January 16, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

GOPer seeks Wiener seat

Wiener kickoff draws crowd

ARTS

Jeremy Jordan

Kate Baldwin

The

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

Vol. 50 • No. 3 • January 16-22, 2020

Rick Gerharter

Courtesy Sen. Wiener’s Office

The city has announced its planned purchase of the building and parcel at 1939 Market Street in the Castro, where it aims to construct affordable senior housing.

State Senator Scott Wiener

Wiener to push bill to end HIV, hep C, STIs

SF buys land for affordable senior housing

by John Ferrannini

ay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is introducing legislation Thursday to direct the secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services and the chief of the State Office of AIDS to implement a statewide, integrated response to the HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and hepatitis C epidemics. The move comes as a coalition pushing for a statewide plan to end HIV, hep C, and STIs is separately seeking $50 million to address the diseases - $15 million for HIV, $20 million for STIs and $15 million for hepatitis C. Separately, the coalition is seeking $5 million for the state’s syringe supply clearing house. “We are introducing this bill to elevate the issue because it’s really important for the state of California,” Wiener said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter January 14. “This requires multi agency collaboration to put into place a plan to end new infections in California, not just HIV but STIs,” also known as sexually transmitted diseases. “The bill does not contain an appropriation. It is about setting policy,” Wiener added, meaning he’s not seeking state funds right now. The bill requires the AIDS chief and the HHS secretary to set goals and “identify recommended programs, policies, strategies, and funding for achieving these targets,” according to a fact sheet provided by the senator’s office. The officials will also be required to submit an annual report on their progress from 2021 through 2030, according to the fact sheet. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation helped Wiener’s office craft the bill, according to Wiener and Anne Donnelly, the director of state health care policy with SFAF. “Obviously, we are deeply grateful to Senator Wiener for taking this on as a champion. We are thrilled he is taking leadership on such an important piece of legislation,” Donnelly said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. January 14. “We’d been in discussion on this for some time.” SFAF is a part of End the Epidemics, a statewide campaign made up of a coalition of numerous organizations seeking a California response to the diseases similar to other states such as New York and Washington, according to Dana Van Gorder, executive director of the See page 7 >>

by Matthew S. Bajko

Jane Philomen Cleland

ith the city’s planned $12 million purchase of a triangular lot on upper Market Street, San Francisco officials aim to provide additional affordable senior housing on the property. The development is expected to benefit older residents of the LGBT Castro district, as a certain number of units will be set aside for people residing in the neighborhood. Mayor London Breed’s office announced Tues-

Songs to protest war

mma’s Revolution, which consists of award-winning activist duo and married couple Pat Humphries and Sandy O, performed at an anti-war demonstration at Montgomery and Market streets in downtown San Francisco January 9. The protest

was one of many held in cities across the country to speak out against the Trump administration ratcheting up tensions with Iran following a U.S. drone strike that killed top Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani earlier this month.

See page 10 >>

Senate panel kills Wiener intersex bill

by Matthew S. Bajko

California bill aimed at banning unnecessary medical procedures on infants who are intersex died in committee Monday, though its author vowed to bring the bill back in the future. Senate Bill 201 would have postponed surgeries on intersex infants until they turn 6 years old unless they are needed to protect the health of the child. Such individuals are born with both male and female genitalia and often undergo surgery shortly after birth to assign them to one gender. Because the procedures are mostly irreversible, it can present complications to the person later in life if they determine they are the opposite gender. The legislation, authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), has faced fierce opposition from medical lobbying groups since being introduced last year. They have criticized the bill as being too broad and taking away control from both parents and physicians. At the direction of Senator Steve Glazer (DOrinda), chair of the Senate’s business, professions and economic development committee, Wiener last April agreed to turn the legislation into a two-year bill in order to address the objections. Several amendments Wiener made this week to the bill, were not enough to overcome the concerns raised by Glazer and other members of the committee. Although they expressed agreement for ending sexual reassignment surgeries on infants, they

Screengrab/Legislative live feed

Bria Brown-King, right, who is intersex, testified at a state Senate hearing Monday in support of state Senator Scott Wiener’s, left, SB 201, which would have protected intersex infants.

nonetheless said more work was needed with Wiener’s legislation to achieve that goal. “I do think we can find a pathway,” said Glazer. “I don’t think this bill is it.” In the end, four senators on the committee voted against the bill and two voted in support. Glazer was one of three who abstained. In a statement issued immediately after the vote, Wiener expressed his disappointment with the committee’s voting down the civil rights bill. “Intersex people deserve legal protection, and we

are committed to ensuring that protection under California law,” stated Wiener. “Today’s vote was a setback, but this is only the beginning. We aren’t giving up on protecting intersex people from nonconsensual, invasive, dangerous surgery.” He also pledged to revive the legislative effort. “As with many civil rights struggles, it sometimes takes multiple tries to prevail. We will be back,” stated Wiener, adding that he remains

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IMPORTANT FACTS FOR BIKTARVY®

This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY and does not replace talking to your healthcare provider about your condition and your treatment.

MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BIKTARVY

POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS OF BIKTARVY BIKTARVY may cause serious side effects, including: } Those in the “Most Important Information About BIKTARVY” section. } Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY. } Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY. } Too much lactic acid in your blood (lactic acidosis), which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat. } Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark “tea-colored” urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain. } The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea (6%), nausea (6%), and headache (5%). These are not all the possible side effects of BIKTARVY. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have any new symptoms while taking BIKTARVY. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088. Your healthcare provider will need to do tests to monitor your health before and during treatment with BIKTARVY.

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ABOUT BIKTARVY BIKTARVY is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in adults. It can either be used in people who have never taken HIV-1 medicines before, or people who are replacing their current HIV-1 medicines and whose healthcare provider determines they meet certain requirements. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS. HIV-1 is the virus that causes AIDS. Do NOT take BIKTARVY if you also take a medicine that contains: } dofetilide } rifampin } any other medicines to treat HIV-1

BEFORE TAKING BIKTARVY Tell your healthcare provider if you: } Have or have had any kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis infection. } Have any other health problems. } Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if BIKTARVY can harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while taking BIKTARVY. } Are breastfeeding (nursing) or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed. HIV-1 can be passed to the baby in breast milk. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take: } Keep a list that includes all prescription and over-the-counter medicines, antacids, laxatives, vitamins, and herbal supplements, and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist. } BIKTARVY and other medicines may affect each other. Ask your healthcare provider and pharmacist about medicines that interact with BIKTARVY, and ask if it is safe to take BIKTARVY with all your other medicines.

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GET MORE INFORMATION } This is only a brief summary of important information about BIKTARVY. Talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist to learn more. } Go to BIKTARVY.com or call 1-800-GILEAD-5. } If you need help paying for your medicine, visit BIKTARVY.com for program information.

BIKTARVY, the BIKTARVY Logo, DAILY CHARGE, the DAILY CHARGE Logo, KEEP LOVING, LOVE WHAT’S INSIDE, GILEAD, and the GILEAD Logo are trademarks of Gilead Sciences, Inc., or its related companies. Version date: December 2018 © 2019 Gilead Sciences, Inc. All rights reserved. BVYC0105 02/19

KEEP LOVING. Because HIV doesn’t change who you are. BIKTARVY® is a complete, 1-pill, once-a-day prescription medicine used to treat HIV-1 in certain adults. BIKTARVY does not cure HIV-1 or AIDS.

Ask your healthcare provider if BIKTARVY is right for you. To learn more, visit BIKTARVY.com.

Please see Important Facts about BIKTARVY, including important warnings, on the previous page and visit BIKTARVY.com.

<< Community News

4 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

Volume 50, Number 03 January 16-22, 2020 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Lois Pearlman • Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Bob Roehr • Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith Sari Staver • Tony Taylor • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation. Advertising rates available upon request. Our list of subscribers and advertisers is confidential and is not sold. The sexual orientation of advertisers, photographers, and writers published herein is neither inferred nor implied. We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Senate panel stumbles on intersex rights

he state Legislature has been in session for only a couple of weeks and already, a state Senate committee has failed on intersex rights, voting down Senate Bill 201, which would have protected body autonomy of intersex people. Shame on those who voted no: Senators Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), Bill Dodd (D-Napa), and Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita). Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has been trying for years to get this legislation passed. He first offered a nonbinding resolution in an effort to educate lawmakers and the public, which passed out of the Legislature. He held an informational hearing at which intersex people and their allies told their stories. That was supposed to ease the way for actual legislation, which occurred last year. However, Wiener ran into forceful resistance from the California Medical Association, and ended up tabling the bill in order to address the concerns raised by medical groups. It needed to be approved in the Senate by the end of this month to remain active. Monday’s 2-4 vote by the Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee rendered SB 201 dead for this year. Intersex people, who account for 1 to 2% of the population, are defined as those born with any variation of reproductive or sexual anatomy characteristics including genitals, chromosome patterns, and sex hormones. While some intersex people also identify as transgender or nonbinary and members of the LGBT community, not all do. SB 201 would have required that any decisions about medically unnecessary surgical interventions in such cases be postponed until the patient is at least 6 years old. Wiener noted in a statement after the vote that he was “deeply disappointed.” “These surgeries, often forced on intersex infants, can cause serious health repercussions, including sterilization and loss of sexual sensation,” he stated. “We must allow intersex individuals to decide for themselves at

Courtesy Wikipedia

People attended a 2018 conference of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association

the appropriate age if and when they undergo life-altering medical procedures.” Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights group, was harsher. “Today, California stumbled as a leader on human rights and LGBTQ equality,” EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur said in a statement. “Today’s vote by the California Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee means that the Golden State will continue to subject thousands of infants every year to medically unnecessary, harmful, and often irreversible procedures aimed at ‘normalizing’ their bodies.” Intersex people vowed to keep fighting. “Four members of the [Senate committee] voted today to continue allowing pediatric surgeons to cause documented, irreversible harms against children born with diverse sex traits,” Kimberly Zieselman, executive director of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, said in the EQCA statement. “Our fight for bodily autonomy is far from over. I’m heartened by the conversations SB 201 started, and by the

increased awareness and concern for harmful medical interventions on intersex children.” As EQCA noted, the United Nations, World Health Organization, European Parliament, Human Rights Watch, and all major intersexled groups have urged policymakers to address this issue. EQCA also pointed out that not unlike the survivors of so-called conversion therapy, people born with variations in their sex traits who are living with the results of medically unnecessary attempts at “normalizing treatment” often deal with the harmful emotional and physical consequences for the rest of their lives. Parents who express reluctance about surgery for their children born with variations in their sex traits are sometimes provided with insufficient information regarding the risks involved and the alternatives, including delaying surgery. Doctors are also part of the problem; some are too eager to talk parents into getting surgery for their infants, when other alternatives might be available. Wiener attempted to adjust his legislation to address the concerns of the medical community. Two years ago, when Wiener authored his resolution and held a hearing, intersex advocates called out UCSF and said the teaching hospital should stop performing genital “normalization” surgeries. A family medicine doctor who is also an intersex person, Sugee Tamar-Mattis, said at the time that parents are misled by physicians to believe that their children will be bullied or there are negative psychological outcomes associated with having different genitals, although there is no credible evidence to support these claims. Tamar-Mattis said there is, however, extensive evidence of harm that can come from these surgeries, including loss of sexual sensation or function and incorrect surgical sex reassignment. Wiener pledged to continue working on the matter, saying it is an LGBTQIA civil rights issue: “I will keep fighting for the intersex community and their right to decide what happens to their bodies.” This is not about life-or-death surgery, this is about medical procedures that parents often ask for – they, and their children, should be given other options. t

A trans man’s quest for happiness by Ryan K. Sallans

s there a point in a transition where one reaches pure happiness? It is a question that I am frequently asked by anxious individuals who are considering or who have already started their transition. It is a question asked by concerned family members and friends who want their child, sibling, or partner to finally feel peace within their body. It is a question asked by ambitious professionals who serve the transgender community, professionals who are seeking knowledge that will make them better providers. It is a question that I ask myself, and one that I still cannot concretely answer. When a person first begins to think about transitioning, there are a thousand different questions, fears, uncertainties, and elations that roll through the body. As you come to the decision that you will officially be moving forward, there is a calm before another storm of emotions. In between the moments of sheer panic and joyful hope for the future, you just keep putting one foot ahead of the other, while researching everything possible about the physical transition and how people navigate the world in those beginning steps. While everyone’s timeline is different, there typically comes a point in a transgender person’s life where they are done with their “physical transition,” and are able to walk through society living as the gender they wish they had been assigned at birth. We’d all like to think that when people reach this point, they feel whole, at peace, and satisfied with both their internal and external layers. We pin this hope onto the word “happiness,” as if this emotion can drive out – and keep out – all the uncomfortable feelings that lie within us. We are on that quest to achieve happiness, but how does it happen and how is it measured? Do you just wake up one morning and swing your feet out of bed, place them on the ground, and then say, “Wow, I am happy, I am content?” Or is it that one moment where you are standing naked and looking at your reflection in the mir-

Courtesy of Ryan K. Sallans

Ryan K. Sallans

ror, and you don’t have the urge to either put on clothes or cover up with a towel and instead think, okay, I am happy ... ? After completing several stages in my life where I think I have hit that point where I will finally be happy, I’ve had negative emotions – fear, anxiety, depression, or anger – pull me into their web. I am now learning that happiness cannot be measured by where people may be in their transition; in fact, the transition creates new conflicts that take a lot of insight to work through. While you now feel comfortable in your gender, there is a strange shift in how you are treated and seen within both the transgender community and society as a whole. Through my different experiences, I’ve discovered that people still do not see you, nor do they understand truly what you have been through and what you navigate with an identity now hidden behind the words “man” or “woman.” “I’d never know ...” The drawn-out statement came from a seemingly impressed woman standing in front of me in an auditorium. I had just finished another talk about my transition and was getting ready to walk over to my book-signing table. “You’d never know what?” I asked, even though I already knew what the rest of the line would be.

“If I hadn’t heard your story, I’d never know that you were transgender.” She continued to stand there, looking at my face while slowly moving her head from side to side, as if she were looking into a campfire. However, instead of being mesmerized by the different shapes and patterns of the flames, she was trying to get a glimpse at the wood underneath. “Uh, ... thanks,” I awkwardly replied. Over the years, my feelings around hearing this statement have shifted. When I first started my transition, this comment would have been one of encouragement. To me, it signaled that I had officially moved out of that pubescent stage where sometimes I would “pass” as male, and other times people would stare a little longer to try and figure out my gender. Now, the “never know you were transgender” statement feels like a compliment rolled up into a backhand slap to the transgender community. It makes me wonder, what do people think being transgender looks like? Are we just supposed to stay stuck in that awkward adolescent stage of a transition so people can say, “Yep, that’s a transgender person right there”? “Just amazing,” she said with a big smile on her face before turning around to exit the room. I knew her comments were not intended to be an insult. However, I feel anytime we say something about a person’s physical appearance, it can make the receiver of the statement feel more insecure. For someone who is transgender, what makes comments about physical appearances even harder to take in is that it reinforces this feeling of people running a visual inventory of you, and then interacting with you based on those assumptions about your identity. How would she have treated me if she thought I was “just a gay guy”? How would she have felt about me if I had walked past her on the sidewalk and all she saw in that moment was a white man? t This is an excerpt from Ryan K. Sallans’ book “Transforming Manhood: A trans man’s quest to build bridges and knock down walls.” For more information, visit https://www.ryansallans.com/.

