The third time was the charm for gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who was unanimously elected Wednesday to be the new president of the Board of Supervisors. He will serve in the powerful post throughout his last two years of his current term on the governing body through January 2027. He is now the third out supervisor to lead the 11-member board. Gay supervisors Tom Ammiano held the president’s gavel from 1999 through 2003, while the late Harry Britt served as president from 1989-1991.
See page 5 >>
Former Teamsters official and LGBTQ ally Allan Baird dies
by Cynthia Laird
Former longtime Teamsters official and staunch LGBTQ ally
Allan M. Baird died Wednesday, January 8, friends told the Bay Area Reporter. Mr. Baird was 92 and had been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer, he told the paper last year.
Tizoc Arenas, a straight ally and trustee at Teamsters Local 223 in Gladstone, Oregon, told the B.A.R. that Mr. Baird passed away at 12:19 a.m. Wednesday. He had been in hospice care at his longtime home in the Castro.
See page 8 >>
SF Mayor Lurie promises sweeping ‘new era’ in inaugural address
by John Ferrannini
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie promised to tackle the city’s most intractable problems as he took office January 8 with a speech in which he promised “a new era of accountability, service, and change.”
“Starting today, we are treating the fentanyl crisis as the emergency that it is,” Lurie said. “As we speak, the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff’s Department are rapidly shifting resources and personnel to bring drug dealers to justice and clean up our streets.”
Lurie had said he’d declare a fentanyl state of emergency on his first day in office. The city saw 810 drug overdose deaths in 2023 (653 of those included fentanyl, and though final numbers aren’t out for 2024, total fatal drug overdoses last year did decrease by over 20% in the first 10 months).
“The fentanyl crisis isn’t a 9-5 operation – it doesn’t take breaks – and neither will we. That is why I’m introducing a package of Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinances,” Lurie said. “This will allow us to further surge resources and bypass the bureaucratic hurdles standing in the way of tackling this crisis. I look forward to working with the incoming Board of Supervisors for their quick approval.”
Lurie said the package “will fast track a publicprivate partnership to stand up temporary emergency shelter and address the homelessness crisis on our streets.” He had promised on the campaign trail 1,500 emergency shelter beds in his first six months in office.
office at a time when leaders of America’s big cities are anxious to address structural issues like crime and housing – and perhaps no city has taken the brunt of criticism in recent years more than San Francisco.
Other new city leaders agreed.
Lurie, who is the city’s 46th mayor, is coming into
See page 9 >>
LGBTQ vets, feds come to DADT settlement agreement
by John Ferrannini
LGBTQ veterans discharged under the military’s former ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy have reached a settlement agreement in their class action lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Defense. The settlement requires court approval, and more about that should be known in about a month, according to officials from the Impact Fund, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that provided legal services in the case.
If approved, the settlement will allow the veterans to seek upgrades of their discharges and the removal of references to their sexual orientations on their discharge documents.
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“Coming from a family with a long history of military service, I was beyond proud to enlist in 1985 to contribute to my country,” U.S. Navy veteran Sherrill Farrell, one of the plaintiffs, stated in a January 6 news release. “When I was discharged because of my sexual orientation, I felt that my country was telling me that my service was not valuable – that I was ‘less than’ because of who I loved. Today, I am once again proud to have served my country by standing up for veterans like myself, and ensuring our honor is recognized.”
The suit was first filed in August 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. DADT was a military policy implemented during the Clinton administration to prevent
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s department has agreed to a settlement agreement to address discriminatory discharges under the old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
openly LGBTQ people from serving; prior policies had explicitly asked if someone was homosexual and excluded them on that basis.
DADT was implemented as a compromise after then-President Bill Clinton had campaigned on allowing lesbians, gays, and bisexual people to serve openly in the armed forces. Once Clinton
took office, that campaign pledge met fierce resistance from Congress and military leaders. DADT changed a previous policy that banned non-heterosexuals from the military, but people could not be openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Those who’d demonstrated “a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts ... create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability,” the policy stated.
It took decades for military and congressional leaders to get past the unit cohesion argument. Much advocacy by LGBTQ military organizations like the old Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and data collected by political scientist Aaron Belkin and his Palm Center, helped military brass realize that out service members could serve effectively and honorably.
DADT was repealed after a 2010 act of Congress signed by then-President Barack Obama, which went into effect a year later. However, some 30,000 veterans joined the class action lawsuit, unable to access veterans benefits due to their discharges.
If the settlement is approved by a federal judge, class members denied an honorable discharge will be eligible for a review to upgrade their discharge without having to complete an entire application or wait to receive their military records, according to the release.
See page 8 >>
Kathy Griffin
President Rafael Mandelman
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, left, was sworn in by state Deputy Public Defender Jessie A. Peterson.
Rick Gerharter
Allan M. Baird was a longtime Teamsters official who worked with Harvey Milk in the 1970s to help build a coalition between labor and the LGBTQ community.
