Gay San Francisco District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio is facing a recall effort over his authoring the successful citywide proposition to close the Great Highway to vehicle traffic. In a statement, Engardio asked residents to judge him by the entirety of his record in office.
Engardio was elected two years ago to represent the Sunset and the Outer Sunset on the city’s Board of Supervisors after four tries, at which point he became the third gay man on the board. (Engardio’s previous races had been in District 7, but he was redistricted into District 4 ahead of the 2022 election.)
Engardio beat then-supervisor Gordon Mar 51% to 49% in the November 2022 election, becoming the first supervisor to oust an elected incumbent since the return of districtwide elections for the board a generation ago. He was also elected in a year that saw the city recall three school board members and the district attorney – with his district being a particular hotbed of the voters’ revolt that year, and which he supported.
Already a notice of intention to circulate a recall petition is gathering signatures, and a website – recallengardio.com – is online.
The Bay Area Reporter contacted the Sunset district residents behind the recall early Tuesday but has not heard back as of press time. However, the website takes aim at Engardio over his support for Proposition K.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Prop K will lead to the closure of a portion of the Great Highway to make way for a park.
A precinct-level map shows the measure failed in every single precinct except one to the west of 19th Avenue, according to preliminary returns, while largely passing in the city’s densest neighborhoods on the east side.
Engardio championed the measure, saying that because of coastal erosion, there are “unavoidable concerns about the environment” that will render the highway unusable to vehicle traffic anyway in the coming decades. Engardio was joined by four other supervisors in placing Prop K on the ballot. It also had the support of Mayor London Breed.
See page 12 >>
The holidays hit the Castro
Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, second from left, is all smiles as he celebrates the annual holiday tree that was lit Monday, December 2, in the Castro. He was joined by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), left, and Sister Roma, right, of the drag nun philanthropic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who
served as emcee for the evening. The LGBTQ neighborhood is hoping for a brisk holiday shopping season and will be the setting for several upcoming activities: the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Santa Skivvies run Sunday, December 8; the Hanukkah menorah lighting Monday, December 16, and the second night market Friday, December 20.
AIDS advocates fret about potential GOP cuts
by John Ferrannini
Elections have consequences, and HIV/ AIDS advocates are worried about potential cuts as Republicans take over both houses of Congress and the presidency in January.
“They [Congress] have many tools at their disposal to enact powerful budgetary impacts,” Ernest Hopkins, senior strategist and adviser at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told the Bay Area Reporter. “The reconciliation process takes only a majority vote and, as long as proposals have budgetary impact, they can make them have a lot of negative impacts early.”
See page 12 >>
Survey finds California LGBTQ seniors face health challenges
by Matthew S. Bajko
The first survey California has conducted of its older LGBTQ residents found many are struggling with mental, physical, and cognitive health challenges. The issues are particularly acute among LGBTQ seniors of color and those older adults who are transgender or gender-nonconforming, the responses showed.
Titled “Survey of LGBTQIA+ Older Adults in California: From Challenges to Resilience,” the survey findings are based on the answers 4,037 older LGBTQIA+ adults provided earlier this year to the various questions they were asked via an online form. It was more than double the participation mark that state aging leaders had wanted to meet with the survey.
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“I cannot reiterate enough the positive impact this survey’s results will have on the wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ older adults in California. LGBTQIA+ older adults often face a lifetime of unique stressors associated with being an underserved minority,” noted Tanya Tassi, director of policy and advocacy at ActionLink, which is a program of the advocacy group for LGBTQ centers known as CenterLink.
An overwhelming majority (86%) of respondents reported their overall quality of life as “high,” with just 14% saying theirs is “fair or poor.”
Higher percentages of people of color (18%) and trans individuals (22%) cited having a fair or poor quality of life.
Of the respondents, 13% were nonbinary, 4% genderqueer, 3% transgender women, 1% transgender men, 1% Two-Spirit, 1% another gender identity, and 2% answered questioning.
A majority identified as gay (58%) with 30% lesbian, 7% bisexual, 30% pansexual, and 3% queer. Interestingly, as it was marketed to out seniors, 4% of respondents said they were either straight or heterosexual.
The respondents heavily skewed white, at 84%, with the next largest racial group being Latino or Hispanic at 9%. Asians or Pacific Islanders and Blacks or African Americans both accounted for 4%, American Indians or Alaska Natives for 3%, and Middle Eastern or North African individuals 2%. Eight percent marked more than one racial category, while 3% said none of the ones listed “fully describe me.”
About a quarter (23%) of the older adults rated their physical health as fair or poor. Seventeen percent of the survey respondents were people living with HIV.
Likely an undercount, according to the survey, but 15% of respondents reported experiencing worsening confusion or memory loss. One in five of respondents rated their mental health as fair or poor.
More than one in 10 (11%) respondents reported serious thoughts of suicide in the past year. Almost a quarter (24%) of respondents had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.
See page 13 >>
Sandra Bernhard
District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio
Courtesy the subject
Ernest Hopkins is a senior policy adviser for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
Courtesy SFAF
The California Department of Aging has released the first report looking at older LGBTQ residents.
From the report
John Ferrannini
HIV housing co-op raising money amid legal fight
by John Ferrannini
HIV/AIDS activists held a news conference outside Marty’s Place in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood December 2, saying they need to raise money for an attorney to avoid a potential eviction. The action, coming a day after World AIDS Day, shines a light on the city’s housing crisis.
Longtime gay and HIV/AIDS activist Vince Crisostomo – who just received the Unsung Hero Award from the National AIDS Memorial Grove on World AIDS Day – gave a fiery address saying that with Donald Trump returning to the U.S. presidency next month, “San Francisco needs to show this is how you fight back.”
“We are not disposable,” said Crisostomo, who does not live at Marty’s Place but was there to support the two residents who do. “People are saying they are looking to San Francisco for the answer. There’s this naive trust that this country is going to take care of us and that has not happened. It’s time that these stories start having a happy ending.”
The activists are also calling upon the city to investigate the nonprofit Mission Action, which they say is trying to evict the housing co-operative from 1165 Treat Avenue, and which they accuse of “malicious and manipulative litigation tactics,” breach of contract, and mismanaging $90,000 in funds intended for the property’s maintenance.
Alexandra Arneri, a member of Marty’s Place’s board of directors, said that they need new counsel before a December 13 hearing, at which time a judge may enter a default judgment in favor of Mission Action, formerly known as Dolores Street Community Services.
Marty’s Place was founded in the 1990s by the Reverend Richard Purcell, a Roman Catholic Franciscan friar who intended it as a safe haven for people living with AIDS. It was named for his late brother, Marty, who died of AIDS. In 2011, it came under the aegis of what was then known as Dolores Street Community Services. Marty’s Place Affordable Housing Corporation, or MPAHC, was created as a subsidiary of DSCS/Mission Action, with the understanding the larger organization would help the smaller one build capacity and become independent, according to the activists.
Mission Action claims in court documents that Marty’s Place “failed
to meet its requirements under the lease, by failing to pay required rents and provide required information per the lease terms,” such as not submitting budget proposals or providing statements of income and expenses.
Its executive director, Laura Valdez – whom the activists are calling upon to resign – stated to the Bay Area Reporter that “litigation is being pursued to terminate the sublease agreement with MPAHC due to serious concerns raised by former tenants and stakeholders.”
Valdez states those concerns are that Marty’s Place “engaged in serious ethical and legal violations,” which she alleges included failure to file taxes and suspension of nonprofit status while accepting charitable donations; violations of fair housing laws, MPAHC bylaws and the master lease agreement; and “non-adherence to housing criteria for individuals who are unhoused, extremely low-income, and living with HIV/AIDS.”
According to MPAHC spokesperson Kevin Ortiz, who is also on the group’s board of directors, MPAHC’s nonprofit status was not suspended, there’ve been “no complaints of fair housing laws violations,” the bylaws and master lease agreement have been adhered to, and “all former or current residents have been living with HIV/AIDS.”
Indeed, the California Secretary of State’s website stated MPAHC’s nonprofit status is active.
Ortiz disagrees that only people experiencing homelessness can apply to be a Marty’s Place resident.
“Being unhoused is not a requirement for occupancy at Marty’s Place,”
151 and 351 Friedell Street Apartments are now leasing brand new units!
82 apartments available for lease through DAHLIA San Francisco
Households must have a minimum monthly income of two times the rent amount. Households must earn no more than the gross monthly income listed below:
he stated. “All residents are extremely low-income to low-income, and qualify for housing subsidies through community partner providers (e.g. Catholic Charities). Ms. Valdez is aware of this because she attempted to subvert subsidy payments from Marty’s Place/ MPAHC to Dolores Street/Mission Action after posting eviction papers on our building. We were contacted by the subsidy providers directly because they cannot legally divert those payments.”
Meanwhile, Marty’s Place Board of Directors President Michael Rouppet claims rent has always been paid and said he’s reached out to Valdez many times – including at a recent City Hall event to protest evictions – to discuss the other issues of contention.
“We’ve been trying to get them to have a discussion today, only to have no discussion,” he said at the news conference.
Proposal to buy home
Rouppet is proposing that MPAHC buy the 1165 Treat Avenue property from Mission Action after a two-year period wherein it will seek city discretionary funds, philanthropic support, credit, or a mix of those options.
Rouppet alleges Valdez told him at the City Hall event she’d be willing to discuss that proposal but has not heard back.
Valdez told the B.A.R. in a December 2 phone call that, “I did speak to him and that was not a scheduled meeting. He approached me after I was a speaker at that rally. What I said to him was we were currently represented by attorneys, and I’m just the executive director, I don’t make those decisions unilaterally. He made a request we drop litigation … and his proposal was basically rent-to-own. I, again, don’t think it’s lawful to be using rental money – especially federal subsidies – to then purchase the home.”
Arneri said that they’ve not been able to fill vacancies at Marty’s Place because of the eviction threat, which has lingered since the initial notice of
termination was placed on the house’s door in 2021.
“It’s unfair for us to invite them [prospective tenants] to a situation where they might not have a house,” she said.
Ortiz stated that there are currently two residents.
“The house’s full capacity is six people with six rooms filled – with a possible maximum of nine residents with three rooms that can accommodate three couples. There are currently two residents (there was recently [a] tragic death earlier this year with a third resident ready to be approved),” Ortiz stated in a December 3 email. “Since 2021’s DSCS eviction notice, there have been four residents at Marty’s Place at its height. Prior to DSCS becoming actively involved with Marty’s Place, Marty’s Place had full occupancy.”
The average monthly rent is $1,006.36, according to Ortiz.
Valdez told the B.A.R. during the December 2 phone call that, “We have vacant units; we want people with HIV and AIDS to apply for that housing.”
“If they [MPAHC] were interested in ensuring people with HIV and AIDS had access to housing, they would not be putting forth those false allegations,” Valdez said. “This has nothing to do with evictions; it never has.”
Paul Aguilar, a longtime gay and HIV/AIDS activist, is one of the two people who live at the site now. A longterm HIV survivor, Aguilar came to Marty’s Place after becoming homeless during the COVID pandemic, convinced a second pandemic would do him in. Instead, the place gave him a new sense of purpose.
“Marty’s Place is more than a roof over our heads – it’s a community,” Aguilar said. “It’s a testament to the very power of community and resilience.”
For Mission Action’s part, Valdez states at least four of the six units being vacant “highlights a significant underutilization of this vital community resource.”
Valdez’s statement claims “no eviction process is in place.” The B.A.R. reached out to Mission Action asking for clarification, considering the notice of termination the B.A.R. saw in a 2021 photograph.
Valdez then told the B.A.R. in the December 2 phone call that residents would not be asked to leave if Mission Action were successful in terminating the sublease agreement.
“Eviction has never been on the table,” she said. “What would be ending is their sublease to manage the property. Were we successful in our litigation, our organization would go back to being able to manage that property, and it would no longer be operated by the Marty’s Place Affordable Housing Corporation.”
The statement continued, in part, that “Legal action became necessary after exhausting all viable paths to resolution over several years. Mission Action is committed to upholding Marty’s Place’s mission. While evictions did occur during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, they were conducted solely by MPAHC, not Mission Action.”