Politics >>

t SF Republicans endorse transgender Senate candidate by Matthew S. Bajko

rin Smith, a transgender woman mounting an underdog campaign for the state’s 11th Senate District seat covering San Francisco and parts of northern San Mateo County, has secured the support of local Republicans for her candidacy. Currently deputy vice chair of communications for the San Francisco Republican Party, Smith won the endorsement of the local GOP last Wednesday, January 8. She has served on the Republican County Central Committee since being appointed to it last February and is running for election to the party’s oversight body on the March 3 primary ballot. She is now seeking the California Republican Party’s endorsement and expects to secure the San Mateo County Republican Party’s support this week. While she is not a member of the Log Cabin Republicans, the LGBT GOP affinity group, Smith plans to seek its endorsement as well. Smith is one of two out women trying to unseat gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco); the other being queer Democratic socialist Jackie Fielder. The duo of political newcomers faces an uphill battle in defeating Wiener, a formidable politician and fierce campaigner who is seeking a second four-year term this year. Due to the heavy Democratic makeup of the district, it is expected that both Wiener and Fielder will survive the primary and compete headto-head in November. During an interview with the Bay Area Reporter this month, Smith acknowledged she faces long odds in the race. “I am completely realistic about it. I know it is an uphill battle,” said Smith, 40, who shares the same birthday, May 22, as the city’s first gay elected official, the late supervisor Harvey Milk. “I am not a stranger to being the underdog ... I understand the odds. It is a tricky race.” What she is banking on is the fact that Wiener has become a lightning rod due to his legislative positions on housing policy, particularly his controversial Senate Bill 50 that aims to see denser housing projects built near transit centers and limits the ability of city officials to block such construction, and that Fielder is too far to the left politically for those who may want to cast a protest vote against the incumbent in the primary. “I feel Scott has alienated a lot of centrist Democrats,” said Smith, who lives with her partner of two years and adopted 9-year-old pit bull terrier Skrimshaw in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. “Jackie is passionate and young but really to the left; she is all about giving people free stuff and tax the rich people. It gives me a chance to carve off some centrist people.” Though she supports more housing construction, Smith opposes SB 50, as she worries the bill will erode the unique feel and character of San Francisco’s neighborhoods. She told the B.A.R. a better approach would be to reform the state’s environmental review process for developments and to fast track affordable housing approvals. “I don’t think upzoning the entire state is desirable,” said Smith, who believes in the concept of subsidiarity. “Local people need to work with their local government.” In 2018 local GOP leaders had urged Smith to run against Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) but she declined, as she didn’t feel the timing was right. She agreed to run this year partly to ensure that Wiener would face a challenger. “A one-party state is bad for every-

Matthew S. Bajko

Republican state Senate candidate Erin Smith

one,” said Smith, adding that she is not a partisan when it comes to politics. “I would reach across the aisle to work with anyone. I want people to live a happy, successful life.” Smith and her younger sister grew up in Glendora, Mississippi on a cotton farm; their ancestors have grown the commodity for 150 years. Her paternal family traces its lineage back to Pocahontas, who is Smith’s 15th great-grandmother. After high school Smith attended the University of Mississippi but didn’t graduate. Instead, she became a merchant marine and earned a ship captain license from the U.S. Coast Guard. Her vessel was one of hundreds that responded to the Deepwater Horizon oilrig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico; she and her crew spent a total of three months at sea helping to cap the well. “I grew up on a farm and didn’t have much experience other than paddling a canoe in the bayou near our house. But I was always interested in the ocean,” recalled Smith, who owned a 145-acre ranch in the Magnolia State. While working in Louisiana, Smith went into anaphylactic shock from an insect bite and drove herself to a hospital. There she came close to dying, seeing the proverbial tunnel of white light as she lay on a gurney. “I was in coma territory,” she recalled, adding, “I thought I was going to die. I had a weird sense of relief.” When she pulled through, Smith resolved to transition and came out to her family and friends. To her surprise, they were overwhelmingly supportive. She began transitioning in 2014 then sold off her property in order to relocate the following year to San Francisco. Smith and her boyfriend, who prefers to remain private for now as she campaigns, are part of the gig economy and working on their own micromobility startup focused on the last transit mile. An outspoken gun rights activist, Smith’s advocacy on the issue led her to be featured on the cover of a special issue Time magazine devoted to the topic in November 2018. It was also played up in a San Francisco Examiner profile about her Senate candidacy. Yet gun rights are not a part of her campaign platform, and Smith told the B.A.R. she left her guns back in Mississippi and doesn’t own one in San Francisco. Nonetheless, her friend Erin Palette, a transgender lesbian who lives in Florida, hopes her candidacy shines a light on the issue of gun rights. The two met online following the 2016 terrorist attack at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, as Palette founded Operation Blazing Sword, a nonprofit that provides free lessons to LGBT people who want to learn how to use firearms.

Palette also serves as the national coordinator of the Pink Pistols, an affinity group for LGBT firearm owners and gun rights activists. Stressing that she was speaking personally and not on behalf of the nonprofit groups, Palette told the B.A.R. by phone this week that when she learned about Smith’s decision to enter the Senate race, “I was pleased to hear that a pro Second Amendment queer woman was running for the office. Queer people are disproportionately affected by violence.” Having gotten to know Smith over the years, Palette said, “I think she understands the problems that affect us on a daily basis. She can more adequately represent the queer population there.” While Smith tries to court centrist Democrats, her support of President Donald Trump’s reelection may turn off such voters. Asked how she could back a president whose administration has systematically rolled back protections and rights for transgender people, as well as the LGBT community as a whole, Smith replied one can criticize Trump while still backing his presidency. “The Republican Party is not perfect and the Democratic Party is not perfect,” said Smith. Being contrarian isn’t new for Smith. “I was a transgender person in Mississippi and am a Republican in San Francisco. It is the story of my life, always the outsider,” said Smith.

January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

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Alice LGBT Dem club welcomes new co-chair

The Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club voted in a new female co-chair this week, while the more progressive Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club is expected to reelect its president to a new term next week. Monday night Alice members elevated Catherine “Catie” Arbona into the female co-chair position. A club member since 2016, Arbona the last two years had served as Alice’s finance co-chair. She will serve in the co-chair position through January 2022 and succeeds Gina Simi, whose two-year term ended. Alice’s male co-chair, David Fujimoto, is now serving in his final year and is set to step down next January, as the club likes to rotate in a new co-chair each year. “I think Alice is a hugely important club in San Francisco politics but also in queer politics in the city and nationwide,” said Arbona. “It has been such a thrill to be part of the club’s board the last three years. The chance to help guide it through 2020 and 2021 as well was one that when first brought up I was very much interested in it, and I am really glad to have the club’s support.” Arbona, 26, who identifies as queer, is a San Francisco native who grew up in Noe Valley. The University of Chicago graduate, where she earned a B.A. in political science and government, had worked as a field representative for Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) but left last June for a job handling communications for the San Francisco Department of Technology. As for seeking public office herself one day, Arbona told the B.A.R. that doesn’t interest her. “That is not on the radar,” she said. “I’ve heard just running the club is hard enough.” When it meets Tuesday, January 21, the Milk club is expected to elect its current president, Kevin Bard, to another one-year term. He has led the club since last January, when he won a contentious leadership fight for the post against former president Honey Mahogany. t

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<< Election 2020

6 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

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Wiener, 49, told the B.A.R. that he was pleased with the turnout at his kickoff. He will appear on the March 3 primary ballot, with the two top votegetters regardless of party advancing to the November general election. “I’m surprised by the large and diverse group of people from our community who came out to support my reelection,” he said. “I’m thankful for their support, which comes from decades of working together in the community.” Among those in attendance were state Assemblyman David Chiu (DSan Francisco), San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis. “Our senator is no ordinary senator,” Kounalakis told the crowd. She then mentioned several pieces of legislation that Wiener has authored that have become law. “Among them, SB 35, a landmark bill to streamline housing approvals,” Kounalakis said. “SB 822, which enacts the strongest net neutrality protections in the nation. SB 1045 and SB 40, which strengthen and expand California’s conservatorship laws. SB 219, which protects LGBTQ seniors in long-term care facilities, and SB 159, which allows pharmacists to provide PrEP and PEP, which are powerful HIV medications, without a physician’s prescription.” Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Wiener’s SB 40, an expan-

lore cafe in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood was filled to capacity last Saturday morning for gay state Senator Scott Wiener’s campaign kickoff for a second term in office. Housing and LGBT issues were among the reasons that people were supporting Wiener’s campaign, several said. He recently reintroduced the controversial Senate Bill 50, a major zoning reform that would allow more local flexibility in how to implement the housing legislation. Activist groups oppose it because they say it would allow new development at the expense of displacing residents. At a news conference last week in Oakland, where Mayor Libby Schaaf announced her support for the bill, Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, was shouted down by protesters. That was not the case at the Castro cafe January 11. (While Flore owners recently announced the eatery’s closure, it is available for special events.) “I’m here because we need leaders like Scott who don’t only tackle tough issues like housing, but who also fight for LGBTQ individuals with bills like allowing nonbinary gender markers,” said Jane Natoli, a 38-year-old transgender woman. “He’s also fighting for the rights of intersex individuals with SB 201.” Natoli was referring to SB 179, which then-Governor Jerry Brown signed in 2017. The bill, which Wiener co-authored with lesbian state Sena-

Rick Gerharter

State Senator Scott Wiener spoke at the kickoff for his reelection campaign January 11 at Flore cafe.

tor Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), allows residents to be identified by a gender marker other than “F” or “M” on their driver’s licenses. Regarding SB 201 the intersex rights bill, the Bay Area Reporter noted this week that it died in committee Monday. Four senators on the panel thought more changes were needed to the bill, which was made a two-year bill in 2019 after it failed to garner support. (See story, Page 1) Wiener has vowed to keep fighting for SB 201, a major component of which is the requirement that any decisions about medically unnecessary surgical interventions in the case of intersex infants be postponed until they are at least 6 years old.

See page 11 >>

Man in elder abuse case has left the country, misses court hearing by John Ferrannini

Nestled between the San Jacinto and Andreas Mountains in S. Palm Springs this custom contemporary home boasts 3,556 sq ft of complete luxury. Custom build in 2015 with 3 bdrms, 3 ½ baths, media room, office w/closet + pocket doors. The attached casita consists of 2 rms, separate entrance & private patio. The exquisite combined dining/living room features a dramatic 9’ chandelier with custom lighting throughout. The entire home is built with imported Italian Tile. The chefs kitchen is outfitted with Professional Thermador appliances, Cambria slab countertops surrounded by Siematic kitchen cabinets. The extensive backyard consists of amazing mountain views and a large logia with misting system. Fee Land in gated community with low dues and fully funded HOA. The home is equipped with energy efficient HVAC systems, water heaters and a 10.33kw solar system with a 2 car garage and separate additional car garage.

man who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of vandalism and false imprisonment stemming from an elder abuse case didn’t show up to a San Francisco Superior Court hearing January 8 as deputy public defenders said that he no longer lives in the United States. Natthakarn Laohacharoensombat, 34, who goes by “Ray,” had four of six charges against him dismissed at a July 8 hearing when he was ordered to complete 24 anger management classes, according to trial records reviewed by the Bay Area Reporter. The charges stemmed from incidents involving a 63-year-old man he was allegedly caring for. Assistant District Attorney Antho-

ny Lombardo said in court at the Hall of Justice that Laohacharoensombat had not showed up for all of his required classes. “He no longer lives in the U.S.,” said Deputy Public Defender Diamond Ward. “He’s been in Thailand quite some time.” “It begs the question – how is he supposed to complete his anger management classes?” Judge Linda Colfax asked. “He completed them already,” Ward responded. Lombardo challenged that assertion, and Colfax said that she will find out if Laohacharoensombat has, in fact, completed his classes and take up the issue again January 31. Laohacharoensombat claimed in a Facebook postdated December 9 that

Small biz commissioners sworn in

Directions: From South Palm Canyon, East on Acanto. Estancias South Canyon is the gated community on the left. Call to schedule showings.

ay cafe owner Manny Yekutiel, second from left, and Cynthia Huie, left, were sworn in to seats on the San Francisco Small Business Commission by Mayor London Breed Monday, January 13. Yekutiel, who runs Manny’s at 3092 16th Street in the Mission, previously told the Bay Area Reporter that he looks forward to serving on the panel and that, as a small business owner, he’s aware of the challenges many face.

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he was “counting down my last 24 hrs. in San Francisco.” On December 10, he flew to China, according to his Facebook page, and went from there to his native Thailand. As the B.A.R. previously reported December 10, Laohacharoensombat pleaded no contest to the two counts after having been initially charged with elder abuse and three other criminal counts, according to trial records. Laohacharoensombat is the subject of two stay-away orders and once sued Entour Castro, a clothing store at 3600 16th Street, alleging he was not compensated properly during his time as an employee. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, according to court documents.t

Courtesy SF Mayor’s Office

Community News>>

January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Report: Halt urged for new cannabis biz permits by Sari Staver

ith some 277 applications for new cannabis business permits stuck in a slow-moving queue, the city should consider placing a moratorium on applications. That was one of the key recommendations made in a new report by the city controller’s office, presented at the January 6 meeting of the San Francisco Cannabis Oversight Committee, held at the Department of Public Health office on Grove Street. The oversight committee advises the Board of Supervisors and mayor about the implementation and enforcement of city laws and regulations regarding cannabis. The state Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, which was signed into law in June 2017, creates the general framework for the regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis in California. Adult recreational use became legal in January 2018 after the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016. After the state law was signed, the Board of Supervisors asked the controller’s office to track the number of permits awarded and issue a report that makes recommendations as to whether the issuance of cannabis business permits should be subject to any numerical, geographical, or other limits. The new report gives background on the current situation regarding existing cannabis businesses as well as the status of applications for new businesses. Currently, there are 37 retail organizations selling cannabis and another 133 that have applied, or are planning to apply, for a business permit. As previously reported in the Bay Area Reporter, only two new retail applicants have been approved: Eureka Sky, at 3989 17th Street, set to open this month, and Berner’s on Haight, at 1685 Haight Street, which opened in December. As stated in city regulations, in order to apply for a permit, one of the people in the group must be approved as an equity applicant, which includes those who were adversely affected by the war on drugs, either because they had been charged with a drug offense or lived in a neighborhood with higher rates of arrests for cannabis. According to the new report, of the 277 pending applications, almost half (133) want to open a retail store, with the remaining applying for a permit for delivery (46), cultivation (17), manufacturing (31), and distribution (50). Those in the queue for a retail permit can anticipate an 18-24 month wait while their application is processed, placing a daunting financial burden on the applicants, who are required to have a lease on space before

HIV, hep C, STDs

From page 1

Spahr Center, which helps LGBT seniors in Marin County. End the Epidemics helped Wiener’s office with particulars in the bill. “We are all thrilled with Senator Wiener for doing it,” Van Gorder said of the proposed legislation. “It’s unfortunate that the governor didn’t take the opportunity and needs to be nudged. We’re glad Senator Wiener is nudging. Hopefully (Newsom) will sign the bill and then we move along.” The work by End the Epidemics comes as members of the group are growing frustrated that Governor Gavin Newsom’s office has not responded to a recent letter it sent asking him to endorse a statewide, integrated response, Donnelly said. “We are disappointed,” Donnelly said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. January 6. As of this week, he

Sari Staver

SF Office of Cannabis director Marisa Rodriguez

their application can be processed. Among the reasons for the long delays is understaffing in the Office of Cannabis, said the report. Marisa Rodriguez, director of the Office of Cannabis, commenting on the controller’s report at the meeting, said the office “could use support” to make improvements in the lengthy time it takes to complete the application process.

