January 14, 2021 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

Dem queers gain posts

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Castro camera town hall soon

Selling queer books

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A riveting Ma Rainey

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Vol. 51 • No. 02 • January 14-20, 2021

SF leaders seek nightlife relief; handful of Castro bars received PPP loans

by John Ferrannini Courtesy Juniperangelica Cordova

Juniperangelica Cordova finally received a diploma from UC Berkeley that has her lived name on it.

CA bill aims to end deadnaming trans college students

by Matthew S. Bajko

F

or a year UC Berkeley graduate Juniperangelica Cordova’s original diploma sat on a bookshelf in her Alameda home wrapped in the envelope it arrived in. Seeing it on a daily basis would have been too upsetting for the Los Angeles native who came out as transgender while in high school at the age of 15.

The East Bay university had used Cordova’s deadname on the document it issued to her in late 2019 rather than her lived name. After raising a complaint with campus administrators about the mix-up, Cordova received a new diploma with her correct name on it in late November. She promptly had it framed and hung it prominently on a wall at her home. “That moment was what I had been working my whole life for,� said Cordova, 24, who is a senior organizer of the Gender Justice Leadership Programs, a collaboration between the Transgender Law Center and GSA Network. “It was great.

It was what I had always wanted and didn’t get the first time when I opened the envelope to see my deadname. I was crushed the first time.�

To ensure no other graduates of California’s community colleges and public universities experience the same crestfallen moment as Cordova did, Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing his bill known as the Affirming Transgender and Nonbinary Student’s Names in College. He had introduced the legislation last January but had to table it in light of the COVID pandemic.

In an interview Tuesday with the Bay Area Reporter, as the health crisis continues to rage across the Golden State, Chiu noted the diploma issue is just one of myriad concerns he is focused on this year in the Statehouse. With the pandemic impacting people’s employment, Chiu pointed out that trans and nonbinary graduates seeking new jobs may be outed to employers and face discrimination if their academic records list their wrong name. “A college diploma is their representation of years of hard work and academic achievement. It shouldn’t cause stress or emotional harm by having someone’s deadname on it due to outdated school policies,� said Chiu. “Trans and nonbinary people face lots of discrimination; the name on their diploma should not be another thing to worry about. This is a no-brainer. People should See page 9 >>

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t a perilous time for many small businesses in the pandemic, a San Francisco supervisor is proposing legislation to fund nightlife venues while another board member is spearheading millions of dollars in regulatory relief.

Additionally, a handful of Castro area bars received federal assistance last year through the paycheck protection program.

The nightlife fund, proposed by District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, follows other city programs like fee waivers that have been passed by the Board of Supervisors.

Some $5 million in fee and tax waivers, introduced by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, passed the board January 5. The waivers and referrals are specifically geared to help entertainment and nightlife venues on the one hand and restaurants on the other. “The city will provide financial relief for approximately 300 businesses that have a Place of Entertainment permit and that have gross receipts of less than $20 million, representing a total of approximately $2.5 million in support for these businesses,� a

Rick Gerharter

Hi Tops’ sidewalk dining is closed now, but the Castro business was able to secure a federal paycheck protection program loan last year, records show.

January 5 news release explains. “Relief will be provided by waiving regulatory license fees and business regis-

tration fees for two years, and by waiving payroll expense taxes for 2020. Businesses that already paid these taxes and fees will receive an automatic refund. Businesses will still be required to file all applicable business tax returns,� the release states.

Up to 1,500 businesses with a restaurant permit will receive relief; they must have gross receipts of less than $750,000.

Businesses will also have more time to pay taxes and fees. “COVID-19 has devastated our small businesses. Many have been stuck on a merry-go-round of reopenings, closures, and new restrictions, while others have been unable to operate at all since March,�

Mandelman stated. “This legislation will provide more than $5 million in fee relief for some of our hardest hit businesses.

This round of relief cannot be the end of the city’s efforts to support our small businesses, but it does reaffirm our commitment to creating an environment where longtime businesses can stabilize and regrow and new businesses can flourish.�

Not everyone is sanguine about the city’s moves, however. Dave Karraker, the See page 8 >>

SF supervisors elect Walton as board’s 1st Black male president

by Matthew S. Bajko

F

ollowing a year of racial protests over police killings of Black Americans, both in the Bay Area and across the country, San Francisco’s top two political leaders will be African Americans born and raised in the city.

On January 8, the Board of Supervisors unanimously elected District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton as its next president, the first Black man to serve in the role. He succeeds former District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee, who was termed off the board after eights years in office and served as president of the 11-member body the last two years. “I look forward to serving this body as president with the compassion and values we together guard very fiercely,� said Walton, pledging to his 10 colleagues he would work with them “on issues that matter most to your district and to our precious city.�

Leading up to last week’s inaugural meeting of the newly seated board there was speculation that District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin could once again serve as board president. But Walton was the lone supervisor to be nominated for the position. “During these difficult times I know Supervisor Walton’s quality and experience will help us

Courtesy SF City Hall

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton

bring our diverse and wonderful city together leveraging our strengths in helping us to legislate fairly. I nominate him wholeheartedly,� said newly seated District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar.

Her nomination came shortly after Melgar, representing the neighborhoods west of Twin Peaks, and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan, representing the Richmond district, took their oaths of office along with the incumbent winners of the odd-numbered supervisor districts in the November election.

Melgar, the mother of a lesbian daughter, is a former city planning commissioner who has made addressing land use and building code reforms a key concern of hers as a supervisor.

She was ceremonially sworn in the day before by lesbian former supervisor Susan Leal, the last Latina to be elected to the board. Chan, a former City Hall aide for Peskin, was also a spokeswoman for the city’s parks department.

Noting it is the 20th year since he first served on the board, Peskin said he has come to consider Walton “a little bit like a sibling,� adding, “I have really been honored to deepen our relationship, which I think is one of mutual respect.�

But he also issued a warning to not just Walton but all of his colleagues that because of the issues the city is facing now is not the time for the board, dominated by progressives, to be in an adversarial role with each other or with Mayor London Breed, a moderate. “Political divisions and camps, I think these are frankly what I would call mini hatchets and I think we need to bury them. I think we can do that together,� said Peskin. “It doesn’t mean we won’t have our policy differences. The same goes with the relationship between this board and the mayor.�

See page 8 >>

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<< Open Forum

t SF supes need to prioritize LGBTQs

4 • Bay Area Reporter • January 14-20, 2021

Volume 51, Number 02 January 14-20, 2021 www.ebar.com

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istory was made last week when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors selected Shamann Walton, who represents District 10, to be its new president, the first Black man to take the powerful post. During their four-hour inaugural meeting January 8, board members spoke eloquently about the need to work together, and with the mayor, as the city confronts the global pandemic and the economic fallout from it.

The suffering from COVID-19 and job losses is overwhelming, however, we’d like to remind the supervisors not to neglect several LGBTQ community initiatives that are poised to start, were stalled, or not started at all.

SOGI data

A hearing needs to be called on how the city is collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data, as the COVID health crisis showed it continues to be an issue. Systems need to be updated and, as we have reported on, there are other issues to address, particularly around how to ask about gender identity. In 2019, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman held a hearing on the matter, in which representatives from a half-dozen departments pledged to do better to meet a 2017 mandate of SOGI data collection by the Department of Public Health; Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development; Department of Human Services; the Department of Disability and Aging Services; and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. LGBTQ advocates have long argued that the city cannot adequately address the needs of the community without this information. As the pandemic has shown, SOGI data is more important than ever.

LGBTQ appointments to boards, commissions

Fortunately, not everything we’re discussing costs money, and this is a matter of political will on the part of the supervisors. We need more qualified LGBTQ people, especially queers of color, to be nominated and confirmed to city boards and commissions. We saw this play out a couple of weeks ago during the board’s 9-2 vote for Manny Yekutiel’s appointment to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors. Of the seven SFMTA board members, only Yekutiel is queer. At their meeting, the supervisors got sidetracked over a conversation about the lack of Latino/a people on the SFMTA board,

cant number of rent-controlled units that were taken off the market because of Ellis Act evictions or owner move-ins. Now is the time for the Board of Supervisors to work with Mayor London Breed to identify and acquire sites in D8 for affordable housing projects that can be funded through this bond.