“We ask for the community’s patience as the legal process unfolds and encourage all interested parties to conduct their due diligence. Mission Action remains committed to transparency and ensuring Marty’s Place fulfills its intended mission,” it continued.
Ortiz disputes the assertion that MPAHC engaged in evictions.
“Evictions are a legal process (UD105 form), and there are zero records showing Marty’s Place engaged in any evictions because we didn’t file any,” Ortiz stated. “However, Marty’s Place was given a 2021 eviction/termination notice from Dolores Street taped to our building. All former Marty’s Place residents have left on their own, or with mutually agreed upon move out agreements, without need for any formal eviction process.”t
Electronic applications and more info available on DAHLIA’s San Francisco Housing Portal: housing.sfgov.org
The application deadline is December 17th, 2024, at 5PM. Applications must be submitted online only at housing. sfgov.org from November 26th to December 17th, 2024. For assistance, contact one of the housing counseling agencies listed at housing.sfgov.org/housing-counselors
This property has some units with special features for mobility impaired or sensory impaired households. Preferences apply; learn more at housing.sfgov.org. Income and other restrictions apply. Section 8 is welcome.
Paul Aguilar, left, one of two people who live at Marty’s Place, spoke at a December 2 news conference.
John Ferrannini
Michael Rouppet, left, Marty’s Place board of directors president, spoke at a December 2 news conference.
John Ferrannini
AIDS Day was observed Sunday,
cember 1, at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
during
panel at the grove’s public program included, from left, Percy Vermut,
trans student at Carleton College in Minnesota; Vince Crisostomo, director
aging at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation
recipient of the grove’s Unsung Hero Award;
Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco); Kim Canady, an HIV-positive sexuality educator and HIV/AIDS advocate; Loren Broadbent, the father of the late Hydeia Broadbent, who was a trailblazer for the Dandelion community – those who’ve had HIV their entire lives; and Larkin Callaghan, Ph.D., head of global advocacy and community engagement, virology at Gilead Sciences, who moderated the panel. Onyx & Ash Inc.
Holidays are here. Show
you care by always wearing a mask.
Thirteen years after the death of Bob Ross, the Bay Area Reporter's publisher and founder, the foundation that bears his name, established in 1995, continues to support a diverse range of local arts, HIV-related, LGBT, and other nonprofit organizations. During this time, these organizations need our support, and yours, more than ever.
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If you are able, please consider supporting these vital institutions.
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As the city continues its journey toward equality and acceptance, we look forward to seeing your leadership championing policies that ensure San Francisco remains a beacon of hope and opportunity for everyone.
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Thank you for standing with the LGBTQ+ community. Together, we can paint a brighter future.
THE BOB ROSS FOUNDATION
Volume 54, Number 49
December 5-11, 2024 www.ebar.com
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Senior report offers building blocks
The first state survey of its older LGBTQ residents contains important information. Released November 25, findings of the “Survey of LGBTQIA+ Older Adults in California: From Challenges to Resilience” are based on the answers 4,037 older LGBTQIA+ adults provided earlier this year to various questions they were asked via an online form. The survey was requested by the California Department of Aging and conducted by UCSF and UC Berkeley. Openhouse, the LGBTQ senior services nonprofit in San Francisco, assisted with it. The survey had more than double the participation goal that state aging leaders had wanted to meet, as we first reported online.
There are several priorities that the report found that are worth highlighting. Many of these are not new; we’ve reported for years on the isolation many LGBTQ seniors experience, due to a variety of factors. And we’ve covered the importance of training for staff working in senior facilities. What’s noteworthy is that these are listed as priorities in a state report and are factors that policymakers and lawmakers can take into account. We urge them to do so.
For example, the report states its first priority is to improve access, inclusivity, and safety of services for LGBTQIA+ older adults to promote healthy aging. Recommendations include exploring opportunities for culturally-responsive training and services by providing training for service providers that focuses on the unique needs facing LGBTQIA+ older adults, thereby increasing the number of LGBTQIA+ affirming providers, and providing services that address specific health needs and disparities, with enhanced access to suicide prevention and traumafocused treatments.
to enhance social and economic support; reduce isolation and strengthen LGBTQIA+ older adult networks; promote financial literacy training, employment support, and access to secure housing; and identify promising programs providing comprehensive mental health services to address stigma and discrimination. While it’s best if seniors can age in place in their own homes, that isn’t always possible. If the time comes and LGBTQ seniors need to relocate to a retirement community or care facility, many are often hesitant to do so because of stigma and fears that staff and other residents won’t treat them with dignity and respect. We covered a story last year in which a man tore down a Pride flag display at a senior facility in the East Bay. Unfortunately, the judge ruled that there was police misconduct in the case and dismissed the hate crime charge. However, the point is that hateful incidents still occur. Staff should be provided with adequate training that should be regularly updated.
the challenges faced by transgender and genderexpansive older adults and older adults of color; promote language access to ensure services are available in the threshold languages; explore options to reduce barriers to services; and support anti-racist, community-based organizations that serve these populations.
Finally, the fourth priority is something we’ve advocated for the entire LGBTQ community: collecting sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, data. This is also important for the LGBTQ senior community, as the report stated. In order to measure policy outcomes and improve data collection, the report recommends monitoring the impact of policy and programs by collecting data, including demographic information, sexual orientation and gender identity data; building relationships with diverse communities to help ensure representative data collection and inclusive policy development; and monitoring the impact that policy and programs have on individual health and wellbeing.
Caveats
One of the caveats with the report is that the vast majority of respondents were white (84%) and identified as gay or lesbian (86%). Most were also cisgender, with transgender women making up 2%, and transgender men comprising 1% of respondents. The report does note that “there was greater financial insecurity among transgender and gender-expansive respondents (39%) than cisgender respondents (24%).”
Food insecurity, defined as having enough money to buy nutritious meals, ranked higher for people of color (33%), compared to white respondents (18%). Not surprisingly, transgender people reported more food insecurity (32%) than cisgender respondents (20%).
The report stated that a second priority is to “increase social and economic support for LGBTQIA+ older adults.” The recommendations include exploring opportunities for social and economic support through the following strategies: promote access to LGBTQIA+ affirming programs in order
A third priority in the report is to understand and address disparities among transgender and gender-expansive older adults and older adults of color. Recommendations are to explore opportunities to better understand and address disparities through the following strategies: promote training for service providers including specific standards of care necessary to address
These findings track with what has been reported over the years, that LGBTQ people of color and trans people tend to experience more discrimination, particularly in employment and housing. It makes sense that as they age, these communities
See page 10 >>
Questioning the New York Times’ question
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
The loss of the presidential election has left many people shell-shocked, and rather than focusing on the much more pressing question –what do we do now – a lot of people have chosen to focus on trying to find someone to blame.
I get it. We all want a simple villain. It’s so much easier to try and hang this on someone, rather than look at what may well be a systemic issue with many root causes.
Of course, I have some contention here because, yes, transgender people are overmuch being blamed. In an election where the GOP spent massive amounts of money to demonize transgender people – and as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris didn’t once actually use the word “transgender” – it seems obvious to some, somehow, that transgender people are the ones at fault.
In the wake of all this soul-searching and victim blaming, the New York Times – a newspaper that has been critiqued for years over its strong anti-transgender slant – has jumped into the fray, letting us know that transgender people are simply too confrontational. (https://www.nytimes. com/2024/11/26/us/politics/transgen der-activists-rights.html)
“To get on the wrong side of transgen der activists is often to endure their un sparing criticism,” said the author of this Times piece, reporter Jeremy W. Peters, before unveiling his two poster children of these attacks: British author JK Rowling and Democratic Massachusetts Congressmember Seth Moulton.
of her Potter money she has donated to anti-trans causes – should just be ashamed of being so harsh on her.
After all, according to Peters, Rowling is just “an author who disagrees with denying any relationship between sex and biology.”
I think the bigger issue is that Rowling regularly misgenders transgender people, has denied that trans people were targeted in the Holocaust, and has described transgender journalist India Willoughby as someone “cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is.”
I am going against one of my own personal rules of not discussing Rowling in this column, given that she already gets plenty of notoriety for her anti-transgender stance. Many years ago, she wrote the “Harry Potter” fantasy book franchise that a lot of companies invested a lot of money into promoting. Right now, her stories are the subject of a high-cost reboot via HBO, and the attention on Rowling’s rather loud and virulent anti-trans viewpoint has a bad habit of affecting the bottom line on such projects.
Knowing that Rowling is clearly not willing to tone things down on her end, of course, means that those of us directly affected by her transphobia – both in what she has said and in how much
It is worth noting that as well as going after actual transgender people, Rowling has saved some of her strongest vitriol for non-trans athletes like Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif, saying that she displays “the smirk of a male who’s knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.”
As for Moulton, we need to circle back a bit. In the wake of the election, he was one of the first prominent Democrats who sought to hang the loss on transgender people. He feels that the Democratic Party spent “too much time trying not to offend anyone,” and worried about his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”
He later doubled down on this, stating that the blowback he received simply reinforced his point. He has also gone on to claim that while he
might not have used “the perfect words,” he has yet to offer an apology for his comments.
The Times also made a rare editorial move to allow transgender people to speak in this article, albeit finding just two that could seemingly support their opinion.
One was Mara Keisling who, until a couple of years ago, was the head of the National Center for Transgender Equality. According to this article, she, too, feels transgender activists are too hard on Rowling, and she considers ceding ground on anti-trans sports bans.
I am couching my language a bit on what Keisling may have said due to the article’s other trans participant, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen. HengLehtinen is the executive director of Advocates For Trans Equality, an organization born out of the ashes of NCTE. He said that he was quoted out of context in Peters’ article.
“Yesterday, New York Times ran an article in which I was quoted as saying, ‘We have to make it OK for someone to change their minds,’ and ‘We cannot vilify them for not being on our side. No one wants to join that team,’” reads the November 27 A4TE statement. “Because my quotes were taken out of context, I’d like to clarify what I meant. Those statements were regarding how to persuade everyday, undecided people in the public, not people who have already taken actions to oppose our equality.”
I have to be honest here. By claiming that transgender people need to avoid being critical in a time where our very existence is very much on the line, citing a virulent, outspoken antitrans bigot and a Democratic congressmember seeking to throw transgender people under the bus, and then mischaracterizing a transgender leader’s stance to make it sound supportive, the Times continues to do a disservice to its readers, all while seemingly attempting to run an antitransgender influence campaign.
Perhaps the Times, too, should consider its own part in how we’ve gotten to where we are today, because this one article – atop a large stack of similar missives from the Gray Lady – makes me deeply question its objectivity.t
Gwen Smith notes that this isn’t even the most recent anti-trans New York Times article. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.
The New York Times published an article about transgender activists that one participant said took his comments out of context.
Cynthia Laird
Seniors took part in the state’s first survey of older LGBTQ people.
From “Survey of LGBTQIA+ Older Adults in California: From Challenges to Resilience,” summary
CA Legislature hits 12% LGBTQ representation
by Matthew S. Bajko
With 15 out of California’s 120 state legislators hailing from the LGBTQ community, the Statehouse has now reached 12% out representation. It is an increase from two years ago when the Golden State’s Legislature became the first to have 10% of its membership be queer.
This year’s milestone is due to the new class of lesbian, gay, and bisexual legislators following the November 5 election. They include a number of firsts, though there will still be no transgender member.
Gay state Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D-West Sacramento), a former mayor of his hometown, is the first Filipino American in the state Senate. Elected to the sprawling Senate District 13 that covers six different counties, Cabaldon is also the first out legislator to represent portions of the Bay Area’s Contra Costa, Solano, Sonoma, and Napa counties.
“In two days, I will become the latest of ~100 Californians since 1849 to represent Yolo, Solano, Napa & Sonoma counties + the Sacramento/ Contra Costa area of the Delta in the Senate. Their legacy is daunting, inspiring & emboldening,” wrote Cabaldon in a post on his Bluesky account.
