December 7, 2023 edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Shepard stamp campaign

Teamsters rebuff Baird

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Vol. 53 • No. 49 • December 7-13, 2023

Low launches South Bay House bid

by Matthew S. Bajko

G Latinos now have highest rate of new SF HIV cases

by Liz Highleyman

T

he 2022 HIV epidemiology report released by the San Francisco Department of Public Health Tuesday showed that for the first time, Latino men had a higher HIV diagnosis rate than Black men. The city is ahead of California and the country when it comes to PrEP use and other indicators of care, but disparities persist, especially for people of color, people who inject drugs and those experiencing homelessness.

Overall, new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco fell in 2022, following an uptick in the wake of the COVID pandemic, according to the latest epidemiology report from the health department.

“We are pleased to see that HIV diagnoses have declined substantially since Getting to Zero was launched in 2013 and that many people are receiving the immediate care they need,” Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax, a gay man, said in a statement.

“However, we will not be satisfied until we get to zero new infections, and more must be done.

Breaking down barriers to provide stigma-free care that reaches the community is key, and working together across San Francisco’s robust HIV care and prevention infrastructure, we will do just that.”

The city’s Getting to Zero program aims to reduce new HIV transmissions and HIV deaths by 90% by 2025, in addition to reducing stigma.

There were 157 new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco in 2022, down slightly from 166 in 2021. The 2021 number exceeded the 147 cases reported in 2020, which could have been due to a resumption of HIV testing following the COVID shutdown. New cases have decreased by 12% since 2019, which is greater than the 2% nationwide reduction but far below the 56% decrease seen in the pre-pandemic years from 2013 to 2019.

“We’ve seen a bit of a slowing in the decline in the number of new diagnoses,” Dr. Susan Buchbinder, director of DPH’s Bridge HIV and cochair of the SF Getting to Zero steering committee, told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview.

“We’re not seeing the same rapid decline that we saw previously, which means we need to redouble our efforts to reach the people we’re not reaching.”

See page 12 >>

Courtesy the campaign

Assemblymember Evan Low has announced his candidacy for Congress.

absolutely has become the party of Trump.

We have the most homophobic speaker of the House in generations. The best counter for that is to send openly LGBTQ people to Congress.”

In a statement released to media outlets under embargo, he said he wants to “usher in a new era of courageous leadership for Silicon Valley” via his House candidacy.

“Throughout my time in public service, I have defended the most vulnerable and built coalitions to deliver solutions to the big challenges of our time,” stated Low. “Now I’m running for Congress at an inflection point for Silicon Valley and the nation. Our region needs a representative that will lead on maintaining our global competitiveness, combat See page 2 >>

Courtesy Vitalant

A person reads an information sheet while donating blood at Vitalant.

Bay Area blood centers encourage gay, bi men to donate

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

wo of the Bay Area’s main blood centers are asking eligible gay and bisexual men to donate during the holiday season when they usually see a dip in donations. Their appeals come after they implemented new rules covering when men who have sex with men can donate blood that took effect earlier this year.

“We welcome all those now eligible to donate to donate,” said Kevin Adler, a spokesperson for Vitalant, which has two blood donation centers in San Francisco.

Added Dr. Suchi Pandey, the chief medical officer for Stanford Blood Center, which has locations in the South and East bays, “Definitely, there is a critical need for blood right now. We encourage people in the LGBTQ-plus

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community to consider donating.”

Under the changes approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, gay and bi men are no longer automatically selected for a separate screening process to see if they can donate blood. Now everyone who goes in to give blood is asked the same set of questions about their recent sexual activity.

See page 8 >>

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Rick Gerharter

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ay Assemblymember Evan Low (DCupertino) is vying to become the Bay Area’s first LGBTQ and first Chinese American elected to Congress. He is doing so with the support of a number of the state’s congressional delegation, including that of Indian American Congressmember Ro Khanna (D-San Jose) and gay Japanese American Congressmember Mark Takano (D-Riverside).

Tuesday morning Low, 41, officially launched his campaign to succeed Congressmember Anna Eshoo (D-Palo Alto). She had announced last month that she wouldn’t seek reelection in 2024 to the South Bay House seat she has held since 1993.

Low’s historic candidacy is sure to attract national attention and support from LGBTQ groups and leaders, as well as those within the Asian American community. Twenty percent of the district’s voters are Asian American, and so far only candidates of Japanese or Indian descent have won election to House seats in the Bay Area.

“I am not naïve about the divisions of Washington,” Low told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview Monday evening.

“Most would recognize the Republican Party

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<< National News

t Campaign launches for Shepard US postage stamp 2 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

campaign is underway in support of seeing a U.S. postage stamp be issued in honor of Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming college student whose death 25 years ago rocked the nation and led to the passage of historic federal legislation. The effort is officially being launched Friday, December 1, to mark what would have been Shepard’s 47th birthday.

Serving as honorary co-chairs of the campaign are gay San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, lesbian former Salt Lake City mayor Jackie Biskupski, and gay LGBTQ rights activist and political fundraiser Terry Bean. Dennis and Judy Shepard, who co-founded a foundation in honor of their son, have also signed on as honorary co-chairs.

“Matt’s murder was a wake up call to folks who were oblivious to hate crimes committed against members of the LGBTQ+ community. It alerted them to hate crimes committed against other marginalized communities,” stated Judy Shepard. “It is important to remember and recognize that hate and violence shouldn’t be tolerated in a civilized society. Matt became the face of fighting hate crimes and working toward solutions. This stamp will be a wonderful way to keep his legacy alive.”

Shepard was brutally attacked on the night of October 6, 1998, tied to a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die. Found by rescuers and taken to a local hospital, he would succumb six days later on October 12 to the severe head injuries he had received.

<<

Low

From page 1

hate and stand up for the vulnerable, protect reproductive freedom, prioritize reducing crime in our communities and ensure that the middle class can once again afford to buy a house and raise a family where they work.”

Low had widely been expected to enter the race for the 16th Congressional District that spans both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

He had acknowledged to the B.A.R. he was interested in running for it and was having conversations with supporters before making “a formal decision.”

Since then Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, 70, a Democrat, launched his own campaign

Courtesy Shepard stamp campaign

A campaign is underway in support of a Matthew Shepard U.S. postal stamp.

His murder attracted intense media coverage and is one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history. It would galvanize activists across the country and led to the passage in 2009 of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Co-named in honor of a Black man who was tied to the back of a truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas in 1998, the act expanded a

1969 federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

On November 30, the Washington National Cathedral held its annual service honoring Shepard’s legacy. His ashes were interred at the Cathedral in 2018, marked with a plaque dedicated in 2019.

“As we witness an unsettling surge

for Eshoo’s seat, while Democrat Rishi Kumar, 56, is running again after losing to Eshoo last year. Former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo, 53, has launched a campaign website for the House seat after pulling papers to run last week. Candidates have until December 13 to enter the race since it is an open seat.

Asked what the deciding factor for him was after talking to supporters and stakeholders, Low told the B.A.R. part of his deliberative process on deciding to seek the House seat was understanding where he could provide the best value, in Congress or remaining in the state Legislature.

“Could I make a difference in Washington, D.C.? Could I be more than just one of the 435 members of Congress? Am I able to be a leading voice for Silicon Valley on day one?” are some of the questions he mulled

over, said Low. “Most importantly am I able to fulfill the continued legacy of Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, where she has served over 30 years in the House and had more than 60 pieces of legislation enacted into law.”

Ultimately, Low determined he could after being encouraged to run by those he spoke with and heard from in recent weeks.

“It is not about me; it is about the community and also bringing the community along,” said Low, who added that it is also time for the Bay Area to send an LGBTQ person to Congress. “This is the most concentrated area of openly LGBTQ individuals. This is our moment; this is our time.”

Endorsements

Endorsing Low in the race is gay former Santa Clara supervisor and

in hate speech and discrimination, Matthew’s legacy calls us to confront bigotry by fostering greater love and acceptance, and urges us to embrace people of all backgrounds,” stated the Very Reverend Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of the cathedral. “The Cathedral is proud to play our part in this important and necessary struggle.”

The International Imperial Court System is behind the Shepard stamp campaign. It is the philanthropic drag organization’s latest push to honor significant LGBTQ individuals with a postal stamp, having successfully petitioned for the stamp honoring the late gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk issued in 2014.

“Matthew Shepard has become an international symbol for acceptance, tolerance, and his legacy is a stand against hate of any kind,” said gay San Diego City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez, chair of the court’s national stamp campaign. “Issuing a commemorative stamp in Matthew Shepard’s honor would not only memorialize his life and legacy but also represent our collective stand against hate in all forms and our unwavering commitment to a more inclusive and compassionate society.”

As the Bay Area Reporter’s Political Notebook column noted in October, the court and other groups reissued their call for the issuance of a stamp honoring deceased gay Black civil rights leader Bayard Rustin ahead of the release of Netflix’s biopic “Rustin” in early November.

The imperial court, founded in San Francisco in 1965, also has been pushing the postal service to issue stamps

honoring three deceased drag performers. They include court founder Jose Julio Sarria, a drag queen whose 1961 bid for a San Francisco supervisor seat marked the first by an out LGBTQ candidate, and transgender New York activists Marsha P. Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera.

As the B.A.R. has previously reported, Gloria and Biskupski had also agreed to serve as honorary chairs of the drag stamp campaign.

In addition to its calls for letters in support of those stamps and the one for Rustin, the court is now asking people to submit letters backing the Shepard stamp to the Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee.

Each year it suggests commemorative stamp ideas to the U.S. postmaster general, who makes the final determination.

Only deceased individuals are eligible to be featured on a stamp, and they can’t be honored in such a manner until three years following their death.

The approval process for new stamps usually takes about three years. , If the committee decides not to recommend a subject for issuance as a stamp, the proposal can be submitted again for reconsideration following a three-year interval, according to its stamp selection process rules. As its website notes, “The Postal Service will honor extraordinary and enduring contributions to American society, history, culture, or environment.”

For more information and to esign a letter to support the Matthew Shepard Stamp Campaign, visit msstampcampaign.org/. t

San Jose city councilmember Ken Yeager, the first LGBTQ person to win elected office in the county and city. He told the B.A.R. Low has a strong chance of winning the seat due to his being younger than the two other major candidates so far in the race and potential to break through the two political glass ceilings.

“I am very excited about Evan’s run. I think he is well positioned to do very well,” said Yeager, who resides in the congressional district.

“I know he will get a lot of support from the LGBTQ community locally and statewide and nationally.

The Chinese American community is a natural constituency as well. It should support him very strongly, financially and electorally.”

Also endorsing Low is Congressmember Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), who lived in the Bay Area

during her teens and then graduated from UCLA in 1974. She began her elected political career in 1985 and became the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress with her victory in a 2009 special election for her Southern California House seat.

Khanna, in the news release from Low’s campaign, noted that “Evan was born and raised here in the Silicon Valley, and he’s dedicated his career to serving the diverse families that call it home. In the Assembly, he’s been at the forefront of bridging the gap between technology, innovation, and public policy, building a greener economy, and fighting for fundamental human rights. I know Evan will make a great partner in Congress.”

Simitian, Liccardo, and Low all have a shot at surviving the March See page 12 >>

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Community News>>

t Lawsuit challenges SF trans pilot income program

December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 3

by John Ferrannini

A

conservative group has launched a legal challenge to a San Francisco program that seeks to provide guaranteed income to some transgender people, as well as programs that help artists, pregnant women, and Blacks.

The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, San Francisco resident Ruth Parker, and former mayoral candidate Ellen Lee Zhou filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court in May against the city, the San Francisco Unified School District, the Regents of the University of California, and Mark Ghaly, in his capacity as secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

However, plaintiffs’ attorney Dan Morenoff told the Bay Area Reporter that the plaintiffs have agreed to remove the UC regents and the school district from the suit and that this will be reflected in an amended complaint “in the next week or so.” The UC regents and the SFUSD were named in connection with programs aimed at helping Blacks.

“They [the district] got back to us that there was only one person at the USD who’d been involved and he was a volunteer during his off time,” Morenoff said, referring to the school district. “There is probably an interesting story as to why they were described as a participant when they were clear they were not.”

The suit alleges that the pilot Guaranteed Income for Trans People, or GIFT, is among several that violate federal anti-discrimination laws, including the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the latter of which the U.S. Supreme Court applied to gender identity and sexual orientation in its 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County.

The other programs the suit alleges are illegally discriminatory are the San Francisco Guaranteed Income Plan for Artists, the Abundant Birth Project, and the Black Economic Equity Movement, or BEEM, which is not funded by the city.

City response

When asked for comment for this report, the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives deferred to the city attorney. For its part, the city denies any wrongdoing.

“San Francisco denies that the programs in question are unlawful or unconstitutional in any manner. We look forward to discussing these matters further in court,” stated Alex Barrett-Shorter, deputy press secretary for City Attorney David Chiu.

Dan Mogulof, speaking on behalf of UC Berkeley, stated, “The allegations regarding UC in the complaint are inaccurate.”

The school district did not return a request for comment.

Trans program

As the B.A.R. previously reporte, two years ago Mayor London Breed had proposed a universal basic income program for up to 150 trans participants that would give them $1,000 a month over two years – at a cost of $2 million – in coordination with the city government’s various transgender groups. The idea for a trans-oriented program, according to Pau Crego, executive director of the city’s Office of Transgender Initiatives, “was originally advocated for by OTI’s Transgender Advisory Committee as part of their Trans Advocacy Week in April, 2021.”

Last year, it was announced that the program had started accepting applicants and was up and running. The GIFT program provides 55 low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, for up to 18 months, to help them improve their financial security, as the B.A.R. previously reported. .

The complaint alleges that “the GIFT program, as implemented, uses public funds to distribute money to recipients who are selected based on (and excluded based on) race, ethnicity, sex, national origin, gender/gender identity, and sexual orientation,” which are the categories cov-

Rick Gerharter

Mayor London Breed’s pilot guaranteed income program for some trans people is the subject of a lawsuit, along with other income programs.

ered by the Civil Rights Act. “By relying on prohibited classifications to distribute government benefits, Defendants have violated the equal protection guarantees of both the United States Constitution and the California Constitution; they have likewise violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the complaint states. “The U.S. Constitution forbids public entities from engaging in intentional racial discrimination. And yet each of the programs described ... is currently engaging in precisely the kind of intentional racial discrimination the Constitution forbids.”

Other programs

The suit targets three other programs as well. The San Francisco Guaranteed Income Plan for Artists, run in collaboration with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, was launched in 2022, providing $1,000 to 60 eligible artists. According to the complaint, “YCBA and Mayor Breed largely achieved their ‘intended’ discriminatory goals” because Native American, Native Alaskan, LGBTQ, Black, and Hispanic artists were chosen more than their rates in the city’s population “all while choosing Asian artists at a rate less than half their share of the city’s population; and omitting any indication that any of the program’s beneficiaries are White heterosexuals.”

YBCA did not return a request for comment. As the B.A.R. reported in January, the last checks for artists selected to participate in the pilot project were to be sent out last July.

The Abundant Birth Project, which started in 2021, seeks to improve maternal health among Black and Pacific Islander pregnant women in San Francisco – communities that face significantly higher rates of infant mortality – by providing $1,000-$1,500 per month for the duration of the pregnancy. This was the program that allegedly involved a volunteer who’d concurrently worked at the school district, but does no longer.

Finally, the Black Economic Equity Movement, or BEEM, is run in coordination with UCSF and UC Berkeley and funded through the National Institutes of Health, according to its website. It seeks to provide $500 a month to Black young adults “in certain areas in San Francisco and Oakland” for up to a year “so they have a little breathing room, can take care of immediate needs, and plan for the future,” according to its website When asked why NIH wasn’t a plaintiff, Morenoff said it is because “they are a federal agency; they cannot be sued in state court.” He added that he didn’t know of any connection between BEEM and the City and County of San Francisco, per se.

The complaint states that “Respondents have violated and are currently violating the federal Constitution, state constitution, and Title VI by using government resources and public funds to design, sponsor, support, and

administer programs that discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender/ gender identity, and sexual orientation.”

Remedy soght in state court

Though the suit deals with two federal statutes, Morenoff – speaking on behalf of the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, Parker, and Zhou – said that the plaintiffs only have standing in a state court because “we have filed this on behalf of taxpayers – federal courts don’t have taxpayer standing and the courts of California do, so that is a forum that can hear the argument.”

