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Laughter for a good cause
Oakland center seeks co-tenants
ARTS
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Carey Perloff
Nightlife events
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 1 • January 4-10, 2018
Pot is legal in California Redwood City resident Jarys Maragopoulos hailed the new state law that allows people to choose non-binary for their gender on stateissued IDs and other documents.
CA rings in new LGBT bills by Seth Hemmelgarn
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egislation that allows people to identify as non-binary on their birth certificates and other documents and a bill that decriminalizes HIV are among those that went into effect in California on January 1. Two of the bills aim to ease the state’s name change procedures for transgender, intersex, and non-binary individuals, though implementation of the new rules will be staggered throughout this year and next. Lesbian state Senate Pro Temporeelect Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and gay Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) co-authored SB 179 - the Gender Recognition Act of 2017 - so See page 8 >>
Rick Gerharter
by Sari Staver
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fter thousands of people lined up to buy legal weed on New Year’s Day at dispensaries in Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and San Jose, San Franciscans are still waiting to find out where and when they’ll be able to purchase weed locally.
As of Wednesday morning, some 20 San Francisco medical marijuana dispensaries had filed applications with the city and state to obtain approval to begin selling cannabis to adults over age 21, according to Nicole Elliott, the director of the city’s Office of Cannabis. In an email to the Bay Area Reporter,
Elliot said that the city is working “around the clock” to process the paperwork in hopes that they’ll be able to finish before Saturday, January 6, the first date dispensaries in the city are allowed to legally sell pot to people without a medical card. Among those that have applied are the
B.A.R. archives go digital
Statewide food program launches in California
by Matthew S. Bajko
A
See page 6 >>
by Matthew S. Bajko pilot program to feed low-income people with chronic illnesses after they have been discharged from the hospital is launching statewide this month in California. Proponents of the new initiative hope to prove it can keep those who are enrolled from being readmitted to the hospital, as well as save the state money on the cost of providing health care to the individuals. The San Francisco-based Project Open Hand is acting as the lead agency on the new “Food is Medicine” initiative and has teamed up with other nonprofit providers of meal programs throughout the state. The coalition includes Ceres Community Project and Food For Thought in the North Bay, the San Josebased Health Trust, and several organizations in Southern California. “This is our next coming out party,” said Project Open Hand CEO Mark Ryle. “The state recognized our model is the right model for people with conditions such as diabetes and congestive heart failure all around California.” State lawmakers last summer approved $6 million to launch the pilot program. The money will target 1,000 Medi-Cal patients, mainly in urban areas of the state, who have chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, and diabetes.
See page 14 >>
Rick Gerharter
Adrian Barrow, the executive chef at Project Open Hand, chops mushrooms in the San Francisco food agency’s kitchen.
“We had to go small at first because we want to get it right,” said Ryle. “This is a first-in-thenation project. There has never been something like this before.” Paul Hepfer, the senior vice president of
programs for the Health Trust, expects to sign up 150 people in Santa Clara County over the coming months for the pilot program. The See page 2 >>
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MORE! Stuff
INTRODUCING
see page 25
PHOTO: Alan Purcell
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or years researchers, students, historians, and the curious interested in reading old copies of the Bay Area Reporter, at least those printed prior to August of 2005, had two options. They could either scroll through microfiche versions of the paper at the San Francisco Main Public Library, or they could make an appointment with the GLBT Historical Society’s archivist to read through its collection of past B.A.R. issues. As of the New Year there is now a third option, as copies of the country’s oldest continually publishing LGBT newspaper have been digitized and added to two online collections for periodicals. Now anyone on the globe with an internet connection can access the historic record of the Bay Area’s LGBT community without leaving their home. “For the first time, readers from all over the world will be able to conveniently access the nearly 50-year archive of the B.A.R.,” said B.A.R. publisher Michael Yamashita, a longtime staff member who last month bought out two minority owners of the paper to return it to being a fully gay-owned publication. “It’s fascinating to browse through the years and appreciate