State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra) is now the first bisexual woman to serve in the upper chamber. She represents the 25th Senate District spanning Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Meanwhile, Assemblymember Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles) is the first bisexual woman in the lower chamber and the first out Black Latina to serve in the Legislature.
New Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio started his term issuing a broadside to Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers.
to hit the ground running on day one. Team Santiago forever!”
Gay Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) is the first out Republican elected to a legislative seat. He represents Assembly District 75 in San Diego County.
Meanwhile, the Assembly has two new gay Latino Democratic members, as Assemblymembers Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles) now represents Assembly District 54 and José Luis Solache (D-Lynwood) represents Assembly District 62.
Solache began the day by sharing his official headshot to his Facebook campaign account.
“RISE and SHINE The day is finally here and I’m ready to serve,” he wrote.
Gonzalez received a warm welcome message from his now former boss whom he succeeded, Miguel Santiago, who noted in a Thanksgiving post on X, “As I prepare to pass the torch, I am thrilled to welcome AD54’s next Assemblymember, Mark Gonzalez, who will be sworn in this Monday. As my former District Director, Mark has proven his dedication to our community and is ready
Questions new democracy group
Lesbian state Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona) is the new representative for Senate District 3. Her younger sister Clarissa, who is queer and bisexual, lost her race to succeed Cervantes in the 58th Assembly District; at Monday’s swearing in ceremony Republican Leticia Castillo took her oath of office for the seat spanning Riverside and San Bernardino counties. (As late as Sunday, Clarissa Cervantes was asking her voters to ensure their ballots hadn’t been rejected in hopes of making up her current 641-vote deficit ahead of the December 5 deadline for county elections officials to certify their results.)
The freshmen legislators join returning gay state Senators Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), bisexual Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose), and gay Assemblymembers Corey A. Jackson, Ph.D., (D-Perris), Chris Ward (D-San Diego) and Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood). They all won reelection last month, while gay Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) and lesbian Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) were not up this year.
“I look forward to my LGBTQ+ family growing in the Legislature because representation is more important than ever if we want a fighting chance in the battles ahead of us,” stated Menjivar.
Added Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang, “These new members continue to ensure that our caucus reflects the full diversity and strength of our community. LGBTQ+ people belong in every room and deserve a seat at every table where decisions impacting our community and our lives are being made.”
After he was sworn in, Laird re-
In founding Governors Safeguarding Democracy, blue state Democratic Governors Jared Polis of Colorado and JB Pritzker of Illinois are just perpetuating the same fundraising grift by which Kamala Harris’ losing presidential campaign raised $1.4 billion from her supporters, most of which was wasted on expenses such as paying the Reverend Al Sharpton’s nonprofit and Oprah Winfrey’s studio hundreds of thousands for softball interviews of the outgoing vice president. [“LGBTQ Agenda: Gay Colorado Governor Polis co-chairing new democracy group,” November 26.]
If Polis and Pritzker are truly concerned by the return of the “authoritarian” Trump administration, then perhaps they should have used their influence to press for an open presidential primary instead of propping up an obviously frail and declining incumbent, even when a majority of Democrats considered President Joe Biden to be too feeble to continue for another four years in the most powerful office in the world. Perhaps they should have dissented
quested the creation of a Select Com mittee on Older LGBTQ+ Needs. He also introduced legislation on con sumer protection.
“We face numerous challenges in the years ahead, and I look forward to working with new and returning col leagues to fight for all Californians,” noted Laird.
Wiener had a comical take on his swearing in, posting a photo of him self hovering over his newly-elected colleagues to his X account.
“I’m grateful to the voters & look forward to continuing our work for the community. +BIG NEWS: After 8 years of patiently biding my time, today I officially become the tallest member of the Legislature!” he wrote.
The LGBTQ Legislative Caucus, which had 12 members last session, saw the departures this week of termed out lesbian Democratic state senators Toni Atkins of San Diego and Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton. Also stepping down was Evan Low, a gay Democratic assemblymember from Cupertino, having mounted an unsuccessful bid this year for a U.S. House seat.
Ward is the new chair of the affinity group for out legislators. It remains to be seen if DeMaio will be its 15th member, as Ward had told the Bay Area Reporter last year that he was likely to have the caucus vote on if the firebrand conservative should be allowed in.
DeMaio has opposed various LGBTQ-related bills backed by the caucus over the years. The former San Diego city councilmember started his state legislative career with a broadside of Governor Gavin Newsom and his new colleagues as they attempt to protect Californians from the policies of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
He introduced a bill dubbed the “Punish Unconstitutional Actions Act of 2025” that would reduce the pay for the governor and state legislators by 25% any time a law they voted for, or Newsom signed, was later ruled unconstitutional in federal court. It is highly unlikely to pass, and may not even get a hearing, due to Democrats maintaining their supermajority.
“Given how many times he has abused his power and been found by federal courts to have infringed on our constitutional rights, it is clear that Californians need protection from Gavin Newsom – not Donald Trump,” stated DeMaio. “It is utterly hypocritical for Gavin Newsom to say he wants to protect the rights of Californians from attack – when this is the same guy who has a terrible record of abusing power and impos ing laws and regulations that federal courts have repeatedly ruled to be un lawful and unconstitutional.”
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas
See page 8 >>
when the party then consolidated around a vacuous and unpopular replacement who couldn’t win her own state in the last open primary. [Editor’s note: Harris, then the junior U.S. senator from California, had dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in December 2019, before the state’s primary.]
Rather than reflexively opposing the popularly-elected incoming administration, including trying to resist the return of illegal aliens to their countries of origin, perhaps these governors should focus on serving the interests and needs of their own voters. Without any congressional authorization, the outgoing administration just gave the Ukrainian government authorization to launch missile strikes into the territory of its nuclear-armed neighbor, Russia. Why aren’t these Democratic governors expressing their outrage over such an “autocratic” and dangerous (as well as futile) escalation of that conflict?
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Colin Gallagher San Francisco
From Assembly.ca.gov
Community News
EQCA to hold virtual town hall
compiled by Cynthia Laird
E quality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, will hold a virtual town hall, the “State of Equality,” Friday, December 6, from 10 to 11:15 a.m., Pacific time. EQCA stated in an email announcement that the meeting would provide “an in-depth look at the current moment, the victories we did achieve this election cycle, and our plans moving forward.” Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and hear from EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang, a gay man, and other members of EQCA’s team, the announcement stated.
Nationally, the election of former President Donald Trump to a second term has sparked fear among some LGBTQ people, particularly the trans community and immigrants. Trump may very well reinstitute the trans military ban that he implemented in his first term and has promised action on securing the border, including mass deportations.
Closer to home, the recent elections saw the defeat of four out Democratic candidates running in different races in Riverside County as they hit a red wall. As the Bay Area
Reporter noted in its Political Notes column, gay former federal prosecutor Will Rollins came up short in his rematch with conservative Congressmember Ken Calvert (R-Corona), and bisexual Palm Springs City Councilmember Christy Holstege
lost in her rematch against incumbent Assemblymember Greg Wallis (R-Bermuda Dunes).
Palm Springs City Councilmember Lisa Middleton, running this year for a state Senate seat, lost her bid to be the first transgender legislator in Sacramento. Additionally, Clarissa Cervantes, who identifies as queer and bisexual, came up short in her bid to succeed her lesbian older sister, Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Corona), in the Legislature. The elder Cervantes sibling was the lone victor among the Democratic quintet, as she won election to the state Senate’s open District 31 seat.
Both Holstege and Mid dleton are leaving the City Council this month as their terms are up.
The upcoming town hall aims to explain how the organization will respond to what lays ahead, the announcement stated.
To register for the EQCA town hall, go to https://tinyurl.com/39b6x5zy.
The Zoom link will be provided after registering.
Tenderloin Tessie benefit
Fresh off hosting its annual Thanksgiving dinner for those in need, Tenderloin Tessie will hold a holiday cabaret show that will benefit its next project, the annual Christmas Day dinner later this month.
Despite the electoral defeats, Tom Temprano, managing director of external affairs for EQCA, told the B.A.R., “These candidates and their supporters did everything they needed to do to set themselves up for a victory. Unfortunately, the conditions we saw in Riverside County mirrored the conditions across the country where there was a notable shift to the right.”
The holiday show takes place Friday, December 6, at the First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin Street (at Geary Boulevard). Doors open at 6 p.m., the show starts at 7.
A news release stated that hosts for the evening will be Michael Gagne, president of the Tenderloin Tessie board, and the Fabulous Dusty Porn. There will be special appearances by Sisters Roma and Bella Donna of the drag nun philanthropic group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence; pianist James Campbell; drag performers; and clog dancers. The
release noted that some parts of the show will be PG-13.
Admission is $25 per person, $20 for those who have volunteered for Tenderloin Tessie before, and $5 for seniors and those who are disabled. People can email Gagne at tenderlointessiedinners@yahoo.com for discount information for families.
Regularly priced tickets can be purchased at https://tinyurl. com/55zzr6v7.
Castro cultural district raising funds for mural
The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District is raising funds for a new mural in the neighborhood.
According to an email announcement, the mural will feature artwork by Tanya Wischerath called “Living Lesbian Legends.”
The new mural will be next to the mural by gay artist Serge Gay Jr. on a wall of the building that houses Local Take and Rouse Relational Wellness on 18th Street (between Castro and Collingwood streets). The cultural district stated that it needs at least $2,000. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made to the district’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. To donate, go to https://tinyurl.com/yc76krdx.t
<< Political Notebook
From page 7
(D-Salinas), reelected December 2 to the powerful leadership post in Sacramento, pledged not to stand down to Trump in his comments he made after the vote to keep the gavel in his hands. He pledged “if LGBTQ people come under attack, if hard-working immigrants are targeted, if women’s reproductive freedom is threatened, we will fight back with everything we have.”
He added, “The country looks to California for leadership, and we will continue to lead.”
Jackson, in his comments nominating Rivas for the speakership, also referred to the expected coming policy fights, and lawsuits, with the Trump administration.
“I look forward to the leadership of a Speaker Rivas, as our country continues to be divided,” said Jackson, who tangled with his more conservative GOP colleagues during his freshman term and is likely to do the same in his second term with DeMaio joining their ranks. “I believe our nation’s citizens will be looking now to their state capitals for additional leadership, assistance and protection. That is why this nomination is so important.”
EQCA’s Hoang pledged “whatever attacks Donald Trump and his fellow extremists may initiate against our community – and our trans kids and LGBTQ+ students in particular – California will continue to lead the nation’s fight for LGBTQ+ equality.”
Ward noted that the LGBTQ community “knows all too well that having a seat at the table is vitally important in order to ensure our community’s voices are heard. As attacks on rights ramp up, especially targeting LGBTQ+ youth and our TGI siblings, our growing LGBTQ caucus remains steadfast in our commitment to unity and to strengthen California’s status as a safe haven for LGBTQ+ community members and their loved ones.”t
Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion, returns Monday, December 9.
Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Threads @ https://www.threads.net/@ matthewbajko and on Bluesky @ https://bsky.app/profile/politicalnotes.bsky.social.
Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8298836 or email m.bajko@ebar.com.
Equality California Executive
Director Tony Hoang
Courtesy EQCA
Supes send bathhouse rules change to mayor Community News >>
by Matthew S. Bajko
San Francisco supervisors have sent to Mayor London Breed a police code change aimed at allowing traditional gay bathhouses to return to the city. With a 30-day deadline to sign the ordinance into law, the outgoing Breed is expected to make it her last major LGBTQ-focused policy enactment before she leaves office in early January.
Yet advocates of seeing the businesses reopen after a nearly fourdecade absence don’t expect to see a bathhouse catering to men who have sex with men anytime soon. In fact, the executive director of the city’s Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District in western South of Market told the Bay Area Reporter it could take two years before one opens its doors, hopefully in or nearby the SOMA neighborhood that historically had been home to many gay bathhouses in the 1970s and early 1980s.
“So, opening anything in San Francisco takes a while for permits and that sort of thing. If someone were going to start applying for permits now, it might … it is hard to say how long it would actually take,” said Robert Goldfarb, a gay man who has spoken with several people interested in operating a gay bathhouse. “It could take at least a year for permits and, with some buildout, I am hoping somewhere inside of two years.”