Do more for LGBTQ asylum seekers

Courtesy Shamann Walton

New San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton

which, while also important, doesn’t diminish the fact that Yekutiel, a small business owner, also brings that constituency representation that has long been missing. It took a straight ally, District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí to point out that there were no LGBTQ people on the SFMTA board, when gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman should have also spoken up in Yekutiel’s defense. Thankfully, his nomination was approved and the board agreed that the next open seat should go to someone from the Latino/a community.

Revamped SF HRC LGBTQ panel

As we reported last week, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission is revamping its LGBTQI Advisory Committee three years after it went on hiatus. This time, it will include five seats for elected officials.

The Board of Supervisors should take this advisory panel seriously, and Walton, as board president, should attend its quarterly meetings. With a number of community members and nonprofit leaders also expected to make up the panel, it will provide a good opportunity for Walton (and the other electeds) to learn of queer issues that may require city action.

Affordable housing in D8

In 2019, San Francisco voters passed Proposition A, a $600 million affordable housing bond.

The ballot language prioritized $150 million for senior housing, specifically developments that are welcoming of LGBTQs. The bond also stated that District 8 needed to be a central focus for where projects are funded, due to its lack of affordable housing units and having lost a signifi-

Leaders regularly promote San Francisco as the best city in the world for LGBTQ people yet do little for queer asylum seekers or refugees. The city’s high housing costs often prevent refugees from settling here, where they could be closer to a wide range of LGBTQ resources to help them.

Refugee housing services in the Bay Area are mostly limited to Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay and a couple of nonprofits. That doesn’t meet the needs of LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers who want to call San Francisco home and the city needs to do more.

Drag laureate, LGBTQ cultural strategy

One of the previously little known components of the city’s LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy report was the establishment of a drag laureate post. This ceremonial role would promote the city’s drag and nightlife culture.

This visibility for the queer community would not cost much money and likely would reap positive benefits, especially once the pandemic ends. Yet, the Board of Supervisors has dragged its feet and now West Hollywood is poised to become the first city to have such a position. Part of the problem is that the report has not been formally adopted by the board; that should change as Mandelman is expected to call for a hearing this spring. As we reported last week, the cost to implement the cultural strategy’s multitude of initiatives is estimated to be at least $10.2 to $15.7 million. The price tag to pay for the top 10 prioritized steps called for in the document is pegged to cost anywhere from $1.3 to $2 million.

We understand the budgetary constraints the city is under due to COVID-19. But it is imperative that the supervisors prioritize LGBTQ issues, particularly those that won’t cost a lot of money. The city recently was able to come up with $1.6 million over the next two years for Black trans programs, and that is certainly a great beginning. But more needs to be done to include the queer community in city government, and the areas outlined above offer a good starting point. t

Trump’s attempted coup requires a bold response – from all of us

by Evan Low

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T

housands of Trump supporters swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, to commit seditious acts that were motivated by ignorance and white supremacy, which obviously go hand in hand. But the looting and deadly violence never would have occurred without the encouragement of a treasonous crook in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump was the evil puppet master of an insurrectionist mob, and every second he remains in office between now and Inauguration Day on January 20 poses a grave threat to our democracy.

Throughout his time in office, but especially since the 2020 election, Trump has repeatedly refused to respect one of the core tenets of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.

More than 60 lawsuits challenging the results of a free and fair election have been dismissed, and yet he still refuses to come to grips with reality. Even worse, Trump casually sat back and watched the mayhem unfold Wednesday, refusing to provide adequate security and risking the lives of Congress members and their staff. In a video posted to social media before having his accounts indefinitely locked, Trump said he loved the people committing crimes he previously argued should carry a minimum 10-year jail sentence.

“We love you,” Trump said.

“You’re very special.”

The inequity in how the overwhelmingly white rioters were treated by law enforcement Wednesday compared to peaceful protesters of color over the last four years couldn’t be starker.

Courtesy Bloomberg

Members of a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Wednesday, January 6.

In June, we saw the president order the firing of tear gas on peaceful protesters for a sacrilegious photo-op. Millions of people peacefully took to the streets over the summer and stood up for racial justice, only to have police and federal forces – at Trump’s urging – respond with militarized sweeps, rubber bullets, and other ammunition. Disabled health care activists have been dragged out of the halls of the Capitol more than once and 100-plus LGBTQ activists were arrested during a peaceful protest in October 2019 in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The number of arrests after hundreds of people stormed the Capitol in an act of domestic terrorism: 82.

Entitlement, white supremacy, and a lack of respect for the rule of law were on full display

in the attempted coup, all at the urging of a pseudo strongman who thinks the best way to wield power is through his clumsy thumbs and a smartphone.

Trump, of course, is not the only official who should be held liable for one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly echoed his lies and carried Trump’s water, spreading misinformation to sow distrust. Every single supporter of the president’s treasonous election claims has blood on their hands after five people died as a result of Wednesday’s riots, including a Capitol police officer. The applause we hear coming from our enemies abroad should inspire shame – shame to be shared exclusively by Trump and his loyalists.

See page 8 >>

t

Politics >>

January 14-20, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Alameda County Dem party sees record number of out leaders

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he Alameda County Democratic Central Committee will see a record number of LGBTQ members serving on the oversight body for the local party this year. And despite falling short in the March election to be reelected as a committee member, former party vice chair Andy Kelley will continue to serve on it.

At its January 6 organizational meeting for 2021, where the winners of the primary ballot races for committee seats were sworn in, Kelley was elected to serve as the party’s corresponding secretary. In the role, he is able to vote on placing endorsements of candidates onto the committee’s consent calendar but not vote on affirming the endorsements.

“I’ve fought for many years for reforms and modernization of the party, and to elect more progressive candidates throughout Alameda County. With the opportunity to work with a new chair and new executive board I was encouraged by allies and decided to seek committee leadership again to continue working to reform the party from within,” Kelley, elected in November as a Berkeley rent board member, told the Bay Area Reporter.

“The committee members agreed, and though I had two opponents in the first round, both opted to back my candidacy and I was elected by unanimous consent.”

He will serve alongside new party chair Terry Sandoval, a labor leader in the East Bay. She succeeds longtime chair Robin Torello, who like Kelley also lost her bid for reelection to the committee in March.

In June 2016, Kelley was the sole LGBTQ person elected to the committee and was three votes shy of being elected chair in 2019. When former Alameda City Councilman Jim Oddie came out as gay in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter in 2018, he became the second LGBTQ committee member, followed by George Perezvelez, a gay man appointed to a vacancy.

Now there are 17 openly LGBTQ members serving on the committee in some manner. Eight were elected in March, such as gay San Leandro City Councilman Victor Aguilar Jr., who is now serving as the committee’s vice chair from state Assembly District 18, and bisexual Assemblyman Alex Lee (D-San Jose), who is an ex-officio member due to his election last year to the 25th Assembly District seat that includes parts of Fremont.

The other out elected members are bisexual Livermore City Councilwoman Brittni Kiick; gay Ohlone College Board member Lance Kwan; Brendalynn R. Goodall, a lesbian and former president of the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, the county’s LGBTQ political club; queer transgender housing advocate Victoria Fierce; and queer women Melissa Shuen-Mallory and Barbara “Bobbi” Lopez, a policy director for lesbian Oakland At-Large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan.

Nine are serving as alternate members, including Oddie and Perezvelez, as the two former party vice chairs lost their bids for reelection in March. Also serving as an alternate is gay Dublin City Councilman Shawn Kumagai, elected by the committee members last week as the party’s vice chair for Assembly District 16.

The other out alternates are Mar-

Courtesy Andy Kelley

Andy Kelley will continue to serve on the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee.

tha H. Kreeger, who is bisexual and also lost her committee seat bid last year; Lucy Shen, who is nonbinary and fell short in their bid for a Fremont Board of Education seat last year; gay Fremont Human Relations Commissioner Martin Kludjian; and queer consultant Donald Lathbury, who formerly worked as Congressman John Garamendi’s communications director.

With so many LGBTQ people on the committee, there is talk of forming an LGBTQ caucus within it for the out leaders to be able to meet together, provide support, and discuss issues of particular interest to the LG-

Courtesy Honey Mahogany

Honey Mahogany was elected political action committee co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club.

BTQ community.

“I want to work especially closely with our newly elected LGBT members to ensure they have support in advocating within our party for our community,” said Kelley.

Alice LGBTQ Dem club elects new leaders

Monday night the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club elected as its new male co-chair Gary McCoy, 42, a gay man who is a senior congressional aide in the district office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). He succeeds gay lawyer David Fujimoto, whose two-year term ended.