Applicants incurring debt

To cover costs during the application process, many applicants “are incurring debt and/or selling ownership shares in their business to investors who can provide capital,” the report said. Currently, other than permit fee waivers, the city does not have any financial assistance for equity applicants, unlike some other cities, such as Oakland. Although the application processing time will likely decrease in the future, according to the report, “there is such a high number of storefront retail applications (133) that this activity may not be viable” because by the time the application is approved, the market may already be “saturated.” Given this unwieldy equation, the report made four key recommendations: • Consider a moratorium on new storefront retail applications and methods of reducing the number of current storefront retail applications. Any potential future limits should apply to new applicants rather than to the existing applicant pipeline. • Consider additional benefits to equity applicants to help them through the lengthy permitting process, including capital and technical assistance, and no-interest loan funding. • Consider creating a priority permitting lane or expedited processing for equity applicants in permitting departments other than the Office of Cannabis. • The Office of Cannabis should consider temporary positions to reduce the backlog of equity applicants and expedite application processing. The report also urged the city to adopt strategies to halt the illicit market sales. According to the report, still had not responded, she added. The letter had been sent December 19. Newsom is familiar with HIV/ AIDS, hepatitis C, and STI issues. As San Francisco mayor, he rejected a proposal from local health officials that would have seen $3 million cut from AIDS services. In his first year as governor, he signed bills allowing Californians to obtain a two-month supply of PrEP without a prescription. (That program is expected to begin this summer.) Last year, he said he was open to a statewide HIV and STI plan. But he has yet to announce a proposal. “It was our hope that Governor Newsom would take the HIV issue under his wing,” Van Gorder said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. January 7. “In the last year, he has approved additional funding, but the coalition has found it difficult to engage with him and his office in a meaningful effort.”

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fewer than 25% of all dispensaries in the state are legally licensed, although the problem of unlicensed dispensaries is more prevalent in Southern California. Statewide, the report estimates that there are 2,835 unlicensed dispensaries and 873 licensed stores. Fitness/Commuter Kid’s Rodriguez said the department could use additional permit analysts and staff who could help with elimination of illicit market sales. Currently, said Rodriguez, “we don’t have the resources or staff to even scratch the surface” regarding enforcement of illegal sales. Road Electric “We’d be happy to take on the task but would need full support to move forward on abating the illicit market,” she said. The report analyzed cannabis-related crime, concluding that there was no need to limit cannabis businesses due to public safety concerns because, since 2013, cannabis-related crimes have decreased by 78% in San Francisco, down to only 186 incidents in 2018, according to the report. Also, in 2018, cannabis business locations had a 2% decrease in property and violent crime, while the city on average had an 8% increase in the same crime types. The report also found that cannabis-only driving under the influence represents less than 4% of the total DUIs in the city. The report also looked at cannabisrelated health indicators, finding that it was “too early” to determine any recommendations regarding legaliza1065 & 1077 Valencia (Btwn 21st & 22nd St.) • SF tion and its public health impacts. LoSALES cally, the report found that since the 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS 415-550-6601 • Mon-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-5 1065 & 1077 Valencia (Btwn 21st & 22nd St.) • SF 1990s, use of cannabis among high Closed: 4pm New Years415-550-6601 EVE, and• All Day New Years SALES 415-550-6600 • REPAIRS Mon-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-5 school students has decreased along Closed: 4pm New Years EVE, and All Day New Years with national trends; in fact, San valenciacyclery.com Francisco use rates are lower than national averages, the report said. “It is difficult to separate trends 1/8/20 1:20 PM related to increasing cannabis useVALENCIA_010219.indd 1 from the impact of increased comfortability discussing and recognizing cannabis use, leading to inTHIS IS THE creased reporting,” the report stated. However, visits and admissions to city-run health clinics and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital that indicate cannabis as a diagnosis slightly increased following and legalization; visits and admissions that indicate cannabis as a cause are inconclusive, the report noted. formerly the Neptune Society Rodriguez said that the correct approach in curbing the illicit market would be through abatement by making it difficult to conduct illegal transactions, rather than by criminalizing black market sales. The task force will meet bimonthly through the end of the year. Details about its meetings can be found on the Office of Cannabis’ new website, www.sf.gov/departments/office-cannabis. t

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Van Gorder formerly led Project Inform, an HIV/AIDS and hep C advocacy nonprofit. Based in San Francisco, it closed in 2019, several months after Van Gorder departed. The coalition asked for $60 million allocated for HIV, STI, and hepatitis C prevention in the budget for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, as the B.A.R. reported last February, but the budget ended up including only $5 million for each, or $15 million, Van Gorder said. In contrast, Van Gorder noted that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo budgeted $20 million in 2018 to address the Empire State’s HIV epidemic. In his budget proposal announced January 10, Newsom asked for the $15 million included in the 2019-2020 budget to be extended 18 months, meaning the money can be spent over a longer period. Newsom proposed a $222 billion state budget. See page 10 >>

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

MLK Day events planned compiled by Cynthia Laird

he San Francisco Interfaith Council has announced events to celebrate the birthday of Martin Lu-

ther King Jr., which will be observed Monday, January 20. At 11 a.m., there will be a march from the Caltrain Depot at Fourth and Townsend streets to Yerba Buena

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Gardens, 750 Howard Street. Once people arrive, the council will hold its 10th annual interfaith commemoration ceremony. This year’s theme is “The Time for Justice.” The council said that churches can bring their congregations and banners. To register for the march, visit https://bit.ly/37UtZkc. Caltrain will offer its free “celebration train” that day for those in the South Bay and on the Peninsula who wish to attend the San Francisco event. The train will depart San Jose at 9:35 a.m., and stop in Palo Alto (9:55) and San Mateo (10:19) before arriving in San Francisco at 10:45. Tickets are required, and can be obtained at https://bit.ly/306la4j. The service is a program of the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Foundation. In addition to the interfaith ceremony, there are other service day activities, lectures, and more both on Monday and over the weekend. For a complete list, visit https://sfmlkday. org/.

Women’s Marches Saturday

Women’s Marches are scheduled for San Francisco and Oakland Saturday, January 18. In San Francisco, events will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at City Hall Plaza, 335 McAllister Street. This year’s theme is “Together We Rise.” The march lineup begins at 1 p.m. Call Mary O’Gorman 707-328-2997 or email and will go 1.7 miles on Market Street maryogorman@comcast.net for complete details. to the Embarcadero. For more information, visit www. womensmarchsf.org. In Oakland, the march and rally MaryOGorman2x5-092619.indd 1 1/14/20 12:43 PM take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza, located at Broadway and 14th streets (near the 12th Street BART station). The 1.3-mile We are Your Local Experts helping march starts at 11 and begins and Exceptional Clients Buy and Sell ends at the plaza. Beautiful Homes in San Francisco. Call Us for a Free Valuation of Your Property.

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Jules Swan-Streepy, left, joined Sophie Ng, Gianna Galarza, and Elizabeth Zhang in preparing to plant trees in San Francisco’s Sunset neighborhood Monday, January 13, as part of the activities leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Foundation led the project, along with San Francisco Public Works and Climate Action Now.

Announced speakers are Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, and Mya Whitaker, who ran for Oakland City Council in 2018. The co-host is the Women’s Foundation of California. The theme for the event is “Oakland Counts,” and there will be information available on the 2020 census, including job fairs the census bureau is holding. For more information, visit www. womensmarchoakland.org.

NCLR staffer honored with leadership prize

The Juvenile Law Center, the nation’s first public interest law firm, has announced that one of the recipients of its 2020 Leadership Prize is Shannan Wilber, who is the youth policy director at the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The law center, based in Philadelphia, is marking its 45th anniversary this year. The leadership prize is awarded to outstanding individuals working in any field – law, government, arts, media, entertainment, sports, business, or any other sector – who are fighting for the rights and well-being of youth in the child welfare and justice systems. According to a January 10 news release, Wilber has been instrumental in developing professional standards and agency policies governing the care of LGBTQ youth in state custody. She joined NCLR in 2013 after serving as executive director of Legal Services for Children, a nonprofit law office in San Francisco. The law center’s other recipients See page 9 >>

Sterling Bank wins OK to relocate Castro branch by Matthew S. Bajko

terling Bank & Trust won approval last week to relocate its Castro branch into a prominent corner retail space on upper Market Street. It pledged it would enliven the area at the intersection of Market, Church and 14th streets rather than turn it into a dead zone at night or on weekends. With its lease at 2122 Market Street set to expire, the bank plans to move next door into a 2,999 square foot storefront at 2100 Market Street. Because it has more than 11 branches, Sterling Bank is considered a formula retailer and needed a conditional use permit in order to relocate the branch. To do so, the San Francisco-based financial institution overcame objections from some in the neighborhood who preferred seeing a restaurant occupy the storefront, as well as a recommendation from city planners that its permit request be denied due to an over concentration of formula retailers in the vicinity. The city’s planning commission instead voted 6-0 January 9 to support the bank’s relocation request. The members of the oversight body were persuaded by the fact that Sterling Bank isn’t a megabank and has been a member of the Castro community for years. “If this was Chase asking me, I would support the department’s recommendation of saying no. The deadening of retail areas by banks at night is devastating,” said Planning Commissioner Kathrin Moore. Commission Vice President Joel Koppel, who works nearby, noted,

Matthew S. Bajko

Sterling Bank & Trust plans to relocate its Castro branch into the corner retail space in the adjacent mixed-use building that opened last fall.

“This area is in dire need of filled storefronts.” It was an argument that Walter Parsley, Sterling Bank’s attorney, made to the commission, pointing out there are currently more vacancies near the bank branch than there are formula retailers along that stretch of upper Market Street. Planning staff pegged the number of vacancies at 10, with six chain businesses operating within a 300-foot radius of the retail space Sterling is moving into. “Sterling does not seek to establish a new formula retail use, they have been there 24 years. But their lease is up and they need to move, literally next door,” said Parsley, who also lives nearby. Steve Adams, a senior vice president and managing director at Ster-

ling Bank, noted how both he and the company have deep roots in the community. Adams, a gay man and former president of the Castro Merchants neighborhood association, is See page 11 >>

Correction The online version of the January 9 article, “Gay activist scales Seven Summits for LGBT rights,” has been updated to include clarifying comments from Mr. Kasmamytov and a correction that homosexuality in Kyrgyzstan is socially unacceptable, not illegal.

Sports>>

January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Warriors exec gets a ring of his own by Roger Brigham

he new decade comes with a new chapter in the life of Golden State Warriors president and chief operating officer Rick Welts. Welts, the highest ranking openly gay front office official of any team in U.S. professional men’s major league sports, was married Friday, January 10, to his longtime partner, Todd Gage, at San Francisco City Hall in a ceremony performed by Mayor London Breed. “It was a good day, nine years in the making,” Welts, who will turn 67 this month, wrote in an announcement on Twitter. Welts’ career in basketball began in high school when he was hired as a ball boy by the Seattle SuperSonics. He rose through the ranks to be a leader in the NBA front office when the league was transforming itself into the multibillion-dollar enterprise it is today. While working in the Phoenix Suns front office in 2011 he came out as gay, then shortly afterward joined the Warriors and led the initiative to transfer the team from its former home in Oakland to its new digs in San Francisco. (See September 29, 2011 Jock Talk, “Warriors hire Welts,” www.ebar.com/news///241906)

Courtesy Twitter

Rick Welts married his partner, Todd Gage, last Friday in a City Hall ceremony officiated by San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

If there is anyone in sports who comprehends the difference between living a closeted life and an open one, it is Welts. When his first partner, Arnie Chinn, died of AIDS in 1994, Welts had to grieve in silence and alone. A new relationship that started the next year was haunted by the tension of remaining closeted and ended in 2009 – another loss Welts absorbed alone. Since coming out in 2011, Welts has received overwhelming support

from colleagues and the community. He was a major influence in getting the NBA to pull its All-Star Game from North Carolina because of transphobic legislation, and has become an advisory board member of You Can Play. In 2013, the year samesex marriages became legal in California, Welts marched with dozens of members of the Warriors staff in the San Francisco Pride parade and was a guest at the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club’s annual Pride breakfast. In 2018, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Last month, during a World AIDS Day ceremony at the National AIDS Memorial Grove that marked the return of the AIDS Quilt to the San Francisco Bay Area, Welts received the National Leadership Recognition Award. He remains one of the few openly gay executives in major sports front offices. Gail Hunter was also in the Warriors front office as vice president of public affairs and event management, and was heavily involved in the drive behind launching the Chase

Center, but was hired as an events director by Apple in 2018. So, maybe no championship ring this season for the Warriors after collecting three in the past six years, but a little more bling for Welts’ finger nonetheless. Congratulations.

Suit filed in death of Gay Games basketball player

At a vigil held one year after fashion consultant and avid basketball player Timothy Dean was found dead in the West Hollywood apartment of major Democratic Party donor Ed Buck due to a methamphetamine overdose, an attorney for the Dean family announced the filing of a civil suit against Buck for the wrongful death. Buck was indicted last year and faces federal criminal charges related to the death of Dean in 2019, Gemmel Moore in 2017, and the distribution of meth to three other men. His trial is scheduled for later this year, when former O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden is set to represent him. Buck also faces several state charges .

The lawsuit filed for Dean’s sisters alleges Buck had “a history of hosting sexual encounters at the property during which he facilitated the distribution, manufacturing or furnishing of illegal controlled substances to his guests, into whom Mr. Buck forcibly injected crystal methamphetamine.” Mark Chambers was a friend of Dean’s and played with him in the 2018 Gay Games in Paris. “He would give the shirt off his back,” Chambers said at the vigil. “He literally gave suits to homeless people.”

Sharks’ hockey-for-all night set

Sports inclusion and diversity will be the theme when the San Jose Sharks host a Hockey is for Everyone Night Sunday, March 29, with a 7 p.m. game against the Arizona Coyotes. Plans are still being formed and finalized, Sharks front office representatives said. Players will once again have the option of playing with rainbow tape on their hockey sticks, which will then be auctioned off as a benefit to the You Can Play Foundation. Displays will also showcase past year-round Sharks initiatives to work for a more inclusive hockey environment.t

New year, new (trans) you by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

want to take a moment to primarily speak to those who may be questioning whether they may be trans or nonbinary themselves, or are still fairly new to the potential transitions. Don’t worry, if that isn’t you, you’re still welcome to read on. The first of January is an arbitrary date that, for many, signifies a new year. Given its proximity to the shortest day of the year and coming along in the deep of winter, it’s certainly a good time to mark a new year, and fill one’s life with hope for a better tomorrow. For many, too, New Year’s Day includes a resolution, where one declares steps they may take to improve themselves over the course of the year. It’s often when diets start, gym memberships are secured, or when some might opt to quit smoking. For those of us who are trans, however, I wonder if we can’t look at this time-tested tradition as one we can take advantage of. Consider for a moment how this may be the perfect time to lay the groundwork of coming out as trans or nonbinary. With winter weather dropping the mercury, it’s a good time to do some study and introspection. It’s an opportunity to curl up inside and read some books about transgender issues. Maybe grab a copy of “Trans Bodies, Trans Selves” to page through, or one of the many trans autobiographies and memoirs you

News Briefs

From page 8

were Stephen K. Harper, assistant clinical professor at Florida International University College, and Sherry Lachman, founder and executive director of Foster America. The celebration event for the prize recipients will take place May 14 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Scholarships for HIV+ students

