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037315600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAY AREA BOOK REPAIR, 912 KIRKHAM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH SONGER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/27/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/20/16.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037308100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SAN FRANCISCO GUITAR QUARTET, 3820 IRVING ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PATRICK O’CONNELL, RAMON FERMIN, DAVID GONZALES & MATTHEW FISH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/14/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/14/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037314400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INTERNET SIMPLICITY; ISIMPLE, 1035 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed STEPHENSON VENTURES, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/16/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/19/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037312900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NEW REVOLUTION MEDIA, 1250 MISSOURI ST, #112, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NEW REVOLUTION MEDIA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/16/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037316600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KEGERATOR WORLD; THE COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATOR, 1 POLK ST #1903, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BE YOUR ACT LLC (NV). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/16/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/21/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037315200

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-034410100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: SAN FRANCISCO GUITAR QUARTET, 3820 IRVING ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by PATRICK O’CONNELL & JONATHAN E. MENDLE. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/12.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037327600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CUE MARKETING, 1019 MINNESOTA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CELESTE HENKELMANN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/29/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037325600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CASERO GOURMET SAUCES, 1394 A HAYES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GUSTAVO DELLY PENA. 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 10/28/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037322700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AUTOEROTICA; THE DILDO MINES, 4077A 18TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PATRICK E. BATT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/16/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037326800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE CARVILLE, 3100 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TABITHA TOTAH. 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 10/20/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOODS HOLDING COMPANY, 5826 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed EVA HOLMAN & CAROLYNN BOX. 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 09/28/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BARRY’S BOOTCAMP, 333 BUSH STREET #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BBC 333 BUSH STREET LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/20/16.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MCNERNEY PELICHOFF ROESS HOWARD PROPERTIES, 14 MINT PLAZA, 5TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed PATRICK MCNERNEY, SCOTT PELICHOFF, ROESS LLC (CA) & MARTIN MCNERNEY DEVELOPEMENT, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/21/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/16.

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037315700

OCT 27, NOV 03, 10, 17, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037284100

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Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037294800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ADVANCE HEALTH SF, 582A SAN JOSE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ADVANCE HEALTH SF (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/05/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION ASIA NOODLE, 5249 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MISSION LILY’S CAFE, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/25/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037321000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MOLLY HOUSE RECORDS, 3924 21ST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SWAGGER LIKE US PRODUCTIONS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037324000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FLORES, 2030 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 2030 UNION STREET LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/27/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037292600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GENJI SUSHI CAS, 2001 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GENJI PACIFIC LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/04/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/04/16.

NOV 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 SUMMONS SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: PATRICIA RAMPE (AKA TRICIA RAMPE), AN INDIVIDUAL; MICHAEL BAKER, AN INDIVIDUAL; GETARTUP, INC., A DELAWARE CORPORATION; AND DOES 1 TO 20, INCLUSIVE. YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: JENNIFER ODELL CASE NO. CGC-15-546031 Notice: You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp) your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The name and address of the court is: San Francisco Superior Court 400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 941024515. The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is:

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037330200

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037307100

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Date: May 28, 2015; Clerk, by De La VegaNavarro, Rosaly, Deputy.

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

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037319900

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

ANDY I. CHEN, 2310 HOMESTEAD ROAD, SUITE C1 #429, LOS ALTOS, CA 94024-7302; (650) 735-2436.

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

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

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

NOV 10, 17, 24, DEC 01, 2016

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016

Legal Notices>>

Movers>>

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF PETER MON YU HUNG IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-16-300244

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of PETER MON YU HUNG. A Petition for Probate has been filed by MICHAEL PUI HUNG in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that MICHAEL PUI HUNG be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: November 23, 2016, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: MR. JAY GREENE, ESQ (297803), 447 SUTTER STREET, SUITE 410, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108; Ph. (415) 905-0215.

NOVEMBER 03, 10, 17, 2016 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-16-552496

In the matter of the application of: KARIN ABERG BROOKS, 4086 25TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KARIN ABERG BROOKS, is requesting that the name KARIN ABERG BROOKS, be changed to KARIN MARGARETA ABERG BROOKS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Rm. 514 on the 10th of JANUARY 2017 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOVEMBER 03, 10, 17, 24, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037346700

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

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

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

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

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

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016

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

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-037347600

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

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

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

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

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

NOV 17, 24, DEC 01, 08, 2016

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Out &About

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Vol. 46 • No. 46 • November 17-23, 2016

www.ebar.com/arts

Cirque dreams of

Mexico

A papel picado-influenced cylindrical curtain, part of Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia.

by Jim Gladstone

nder a custom-built big top adjacent to AT&T Park, San Francisco will play host to the United States premiere of Luzia, the newest traveling production from Cirque du Soleil, beginning tonight, Nov. 17. After the past year’s political circus, there’s a piquant irony to the fact that Luzia is billed as A Waking Dream of Mexico. No, See page 36 >> there will not be an acrobatic wall-jumping routine.

Courtesy Cirque du Soleil

by Sura Wood

Frank Stella’s huge painting Das Erdbeben in Chili fills Wilsey Court at the de Young Museum.

Painting at full throttle

on’t merely think big, think off the charts – that’s the Frank Stella that comes through in the first comprehensive U.S. overview of the artist’s prolific output in almost three decades; the show opened at the de Young last week. Over the course of a phenomenally productive, highly acclaimed, 60year career, Stella has been an avatar of what’s affectionately termed “artistic lawlessness.” See page 25 >> Rick Gerharter

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS } PRESENTED BY

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

<< Out There

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Art against the abyss by Roberto Friedman

till shell-shocked and depressed by last week’s Right-Wing Apocalypse, Out There and our partnerin-crime Pepi headed to the Embarcadero Cinemas to catch a screening of director Barry Jenkins’ beautiful, soulful film Moonlight. It was a necessary balm. Jenkins’ screenplay, from a story by Tarell Alvin McCraney, tells a story of what it’s like to grow up poor, black and gay in a rough Miami neighborhood. It’s a poetic meditation on connection and love. Watch for more discussion of it in these pages in our year-end best-films coverage. Meantime see it yourself.

Catalog riches

We’ve been immersing ourselves in the catalog for Frank Stella: A Retrospective, the exhibition now on offer at the de Young Museum (through Feb. 26, 2017), organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, where the show originated. The hefty tome was edited by Michael Auping, Chief Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Yale University Press),

and it offers an enticing introduction to Stella’s output. Getting to know an art exhibit’s catalog means learning in-depth about an artist’s background, intentions, critical reception and impact. The Stella catalog includes essays describing Stella’s art practice and philosophy, a transcription of a lecture the artist gave at Pratt Institute, an interview, a chronology of exhibitions and bibliography, an exhibition checklist, and most importantly, 95 full-color plates of the artwork. It’s all handsomely packaged in hard-cover with pieces cut out of the front and back covers, in mimicry of the artist’s influential shaped canvasses. Among the insights we gleaned from Auping’s essay: With a day job painting houses, the young artist Stella used enamel house paint and a house-painter’s brush to make his early works. “He approached the canvas the way he would paint a house, as a form of geography to be mapped out and covered.” His Benjamin Moore series (1962) gets its name from the American paint company that produces interior house paints. “The color is neither projective nor visually absorbent,

Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Frank Stella, Miniature Benjamin Moore Series (Island No.10; Palmito Ranch; Sabine Pass; Hampton Roads; New Madrid; Delaware Crossing) (1962). Alkyd on canvas (Benjamin Moore flat wall paint); six paintings. Brooklyn Museum, gift of Andy Warhol.

but, as Stella puts it, ‘dead.’” “Stella’s self-deprecating statement ‘I’m not a colorist’ refers to the fact that, for him, the function of color is not beauty, symbolism, or metaphor for its own sake. Within his abstractions, color is employed to manipulate our perception of space.”

The curators’ and art historians’ expertise helps to fill in a lot of the story of how Stella’s work fits into currents of art history, coming out of a tradition of innovation and building on it. For instance, seeing a reproduction of Wassily Kandinsky’s Farbige Linten from 1924

side-by-side with a photo of Stella’s K.17 (lattice variations) protogen RPT (full-size) from 2008 is instructive in illustrating just how essential the early abstract artist’s work is in the continuing story of art in the 21st century. Art appreciation is so cool.t

parental issues. But there’s nothing too weighty, and matters usually conform to familiar and sometimes stereotypical patterns. What is most needed from the cast of young adults playing the contestants is an ability to both let us perceive them as children and enjoy their company even when they are acting obnoxiously childish. The six “kids” in this production can all go to the head of the class for delivering the goods outlined above. Where a few demerits are in order comes in the vocalizing, with too many notes falling sharp or flat in ways that hinder our investment in the songs. The songs are by William Finn, whose masterwork Falsettos is now back on Broadway, and while they contain clever lyrics, few melodies are more than mildly pleasant. The closest thing to a showstopper, as it

was on Broadway, is “Magic Foot,” in which a supercilious speller demarcates letters with fancy footwork that helps him visualize the word to be spelled. Nick Rodriguez captures the spirit of this likably unlikable character, and sells his big song with skill. So, too, does Catrina Manahan as an exhausted over-achiever in her song “I Speak Six Languages” that includes impressive demonstrations of various other talents. David Glazer at first seems to be pushing too hard for goofiness as a child of hippies, but his commitment to this curious character becomes thoroughly ingratiating. Cecily Schmidt is sweet, too, as the lisping daughter with two fathers, but the flashback scenes with her overbearing dads are an unnecessary distraction. The same with a dirge-like ballad that the otherwise engaging Alexandria Ortega must deliver as a parentally starved youngster. Antonio Rodriguez III is good company as the perky incumbent champion, but his spotlight number “My Unfortunate Erection” is one of the cases in which compromised singing can take a toll.

There are also three adult characters on stage, if you don’t count the four audience volunteers pulled on stage to play lightly ridiculed contestants who are among the first to be eliminated. They’re not really an integral factor in the show, but it’s an amusing device with no cringe factor. The fulltime adults include the contest organizer played with pageant-perkiness by Nicole Frydman and a delicately wound viceprincipal played by Kirk Johnson, who deadpans increasingly absurd usages of words to be spelled. Lavale Davis has the right spirit for the discomfiting “comfort counselor” who’s working off community service, but the character’s edges aren’t always sharp enough. Spelling Bee is ultimately about the kids and about letting their freak flags fly. In the end, Bay Area Musicals is able to spell it out with confidence.t

Spell me a river by Richard Dodds

as it foresight or circumstance that led Bay Area Musicals to choose The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for its season opener, coming just three days after the election? Whatever the electoral outcome had been, its upcoming production of Assassins would have been a queasy choice for the post-vote slot. As it is, Spelling Bee provides theatrical comfort food for audiences who may be in a shell-shocked state of blue. Operating out of the Alcazar Theatre for its second season, BAM! and director-choreographer Matthew McCoy have given amiable life to the musical set in a place where life’s challenges revolve around spelling words like “crepuscule” and avoiding spontaneous erections while doing

so. Since its New York debut in 2005, the show has become popular around the world, with Rachel Sheinkin’s dialogue being open to change. There is leeway for presenters to tailor some rejoinders to specific circumstances of each audience (more on that later), and apparently the provided script is freshened with updated references that avoid the easy laughs of anything too topical like, say, an election. On its most basic level, Spelling Bee is about just that, a bunch of kids competitively stringing letters together, but their various under-construction personalities are revealed as the competition continues. Sometimes it’s during their interaction with each other or arising from the words they have been given to spell. There are also moments when some kids go into individual reveries stemming from

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David Glazer struggles with a word as fellow contestants look on in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that BAM! is now presenting at the Alcazar Theatre.

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<< Music

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Tragic romance stuns Nagasaki by Philip Campbell

he final offering of the San Francisco Opera’s fall season opened last week to run in repertory with the Company’s ambitious new production of Verdi’s Aida. Giacomo Puccini’s well-loved masterpiece Madama Butterfly is never out of sight for long at the War Memorial Opera House, and the current staging is a revival of the triumphant 2014 Leslie Swackhamer (director), Jun Kaneko (design) and Patricia Racette (soprano) triumvirate. There have been some changes, and they are apparent in the sound of the show, but the overall experience remains compelling thanks to a repeat performance of the strong and unfussy direction and another chance to admire the beautiful visuals. The director makes her dramatic points with small and telling details, and the designer creates a sense of time and place with his bright

palette and striking imagery. The story is well-known and, like an Easter pageant, everyone knows how it is going to turn out. Swackhamer keeps the story fresh by letting the personalities evolve throughout the telling. Cio-Cio-San/Mrs. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton believes in love and honor from the start, so her fate is especially tragic and affecting when we finally see her face the bitter truth. Her feckless husband and the unwitting father of her child ardently instigates a careless marriage with thoughtless disregard, despite the advice of the U.S. Consul at Nagasaki, Sharpless. His ultimate regret at the abandonment of his Japanese family comes far too late. We are allowed to really dislike his callous and cowardly character even as we understand Butterfly’s attraction to him. So much so that Italian tenor Vincenzo Costanzo as Pinkerton, making his first operatic appearances