McCoy’s election to serve alongside Alice’s female co-chair, Catie Arbona, whose two-year term will expire in January 2022, had been expected. As the B.A.R.’s online Political Notes column reported December 18, he was the lone person to seek the leadership position of the LGBTQ political group, which will mark its 50th anniversary this year.

Among the other club members elected to board positions was Honey

Mahogany, now co-chair of Alice’s political action committee and formerly co-president of the city’s Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, long seen as the more progressive of the two clubs. A queer nonbinary trans person who is the chief legislative aide for District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, Mahogany failed to win a second term as Milk club co-president in 2019 during a contentious leadership race.

(Her taking on the leadership role at Alice is the reversal from the route gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman had taken. After leading Alice’s PAC in 2005, when it was known as the endorsement committee, Mandelman was then elected president of the Milk club in 2008. Additionally, lesbian Martha Knutzen was the Milk club’s president in 1995 and in 2012 became an Alice co-chair.)

In recent years the two clubs have moved closer in alignment on both policy issues and political endorsements. Fujimoto pointed out how progressive Alice has become in his farewell message as co-chair.

Mahogany told the B.A.R. she became a dues-paying member of Alice last year and was looking to get more involved again in the leadership of one of the city’s political clubs. A member of its PAC, she earned Alice’s endorsement of her 2020 bid for a seat on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, becoming its first trans non-male member last April.

“While I was co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic club I worked relatively closely with the co-chairs of the Alice B. Toklas club on a variety of things. I think we were able to find a lot of common ground,” said Mahogany, adding that several club members suggested she seek the PAC position. “I was honored to be asked. I think since leaving the Milk club I’ve been wanting to get more involved on the local level on the board of a Democratic club.

Local Democratic clubs do lot a of on-the-ground organizing work for our candidates. I was hungry to get involved on that level again, and I am really looking forward to serving on the board.”

McCoy told the B.A.R. he looks forward to working with not just Mahogany and Luis Zamora, a former SF Young Dems president, but all of the “new well-qualified” board members.

“We’re adding such an enormous wealth of knowledge, experience, and perspective on Alice this year that will be critical to the continuing work we have ahead of us,” noted McCoy. As for the Milk club, its members will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, January 19, to elect its new executive board for 2021. Expected to become its co-presidents are Kaylah Williams, who is seeking election to a full one-year term, and Edward Wright, 29, who is queer and the club’s vice president of political affairs.

Current co-president Kevin Bard is stepping down two years after succeeding Mahogany and her co-president, Carolina Morales. Williams, 28, who is bisexual, was elected in June as co-president following the fallout from an email Bard wrote targeted at San Francisco Mayor London Breed.t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on California LGBTQ state lawmakers returning for the 2021 legislative session.

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

family law specialist* • Divorce w/emphasis on Real Estate & Business Divisions • Domestic Partnerships, Support & Custody • Probate and Wills www.SchneiderLawSF.com

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • January 14-20, 2021

t

Castro camera town hall announced for February

by John Ferrannini

A

n online survey to solicit feedback about a proposed public safety camera program in the Castro neighborhood will end shortly before a February town hall on the contentious issue, according to the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District.

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is the executive director of the CBD, told the Bay Area Reporter January 11 that “we are keeping the camera survey live through just before the town hall” and gave a time of February 8 for its cessation.

This is the first such announcement from the CBD for either event, though a more specific date has yet to be decided.

As the B.A.R. reported online last week, a committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously advanced a resolution to the full board January 7 that would place some limits on the ability of community benefit districts and other groups to utilize surveillance camera systems.

A proposal last year that the Castro CBD install 125 cameras was opposed by the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, leading Aiello to announce that a survey and a virtual town hall will be held before any proposals proceed further.

The anonymous survey, which opened last month, takes approximately 12 minutes to complete.

The cultural district initially announced erroneous dates for the

A screengrab of the Castro Street Cam last fall.

CBD survey ending and town hall but withdrew that statement.

“The CQCD advisory board has taken a position opposing this proposed surveillance system due to key privacy and oversight concerns, and although we have additional concerns about the leading tone of this survey, we encourage as much of our community to participate before the deadline and let your voice be heard,” Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person who is the manager of the cultural district, wrote in an email to the B.A.R. “We will continue to keep our community informed on future developments!”

Tech mogul Chris Larsen has funded CBDs to install cameras around San Francisco, as the New York Times reported in July 2020.

Larsen, who has not responded to B.A.R. requests for comment,

has paid for over 1,000 cameras to surveil people in the Fisherman’s Wharf, Lower Polk, Mid-Market, Tenderloin, Union Square, and Japantown neighborhoods.

A lawsuit was filed against the city last year by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging police illegally conducted mass surveillance on the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in the late spring by commandeering private security cameras in the Union Square area.

Last fall, after it was proposed that the Castro CBD install cameras, the Milk club was successfully able to apply pressure to the CBD board to postpone a vote on accepting some $695,000 for a network of security cameras.

The Milk club did not respond to a request for comment as of press time. t

San Francisco and Israeli city connect through art compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest has announced that it is hosting a first-of-its-kind virtual tour in collaboration with the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, the Haifa Museum of Art, the Haifa City Museum, and the San Francisco-Haifa Sister City Committee Sunday, January 17, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.

When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in The Zoom event will visit exhibadvance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead its presented by three museums.

When your celebration lasting protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, CJM will provide a tour of its “Levi When you remembrance plan your celebration and lasting remembrance in Strauss: The History of American allowing themlife to focus on what will matter most at that time—you. in advance, you can design every advance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial Style” exhibit, while the Haifa Mudetail own memorial provide Contact usyour today about theunique beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy seum of Art will present its exhibit atyour theloved San Francisco Columbarium. and provide loved ones with true peace mind.

Planning ahead your ones with true peace ofof mind.

Planning “Spaces in Turmoil” and the Haifa protects your loved onesProudly from unnecessary stress and financial burden, City Museum will show its “What ahead protects yourserving loved ones from unnecessary the LGBT Community.

Will the Neighbors Say?” that tells allowing them to focus on what will matter most at that time—you. stress and financial burden, allowing them to the story of the city’s LGBTQ comfocus on what will matter most at that time—you. munity.

Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy The presentation will feature remarks from at the San Contact FranciscousColumbarium. today about the beautiful ways to create San Francisco Mayor a lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium.

London Breed, Haifa Mayor Einat KalischOne Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 Proudly serving our Community.

Rotem, and Consul SanFranciscoColumbarium.com Proudly serving the LGBT Community.

General of Israel to the FD 1306 / COA 660 Pacific Northwest Shlomi Kofman. Following the virtual tours, there will be a Q&A with the art directors from the museums moderated by Matan Zamir, a gay man who is deputy consul general in the consulate’s San Francisco office.

“This event is a great opporOne Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 tunity to strengthen the relationSanFranciscoColumbarium.com ship between the peoples of San Francisco and Haifa through art,” FD 1306 / COA 660 Zamir stated in a news release. “It is a phenomenal way for all of us

PlanningAhead Ahead isisSimple Planning Simple The benefits are immense.

Planning Ahead is Simple The benefits are immense.

The benefits are immense.

Courtesy CJM

An image from the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco’s Levi Strauss exhibition: “Levi Strauss Overalls, They All Wear Levi’s” check blotter, 1930s. Levi Strauss & Co. Archives.

to enjoy a wonderful distraction from everything that is happening around us. If not through art, then how?”

The event is free and open to the public. For registration, go to https://bit.ly/3q8zzbL.

Israeli consulate film screening

In other news, the Israeli consulate and Jewish organizations will present a virtual screening of a film looking at issues around LGBTQs and marriage in Israel.

The event takes place Thursday, January 21, at noon Pacific Time.

The screening of the documentary, “Marry Me, However,” is being co-presented by A Wider Bridge, the East Bay International Jewish Film Festival, and the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center. It is co-sponsored by Eshel, a group for Orthodox LGBTQ Jews and their families.

The film by Mordechai Vardi tells the story of LGBTQ men and women who, for religious reasons, decided to marry against their own sexual orientation, to comply with Torah laws and be accepted into their families and religious communities. Some shared their secret with their partners, some kept it hidden, and some lied even to themselves. After their divorces, See page 8 >>

Correction The January 7 article “SF HRC to relaunch its LGBTQ advisory panel” misstated Mark Kelleher’s current job due to incorrect information included in his bio on the website of the city’s Human Rights Commission. He is retired from SF State and now works as an organizational development consultant with the firm BroderickHaight Consulting. The online story has been updated.

t

Business News>>

January 14-20, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Amid bookstore uncertainty, queer authors series turns 5

A fresh, new start!