The New York City-based HIV

Christine Smith

can find via a nearby bookseller or online retailer. Speaking of things online, one can also take this time to hunt the internet for resources, and learn about the vast number of options available for a trans person in this new year. You may even be able to find a local support group or other nearby resources that will allow you to reach out to people. Barring that, of course, social media and other online forums will give you both a place for support and, possibly, a place to explore your preferred gender identity or expression in an otherwise anonymous and potentially safe environment. Provided, of course, that you don’t give away too much personal information, naturally. I also recently came across a free phone app, called Solace LGBT, which provides its own series of helpful articles on transition in a supportive framework. One caveat, however: the application is very League has announced that applications are being accepted for its scholarships, which it says are the only national ones for students living with HIV. According to its website, grants are available as follows: a two-year $7,000 scholarship for a full-time student; a one-year $3,500 one for a full-time student; and a one-year $1,500 scholarship for a part-time student. Applicants must be living with HIV and have an unweighted GPA of at least 2.5. They need to be enrolled in an institution of higher education as a full-time or part-time student for

transfeminine-focused. While it will give you plenty of advice about buying a bra or trying makeup, you’ll find nothing about binding or other needs for transmasculine people or many nonbinary people. I hope the app creators will fix this glaring oversight as Solace evolves. It’s available via Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Think of these early months of the new year as a good time to spend your energies within yourself, and focus on just what it is to be you. You might not be able to get out to all the places you’ll enjoy during the summertime, but you can get plenty of time to stay inside and learn about you and your future. I offer one more reason why the winter months of a new year serve us who are trans: For those who may opt for hormone treatment and other such physical changes, but may not yet be fully out in the world, consider for a moment how much easier it may be to manage such changes when one opts for the bulky coats, scarves, and sweaters of the winter months, versus the T-shirts and shorts of the warmer months. There’s a distinct advantage to be had. Oh, and it’s worth noting that a lot of clothing retailers are busy trying to sell off their fall and winter apparel now, allowing you to take advantage of clearance sales. That’s very useful whether you are building a new wardrobe, or just want to experiment with what feels right to you. Perhaps you are ready to come out to friends and family. If you didn’t during the holidays in December – always a risky time to do so, among at least one year beginning with the Fall 2020 semester. The institution they are attending must be in the U.S. or a U.S. territory; American citizenship is not a requirement. Last year, according to the HIV League’s website, nine scholarships were awarded across the three categories. The deadline to apply is Friday, January 31, at 9 p.m. Pacific time. For more information, visit http://www. hivleague.org. See page 11 >>

ity and a lot of work – but you can all the other challenges of the oftenthrive. t dramatic family gatherings – then perhaps this otherwise quiet time of the year may give you some time to Gwen Smith didn’t take her own advice, and came out in Nocome out in a less stressful moment. vember. You’ll find her at www. Besides, maybe some of your gwensmith.com. relatives and friends resolved to be more tolerant and accepting. All of this, of course, is just one trans woman’s suggestion. Perhaps there are times that are better for you, and that’s perfect. One thing about being trans or nonbinary that few may realize: there is no timeline and you are in complete control of what you do and when. For some, they may transition quickly, never looking back, at any time of the year. For others, their transition may take many twists and turns. All of this is all within your own timetable, and there is no shame in whatever path you find yourself having to take. If transition isn’t for you, then by all means, don’t. Being trans isn’t about following a cookie cutter of specific steps, but about your personal well-being: my path may not be yours. With that said, the best time to move toward your own well-being is today. If you have questioned if you might be facing gender dysphoria, or as trans or nonbinary, this is the very moment for you to contemplate what that means for you, and what steps you may wish to take. One more thing: while we all face our own unique challenges on our path, there isn’t a single one of us who cannot succeed and find theirUntitled-5 1 12/20/19 10:09 AM own happiness. It will take tenac-

<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

Senior housing

From page 1

day that the city is in “advanced negotiations” to buy the existing building and parcel at 1939 Market Street from the union representing sheet metal workers. Once the sale is complete, the city will put out a call for proposals from developers to construct 100% affordable housing for seniors on the 7,840 square foot lot. “We need more affordable housing throughout San Francisco so that our low- and middle-income residents can continue to live here and I’m looking forward to seeing this housing development in the Upper Market area provide new, affordable homes so that our seniors can continue to live in San Francisco and age with dignity,” stated Breed. The city is purchasing the property with funds from the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) and intends to use a portion of the $600 million Affordable Housing Bond voters passed in November to pay for construction of the project, the cost of which is yet to be determined. Proposition A included $150 million for the creation of new affordable senior housing rental opportunities through new construction and acquisition. The bond also included language giving priority to projects in parts of the city that have seen little affordable housing built, such as the Castro neighborhood. The Board of Supervisors is expected to sign off on the acquisition of the land. “Projects like 1939 Market are exactly the kinds of much-needed housing developments that we can now fund

Intersex

From page 1

“hopeful that in the future we will be able to pass similar legislation.” Speaking in support of the bill was Bria Brown-King, who is intersex and lives in Delaware. They were born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and at age 13 underwent a vaginoplasty and clitoral reduction at the suggestion of a urologist, though now they regret that decision. “These surgeries are often carried out based on an assumption of what the child would want as an adult,” said Brown-King. “I never did use my vagina in the way the doctor

HIV, hep C, STDs

From page 7

“The money would have ‘sunsetted’ on December 31, 2021,” Corey Egel, a spokesman with the California Department of Public Health, wrote in an email to the B.A.R. “Given this budget action, those resources will be extended 18 months from that date.” It is not known how much of that money has been spent; Egel said Tuesday that he was processing the B.A.R.’s request for that information. Newsom has yet to name a permanent head of the state AIDS office. Marisa Ramos, Ph.D., was tapped by Newsom last February to lead the office on an interim basis. She had previously held that role, but stepped down for a time due to a bureaucratic issue that was later resolved. As the B.A.R. previously reported, the coalition contacted Newsom with a community consensus statement in March 2019. Over 100 organizations from across the state signed on, and it appeared Newsom was open to a statewide plan then.

Bemoaning lack of progress

The December 19 letter bemoaned the lack of progress. “We are disappointed that you have not publicly endorsed a statewide initiative to end these epidemics as you committed to doing during the campaign,” the letter states. “We are greatly concerned that these actions will fail to have their desired impact without increased political support, interagency collaboration, and new re-

Jane Philomen Cleland

Mayor London Breed

thanks to the 2019 Affordable Housing Bond,” stated Breed. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told the Bay Area Reporter he is hopeful of seeing the project primarily house LGBT seniors. The site, at the corner of Market and Duboce streets, is near the affordable senior housing project at 55 and 95 Laguna Street that was built specifically with LGBT older adults in mind. “We have a lot of LGBT seniors and others in District 8 at risk of eviction and need a place to be to spend the rest of their days in San Francisco,” said Mandelman. “Getting another bunch of units online for them is a real priority for me.” The 119 units of LGBT-welcoming affordable senior housing on Laguna Street was the result of a collaboration between Openhouse, a nonprofit provider of LGBT senior services in San Francisco, and affordable housing developer Mercy Housing. The first apartments at 55 Laguna, a rehabilitated former college building, opened in late 2016 and the residents of the newly

built building at 95 Laguna started moving in last spring. Due to anti-discrimination laws, any senior regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity could enter the lotteries for the two buildings if they met the age requirements and financially qualified. It is estimated that roughly 65% of the residents in the buildings identify as LGBT. Mercy oversaw construction of the housing, while Openhouse is responsible for providing services to the residents. It also relocated its offices into a ground floor space at 65 Laguna and is overseeing the build out of new community spaces at 75 Laguna. Construction on that project should be completed in February, and Openhouse hopes to start offering programming there in March.

Need for senior housing

It is too soon to know if the nonprofit would team up with Mercy again or another developer to bid on the 1939 Market Street site, Openhouse Executive Director Karyn Skultety, Ph.D., told the B.A.R. She did note the overwhelming need for additional below-market-rate housing for LGBT seniors and others in the city, pointing out there are 3,000 seniors on a waiting list for any vacancies at the two Laguna Street buildings. “Obviously, we are really excited to see the city move forward with the intent to purchase this land. At this point there is a lot to be sorted out and figured out,” said Skultety. “Of course we are thrilled to see the city moving forward to create more affordable housing in the city. We celebrate every day the strong community of residents we

have at 55 and 95 Laguna. Our heart breaks everyday for the thousands of seniors caught in our housing crisis.” LGBT seniors in particular, said Skultety, “feel pushed out by the city they helped to build.” The city’s current budget included $40,000 to hire a consultant to look at how to construct more affordable housing in District 8, which includes the Castro, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, and Glen Park. The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development recently hired Rick Jacobus, the principal of Street Level Urban Impact Advisors, to conduct the study, said Mandelman. It will be several years before any housing is built at 1939 Market Street, which currently is the site of a twostory building occupied by the Sheet Metal Workers Local 104, three other commercial tenants, and a small parking lot. According to the mayor’s office, the city intends to lease the building to the union for 24 months, thus the soonest any construction could begin there would be in early 2022. Across the street a condo development, featuring 96 units, 14 of which are to be below-market-rate, was approved in 2018 for 1965 Market Street and 255-291 Duboce Avenue, currently the site of a surface parking lot and a commercial building with several tenants, one of which is a FedEx Office Print and Ship Center. Construction has yet to begin, and the property with the entitled project was listed for sale last spring for a reported $15 million.

Number of units unclear

It is unclear how many units of affordable senior housing will be built at

1939 Market Street. A listing for the sale of the property noted its zoning places no limits on unit-density and allows for the construction of structures up to 85 feet in height. What is known is that 25 to 40% of the units built there would be reserved for people living in District 8 or within a half-mile of the project. “Once built, 1939 Market Street will add to our ever-expanding portfolio with over 80 new units of permanently affordable housing for seniors where they can age in place with a sense of continuity and grace,” stated Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development acting Director Dan Adams. The mayor’s office also noted the housing would be built above sidewalk-fronting spaces, allowing for “expansive ground-floor activation opportunities.” Under recent zoning changes that Mandelman pushed through last fall, nonprofits that provide activities and programs onsite are an allowable use in the upper Market Street corridor. With the desire to maximize the property for as much senior housing as possible, it is doubtful the site could double as a home for the GLBT Historical Society’s future, permanent LGBTQ history museum or the National AIDS Memorial Grove’s planned center for social conscience where it can display the AIDS quilt, which it is now steward of, as both projects are planned for the Castro. “My hope is this is going to be an LGBT-affirming senior residential community along the lines of 55 and 95 Laguna,” said Mandelman. “I would be excited to see Openhouse be part of that.” t

thought. Most of my partners were cisgender women.” In his testimony to the committee, Wiener stressed that the bill does not transfer the power to make medical decisions to 6-year-old children. It merely aims to ensure they have a voice in those decisions, which would continue to be made by their parents in consultation with their doctor. “This legislation ensures people who were born intersex are able to make their own choices about their health and gender identity instead of having other people make those irreversible surgical choices for them,” said Wiener. “If having a medically unnecessary procedure on your body,

wouldn’t you want to have some input into that decision as opposed to having other people make those decisions?” Dr. Hillary L. Copp, a pediatric urologist in the UCSF Department of Urology, argued that Wiener’s bill is “the wrong approach” as it goes too far in restricting the medical procedures that would be considered necessary to perform on infants. “SB 201 treats every child the same,” said Copp, adding that the bill also ignores “the impact of delayed treatment.” Senator Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) also expressed concerns that the legislation was too broad prior to his voting against it.

“I think the broadness is a bit concerning,” said Pan, though he noted, “I think the intent of the bill and where we want to go is in line with where the medical profession wants to go. I think the concern is the law is a blunt instrument.” Senator Cathleen Galgiani (DStockton), a lesbian and member of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, voted in support of the bill. She argued for the committee not to kill the bill and allow Wiener to continue to tweak it as it moves through the legislative process. “I think it is time to stop and look at the harm that has been done and how to put a pause on that,” she

said, adding that she has “trust in the medical field” to determine if surgery is necessary for an intersex infant or could be postponed to a later date. “I think there is a pathway to get there,” said Galgiani, one of just two votes in support of advancing the bill. The other yes vote came from Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino), with Senators Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), Bill Dodd (D-Napa), and Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) joining Pan in voting no. In addition to Glazer, Senators Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera) and Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar) abstained. t

sources to fully implement the plan.” Advocates are also seeking improved access to health care and want to align agencies fighting HIV, hepatitis C, and STIs such as syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, saying they are not three epidemics but one. “This epidemic goes beyond HIV,” Van Gorder said. Dr. Alisson Sombredero, the new chief medical officer at the San Francisco Community Health Center, a signatory to the letter, has worked as an HIV specialist for decades. She said that there are such high rates of co-infection of HIV and other STIs that they should be thought of as a syndemic, or series of linked health problems. Often, the presence of one infection makes an individual more susceptible to others. “I consider HIV, hepatitis C, and other STDs as a syndemic because the three disease clusters can be found as coinfection and each of these diseases pose a risk factor for acquiring the others,” Sombredero wrote in a December 30 email to the B.A.R. “Data from several major cities throughout the country indicate that an average of four in 10 (men who have sex with men) with syphilis are also infected with HIV. “People might think in the era of PrEP other STDs will not be so important as all are curable, but San Francisco is a city with very high access to PrEP, contrary to other counties in California where access is very limited,” she added. There were slightly fewer diagno-

ses of HIV infection in California in 2018, the most recent year for which numbers are available, compared to 2017 – 4,402 versus 4,772, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. San Francisco made headlines last year when Mayor London Breed and the Department of Public Health announced the city had its fewest number of HIV cases in 2018 ever reported – 197 new HIV diagnoses that year, a 13% decrease from the 227 in 2017.

Syphilis cases spiked, however, with 1,552 in the first 11 months of 2019 compared to 1,749 in the first 11 months of 2018. Syphilis cases in women increased by almost a third in the same span, from 106 in the first 11 months of 2018 to 152 in the first 11 months of 2019. “There’s a number of factors you can attribute this (the general rise of bacterial STDs) to,” said Sergio Morales, director of sexual and reproductive health programs at Essential Access Health, which signed onto the December 19 letter to Newsom. “Reporting STDs more – that may account for some of the increase we are seeing. But cuts to public health funding have contributed to the spike in rates. “The state budget has included limited investment, but doesn’t have the resources needed to really stem the tide of epidemics,” Morales added. Essential Access Health has an STD prevention center and works with county health departments around the state. Morales said that individuals should use condoms and ask questions to be better informed, but stressed the need for collective action. “We have to strengthen public health infrastructure, local funding and public health information,” he said. Morales said that Golden State residents were “lucky” to have better information available in schools than what is available in other states, thanks to the California Healthy Youth Act, which “includes a mandate

in all California schools to ensure they have comprehensive sex education.” The California Healthy Youth Act was passed in 2015 and went into effect the following year.

STDs

But the number of bacterial STDs has risen. In California in 2018, syphilis was up 265% compared to 2008, gonorrhea cases were up 211%, and chlamydia cases were up 56%, according to statistics from the CDC. According to the most recent San Francisco Monthly STD Report from the city’s health department, which covered November 2019 and was released December 31, year-to-date cases of gonorrhea were down from 2018 (5,063 in the first 11 months of 2019, compared to 5,484 in 2018). Chlamydia numbers were almost exactly the same in the two years (8,726 for 11 months in 2019 compared to 8,725 in 2018). Male rectal gonorrhea and chlamydia were both down. There were 1,403 cases of male rectal gonorrhea in the first 11 months of 2019 compared to 1,520 in the first 11 months of 2018. There were 2,220 cases of male rectal chlamydia in the first 11 months of 2019 compared to 2,290 in the first 11 months of 2018.

Hep C

Hepatitis C advocates are hoping the public can be better educated about how the virus that causes it spreads, according to Robin Roth, the founder and co-chair of the San Francisco Hepatitis C Task Force (a signatory to the letter). “It’s time to take a holistic view of the epidemics because there is so much co-infection,” Roth said. Roth said that people often think that the cure for hepatitis C is so painful that living with the disease is better. What they might not know is that Gilead Sciences Inc. came out with a medicine with a high cure rate – sofosbuvir, sold as Sovaldi – in 2013. She said that her organization is dedicated to “tearing down the myths.” Another myth is that the vaccination for the hepatitis A and B viruses protect against the hepatitis C virus, which is not true, Roth said. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that can be spread through rectal intercourse, Roth said, but is more commonly spread through drug use. Newsom’s office has not responded to a request for comment as of press time. The California Department of Public Health Office of AIDS declined to comment for this story. t

t <<

Section >>

Wiener

From page 6

sion and revision of SB 1045. Both address procedures regarding 5150 psychiatric holds and subsequent conservatorship for people deemed “incapable” of handling their own health, the San Francisco Examiner noted in an article last year. Wiener has said the new law could apply to 50-100 people in San Francisco.