John Ferrannini
2 new national landmarks honor LGBTQ community
compiled by Cynthia Laird
Two new National Historic Land-
marks honor the LGBTQ community. Both are located in Washington, D.C. and were announced in December by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
They are part of 19 new NHLs that are nationally significant properties that reflect the importance of sites in sharing America’s diverse history, according to a news release from the National Park Service, which is under the Interior Department’s jurisdiction. The sites reflect the importance of LGBTQs, African Americans, Asian American Pacific Islanders, and women’s history in addition to moments important in the development of American technology, landscape design, and art, the release stated.
One of the LGBTQ-related sites is the Furies Collective House.
“From 1971-1973, a modest rowhouse in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood was the home and operational center for 12 lesbian feminists and their lesbian, feminist, separatist group The Furies Collective,” the park service’s website for the house stated. “During this time, the women of the Furies Collective used their publications to address major questions of women’s identity and women’s relationships with other women, with men, and with society at large.”
The house is located at 219 11th Street, SE. It is not open to the public, according to the website.
The second historic site is the Lucy Diggs Slowe & Mary Burrill House, also located in the nation’s capital. Lo-
cated at 1256 Kearny Street, NE, it is also not open to the public and is privately owned.
“The Slowe-Burrill House was once home to the most famous lesbian couple in Washington, D.C. Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Burrill lived on Kearney Street from 1922 until Slowe’s death in 1937,” the website states. “Slowe and Burrill were prominent activists and educators in Washington’s Black community but nei ther publicly claimed their relationship. Despite this, in later decades, Slowe and Burrill always were known as romantic partners to their large circle
of friends and now are cited as the most well-known lesbian couple in Washington during the 1920s. Unlike the other monuments to Slowe and Burrill around the city, Kearney Street centers their queerness alongside their professional achievements.”
Haaland noted the importance of the new additions.
“As America’s storyteller, it is our privilege at the Department of the Interior, through the National Park Service, to tell our nation’s history and honor the many historical chapters and heroic communities that brought us to where we all are today,” stated Haaland. “These newly designated
historic landmarks join a list of the nation’s premier historic and cultural places, all of which were nominated through voluntary and locally led stewardship.”
An NHL designation is the highest federal recognition of a property’s historical, architectural or archeological significance, and a testament to the dedicated stewardship of many private and public property owners who seek this designation, the release stated. While the National Park Service maintains NHL listings, most are privately owned.
An effort to obtain federal landmarking for the site where a transgender uprising against police harassment took place in San Francisco 58 years ago remains pending two years after state preservationists had supported doing so, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in an October article. That’s the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets where the Compton’s Cafeteria riots occurred in August 1966. San Francisco officials landmarked the site in 2022.
For a listing of the recently designated U.S. historic properties, go to https://tinyurl.com/3f2bb5eu.
San Mateo Pride center starts drop-in program
The San Mateo County Pride Center has started a twice-weekly drop-in space. Conversation and Community, as the program is known, meets Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 4 to 5 p.m. at the center, located at 1021 South El Camino Real (11th and El Camino Real) in San Mateo. The service started last week.
According to an email announcement, center officials want LGBTQ community members to have a safe space “during these uneasy times.”
“Join us to have a little escape or just be with community,” the announcement stated. Snacks, table games, cards, crafts, video games, and activities will be available.
The center last fall reinstated its mask requirement and will provide one to visitors who forget their own. For other accessibility information, people can check sanmateopride.org/accessibility. For questions, contact info@sanmateopride.org or (650) 591-0133.
Self-defense class offered in Castro
Castro Community on Patrol, a volunteer safety group, will hold a selfdefense class for beginners Saturday, January 18, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street, in Ellard Hall.
According to a flyer, the class is open to anyone 18 years of age or older. The cost is $30 per attendee and registration is required.
CCOP is a nonprofit organization that started in 2006. Volunteers provide safety support at events and in the Castro. The organization also offers classes, such as the upcoming self-defense seminar.
To register for the class, go to https:// tinyurl.com/y9mh6hrr For more information about CCOP, go to castropatrol.org. t
Biden awards marriage equality trailblazers
by John Ferrannini
Outgoing President Joe Biden awarded high honors to three champions of LGBTQ equality shortly after the new year. One received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, January 4, and two received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s secondhighest civilian honor, on January 2.
The Medal of Freedom was awarded to gay philanthropist Tim Gill. The Citizens Medals were given to Mary Bonauto, a lesbian attorney who argued the Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) case before the U.S. Supreme
Court, and attorney Evan Wolfson, a gay man who founded Freedom to Marry. The Obergefell decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
According to a bio of Wolfson on Out Leadership, he crafted the foundational political, legal, organizing, and messaging strategy that ultimately triumphed when the Supreme Court affirmed same-sex couples’ freedom to marry in the Obergefell decision. At the January 2 ceremony, Biden also honored Republican former Congressmember Liz Cheney (Wyoming) and current Democratic Congressmember Bennie Thompson (Mississippi) for their work on the
EVECommunityVillage–BRANDNEWAFFORDABLEAPARTMENTS!