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

s a monthly queer reading series marks its fifth anniversary of spotlighting out authors, the LGBTQ bookstore that hosts it in San Francisco’s Castro district is facing an uncertain future due to the COVID pandemic.

Since founders and life partners Wayne Goodman and Rick May launched their Perfectly Queer reading series five years ago this month, they have aimed to connect LGBTQ novelists and poets not only with the reading public but also to locallyowned bookstores in the Bay Area.

When the initial host of their event, Books Inc., closed its Castro location in the summer of 2016, the couple ended up relocating it to the newly opened second location of Dog Eared Books.

The lesbian-owned bookseller that year had moved into the vacated clothing store space at 489 Castro Street. The storefront had previously been the home of beloved LGBTQfocused A Different Light Bookstore from 1986-2011. Goodman and May, who began dating in 2013, were thrilled at being based out of such a historic location in the heart of one of the world’s most important LGBTQ neighborhoods.

“Most of our authors who read with us, a lot of times they’ve never read in a bookstore before or their readings are not held in bookstores,” noted May, 74, who has had a long career in the publishing field. “They are thrilled to see their books in a bookstore.”

Over the years readers have included novelists Michael Nava, Michael Alenyikov, Genanne Walsh, and Jim Provenzano, the Bay Area Reporter’s culture editor; poets Trace Peterson, Justin Chin, and Arisa White; short story authors Anne Raeff and Lori Ostlund; essayists Wilfredo Pascual and Aaron Shurin; and children’s authors Gayle Pitman and Marcus Ewert.

Returning for the virtual anniversary celebration January 20, having taken part in the very first Perfectly Queer event, is Oakland-based poet Natasha Dennerstein, 60, a transgender woman from Australia who relocated to the Bay Area in 2013 when she enrolled at San Francisco State University to earn her MFA. A literary editor with Nomadic Press, Dennerstein collaborated with Los Angeles-based painter Kaye Freeman for her latest book of poetry, “Turn and Face the Strange,” which came out in 2019.

“I am very happy it has lasted this long. I am involved in the literary scene and there wasn’t a lot of specific rewards and events for LGBTQ writers back then. It filled the void that really needed filling because there are a lot of us,” said Dennerstein, who works as a housing navigator for St. James Infirmary, which provides medical, mental health, and social services to San Francisco’s sex workers and their families.

The same was true when Dog Eared opened just as Books Inc. closed in the Castro, added Dennerstein, as having no LGBTQ bookstore would have been a “bad omen” for the future of the prominent queer cultural district.

“I think it is important for a marginalized community to have a focal point where the culture of that community is celebrated,” said Dennerstein. “You can drop in to Dog Eared Books’ sections of gay fiction and les-

Rick Gerharter

Rick May and Wayne Goodman, left, who joined manager Alvin Orloff, right, in front of Dog Eared Books on Castro Street, are celebrating the fifth anniversary of their Perfectly Queer reading series.

bian fiction and writings on trans and gender-nonconforming folks.”

The Perfectly Queer reading series routinely attracted 40 people or more to the store, with half of the audience purchasing one of the works of the featured authors, May told the B.A.R. in a phone interview this month.

Then the COVID-19 virus emerged last winter leading to the cancellation of the March event.

It wouldn’t be until September that Goodman and May would host the first virtual Perfectly Queer reading event. Each month since they have brought together queer authors and readers for the online sessions, which now attract a global audience.

“It was nice to have a little break, but then I started feeling guilty. People said, ‘I miss having readings,’ and the authors wanted to do the readings,” recalled May, who for 30 years has called the city’s Noe Valley neighborhood home and has organized its yearly Book Week event for 15 years, though last year’s had to be canceled due to the health crisis.

An Army veteran who grew up in Sacramento and earned a master’s in English at the University of Southern California, May moved to New York City and landed a job as an editor at Doubleday. He worked for several publishing houses in the 1980s before moving to San Francisco toward the end of the decade.

May sold children’s books to Bay Area schools and libraries, eventually forming his own company to work with publishers of such titles.

He turned the business over to his employees when he took a position in 2003 as director of sales for Continuing Education of the Bar, the University of California’s legal publisher.

In 2012, May teamed with photographer David Sweet to publish the book “Ginger Snaps,” photos and stories about queer red heads like himself. His most recent book was “Gay All Year,” a collection of stories for each month of the year.

Goodman, 64, relocated from Philadelphia to the Bay Area with his family at the age of 10. In 1980, he moved to San Francisco and worked for a law firm, later becoming a registered nurse. In 2000, Goodman moved in with a previous boyfriend in Vallejo and has called the East Bay city home ever since.

An author of 10 self-published books, Goodman hosts the Queer Word podcast and talks to his guests from around the globe about queerness. He recently learned the Library of Congress will archive his podcast series in its LGBTQ+ digital collection.

Goodman and May elected to use queer in the name of their reading series, despite the word’s negative connotations among their age group, since it is an umbrella term that encompasses all of the LGBTQ community.

“We went for the pun perfectly clear and said let’s make it Perfectly Queer,” explained Goodman.

In addition to the San Francisco events, the couple held readings in the East Bay between 2015 and 2017 at three different bookstores as each were forced to close their doors.

“We keep picking bookstores that close. I hope it doesn’t happen to Dog Eared,” said Goodman.

Bookstore faces uncertain future

It is unclear when they will be able to host live readings again, as the pandemic is still raging across California.

Businesses like bookstores are operating under restrictive guidelines that limit how many customers they can admit in at one time.

Meanwhile, Dog Eared Books is facing an uncertain future of its own.

Last year, it was forced to close between March and June, during which time it worked on creating an online platform for sales at www.dogearedbookscastro.com/shop.

It launched a GoFundMe campaign – https://www.gofundme. com/f/c2fpa3-save-dog-eared-bookscastro – with a goal of raising $50,000 to help it survive. To date, the Castro store has raised just $20,000.

“For the first time in four years of operation, our very survival is at stake,” wrote owner Kate Rosenberger. “Going out of business would make four dedicated booksellers unemployed and turn the Castro into a book desert, the sort of sad place where one can feed one’s stomach but not one’s mind.”

Before helping to open the Castro location, store manager Alvin Orloff worked at Dog Eared Books’ first location on Valencia Street in the city’s Mission district. With the Castro lease coming up for renewal this May, Orloff told the B.A.R. that the bookstore is exploring its options, from extending its lease to a possible sale to new owners.

“We will do what it takes because the Castro deserves a bookstore,” he said. “We are hoping we can reconfigure the business in some way. It is probably going to change hands in some form or fashion; we don’t know how.”

The all-important holiday bookbuying season last month exceeded expectations, said Orloff.

“December was really heartening.

Our customers really came through for us,” he said.

Nonetheless, it couldn’t make up for the previous “terrible” months, Orloff added, when there were so few shoppers staff never worried about hitting capacity.

“It was a huge hit and the business is not really back to normal. We are struggling,” said Orloff, 59, a gay man who has worked for the bookseller for 21 years.

He told the B.A.R. the store is looking at making a public appeal for financial support in the coming weeks.

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • January 14-20, 2021

<<

Walton

From page 1

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, the board’s lone LGBTQ member, acknowledged the historic nature of Walton’s becoming board president and pledged to support him over the coming years.

“We are going to elect the first Black man to be president of the Board of Supervisors. That is a huge deal,” said Mandelman, elected Tuesday as chair of the county transportation authority.

Prior to going to public comment followed by the board’s vote to confirm him as board president, Walton said he “100% graciously and humbly accept the nomination.”

Walton, 45, will now lead the board

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Guest Opinion

From page 4

Republicans who retain any sense of honor must join Democrats and leaders across the country in calling on Vice President Mike Pence and/ or the President’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. If the 25th Amendment is not invoked (which Republicans derailed Monday), the House should move to introduce new articles of impeachment. We cannot wait to find out if last week’s horror show was rock bottom for this failed administration.

But this is not simply a time for condemnation.

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News Briefs

From page 6

they confront the conflicts they repressed: Their faith and religious laws; children, family, and community; exposure to society and search for a partner. A news release noted that the film’s subjects experience a journey of self-acceptance and social activism as they try to affect a change in their religious environments.

<<

over the next two years as it works with Breed, a former board president herself who is the city’s first Black female leader, to address crippling budget deficits brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The city is facing an estimated $411.1 million budget deficit in the 2021-2022 fiscal year that begins July 1 and a $242.1 million deficit in the fiscal year after that.