Unafraid of tough issues

“Senator Wiener takes on the hardest issues,” Kounalakis said. “He’s not afraid of the blowback, he’s not afraid of the controversy. He knows that if we’re going to show that democracy delivers for people, we have leaders who will take on the challenges head on and really bring people together, to find and build consensus for change and for problem solving around these important issues, and as we know, housing is one of the key ones.” Kounalakis also pointed out that Wiener is the chair of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. Daly City Councilman Ray Buenaventura also spoke. The councilman acknowledged that Wiener always remembered Daly City. (In addition to San Francisco, Wiener represents a portion of northern San Mateo County, including Daly City, Colma, and part of South San Francisco.) David Fujimoto, co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, addressed the crowd. The Alice club early-endorsed Wiener in October. “We at Alice are so proud to be supporting Scott for Senate,” Fujimoto

Sterling Bank

From page 8

president of the city’s small business commission. “We are involved in the community. I don’t want to leave the neighborhood,” he said. “I paid my dues and I want to continue to pay my dues in that neighborhood.” The branch’s employees will be working in the evening, noted Adams, and it will have a community room that local nonprofits and residential groups will be able to use for nighttime meetings or on weekends. “So there will be nighttime activity in that space,” said Adams. He also pointed to how Sterling Bank is the primary lender and bank for people living in the city’s singleroom-occupancy hotels through the Bank on San Francisco program. “I am a community bank,” argued Adams. “I am not Wells Fargo. I am not BofA. I am not a big bank.” Nonetheless, Sterling Bank is deemed a formula retailer under the city’s rules and ran up against restrictive zoning aimed at preventing too many chain retailers setting up shop along upper Market Street. The rules were put into place years ago follow-

News Briefs

From page 9

Elections dept. reminder for no party preference voters

The San Francisco Department of Elections reminds people who are registered no party preference, or NPP, that they need to request a bal-

January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

said. “Alice considers ourselves to be an independent club in San Francisco, we listen to all sides of an issue, and we support the candidates and the policy issues that represent our values and our mission, and we do what we think is best for San Francisco and to help push California along as well. “Senator Wiener embodies so much of what Alice stands for in that regard,” he added. “He listens to all sides of these very difficult issues that we’ve been discussing. He will push for what he thinks is right.” Fujimoto pointed out that Wiener has made it easier for trans and nonbinary individuals to change their birth certificates and driver’s licenses to match their gender identity. “He has made it so that PrEP is easier to access not only for LGBTQ individuals, but for low-income people on Medi-Cal,” he said. “He has made changes to the law to prevent unequal treatment to people with HIV and has worked to reduce stigma for people living with HIV. He has made it so that sex workers – radical idea – can report crimes without the risk of facing arrest, and that they can carry condoms without that being used against them in a court of law.” Breed spoke about Wiener’s strong work ethic. “I don’t think this guy sleeps,” she quipped. “Senator Wiener introduces quality legislation that is so desperately needed to move our city and our state forward,” Breed added. “What I most love about Senator Wiener is that you don’t have to tell him about what we need. He knows what we need. He understands the challenges that exist

in our city. That’s why he worked so hard to change conservatorship laws in the state, because he knew that it was so desperately needed here in San Francisco, locally in order to deal with what we see on the streets every single day. You didn’t have to tell Senator Wiener to change policies around housing and housing affordability because he understands that that’s the struggle of what we’re dealing with.” There were wild cheers when the mayor introduced Wiener to the crowd. Wiener acknowledged the presence of elected officials from Daly City. “A lot of times our rep in San Francisco is that we’re so insular that we don’t care about any of the other cities,” he said. “To me, representing Daly City and San Mateo County, it matters, and you have to be there for everyone in your district, not just the biggest city.” Wiener noted that Donald Trump was elected president the same night he was first elected to the state Senate in 2016. “We weren’t just going to have to fix our own problems here in California,” he said. “We were going to have to go to war to defend basic American values, basic American decency – that diversity makes us stronger, that immigrants make us stronger and built this country, basic notions that all genders are equal and that women have a right to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies, basic notions like trans children shouldn’t be demonized for going to the restroom, how about that?”

Wiener added that people were lucky to live in California, a state that has pushed back against the Trump agenda through legislation and lawsuits. After his speech, Wiener chatted with individuals and posed for a group photo with attendees. Many people took window signs and went out to campaign and knock on doors in the Castro and surrounding neighborhoods. After the event, Wiener spoke to the B.A.R. about his chances for reelection. “I take nothing for granted,” he said. “We live in a democracy and no elected official is entitled to a free pass. It’s my responsibility to make the case to the voters that they should send me back to the Senate. It’s my responsibility to ensure the voters are aware of my hard work for our community and my willingness to tackle some of the hardest issues such as housing, homelessness, mental health, and addiction and to deliver concrete results. I look forward to working hard to earn another term.” On the same morning as Wiener’s kickoff, one of his challengers, Jackie Fielder, a queer progressive activist and Democratic socialist, held her own field campaign event in Dolores Park. Fielder did not respond to the B.A.R.’s phone calls requesting a comment. According to her campaign website, Fielder’s agenda includes economic and social justice. She held her campaign kickoff in December. “Restructure the economy to ensure no income, working class, immigrant, LGBTQI, and communities of color can not only access housing,

health care and education, but can afford it,” the website reads. “I don’t know Jackie, so I can’t comment beyond what’s been reported in the press,” Wiener said. “She has a right to run for office, and I look forward to the campaign. I’ve been working in, and for, the LGBTQ community for 30 years. I’m passionate about this community, and I’ll always go to the mat for it.” Another candidate running against Wiener is Erin Smith, a transgender woman who’s a Republican. (See related story in this week’s Political Notebook.) Wiener has served in the state Senate, representing District 11, since 2016. He previously sat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing District 8, which includes the heavily LGBT Castro district. District 8 is currently represented on the board by gay Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who was in attendance at Wiener’s kick-off. “Scott and I have not always supported each other in the past,” Mandelman told the B.A.R. as the crowd gathered. “But I have always respected his relentless work ethic and I think he’s doing a strong job as state senator.” San Francisco’s housing crisis weighed heavily on the mind of Michael MacDonald, a gay 32-year-old Wiener supporter. “I think that Scott is our best chance of a progressive leader in San Francisco,” MacDonald said. “Our housing crisis is in such a dire need of a solution and Scott is the legislator that can bring those solutions to life.” t

ing neighborhood uproars over a planned Starbucks on the commercial corridor that was ultimately rejected by the planning commission, and complaints at seeing Bank of the West move into a prominent corner location at 16th, Market and Noe Streets since it does little to draw foot traffic when it is closed at night and on Sundays. Under the rules, if a retail applicant brings the formula retail concentration within a 300-foot radius of where it wants to open on upper Market Street to a concentration of 20% or above, the planning department staff is required to recommend disapproval of the application to the Planning Commission. In addition to Sterling Bank’s existing branch on the 2100 block of Market Street, there is also a Verve coffeehouse, a Crossroads Trading used clothing store, a Walgreens pharmacy and store, and a 24-Hour Fitness gym. Also within the radial area is a Compass real estate office, while just outside it is a Safeway grocery store and Ace Hardware. Sterling, noted Horn in his report, “would significantly increase the concentration of total formula retail use frontage within a 300-foot radius of the project” as the radial footprint

“currently is over-concentrated with formula retail uses, occupying 20.6% of the total frontages, and the project would result in a net increase of 124 linear feet to the district, resulting in a concentration of 26.6%.” The department, wrote Horn, considers the project “not to be necessary, desirable, and compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, and to be detrimental to persons or adjacent properties in the vicinity.” But at the hearing, outgoing planning director John Rahaim, a gay man set to resign once his replacement is announced, acknowledged that the retail environment had changed significantly since the city put in place the additional scrutiny of formula retailers along upper Market Street. He suggested it might be time to reexamine the restrictions. “It doesn’t bind the commission in any way,” said Rahaim. “But it does speak to the point of the nature of retail is changing really quickly. The process of changing the zoning code doesn’t happen as quickly, as you all know.” According to the staff report, the planning department received letters in support of Sterling Bank’s branch relocation from the Castro

Merchants, the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, and the Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association. In comments submitted to the commission at the hearing, CBD Executive Director Andrea Aiello noted how the area has seen a number of restaurants close and those that are opening are looking for smaller spaces and utilizing a fast-casual format rather than a large dining room as would be required with the space Sterling wants to occupy. “Not allowing Sterling to move to this spot would create a long term vacancy,” stated Aiello. Castro resident Robert Sammons, who serves on the CBD’s retail committee, echoed that sentiment in his remarks. “Vacancies are a challenge, no doubt about it,” said Sammons, a regional director at Cushman & Wakefield. “We need more retail however we can get it.” Meanwhile, nine nearby residents and the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association sent in letters of opposition. But no one spoke in opposition to Sterling Bank’s permit request at the hearing. In its October/November newslet-

ter DTNA explained that it was opposed to seeing Sterling Bank move into the new retail space because when local developer Brian Spiers sought its approval for his development he had promised “that the main corner retail space would be built out and rented as a restaurant, and that the two small retail spaces on 14th Street would be rented to local businesses at reasonable rates, Spiers reversed on that and is now attempting to gain approval to use the entire bottom floor for another corporate client (a bank).” The mixed-use building, which opened in September, had generated community consternation after it was learned last summer that Spiers had entered into an agreement with the San Francisco-based startup Sonder to lease its 52 market-rate apartments as furnished extended-stay units. The move was seen as favoring businesses that can afford to rent expensive apartments for their employees on a short-term basis rather than providing long-term homes for people who want to become residents of the city’s LGBT neighborhood. Meanwhile, the residents of the eight on-site affordable apartments were determined by a lottery the city conducted Tuesday, January 7.t

lot with presidential candidates if they want to cast a vote in the presidential primary election March 3. Those registered NPP who vote by mail should have already notified the department. If not, voters will still be able to exchange their ballots for their preferred ballots by following the instructions enclosed in the vote by mail ballot.

The Democratic, American Independent, and Libertarian parties will allow NPP voters to participate in their March 3 primaries, but only if they request the ballot. The Green, Peace and Freedom, and Republican parties will not allow NPP voters to participate in their presidential primaries. Voters who

want to cast ballots for those parties need to reregister with that specific party. Before February 18, voters may reregister online at www.registertovote. ca.gov or by completing a voter registration application and returning it in person or by mail to the elections department. After February 18, vot-

ers can reregister at a voting center or polling place on Election Day and vote a provisional ballot that reflects their new party. To check voter registration status, visit www.sfelections.org/voterportal. For more information, visit www. sfelections.org/2020primary or call (415) 554-4375. t

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Wiener speaks

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The Annual Report of the Burk Chung Foundation, 465 Clementina Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 is available at the Foundation’s office for inspection during regular business hours. Copies of the Annual Report have been furnished to the Attorney General of the State of California. Burk Chung, Trustee. Fiscal year ended November 30, 2019.

DEC 26, 2019, JAN 02, 09, 16, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038912400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PART & PARCEL, 649 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed 67 VENTURES, INC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/25/17. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/19.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CARMELINA’S TAQUERIA, 500 PARNASSUS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94143. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SUGAR JONES INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/02/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/19.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038903000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OPEN WIDE SAN FRANCISCO; OPEN WIDE; OPEN WIDE DENTAL, 1196 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by corporation, and is signed JANA SABO DDS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/13/19.

DEC 26, 2019, JAN 02, 09, 16, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038910800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: X2 GREEN CARPET, 101 CALIFORNIA ST #2710, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed WILLIAM LEE CAMPERS & KIT SHUM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/13/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/13/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOLENTSA, 12AVALON AVE #9, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112.This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed OLAYINKA SYLVIA NGUESSAN.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/20/19.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/20/19.

DEC 26, 2019, JAN 02, 09, 16, 2020

In the matter of the application of: VICTORIA JEAN MCGOOGAN, 2209 GOUGH ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner VICTORIA JEAN MCGOOGAN, is requesting that the name VICTORIA JEAN MCGOOGAN, be changed to VICTORIA JEAN PHILLIPS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103, Room 103 on the 30th of January 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

DEC 26, 2019, JAN 02, 09, 16, 2020

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LA FLEUR DISTRIBUTION; MERCURY DIME DELIVERY; SAVVAGE DELIVERY, 1555 YOSEMITE AVE #1C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BIG C ENTERPRISES LLC (NV). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/17/19.

DEC 26, 2019, JAN 02, 09, 16, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038909000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as:AMY DRY CLEAN SERVICE, 2551 25TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116.This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AMY ZHI FEN LI.The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/18/19.The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/18/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020

Legals>>

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555481

In the matter of the application of: CORBIN JEFFREY SIPOS, 2460 VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CORBIN JEFFREY SIPOS, is requesting that the name CORBIN JEFFREY SIPOS, be changed to CORBIN ELLIOT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103, on the 6th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555480

In the matter of the application of: EUGENE ANSON VAUGHAN AND JENNIFER LUAN, 815 30TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner EUGENE ANSON VAUGHAN AND JENNIFER LUAN, is requesting that the name DYLAN LUAN VAUGHAN, be changed to AYDEN LUAN VAUGHAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103N, Room 103N on the 6th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555475

In the matter of the application of: MARGARET MINKYUNG AHN, 25 RUSS ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARGARET MINKYUNG AHN, is requesting that the name MARGARET MINKYUNG AHN, be changed to SARAH JIWON deMARGARET AHN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103N, Room 103N on the 4th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038912200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HAPPY CHILD CARE, 2649 YORBA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed XIAO-JUAN LI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/19

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038913800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JAO ELECTRIC INC, 326 POMELO AVE, LOS BANOS, CA 93635. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JMO ELECTRIC INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/19.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038912700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TACOREA, 620 BROADWAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TACOREA NOBE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/19.

JAN 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555494

In the matter of the application of: CYNTHIA OLIVIA BURZYNSKA SMUZYNSKA, 579 BELVEDERE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CYNTHIA OLIVIA BURZYNSKA SMUZYNSKA, is requesting that the name CYNTHIA OLIVIA BURZYNSKA SMUZYNSKA, be changed to CYNTHIA OLIVIA SMUZYNSKA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Room 103N on the 11th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-555442

In the matter of the application of: TUA THI HUYNH, C/O NANCY A. FELLOM, CA 112522, LAW OFFICES OF FELLOM AND SOLORIO, 231 SANSOME ST, FLOOR 6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner TUA THI HUYNH, is requesting that the name TUA THI HUYNH, be changed to PEONY HUYNH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Room 103 on the 23rd of January 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555513 In the matter of the application of: CASEY JOSEPH SONDGEROTH, 4302 17TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CASEY JOSEPH SONDGEROTH, is requesting that the name CASEY JOSEPH SONDGEROTH, be changed to CASEY JOSEPH RANDO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 20th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038922200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BISMARK AUTO BODY & PAINT, 1670 15TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BISMARK A. LOAISIGA SANTAMARIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038927200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KANDA YOGA SCHOOL, 1426 FILLMORE ST #203, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALISON SMITH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/20.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038930900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FRANCESCA’S FLOWERS AND GARDENS, 828 SAN DOMINGO DR, SANTA ROSA, CA 95404. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FRANCESCA PEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/07/20.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020

January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 12

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038926500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BALBOA ICE CREAM, 1844 SAN JOSE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MIGUEL A. PINEDA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/20.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038915000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SOMESHINE CO.; SLOWDRIP HQ; MORENOPROJECTS, 1743 46TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GREG MORENO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/24/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038920200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TRUBAY, 677 CAROLINA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DONALD WICKLIFF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/17/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038901300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BAYSIDE MUSIC, 1301 GATEVIEW AVE #C, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BRENT ELBERG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/12/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038905900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ON-SITE ADVERTISING, 1592 UNION ST #167, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DIANE PERLMUTTER REYNOLDS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/23/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/16/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038921200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOMECOMING CLEAN SF, 840 POST ST #214, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAWNY S. PETERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038912800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUNSET BOULEVARD CHILD CARE; SH INTERNATIONAL, 3150 LAWTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SANDY X. HONG CHENG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/00. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/23/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038921100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JM EDUCATION & WELLNESS, 3628 23RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JENNY MORALES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/30/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038919600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LIFTOPIA INSURANCE SOLUTIONS, 350 SANSOME ST #925, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LIFTOPIA, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/27/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038903300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OPEN WIDE SAN FRANCISCO; OPEN WIDE; OPEN WIDE DENTAL, 1196 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JANA SABO DDS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/13/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038926200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WELLNESS NAILS CARE, 405 ARGUELLO BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed TIFFANY DINH & GIAU MAI HUYNH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/02/20.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038918700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CASTELLANOS TRANSPORT SERVICE LLC, 1788 19TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CASTELLANOS TRANSPORTATION SERVICE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/27/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038905500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BRUNELLO CUCINELLI, 116 GRANT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BRUNELLO CUCINELLI USA RETAIL LLC (NY). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/23/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/16/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038902800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MUST SEE, 995 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MUST SEE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/13/19.