January 6 Committee that investigated the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Cheney was vice chair of the panel while Thompson was chair. Cheney ultimately lost reelection to the House of Representatives because of her work on the committee and her criticisms of former President Donald Trump, now the president-elect who will be inaugurated January 20.
“The most important title in America is not president, but citizen,” Biden said at the ceremony. “It’s ‘We the People.’ These are the words on which this entire nation is built. Not hyperbole.”
Bonauto helped “secure the right of every American to marry who they love,” a White House announcer said. She had been called “our Thurgood Marshall” by gay former Congressmember Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), starting her career of advocacy on behalf of same-sex marriage back in 1990 by working with Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, now GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, in Massachusetts.
Bonauto fought to legalize samesex marriage throughout New England. It was Bonauto’s group that filed suit on behalf of seven gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts in 2001, leading to a landmark court ruling two years later that made the Bay State the first to legalize same-sex marriage.
She later helped Maine’s Legislature pass a same-sex marriage law in 2009. When voters repealed the law later that year, Bonauto didn’t relent, and a second ballot initiative in 2012 made same-sex marriage legal once again, making Maine the first state to legalize same-sex marriage by ballot initiative.
Bonauto also led the first cases against section three of the Defense of Marriage Act, which was declared unconstitutional in 2013 by the Supreme Court before it was repealed in 2022 by the Respect for Marriage Act.
He closed the group in 2016 after the Obergefell decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Wolfson wrote the book “Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People’s Right to Marry” in 2004. Wolfson worked for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1989-2001, during which time he argued on behalf of Boy Scout master James Dale in the landmark case Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000), in which the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts had the right to reject Dale due to his sexual orientation based on the organization’s First Amendment right to freedom of association.
After that, Wolfson started Freedom to Marry, saying, “I’m not in this just to change the law. It’s about changing society. I want gay kids to grow up believing that they can get married, that they can join the Scouts, that they can choose the life they want to live.”
The White House announcer said Wolfson had led “the marriage equality movement, gaining millions of people in all 50 states the fundamental right to love, marry, and be themselves.”
In an email, Wolfson stated that lessons can be learned from the marriage equality movement.
“It was an honor to receive the Presidential Citizens Medal at the White House as a tribute to the decades-long work to win the freedom to marry, change hearts and minds, and prove that democratic engagement can prevail over obstacles and opposition,” Wolfson stated. “We can apply the lessons of hope, strategy, determination, and love to the work ahead now as we defend and reinvigorate our democracy in the U.S. and globally.”
The Furies Collective House in Washington, D.C. was recently added to the National Historic Landmarks listing.
From National Park Service
Same-sex marriage advocate
Evan Wolfson, left, received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Joe Biden January 2 at a White House ceremony.
From the White House
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Mayor Lurie’s to-do list
Congratulations to San Francisco
Mayor Daniel Lurie, who was sworn into office Wednesday, January 8, as the city’s 46th chief executive. As Lurie moves into Room 200 at City Hall, he will begin the task of trying to solve some of San Francisco’s seemingly intractable issues. As he recently stated to us, “I’m building a team rooted in accountability, service, and change to tackle San Francisco’s historic challenges.”
Below, we offer unsolicited advice for Lurie on some key areas affecting the LGBTQ community.
Harvey Milk Plaza
More importantly, once the second floor space at 2280 Market Street is occupied by the GLBT Historical Society and the Castro Theatre renovation is completed, people arriving to Harvey Milk Plaza via the subway station will see the reimagined theater across the street and will have only a short walk to the society’s LGBTQ history museum. Both have the potential to greatly enhance the neighborhood. Under former mayor London Breed, the city purchased the building for the museum last year, and the historical society is now in the process of finalizing a lease agreement with the city and the Community Arts Stabilization Trust.
On Tuesday, Lurie, the former CEO of Tipping Point Community anti-poverty nonprofit, announced that Kunal Modi will be his chief of health, homelessness, and family services. Modi has served on the board of Larkin Street Youth Services, which provides services to young people, including many queer and trans youth. Longtime CEO Sherilyn Adams, a lesbian, praised Modi’s selection, stating that she has “witnessed first hand his deep commitment to understanding solutions that will truly end homelessness.” Maintaining the city’s commitment to end trans homelessness should be part of his portfolio.
Stand up to Trump
The good news, as we’ve reported, is that voters passed the $390 million infrastructure bond in November’s election that included $25 million for the renovation project at Harvey Milk Plaza. The bad news is that the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, which is spearheading the reimagining, must come up with about $7 to $8 million – and it could be as much as $15 million – to fully fund the project before the bond money will be released by the city. Brian Springfield, a gay man who’s executive director of the friends group, told us last month that it is committed to raising nearly $8 million of the remaining funds, working off a figure of $10 million. The city should make up that $2 million difference.
