In the first week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump has stopped funding for PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, jeopardizing the lives of people who receive HIV prevention and treatment through the global aid program. Trump also announced that he would withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization and ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop working with the international agency.
On the domestic side, late Monday, January 27, Trump ordered an immediate freeze on all federal grants and loans to outside bodies. This order excludes Social Security and Medicare payments but may impact HIV/AIDS grants such as those made through the federal Ryan White CARE Program and AIDS prevention funding.
PEPFAR
PEPFAR is a program that was established in 2003 by Republican President George W. Bush with broad bipartisan support in Congress. The program’s pause has officials extremely concerned.
“PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people – and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment,” International AIDS Society President Dr. Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement.
“It makes no sense to suddenly stop this incredible catalyst of our global progress towards ending HIV as a threat to public health and individual well-being.”
PEPFAR is credited with saving 26 million lives and preventing nearly 8 million cases of mother-to-child HIV transmission since its inception. With a budget of $6.5 billion, the program provided HIV treatment for more than 20 million people, PrEP for 2.5 million people, and HIV testing services for nearly 84 million people in low- and middle-income countries in 2024, according to the PEPFAR website.
PEPFAR was previously funded for five-year periods with bipartisan support, but last year’s congressional authorization was contested, and it was only authorized for one year, ending this March. The program recently came under fire after it was revealed that four nurses in Mozambique whose salaries were partially paid by PEPFAR had performed abortions, which are not allowed with program dollars. Some advocates fear that PEPFAR might not be reauthorized.
See page 8 >>
Trump reinstitutes trans military ban
by Christopher Kane, Washington Blade
President Donald Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders focused on the military, including banning transgender service members from the U.S. armed forces and a directive gutting the Pentagon’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. LGBTQ legal organizations said they would sue, and two did on Tuesday.
White House officials said new military standards for mental and physical readiness will exclude transgender troops, which would mean the executive order goes further than the ban Trump implemented during his first term in 2017.
Among the first actions the president took after his inauguration on January 20 was rescinding the order that former President Joe Biden signed after he took office in 2021 that allowed trans and gender diverse service members to serve openly.
“The implementation [of the ban] is on the DoD regarding specifics,” a White House official told CNN.
A February 2018 memo by the U.S. Department of Defense contained carveouts to exempt trans service members already in uniform who had joined the military prior to the policy excluding them, along with those who do not require a change in gender or those who have been “stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession.”
DEI practices, meanwhile, will be subject to review by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 24.
Two groups sue
Less than 24 hours after the executive order, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging Trump’s January 27, 2025, order banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, the groups stated in a news release.
The suit, Talbott v. Trump, was filed on equal protection grounds on behalf of six active service mem-
bers and two individuals actively seeking enlistment.
“When you put on the uniform, differences fall away and what matters is your ability to do the job,” stated Nicolas Talbott, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. “Every individual must meet the same objective and rigorous qualifications in order to serve. It has been my dream and my goal to serve my country for as long as I can remember. My being transgender has no bearing on my dedication to the mis
See page 8 >>
London police release new details nearly 2 years after Heklina’s death
by Cynthia Laird
Nearly two years after drag queen Heklina was found dead in a Soho flat in London, police there have issued a bulletin asking three men seen on camera footage leaving the flat to come forward. Police said the men may have information about what happened to Heklina on April 3, 2023.
Heklina, the drag persona of Stefan Grygelko, was in London with her friend and tour partner, Peaches Christ (Joshua Grannell), to perform their “Mommie Queerist” show. They were sharing the flat.
“On the morning of Sunday, 3 April 2023, police were called by the London Ambulance Service to a residential property in Soho Square following reports of a man found unresponsive,” the January 25 (London time) police bulletin states. “The man was pronounced dead at the scene. He was later identified as 55-year-old Steven [sic] Grygelko.”
A post mortem conducted by police back in 2023 indicated that foul play was not suspected in Heklina’s death, as Peaches posted on Facebook at the time, as the Bay Area Reporter noted, but authorities have still not determined a cause of death. “No official cause of death has been released for the performer, originally from the U.S.,” a January 24 article in Metro reported.
Police in London continue to investigate the death of drag icon Heklina, who was found unresponsive in a Soho flat April 3, 2023. Here, Heklina performed her final show at Oasis – “Mother -The Final” – on February 8, 2020 before moving to Palm Springs.
“Steven’s [sic] death is being treated as unexpected and remains under investigation while officers continue to liaise with the coroner,” the police stated. Detective Chief Inspector Dean Purvis, from the Central West Command Unit, stated, “Our thoughts are with Steven’s [sic] family and friends who still have a lot of unanswered questions about what happened to him.
“We know that the three men in the CCTV images were at the flat in the early hours of 3 April 2023,” Purvis added.”
“I am asking them to contact police. We need to establish what happened, and how Steven was when they left,” Purvis stated. “If you recognize any of the men, I would encourage you to let us know who they are.”
See page 8 >>
Bob Mackie
President Donald Trump Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Gooch
President Donald Trump signs executive orders.
Via White House/X
Two-Spirit powwow aims to welcome community
by Cynthia Laird
This is a big week for Bay Area Amer-
ican Indian Two-Spirits. The nonprofit organization is holding a delayed 25th anniversary dinner Thursday, followed by its 14th annual powwow Saturday, February 1.
BAAITS officials said both events are a testament to the organization’s success in fostering community among First Nation peoples.
“It’s always been a group effort,” said Dr. Angel Fabian, a Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer who serves as BAAITS’ executive director.
Fabian was born into the Ben’Zaa or Zapotec Indigenous group of Mexico and grew up in the Central Valley’s migrant labor camps, as the Bay Area Reporter previously noted in a December article about a report detailing the needs of Two-Spirits and Indigiqueers. They first came to the Bay Area in 1991 as an undergraduate at Stanford University.
Fabian, 52, who has a master’s degree in nonprofit management, said in a phone interview that given the current political climate – with recent executive orders by President Donald Trump and anti-trans legislation in red states, and in California last year – it’s critical for BAAITS to exist and thrive.
“It’s an often marginalized community that we work and advocate for,” Fabian said. “And many folks forget the language and words that describe TwoSpirit and Indigiqueer people in this country. We have always existed on this land.”
They added that colonization took First Nation and First People of the Americas “out of the sacred circle.”
Today, BAAITS has a message for the LGBTQ community, Fabian said.
“We don’t only want allies but we also want accomplices that will stand with
us, work with us, and fight for us,” they explained.
Founding BAAITS traces its founding to 1999 with a committee of volunteers that consisted of Eugene Hightower, Ph.D.; Laura Operza; Morningstar Vancil; Sally Ramon; and Ken Harper, Fabian said.
In a phone interview, Hightower said that he attended an international Two-Spirit gathering in 1998 in Canada and had the idea to bring the event to the Bay Area the following year. Fabian said a committee was formed. Hightower said the group started meeting weekly, and the gathering took place in the fall of 1999.
As Vancil noted in a history of BAAITS, “[In 1998,] Beverly Little Thunder asked for volunteers to organize the next gathering [for 1999], and Albert Ortiz stepped up to lead,
with Hightower offering his assistance. However, by September, Ortiz had to withdraw due to personal commitments. Around Thanksgiving that year, Sally Ramon and Hightower had dinner in Oakland with a medicine woman who was working in public health at UC Berkeley. This meeting led Ramon to agree to collaborate with me on planning a gathering in January 1999.”
Eventually, Harper was brought on, along with Operza, Ruth Villasenor, Richard “EagleBear” Boyd, Christopher Zamora, Jaynie Lara, and T.J. SpiritHawk, according to Vancil.
“By March, after much discussion, we decided to formalize our efforts by creating an ongoing organization. ... The organization was structured democratically, allowing any selfidentified Indian to participate in business meetings. ... We successfully held our 12th Two-Spirit Gathering on Labor Day weekend in 1999, and by 2005, the organization continued to grow and thrive.”
One of the main intentions of starting BAAITS was to provide a sober space for members, Hightower and the organization’s Facebook page noted. Hightower said there has long been issues with alcoholism in the Native American community.
Hightower is a licensed clinical psychologist and a gay Black American Indian who’s descended from the Choctaw, Cherokee and Creek tribes. Connected with the psychology department at UC Berkeley, he told the B.A.R. that the American Indian community is “not monolithic anymore.”
“Most, 65% to 70%, live in urban
areas and don’t live on reservations,” he noted.
Hightower, 72, started working with gay clients in the 1970s. He did field placement at the Pacific Center for Human Growth in Berkeley and the old Operation Concern in San Francisco. He traces his activism to the gay liberation movement and Harry Hay in the z 1960s.
He explained that Two-Spirit is very specific to the American Indian community, and is the idea that men and women have both masculine and feminine parts of themselves.
“Indian attitude is to accept whatever you have,” he said. “More than one spirit – Two-Spirits. The Blackfeet believe in six genders.”
From that 1999 gathering, BAAITS continued to operate. Fabian pointed out that for the first 23 years, it was an all-volunteer organization. Today, Fabian is the only full-time employee and there are two part-time workers: a program manager and a wellness coordinator.
According to BAAITS’ website, it is supported by a variety of foundations and groups, including Horizons, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Tides Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the California Endowment. Its fiscal sponsors are the Queer Cultural Center and the Seventh Generation Fund. Fabian declined to disclose their salary.
As the B.A.R. reported last fall, BAAITS released its first-ever report on the needs of the Bay Area’s TwoSpirit and Indigiqueer communities.
Called “Living in Abundance: Report on the Needs and Strengths of Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ Communities in the Greater Bay Area,” it found
that an overwhelming majority of respondents were able to access health care but many struggled to pay for their everyday needs like groceries, rent and medicines.
“Some of the preconceived notions I originally held regarding potential need within the community fell short of what the community offered. Their needs were greater, deeper, and often in completely different areas than I imagined,” said Emeryville resident Maritza Castillo, 45, who worked on the report and is Two-Spirit and a detribalized NahuaMexica.
Dinner, powwow
BAAITS’ 25th anniversary dinner is from 6 to 8 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.
Hightower said that one of the speakers will be Florentine Blue Thunder, a Two-Spirit medicine man who is a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe/Sicangu Lakota-Burnt Thigh Band. He follows traditional Canupa (sacred pipe) teachings. His grandmother and other elders guided and supported his efforts to realize his spiritual vision, according to his bio.
Another invited guest is Giiwedin, a charismatic Ojibwa Two-Spirit speaker.
People interested in attending should register on BAAITS’ Facebook page.
The 14th annual powwow on February 1 is free and open to the public. It takes place at Fort Mason Center, Festival Pavilion, 2 Marina Boulevard. The Gourd Dance is at 11 a.m., followed by the Grand Entry at 1. Vendors will be on site.
Fabian said they expect to surpass last year’s 4,000 attendees.
“That lets me know as an administrator that there’s a huge need and our community is very close,” they said.
There is powwow etiquette, which is available on the BAAITS website. No drugs or alcohol are allowed. Donations are accepted.
Fabian said that BAAITS remains an integral part of the Bay Area’s larger LGBTQ community, and they had a message for B.A.R. readers.
“For your readership, it’s being a good steward and beyond an ally – an accomplice,” they reiterated. “How are you contributing? How are you supporting?” t
For more information about BAAITS, go to https://www.baaits. org/.