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in the United States, elicited boos amidst the applause at the final curtain. Poor guy; he looked genuinely startled. Someone should have told him that San Francisco audiences hiss the villain. He was actually being praised for a believable characterization. Costanzo did have a weak first act on the night I attended, though hardly worthy of disdain. His expressive but rather light voice opened cautiously and spread at the top, and he sounded strained in the massive love duet. I don’t know what he did during intermission, but it worked. The long second Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera act doesn’t require as much of the tenor, but Costanzo Vincenzo Costanzo as B.F. Pinkerton, and Lianna Haroutounian in the title returned in confident and role of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for San Francisco Opera. ringing voice. His acting singing, she was so simply and uttested the strength of the accomand stage presence were terly believable. plished orchestral musicians and convincing, too, and he made good Armenian soprano Lianna proved his own capability. Puccini’s on the promise of his debut. Haroutounian is the answer. Her lovely and familiar music in this opAmerican baritone Anthony debut at SFO as another tragic Pucera can handle a big, almost WagneClark Evans also makes his SFO decini heroine, Tosca, was universally rian approach. My only complaint but as the wise and caring Sharpless praised. I was with the crowd for might be in Abel’s occasional lapses with a solid and sympathetic her standing ovation then, and I into ponderous slowness. Butterfly’s portrayal. Oh, why couldn’t poor was on my feet again for her latest vigil before the morning return of Butterfly take his advice and ditch appearance. her errant spouse felt like it was bePinkerton for her haughty suitor, Lianna (it’s easier) has a flexing taken in real time. Kaneko’s dePrince Yamadori, amusingly essayed ible instrument that is every bit as signs really helped us focus, though, by second-year SFO Adler Fellow beautiful at the top as it is through and the famous offstage “Humming Edward Nelson? all the registers. Her thrilling high Chorus” also helped us stay awake Also standing helpless on the notes bloom with expressive power with the sad heroine. sidelines is Suzuki, Cio-Cio-San’s and perfectly match with Puccini’s What is the biggest reason for loyal maid. Current Adler Fellow, romantic melodies. Just wait until bringing the production back so Latvian mezzo-soprano Zanda you hear Lianna’s “Un bel di.” Her soon, other than sure-fire box office Svede looks refreshingly young in lovely stage presence makes up for receipts? Patricia Racette’s Butterfly a part often assigned to more maa certain generalized approach to in 2014 was already indelibly etched tronly types. Her voice is as steady acting, but she is still convincing in memory. She triumphantly emand reassuring as her character. enough. She provides more than bodied the role, reducing grownFranco-Canadian conductor Yves enough justification for the producups in the audience to audible Abel returns to the SFO after his detion’s revival.t tears at the horrific finale. It didn’t but in 1996. He remedied the long matter if the soprano displayed an absence with a control of Puccini’s encroaching edge and vibrato in her Plays in repertory through Dec. 4. sweeping score that successfully

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Steven Underhill

lory (RCA) is the exact right title for the new Britney Spears album, her first in three years, because it is truly a wonder. Sure, her voice has been manipulated more than Donald Trump’s hair, but that doesn’t detract from the songs. Do you know why that is? It’s because the best songs on the deluxe edition of the album were either written by committee with Spears, gay songwriter Justin Tranter and his cohort Julia Michaels (“Invitation,” “Do You Wanna Come Over?”) or without Spears’ input at all (“Man on the Moon,” “Hard To Forget Ya”). Would there be an Ariana Grande without Britney Spears? Probably not. The difference, of course, is that Ariana Grande can actually sing. What she sings about on the deluxe edition of Dangerous Woman (Republic) isn’t necessarily profound, but it’s a vast improvement over the stumble of her second album My Everything. Grande seems more comfortable with the idea of being a dance artist than Spears, as she proves on “Into You,” “Be Alright” and “Step On Up.” Because she has the vocal chops, Grande can also put across more demanding songs such as “Bad Decisions” and “Thinking Bout You,” and can hold her own alongside Macy Gray on “Leave Me Lonely.” Like Spears and Grande, the all-female pop group Fifth Harmony has its roots

on television. Assembled by Simon Cowell, X Factor finalists Fifth Harmony made waves with their 2015 debut album and wasted no time in releasing the follow-up, the deluxe edition of 7/27 (SYCO/Epic). Catchy and clever songs “Work” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign), “Write on Me,” “All in My Head (Flex)” (featuring Fetty

Wap), “Scared of Happy” and “Not That Kinda Girl” (featuring Missy Elliott) illustrate Fifth Harmony’s continued growth as a musical unit. Reason (Because Music), the second full-length studio album by Belgian singer-songwriter Selah Sue, has a European sophistication lacking in Spears, Grande and Fifth Harmony, incorporating a pleasing variety of musical styles into her music. Album opener “Alone” is an irresistibly funky dance number that deserves to be a hit. The brassy “I Won’t Go for More” and “Reason” recall retro soul with Sue’s plaintive wail at the center. That’s Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) assisting Sue on “Together.” “Sadness” lives up to its name, even when it takes a reggae detour. The strippeddown arrangement suits “Always Home,” and the same can be said for the jagged drum-and-bass beats on “Falling Out.” Monica, who preceded Britney on the radio and the charts by a couple of years, returns with Code Red (RCA). The title track, which opens the album, is a call to move your limbs in multiple directions, featuring appearances by Missy Elliott as well as Monica’s daughter Laiyah. The retro soul number “Call My Name” opens with a lovely a cappella reading of “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes.” In “I Miss Music,” Monica laments the people and things she misses most when it comes to music. music.t

Film>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Stolen at birth by Sari Staver

He first nuzzles close to a boy on the dance floor, but then the film cuts away to him having sex with a girl in the bathroom, the camera panning down to show that Pierre is wearing a black lace G-string and garter belt. Pierre’s gender fluidity continues as he is shown rehearsing with a rock band, where he makes out with the male lead singer but is interrupted by a visit from a teenage girl, who apparently thinks she is his girlfriend. The film shows Pierre at home,

where he enjoys a close relationship with his single, working-class mom Aracy (Daniela Nefussi, who plays both mother roles). One day government officials show up to take Aracy and Pierre downtown for DNA tests. The tests show that Pierre had been stolen at birth, and now will be returned to the family who’s been searching for him ever since. When the newly constituted family meets, the class differences are glaring between Pierre and his father Matheus, mother Gloria and

their younger son Joca. Their upperclass home with servants is totally foreign to Pierre, as is a shopping trip where the parents suggest some new Polo shirts but the boy insists on acquiring a loud, zebra-striped dress instead. Conflicts over gender and class continue as the newly reconstituted family struggles to understand one another. Director Muylaert, 51, who has been writing and directing for television and film for 20 years, said, “The film asks many questions about education, sexuality, labeling, identity, motherhood and brotherhood” and “talks a lot about expectations, prejudices and Pierre’s strength to be himself. At the end of the day, I think the message is: Don’t wait. Be yourself now.” The film cost $400,000 to produce and “has already been a small success,” according to the director, who said it had already been sold in 10 countries. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, including a “Critic’s Pick” from The New York Times’ Stephen Holden, who called it “a fascinating, sympathetic portrait of a lost boy abruptly thrown to the wolves. “ Muylaert, who spent seven years making the new film, said that she has “deep ties” to the gay community. “All my best friends are gay, and it’s a community I love,” she said. “I identify as free – or you could say, bisexual.” Mulaert’s next film will be an “ironic comedy” about sexism, she said. “But first I need a rest. I have been working nonstop day and night for two years on this one.”t

Golden Days soars due to the film’s revealing backstage moments. Dezen, then 27, has the slightly androgynous look of Mick Jagger combined with the bitter professional mishaps of Iggy Pop. Much of Golden Days’ 85-minute running time passes with Dezen’s on-camera observations. He jokes about the pitfalls of having spent most of his young life auditioning to be a rock star. Standing in his Brooklyn kitchen, the boyishly handsome rocker reels off his eccentric resume. “I was born in New York at Mt. Sinai Hospital. I went to the Bschool. I hit a kid in the head with a rock, but it was an accident. There were these big milk crates of leaves, and we were all chucking leaves out of the crates, and there was a rock in there. I hit some kid, and I got expelled. “My parents got divorced, but before that I went on the road with a play called Les Miserables, which was exciting and got me out of my house, which was a war zone. So I was running around stages in New York and Detroit. I wasn’t really into it, and my mother was hoping I would become an actor. I didn’t want to, so I cut myself a mohawk. That pretty much signed the death warrant to my career as an actor, or so I thought. I met [French director] Luc Besson, who directed The Professional and The Fifth Element. In La Femme Nikita I was an extra, where you can see the caliber of my dramatic abilities in the way I react when she gives my teen gang money. It was really Oscar caliber, I thought. “Then I did a bus-and-truck tour with a play called Lost in Yonkers. On the first date of the tour I bought myself a guerrilla amplifier. My first band was called 57 Blankness, and I did a song called ‘Burn Down the Fucking School.’” At college Dezen joined forces with Hudson, and the Damnwells were born. Suchorsky’s documentary won Best Documentary at the Phoenix Film Festival.

Bonus features: Color, stereo, theatrical trailer. Quite Contrary The queer male band Pansy Division, formed in 1992 by Chicago-raised Jon Ginoli as part of the fledgling “queercore” movement, had their early albums released on Lookout Records. Ginoli’s infectious sense of humor and media savvy stemmed in part from an early teen affection for radio station WLS-AM/Chicago. The band’s Lookout Records tie resulted in the band getting the coveted opening slot for the mainstream punk band Green Day in 1994. Pansy Division’s first quartercentury found them releasing albums with titles like Fem in a Black Leather Jacket and the spoof James Bondage. As they’ve aged, their

output has morphed from provocative songs such as “Dick of Death” to more politically-oriented titles like “Blame the Bible.” Over the years Pansy Division has paid visits to LGBT bookstores, toured with lesbian band Tribe 8, and appeared on alternative FM radio stations such as the Bay Area’s KALW-FM.t

he new Brazilian film Don’t Call Me Son is the complicated story of a handsome cross-dressing teenage boy who finds out he was stolen at birth and is then forced to move in with his wealthy biological parents. If the plot sounds unlikely, it’s not. Writer and director Anna Muylaert, who won last year’s Berlinale Panorama Audience Award for her film The Second Mother, based her original script on a story that made headlines in Brazil two decades ago, she said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. While the story had already inspired several films and a soap opera, said Muylaert, those stories focused on the criminal mother who had abducted the boy. “For me, the character of the son was always the most interesting,” she wrote in an email. “What can you call yourself after you realize everything you thought was yours in fact was not?” The “core” of the film is “the formation of an identity,” she said. The film screens at the Roxie from November 18-23, shortly after picking up awards for best director, best actor, and best LGBT film at the Valladolid (Spain) International Film Festival and a jury prize at the Teddy Awards for LGBT-related films at Berlinale. It opened in New York and Los Angeles in November while it continues its international film-festival tour. Don’t Call Me Son stars Naomi Nero as Pierre, a teenager unsure of his gender identity but not yet

Naomi Nero stars as Pierre in director Anna Muylaert’s Don’t Call Me Son.

committed to coming out as transgender. Pierre’s entire life and sense of self are complicated when he learns that the woman who raised him is not his real mother, but stole him from the hospital shortly after birth. In fact he has a whole other birth family, whose expectations of their missing son and brother he may also never be able to meet. The film opens with Pierre at an outdoor party with friends, radiating androgyny with his long hair, makeup and dark blue nail polish.

Minor labels & queercore hits

Heather Conley

Alex Dezen, in 2000, before forming the Damnwells, in a scene from director Chris Suchorsky’s documentary Golden Days.

by David Lamble

his week we take a look at two bands with alternative videos, playlists and fan bases: the Brooklyn-based Damnwells, whose lead vocalist Alex Dezen indulges in distinctly odd dreams; and the San Francisco-set Pansy Division, with their Fall 2016 release Quite Contrary. Golden Days (2007) This witty insider look at the ups and downs of success in the fast-lane world of small rock bands kicks off with the Damnwells’ long-haired lead vocalist Alex Dezen confessing a rather disquieting sex dream to his bandmate, bass player Ted Hudson. Dezen: “Did you hear about my dream that I had sex with a man last night? Well, I had sex with a friend of ours in my dreams. I dreamed that he had a vagina, so I’m hoping that makes me less gay.” Hudson: “No, that’s not gay.” “Just because I dream of having sex with guys doesn’t mean I’m gay.” “You still like vaginas?” “Sure.” “If you had sex with him, you had sex with his vagina.”

Alex and Ted glance around the dingy basement of the small Greenwich Village rock club they’ve been booked to play while the Damnwells struggle to exit small-label band purgatory. Hudson: “Guys hanging out down here get so bored that they just get obsessed with penises. Remember that small North Carolina club where they had the graffiti, ‘Can’t draw a crowd, draw a cock on the wall?’” In doc-maker Chris Suchorsky’s cinema verite look at the artistic struggles and business pratfalls of the Damnwells, we learn that the road to rock-n-roll dreams is paved with false promises, romantic breakups, brutal road trips, agonizing gigs where the band must open for a rival band for short money, long nights on the road between gigs, and the need to pretend that overnight success is a mere phone call away. The Damnwells are forced to rehearse in a cold storage unit, live in constant dread that their dreams will be sunk by the nonstop ennui of traveling, and struggle to land a record contract that will finally mark them as an “overnight success.”