The health crisis has also exacerbated intractable issues that have confounded City Hall for decades, from homelessness and a lack of affordable housing to crime and drug overdoses. The city has seen rental housing costs plummet over the last 10 months as residents move to other locales, but home prices remain astronomically high.

While COVID vaccines are being rolled out, San Francisco remains on

lock down as cases of the virus now surpass 27,000 in the city and 235 people have died. City leaders have ordered all nonessential employees to stay home for the indefinite future and many businesses and cultural institutions to remain closed. Residents are being asked not to travel outside of the region, and if they do, to quarantine at home for 10 days when they return.

The multiple challenges mean Walton will be facing a tenure as board president unlike anything his predecessors have faced in recent memory. The former school board member and president was elected to represent the city’s historically Black neighborhoods of the Bayview and Hunters Point in 2018.

Breed joined the supervisors’ virtual meeting following Walton’s election to congratulate the new board presi-

dent. She also urged the board members to “stop pointing the finger” and instead work collaboratively to address the myriad issues facing the city.

“This is a time of serious work. I understand we will have our disagreements; that is to be expected. But if there is any time to put aside our differences in the name of accomplishing something great, this is that time,” said Breed. “We can do so much to move our city forward and help the people of San Francisco if only we can put aside our differences and make a commitment to work together.”

Walton told the mayor he looked forward to working with her and her office “to unify this city and of course make sure we have a response and of course set an example for the rest of the country as we move forward

through the rest of this pandemic.”

Like Breed, Walton lived in the city’s public housing as a child until moving to Vallejo, where he served in juvenile hall several times and was expelled from school. He went on to graduate from Morris Brown College and then earn a master’s degree in public administration from San Francisco State University.

Prior to his election to the board, Walton was executive director at Young Community Developers focused on providing jobs and affordable housing to District 10 residents.

He has two adult children and lives in the Bayview with his wife, Mesha, and his two stepsons. t

Those who were horrified by what we witnessed must take action.

The LGBTQ+ community has consistently been under assault by the Trump administration, from blocking the Equality Act to guarantee non-discrimination protections to banning transgender service members from the military. In the 2020 election, LGBTQ+ voters turned out in numbers nearly double their proportion of the population, according to national election polling.

The impact of our votes will no longer allow officials to see us as an after-thought in the political process.

But with power – even power as seemingly insignificant as one vote

– comes responsibility. Too many people in our society have grown comfortable with the idea that the American way of life will sustain itself.

The truth is our democracy is fragile. Progress is incremental. And apathy for doing our civic duty – voting, engaging on issues that affect our communities, calling out racism and misinformation – can lead to irreparable harm when one political party seeks power solely for the sake of power and personal gain.

One of the lasting images I’ll remember from this week is a picture of Representative Andy Kim (D-New Jersey), who was photographed after midnight picking

up trash left inside the Capitol. He didn’t have to do it, but he said he felt a personal responsibility. I suspect the LGBTQ+ community as a whole will have a similar role to play in helping to clean up this mess.

I was proud to see members of Congress return to the floor late January 6 to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Those who stood in the way of those efforts have shown which side of history they’ve chosen to align. Their disgraceful actions will not be forgotten.

All Americans must take this ominous moment in history and channel it into purpose. We must seek to repair the damage of the last

four years. Connect with your local, state, and federal elected officials.

Get to know them and hold them accountable to better safeguard our democracy.

If we have learned anything from the past week, it’s that democracy is not a promise made to us, but one we make to each other. t

The program, which will include a discussion, is part of A Wider Lens, a series of events looking into the Israeli LGBTQ community, diverse society, and rich culture through a wider lens of experiences, including trailblazing Israeli documentaries, culinary workshops led by Israeli chefs, and meaningful conversations with local heroes and activists.

The event is free. To register, visit https://bit.ly/3i3egWe. A link will

be sent upon registration.

was not publicly out at the time; it was only after her death in 2012 that she was identified as a lesbian.)

The first phase is a multifaceted opportunity that includes expert menteeship, community engagement and rolemodelship, and scientific and astronautical career development. Phase one winners advance to phase two so that they can reach a level of credibility in a field related to astronautics. Ultimately, phase three would work to fly a winning

candidate into space to do professional scientific research.

The deadline for the contest is January 30. The project has been recognized by the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals.

The contest is hosted through the website at www.outastronaut. com and being promoted through the “Out Astronaut Project” Facebook page.t

conversations that the Independent Venue Alliance had to push Haney’s office for a nightlife relief fund.

“We’ve been the ones very much pleading with Matt [Haney] to help us,” Drollinger said. “Everyone wishes this was a lot sooner.

Every small business is suffering, but entertainment venues have suffered the most because there are not a lot of options. Retail can open, restaurants could open outside. We are suffering the hardest and will be the last to reopen,” a timetable Drollinger put at six months to one year.

Drollinger said that the money could be used to pay rent and bills, as well as potentially for staff if they can come back to work in different capacities.

“It’s really, really hard because I could bring back some of our staff but then I had to lay them off again just before Christmas,” Drollinger said.

Drollinger said that the amount of funding needed could be in the tens of millions of dollars.

“I understand you can’t make money appear,” Drollinger said. “It depends on if this fund is going to just tackle very small businesses, or all venues. If you include Bill Graham, Bimbos [large venues], then you will need tens of millions. If you are just helping small venues, $10-$15 million would be useful.

“We were all on our own. There were many times when we just had each other, but no relief,” Drollinger added.

tro neighborhood, were beneficiaries of federal paycheck protection program loans of $150,000 or more before July 2020, according to a searchable online list from the nonprofit ProPublica.

Natali Inc. and Castro Bar & Food, LLC, both associated with Toad Hall and Badlands owner Les Natali, received between $350,000 and $1 million and between $150,000 and $350,000, respectively, on May 3 and June 11.

Natali reported 65 and 21 jobs at each, respectively.

As the B.A.R. previously reported, Natali announced via Facebook in July 2020 that Badlands would be closing and reopening under new ownership post-pandemic. Toad Hall was open during the summer and fall, as COVID-19 restrictions allowed.

TDG Inc., which does business as The Mix, received a loan of between $150,000 and $350,000 on June 19. It did not report a number of employees.

Double Tap, LLC, which owns the trademark for Hi Tops, received a loan of between $150,000 and $350,000 on May 1. It reported 28 employees.

Both were also open during the summer and fall as restrictions allowed.

The Castro bar Last Call received a PPP loan but had to repay it, according to a December 31 article in SF Weekly, once owner Kevin Harrington realized a certain percentage had to go toward payroll and several logistical issues prevented reopening in the second half of last year.

Natali, Hi Tops’ owner Jesse Woodward, and a representative of TDG Inc. did not respond to requests for comment.t

Nightlife relief

From page 1

owner of MX3 Fitness on Market Street in the Castro and a member of the Castro Merchants board, had helped many small fitness studios come together to form the San Francisco Independent Fitness Studio Coalition last spring.

In a statement on behalf of the coalition January 12, Karraker asked “Is The City Picking COVID Winners and Losers?”

“The San Francisco Independent Fitness Studio Coalition is asking: why weren’t neighborhood gyms included in the relief package? What about salons? Or tattoo studios? – all of which have been hit just as hard, if not harder, during the pandemic,” Karraker stated. “While gyms sat closed nearly half of the year, restaurants were able to reopen quickly with takeout service and delivery, which continues today. Gyms can now operate outdoors, but that option is only available for a fraction of the neighborhood gyms in the city, and it is fraught with challenges, such as the homeless situation and weather.

“The SFIFSC is demanding the city include small neighborhood fitness studios in their relief packages,” he stated.

Haney proposes nightlife fund

Meanwhile, late last year, Haney introduced legislation to create a San Francisco Music and Entertainment Venue Recovery Fund that would aid entertainment venues, most of which have been unable to make money since the current stay-at-home order went into effect December 6 (though many have not been able to open since

t

Courtesy Matt Haney

District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney

coronavirus restrictions began last March).

A May survey from the city’s Entertainment Commission found that almost half of bars, live music venues, and nightclubs were “highly concerned” that their businesses would have to close permanently, and more than half did not make between 75-100% of their expected business income.

“When we talk about the heart and soul of San Francisco, many of us think of our city’s venues,” Haney said in a news release. “The many shows we’ve seen and the bands and artists and music that have all come out of San Francisco, they inspire us and bring us together. These spaces are a reflection of who we are and what we love, and they are in danger of disappearing.”

