December 24, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Palm Springs resort for sale

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Nonprofits are hurting

Minter’s menagerie grows

ARTS

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Mariah Christmas!

The

www.ebar.com

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

Tree of Hope inspires Keith Fong was appointed a judge on the Alameda County Superior Court.

Gay Asian law clerk named to Alameda court

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

See page 7 >>

SFPD to pay $150K to trans sergeant in bias case

by John Ferrannini

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Cynthia Laird

gay Asian federal law clerk will be joining the Alameda County Superior Court, bringing the number of out judges on the East Bay bench to eight in early 2021.

Governor Gavin Newsom named Oakland resident Keith Kern Fong, 58, to a vacancy on the court December 8. Fong was one of three judicial appointments to the Alameda bench that Newsom announced earlier this month.

Fong, a Democrat, will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Ronni B. MacLauren. He has been a law clerk for Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong at the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California since 2009.

He will be the second gay male jurist known to be serving on the Alameda County court, as Judge Tom Reardon has served on the bench for 22 years. As of the end of 2019, there were six LGBTQ judges on the East Bay bench according to the demographic data on the state’s judiciary released in March.

Fong, who is of Chinese descent, will be one of at least two gay Asian male judges in the Bay Area. The other, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Roger Chan, reached out to Fong to congratulate him on his appointment and offered his support as Fong transitions onto the bench in either late January or early February. “I am just thrilled. I have so many emotions; I am excited, humbled, all of those things,�

Fong told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent phone interview. “It is such an honor to serve.

It is especially an honor being a gay man of color joining the bench.�

Joining the Alameda bench January 4 will be Elena Condes, a lesbian and longtime criminal defense attorney who won election to a vacant judicial seat in the November 3 election. Condes, who is Latina, will be the first LGBTQ woman of color on the East Bay county court.

She and her wife, Danielle Condes, live in Berkeley and have a 20-year-old daughter in college. She will serve alongside the court’s four out female judges: Jenna M. Whitman, Kimberly E. Colwell, Tara M. Flanagan, Karin S. Schwartz, and Victoria S. Kolakowski, the state’s lone out transgender jurist who is married to B.A.R. news editor Cynthia Laird.

Vol. 50 • No. 52 • December 24-30, 2020

Rick Gerharter

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he Rainbow World Fund’s 15th annual World Tree of Hope sits in the majesty of Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill. The tree is decorated with origami cranes that contain inspiring messages during these uncertain times. A

virtual lighting ceremony was held December 21.

The Rainbow World Fund, which organizes the project, is an LGBTQ humanitarian organization that works to provide aid and advocacy around the world.

he City and County of San Francisco has reached a $150,000 settlement with a transgender police sergeant in his workplace harassment case.

After Sergeant Flint Paul received genderDaisy Rose Coby affirming surgery in 2006, he was referred to SFPD Sergeant with female pronouns Flint Paul and colleagues called him by his former name, including on the police department radio, he said.

Now, the city has settled with Paul – $50,000 of the money will go toward legal fees – according to court documents, and will also attempt to redress systemic transphobia. Both the San Francisco Police Commission and See page 3 >>

CA follows SF in updating LGBTQ COVID data collection

by Matthew S. Bajko

C

alifornia health officials have now updated their tracking system online to include LGBTQ COVID data. It comes several days after San Francisco began asking COVID-19 test takers what their sexual orientation is in addition to their gender identity.

Monday, December 21, the California Department of Public Health announced that it had moved forward on starting to track the COVID SOGI data. In an advisory to the media, it noted that “as part of its commitment to reduce health inequities and ensure the best outcomes for all Californians, the state has launched a Health Equity Dashboard on www. covid19.ca.gov that tracks California’s health equity measure and data by race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.�

It can be found at https://covid19.ca.gov/ equity/ and the data shown is a cumulative 30-day total, updated on December 17, 2020, according to a note affixed to the charts. It also clarifies that sexual orientation and gender identity are not collected for tests.

Based on the information posted, the sexual orientation information is missing from 90% of the state’s COVID cases and is missing from 93.5% of deaths. It is the opposite in terms of gender identity, with the info missing from 1.6% of cases and from 1.3% of deaths.

The state website also links to a separate page with information on how health departments can better collect the SOGI data that was compiled by the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at Boston’s Fenway Institute.

Courtesy YouTube

California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly

Two weeks ago San Francisco officials had informed the Bay Area Reporter they were working with their sponsored testing provider, Color, to expand the data requested at the time of testing or during registration to ask a question about sexual orientation. It makes San Francisco one of the few municipalities in the state to be collecting the SOGI data. “SOGI data collection has been added to the city’s testing site registration through Color lab,� Clair Farley, a trans woman who is the director of the Mayor’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, informed the Bay Area Reporter December 18.

According to a screen shot Farley sent to the B.A.R., those now signing up to get tested through one of the city’s testing sites will be asked: “How do you best describe your sexual orientation or sexual identity?� Options include straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, or homosexual, bisexual, questioning, other, or prefer not to say.

A note informs people the CDPH “has requested this information to help understand the

impact the virus has across the state.� It comes prior to the question people were already being asked about what their gender identity is. The choices include “Trans Female,� “Trans Male,� or “Genderqueer/Gender Nonbinary.� “We want to thank the COVID Command Center (CCC) and the Color lab for working with us to update the city’s testing sites to include vital sexual orientation and gender identity data collection,� stated Farley to the B.A.R. “This will help us better track the impact of COVID on our LGBTQ communities and help us to address health inequities.�

Law not fully implemented

As the B.A.R. first reported in November, state and most local health officials have not fully implemented a law Governor Gavin Newsom signed in September or regulations instituted in July by Dr. Mark Ghaly, the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, aimed at asking everyone getting tested for COVID-19 to be asked the SOGI questions.

Last month, Farley had told the B.A.R. it was San Francisco officials’ understanding that both the regulations and Senate Bill 932 only mandated reporting SOGI data for positive test results. The city’s health department has been ascertaining the sexual orientation of people who test positive for COVID-19 via contact tracing.

A few jurisdictions, such as Monterey County, are asking the SOGI questions of people when they get a COVID-19 test. But most of the state’s major metropolitan areas are not, noted gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who authored the bill.

See page 7 >>

ENT PRESS SF INDEPEND ION ASSOCIAT

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • December 24-30, 2020

Report: Stressors impact LGBTQ refugees

by John Ferrannini

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GBTQ refugees and asylum seekers are facing myriad mental health challenges from the stresses of the migration experience, according to a report released last month.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, #Out4MentalHealth, a project overseen by the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network and NorCal Mental Health America, released “Surveying the Road to Equity: The Annual State of LGBTQ Communities, 2019” in November. The report is the result of a survey of 2,875 LGBTQ Californians, and includes within it 24 pages detailing the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers, specifically.

Poshi Walker, a queer and nonbinary person who is a project co-director with the mental health advocacy group CalVoices, told the B.A.R. that #Out4MentalHealth held a town hall in 2019 with advocates and providers to inform the writing of the section of the report dealing with refugees and asylum seekers.

This town hall informed five recommendations the report had for governments, organizations and individuals, including expanding Medi-Cal to cover all undocumented people; removing barriers for accessing services so that refugees and asylum seekers won’t fear deportation for doing so; providing education to these communities to combat mental health stigma; eliminating detention at least for LGBTQ asylum seekers; and finding and supporting sponsors for them.

Walker said that outside of detention, refugees and asylum seekers face “stigma, fear, wait lists, and other barriers, such as the public charge rule.”

The rule allows visas to be denied if the individuals applying are labeled as likely or liable to become a public charge, which is to say

overly reliant upon taxpayer support. A 2019 Trump administration revision tightened the rule, which is over a century old.

The revision labels as ineligible for permanent United States residency immigrants who have received public housing benefits, Social Security, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Medicaid, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families for more than one year in any three-year period.

Sometimes LGBTQ asylum seekers face stigma and discrimination from others in the same situation. Walker said that during the 2018 migrant caravan from Central America to the U.S., LGBTQ asylum seekers created their own “caravan cohort.”

Under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, tens of thousands of asylum seekers of many national origins are waiting in the country for their claims to be adjudicated by U.S. courts.

“For LGBTQ asylum seekers, having to wait in Mexico or other countries may subject them to additional anti-LGBTQ harassment, violence and persecution,” the report states.

Other issues

Another issue that contributes to stress among asylum seekers and refugees is the requirement of proof of persecution.

“The very thing they’re being asked to prove are the reasons why they are seeking asylum,” Walker said. “They can’t be so out to show proof of a same-sex relationship, or marriage to a same-sex person.

How are they supposed to prove that they’re gay? Sometimes the acts they’re doing would cause them to be executed.”

Walker added that the situation becomes even more complex for bisexual people.

“Bisexual folks who’ve had a heterosexual-appearing marriage have

t

President-elect Biden promises reform

Courtesy of the European Photopress Agency

LGBTQ asylum seekers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras arrived in a rainbow caravan in November 2018.

that extra obstacle,” Walker said. “So there’s a difficulty right there.”

But crossing into the U.S. is hardly a panacea.

“If they are not turned away, they may be placed in detention facilities which are overcrowded, under serviced, and can place them at additional risk of harm from both fellow detainees and staff,” the report states.

One town hall participant, who goes unnamed in the report, stated that LGBTQ asylum seekers were treated worse than heterosexual, cisgender ones – sometimes being forced to spend 22 hours a day inside of their cells. Another said that food is often moldy, and contains maggots.

“Of particular note, town hall participants spoke about people in detention being psychiatrically misdiagnosed and overmedicated on a regular basis,” the report states. “In addition, there is no follow through after a person is released, leaving many asylum seekers at risk for withdrawal and other negative physical and mental health outcomes.

“LGBTQ asylum seekers face greater risks for abuse within detention facilities than their straight and cisgender counterparts. They experience higher rates of harassment, physical/sexual violence, isolation and solitary confinement, lack of recognition of their identity, and other abuses,” the report continues.

“In particular, transgender individuals in detention are frequently subjected to sexual abuse and harassment. They are also frequently housed based on their birth sex, rather than their gender identity, or are placed in solitary confinement, presumably for their own safety. Trans women in immigration detention have also reported many instances of invasive strip searches performed by male guards, which is in violation of ICE’s own 2015 Transgender Care Memorandum,” the report states, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Okan Sengun, a gay man and attorney who is the executive director and co-founder of the LGBT Asylum Project in San Francisco, told the B.A.R. that he trusts the integrity of the “Surveying the Road to Equity” report.