<< Film

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

The drone clusterfuck by Erin Blackwell

have to remind myself this is killing we’re talking about. It’s easy to get lost in the details: what the acronyms mean, who’s got security clearance, how the technology works. Of course, the biggest stumbling block to grasping the drone clusterfuck is overcoming Pentagon PR, dutifully lip-synched by dear President Obama, who paternally reassures us in his halting tones that it’s all under control. Well, it’s not, it couldn’t or shouldn’t be, and it’s simply another version of the world’s greatest game: hunting humans. Wim Wenders and Errol Morris join their moral and aesthetic gravitas to executive produce National Bird, opening tomorrow at the Roxie Theater. As a film, National Bird is exquisite, agit-prop raised to the level of poetry. The framing of the shots, capturing the talking heads in the midst of their thoughts, emotions, and mundane circumstances; the sequence of the narrative, with its abrupt pockets of compassionate reveals; the meticulous peeling back of layers until the drone clusterfuck is revealed in its fearful symmetry: American agents and Afghani victims. Director Sonia Kennebeck has made a masterpiece. You won’t be conscious of her skill as she systematically completes the puzzle of

military technology and human suffering. You’ll be too busy processing your emotions. Heather was an imagery analyst or screener, whose voiceover opens the film. “You were omniscient in people’s lives. And you literally just kind of hover over their area. Sometimes you’d watch them for days. And then you’d get intel that this guy’s a bad guy. And you’d wait until he walked out into the fields to meet with friends or something, and you’d blow him up. Drop a hellfire missile on him.” Heather was considered high-risk for suicide, but her team was undermanned. This Dark Lady of the Drones, raven-haired, tattooed, thin, muscular, quick-witted, candid, and sorrowful, wrote a piece for the Guardian on Dec. 29, 2013. Daniel’s participation is swathed in impenetrable layers of classified information. On camera, he says he was stationed at Fort Meade, next to NSA headquarters, had NSA clearance, and since the intelligence directorate handles signal intelligence, had a position overseas using signal intel capacity. Then he stops himself. “I have to be conscious of what I can and can’t say on camera.” The mental acrobatics of whistleblowing within the arcane confines of official secrecy render simple sentences impossible. On Aug. 8, 2014, after his last day on the job, his home was raided by three

Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. General Stanley McChrystal apologizes on TV. Kennebeck handles this incendiary material like a surgeon wields a scalpel, with skill and compassion for everyone involved, including the viewer. Yes, the drone program is like shooting fish in barrel. Yes, Afghani villages are now the ultimate concentration camp. No, the power dynamic could not be more lopsided. No, the dignified tribal Afghanis don’t stand a chance against an omnipotent robotic sniper remotely controlled by foreigners whose transcribed dialogue is the crass, flippant, trivializing talk of adolescent boys playing video games. Kennebeck’s focus is funereal and

unflinching so that ours can be, too. Jesselyn Radack, who is Edward Snowden’s attorney, has represented several people charged under the 1917 Espionage Act. Daniel is now her client. Radack emphasizes the seriousness of the charge, which brands someone an enemy of the state in a David vs. Goliath scenario, “a single person vs. the entire executive branch.” Her facial muscles not completely under control, she christens “this clusterfuck we call the Drone Program,” denouncing with detachment “its effects on operators, its effects on innocent victims, its shaky legal reasoning.” Zombie Obama is seen on TV dredging up “9/11” as justification. Daniel is an activist in the Snowden-Manning mold, pale, slight, conscientious. He says, “Drones embolden commanders because there’s no immediate threat or consequence. It makes war so easy and convenient, so simple, that people who have access to this technology say, Why wouldn’t I use this?” Dignified in his simple tribal dress, an Afghani man in the calmest voice, his turbulent heart showing in his eyes, speaks into Kennebeck’s camera and pleads for the terror to stop. Lisa weeps as she says, “I was told they forgave me for the part I played. Not everybody is a freakin’ terrorist. And we need to get out of that mindset.”t

surgery to a woman, having been born Mauri. Mauri looked at his mother’s legs and realized he was a girl, but also knew he had to hide that knowledge from everyone. Mauri married and had a daughter, but is estranged from both, his ex-wife bitterly denouncing her, “Thanks to you, no one will ever touch me again.” Her daughter Pinja (Emmi Nivala) has been harassed at school because of Maarit, and is both confused by and misses her father. Maarit had been a school counselor, but now works for a janitorial service. Cleaning the home office of a psychotherapist on her way out of town for two weeks, Maarit is given the keys to lock up. She clandestinely puts on one of the therapist’s dresses when the doorbell rings and answers it. Standing there is Sami (Peter Franzen), a handsome high school teacher and soccer coach, asking if the therapist is available. Finding out she has left, Sami assumes Maarit is a work colleague. Maarit, actually a trained social worker, plays along with the deception, agreeing to talk with him. Sami is there at his wife Julia’s (Ria Kataja) request, as their marriage is in crisis. Maarit gives him some good advice, and Sami leaves. A few minutes later Julia arrives, also seeking the absent therapist. Maarit will again impersonate a therapist and speak with Julia. Julia will go home, and the couple will have the best sex they’ve had in years. Attracted to Sami, Maarit runs into him again and confesses her ruse and that she is transsexual. Sami seemingly doesn’t mind. As Mauri, Maarit had been an avid soccer player, so bonding over that common interest, they begin an affair. Meanwhile, Maarit must return to her hometown because a gay student she had been counseling has committed suicide and the police are trying to implicate her in some kind of child abuse. She tries to reconnect with Pinja. Tired of ridicule, Pinja attempts to clear her father’s name. Maarit applies for a counseling job at a Helsinki women’s shelter and must admit to her potential employer that she is transsexual. Julia eventually realizes

with whom her husband has been cheating. She goes ballistic, screaming, “The only way you are going to see our kids again is with a court order.” How these various messes are resolved forms the conclusion of Open Up to Me. Director Simo Halenin has created a captivating movie in that even though all the characters make questionable moral choices impervious to possible consequences, we still root that they will overcome their mistakes. Halenin subtly challenges how tolerant we may think we are, especially when we are forced to make difficult decisions. Sami emerges as confused and weak, but Maarit is both realistic and determined. People hide their true emotions, which might explain how a proudly progressive country like Finland can still be discriminatory against transgender people. While we wish a transgender actress had played Maarit, Klemola is a revelation and deservedly won the Jussi (Finland’s version of the Oscar) award as Best Actress, and the film won Best Picture. Her chemistry with a riveting Franzen (nominated for Best Actor) sizzles without being graphic. This stimulating film works on almost every level, with the wintry cinematography mirroring the emotional coldness and bitterness slowly melting as the characters get in touch with their real feelings. Far ahead of any American trans film, Open Up to Me offers an authentic, self-actualized transgender woman who helps to liberate the people around her and perhaps also the audience watching her.t

Torsten Lapp, courtesy of FilmRise

An Afghan survivor of a U.S. air strike on civilians visits a clinic in Kabul, in director Sonia Kennebeck’s National Bird.

dozen U.S. agents, pistols drawn. Lisa was a technical sergeant on the DGS, or Distributed Ground System, a secret program that “spans the globe and eats data. This is global. This is getting information anywhere at any time. Shooting people from anywhere at any time. It’s like borders don’t matter anymore.” Deeply disturbed by her role in taking out 121,000 insurgent targets from 2007-09, she visits Afghanistan with her friend Asma. Fifty minutes in, we are shown the unimaginable: Afghanis as human beings. We meet survivors of the Feb. 21, 2010 bombing of Kuchi nomads in Khost province in the Ali Shir district, launched by the Predator Unmanned Area Vehicle crew at

Finnish transition by Brian Bromberger

“I

never wanted to be cured of my feelings, only my body,” reflects Maarit, the transsexual heroine of Open Up to Me, the new Finnish film recently released on DVD by Corinth Films. Movies about transsexuals tend to paint them as either

martyrs (Boys Don’t Cry) or indecisive (TransAmerica), but here we are presented with a woman secure in her identity as she tries to find her place in life seeking some degree of happiness. Maarit is flawed but authentic, admitting to her therapist at their final session together that her biggest fault is her honesty, which

she can use to sabotage herself. Her therapist challenges Maarit not to remain hidden from other people, but to go out and get the things she wants out of life. Open is the story of her sometimes gutsy, inept attempts to fulfill those goals. Maarit (Leea Klemola) has fully transitioned after sex-reassignment

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Books>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Where our queer ancestors lived & loved by David-Elijah Nahmod

lisa Rolle is an historian who has done her homework. The openly lesbian writer and editor is authoring a series of books that document the history of queer culture and the people who made it happen. Her 2014 book Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time chronicles the lives and loves of those who came before us. With that book, Rolle took us on a journey back in time, across the 20th, 19th and 18th centuries, and much further back, to revisit the lives of people who were known or believed to be LGBT. That book was a fascinating read that offered a few surprises, such as the inclusion of blind/deaf author/ educator Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, the woman who taught Keller how to read braille and to communicate. Other than Sullivan’s short-lived, failed marriage in 1905, she and Keller lived together exclusively for 49 years. Is it really a stretch to believe that they may have loved each other?

In Rolle’s latest book, Queer Places: Retracing the Steps of LGBTQ People Around the World, Volume 1, Rolle serves as our travel agent, taking us on a trip to all 50 states. She serves as our tour guide as we visit the homes, birthplaces and gravesites of many of the historical figures we learned about in her earlier book. Vol. 1 covers the USA. The yet-to-be-published Vol. 2 will trace the steps of LGBTQ people in the United Kingdom, while Vol. 3 will journey across the rest of the world. Queer Places begins with Keller and Sullivan. Rolle takes us to Ivy Green, the Alabama estate where Keller was born in 1880. As we see the house where Keller lost her sight and hearing, and where she first met Sullivan, the author recounts the story of their relationship. Rolle then discusses where other queer Alabamians lived, and where LGBTQ people can go to find other queers when visiting the state. In the section devoted to Washington, DC, Rolle shows us where Keller and her “lifelong companion Annie Sullivan” rest together at the National Cathedral.

Courtesy the author

Queer Places author Elisa Rolle.

Rolle divides the book state by state. Countless LGBTQ lives are remembered as we visit the places where they lived, worked and died. Hundreds of historical photographs are included. But Rolle goes further. She lets the current LGBTQ generations know where they can go to find others like themselves while travelling. Yes, Virginia, there really are gay bars and bookstores in Alaska.

Sad song of defeat by Tim Pfaff

here’s something about a good writer’s bad writing that sticks to the side of your throat like a hot dime signaling the onset of a flu. You can’t get it out, you can’t get around it; you’ve just got to hunker down for the sickness. Tennessee Williams’ 1975 autobiographical novel Moise and the World of Reason is back in print (New Directions Paperbook), and it’s possible that the main result will be amplification of the argument, steadily gaining ground, that Williams is among the most overrated writers of the last century. That Williams is an important writer is a secure enough truth to allow for the corollary idea that the three plays – The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – on which his reputation stands are a notably small part of the output of a lifelong compulsive writer, one who had to write come hell or high water. Moise is hell. It’s a thinly veiled memento of the writer’s desperate, alcoholic, drug-addled late years, and in 2016, it’s hell to read.

may decode the novel to expose the actual people from Williams’ life. That student will be glad for the playwright’s altogether finer Autobiography, yet may feel betrayed by John Lahr’s Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. In that renowned 600-page biography this novel earns

“There is no such thing as ‘bad’ Tennessee Williams, only wounded, subtle, sad little songs of defeat.” – John Waters

“As a writer I don’t concentrate much on craftsmanship,” says the unnamed voice (“protagonist” seems too positive here) telling the tawdry tale. Yet what makes this novel weirdly compelling is that it’s not without craft. It’s preposterously self-conscious, but the down-andout writer is making an effort, and you wouldn’t write this book off as a hasty, undigested first draft. It is, if anything, overworked, which only compounds the horror. The writer is, as ever, a Charlie McCarthy to ventriloquist Williams’ Edgar Bergen; even the historical period fits. Some hapless doctoral candidate

half of a single sentence, wherein we learn that it was the idea of Bill Barns, the agent trying to get the playwright’s career back on track. Here lies Williams’ much-vaunted “late style,” the kindest thing it was ever called. The miscalculations are devastating and right on the surface. The Moise of the title is another of Williams’ fading females, an artist whom we first meet giving a farewell party to, yes, the World of Reason. For a title character she’s a vague wisp of a thing, equally principled and foul-mouthed. Even though the author provides the pronunciation of her name (mo-EASE) early on,

Rolle walks through the streets of neighborhoods in many cities, such as New York. Iconic buildings like the Dakota are photographed by the author in all their glory as she lists the names of historical LGBTQ figures who once occupied those elegant homes. Many were forced to live closeted lives. The California chapter is most interesting. Old-time Hollywood was a cesspool of homophobia,

where queer stars and directors were sometimes forced into fake marriages if they wanted to keep their careers. Rolle remembers those often-lonely lives as she visits graves of fondly remembered film icons. She also pays tribute to those we loved, like Judy Garland, the great singer and gay male icon. Rolle came to San Francisco and visited the Castro, showing her readers our beloved Castro Theatre among other historic locales. She strolled over to Valencia Street. Long before the tech bros took over, Valencia served as an early mecca for lesbians. Anyone remember Amelia’s, one of the first women-only bars? When in San Francisco, Rolle urges, be sure to visit the GLBT Historical Society in order to learn the complete stories of our many iconic places. At 600 pages, Queer Places is an exhaustive work. Readers might wonder if there’s a single street in the country that Rolle didn’t visit. Is there an historical archive whose records she failed to study? Rolle is an important historian of LGBTQ lives.t

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! DON’T MISS THE ACCLAIMED NEW YORK HIT the tongue in the reader’s eye never ceases to trip over it. The writer’s main squeeze is Lance, a professional ice skater, though the reader is as apt to hear him referred to as the “little nigger on ice.” Exactly what he’s good for beyond bringing a fresh case of scabies and the clap back from circuit tours is not clear – unless it would be to call attention to the fact that said writer, a white runaway from Thelma, Alabama, has a bigger dick. “After all, I am Southern with foreskin intact and the organ is somewhat larger than would be proportionate to most male bodies of my size.” After Lance comes Charlie, and, in this novel devoid of meaningful plot, a spectral, recurring figure identified as “a has-been playwright attempting a comeback at the Truck and Warehouse.” The writer himself claims a dislike of theater because of the “curtains,” that is, completion. New Directions is calling Moise “an erotic, sensual, and comic novel generations ahead of its time” – as though by the early 70s the real one-hand books, such as the John Rechy novels, were not already thoroughly thumbed. To get to the explicit stuff, which is there, you have to get past passages such as this: “I, with my customary sense of the marvelous, very gently picked up the thick and velvety length of human asparagus that sprouted from his bush, half hoping that it would stiffen into erection.” It did not, and neither will yours. The writing about vaginas is worse. Little wonder that the fear of “the Gay Libs to whom my heart is committed in a bruised-ass way” haunts the later sections. The author’s selfhatred is unrelenting and always associated with writing: “Thinks he’s got a literary career but I happen to know that his career is what he’s sitting on whenever he’s not standing or lying down.” “Scriveners fuck off,” is Moise’s final judgment. “The whole pack of you are abominations and monsters of ego.” A back-cover blurb by no less than John Waters declares, “There is no such thing as ‘bad’ Tennessee Williams, only wounded, subtle, sad little songs of defeat.” But I’d say only those already besotted with Tennessee Williams have any business with this book – and they, arguably, least of all.t