Morenoff said that the government is only allowed to consider race in select circumstances that are not met by these programs, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ef-

fectively ended race-based affirmative action nationwide.

Affirmative action had been started after the civil rights and women’s rights movements to advance equity by giving special consideration to groups that had been discriminated against, such as Black Americans and women. The Supreme Court had ruled strict quotas as unconstitutional in 1978, and getting rid of affirmative action altogether has been a longstanding goal of conservative activists.

In California, affirmative action was banned at public universities by voters in 1996. In 2020, Proposition 16 would have lifted that ban, but it failed 57%-42%.

“As the Supreme Court told us last summer in the Harvard case, there are harms done whenever the government racially classifies Americans – when it does so there has to be strict scrutiny,” Morenoff said. “In modern jurispru-

dence, only two interests meet that standard – addressing a government’s own recent past history of racial discrimination, and the state’s custodial responsibility to people in prisons, like during a race riot.

But that’s it, that’s the whole list. We don’t think anything involved in this litigation rises to that standard.”

Morenoff was asked, in his view, how recent such discrimination has to be to qualify, and if that includes continuing, structural consequences that have continued even after formal, legal discrimination was outlawed.

“We are really talking discrimination by a government – when the federal government chose to belatedly provide recompense to the individuals interned during World War II, that was a specific harm done to a specific people that the government was remedying,” Morenoff said. “When San Francisco has suggested, not in this case, it is looking into a plan to similarly provide something like reparations to specific people who lived in areas mistreated by mid-century slum clearance programs, if they’re talking about specific people, I think that would qualify.

But that generalized societal harms do not meet the standard.”

The African American Reparations Advisory Committee advises San Francisco government on reparations to the city’s Black community. In its final report published July 7, it recommended the city issue a formal apology for past harms, and establish an independent Office of Reparations and a committee to ensure equity in the implementation of policy initiatives.

But Breed said this week that funding for the office is on the chopping block due to the city’s dire budget situation. KTVUTV reported that Breed has given the goahead for $75 million in mid-year cuts, including funding for the reparations office.

As the reparations report explains, under the guise of slum clearance and See page 5 >>

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<< Community News

4 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

t

Teamsters official casts doubt on name change request

by John Ferrannini

A

legendary labor leader and longtime Castro resident who has requested that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters change its name has been told he will have to wait until at least 2026 for someone to initiate a constitutional amendment to do so.

Allan M. Baird, a retired president and business agent of Teamsters Local 921, has for over three decades wanted the organization to add Sisterhood to its name to reflect that it has men and women as members.

Baird is a straight ally who has lived in the Castro since 1942. He led the famous 1973 boycott of Coors beer because of the Coors Brewing Company’s then-homophobic and anti-union stances. He famously teamed up on it with then-political newcomer and Castro resident Harvey Milk, a gay man who would go on to win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

But after Baird’s story appeared in the Bay Area Reporter November 16, his request was met with a chilly response from union official Bret Caldwell, who told Baird that the union’s name could only be changed through a constitutional amendment ratified at a Teamsters international

John Ferrannini

Allan Baird, a retired Teamsters official, has worked for many years to see the union’s name changed to acknowledge women members.

convention, the next of which is slated to take place in three years.

“I don’t know if I am still alive in 2026,” Baird, 91, told the B.A.R. Tuesday. “I’m not a delegate – I’d have to be a delegate so I can’t do anything and he knows that. That’s the rule.”

As the B.A.R. recently reported, Baird has been trying to get the Teamsters to change its name since 1992. His most recent letter to union President Sean O’Brien reminded him of his long-standing request that the union’s name be changed to the

International Sisterhood and Brotherhood of Teamsters.

O’Brien responded that the term “brotherhood” was not meant to be gender specific, which Baird thought sidestepped the issue of recognizing the women in the union.

This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to https://www.cavshate.org/.

After the publication of the B.A.R.’s report, Baird received the letter from Caldwell, deputy chief of staff to O’Brien. The letter, dated November 27, stated that the name “can only be changed through a constitutional amendment approved by delegates to the International Convention.”

“The General President does not have the authority to unilaterally change the name of the union,” Caldwell wrote. “Should an amendment regarding a name change be submitted to the International Convention in 2026, the Constitution Committee will determine whether or not the amendment will be presented for a vote of the delegates. If so, the convention delegates would debate the proposal and then vote on the matter. As such, any consideration regarding a name change will not occur until the International Convention in 2026.”

Baird told the B.A.R. that he hasn’t written back yet and isn’t sure if he’s going to.

The Teamsters did not return a request for comment.

Baird said that, nonetheless, Tizoc Arenas, who is a business trustee at Teamsters Local 223 in Gladstone, Oregon, would be able to offer the amendment.

Arenas, a straight ally, told the B.A.R. that while he could do it, he’d like someone who is a woman or LGBTQ to be the one who takes that step.

“I’ll bring it forward if I have to,” Arenas said. “There’s a little bit of nuance to it – I think the way I would want it articulated is I would want to build support to have this amendment brought forward in 2026. Who we’re looking at is our female membership, our LGBTQ+ membership.”

Baird said he thinks O’Brien should take a position on the matter himself in the meantime.

“He can say ‘my opinion right now for this proposition is yes, it should be changed’ and if he doesn’t have the guts to do that, he has no guts at all,” Baird said.

Isak Lindenauer, a longtime friend, is the proprietor of Isak Lindenauer Antiques at 4143 18th Street. A gay man, Lindenauer, 78, said he has known Baird for 46 years and though he is not a Teamster, he has been helping Baird with his letters on the matter.

“I was glad to have him bounce his ideas off of me and help him organize his thoughts and write these letters, and he’s finally received word back from the president with the understanding that it’s something that will have to go through the formal procedure but whose time may have come. Personally, I think it’s long overdue, and I think Allan does as well.”

Susan Englander, a bisexual woman who is political director of the California Faculty Association chapter at San Francisco State University, and who supports Baird’s proposal, did not return a request for comment for this report by press time. Neither did Cleve Jones, a longtime gay community and Castro neighborhood leader who currently works for the UNITE HERE hospitality union and who has also known Baird for several decades.

Since they are not Teamsters members, neither Englander nor Jones would be able to bring forward the name request proposal at the union’s convention. A request for comment sent to the Teamsters LGBTQ+ Caucus was not returned by the B.A.R.’s press deadline Wednesday.

“My hope is if this thing goes that far – and it probably will – the delegates will probably vote and vote yes, but we don’t know how that’s gonna go,” Baird said. t

Community News>>

t Oakland Pride to have holiday bar crawl benefit

December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 5

compiled by Cynthia Laird

D

ust off those Santa hats and prepare to celebrate the season at Oakland Pride’s Santa holiday bar crawl Saturday, December 23.

The event is a benefit for Oakland Pride, which this year joined with Pridefest Oakland for one Pride parade and festival that was a success, organizers said. One of the activities during the September Pride celebration was a bar crawl; people had such a good time at it that community leaders are bringing it back for the holidays.

Oakland Pride organizers said they are already working on the bar crawl for Pride 2024.

“We are also working on several smaller bar crawls throughout the year to help support Oakland Pride’s operation budget and hope you will join us,” noted the Pride committee.

The holiday-themed bar crawl starts at 3 p.m. at Town Bar and Lounge, 2001 Broadway. From there, the action moves to Fluid 510, 1544 Broadway at 4:30. Next, people will wander to the Feelmore Social Club next door at 1542 Broadway at 6 and then head over to Que Rico, 281 15th Street, at 7:30. The evening ends at Summer Bar and Lounge, 526 Eighth Street in Old Oakland, at 9.

Valentino Carrillo is the owner of Que Rico, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported in an article published before the space opened in April 2021. He’s also a board member of Oakland Pride.

“Que Rico is excited to join the other four bars in participating in Oakland Pride’s Santa’s Holiday Bar Crawl,”

<<

Lawsuit

From page 3

the widening of Geary Boulevard, tens of thousands of San Franciscans were displaced from the thriving Fillmore neighborhood in the mid-20th century. The report also calls for potential payments of $5 million meant to rectify some of the past wrongs, though Breed and several super-

Cynthia Laird

Oakland Pride board member Valentino Carrillo, owner of Que Rico, an LGBTQ club in downtown Oakland, welcomes those who will stop by during the Oakland Pride holiday bar crawl benefit later this month.

he stated in an email. “The Pride Bar Crawl back in September was amazing with over 100 people, and we can’t wait to do it again and invite everyone to experience Que Rico. This is the start of many more bar crawls to come and collaborations with the other LGBTQ bars in Oakland.”

Tickets for the bar crawl start at $25 and include a wristband that will get attendees into each location during the bar crawl, as well as special discounted drinks and/or food, the announcement stated. Participation will be capped at 100 people, and attendees are encouraged to use ride share for transportation.

The bar crawl is for those 21 and older.

People are encouraged to wear their Santa hats.

To register, go to https://tinyurl. com/sxkkjm99.

visors do not support the cash payments, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Zhou ran against Breed when Breed was reelected mayor in 2019, getting 13.9% of the vote compared to Breed’s 70.3%. Though the races are nonpartisan, Zhou is a Republican who two years later was at Capitol Hill the day of the January 6 insurrection when a mob stormed the Capitol while Congress was certifying the

election of Joe Biden as president. The violence led to five deaths and four suicides among law enforcement. The events led to the unprecedented second impeachment of former president Donald Trump.

B.A.R. asks readers to complete survey

by Cynthia Laird

T

he Bay Area Reporter is conducting a short online survey and is asking readers to participate.

Responses to the survey will help the paper’s leadership and staff understand how to better serve readers, stated publisher Michael Yamashita, a gay man.

“There are questions about representation and coverage that will allow us to shape our editorial vision, and other questions that will guide our overall decisionmaking as a mission-driven news publisher,” he added.

The survey is short, and most of it is multiple choice, but there are opportunities to share openended feedback as well, Yamashita stated.

The survey has just 11 questions and should take no longer than six minutes to complete.

To take the survey, go to https://tinyurl.com/ajzn9dhw.com/ r/75JFYW8. t

Project MORE marks 10 years

The Project MORE Foundation, which works to improve the quality of life for LGBTQ people in the South Bay, has two events coming up on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.

One of the foundation’s most popular initiatives is the Qmunity District, a collective of queer retail and nightlife businesses in downtown San Jose.

Friday, December 8, Project MORE will host Ice Queens, an evening of

holiday performances at Downtown Ice, a temporary ice rink operating through the holidays at 120 South Market in the Circle of Palms Plaza in San Jose. People can skate before or after the shows (from 5 to 10 p.m.) There will be a meet and greet with drag performers at 7, and shows at 7:30 and 9.

The shows are free to attend. If people want to skate, they can purchase tickets at sjdowntownice.com.

On Saturday, December 9, Project MORE will hold its holiday celebration and anniversary party, from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Holiday Inn San JoseSilicon Valley, 1350 North First Street in San Jose.

Qmunity Awards will be presented and there will be entertainment, hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, and mocktails. Scheduled to appear are Joey Jay, from season 13 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race;” Gaia, Miss MonA Lot MooRe’s Closet Ball 2023 winner; and Papi Churro, a twospirit drag king.

Tickets are $50 general admission or $110 for VIP, which includes the founders’ dinner. They can be purchased at https://tinyurl. com/2u5j55d3.

Hanukkah party in South Bay

The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center will host Havurah Q’s Big Gay Hanukkah party Saturday, December 9, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the center, located at 938 The Alameda in downtown San Jose. The event will in-

Morenoff described Parker as “a concerned person” and “a resident of San Francisco who has lived there a number of decades.”

The Californians for Equal Rights

clude latkes, dreidels, singing, games, and more. The party is for all ages and backgrounds, the center noted in its newsletter.

The event is free for volunteers and $18 for general admission. For tickets, go to https://tinyurl.com/mr3pxjeb.

San Mateo Pride center seeks youth advisers

The San Mateo County Pride Center and Outlet, an LGBTQ youth organization in Santa Clara County, is seeking young people for the youth advisory board. Board members help plan, organize, and publicize youth programming in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Board members also provide input on services and resources for youth ages 14-25.

“Youth Advisory Board members help the LGBTQ+ community by getting their friends and peers involved, sharing information about upcoming events with friends, peers and teachers at school, as well as bringing input and suggestions from community members to help shape the direction of the youth program,” an email announcement stated.

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, January 17. To do so, go to https:// tinyurl.com/5dca9zx2 Questions can be directed to Yossi (she/her/ella) at yoselin@acs-teens.org.

Outlet is a program of Adolescent Counseling Services.t

Foundation states on its website that “woke culture harms everyone” and takes a stand against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and the teaching of critical race theory. t

Communit y is what it is all about.

Each of our communities offers a unique place where you feel welcome, can be yourself, live among friends and experience new adventures, all while securing your future. Explore your next steps by giving us a call today!

Courtesy B.A.R. The Bay Area Reporter is asking readers to complete a brief online survey.

Correction The November 30 article, “At Milk-Moscone vigil, activists plead with youth,” should have stated that a member of the Harvey Milk Foundation board spoke on behalf of Milk’s family, who could not attend due to health issues and other limitations. Miriam Richter, the board member, traveled from Florida to attend the event in the Castro. Her remarks have been added to the online version.

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<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

Volume 53, Number 49 December 7-13, 2023 www.ebar.com

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That was quick

N

o sooner had we editorialized about the danger of three potential anti-trans initiatives appearing on the November 2024 ballot in California than proponents pulled a fast one. They have combined the trio of measures into a single massive antitrans initiative that would, as the state attorney general’s office titled it, “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” That it certainly does.

So now the measure would ban gender-affirming care for minors; prevent trans women and girls from participating in women’s sports; repeal a state law allowing trans students to use bathrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity; and require schools to notify parents if a student asks to be treated as a gender that doesn’t match their school records. In other words, forced outing of trans students without their consent.

It will still be an uphill climb for this omnibus anti-trans initiative to qualify for the ballot. Proponents have to collect over 500,000 valid signatures, and the deadline is now late May. Previously, the anti-trans side would have had to submit signatures by late April, so they’ve received an extra month.

Politico reported that proponents have not yet lined up deep-pocketed donors to fund a paid signature drive; they will rely on volunteers, at least initially.

Politico also reported that proponents decided to consolidate the initiatives to make signature collection cheaper.

While state voters are generally pretty progressive, we do not want to underestimate the transphobia that exists in the Golden State. There are conservative areas of the state where school boards have passed forced outing policies, as we have reported. (One of those districts, Chino Valley Unified, has been slapped with a preliminary injunction prohibiting it from enforcing most of the policy after Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against it earlier this year.) Trans people, whether adults or youth, continue to face much discrimination here, from employment and housing opportunities to getting to play on sports teams. And that discrimination happens in cities as well as rural areas.

California has taken some steps to protect trans youth, most notably a bill passed by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) last year that makes it California policy to reject any out-ofstate court judgments removing trans kids from their parents’ custody because they allowed them to receive gender-affirming health care.

But not all is pro-trans, even in the Capitol. A

An anti-trans group has folded three proposals for the November 2024 ballot into one massive transphobic initiative.

couple of months ago, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill by Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City) that would have required courts “to strongly consider” if a parent is affirming of their child’s gender identity or gender expression, and if they consent to legally changing the child’s name and gender marker to mirror their preferred gender, when considering the legal guardianship and visitation rights of the minor’s divorcing parents. Wilson, the parent of an adult trans child, certainly knows what types of policies would help trans youth.

It’s likely that the anti-trans forces will begin signature gathering in earnest after the holidays, and readers should be on the lookout for people with clipboards trying to get their attention. If you see “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth” at the top of a petition, do not sign it.

We are also doubling down on our call from last week that Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, launch an aggressive decline to sign campaign that is ready to go in January. Now that there is only one anti-trans initiative, the focus will be easier for pro-LGBTQ organizations and volunteers. They should appeal to the fair-mindedness that many Californians hold dear.

There is no reason for a statewide ban when policies are already largely being decided at the local level, even as we vehemently disagree with forced outings, book bannings, and the like that have been adopted

tion banning gender-affirming care and censoring the art of drag.

The remaining major GOP candidates, former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, have all demonstrated their support for the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

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by some school boards, as well as Pride flag bans implemented by some cities and school districts – we’re looking at you, Huntington Beach and Sunol.