JAN 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555517 In the matter of the application of: MARIO MAYNIGO RABARA, 478 WARREN DR, #617, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MARIO MAYNIGO RABARA, is requesting that the name MARIO MAYNIGO RABARA, be changed to MICHAEL MARIO RABARA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103N, Room 103N on the 20th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555518

In the matter of the application of: BRITTANY SUZANNE SHOOT, 621 STOCKTON ST, #402, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BRITTANY SUZANNE SHOOT, is requesting that the name BRITTANY SUZANNE SHOOT, be changed to BRITTA BERNICE SHOOT. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103, Room 103 on the 20th of February 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038911200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA CUSTOM CONSTRUCTION, 1340 MARKET ST, #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOSEPH HOUSTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/31/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/20/19.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038940700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NULA TRANSPORTATION, 1829 EL PARQUE CT, #8, SAN MATEO, CA 94403. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LUIS A. IBARRA CANALES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/13/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038935100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038937700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WILD CARD, 58 LIBERTY ST #7, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PARR ASSOCIATES INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/14/96. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/20.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BONITA TAQUERIA Y ROTISSERIE, 3600 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SQUAT & GOBBLE CAFE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/09/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038928900

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038925200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J & W HERBS, 718 PACIFIC AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed J & W HERBS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/06/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038924100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 425 JUDAH STREET APTS, 425 JUDAH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a trust, and is signed BASEM TOTAH & MAHA TOTAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/02/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038924200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 416 DUNCAN STREET APTS, 416 DUNCAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by a trust, and is signed BASEM TOTAH & MAHA TOTAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/02/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038909200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOUR SEASONS WASH N’ DRY, 700 7TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DUC NIM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038928200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROSALBA’S DAYCARE, 3276 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROSALBA MOTINO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/03/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038926300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MELTING POINT, 1340 BRYANT ST, SAN FRAMCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TAMMY BICKEL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/02/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038941000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RKR INVESTMENTS, 2633 OCEAN AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ROQUE E. FERNANDES, RAYMOND HO & KEVIN RUSHTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/13/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038924400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE PATRIOT HOUSE, 2 EMBARCADERO CENTER, LEVEL 1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DEBRUN, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/19/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/02/20.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038934400

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-038277100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: MELTING POINT, 1340 BRYANT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by TAMMY BICKEL & TYROME TRIPOLI. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 08/23/18.

JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020

Case No. RG18909704 Alameda County Superior Court 1225 Fallon St. Oakland, CA 94612 Rene C. Davidson Courthouse

Plaintiff: Tapestry on Central Condominium Association Defendant: Dean Arbit 1. TO JUDGMENT DEBTOR: Dean Arbit 2. YOU ARE NOTIFIED a. Upon application of the judgment creditor, a judgment against you has been entered in this court as follows: (1) Judgment creditor: Tapestry on Central Condominium Association (2) Amount of judgment entered in this court: $15,034.81 b. This judgment was entered based upon a sister-state judgment previously entered against you as follows: (1) Sister state: Arizona (2) Sister-state court: Encanto Justice Court, 620 W. Jackson, Phoenix, AZ 85003; transferred to Maricopa County Superior Court, 125 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85003 (3) Judgment entered in sister state on: August 5, 2013 (4) Title of case and case number: Tapestry on Central Condominium Association v. Dean Arbit and Jane Doe Arbit, CC2012-127983; TJ2014-000891 3. A sister-state judgment has been entered against you in a California Court. Unless you file a motion to vacate the judgment in this court within 30 DAYS after service of this notice, this judgment will be final. This court may order that a writ of execution or other enforcement may issue. Your wages, money, and property could be taken without further warning from the court. If enforcement procedures have already been issued, the property levied on will not be distributed until 30 days after you are served with this notice. Date: June 18, 2018 by: S/Erica Romero, Deputy

NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: You are served as an individual judgment debtor. B. Austin Baillio, Esq. (SBN 247535) Maxwell & Morgan, P.C. 4854 East Baseline Rd., Suite 104 Mesa, Arizona 85206 Telephone No: 480-833-1001 Attorney for: Tapestry on Central Condominium Association 1/2, 1/9, 1/16, 1/23/20 CNS-3326425# BAY AREA REPORTER

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JAN 16, 23, 30, FEB 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038935800

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Vol. 50 • No. 3 • January 16-22, 2020

www.ebar.com/arts Courtesy the artist

Jeremy Jordan will appear at the Herbst Theatre.

Missing man by David Lamble

Jeremy Jordan goes deep by Jim Gladstone

Texas-born Dallas Cowboys fan with a hunky build, high-wattage grin and serious vocal chops, Jeremy Jordan could have easily built a career on the sort of anodyne leading-man role that first shot him to fame in 2012, when he played Jack Kelly in the Broadway production of Disney’s “Newsies.” See page 14

he publication of “Have You Seen This Man? The Castro Poems of Karl Tierney” is a major event. It re-introduces the long-silenced voice of a writer who had a special ability to grasp the fine madness of his time and place on the planet. Born in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1956, raised in Connecticut and Louisiana by loving parents, Karl Tierney got a feel for his country’s potent mix of center-right politics and radical cultural roots early on. Visitors to Karl’s South of Market basement flat would be treated to an eclectic mix of political tracts and pop culture artifacts, including a framed Life magazine cover with the headline, “13 Years After the Death of Elvis Presley, New Evidence Points to an Inescapable Conclusion: Suicide!” See page 16

Scene from director Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” (1974).

Ciao, Fellini! by Sura Wood

“T

BAMPFA

he cinema is very much like the circus,” Federico Fellini once said. “In fact, if it didn’t exist, I might well have become a circus director. I close my eyes and the festival begins.” A lauded Italian filmmaker with a background in cartooning, a love of the seamy side of traveling side-shows and an unparalleled aptitude for the theatrical, Fellini was a pivotal figure in the international art-cinema scene that caught fire in the mid-1950s, and a progenitor of meta-cinema (movies about movies). He thrived in the golden age of the auteur with explicitly autobiographical material. But one might question the meaning of autobiography when it comes to a born fabricator who constantly reinvented himself and had no boundary between his real life and the fiction he put on screen. Influenced by the post-WWII Neorealist movement, he was a sought-after “prince of screenwriters,” collaborating with Roberto Rossellini, among others, before turning to directing and adopting a personal style characterized by lavishly staged fantasies. A ringmaster of surreal memories and dreams and not one to shy away from excess, he adored spectacle and the parade of humanity frequently on display in movies that could sport enormous casts, and 50 or more sequences and locations. See page 16 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

<< Out There

14 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

What ho, gentle reader?

Dini von Mueffling/Hutchinson

“Jeeves and the King of Clubs” author Ben Schott.

by Roberto Friedman

new “Jeeves” novel is always an event in Out There’s reading life, even if it’s not one written by P.G. Wodehouse. Anyone who’s ever dipped into the fastfire verbal wit of Wodehouse’s Wooster & Jeeves books thirsts for more. That’s why it’s been rather a cottage industry since the British humorist’s death to write Wodehouse novels without need of the actual Wodehouse. “Jeeves and the Wedding Bells” by Sebastian Faulks and “Wake Up, Sir!” by Jonathan Ames are two previous efforts in highborn hilarity. Now there is “Jeeves and the

Jeremy Jordan

From page 13

Having then appeared as Dolly Parton’s son in the movie “Joyful Noise” and good guy Winn Schott in TV’s “Supergirl,” Jordan, who appears in conversation and concert with kibitzer-pianistBroadway-know-it-all Seth Rudetsky at the Herbst Theatre on Jan. 19, has certainly played his share of All American boys, but he can currently be seen portraying a far more nuanced character in “American Son,” a topical, tensionwracked urban drama starring Kerry Washington that closed on

King of Clubs,” a “novel in homage to P.G. Wodehouse” by Ben Schott, newly available in paperback (Back Bay Books). For newbies, Bertie Wooster is rather the personification of the “idle rich,” and Jeeves is his “gentleman’s gentleman” who gets Bertie out of every scrape. The new adventure has its requisite share of mooning damsels, tough aunts, and a proto-fascist villain in Wodehouse staple Roderick Spode, the seventh Earl of Sidcup. As Bertie confides, “Spode in theory is one thing; Spode in the flesh, quite another – and flesh really is the operative word.” Spode is given to Broadway early last year but is now streaming on Netflix. In the play, Jordan plays a rookie cop who unconsciously buys into racial and gender stereotypes, outraging an African-American woman whose son has gone missing. It’s a finely shaded role that offers audiences a new perspective on Jordan’s talents. “I was really lucky to have the opportunity to do ‘American Son’ as my first non-musical play on Broadway,” recalled Jordan during a recent phone interview with the B.A.R. “It was a singular experience for me. To be honest, it was a little more difficult than I expected. On paper, he looks a little hokey, almost

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slogans like “Keep Great Britain Great.” Sound nauseatingly familiar? Wooster dips in and out of gentlemen’s private clubs (and one ladies’) for ample refreshment. “I really think we should don the nosebag. I’m much more convincing on a full stomach.” Much of the fun of the novel is the vocabulary his peers employ. “‘It’s a little indecorous to clishmaclaver about a fellow guest,’ said Lord MacAuslan, ‘but I once heard a moderately amusing tale about Sir Gilbert.’ “‘You’ll find no objection to speaking ill of the dread here,’ encouraged Uncle Tom. ‘Pray continue.’” And as always, the right turn of phrase really makes the book. “Our solemn duty discharged, the committee dissolved down to the bar where McGarry was ablur with the cocktail shaker.” “The doorbell rang again, and Jeeves trickled out.” A generous assortment of endnotes includes a glossary of words for which “Plum” Wodehouse is credited with first quotation in the O.E.D., including “crispish” and “gruntled,” but also “ritzy,” “snooter” and “plonk.” We also learn, apropos of the job of walking-advertisement “sandwich men” who prowl London sidewalks with commercial announcements (one figures in the plot), that “it is considered fair play to tease them in every conceivable manner. The old joke, the query as to the whereabouts of the a comic-relief character. But I ended up sympathizing with him more than I expected.” Jordan explained that director Kenny Leon helped him “get inside the mind of someone who was raised differently than I was. He actually doesn’t realize that some of the things he says are racist. But at core, he’s a good human being, or at least he really believes he is. “A lot of people who watch it, especially white people,” Jordan said, “may initially see themselves in that character. I think it really speaks to how we all have to be a bit thoughtful how other people perceive us. We haven’t all shared the same experiences, and there are moments when you end up being less sensitive than you might assume yourself to be.” Jordan, now 35, readily acknowledges that being immersed in the theater world since leaving home to pursue his B.F.A. at Ithaca College has broadened his own perspectives on race, gender and sexuality. “A million times yes!” he said. “I grew up in South Texas in what was maybe a little more liberal household than others there, but it wasn’t until I entered the New York theater scene that I really started to see across barriers and make all kinds of friends.” On social media, Jordan, who is married to actress Ashley Spencer, with whom he has a nine-monthold daughter, playfully jokes about being mistaken for the gay porn star who shares his name (“Big As They Come III”). For almost 10 years, Jordan has developed his concert and cabaret acts with openly gay music director Benjamin Rauhala. They came up with the idea of performing a medley of tunes written to be sung by Disney Princesses, a routine he’s likely to include in his Herbst appearance. Jordan recently completed shooting a lead role in “Spinning Gold,” a bio-pic about

Jan. 9! When everyone we know is home in pajamas – and on Xanax!” But those cocooners on pills missed a faboo lineup of funny folks: headliner Chelsea Bearce, star of viral music video “Curvy and a Mom”; Liz Carpenter Political Humor Award-winner Dhaya Lakshminarayanan; B.A.R. “Best Male Comedian” Bestie winner Justin Mamis & Papis Lucas; Mexican who pretends she’s “Who’s Your Mami Comedy” is Samoan Gloria Magaña; and in Brava Cabaret’s monthly womenan epic baffling act, “Sheesh and led series of stand-up from culturSchlong,” the dude duo stars of ally diverse, subversive comedians “4202020” (Unclear Channel). of all genders and styles, curated by Bearce was high-spirited and Brava Artist-in-Residence comeworking blue, getting mighty indian Marga Gomez. The “Mami” timate with audience members; comics kicked off the new year last Magaña was high-larious, the bestest Thursday night, and Out There was guestess from Modesto; Lakshminachuckling merrily in the house. rayanan flawlessly mimicked public “We’re sold out!” Gomez bragged service announcements in Civic in her opening salvo. “Sold out on Center Station (“Young man, pull up your pants!”); and Sheesh and Schlong were truly addled. But even though the bill was top-heavy with comic Mamis, OT also greatly enjoyed the one comic currently gendered male, who could carry an entire “Who’s Your Papi” show on his mighty shoulders. Marga had promised us we would enjoy Justin Lucas’ “meaty set,” and in fact his big, beefy frame and long, throwback hair met that description. He was very funny describing how he recently came out – as Filipino. He realized what he’d thought were spring rolls were actually lumpia. It’s not just for Mami’s girls. “Who’s Your Mami Comedy” plays every second Thurs. of the Brava Theatre Center month at 8 p.m. (next show is Feb. 13.) Brava Cabaret, 2773 “Who’s Your Mami” Papi: comedian 24th St., SF. Tickets: $10 adJustin Lucas offered a meaty set. vance at www.brava.org, $15 at the door.t mustard, has now died out, and it is considered better sport to bespatter the sandwich men with mud, or to tickle their faces with a straw when the paraphernalia on their backs prevents all attempts at selfdefense.” This is Wodehouse’s and now Schott’s universe, great fun to splash around in.

Courtesy the artist

Broadway star Jeremy Jordan can be seen in “American Son.”

Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, who helped shape the 1970s careers of an eclectic collection of artists including Donna Summer, KISS, T. Rex, Village People and Parliament. Between life as a father, “Spinning Gold” and “American Son,” Jordan will have ample new conversation fodder for Seth Rudetsky in San Francisco. The twosome previously appeared at the Herbst in 2018. Rudetsky has built a cottage industry hosting conversation-performance hybrids with Broadway stars in cities

around the country, but this event is the first time he’s interviewed a performer for a second time in the same town. “I’m sure we’ll do some of the songs people expect to hear,” said Jordan, “but I’ll also have some surprises. And there’s plenty to talk about.”t Broadway at the Herbst, Jeremy Jordan, Seth Rudetsky. 401 Van Ness Ave., SF. 1/19, 5 p.m. Tickets ($50-$150): (415) 3924400, www.cityboxoffice.com.

On the web This week, find Victoria A. Brownworth’s Lavender Tube column, “Televising editorial board meets: that’s news!” online at www.ebar.com.