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<< TV

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

The TV personality president-elect by Victoria A. Brownworth

t’s all over but the deportations and internment camps. It’s all over but the days of rage in which Americans chanting “Not my president!” are taking to the streets in LA, Oakland, SF, Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere, giving TV news more stunning visuals of an America divided by race, gender, sexual orientation. It’s all over but the Electoral College vote in December, America’s last best hope to keep Donald Trump from the White House and put Hillary Clinton, the winner of the popular vote, into the presidency. It’s all over but the what-ifs and finger-pointing and disturbing exit-polling that shows the breadth of the chasm between women and men, white people and people of color in America: 94% of black women voted for Clinton, while only 31% of white men voted for her. Misogyny and racism ruled this election from Day 1, and TV news, political pundit shows, prime time features, late-night talk shows all quite literally conspired to normalize a fascist. We didn’t need Leni Riefenstahl, we had CNN, MSNBC and Fox. Autopsies are required when things go horribly wrong. This election result is viewed as illegitimate by at least 60 million American voters, if not more Americans than that. 57% of eligible voters voted, 48.8% for Clinton, 48.3% for Trump, the rest for 3rd-party candidates. There has never been a presidential election in our lifetime that resulted in spontaneous protests all over America. This is a first. And so is the TV-personality president-elect. If ever there were a political story that was driven by TV, it was the 2016 presidential election. Trump, our next president unless our Electoral College fantasy happens, is a reality-TV star. He is known from years on TV talk shows, years of vituperative misogyny and blatant racism on the tube. The Apprentice first aired in 2004, and ran for eight seasons on NBC. It still airs in more than a dozen countries globally. The Celebrity Apprentice debuted in 2008 and ended in 2015 after seven seasons on NBC. Some have asserted, “But Ronald Reagan was an actor!” Yes, but he was also governor of California, the largest state in the nation, for eight years. Trump is the first presidential nominee in U.S. history to have never served in the military nor held any political office. He’s a reality-TV superstar. That’s his resume. TV taught us this election that celebrity matters to many more Americans than competence or acumen. We learned that if you bend the rules repeatedly to accommodate straight white male supremacy, it will eviscerate the rights of women, people of color, LGBT, immigrants and other marginalized people. We learned that if you repeat a lie or a hundred lies, or just refuse to correct them, they will become truths in the minds of voters. We learned that black rights don’t matter, women’s rights matter least of all, LGBT rights and immigrants’ rights and disability rights were never even on the table. We learned that the most accomplished woman in the history of American politics would be presented as equal to a selfdeclared sexual predator, racist and xenophobe. The biggest story of the 2016 election is how TV news, particularly cable news, built Trump’s campaign and candidacy. TV skewed news coverage of Hillary Clinton,

CBS-TV

President-elect Donald Trump on CBS’ 60 Minutes last week.

legitimized Trump, and now, mere days after the most shocking political upset since Truman vs. Dewey in 1948, is normalizing a monster with cheery tidbits and excited interviews, even as people are literally rioting in the streets and being arrested by the hundreds. CBS’ 60 Minutes jumped on the bandwagon first on Nov. 13, with an interview of the entire Trump clan, who now run both Trump’s businesses and his transition team. After months of claiming the Clinton Foundation’s AIDS work was a conflict of interest, we now have the Oval Office as the main office of Trump International. This conflict of interest should be the lead story on every newscast. It isn’t. Nor is the fact that Trump promised his followers that he would “drain the swamp” in Washington by keeping career politicians and lobbyists at bay. Instead, his proposed Cabinet is nightmare white men from our collective political past: Newt Gingrich for Secretary of State, Rudy Giuliani for Attorney General. Nor is the Electoral College vs. popular vote a story. Consider the numbers. California is the largest state: 38.8 million, 55 EC votes. Wyoming is the smallest state, with 584,000, and 3 EC votes. These small, overwhelmingly white states, like Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, are given disproportionate weight compared with larger, more diverse states in the EC. Why should Wyoming have 3.7 times the weight of California, the most diverse state? Nightline’s Tom Llamas, who was personally targeted by Trump onair after covering his campaign for over a year, did a disturbingly gleeful interview with Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on Nov. 11 in which he leaned in smiling as he lobbed a few softballs. Conway did what she’s expert at: ignored every salient question. A few TV news anchors have taken on Trump and his team: Anderson Cooper once famously told Trump that his response to his questions was that of a five-yearold. Cooper has had several run-ins with Conway in recent weeks. But for the most part, it was TV pundits, anchors and other players who normalized the Trump candidacy. Jimmy Fallon grilling Hillary Clinton about emails while ruffling Trump’s hair on The Tonight Show. MSNBC’s Morning Joe, hosted by former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, daughter of Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, was heartily behind Trump from the outset. Morning Joe became his home away

from home. Not that Trump came into the studio, but he was on-air often daily, as if he were a co-host, not a candidate. ABC was also an egregious early supporter, allowing Trump to phone into GMA rather than come into the studio like other candidates. CNN was so Trump-heavy that since June, Trump’s former campaign manager from Jan. 2015-June 2016, Corey Lewandowski, who has remained on retainer with the Trump campaign throughout, was a paid political consultant on the network. Lewandowski was even seen taking calls from Trump while on air with CNN. Midway through the primary, Nielsen recorded Trump had received more than twice the amount of TV coverage as all the other candidates combined, 18 Republicans and six Democrats. Sanders was next, but he only received 10% of what Trump did. The candidate with the least coverage? Clinton. But she was also the candidate with the most negative coverage. This promoting of the Trump candidacy and refusal to address any of the substantive issues that should have halted his candidacy early on was the biggest failure of TV news. More important even than the softballing of Trump was the free media he got. Clinton spent millions more than Trump on ad buys in expensive markets because she wasn’t getting the endless interview time Trump received. But ads are not the same as chatting away like pals with news anchors. Trump got that. The night Clinton clinched the nomination, CNN and MSNBC cut away from her speech to a Trump rally. Trump rallies were regularly aired in their entirety. One of Clinton’s most historic speeches in her campaign, where she spoke on systemic racism to thousands of black Americans at the AME Conference, was broadcast only on local news in Philadelphia. Last month, VP-elect Mike Pence said Clinton’s continual references to systemic racism “must stop” because they were “divisive.” While Trump was a regular on both Fox and MSNBC, there was no similar arena for Clinton. Maddow hosted Sanders 29 times. She hosted Clinton twice. All these numbers factored into Clinton’s high unfavorables. Even after she won the primary in a landslide of four million votes, Sanders remained the guest on the Sunday shows. Clinton was frozen out of that important TV market, while on the other side, Trump was dominant and omnipresent. This is a story for women first and foremost, since Clinton was the first woman candidate of a major party. The span of 240 years without a female nominee is vast and incontrovertible in its sexism. Out black gay commentator and senior writer

for CNN LZ Granderson spoke with Nightline anchor JuJu Chang on Nov. 10 about the election results. Both addressed the misogyny that has been all but ignored throughout the election cycle and even in the post-mortem of the election itself. There has been an all-too-soon normalizing of the Trump win. The exception is MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who has addressed issues like Trump’s Russia connection and the outrageous FBI “Oops, we did see these emails before, sorry!” from Director James Comey, which altered votes in the last 10 days of the campaign. Chang opened her Nightline commentary with the scene after Clinton gave her gracious concession speech that aired live on all networks. Chang referred to the ballroom where Clinton gave her speech as “a scene of devastation.” Surrounding Clinton had been Bill Clinton and VP nominee Tim Kaine, who both looked shaken. Also on stage was Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager and the first openly gay man to run a presidential campaign. Chang said Clinton’s loss was a “devastating chapter in what has been a decadeslong story of public service.” She continued, “Even from her earliest days, young Hillary Rodham seemed destined for greatness. Across the country tonight, stunned Hillary Clinton supporters are mourning and raising their voices after winning the popular vote, but being shut out by the electoral college.” Chang followed the protestors in New York: “Fighting for what’s right is a line straight out of Clinton’s speech this morning where she was calling for unity and embracing a Trump administration. But clearly her supporters are still very upset. We are hiking up the canyons of Manhattan following this protest. It’s a smattering of Black Lives Matter, Southern Poverty Law Center, a number of colleges.” Chang asked Granderson, “After a hard-fought race, the highest office in the land proved beyond her pioneering grasp. Where does she go from here?” Granderson said, “This is a woman who basically has been in the public spotlight nonstop for more than 30 years, and skewered for most of it. The first thing I would be telling her is hang out with your family, go on vacation with Bill, stay out of the public spotlight. Then begin to figure out, how do I want to serve? Serving’s obviously a part of her heart. She won’t ever stop that.” LGBT Americans would have benefitted from that service. Peter Thiel’s smug solipsism notwithstanding, LGBT are among the biggest losers this election. There was never any discerning reportage about Trump’s LGBT “platform.” How many know

that Pence voted to de-fund HIV research while he was in Congress? Or that as governor, Pence shut down the only access to HIV testing in parts of Indiana where the only test sites were Planned Parenthood, which led to a CDC-recorded surge in HIV cases there? Or that in Congress, as governor of Indiana, and now as VP-elect, Pence promotes the use of conversion therapy for all LGBT people, particularly youth? We were forced to undergo conversion therapy in a mental hospital at 16 after being expelled from our all-girl high school for being a lesbian. Conversion therapy is brutal, it is actual torture. It should be treated as a crime, not a viable mental health treatment. Even NJ Gov. Chris Christie repealed the practice in his state. But NJ, NY, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon and California are the only states that have banned the practice. It is legal everywhere else. Conversion therapy is written into the GOP platform, but Pence was one of the nation’s top proponents long before he became Trump’s VP pick. Trump chose Pence because of his extremist views. TV pundits lauded the choice, sans any reportage of Pence’s record, as a sign of mainstreaming of the GOP candidate. It was anything but. Conversion therapy was never mentioned by any TV news reporter or debate moderator in the election cycle. Elaine Quijano asked no questions about LGBT issues during the VP debate. Clinton was the only candidate to continually mention LGBT people and issues throughout the campaign. The weekend that Clinton was speaking to a group of LGBT supporters and made her all-tooaccurate and prescient “deplorables” statement, Trump and Pence were headlining the Value Voters Summit, the first GOP candidates to actually attend. That was widely reported on Fox News, but who among us, save reporters, ever watched Fox? VVS is sponsored by the Family Research Council, which the SPLC lists as an anti-gay hate group. In 2008 John McCain declined to attend. Sarah Palin (take that in) declined to attend. In 2012, Romney declined to attend. But what did ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC report on Sunday morning? No mention whatsoever of Trump and Pence speaking at an event promoted by a certified hate group. Instead it was the deplorables, and how Clinton was speaking to a “private” group of gay elites in NYC. Election Eve in Philadelphia, CSPAN broadcast a Clinton event at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The Democratic National Convention, which we covered (it was remarkable and LGBT inclusive right down to the gender neutral bathrooms) for another publication, had been held in Philadelphia. The Philly event was like a preinauguration for Clinton, the passing of the baton from the first black president to the first female president. Philadelphia police and the National Parks Service estimated the crowd at around 50,000. After Obama introduced Clinton, he put a box down for her to step up on, because she is short. He said, “Going forward, this will always be there for you.” That dream of shattering the glass ceiling has ended, What shattered was the dream of broadening inclusion in the halls of power: Mook’s gayness, Huma Abedin as the first Muslim American woman, all those women and people of color that would have changed the face of power for all of us. We’ll never see that on our TV screens. Instead it will be a vast sea of straight white men. As if Hillary Clinton had never been there. TV gave us Donald Trump. TV grabbed us by the p*ssy. That’s where we will be for the next four years. Stay tuned.t

Film>>

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

Violent erotics

by David Lamble

Sony Pictures Classics

Isabelle Huppert stars in director Paul Verhoeven’s erotically charged thriller Elle.