The B.A.R. in September had spoken with two individuals interested in doing so: Joel Aguero behind the website castrobaths.org, (https:// castrobaths.org/) and Nathan Diesel with the website newbathhouse.com. (https://newbathhouse.com/) Neither at the time said (https://www.ebar. com/story.php?ch=News&sc=News& id=335695&title=decades-old_san_ francisco_police_code_prevents_return_of_gay_bathhouses) they had
the financial capital already lined up to do so, and neither responded to requests for comment for this article.
Goldfarb told the B.A.R. that he believes there are several entrepreneurs with “viable” plans for operating a bathhouse he has spoken with this year. And more could come forward once it is clear they can operate again in San Francisco.
“I think some of the people I have talked to have business experience, and also access to adequate resources,” said Goldfarb, who is hopeful of seeing at least one bathhouse open in, or nearby, the boundaries of the leather district. “We love openings.”
He added that leather district leaders are “hopeful and optimistic” there will be a bathhouse “in the foreseeable future” once again in SOMA.
“I know several people are interested in opening a bathhouse, and having the removal of the last legislative barrier will enable that to happen,” said Goldfarb.
Last hurdle
The hurdle he was referring to is a provision added to the city’s police code in 1973 that not only prohibits having locked rooms in bathhouses, a key feature of those catering to a queer male clientele, but also requires owners of public bathhouses to keep a daily register of their patrons that at any time can be demanded to be seen by either police or a health department employee. In October, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman introduced an ordinance to excise what he and other LGBTQ advocates consider to be an outdated, homophobic penal code.
The 10 supervisors without comment unanimously voted to do so at their December 3 meeting, having first done so last month. Ordinances require two votes by the board in order to be passed and sent to the mayor. (Former District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani took her oath of office as the new 19th Assembly District mem-
ber Monday, December 2.)
As the B.A.R. has been reporting on since 2020, Mandelman has led the legislative push at City Hall to remove a number of bureaucratic barriers that have de facto outlawed gay bathhouses in San Francisco since the early days of the AIDS epidemic. It began with ending rules enacted in the 1980s by the San Francisco Department of Public Health that not only banned private rooms with locked doors at bathhouses but also required staff to monitor the sex of their patrons.
The regulations had resulted in gay bathhouse owners closing their doors, leaving just gay sex clubs without locked rooms for rent, with Eros in the Tenderloin currently the only one operating today. Mandelman’s ordinance rescinding the health code bathhouse rules was enacted in 2021.
He then introduced in 2022 another ordinance to update the city’s zoning codes to allow for gay bathhouses to be situated in the city’s LGBTQ neighborhoods of the Tenderloin, SOMA, and in the Castro district that Mandelman represents at City Hall. It again passed unanimously by the supervisors and was signed into law by Breed.
But as those interested in getting permits to open a bathhouse began inquiring with city officials about the process, the issue with the police code’s Article 26 popped up. Mandelman is hopeful it is the last roadblock that needs to be dealt with.
“We weren’t sure it was going to be a problem. It turned out to be a problem,” Mandelman had told the B.A.R. earlier this fall.
The police department supported Mandelman’s ordinance, telling the supervisors’ Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee last month it had no interest in being in the business of permitting bathhouses. It would still respond to any
complaints of illicit activity or other matters requiring a police response at such establishments.
LGBTQ health advocates also spoke in support of doing away with Article 26. Justice Allred, a health educator with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, had stressed at the committee hearing that the city’s public health policies need to be based not on stigma but on “science and evidence.”
In this case, he pointed to how HIV is now a treatable disease whose transmission is preventable via the use of medications like PrEP. Sexually transmitted infections can now be treated with doxyPEP. Bathhouses could provide a venue to educate patrons about the preventative medicines and other sexual health strategies.
“There is no longer a need for these restrictions from the 1970s and 1980s,” he said of the city codes governing bathhouses.
David Hyman, who serves on the leather district’s board, had argued the rules prohibiting traditional gay bathhouses are “hurtful economically” in addition to being no longer necessary.
“My personal view is Article 26 in the police code is archaic, ambiguous, and it is insulting,” said Hyman, 72, a gay man who moved to the city in the 1970s and patronized the SOMA bars and clubs then operating. “Actually enforcing it would be wasteful of police resources, possibly unconstitutional, and of no or little value to the cause of public health safety.”
Speaking to the B.A.R. Tuesday ahead of the supervisors’ second vote on Mandelman’s ordinance, the leather district’s Goldfarb said he is hopeful it will be the final change needed in city codes relating to bathhouses.
“We don’t believe there are any more,” he said. “That is not to say one might turn up.”t
Jane Philomen Cleland
Justices lean toward upholding gender care ban
by Lisa Keen
Outside the U.S. Supreme Court
building Wednesday afternoon, lawyers supporting state bans on hormonal treatments for young people suffering gender dysphoria spoke more bluntly than they did in front of the justices during oral arguments. The justices seemed to lean toward upholding the Tennessee ban on genderaffirming care at the center of the case.
Inside the courtroom, they said the Tennessee law that bans puberty blockers and hormonal treatment for people under 18 was all about “protecting children.” They spoke of the need to prevent kids from suffering irreversible changes to their bodies –like loss of fertility, increases in heart troubles, bone loss, and other issues.
Outside the courtroom, their arguments sounded more like the culture wars of 40 to 50 years ago, when Anita Bryant’s “Protect the Children” campaign was making its rounds. It echoed the cultural war over state bans 10 years ago about marriage for same-sex couples. Opponents said those bans were to protect children, too.
“The evidence shows that a large majority of [minors suffering from gender dysphoria] will grow out of it, unless they are put on these medications,” said J. Matthew Rice, solicitor general for Tennessee. He defended Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 before the Supreme Court.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who joined Rice at the impromptu post-argument reporter cluster, said the litigation to retain the ability to access medical treatment for minors with gender dysphoria was just an effort “to push a transgender agenda.” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who also jumped in, said the laws of his state and 24 other states passed during the last three years are about “trying to prevent a 12-year-old from using chemical castration.”
“We can tell parents when they have to keep their kids in the backseat of a car, and we can restrict kids from buying cigarettes,” said Wilson. These new laws, he said, were no different.
The court heard arguments for
well over the one hour it had allotted to the case, U.S. v. Skrmetti (Jonathan Skrmetti is the Tennessee attorney general). As so often happens with LGBTQ-related cases, the nine justices seem to be operating from two distinct camps.
The three more progressive justices asked the most questions that challenged the controversial law, and the five more conservative justices asked questions to defend it. Justice Neil Gorsuch, part of the conservative bloc, asked no questions.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who spoke on behalf of the Biden administration’s opposition to Tennessee’s law, spelled out the government’s arguments against the ban. She said it violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of sex, in violation of the equal protection clause; because of sex discrimination, the court should scrutinize the law at a heightened level (greater than the easy requirement of simple rational basis); and the Supreme Court should send the case back to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with instructions to examine the ban with that heightened level of scrutiny.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Chase Strangio, a trans man
who was the first openly transgender person to argue before the nine justices (and whom Chief Justice John Roberts addressed as Mr. Strangio), said the Tennessee law (known as SB 1) had “taken away the only medicine that has provided relief for patients.”
“And do you maintain that these medicines reduce the risk of suicide?” asked Justice Samuel Alito, notoriously hostile to anything LGBTQ.
“I do,” said Strangio.
Alito suggested he had not seen any evidence that the treatments for gender dysphoria had “reduced the risk of suicide.”
Interestingly, in a news conference December 2, Rick Colby, a longstanding Republican lobbyist and father of a transgender son, said his child had been “near suicide” when he was finally able to get the hormonal treatment needed.
“It’s a real thing,” said Colby. Today, he said, his son is thriving.
The case before the court December 4 originated with one transgender girl and two transgender boys, whose parents filed suit after the Tennessee Legislature banned medical treatment for young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria. (Gender dysphoria is defined by the medical profession as clinically significant discomfort that
one’s sexual identity is different than one’s documented gender at birth.) A Memphis doctor, Susan Lacy, joined the lawsuit, which was successful at the district court. The federal district court judge ruled that the bans enabled “disparate treatment on the basis of sex.” But the 6th Circuit disagreed. Both the transgender youth and the U.S. government appealed the 6th Circuit decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. At least four of the nine justices agreed to hear the U.S. appeal.
The question
The Justice Department petition asked whether the Tennessee law violated the right of transgender youth to equal protection. The petition filed by the ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund on behalf of the transgender youth asked the equal protection question, plus two others: Should the state law be given heightened scrutiny because it discriminates based on sex, and does the state law violate the “fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the medical care of their children guaranteed by the 14th Amendment’s due process clause?”
In agreeing to hear the appeal, the justices accepted only the U.S.’s petition and defined the question without mentioning equal protection, heightened scrutiny, or parents’ rights. And some might say the court’s wording of the question was somewhat prejudicial.
It stated, “Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB l), which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow ‘a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex’ or to treat ‘purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.’”
According to Tennessee’s briefs, SB 1 is needed to “protect children” from receiving medications to block the hormones of puberty and “cross-sex hormones” to enable them to develop attributes of the sex to which they are transitioning. The state says these drugs have the potential to cause infertility, bone loss, sexual dysfunction, and “unknown effects on brain devel-
opment” during critical brain development years.
The state brief acknowledged that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved puberty blockers to treat young children with hormonal imbalances caused by “precocious puberty” (early puberty) but has not approved them for “gender dysphoria.”
While states passing the bans suggest that the diagnosis of gender dysphoria is easily obtained, the official diagnostic manual of the psychiatric profession says a patient must exhibit “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning” to warrant the diagnosis. In order for a child to obtain such a diagnosis, a doctor must determine that the child is experiencing “a marked incongruence between [their] experienced/ expressed gender and assigned gender, lasting at least six months,” and six additional criteria, including a “strong desire” to be the other sex or an “insistence that one is the other gender.”
In challenging the Tennessee law, plaintiffs and the U.S. government relied on the Constitution’s guarantee that each citizen has a right to equal protection of the law. Specifically, Amendment 14 states, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
In its first brief to the court, Tennessee said the case was about whether equal protection “prohibits States from enacting laws protecting children from sex-transition medical interventions with risks of lifelong harm.” Tennessee also sought to examine the rights of parents in the matter, asking “Whether the substantive component of the Due Process Clause gives a parent a right to demand crosssex medical interventions for children that a State has found to be unproven and excessively risky.”
A decision is expected by next June.t
would continue to experience issues such as food insecurity. Lawmakers should work to address these disparities – no one should go hungry – by finding creative solutions aimed at increasing the capacity of nonprofits that provide meals to seniors.
The report concludes with the fact that LGBTQ seniors are everywhere. “The results of this survey demonstrate that LGBTQIA+ people in California live across the state, in every census region, and represent a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds,” it stated. “These findings
indicate the importance of services, resources, and programs that help LGBTQIA+ older adults feel safe (e.g., safety from discrimination and stigma in doctor’s offices, safety with caregivers, safety reporting abuse) and address this community’s health needs to promote healthy aging among these communities.”
As we prepare for an uncertain future with the return of President-elect Donald Trump and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, it’s imperative that those in local and state government work to enact as many of the priority recommendations set forth in the report as possible. Some, like staff training, have been ongoing for years, and should not cost that much money. Others will require resources. But our LGBTQ seniors deserve dignity and respect. If you’re not a senior now, you will be one day, which is why this type of report is needed, as a baseline for future needs assessments and to track what are hopefully improvements in the coming years.t << Editorial From page 6
Valor LX2 3-sided gas fireplace shown here with Murano glass, and reflective glass liner
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments December 4 on a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for minors.
Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
Community News >>
SF officials finalize LGBTQ museum site purchase
by Matthew S. Bajko
The city has now officially purchased a shopping center in San Francisco’s Castro district for what will become the country’s first free-standing LGBTQ history museum and archival center. Mayor London Breed’s administration signed the paperwork November 26.