There are going to be a lot of signature gatherers out on the streets seeking support for myriad measures. It’s crucial that if you are approached, you pay attention to what you’re being asked to sign. The ultimate goal is to prevent this anti-trans initiative from appearing on the ballot next November. If it does, EQCA and other pro-LGBTQ groups will have a tough time raising money to fight it because there will be so many other things on the ballot clamoring for voters’ attention and dollars.

From president to U.S. Senate and House members, as well as local candidates, all will be vying for money. Not to mention the LGBTQ community will be fighting for the passage of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 that would repeal the anti-same-sex marriage language from 2008’s Proposition 8 that remains in the state’s governing document. That effort will be more challenging if the anti-trans initiative is on the same ballot.

The anti-trans initiative proponents may have actually done us a favor by combining everything into one abhorrent proposal. It is yet another right-wing attempt – in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that eliminated a woman’s right to choose – to involve the government in the most intimate personal and family health care decisions.

It’s up to us to say no, such hate does not belong in the Golden State. t

How legal attacks on LGBTQ+ rights affect mental health

by Tate Barkley

Bay Area Reporter

t

hile significant strides have been made over the last two decades in recognizing and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, challenges persist. The United States continues to witness the weaponization of public policy against the LGBTQ+ community, and this assault has had a negative impact on many members’ mental health.

New U.S. House leadership

The recent election of Representative Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) as speaker of the House of Representatives has put his values and past experiences in the spotlight. Prior to his election to public office in 2015, Johnson was an attorney and spokesperson for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian right legal advocacy group that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. Data for Progress reports that during his time there, Johnson was a vocal opponent of legalizing same-sex marriage and he defended the ability of states to criminalize gay sex. Johnson also provided legal advice to an organization called Exodus International, a leader in the so-called ex-gay movement, which aimed to make gay individuals straight through conversion therapy programs using religious and counseling methods.

As recently as July 2023, in a hearing in the House of Representatives, Johnson said, “A parent has no right to sexually transition a young child.” He baselessly described transgender health care as “abuse” and “physical harm,” and said, “No parent has a constitutional right to injure their children.”

In an interview Johnson defended his positions on the LGBTQ+ community, suggesting that anyone who disagrees with his views should “Go pick up a Bible.”

Courtesy Tate Barkley

Tate Barkley

The presidential candidates

In addition to the current House leadership, the 2024 presidential race on the Republican side is shaping up to be a pivotal one for LGBTQ+ rights according to an analysis conducted by the Human Rights Campaign.

The frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, has been hostile to the LGBTQ+ community for years and frequently used his presidency to harm the community. Some of his most notable attacks include: rescinding Title IX regulations protecting transgender students, banning trans military members from actively serving, permitting discrimination against LGBTQ+ couples in adoption, and opposing basic nondiscrimination protections, including the Equality Act. Following Trump in the latest polls is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has made LGBTQ+ people political pawns in his own quest for power. He spearheaded the state’s “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bill that prevents youth from having safe, inclusive classrooms and bars them from receiving comprehensive education. He has also pushed forward legisla-

The conservative Supreme Court and extremism

The anti-LGBTQ+ agenda is driven by extremist groups like the Heritage Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom, among others, that have a history of working to oppress the existence and rights of LGBTQ+ people. It is public knowledge that several of the conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices have connections to these groups. In June 2022, when the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade ending the constitutional right to an abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion suggesting that the court reconsider past cases involving similar legal claims, including cases involving same-sex intimacy and marriage equality.

Hardline anti-LGBTQ+ groups have often promoted their discriminatory laws and policies under the guise of religion, blurring the lines between the separation of church and state and discarding anti-discrimination civil rights policies. These blurred lines were evident in the same Supreme Court session when, in a 6-3 vote, the conservative justices held that Colorado cannot enforce a state anti-discrimination law against a Christian website designer who does not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples, because doing so would violate her First Amendment right to free speech.

See page 12 >>

t

Politics >>

December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 7

Courtesy the candidate

Monica Martinez is running for the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

Nonprofit leader Martinez aims to be 1st out Santa Cruz County supervisor

by Matthew S. Bajko

D

espite its reputation as a coastal liberal bastion, Santa Cruz County has yet to see an LGBTQ leader elected to its Board of Supervisors. Recent elections have seen the out candidate running for a seat on the countywide governing body come up short.

Nonprofit executive and queer mom Monica Martinez is aiming to break through that pink political glass ceiling with her bid for the board’s open District 5 seat. With another local leader opting against entering the race and instead endorsing Martinez, she is aiming to win the seat outright on the 2024 primary ballot.

“I don’t want to take anything for granted,” Martinez, 41, told the Bay Area Reporter about the campaign.

“Certainly, my goal is to win in March and avoid a runoff in November.”

If she does win the race for a fouryear term, Martinez will be the first woman elected to the District 5 seat; she told the B.A.R. a woman was appointed to it in 1979 and served two years. She would also be the first woman to serve on the county board since 2012 and the first elected since 2008.

“I am ready to work as hard as I can all the way through the election because diverse candidates like myself, we don’t have the privilege of walking into these seats,” said Martinez. “I am ready to work hard to understand the needs of our district so I can represent it well as a supervisor.”

Last June Supervisor Bruce McPherson announced he would retire at the end of his third term rather than run for reelection next year. It opened the door for Martinez, CEO of the county’s largest health and human services nonprofit, Encompass Community Services, to seek the seat that covers the northern section of the city of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley.

The fifth supervisorial district also includes the San Lorenzo Valley and its communities of Ben Lomond, Boulder Creek, and Felton, where Martinez resides. Most of it is unincorporated, with the county board providing services and governance.

“We haven’t had a representative who has lived in San Lorenzo Valley since 2002, even though we make up 60% of voters,” said Martinez. “Because we are unincorporated, we don’t get another elected voice.”

Two other candidates in the race, Christopher Bradford and The-

resa Bond, have been focused on water issues in the district, while Tom Decker, who works for a company that builds accessory dwelling units, pulled papers last month to run. Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart ruled out also vying for the seat and endorsed Martinez in late October.

Last month, statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California endorsed Martinez along with several other out supervisor candidates on March ballots across the state, as the B.A.R. previously reported. She told the B.A.R. it is time for Santa Cruz County’s board to have LGBTQ representation.

“I think Santa Cruz does have a reputation of being very progressive.

However, this has been a glass ceiling that hasn’t been broken yet,” said Martinez. “I think it is an important voice that has been missing from the county board.”

Becoming the first out supervisor from the board’s most conservative leaning district would also be significant, she noted. Particularly at a time when attacks against LGBTQ rights have broken out across the Golden State, added Martinez.

“I think it would send a really strong message to our county and region if the first openly LGBTQ supervisor in Santa Cruz County came from the fifth district,” she said. “I think it would be a really significant change and signal support for the values of inclusion and acceptance in our entire county, including in this district.”

First-time candidate

A first-time candidate for public office, her candidacy is already an example of how far the LGBTQ community has come in her lifetime, said Martinez. She never imagined in her childhood that she would seek to be elected one day.

“Originally being from Bakersfield, I just never thought as an out LGBTQ woman who is Latinx that I would be electable,” she said. “I have dedicated my life to public service and have been serving those in need in our community for my entire career. Over the last decade a lot has changed in what is valued in elected representation. My lived experience could be an asset; I could really help advance policy in our community.”

Born and raised in Bakersfield at the southernmost end of California’s Central Valley, Martinez grew up in a union household. Her father is a re-

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tired Kern County fire captain, while her mother is a retired public elementary school teacher.

Looking for a more welcoming environment post high school, Martinez enrolled at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo along the state’s Central Coast. As she worked toward earning her B.A. in political science, Martinez landed The City and County of San Francisco invites a summer job after her freshman year you to share input on the topics of affordable with the YMCA of San Francisco at its Camp Jones Gulch in the Santa Cruz and fair housing, community services, and Mountains. economic and workforce development.

Nineteen and not wanting to return to her hometown during her break between semesters, Martinez told the B.A.R. the camp was “a beacon” for her where she met like-minded, accepting people in the other employees.

“I met the first lesbians I’d ever met there. They took me to my first Pride in San Francisco. This was in 2001,” she recalled. “I continued to work there for another five years during the summers.”

She also noted that she hasn’t missed Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the free annual music festival held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, in 15 years. (It was held virtually during the first two years of the COVID pandemic.)

“I love it. I love music,” said Martinez, who had just visited the city’s LGBTQ Castro district for the first time since the start of the health crisis in 2020 when she spoke with the B.A.R. by phone in mid-November.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in After Martinez earned a master’s in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial public administration at the Universiand provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead When your celebration lasting protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, ty of Southern California, she worked When you remembrance plan your celebration and lasting in allowing themlife to focus what will matter at design that remembrance time—you. to provide services to homeless womin on advance, youmost can every en living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. In advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial detail ofusyour owntheunique memorial andlegacy provide Contact today about beautiful ways to create a lasting 2010, the nonprofit Housing Matters at the San Francisco Columbarium. and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind.

Planning ahead your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning of Santa Cruz County hired her as its protects your loved ones from unnecessary stress and financial executive director. ahead protectsProudly yourserving loved onesCommunity. from unnecessary burden, the LGBT She co-founded the 180/180 Initiaallowing them focus on whatburden, will matter most them at thattotime—you. stresstoand financial allowing tive, a community partnership aimed focus on what will matter most at that time—you. at helping to house homeless individuals in the county. By 2014, Martinez Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy had taken over the leadership ofat En-the San Francisco Columbarium.

Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create compass Community Services.

Martinez is a co-parent with her a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. two children’s other mom, from One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 Proudly serving our Community. whom she is separated. Because the SanFranciscoColumbarium.com Proudly serving the LGBT Community. couple adopted them out of the foster FD 1306 / COA 660 care system, Martinez is keeping their identities private, though she did tell the B.A.R. they are elementary school students ages 8 and 9 who are not biological siblings.

She and her family had to evacuate their home during the CZU Lightning Complex Fire that tore through the Santa Cruz Mountains in August 2020. They were able to return after One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 being displaced for a month.

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See page 12 >>

FD 1306 / COA 660

<< From the Cover

8 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

<<

Blood centers

From page 1

The questioning no longer asks if people are monogamous or in a monogamous relationship. Instead, they are asked about their recent sexual activity.

“It is a more equitable approach, where everybody is being assessed the same way,” noted Pandey, a straight ally who lives in San Francisco. “What that means is with this new policy there are people, specifically gay and bisexual men, who have been deferred and will now be eligible as long as they meet those sexual risk behavior questions that everyone else has to comply with.”

Thus, everyone is now asked if they have had a new sexual partner or more than one sexual partner in the last three months. If the answer is yes to either, they are then asked if they have engaged in anal sex in the last three months, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

If they have not, and meet all other eligibility criteria, they are able to donate. Otherwise, they must wait three months from the date they most recently had anal sex to donate blood, as the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies explains on its website. (https:// www.aabb.org/for-donors-patients/ ab out - b l o o d - d on at i on / b l o o d donation-by-gay-and-bisexualmen#resources) “The reason is because the epidemiology shows if you have anal sex you are at a higher risk for transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. So if the answer is yes, the individual will be deferred,” said Pandey during a recent video interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

Also, anyone taking the HIV medications PrEP, for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, for post-exposure prophylaxis, needs to wait three months after their last oral dose of the medicines before giving blood.

For injectable PrEP, people are advised to wait two years following their most recent injection.

“We just want to say people should not stop taking PrEP,” said Pandey. “But if it is no longer important for them to stay on PrEP, then they can donate three months after their last dose.”

Vitalant and Stanford Blood Center both took part in the ADVANCE Study, which stands for Assessing Donor Variability And New Concepts in Eligibility, and provided data to the FDA as it examined changing the eligibility requirements for gay and bi blood donors. As the B.A.R. has previously reported, the federal agency banned all men who have sex with men from donating blood in 1983 during the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

The lifetime ban applied to any man who had sex with another man after 1977.

As the science on AIDS evolved, so did the FDA’s blood donor rules.

In 2016, it allowed men who had sex with men to donate blood if they had been sexually abstinent during the prior 12 months. Amid ongoing backlash that its policy was homophobic and outdated, the FDA shortened the timeline in 2020 to a three-month deferral for gay and bi men who were sexually active.

Systems now updated

Vitalant had updated its systems

by August 21 to reflect the latest change to the screening process for blood donors. Stanford Blood Center had fully implemented the change as of October 19, as it needed extra time to not only update its computer systems but also train its staff on the new questioning protocol.

“There was some sensitivity for team members in asking personal questions about anal sex and how to explain to donors the changes. We spent a lot of time training staff with those soft skills as well,” said Pandey.

Courtesy Vitalant

A medical staffer prepares a person for donating blood at Vitalant.

Courtesy Vitalant

A pint of donated blood awaits its destination at Vitalant.

“It really is stating it is OK to talk about anal sex and it’s a behavior we are trying to assess. It is something different but the best way to do an individual, risk-based approach.”

Stanford Blood Center currently does not have any locations in San Francisco. Interested blood donors can make an appointment for one of its four centers in Alameda or Santa Clara counties; it just opened the one at Fallon Plaza (3738 Fallon Road) in Dublin in late October.

Vitalant has locations throughout the Bay Area, including its downtown San Francisco donation center at 250 Bush Street. After selling its property off Masonic Avenue to the University of San Francisco, Vitalant is now located across from the Stonestown Galleria shopping mall at 555 Buckingham Way. (It is a short Muni ride away from the city’s LGBTQ Castro district via the MOcean View subway line.)

Neither of the blood centers could provide the B.A.R. with any statistical data showing that they are seeing more gay and bi men coming in to donate blood due to the new eligibility criteria. They did say the change went into effect smoothly.

“It has been well received,” said Pandey. “Overall, it is going well.”

As it does not track if blood donors are part of the LGBTQ community, Stanford Blood Center only knows anecdotally due to reports from its staff that several gay and bi men had self disclosed it was their first time donating blood, Pandey told the B.A.R. Under the first two weeks of using the new eligibility criteria, she did know that only two people who had come in to give blood were deferred because of it.

She didn’t know, however, if the people were male or female. Nor could she say if they were heterosexual or not.

“In my just anecdotal experience knowing some donors who have been deferred and were excited to be able to start donating, and seeing that response and seeing very few deferrals of two in two weeks, this tells me this is a positive impact,” said Pandey. “We have to continue to look. Ultimately, I do think we will see an increase in our donor visits and collections.”

Adler, a straight ally who noted many of Vitalant’s employees are from the LGBTQ community, also told the B.A.R. he has no way of knowing how the new criteria for blood donors is changing their demographics.

“When it comes to the impact we really have no way of knowing how many donors who identify as a gay man or bisexual man have come in to donate,” he said. “All we can look at are first time donors in general, and there we have seen a slight uptick. It’s about a 2% increase over the last three months.”

Adler spoke to the B.A.R. in late November. He specified that he didn’t have any more identifying information about first time donors, such as if they are gay men or not.

“It is really unfortunate because something like this is such a landmark change that there isn’t a better way to judge the impact that it is having or could potentially have on donors, and figure out who is donating for the first time because of it,” said Adler. “We are definitely seeing a drop in overall donors and in the overall donor base of donors giving regularly.”

Some of that has to do with the ongoing impact of the COVID pandemic, which reduced blood donations over the last three years. Prepandemic in 2019 Vitalant held 483 business-sponsored blood drives, whereas it has only had 207 so far this year. Four years ago it held 125

high school blood drives but only 66 this year.

There is usually a drop off at this time of year in its blood drives at businesses and schools because of the holidays, noted Adler. The flu season also sees a decrease in people donating blood, as anyone sick with the flu or who has a cold is barred from doing so.

“Typically, this time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s historically is the most difficult time for us to collect. We see fewer donors this time of year than any other time during the entire year,” said Adler.

Stanford Blood Center has also yet to return to the number of blood drives it had been doing at high schools and colleges prior to 2020.

But the need for donated blood remains high, noted Pandey.

“There is a constant need for blood donations,” she said. “So anything that can be done like this policy change that helps decrease deferrals, or allows new individuals who couldn’t donate before can now donate, is good because we need to keep our blood donations high.”