“What I have reviewed seems in line with my own personal observations,” Sengun wrote to the B.A.R. Despite departing the White House next month, the Trump administration is continuing to promulgate hardline rules for asylum seekers. As the B.A.R. reported last week, on December 10 (Human Rights Day), the administration published new rules forcing asylum seekers to claim asylum in countries they travel through to get to the U.S. in order for their claims to be accepted.

Walker said that President-elect Joe Biden and his team promise a better approach to immigration policy – but noted that detention center conditions are often the purview of local sheriff ’s offices.

“If it’s an executive order, I fully believe that Biden will overturn a lot of this stuff,” Walker said. “If we’re talking about legislation, we’re talking about [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell. But I have a feeling the Biden administration won’t be as heinous.”

(The two Georgia runoff races next month will determine control of the Senate, which could flip if both of the Democratic candidates win.)

The Biden transition did not respond to requests for comment for this story, but the president-elect has pledged a 100-day moratorium on deportations and has a plan available on his 2020 campaign website.

Last month, Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, was nominated by Biden as his secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

“I support the appointment of Alejandro Mayorkas to the DHS,” Sengun said. “I think it’s monumental to have the first Latino and the first immigrant lead the DHS and I congratulate him.”

Sengun said that he is forwardlooking about Biden’s prospects for reforming the immigration system.

“My hopes for the incoming Biden administration is that he would immediately reverse Trump’s draconian executive orders regarding immigration,” Sengun wrote.

“I am cautiously optimistic for the See page 7 >>

Palm Springs gay resort up for sale

by Ed Walsh

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ne of Palm Springs’ bestknown gay resorts is up for sale. INNdulge’s owners Jon Jackson and his partner, Sandy Miller, are selling the hotel in the Warm Sands neighborhood for $10.8 million.

Longtime fans of the resort will be happy to know that the couple

has stipulated that whoever buys it keeps the property as a gay resort.

Three of the formerly gay resorts in Warm Sands have converted to mainstream in recent years. In 2019, All Worlds Resort’s main complex became a heterosexual swingers resort although it still operates a gay resort in the expansive annex property across the street, which used to be the Inn Exile resort.

Jackson and Miller say the decision to buy InnDulge 10 years ago was a whim and the decision to sell was also not planned.

“We never thought about owning a hotel until we learned the iconic INNdulge resort in Palm Springs was for sale,” Jackson explained about his purchase of the 1958 midcentury modern property.

The couple were recently advised

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to sell because of a change in the market causing commercial investors to focus away from buying retail or office space and look toward lodging as a safer bet.

“If it wasn’t for a call from our broker, we would never have considered leaving so soon,” Jackson said. “(The broker) said that if we were thinking of selling INNdulge in the next five years, we should do it now.”

Jackson and Miller are known for maintaining the property to very high standards over the past decade.

They explained that attention to quality went into their reasoning for making sure the buyer will keep it as a gay resort.

“We’ve spent the last 10 years improving the property into a luxury gay resort,” Jackson said. “We wouldn’t want someone coming in and destroying the concept. We’ve built a strong clientele who have come to rely on Palm Springs and INNdulge as their yearly vacation destination. We care too much for them to let a new buyer take away the magical place they all know and love.”

When the couple bought the property from the beloved former owners John Williams and JeanGuy Lachance, regulars feared that the property wouldn’t be kept up as well. But Jackson and Miller quickly put those worries to rest. They remodeled the interior of the rooms, enlarging the bathrooms without changing any of the mid-century modern architecture of the complex.

The couple spared no expense. They hired a crane to lift two large modern figure sculptures by artist Mavis Mc-

Ed Walsh

The INNdulge gay resort in Palm Springs has been put on the market.

Clure to be placed on opposite sides of the resort’s kidney-shaped pool.

Jackson told the Bay Area Reporter that he expects the hotel business to bounce back quickly after the pandemic.

“I think it will surprise people just how fast travel comes back,” he said. “The pent-up demand is off the hook right now. We are expecting our best fall ever, and if things fall right, a great summer as well. Spring will again be a challenge, but it’s nice to see light at the end of the tunnel.”

Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism public relations manager Randy Garner told the B.A.R. that all the city’s gay bars have survived the pandemic and he has not heard of any of the city’s gay resorts that have had to permanently close. Most of the Palm Springs’ gay bars are downtown on the block of E. Arenas just east of Indian Canyon Drive. The bars and restaurants there expanded with outdoor seating but that stopped with Southern California’s stay-at-home order. As it applies to rentals, the Southern California order is scheduled to expire December 28, though it likely will be extended.t

Community News>>

t LGBTQ nonprofits hit hard by COVID, survey finds

by John Ferrannini

I

n a sign of the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic, four in five Bay Area LGBTQ nonprofits have seen a decrease in revenue and more than half have had to reduce services, according to preliminary results of a Horizons Foundation survey released December 17.

The survey, taken in October – about seven months into the health crisis – is the most comprehensive data announced thus far about how the pandemic has affected 61 local nonprofits primarily serving the queer community.

“It’s not a surprise,” Roger Doughty, a gay man who is the president of Horizons, told the Bay Area Reporter. “At the same time, I’m a believer that we should make sure our assumptions are borne out in reality. One of the things we wanted to do is to get a better gauge to see who’s being affected.”

While 39% of the surveyed nonprofits have seen a rise in requested services (58% among nonprofits that are geared toward racial and ethnic minorities), 52% have had to reduce programs, according to the preliminary results.

More than one in four – 29% –

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Bias case

From page 1

the Board of Supervisors have approved the settlement.

“As part of the settlement, the San Francisco Police Department will adopt explicit prohibitions against misgendering and other robust protections for transgender and gendernonconforming police officers,” a joint news release from Impact Fund and Legal Aid at Work issued December 22 states. “The city will also conduct training on investigating

Courtesy Horizons Foundation

Horizons President Roger Doughty

have seen a decrease in revenue of over half. Eighty percent have had some decrease in revenue, a number that rises to 88% among those organizations with an annual budget of under $250,000.

While 58% of the organizations saw a decrease in revenue from individual donations, 21% saw an increase.

“Some organizations saw individual revenue go up,” Doughty said.

“In the context of a pandemic and the economic collapse, one might think every single organization saw a decline in revenue but that’s not necessarily so. Eighty percent of orworkplace complaints filed by transgender city employees for staff at the Department of Human Resources.”

The Impact Fund noted that employers can’t discriminate against workers because of their gender identity. Earlier this month, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, the Police Commission passed a revised, gender-neutral grooming standards policy that allows all officers to wear earrings. The change came months after a nonbinary police officer was sent home for insubordination for wearing earrings.

December 24-30, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

ganizations did report a decline in revenue, and I find that startling.”

Toni Newman, a trans woman who was brought on as the executive director of the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center in October, and who had previously headed St. James Infirmary, told the B.A.R. that LYRIC – which participated in the survey – has been fortunate.

“If I can be honest, LYRIC has not laid off a soul and financially we had quite a nice reserve,” Newman said. “We’ve taken all the services offered at the house on Collingwood [Street] and are doing it virtually.”

But not everyone is so lucky, Newman said.

“Trans women of color seem to be in more of a dire need, I would say, out of the LGBTQIA community, than anyone else,” Newman said.

“Most don’t have a permanent job and permanent housing. We have been working with service organizations to get trans folks of color housed so we can get them off the street. They’ve been more harmed during COVID than anyone else – that’s what we noticed.”

In an effort to meet that need, San Francisco officials recently announced that $1.6 million in grants

for Black trans programs and those serving other LGBTQs of color would be awarded over the next two years. The B.A.R. reported last week that nonprofits can now apply.

A majority of the nonprofits in the Horizons survey received COVID-specific funding from outside sources, including 51% from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. However, while all the organizations with a budget of over $1 million received a PPP loan, only 19% of organizations with budgets of under a quarter-million dollars received one.

Doughty said that he is concerned nonprofits will see an even greater rise in the demand for services considering the more recent congressional and presidential inaction on providing them, just at a time when nonprofits may be crunched even more. Over the weekend, CBS News reported that congressional leaders reached a deal on a $900 million COVID economic relief package that would see most Americans get $600, and $300 in enhanced unemployment for 10 weeks. State and local governments face dire shortfalls in their own budgets. The House and Senate have each passed the measure.

“In the midst of this terrible

surge, there’s uncertainty about help from any part of government,” Doughty said. “The city of San Francisco alone is looking at a significant deficit. So where will help come from? Nonprofits.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed last week directed city departments to reduce costs, which could result in layoffs. The city has another projected deficit of $653.2 million over the next two years. The city already closed two big budget holes earlier this year.

In April, Horizons distributed almost half a million dollars to 53 Bay Area LGBTQ nonprofits through its COVID-19 Response Emergency Fund.

Doughty is encouraging people who can to open their pocketbooks this holiday season to make yearend donations to nonprofits.

“Every dollar organizations get will translate to their ability to serve and advocate,” Doughty said. “While we are at a particularly challenging place in the pandemic, we have hope from the advent of a vaccine and the change in Washington. It’s going to take us time past the vaccine for the community to return. It will not happen with simply one getting a shot.”t

“Under California law, an employer cannot harass or discriminate against a transgender employee because of their gender identity,” Lindsay Nako, a straight ally who is the director of litigation and training at the Impact Fund, which represented Paul along with Legal Aid at Work, stated. “This includes refusing to use a transgender worker’s chosen name and appropriate pronouns. The harmful misgendering that Sergeant Paul See page 7 >>

SJ LGBTQ center to hold virtual Christmas event Tenderloin Tessie Christmas to-go dinner

Courtesy DeFrank Center

The Reverend Doti Boon

compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center will hold a virtual event on Christmas Day and people are invited to hop on Zoom to join in.

The Reverend Doti Boon will talk with people. Boon, a member of the LGBTQ community, is a pastor at the Center for Creative Living, a spiritual church and healing center.

She’s a former stand-up comedian who used to perform in San Francisco and will discuss giving and receiving for the holiday.

Other fun activities include a trivia game (with prizes) and watching a short video. Attendees are encouraged to wear their favorite ugly Christmas sweater.

The event takes place Friday, December 25, at 11 a.m.