A person participated in BAAITS’ 2024 powwow.
Mishaa Degraw, ProBonoPhoto.org
Eugene Hightower, Ph.D., was one of the co-founders of BAAITS.
Courtesy the subject
Dr. Angel Fabian is the executive director of BAAITS.
Rick Gerharter
Study may lead to traffic changes for the Castro
by John Ferrannini
Aproposal to study traffic patterns in San Francisco’s Castro district may have wide-reaching impacts for vehicles using Market Street trying to access Duboce Triangle and westside neighborhoods in the city. Drivers coming from Twin Peaks could face new restrictions on how to access streets in the Duboce neighborhood.
Currently, vehicles headed eastbound on Market Street toward downtown are prohibited from turning left at Castro Street. They can turn left at the next block, Noe Street, or at Sanchez Street, where there are dedicated left-hand turn lanes for vehicles.
The traffic pattern has long raised complaints from Duboce Triangle residents, as it funnels all eastbound Market Street traffic headed to the Haight, Alamo Square, and other neighborhoods on the city’s westside through their leafy, historic neighborhood nestled between the Castro and the Lower Haight. During the COVID pandemic, they worked with city transit officials to designate a part of Noe Street as a Slow Street, meaning it should not be used as a thruway by vehicles passing through Duboce Triangle.
Now, some in the neighborhood want to see such pass-through traffic be rerouted onto Castro Street by allowing left-hand turns onto northbound Castro Street at Market Street. At the same time, the city would restrict the left turns from eastbound Market onto Noe and Sanchez streets.
Such a change to the neighborhood’s traffic pattern has been gaining traction, with it part of a Duboce Triangle Slow Streets Study set to be voted on February 11 by the Board of Supervisors sitting as the San Francisco Transportation Authority. The county transit body’s Community Advisory Committee voted January 22 in support of the $250,000 study.
Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman – a gay man who as District 8 supervisor represents the Duboce Triangle neighborhood – told the Bay Area Reporter that “we’re at a point of studying and evaluating options” as to how the speed and volume of traffic into the Duboce Triangle neighborhood (flanked by Castro, Market, Waller and Webster streets) can be reduced.
“One thought is it would be good to allow cars traveling eastward [toward downtown] on Market Street to make a left onto Castro, which is
currently prohibited,” Mandelman said in a phone interview. “Right now they have to go to Noe or Sanchez [streets] and turn left there.”
Mandelman is “sure people will have super strong feelings” about either side of the issue.
Doing so would require tweaks to the Market and Castro intersection. As currently configured, there are two lanes for vehicles headed eastbound. There is also a third lane dedicated for Muni buses and vehicles making a right-hand turn onto Castro Street.
For cars coming in the other direction, there are dedicated lanes for vehicles turning right or left onto Castro Street, with the traffic signal timed to allow left hand turns. In the middle are two lanes for westbound traffic headed to Twin Peaks and Forest Hill, with the rightmost lane allowing vehicles once they cross the intersection to turn into the Castro Gas and Food Mart or veer
right onto 17th Street headed up to Corona Heights.
A wide pedestrian crosswalk runs across Market Street from the entrance into the gas station on the northbound side of Castro Street to Harvey Milk Plaza on the southbound side. As part of a new elevator being built at the public parklet above the Castro Muni Station, the sidewalk adjacent to Market Street is to be expanded into the roadway to provide better pedestrian access from Castro Street to the elevator stop onto Market Street.
Bob Bush, the vice president of Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, stated to the B.A.R. in an email that, “DTNA has long supported allowing a controlled left turn from eastbound Market Street traffic onto northbound Castro Street so that Noe was not the first available legal left turn for that traffic to head north.”
But Bush thinks that “eliminating a left turn from eastbound Market onto Noe Street would pose a significant inconvenience for Duboce Triangle residents returning home from Stonestown or the zoo or other sites west of Twin Peaks.”
They would have to take the new left turn onto Castro and then turn right onto Beaver or 15th streets. Or they would need to turn off Market Street onto residential streets through the Castro to access either Noe or Sanchez streets in order to cross Market and reach their homes in Duboce Triangle.
“The consideration of eliminating a left turn from Market onto Noe Street has to my knowledge not
been presented or discussed within the DTNA or with residents of the Duboce Triangle,” he continued.
The request for the study initially came out of Duboce Triangle residents’ complaints about a lack of community engagement from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency about the future of the Slow Street in their neighborhood, according to DTNA President Jon Moscone, a gay man who is the son of former mayor George Moscone.
Moscone claimed, “SFMTA said they performed a series of meetings. Most people didn’t know about them.”
An SFMTA spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request for comment January 28 for this report. The agency currently has an interim leader due to the departure of gay former director of transportation Jeff Tumlin at the end of December; Mayor Daniel Lurie must name his permanent successor.
Moscone said he had hundreds of signatures on a petition asking for real engagement with residents.
“They did the kind of minimum engagement where they let people know about it and then it all came apart,” Moscone said. “I personally am grateful they [Mandelman’s office] listened for the need for a real process that includes data, a holistic vision, and people’s lived experiences. I’m excited by that prospect. … Rafael [Mandelman] had been very pro the idea ‘Lets look at what it’s like around the triangle. What can we do to mitigate things.’” t
Supes’ panel advances Castro district’s report
by John Ferrannini
ASan Francisco Board of Supervisors committee forwarded a critical report about the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District to the full board. The report focuses on what the district’s vision for the neighborhood is and how that should continue to be implemented.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee voted 2-0 to advance the CHHESS Report (Cultural History, Housing, and Economic Sustainability Strategies) for approval by the full board. (District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen was absent.)
Committee Chair District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar and committee member District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood voted to approve the report following a presentation.
The 133-page report was finished last year after years of work. It contains some 30 recommendations listed under six policy areas.
Castro LGBTQ Cultural District Manager Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person, stated at the committee meeting, “The CHHESS Report is a plan for preserving and strengthening our community in the Castro district.”
“We desire racial, gender, and queer equity in this district and in this city,” Aguirre continued. “Accordingly, this requires the intentional support of all of us, especially those of us who have been historical-
ly marginalized: lesbians and queer women, transgender and gendernonconforming individuals” and people of color.
The first of the six policy areas, Aguirre said, was gentrification.
“Gentrification in San Francisco has placed financial strains on queer and trans people in the Castro,” Aguirre stated. “We need to increase support for those of us facing economic inequities. We also need local businesses to lean in and demonstrate LGBTQIA+ cultural competency.”
To that end, the district has distributed $136,275 to 14 businesses since Fiscal Year 2021-2022, Aguirre told the Bay Area Reporter. Last fall, the B.A.R. reported on how the Taboo salon at 2350 Market Street was
able to open through this program.
The second area is tenant protections.
“We need to increase access to neighborhood housing to reduce LGBTQIA+ displacement, particularly for people with low incomes and older adults,” Aguirre continued. “We need to ensure the neighborhood’s residents reflect the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community, and this requires increasing affordable and culturally competent housing options.”
As an example of this, Aguirre brought up a successful effort to stop evictions near Mission Dolores Park that the B.A.R. reported on a couple of years ago. The Mission Economic Development Agency purchased a building through MOEWD from landlords who’d been trying to evict tenants through the Ellis Act.
Jen Reck, a queer person who is the advisory board executive cochair of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, presented the next two policy areas. The first was placekeeping and placemaking. Reck said that land use policies should focus on “community access” rather than “wealth accumulation,” and gave as an example the city’s work with Openhouse, which provides housing and services to LGBTQ seniors.
The fourth area is “cultural humility and cultural competence.” Reck said that “encouraging cultural humility and enhancing cultural competence in the Castro will help further establish and sustain the neighborhood as a place of respect.”
The report suggests encouraging neighborhood businesses to adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion training, and reducing “overdependence on police intervention in the Castro and to develop proposals and funding for establishing communitybased public safety and officer-training programs.”
Gerard Koskovich, a queer public historian who is a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society, introduced the final two areas, the first being arts and culture.
The Living Lesbians Project, “an initiative to honor women who’ve made contributions to the Castro and to the wider community,” as Koskovich phrased it, is seeking to showcase public art featuring historically-underrepresented populations within the LGBTQ community.
“Living Legends” was the subject of an exhibit at Queer Arts Featured in Harvey Milk’s old camera shop space late last year.
The report “calls for the district to collaborate with nonprofits and private entities to display the work of LGBTQIA+ artists in public spaces and vacant shop fronts,” he said. Finally, the report discusses heritage recognition and preservation. Koskovich said the district’s work with the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza to create an improved public space to honor the trailblazing supervisor and gay civil rights leader fits with this priority area.
Roberto Ordeñana, a gay man who is the executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, urged the supervisors to support the CHHESS Report.
“Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important now more than ever, and I also want to share how I think it is vital some of the strategies and ideas listed in this report continue to be held in high regard as the city continues to make difficult choices in the upcoming budget planning,” Ordeñana, a former arts commissioner, said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “We urge the city not only to support this report, but the actions actually in there.”
Grace Lee, who manages cultural districts as part of her work with the Mayor’s Office of Community Development, said, “The CHHESS Report is a cultural legacy document, a snapshot of the cultural community, and a strategic plan that provides a roadmap for community stabilization within the district.”
Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who represents District 8, which includes the Castro neighborhood, told the B.A.R. January 27 that “I was glad to sponsor the creation of the cultural district in the
place. They’ve been doing a lot of work the last few years and it’s exciting they have much to show for their work.” t
first
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is expected to study creating a left-turn lane onto northbound Castro Street from eastbound Market Street.
John Ferrannini
Jen Reck of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District spoke at the Board of Supervisors committee meeting.
Screengrab from SFGovTV
A Board of Supervisors panel has forwarded on a report from the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District about its vision for the neighborhood.
Rick Gerharter
Former B.A.R. photographer Ron Williams dies
by Cynthia Laird
Former Bay Area Reporter photographer Ron Williams, a gay man whose photo of an empress riding an elephant in the 1975 Pride parade became one of the LGBTQ newspaper’s most iconic front-page images, died January 10 in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 81.
Howard Russo, Mr. Williams’ husband, said that he had experienced several health issues in recent years. Russo, 87, and Mr. Williams had lived in Palm Springs for many years before moving to an assisted living facility in nearby Rancho Mirage.
Russo met Mr. Williams after he moved to Palm Springs. The couple met 11 years ago and got married five or six years ago on a cruise to Mexico, Russo said.
“It wasn’t a gay cruise,” Russo said in a phone interview. “But the ship had a very pretty bar” where LGBTQ people could gather for socializing for a couple of hours each day. Mr. Williams and Russo married there and were surrounded by well-wishers.
Empress rides an elephant
In 1975, Mr. Williams was a freelance photographer for the B.A.R., which began publishing in 1971. In those days, what was then known as the Gay Freedom Day parade (now the San Francisco Pride parade) marched down Polk Street in the Tenderloin. Mr. Williams was there when San Francisco Empress X Doris (Ray Gustafson) rode an elephant in the June parade, and he took the photo that would grace the cover of the paper’s next issue.
“She was like, ‘Get me off this thing,’” Mr. Williams said of Doris in a YouTube conversation that was first streamed on June 3, 2021 on the occasion of the B.A.R.’s 50th anniversary. “It’s an iconic photo, and I love it.”