Vitalant and Stanford Blood Center are looking to do mobile blood drives in the LGBTQ community in 2024 because of the new eligibility rules for donors. Their implementation of them this year came too late to do so at most of the Bay Area’s Pride celebrations and LGBTQ-focused street fairs.

“We have reached out to various groups around the Bay Area, not just in San Francisco, about doing those things,” said Adler. “It takes a little while to get them to warm up to the idea of donating blood because for them it has not been available to them at all for the most part. Getting them to welcome the idea of a blood drive is not challenging but not as easy as we would like it to be.”

t

Stanford Blood Center did team with an LGBTQ group on the Stanford campus this fall to promote donating blood. It has had a booth in the past at Silicon Valley Pride and would like to now bring its blood drive bus to the event.

“That will be coming someday undoubtedly,” said Jenn Bennett, its director of marketing and communications.

Gay Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino) for years has been calling on federal health officials to lift the restrictions on gay and bi blood donors. He told the B.A.R. that he has not reviewed the new eligibility requirements to see if he qualifies to be a blood donor, though when asked about the PrEP restrictions he said they do not apply to him.

Until those are also lifted, Low told the B.A.R. he isn’t planning to give blood. Having launched a bid Tuesday for an open South Bay House seat, Low could become a leading voice in Congress on the issue should he win the 2024 contest.

“We won’t stop until we get absolutely equal and full and fair treatment,” said Low, who over the years has hosted blood drives where those who could donate were asked to do so on behalf of a gay and bi men restricted from doing so.

With LGBTQ advocates and others continuing to call on the FDA to further open up blood donations to people on PrEP, Adler told the B.A.R. that Vitalant continues to share its data with the federal agency and supports seeing more people become eligible to give blood if they can do so without impacting the blood supply.

“Vitalant continues to support and provide data to expand the donor base even more and give them information to support a safe blood supply and to collect blood from individuals eligible in different areas,” he said. “Vitalant continues to be an advocate of new policies to allow as many people as possible to give blood.”

Its Vitalant Research Institute continues to analyze data from the ADVANCE Study, so Adler noted there will be more reporting from that project. Vitalant is also one of four blood centers that participate in the Transfusion Transmissible Infections Monitoring System (TTIMS), which is continually evaluating blood safety in the U.S., added Adler.

“Part of that study is evaluating PrEP use in blood donors,” Adler noted to the B.A.R. “Both the ADVANCE Study and TTIMS were instrumental in shaping the current eligibility requirements and the recent individual donor assessment changes.”

Pandey didn’t rule out seeing PrEP users be able to donate blood in the future. She understands why the FDA is taking “a conservative approach” on the issue for now.

“The potential rule with PrEP may be changed in the future. It is a matter of getting more data and understanding how PrEP impacts donor testing,” she said.

For those who currently can donate blood, Adler stressed it is vital to do so and only takes an hour.

“The big thing is donating blood makes an immediate impact in our community,” he said. “It can save someone’s life and is really easy to do.” t For more information, go to vitalant.org or stanfordbloodcenter.org

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Community News>>

December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 11

Attorney reflects on his years of fighting for equality

by John Ferrannini

F

orty-three years ago, Thomas F. Coleman faced a dilemma that called for his skills as an attorney.

It was “love at first sight” when he met his husband, Michael Vasquez, Coleman told the Bay Area Reporter on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his admission to the California bar. The two had met after Vasquez showed up to Coleman’s Hollywood law office after he’d become “one of those unfortunate guys that got busted by the cops.”

“Something moved me. I’d never felt like this before,” Coleman said. “When I proposed, and he said yes, the question was ‘where are we going to get married?’”

At the time, in 1981, same-sex marriage was not only not legal in the United States, it wasn’t legal anywhere.

“There was no nation on the planet that would recognize same-sex marriage, so I put my creative legal mind to work, and we got married in international waters,” Coleman said. “We removed ourselves from the jurisdiction of all nations.”

The couple rented what Coleman described as a “Catalina triple-decker boat.”

Vasquez told the B.A.R. that “we had several hundred people.”

“We made sure we went three miles because at first, they were hesitant because of the legalities of what happens to the boat in international waters,” Vasquez recalled. “So we just went right beyond that point and said, ‘I do, I do.’

We’re here 43 years later. Wow.” It wasn’t the last time Coleman would think outside the box, either. Now a solo practitioner mainly doing consulting in Cathedral City (adjacent to Palm Springs), Coleman said his advice for young people is that “sometimes you just have to think outside the normal box.”

“That’s kind of my current advice – don’t color within the lines,” he said.

“You’ve got to play by the rules but sometimes you can find clever ways of twisting the rules and finding loopholes.”

Coleman first learned to start coloring outside the lines when he helped to form the first gay student law association in America. He was studying law at Loyola Marymount at a time when those attorneys who were gay were far from being open about it.

“Up to that point in just about every state it was a felony to engage in gay sex,” Coleman said. “We were the first generation of openly gay law students turned lawyers. The lawyers before us were mostly closeted.”

At the time, Coleman knew he was gay but felt very lonely not knowing anyone else in his cohort who was.

“There were no openly gay students,

Courtesy Thomas Coleman

Gay attorney Thomas F. Coleman is marking the 50th anniversary of being admitted to the California bar.

nothing pro-gay,” he said. “You were just on your own.”

That was, until he saw a flyer asking gay law students to show up at a certain address to meet up. At first the meetings were at a private home, then at a gay bar called Dude City. The group included students from Loyola; UCLA; the University of Southern California; Southwestern; and Pepperdine.

“Finally meeting each other – we became openly gay after that.The gay and lesbian community center in Los Angeles offered that we could be there,” he said, referring to what is now called the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “This was a whole different era. I remember going there for the first meeting and I’d never seen a building before that had the word gay on it. It was an old Victorian on Wilshire Boulevard. I remember walking up the steps and seeing in big letters ‘gay community’ and I thought ‘wow.’”

Coleman was the founding president of the Gay Law Students Association.

After graduating Loyola – and being admitted to the bar on December 20, 1973 – Coleman became co-chair of the National Committee for Sexual Civil Liberties, which was later renamed the American Association for Personal Privacy, alongside Arthur Warner, in which capacity he served from 1974 to 1981.

Warner, who’d graduated from Harvard, was not allowed to practice law because he’d been “busted on a morals charge,” Coleman said.

“So he devoted his whole life to challenge these laws throughout the 50 states,” Coleman said.

Warner died in 2007.

San Francisco

Coleman went to San Francisco for

the first forum on gay rights hosted by the American Bar Association, which helped put the decriminalization of homosexuality on the map in the legal community.

“The purpose was to dismantle the criminal structure that was oppressing gay men,” he said. “We wanted the nation’s top legal organization to come out in favor of decriminalization and we succeeded. It helped in lobbying efforts with the state legislature and so on.”

It was at this time Coleman met Thomas E. Horn, a gay man and attorney who later became publisher of the Bay Area Reporter from 2004 to 2013 and is currently president of the Bob A. Ross Foundation, named after the paper’s founding publisher.

“He’s really been committed to the cause and he’s been doing yeoman’s work. He’s been in the trenches forever,” Horn said. “He was involved with gay legal rights committees such as the committee on sexual civil liberties. He was really in the forefront of trying to bring legal representation to our community.”

California decriminalized homosexuality in 1976 after Assembly Bill 489 was signed by then-governor Jerry Brown (D) in 1975, during Brown’s first stint as the state’s leader.

The last laws in the nation against sexual activity in private between consenting adult members of the same sex were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court as the result of its decision in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) that found the laws to violate the right to privacy in the penumbras of the Constitution.

That decision rendered the sodomy laws of 14 states unenforceable, though some remain on the books. For example, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said last year he’d back a state law banning gay and lesbian sexual activity if the Supreme Court reconsidered the Lawrence precedent in light of its 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973), which had found that a woman’s right to an abortion was protected by the right to privacy.

“Current advocates for LGBT rights can learn from the experiences of the advocates of 50 years ago and apply some of our strategies from back then to the challenges of anti-LGBT proposals being promoted today,” Coleman stated.

“This is not a time for complacency. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

‘Improvidently granted’

It was during the fight for decriminalization that Coleman again had to think outside of the box.

The New York State Court of Appeal struck down the state’s sodomy laws in 1980, and another appellate decision

several years later – in People v. Uplinger – overturned the state’s loitering laws.

That decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, led by conservative Chief Justice Warren Burger. Coleman, Advocate publisher David B. Goodstein, and others worried that the court would use the opportunity to reach back and rule New York state – home to one of America’s largest LGBTQ communities – could legally ban gay sex even if it had been proffered in private.

“Goodstein talked to me,” Coleman said. “He said ‘you’ve got to get the Supreme Court to dismiss this case.’ I said, ‘David, they just took the case.’ He said, ‘you have to get them to dismiss.’ I’m thinking ‘how do you do that?’”

Oral arguments were heard in January 1984. Coleman and other attorneys argued that the court had made a mistake by accepting the case. In May, the court agreed.

“Under these circumstances, we are persuaded that this case provides an inappropriate vehicle for resolving the important constitutional issues raised by the parties,” the court ruled. “We therefore dismiss the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.”

It was providential – two years later in Bowers v. Hardwick, the court ruled that sodomy statutes weren’t unconstitutional, a decision it later reversed in Lawrence.

But that decision only applied to states that had not yet decriminalized gay sex.

In the Bowers opinion, Burger wrote that sex between people of the same sex was once a capital crime, quoting approvingly English jurist Sir William Blackstone’s description that it is “a crime not fit to be named.”

“To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching,” he wrote.

“In constitutional terms there is no such thing as a fundamental right to commit homosexual sodomy.”

Coleman noted the fortunate nature of the timing of the decision, at least for the Empire State.

“This obscure, procedural thing saved New York State’s sexual privacy decision,” Coleman said.

Coleman founded the Spectrum Institute in 1987, dealing with conservatorship reform, which remains his primary focus. He wrote his professional memoir, “The Domino Effect,” which was published in 2009, and more recently in 2022 he wrote “The Seventies: A Breakthrough Decade for LGBT Rights.” In a new project, he’s going to be writing commentary and digitizing the personal papers of his former colleague Warner, whose articles and writings are part of the Department of Special Collections at the Princeton University Library.

“At the age of 75, I may not have the same energy I did in my younger years, but my passion for justice has not diminished,” he stated.

And through all this time, he and Vasquez have stayed married.

“I was always supportive of him and I always just helped him out,” Vasquez said. “It was a good balance; it took a while for me to understand that. His professional career was just something I learned to adapt with and go with the changes.” t

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Observing World AIDS Day

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ulia Ready wrote the name of her friend Michael Tyree in chalk on the sidewalk of Castro Street as part of Inscribe, a sidewalk art event to commemorate World AIDS Day, December 1. Inscribe is the brainchild of HIV activist George Kelly and is an opportunity for people to remember those who’ve been lost. Tyree “passed recently,” Ready said.

John Ferrannini

“He survived AIDS and was so grateful to be alive,” she added.

“He gardened and worked with me.”

Inscribe was just one of several events in the Bay Area commemorating the 35th annual World AIDS Day; another in Golden Gate Park featured HIV-positive Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis, who was a guest of the National AIDS Memorial Grove’s observance.

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<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

<<

HIV cases

From page 1

Most people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2022 were men (84%), including 61% men who have sex with men and 11% gay or bisexual men who also inject drugs. In 2021, the proportion of cases among gay and bisexual men who don’t inject drugs fell below half for the first time. Buchbinder suggested the higher proportion for gay men in 2022 may in part be attributable to the drop in cases among cisgender women, which fell from 14% to 9%. In addition, 6% of new cases were among transgender women and 1% among trans men.

A majority of people newly diagnosed in 2022 was between the ages of 25 and 50. Eighteen people were ages 18 to 24 at diagnosis. No infants have been born with HIV and no children have been diagnosed with HIV since 2005.

Latinos made up the largest share of new cases, at 43%, followed by white people (29%), Black people (15%), and Asians and Pacific Islanders (10%).

What’s more, Latinos were the only group to see an increase in new diagnoses, while Black and white people saw a decline. Looking at HIV rates relative to share of the population, Latino and Black men had the highest rates (84 and 68 cases per 100,000 people, respectively) compared with 19 and 9 per 100,000 for white and Asian/Pacific Islander men, respectively. Most newly diagnosed cisgender women were Black.

The report shows that disadvantaged groups bear the brunt of the city’s HIV epidemic. People who inject drugs accounted for 19% of new diagnoses in 2022, down from 27%

<<

Low

From page 2

primary and advancing to the November ballot, Yeager told the B.A.R. The two top vote-getters regardless of party affiliation will do so.

“All three of the major candidates have their own constituencies,” he noted. “It is really going to be a matter of who raises the most money and who works the hardest. Certainly, Evan has a long history of doing both of those things.”

Born in San Jose and raised in the congressional district, Low’s parents separated when he was 18. He graduated from San Jose State University and went on to win election to the Campbell City Council in 2006.

He was the first Asian American

<<

Guest Opinion

From page 6

The effects on LGBTQ+ mental health

It is crucial to acknowledge the effect this climate has on mental health in the LGBTQ+ community. Studies consistently show that LGBTQ+ individuals experience higher rates of mental health issues compared to the general population. Factors such as discrimination, rejection, and inter-

<<

Political Notebook

From page 7

to come home to,” said Martinez.

That experience, and navigating the COVID pandemic as a parent working from home, provided her a unique perspective that she now wants to bring to the county board. In addition to knowing the inner workings of the county government due to her nonprofit work, Martinez has also chaired the Santa Cruz County Parks and Recreation Commission and serves on the executive committee of the Santa Cruz County Health Improvement Partnership.

“Given my experience navigating public services and county funding, I feel like I have a lot to offer,” she said.

Liz Highleyman

Dr. Susan Buchbinder leads the health department’s Bridge HIV program.

for PrEP were receiving it nationwide, falling to 20% for Latino and 11% for Black men who have sex with men, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far, few people in San Francisco are using cabotegravir injections (Apretude) every other month for HIV prevention, but DPH and partner organizations are working to roll it out in an equitable way, Buchbinder told the B.A.R. City Clinic is starting to reach people who aren’t on oral PrEP, including a growing proportion of women.

“This is a huge breakthrough in prevention for people who can’t or don’t want to take pills,” she said. “We’re reaching people that we don’t normally reach by using injectable PrEP.” The vast majority of people living with HIV in San Francisco – 97% – know their status. However, 14% were diagnosed with late-stage disease in 2022, a proportion that has held steady for several years. DPH aims to increase prompt diagnosis with the “Take Me Home” program, which offers home test kits for HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

The report shows improvements over time in the proportion of people who receive HIV care and antiretroviral treatment. Among people diagnosed in 2022, 90% were linked to care within one month and, on average, individuals started treatment the same day they were diagnosed. However, linkage to care was lower than the 95% figure reported in 2019, likely reflecting ongoing disruptions due to the COVID pandemic.

Of those diagnosed in 2022, 80% achieved viral suppression within six months, about the same as the pre-COVID percentage. Looking at

t

all SF residents living with HIV (not just those newly diagnosed), the viral suppression rate fell to 73%. This is a concern, as keeping community viral load low plays a key role in preventing transmission, officials noted.

Here, too, disparities are evident.

Latino people were the least likely of all racial/ethnic groups to receive HIV care, and both Latino and Black people had lower rates of viral suppression compared with white people.

Only 52% of people experiencing homelessness achieved viral suppression, but this is a substantial improvement over the 27% figure reported in 2021. People who inject drugs also had a low viral suppression rate.

Despite these gaps, San Francisco continues to do better than the rest of California and the country as a whole.

Nationwide, just over 82% of newly diagnosed people were linked to care within a month, and two-thirds of those diagnosed in 2021 achieved viral suppression, according to the CDC. California’s statewide indicators are similar to the national figures.

“It is encouraging to see a slight decline in the number of new HIV infections and relatively high rates of engagement in care and viral suppression among people living with HIV,” Tyler TerMeer, Ph.D., a gay Black man living with HIV who is CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told the B.A.R. “As one of the city’s largest providers of PrEP and a supportive network for many people living with HIV, San Francisco AIDS Foundation remains committed to addressing disparities in HIV through all of our programs and services.”

The full HIV Epidemiology Annual Report 2022 is available at https://tinyurl.com/39cb9fy9. t

in 2021, while people experiencing homelessness accounted for 17%, down from a peak of 23% in 2021.