The Zoom link is https://bit. ly/2Wqc4hG. The code is 749 7831 3165, password: 1F0en9.

Due to the pandemic, Tenderloin Tessie’s annual Christmas dinner in San Francisco will be a to-go affair, like it was for Thanksgiving.

People in need of a meal can stop by the First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin Street, between 1 and 4 p.m. Friday, December 25.

Michael Gagne, board president of the nonprofit, said that each person in line will receive a mask, gloves, and hand sanitizer. Hand-washing stations and accessible portable toilets will also be available.

Glide makes changes for Christmas meals

People in need can still get meals on Christmas Day at Glide Church, but the process has changed because of the new health order that prohibits outdoor dining, officials said.

Unlike Thanksgiving, when Glide had a tent set up and physically distant tables, meals on Christmas Day will be take-out only.

To-go meals will be available at 330 Ellis Street on Friday, December 25. Breakfast can be picked up from 8 to 9 a.m. and lunch from noon to 1 p.m.

Kenneth Kim, director of programs for Glide, told the Bay Area Reporter that “some elements of the meals will feel festive” given the holiday.

Glide church’s Christmas Day worship service will take place virtually at 10 a.m.

For more information, go to www.glide.org.t

From all of us at the Bay Area Reporter.

Wear a mask. Stay home.

Stay safe until we can be together again.

Michael Yamashita, Publisher.

<< Open Forum

t Mandelman for SF board president

4 • Bay Area Reporter • December 24-30, 2020

Volume 50, Number 52 December 24-30, 2020 www.ebar.com

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T

he San Francisco Board of Supervisors will meet January 8 and, after elected and reelected members are sworn in, will choose a new board president. The person selected to preside over the board should be someone who can work with their colleagues as well as Mayor London Breed, because the city faces unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic. We think that the person who is best equipped to do that is gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.

It has been decades since the board had an out president – the last was former supervisor Tom Ammiano (1999-2003) and years before that, the late Harry Britt (1989-1991). Mandelman is currently the only out supervisor, a fact that he’s lamented over the years, as elected LGBTQ officeholders have been decreasing in city government.

But beyond representation, Mandelman has the temperament and skills to handle the job successfully. The board president makes committee assignments and is the leader of the city’s legislative branch.

Mandelman will often align with the board’s progressive majority, but also works closely with Breed on a number of issues. That ability is crucial as the city works to return to some semblance of normalcy when the pandemic ends. To be clear, it will likely be at least another year of hardship for many, both economically and health-wise.

Courtesy Rafael Mandelman

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman

Small businesses have suffered this year, especially restaurants and bars. Other sectors such as gyms and personal care businesses like barbershops and salons have been hardhit. The city has implemented numerous programs aimed at helping small businesses during this economic disaster, but too many people remain out of work. That, of course, leads to problems paying the rent.

As a member of the board’s budget and finance committee, Mandelman has a deep understanding of the city’s fiscal issues. And the supervisors are poised to continue such initiatives as eviction moratoriums and homeless services.

The mayor, meanwhile, continues with various housing projects. Just last week Breed celebrated the grand opening of 96 new units of permanent affordable housing in the Mission

district. Mandelman has been at the forefront promoting safe sleeping sites for the city’s unhoused residents. He has advocated on behalf of HIV/AIDS issues, mental health services, and small businesses, among many others.

Mandelman won points with us during the recent dustup over advertising contracts for community-based newspapers. At a time when seven of his colleagues saw no problem excluding one paper because they disagreed with its coverage, Mandelman was one of the four board members to oppose that hideous anti-First Amendment decision. (The other supervisors came around a week later, but the point remains that several don’t appreciate the paramount importance of free speech.) Mandelman’s years as a trustee (and a stint as president) on the board that oversees City College of San Francisco have taught him the importance of pragmatic governance and that has served him well as a supervisor.

Mandelman’s colleagues should seriously consider him for board president. San Francisco needs a city government that is united in overcoming myriad challenges of this health crisis. He works well with the state legislative leaders. In short, Mandelman gets along with people across political divides.

It all comes down to who can get six votes from their fellow supervisors. We urge board members to put their differences aside and pick a board president who can help shape the city as it enters this next stretch of the pandemic and beyond. Mandelman is that person.t

Healing is coming

by Jim Mitulski

And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid, for I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people ... and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on Earth ...” and they went there with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

(Luke 2:1-20)

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his is a good year for Christmas. We need the joy, the light, hope, the gifts, the promise, the peace. All of it. And once I looked at the past through our history and our current needs, I think Christmas can deliver all of those things.

Every year at this time, I start rereading the two Christmas stories in the Bible – the one more comforting from Luke cited above and the other more harrowing from Matthew 2:118. I also review Christmas interpretations that I especially treasure, ranging from “Black Nativity” by Langston Hughes to the hilarious Christmas pageant scene in Rita Mae Brown’s classic lesbian novel “Rubyfruit Jungle” (young lesbian Molly Bolt as a fierce Virgin Mary) to W.H. Auden’s “A Christmas Oratorio:” “We who must die demand a miracle ... music and sudden light have interrupted our routine tonight, and flushed the filth of habit from our hearts.”

I watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” with glee as Linus explains to Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas with simplicity and a succinctness that I have never attained in my 40 years as a preacher. Even Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” speaks to me, though it’s not very Christmassy. And we are as likely to know songs about a peculiar reindeer or Grinch, as we are the Bible stories.

I cherish memories of my cousins and me waiting in an upstairs bedroom in Michigan while Santa brought presents before Midnight Mass. I can feel us crowded into those small rooms, listening, waiting, expectantly, even in painful times. It is true that many queer children learn to keep joy alive in the secret recesses of our hearts, just as Mary did – “keeping all these things, pondering them in our hearts” – and we draw on them as reserves of invincible strength in later life.

It is still my memories of the Castro district in San Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s that eclipse all the other memories. During those years, I was pastor of the now relocated Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco.

The now-vacant building on Eureka Street was home to many church and community activities throughout the year. The whole neighborhood brought a vibrancy to Christmas and a meaning that still burns into my heart. Lights,

Courtesy Jim Mitulski

Candles adorn the altar at Island United Church in Foster City.

garland, Santas in chaps, extraordinary generosity for children throughout the city in need of clothing, food, toys.

Christmas demanded expression in the Castro. In the same three-hour period on Christmas Eve, we had three services at MCC, one at Most Holy Redeemer, and three San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performances at the Castro Theatre. Christmas demanded expression because many of us were estranged from our families because of our gayness or having AIDS. Our families of choice celebrated with us in the pain of this estrangement.

You could hear a lot of crying in church as we lit our candles on Christmas Eve and sang “Silent Night.” We claimed Christmas as our own – secular and religious. And the Gay Men’s Chorus did the same at the Castro Theatre.

Christmas was needed then. It couldn’t be contained, confined, or domesticated by the traditional religious authorities, because it doesn’t belong to them – it belongs to us. “Mary had a baby,” as the spiritual sings, “My Lord!” And that baby was us.

This year I’m reading the Christmas story again for 2020 and I wonder: where are we in this ancient tale?

Caesar is still the emperor, causing families to be separated by unjust immigration policies that refuse to acknowledge that migration is a human right. I know what the sound of separated families sounds like because I remember the cries of lesbian mothers deprived of their children solely because they loved other women, or who hid in secret in order to remain with them, for there was no path to legalization then. This week, at least 4,000 children are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement prison – over 70,000 this year have been processed through this system – and countless more remain outside our borders awaiting asylum because of our heinous “Remain in Mexico” policy. And perhaps worst of all, if that’s possible to say, over 600 children are absent from the manger this year – children who are perhaps permanently separated from their parents by a policy funded by our taxes.

More face deportation daily.

King Herod is still in the palace and is on a

killing spree trying to execute as many death row prisoners as he can before he leaves office. Incarcerated people are dying in detention because we can’t provide adequate coronavirus protection.

Herod’s foot soldiers are on the march, intimidating Black voters, vandalizing Black churches in Washington, D.C., tearing down Black Lives Matter banners from their sanctuary walls.

And though we have a promising vaccine, the distribution challenges remain. What did we learn from AIDS? Who has it determines the response to it. And our health care system is biased against the population most affected.

But the promise of the angels was for ALL the people, no exception. And still, angels throng and sing.

“I feel like healing is coming,” critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay proclaimed after receiving one of the first inoculations. And I believe she wasn’t just talking about COVID-19. Six months after it happened, I am still marveling that because of a show of solidarity by non-LGBTQ angels, a rainbow flag flew over City Hall in Foster City, California where I pastor a diverse and radically inclusive church. Healing is coming.

I reread the Christmas story and I realize that angel hosts have turned out in solidarity for racial justice in unprecedented numbers this year. Shepherds like nurses, doctors, orderlies, and EMTs are tending the sick in hospitals in record numbers. Shepherds like Stacey Abrams are making sure that the votes of Black voters in Georgia get counted. Healing is coming.

Mary and Joseph and Jesus were a holy family; all families by birth or choice are holy families.

Our collective gift as a community is the capacity to comfort each other in the midst of isolation, and to live into hope, and to believe that as dangerous a place as the world is to bring Love into right now, we are ready to say yes, like Mary did, and bring more love and light and peace.

For I bring to you news of great joy: healing is coming.t The Reverend Jim Mitulski is interim pastor of Island United Church, United Church of Christ in Foster City, CA (@iucfc on Facebook) and a member of the board of LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/).

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Politics >>

December 24-30, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Newsom’s CA AG pick could open door for gay SF city attorney

by Matthew S. Bajko

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mong the list of district attorneys and state lawmakers with law degrees who could be tapped

by Governor Gavin Newsom as the state’s next attorney general, there is one name that could lead to San Francisco having the second gay man serving in a citywide municipal office.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who defended Newsom when he served as San Francisco mayor, most notably when Newsom defied state law and ordered city officials to marry same-sex couples in the winter of 2004, is in the mix of the dozen or so people speculated as having a chance at being California’s top law enforcement officer.

The governor will need to name a successor to Attorney General Xavier Becerra if he is confirmed as the country’s next Health and Human Services secretary.

President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Becerra to head the federal agency, and Becerra has already begun to reach out to senators ahead of his confirmation hearing next year.

It won’t take place until after Biden is sworn in January 20.