Honey Mahogany, a queer nonbinary trans person who is the chief legislative aide for Haney, told the Bay Area Reporter that the legislation has to be on a 30-day

Groups seek out astronaut

Out Astronaut is partnering with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences in a contest to increase STEM representation in the LGBTQ community.

Jason Reimuller, Ph.D., noted that there are three phases to get an out person selected as an astronaut.

(Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space in 1983,

hold from the time of its December 22 introduction until it can be heard by the budget committee.

When asked how much money Haney is seeking for the fund, Mahogany said that “we do not have a number yet.”

“We are working with the city controller to see what is feasible,” she said.

Mahogany, who is part of the 17-member Stud collective, said that she and other members of the collective – which used to run the now-shuttered space at 399 Ninth Street – were a major force behind Haney’s introduction of the legislation.

“Matt [Haney] talked a lot about helping nightlife in his [2018] campaign, and as things have gone along we have put pressure on him to fulfill that promise,” Maria Davis, a queer woman who is a member of the Stud collective, told the B.A.R., adding that she and others used their connection with Mahogany to get the ball rolling.

“We’d been talking about it because she works in Matt’s office and we have a rapport,” Davis said.

But these efforts won’t directly help the Stud, Davis said, which as the B.A.R. previously reported had to close its physical location in May. “We hope that through a trickle-down effect it will help the Stud,” Davis said. “It’s a big conversation we are having, and we hope for funding from different sources. It’s important to work on all fronts, but the Stud plays more of a symbolic role, as a cautionary tale.”

D’Arcy Drollinger, a gay man who is an owner of the Oasis nightclub in the South of Market neighborhood, was part of the

Castro bars get PPP loans

At least three bars catering to the LGBTQ community in the 94114 ZIP code, which includes the Cas-

Gay Assemblyman Evan Low was elected to the California State Legislature in 2014 and represents Silicon Valley. He is chair of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus and vice chair of the Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.

t <<

Community News >>

Trans college students

From page 1

be able to access their student records with their correct name.”

Chiu previously authored Assembly Bill 711 that became law last year and requires public K-12 schools in the state to update the records for transgender and nonbinary students so that they match their legal name and gender identity. His bill applying to the state’s public institutions of higher learning would allow college students to have their lived name printed on their college diploma and transcripts even if they have not gone to court to legally change their name given to them at birth.

“For so many reasons young folks don’t have the resources or desire to

<<

Business Briefing

From page 7

Selling online is “no panacea,” said Orloff, so the staff is hopeful they can find a solution that keeps the Castro location’s doors open.

Other than the GLBT History Museum and the Castro Theatre there aren’t many cultural options left in the Castro, noted Orloff, apart from the drag shows the neighborhood bars hosted.

“We are still assessing the economic situation. We are going to have to make

January 14-20, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

change their legal name. It is why being able to use your chosen name is so important,” said Cordova, who told the B.A.R. she has yet to legally change her name.

Chiu’s legislation would set a standardized process for officials at the higher education schools to use when former students seek to have their educational records updated and reissued with a different name. The bill sets out to clarify the types of identification that transgender or nonbinary alumni would need to provide in order to have the correct name updated in their records and have diplomas or transcripts reissued.

Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization, is again sponsoring the bill, as are a number of college student associa-

tions. Chiu told the B.A.R. this week he is in talks with representatives from community colleges, the UC system, and the state university system about their supporting his bill. In November, the UC system released a new policy on gender identity that all of its campuses will need to implement by December 31, 2023.

“Gender identity is fundamentally personal, and the University of California should ensure that all individuals have university-issued identification documents and displays of personal identification information that recognize their accurate gender identity and lived name (first name, middle name and/or last name or surname),” states the policy.

Under the directive anyone with an existing academic or professional re-

lationship with the UC system “must – through a clear and efficient process – be permitted to amend” their university records to reflect their gender identity and lived name. All UC locations “should avoid passing on the cost” to the person for updating their records or issuing new identification cards, states the policy.

The policy clarifies that the use of lived student names can be used on “eligible academic documents” like transcripts, diplomas, and dissertation title pages. But it also notes that a person’s legal name will need to be used on certain records such as financial aid documents, payroll and medical records, federal immigration documents, and tax forms.

As the B.A.R. noted last year, City College of San Francisco has imple-

mented a chosen name system for its trans and nonbinary students and staff. Under its gender diversity and inclusion policy the use of chosen names are mandatory except for certain financial and legal documents.

Cordova, who earned a B.A. in ethnic studies, has yet to seek any other academic records from UC Berkeley and told the B.A.R. she is uncertain what name would appear on them.

She is optimistic that state lawmakers will pass Chiu’s bill this year so deadnaming of college students is banned at all public universities across the state.

“I think it is always the right time to prioritize the experiences of trans people and really to work to end all of these expected and preventable moments of harm that we experience as a community,” she said.t

some big changes in order to keep the store open,” said Orloff. “We are a neighborhood bookstore where people can feel the books and talk about books with their neighbors and staff.

It is really important for the Castro to have that, as there isn’t much to do other than go to the bars and restaurants.”

It is why the store has partnered with the Perfectly Queer reading series, noted Orloff, for so many years. It did so not so much to boost sales but to support authors, he explained, many of which are local and customers.

“It is an important part of the culture in general to have live events. I don’t think you can really replicate the experience online, sadly,” said Orloff, who read from his own memoir published in 2019 at one of the virtual queer reading events. “The online experience, it is better than nothing.

Nothing really replaces hanging out with people.”

Perfectly Queer’s anniversary celebration will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 20. Five LGBTQ+ authors are returning to read

from their work, and there will be games and prizes for attendees of the free event.

To request the Zoom link to join in, email perfectlyqueersf@gmail. com or RSVP on the reading series’ Facebook event page at https://bit. ly/3mZZkJE.

news items, from store openings and closings in the Castro district to the hiring of LGBTQ people to important jobs. Over time, I have refocused the column to delve into specific business issues or profile out business owners.

Thus, the first column of 2021 bears a slight update to its name to signal that it is a monthly “Business Briefing.” t

When I took over the business column in May 2014, I inherited its name of “Business Briefs” reflecting that it had served as a roundup on various

Got a tip on LGBTQ business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ ebar.com.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039206400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039219300

an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: February X03, 2021, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: THOMAS R. HEALY (SBN 164815), 601 CAROLINA ST, VALLEJO, CA 94590; Ph. (707) 553-7360.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039216900

Postscript

Legals>> BURK CHUNG FOUNDATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PETITE AUBERGE, 863 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PETITE SWAN LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/21/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/20.

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

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

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039204600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JB ROMM PHD, 201 MISSION ST, 12TH FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSICA BETH ROMM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/11/20.

DEC 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 21, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039201700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PS SALON & SPA, 1661 PINE ST, 2ND FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SALON PS CALIFORNIA LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/08/20.

DEC 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 21, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039198000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEADPRINT STUDIO, 2848 WEBSTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BRAND BENJAMIN LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/15/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/03/20.

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

DEC 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 21, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039205000

STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-037972000

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

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as DOJIMA-ANN, 219 O’FARRELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed

by NEW SUN RESTAURANT CORPORATION (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/26/18.

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

DEC 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 21, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039208700

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039204400

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

DEC 24, 31, 2020 JAN 07, 14, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039206300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as WHITE SWAN INN, 845 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PETITE SWAN LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/21/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/15/20.

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ART SPA WORLD; AONDREA MAYNARD FINE ART, 1890 BRYANT ST #209, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDREA HELEN MAYNARD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/01/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/11/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039219000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FAMILY & COMMUNITY CIRCLES, 3288 21ST ST #230, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZOILA CARTAGENA VELASQUEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/29/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MUSE JUICE BAR, 2056 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH WRIGHT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039204200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHINA CENTRAL SERVICE,1235 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BAY AREA CENTRAL SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/23/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/11/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039211900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MUMBLERS PRESS LLC, 159 CASELLI AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MUMBLERS PRESS LLC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/20/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/22/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039219600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CENSORED VODKA LLC, 849 AVENUE D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TREEHOUSE CRAFT DISTILLERY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/13/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039204100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LENORA LEE DANCE, 1255 29TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed LENORA LEE PRODUCTIONS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/11/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-039116400

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as ARGUELLO WASH & DRY, 790 ARGUELLO BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by DOUGLAS T.K. WOO. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/30/20.