The “B.A.R. Talks 2: Pride Images
Then and Now” show also featured arts editor Jim Provenzano, and photographers Jane Philomen Cleland and Gooch.
Mr. Williams said that he worked as a freelance photographer for the B.A.R. from 1974-1976. He knew the late Bob Ross, a gay man who was the paper’s founding publisher. (Ross died in 2003.)
After his freelancing stint, Mr. Williams said he moved to Sonoma County in 1977 to take a job in the wine industry. He recalled in the YouTube conversation that he lost all of his stuff for the B.A.R. – negatives and prints – in a flood.
“They only exist in the archive,” he said.
The paper’s old issues, from 19712005, are archived online at the Internet Archive and the California Digital Newspaper Collection website, which is overseen by UC Riverside.
Mr. Williams was born in San Francisco on December 6, 1943. He graduated from City College of San Francisco in 1966.
Peter Fiske, a longtime friend, told the B.A.R. that he met Mr. Williams in 1967 when they were both mem-
bers of the Koalas Motorcycle Club. “We were the youngest members,” Fiske wrote in an email. Fiske, a former San Francisco resident who now lives in Palm Springs, said that with Mr. Williams’ passing, he is now the last surviving member of the club.
“Ron Williams and I were both Stonewall veterans and friends for 57 years,” Fiske stated.
Mr. Williams left Sonoma County and returned to San Francisco in the early 1980s, he said in the YouTube interview. He took a job at Chevron in the graphic arts department. He retired and moved to Palm Springs around 2010.
He’s the author of two photography books. One, “Capturing Our Diversity: Three Decades of Pride,” focuses on the San Francisco Pride parade and was published in 2019. The other, “Images of Desert Diversity: Palm Springs,” looks at Pride celebrations there and was published in 2020.
Provenzano reviewed Mr. Williams’ book focusing on San Francisco in 2020, when in-person Pride events were canceled due to the COVID pandemic.
He called it “a festive documentation of florid fey fun.”
Mr. Williams also wrote his autobiography, “San Francisco’s Native ‘Sissy’ Son,” in 2013.
“I came Out of the Closet in 1962 when the police were still raiding gay bars in San Francisco; it was still illegal for homosexuals to congregate publicly; you could be arrested – and hundreds were,” he writes in the book.
Later life
Russo, who described himself as “a late bloomer,” said he marveled at Mr. Williams’ self-sufficiency. “He was 19 when he found no place to go but the Castro,” Russo said. “He was self-sustaining by the time he was 19.”
Russo didn’t know Mr. Williams during his time in San Francisco, but Mr. Williams filled him in on his life, and the couple visited the city. One of Mr. Williams’ favorite haunts was the Twin Peaks Tavern in the Castro.
“He loved that bar,” Russo said. “People just adored him. They fussed over him.”
Russo said that in Palm Springs, Mr. Williams served as president of
the Prime Timers group for older queer and trans men. He had been vice president and had taken pictures at group functions. When the presidency became open, a number of members asked Mr. Williams to take the job, Russo recalled. Russo said he misses his husband dearly.
“He was really beautiful,” Russo said. “He was a wonderful man.”t
Man sentenced in murder of trans drag performer
by John Ferrannini
AMilpitas man has been sentenced by a jury in the 2021 murder of a transgender drag performer. He received 15 years to life for the 2021 killing.
Elijah Cruz Segura, 25, was found guilty in October in what is believed to be the first prosecution of a transgender domestic violence homicide
in Santa Clara County’s history, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.
Segura had been accused of the 2021 murder of drag performer Natalia Smüt Lopez, 24, of San Jose, with whom he’d been in a relationship. Segura was sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment January 27, according to Rebekah Wise, a deputy district attorney with the Santa Clara
County District Attorney’s office, who prosecuted the case.
“Natalia was in a domestic violence relationship with the defendant that ended with the ultimate crime,” Wise said in a phone interview. “She was a member of the trans community as a trans woman herself. Our office is dedicated to getting justice for any member of the trans community subject to violence and anyone in a
relationship where they are subject to violence. Our hearts are with Natalia’s family as they continue to heal.”
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen issued a statement January 28.
“We should never forget that a vulnerable member of our community was abused and killed,” Rosen stated. “A sentence, long or short, does not erase that. I urge anyone in
an abusive relationship to seek help. You will find resources and respect in our county.”
Segura’s attorney Daniel Portman, a deputy public defender with the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s office, stressed in a statement to the B.A.R. January 29 that his client was not prosecuted with a hate crime.
See page 8 >>
Ron Williams’ photo of Empress X Doris riding an elephant in the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade in 1975 was on the cover of the B.A.R.
Photographer Ron Williams
Ron Williams
From B.A.R. Archives
Volume 55, Number 5
January 30February 5, 2025 www.ebar.com
PUBLISHER
Michael M. Yamashita
Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013)
Publisher (2003 – 2013)
Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003)
NEWS EDITOR
Cynthia Laird
ARTS & NIGHTLIFE EDITOR
Jim Provenzano
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Christopher J. Beale • Robert Brokl
Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth
Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell
Michael Flanagan •Jim Gladstone
Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • Lisa Keen
Philip Mayard • Laura Moreno
David-Elijah Nahmod • Mark William Norby
J.L. Odom • Paul Parish Tim Pfaff
Jim Piechota • Adam Sandel
Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro
Gwendolyn Smith • Charlie Wagner
Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood
ART DIRECTION
Max Leger
PRODUCTION/DESIGN
Ernesto Sopprani
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Jane Philomen Cleland
Rick Gerharter • Gooch
Jose A. Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja
Georg Lester • Rich Stadtmiller
Christopher Robledo • Fred Rowe
Shot in the City • Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson
ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS
Christine Smith
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LGBTQ youth left in dark by CA health officials
With the anti-LGBTQ executive orders coming from President Donald Trump at a rapid clip – the most recent one issued Tuesday states the federal government will not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called transition of a child from one sex to another” – it’s been frustrating and appalling that California health officials have decided to “obey in advance” and pull a Trumpian move of their own by canceling an existing contract that had been dedicated for the development and implementation of an LGBTQ+ youth mental health campaign. With all the adverse orders from Trump, such a campaign is needed now more than ever in the state.
We’re specifically calling out Dr. Erica Pan, the state’s incoming director of public health, and Dr. Sohil Sud, director of the Children Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, both of whom sent the cancellation notice. Neither has been responsive to the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network, which first raised the alarm. In their letter Pan and Sud said that it would be better to leverage “the research and findings developed and incorporating them within the existing Take Space to Pause campaign. The $21+ million statewide Take Space to Pause campaign launched in December 2024 and continues through early 2026.” That campaign aims to teach young people how to deal with various stressors in their life.
But that’s different from the program created by an LGBTQ advisory group recruited by consulting firm Change Craft, whose contract was rescinded by the state health officials. Dubbed “THIS IS ME” by LGBTQ+ youth themselves, it is specifically designed for queer and trans youth. As we reported online a couple of weeks ago, there are an estimated 1,160,000 LGBTQ youth in the Golden State between the ages of 13 and 25, with numerous studies showing they are at higher risk for anxiety, depression, and suicide compared to their heterosexual peers.
“To address and reduce the unique stigmas faced by LGBTQ+ youth, state health officials had awarded a $3 million-plus contract to an LGBTQ-owned consulting firm last year to develop a campaign to roll out statewide. It was expected to debut this spring in cities across California,” reported Bay Area Reporter assistant editor Matthew S. Bajko.
“But according to an email sent out January 15 by the California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network, the California Department of Public Health canceled the LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health Campaign
‘without explanation,’” Bajko writes. “It had been funded by the state agency’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative known as CYBHI for short.”
Officials with Change Craft are just as mystified as LGBTQ health leaders about why the program was canceled just months before its debut. Last week, Dannie Ceseña, the LGBTQ network’s first Two-Spirit and Native director, and numerous LGBTQ organizations sent a 10-page letter to Pan, Sud, and other state officials asking for an in-person meeting and much more information about why the Change Craft contract was canceled. The letter asks for the rationale for cancellation; which LGBTQ+ public health experts were consulted; and how the state plans to preserve the progress made thus far, including research findings, planned creative content and planned implementation partnerships with local community based organizations.
Groups such as Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, were signatories, along with Bay Area-based Our Families Coalition. Individual members of the campaign’s LGBTQ+ advisory panel also signed the letter, including many youth themselves. They had their own questions for state officials, such as why the decision was made in such an abrupt manner and how any new approach would have a greater impact.
On this last point, we would argue that the new approach of folding the LGBTQ+ program into Take Space to Pause would not be beneficial to queer youth. This is a population that has unique needs, as the letter notes. “Many of the findings produced
by our research directly contradict this approach,” the letter states. “Our research findings call for a tailored LGBTQ+ strategy that connects directly to queer youth identity as the primary lever to pull as part of improving mental health. The suggested generic market campaign does not currently take this approach so it’s challenging to see how research findings would allow for a meaningful way to accomplish this.”
And here’s the rub. The state approved a contract for a specific program for LGBTQ+ youth and now wants to fold it into a generic youth campaign. For what? The $3 million-plus contract is a rounding error in last year’s $279.9 billion state budget. The contract is almost over, meaning the work is nearly completed. It makes no sense for the state Department of Public Health to take this action.
Unless, that is, the department is trying to curry favor with federal officials. Trump has made no secret of his utter disdain for trans youth – witness the abovementioned executive order – and while it shouldn’t affect how the Golden State spends its own money on programs targeting minority populations, it’s easy to see officials becoming more fearful and less inclined to support such programs now that Trump is back in power. This is what we must watch out for. It would be one thing if the Change Craft contract was pulled at the beginning. But to cancel it after so much work has already been done, and as it’s being prepared to roll out, is mind-boggling.
The California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus has harshly criticized the decision, as we noted in our article. The LGBTQ+ mental health campaign was the only one the caucus was able to secure funding for last year, as gay Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) stated. “LGBTQ+ youth face the highest rates of mental health concerns amongst all youth, so for the department to cancel this initiative aimed at supporting the most impacted youth is beyond us,” Ward added.
We call on the California Department of Public Health to immediately restore the Change Craft contract. LGBTQ+ youth are going to need all the support they can get as the federal government sets forth on its draconian path of intimidation, discrimination, and lies. If there’s one thing state officials should agree on, it’s that a mental health campaign for vul- nerable youth is way overdue. t
2 LGBTQ groups step up
Back in the fall of 2008, as the No on 8 campaign was flailing and it looked like a California amendment to ban same-sex marriage would pass, we published a huge “RED ALERT” headline on the front page in the hope of waking up the LGBTQ community. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, as voters passed Proposition 8. (It was eventually overturned by the courts, and same-sex marriage became legal here in 2013.)
We were thinking about that headline the other day, when we decided to take a look at the websites of some national LGBTQ organizations to see how they’re highlighting information about the new Trump administration and its anti-trans actions so far. What we found was encouraging for two organizations, PFLAG and Advocates for Trans Equality.
PFLAG is the organization that used to be called Parents, Friends, and Families of Lesbians and Gays. It has rebranded and is now known just by its acronym. PFLAG (https://pflag.org/) has a budget of about $9 million, according to its financials. Its website has a big “You Are Not Alone” section and under resources has information on President Donald Trump’s executive orders at https://pflag.org/resource/ executive-orders/, plus it has links to the websites of the Human Rights Campaign and Advocates for Trans Equality. The one quibble we have is that the information on Trump’s anti-LGBTQ orders is hard to find. (We only found it by entering “Trump” into the website’s search tool.)