We know that the next couple of years will be challenging budget-wise, but Lurie should see the value of investing a couple of million dollars for a project that will greatly improve the area.
The plaza, which sits above the Castro Muni station at Market and Castro streets, is considered the front door to the city’s iconic LGBTQ neighborhood.
As part of the approval plans for the plaza, a new spiral podium feature is to be built at the entrance by the intersection in a nod to its history as a gathering place for protests and rallies. Among other features, a new enclosed space below street level will be used for a museum-like installation telling Milk’s story and that of the city’s LGBTQ community.
Appointments
We anticipate that Lurie, who has already named some LGBTQ people to his administration, will continue the practice of appointing qualified queer people to the city’s various boards and commissions and to other senior positions in government. Unlike the corporations that are rolling back diversity, inclusion, and equity policies in an effort to curry favor with the Trump administration and other MAGA conservatives, we firmly believe that San Francisco’s values include representation by all communities on the city’s advisory bodies. The city is stronger when every community has a seat at the table, and that includes the LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities.
Trans homelessness
One of Breed’s signature efforts was her investments in programs to end trans homelessness by 2027. We would like to see the Lurie administration keep those resources on track to accomplish that goal. Transgender people are much more likely to experience homelessness and that, of course, also leads into other issues, like employment and health care. Housing stability is also crucial for people living with HIV/AIDS, a concern that also affects the trans community.
Since the November election, which also saw former President Donald Trump win a second term, many tech billionaires have donated millions of dollars to his inaugural fund, including Sam Altman, a gay man who’s CEO of OpenAI and served as a leader on Lurie’s transition team. After the election, Lurie said he would work with the incoming Trump administration to help address issues when appropriate.
“I have serious disagreements with Presidentelect Donald Trump, but I will never let those disagreements get in the way of addressing the problems facing our city,” Lurie said. “I will also say I have everybody’s back here in San Francisco.”
We are deeply concerned about how some wealthy CEOs are working to curry favor with Trump either by the aforementioned donations or developing policies that smack of “anticipatory obedience.” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision this week to do away with fact checkers for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in favor of “community notes” is just the latest example. So are all those corporations backtracking on DEI policies. We certainly don’t want political leaders like Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, falling into this trap. If Trump does indeed launch his massive deportation scheme, we want San Francisco to adhere to its sanctuary city policy, and the same goes for any anti-LGBTQ moves Trump makes. San Francisco declared itself a transgender sanctuary city last summer.
As mayor, Lurie must stand up for all San Franciscans, especially those who are most vulnerable, in the face of potentially dire federal actions. t
Oakland bar patios quit smoking/ vaping – SF should follow
by Brian Davis
Happy New Year! This column is for everyone, whether you smoke or not, but for those who do currently smoke or vape and have resolved to quit this year, there is a lot of free support for you.
Check out LGBTQ Minus Tobacco’s “Quit Smoking/Vaping Tips & Resources” (https://www.lgbtqminustobacco.org/quitting-smoking-vaping) page for a variety of options that have proved to increase success rates. One fabulous program is a free online eight-session quit smoking series from the City of Berkeley, available to all Bay Area residents. The next series starts January 9 and ends February 20. Registration closes on January 23. Those who complete the series are eligible for a $25 gift card.
Outdoor areas of bars in Oakland are also quitting smoking/vaping this year. As of January 2, bar patios, parklets, and semi-enclosed rooms where smoking was previously allowed are required to be smoke and vape-free because of an ordinance adopted by the city last month. This will not only protect the health of workers who will no longer have to breathe toxic air during their shifts but will protect customers, help motivate the 70% of smokers who want to quit to take the plunge, and inspire customers who have gone to these bars less often because of the smoky patios to come out more and enjoy the fresh air.
This last statement is based on surveys we’ve conducted with random attendees at Oakland Pride and other events who told us they go to Oakland bars with patios and would go more often or at least as often if the outdoor paid areas were smoke-free. Nearly twice as many (29%) would go more often than would go less often or not at all (11%). It is also based on all the research evidence, which overwhelmingly shows that smoke-free laws have a positive or neutral impact on bar sales or employment.
they would go more often to these bars if the patios were smoke- and vape-free. Only 8% said they would go less often.
Many people told us why smoke-free patios were important to them. One said, “I stopped smoking in 2006. ... What really got me was the bars in San Francisco that have patios. You’re surrounded by people who smoke cigarettes and other products and you’re like, trying to enjoy yourself and you’re getting triggered left and right, so you leave the bar.”
Another said, “I quit smoking years ago, and I love the patios and the outdoors, but I really think I’d be there more if they were smoke-free.”
Many people told us that health issues keep them away from bar patios. One said, “Smoke-free bar patios would be really helpful because I have asthma, and I want places where I can breathe freely and enjoy my time.”
trouble deciding between unhealthy air or the friendships I’ve created. I don’t want to jeopardize my own health.”