But with Newsom naming another Latino lawmaker, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Tuesday to succeed Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in her U.S. Senate seat, as had been widely speculated, the governor will be facing even more pressure to tap a non-Latino for AG, perhaps Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton, a former judge who is African American. It is also speculated that Newsom will name former San Francisco supervisor Malia Cohen, a Black woman now on the state’s Board of Equalization, to succeed Padilla as secretary of state.

Had Newsom named another Black woman to the Senate seat, such as Congresswomen Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) or Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), then Herrera was thought to have a leg up in the AG contest. There is also the possibility of seeing Herrera depart as city attorney for a position in the Biden administration.

Herrera, first elected city attorney in 2001, did not respond to the B.A.R.’s request for comment.

Should he step down it will be up to San Francisco Mayor London Breed to name his replacement.

And that person would not have to run until November 2022 to serve out the remainder of Herrera’s term, which runs through January 2023. (The city’s sole out elected municipal officeholder is Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros, who is also up for reelection that year.)

Among possible candidates are three gay men who all worked in city attorneys’ offices. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) worked for Herrera as a deputy city attorney alongside state Assemblyman Rob Bonta (DOakland), a straight ally who is also among those mentioned as a possible AG pick for Newsom.

Wiener and Breed are closely aligned, with Wiener going from solely backing her gay opponent, former state senator Mark Leno, to dual endorsing the two candidates in the special June 2018 mayoral race. Asked by the B.A.R. about possibly being named as city attorney, Wiener said he didn’t want to speculate about what could happen.

LET'S FLIP THE SENATE

Ashley Thompson

Wiener’s office

If Governor Gavin Newsom taps San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, left, for attorney general, it could open the door for gay state Senator Scott Wiener, right, to take over Herrera’s old job.

“Obviously, I love the San Francisco City Attorney’s office. I spent almost a decade there; it is just an amazing place,” said Wiener. “I am not going to speculate on what may or may not happen. I love being a senator.”

He noted that the governor has a strong list of possible candidates to name as the next AG, which includes Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), gay Equality California Executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur, and Maggy Krell, chief counsel of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of CA. “Dennis Herrera would be a fantastic AG; he is just exceptionally qualified for that role. There are other really strong candidates,” noted Wiener.

Another potential city attorney pick would be gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who is seen as having a good working relationship with Breed and had been a deputy city attorney in Oakland prior to being elected to the Board of Supervisors two years ago.

“I think we have a great city attorney now,” Mandelman told the B.A.R. “I am not going to speculate about his career. I wish him the best and I think he would be an awesome AG.” A less likely pick for Breed would be gay former supervisor David Campos, a progressive who chairs the San Francisco Democratic Party. Campos also worked for Herrera’s office years ago and has long been talked about as likely to run to succeed him whenever he decides to depart. Selecting Campos would require him to step down as party chair and could make it less likely he would run to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (DSan Francisco) when she retires.

“We’ll see. I don’t have any control about the future. We’ll see what happens,” said Campos when asked by the B.A.R. about the political musical chairs that could be underway in the new year.

For now, Campos said he is focused on his new job being chief of staff for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

“I love the job. I’m inspired every day to work with the people in this office, and the more you get to know Chesa Boudin, the more you admire him,” said Campos. “It’s a great partnership. I have a great opportunity to reform a system that needs reform.”

Others seen as potentially seeking to succeed Herrera, whether via appointment or the ballot box, are Chiu, former supervisor Jane Kim, and District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, a former deputy chief of staff when Newsom was mayor of the city

who now is executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, told the B.A.R. that she doesn’t expect Newsom to make any announcements on filling the AG post until closer to Biden’s inauguration. While she wouldn’t say whom her organization wants to see be named AG, DeBerry did say the person would need to focus on enacting public safety reforms.

“We are excited about this opportunity for California and have a lot of optimism about what a new AG will be able to do around criminal justice issues for our state,” she said. “It is a massive job with a lot of responsibility. He will need to choose somebody capable of navigating a range of issues. What is undeniable is that criminal justice reform and police reform are at the top of the agenda no matter whom he appoints.”

Campos vies for CA Dem vice chair

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One position Campos is not being coy about wanting to serve in is vice chair of the California Democratic Party. In announcing his bid for the post Monday, CamAttorney at Law pos noted he would be the first formerly undocumented person in the Golden State’s history to serve in the state’s Democratic Party • Divorce w/emphasis on leadership.

With his sister clinging to his Real Estate & Business Divisions back, Campos at the age of 14 en• Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody tered the country without legal • Probate and Wills permission, along with his parents, www.SchneiderLawSF.com as the family had fled political turmoil in their native Guatemala.

They settled in South Central Los *Certified by the California State Bar Angeles, and after high school, Campos left for Stanford Univer400 Montgomery Street, Ste. 505, San Francisco, CA sity then headed east for Harvard Law School.

It was in Cambridge where he met his longtime partner and husband Phil Hwang. The couple moved back to the Bay Area when Campos was hired in 1999 as a deputy city attorney representing the San Francisco Unified School District in its school desegregation efforts.

He was elected in 2008 to succeed gay former District 9 Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who departed to serve in the state Assembly. After losing his bid years later to succeed Ammiano in the city’s 17th Assembly District seat, Campos took a job as one of Santa Clara County’s deputy county executives until being hired by Boudin this fall.

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<< Pets

6 • Bay Area Reporter • December 24-30, 2020

Kitten makes 9 for Minter’s menagerie

Shannon Minter

A photo of Furby when she first came into the Minter household.

by Cynthia Laird

A

nd Furby makes nine.

Just over a year ago, Shannon Minter’s life was forever changed when he found an abandoned kitten on Halloween near his Texas home.

Later the same night, he discovered a puppy left on his own.

A few days later, Minter found another abandoned puppy. She was a littermate of the first, whom Minter named Albert. Together with Squeaky, the kitten, and Sister, the other young pooch, they joined the two other dogs – Onyx and Gaia – and three cats – Beulah, Sammy, and Piper – with whom Minter and his wife, Robin, live.

All eight animals settled into a life of bliss, based on the photos and videos that Minter, a trans man who is the longtime legal director at San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, has posted to Twitter.

And then, surprisingly, one more kitten joined the family. In exciting news, Minter recently tweeted about the new addition.

“Squeaky has a feral sibling we have been feeding but unable to tame,” Minter wrote November 18 on Twitter. “She had kittens this summer, but only one survived.

We have been feeding both mom & kitten & trying so hard to win their trust. Last night we got the kitten to come inside, & she seems happy.

Her name is Furby.”

Furby is about six months old,

Minter estimated during a December 17 phone interview.

So now there are nine. (Minter’s wife told the Bay Area Reporter’s online Political Notes column last year that eight is enough. Last week, she joked that she “forgot how to count.”)

Minter has documented the ups and downs – mostly ups – of life in his rural area with the frisky, loveable pets. And he’s shared a lot of it on his Twitter feed to the delight of his more than 11,500 followers.

It’s been a rousing – even obsessive – 13 months or so for Twitter fans of Minter, who this year was named one of Out magazine’s Out 100. A quick, daily check-in on his feed often serves as a stress reliever

of sorts; seeing the photos and short videos of the menagerie takes the edge off the craziness that’s been 2020, from politics to the pandemic.

Minter said being named to Out’s list this year “was a huge and unexpected honor.”

“It’s really wonderful,” he said.

“It’s very nice to be recognized and I’m really appreciative for the opportunity to work in the movement for so long.”

He said that the animals have helped ground him, especially this year.

Minter has posted thousands of photos and videos of all the animals – discovering a new wading pool, walks, and squirrel alerts (dogs), enjoying the screened-in outdoor “catio” (felines), a group visit to the groomer for the canines. And yes, plenty of pictures of the dogs and cats being, well, dogs and cats – sleeping on the couch, their beds, or the Minters’ bed; playing with their toys and each other; and, naturally, posing for the camera.

Watching the trio of 2019’s newcomers grow up has been something to savor as Minter posts multiple times nearly everyday. Squeaky, Albert, and Sister have grown fond of Onyx and Gaia, who was anxious at first with the sudden extra additions but has become especially close to Sister, as Minter has written in his brief posts accompanying the photos. Onyx is the unofficial leader of the lot.

“He’s the most non-bossy boss – an elder,” Minter said.

Felines Beulah, Sammy, and Piper tend to keep their distance from the others and are not seen as often by Minter’s followers. So, it’s extra special when photos of them appear. Minter explained that they mostly stay in a designated room

Shannon Minter

Albert is such a little deer. And a dear.

that the dogs can’t get into, though they are welcome to join the rest of the bunch. Piper, a beautiful calico, is the least likely to do so, Minter noted.

As for Furby, she has become fully integrated into the household since her arrival just over a month ago.

“Furby’s met everybody and is doing great,” Minter said. “She and Squeaky are fast friends now.”

It’s Squeaky though, who hangs out with the dogs all the time. Ultimately, it’s been Squeaky who’s taken over his dad’s Twitter feed the most, followed closely by Albert; the two have bonded since that night they were found by Minter, and have grown almost inseparable.

“They really do love each other,” Minter said.

SF adoption option

Closer to home, San Francisco Animal Care and Control continues to find homes for dogs and cats (and other pets), though it has had to make changes due to the pandemic.

Deb Campbell, spokesperson for the department, told the B.A.R. that there are dogs and cats available for adoption, and that most are being fostered by people while waiting for their forever homes.

“We have people adopt virtually,” she said.

People can go to the website and fill out an application. Prospective owners are matched with a potential pet and a Zoom meeting is set up with them and the foster family to meet the animal.

“It’s been working really well,” Campbell said, adding that once the health crisis hit, the department “needed to keep the animals moving.”

Campbell cited statistics from the department that show people have definitely taken to adopting pets during the lockdown. Since March, a total of 876 animals have found homes through virtual adoption, including 22 birds, 669 cats, 92 dogs, and 93 small or exotic animals.

Another 1,966 animals have been transferred during that timeframe to the San Francisco SPCA, other shelters, and rescue groups for their adoption programs, Campbell said.

Animal Care and Control remains open and is still providing all services, she added. In-person visits are limited and by appointment only – mostly for people to come down to look for a lost pet. Health protocols are in place, such as face coverings and distancing.

Speaking of rescue groups, Muttville, which works to save senior

Both Photos: Shannon Minter

Above: Squeaky is on alert, with a bonus Beulah sighting in the background.

Below: Gaia looks out the window.

dogs, is having a year-end fundraiser through DogTrekker’s Season of Giving. Donations will be matched.