PFLAG’s site also contains information
on advocacy, contacting legislators, and more helpful resources. To find it, click “Join the Fight” at the top of the main page. Advocates for Trans Equality is the result of a merger last year of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Center for Transgender Equality. It has a budget of about $8 million, officials told us last year. A4TE (https://transequality.org/) is perhaps the least known of the groups we looked at, yet has the most information available. It has a “Trump Day 1 Executive Orders Explained” item right on its homepage.
Under News, it has items on other executive orders, including the one on trans youth issued January 28. While its website may not be as flashy, it provides an up-to-date resource for members of the trans community.
We urge other national LGBTQ organizations to get with it and more fully update their web presence so that they can be a reliable resource for trans community members, as well as the broader LGBQ community, because we suspect Trump – and Congress and the courts – won’t stop with anti-trans actions. That’s only the beginning. While we understand the need for the organizations to solicit donations and increase their membership rolls, it seems to us that more action is needed so that people can access timely, factual information.
Our own state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) – a gay man who has faced homophobic vitriol and threats over the years for fighting for our community in the Legislature – stated on X recently, though it’s easy and tempting to tune out the negative news, we can’t afford to.
“I know folks are exhausted. This is a firehose designed to get us to tune it all out. But we can’t just tune it out. We can’t normalize this. Too much is at stake,” Wiener stated, before listing a number of Trump initiatives. “This country is playing with fire. This is so real. We can’t afford to tune out & normalize what this fascist movement is doing to our country. We must organize & fight back.” t
PFLAG and Advocates for Transgender Equality seem to have the most robust information on President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
From the websites
Dr. Erica Pan
Courtesy CADPH
t Politics >>
LGBTQ parents council prioritizes gender-neutral bathrooms at SF schools
by Matthew S. Bajko
An LGBTQ families advisory body for the San Francisco Unified School District has made access to gender-neutral bathrooms at all school sites its first priority issue to address this year. It will be pressing school officials on their plan to meet a state requirement that all of its campuses have at least one easily accessible gender-neutral bathroom by July 1, 2026.
Under a state law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2023, all K-12 public schools, as well as charter schools and county education offices, are required to designate a bathroom as being open to all genders and ensure it is unlocked and accessible to all students during school hours and after-school functions for students.
The San Francisco school district has more than 100 school sites. But not all of its school grounds have an easily-accessible all-gender bathroom for students, according to the 2024 Safe and Supportive Schools Report Card released by statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California.
“We chose this as the first of our priorities because it was overwhelmingly clear this was one of the top issues students have mentioned,” said Esther Lee, a lesbian single mom elected this month as chair of the Queer and Transgender Parent Advisory Council, or QTPAC for short.
Speaking with the Bay Area Reporter Monday, Lee said members of the school district’s queer and transgender middle and high school students advisory group had sent cards to their parental group counterparts listing what issues were important for them, and gender-neutral bathroom access was often mentioned. She plans to ask school district staff to report back to the QTPAC members at their February meeting with more information on the bathroom issue.
The B.A.R. also inquired with school district officials about how many of its school sites currently have a gender-neutral bathroom and what the administration’s plans are for meeting the deadline next summer as imposed on school districts by Senate Bill 760 authored by former state senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton).
gender” restroom signage, the district told the B.A.R. this week.
“After the project at least one restroom at every site included the updated signage,” stated the district. “All single-stall restrooms – even those used as staff restrooms – were identified as all-gender restrooms.”
Lee, currently a legislative aide to gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, now president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, told the B.A.R. that she expects SFUSD will have an easily accessible gender-neutral bathroom for students at all school sites before next summer, especially now that the newly formed QTPAC has prioritized the issue.
“I am confident they are going to meet the state’s stated deadline because this advisory council is meeting now and these parents are focused,” said Lee, 52, the co-parent of a 16-year-old nonbinary high school student enrolled in the district.
In an emailed response to the B.A.R. Monday, spokespeople for the district did not give an exact tally for how many school sites currently meet the requirements of SB 760. They said school staff were still working to provide precise answers to the paper’s questions.
“The Facilities Department is working to ensure that there are allgender restrooms at all school sites and is on track to fulfill the state requirements as laid out in Senate Bill No. 760 by July 1, 2026,” stated a district spokesperson. “SFUSD recognizes that some of the current all-gender restrooms are in staff-only areas and is working with school sites to ensure that students have access when needed.”
Students who wish to raise concerns or give feedback about the condition of all-gender SFUSD restrooms can fill out a feedback form that is sent to the district’s Student and Family Services Division. In December 2019, the division updated its design standards to include all-gender restrooms in all future buildings, per the district. It called for “a minimum of one all-gender multi-stall toilet room,” according to SFUSD.
Since then, the Facilities Division completed a signage project to modify all single-stall restrooms on K-12 campuses and administrative buildings to include appropriate “all
Lee and her ex-wife are co-parents to two children, with their oldest son now a 19-yearold college dance student in Southern California with a boyfriend. A wellknown LGBTQ political organizer – Lee formerly chaired the California Alliance for Pride and Equality that later became EQCA and San Francisco’s Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club – she had never been involved with a school committee until applying last year for one of the 11 seats on the QTPAC.
“When I signed up for this, I honestly assumed we would have a different presidency and it would be an exciting time to be involved. It is still an exciting time; we are the resistance now,” said Lee, who lives near Mission Bay, of having to protest against the anti-LGBTQ policies and other discriminatory measures being implemented by the Trump administration. “And we have Republicans and the president who have this unhealthy obsession with transgender youth and their genitals.”
Due to the current political climate, several of her fellow parents on the advisory group are reluctant to be publicly identified as members on it and fear having their children who are LGBTQ be outed, noted Lee. It is why she and her ex asked the B.A.R. not to publish the names of their own children.
“They need help, these Republicans,” said Lee. “But instead of getting help, they are manifesting this obsession by targeting our kids and bullying our kids. I don’t know any parent, if their kids were being bullied, who wouldn’t be standing up and fighting for them.”
The QTPAC plans to meet at 5:30 p.m. the third Thursday of each month through May 15. It has been meeting since last November in Room 18 of the Civic Center Secondary School. Entrance into the
building, located at 727 Golden Gate Avenue, is located via the back side of the parking lot on McAllister Street.
The website for the San Francisco school district’s QTPAC can be found at https://www.sfusd.edu/ queer-trans-parent-advisory-council-qtpac
Out SF supes chair key panels
Speaking of Mandelman, he released his committee assignments (https://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/ committee_roster.pdf) last week for his fellow board members, as is his prerogative as board president. Part of the board’s moderate majority, Mandelman named a mix of progressive and moderate supervisors to chair the various panels.
As was expected when she came out in support of Mandelman to be the first gay board president in two decades, progressive District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan is remaining chair of the powerful budget committees. She is tasked with working with Mayor Daniel Lurie on balancing the city’s budget amid a projected $876 million deficit over the next two fiscal years.
Serving with Chan on the Budget & Finance Committee are gay moderate Supervisors Matt Dorsey of District 6 and Joel Engardio of District 4. (Engardio, who is trying to beat back a recall attempt of him this year, was reappointed Tuesday by his board colleagues as their representative on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transporta tion District Board of Directors through January 31, 2027.)
Joining them on the expanded Budget & Appropriations Com mittee will be Mandelman and progressive District 11 Supervisor Shamann Walton. Continuing to chair the Rules Committee, which reviews mayoral and supervisorial appointees to city oversight bodies, will be Walton, joined by moderate District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sher rill and Mandelman.
Dorsey is now chair of the highprofile Public Safety & Neighbor hood Services Committee at a time when he and Lurie are pushing the police and district attorney to take a more aggressive approach to crime, outdoor drug dealing and usage, and homeless encampments. Serving with him are moderate Supervisors Bilal Mahmood of District 5 and Danny Sauter of District 3.
DEADLINES: Friday 12 noon for space reservations Monday 12 noon for copy & images
Queer progressive District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is chairing the Government Audit & Oversight Committee. But forming a moderate bloc on it are Sauter and Sherrill. Chairing the Land Use & Transportation Committee is District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, seen as a swing vote on the board. Progressive District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen and Mahmood are also members of the closely watched committee. t
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The San Francisco school district’s Queer and Transgender Parent Advisory Council has prioritized gender-neutral restrooms at all campuses.
Cynthia Laird
“The prosecution and defense agreed that this crime, while tragic, was not motivated by anti-trans bias and the jury was told that,” Portman stated in an email. “Mr. Segura is extremely remorseful and offered to take responsibility for his actions before trial. He offered to plead guilty to second-degree murder, which is what the jury ultimately convicted him of. At the sentencing hearing, Mr. Segura apologized to Ms. Smüt’s family and friends for the pain he caused.”
Prosecutors said that Segura had been dating Lopez and stabbed her to death the morning of April 23,
<< Heklina
2021. Segura had called 911 around 2:30 a.m., and officers responding at a residence in Milpitas found Lopez with multiple stab wounds. Segura had visible blood on both of his hands and was arrested at the scene.
Lopez was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Lopez’s death sent shockwaves through San Jose’s queer community, as the B.A.R. reported contemporaneously. She is featured on a mural at Splash Video Dance Bar, at the corner of Lightston Alley and Post Street, in San Jose’s Qmunity District, the LGBTQ neighborhood downtown.
Jason Sholl, chief marketing officer for Silicon Valley Pride, stated to the B.A.R. January 27 that, “Natalia’s vibrant memory reminds us of the strength and beauty within our community and inspires us to create a future where everyone can live authentically, safely, and with dignity.”
“Silicon Valley Pride grieves the tragic loss of Natalia Smüt Lopez, a cherished member of our 2SLG-
BTQIA+ community whose life was cut short far too soon,” Sholl stated.
“Her murder highlights the pervasive violence faced by transgender individuals, particularly transgender women of color, and underscores the urgent need for safer and more inclusive communities. While we celebrate justice in her case, achieving lasting change demands sustained advocacy, inclusive education, and comprehensive support to combat systemic violence and inequality.”
A GoFundMe set up in 2021 for Lopez’s family raised $14,566 of a $22,500 goal (there has not been a donation in two years).
The GoFundMe was organized by Lopez’s friend, Kiara Ohlde, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Natalia was ... so young and so full of life! She was fabulous,” the GoFundMe states. “She would step into a room like a firework. Everywhere she went, she brought energy, fierce looks, and a personality that shined bright like a diamond.
“Her beautiful soul and presence is no longer here on Earth with us anymore but she is forever in our hearts. If anyone can find it in their heart to donate to help support the family, we would appreciate it so much as this was so sudden. Honestly, anything helps. Thank you,” the fundraising page states.
The Qmunity District didn’t return a request for comment January 27. t
Peaches wrote on Facebook January 24 that she and Heklina’s estate have been trying to get police to investigate. “To get the London Police to take more action has been something Nancy [French] and I have been pushing for since the tragedy began,” Peaches wrote, referring to the estate’s executor. “Why has it taken this long? There is so much more to this story that will have to be told.”
In a statement to the B.A.R., Peaches said the lengthy investigation hints at bias on the part of the police.