Three years ago, Breed had allocated $12.5 million in city funds toward the museum project. As the Bay Area Reporter was first to report in September, the city bought 2280 Market Street at Noe Street for $11.6 million.
The two-story building with rooftop parking is known as the Market & Noe Center. It will be the new home of the GLBT Historical Society, which must now finalize a lease agreement with the city and the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. Known as CAST, the community-centered, arts and culture focused real estate organization works to secure and steward affordable spaces for nonprofit arts and culture organizations in San Francisco and will hold the master lease until such time when the nonprofit archival group can take over ownership of the 14,640 square foot parcel.
“It’s amazing to see the dream of the nation’s first LGBTQ museum become a reality right here in San Francisco. Today, we celebrate yet another amazing milestone of our efforts to secure a space that celebrates, honors, and preserves San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ history and culture,” stated Breed. “We
of the
of 2280
dedicate this historic moment to the fearless community, partners, and advocates who have been champions for our city’s LGBTQ community, ensuring the forever home for this museum in the Castro.”
It will be up to the administration of Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie to hammer out the lease and bring it before the Board of Supervisors for approval sometime in mid-2025. The supervisors earlier this month had given their final approval for the city’s purchase of
the upper Market Street property.
“This is a historic day for San Francisco and our LGBTQ+ community,” stated gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro at City Hall and has long championed the museum project. “With this purchase, a two-decades-long dream of securing a permanent home for the GLBT Historical Society Museum is finally a reality. The museum will serve as a local and international destination and a community hub to el-
evate the stories and contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals, ensuring they are celebrated and remembered for generations to come.”
It remains unclear when the historical society will be able to relocate the exhibits in its current museum housed in a small storefront on 18th Street into the 11,000 square foot second floor of the shopping center. Estimates have varied from a year once they are given the keys to 2027 due to needing time to remodel what, until recently, had been the offices of a real estate firm.
The nonprofit also rents space downtown for its archives, research center, and administrative offices, all of which are also to be housed in the shopping center site at some point. Museum officials have said they will embark on a fundraising drive to raise the money they need for their relocation and new museum plans.
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) had secured $5.5 million in state funds for the project, which must be used by early 2026. The money is expected to be put toward relocating the museum into the 30,000 square foot commercial building that was constructed in 1987.
“This museum will ensure future generations can learn from that history for many years to come. We worked hard to obtain support for the museum in the state budget, and I look forward to adding another new attraction to our thriving ecosystem of world-class San Francisco LGBTQ
institutions,” stated Wiener.
The plan is for the LGBTQ museum to expand into the building’s ground floor spaces when the current commercial tenants’ leases expire. Barry’s Bootcamp is subleasing its storefront from CVS and can remain through 2040, while Dignity Health-GoHealth Urgent Care has a lease for its clinic through 2036.
Initially, the city will retain 10% of the combined $58,000 in monthly lease payments from the commercial tenants and put the rest of the money into a separate reserve account to be used by the historical society for capital improvements and possibly programming. Once the lease agreements with CAST and the historical society are approved, then CAST will receive the 10% for taking on the property manager role.
“With the purchase now completed, we are thrilled to begin planning and building our new home in the heart of the Castro,” stated Roberto Ordeñana, a gay man who is executive director of the LGBTQ preservationist nonprofit. “This is more than just a physical space; it is a permanent home for our history, where the stories, struggles, and triumphs of LGBTQ and allied communities will be preserved and shared for generations to come. As we look ahead to our 40th anniversary in 2025, this milestone comes at a critical time when our voices need to be heard, and our work has never been more important in elevating and amplifying our stories.”t
Walker leaves police body to rejoin arts panel
by John Ferrannini
Debra Walker, a lesbian whose fight to stay on the police commission earlier this year garnered headlines, is now the newest member of the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Walker confirmed to the Bay Area Reporter she left the police commission on November 26, when she was sworn in as an arts commissioner after appointment by outgoing Mayor London Breed.
“I had a conversation with Mayor Breed after the election and she checked in with me about how I was feeling and what my thoughts were. This election has been particularly devastating for a lot of folks, a lot of women especially, and I said, ‘you know, I feel I want to be where I can do the most good,’” Walker said. “The best way I know how to do that is with art.”
Walker said that as an arts commissioner, she hopes to continue to help the community recover from COVID.
“We have a lot of work to do with securing our arts community right now,” Walker said. “It’s a hard time right now because of public funding and a lot of organizations and artists are recovering from COVID, so that’s how it happened, and she [Breed] said, ‘Absolutely, I totally support that,’ and it was done last Tuesday.”
Walker said that she feels a lot of the goals she worked on at the police commission had come to fruition, such as implementing hundreds of recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Justice after the SFPD asked it to review the department following a series of officer-involved shootings and high-profile misconduct cases in 2016.
“Two and a half years it’s been, and a lot of what I certainly got on the commission to do, we actually accomplished,” Walker said, referencing the 30x30 program, which had the goal of increasing representation of women in police recruitment classes to 30% by 2030, and clamping down on qualityof-life crimes.
“The incoming mayor probably has the same priorities,” she said, referring to Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie, who defeated Breed in last month’s election.
“He has a lot of good folks who are
advising him in transition.”
Walker said that though she was “honored by working on the commission” and so was “torn” about leaving, she’s happy to be back at the arts commission, which met December 2.
Walker was sworn in as an arts commissioner and resigned as a police commissioner in Breed’s office November 26; she told the B.A.R. that the city attorney’s office said she did not need approval by the Board of Supervisors at that time.
The city attorney’s office stated to the B.A.R. that according to a memorandum on appointments to San Francisco commissions, arts commissioners do not need approval by the Board of Supervisors. “Members serve at will and may be removed by the mayor without cause,” the memo states, and the mayor must fill vacancies within 90 days.
An email sent Tuesday by the city arts agency noted Walker is serving out the remainder of a term on the oversight body ending August 31, 2026.
Walker will serve alongside gay arts Commissioners Seth Brenzel and Patrick Carney, and fellow lesbian arts Commissioner Mahsa Hakimi.
“I felt I had woken up from a dream in some ways,” Walker said. “We need to make sure our arts community is moved forward and we continue to be the arts capital we are in San Fran-
cisco. It’s for my own personal reasons, but we need the magic and catalyst of art, right now, rather than discussing policy around policing – for me.”
Walker, a longtime artist, served between 1999 and 2019 as a tenant representative on the city’s Building Inspections Commission and was appointed by successive Board of Supervisor presidents, beginning with gay former supervisor Tom Ammiano. Then, she was appointed by Breed to the city’s arts commission in 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic. Walker and her fellow arts commissioners worked to help local artists and arts groups survive the health crisis.
In June 2022, Breed appointed Walker to a vacancy on the police commission, and she left her post at the arts panel.
Earlier this year, the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee rejected her reappointment amid allegations that the police oversight panel is polarized, and one supervisor remained fixated on Walker’s comment that “there is way too much input from people who aren’t cops” on the police commission. That supervisor, outgoing District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, at one point asked, “Should we have a police commission?” (To which Walker replied in the affirmative.)
Safaí was critical of Walker’s support for Proposition E, which voters passed on the March ballot. The measure gives up some of the police commission’s powers.
Safaí noted that Prop E “did a number of things that take things out of the police commission’s hands,” including SFPD’s pursuit policy. He said that prior to Prop E’s passage, San Francisco had one of the most reputable pursuit policies. He said that it was his understanding that under that policy, officers would need to call in and get a “green light” from a captain in order to engage in a pursuit.
“Prop E removes that,” he said.
Safaí asked Walker if the police commission is involved in setting policy.
“That our policy is consistent with city law, yes,” she answered.
Safaí had also questioned if Walker had the time to devote to being on the
police commission. He didn’t immediately return a request for comment December 3.
Safaí was joined in his no vote by acting committee Chair Supervisor Shamann Walton (District 10), who
cited Walker’s remark about policymaking. He didn’t immediately return a request for comment December 3. However, when the nomination
See page 12 >>
Members
San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performed outside
Market Street, the future home of the GLBT Historical Society’s museum and archival center, during a community celebration September 27. Mayor London Breed is third from right.
Matthew S. Bajko
Debra Walker has resigned from the police commission and returned to the arts commission.
From SFGovTV
As the B.A.R. previously reported, House Republicans had proposed cuts to domestic HIV spending in the amount of $767 million for Fiscal Year 2024. The Democratic-controlled Senate didn’t agree to the cuts in its own bipartisan budget bill.
Those cuts didn’t come to pass in the budget signed by President Joe Biden for Fiscal Year 2025, which saw a $20 million increase in domestic HIV-related funding in two areas – $10 million included for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program for care and treatment and $10 million for the Indian Health Service’s efforts to combat HIV and hepatitis C.
“There were pretty dramatic cuts proposed in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget,” said Lance Toma, a gay man who is the chief executive officer of the San Francisco Community Health Center. “All of this can have a devastating impact to all communities across the country, and definitely for San Francisco’s efforts around doing all we can to end our HIV epidemic here in our city.”
As the B.A.R. previously reported, San Francisco has made significant progress toward lowering HIV rates, with 133 cases reported for 2023. The city’s Getting to Zero initiative aims to reduce new HIV transmissions and HIV deaths by 90% by 2025, in addition to reducing stigma.
“All of these [federal] monies –hundreds of millions of dollars – has enabled all of us across the country to really understand where the epidemic is and where we needed to put more focus and resources,” Toma said, adding he is worried “we’re just undoing all of what we have built over the last few years.”
Toma said that moves that would be detrimental to health care access in general could hamper progress.
“We really are seeing positive impacts toward ending the epidemic here in San Francisco, so changes to the way we are looking at health care access –any changes to Medicaid in our state and across the country – is of concern. A lot of how we provide HIV care is through specific HIV funding sources we are talking about,” said Toma. House GOP proposed cutting all funding to Trump initiative
Further, House Republicans had threatened to cut all funding toward the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative – in spite of the fact it was launched under former President Donald Trump’s first term.
The then-president – now presi-
<< Engardio recall
From page 1
The highway is currently only open to vehicles on weekdays; a prior compromise led to the current status quo whereby it’s closed to cars on weekends and open to them on weekdays.
The recall petition will have four months to garner 9,911 valid signatures; if the requisite number of signatures are gathered, there’ll be a special election in District 4 about whether to recall Engardio. If he is recalled, Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie – who will be inaugurated next month – would pick a replacement. (Lurie was not listed on the website backing Prop K among the candidates who ran this year for local office and had endorsed the measure.)
The recall website states that Engardio leaves behind him a trail of “broken promises.”
He “has focused on catering to a small group while ignoring the voices of the
<< Walker
From page 11
dent-elect – touted it in his 2020 State of the Union address, stating, “We will eradicate the AIDS epidemic in America by the end of the decade.”
The initiative seeks to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the U.S. by 90% by 2030 for an estimated 250,000 total HIV infections averted –and it seems to be working, with new HIV diagnoses down nationwide 12% in the last five years, according to federal data, including 16% in the South and 30% among young people.
The initiative has four key components: diagnose all people with HIV as early as possible, treat all people with HIV rapidly and effectively, prevent HIV with PrEP in at-risk populations, and respond quickly to potential outbreaks. PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, refers to the use of antiviral drugs to prevent people exposed to HIV from becoming infected.
The pill Truvada was first approved for PrEP use in 2012 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; since then the FDA has also approved the pill Descovy for some groups, and the drug Apretude as an injectable treatment.
Carl Schmid, a gay man who is the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, hopes the federal initiative to end HIV transmissions will be spared.
“It will take the collective action by the HIV community, state, local, and federal governments, businesses, and others to end HIV,” he stated. “Now is not the time to retreat. On the contrary, we must sustain and accelerate the progress made under both the Trump and Biden administrations.”
Schmid stated that “because of years of research and scientific advancements, we now have the tools to prevent and treat HIV and keep people living healthy and long lives.”
He reminded Republicans that, “President Trump initiated the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative in his first term, which was sustained by President Biden and his administration.
“Now we look forward to that same
people who elected him,” the website continued. “He’s pushed divisive policies like permanently closing the Great Highway – without meaningful community input – creating traffic chaos and increasing stress for families and commuters. Joel has continuously struggled to address the key issues facing our community, leaving many residents feeling unsupported and unheard.”