JAN 07, 14, 21, 28, 2021 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF MICHAEL BRAUN IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-21-304129 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of MICHAEL BRAUN. A Petition for Probate has been filed by GEORGE DANIEL KIRKHAM in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that SHARON DUNCAN be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval.

Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files

JAN 14, 21, 28, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-556037

In the matter of the application of KENNETH HWANG, 1935 PACHECO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KENNETH HWANG is requesting that the name KENNETH HWANG be changed to SAGE KUROYAMA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 18th of February 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LOCKDOWN BEAUTY, 345 DAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY CRISPEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/02/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/28/20.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039217900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KENDEELICIOUS COCKTAILS, 1434 INNES AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANASSA STEWART. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 12/30/20.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039220900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HAULIT415, 1075 O’FARRELL ST #11, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOEL L. MENDANHA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/06/21.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039220500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as A GOOD PLACE THERAPY PACIFIC, 582 MARKET ST #1110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed A GOOD PLACE THERAPY BY KERRIE MOHR, LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER, PC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/09/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 01/05/21.

JAN 14, 21, 28, FEB 04, 2021

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Viola Davis (center) in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

by David-Elijah Nahmod

T

he first few moments of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom are electrifying. It’s 1927 in rural Georgia. Hundreds of people, all of them Black, are lined up at the entrance to a huge tent. Inside, Ma Rainey, the Mother of the Blues, is singing her heart out. She works the crowd into a frenzy as she gyrates on stage, unashamedly flaunting her sexuality. Ma Rainey knows how to command an audience, and for Viola Davis Rainey is the role of a lifetime.

Davis burns a hole through the screen in the film, which is now streaming on Netflix.

Ma Rainey (1886-1939) was an early African American blues singer, one of the first to achieve stardom and to record.

The bulk of the film is set in a Chicago recording studio, where, according to the film, Rainey didn’t take any guff from anyone. She tells both her white manager and the white owner of the studio exactly what she will and won’t put up with. At her insistence, her nephew Sylvester (Dusan Brown) is going to do a spoken intro to one of her songs, even though the young man has a terrible lisp. As she demands, young Sylvester does the intro over and over until he gets it right, or she’ll refuse to sing. Ma always gets her way.

It may be 1927, yet Rainey makes no attempt to hide the fact that Dussie Mae (Taylour Paige), her young female companion, is her girlfriend. Ma puts her arms around Dussie Mae, bites her earlobe, and whispers into her ear. Ma Rainey is a woman decades ahead of her time, a woman who fought hard to get to where she is and doesn’t give a hang what anybody thinks. Davis plays this wonderful role for all it’s worth.

Cary Grant’s ‘Brilliant Disguise’

by Brian Bromberger

I

n 1999, The American Film Institute named Cary Grant the second greatest male screen legend in U.S. movie history, with only Humphrey Bogart topping him. During his lifetime he was already iconic among his peers, with Tony Curtis imitating him to woo Marilyn Monroe in the comedy classic Some Like It Hot (1959). And Grant is still popular today, as his transcending-his-period performances seem timeless after 80+ years, despite his last film being released in 1966, and having died almost 35 years ago. Local SF/British film critic David Thomson considers Grant the most important actor in cinema history.

All these accolades are no surprise to his latest biographer, former literary critic Scott Eyman, chronicler of other Hollywood luminaries. Eyman felt enough time had passed to reassess Grant the man and his career before many of the people who knew him died.

A riveting Ma Rainey But Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom really belongs to the late Chadwick Boseman in his final role. Boseman plays Levee, a trumpeter in Ma Rainey’s band. Levee has his eye on Dussie Mae, and the bisexual young woman is interested. Levee is ambitious. His attempts to rearrange Ma’s songs are quickly shot down. He has hopes of recording his own songs, but that doesn’t happen either. Levee has big dreams, dreams which aren’t going to come true.

For Eyman, Grant was the most self-invented man in the movies.

“He’s a completely made-up character and I’m playing a part,” Grant would explain. “It’s a part I’ve been playing a long time, but no way am I really Cary Grant. A friend told me once, ‘I always wanted to be Cary Grant.’ And I said, ‘So did I.’” How small-town Brit Archie Leach became Cary Grant and how Grant finally assimilated that identity towards the end of his life, is the core of Eyman’s comprehensive, dense, meticulously researched/well-sourced, and probably definitive biography.

The complex question of Grant’s sexuality, of particular interest to our readers, is explored.

Long before his death, there were rumors that Grant was gay. In the last few decades, incidental evidence has emerged to support that contention with qualifications. Orrey-Kelly, in an unpublished autobiography discovered decades after his 1964 death, profiles an on-andoff again volatile relationship with Grant.

Then there are the provocative photos of Grant with his periodic actor Randolph Scott roommate (in between their short-term marriages), which today would suggest a domicile gay couple that even in the 1930s raised eyebrows.

Eyman does include a conversation he had with Bill Royce, a later friend of Grant, saying that Grant once implied that he had been basically gay as a young man, later bisexual, then finally just straight. “Randy Scott had seen their relationship as ‘locker-room playing around.’

“Grant explained sexuality in terms of performance, of acting. He told Royce that not to explore completely one’s sexuality would be like an actor playing only one character for life. Everybody, he said, had more than one character inside them. He didn’t think homosexual acts were anything to be ashamed of or proud of, they were part of the journey, not necessarily the final destination.”

Eyman is empathetic but critical, despite all the mind-numbing minutia of Grant’s films in the middle section, which will be a bit of a slough for all but diehard fans of old Hollywood.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the perfect swan song for this wonderful actor, sadly lost to cancer this past summer. Boseman’s performance is extraordinary. He imbues Levee with an intensity that is mesmerizing. In one unforgettable scene, he recalls a childhood experience of watching his mother get raped by a group of white men. The men also cut him, leaving him permanently scarred. Levee recounts this horrific story with a combination of sadness and anger that’s heartbreaking. The

scene underscores the tragedy of Boseman’s passing and makes one wonder how many more great performances he might have given had he lived.

This is by far one of the year’s finest films.

It should be honored come awards time, with well-deserved Oscars hopefully going to both leads. RIP Mr. Boseman.t

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

Man on stageTom DeTrinis rages on

by Jim Gladstone

C

all it serial monology.

Los Angeles-based comic actor and writer Tom DeTrinis’ new one-man show, Making Friends, streaming through January 18, is the latest link in a director-actor daisy chain that began with Michael Urie’s terrific 2013 Off-Broadway turn in Buyer and Cellar as Alex More, the fictional custodian of Barbra Streisand’s very-much-real Malibu bunker, which houses her collection of costumes, art and objets de décor. (Urie—best known for his role in Ugly Betty and his stalwart queer activism brought that show to the Curran in 2014).

Urie went on to direct Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, another very gay hit Off-Broadway monologue, written and performed by Drew Droege. Droege hilariously embodies a jabberjawed gay man in his forties who is unable to cope with the post-Obergfell reality of queer weddings and his own deep sense of estrangement from assimilation. In the assistant director’s chair was Tom DeTrinis. DeTrinis also directed another Droege solo comedy, Happy Birthday Doug, this past February (Both are available for streaming).

Now, Droege takes the directorial reins of DeTrinis’ solo shenanigans in the IAMA The-

atre Production of Making Friends. A good friend he proves to be, elegantly choreographing DeTrinis’s movement around the stage of the Pico Theater, where the show was recorded without an audience due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, that lack of an audience seriously undermines the impact of DeTrinis’ writing and performance.

Making Friends is an autobiographical piece.

DeTrinis –a self-described rageaholic– plays an exaggerated version of himself. The show’s vignetted structure lacks a driving narrative arc.

There are loosely connected bits on wacky family. Lousy jobs. Status-minded parties. Growing up gay. In short, the best written parts of the piece feel quite like stand-up comedy.

DeTrinis has a terrifically elastic voice that lets him slip gracefully from character to character without props or costumes. His movement and gestures are impressively precise and controlled. But there’s a hollow feeling to the proceedings as a whole. I’d genuinely be interested in seeing this show again in a club or theater, post-corona. But for the time being, Making Friends spotlights one of the ways the pandemic has unmade the arts.t

Read the full interview, with ondemand links on www.ebar.com

t

TV, Nightlife & Film>>

January 14-20, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Capitol viewing

by Victoria A. Brownworth

H

ere we are in a new year, with new TV series about to drop next month, but really–how does anyone top the drama wrought on Epiphany at the Capitol? We kept thinking of all the folks who told us that President Trump would never instigate a coup as we watched a simple roll call vote turn into an attempt to subvert the election and kill the Vice President and Speaker of the House.