Frank Stella

From page 25

shown here, Die Fahne hoch! (1959) (The Banner High), a precursor to minimalism that echoes Rothko. Named after a Nazi anthem with a title intended to provoke, its layered rows of black paint, interrupted by strips of unpainted surface, conform to the contours of the canvas. In hindsight, it’s difficult to understand what all the fuss was about. The exhibition’s lean installation, stark in its simplicity and one of the most beautiful of the year, buoys the gargantuan eruptions of Stella’s explosive imagination, showcasing the maximalist works, in particular, to full advantage. This is especially true of the architecturally inspired works such as the spectacular Damascus Gate (Stretch Variation III) (1970), whose seamlessly integrated geometries glide like a huge ocean liner on the sea. At 10x50 feet, its colored stripes forming roads or arrows to uncertain destinations, bordered in contrasting black and curved on either end, it earns almost an entire wall to itself. (Many of the pieces are so large they had to be shipped in parts and assembled on site.) Stella’s expansive notion of painting is at full throttle in the whimsical, monumental sculptural canvases, which radiate boisterous shapes that protrude into the space. Sometimes you have the peculiar sensation you’ve wandered into the lair of a giant who left his playthings behind, like the jumbo collaged construction Khar-pidda 5.5x (1978), a mass highway interchange of threedimensional swirling tracks sprayed with magenta glitter. Curving and bending cubism for his own devices, each of the stupendous painted aluminum reliefs (1986-97) in the Moby Dick series takes its name from one of the 135 chapters in Herman Melville’s novel. Metaphoric and as thrilling as a

he Amsterdam-born director Paul Verhoeven rode a wave of sexually graphic, gay-friendly European films like Spetters and The Fourth Man into a Hollywood box-office bonanza: Basic Instinct, Robo Cop, Showgirls. He retains his sensationalist touch with his new erotically charged thriller Elle, opening Friday. Paris-born actress Isabelle Huppert plays Michele Leblanc, a middle-aged designer of computer games who lives in the shadow of a sexually charged childhood trauma. This is a serious film whose creator is so good at creating dramatic red herrings that you may miss the perversity of its theme and content unless you brush up on your basic feminist texts. Deep into the film a character causally tosses off the observation that “a woman who’s

read The Second Sex will chew you up and spit you out.” Like the best of Hitchcock’s American-produced thrillers, Elle is chock-full of role reversals and heroes who are considerably less than fully heroic. Michele is a woman with a checkered past who abhors men but isn’t physically drawn to women. Michele is running a cutting-edge videogame business whose target audience is a kind of young man she’d have little truck with, but whom she understands and manipulates as a consumer of a violence-fueled medium. A hint as to whether this film is for you is that the novel it’s based on is by the same author whose early work was adapted into the extremely violent 1986 French art-house hit Betty Blue, some of whose characters come to an even worse end than the inhabitants of Elle’s human zoo. Our heroine is capable of grasping

this digital age’s bag of dirty tricks, including ordering a cute young male assistant to hack into the computers of everyone on the staff of her little company. Another perverse touch is having the film’s inciting incident triggered when Michele lets the cat out and her rapist in. The rape is depicted as a hyperviolent, truly scary event. Coming home from seeing Elle, many viewers might consider replacing their glass patio doors with something of bank-vault-worthy construction. A tad long at 130 minutes, Elle is full of surprises, including some rough rape scenes. Not surprisingly, it’s rated R: moviegoers 17 and under need an adult guardian for scenes of sex and sexual violence. Ultimately, Elle is the kind of movie that makes French cinema still vibrantly relevant, especially in the scary new age of Trump.t

He has created thousands of artworks in multiple media, from prints and paintings to sculptural canvases and 3-D-printed maquettes, which trumpet their presence and are neither characterized by restraint in scale and ambition nor confined to the quotidian boundaries of a standard canvas. So one could understand the temptation to overdo it in a retrospective aiming for a fresh look at an influential figure who has become part of – or even one with – the cultural landscape. But FAMSF’s curator in charge of American Art Timothy Anglin Burgard has resisted that impulse and chosen only 50 works, adhering to a less-is-more approach that serves both the subject and visitors well. Rick Gerharter Unlike some members of his generation, Stella never flirted with One of two galleries of wall sculptures by Frank Stella that are part of the exhibit Frank Stella: A figuration. He has the distinction of Retrospective now at the de Young Museum. Also exhibited is Circus of Pure Feeling for Malevich, 4 being one of the few postwar artists Square Circus, 16 parts (2009) on four tables in the center of the gallery. to have committed to abstraction throughout his entire career, defending, promoting and expanding theme park ride, a feeling of perpetboth its definition and the very conual motion infuses The Whiteness of cept of painting. Constantly on the the Whale (IRS-1, 2X) (1987), crestmove, innovating, opening up new ed by a foamy teal-green wave, and realms of possibility and breaking the 10-foot-tall, five-part assembly boundaries of picture-making by The Grand Armada (IRS-6, 1X) dynamiting traditional notions of (1989), where a wriggling Japanesespace, he has exercised a take-noanime, black-finned whale seems to prisoners fearlessness, armed with be slinking towards you, approxithe inherent belief that a painting mating the experience of creatures “can be anything.” jutting into view when wearing 3-D He’s credited with contributing glasses in a movie theater. If Captain more to the evolution of modern Ahab had seen these, he might have art than any other artist, but it’s stayed on land. his daredevil instincts, his willingLike Hockney, Stella is on the hunt ness to leap forward into uncharted for new technologies. The final galwaters, that may explain why he has lery is devoted to his recent advenremained prominent and prestitures in 3-D printing, and given the gious for nearly 60 years in an arena size of these puppies, it must be one as fickle as the art world. “I tried to whopper of a machine. These later keep the paint as good as it pieces, some of which sugwas in the can,” he once obgest a cross between primitive served, an epic understatewalking robotics experiments ment from someone who and lunar landing modwas a prodigy by his early ules gone bad, marshal an 20s. A superstar right out everything-but-the-kitchenof the gate, Stella rode the sink effort to defy the laws express train from Andover of gravity. Take the garish and Princeton in 1959 to redjang (2009), a warped New York, fame, money and trampoline whose gelatinous critical approbation, which orange fiberglass seat is anis not to say that all of his imchored at such a precipitous provisations were universally angle it might catapult off its well-received. tubular steel frame, sling-shot At the tender age of 23 style. K.144 (2013), possibly he was included, along with inspired by Sputnik or listenJasper Johns and Robert ing to music, brings to mind Rauschenberg, in Sixteen those elementary school Americans, a pivotal 1960 models of the solar system show at NYMOMA. It feawhose planetary orbits, reptured his Black Paintings, resented by painted coils, a series that shocked the emanate from a core that has populace and was perceived a hole in its heart. Courtesy FAMSF in some quarters as an atStella at 80: Still crazy like tack on the high priests of Gobba zoppa e collotorto (1985) by Frank Stella, a fox after all these years.t abstract expressionism. The part of the exhibit Frank Stella: A Retrospective 415 -500 -2620 now at the de Young Museum. museum bought one that’s Through Feb. 26, 2017.

<< Out&About

O&A

34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Thu 17

Humans, being by Jim Provenzano

ere are arts events that you can go to this week, which will hopefully revive your appreciation for humanity. For nightlife events, see On the Tab in BARtab.

Tanya Tagaq @ YBCA

Thu 17 Absolutely Fabulous @ Exit Theatre Royal British Comedy Theatre returns with the fun stage adaptations of two new episodes of the hit comedy show: Sex and Small Opening, costarring Terrence McLaughlin and Zsa Zsa Lufthansa. $15-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 19. 156 Eddy St. www.rbct.us

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

Anthony Riggs @ Transmission Gallery, Oakland The Irreversible Triumph of Time, the artist’s exhibit of unusual collage-like paintings. Thru Nov. 19. 770 West Grand ave., Oakland. www.thetransmissiongallery.com

New & Classic Films @ Castro Theatre Nov, 17: Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (2pm, 7pm) and Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (4:30, 9:30). Nov. 18: Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko (7pm) and Prisoners (9:10). Nov. 19: Peaches Christ’s Sheetlejuice (see Sat.). Nov. 20: Rear Window (2:30, 4:45, 7pm) and Mississippi Mermaid (9:05). Nov. 22: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (5:30, 8:30). Nov. 23: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (3pm, 7pm) and The Ice Storm (4:45, 8:45). $11-$16. 429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

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

Sat 19

Comedy Returns @ El Rio Inversion: Circus Disobedience @ Kinetic Arts Center, Oakland

Tanya Tagaq @ YBCA The amazing Inuit throat singer performs two different concerts: a live music accompaniment to the silent film classic Nanook of the North ($16-$25, 8pm) and an album release party ($20-$30, Nov. 18, 10pm). Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

The King and I @ Golden Gate Theatre

Unusual Movies @ Oddball Films

Michael McClure @ City Lights Bookstore The veteran poet and Beat Generation icon reads from his new collection, Mephistos and Other Poems. 7pm. 261 Columbus Ave. www.citylights.com

Mincing Words @ The Marsh Tom Ammiano returns to the stage with his comic solo show about his life in politics. $20-$100. Thu 8pm, Sat 5pm. Extended thru Nov. 19. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

Shocktober 17 @ Hypnodrome The 17th annual theatrical scarefest of four one-acts will shiver your timbers with terror and titillation. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 19. 575 10th S.t at Bryant. 377-4202. www.hypnodrome.org

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

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs; now with new characters like Sia and Bernie Sanders. Holiday Extravaganza runs Nov. 16 –Dec. 31 (special New Year’s Eve shows). $25-$160. Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. Wed-Fri 8pm. Sat 6pm & 9pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd. (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Cirque du Soleil @ AT&T Park

Terra Incognita @ Exit Studio UpLift Physical Theatre and DIVAfest present a three-woman acrobatic dance and storytelling work about joyful and sorrowful memories. $20$30. Fri & Sat 8pm. Thru Nov. 19. 156 Eddy St. www.divafest.info

Vonda Shepard @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The multi-award-winning singer-actress (Golden Globes, Emmys and SAG awards) returns for two cabaret nights of song. $40-$60 ($20 food/drink min.) 8pm. Nov. 19, 7pm. (Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. feinsteinsatthenikko.com

See the restaged installations and new exhibits of Pop, Abstract and classic Modern art at the renovated and visually amazing museum, with two extra floors, a new additional Howard Street entrance, cafe and outdoor gardens. New exhibits include Bruce Conner films and Japanese Photography from Post-War to Now. Free-$25. 10am-8pm. 151 Third St. www.sfmoma.org

Curious Contraptions @ Exploratorium New exhibit of 20 mechanical sculptures by 12 artists, along with interactive science displays. $20$30. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. Pier 15, Embarcadero at Green St. www.exploratoratorium.edu

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

Havana Cuba All-Stars @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkelely The vibrant band performs traditional rumba, chachacha, and guaguanco songs. $26-$82. 8pm. UC Berkeley campus. www.calperformances.org

The Last Tiger in Haiti @ Berkeley Rep Jeff Augustin’s then-and-now story of a group of modern Haitians fleeing to freedom. $45-$81. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm. Thru Nov. 27. 2025 Addison St. www.berkeleyrep.org

Maria Diamond @ Hotel Rex

The Broadway and cabaret star performs I’ll Be Seein’ Youz, a Bronx Boy’s Musical Perspective of World War II, including stories from his family life. $35-$55. 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.francdambrosio.com www.hotelnikkosf.com/feinsteins

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

Variety show with Vanessa Bousay, Kellita, Honey Mahogany, Dixie DeLish, Bunny Pistol and other talents; host Jasper Patterson. $18$25. 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Approaching American Abstraction @ SF Museum of Modern Art

The queer-owned retreat offers a weekend of workshops, discussion and empowering fun, to build a path forward for the movement following the election; with heart circles, talent show, camping, cabins, tasty meals and scenic outdoors. $150-$250. Thru Nov. 21. http://groundswell.institute

42nd Street Moon’s production of Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel’s musical adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story A Scandal in Bohemia. $25-$75. Thru Nov. 20. 215 Jackson St. 255-8207. www.42ndStMoon.org

Franc D’Ambrosio @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko

Summer in Sanctuary @ The Marsh

Lavender: Queer Leadership Retreat @ Groundswell Institute,

Baker Street @ Eureka Theatre

Milt Abel, Bob McIntyre, Cara Tramontano, Barry Fischer, and host Lisa Geduldig perform gay and LGBTfriendly comedy. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Barbary Coast Burlesque @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Weekly screenings of strange and obscure short films. $10. 8pm. Also Fridays. 275 Capp St. 558-8117. www.oddballfilm.com

Fri 18 /peh-LO-tah/ @ YBCA Theater Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s new multimedia performance about the intersecting worlds of soccer fandom, machismo, hip hop and art. $20-$40. 8pm. Nov. 19, 8pm. Nov. 20, 5pm. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St. www.ybca.org

After Hours @ GLBT History Museum Ladies of the ‘80s, a retro music fundraiser and cocktail party at the museum, with DJs Siobhan Aluvalot and Marke B. $10. 7pm-9pm. See exhibits Through Knowledge to Justice: The Sexual World of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), about the early gay rights pioneer and scholar, and Noche de Ambiente, a mini-exhibit of Latino/x LGBT history. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

The veteran singer performs her cabaret show, Let Me Entertain You, with pianist Barry Lloyd. $30-$50. 8pm. 562 Sutter St. www.societycabaret.com

Not Alone @ SF Arts Commission Gallery Opening reception for Not Alone: Exploring Bonds Between and With Members of the Armed Forces, an expansive group exhibition featuring works by local and national artists and veteran artists. 6pm-8pm. Thru March 4. War Memorial Veterans Bldg. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfartscommission.org/gallery

Oakland Symphony @ Paramount Theatre, Oakland Lost Romantic Symphonies, a concert of works by Siegfried Matthus, John Williams, Joachim Raffand George Gershwin. $25-$80. 8pm. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. www.oaklandsyphony.org

Rainbow Logic: Arm in Arm with Remy Charlip @ CounterPulse Seth Eisen’s loving dance-theatre and puppetry tribute and biographical play about gay author, choreographer and artist Remy Charlip, with Colin Creveling, Paul Loper, and Molly Shaiken. $20-$35. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Nov. 20. 80 Turk St. eyezen.org www.counterpulse.org

Sons of the Prophet @ New Conservatory Theatre Center Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning and Pulitzer Prize Finalist comic family play about suffering and redemption gets a local production. $25-$50. Previews; opening night Nov. 19. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 2pm. Thru Dec. 18. 25 Van Ness Ave., lower level. www.nctcsf.org

The person depic

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players perform Edward Albee’s classic drama about disgruntled married college town couples. $25-$40. Wed-Sun thru Nov. 20. In repertory Nov. 27-Jan. 22. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Sat 19 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee @ Alcazar Theatre Bay Area Musicals’ production of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s musical comedy about a spelling bee and the nervous parents of its kid contestants. $35-$65. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sat 2pm. Thru Dec. 4. 650 Geary St. www.bamsf.org