Stories like these remind us of how important queer bars are to our community, not just as places to get away from homo/bi/transphobia, but also as spaces where we feel at home and find a sense of belonging. Every area of these important spaces needs to be safe and welcoming for every LGBTQ+ person, but they cannot be safe if smoking and vaping are allowed. Smoke-free patios can be welcoming to everyone, including people who have yet to break free from smoking or vaping, since they can take smoke breaks at the sidewalk curb and come back to join the party.
LGBTQ+ folks smoke/vape significantly more than other people. This is due to tobacco industry targeting of us and stress caused by the continued discrimination that we face.
Tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death, killing 480,000 people in the U.S. every year. This fact gets less attention than it deserves, both in the LGBTQ+ community and among society as a whole since tobacco is legal and has been around forever. Yet so many people have told me about close family members and friends whose lives were tragically cut short because they couldn’t stop smoking. There is an aching hole of loss that so many people feel. While I am fortunate not to have lost anyone to tobacco, I did lose a brother to AIDS. He was 40 when he died. I know that many who are reading this have suffered similar losses and know what I’m feeling as I share these thoughts. Imagine how many people are connected to those 480,000 people who die from tobacco each year in this country.
Tobacco product use (including vaping) is an epidemic in our community and beyond. Whatever small thing each of us can do to save even one of those lives matters to someone somewhere. To find out more, visit us at www.lgbtqminustobacco.org. t
San Francisco could follow Oakland’s example. We surveyed 282 random attendees at San Francisco Pride, the Castro Street Fair, and the Bearrison Street Fair who told us they go to San Francisco queer bars with patios. A whopping 45% told us
Another shared this powerful story, “I really feel at home going to my neighborhood queer bar, which I call my community center, but I don’t like the smoke. I’m immunocompromised and I have
Brian Davis, a gay man, has worked for over 17 years on reducing the impact of tobacco on LGBTQ+ lives. He is currently the project director of LGBTQ Minus Tobacco.
Brian Davis, left, joined other LGBTQ Minus Tobacco staff at the 2024 Bearrison Street Fair.
Courtesy LGBTQ Minus Tobacco
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie
New San Francisco supervisors join board
by Matthew S. Bajko
In a historic first, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors now has four LGBTQ community members serving on it. Newly sworn in queer District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is also the governing body’s first elected Native American member.
Fielder was one of five new supervisors who took part in their first board meeting the afternoon of January 8. She and the other winners of the 11-member board’s odd-numbered seats – freshman Supervisors Danny Sauter in District 3, Bilal Mahmood in District 5 and Chyanne Chen in District 11, along with returning Supervisors Connie Chan in District 1 and Myrna Melgar in District 7 – took their oaths of office Wednesday.
Spending the morning introducing herself to patrons of businesses throughout the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Portola neighborhoods she now represents, Fielder laid out a number of issues she plans to address in an Instagram post ahead of her officially being sworn in.
“I am very excited to start today with many priorities to tackle from day one,” wrote Fielder. “Public safety, immigration defense, student homelessness, mental health, small businesses, clean streets, and accountability throughout city government are all big priorities for me that I will share more about in the coming weeks. Let’s get to work!”
New District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill had been sworn in last month by former mayor London Breed, who tapped him to fill the vacancy created by the departure of freshman state legislator Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco). In November, Stefani won election to the Assembly District 19 seat.
One of the supervisor’s first orders of business was electing a new board president. (See story, page 1.) Among the contenders was Melgar and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman
The board’s other two out members are gay Supervisors Matt Dorsey of District 6 and Joel Engardio of District 4. Due to his support for a successful ballot measure closing the Great Highway along Ocean Beach to traffic in order to become a public park, which was opposed by a majority of his constituents, Engardio is now facing an attempt to recall him from office two years ahead of the end of his first term.
of the odd-number
which was administered
The last out woman to serve as a supervisor was appointed bisexual District 5 supervisor Christina Olague. She stepped down on January 8, 2013, after losing to Breed in the November 2012 election.
And it was another appointed District 5 supervisor, Vallie Brown who was the first person with American Indian ancestry known to have served on the board. Brown, who is of Paiute and Shoshone descent, was tapped by Breed in July 2018 as her successor after winning a special mayoral election but lost her bid the following November to serve out the remainder of Breed’s term.
Fielder’s family roots trace back to the Lakota and Hidatsa tribes of South and North Dakota, and Monterrey, Mexico. Thus, she is the first Latina elected to the District 9 seat covering the city’s Mission district and only the second Latino/a community leader to serve in it over the last 25 years, after gay former District 9 supervisor David Campos, who was termed out in January 2017.
At 5 p.m. Friday, January 17, Fielder will hold a community swearing-in ceremony at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street. She has yet to announce who will administer her oath of office.
Kaplan, for now, remains on Oakland council
At 30, Fielder is the youngest LGBTQ community leader to win a seat on the Board of Supervisors. Her election in November marked the first time in 27 years that an out female was elected to the board; lesbian former supervisor Leslie Katz was elected in her 1996 citywide race and departed four years later when supervisors reverted back to representing districts.
