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Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 47 • No. 51 • December 21-27, 2017
Gay publisher buys B.A.R. by Cynthia Laird
T
he Bay Area Reporter has been sold to a gay man who has helmed the legacy LGBTQ publication in various capacities for more than 20 years. Michael Yamashita, who has been the Cynthia Laird publisher of the B.A.R. Michael Yamashita since 2013 and was the paper’s longtime general manager, has purchased the paper after acquiring shares from two former investors. The deal was announced Monday, December 18, in an all-hands staff meeting. Yamashita, 51, becomes the first gay AsianAmerican publisher and owner of an LGBTQ newspaper. The move also means that the B.A.R. remains an LGBT-owned and -operated local small business. Yamashita will take over BAR Media Inc., which was formed four years ago in a restructuring of the paper’s ownership. At the time, the Bob Ross Foundation had a 20 percent stake, See page 14 >>
CDC denies ban on words by Lisa Keen
T
he director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is denying that there is any ban on words at the CDC. The denial came just two days after widespread media attention erupted around an article in the Washington Post, saying the CDC was instructing its budget officials not to use words like “transgender” and “diversity” in its upcoming budget proposals. The Post report Friday quoted a CDC budget analyst as saying that a senior official at the CDC’s Office of Financial Services informed a meeting of CDC budget officials Thursday, December 14, that the Trump administration was banning the use of seven words from official budget documents. In addition to “transgender” and “diversity,” words reportedly banned were “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based.” The Post did not identify its source but said, “Other CDC officials confirmed the existence of a list of forbidden words.” A CBS News report three days later said budget analysts indicated the word ban was intended as a way of attracting greater congressional support for funding. And the New See page 14 >>
Rick Gerharter
Mayor Ed Lee’s daughters, Tania, left, and Brianna, remember their father during his celebration of life Sunday.
SF says goodbye to Mayor Lee by Matthew S. Bajko
A holiday Cheer for kids
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eeAnn Dundon, left, and fellow Cheer San Francisco members Shelton Jorden, Adriano de la Cruz, and Jannine Crow unpack boxes of toys courtesy of Sparky’s Balloons and donated them to the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program Saturday, December 16. Other Cheer SF members who helped
Rick Gerharter
with the donation were Sara Toogood, Leah Guillermo, and Jacob Dillon. Cheer SF is the official cheer team of the city and county of San Francisco, and the performing unit of the Cheer for Life Foundation, which raises funds for LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS, and other nonprofits. For more information, visit www.cheersf.org.
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grieving city paid its respects to Ed Lee, San Francisco’s 43rd mayor and first Chinese-American occupant of Room 200 at City Hall, at a packed memorial service Sunday under the rotunda of what Lee referred to as “the people’s palace.” Lee died suddenly last Tuesday at the age of 65 after suffering a heart attack while shopping for apple juice at his neighborhood Safeway store. Thousands of people paid their respects See page 14 >>
Fighting cancer, Concord LGBT center ED announces retirement by Matthew S. Bajko
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n 2010 Ben-David Barr, Ph.D., the executive director of the Rainbow Community Center in Concord, started getting sick, but his doctors were unable to figure out why he was ill. Five years later he was diagnosed with Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “I have too many white blood cells, so they actually attack my own body,” explained Barr, 57, who lives in Point Richmond. His body has responded well to immunotherapy treatments, allowing Barr to yet begin chemotherapy, which he will eventually need. “I am pushing it out as long as I can,” said Barr, adding that his plan is to “try to do the least invasive treatment as long as possible.” The experience, which until now Barr had kept largely private, only telling family, friends, and close associates, has been similar to what he has seen his friends and others living with HIV cope with as the virus damaged their immune systems. Having worked as a social worker for many years in the medical field, Barr said dealing with his own health issues these last seven years has been a humbling experience. “To go from a person who is a helper to a person who needs help is ... it sucks. I don’t know any other way to say it,” said Barr in a
Jane Philomen Cleland
Rainbow Community Center Executive Director Ben-David Barr, Ph.D. is retiring.
recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. Through it all he continued working, not only overseeing the center that serves LGBT residents of Contra Costa County but also as an adjunct faculty member in the school of social work at Cal State East Bay. But he recently made the decision that it was time for him to step down as executive director of the center to focus more on his health and spend time with his family.
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He and his husband, John Peterson, an engineer, have three adult children and four grandkids in Salt Lake City, where the couple grew up. They will be spending the holidays in Hawaii the next two weeks. “As much as I would like to keep working – I have always been a workaholic – but I just can’t do it anymore,” said Barr, who does plan to continue teaching part-time. “It is time for See page 15 >>
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