Butterflies and Blooms @ Conservatory of Flowers Beautiful floral displays, plants for sale, and docent tours. Starting Nov. 17, the live butterflies exhibit! Thru June 30. Tue-Sun 10am-4pm. $2-$8. Free for SF residents. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park, 831-2090. www.conservatoryofflowers.org

Dynamite Guitars @ St. Mark’s Lutheran Church 36th annual concert of solo guitarists, including Marc Teicholz, Lawrence Ferrara, David Tanenbaum and Marcin Dylla. $45-$55. 7:30pm. 1111 O’Farrell St. www.omniconcerts.com

Emperor’s Treasures @ Asian Art Museum

Chinese Art From the National Palace Museum, Taipei; thru Sept. 18. Other exhibits include Japanese and Chinese laquerware, Worshipping Women: Power and Devotion in Indian Painting (thru Mar. 26, 2017), A Billion Buddhas: The Awakened Cosmos of Himalyan Buddhism (thru April 9, 2017). Free$25. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. 581-3500. www.asianart.org

Out&About>>

The Golden Hammer @ The Marsh Berkeley Mark McGoldrick’s solo show his work in the criminal justice system as a public defender. $20-$100. Sat & Sun 5pm, Thu 8pm.Thru Nov. 20. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Hindsight @ Modern Eden Gallery Group exhibit of unique animal paintings and sculptures by Josh Keyes, Sandra Yagi, Ahren Hertel and Ellen Jewett. Thru Dec. 3. 801 Greenwich St. www.moderneden.com

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

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band @ Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium

Wish Upon a Star: Pinocchio @ Walt Disney Family Museum

The Beatles drummer performs classics and new songs with Todd Rundgren, Richard Page, Gregg Rolie and other musicians. $82-$160. 8pm. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. 473-6800. www.marincenter.org

New exhibit all about the Disney classic about a puppet who longs to be a real boy; thru Jan. 9, 2017. Free (members)-$20. 104 Montgomery St., The Presidio. 345-6800. www.waltdisney.org

SF Hiking Club @ China Camp Join GLBT hikers of the SF Hiking Club for a 12-mile hike at China Camp State Park in Marin County. Carpool meets 8:30 at Safeway sign, Market & Dolores. 652-4496. sfhiking.com

SoMa Now and Then @ Various Locales Joe Landini’s site-specific outdoor solo dance and tour of South of Market gay bars and cruise spots of yesteryear. $20. Sat & Sun 3pm. Thru Dec. 4 (except Nov. 26 & 27). Start at SF Eagle, 398 12th St. www.pushproductions.org

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

Sun 20 Abrazo, Queer Tango @ Finnish Brotherhood Hall, Berkeley Enjoy weekly same-sex tango dancing and a potluck, with lessons early in the day. $7-$15. 3:30-6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St., Berkeley. (510) 8455352. www.finnishhall.com

All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 @ Oakland Museum New multimedia exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Oakland-based civil rights and community group; thru Feb. 12. Other exhibits include Oakland, I want you to know..., an exhibit of Oakland resident portraits and reflections on gentrification. Free/$15. Reg. hours Wed-Sat 11am-5pm (Fri til 9pm). 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org

Constructed Communication @ Museum of Craft and Design

Lamp of the Covenant @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Exhibits about Jewish culture include 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. thecjm.org

Other Cinema @ ATA Gallery

Sheetlejuice @ Castro Theatre Bianca Del Rio stars in Peaches Christ’s production of the drag parody stage version of the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice,(with Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Sister Roma, Rory David, Michael Phillis and others); the film is screened after the live show. $30-$145 (with VIP reception, photo ops and cocktails). 3pm & 8pm. 429 Castro St. www.peacheschrist.com

Weekly screenings of unusual, rare and strange short films and videos. Nov. 19: Book Potlatch (bring, get books), plus wacky short films from the SF Public Library’s archives$9. 8:30pm. 992 Valencia St. 648-0654. othercinema.com

Space Program: Europa @ YBCA

Our Town SF @ Eureka Valley Rec. Center

Watermelon Woman 3.0 @ Center for Sex and Culture

Sister Roma and Tom Temprano cohost the community nonprofit afternoon, with booths and tables from 50 organizations, plus door prizes, snacks, face painting, cooking demos and lots more. Free. 1:30pm-4:30pm. 100 Collingwood St. www.ourtownsf.org

Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s /peh-LO-tah/ @ YBCA Theater

Tim Parks @ Dog Eared Books

Vintage Prints @ William Blake Gallery

The San Diego author of the gay coming-of-age thriller The Scheme of Things reads from and discusses his new book. 7pm. 489 Castro St. www.dogearedbooks.com

New gallery of historic art by the 18th and 19th-century poet and illustrator. Mon-Fri 10am-5pm. Sat 11am-5pm. 49 Geary St. #205. williamblakegallery.com

Mon 21 Chastity Belle @ Oasis The drag lipsynch performer’s Judy, Judy, Judy pays homage to music icon Judy Garland, with an intermission show by Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, and costumes by David Glamamore. $15. 8pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Date Night at Pet Emergency @ The Marsh Lisa Rothman’s solo show about family troubles surrounding a sick dog. $20-$100. Sundays, 2pm. Thru Dec. 4. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

William Wellborn @ SF Conservatory of Music Faculty piano recital. Free. 2pm. 50 Oak St. www.sfcm.edu

Fauxnique @ Oasis Monique Jenkinson returns for an encore performance of The F Word, her feminist live-drag-dance solo show. $20-$25. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Irvin Lin @ Dog Eared Books The author of Marbled, Swirled, and Layered: 150 Recipes and variations for Artful Bars, Cookies, Pies, Cakes, and More shares cooking tips, and samples! 3pm. 489 Castro St. www.dogearedbooks.com

See beautiful floral and foliage displays, trees and plants in various beautiful gardens specific to region. Daily walking tours and more. Free$15. Tours, lectures, classes and more. Also, The Park: A Love Story, nature photos by Stephen Kane; thru Dec. 6:30pm-8:30pm. Open daily, 7:30amsunset. Golden Gate Park. 661-1316. www.sfbotanicalgarden.org

OutLook Video @ Channel 29 The weekly LGBT TV show, with updates on current events. 9:30pm. www.outlookvideo.org

Dee Dee Bridgewater @ Yoshi’s Oakland Tony and (three-time) Grammywinning jazz vocalist performs classics and original music. $34-$65. 8pm. Also Nov 23, 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Marga’s Comedy Salon @ Spark Arts

Queerest Library Ever @ SF Public Libraries

Sun 20 Tim Parks @ Dog Eared Books

Maynard James Keenan @ Herbst Theatre The lead singer of Tool discusses his new memoir, A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, with images and videos. $65 (includes a book). 8pm. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.apeconcerts.com

Tofu Art @ Glamarama Time Travel Photos, a new exhibit of San Francisco-themed collages by the local artist, at the Mission hair salon. Thru Nov. 27. 304 Valencia St. tofuart.com www.glamarama.com

Unearthed @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with various live, interactive and installed exhibits about animals, plants and the earth. $20-$35. Mon-Sat 9:30am5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. 379-8000. www.calacademy.org

Valerie Troutt @ Yoshi’s Oakland The Bay Area jazz-multi-genre singermusician performs with her band. $20-$25. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Sat 19

Tom Sachs NASA-styled installation takes you to Jupiter’s moon. $10. Thru Jan. 15, 2017. 701 Mission St. www.ybca.org

Group exhibit of diverse art works celebrating director Cheryl Dunye’s groundbreaking African American lesbian film. Thru Jan. 6. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

Tue 22

Marga Gomez’ popular new comedy showcase at the Castro art gallery this time features Nick Leonard, author Mark Abramson, Ady Lady, Jesse Fernandez, and Stefani Silverman. $10. 8pm. 4229 18th St. www.margagomez.com/salon www.sparkarts.com

Dogpatch warehouse is now a museum store, gallery and program space. Mon-Fri 9:30am-5:30pm. 2569 Third St. 773-0303. www.sfmcd.org

Magnificent Magnolias @ SF Botanical Gardens

cted here is a model. Their image is being used for illustrative purposes only.

Fri 18

Hormel at 20: Celebrating Our Past/ Creating Our Future, a dual exhibit of archival materials celebrating two decades of the LGBTQ collections. 100 Larkin St., 3rd floor, and at the Eureka Valley Branch, 1 Jose Sarria Court at 16th St. www.sfpl.org

Wed 23 10 Percent @ Comcast David Perry’s online and cable interviews with notable local and visiting LGBT people, broadcast through the week. 7pm. Thu-Tue 11 & 11:30am & 10:30pm. ComcastHometown.com

Safeway Holiday Ice Rink @ Union Square The annual ice rink opens once again for holiday fun. Thru Jan. 16. Special events, including Christmas tree lighting. www.unionsuareicerink.com

Thu 24 Fabian Echevarria @ Strut Fotohodo, an exhibit of the local gay photographer’s work. 8pm. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Looking Through the Lens @ Diane Wilsey Center for Opera The Glory of San Francisco Opera, Past and Present, an exhibit of historic productions photos from the San Francisco Opera’s many productions. Free. Mon-Fri 9am-6pm. Veteran’s Building, 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfopera.com

Skin Deep: The Art of Tattoo @ Katz Snyder Gallery Exhibit of art and photos about tattoo art by 20 regional artists. Thru Jan. 20. Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. www.jccsf.org

Curious Contraptions @ Exploratorium

To submit event listings, email events@ebar.com Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

<< Theatre

36 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Luzia

From page 25

In a recent telephone interview, the show’s Director of Creation Patricia Ruel explained that when the production’s development got underway at Cirque du Soleil’s Montreal headquarters two years ago, there was an understanding among the set designers, costumers, and other creative team members. “We should do a show inspired by Mexican culture that avoids clichés about Mexico.” That’s hardly surprising since, while not mentioned in the show’s press kit, the Mexican government has invested nearly $50 million (USD) in the production’s planned seven-year global tour. In addition to entertaining audiences, Luzia is intended to do a bit of subliminal cultural diplomacy, supporting Mexico’s tourism industry and enhancing the image of a country that has been overtly criticized on the world stage. While the performing troupe is drawn from the limited pool of topflight acrobatic talent worldwide (the cast hails from 15 countries, and includes four members from Mexico), Luzia’s live band is composed of Mexican musicians, and the richly colored, intricately detailed props and settings are overseen by Eugenio Caballero, one of Mexico’s leading film production designers. Winner of an Oscar for his art direction of countryman Guillermo

del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Cathink of this production as ballero has infused signifiers Mexic-O. of Mexican culture into each Pole dancer Diana Ham, of the production’s 17 evocaone of Luzia’s four native tive vignettes. From the papel Mexican performers, said picado-influenced surface of that the show’s vision feels a monumental cylindrical authentic to her. “It’s a modcurtain, to projected monern, contemporary, mystical arch butterfly patterns that way to show Mexico. There showcase a similarly designed are some moments, when costume, to the ring of hangI first saw them, that really ing vines that help suggest the touched my heart.” subterranean atmosphere of a She pointed to the handYucatan cenote, Caballero and organ played by a street costume designer Giovanna musician in one scene and Buzzi summon a fantastical the transformation of soccer Courtesy Cirque du Soleil Mexican motif without deskills into a highly choreoMonarch butterfly patterns showcase a costume faulting to chili peppers and graphed dance routine as in Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia. sombreros. examples of the production’s The production’s gauzy, nuanced interpretation of Creation for one show in my life, so fantastic imagery and nods to its theme. When asked what I want to do my very best.” the natural world are a striking shift it feels like to be a Mexican citizen Perhaps the most dramatic differfrom the mechanical, steampunk touring the U.S. in a Mexican show ence from any prior Cirque du Soleil aesthetic of Kurious, the last Cirque right now, Ham admitted, “I’m tour is the breathtaking incorporadu Soleil show to play the Bay Area. scared. Some of the comments I’ve tion of water into the production. According to Patricia Ruel, prior to heard this man [Donald Trump] say Over 1,500 gallons of water are Kurious, the Cirque du Soleil orgamake me wonder if people here will used to create stunning rain efnization did a significant reorganizabe against the show. But we will play fects throughout the performance, tion of its creation process to assure around the whole world, not just sometimes pouring down intensely that a largely new team would be the U.S.,” she said, shrugging. “The enough to serve as screens for proassigned to the development of each show must go on.” jected images. The stage is perforated touring show. Ham, 34, who did rhythmic gymby more than 90,000 tiny drain holes, “There was a certain amount of nastics throughout her childhood, through which the water flows before fatigue,” said Ruel, who has been ineventually went to university and being purified and pumped back volved in seven other company probegan a career in a biotechnology up to a reserve high above the tent ductions, but not as a creative lead. laboratory. “I worked on algorithms floor. Aficionados who have seen “The idea now is to shake things up for growing penicillin and other the company’s permanent Las Vegas with each production. My feeling is medical compounds,” she recalled. spectacles should be forgiven if they that I will only get to be Director of While she never gave up competing

in gymnastics, it was difficult to make her schedule dovetail with life as a salaried scientist. So, at age 20, with a three-year-old son, Ham took on a grand experiment, leaving the lab and running away to join the circus. “My father stopped speaking to me,” she said. “But I just had to pursue this while I could.” Ham, who has competed on Mexico’s Got Talent, said she thinks she’ll get back to science someday. “My body can only do this for so long. And I miss the math,” she said – echoing the sentiments of just about nobody, ever. Drawing connections between her two realms of expertise, Ham has developed her own ointments and creams for the pain and muscle ache that circus performers experience. She also explores the life of the mind by oil painting during the day while on the road. “I like to mix surrealism and hyperrealism,” she joked. “But I’m not Frida Kahlo.” Manu Cyr, a Canadian, and one of five out gay performers in the Luzia cast, also takes on personal projects to pass his days. While he’s worked at painting, teaching circus skills to students, and ceramics at other stops in his touring career, he has something different in mind for San Francisco. “I was just on vacation in Mexico,” he recalled. “And I want to spend more time there. So I think I will take Spanish lessons.”t

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On the Town

Shining Stars Vol. 46 • No. 46 • November 17-23, 2016

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com

good gone bad

Star Trek Live’s new show at Oasis

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A Gareth Gooch

fter their rousing success last year with a stage adaptation of “Mudd’s Women,” an episode from the original Star Trek TV series, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and the rest of the crew from the USS Enterprise will be beaming down for a return engagement to Oasis beginning November 18. See page 40 >>

The Star Trek Live crew returns in “Mirror, Mirror.”