The new data bring the total number of San Franciscans living with HIV to 11,798 at the end of 2022. A higher number (15,537) were city residents at the time of diagnosis. People ages 50 or older now make up 73% of the HIV-positive population, reflecting longer lifespans thanks to effective treatment. No children or adolescents ages 17 or under were living with HIV in 2022, according to the report.

The aging population helps explain the rising number of deaths among people with HIV, which reached 312 in 2022. Non-AIDS cancers accounted for 16% of deaths during 20182021, followed closely by heart disease at about 15%. But drug overdoses also played a major role, responsible for 18% of deaths.

“One in five deaths of people with HIV from an overdose is really unac-

ceptably high, which is why our health access points – low barrier comprehensive services targeting specific populations – all incorporate harm reduction services and overdose prevention,” Buchbinder said. The health access points focus on priority populations including Black and Latino people, people who use drugs, and people experiencing homelessness.

to serve on the governing body. Four years later he became the youngest openly LGBTQ+ mayor in the country at age 26.

He first won election to the state Assembly in 2014. He has strong ties to Silicon Valley’s tech industry, which could benefit him in a House race as a source of support and financial donations to his campaign.

As the B.A.R. reported last year, Low moved into the redrawn 26th Assembly District that includes Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, and parts of San Jose in order to avoid competing against his colleague Assemblymember Marc Berman (DPalo Alto) for reelection to the state Legislature. Berman had been drawn into Low’s former Assembly District.

Doing so required Low to va-

cate the 1,100 square foot condo in Campbell that he co-owns with his brother, a San Jose police officer. He moved into the Sunnyvale home of his father and stepmother, where he continues to live, though he told the B.A.R. his plan is to move back to Campbell and reregister to vote there due to seeking the House seat.

Low is the second out candidate running next year for an open House seat in the Bay Area. Jennifer Kim-Anh Tran, Ph.D., a queer leader within the state’s Vietnamese American community, is seeking to succeed Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), who is running for U.S. Senate rather than seek another House term.

Tran is the partner of Nenna Join-

er, who owns several sex shops in the East Bay and a downtown Oakland nightlife venue. She is in a tough race to survive the March primary along with fellow Democrats BART board member Lateefah Simon and business owner Tim Sanchez, a U.S. Navy Reserves veteran who served in Afghanistan.

As the B.A.R. reported in an online story November 17, there are now out House candidates in all three of the West Coast states. The 2024 election could thus see the California congressional delegation’s LGBTQ contingent expand from its current two gay members, while those in Oregon and Washington state see its first out members. t

nalized stigma contribute to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.

Accessing culturally competent mental health care remains a challenge for many individuals. Some mental health professionals lack understanding of the unique experiences and needs of the community. Factors such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability intersect with sexual orientation and gender identity, influencing the experiences of mental health disparities within the commu-

nity, often creating barriers to seeking help.

considering the diverse experiences within the community.

Secondly, legal advocacy is a cornerstone in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and mental health. Continued efforts to challenge discriminatory laws, promote inclusive policies, and advocate for the well-being of the LGBTQ+ community are essential for creating lasting change. Finally, it is imperative that the LGBTQ+ community put its full support behind candidates committed to fighting this extremist agenda. By addressing both

legal and mental health aspects, we move closer to a more equitable and compassionate society for the LGBTQ+ community. t

“I won’t be green in the job because I have been navigating these systems professionally my whole career. I feel really ready and that this is a natural next step for my career.”

Should she be able to secure the supervisor seat in the March 5 primary, it would allow Martinez to help usher in a new executive director at her agency before she is sworn into the supervisor seat next December ahead of the board’s first meeting in January 2025.

“The real reason I want to win in March is I run a large human services organization. If I have time to transition out of the role and support the organization in hiring and training a person during that time period, it will be good for the organization and the services we deliver in our county,”

said Martinez. “I’d much rather have time to do that from March to January rather than have to campaign.”

To learn more about her candidacy, visit her website at martinezforsupervisor.com.

Cruz, as is former assistant city manager Susie O’Hara.

It includes the Pogonip open space area and the majority of the UC Santa Cruz campus, plus the city’s Upper West Side and Harvey West Park areas. (The coastal enclave is transitioning to having six district-based council seats plus an elected mayor, which began with the 2022 elections for two of the seats and a new mayor.)

Like the county’s supervisor races, the council race will be on the 2024 primary ballot. With just two candidates in the race, it is likely one of them will receive more than 50% of the vote come March 5 to win it outright and avoid a runoff race on the November ballot next year.

According to a map of LGBTQ elected officials maintained by the

LGBTQ Victory Fund, there are no out members currently on the City Council in Santa Cruz. Former lesbian councilmember Donna Meyers left in 2022 after serving one four-year term, which included her becoming the city’s first lesbian mayor when she held the former ceremonial role in 2021.

The Victory Fund also endorsed Thompson in their council race. In a December 1 post on X touting their qualifying for the ballot, Thompson also noted, “this race is no longer uncontested. That means I need your help if I’m going to win in March.”

To learn more about their candidacy, visit Thompson’s campaign website at https://votejoethompson.com/ t

HIV care indicators

Compared with the nation as a whole, San Francisco does a good job providing care for people living with and at risk for HIV. The use of PrEP, which was first approved in 2012, has steadily risen over the past decade. In 2022, just over three-quarters of people who could benefit from PrEP were receiving it in San Francisco, including 72% of Latino and 67% of Black gay and bisexual men seen at City Clinic. In contrast, only about a third of people eligible

The path forward

To address this crisis we need a multifaceted approach. First, increasing education and awareness about LGBTQ+ issues can help combat stigma and discrimination. This includes educating legal professionals, mental health practitioners, and the general public about the challenges faced by the community and the importance of creating inclusive environments, also

EQCA endorses out Santa Cruz council candidate

Another candidate looking to make political history in Santa Cruz County next year also picked up the support recently of EQCA. Joe Thompson is aiming to become the first nonbinary individual elected to the Santa Cruz City Council.

A former union organizer at Starbucks, Thompson came up short last year in their bid for a state Assembly seat. Thompson is now running for the District 5 council seat in Santa

Courtesy the candidate

South Bay Assemblymember Evan Low on Tuesday announced his candidacy for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Congressmember Anna Eshoo.

Tate Barkley is a practicing attorney, speaker, author, and educator. He lives in Houston with his husband of six years, Anson, and their dog, Emerson. For more information, including about ordering his book, “Sunday Dinners, Moonshine, and Men,” visit tatebarkley.com.

t

International News>>

December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 13

Russia accuses journalist Gessen of spreading ‘false information’ in lawsuit

by Heather Cassell

The list of Russian and foreign journalists facing legal issues in the country, including American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, continues to grow. Russian authorities charged Gershkovich with espionage which he, the Journal, and the U.S. deny. He has been in jail for nine months.

R

ussia is suing Russian American journalist Masha Gessen for allegedly spreading “false information” about Russian soldiers’ actions in Ukraine.

Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine under the orders of President Vladimir Putin February 24, 2022. Ever since the country has cracked down on dissidents critical of the Slavic nation’s invasion of a sovereign country.

Russian authorities immediately arrested Russian anti-war protestors and anyone critical of the invasion after the war began. Independent Russian newspapers have been given the “foreign agent” label, which requires the media outlets to have banners stating they’ve been given such status otherwise their publishers face fines and/or prison sentences.

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the head of the Russian government-funded paramilitary group, the Wagner Group, was killed when his plane exploded August 23 two months after he led a failed coup against his former ally Putin.

Gessen, a nonbinary and transgender person who uses they/them pronouns, lives in the United States and holds dual Russian and U.S. citizenship. They are a longtime critic of Putin, reported the Washington Post.

They moved to New York in 2013 after Putin’s first crackdown on the LGBTQ community with the passage of the “Anti-Homosexuality Propaganda” law in June of that year. Last year, Putin extended the law from protecting children to any public “promotion” of LGBTQ information, reported Human Rights Watch.

Gessen, a New Yorker staffer, was charged with spreading “knowingly false information” about the atrocities committed by the Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian city of Bucha following an interview with popular Russian YouTuber and journalist Yury Dud last year, reported The Moscow Times. Dud has more than 10 million YouTube subscribers, according to The Post.

YouTube is the only Western social media platform accessible to Russians. Facebook, Instagram, and X are blocked.

Shortly after Russian soldiers invaded Ukraine last year, they occupied Bucha, a city west of Kyiv. Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk claims that 20% of the city’s population was

First queer couple marries in Nepal

Courtesy Facebook

Masha Gessen is being sued by the Russian government for their reporting on Russian soldiers’ actions in Ukraine.

killed during the Russian occupation, reported the Moscow Times.

Russia denied the reports of the alleged atrocities of murdered and brutalized Ukrainians at the hands of Russian soldiers that surfaced in March 2022, calling it fake news, reported the Post.

Gessen traveled through Ukrainian cities reporting on potential war crimes in the first months of the war and discussed her experience during the interview.

Russian authorities do not have any legal ability to arrest Gessen as long as they do not travel to Russia or any country that has a mutual extradition treaty with Moscow, they told the Post. However, the criminal case does limit their ability to report on Russia.

Gessen won the National Book Award in nonfiction for their 2017 book, “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.” They also authored “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin” in 2013.

Russia has extradition treaties with nearly all former Soviet states, as well as Indonesia, India, Thailand, and other countries, reported the Post.

“The chances that I will ever be able to go back to Russia — I’m 56 years old — are pretty slim,” Gessen told the Post. “That has a significant impact on my life and at some point, my journalism.”

“But there are also a whole bunch of countries it would be unsafe for me to go to — they’re going to issue a search warrant in the next week or so and that means that all the countries that have extradition treaties with Russia become risky places,” they added.

Russian authorities have severely cracked down on independent journalists since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, using an array of draconian “fake news” and “discreditation of the army” laws adopted in the first weeks of the war.

Last year a Russian court shuttered independent media outlet Novaya Gazeta, yanking its license to operate and labeling the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, a “foreign agent.” Muratov received a joint Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. He launched a legal campaign against Russia, suing the country in September, reported Reuters.

Fellow award-winning Russian lesbian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko, who wrote for Novaya Gazeta for 17 years and who has also been critical in her reporting on the Russian-Ukraine war, has been on the run with her girlfriend after she was believed to be poisoned.

Kostyuchenko published a memoir last month, “I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country,” the Bay Area Reporter reported.

The Post reported another Russian-American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is with the Tatar-Bashkir service of the U.S. Congress-funded media outlet, was imprisoned for failing to self-report and register as a foreign agent, according to Russian authorities. It’s the first such case against a reporter in Russia.

Russian authorities detained Kurmasheva before she boarded a flight to Prague, where she lives with her family, at the airport in Kazan, Russia. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Michael Fung, NAMG

Louganis honored at AIDS grove

J

ohn Cunningham, left, chief executive officer of the National AIDS Memorial Grove, presented the National Leadership Recognition Award to gay Olympic diver Greg Louganis during the World AIDS Day event at the grove December 1. Louganis, who came out as HIV-positive in 1995, told the Bay Area Reporter in

a recent interview that he has been involved with the AIDS grove for many years. The grove also held its Light in the Grove benefit November 30 to raise funds for the organization that is located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey became the first queer Nepali couple to wed in the Himalayan country November 29.

Gurung, 35, a transgender woman who is legally recognized as male, and Pandey, 27, a cisgender man, were legally wed by Dordi authorities in their home district of Lamjung.

Gurung told the BBC that their registration was a “big day” not just for the couple, but all sexual minorities.

“The fight for rights is not easy. We have done it. And it will be easier for future generations,” she said. “The registration has opened doors to a lot of things for us.”

The couple made several attempts this year to legally register their marriage but had been denied. The couple wed in a Hindu ceremony in 2017.

Nepal currently only recognizes marriages between one man and one woman.

According to Human Rights Watch, the couple first attempted to legally register their marriage at the Kathmandu District Court in June after Nepal’s Supreme Court instructed authorities to register samesex marriages, but was denied. The couple appealed to the Patan High Court in September. The couple was denied again. The judges stated it was the responsibility of the federal government to change the law before the lower courts could register same-sex marriages.

In March, Nepal’s Supreme Court issued an interim order instructing authorities to register same-sex marriages following its ordering the government to legally recognize a gay Nepali couple who married in Germany, reported HRW. Nepal’s Supreme Court is considering a case that argues for marriage equality across the country.

Hem Raj Kafle, chief administrative officer of the Dordi rural municipality, told Reuters, “We have issued the marriage registration certificate to the couple in consideration of the Supreme Court order and instructions from relevant government authorities.”

Nepal has had a long journey to marriage equality. In 2007, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to form a committee to draft a law legalizing same-sex marriage. In 2015, the committee recommended Nepal’s government to do so, but the country’s leaders failed to follow through on the recommendation. Its failure to bring legislation to parliament prompted more legal actions, leading up to March’s Supreme Court interim order on same-sex marriage.

The couple told the BBC that they wanted to open a joint bank account and share ownership of the land they bought. But their biggest dream is to adopt a child, once their finances are more stable.

Former gay member of parliament and LGBTQ rights activist Sunil Babu Pant, founder of the Blue Diamond Society, Nepal’s leading gay rights organization, called the marriage a “historic” moment, reported the BBC. “Now we can register our marriage as do the regular couples. But we still have to do more to get other rights,” he told the BBC.

Thailand parliament to debate same-sex marriage bill next month

Thailand’s parliament will debate the Southeast Asian country’s samesex marriage law in December.

On November 20, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced the cabinet approved the draft bill and would send it to parliament on December 12, reported Reuters and The Diplomat.

According to The Diplomat, Karom Polpornklang, a deputy government spokesperson, clarified Srettha’s comments. The government spokesperson said Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code will be amended to change “men and women” to “individuals” and “husband and wife” to “marriage partners.” The change of wording in the law will allow same-sex couples to marry and have the same rights as straight couples.

Srettha’s announcement comes after LGBTQ and human rights activists criticized him for not putting the issue on parliament’s agenda when lawmakers returned to session September 1, reported The Diplomat.

Thailand is known for being open and welcoming to LGBTQ people.

In 2013, the Tourism Authority of Thailand launched an LGBTQ travel campaign, goThai.beFree, reported the New York Times, that it has promoted for a decade. Thailand most recently revived its campaign this summer to leverage its being LGBTQ-friendly and the popularity of its “boy-love” dramas, reported Nikkei Asia.

Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is also openly eyeing hosting WorldPride in 2028, Srettha has publicly stated, reported Reuters.

Thailand decriminalized homosexuality in 1956, but since then LGBTQ Thais have lived in a legal no man’s land with no laws discriminating against or protecting them. However, Thailand is also one of only nine Asian countries that signed a declaration of LGBTQ rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011, reported The Diplomat.

In a statement to The Diplomat, Thai human rights organization Fortify Rights representative Mookdapa Yangyuenpradorn wrote LGBTQ Thais “face daily discrimination and the legal hurdles that come with a lack of marital rights, including the right to welfare, child adoption, healthcare consent, property co-management, inheritance, and access to spousal benefits like tax deductions and government pensions.”

In recent years, Thailand’s parliament has reviewed and debated a variety of bills to grant civil unions and same-sex marriage. All bills have failed to make it to a final vote.

Thailand’s political parties — the ruling Pheu Thai and its rivals — campaigned supporting marriage equality ahead of the May elections, reported Reuters.

If parliament approves the draft law, and it receives royal assent of King Vajiralongkorn, Thailand will become the third country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

In addition to the recent moves

by Nepal, Taiwan legalized marriage equality in 2019. In October, as the B.A.R. reported, India’s supreme court declined to rule on same-sex marriage, sending the issue to India’s parliament to decide.t Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or oitwnews@ gmail.com.

<< Legals

14 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558396

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401803

In the matter of the application of STEVEN PAUL MUSARRA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner STEVEN PAUL MUSARRA is requesting that the name STEVEN PAUL MUSARRA be changed to STEFANO PAOLO MUSARRA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 9th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DUB CITY TOWING, 1155 INDIANA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DUB CITY TOW LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/2023.

SUMMONS: NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: MATTHEW FISK, AN INDIVIDUAL; DOES 1-5, INCLUSIVE, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: LENDMARK FINANCIAL SERVICES, LLC, A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. CASE NUMBER: CGC-22-602924

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WAU+LOVE CONSULTING; SF SUNSHINE PAWS DOG WALKING; BLACK SHEEP DESIGN CONSULTING, 1945 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE WAU UNIVERSITY, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/21/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/31/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you.

Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www. courlinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program.

You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courlinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case, as the person sued under the fictitious business name of Matthew Fisk. The name and address of the court is: Superior Court of San Francisco, 400 McAllister St. Room 103, San Francisco, CA 94012-4514.

The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiffs attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: DONALD DUNNING (SBN 144665); JAMES MACLEOD (SBN 249145), THE DUNNING LAW FIRM APC, 9619 CHESAPEAKE DR. #210, SAN DIEGO, CA 92123; (858) 974-7600.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401787

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KIMCAR JANITORIAL SERVICES, 523 NAPLES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAMARIS L. CABRERA LIMA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/08/2020. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401839

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GREEN VALLEY LANDSCAPING SERVICES, 375 GARCES DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALAN J. VARGAS VARGAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401866

The following person(s) is/are doing business as C&K BEAUTY SALON, 1551 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRIAN TOAN HUNG CHUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401867

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GARDEN COURT, 1700 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES D. GALLAGHER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401879

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KAMALA BODHI WELLNESS, 109 BARTLETT ST #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SAMANTHA HO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/28/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401856

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 500 LEAVENWORTH APARTMENTS, LP, 500 LEAVENWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited partnership, and is signed 500 LEAVENWORTH APARTMENTS, LP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/2009. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KASA REAL ESTATE GROUP, 595 PACIFIC AVE FL 4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AVENUE 8 INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401797

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SKYLARK, 3089 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 3089 16TH STREET LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/28/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/02/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401838

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SARITA’S GRILL & BEER, 995 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SARITA’S GRILL & BEER, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/07/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401779

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401739

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JENN BAN STUDIO, 266 CARL ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JENN BAN STUDIO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/27/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401889

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SUTRO HEIGHTS, CORPORATION, 659 45TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed UPLYFT ASSISTED CARE, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-0400621

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as BUN APPETIT; ME SO HUNGRY; WING MAN; MR CLUCK; SLIDERMEISTER, 320 11TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a limited liability company and signed by GOURMET HUB, LLC (CA). The fictitious business name statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/2023. The abandonment of fictitious business name statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/01/2023.

NOV 16, 23, 30, DEC 07, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558372

In the matter of the application of BATMUNKH GERELMAA, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner BATMUNKH GERELMAA is requesting that the name BATMUNKH GERELMAA be changed to BATMUNKH NOMUNKHAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 23th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401883 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NINA MARION, 45 SURREY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NINA YHAP. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/09/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401923

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CITY CHIK ENTERPRISES, 751 GRAFTON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEANETTE WRIGHT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/05/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/14/2023.

a corporation, and is signed AAI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401848

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 3116 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ASI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401906

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE UPPER HAND NAIL SPA, 3836 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE UPPER HAND NAIL SPA (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/10/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401931

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401673

The following person(s) is/are doing business as R&R SMART FIX, 2770 MISSION ST SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RAMON MARTINEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/12/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/18/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401849

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 5200 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AHI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401846 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 728 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ARI FOODS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401844

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DOMINO’S PIZZA, 320 BAYSHORE BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401960

The following person(s) is/are doing business as 4 THE LOVE OF DOG, 1450 SUTTER ST #223, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAMES JASMIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/21/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/21/2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as GREENTREE MAINTENANCE, 1398 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed GTM WORKS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/03/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401911 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LUNETTE CAMBODIA, 1 FERRY BLDG STE 33/47, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NYUM BAI (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/13/2023.

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

IN THE MATTER OF M.A.P.O. LEILA GARDINO DOS REIS HAS FILED A PETITION FOR GUARDIANSHIP ASKING THAT LEILA GARDINO DOS REIS AND CELSO JOSE DA SILVA BE APPOINTED AS GUARDIANS OVER M.A.P.O., BIOLOGICAL CHILD OF VAGNER HENRIQUE PEDRA DE OLIVEIRA AND DEISIENE PEREIRA. HEARING DATE TO BE SCHEDULED. 30 SPRING STREET, NASHUA, NH 03060, 9TH CIRCUIT COURT - NASHUA

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PARENTS This petition asks the court to decide whether guardianship over your child is needed and if the proposed guardian is appropriate. If a guardian is appointed, the court will determine the guardian’s rights, powers and duties over your child. This could include matters of care, custody or control, religious upbringing and other parts of your child’s life including visitation. It is also possible that you may be ordered to pay child support. If guardianship is granted, it will continue until the court enters an order ending or changing it or until the child reaches 18 years of age. Each parent has the right to object to or to contest the guardianship petition. Each parent has a right to consent to the granting of the guardianship petition by doing so before the court or the court’s designee as specified in RSA 463:8, IX. Each parent is required to attend the hearing whether consenting or objecting to the petition. If you fail to appear at the hearing, the court may grant the guardianship and make other orders without your input. Notify the court of your objection via mail at 30 Spring Street, Nashua, NH 03060, or by calling 1-855-212-1234. As a parent, if you are not the petitioner, you must complete and file a UNIFORM CHILD CUSTODY JURISDICTION AND ENFORCEMENT ACT (UCCJEA) AFFIDAVIT with the court on or before the day of the hearing. You must forward a copy of the UCCJEA AFFIDAVIT to the Petitioner or the Petitioner’s Attorney.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEATER MEDIA, 1638 LARKIN ST #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIRANDA HEATER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/20/2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401814

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558379

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401948

In the matter of the application of MELISSA TIFFANY HUNG, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MELISSA TIFFANY HUNG is requesting that the name MELISSA TIFFANY HUNG be changed to MELISSA KWANG ANDERSSON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 9th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401857

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

NOV 23, 30, DEC 07, 14, 2023

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558389

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MAGIC PLUMBING HEATING & COOLING, 1455 BANCROFT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MAGIC PLUMBING INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401725 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CAPTAIN MOLLY’S SF BOAT COMPANY, 160 CENTRAL AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MOLLY BREIVIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/26/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 10/26/2023.

the 9th of JANUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

In the matter of the application of MOHAMMED MAKSAOD ABDUL MAJID SHAIKH, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner MOHAMMED MAKSAOD ABDUL MAJID SHAIKH is requesting that the name MOHAMMED MAKSAOD ABDUL MAJID SHAIKH AKA MOHAMMED MAKSUD ABDULMAJID SHAIKH AKA MOHAMMED MAKSUD SHAIKH be changed to MOHAMMED MAKSUD SHAIKH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 1st of FEBRUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558371

In the matter of the application of PETERS CLAUDE LOUIS GISSELERE, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner PETERS CLAUDE LOUIS GISSELERE is requesting that the name PETERS CLAUDE LOUIS GISSELERE be changed to PETERS CLAUDE LOUIS MALHERBE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 20th of FEBRUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558361

In the matter of the application of KEVIN WILLIAM RUDER, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KEVIN WILLIAM RUDER is requesting that the name KEVIN WILLIAM RUDER be changed to NICOLAS KEVIN CANALES OUIMETTE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 15th of FEBRUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558388

In the matter of the application of LEE DUPONT MAYEUX, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner LEE DUPONT MAYEUX is requesting that the name LEE DUPONT MAYEUX be changed to LEE MAYEUX ANDERSON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOLECITOS FAMILY HOME DAYCARE, 4480 MISSION ST #B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OSIRIS ALVARADO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/08/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

t

FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JEFFERSON GOMEZ CHAVEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401969

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EP PLUMBING SERVICES, 1285 PALOU AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERSON PEREZ GALVEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/27/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0402001

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CATO CREATIONS, 515 GOETTINGEN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NANCY CATO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/30/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401980

The following person(s) is/are doing business as IF A THEN B, 3150 18TH ST #546, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANIA F. BRZESKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401996

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401901

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SANA THERAPY, 2142 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LIZETTE GABRIELA MARTINEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/15/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/29/2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401933

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BED AND BREAKFAST JAM, 830 EDDY ST #702, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GABRIEL DAVID CHEUK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/07/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/10/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401975

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CONCEPTM; RINCON HOUSE OF BABEL, 1592 UNION ST #387, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEVE MORIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/28,2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401840

The following person(s) is/are doing business as DESIGN BLITZ; BLITZ; STUDIO BLITZ; BLITZ ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN; BLITZ SF; BLITZ SAN FRANCISCO; ALPHAPUP OFFICE, 435 JACKSON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DESIGN BLITZ (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/11/2022. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/08/2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PROJECT COMMOTION, 2095 HARRISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PROJECT COMMOTION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/04/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401935

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NEPALESE INDIAN CUISINE, 1298 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed USA NEPAL CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/15/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401972

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401934

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ANAN’S DELI KITCHEN, 6900 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BEIJING TOKYO BISTRO LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/27/2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401971

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TRAVEL A GOGO, 3739 BALBOA ST #235, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SOL LEGACY VENTURES (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/15/2023.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401956

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ZUPERPET, 819 BOSWORTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MIGHTYREAL LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/20/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

The following person(s) is/are doing business as REKNDLE, 1350 REVERE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed REKNDLE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/27/2023.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401835

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THANK YOU SAINT, 2377 SAN JOSE AVE #18, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THANK YOU SAINT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/20/2023. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 11/07/2023.

NOV 30, DEC 07, 14, 21, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558376

In the matter of the application of KATERINA HELMN, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner KATERINA HELMN is requesting that the name KATERINA HELMN be changed to KATERINA COMING. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 6th of FEBRUARY 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558408

In the matter of the application of ALI ASSY, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner ALI ASSY is requesting that the name ALI ASSY be changed to ALEX ALI ALASSI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 5th of MARCH 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-23558409

In the matter of the application of STEPHANIE JACQUELYN LEON, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appears from said application that petitioner STEPHANIE JACQUELYN LEON is requesting that the name STEPHANIE JACQUELYN LEON be changed to KITTY JACQUILYN LEON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 5th of MARCH 2024 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 07, 14, 21, 28, 2023

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-0401987 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SABOR GUATEMALTECO, 4384 MISSION ST, SAN

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Doug Krantz

by Jim Gladstone

C

omedian Matt Rogers, who headlines the Castro Theatre on December 20, is best known for the long-running “Las Culturistas” podcast. The zeitgeisty pop gabfest, which he co-hosts with dear friend and fellow NYU alumnus Bowen Yang, has been in production since 2016, making it one of the medium’s longest running successes. The podcast began before Yang was cast on “Saturday Night Live,” and before the duo costarred in the 2022 film “Fire Island.”

Among the podcast’s most magnetic qualities is the sense of cheerful intimacy it provides. The queer longtime friends speak in a quirky interpersonal shorthand that becomes more comprehensible the more episodes one hears, drawing listeners into what feels like a close-knit social circle.

One of the things the podcast’s fans have learned over the years is that both Rogers and Yang are huge music fans. This past year alone they’ve caught multiple nights of the Beyoncé and Taylor Swift tours, not to mention Adele’s Las Vegas residency.

While Yang has lately leaned into the pair’s love of music theater, playing a role in the recently wrapped movie version of “Wicked,” Rogers has gone full pop star mode, recording a slickly produced album, “Have You Heard of Christmas?”

Though it’s lyrically tongue in cheek, the album so successfully captures the sheen of contemporary dance and R&B music that one could easily overlook the sidesplitting humor in favor of the rump-shaking beats.

But in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter from his manager’s office in New York, Rogers expressed his holiday wish that you’d make room for both in your heart.

Matt Rogers

brings Christmas to the Castro Jim Gladstone: What led you to make a Christmas album?

Matt Rogers: I was watching an interview with Mariah Carey years ago – and you know I love Mariah, so no shade – and the interviewer just said aloud what’s usually unspoken: “Wow! You make money on this over and over, every year!”

I thought that was so funny to call out the capitalism of the whole Christmas music thing. It was so in line with what I find hilarious: The craven pursuit of money and fame. I figured I’d just start saying I was cutting a Christmas album.

So, it was just a joke to begin with?

Yeah, it feels like when older pop stars become ‘legacy’ for lack of a better word, they trot out a Christmas album. I was like, listen, I can see the future and of course I’m going to become a legacy pop star. So, let’s just cut to the chase and do the

Christmas album now.

It started as a bit for my comedy shows, with just a couple of songs. Then year after year, the project got more real. What a slow build, right?

You can’t land a bit better than this. Six years later there really is a Christmas album. It’s my true crime story.

When folks come to your performance, should they be expecting a comedy show or a pop concert?

First and foremost, it’s a comedy project. But I will say, if you’re off-book on some of the songs and want to get up out of your seat to dance and sing along, listen, I can’t control you.

I don’t know what the person behind you is gonna say. As we know, The Castro is a seated venue. It’s a real theatre with a proper “re” at the end. But listen, if people want to acknowledge

Jessica Palopoli

A repentant Nicely-Nicely (Kay Loren, center) describes a heavenly journey in San Francisco Playhouse’s ‘Guys and Dolls.’

this as the pop star showcase may actually be, I absolutely love that. If you want to laugh, you want to cry, you want to scream, I encourage you to do it all.

I can’t help thinking back to when Eddie Murphy tried his hand at making music albums and got a fair amount of backlash.

Do you feel like there’s any risk of seeming egomaniacal in doing this?

I think if I were just releasing this with no context, people would listen to it and be like, I don’t know what to think of it because it’s comedy, but it’s also pop and it’s also seasonal. But because I can contextualize myself via social media and via the podcast, people sort of know what they’re getting.

See page 16 >>

In addition to spotlighting the strengths of his two female leads, director Bill English further leans into the dollification of Damon Runyon’s Aqua Velva pugnacity (the writer’s short stories inspired the musical) with the non-traditional casting of Kay Loren as gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Jessica Coker as the overbearing backstreet boss, Big Jule.

Coker makes the most of this opportunity, with a hardnosed, hair-trigger characterization that makes the ambiguously named Jule believable as dick, dyke or anywhere in between.

A tad too nicely done

‘Guys and Dolls’

at SF Playhouse

by Jim Gladstone

W

hen a local company chooses to revive a time-honored musical theater crowd-pleaser, it’s usually for one of two reasons: to goose the box office revenue by trading on nostalgic familiarity, or to encourage audiences to consider the piece from a fresh angle.

San Francisco Playhouse’s amiably diverting

production of “Guys and Dolls” may well succeed at bringing a warm, fuzzy feeling to fans of the Frank Loesser (music and lyrics)/Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows (book) chestnut. But attendees looking for something new will get just a glimmer of how the show might someday be reinvented as a fully power-shifted “Dolls and Guys.”

The performances of Abigail Esfira Campbell as Salvation Army Lieutenant Sarah Brown and Melissa WolfKlain as showgirl/mob moll Adelaide make

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY

the strongest arguments for seeing this version.

When Campbell sings “If I Were A Bell,” in her breathtaking pellucid soprano, you’ll want to assure her that she already is. And WolfKlain takes a character who often rings of dingbat (complete with adenoidal Edith Bunker accent) and gives her oomph and agency beyond what’s suggested in the somewhat dated script. She’s more than a match for Nathan Detroit (Joel Roster) here, rather than the comic novelty many productions make of her.

Holiday Gaiety DECEMBER 15

While altogether serviceable, the male cast members generally turn in less compelling performances. Roster and the ensemble don’t evoke real 1940s grit so much as the sanitized back alleys of a “Top Cat” cartoon.

As Sky Masterson, who falls hard for good Samaritan Sarah, David Toshiro Crane sings and dances with a handsome elegance that’s lovely to watch; but it doesn’t convince you this guy’s ever set foot on the wrong side of the tracks.

And keep your eye on company member Chachi Delgado, whose ever-shifting facial expressions reveal a deep engagement with the script.

He’s a swell hoofer, too.

In strengthening the musical’s main female characters while smoothing the edges off the guys, English doesn’t fully commit to a distinctive new point of view on the show. Our interest in something fresh is piqued, but not fully paid off.

What’s left to truly savor are Loesser’s indelibly jaunty songs: “Luck Be A Lady,” “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat,” “Take Back Your Mink,” See page 17 >>

<< Comedy

16 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy

t

Jewish comedy on Christmas in a Chinese restaurant

by David-Elijah Nahmod

A

fter a hiatus of several years, Lisa Geduldig’s ever-popular Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, a Christmas tradition in San Francisco, is back in Chinatown.