The website accuses Engardio of “a pattern of neglect and poor decisionmaking.”
“Joel’s unwillingness to collaborate with the community or prioritize solutions that work for all of us has left District 4 – and all of San Francisco – feeling frustrated and abandoned,” it continues. “We’re not just fighting for our district; we’re fighting for every neighborhood in this city. Elected officials must represent everyone – not just a select few. Joel’s failure to lead is a warning to every politician: mess with the voters, and find out.”
went before the full board, Walker was appointed to a four-year term in a 7-3 vote (Safaí did not vote; Walton was joined by outgoing progressive Supervisors Dean Preston and Hillary Ronen in no votes).
Preston and Ronen didn’t immediately return requests for comment December 3. The B.A.R. reported on art Walker made to benefit the San Francisco Democratic Party before Election Day. She drew art of Democratic presi-
commitment from President Trump as he and his new administration seek to make our country healthier, bolster prevention, and address chronic diseases,” Schmid continued.
PrEP coverage for HIV-negative people may be under threat, too. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided in June that a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision granting a Health and Human Services task force the authority to require private insurers don’t impose out-ofpocket costs for preventative care is unconstitutional, though the ruling only applies to the plaintiffs in the case.
In Braidwood Management v. Xavier Becerra, the plaintiffs argue that covering PrEP makes them “complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior, drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.”
The decision is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Schmid’s HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute joined an amicus brief submitted to the appellate court.
“A wholesale invalidation of the coverage requirement for USPSTF’s recommendations would strike a critical, unnecessary, and costly blow to the battle to end HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases,” the brief
Engardio’s defense
On his own website, Engardio wrote a lengthy defense of his record.
“Voters have a right to recall their elected leaders. I respectfully ask voters to consider the entirety of my work representing them, and not just this one issue,” Engardio wrote.
“As supervisor, I’ve successfully championed more police protection in the Sunset, fought to bring algebra back to middle schools, reduced permitting red tape for our small businesses, and passed housing legislation designed for middle income families and seniors. I also secured funding for Sunset Boulevard greenway improvements, delivered relief funds to Taraval merchants impacted by street reconstruction, and created night markets with community partners.”
That Sunset Boulevard piece is important – one common refrain against Prop K was potential traffic impacts,
dential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris that was being sold for $20 a pop.
Walker stated that she was inspired because she and Harris have a longlasting professional relationship. Before becoming California’s junior U.S. Senator and the state’s attorney gener-
states, referring to the U.S. Preventative Services Taskforce. “Removing access to evidence-based preventive measures will have a devastating impact, not only on those living with HIV and hepatitis, but also for those at risk for acquiring HIV and hepatitis and the population at-large.”
Proposed House Republican cuts, which passed the House Appropriations Committee on a 31-25 vote July 10 but did not become law, would have also cut nationally $214 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV prevention programs, $190 million from Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and $15 million from the Health and Human Services secretary’s Minority HIV/AIDS Fund.
Project 2025
Hopkins, of SFAF, is worried about the policy implications of Project 2025, an initiative of the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups to consolidate power in the executive branch of the federal government. It was written with an eye toward Trump returning to the White House.
The project seeks to impart government policy with conservative Christian viewpoints and reclassify civil service workers as political appointees loyal to the president. Federal agencies like the FBI and the Justice Department would no longer be independent under the plan. Critics charge the proposal is autocratic and its implementation would undermine the separation of powers and the separation of church and state.
Project 2025 was disavowed by Trump during the election campaign, though he has been close with many people who’ve worked on it. Since the campaign, some of his appointments to his upcoming administration are those who were involved with the project. Russ Vought, an architect of Project 2025, is expected to return as director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to Axios.
“Project 2025 has essentially laid out a map of the places and kinds of populations that are going to be targeted for retribution, and we are those populations,” Hopkins said. “We are ground zero – San Francisco, and the AIDS foundation, and the people who we serve.”
Project 2025 has several references to federal HIV and AIDS programs.
It proposes withdrawing Ryan White guidance that “provide controversial ‘gender transition’ procedures or ‘gender-affirming care,’ which cause irreversible physical and mental harm to those who receive them” and that exceptions allowing HIV-positive people to serve in the military should
as the thousands of cars that used the highway would be rerouted onto city streets.
“My recall is being sought because I supported putting Prop K to a democratic vote of the people. It’s important to note that a recall will not change the outcome or implementation of Prop K,” he stated. “While residents may disagree with me on this one issue, my door is always open to you on any topic. I’ve been a responsive supervisor on a myriad of issues that District 4 residents care about.”
Engardio said he’d supported the 2022 recalls, which overperformed in his district – but that this situation was different.
“I felt they were failing to do the job they were elected to do,” he said of the ousted school board members and former district attorney Chesa Boudin. “These failures were fundamental to the job description. When Governor [Gavin] Newsom was chal-
al, Harris served as a prosecutor in San Francisco and was elected in 2003 as the city’s first female district attorney.
“I have known VP Harris for several decades now and feel so inspired by the possibility that she will be our first woman president,” she stated at the time. “I was honored to do this
be removed.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, a federal judge in August struck down the final categorical disqualification preventing people with HIV from joining the military.
“Project 2025 targets many populations we work with on a regular and immediate basis like injection drug users and the LGBT community,” Hopkins said. “San Francisco AIDS Foundation, as a key health care provider, will be concerned as we move forward about any policy or legislative actions that undermine our ability to access federal funds or cuts that undermine the social or health care safety net many of our clients rely on.”
Hopkins said the AIDS foundation is keeping a particular watch on HOPWA, or Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS. HIV service providers have long pointed out that people living with HIV or AIDS who are not housed have a difficult time maintaining their health care and keeping their viral loads under control.
“That’s a very important program, a little over $500 million in the federal budget,” Hopkins said. “If it were eliminated, it would cause an already critical housing crisis to become even more critical.”
SF in precarious position
Unfortunately, Hopkins noted that considering San Francisco’s budget woes, backfilling funds might not be an easy fix. The B.A.R. reported earlier this year that as the city faced a $789 million shortfall over two years, it took weeks before Mayor London Breed would commit to backfilling roughly $200,000 in cuts to one source of its federal HIV/AIDS funding.
“With budgets across the board tied up at the state and local level, this is not the kind of environment they can anticipate state and local budgets to backfill federal cuts,” Hopkins said.
Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie told the B.A.R. at the time that “every San Francisco mayor has backfilled Republican-driven cuts to federal HIV funding, and we cannot stop now,” but added the proviso that he couldn’t commit to supporting backfills in perpetuity if, for example, Republicans in Congress were able to push through cuts to HIV funds in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The amount in question at that time was only in the hundreds of thousands.
“That’s a small sum for important services when the City Hall insiders I’m running against continue to throw money at wasteful, unaccountable programs that fail to deliver results,” Lurie had stated.t
lenged with a recall in 2021, I opposed that effort. Although not every voter agreed with his policies or actions, he was doing the job voters elected him to do.”
Engardio concluded that he is working with city departments to improve traffic in his district before the Great Highway closes in the first quarter of 2025: specifically “a new traffic signal coming online at Sloat [Boulevard] and Skyline to replace a 3-way stop sign,” he stated.
Engardio told voters he and his husband, too, are drivers, “so we experience the same roads and pain points you do.”
“I understand many Sunset residents rely on their cars to get around and there is a sense that City Hall is making it more difficult to be a car owner,” he stated. “If there are intersections or streets you are concerned about, please let me know and I will work to address those concerns.” t
portrait of her standing with an illuminated Statue of Liberty. This piece is entitled ‘It’s Time’ because – it is. And as VP Harris has said – she will be the first but not the last.”
As it happens, Harris was defeated in the presidential race by former President Donald Trump.t
Lance Toma, seen here speaking at a 2018 meeting, is CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center.
Jane Philomen Cleland
Carl Schmid is executive director of the HIV+Hep Policy Institute.
Courtesy the institute
by David-Elijah Nahmod
On December 10, renaissance woman
Sandra Bernhard will perform at the Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley. With her “Easy Listening Tour,” Bernhard invites her audience to join her on a trip back in time with her younger self as she takes you on a journey with her musical influences, influences which read like a who’s who of 1960s popular music. The Supremes, Peter Paul and Mary, The Rolling Stones, and her first concert, Simon and Garfunkel.
As the 1960s gave way to the ’70s, Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell, Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, and musicians inspired Bernhard in her youth.
Bernhard has had a long and varied career. She has done it all; stand-up, singing, movies, television, and she has excelled at everything. Often playing in sold-out houses whenever she performs live, Bernhard has become a living legend.
In a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Bernhard chatted about her new show and other topics.
David-Elijah Nahmod: Your new show sounds very much like a musical autobiography of your childhood.
Sandra Bernhard: It really isn’t, to be honest with you. I do these kinds of funny descriptions when I do Joe’s Pub in New York that are sort of just whimsical and sort of like a little bit of a road map of things. There’s always stuff about my life. It is autobiographical to a certain extent, but musically it really isn’t that. It’s very eclectic and
Sandra Bernhard’s Easy Listening Tour
by Brian Bromberger
Gay Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, best known for his gay coming-of-age romance, “Call Me by Your Name,” has hit his groove. His sexy tennis love triangle film “Challengers” was a box office and critical smash this spring. And now his period phantasmagorical kaleidoscopic rumination on gay obsessive
desire, A24’s “Queer,” based on Beat-era author William Burroughs’ 1985 novella (actually written between 1951 and 1953), has just been released.
Guadagnino is one of the most innovative and gutsy directors working today. “Call Me’s” first love sweetness in a semi-traditional romance has been replaced with “Queer’s” desperate purposelessness, chasing after fleeting connections. Only the pain of unrequited love links these two wildly dissimilar movies.
Pick-up tricks
Dissipated William Lee (Daniel Craig), fleeing a drug arrest in the U.S., makes a home in seamy Mexico City in the early 1950s. Coming from a wealthy family, he tries to write but spends most of his time barhopping to pick up younger men for sex. He’s surrounded by other prowling gay men, including drinking confidante Frank (a terrific Jason Schwartzman), a stand-in parody for Allen Ginsberg. His sexual conquests wind up robbing him in what is the film’s running joke.
Lee is an alcoholic, chain-smoking, heroin drug addict, hanging out at a gay bar, Ship Ahoy. He goes from soiled white linen suit, fedorawearing faded bon vivant to sleazy pick-up operator, drifting aimlessly between one-night stands (one of whom is gay singer/song-writer Omar Apollo in a full-frontal nude cameo). He believes being queer is a guilt-ridden compulsive curse. Lee meets the much younger, golden-haired, recently discharged Navy man – now u employed – Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey) who wears owlish glasses, with whom Lee’s instantly smitten. Lee isn’t sure if Gene is gay, as he spends most of his time with fiery red-haired Joan, with whom he plays chess.
Lee continually attempts to seduce Gene almost in a predatory fashion. They land in bed and have explicit graphic sex (probably to answer critics that Guadagnino was too prudish in the bedroom scenes for “Call Me”).
Gene remains aloof despite Lee’s total infatuation and can’t get enough of him. Lee convinces Gene to accompany him for an all-expenses-paid trip (plus a promise to have sex with him twice a week) into the Ecuadoran rainforest to track down a psychedelic drug called yage (short for ayahuasca). Yage supposedly makes its users telepathic and was being sought by Russia for mind control purposes. But Lee really wants to learn what Gene’s feelings are for him. Is he using him for sex favors or money? Is he really indifferent or just wanting to maintain his independence?
Quasi-unhinged
They encounter the quasi-unhinged but perceptive American gun-toting scientist Dr. Cotter (an unrecognizable Lesley Manville) in a jungle hideout guarded by a huge yellow viper snake. She warns him the drug is “a mirror and when you look in it, you might not like what you see.” Lee then enters into the heart of darkness as he levitates out of his body and unites with Gene’s nude body.