On the Tab la bla nightlife, bla bla fun, bla bla denial, bla bla things are feeling ver y Weimar-esque, wouldn’t you say?

page Listings begin on

38 >>

Fri 18 Winter Onesie Party @ Lookout

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{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

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Nov. 17-24

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

38 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Barbary Coast Burlesque @ Yoshi’s Oakland Variety show with Vanessa Bousay, Kellita, Honey Mahogany, Dixie DeLish, Bunny Pistol and other talents; host Jasper Patterson. $18$25. 10pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

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

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

Freeball @ Powerhouse

Fri 18 Barbary Coast Burlesque @ Yoshi’s Oakland

On the Tab

From page 37

Thu 17

Circle Jerk @ Nob Hill Theatre Super-hung porn stud Rafael Alencar leads the interactive sexy fun in the downstairs archive (before his Nov. 18 & 19 stage shows). $15. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Comedy Returns @ El Rio

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

Milt Abel, Bob McIntyre, Cara Tramontano, Barry Fischer, and host Lisa Geduldig perform gay and LGBT-friendly comedy. $7-$20. 8pm. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. Nov. 17: bartender Erick Lopez’ birthday, and a Gloria Estefan vs. Selena tribute night. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Nice Jewish Boys @ The Residence Gay Jewish guys’ social hour (cash bar). 7pm. 718 14th St. www.keshetonline.org

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

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

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

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

Rafael Alencar @ Nob Hill Theatre Super-hung porn stud performs his solo strip shows. $25. 8pm & 10pm. Also Nov. 19. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 3976758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

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

Swagger Like Us @ Oasis The monthly queer hip hop night features gay hip hop singer Jay Boogie, plus DJs DavO, and Jamila Afrika. $10. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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

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

Don your fun PJs at a fundraiser for SF Suicide Prevention, hosted by Suzan Revah, DJ Russ Rich, free coat-check. $5. 9pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Sat 19

Arts Beats & Eats @ Lone Star Saloon Enjoy delish food and wine at a fundraiser with body-painted hunks, erotic art on display, with DJ Kiro Ordin $15-$25. 3pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.XXXpartySF.com

Fri 18 Jay Boogie at Swagger Like Us @ Oasis

Artumnal Gathering @ Regency Ballroom Ain’t Mama’s Drag @ Balancoire

Pop-rock vocal duo plays two nights; The Cactus Blossoms also perform. $25. 8pm. Also Nov. 18. 1805 Geary St. at Fillmore. www.thefillmore.com Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes’ weekly drag show. $5. 10:30pm show. DJ Philip Grasso. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Lucius @ The Fillmore

Mary Go Round @ Lookout

Ladies of the ‘80s, a retro music fundraiser and cocktail party at the museum, with DJs Siobhan Aluvalot and Marke B. $10. 7pm-9pm. See exhibits Through Knowledge to Justice: The Sexual World of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) , about the early gay rights pioneer and scholar, and Noche de Ambiente, a mini-exhibit of Latino/x LGBT history, curated by Juliana Delgado Lopera and Ángel Rafael Vázquez-Concepción. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

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

Thu 17

Sing along and sing out, Louise, with hostess Sister Flora Goodthyme. 8pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

After Hours @ GLBT History Museum

Gogo Fridays @ Toad Hall

Midnight Show @ Divas

Winter Onesie Party @ Lookout

Franc D’Ambrosio @ Feinstein’s at The Nikko

Karaoke Night @ The Stud

Fri 18

Daniel DeLage and Element Eclipse cohost the sports shorts, dick-flopping night. Clothes check so you can strip down to some see-thru mesh shorts. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.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

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

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

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

Weekly drag queen and drag king show hosted by Cruzin d’Loo. 8pm-10pm. No cover. 2565 Mission St. www.balancoiresf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21, Oakland Enjoy Latin, hip hop and electro, plus hot gogos galore, and a big dance floor. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Sat 19 Artumnal Gathering @ Regency Ballroom

10th annual festive fundraiser for the Burning Man arts programs, with live performances, drinks, food and dJed music. Steampunk/Burner formal attire recommended. $50 and up. VIP dinner and cocktails ($500 and up), 5pm. main event, 9:30pm. 1300 Van Ness Ave. www.burningman.org

See page 41 >>

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

40 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Good Gone Bad

From page 37

This time D’rcy Drollinger and the gang will be presenting “Mirror, Mirror,” a 1967 Trek favorite which takes the gang on a strange journey into a parallel universe. Concurrently, their evil counterparts are zapped onto the “real” USS Enterprise. “Mirror Mirror” is considered to be one of the top ten Trek episodes of all time among Trekkies. “Who doesn’t love to see the good go bad?” asked Drollinger, who codirected the stage adaptation with Erin-Kate Whitcomb. “A knife wielding midriff-exposing Uhura, an evil Sulu with a scar down his face, a murderous Kirk, and Spock with a beard!” Drollinger said that the show will serve as both a serious homage and a camp parody. “We treat this show somewhat different than the other shows at

Propaganda.indd 1

Oasis in the respect that we treat it primarily like a historic period piece,” he explained. “Sarah Phykitt, our production manager, has not only recreated Kirk’s chair, but for this episode has recreated the famous computer, complete with data storage cards and the Tantalus machine, as well as the 3D models of the Agonizers and the Blackship daggers. We also uncovered recordings of about 75 percent of the music from this episode.” The episode’s camp appeal, according to Drollinger, is already built in. “I think much of the comedy comes from viewing the already campy episode under a magnifying glass,” he said. “We’re elevating and celebrating whats already there. It’s also refreshing to see a cast almost primarily made up of drag kings.” Some might think that Star Trek is a strange choice for a gay-centric club such as Oasis. Drollinger re-

10/24/16

minded us that the series’ diverse cast was considered quite groundbreaking at the time, making it a perfect fit for an LGBT audience. “Star Trek crosses age, gender, sexuality,” Drollinger said. “The diverse audience unifies around their love of the show.” He also pointed out that Star Trek shows might pull in more traditionally straight scifi geeks. “I think this show was groundbreaking on many levels,” he said. “It told a story of going outside the norm, and those that were different were accepted. I also feel that having such a racially diverse cast at that time represented a kind of inclusion that really spoke to a gay audience, just as it continues to do.” Drag king extraordinaire Leigh Crow also returns as Captain James T. Kirk. Crow was once a popular Elvis Presley impersonator known as Elvis Herselvis. Crow acknowledged that Captain Kirk was more popular that William Shatner, who played the Captain on the original series, and whose conflicts with his co-stars have become legendary. “I think Kirk has some Shatner in him,” said Crow. “Both are blustery and very confident; that confidence can quickly turn to megalomania. Kirk is held back by a script.” Crow emphasized the importance of bringing Star Trek Live to an LGBT audience. “Our show is cast 80 percent women.” she said. “You hardly ever see that. In this political climate we’re talking about equality and diversity, yet there’s room for improvement on those scores even in our own community.” The original Star Trek cast included George Takei, a now-openly gay Asian man as Sulu, and Nichelle Nichols, who is African American, as Uhura. In interviews, Nichols has said that Dr. Martin Luther King wrote to her to tell her how much she meant to his children during a time when people of color were largely invisible on television. In Star Trek Live, Uhura will be 1:05 PM portrayed by Bay Area drag queen Honey Mahogany, who first came to prominence when she competed during season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Mahogany is reprising her role from “Mudd’s Women,” the first episodes staged by the Oasis team.

Mahogany spoke about the significance of having a character like Uhura on television during the mid-1960s. “She was one of the first black characters to appear regularly on television, and of course, the famous kiss between Uhura and Kirk goes down in history as the first on screen interracial kiss,” Mahagony said. “Personally, I appreciate Uhura and Nichelle Nichols as trailblazers and role-models. I think the class and elegance that Nichelle Nichols brought to the role was inspiring, though in our version, we tend to play up the sassy sex-kitten aspect of the character. I mean, this is a drag show!”

Mahogany added that Star Trek Live will please both die-hard Trekkies and drag fans. “Needless to say, there will be comedy involved,” she said. “We play with all the innuendos we can come up with, but I think the audience will appreciate the attention to detail in the construction of the characters, sets and costumes. It is a parody, but it is also a resurrection.” t Star Trek Live at Oasis. $25, $35 and $225 VIP champagne tables. 7pm. Most Wednesdays through Saturdays, thru December 10. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Both Photos: Gareth Gooch

Above: Honey Mahogany as Uhura in the new Star Trek Live show at Oasis. Below: Amber Sommerfield as Spock, and Leigh Crow as Kirk in Star Trek Live episode “Mirror, Mirror.”

Read more online at www.ebar.com

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 41

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

Sheetlejuice @ Castro Theatre Bianca Del Rio stars in Peaches Christ’s production of the drag parody stage version of the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice, (with Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Sister Roma, Rory David, Michael Phillis and others); the film is screened after the live show. $30-$145 (with VIP reception, photo ops and cocktails). 3pm & 8pm. 429 Castro St. www.peacheschrist.com

Soul Party @ Elbo Room DJs Lucky, Paul, and Phengren Osward spin 60s soul 45s. $5-$10 ($5 off in semi-formal attire). 10pm-2am. 647 Valencia St. 552-7788. www.elbo.com

Sat 19 Bianca del Rio is Shettlejuice @ Castro Theatre

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

Sun 20 Femme Brunch @ Balancoire

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

Sat 19 Amanda Lepore at Mother @ Oasis

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon

Drag Me to Brunch @ Lookout

Juanita More’s monthly night blends drag, camp, and cruising. $5. 9pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

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

La Bota Loca @ Club 21, Oakland

Eric Roberson @ Yoshi’s Oakland

Beatpig @ Powerhouse

Latin, hip hop and Electro music night. Oct. 22, Diana Reyes performs live. $5-$25. 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

The jazz musician performs with his band. $32-$59. 7:30pm & 9:30pm. Also Nov 20, 7pm.. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge

Gameboi SF @ Rickshaw Stop

DJs Mysterious D and guests spin at the mash-up DJ dance party, with four rooms of different sounds and eight DJs. $10-$15 and up. 9:30pm3am. 375 11th St. www.bootiesf.com www.dnalounge.com

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

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

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

The fun gay Asian & pals dance night returns. $8-$15. 9pm-2am. 155 Fell St. www.rickshawstop.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular drag show. Nov. 19: Amanda Lepore’s birthday bash, with performances by Cash Monet, Nikki Jizz, Mama Celeste and Drunk drag Broadway. $10-$15. 10pm-2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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

Ozomatli @ The Fillmore The LA Latin hip hop band performs. $26.50. 9pm. 1805 Geary St. at Fillmore. www.thefillmore.com

Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band @ Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium The Beatles drummer performs classics and new songs with Todd Rundgren, Richard Page, Gregg Rolie and other musicians. $82-$160. 8pm. 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael. 473-6800. www.marincenter.org

Gareth Gooch

On the Tab

From page 38

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

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle DJ Bus Station John brings a disco dance tribute to Patrick Cowley, and the recently departed Pete Burns and Dead or Alive. $5. 7pm-1:30am. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

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

Fauxnique @ Oasis Monique Jenkinson returns for an encore performance of The F Word, her feminist live-drag-dance solo show. $20-$25. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe

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

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

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

Jock @ The Lookout

The classic leather bar’s most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. Beer bust donations benefit local nonprofits (Check the website for a list of recipients). 3pm6pm. Now also on Saturdays. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

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

See page 44 >>

Sat 19 Beatpig @ Powerhouse

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

42 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Bridget Everett The bawdy blowsy broad’s at Cobb’s Comedy Club

Bridget Everett onstage in New York

Bridget Everett

by Jim Gladstone

his past September, the comic actress and singer Bridget Everett was in Cleveland shooting an upcoming feature for Netflix called Little Evil. In the film, Everett, who headlines Cobb’s Comedy Club on Saturday, November 26 and Sunday, November 27 plays the best gal pal of Adam Scott’s just-married character, who is realizing that his six-year-old stepson may, in fact, be the Antichrist. “I’m not sure what you call this kind of movie,” said Everett during a recent phone interview. “It’s a horror comedy, I guess.” Perhaps the most horrific element of the filming for Everett was

when writer/director Eli Craig’s mother showed up on set. “I didn’t know what to say,” says Everett about meeting Craig’s mom, who happens to be Academy Awardwinner Sally Field. “Was I going to go up to her and say, ‘Hi, I have a lot of pictures on my phone where my dog and you have been put together with Photoshop.’?” The origin of this strange dilemma, explains Everett, was two years ago when she bought her first dog, a Pomeranian named Poppy who now tags along most everywhere mama goes. “My friends would make plans to go out, and I’d always want to bring her along, and so my catchphrase became ‘Not without my Poppy.’