Across the bay in Oakland, lesbian City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is remaining on her governing body for a few more months. Last year, she opted not to seek reelection to her at-large seat with the expectation she would then depart in January when the winners of the council races on the November ballot were sworn into office.
Yet, with the departure this week of former council president and interim mayor Nikki Fortunato Bas due to her election to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, her District 2 council seat needed to be filled until a special election is held April 15 to decide who will serve out the remainder of her term. The council on Monday tapped Kaplan at its first meeting of 2025 to serve in the seat on an interim basis until
gavel to preside over the meeting. He later added of becoming president, “I am looking forward to it and thank you.”
districts
the winner of the spring race is con firmed.
Kaplan will now serve alongside queer at-large City Councilmember Rowena Brown to succeed Kaplan in the citywide position. Until Kaplan departs, the council will have a trio of out wom en, as queer City Councilmember Janani Ramachandran District 4 seat.
Already the Bay Area’s longestserving out female elected leader, having spent 23 years in various offices, Kaplan will now extend her record by three and a half months. With Oakland not having term limits for council members, Kaplan had held the at-large seat since 2008 and before that spent seven years as an elected member of the AC Transit District Board of Directors.
Also due to Bas leaving for the county board seat, to which she was sworn into on Tuesday, the Oakland councilmembers picked District 6 Council Member Kevin Jenkins as their new president, meaning he will serve as the city’s interim mayor until the winner of the April 15 contest for the mayoral position is sworn in. It is being held due to the recall last fall of former mayor Sheng Thao amid a wide-ranging federal corruption probe into Alameda County politics that saw FBI agents raid her home last summer.
Having opened a campaign ac count Monday, former congress member Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) officially entered the mayoral race Wednesday. She left Congress last week after failing to survive last year’s primary for a U.S. Senate seat instead of seeking another term in the House.
The progressive leader enters the contest seen as the frontrunner. Moderate former city councilmem ber Loren Taylor, who fell short against Thao in 2022, launched his bid late last year.
Meanwhile, filling in for Jenkins as the interim council president until a new mayor is elected is District 5 Councilmember Noel Gallo, as he was elected council president pro tem. Gallo won reelection in November to his seat representing Oakland’s Fruitvale and San Antonio neighborhoods, which he has held since 2013. t
In 2022 and in 2019 Mandelman had sought to be board president but both times fell short of the six-vote threshold needed. In a surprise move considering the contested presidency races of years past, Mandelman was the only person nominated to become the new president at the board’s January 8 special inaugural meeting.
Only moments earlier gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey had nominated Mandelman, whom he has known for two decades, for the presidency. He pointed to Mandelman’s ability to work with his board colleagues to find compromise on various issues as one reason he felt he was well suited to serve in the role.
“Dazed, confused,” Mandelman could be heard saying via the broadcast of the board meeting as he took the
Mandelman is someone who has “worked cooperatively and well across ideological lines throughout his entire
public life,” noted Dorsey. District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan concurred and credited him for treating his colleagues “respectfully” both publicly and privately during their discussions about policy matters. She also said at a time when the city is facing ballooning budget deficits, Mandelman will be able to “communicate effectively, calmly, and respectfully with the executive branch.”
She was referring to the administration of new Mayor Daniel Lurie. Hours earlier, he had taken his oath of office outside City Hall.
<< Mandelman From page 1 See page 9 >>
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Members
Supervisor
took their oath of office,
by San Francisco Superior Court Presiding Judge Rochelle C. East.
From SFGovTV
Group connects Black marine scientists
by Matthew S. Bajko
When she first became a marine scientist, Tiara Moore, Ph.D., didn’t feel like she could be out as pansexual. She had remained in the closet throughout her academic pursuits, and most people assumed she was straight.
In professional settings, recalled Moore, once the white lab coat goes on, the focus primarily is on one’s work and not their individuality or public life.
“The humanity of the scientist is lost,” said Moore, 35, who grew up in Greenwood, South Carolina and didn’t come out publicly until 2020 at age 31.
It led to her being included in a groundbreaking exhibit about queer scientists that debuted at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park during Pride Month in June 2021, which the Bay Area Reporter reported on that summer.
Moore, who received her Ph.D. in biology from UCLA, was unable to see it in person. While she didn’t encounter much homophobia pursuing her education in marine science, Moore did experience racism and sexism.
“I am judged generally on being a Black person and Black woman first. A lot of people don’t know I am gay or anything until they see me with my partner or I say it out loud,” said Moore, speaking to the B.A.R. last fall via videoconference from Placencia, Belize, a village on the Caribbean Sea where she has lived since 2023 with her fiancée, Andria Villanueva,
a marine scientist from the Central American country.
Those experiences had prompted Moore to create the hashtag #BlackinMarineScienceWeek in 2020 to celebrate via social media the contributions of people like herself in her scientific field. It was sparked by the racist harassment a gay Black birder, Christian Cooper, had faced from a white woman that May in New York City’s Central Park, leading to the hashtag #BlackBirdersWeek, now a yearly event each spring.