Books>>

January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Winter 2020 reading list by Gregg Shapiro

t doesn’t matter if you have perfect vision or if you need to slip on a pair of reading glasses, the following books to be released in early 2020 deserve to have your eyes on them. Fiction for adult readers: Peter Kispert’s debut short story collection “I Know You Know Who I Am” (Penguin) is separated into three sections: “I Know,” “You Know” and “Who I Am.” Clever, right? It focuses on lying liars and the lies they tell themselves and others, mixing the real (“Touch Pool”) with the fantastic (“How to Live Your Best Life”) in stories of varying lengths. Douglas Stuart’s novel “Shuggie Bain” (Grove Atlantic), set in 1980s and early-90s Glasgow, is another notable fiction debut for the new year. Stuart tells the story of the struggles of Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a boy considered “no right” (sic) by the locals coming to terms with his sexuality. His alcoholic mother Agnes deals with her addiction while always trying to show her support for Shuggie. Set in Corona Del Mar, CA, “The Knockout Queen” (Knopf), the third novel by Rufi Thorpe, is the unlikely story of the friendship between polar opposites: statuesque blonde Bunny (standing at 6’3”), who comes from a wealthy family, and her less fortunate neighbor Michael, a closeted classmate exploring his sexuality online. They discover they have more in common than they realize. “Unpublished short fiction based

on personal truth,” gay author James R. Koury’s first book “Unredacted” (Empowering Prose) opens with a poem by writer Linda Hogan, and features 37 pieces divided into six sections, including “Innocence,” “Experimentation,” “Acceptance,” “Discovery” and “Parting Thoughts.” Non-fiction for adult readers: “The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America” (Bloomsbury) by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois, updated with new interviews following the 25th anniversary Broadway revival of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning “Angels in America,” is an oralhistory account of the play featuring the voices of Meryl Streep, Mary Louise Parker, Nathan Lane, Jeffrey Wright, more actors, directors, producers, and Kushner.

Taking place from the late 1960s through the late 80s, “Failure to Appear: Resistance, Identity and Loss: A Memoir” (Blue Beacon Books) by lesbian activist Emily L. Quint Freeman is set against the turbulent backdrop of the Vietnam War, the presidencies of Nixon and Reagan, the birth of both the women’s and gay liberation movements, and the AIDS crisis. A memoir of 1950s and 60s New York, “In the Shadow of the Bridge” (Delphinium Books) by Joseph Caldwell, one of the two gay men who created the character of vampire Barnabas Collins for the daytime horror soap opera “Dark Shadows,” is described as a “celebration of the halcyon years” leading up the start of the AIDS epidemic and the writer’s time as a volunteer at Saint Vincent’s Hospital.

“My Autobiography of Carson McCullers” (Tin House Books), the first book by award-winning writer Jenn Shapland, is written in “genredefying vignettes” and follows the lesbian author in her internship at the Harry Ransom Center, where she discovers the love letters between Carson McCullers and a woman who goes by Annemarie, leading to “a recovery of the full narrative and language of McCullers’ life.” Fiction for readers of all ages: Kacen Callender, whose debut novel “Hurricane Child” won both the Lambda Literary Award and the Stonewall Book Award in 2019, returns with their fifth novel, “King and the Dragronflied” (Scholastic), in which the King must keep secrets to himself, including that he thinks his dead brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly, as well as the fact

that he is gay. Newly out 12-year-old entrepreneur Mikey thinks he’s found a concept that will make him his first million dollars in “Middle School’s a Drag: You Better Werk” (Putnam) by Greg Howard. The product? Fellow middle-schooler Julian Vasquez, a kid drag queen who goes by the name Coco Caliente, Mistress of Madness and Mayhem, with an eye on the $100 prize at their school’s talent competition. Recommended for fans of Becky Albertalli (“Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda”) and Adam Silvera (“They Both Die at the End”), “The Gravity of Us” (Bloomsbury), the debut novel by Phil Stamper, is about the relationship between Cal and Leon, two sons of astronauts involved in a NASA mission to Mars. “The Storm of Life” (Viking) is the latest novel by queer writer Amy Rose Capetta, the “dramatic conclusion to the romantic, genderfluid fantasy duet” that began in 2018’s “The Brilliant Death.” This time out, the magical Teodora and her love Cielo are in danger and must bring together an assortment of allies. There is also queer magic afoot in “Justin & The Magic Stone” (OhBoy Books) by Dale Boyer with illustrations by Dan Holder, in which Justin, relocated to a small town and missing his best friend Tom, finds a heart-shaped stone with a variety of magical powers, including the ability to communicate with animals, change size, and transport himself to other places.t

Small-town gay amateur sleuthing

Questover Press

“ChoirMaster” author Michael Craft.

by Tavo Amador

hat’s it like to be an openly gay couple living in a small town in the Midwest? If the picture Michael Craft paints of Dumont, Wisconsin in “ChoirMaster” (Questover Press, $24.95) is any indication, not too bad, except that gay men are being murdered. In that sense, Dumont is like St. Mary Mead, the idyllic English village that’s home to Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple: a place where dead bodies are frequently discovered. Brody Norris and his older husband, Marson Miles, are architects with a successful practice in prosperous Dumont. They are accepted as a married couple and have a circle of straight and gay or lesbian friends. They have designed their dream house, and it’s being built by a local contractor. Meanwhile, they are living in a stylish loft home. Marson’s old college friend, Curtis Hibbard, who is gay, and his wife Joyce rather unexpectedly shake things up in Dumont. Joyce, known as Mother Hibbard, has come to town to serve as the Rector of crumbling St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, which she hopes will be restored. Renovating the 19th-century build-

ing will be expensive. She’s therefore delighted when Brody and Marson invite her to a catered dinner party at which another guest is the town’s wealthiest resident, Mary Questman. The Questman family was instrumental in building the church. Other guests include Curtis’ friend Yevgeny Krymov, a sexy Russian ballet dancer. He’s clearly attracted to Brody. The feeling is mutual. Also attending is David Lowell, the openly gay Choir Director at St. Alban’s. Curtis, a successful lawyer, lives in New York. He entices David to return with him to Manhattan. The bait? A ticket to a Renee Fleming concert. David agrees at once. Mary has an Abyssinian cat named Mister Puss. She swears he talks to her. He warns her to hold on to her purse whenever Mother Hibbard is near. When Mary leaves town for a holiday, Brody and Marson take care of Mister Puss, who is happy to be with them. At times, Brody senses that Mary is right about the cat’s ability to communicate. David is found dead in St. Alban’s, which also barely survives a fire. The fire means the church members will have to decide to rebuild or design a new house of worship. Neither alternative will be cheap.

An autopsy reveals that David died from an allergic reaction to nuts, which may have been in the macaroons made by the church secretary, Lillie Miller. Was it an accident? Everyone knew about David’s allergy and the risk it posed to him. But Lillie had a crush on him and was perhaps frustrated that her feelings were not reciprocated. Then an openly gay television personality in nearby Green Bay is also murdered. Is this a coincidence? Or is there a link between the two deaths? Stumped, Sheriff Thomas Simms asks Brody to help. Brody had solved an earlier murder. He reluctantly agrees. Local reporter Glee Savage, a close friend of Brody’s, naturally wants the story. David had been a trust fund baby. The fund has been managed by wellconnected banker Bob Olson. David controlled his younger brother Geoff ’s allowance, which he doled out sparingly because of his sibling’s irresponsibility. Geoff, desperate for money, arrived in Dumont with his sickly girlfriend and a mangy dog. He wanted an advance from David. With David dead, he has become a wealthy young man. Brody knows that following the money is generally a sound idea when looking into murder. Although the plot unfolds unhurriedly but engagingly, it’s the characters that shine. Brody and Marson have a solid relationship. Brody acknowledges his attraction to Yevgeny, but knows that he won’t act on it. Craft effectively captures the rhythm of a longterm married couple’s relationship: their bantering, their affection, their pride in each other, yet allows them to remain distinct individuals. He’s also good at showing how the age difference can complement their perspectives. He is equally adept at creating other believable characters. Craft knows small-time life and describes

its charms well. The quiet streets, the fresh air, the familiarity. But at times Dumont seems a bit idealized. Racially and ethnically diverse characters (Simms is black, a local doctor is an Hispanic woman, the city building inspector is an African American lesbian) all get along well. Surprisingly, this adds to the novel’s appeal. Had Craft introduced racial, ethnic or homophobic tensions among the locals, it would have distracted from the mystery. Still, when Brody and Marson wake up one morning to discover homophobic graffiti on the outside of their house, they realize that danger lurks behind Dumont’s peaceful facade. A deputy sheriff is posted to guard the house, which adds to their anxiety.

Brody, like a good amateur detective, pays attention to details. That habit leads him to reveal the killer in a classic scene in which all the key characters and suspects are gathered in Sheriff Simms’ office. The resolution is clever but plausible. Craft plays fair: the clues are carefully planted for the reader to see. He avoids giving Mister Puss supernatural powers – he may only be a sounding board for Mary and Brody’s own thoughts. Yet he is an exceptionally smart cat, which makes him a welcome presence that isn’t cloying. It’s a tricky balance, handled well. This is a new series from Craft, who previously authored the Mark Manning mysteries. It’s a welcome addition to the genre.t

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16 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

Linda Ronstadt, born to sing by Brian Bromberger

s is so often happens in life, we don’t fully appreciate something until it’s been lost. That becomes apparent in the new documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” just released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. In it, we are reminded of the loss of Ronstadt’s incredible voice due to progressive supranuclear palsy (not Parkinson’s disease), her gifts not fully appreciated until they were gone. Directed by gay filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (“The Times of Harvey Milk,” “Celluloid Closet”), “Sound” is not a standard bio-pic but more a celebratory portrait of the artist, with intermittent voiceover by Ronstadt, mostly in the nostalgic beginning and the bittersweet finale. It took three attempts by Epstein/Friedman to convince Ronstadt, 73, to greenlight their project. Fans and those lucky few discovering her immense talents for the first time will be glad she reluctantly said yes.

Fellini series

From page 13

“He was one of a kind,” says film scholar Russell Merritt. “You knew you were in the presence of a commanding personality. Nothing and no one was as flamboyant as he was. He was a master of comic images who loved the grotesque and found beauty in the bizarre.” Cineastes may find it difficult to believe, but there’s a whole generation that has never seen or even heard of “La Dolce Vita” or “8 ½.” That may change, courtesy of “Federico Fellini at 100,” an extensive centennial series at BAMPFA that opens this week and runs through May 21. Marcello Mastroianni plays the ambitious journalist on a picaresque adventure in search of himself on the streets of Rome in “La Dolce Vita” (1960), a now-dated satire of a decadent, tabloid-ridden, celebrity-worshiping city Fellini called “the Babylon of my dreams.” Famous for an opening sequence featuring a helicopter flying over the city with a Jesus statue suspended from it, the film also introduced the word “paparazzi” into the lexicon and the sight of the voluptuous, blonder-than-blond bombshell Anita Ekberg wading into the Trevi

Since 1977

Ronstadt was born to sing, growing up in a musical family from Tucson. Her Mexican-German father, a wealthy machinery merchant, professionally sang Mexican songs. The family listened to the radio and records, singing constantly, all types of music. From Fountain in a strapless gown. It was considered so scandalous, it was labeled blasphemous and condemned by the Catholic Church, an institution whose authoritarian repression served as both foil and springboard for creative resistance throughout Fellini’s career. The Madonna/ whore dichotomy and the bevy of women eagerly catering to the needs of his male protagonists, which plague the adolescent, frankly irritating depictions of women in his movies sprang from the same soil. “His films are a small-town boy’s dream of the big city,” Orson Welles reportedly scoffed. “He shows dangerous signs of being a superlative artist with little to say.” The terror of having nothing to say is central to “8 ½,” a 1963 masterpiece that examines the nature of artistic creation, a recurring theme for Fellini. In this memory palace of a movie, his alter ego, Mastroianni in his greatest role, is a director in crisis reviewing his past and amorous conquests. In the midst of a chaotic production on the verge of imminent disaster, he has visions of the ideal woman, personified by a luminous Claudia Cardinale, who perceives the void at his core. Fellini would reveal his fetish for eccentrics, freaks and pathos in his maiden voyage as director (cocredited with Alberto Lattuada), “Variety Lights” (1950), which followed a down-on-their-luck troupe of vaudevillians. In an act of art imitating life, he cast Giulietta Masina, to whom he would be married for 50 years, as the wife of an unfaithful impresario with delusions of grandeur. Masina later wore the face of a sad clown in the poignant,

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Karl Tierney

From page 13

The New England Yankee-raised poet was a Southern-influenced writer thanks to stints at Atlanta’s Emory University and the University of Arkansas. He was capable of tartly comparing the romantic flings of 80s/90s-era “Castro Clones” with the lives and customs of the Ancient Romans, in a March 8, 1990 poem entitled “Justinian”: “Franks to the North,/and Vandals to the South./Visigoths to the West,/and Ostrogoths all around./ But thanks to your purity,/Justinian,/Still no sign of the Vulgars!” Tierney was equally adept at sticking a sharp fork into the pretensions of fellow queens at popular watering holes like the Cafe Flore, in “Cafe Hairdo” (March 16, 1991):

the start, she blurred the lines between genres. For her, the song mattered, not how it was classified. Her career began when she moved to LA at age 18. Performing at the legendary Troubadour club, she became a member of the Stone Poneys, a folk-rock trio that produced the 1967 hit single “Different Drum.” Capitol signed her as a solo artist, releasing her first alternative country album in 1969. She was difficult to classify, as her tastes were wide-ranging. To quote her friend Dolly Parton, “Linda could literally sing everything!” With her girl-next-door looks (the first female singer cover on Rolling Stone), she was “what Beyonce is now: the first female rock star,” according to Bonnie Raitt. Though not a songwriter, her versions of hits “Heat Wave,” “When Will I Be Loved” and “Desperado” became definitive. The documentary reflects the difficulties of being a feminist trailblazer in a male-dominated industry. Her achievements are massive: 10 Grammys, 11 platinum-selling albums, the first artist to reach #1 on

the pop, country, and R&B charts simultaneously, selling out huge arenas to become her era’s highestearning female singer. A kind-hearted perfectionist, she succeeded on her own terms, but always in service to the music. By the early 1980s she sensed her kind of “rock” music was losing favor. Every time she wanted to shift her career in a different direction, record executives warned it would be ruinous. Yet the new music brought her more acclaim, sold more albums, and reached larger audiences. Hence, she did “The Pirates of Penzance” operetta on Broadway (Tony nomination) followed by the movie; sang the great American songbook standards on three albums with the brilliant arranger Nelson Riddle; joined her friends Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton on two Americana records; sang traditional Mexican music to produce the highest-selling Spanish-language album ever, then returned to pop with an artistic collaboration with New Orleans singer Aaron Neville. Her choices were eclectic, yet her

voice always projected vulnerability, sexiness, and independence. She stopped singing professionally in 2009, but just received the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement award. Ronstadt’s private life is dealt with gingerly. In the mid-70s she abused diet pills and became stressed over touring. She had romances with George Lucas and Jim Carrey, but here only her early relationship with singer-songwriter J.D. Souther and later Governor Jerry Brown (not interviewed) are profiled. The documentary argues that Ronstadt as a vocal stylist has never got her full due. Performance footage confirms her gifts. Asked why she sings, Ronstadt replies, “It’s the same reasons birds sing: for a mate, to claim their territory or to give voice to the delight of being alive in the midst of a beautiful day, so subsequent generations won’t forget what the current generation endured, dreamed, or delighted in.” Thanks to this affectionate tribute, new generations will fall in love with her voice. Ronstadt need never fear being forgotten.t

BAMPFA

Scene from director Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960).