“I’m just furious with the way the London police have handled all of this and I’m convinced it’s due to bias,” Peaches stated.
French was also critical of the London police in a message to the B.A.R.
PEPFAR
From page 1 <<
From page 1
On January 20, Trump signed an executive order that halted almost all spending on foreign assistance programs, including PEPFAR, for 90 days. Four days later, Peter Marocco, the new director of the State Department’s Office of Assistance, sent a memo to officials and embassies worldwide ordering an immediate pause on new funding and stop-work orders on existing grants and contracts until Secretary of State Marco Rubio reviews and approves them, Devex reported.
On January 28, Rubio issued a waiver allowing providers to continue offering HIV treatment and medical care funded through PEPFAR, though the fate of HIV prevention services remains unclear, the New York Times reported.
The U.S. is also the largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The U.S. has pledged $6 million to the Global Fund for the current replenishment period (2023-2025), with about $2 million allocated to date. All U.S. foreign aid combined makes up less than 1% of the federal budget.
According to the New York Times, people are already being turned away
Military ban
From page 1
sion, my commitment to my unit, or my ability to perform my duties in accordance with the high standards expected of me and every servicemember.”
NCLR and GLAD stated that the plaintiffs serve across all branches of the military and are contributing among the highest levels, including a major, a captain, a sergeant, and a Navy pilot.
Other lawsuits likely
Meanwhile, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Human Rights Campaign on Monday announced plans to sue the Trump-Vance administration “to block implementation of yet another discriminatory and dangerous attempt to bar patriotic transgender military service members from serving openly in the U.S. armed
“I am Heklina’s ‘next of kin’ with the London Police but have never received a cause of death, autopsy report, or final death certificate,” French stated. “This CCTV footage should have been released 21 months ago. Releasing it now just proves their ineptitude and mismanagement that we’ve been dealing with for almost two years.”
Pioneering drag figure
Heklina was a pioneering figure in the San Francisco drag scene and an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ lives, according to a joint statement released shortly after her death by Peaches, Oasis co-owner and San Francisco drag laureate D’Arcy Drollinger, and Grygelko’s estate. She was the co-founder of the iconic and transgressive drag night Tranny-
from clinics, providers have been told not to distribute HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, and staff were told that PEPFAR’s data systems would be shut down.
Even a three-month pause in HIV treatment can be dangerous, experts pointed out. When antiretrovirals are stopped, the virus reactivates and begins to infect T-cells and impair immune function. If medication supplies are disrupted, taking them inconsistently can lead to drug resistance. What’s more, people with a detectable viral load can transmit HIV to their sexual partners, and pregnant women can pass the virus to their babies.
“This is a halt to work that is saving lives around the world,” Asia Russell, executive director of the AIDS advocacy group Health GAP, told Devex. “It’s cruel, it’s anti-science, it’s anti-human rights, and it’s completely unnecessary.”
WHO withdrawal
In another executive order issued January 20, his first day in office, Trump declared his intent to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
Although congressional approval and a year’s notice are required for withdrawal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already been ordered to pause its work with the global agency.
services,” Lambda Legal stated in a news release.
“We have been here before and seven years ago were able to successfully block the earlier administration’s effort to prevent patriotic, talented Americans from serving their country,” stated Sasha Buchert, Lambda Legal counsel and director of its Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project. “Not only is such a move cruel, it compromises the safety and security of our country and is particularly dangerous and wrong. As we promised then, so do we now: we will sue.”
“Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving openly, courageously, and successfully in the U.S. military for more than eight years –not to mention the previous decades when many were forced to serve in silence,” Buchert added. “Once again, as during the first term, the Trump administration is attacking
shack, which became an important mainstay of the San Francisco nightlife scene in the 1990s and 2000s.
The statement added that Heklina’s “work as a producer and performer included collaborations on stage and on film, with one of her best friends Peaches Christ. Heklina’s accomplishments as a performer, producer, and transgressive LGBTQ+ rights advocate have left an indelible mark on drag, the entertainment industry, San Francisco, and the queer communities worldwide.”
Heklina’s sudden death nearly two years ago prompted an outpouring of support in the Bay Area and around the world. In her own statement she emailed to supporters of Oasis at the time of Heklina’s death, Drollinger called Heklina’s passing “a devastating blow to the community” that was
Among other reasons, Trump cited America’s disproportionate share of WHO funding. The U.S. is WHO’s top donor, contributing nearly $1.3 billion in 2022-2023, or nearly 20% of the organization’s total budget.
Trump previously announced his intent to withdraw from WHO during his first term, in part due to its “mishandling” of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But President Joe Biden took office before the one-year notification period ended and retracted the withdrawal.
Last week’s executive order directs the secretary of state and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to pause future WHO funding and to recall and reassign U.S. government personnel or contractors “working in any capacity” with the organization.
WHO issued a statement in response, stating that the organization regrets the announcement.
“WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go,” it reads.
“We hope the United States will reconsider and we look forward to engaging
a vulnerable population based on bias, political opportunism, and demonstrably untrue ‘alternative facts,’ denying brave men and women the opportunity to serve our country without any legitimate justification whatsoever.”
Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal at HRC, stated, “Our military servicemembers, including thousands of transgender troops, wear the same uniform, take the same oath, and meet the same rigorous standards,” adding, “they are heroes who put their lives on the line to protect our country – and we owe them all a debt of gratitude.”
“Instead, this discriminatory ban insults their service and puts our national security at risk. Expelling highly trained members of our military undermines military readiness and wastes years of financial and training investments,” Warbelow stated.
“It also needlessly upends the lives
personally heartbreaking. Heklina had been a part owner of Oasis, the LGBTQ nightclub in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. “I have known Heklina for 34 years. Opening the Oasis was a crowning achievement we shared, after performing for so many years in other people’s venues, to create our own space was a dream neither of us believed we could do and yet we did it together,” wrote Drollinger at the time. “She’s been my Carrie Bradshaw, my Janet Wood, my Darlene Conner, my Phoebe Buffay, and my Dorothy Zbornak. Heklina could push all my buttons and at times make me crazy and I still love her.”
Drollinger added, “I was there the very first time she ever did drag, it wasn’t a pretty sight. In my wildest dreams I
in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the USA and WHO, for the benefit of the health and wellbeing of millions of people around the globe.”
On January 26, CDC’s deputy director of global health, Dr. John Nkengasong – who resigned as head of PEPFAR before Trump took office – sent a memo to agency leaders saying that all staff who work with WHO must immediately stop their collaboration and communications and await further guidance, the Associated Press reported.
“People thought there would be a slow withdrawal. This has really caught everyone with their pants down,” Dr. Jeffrey Klausner of the University of Southern California, who collaborates with WHO on sexually transmitted infections, told AP. (Klausner used to be an official with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.)
The CDC, along with other national agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, was ordered to pause external communications at least until February 1. Last week, for the first time in 60 years, the CDC did not publish its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which clini-
of families who have already sacrificed so much,” she said. “The commander in chief should prioritize our military’s safety and readiness, not use his position to issue bans on entire groups of people. This order is unconstitutional, and we will see this administration in court.”
SPARTA Pride, a nonprofit for transgender people who currently serve or have served in the military, released a statement on Monday.
“Transgender Americans have served openly and honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces for nearly a decade,” the organization stated. Thousands of transgender troops are currently serving, and are fully qualified for the positions in which they serve.
“Transgender service members currently fill critical roles in combat arms, aviation, nuclear engineering, law enforcement, and military intelligence, many requiring years of specialized training and expertise,”
wouldn’t have expected her to become such an icon. And yet she did.”
In 2015, along with Drollinger and other investors, Heklina opened Oasis in South of Market; the same building that once housed the original Oasis. The nightclub has become popular for not only drag shows and DJed dance nights, but comic plays and musicals, cabaret concerts and community fundraisers. Heklina later sold her share of Oasis ownership and moved to Palm Springs, while still keeping a foothold in the Bay Area’s nightlife scene.
Anyone with information related to the London Police’s release of the CCTV footage can go to the police department’s website at met. police.uk. The CAD number is 1824/03Apr23. t
cians, local health officials, and journalists rely on to learn about disease outbreaks and other important public health developments. (MMWR published the first report of AIDS in June 1981.) The freeze also affects public meetings, speaking engagements, and travel.
Critics of the withdrawal argue that the U.S. can have more influence on global health as a member country, and if it withdraws, WHO decisions “won’t reflect American interests and values,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University and director of the WHO Center on National and Global Health Law, wrote in an open letter to Trump.
The relationship is mutually beneficial, as the U.S. needs access to WHO’s global surveillance data to monitor disease outbreaks, and the WHO needs U.S. funding, he added.
IAS officials said the move will affect global health.
“Inevitably, reduced U.S. funding and collaboration with WHO will weaken global health responses,” IAS’ Grinsztejn wrote in a statement on BlueSky.
“This includes HIV testing, treatment and prevention programs, particularly in low- and middle-income countries most affected by HIV.” t
the statement continued. “Transgender troops have deployed to combat zones, served in high-stakes missions, and demonstrated their ability to strengthen unit cohesion and morale.”
SPARTA Pride added that the cost for trans military members who have surgery is minimal, as is their recovery time in most cases.
“While some transgender troops do have surgery, the recovery time and cost is minimal, and is scheduled so as not to impact deployments or mission readiness (all of which is similar to a non-emergent minor knee surgery). The readiness and physical capabilities of transgender service members is not different from that of other service members,” the agency stated.
The organization added that it is “standing by to support all transgender service members impacted by this policy.”
Natalia Smüt Lopez
Courtesy Mothers Against Murder
These eyes
by David-Elijah Nahmod
Michael Kruzich is fascinated by eyes. His mosaic artwork is filled with closeups of eyes, both male and female. There’s an expressive intensity to these images, all of which are done in mosaic. These portraits are part of a specific project series in which he focused on San Francisco’s drag community, but his work encompasses so much more.
“I create a wide range of images, not just eyes,” Kruzich said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “If you check out my website, you’ll see the variety of work that I do. It includes everything from Ancient Roman and Byzantine reproductions to portraiture, nature scenes, and LGBTQ2+ scenes. I explore land-
scapes, abstracts, and a whole mix of other subjects. I love experimenting with different styles and themes, so my work spans across many different genres and influences.”
The idea for doing the eye portraits came to him because he had witnessed the drag community always looking out for the community as a whole. He felt this was a project he simply had to do.
by Adam Sandel
We need a stronger word than “fabulous” to describe the legacy of
Bob
whose
and
are
or buy on Prime and YouTube. You may know Mackie as the man who trans-
formed Cher from singer into fashion icon, or who designed every splashy, witty costume over 11 years of “The Carol Burnett Show,” but the film celebrates his sheer body of work (and body of sheer work) over more than 60 years.
“I have more ideas than I could ever get to in one lifetime,” he said. “But once in a lifetime an idea becomes a huge opus like this project. It’s as if, if the idea moves me enough, it must be realized. It is my form of communication and making sense out of the world in my life.”
Mackie had a hand in creating the looks of nearly every gay icon of the 20th Century, including Cher, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Elton John, Tina Turner, and even Judy Garland. Still going strong at age 84, he’s created dazzling designs for today’s divas including RuPaul, Pink, and Miley Cyrus.