For more information, go to https:// bit.ly/38dtrYx. Minter said he would encourage those who are interested to consider pet adoption. While his circumstances are a bit different, the benefits are the same.

“Do it,” he said. “It’s the most rewarding experience. They give so much more than they take. It’s nice to have these creatures around, though you have to pay attention and take care of them.”

For information about San Francisco Animal Care and Control, go to https://www.sfanimalcare.org/.

Minter has made calendars featuring the rescue pets. For more information, go to https://www. createphotocalendars.com/Store/ The+Minter+Babies+Calend ar+2021-6372514136 t

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Community News>>

Alameda court

From page 1

Once Fong and Condes are seated, the Alameda court will have the second highest number of out judges serving on it behind the Los Angeles County Superior Court, which had 20 LGBTQ jurists as of the end of 2019 according to the most recent judicial demographic data. With Newsom’s appointment of gay attorney Russell S. Roeca to the San Francisco Superior Court in August, the city’s bench currently has seven out jurists on it.

<<

COVID data

From page 1

In an interview two weeks ago, Wiener had told the B.A.R. it was “horrifying San Francisco isn’t implementing it of all places.”

Coincidentally, Wiener had tried to make an appointment Friday afternoon to get tested in early January ahead of returning to Sacramento for the legislative session.

Although no test times were available, he noticed that the sexual orientation query had been added to the appointment process.

“When the sexual orientation question popped up, a big smile came over my face,” Wiener told the B.A.R. So far he has not heard of any other cities adding the question to their COVID testing regiments.

Wiener had also told the B.A.R. December 10 that he plans to send a legislative audit request to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in order to examine how state health officials are collecting not only sexual orientation but also gender identity

<<

LGBTQ refugees

From page 2

Biden administration and I would gladly circle back to this during his

<<

Bias case

From page 3

experienced created a hostile work environment and interfered with his ability to perform his job. That’s harassment, and it is illegal.”

Paul told the B.A.R. in a December 21 interview that he has been with the SFPD since April 1995.

“I had been in for about 10 years before I made the transition official at work,” Paul said. “I felt like part of the team and after transitioning I thought I’d give people time to get used to the change, but a few months became years.”

Paul said that during those years, he was not only repeatedly misgendered but that superiors “outed”

December 24-30, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Fong was born in Oakland and lived in both Alameda and Contra Costa counties growing up. He has been with his partner, Chris, a sign language interpreter, for nearly 20 years. They married in August 2019 and live in the Redwood neighborhood of Oakland, not far from the Mormon Temple.

After earning his Juris Doctor degree from the UC Davis School of Law, Fong was hired as a law clerk by Armstrong in 1992. He also worked as an associate at the law firm Gordon & Rees in the early 1990s.

In 1993 Fong returned to clerk

for Armstrong until 1998, when he became general counsel and chief administrative officer for Discovery Foods. He left in 2002 to become senior counsel and an associate at Kerr & Wagstaffe LLC until 2009, when he returned again to clerk for Armstrong.

In that position Fong has reviewed the papers submitted in the cases heard by Armstrong, analyzed the facts and the law, made recommendations on what he thought her ruling should be, and drafted the ultimate opinion determined by the judge.

“I have been working for the ju-

diciary now off and on 17 years. In that capacity I really have come to appreciate the critical role that judges have in making sure that justice is done,” said Fong. “I saw the awesome power and fulfillment of being a public servant and making sure the process works the way it should.”

He had first applied for a judicial appointment near the end of former governor Jerry Brown’s last term and reapplied this past January with Newsom’s judicial appointments secretary, who at the time was Martin Jenkins, now the state’s first out gay Supreme Court justice. Fong

learned he had been selected a few days prior to the official announcement earlier this month.

He is staying on with Armstrong for the time being so she can hire a new law clerk and help that person transition into the job. Fong told the B.A.R. it will be a difficult transition for himself when his last day as her law clerk comes.

“It is hard moving on. I love working for the judge,” he said. “She is an amazing jurist and an amazing person. I learned so much from her.”

The new judges will each earn $214,601 on the bench.t

demographic data.

Since 2018, a number of California departments and agencies focused on health care and social services were to be collecting SOGI data after lawmakers enacted several pieces of legislation requiring that they do so.

With the Legislature now on recess until January 11, it will not be until sometime in 2021 that such an audit could be conducted. It was announced December 14 that newly seated gay state Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) will be vice chair of the committee that oversees audits.

“It is not a short-term solution, but it is the one tool we have,” said Wiener. “We need to continue to be very loud about this failure. It is not rocket science.”

Earlier this month Wiener sent a letter to the state’s health department calling on it to direct “all testing sites, regardless of whether they are state-sponsored,” to collect the SOGI data and for the agency to begin publishing it. He told the B.A.R. he also plans to bring up the issue with Dr. Tomás Aragón, San Francis-

co’s health officer who was recently named by Governor Gavin Newsom as the new director of the California Department of Public Health.

“I have been tested multiple times and I am asked about gender identity and not sexual orientation,” noted Wiener.

At the onset of the health crisis in March, the CDPH was not collecting SOGI data among those infected with the coronavirus. For months Wiener and other LGBTQ advocates had called on health leaders to start asking people being tested for the virus if they are members of the LGBTQ community.

Without such information, it is unknown what the impact of the pandemic has been on the state’s LGBTQ residents, many of whom have comorbidities that put them at greater risk should they become infected with the coronavirus. Fed up with the lack of action, Wiener authored the bill to require the SOGI data be collected.

In his December 8 letter to Dr. Erica Pan, the acting director of the state heath agency, Wiener demanded she take immediate steps to fully

implement the collection of the LGBTQ COVID data.

“We are now more than two months after SB 932 became the law, and as far as we can tell, CDPH has not made public any SOGI data around COVID-19. Indeed, based on my own personal experience and numerous reports from others, major COVID-19 testing sites are not collecting this data at all,” wrote Wiener, who will be meeting with Pan this week. “SB 932 requires that all healthcare providers testing for COVID-19 collect this data. Yet, CDPH does not appear to have ensured that data collection, let alone publish it.”

He stressed how there are “life or death consequences” when health officials and state leaders are blind to how a disease is impacting various demographic groups.

“It is only because of data that we know, for example, that COVID is killing Black people at outrageous rates and that our Latinx communities have very high infection rates.

And, it is only because of data collection that we understand COVID’s

impacts on different age groups,” wrote Wiener. “Yet, COVID’s impacts on LGBTQ people are largely invisible due to the lack of data collection.

We introduced and passed SB 932 to stop the erasure of the LGBTQ community. Yet, without strong implementation of this legal requirement

by CDPH, that erasure will continue, and the law will be a dead letter.”

When asked by the B.A.R. last month about the issues surrounding implementation of SB 932, Ghaly noted the order was still “fairly new” and promised to look into the issue.

“I’m always interested to hear from those who have to put into practice some of these changes, what the difficulties are, whether there is a reason it’s delayed, that at the state level or the local level we can intervene and support,” he said. “So I will highlight we are getting more and more of the sexual orientation-gender identity data attached to our cases. Of course, there’s going to be some entities we know that don’t put into practice the expectations and those are all worth following up.”t

first 100 days.”

But enforcement of U.S. immigration law promises to continue to be a source of division within the Democratic Party – with some mi-

grants’ rights groups calling for the abolition of ICE and amnesty legislation. President Barack Obama, of course, was labeled as “deporter-inchief ” after presiding over 3.2 mil-

lion deportations, more than presidents George W. Bush and Trump combined.

“President-elect Biden is also committed to having an open dialogue

with groups across a wide spectrum to ensure his administration is meeting the needs of the community,” Jennifer Molina, a transition spokeswoman, told NPR.t

his trans status to other colleagues who’d been unaware.

“It felt isolating,” Paul said. “I was worried I’d be called ‘she’ and I felt very paralyzed and didn’t feel welcome anymore. I started wanting to work alone.”

Despite a prior settlement with the city in 2012, the misgendering did not stop. Paul thought a 2013 move from Bayview Station to Mission Station would help.

“I had already changed my name and a lot of people didn’t know me so I thought ‘this is great,’” Paul said.

“But I was then misgendered in the line-up around people who didn’t know who I was.”

In May 2017, Paul filed a discrimination complaint with the city’s

Department of Human Resources.

Later that year, he filed a complaint of discrimination and retaliation with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

These were followed up by subsequent filings with both the city and the federal and state governments, respectively, in 2018.

A new department bulletin, approved as part of the settlement, will be issued in the next few months, the settlement agreement states, to “include language addressing the harmful effects of misgendering on a transgender person.”

A copy of that bulletin as proposed, obtained by the B.A.R., states

that “members may not harass, discriminate, or retaliate against anyone based on their actual or perceived gender identity, gender expression, or transgender or transitioning status.”

In its section on transitioning, the proposed bulletin states that supervisors and human resources staff “must foster a respectful work environment for transitioning individuals.”

“Supervisors (lieutenants and above) and human resources staff will use the City’s Gender Transition Guidelines, which demonstrate the way the department should handle a member’s transition in the workplace,” the proposed bulletin states.

“The department will only disclose a transitioning member’s new name

and pronoun(s). All other protected information about the member remains confidential and members must not discuss or release that information without the transitioning member’s prior consent, as noted in the confidentiality section of this policy.”

Paul, when asked if he thinks justice has been served, expressed cautious optimism.

“I guess we’ll wait and see,” Paul said, who still works out of Mission Station. “I’m semi-confident, but I have been in the past and things didn’t change. I’m hopeful.”

SFPD referred the B.A.R. to the city attorney’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039190800

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039190600

of the decedent. 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: February 16, 2021, 8:30 am, Dept. 2D, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Stanley Mosk Courthouse, 111 North Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Petitioner: CARLOS E. MORGNER, 5055 WILSHIRE BLVD #333, LOS ANGELES, CA 90036; Ph. (310) 780-7786.

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555999

In the matter of the application of RODERIC LEROY FISHER, C/O ANA DENMARK (SBN 302559), LEGAL ASSISTANCE TO THE ELDERLY, 1663 MISSION ST #225, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RODERIC LEROY FISHER is requesting that the name RODERIC LEROY FISHER AKA RODERIC LEROY TURNER be changed to RODERIC LEROY TURNER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 5th of January 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555998

In the matter of the application of REMI PAYNE, 63 WESTBROOK CT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner REMI PAYNE is requesting that the name REMI PAYNE be changed to REMI FRANKLIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 19th of January 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BOBBY PENNY CLEANING, 1210 DOLORES ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT PENNY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/26/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/19/20.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WHOLE HEART CARDIOLOGY, 2578 PINE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NICOLE HARKIN MD, A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/19/20.