In her searing interview with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes Jan. 10, Pelosi gave Stahl a play-by-play of the insurgence and the assault by Trump supporters, who yelled death threats to Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi as they marauded through the halls of the Capitol.

Pelosi wanted to stay at her podium, but Capitol police, guns drawn, demanded she leave, insisting that she was not safe.

Nancy Pelosi: They were vocally saying, “Where’s the speaker? We know she has staff.

They’re here someplace. We’re gonna find them.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi shows 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl the MAGA terrorists’ destruction.

As video rolled, Stahl’s shock is palpable as Pelosi points to how her door was broken in.

Nancy Pelosi: This door, they broke it down, as you can see.

Lesley Stahl: Oh my goodness.

Nancy Pelosi: They broke that down.

Lesley Stahl: Look at that. They broke the door.

Nancy Pelosi: They smashed it in.

And went through to another door–behind which Pelosi’s young staff cowered, terrorized.

Nancy Pelosi: The staff went

under the table, barricaded the door, turned out the lights, and were silent in the dark.

Lesley Stahl: Under the table this whole– Nancy Pelosi: –under the table for two and a half hours.

Lesley Stahl: Wow. If you missed it, watch it at 60Minutes.com. It is an extraordinary interview with an extraordinary woman, about an extraordinary event.

Funny Boy

Canadian director Deepa Mehta has made some superb films about

queer life, several of which have been extremely controversial in India, where much of her work is situated. Her 1996 film Fire remains one of the great lesbian films of all time. Fire and her 2005 film Water were both boycotted in India.

Her new film, Funny Boy, has also sparked controversy in Sri Lanka where homosexuality is still illegal, and elsewhere.

The film tells the coming of age story of Arjie Chelvaratnam, a young Tamil boy in Sri Lanka who is coming to terms with his sexual identity against the backdrop of the increased tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese people before the breakout of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The film stars Arush Nand as Arjie in childhood and Brandon Ingram as Arjie in his teenage years.

Rehan Mudannayake plays Shehan, Arjie’s teen love interest. Funny Boy was shot on location in Colombo.

Funny Boy explores how everything around Arjie and Shehan is in turmoil while they are on a clear path to each other. The two boys are sure about who they are and what they want and there is real chemistry between the two actors. Arjie and Shehan come to the relationship–

which is artfully and realistically depicted, in Mehta’s dependably compassionate style–confident of their own gayness. They aren’t trying to be or hoping to be straight–despite what is expected of them by others.

So this is a film about young queer desire as much as anything else. But it is also fundamentally about the harsh climate in which such love is expected to blossom and Mehta juxtaposes the political turmoil against the emotional one.

For coverage of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, So My Grandmother’s a Lesbian and more, go to www. ebar.com.t

Brandon Ingram in Funny Boy

Queer bars’ extraordinary fund list

Gooch

Hunky bears at The Lone Star Saloon in better days (2016).

by Jim Provenzano

D

espite our astoundingly difficult times, fans and patrons of LGBTQ Bay Area bars and nightclubs were extraordinarily generous to multiple fundraising efforts in 2020, donating nearly $400,000.

This is in addition to the SF Queer Nightlife Fund’s more than $300,000 raised. You can still donate to help your favorite venues survive.

The popular 440 Castro, a frequent B.A.R. Bestie winner, participated in the outdoor dining and drinks experience, with a terrifichand-built parklet, before the second shutdown. They’re currently offering artwork by Pete Doolittle as part if their fundraiser.

“It has been a difficult year to say the least and it fills us with gratitude that you’ve been there for us these last few month,” said the owners in their fundraiser statement. “It has reminded us that 440 isn’t just another bar but a staple in the LGBTQ community. It’s shown how we can all come together and adapt to change.”

The bar has raised more than $4,200 of its $7,500 goal.

Tiny in space yet big in history, Aunt Charlie’s Lounge is known for old school drag shows, and the much-missed DJ Bus Station nights, where sweaty dancing cuties packed the intimate dance floor. The bar’s fans have raised $105,400, passing their $100,000 goal.

In 2013, The Cinch Saloon cel-

ebrated its 40th anniversary. Let’s keep it going to 50 and beyond. So far, they’ve raised $15,800 of their $20,000 goal.

“Back in early March, Holotta Tymes and I took a leap and decided to buy Club 1220,” wrote co-owner Robert Carstensen in East Bay bar’s fundraiser statement. “We wanted to make sure that this bar stayed open for the LGBTQ+ community and continue to provide the safe place it has been the last 44 years with the Crovo family. Together with family and friends, we came up with the funding and made an offer.

“Even after COVID-19 hit, shutting down bars across the Bay Area and throughout California, we knew they could not back out. The community needs this bar to be around to make sure there is a place for individuals to just be themselves.” The bar has raised more than $18,700 of its $30,000 goal.

It’s intimate, to be sure, but clearly a local favorite, as Last Call fans have donated $16,400 of their $30,000 goal. Wrote donor Sean Tracy, “This place has been there for me during good times and the hard ones too.

If I were more religious, this would be my church. When this is over, let’s gather for a “prayer.”

Lone Star Saloon, the worldfamous bear bar, innovated to form a membership club with charming swag key chains and other merchandise. Who doesn’t miss a night at Cubcake or a crowded huddle

on the back patio with terrific rock grooves?

Lookout, the bar with a balcony view at the epicenter of our famous six-way intersection, offers an innovative approach to its staff-supporting fundraiser; gift cards. 50% of your donation goes to staff, the remainder pays for food, drinks and more once bars are allowed to re-

open. While closed to the public, the bar still offers margarita deliveries through their colleagues Casements Bar, Thursdays through Saturdays.

As the management stated in looking out for the reopenings, “We all can agree we will need a drink by then.”

With its nautical shipyard décor, The Port Bar became an Oakland favorite from its opening. Their recent outdoor drag shows, Bingo and Taco Tuesdays were popular before the second shutdown. Through the bar’s fundraiser, organized by Sean Sullivan, patrons have donated $5,600, surpassing their $5,000 goal. Hello, sailors!

So many parties, such good times.

El Rio’s outdoor concerts, comedy shows and soul dance parties kept the neighborhood hopping.

“100% of the money we receive will be split among all of our staff bar, sound, door, as well as the cleaning crew,” said organizers. “This is a tough time for everyone and we know that we are all dealing with added stress, but if you’re able to donate, every dollar will go a long way in helping our crew.” The bar’s fans showed their love by donating $21, 600 of their $20,000 goal.

Although we’re still not sure what’s happening with the sale of the

historic leather bar the SF Eagle, we know we can’t wait to enjoy the famous beer busts, dance nights and of course, leather events. And the staff is being helped out with $21,400, surpassing their $20,000 target.

If you’re as big a fan of Oasis as we are, you’ve lost count of all the laughs you had at the fab nightclub’s shows (Mother, The Golden Girls Live, Shit & Champagne, Star Trek Live), guest stars (The B-52s’ Cindy Wilson, Varla Jean Merman, even Cher!). From classy (Frameline galas), to wild (cosplay nights) to raunchy (Big Fat Dick) and drag king royalty (Dandy), it’s been the place to be in SoMa. Help out the club and its staff to ensure that this ‘Oasis of civilization’ returns.

Join their Patreon, buy some merch, and tip generously on Venmo.

The historic Twin Peaks Tavern, a landmark gay bar on Castro and Market streets, is currently at $106,600 in its campaign to keep the struggling bar open and pay its staff.

Twin Peaks is known historically for being one of the first gay bars to have open windows, marking a change to the then-hidden and dark structures of previous gay bars.t

Read the full list on www.ebar.com

Sketch Films to premiere fourth dance film

Dancer Jenna Marie in Ben Needham-Wood’s What the Body Holds.

T

he always innovative Amy Seiwert’s Imagery will premiere the fourth dance film as part of the Sketch Films series online January 15. Choreographer Ben Needham-Wood’s What the Body Holds was created with filmmaker Matthew McKee and focuses on dancer Jenna Marie. The work’s dramatic theme focuses on domestic violence inspired by advocate Svetlan Pivchik and her 15 years spent assisting San Francisco’s Survivor Restoration Program. What the Body Holds and the program’s three other dance films can be viewed online at www.asimagery.org/sketchfilms. Read the full article, and check out dozens of other arts, nightlife and community online events, at www.ebar.com.t

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