fable-like “La Strada” (1954), where she played a young girl sold by her mother to an abusive carnival strongman. The film, particularly its barren, poetic landscapes, made Fellini’s reputation in the U.S.; however, it has its detractors, notably historian David Thomson, who dismissed it as a trite “picture of a circus brute that encouraged Anthony Quinn to think there was splendor in overacting.” Twenty years later came “Amarcord,” a revisionist, fantastical ode to his youth. The title, in Italian, is an anagram for “I remember.” It’s another confessional plunge, this time in color, into tales of his sex-obsessed boyhood and coming-

of-age in an enclave based on the coastal seaside town of Rimini, where he grew up during the mid1930s in the shadow of Italian Fascism. “Now I can’t distinguish what really happened from what I made up,” he conceded. “I’m a liar, but an honest one.” “Fellini is no longer part of the retrospective scene that has benefitted other directors,” observes Merritt, who will conduct several complementary lecture/screening programs in the coming months. They’ll include a discussion of Rossellini’s “Open City” (1945), with the magnificent Anna Magnani in a stark, frightening portrait of daily life under Fascism, co-written by Fellini;

and “The White Sheik” (1952), a farce about a pair of provincial newlyweds that’s thought to be his solo directing debut. Nino Rota, who became his go-to composer, provided the score. “We haven’t seen these films in quite a while, and though the idea of a shared experience of Fellini has passed, I’d like audiences to understand what was exciting about him in his time, an era when films really mattered.”t

“If it weren’t for the fact/I’d rather go to the gym/than kill myself, I might/have returned your call./It’s so banal, desiring to/be fucked, a repetition that/in an earlier time embodied/some aplomb./Still, isn’t leaving your/sexual fantasies on answering/machines these days more/ desperate than the traditional/lavatory walls.” In addition to providing a thoughtful introductory essay, editor Jim Cory dates each of the 74 poems in this volume, published nearly a quarter-century after the poet’s October 1995 suicide. The poems, like their author, often feel ripped from this world prematurely. Tierney was 39 on the day he peddled to the Golden Gate Bridge, leaving his bike by the railing and a short note along with his wallet and ID on his kitchen table. Tierney was

depressed by his failing health and by the fact that he had been denied entry into a 1995 AIDS drug trial. The decision was later rescinded, but too late for Tierney’s sake. As a poet, Karl would have rejoiced at the opportunities available in the time of Trump to snipe at our political classes. That’s evidenced by the following poem titles: “Caligula or Nixon Leaving,” “You Remind Me a Little of Napoleon” and “My Alma Mater Honors a Whore of the Republic.” Karl loved going to the movies, especially the Roxie’s annual Oscar-watching party. In 1994 we celebrated the multiple Oscar wins for the Tom Hanks vehicle “Forrest Gump” with faux salutes to director Robert Zemeckis: “Hail, Zemeckis!” Karl Tierney was a fitness freak, and our friendship grew out of our

producing a short film, “Bodybuilder,” inspired by his poem. Our film was based on the theory that for every “gym bunny” sweating away, there might well be a “gym widow” suffering at home. The film had its New York festival debut right about the time I learned of Karl’s disappearance. The title “Have You Seen This Man?” derives from the headline on the missing posters his friends plastered throughout the city. Karl’s body was never recovered. Tierney leaves behind more poems and an unproduced screenplay, “A New Face.”t

Merritt’s lectures/screenings run Jan. 29-March 25. The April 1 screening of “Amarcord” will be accompanied by a lecture from David Thomson. For info, check bampfa.org.

“Have You Seen This Man? The Castro Poems of Karl Tierney,” Jim Cory, editor; Arkansas Queer Poet Series, #2; Sibling Rivalry Press, paper, $18

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Nightlife Events Vol. 50 • No. 3 • January 16-22, 2020

Kate Baldwin: Singing the praises of others Optimistic songs by the Broadway star at Feinstein’s by Jim Gladstone

hen Broadway star Kate Baldwin (Finian’s Rainbow, Hello Dolly!) takes the stage at Feinstein’s at the Nikko next weekend, you’ll notice something unusual. The two-time Tony nominee’s music director and accompanist is a woman, Georgia Stitt. It’s all too rare to find women at the keyboards in cabaret and, said Baldwin in a recent phone conversation with the Bay Area Reporter, in the orchestra pits of Broadway. “Georgia has been an incredible friend and collaborator for almost 17 years,” says Baldwin. “I first met her through her work as a composer and lyricist—I was working on a piece she’d written. She’s a music director, orchestrator, arranger and a terrific record producer as well. All of these jobs tend to be dominated by men and Georgia has been working to change that.” See page 18 >>

Celebrating ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’s 45th anniversary Peaches Christ hosts Q&A with Barry Bostwick, Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn

by Jim Provenzano

t was great when it all began. SF Sketchfest’s January 11 night honoring the 45th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show started off with Trixxie Carr, in a gorgeous zig-zag revealing gown, singing “Science Fiction,” the opening credits song from the cult favorite film based on Richard O’Brien’s musical. At a sold-out Castro Theatre, host Peaches Christ then performed a fun version of Frank N. Furter’s “Sweet Transvestite” with a few localized lyric changes. Accompanied by half a dozen Midnight Mass players, the number gave a nod to the numerous shadow cast performers, with a bit of better choreographic flair. Peaches then welcomed three stars of the film, Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn, who both vamped down an aisle of the theatre. In a move to almost top his 40th anniversary appearance five years ago when he surprised even Peaches Christ by appearing onstage in Rocky Horror finale drag, Barry Bostwick chose to this time enter in the costume of his character Brad Majors’ post-Frank-sex kimono, and not much else. “It’s the only movie to have done what it did,” said Peaches in opening comments. “When it came out, people didn’t understand it. Then it found its audience.”

Barry Bostwick makes a funny appearance as ‘Brad Majors’ at SF Sketchfest’s 45th anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Jakub Mosur

See page 19 >>

<< Cabaret

18 • Bay Area Reporter • January 16-22, 2020

Baldwin herself is married to fellow actor Graham Rowat, who introduced her to a new outlet for her talents when Baldwin was pregnant with their son, now 8. “I needed a way to make money, and there aren’t a lot of stage opportunities for pregnant women. Graham narrates books on tape and he introduced me to the woman who ran the company. Apparently my bright midwestern voice is ideal for books which are sometimes negatively called Chick Lit. The very first one I did was Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner (In Her Shoes), an author who I’d read before and enjoyed very much.” In literature as well as on stage, Baldwin rallies behind her fellow females.t

Playmates and soul mates...

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1-415-692-5774 18+ MegaMates.com Kate Baldwin in Big Fish

Kate Baldwin

From page 17

Baldwin speaks glowingly of her collaborator’s founding of Maestra Music, an advocacy organization and professional resource for women in the musical theater business. Maestra’s services include an online directory of female musicians, lyricists, conductors, copyists nationwide (www.maestramusic.com). “She’s very engaged with musicians’ unions and the folks who select who plays in orchestra pits,” said Baldwin of Stitt, “not only on Broadway, but all over the country. “My cabaret show starts off with a song I commissioned from Georgia,” says Baldwin. “It’s about an incident when I was in first grade when I first began to identify as an artist. And right after I get off the phone with you, I’m going over to her apartment to pick a new song to do in the act, I feel like we all need some extra positivity these days, so I’ve been fishing around for a very optimistic number to do in San Francisco.” A tough call these days, but Baldwin is up for the challenge. “The title of the show is How Did You Get This Number?” Baldwin explains. “I do songs that I’ve premiered in shows or reintroduced in revivals and tell stories about how I made them my own and what they mean to me looking back.”

While her set changes from time to time, Baldwin is always pleased to showcase songs from some of today’s most important but commercially under-rewarded theater composers. The bell-toned soprano Kate Baldwin at Feinstein’s will include numbers from Michael at the Nikko, January 24 and 25, John LaChiusa’s epic, nearly four8pm. $70 ($20 food/drink min.) hour stage adaptation of Giant, 222 Mason St. Andrew Lippa’s fantastical Big Fish, www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com and Tom Kitt’s Superhero, which had a short off-Broadway run last year. Though recognized by theater cognoscenti as a major Broadway talent, Baldwin’s attraction to new work kept her a bit under the general public’s radar until she was cast (and Tony-nominated) as Irene Molloy in the recent Hello Dolly! revival, in which Baldwin more than held her own sharing the stage with Bette Midler. After her current run of concerts and cabaret performances around the country, Baldwin will return to the New York stage to star in an Encores! production of Love Life opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell in late March. The rarely performed show, first staged in 1948, is the only collaboration between Kurt Kate Baldwin with Weill and Alan Jay Lerner and Gavin Creel in Hello, Dolly! features prescient insights on gender roles and marriage.

Fri 17

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January 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Leather or bust Sipping up suds at Sunday’s ‘gay church’ by Race Bannon

sk a local San Francisco leather person what they’re doing on a Sunday afternoon and you’ll often here them say they’re going to the beer bust. In my circles that typically means the weekly Sunday SF Eagle beer bust, but other bars have their own versions as well. Hanging out at the Eagle on Sunday afternoons is one of my favorite weekend pastimes. Even before I moved to San Francisco in the mid‘90s I would attend the Eagle beer bust as part of nearly every visit to this wonderful city. Once the city became my home, it’s been great to be able to attend more regularly. To give those who’ve never frequented such a beer bust a sense of how important many feel it is to their queer and kink lives, going to the beer bust is sometimes referred to as going to “gay church.” Beer busts can serve a similar communal function as a church. People from all walks of leather life and beyond gather to hang out, share the week’s stories, catch up with friends old and new, and revel in an atmosphere that celebrates both their queerness and their kinks, all while enjoying a libation and perhaps some food at a relatively rare daytime bar event. Those who don’t drink beer have the option of soda instead of beer and you can often purchase food as part of the bust as well. In addition to being a fun time, a

Race Bannon

Lee Hurtado, Jack Hurtado, and Hector Godina of the SF Eagle softball team, one of the recent Eagle beer bust beneficiaries.

portion of the proceeds from each Eagle beer bust benefits one of the many worthwhile Bay Area nonprofits. I was at the last two beer busts. One benefitted the SF Eagle softball team and the other raised funds for Tenderloin Tessie, an organization that for more than 40 years has fed the community of San Francisco on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Over the years the beer bust has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for many LGBTQ and local charities. I asked Jason Husted, the SF Eagle’s Administrative Assistant and Beer Bust Coordinator, how a local nonprofit might sign up to receive benefits from a Sunday beer bust. Jason outlined for me a fairly simple process. You email sfeagle.beerbusts@gmail.com and Jason will reply to your request with agreement details and an applica-

tion for your group to complete. Part of the application includes your group’s most desired dates. Jason then checks their scheduling calendar and if a date is available, Jason schedules that date for your group. Your group must be a 501(c)(3) and provide their tax ID information or already have that information on file with the Eagle. Not only can a local nonprofit receive a portion of the financial proceeds from the beer bust, but the social connections and visibility come from being the official beneficiary raises the group’s profile and mission. When I asked a random sampling of people attending the last couple of beer busts why they attend, I got a variety of answers. Some pointed out that on warm days the shirts often come off and there is always a lot of flirtatious friskiness happening. Some lauded the fact that it’s a social event they can attend during the day, an advantage for people

Rocky Horror 45th

From page 17

Absolute pleasure

All photos by Jakub Mosur

Above: Patricia Quinn, Barry Bostwick and Nell Campbell at the Castro Theatre’s and SF Sketchfest’s 45th anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Middle: Peaches Christ leads a song and dance variation of “Sweet Transvestite” at SF Sketchfest’s tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Castro Theatre on Jan. 11. Below: Peaches Christ interviews Barry Bostwick, Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn at the Castro Theatre.

The half-hour interview and audience Q&A included a lot of witty banter. Bostwick recalled the revived popularity of the film (which flopped in its premiere) at New York City’s Waverly Theatre. Quinn reminded all that the initial London Rocky Horror Show was a hit from its premiere. Added Campbell, who also starred in the original musical, “The stage show was an overnight sensation. But it was also in the smallest theatre in London, with only 60 seats, so it was more like performing in someone’s sitting room.” Quinn explained the clever repertory marketing plan devised by a young 20th Century Fox executive, who said. “‘We’ll put this on in every campus across the states at midnight,’ and it worked.” Quipped Campbell, “We put the camp in campus.” Asked by Peaches for any untold on-set tales, Bostwick said, “The Transylvanians were stoned the whole time.” Bostwick also offered a fun memory from the wedding scene. “I remember one of the actors, when we were waving at the [newlyweds’] car as it drove away, passing a child actor, yell, ‘Hit the kid! Hit the kid!!’ Campbell initiated what became a running joke through the night, that “Barry and Tim Curry did have a shag,” which Bostwick refuted, insisting, “I want evidence!” Patricia Quinn recalled the final days of shooting, when director Jim Sharman asked her to lipsych the opening song, “Science Fiction.” He explained his idea for an homage to Man Ray’s 1936 painting, ‘The Lovers,’ and its disembodied lips. “It was my song in the play, and he wanted me to lipsynch Richard’s version,” said Quinn. “I said, ‘My lips and his voice? How much?” “They’ve become the most fa-

who work night hours or aren’t late-nighters. The large outdoor patio appeals to some who like being able to drink and socialize in the sunshine. Yet others mentioned the diversity of the crowd. One of our local leather community’s longstanding and more active members, Jay Harcourt, mentioned to me how the SF Eagle’s beer bust helped him better enter the local scene comfortably. “When I was first exploring my kinky inclinations, the beer bust was a safe place,” he said. “I could wear what little leather I had at the time while mingling with a wide cross section of kinky and non-kinky people. It was my way of safely discovering my kinky self without external or self-judgment. It allowed

Race Bannon

Jay Harcourt, one of the Bay Area leather community’s many hard working and respected members.

me to make inroads socially and culturally into leather, a community of which I now feel an integral part and where I feel entirely at home.” The beer bust has carved out a long history in San Francisco gay men’s and queer entertainment culture. I hope it survives as the valuable cultural institution that it’s become. Most Sundays when I’m in town, you’ll find me at the Eagle. If you haven’t checked it out, I recommend you do. It’s every Sunday from 3pm to 6pm. Having such a place where you know you can gather any Sunday afternoon of the year is a great gift to our city and I’m grateful the Eagle has sustained this popular tradition.t

A recent SF Eagle beer bust benefitted Tenderloin Tessie, a nonprofit organization that feeds the hungry during certain holidays.

For Leather Events, visit www.ebar.com/events

mous cinematic lips of all time,” added Peaches.

her tap dance solo in “The Time Warp,” Campbell replied, “I’m a one-take bitch!” The cast and performers then danced along to “The Time Warp,” as Quinn and Campbell sang live to their parts. Through the screening. Members of the Berkeley-based Bawdy Cast performed select sections of the movie, including the laboratory scenes with their own elaborate portable set pieces and props. Despite the cacophonic shoutouts that nearly drowned out the film (back in my day of performing in a Kent, Ohio shadow cast of RHPS as Brad Majors, audiences were a bit more clever and selective with their callbacks; but they also squirted me and ‘Janet’ with water pistols), it proved to be a truly fun night for all Rocky Horror fans, new and old.t

Among friends … or sane persons

More banter kept the audience laughing and clapping, including Bostwick saying how he’s ‘embraced’ his ‘asshole-ness’ as Brad Majors. Campbell discussed her ‘nipple slips’ and costume difficulties, and described costar Meat Loaf as “one big gorgeous hunk of babydom.” Asked to comment on the (not present) Susan Sarandon’s claims that the drafty mansion where they shot most of the film gave her pneumonia, Quinn quoted Tim Curry as saying of Sarandon, “He was much more subtle. He said, ‘That poor dear Susan did catch pneumonia, and we never heard the end of it.” As part of the audience Q&A, Campbell offered one of the best lines of the night. Asked how many takes she needed as Columbia for

Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

SF Sketchfest continues through January 26. www.sfsketchfest.com

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