Over the past few years, Mackie’s been showered with Lifetime Achievement Awards. In 2019 alone, he was dubbed The King of Camp at the Met Gala, and he won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Musical for “The Cher Show.” In 2021, “The Art of Bob Mackie” hit bookstores and coffee tables.
The film adds glowing appreciation to this recent avalanche of accolades, with interviews from Elton John, Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Bernadette Peters, RuPaul, Pink, Miley Cyrus, Mitzi Gaynor, and of course, Cher.
Fashion designers Tom Ford and Zac Posen explore Mackie’s impact on the world of fashion, which initially dismissed him as a mere costume designer. Today his influence is seen in top designers’ splashy, revealing looks that parade across every red carpet.
The naked dress
The late Mitzi Gaynor recalls how Mackie designed his first “naked dress,” a nude-colored gown adorned with rhinestones and bugle beads, for her to wear in a 1969 TV special. It may have been his first naked dress, but it wouldn’t be his last.
Cher says that her life changed when she met Mackie at age 19, and they became a creatively provocative team, constantly pushing each
Michael Kruzich’s eye portrait of Katya Smirnoff-Skyy
Mosaic artist Michael Kruzich auctions drag portraits for a cause
costume designer
Mackie,
creations
career
celebrated in Matthew Miele’s documentary “Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion,” now available to rent
Queer crime stories
by Jim Gladstone
Next week, San Francisco’s two leading queer stage companies, the New Conservatory Theatre Center and Theatre Rhinoceros will each open a solo show with a murder at its center. In one, crime is very much a laughing matter. In the other, it’s dead serious.
At NCTC: A comic caper
When actor/writer Nathan Tylutki reflects on living alone in his small Los Angeles apartment during pandemic lockdown, his perspective is unexpectedly positive.
“It was fun to be crawling on top of myself,” he said in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter amidst preparations for the opening of his show “Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend” at the New Conservatory Theatre Center.
Tylutki was speaking literally. His main creative outlet at the time was teaching himself how to use green screen video technology. “I turned my bedroom into a black box studio,” he explained.
Soon enough Tylutki was keeping himself company with not only a self-made doppelganger but versions upon versions of himself, all the way up to his octupleganger. This selfembracing squid game allowed him to develop new technical skills while creating childlike make-believe and dress-up scenarios.
A native Minnesotan with a sociology degree from Manhattan’s New School, Tylutki lived in San Francisco in 2016 and 2017, diving into the local queer theater scene (he played roles in two NCTC productions) and working in the mental health field alongside his acting career.
“Leaving San Francisco was bittersweet,” he recalled, “I really loved the community I started to build there,
Two solo shows debut next week
but I wanted to be closer to the TV and film industry where the paychecks can be better. I felt like I was eking out a living, but wanted to see if I could make the odds work a little more in my favor.”
He did get several short TV roles, “But things shut down during the pandemic, and it’s been different here ever since,” said Tylutki. Eventually, I decided that instead of just going through auditions and waiting for someone to hire me, I would create something that I could work on for myself.”
Combining stage and screen
Securing a slot to do a one-man show in this past summer’s Minnesota Fringe Festival gave Tylutki a deadline to work toward, but he didn’t want to do a typical monologue-based production.
Thinking back to his green-screen experiments, Tylutki began concocting “Francis Grey and the Case of His
Dead Boyfriend.” A unique hybrid of live performance and video. The show is a comedic murder mystery in which Tylutki plays nine separate roles (Eight are fictional characters, one is Jennifer Coolidge; just roll with it).
The piece’s suspense is two-fold: First, there’s the question of which character is the killer. Tylutki’s script is effectively twisty. Second, there’s the possibility – fresh with every performance – that the show will go off the rails technical.
Conversations are held between characters that Tylutki plays live and others who he plays on a single prerecorded video that runs non-stop through the production’s one-hour length.
If Tylutki hesitates for a moment on stage, his live lines will overlap his recorded ones. If he speaks too quickly, there will be a strangely artificial lag before the next line is spoken on screen.
Characters first seen on video later
other’s limits. When she asked him to design something for her to wear at the first Met Gala in 1974, he created an even more revealing naked dress. It landed her on the cover of Time magazine.
One surprising revelation of the film is that Mackie’s history with naked dresses preceded the one he made for Gaynor. His first job out of school, at age 21, was creating design sketches for designer Jean Louis. In 1962 he created the sketch for Marilyn Monroe’s nude illusion dress, which she wore while singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy. One of the most famous gowns in U.S. history, it sold at auction for $4.8 million.
Pop goes the fashion
show up in the flesh. A dizzying mix of media, costumes, props and persona-defining quirks puts Tylutki in perpetual shuffle mode, entering and exiting on screen and stage. Watching him manage glitches on the fly is part of the fun. It’s like some precarious cross of “Noises Off” and “Sybil.”
Tylutki hopes to find producers for a run in Los Angeles that could bring him to the attention of more casting directors. In the meanwhile, though, Tylutki says he’s come to a valuable realization.
“I really enjoy working with myself.”
“Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Ex-Boyfriend,” Feb. 6-16. $40. New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave. www.nctcsf.org
True crime At Theatre Rhinoceros, discover homegrown true crime in “Doodler,” written and performed by John Fisher,
The popularity of TV musical variety shows in the 1960s and ’70s had a huge impact on Mackie’s development. At age 23, he was hired as Assistant Costume Designer (to Ray Aghayan) on “The Judy Garland Show,” and hung out with the star at her home as they watched the show together on Sunday nights.
One sometimes wishes that the film followed a chronological order, which would have made the trajectory of Mackie’s career clearer.
When Gaynor asked Aghayan to design her specials, he was too busy with Garland, so he recommended Mackie. Wowed by his work with Gaynor, Carol Burnett hired him for her new show.
Burnett claims that in 287 episodes of “The Carol Burnett Show” over 11 years, Mackie designed 17,000 costumes.
artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros. He’s also emerged from the pandemic, during which he created over five dozen solo shows through his Essential Services Project, writing, performing and webcasting at a breakneck pace.
He’s further developed one of his favorites, a creepy San Francisco crime story based on real life events, and will perform it for in-person audiences at the Rhino beginning Feb. 6.
Fisher shared details about “Doodler” in a recent email exchange with the Bay Area Reporter.
“There was a gay serial killer in the Castro who killed men he’d had sex with,” Fisher wrote. “San Francisco was a dangerous place for gay men in the Seventies. The police hated us. You could be fired from your job for being gay. Gays got bashed. I tried to imagine being 18 and coming out into a world like that.”
While “Doodler” was inspired by a long-cold case, Fisher hopes it provokes thoughts about today’s world as well.
“The Castro is so important. Back then, the police were running amok, beating gays; the Doodler was killing people. But the Castro is always besieged. Now, stores are closing. It feels ghostly sometimes. Real estate is overvalued here, but valueless when you stand in front of it and look at it. It looks sad, waiting, undefined, unloved.
“Back then, the streets were dangerous but full of people – marching, partying, streaking, having sex. Is it safer now? I guess. But are gays fighting for things the way they did when the police and everyone else hated us? We whine a lot, but do we really care?”t
With Burnett, Mackie honed his sense of visual humor. His designs helped her create some of her most memorable characters, including the famous Scarlett O’Hara curtain dress. It was his idea to include the curtain rod. “It was the greatest sight gag in the history of television,” says Burnett. It’s now a Barbie doll, and on display in the Smithsonian.
Four years later came “The Sonny and Cher Show,” and the rest is history.
When Elton John asked, “Could you make me some outfits like you do for Cher?” Mackie created the Rocketman’s famously outrageous signature looks. “Without dressing up and having fun, I would never have been the artist I became,” says John.
This film merely hints that Mackie
and Aghayan were both professional and life partners, omitting their Oscar nominations for dressing Diana Ross in “Lady Sings the Blues” and Barbra Streisand in “Funny Lady.”
Details of Mackie’s personal life include his early marriage to actress, singer and dancer LuLu Porter, the still-painful death of their son Robin, and the late-in-life discovery of their granddaughter and great-grandchildren, all of whom appear.
Shining throughout the film is Mackie’s warm, calm, genial personality, which is not what you might expect from a man who creates divas.t
‘Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion,’ now available to rent or buy on Prime and YouTube. www.quixoticendeavors.com www.instagram.com/bobmackie
Bob Mackie From page 11
Above: Bob Mackie’s famous Scarlett dress on “The Carol Burnett Show’ Middle: Mitzi Gaynor’s ‘naked dress’ Right: Cher’s famous Oscars gown in 1985
Bob Mackie in the documentary about him
Left: Actor/writer Nathan Tylutki Right: John Fisher in ‘Doodler’
t Film & Events Listings >>
Drag Me to the Cinema
by David-Elijah Nahmod
Robby Kendall has lived in the East Bay city of Emeryville for 15 years. An artist, filmmaker and drag queen, he was long frustrated by the lack of queer events in the town where he had made his home. So, Kendall took the matter into his own hands. He began producing queer events in town under the auspices of Fishnets and Film, his non-profit. So far F&F has produced drag shows, drag bingo, and this past September, Emeryville’s first Pride event.
On Saturday, February 8, from 12pm-9pm, F&F will offer Drag Me to the Cinema, the town’s first day long queer film festival. It all happens at Emeryville’s Bay Street Cinema. Kendall promises to bring the community together for a joyful experience, both during the festival and at the Gayla which will precede it on January 7.
In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Kendall spoke about what attendees at Drag Me to the Cinema can expect, and about some of Emeryville’s other queer events.
David-Elijah Nahmod: Does Emeryville, a relatively small town, have a sizable queer community?
Robby Kendall: I’m not sure I would say there’s a big community here, but we are certainly attracting and drawing in our LGBTQ+ community as we produce more events. We have many returning guests and more and more folks learning about us and our past events. I’m doing what I can to create a variety of queer events that would draw in different audiences for different experiences, such as producing a queer carnival at Bay Street. I do believe that we were the first to produce a drag show here in Emeryville, and we made history, queer history, producing the first Emeryville Pride event. My drag persona Ms. Sweet Nothing was the first to host drag bingo, at Tipsy Putt, and currently hosts drag bingo f irst Thursdays at Public Market Emeryville.
As a gay living here in Emeryville, prior to our events, we would actually have to leave the city to celebrate the
queer community. But now, with what we are doing, we can bring queer entertainment to Emeryville.
What inspires you to produce Drag Me to the Cinema?
To be frank, we need this. Our community needs this. As a psychologist, my main gig, I am constantly reminded about our challenges in society at all levels. And as a gay man who has experienced and witnessed a lot of struggles I’ve had, my friends have had, our queer ancestors have had, I am more and more determined to advocate for our community and help shed light on any darkness that befalls upon us.
What will Drag Me to the Cinema entail?
So, on Saturday, February 8, we are going to have five blocks of themed programs in the theater that combine queer performance art with queer cinema. Outside in the courtyard of the AMC, we will have community engagement for our guests to mingle with our community partners and sponsors in a festival structure.
On the first floor there will be a film hub where we will have two structured seminars organized by Frameline and SF Queer Film Festival, respectively, for our participating filmmaker, guests, and anyone who wants to learn more about filmmaking from their expertise. Our films are programmed
in collaboration with Frameline. Most films are from the libraries of Frameline and Fishnets and Film.
With film selection, we wanted to include films by Bay Area artists. I also threw in the film I made at the Lookout as an homage to the start of this creative journey I’ve taken.