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039191000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039192600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GOUGH EXPRESS CLEANERS, 648 GOUGH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ERIC LI & YANZHEN WU. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/12/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/19/20.

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039189700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as OTHER AVENUES FOOD STORE, 3930 JUDAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed OTHER AVENUES FOOD STORE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/09/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/20.

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AFFINITEL COMMUNICATIONS, 6512 MISSION ST, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PENNY FAMILY CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/23/20.

DEC 03, 10, 17, 24, 2020 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF CARLOS DAMIAN MORGNER IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES: FILE 20STPB07917 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of CARLOS DAMIAN MORGNER. A Petition for Probate has been filed by CARLOS E. MORGNER in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. The Petition for Probate requests that CARLOS E. MORGNER be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate

DEC 10, 17, 24, 2020 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF JOSEFINA G. DIZON IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-20-304035

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of JOSEFINA G. DIZON. A Petition for Probate has been filed by MARCELINA LORENZO in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that MARCELINA LORENZO 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

See page 8 >>

<< Legals & Classifieds

8 • Bay Area Reporter • December 24-30, 2020

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Legals>>

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Legals

From page 7

as follows: January 13, 2021, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: JAYSON M. LORENZO (SBN 216973), J. LORENZO LAW, 2292 FARADAY AVE #100, CARLSBAD, CA 92008; Ph. (760) 517-6646.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 2020 SUMMONS DISTRICT COURT OF THE STATE OF NEVADA FOR THE COUNTY OF CLARK, IN RE THE MARRIAGE OF PING LUO, PLAINTIFF, V. GUOYOU SUN, DEFENDANT. NOTICE! YOU HAVE BEEN SUED. THE COURT MAY DECIDE AGAINST YOU WITHOUT YOUR BEING HEARD UNLESS YOU RESPOND IN WRITING WITHIN 21 DAYS. READ THE NFORMATION BELOW VERY CAREFULLY. CASE NO: D-20-617441-D

To the defendant named above: The Plaintiff has filed a civil complaint or petition against you. Read that document (or get a copy at that court listed below) to find out the specific relief requested. The subject of this case is Divorce. If you want to defend this lawsuit, you must do al of the following within 21 days after this summons is served on you (not counting the day of service): 1. File a formal written answer to the complaint or petition with the Clerk of the Court (whose address is listed below). 2.

Pay the required filing fee to the court, or request

a fee waivers by filing an application to Proceed In Forma Pauperis. 3. Serve a copy of your answer on the Plaintiff whose name and address is shown below. If you do not respond, Plaintiff can request a default against you. The court can then enter a judgment against you for the relief demanded in the complaint or petition. Steven D. Grierson, Clerk of the Court, by Tracy George, Deputy Clerk, 11/17/2020, Family Courts and Services Center, 601 North Pecos Rd., Las Vegas, NV 89155; Regional Justice Center, 200 Lewis Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89155. Issued on behalf of Plaintiff: Ping Luo, 9542 Belmont, Las Vegas, NV 89148.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556015

In the matter of the application of NICOLE ELIZABETH COX, 331 ANZA ST #311A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NICOLE ELIZABETH COX is requesting that the name NICOLE ELIZABETH COX be changed to MALIBU NICOLE TAYLOR. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 7th of January 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556016

In the matter of the application of ERIN NICOLE HOPPER, 331 ANZA ST #311A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ERIN NICOLE HOPPER is requesting that the name ERIN NICOLE HOPPER be changed to ERIN NICOLE TAYLOR. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 7th of January 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556020

In the matter of the application of EMILIANO PIERRE CHACON BOURGOIS, 4233 ULLOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EMILIANO PIERRE

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612, is advertising for proposals to provide Construction Management Services for the TBT to the District, Request for Proposal (RFP) No. 6M6145, on or about December 11, 2020, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at the District Secretary’s Office, 23rd floor, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California 94612. Masks are to be worn at all times when delivering proposals, and social distancing is required.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK TO BE PERFORMED The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (“BART” or “District”) intends to engage the services of a consulting firm or joint venture (“Consultant”) to provide Construction Management Services for the TBT. Services being sought with this RFP will be required on an as-needed basis; assignments may be made to Consultant by BART, at its sole discretion. The District intends to make one (1) award resulting from this RFP. The term of the Agreement entered into pursuant to this RFP will be for three (3) years, subject to termination as provided for in the Agreement. It is anticipated that the total cost for the Agreement shall not exceed the amount of Twenty Million Dollars ($20,000,000). However, the Consultant may receive a lesser amount depending on the District’s actual need for Consultant’s services.

Pre-Proposal Meeting: A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Monday, December 28, 2020.

The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:30 a.m. local time via Zoom Presentation. All interested parties must RSVP a maximum of two (2) participants representing each firm or company via email to: bartprocurementsupport@bart.gov by 10:30 a.m. on Friday, December 18, 2020 in order to participate in this Pre-Proposal Meeting. The RSVP email must include the subject title, “RFP No. 6M6145, Construction Management Services for TBT”, and the body of the email must include the following: firm or company name and address; a full contact name and position title of each participant; contact e-mail address and phone number of each participant; firm or company SB status; and whether the firm or company is considering being a prime Proposer.

Instructions on attending the Zoom Presentation will be emailed as early as two (2) business days prior to the scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting, the District’s Equity Program(s) will be explained. Prospective Proposers are requested to make every effort to participate in this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting. Attendance at Pre-Proposal Meeting is not required in order to have a Proposal considered for evaluation and award.

The District may only respond to questions at the submitted Pre-Proposal Meeting by prospective Proposers that have RSVPed to the Pre-Proposal Meeting. In order for the District to consider responding to those questions at the scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting, those questions shall be submitted until the two (2) business days prior to the Pre-Proposal Meeting by 10:30 a.m. local time, via email to bartprocurementsupport@bart.gov, and the email subject title must include , “RFP No. 6M6145, Construction Management Services for TBT Pre-Proposal Meeting Questions”.

All questions regarding the District’s Non-Discrimination Program for Subcontracting and Small Business Program should be directed to Javieree PruittHill, Office of Civil Rights, at: (510) 4647534, email: JPruit2@bart.gov; FAX (510) 874-7470.

Networking Session: On a separate date from the Pre-Proposal Meeting referenced above, the District’s Office of Rights will be facilitating a teleconference Networking Session for interested firms to meet with Potential Primes for subcontracting opportunities. The Networking Session will last for 8 hours and interested firms will be given 5-minute time slots to introduce themselves to the participating potential Primes. The date of the Networking Session and participating Primes’ RSVP contact information can be found in BART’s Procurement Portal under the applicable RFP. Interested firms are requested to RSVP directly with participating potential Primes. Additionally, each participating potential Prime will present a Networking Session RSVP schedule to the District for confirmation prior to the Networking Session.

Firms interested in participating in the Networking Session as a potential Prime are advised to contact Javieree PruitHill, Office of Civil Rights, via email at JPruit2@bart.gov.

REQUIRED REGISTRATION ON BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL In order for prospective Proposers to be eligible for award of an Agreement being solicited on the BART Procurement Portal, such Proposers are required to be currently registered to do business with BART on the BART Procurement Portal on line at https:// suppliers.bart.gov and have obtained Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued on line so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation.

If a prospective Proposer is a joint venture or partnership, such entity may register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s tax identification number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an on-line planholder under the entity’s name prior to submitting its Proposal. If such entity has not registered on BART Procurement Portal in the name of the joint venture or partnership prior to submitting its Proposal, provided that at least one of the joint venturers or partners registered on line on the BART Procurement Portal and downloaded the Solicitation Documents so as to be added to the On-Line Planholders List for this solicitation, such entity will be required to register with the entity’s TIN as an on-line planholder following the submittal of Proposals, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement.

PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON THE BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, (OR FOR A JOINT VENTURE OR PARTNERSHIP AS DESCRIBED ABOVE PRIOR TO AWARD) AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ONLINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. Any questions regarding this Notice to Proposers should be directed to the BART Procurement Department, Attention: Jeanet Moore, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA. 94612, Email Address: JMoore3@bart.gov, Telephone No.: (510) 287-4730.

Dated at Oakland, California this 11th day of December 2020. s John A. Mazza John A. Mazza Director of Procurement San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 12/24/20 CNS-3424434# BAY AREA REPORTER

CHACON BOURGOIS is requesting that the name EMILIANO PIERRE CHACON BOURGOIS be changed to EMILIANO PIERRE BOURGOIS-CHACON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 26th of January 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556024

In the matter of the application of RAE-IL LINDA PARK LEE, 19 BANNEKER WAY #D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner RAE-IL LINDA PARK LEE is requesting that the name RAE-IL LINDA PARK LEE AKA RAE-IL PARK AKA LINDA PARK LEE AKA LINDA LEE be changed to RAE-IL LINDA PARK. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N on the 14th of January 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039188000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE MONKEY LOCKSMITH, 88 HOWARD ST #1213, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed URIEL BOHBOT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/17/20.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039194300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GROOVE AND GO, 203 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GRETCHEN MARIE SEELEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/20.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039200600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as JCA YACHT SERVICES, 416 42ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES ABELA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/20.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039185100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as POLOPERRO, 400 PIERCE ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHARLES NIEMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/02/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/12/20.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039185700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FAST RESPONSE PLUMBING & ROOTER, 430 N CANAL ST #22, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH TINSLEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/21/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/13/20.

DEC 10, 17, 24, 31, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039200000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOUL CROWN CO., 146 CORTLAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY MEGAN WILSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/28/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039194400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NOE VALLEY CUTS AND SHAVE BARBERSHOP, 4137-1/2 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARVIN DEL SOCORRO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/12/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039197000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GAPPIFY, 1161 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GAPPIFY, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/30/15.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/02/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039197700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FU YUAN FOOD MARKET, 1251 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed FU YUAN FOOD MARKET, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/02/20.