Just as that social media campaign upended stereotypical comments that Black people don’t bird watch, Moore aimed to have a similar conversation about erroneous perceptions that Black people don’t work in the marine sciences. The overwhelmingly positive reaction to her social media campaign
led Moore to launch the nonprofit Black in Marine Science, known as BIMS for short.
“Knowing environmental issues, climate change, and pollution if you will is centered around the ocean, and I know it impacts communities that look like me most, it calls me to want to address these questions and get more people who look like me into this field,” said Moore, who in addition to being CEO of BIMS leads over $8 million in National Science Foundation research grants focused on nutrient pollution impacts and increasing racial equity.
At the time she spoke with the B.A.R., Moore was preparing for the second annual BIMS Week conference held in San Diego in early December, at which Cooper was a keynote speaker. The gathering brings together hundreds of scientists, community leaders, and marine enthusiasts for seven days of workshops, seminars, and networking.
“I, literally, in 2018, I wrote an oped entitled ‘The only Black person in the room.’ It is literally called that,” said Moore, which was based on her experience as a student board member for the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography and feeling isolated as she was often the lone Black marine scientist present.
BIMS now counts more than 600 members from 31 countries, with yearly dues costing $120 and providing free access to its programs such as scuba diving certification classes. Its annual budget of roughly $2 million helps employ a staff
What keeps me up at
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
On December 22, as many may have been busy hanging garlands or wrapping gifts, President-elect Don-
ald Trump took to the stage at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2024. It was the last of four days of intense rightwing speeches and messaging at the confab, and – of course – Trump was the
Denis John Franck
5/11/1942–10/28/2024
Denis, a long-time bartender at the Twin Peaks Tavern, passed away at his home in Palm Springs after a long illness. Denis, known to many as “Aunt Denis” was a beloved figure at the Twin Peaks.
Denis was born in Aurora, Illinois, and lived in Des Moines, Iowa for six years before moving to San Francisco in 1975. He worked for Jenkle-Davidson and Lens Crafters before joining the staff at Twin Peaks.
He was a friend to many a visitor to San Francisco and he always enjoyed meeting and befriending the foreign visitors that came into the Peaks. He traveled extensively in Europe, especially loving Paris and also enjoyed many ocean cruises.
Denis was a great supporter of the Imperial Court of San Francisco and had many friends within the organization. He would often travel to various cities helping to promote the Court’s activities.
Denis relocated to Palm Springs in October of 2015. He worked as a day time bartender for Stacy’s from 2017-2019, the bar closing as a result of the Covid Epidemic.
He is survived by two very close friends, Jon Logue of Minneapolis and Todd Evans of Lansing, MI and many, many more long time friends both in San Franciscio and Palm Springs.
A Spring 2025 celebration of life and sprinkling of Denis’ ashes will be held in San Francisco. A specific date has not yet been decided.
of seven people who all work remotely.
(Moore earned $108,892 in 2023, according to BIMS’ most recent tax filing)
Host of initiatives
It has launched a host of initiatives to connect Black marine science professionals from across the globe, from an academic journal it released last October to a web-based video series. A primary goal is to have more Black people consider entering the field for their professional careers.
Stanford University Ph.D. student Jillian Lyles is a BIMS member and was named one of its Tidal Wave fellows last fall. Lyles, 33, who is queer and nonbinary, expects to finish their five-year Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at the private college in 2028. The Oakland resident is studying how human well being and environmental wellbeing is interconnected, particularly among Black communities in the U.S. A key focus for Lyles is researching the ancestral connections of the African diaspora to the ocean.
night
one everyone who was there in Phoenix wanted to hear from.
Trump had already won the November election to serve a second term and that was a campaign where the onceand-future president used transgender people as a cudgel to attack Democratic candidate Kamala Harris via an advertising spending spree. An astonishing $215 million went into television ads vilifying transgender people. It was a number that Harvard Law’s Alejandra Caraballo noted is “$134 per trans person in anti-trans ad spending.”
So, the Turning Point speech, really, was a victory lap – and also to share his plans for the next four years.
Trump began with his usual warmups, thanking many of the individuals present, ranging from Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) to actor Rob Schneider. Then he started into his first day policy plans, abruptly jumping right into transgender issues with no obvious segue.
“With the stroke of my pen, on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” said Trump, eyes fixed firmly on the teleprompter to his right. His voice is monotone, the voice of someone reading along with the words on the screen.
The audience, as close to a “hometown crowd” that MAGA can pull in, goes absolutely wild, with cheers and applause that sounded enraged and angry, more like howls than anything gleeful. Make no mistake, though, there is glee present, but it’s a sharp, menacing sort of euphoria, as if going to Disneyland – except they were looking forward to kneecapping Goofy. It’s dripping with pure malevolence.