We have over three dozen sponsors and supporters on board to help us in many ways. We also have other perks to provide, such as free coffee for our earlier blocks, a photo op with performers on our red carpet, and we have booked street performers, queer clowns, to engage with guests in the courtyard.
What is it about AMC Bay Street that you like?
AMC Bay Street offers a lot of benefits and queer synergy to have a festival like this there. For one, there are businesses, managers, and employees along the strip that welcome and support queer entertainment. I’ve been able to connect with managers and business owners, as well as employees who identify as LGBTQ+ to draw support and encouragement from.
And the Friday night Gayla will precede the film festival?
That Friday, February 7, from 5pm-9pm, we will host an exclusive 21+ launch party. Our evening will include music, drag performances, community engagement and a cash bar. I’m bringing in a DJ, performers and bartenders, all of who identify as LGBTQ+. We will have special guests, including folks who work for the city of Emeryville, sponsors, and leaders of local organizations in our network.
Our drag performers include “RuPaul’s Drag Race Philippines” star DeeDee Holliday. My drag persona, Ms. Sweet Nothing, is supposed to arrive at some point if she can get her act together, pun intended. We’ll have free food and light bites, including food donated by Super Duper down the street at Public Market.
I’m just super-excited and doubly grateful when I have an opportu-
nity like this to bring the community together and include sponsors and supporters who have been with us for quite some time, artists and filmmakers and guests for a truly joyful and engaging experience. I’m doing what I can to provide a joyful celebration of our festival with inspiring conversations about queer art and
cinema, uplifting entertainment,
Robby Kendall hosting a previous Fishnets and Film event
Left: Tyler C. Peterson’s ‘Stan Behavior’ screens at Drag Me to the Cinema Right: Robby Kendall’s ‘(Un)Free Will’ at Drag Me to the Cinema
Reynaldo Hahn rethought
by Tim Pfaff
Reynaldo Hahn wasn’t afraid of writing music people like. The Venezuelan who quickly became the toast of Paris’ salon scene was explicit if not boastful of the fact that the imposing compositional trends of his day (1874-1947) influenced his music without determining it. He proved himself by not trying to improve on the more illustrious achievements of his fellows.
But fumes of the conservatory, not the salon, blanket the performances of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, with the Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman, in their new recording of seven songs (in new arrangements) and the Piano quintet and quartet (Chandos). Welcome as any new recordings of Hahn’s prolific output are, it’s sometimes unclear why these musicians, obviously well intended and technically up to the demands of the scores, settle for these odd, drab renditions.
ings. Yes, the piano parts have been “re-arranged” for chamber ensemble.
Of course, Hahn would have assumed that all music was to be made live by the musicians on hand.
Strangely, Tom Poster, who made the arrangements, plays piano on only two of the seven songs, the best two.
The “great” composers of Hahn’s time, Debussy, Ravel, and Fauré (whose music he adored), were, among other things, colorists. Hahn’s music does not come as a comparable investigation of the mystery of color in sound; it’s colorful in the usual sense.
The Kaleidoscope Collective somehow misses the vitality that must have led them to take up this enchanting music.
What’s a premiere?
What’s troubling, in a nagging way, is the Collective’s promotion of the songs as “premiere” record-
A player of his caliber could have leavened the proceedings, if only by restoring the piano sonorities so intrinsic to these mostly well-known songs. When absent, they’re missed.
There’s vitality even in Hahn’s most inward songs. For pizazz in a classical form, look no farther than his bold, often thrilling, Piano Concerto. Hahn himself was a pianist of consequence, but he gave the solo part in the premiere of the concerto to legendary pianist Magda Tagliaferro.
Strings attached
The two compositions for piano and strings are the red meat on the Kaleidoscope’s menu. Their perfor-
From page 11
Auction of eye-luring art
In February Kruzich will host an online auction of his work, titled “Heroes With Bling: Not on Our Watch.” Proceeds will benefit Openhouse SF, Trans Thrive, the GLBT Historical Society, Lyric, and the Imperial Council of San Francisco.
The auction will include a live preview exhibit on February 7 at the Academy from 5pm-8pm. Admission is free, but RSVP is required. Online
bidding begins at 10am on February 18 through February 24 at midnight. There will also be a Live Benefit Auction Event on February 20 from 6pm9pm at the Academy which will be hosted by Mercedez Munro.
Kruzich’s recent subjects in dozens of eyes mosaics include popular local drag artists and producers like Juanita MORE!, Sister Roma, D’Arcy Drollinger, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and many others.
“I have an affinity for antiquity, mythology, and the heroic, often leaning toward figurative renderings,” Kruzich
Moving his music from salon to concert hall
mances replace spirit with a cool expertise. As with most of the fare here, they’re too slow, too careful. There’s a feeling of tip-toeing through carefully mapped, well-traveled terrain.
Matters brighten with Poster’s every appearance, but the readings lack momentum. It doesn’t help that the recorded sound is neither forward or distant but in a kind of acoustical no-man’s land achievable only in the studio.
The Piano Quartet, from late in Hahn’s career without being “late Hahn,” captures much of the adventure in this work, as “serious” as Hahn’s music gets. Still, there’s a feeling that there’s more pleasure to be found in the salon than here in the concert hall. Much as I appreciated these committed renditions of clearly much-loved music, I was relieved when both pieces were over.
Strange tunes
Although he composed in all the
said. “I also enjoy creating artwork that reflects and supports my local and the wider LGBTQ2+ community. Whether abstract or figurative, my art merges ancient techniques with contemporary themes. Using natural stones and Italian glass, I employ ancient techniques developed in Italy during the Byzantine period. These materials and methods impart my subjects a timeless strength, importance, and elevation.”
Kruzich also addressed what inspired him to create an auction event.
“We all know how our rights are being threatened again,” he said. “Rights we’ve struggled and fought for for decades and decades. It can be really disheartening as we all know. LGBT, but particularly the TQ2+ part of that are being targeted.
“I wanted to think of a way to do something to counter that vibe and also to give back in a positive, celebratory and fabulous way as we do. These drag artists are not only the entertainers who give us so much joy and inspire us, but they really look out for our community. And that’s where the genesis of the eyes idea came from.”
Kruzich added that the February 7 preview event falls on his birthday, so he’ll be serving cake to the attendees.
“Even if I was wealthy and didn’t have to work, I would still have to be creating,” he said. “If a creative idea is strong enough, it is like a possession takes place in me with the idea until it is realized. It is when I am my happiest. It feels as elemental as breathing to me.”t
‘Heroes With Bling: Not on Our Watch,’ Live Preview Exhibit, Feb. 7, 5pm-8pm, The Academy, 2166 Market St. Free, RSVP: www.academy-sf.com
Online bidding begins February 18, 10am until February 24 at midnight, www.32auctions.com
Live Benefit Auction Event at The Academy, February 20, 6pm-9pm, hosted by Mercedez Munro. RSVP: www.academy-sf.com www.mkmosaics.com
David T. Little, critically praised but as yet unrecorded.
There are several recordings of Hahn himself singing to his own piano accompaniments, which of late have been deemed charming. But it only takes a trip to YouTube to hear a voice that most contemporary audiences would not tolerate, reedy, astringent, and interpretively over the top. But that’s by our standards, where a lusher, more rounded vocal production prevails.
genres available to him, including opera, Hahn will remain best known for his remarkable, ever-fresh songs. Among them none is more familiar, you could even say cherished, than “A Chloris,” which opens the program here.
It comes as a jolt that the song comes off tentative and bogged down by the unexpected weight of an accompanying string quartet, which in no way improves upon Hahn’s original piano parts. Hahn does ask for a “very slow” tempo, but this new version of “A Chloris” sometimes feels in danger of stopping in its tracks.
Karim Sulayman, the out Lebanese-American tenor for whom these arrangements have been made, has garnered a reputation as a singer of adventurous tastes with a voice as individual as his repertory. Probably his most famous undertaking to date is singing the role of the protagonist in Garth Greenwell’s “What Belongs to You” in its second life as an opera by
Sulayman’s voice is a marginally more voluptuous instrument than Hahn’s, or at least the one we know from historical recordings. It has a reediness and delicate vibrato that enhance the songs’ innate yearning, searching quality. The new arrangements, however, detract from rather than enhance the songs’ interpretive possibilities. “La Barcheta,” which brings the CD to a pleasant, upbeat close, does the most to argue for the value of additional instruments.
Of late there’s been something of a cottage industry in recordings that reflect the music Proust conjures with the sonorities and performing standards of his time and, of course, Hahn’s. For all of the pleasures it does offer, this new recording hints that there may well be more fruitful ways of appreciating Hahn than arranging music he knew perfectly well how to compose. Hahn knew how to put over a song to a degree we have yet to keep up with.t
Reynaldo Hahn, Piano Quartet, Piano Quintet, and songs, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Tom Poster, arranger and pianist, Karim Sulayman, tenor. Chandos Records www.chandos.net
Michael Kruzich’s eye portraits of Juanita MORE!, Mercedez Munro and Sister Roma are up for auction.
Artist Michael Kruzich
Books >>
‘Christopher Isherwood: Inside Out’
by Brian Bromberger
“Iam a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking,” is one of the most celebrated opening lines in a 20th-century novel, but it’s also a mission statement by its author explaining his writing’s origins.
The author is Christopher Isherwood and the novel is “Goodbye Berlin,” the basis for the musical “Cabaret,” about an English writer living in Berlin during the rise of Hitler, as he befriends the insouciant promiscuous singer Sally Bowles. This acclaimed writer is the subject of the new magisterial biography, “Christopher Isherwood: Inside Out,” authored by novelist Katherine Bucknell.
Bucknell is also the editor of diaries by Christopher Isherwood and “The Animals,” a volume of letters between Isherwood and his long-time partner, Don Bachardy. With the exception of Bachardy, it’s safe to say Bucknell, a straight married woman with children, probably knows more about Isherwood than anyone alive.
Isherwood has been the subject of several previous biographies, particularly gay British journalist Peter Parker’s definitive biography, “Christopher Isherwood: A Life Revealed,” published in Isherwood’s centenary. Bucknell argues she wants to address Isherwood’s inner world, which no one has done previously, use Isherwood’s mother’s diaries to glean information about his childhood, and as an American wants to show more of Isherwood’s American life and work than earlier biographers have done.
She claims unlimited access to Bachardy, enhanced her intimate understanding of Isherwood. The question becomes whether these justifications are sufficient rationale for this 850-page treatise. The answer is a qualified yes.
Perceptions
The above camera quote captures Isherwood’s perceptive ability to re-
cord the places, peoples, and events he experienced as an observing narrator revealing little about himself. Bucknell is adept at showing how Isherwood used his personal life as fodder for his novels, especially childhood events. He gives his characters, often on the margins, new names but they are based on his friends, colleagues, family, sexual partners, and acquaintances. Isherwood is now considered one of the first autofiction writers, blurring the line between fact and fiction, so readers may question what’s real. Isherwood was bent on sharing all his truths even the unpalatable ones.
With his close friend gay poet W.H. Auden, he traveled to Weimar Germany to escape repressive Britain and indulge in Berlin’s libertine nightlife, abandoning himself to the boys. He rented an apartment attached to gay Dr Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science. When he witnessed the Nazi book burning of Hirschfeld’s papers and other authors he prized, he knew it was time to leave Germany in 1933.