FILE A-039202400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FOUND, 981 MISSION ST #64, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INDIE TECHNOLOGIES, INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/09/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039200400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE ENTREPRENEUR’S SOURCE, 655 EDDY ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JONATHAN ORTIZ CONSULTING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039193100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SF HOUSE OF NAILS, 1610 POLK ST, SANN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LIEN LOI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/14/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/24/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039190300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CANOPY, 353 KEARNY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CANOPY FINANCIAL DISTRICT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/18/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039190400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CANOPY, 595 PACIFIC AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CANOPY JACKSON SQUARE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/23/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/18/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF DHIREN DWIJEN DESAI IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-20-304098

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DHIREN DWIJEN DESAI. A Petition for Probate has been filed by ANEESHA VIKAS JOSHI in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that ANEESHA VIKAS JOSHI be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. 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: January 13, 2021, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: JOSHUA M. KO (SBN 235331), GAW POE LLP, 4 EMBARCADERO CENTER #1400, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114; Ph. (415) 766-7451.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BLCK VC, 1355 MARKET ST, 3RD FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ALL RAISE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/14/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/09/20.

DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 SUMMONS IN A CIVIL ACTION IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEVADA: MARCUS ANDRADE AND NAC FOUNDATION, LLC, PLAINTIFF V. JAPHETH DILLMAN, ET AL., DEFENDANT, CIVIL ACTION NO.: 2:20-CV01021-JAD-NJK

To Defendant Japheth Dillman, a lawsuit has been filed against you. Within 21 days after service of this summons on you (not counting the day you receive it) – or 60 days if you are the United States or a United States agency, or an officer or employee of the United States described in Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a) (2) or (3) – you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The answer or motion must be served on the plaintiff or plaintiff’s attorney, whose name and address are ERIC R.OLSEN, GARMAN TURNER GORDON, LLP, 7251 AMIGO ST #210, LAS VEGAS, NV 89119; (725) 777-3000. If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. You must also file your answer or motion with the court. Date: Dec. 18, 2020; signed by the Clerk or Deputy Clerk of the Court.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039194200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE ART OF AESTHETICS, 4105 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICOLE LISA TORELLI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/97. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039204900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DE LA PAZ REMEDIOS, 1385 37TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JORDON BACADELAPAZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/20/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/14/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039205000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEARTROOT CONSULTING, 234 GARCES DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBIN H. HUNTER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/14/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039208700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RS HOME SOURCE TEAM, 1699 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STACIE O’CONNOR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/06/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/16/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039206300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WHITE SWAN INN, 845 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PETITE SWAN LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/21/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039206400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PETITE AUBERGE, 863 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PETITE SWAN LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/21/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039199600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ACCESS TO ZEN, 640 TURK ST #18, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SUDDEN LEAP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/25/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/04/20.

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021

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DEC 17, 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039202100

BURK CHUNG FOUNDATION

The Annual Report f the Burt Chung Foundation, 465 Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 is available at the Foundation’s office for inspection during regular business hours. Copies of the Annual Report have been furnished to the Attorney General of the State of California. Burk Chung, Trustee. Fiscal year ended November 30, 2020.

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Mariah Carey in her 2020 Christmas special

by Cornelius Washington

N

ow that the holiday of the most difficult times are upon us, here’s the the autobiography of one of the most talented, hardworking, compelling, witty, and transcendent African-American artists.

The Meaning of Mariah Carey, with Michaela Angela Davis, is The New York Times bestseller of the life and career of a truly influential artist and entertainer.

Born to an Irish-American mother and Afro-Venezuelan father, Carey and her family faced searing racism, causing them to move more than a dozen times, before she struck out on her own and moved to New York City.

Armed with ambition and attitude, she was immediately signed to Columbia Records by music mastermind Tommy Mattola. Her amazing talent, rigorous training and passion, along with a fiveoctave range, led to the planet embracing her.

Carey correctly divined that the emerging music genres of hip-hop, rap, and house music could be culturally and financially successful worldwide.

Her songs fearlessly expose her life, pain and passions.

Mariah Carey’s memoir’s major Pop singer’s life shared in new book

Her life as a woman, however, began when she met the staggeringly handsome MLB shortstop, Derek Jeter, with whom Carey began a beautiful and romantic affair (platonic until she divorced Mattola), inspiring some of her most passionate work, which made divorce from Mattola inevitable.

Carey has the amazing ability to take black music and extend and enhance it to a level of modernity not seen or

heard since the Motown era. In other words, she put Black music into Manolo Blahnik pumps, dah-ling.

She also had the foresight to create the ultimate Christmas album. The song, “All I Want For Christmas (Is You)” is a staple in almost every American household and shopping center. Recently, the song entered The Guinness Book of World Records. What is lovingly revealed in the book is that the song was inspired by her joy-filled childhood holiday experiences when she and her mother house-sat for her two fabulous gay uncles, where she experienced unconditional love, a spotless environment and fabulous meals.

Beyond the hits, Miss Carey has also experienced her share of meltdowns, including her tragic live New Year’s Eve performance, her failed relationships with several men, including her torrid affair with Luis Miguel.

All the while, her fragility, strength, and discipline extend from her rigorous technical training and daring, as well as her influential exploration of what a solo female artist can achieve as a singer, songwriter, director and brand.

Carey’s memoir will send the reader through every emotion, revealing what faith, passion and self-respect can do, if you just believe. The book puts Carey squarely in the league of the women who are pillars of excellence in African-American folklore. For the ultimate Christmas present, get the book for friends, but buy yourself the audio version for the total experience. In the words of the opera diva Leontyne Price, in a letter she’d written to Miss Carey, “Brava, brava, brava!”t

that with Pevsner hooking while he was also hoofing on Broadway, and there you have it, straight, so to speak, from the source.

on VOD and DVD September 2020. Why did you decide to film it for release in this manner?

I had always wanted to film it. I thought it was something that had not been done a lot on film, a one-man musical, plus I liked the idea that people could watch while, as Barbra Streisand says, “I’m taking a bath at home.”

When I was doing the show in Chicago, a friend brought a guy named Patrick Schaller to the show and afterwards he asked if I’d ever thought of filming it. Bingo!

So, we finally put together an evening in Burbank at the Colony Theatre and shot it.

When it was finished, we were hoping to get it on the festival circuit, and we had our first screening in NY... and then COVID reared its very ugly head. Festivals were not going to happen the way we all hoped. Rather than wait a year, I asked Patrick and his partner Clay Ebert to seek out distribution, and sure enough we got it through Breaking Glass Pictures. I will miss the fun and camaraderie of the festivals, but it’s more important to me that it gets out there for people to watch and enjoy.t

Gregg Shapiro: Your show Musical Comedy Whore is a “one-man musical.”

Do you think this is a theatrical format that may become increasingly popular now that we are living in the age of COVID-19?

David Pevsner: I know as theaters try to figure out how to produce live shows, they are going to become clever and hopefully responsible to protect their audiences. I think it will start small with shows such as mine, and perhaps playwrights will begin to write stuff specifically to be performed in this odd age. I don’t know. Whatever the case, I hope theatre comes back.

Otherwise, we’re going to be home in our underwear watching Zoom performances with boxed-in actors and crappy lighting until this nightmare is over.

David Pevsner Selling it, onstage and off

by Gregg Shapiro

T

alk about truth in advertising. The filmed version of David Pevsner’s one-man show, Musical Comedy Whore (Breaking Glass Pictures), is indeed

a musical, with original songs written or cowritten by Pevsner (with the exception of one number). It’s a comedy that is sure to have viewers laughing out loud on multiple occasions. As for the “whore” part, Pevsner goes into great detail about his sexual exploits, including his time as a male escort. Combine

The stage production was filmed in front of a live audience.

I think the audience is such an important part of this. I talk and sing directly to them, as well as play characters and scenes for them to watch, and I feed off their energy.

That’s what makes live theatre so special. There’s a huge give-andtake. And because some of the subject matter of this show is a little, um, adult [laughs], I think it’s important to have the audience as a barometer as to whether it’s working or not.

There’s a difference between challenging an audience with adult subject matter and outright turning them off. I prefer the former; and having them laugh and respond as they do helps me to know that I haven’t steered off the track. An uptight audience is not going to laugh at a fisting joke, and if it played badly live, who knows how it would play on film. It’s a very fine line, and that line gets tested a few times in this show.

The filmed stage production of Musical Comedy Whore debuted

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com

<< Music & Books

10 • Bay Area Reporter • December 24-30, 2020

Women on the record

Sneaks, aka Eva Moolchan

by Gregg Shapiro

Y

ou can hear the inspiration of the spoken word scene in the songs on Happy Birthday (Merge)

by D.C.’s Sneaks (aka Eva Moolchan). You can also detect the influence of musical acts such as Le Tigre and tUnE-yArDs. All of these elements combine to make a thrilling listen. Sneaks gives us plenty of opportunities to work out the kinks in our bodies, as well as plenty to think about, in irresistibly rhythmic numbers such as “Faith,” “This World,” “Do You Want To Go Out Tonight,” and “Mars In Virgo.”

Recorded and released before the 2020 election where Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first female Vice President, “Put A Woman in Charge” by pioneering female rock band Ace of Cups has taken on a whole new meaning.

That song comes from Sing Your Dreams (High Moon), Ace of Cups’ second album. Before Fanny, before The Runaways and long before Sleater-Kinney, Ace of Cups were part of the psychedelic music scene of 1960s San Francisco. Some of that spirit holds over on songs such as “Basic Human Needs” (featuring vocals by Wavy Gravy), “Gemini,”

t

Q-Music covers Sneaks, Ace of Cups, Shelby Lynne and more music

“Boy, What’ll You Do Then,” and “Waller Street Blues.”

You have to wonder if Shelby Lynne’s newest album, an excellent self-produced, self-titled effort on Thirty Tigers/Everso, may be her most revealing. Recorded and released before COVID-19 began to take its toll, the album cover photo featuring the lower half of Lynne’s face covered up feels prescient and hints at her possible side career as a seer. Lynne’s previous albums have featured original compositions and collaborations, and Shelby Lynne is no exception. What’s noteworthy is that her collaborator on seven of the ten songs is lesbian filmmaker/ screenwriter Cynthia Mort.