The show will take place on Saturday December 23 through Monday December 25. There will be a dinner show at 5pm and a cocktail show at 8:30pm.

The show will also be livestreamed. The annual show, which offers Jewish-style comedy on Christmas in a Chinese restaurant, had to go virtual for a few years due to the pandemic.

This year Kung Pao is at a new venue. The New Asia Restaurant, which hosted Kung Pao for twenty years, has been converted into a Chinese supermarket. Last year, when Kung Pao returned to being an in-person show, Geduldig had taken the show to a synagogue, but now she is very happy with Kung Pao’s new home.

“Imperial Palace is one of the two remaining Chinese restaurants in Chinatown with a banquet room,” Geduldig explained in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I chose Imperial Palace because the food is good, and

Left to Right: Wendy Liebman, Rich Aronovitch, Talia Reese, Lisa Geduldig and Arline Geduldig will perform in Kung Pao Kosher Comedy.

the banquet manager knows Kung Pao because he worked at New Asia some twenty years ago.”

Imperial Palace is also accessible to the disabled as it offers an elevator, something Geduldig says that she herself needs.

“I was a spring chicken when I started Kung Pao,” Geduldig said. “31, now I’m 61.”

Besides Geduldig herself, performers for this year’s show are comics

Wendy Liebman, Rich Aronovitch, Talia Reese, and Geduldig’s 92-yearold mother Arline Geduldig, who will be joining in by video all the way from Florida. The elder Geduldig began performing on her daughter’s monthly virtual Lockdown Comedy shows in 2020 when the two were living together in Florida.

“My March 2020 two-week visit turned into 17 months because of the pandemic,” Geduldig said. “And I asked her if she wanted to be a guest on the first show, and she was so funny that she became a regular.”

Born for comedy

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One of the more fascinating comics on the program is no doubt Reese, an Orthodox Jew who balances her religious life with her show business life.

“Sometimes it’s tough because I don’t work on the Sabbath,” Reese said in an interview. “I miss out on Friday night shows and doing full weekends on the road. But on the other hand, it’s great to have a predictable schedule where I can pack in a full week of shows and events, but then I know I’ll be cooking on Friday and focusing on family, prayer, and lots of eating for a day. Basically I’m available 24/6.”

Some of the things that inform Reese’s comedy are dating versus married life, as she’s been married twice. She talks about life in New York City, Netflix shows she’s watching, and life as a comic and mom. She also talks about her religious life.

“I have a lot of jokes about taking

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Matt Rogers

From page 15

Now, I’ll also say that social media exposes you to a lot of criticism and potential criticism. There were moments along the way that I got really in my head wondering, ‘Is this going to work? Should I be releasing music on a major label and asking people to both accept it as a real thing and also have a sense of humor about it? Or should I just be a comedian?’

I just try to like quiet the noise and tell myself, ‘Look, you’re having fun doing it.’ It feels very truthful to me and my expression as an artist to do this.

Do you see any common denominators between comedy writing and songwriting?

The worlds of sketch comedy and pop music are much more compatible

on rituals that I didn’t grow up with,” Reese said. “Some suitable for clubs, others only for religious audiences.

I’m always calibrating my act depending on the denomination of the group I’m performing for.”

Reese added that she’s always been a comedian.

“To quote Lady Gaga, I guess I was born that way,” she said. “From the time I was a kid I was into pranks, messing with teachers, and performing in comedies. Then fast-forward to university and I was the director of a comedy troupe for two years, so comedy was always in my blood.”

Geduldig is proud of the fact that she’s gotten some legendary comic names over the years, like Henny Youngman, who performed at Kung Pao in 1997.

“I had the pleasure of working with Shelley Berman and some months later had dinner at his house in LA with him and his wife,” she said.

“When David Brenner performed I met some of his cousins who came to the show, and then we sat around together in the Green Room. They remarked how much I looked like their cousin. Henny, Shelley and David have all since passed away. Actually, Kung Pao was Henny’s last show.

I loved working with Elayne Boosler and many others. All the headliners and I have become like family.”

Family fun

Geduldig noted that she show is generally suitable for families and that sometimes three generations will

than people realize. I came up in New York doing sketch comedy and improv comedy.

But I’m also a musical person.

If you’re musical and have comedy experience, you can learn to write a comedy song. The beats of a sketch are often the same beats you need in a song. You introduce your idea, you explore that idea, you heighten it, and then you bring it to a satisfying ending.

I look at them like two things that I can blend together to best express who I am, not like two worlds where I’d have to be one person in one world and a different person in the other. I’m always gonna be myself.

What’s your own songwriting process like?

It varies, but what’s interesting is that the songs haven’t always started out funny. When I sat down to write “Everything You Want,” I was in a horrible place. I’d just gone through a terrible breakup. And then in the exploration of my feelings, I stumbled on a comedic idea, which is that I didn’t really remember a lot of details about my ex-boyfriend.

I think the way that I healed and I made myself feel better is by laughing.

I can cheer myself up by making myself laugh about something sad.

attend together; teens, parents and grandparents. People always ask her if they can bring kids, and she always promises to ask the comedians to keep it clean, but she can’t guarantee that there won’t be an F-bomb or two.

“Some years there’s an additional queer comedian on the bill,” she said.

“This year I’m the only one.”

She reports that the audience is primarily Jewish but not exclusively.

“The first few years were probably 98 percent Jewish,” she said. “We get Chinese/Jewish couples and people in interfaith relationships. Since the show always takes place on one day other than Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, people who celebrate Christmas can attend on the other day.”

Kung Pao Kosher comedy has been going strong for thirty years. Geduldig promises that it will continue for as long as they continue to have one to two thousand attendees. The show will also continue to be live-streamed.

“We can cater to the national audiences we created during the pandemic,” she said. “And some locals who don’t want to attend in person for whatever reason, health or other, can view the show virtually. Many order Chinese takeout to eat while watching the show to have the full Kung Pao experience.”t The 31st Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, December 23, 24, 25, 5pm (dinner show), 8:30pm, cocktail show, Imperial Palace Restaurant, 818 Washington Street, $30-$100. https://www.cityboxoffice.com https://www.koshercomedy.com/

How would you sum up the Matt Rogers brand?

Ah! I would say ‘Gay Clown.’ Or ‘Gay Clown Who Sings?’ Hang on, I’m looking over at my manager to confirm. Olivia, what’s my brand? Sorry, she thinks that’s too specific, too limiting. She says it’s ‘Artist.’ Ok. ‘Acclaimed Artist.’

Before we go, one last Christmas item: Name a piper you’d like to pipe and a goose you’d like to lay.

Oh my god. Do you really expect an answer? Oh, okay! The piper I want to pipe is Channing Tatum and the goose I want to lay is Chris Pine.t Matt Rogers, Dec. 20. $35-$45.

Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St. 415621-6120. www.castrotheatre.com www.mattrogersofficial.com

Doug Krantz

Matt Rogers

t

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December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 17

Dance-Along Nutcracker

‘The Nutmare before Christmas’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

S

ince 1985 the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band has presented the “Dance-Along Nutcracker.”

Conceived during the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, “Dance-Along” was meant to help a ravaged community take their minds off the illness and death that was everywhere. And the show lived up to its name. The audience was invited to let loose and dance along with the cast.

According to Pete Nowlen, who serves as the band’s artistic director, during the show’s early days it was difficult to get people out of their seats to dance. One year they went so far as to plant dancers in the audience who jumped up when it was time to dance and grabbed audience members to join them.

“Nowadays the program indicates which ones are dance-along pieces,” Nowlen said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “We also flash a big sign above the stage that says ‘dancealong.’ Nowadays our audiences are very enthusiastic about wanting to dance. It’s almost as much fun to watch the kids and adults pirouetting around the dance floor.”

This year the Christmas spectacular will hearken back to Halloween when they present “Dance-Along Nutcracker 2023: The Nutmare Before Christmas.” The show will take place on Saturday and Sunday, December 16 and 17, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Forum.

“We though that Halloween would

Courtesy San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band

Dancing, elfin musicians and couples at the 2022 ‘Dance-Along Nutcracker’

be a fun contrast to the typical Christmas setting of ‘The Nutcracker,’” said Nowlen. “And it also serves the story we wanted to tell. At Halloween we dress up and act a little bit sillier than we get to do the rest of the year, which is the perfect analogue to the ‘Dance-Along Nutcracker.’ Kids and adults get to dress up in tutus, or whatever they want to wear, and get up on the dance floor.”

Each year they tell a different story.

They start with characters from the original “Nutcracker,” such as Clara, Fritz and their uncle. The characters are sent on wild new adventures each year, which makes each show unique and exciting for the audience.

Halloween crossover

“This year Clara and Fritz are living a staid life in Christmas Town until their uncle visits with intriguing sto-

ries about the mysterious Halloween Town,” Nowlen said. “The kids decide to visit, meeting some of the spooky residents of Halloween Town, and maybe even expand their worldview along the way.”

Each year’s show includes LGBT themes. Nowlen explained that one of the missions of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band is to build bridges among diverse communities.

The audience, he said, is usually sixty percent straight parents with their kids.

“This year Fritz uses their adventures in Halloween Town to help them grow their understanding of their gender fluidity,” said Nowlen. “While Mrs. Stahlbaum learns from her brother Drosselmeyer that she needs to expand her vision of what happiness looks like for her children.”

The cast consists of a mix of local

<<

Jessica Palopoli

Nathan (Joel Roster) and Adelaide (Melissa WolfKlain) in San Francisco Playhouse’s ‘Guys and Dolls.’

Guys and Dolls

From page 15

and the title tune, all delivered with enough spunk and joy to send you home smiling, even handicapped by the lack of a full-sized orchestra that can truly do justice to the score.

As is San Francisco Playhouse tradition, the scenic (Heather Kenyon) and costume design (Kathleen Qiu) are aces. Sometimes superfluous, the company’s signature turntable stage is put to excellent use here. And Kenyon’s transition from Manhattan streets to an underground sewer scene is a treat.

For all its retro amusement, it’s hard to see “Guys and Dolls” in 2023 and not think a bit about the degree to which class division in urban America has intensified since the Runyon era.

Broadway audiences – and the-

theater and cabaret performers. This year they have a number of returning cast members, along with a few new faces. The characters often join in with the dancing, and the kids add to the fun by running up to them during the dance-along segments to hang out with their favorite new characters.

The show serves as a fundraiser for the band. Ticket prices cover the cost of putting on the show, so each year the band depends on the audience’s generosity at what they call the Giving Tree to help raise funds for the band’s various programs.

Donations last year not only supported the year-round operating costs of the organization, but also helped to launch their BiPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Composer Program. There’s also a tutu booth that offers tutus for rent and accessories for

sale that help to enhance the dancealong segments under the mirror ball.

Nowlen pointed out that you don’t have to have kids in order to enjoy the “Dance-Along Nutcracker.”

“Overall, the ‘Dance-Along Nutcracker’ is a show designed to bring families and groups of friends together, which is especially meaningful during the holiday season,” he said. “We’ve seen it year after year, the joyous atmosphere at the show drives even the most skeptical audience members to the dance floor eventually.”t

ater-makers - in 1950 might have considered themselves a cut above the show’s sidewalk ne’er-do-wells and small-time criminals, but not so far above that they couldn’t recognize these characters’ humanity and open-heartedly drop some change in a donation kettle.

That’s an attitude worth considering today, rather than walking out of the theater braced to run a gauntlet along the edge of an abyss.t

‘Dance-Along Nutcracker: The Nutmare Before Christmas,’ December 16, 3pm and 7pm, December 17, 11am and 3pm. Yerba Buena Center for The Arts Forum, 701 Mission St. $27-$45. www.dancealong-nutcracker.sflgfb.org

‘Guys and Dolls,’ through Jan. 13. $55-$125. 450 Post St. 415-677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Don’t let

s e t a r i P Porch

Khmera Rouge

steal your holiday joy...

SF is a Drag SF

is a Drag, the two-day citywide pop-up festival of outdoor drag performances, brought glamour and joy to dozens of locations in quick performances by more than 100 drag performers, including co-organizer D’Arcy Drollinger and performer Empress Khmera Rouge (see photo).

The December 2 and 3 events were organized by the Civic Joy Fund to counter anti-drag bigotry. www.civicspacefoundation.org/sfdrag For a 90-minute video recap, visit Sylvan and Milton’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/@sylvanandmiltonchannel For upcoming nightlife and arts events, see Going Out on www.ebar.com

479 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114

www.cliffsvariety.com cliffs-porch-pirates.indd 1

11/27/23 9:56 AM

<< Books

18 • Bay Area Repor ter • December 7-13, 2023

‘The Bars Are Ours’

t

Celebrating the spirit of bars and community spaces

UC Irvine

Author Lucas Hilderbrand

by Michael Flanagan

“F

or many of us, which bars we go to likely changes over time as do we, whether we are trying out different clubs while we are figuring out who we are, or we must find a new place when a favorite closes, or we age out of one scene and settle into another. More likely we are nonmonogamous and go to more than one bar during any given period in our lives.” writes Lucas Hilderbrand in his book, “The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America,1960 and After.”

Was the real revolution at Stonewall that a community had gathered there before the first brick was thrown or window smashed? Had people we now think of as LGBTQ been doing that for a long time at that point?

Lucas Hilderbrand, a Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine and the author of “Paris Is Burning: A Queer Film Classic,” has written a new book that seeks to answer these questions and more in a stunning new work of research.

The book seeks to redress the notion that in the early days, queer culture only happened at places like The Black Cat in North Beach and the Stonewall Bar in New York by introducing us to bars throughout the country. The author addresses this in the introduction: “Although Gotham and Frisco loom large in the queer cultural imaginary and have set many historical precedents, I deliberately start this book’s case-study chapters in the heartland to insist that queer cultures did not flourish only on the coasts.”

Pre-Stonewall history

Hilderbrand is also pushing back on the centrality of Stonewall as the start of the gay movement and therefore the mention of 1960 in the title, as he says here: “History, for LGBTQ+ communities, is often periodized as before and after Stonewall: the riots that erupted at the New York City gay bar in late June 1969. By beginning in 1960, this book deliberately moves away from Stonewall as the pivot of bar history.”

Structurally the book focuses on different cities in each chapter. It is not arranged chronologically. Boston, which is covered in chapter 3, has a gay bar history that goes back to 1946.

Here is how the author describes the structure of the book: “Schematically, the chapters proceed two-by-two in pairs that address cultures (leather in Chicago and drag in Kansas City, chapters 1 and 2), politics (gentrification in Boston and racism in Atlanta, chapters 3 and 4), insti-

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tutions (iconic gay clubs in New York City and Houston, chapters 5 and 6), and reinventions (queer parties in San Francisco and Latinx spaces in Los Angeles, chapters 7 and 8).”

Interspersed between the chapters are shorter pieces called “Interludes” in the book that focus on institutions and cities such as “Safe Spaces in Detroit” (Interlude 2), “The Main Club in Superior, WI” (Interlude 6) and my favorite “Mable Peabody’s Beauty Parlor and Chainsaw Repair in Denton, TX” (Interlude 8). The book closes with “Epilogue: After Hours: Pulse in Orlando,” which is just as heart-wrenching as you might imagine.

One thing that stands out about the book is how howlingly funny some of the passages are, and this makes what could otherwise be a dry academic text both enchanting and engaging. In the chapter on the Jewel Box Lounge and drag in Kansas City the author addresses the reader this way: “Mary, indulge your auntie, won’t you, in an exegesis of camp?” And in that discussion of camp he uses examples like this to illustrate: “When a gay piano bar named Camp opened in St. Paul in the 2000s, it featured an absolutely divine largescale Madonna-and-child portrait of (Judy) Garland as Mary and a baby Liza Minnelli in her ‘Cabaret’ costume as the Christ child. Camp sensibility and references sometimes transcend cultures, languages, and borders; for instance, I saw a fabulous drag queen in Guadalajara, Mexico, who called herself Ariana Grindr.”

Courtesy One Archives at USC Libraries

Chuck Renslow Collection, courtesy of Leather Archives & Museum

Left: José Sarria performing at The Black Cat bar, circa early 1960s.

Right: The Gold Coast leather bar’s basement bar The Pit, circa 1980s.