You know, like the Sally Field movie, Not Without My Daughter?” “One of my friends ended up putting a picture of Poppy into the movie poster and then it just snowballed into Poppy on the Norma Rae poster and, well…its pretty ridiculous.” So, did The Flying Nun get to see her furry stalker’s photos? “Nah, I was trying to play it cool,” says Everett before pausing a moment. “I guess I played it too cool.” Shooting another recent film project, Fun Mom Dinner, Everett again found herself slightly daunted by the presence of an award-winning collaborator: “The first scene I shot was with Toni Collette, who I have admired forever. I’m just meet-

ing her and I had to be screaming at her in this scene.” Since 2013, when she began a series of occasional appearances on Inside Amy Schumer –command performances, really, for fan-andsupporter Schumer– Everett’s been collaborating with more and more famous names. She’s also attracting a much broader audience than the in-the-know New Yorkers who started to form a cultish following after her raucous 2007 off-off-Broadway show, At Least It’s Pink, which one less appreciative critic ungrammatically deemed “a jambalaya of nastiness existing only to heap cheap thrills atop even cheaper thrills.” To be sure, Everett’s live act is not everyone’s cup of tea. Blowsy, potty-mouthed, and often nearly naked, Everett works the stage, and the front section of the audience (Count yourself warned), like a force of nature. Her original songs include the likes of “Titties,” “Pussy Power,” and “Fuck Shit Up.” This is a woman who has drawn audiences with the help of exhortations like, “I may never play Madison Square Garden…but I am going to sit on your face.” But its her blowsy, pottymouthed, and often nearly naked cabaret and concert performances –one of which is captured on her 2015 Comedy Central special, Gynecological Wonder– that have brought Everett to the attention of mainstream Hollywood. It can’t figure out just what to do with her. After seeing Everett perform at an

Austin comedy festival, the quirky comedian Maria Bamford offered her a regular part on her Netflix series, Lady Dynamite. “We are complete opposite types, but she’s 100% true to herself and she has a giant heart,” Everett says of Bamford. While playing Dagmar on Dynamite and a succession of other small roles in big screen comedies has let Everett make a living as a performer (She only stopped waitressing at the Times Square location of Ruby Foo’s in 2014), it hasn’t quite lit the spark that –for a decade now– friends have suggested will inevitably lead her entertainment career to blow up bigtime. “I’m taking all these opportunities that come along,” says Everett, whose constantly-on-the-cusp status has contributed to battles with depression and insecurity. “But it’s hard to know if there’s going to be a big break. Nothing has felt like ‘This is my moment.’” A couple winters ago, Everett says she felt totally overwhelmed with life and decided “to go surfing for dogs on PetFinder.” Enter Poppy. “She’s a former sex worker,” says Everett. “They bred her until she had nothing left to give and then they put her up for sale. I try to bring her with me as much as I can. Having her around makes me happy and less depressed.” Mama likes her. She really, really likes her. Currently, Everett is pushing another pet project. “I wrote a pilot with Bobcat Goldthwait and Michael King, from Sex and the City.” King, an old friend, co-wrote At Least It’s Pink back in the day. “So we’re out there pitching it to everyone. It’s funny and its got heart and music. But its also pretty out there, so you never know.” For the time being though, Everett will continue to do her concert gigs and take the film roles that come her way. “It lets me keep Poppy on her organic raw chicken diet,” she explains. “And that makes her poop solid, which is totally worth it.”t Bridget Everett performs at Cobb’s Comedy Club November 26 & 27 (7pm). $29.50. 2-drink minimum. 915 Columbus Ave. 928-4320. www.bridgeteverett.net www.cobbscomedy.com

Read more online at www.ebar.com

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 43

Civic engagements

Steven Underhill

Donna Sachet (center) with friends at a November 8 election party at John’s Grill.

by Donna Sachet

“I

said to the American people, regardless of which side you were on in the election, regardless of whether your candidate won or lost, the sun would come up in the morning.” So predicted President Barack Obama the day before the votes were tallied in this most recent national election. Of all the speeches, essays, and opinion pieces we have read over the past few days, this one gave us the best perspective on the disappointing, disheartening, and debilitating Presidential results. It is hard for us to pinpoint what was more shocking and unfathomable, that the eminently qualified Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton did not win or that the politically unintiated Republican nominee Donald Trump truly is our President-elect. Like many of you, there were days spent in near isolation, resolutely cut off from media recaps, and nursing what felt like very personal wounds. Nevertheless, the sun did come up on Wednesday morning, as it did on Thursday and Friday and every day since. Now that it has come up, we need to come up with it. First, we need to face facts. Yes, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but hopes of the Electoral College ignoring their mandate and proclaiming her the President-elect are far-fetched. Yes, Donald Trump appears stunned by his win and reluctant to commit to this full-time job as the nation’s leader, but predictions that he will step aside, be impeached, or otherwise leave the picture are unsubstantiated fantasy. Yes, there is renewed talk of a California secession from the United States, but a realistic analysis of the steps to accomplish that, never mind the tremendous ramifications, reveal that to be wishful thinking. Donald Trump is the President-elect. Second, we need to watch carefully what happens over the next weeks before the Inauguration and first 100 days of his administration. Already, campaign promises, most of which were abhorrent to most of us, are being withdrawn or modified. Even with a majority-held Republican Congress, Trump’s priorities and the Republican Party’s priorities are rarely in alignment. We will no doubt see some implementation of policies outlined during the campaign that run counter to all we hold dear, but the complete dismantling of Obama’s legacy will not happen overnight nor without much debate. And so, third, we need to find our new strategies. Sitting on the sidelines nursing our wounds is not an

option. Many of us may have needed some time to grieve, get angry, and even scream, but that time must end. As the President said, “We learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick our wounds, we brush ourselves off, we get back in the arena, we go at it. We try even harder the next time.” Don’t abandon your ideals, your elected officials, your political affiliations, your way of being involved in our democracy. More than half the electorate did not vote for this upcoming administration and they must keep their concerns alive. Continue to be involved in local and state politics. Stay abreast of issues, trends, and international events. The Obamas, as a family, will go down in history as one of the most dignified, respected, and effective ever. Let’s continue to build on the successes this administration has had and continue to oppose ideas that would set us back, take us in the wrong direction, and belie what this nation stands for. This may be far more than you expected or wanted to read in a social column, but we remain convinced that politics is everybody’s business and civic engagement is not an option, but a responsibility. We hope to see you back on the front, re-engaged and resolute.

Upcoming events

Holiday events of all kinds lie right around the corner and we highlight a few right here. We

kick off the season by overseeing the lighting of the Castro Tree in front of Bank of America on Castro on Monday, November 28, at 6PM, with special guests from the SF Gay Men’s Chorus, Lesbian/ Gay Freedom Band, Lesbian/Gay Chorus, and Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, not to mention a visit from Santa Claus himself, elves in tow. Check out the banner at the corner of 18th and Castro streets to see the many merchants, organizations, and individuals who support the Castro Merchants in making this tree and the sparkling lights all around the Castro possible. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, November 28, 29, & 30, is the 24th annual Songs of the Season, this year at Halcyon (formerly Beatbox), 314 11th Street, transformed into an intimate cabaret venue replete with holiday decor. If you’ve been before, you won’t miss it. If you’ve never been, you don’t know what you’re missing. Doors open at 7PM and the lively cabaret show begins at 8PM with special guests Abigail Zsiga, Sharon McNight, Brian Kent, Dan O’Leary, Kippy Marks, Jason Brock, Leanne Borghesi, Brooke Michael Smith, and new vocal quartet Dyn4mix. Pianist Michael Grossman accompanies us and as always, Songs of the Season benefits AIDS Emergency Fund. Monday, December 5, is Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation’s Help is on the Way for the Holidays XV at the Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street, with a silent auction at 6PM, performance at 7:30PM, and after-party with the cast at the Clift Hotel. The stellar guest per-

Both photos: Steven Underhill

A candlelight vigil and street protest merged on Castro Street on November 9.

former list includes Sam Harris, Maureen McGovern, Jason Graae, Paula West, Sharon McNight, Jason Brock, Carly Ozard, and members of the touring cast of The Lion King and The King and I. This evening benefits Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center and Larkin Street Youth Services. Wednesday, December 7, we join ABC-TV’s Cheryl Jennings to light the Rainbow World Fund Tree of Hope in the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall. This is the largest origami decorated tree in the world, each year featuring hand-folded cranes containing the wishes of people from all over the world for our future together. The San Francisco Boys Chorus, singer Veronica Klaus, and pianist Tammy Hall provide a holiday music at 5:30PM, followed by the lighting ceremony at 6PM with origami artist Linda Mihara, Mayor Ed Lee, and Deputy Consul General of Japan Jun Yamada, as well as Rainbow World Fund Founder Jeff Cotter. Thursday, December 8, at 8PM, Drag Queens on Ice returns, presented by Alaska Airline at the

Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square. Watch your favorite drag queen demonstrate her skill or simply her determination on the ice! Reminder: we’ll be the drag queen on the mic, not on the ice. Then it’s the SF Gay Men’s Chorus’ Babes in Joyland holiday concerts Friday, December 9 at 8PM and Saturday, December 10, at 2:30 and 8PM at Nourse Theatre, 275 Hayes Street. Expect great music, moving moments, and laughter with special guest Marnie Breckenridge. The SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band’s The Fantastic Adventures of Captain Nutcracker, your chance to dance along with the music, takes place Saturday, December 10, 3PM and 7PM, and Sunday, December 11, 11AM and 3PM. Tutus, magic wands, and frivolity available on site. Wherever your holiday plans take you, remember to steer some of that holiday spending towards the many worthy non-profit charitable organizations that work so hard all year long. And take a moment to thank the many volunteers you’ll meet at their events. Or volunteer yourself. You’ll love it!t

Steven Underhill

Drag Queens on Ice, coming up December 8

Steven Underhill

The Tree of Hope at City Hall, coming up December 7.

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

44 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

Fri 18

Mon 21

Vonda Shepard @ Feinstein’s

Chastity Belle @ Oasis

On the Tab

From page 41

Say Yes @ Port Bar, Oakland New monthly event (3rd Sundays) with DJs Gehno Aviance and RoseGold, with guest DJ davO, who play uplifting positive music. $5. 3pm-8pm. 2023 Broadway. (510) 8232099. www.portbaroakland.com

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

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

Mon 21

Chastity Belle @ Oasis The drag lipsynch performer’s Judy, Judy, Judy pays homage to music icon Judy Garland, with an intermission show by Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, and costumes by David Glamamore. $15. 8pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

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

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

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

Underwear Night @ 440

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

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun

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

Valerie Troutt @ Yoshi’s Oakland

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

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

Musical Mondays @ 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

The Bay Area jazz/multi-genre singermusician performs with her band. $20-$25. 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Tue 22

Bandit @ Lone Star Saloon

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

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

Hysteria @ Martuni’s

Block Party @ Midnight Sun

Meow Mix @ The Stud

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

The weekly themed variety cabaret showcases new and unusual talents with MC Ferosha Titties. $3-$7. Show at 11pm. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. at Harrison. www.studsf.com

Cock Shot @ Beaux

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

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

Dee Dee Bridgewater @ Yoshi’s Oakland

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

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

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

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

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni’s

Gaymer Night @ Eagle

Tony and (three-time) Grammywinning jazz vocalist performs classics and original music. $34-$65. 8pm. Also Nov 23, 8pm. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

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

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

The Pack A.D. @ Bottom of the Hill The fun garage-punk-rock band performs on a bill with The Lower 48 and Dead Country Gentelemen. $12. 9pm. 1233 17th St. thepackad.com bottomofthehill.com

Sat 19 Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band @ Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium

Read more online at www.ebar.com

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 45

WINNER Best Wedding Photographer

Steven Underhill

Gareth Gooch

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

Sun 20 Fauxnique @ Oasis

Underwear Night @ Club OMG

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

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

Retro Night @ 440 Castro

Wed 23

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

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

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

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

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

Sat 19 Gameboi @ Rickshaw Stop

Bedlam @ Beaux

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See page 46 >>

Steven Underhill

Queer Jitterbugs @ The Verdi Club

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

46 • BAY AREA REPORTER • November 17-23, 2016

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Wooden Nickel Wednesday @ 440

Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels

Buy a drink and get a wooden nickle good for another. 12pm2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. www.the440.com

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

Thu 24

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

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

Tue 22 The Pack A.D. @ Bottom of the Hill

On the Tab

From page 45

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

Open Mic/Comedy @ SF Eagle Kollin Holtz hosts the weekly comedy and open mic talent night. 6pm-8pm. 398 12th St. www.sf-eagle.com

Pussy Party @ Beaux Ladies night at the Castro dance club. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ The Stud The saucy women’s burlesque show hosted by Dottie Lux adds a new midweek show. $10-$12. 7pm-9:30pm. 399 9th St. www.redhotsburlesque.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

Way Back @ Midnight Sun Weekly screenings of vintage music videos, and retro drink prices. 9pm2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

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

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

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

Tue 22 Dee Dee Bridgewater @ Yoshi’s Oakland

To place your Personals ad, Call 415-861-5019 for more info & rates

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

Underwear Night @ Powerhouse Free coat/clothes check when you strip down to your skivvies at the cruisy SoMa bar. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com Want your nightlife event listed? Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event. Event photos welcome.

Read more online at www.ebar.com

November 17-23, 2016 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 47

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Underworld @ F8 Gus Presents’ November 12 pre-Thanksgiving singlet party, held at F8 (1192 Folsom Street), attracted a fun-loving group of (mostly) men who eagerly stripped down to minimal clothing to dance their cares away. www.guspresents.com More photo albums are on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

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

Health Insurance Open Enrollment is NOVEMBER 1, 2016 to JANUARY 31, 2017

Choosing a Plan? Call POSITIVE RESOURCE CENTER to learn about coverage and NEW PAYMENT OPTIONS

415.777.0333

SERVING HIV+ SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS SPONSORED BY SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND GILEAD