One thing you can say about Emily Cross is that she’s not sitting idle. When she’s not performing with Dan Duszynski as one half of Cross Record, she’s singing lead as one third of Loma, along with Duszynski and Jonathan Melburg of Shearwater. After the first listen you won’t want to shy away from Loma’s second album Don’t Shy Away (Sub Pop). Comprised of some of the most haunting dream pop you are likely to hear any time soon, Loma will dazzle you on “Ocotillo,” the heat generating “Half Silences,” the exotic “Elliptical Days,” the gentle club rave of “Given A Sign” and the colorful “Blue Rainbow.”

Music is the universal language.

So, even if you don’t speak a lick of French, you are bound to find something to your liking on L’Ere du Verseau (Recreation Center) by French duo Yelle, led by Julie Budet. More than a dozen years since Yelle’s domestic debut Pop-Up, the pair returns with its most admirable effort. Still electro-fueled, Yelle has found a rein in some of the more contrived aspects of previous efforts (we’re talking to you, Dr. Luke) and the results are moving in more ways than one. Standout tracks include “Menu du Jour,” “Karate,” “Vue D’en Face,” “Peine De Mort,” “OMG!!!” and the Giorgio Moroder-esque “Interpassion.”

Technicolor (Mondo Mundo/ Thirty Tigers) is the second album

by Sweet Lizzy Project featuring lead vocals by Lisset Diaz. Originally from Havana, Cuba and now based in Nashville, the quintet has a distinctive sound and style, which you can hear immediately on the opening titular track which develops into a scorcher as it progresses. “Turn Up The Radio” has a tasteful twang and “Ain’t Nobody to Call” is a potential arena rocker. That’s The Mavericks joining SLP on “The Flower is in the Seed” and “Travel to the Moon” is fittingly out of this world.t

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

Ace of Cups

Firestarter Mike Curato’s ‘Flamer,’ a searing intense portrait

by Jim Piechota

M

ike Curato, an award-winning author and talented artist, has produced a young adult graphic novel about a young man on the verge, and it’s a searing, intensive portrait

that stays with the reader long after the book is finished.

At the story’s core is the struggle of a youth to embrace his burgeoning gay identity and accepting it amidst all the slings and arrows of early teenaged life. It’s the kind of lit-

erary adventure that tells an engrossing story rooted in reality, but also one that teaches an important lesson along the way.

Flamer draws from Curato’s own personal experiences in the Boy Scouts as a closeted kid. It follows

“Spin the bottle, ride the Rolodex,

and fasten your seatbelt a sweet roller coaster ride.”

– Marc

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Aiden Navarro, a fourteen-year-old biracial Filipino-American boy internally vexed and outwardly bullied by his short stature, portly body, effeminate voice, and, perhaps, worst of all, the insinuation by other boys that he’s gay. He’s hoping a summer spent at Boy Scout camp with his peers in the woods will work wonders for both his image and his future.

When the story begins, Aiden is about to finally take the great leap from Catholic middle school to public high school in two weeks, but the thought terrifies him. So all of the other boys’ dick jokes, silly shower stall banter, rantings about girl trouble, racist jabs, and “nondenominational” camp church services form mere distractions from the harsh reality of four long years stuck in a high school that could be disastrous.

Aiden’s troupe, the Flaming Arrow patrol, depends heavily on his impressive cooking skills to get them through the day, while Aiden is just grateful to be in the beautiful woods and away from his perpetually angry father, whose cruel outbursts and threats of violence have taken a toll on their mother’s mental health.

Letters from his best gal pal Violet (based on Curato’s own real-life best friend Lara) tempers all the stress of communal showering and toxic masculinity and messy tent meetings, not to mention some nagging same-sex feelings for his close pal Elias.

Curato taps into all of the insecurities, doubts, and panicky thoughts and questions racing through a teenager’s mind as Aiden battles his inner demons and attempts to come to terms with feelings he’s always believed to be unnatural, sinful, weird, and bad.

Aiden’s journey is artistically rendered by Curato with strategicallyplaced dabs of color and brilliantly resonating dialogue that can be as emotional as it is jarring to read. It’s a thought-provoking journey of queer self-discovery that’s an immense joy to read and an even more pleasurable dive into nostalgia for those readers of a certain age who remember how tough growing up queer really is.

At well over 300 pages, Curato has created a debut novel-length graphic

Above/Middle: Cover/Page from Flamer Below: Flamer author Mike Curato

world to escape into as the adventures of Aiden ultimately coalesce into an emotionally-charged story of friendship, heartbreak, longing, isolation, despair, hope, and, finally, acceptance.t Flamer by Mike Curato, Henry Holt & Co., $25.99

t

Books & Film>>

December 24-30, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

The God of San Francisco

Poet James J. Siegel

by Mark William Norby

T

ake a break from whatever you’re doing and immerse yourself in San Francisco history and the travels of James J. Siegel in The God of San Francisco. A revelatory and uplifting title for a city that has known many gods. Here’s the God of us –LGBTQ people– whether longtime San Franciscans still centered in the axis of gay culture, or those new who’ve recently come to the country’s capital of continual reinvention. In either case, these poems sense that there is something about the city now gone, forever lost, but here in the poems, moments enduring.

Siegel dives to a central location, an unofficial landmark, sites we still meet for sidewalk coffee, or once met to slither through and to cackle at the night, from Daddy’s to Moby Dick and the forty-five-yearold Badlands, which permanently closed its doors this past summer.

In “December 1,” we’re called to remember, or to first learn, one of countless moments of elegy with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence: The Sisters are lighting candles on the corner of 18th and Castro.

Kabuki-faced, corseted, these are not the nuns who haunted the hallways of my Catholic adolescence.

These nuns have names like Sister Anni Coque L’doo and Sister Porn Again.

The collection of eighty poems was just released by independent publisher Sibling Rivalry Press (SRP), which

is run by a gay male couple from the unlikely location of Little Rock, Arkansas. SRP’s past, present, and future collected books are acquired by the Library of Congress and stored in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division there, Siegel’s book now among them.

In Gay Cancer, Siegel takes the reader to the darker past, witnessed through reminiscences of his own youth: When men died of gay cancer I was only five—preoccupied combing the manes of purple ponies bending Barbie’s legs to fit snug in her pink convertible.

The nightly news was a montage of pale skin and pitted cheeks— thin, thin bodies and fevered eyes.

Then back to regular programming— sequined Solid Gold Dancers twirling to the week’s top ten.

He told the Bay Area Reporter: “One of the rules I’ve learned as a poet is to never impose my agenda on a poem. I can always be inspired to write something, but at the end of the day the poems are going to decide what they are about and what message they have for the reader.”

Queer grief at the onset of AIDS to the dramatic transformation of San Francisco up to now; Siegel, who arrived in San Francisco in 2004, talked about the creation of his art and the audiences who inspire him to discover what for many of us are real memories.

His subjects –inanimate objects, a frame onto sites discovered, windows through which we pass in our daily rush to get through life: in “Elegy for the Castro Funeral Home” – the former Sullivan’s Funeral Home which closed last year after more than ninety years in business, fell in order to become another San Francisco apartment complex.

“I sometimes think of myself as more of an interpreter,” said Siegel.

“The poems come to me and it is my job to do the best I can to translate.”

He wonders if these poems will speak to the reader. But how can they not? Siegel spends his time here writing, remembering, location, the import of setting, how environments –both city to rural– affect us.

“As for something universal in my work, I find that so much focuses on place, physical spaces. And the reason, I’ve learned, is that I’m always trying to navigate my surroundings.

I felt a bit lost in the Midwest. So I wrote about it.”

Upon first reading the poems, it seemed Siegel conducted an admirable amount of formal research to achieve his knowledge of the city in order to build these stanzas. In truth, he learned most of what he’s written through listening and “... just living in San Francisco for 16 years...

Our queer history is all around us.

It’s still standing... waiting to tell its stories if you are keeping your eyes open and your ear to the ground.”

Siegel’s collection is a superb new addition to the rich tradition of LGBTQ history and its importance to our queer existence, its continuation in the spirit of personal freedom.

However one chooses to spend extra time, poems anchor one for a moment, a manner of centering the self within another zone, easing the weight of the now and transporting the self to the history that will not be forgotten.

Poems shift the dynamics in a room, lending themselves to interpretation and personalization. As long as time is taken to care back at the pages, and the people, and places of the great City of San Francisco, memory will serve us. The God of San Francisco is a crisp reminder that we, after all, are alive.t

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10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • December 14-20, 2017 SF - 415-692-5774 1-888-MegaMates

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Read the full article on www.ebar.com.

Bombing ‘The Prom’

by Gregg Shapiro

R

does Mrs. Green know that Emma’s paramour is her daughter Alyssa (Ariana DeBose).

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, a selfabsorbed quartet of actors – Dee Dee (Meryl Streep), Barry (James Corden), Trent (Andrew Rannells) and Angie (Nicole Kidman) – all desperate to reclaim the spotlights

fading on their respective careers, learn of Emma’s situation on Twitter and decide to make her their personal cause célèbre.

Luckily for Emma, she has other good people on her side. Mr. Hawkins (Keegan-Michael Key), the high school principal, who is also a big fan of Dee Dee’s, does everything in his power to stand up for Emma. Also, Emma’s grandma (Mary Kay Place), with whom she lives after her parents disowned her, is a big supporter of her granddaughter.

But that doesn’t mean the process of acceptance is going to be easy. Quite the opposite, in fact.

You probably won’t find yourself humming any of The Prom’s tunes. The choreography is forgettable. Some of the performances, which are supposed to be parodies of the characters, are simply too exaggerated to be funny. However, for those in need of the slightest bit of uplifting in these dark times, The Prom will do in a pinch. Rating: C-t

yan Murphy has entered the musical film fray with his big screen version of the Tony-nominated 2018 musical The Prom (Netflix). Murphy’s love of musicals and theatrics can be traced back to his inexplicably popular network TV series Glee. His Emmy-winning 2014 movie adaptation of Larry Kramer’s dramatic play The Normal Heart proved he had the talent for transferring stage to screen.

Ryan stumbles with the wellintentioned The Prom. Written by Matthew Sklar, Chad Beguelin (who is gay) and Bob Martin, The Prom is about the way disparate worlds clash and somehow mesh. Lesbian high schooler Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman) wants to attend the prom with her girlfriend in her small-minded Indiana town (is there any other kind in the land of Mike Pence?). She is met by resistance, primarily from PTA mother Mrs. Green (Kerry Washington), a monster Meryl Streep and James Cordon in The Prom. in a sweater set who clings to her misguided “values.” Little

Read the full review on www.ebar.com.

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