Returning to England he felt trapped, just as “Goodbye to Berlin” made him famous. Desperate
to change his life again and seek liberation, he escaped with Auden to the U.S. in 1939. “I feel free here. I’m on my own. My life will be what I make of it.”
He settled in Los Angles and began his screenwriting career after declaring himself a conscientious objector during World War II. He had a spiritual conversion to Vedanta, and began a lifelong quest to find enlightenment via meditation. Isherwood entered a monastery and was celibate for six months, but frustrated, reverted to a life of spiritually illuminated promiscuity.
Isherwood had several lovers, many one-time pickups, but others lasted a few years. He wanted a committed long-term relationship and he found it in 18-year-old student Bachardy when they met on the beach in 1952, a 30year age gap.
Isherwood not only tolerated but encouraged Bachardy to have sex with other men, even as they lived together. Isherwood also had many sexual liaisons. Yet there were times Isherwood found this painful and became jealous when Bachardy became infatuated with a guy for months.
As Bucknell implies, one can view Isherwood’s life as a gradual embrac-
ing of his homosexuality and eventual coming out. Bucknell asserts, “He saw from the outset of his career that he must make homosexuality attractive to mainstream audiences if he was to change their view of it, and he worked to do this in all his writing in different ways.”
Revolutionary
He knew while attending a private boarding school that he loved boys, but “afraid of any sexual feelings,” after the Oscar Wilde debacle less than twenty years earlier, he remained
New expansive biography shares the author’s full life
chaste. But Germany freed him and with support from his guru, he accepted his worthiness as a gay man.
Isherwood, according to Bucknell, “imagined a world in which he might be able to live differently, and that through his work, he helped usher that world into being.”
Bucknell is superb in critically analyzing Isherwood’s writings. She reveals Isherwood’s charisma and charm, as well as his gift for friendship, which included Tennessee Williams, Lincoln Kirstein, E.M. Forster, Graham Greene (a cousin), Benjamin Britten, David Hockney (who painted a famous double portrait of Isherwood/Bachardy) as well as many Hollywood actors and directors.
Bucknell softens some of Isherwood’s flaws, such as his misogyny and antisemitism. “Certainly his own feelings about Jews were shaped by his disappointment that, in his era, the persecution of homosexuals was not equally recognized.” Also, Isherwood was an alcoholic, resulting in numerous D.U.I.s.
Bucknell drowns the reader in minutia, almost knowing too much about Isherwood and wanting to tell you everything about him, so it might overwhelm readers unfamiliar with Isherwood. Using archives and interviews, this biography is lucidly wellwritten and psychologically astute, but Isherwood remains an enigma, a contradictory, disagreeable, but enlightening nonconformist.
Readers might wonder was “Isherwood just a character created by a character named Christopher Isherwood?” But such authorial fluidity is the precise reason Isherwood would’ve have been very pleased with this brilliant though exhausting interpretation of his life.t
‘Christopher Isherwood: Inside Out’ by Katherine Bucknell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $45. www.us.macmillan.com www.katherinebucknell.com
Words: Elizabeth Costello’s ‘The Good War’
Michele Karlsberg
When I speak about Elizabeth Costello three words come to mind: live, love and laugh. Her writing sparkles with wit and at times an intense energy, drawing readers into her world.
In her debut novel “The Good War,” she masterfully weaves two intertwining stories, capturing the complexities of two women’s lives, with lyrical prose that resonates deeply. From the very first page, her narrative pulls you in, blending emotional depth that keeps you turning the pages.
In mid 20th century America, a mother and daughter pursue science, art, autonomy, and agency in a maledominated, war-damaged world. In 1948, Louise Galle, a chemist and former Rosie-the-Riveter, is pursued by a mysterious veteran who brings a question from her deceased husband, with whom he was a prisoner of war in the Philippines. In New York City in 1964, Louise’s daughter Charlotte eschews a conventional path, falling for the butch lesbian next door and discovering an undeniable call to make art.
A writer and arts organizer living in Portland, Oregon, Costello works (remotely) as editor for UC Berkeley. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Barnard College, an M.F.A. in writing from the University of San Francisco, and a teacher training certification from the Yoga Room in Berkeley. She has traveled widely and served as a writing advisor for graduate students and young people incarcerated in San Francisco Juvenile Hall. In recognition of her creative work, she has been a finalist for the James Jones First
Novel Fellowship and the Pirate’s Alley William Faulkner Award.
Michele Karlsberg: What inspired you to write “The Good War?”
Elizabeth Costello: The novel has roots in my family’s WWII experience and in my own experience as a gay person and a woman feeling an undeniable urge to make art. My mother was raised by two widows who had lost their husbands in that war, which seems to beget endless American cultural products, in part because our role in it is viewed as uncomplicated and essentially good. But it’s not that simple, of course.
I’ve always been drawn to noir in film – the postwar shadow to the
great victory – and this novel started as a work of feminist noir. It focused on Louise Galle, a character based on my grandmother, who was a Rosie the Riveter and then a chemist at the NIH after the war.
But then Louise’s daughter Charlotte showed up and made demands. I found her in New York City in 1964 falling for the butch next door and discovering her own creative path. I found in my own life as well that finding the right person to love was an important part of finding my way creatively.
“The Good War” was informed by a collection of letters that your aunt shared with you, including some from your grandfather, who wrote from a prisoner of war
camp in the Philippines. Would you be able to share more information about these letters?
At one point while “The Good War” was in its early stages, my aunt sent me a collection of letters among family members that were sent before and during WWII.
There were several from my grandfather Thompson Brooke Maury III, who was a prisoner at Cabanatuan Prison in the Philippines, to my grandmother, Priscilla Bunker Maury, who was at that time working at Lockheed in Burbank, first on the production line with other Rosie the Riveters, and then as an industrial designer. In one letter he asks my grandmother why she doesn’t write to him. In the collection of letters that I have, I did
not find any from her to him. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any in real life, but for a fiction writer this question is a gem – a perfect through line for the plot. Why didn’t she write to him? In “The Good War,” Kit Blunt, the amputee veteran who pursues Louise Galle is motivated largely by an intense desire for an answer to that question – Kit wants to know why she didn’t write to her husband, his friend and fellow prisoner, Roland Galle.
You speak about music and its connection to “The Good War.” Can you share some songs for a playlist?
In regards to the playlist, I don’t quite yet have a full one, but in the Purple Heart sections set in 1964, Charlotte Galle becomes obsessed with Eric Dolphy’s “Out to Lunch,” which becomes a kind of soundtrack as she walks through New York City and draws sketches for the sculptures she is beginning to build as she taps a latent creative impulse. “Out to Lunch” has a narrative propulsion that reflects my own dream of NYC at that midcentury moment when old habits of making were being challenged and new idioms were emerging. Her lover Gil and Eric Dolphy and other jazz masters inspire her to live in line with her creative and sexual desire, rather than sleeping at the wheel of her life.t
Elizabeth Costello at Fabulosa Books, 489 Castro St., Feb. 25, 7pm, hosted by Bay Area author K.M Soehnlein; and at Bird and Beckett Books Feb. 27 653 Chenery St., with Rent Romus. www.elizabethscostello.com
Author Elizabeth Costello
Author Katherine Bucknell
Christopher Isherwood Wikipedia
Courtesy MacMillan
Lise Davidsen, soprano
Malcolm Martineau, piano
ravishing warmth of expression to beloved arias by Purcell, Verdi, Richard Strauss, and Wagner, and songs by Grieg and Schubert.
Feb 4
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
This Land is Our Land
Featuring Martha Redbone Roots Project and American Patchwork Quartet
Roots music singer and songwriter Martha Redbone draws on her Cherokee/ Choctaw and African American heritage to craft uplifting songs that celebrate the human spirit, infused with the folk and blues sounds of her childhood in Appalachia. She joins American Patchwork Quartet in a new collaboration that explores the United States’ rich cultural tapestry.
Feb 28
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
Sullivan Fortner Trio
Pianist Sullivan Fortner is known for an expansive and distinctive approach to jazz that combines his New Orleans heritage with the hard bop sounds of New York, and a cosmopolitan flair born from years touring the world with luminaries like Roy Hargrove and Cécile McLorin Salvant.
Mar 13
ZELLERBACH PLAYHOUSE, BERKELEY
Patti LuPone
Joseph Thalken, piano
Songs from a Hat
The decorated Broadway star sings an intimate cabaret-style evening of songs, with the titles randomly chosen from a hat—expect signature favorites from the musicals that made LuPone a household name, such as Evita, Gypsy, Company, and Les Misérables, woven together with stories from her remarkable life in the limelight.
Apr 5
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
Twyla Tharp Dance
Diamond Jubilee
Featuring Third Coast Percussion and Vladimir Rumyantsev, piano
The American dance titan celebrates 60 years of strikingly original, thoroughly accessible, and utterly uncategorizable work with a new collaboration with composer Philip Glass, whose score is performed live by the Grammy-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion; plus a revival of Tharp’s 1998 triumph Diabelli
Feb 7–9
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
The beloved South African vocal group, internationally recognized for one of “the most distinctive and uplifting choral sounds around” (NPR), visits with its unforgettable harmonies and inspiring message, born from the struggles of its homeland.
Mar 1
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
BAY AREA PREMIERE
William Kentridge’s
The Great Yes, The Great No A Cal Performances Co-commission
The internationally acclaimed South African artist returns to campus with his latest creation for the stage, a chamber opera set that takes place on a 1941 sea voyage from Marseille to Martinique. The production merges surrealist imagery with real-life historical events, lush South African choral music, dance, and poetry.
Mar 14–16
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
Alvin Ailey
American Dance Theater
Strength, precision, and passion remain the hallmarks of this august company more than 65 years after its inception. Ailey’s dancers return to Berkeley with new and classic works that illuminate the rich panorama of Black American experience.
Apr 8–13
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
BAY AREA PREMIERE Batsheva Dance Company MOMO
Among the world’s most exciting makers of contemporary dance, Ohad Naharin brings his powerhouse company to Berkeley for the Bay Area premiere of a daring recent work.
Feb 22–23
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
A season highlight! “Devoted to tending the fire of tradition” (The New York Times), the magnificent Vienna Philharmonic returns with three programs of symphonic masterworks featuring star conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. With his signature energy and dramatic flair, NézetSéguin leads the orchestra through repertoire at the very core of the ensemble’s more than 180-year history.
Mar 5–7
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Mitsuko Uchida, piano and director José Maria Blumenschein, concertmaster and leader
The superlative orchestra and magisterial pianist make their eagerly anticipated return, continuing a multiyear project to bring Mozart’s piano concertos to Berkeley. A revered Mozartean, Uchida has lived with these works for decades, performing and recording them to great acclaim.
Mar 23
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
BAY AREA PREMIERE Grupo Corpo 21 and Gira
Co-led by brothers Paulo and Rodrigo Pederneiras, the riveting Brazilian company visits in its Cal Performances debut, with two
Apr 25–26
ZELLERBACH HALL, BERKELEY
Maria Manetti Shrem and Elizabeth Segerstrom California Orchestra Residency
Opera superstar, soprano Lise Davidsen pulled off the operatic equivalent of a mic drop last season at the Metropolitan Opera, when she dazzled a soldout house in her first NY solo recital. In her Bay Area debut, she lends her voluminous tone and