The “institutions” chapters feature the Paradise Garage and the Saint and along the way the Mineshaft, the St. Marks Baths, and the Continental Baths in the New York chapter and Mary’s in the Houston chapter. Mary’s is a particularly interesting chapter as it includes political organizing, controversies over racism and the devastation that community institutions faced during AIDS. It’s a loving portrait, warts and all, and Hilderbrand summarizes this chapter as follows: “Gay bars have long functioned as de facto institutions, but Mary’s stands out as the closest a bar can come to actually manifesting community in all its messy and generative forms. Mary’s fostered sexual free-for-alls and political organizing, out-and-proud visibility, and public mourning. Wild men and domesticated beasts converged at the corner of Westheimer and Waugh to forge what for some was the greatest gay bar of all time.”

Bars by the Bay

Of particular interest to San Francisco readers will be chapter 7, “Further Tales of the City: Queer Parties in Postdisco San Francisco.” It’s a wonderful

retelling of the explosion of clubs like The Box, Chaos, Screw, Club Uranus and BOY in the city in the 1990s. I went to both The Box and Club Uranus (not BOY, as I wasn’t the target audience) and I can tell you that Hilderbrand does an outstanding job of chronicling that era, of which he says.

“The Box and Club Uranus parties feel to me like a cool older sibling’s or friend’s world,” he writes, “proximate, aspirational, and what I imagined being a few years older would be like. These parties offer the most immediate reimaginations of queer life that I inherited. Encountering so many references to a generational divide from this period was an ‘aha’ moment for me.”

The crowning achievement of the book is chapter 8, “Donde Todo es Diferente: Queer Latinx Nightlife in Los Angeles.” The chapter includes Latinx bars like Circus Disco, Frat House, Club Tempo, Chico and New Jalisco Bar in Los Angeles and Orange County. Here Hilderbrand introduces the reader to a group of bars that serve the Latinx communities. It is clearly a labor of love.

In discussing Club Tempo he says, “Lucas was introduced to Club Tempo through word of mouth and queer so-

Midwest scenes

The first chapter is an in depth discussion of Chuck Renslow, and the Gold Coast’s leather bar scene in Chicago beginning in the 1950s. Hilderbrand’s book adds to the knowledge of the Chicago scene already written about in Justin Spring’s biography of Sam Steward, “Secret Historian,” and is a welcome addition to Chicago’s leather history.

In the second chapter on the Jewel Box Lounge and the Colony Bar in Kansas City, Hilderbrand offers an informative comment about the terms female impersonation and drag and what can be confusing when reading histories which describe both.

“The terms female impersonation and drag have historically been used interchangeably, but in this chapter I use them differentially to distinguish between acts performed for predominantly straight audiences (for which I use female impersonation) and those for predominantly gay ones (for which I use drag).”

The third chapter features a discussion of class and gentrification in Boston’s Bay Village neighborhood and the conflict between gay immigrants to the neighborhood and the already established bars Jacque’s and the Other Side, which served a mixed clientele that included sex workers and gender non-conforming patrons.

The fourth chapter discusses the racist policies at bars in Atlanta and the efforts of groups including Black and White Men Together to desegregate the bars and tells the stories of Black gay clubs in Atlanta like the Marquette, Loretta’s and Traxx.

Courtesy GLBT Historical Society

Melissa Hawkins

Left: Club Uranus flyer in 1990 Right: Ggreg Taylor’s iconic candle wax drag, at Club Uranus’ Halloween party 1990

cial bonds, and his first visit was one of those nights out that felt special, even perfect – that exemplified why we go out at all. He felt uneasy about being a tourist in this space, but he loved that it existed.

His return visits for research have perhaps been less heady, but his gratitude has not diminished. This is the bar that made Lucas want to write this chapter.”

That passage, incidentally, exemplifies one of two criticisms I have of the book. In chapter 8 alone, Hilderbrand begins referring to himself in the third person. This was somewhat disconcerting and as a reader as I found myself wondering who this Lucas is that he refers to. This seems to be due to the fact that there is a second author, Dan Bustillo, assisting with the writing of this chapter, but it was initially confusing.

The other criticism is that the notes in the book at times read like a discography instead of footnotes. Every song that’s mentioned has its publishing information included. This might be expected from a professor of media studies, but I did not find it helpful.

Overall, this is ultimately an uplifting and hopeful book. It shows how LGBTQ communities have evolved bars to meet their particular needs from before 1960 to today. I was particularly impressed with how much Hilderbrand liked the Detroit bars, mentioned in interlude 2. As a former Michigan resident, I witnessed racist and sexist door policies when visiting Detroit bars with women and Black friends in the 1970s. It was particularly nice to read that bars there have evolved and become more inclusive.

The book leaves the reader feeling that the era of gay bars is not over and they will evolve to meet the needs of our diverse communities in the future.t ‘The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America,1960 and After,’ by Lucas Hilderbrand. $33. 464 pages, Duke University Press www.dukeupress.edu www.lucashilderbrand.com

All Courtesy GLBT Historical Society

Left: I-Beam’s Boy Club ad in the San Francisco Sentinel, 1988 Middle: Ad for The Box’s 1991 Pride party Right: Flyer for the opening of Club Skirts in 1989

Books>>

t On being Queer and Muslim Fariha Róisín’s ‘Survival Takes a Wild Imagination’

December 7-13, 2023 • Bay Area Repor ter • 19

Poet Fariha Róisín

by Laura Moreno

P

oet, cultural critic and multidisciplinary artist Fariha Róisín (pronounced ‘roh-zhin’) has written a powerful collection of poems in “Survival Takes a Wild Imagination,” her second book of poetry. In it, she wrestles with abuse, sexuality, generational trauma, and self-acceptance.

Her previous book “Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind” (HarperWave, 2022), her first nonfiction book, is also about healing and taking the courage to listen to our bodies, our instinct, because that is our compass.

Róisín was born in Canada into an immigrant family from Bangladesh, and grew up in Australia. She now lives in Los Angeles.

You may recognize her from “Two Brown Girls,” the popular podcast she hosted with her friend, fellow writer Zeba Blay from 2012 to 2017. She is also the deputy editor of Violet Book and writes for a number of publications including The Guardian and on Substack.

In 2016, her essay “How I Learned to Accept My Queerness as a Muslim Woman,” published in “Teen Vogue,”

made quite an impact. In the article, she writes, “Poetry and art about love between two men were seen in the Muslim world as natural, or even normal. Even the poems by perhaps Islam’s most famous poet, Rumi, talk about his love for his best friend Shams of Tabriz. The love between them is almost hagiographic.”

Fariha Róisín says to her it feels quite normal today to be queer and to be Muslim, even though there is a great deal of socialization against being different. There is a very strong queer Muslim community. “I don’t think I ever realized I was gay, or bisexual, or queer, or any of these things.

I always just felt like me, a teen.”

To be sure, Róisín feels her love for God and Islam and the Prophet have deepened as she has accepted herself, as she explained on the “For the Wild” Podcast. This compassion for ourselves mirrors the source of love that created the universe, and it is the most powerful thing she has discovered.

But “I just knew people wouldn’t understand,” she writes. Perhaps not everyone is equipped to understand a relationship with the divine. Nonetheless, “If people don’t understand you, it’s probably because they don’t need to. They’ve never had to explore them-

selves the way you’ve had to (or maybe they have, but they’re in denial) you shiny, beautiful thing.”

It’s not a new idea. Like her father, she harkens back to the ancient Islam that was the center of world culture, and translated and preserved the great books of Ancient Greece for civilization.

“In the literature, many Caliphates had queer lovers,” said Róisín. The Islamic world was “characterized by a culture of questioning and challenging ideas,” including, of course, the acceptance of same sex love. “Understand the rest of the world to understand ourselves.”

Writing is about being honest with oneself means facing uncomfortable facts. Like many people these days including myself, Fariha Róisín finds herself asking many questions, such as why, after having faded, is misogyny now rampant and becoming more so all over the world? Who is family? And how to love a mother who never really loved? Motherhood was only an ego endeavor for her. How does one mend the infinite wrongs of the past to build a world of kindness and freedom?

Róisín’s poetry on having a cold, cruel mother entrances the reader in “Paradise, Girl. She’s Hard to Find.”

All I longed for was her love, she never noticed.

Instead, I became an immovable pillar for her misery.

In “This Is for Everyone Who Had to Make a Family out of Themselves,” her lines provide hope for the growing percentage of us who must create our own families.

There is a song trapped in each vertebra.

I’m not alone,

Robert Glück’s ‘About Ed’

by Jim Piechota

C

aptivating and bittersweet, local San Francisco poet and author Robert Glück has written a poignant and multifaceted tribute to his friend and distinguished painter Ed AulerichSugai, whom he first met in 1970 as they became lovers and life partners.

In the mid-1980s, Ed eloquently clarified his intentions for his relationship with the author during a gay couples’ workshop as “for Bob to be a home I can always return to.” Though their love is portrayed as unevenly distributed and conveyed, it’s a beautifully complex and resonant union as the couple moves through the magical early days of adoration and sexual exploration to bittersweet endings when Ed experienced drenching night sweats and the “shattering fatigue” and “internal collapsing” of an incurable infection.

Even Ed’s appointment to get his HIV test results is fraught with tension and disappointment after the author remarks how surprised he would be if his partner’s tests came back negative.

Aulerich-Sugai died of AIDS in 1994, but throughout the ordeal of his decline, Glück recorded their conversations, knowing they would form priceless memories in the years following his death. For some, it might seem quite macabre to record the musings of a dying man (or to get into bed with his corpse, and then wash it), but Glück cherished every single moment he spent with his former lover. That included memorializing his voice, his body, and his thoughts on tape and even attempting to improve his friendship with his lover, post-mortem.

The book encapsulates their loving relationship through copious notes, conversations, and in extensive pas-

Author Robert Glück

sages from Ed’s dream diaries which are essentially abstract musings set to paper.

The story of their friendship is not without its arguments, serious fights, jealousies, and disagreements, which only makes their union more human and realistic.

In the beginning of the book, Glück reflects that it’s taken him two decades to complete it, which might explain the fragmented nature of the chapters and the frenetic way the prose zigzags from interpersonal memory to event to dreamscape to sex vision to contemplation. It’s a jumble of techniques requiring readers pay close attention to in order to truly appreciate what Glück is attempting to convey here.

Extensively digressive and frequently transgressive, the prose and the purpose branches outward in stunning but often dizzying ways.

Readers who are expecting a straightforward memoriam to a dying lover at the horrifying beginning years of the AIDS era may become disillusioned.

The book frequently meanders off the

expected path and into the misty territories of dreamscapes and the deaths of other friends and lovers, hookups with Ed’s “greasy little beatnik” neighbor among countless others, and all those lost to the pitch-black oblivion of AIDS in the 1980s.

Though there are issues with a lack of linear progression and streamlined expression, the intensity and passion of the pair’s relationship is undeniable and absolutely deserves this kind of literary honorarium. The narrative is constantly in motion, continually and often poetically fortified with the hued essences of sex, death, grief, friendship, human yearning, and, of course, the kind of enduring love that transcends any type of illness.

This is a literary memorial to savor and contemplate, even as it frustrates and challenges the reader to appreciate its exquisite hybrid of genres.t

‘About Ed’ by Robert Glück, New York Review Books, $18.95 www.nyrb.com

but I’ve felt the loss of empty holidays.

Fariha Róisín’s poetry is filled with love, poignancy, strength and the determination to choose her own course. This is how we can begin collectively healing the difficult dynamics that are so prevalent. She advises us to never forget, survival takes a wild imagination.

An excerpt of the title poem: “The sun, like a gorgeous undulating force dances past the shadows

lurking across the planes. A spark of lightning maroons the distance, the territories illustrious moon gilded, guides.

Edges shaped, my heart’s interior has spoken, ten of cups, the cycle of life, the circuitous touchdown of dear universe’s mouth pours over to hear you sing, to believe in love again.”t

AUTO EROTICA AUTO EROTICA “Survival Takes a Wild Imagination” by Fariha Róisín, Andrews McMeel Publishing $16.99 www.fariharoisin.com

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Cal Performances music

U N I V E R S I T Y

O F

dance

C A L I F O R N I A ,

theater

// 2023–24 Season

B E R K E L E Y

calperformances.org | 510.642.9988 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Holiday Spectacular More than 100 voices strong and dressed in fabulously festive attire, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus celebrates their 45th year performing beloved holiday songs and acting out timely, funny sketches in an event that has become a much-anticipated season highlight.

Cécile McLorin Salvant Vocalist and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant sings selections from her latest release, Mélusine, featuring a mix of original songs and interpretations of French-language repertoire that dates as far back as the 12th century, inspired by the story of a dragon woman from European folk legend.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Celebrating its landmark 50th anniversary season, the exquisite technique and elegant styling of this all-male drag ballet company continues to offer laughs for aficionados and novices alike.

Dec 17

Jan 25

Jan 27–28

Filippo Gorini, piano

The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Great Artist Performance

Brad Mehldau: Fourteen Reveries

ZELLERBACH HALL

This young Italian pianist brings equal parts exuberance and profundity to his performances of Bach’s The Art of Fugue, intent on both uncovering the singing quality in the composer’s lines and connecting Bach’s counterpoint and canons to an emotional tension latent below the music’s complex surface.

ZELLERBACH HALL

Renée Fleming, soprano

Howard Watkins, piano 2023 KENNEDY CENTER HONOREE Radiant soprano Renée Fleming graces Berkeley with her star power once again, lending her warmth and sensitivity to a recital program of songs and arias in several languages.

ZELLERBACH HALL

Pianist Brad Mehldau returns to Zellerbach Hall with a Cal Performances co-commissioned solo work, Fourteen Reveries, a meditation on the space a composer leaves between specific directions in the score that lets the beauty of the music reveal itself as it allows for new discovery.

Jan 28

Feb 9

Feb 10

BAY AREA PREMIERE

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Conrad Tao, piano

H E RT Z H A L L

ZELLERBACH HALL

A Pina Bausch Foundation, École des Sables, & Sadler’s Wells production

Taylor Mac & Matt Ray’s

by Germaine Acogny & Malou Airaudo

Taylor Mac visits with an epic rock opera meditation on queerness.

Featuring 55 original songs—one song per year since the Stonewall uprising— this West Coast Premiere is inspired by queer antecedents throughout world history and is performed by a diverse cast of 13 ensemble members and a band of 11 musicians.

common ground[s] The Rite of Spring

by Pina Bausch

In this double-bill production, Pina Bausch’s iconic The Rite of Spring is performed by an ensemble of more than 30 dancers from 14 African countries.

The companion piece common ground[s] is a new duet co-created and danced

by Germaine Acogny, known as the “mother of African contemporary dance,” and Malou Airaudo, a longtime dancer with the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

Bark of Millions

ZELLERBACH HALL

Tao is admired for his risk-taking and for the rigorous attention he gives his programs, which often juxtapose new and old works. He says he was “thinking about fairy tales and poetry” in assembling the program for his Berkeley recital.

“This four-hour musical-operavariety show from the celebrated US performer is a moving, witty, extravagant exercise in pure pleasure and spectacle.”

—The Guardian

“The kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music.”

—New York Magazine

Feb 16–18

Feb 23–25

Mar 3

Isidore String Quartet

WEST COAST PREMIERE

OKAN

Ki moun ou ye (Who are you?)

Led by vocalist and violinist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist Magdelys Savigne, Juno Award-winning ensemble OKAN fuses its Afro-Cuban roots with American jazz, Dominican merengue, Brazilian samba, and folk music from across the globe in songs about immigration, courage, and love.

ZELLERBACH HALL

The Isidore String Quartet makes their Cal Performances debut with a richly varied program—Beethoven’s expansive late-period Op. 132 Quartet in A minor, Haydn’s brilliant Quartet in C major from the masterful Op. 20 works, and Billy Childs’ second quartet, from 2012.

ZELLERBACH HALL

Nathalie Joachim

Performed in both English and Haitian Kreyòl, composer, flutist, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim invokes music, movement, and memory to explore personal history and the healing power of the voice in her immersive staged song cycle Ki moun ou ye (Who are you?).

Mar 5

F I R S T C O N G R E G AT I O N A L C H U R C H, B E R K E L E Y

Mar 7

Z E L L E R B A C H P L AY H O U S E

H E RT Z H A L L

Mar 8

Z E L L E R B A C H P L AY H O U S E