The second half seems completely different film from its first counterpart, due to its fantastic tone. Is it a mind-altering trip, a drug high or withdrawal, a travel adventure wrapped around an identity crisis, a psychedelic fantasy gone awry, or a dream metamorphosizing into a nightmare with its hallucinatory audiovisual overload?
The film isn’t really about drugs or hookups,
Comic legend promises a musical journey
Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in ‘Queer’
Daniel Craig stars in a mystifying sex and drug fantasia
No tip for ‘Waitress’ San Francisco
by Jim Gladstone
“Sugar. Butter. Flour.”
This three-word refrain rings throughout “Waitress,” the musical now being served up as holiday fare at the San Francisco Playhouse.
It’s not sung sweetly, but with an odd atonality, reminiscent of eccentric 1980s neo-folk act The Roches. While most of the tunes are more mellifluous than this, the show as a whole lands with a similar weirdness.
“Waitress”’s mix of musical comedy Americana and edgy contemporary elements aims for bittersweet harmony but results in difficultto-digest incoherence.
Unsavory stuff
Protagonist Jenna (Ruby Day) is a server and pie baker at a small-town diner in some cockamamie generic American South where everyone is stuck, unhappy, and would rather be elsewhere. Despite this problematically broad-brush setting, Jenna has little trouble winning audience empathy early on.
Playhouse can’t save musical’s script
abuse because this is a cute musical.
feminist comedy of television’s “Alice.” But the show’s troubling storylines might resonate more with the shadow-cloaked diners of Edward Hopper paintings.
Among the supporting cast, Tanika Baptiste and Sharon Shao, as waitresses Becky and Dawn (the Flo and Vera to Day’s Alice); and Dorian Lockett, as diner manager Cal, turn in notably strong performances.
Director Susi Damilano and choreographer Nicole Helfer introduce some occasional blocking and movement that nicely underscore Jenna’s fugue-like emotional isolation from the world around her.
But solid acting and stagecraft can’t compensate for “Waitress”’s fundamental tonal unclarity: It’s a show adrift between sit-com and psychodrama.
Strangely, a major subplot of the “Waitress” movie, in which Jenna wins a pie-baking competition, gaining a much-needed shot of self-confidence and personal agency, is largely dropped in the musical.
Melodramatic, yes. But there’s no question that we’re rooting for the good ol’ gal in peril.
And Bareilles’ swirls of pleasant if unmemorable country-tinged melody provide a comfy aural blanket; we needn’t feel horrified by the domestic
She’s an apple-cheeked downhome culinary talent who uses baking as a form of self-care, and the resulting baked goods as a way of caring for others. She’s also pregnant (Requisite “bun-in-the-oven” joke: Check!) with the child of her violent husband, Earl (Ben Euphrat), who threatens that she “better not love that baby more than me.”
‘Holiday Pop Rox!’
by Philip Campbell
Conductor-less San Franciscobased orchestra One Found Sound celebrates the start of its twelfth season of democratic music making with a one-night-only cabaret at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society December
11. The festive “Holiday Pop Rox!” show features drag sing-alongs, a merry mixture of “A Christmas Carol” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and, some classically arranged seasonal favorites.
Oboist and magnetic vocalist Jesse Barrett performs and emcees with co-
Awkward.
It becomes a mite more difficult to be full-bore Team Jenna when she plunges with fairy tale velocity into a torrid affair with Dr. Pomatter (Zeke Edmonds), her new obstetriciangynecologist. Home bakers will sure-
ly wonder why not even the smallest pinch of common sense or dash of medical ethics are added here.
Flawed recipe
At the San Francisco Playhouse, the pastel set (Jacquelyn Scott), lighting (Michael Palumbo), and costumes (Kathleen Qiu) evoke the feisty
Instead, we’re asked to swallow an underbaked conclusion in which the challenges of single motherhood are implausibly frosted with a deus ex machina pile of money.t
‘Waitress’ through Jan 18. $35$135. San Francisco Playhouse. 450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org
Drag sing-alongs & more at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society
host Jamael Smith (a multi-talented performer and educator). Holiday hits from Mariah Carey, Gloria Gaynor, John Williams, Handel and more get the lush OFS orchestral treatment. Hold on to your hat (or wig), as “Queen of the Fleet” drag diva Nikki Jizz (or Nikki J to the faint of heart)
snatches the spotlight to entertain in her own inimitable style.
OFS acquired its own intriguing name as the embodiment of the players’ mission, according to co-founder Sarah Bonomo. The musician-run orchestra makes artistic decisions together. Making reference to the concept of ‘Found Art,’ Bonomo said, “We come together as one to create a unified and powerful sound.” In finding commonality that connects directly with audiences, she added, “We create One Found Sound.”
The orchestra’s classical concerts are decidedly unconventional, performed in offbeat spaces that invite intimate communication with listeners. No stages, no conductor and no need for binoculars make the experience more up close and personal. For fans, supporting a democratically-governed arts organization feels good as we watch less egalitarian institutions weaken all around us.
Hooking up with Saint Joseph’s Arts Society for “Holiday Pop Rox!” is smart, too. The Society, founded by designer Ken Fulk in 2018,
celebrates arts, design, and culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The SoMa arts hub houses the for-profit Saint Joseph’s Arts Society and the not-for-profit Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation in a former church and National Historic Landmark located at 1401 Howard Street, another unorthodox, but perfectly fitting venue for One Found Sound.
“Holiday Pop Rox!” offers a variety of seating and standing options. General Admission $30, standing room (free for Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation members) and VIP frontrow, cabaret-style reserved seating (limited availability) $60. Attendees are encouraged to bring canned goods that will be donated to the San Francisco/Marin Food Bank.
A non-denominational, free-spirited holiday spectacular sounds like a pretty good way to close out a stressful year. Maybe it’s time to find One Found Sound.t
‘Holiday Pop Rox!,’ $30-$60, Dec. 11, 8pm, St. Joseph’s Arts Society, 1401 Howard St. www.onefoundsound.org
Ruby Day with cast members in ‘Waitress’
Jessica Palopoli
Nikki Jizz performing at a recent Holiday Pop Rox! concert
Regifting
by Gregg Shapiro
People who dig 1980s music are often divided into two groups: those that lived through the period and are feeling nostalgic, and those who missed it the first time around and want to experience it for themselves. It’s more than likely that someone on your holiday gift list falls into one of these two categories.
The trend of artists revisiting early works continues with “Key” (Modest!/ Cooking Vinyl), the 10th solo record by Alison Moyet. Originally known as the voice of legendary 1980s synthpop act Yaz (along with Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode and Erasure fame), Moyet maintained a successful solo career, releasing nine solo albums. In addition to two new tracks (“Such Small Ale” and “The Impervious Me”), Moyet’s new renditions of “All Signs of Life,” “Is This Love,” “My Best Day” (originally a collaboration with Lightning Seeds), and “Love Resurrection” are fabulous, and if these new versions lead folks back to the originals, all the better. www.alisonmoyetmusic.com
The Brits got a head start when it came to the New Wave genre. With bands such as Human League, Heaven 17, Depeche Mode, A Flock of Seagulls, Ultravox, The The, Soft Cell, and Eurythmics, among others, they set the standard for the rest of the world.
Beginning with their third album, 1983’s “Quick Step & Side Kick,” the trio known as Thompson Twins (none of whom were named Thompson nor were twins) became a force in the scene. However, it was the group’s 1984 follow-up “Into the Gap” (BMG), newly reissued in various formats including a red vinyl LP and multiple CD box set to commemorate the album’s 40th anniversary, that brought them to the forefront, propelled by the hit singles “Hold Me Now,” “Doctor! Doctor!,” and “You Take Me Up.” www.thompsontwinstombailey.co.uk
Chances are that most queer people have danced to a New Order song at
New reissues from Alison Moyet, Thompson Twins, Elvis Costello & more
some point at a nightclub, at a party, or in the privacy of their own home. Rising from the ashes of Joy Division following great tragedy, New Order expanded JD’s interest in electronic dance music (see “Love Will Tear Us Apart”) to become one of the most significant bands in the genre.
In fact, New Order’s Bernard Sumner would later create Electronic, a side-project with Johnny Marr of The Smiths, and collaborate with Pet Shop Boys on a few tracks. Not bad for straight people, right?
In 1986, New Order released its fourth album, “Brotherhood” (Warner Music), newly reissued in a breathtaking box set that includes the remastered CD (with “Bizarre Love Triangle” and bonus track “State of the Nation”) and original LP on 180-gram vinyl, a CD of rarities, two DVDs featuring live shows and TV appearances, and a 48-page hardcover book. This is the very definition of a gift. www.neworder.com
In 1982, when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released “Long After Dark” (Geffen/UMe), newly rereleased in an expanded, remastered, deluxe edition featuring seven previously unreleased tracks and more, the band already had four albums under its belt, including 1979’s critically acclaimed chart-topper “Damn the Torpedoes.” “Long After Dark” was another well-received album of the band, bolstered by the hit single “You Got Lucky.” www.tompetty.com
By the 1980s, The Jackson 5 known then as The Jacksons (since leaving Motown for Epic in 1976) had some highs and lows but were experiencing something of a brief resurgence, even with Michael going full steam ahead with his solo career. The fittingly titled “Third Album” (Motown/Elemental), from 1970, newly reissued on 140-gram red vinyl, was an indication of the group’s maturity (check out the cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” with Jermaine on lead vocals), as well as the massive hit single
Going Out
“I’ll Be There” sung by Michael. www.thejacksons.com
When it comes to the phenomenal Kate Bush, there’s one thing upon which almost everyone can agree; her 1985 album “Hounds of Love” is an undisputed masterpiece. The album and its first single “Running Up That Hill,” released nearly 40 years ago, received unexpected and well-deserved attention when it was featured in the fourth season of “Stranger Things.”
Leah Kardos’ “Hounds of Love” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024), the latest (188th!) installment in the acclaimed 33 1/3 series, takes an in-depth look at Bush’s landmark album, including a song-by-song analysis, fascinating connections to the LGBTQ community, and of course the album’s lasting
endurance and traceable impact on countless artists. www.katebush.com
Arriving as it did in 1986 after what many agree were the two weakest albums of Elvis Costello’s first musical decade (“Punch the Clock” and “Goodbye Cruel World”), “King of America,” newly reissued and remastered in multiple formats as “King of America & Other Realms” (UMe), could qualify as the first wave punk legend’s first official comeback record.
The Judy Garland reference in “Jack of All Parades,” is sure to grab the ears of queer listeners on your holiday gift list, while the opening track, “Brilliant Mistake,” from which the album’s title is derived, takes on new meaning following the 2024 election. Also of significance is the inclusion of two cover tunes: “Don’t Let Me Be Mis-
understood” and J.B. Lenoir’s “Eisenhower Blues.” www.elviscostello.com
Not everyone on your holiday gift list may be infatuated with the 1980s. Weezer, one of the great success stories of the 1990s, probably didn’t have much of a queer fan base when the band released its 1994 self-titled debut album. But that possibly changed with the song “Pink Triangle,” about how the symbol created a case of sexual identity confusion.
However, there’s still much to admire about Weezer’s debut, also known as the “Blue Album,” which has been reissued in a handsomely packaged triple-disc deluxe box set (featuring 50 tracks, 36 of which were unreleased), including the smash hit single “Buddy Holly,” and lots of other goodies. www.weezer.comt
John Wesley Shipp, Kate Mulgrew, Danny Trejo,
Steven Underhill
Fall/Winter books
by Jim Piechota
With wetter weather and cooler temperatures comes more opportunities to amuse ourselves indoors. This selection of queer books in a few different genres will tempt your soul into the world of the faded, sunken universe of Lewis DeSimone’s Castro District, the passionate dalliances of Edmund White’s love life, and, well, everything Cher. What’s not to love? Read your way into 2025 with some amazing books.
FICTION
‘Private Rites’ by Julia Armfield
$27.99 (Flatiron Books)
After her eloquently menacing debut story of undersea transformation in 2022’s “Our Wives Under the Sea,” Julia Armfield returns with the immersive, climate-change-apocalypse story of three queer sisters who must make amends and struggle to survive after the death of their father.
Isla, Irene, and Agnes are the estranged daughters of Stephen Carmichael, a curmudgeonly if infamous
architect who constructed habitable structures specifically designed for use underwater. Once sea waters engulfed their city, it is doomed to exist partially underwater, and the sisters must navigate their way to see their father one last time. With nary a sunny sky in sight, Armfield amps up the dread and the planet-in-peril theme to great success and a second novel worth diving into.
‘Exit Wounds’ by Lewis DeSimone
$21.95 (Rebel Satori Press)
Mining the sensitive topics of aging, culture decline, and the tentativeness and precariousness of modern gay life, novelist and former San Franciscan Lewis DeSimone’s latest book chronicles Craig Amundsen, a gay San Francisco man who wrestles with living life in the big city with a cruel demographic that seemed to be skewing younger and younger.
DeSimone taps into the reality of life in the Bay Area with its regal real estate market, tech obsession, everwidening generational disparities, and a self-absorbed atmosphere that
makes his protagonist feel even more isolated amidst a recent break up and a job with a shaky shelf life.
This is a seamless, impressively written love letter to San Francisco and the vibrant, colorful tapestry of communities which make it tick.
‘Entitlement’ by Rumaan Alam
$30 (Riverhead)
Queer author and father Rumaan Alam’s novel “Leave the World Behind,” and its cinematic adaptation, were both immense successes and set the anticipation level for this new novel immediately into motion.
This time the author focuses on wealth, power, deservedness, envy, identity and appropriation in his tale of 30-ish Black New Yorker Brooke Orr who gives up a fulfilling teaching job for the opportunity to be an assistant for an arts foundation. The foundation is established by elder billionaire Asher Jaffee as a way to funnel his estate toward the greater good of the art world. While a slow-burn type of novel, it’s addictive and watching Brooke turn from do-gooder teacher into an entitled sneak will have the pages turning. Grab this one!
‘Please Come to Boston’ by Gary Goldstein
$17.99 (Hadleigh House)
Television, film, and theater writer Gary Goldstein’s new novel, his third, is a beautiful study in character development as it traces the lives and identities of two Boston University students Nicky and Joe who fall in love. The plot expands outward to include Lori, who ultimately falls for both Nicky and Joe, who, in turn, love her right back in the best polyamorous way possible things can flow in the 1970s.
While this bisexual intercourse is uplifting and provocative for its time, Goldstein acknowledges that setting is key as well. Modern technology, as we know it today, is blissfully absent from the narrative.
Shot through with themes of selfexploration, sexuality, and the search for authenticity, Goldstein excels at tapping into the anxieties of gay life in the mid-1970s, the longing for acceptance, and the electric, if taboo, first stirrings of same-sex attraction. Goldstein has produced a well-written, character driven, beautiful take on college life and the gloriously interwoven trappings of sexual attraction and relationships. Don’t miss it!
MEMOIR
‘The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir’ by Edmund White
$27.99 (Bloomsbury)
Now in his 80s, Edmund White’s decorated literary career becomes even more provocative and irreverent with this new memoir cataloging decades of formative erotic encounters across the span of an exuberant lifetime. His partners range from Cincinnati “hillbilly” hustlers enjoyed as a
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but how people deal with loneliness at a time when gay men were stigmatized, their sex deemed illegal. Lee isn’t afraid to be exactly who he is, but he’s very depressed about it. Where does infatuation end and exploitation begin?
The movie is grim as it details someone who’s in deep emotional pain and unafraid to ex-press raw feelings. Lee tries in vain to secure something he knows he can never fully possess, resulting in a broken heart. Love may be a much harder addiction to kick than heroin.
Suave to sweaty
Craig delivers a no-holds-barred mesmerizing performance of a life-
teenager in the 1950s all the way to a summer spent with Pedro, a smolderingly sexy Spanish Ecuadorian man White met online.
Blunt, raunchy, explicit, nostalgic, and unapologetically sex-forward, this memoir will excite, enchant, delight, and, perhaps most of all, make the reader truly appreciate everything that is Edmund White.
‘Cher: The Memoir, Part One’ by Cher
$31 (Dey Street/HarperCollins)
The first half of the iconic diva’s life lavishly fills nearly 500 pages of this revealing and intimate celebrity memoir. In conversational prose decorated with the defiant attitude, the brazen honesty and resiliency that can only come from Cher, the book moves through her early years living with a
time. He seems to be a shoo-in for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. The straight ‘James Bond’ actor has played gay men several times before, notably as painter Francis Bacon’s criminal lover in “Love Is the Devil” and as the bisexual sleuth in the “Knives Out” franchise. But here he switches believably from suave to sweaty wreck or funny to terrifying on a dime, revealing a deep sadness and inner paralysis at the core of Lee.
Craig’s Lee is charismatic, magnetic, and a scene-chewer extraordinaire, which unfortunately tends to overshadow Starkey’s Gene. Starkey is fine and gorgeous in the way of 1970s Calvin Klein models, but not much else is revealed about this enigmatic character.
Manville is incredible in a flabbergasting chameleon transforma-
cash-strapped family, her rise to fame on the musical circuit, and the dive into feature films.
This inaugural volume, however, stops just short of her Oscar win for “Moonstruck” in 1988. Easily the best parts of the book involve people other than the star. Among them are Cher’s mother, Georgia Holt, a woman who married six times (twice to Cher’s father), her adoration for Val Kilmer, relationships with David Geffen, Gregg Allman, Kiss bassist and colead singer Gene Simmons, and of course, Sonny Bono, with whom the singer began what would become a loving but contentious and enduring relationship at the tender age of 16.
This is only the first part; the memoir’s second volume is still forthcoming. Cher fans, get yourself to a local bookstore. This one’s unforgettable.t
tion, a likely Best Supporting Actress nominee, for her backwoods dwelling “Beverly Hillbillies” Granny-type researcher, both wise and bat shit crazy. While “Queer” won’t appeal to every taste, disappointing or frustrating some viewers, it has all the makings of a cult classic. One can only applaud Guadagnino’s daring risk-taking and uncompromising resolve to uphold Burrough’s disturbing vision. “Queer” is audacious, odd, meandering, prickly, overlong, and heartbreaking, shaking LGTBQ audiences to their core, reminding us of our need for intimacy, that we’re not, we mustn’t be, alone.t
‘Queer’ opens Dec. 5 at AMC Kabuki 8 and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema New Mission. www.a24films.com
Melanie Senn’s ‘Murray’
by Michele Karlsberg
When I first spoke with Melanie Senn about her historical novel, “Murray,” it sparked an interest in a nano-second. Who doesn’t love a story about a gender-bending historical figure.
Melanie shares the story of Murray Hall, who was a New York City bail bondsman and Tammany Hall politician who became famous on his death in 1901 when it was revealed that he was a biological female.
Senn’s novel is based on this true story where only a few historical records exist. It explores themes of identity, survival, love, and the complexities of navigating a society, and relationships, where honesty comes at a high price.
To give life and a backstory to a fascinating man, who lived in such a restrictive yet exciting age, and in the most important city in the US, if not the world; that’s where this author has proved her mettle. We discussed her journey in telling this story.
Michelle Karlsberg: How did you first learn about Murray Hall?
Melanie Senn: In the early 2000s, while working toward a master’s degree in English at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, I was assigned to read Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” from
Author Melanie Senn
“Leaves of Grass.” It’s a long poem, and I didn’t want to skim it, so I sat in my back yard and read it aloud. It took about three hours. I was astounded at the scope of the poem, the boldness, the capaciousness. I felt myself expanding as I read it.
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
With those first lines, Whitman asserts the inter-connectedness of all beings. Soon, I discovered an uncanny connection with Whitman: He died
to do it again. I don’t understand it. I just can’t at this point, I don’t know what else to say.
the pieces are addressing a million different topics all woven in with different music. It’s not all that I talk about, it’s a jumping off point.
What are some of the topics that you’ll be broaching?
I usually don’t talk about that. I like to keep it sort of fresh and a surprise. People who are familiar with my work know that I will jump in and address all kinds of unexpected things. I’d rather leave it that way because everything weaves together and if you start describing one thing you kind of leave people in the lurch. And right now, politically, things are not what we thought. I’m sure there will be a little bit of addressing that without beating people over the head with it.
How are you doing, considering how the election went?
It kind of confirms my suspicions of a huge swath of the American public, which is they’re racist, misogynist, and don’t want what’s best for them. They’ll shoot themselves in the foot. When somebody comes along and says they’re going to try and do things for their benefit, they’d rather go with someone who was already here, basically subterfuging them, but they want
I’m right with you. So what are some of the songs you’ll be doing in this show?
Oh no, honey, no no. If I don’t talk about my material, then I really don’t talk about my songs. You come, you sit down, and be ready for the rollercoaster ride that are Sandy Bernhard shows. That’s the best description. Because if you give stuff away people are like, no no. I like when people come and they’re totally surprised.
Are you still doing Sandyland on Sirius XM Radio?
Yes, once a week on Thursdays at 11am. It’s a great outlet for whatever I’m thinking or feeling and it’s a great incubator for a lot of new material. If I start going on a tangent I can transcribe it and put it in one of my live shows. Also, we take phone calls, which is really cool, because during this whole political season I’ve had wonderful, interesting conversations with people that led me to believe that we were ready for a big change and evolution. Everyone’s really disappointed with the outcome.
You’ve always been very supportive of the LGBT community. Can you say something about that?
Yeah, that’s a given. Not much to say about that other than here we are. As someone who’s a woman, someone who’s gay, someone who cares about my Black brothers and sisters, these are all people who I’m there for and support and will continue to support.
Is there anything you can say about your upcoming show?
Well, I don’t want to break it down specifically. I think people who come to my shows know that they’re going to have a complete evening of entertainment. It’s not a little standup show. I have my band with me, the music is top-notch, the stories are fun and take you on a journey.
That’s what my shows do. It’s like a journey with me. So come along for the ride and see a whole new side of me, and culture, and a reflection of who you are when you’re sitting in my audience. Those are the salient points that I want people to know directly from me. But when it comes to talking about the material, then it’s just redundant. I can’t tell you about a piece without performing a piece.t
Sandra Bernhard’s ‘Easy Listening Tour,’ Dec. 10, 8pm, Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave. Mill Valley. $86. Also Dec. 13 & 14 at Oscar’s Palm Springs. www.sweetwatermusichall.org www.sandrabernhard.com
Voted – Senator Martin Astonished.”
I spent the next 15 years learning everything I could about Murray Hall, who had been born Mary Anderson in Scotland in 1840.
Why do you find Murray’s story so important?
When I first started the novel in the early 2000s, I simply set out to write a novel about an audacious person who captured my imagination. Yet the culture regarding LGBTQ individuals and same sex marriage was literally changing as I was writing the book. Murray’s story, despite having played out well over a century ago, uncannily intersects with the social issues of today.
I have always been drawn to individuals who risk everything to manifest their truest selves.
where I was born, Camden, New Jersey. It was until after I’d written “Murray: A Novel” that I visited Whitman’s grave at Harleigh Cemetery. The graves of some of my family members are near his.
I was tantalized by Whitman’s sensuality, by his self-love and love of women and men. While writing a long essay about the homoerotic nature in some of his poems, I came across “Gay American History” by Johnathan Ned Katz, and as I was reading about Whitman, I stumbled on a page with a headline from The New York Times in 1901: “Murray Hall Fooled Many Shrewd Men: How for Years She Masqueraded in Male Attire. HAD MARRIED TWO WOMEN. Was a Prominent Tammany Politician and Always
Murray Hall risked everything to live as a visible man. He played poker, drank whiskey, and smoked cigars in crowded male-only bars, worked as a politician, “married” twice, adopted his second wife’s daughter. Murray could be violent, especially when his identity, which his livelihood depended upon, was threatened, and yet he was also tender and loving.
In the beginning of the novel, we learn that Murray has untreated breast cancer and that his prognosis is grim. His greatest conflict is that his adopted daughter, who does not know Murray’s secret, will feel deceived when she learned he had not been born a man. But what if he tells her the truth and she rejects him? t