Trump reads ahead a bit, and then turns to his left, getting closer to his microphone. His eyes now fix on the left teleprompter, and his cadence gets a little quicker, a rapid fire of words. “And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said.
The crowd responds louder still. Even Trump seems a little surprised, pausing to let people applaud while he briefly shakes his head, with lips pursed, before he continues.
“And we will keep men out of women’s sports,” Trump said, again still firmly
finding no other Black marine scientists should they pursue that field of study.
“I have a very deep-rooted memory of my being on the beach and very saddened thinking I would always be the only one. This completely dissolves that for future generations,” said Lyles. “There are people out there and around the world creating spaces for access and for us to thrive in the field.”
Lyles grew up in Cleveland and would swim the shores of Lake Erie. From an early age they had an interest in the oceans and marine biology. At Cornell University, where they earned a bachelor’s degree in the science of earth systems with a double minor in marine biology and natural resource management, they studied marine disease ecology.
While they were the lone Black person in their master’s degree program at the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, Lyles is one of half a dozen Black students in their cohort at Stanford. It has pierced their childhood concerns of
“I have always loved the ocean,” said Lyles, who is part of an outrigger canoe team with their partner.
“Despite what anyone told me about Black people and our relationship to water, I never let what other people said about people who look like me stop me from doing things I like and I love.”
Yet, in the cultural consciousness, many people think a marine biologist is a job for a white man, said Lyles, pointing to one of the most famous people in the profession, Jacques Cousteau.
fixed to his left. The crowd practically wails in this mix of anger and giddiness that seems almost inhuman.
Trump shifts back to the right, pulling away from the teleprompter, eyes down, and he faces forward. “And that will likewise be done on day one,” he said, before he goes into one of his typical forms of rhetoric, asking the crowd for their reaction. “Should I do day one, day two, or day three? How about day one, right?”
The crowd replies with a bit of a sneering chuckle to this, but Trump’s face betrays no cheer. Rather, he goes back to focusing on the teleprompter to his right.
“Under the Trump admin istration,” he continues, again back to the cadence of an uneasy reader, “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders.”
He turns from the right again, looking to the audience, eyes darting briefly. “Male and female.”
What struck me was how unemotional he was while discussing the dissolution of transgender rights – such as they are – in America. Almost robotically reading from the teleprompter with a couple slight ad libs. It’s nothing he seemingly cares about with any depth. No, this wasn’t about him. It was about the crowd. That’s where the true evil was. They were gleeful and giddy, and full of hostility. They were not content with Trump’s election victory; they wanted blood. I don’t even think they care much about whose.
This is what keeps me up at night.
The crowd again loudly cheers, as if on cue. Trump briefly shifts from one leg to another.
He then concludes his transgender talking points by quipping, somewhat dismissively, “It doesn’t sound too complicated, does it?” He veers then into a disastrous series of economic proposals largely focused on destroying the environment, killing regulatory oversight, and his usual mix of imaginary banter.
I know that there are people in Trump’s close orbit who intend to enact horrors onto trans and nonbinary folks, but Trump himself? I think he doesn’t really give much of a damn about trans rights either way.
It’s not that Trump will necessarily be a horrible president for us. We know. It’s clear that his whole reason for running was to keep out of jail, get revenge on those he perceives as enemies, and see just how much more he can get away with. He’s simply not all that interested in transgender people one way or another, aside from how he can use us –and use us he will.
I go back to those cheers from the audience. Those were the people I might pass on my morning walk, or are in line behind me at the grocery store. They might be the pharmacist who handles my hormone prescription, or the police officer who pulls me over for a broken taillight.
If you, dear reader, have trans friends in your life, this is why we’re losing sleep right now. This is why we’re anxious. It’s not just what this administration will do to us, it’s that Trump’s fans are legion, and any interaction is a potential danger. They are screaming for blood – our blood. t
Gwen Smith knows a lot of people who are not sleeping well right now. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com
Christine Smith
Tiara Moore, Ph.D., founded Black in Marine Science.
Courtesy the subject
Longtime bartender Catherine Ficcardi dies
by Cynthia Laird
Friends and family are remem-
bering Catherine Ficcardi, a lesbian longtime bartender at the White Horse LGBTQ bar in Oakland who died December 22. Known widely as “Captain,” Ms. Ficcardi was 57.
Sarah Hanson, Ms. Ficcardi’s partner of about 15 years, told the Bay Area Reporter and friends on Facebook that Ms. Ficcardi had recently been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia after experiencing decreased energy.
Hanson said that Ms. Ficcardi died within about a week of her diagnosis.
“It was very fast,” she said.
Hanson, a psychologist, said that Ms. Ficcardi had a love of learning despite not attending college.
“She was always curious,” Hanson said in a phone interview. “She never had an education beyond high school but was very much a natural learner. She was smart as a whip.”
Ms. Ficcardi, who lived with Hanson in Oakland, loved her job at the White Horse, where she was usually the bartender who opened up in the afternoons, recalled Leslie Ewing, a lesbian who formerly served as the executive director of the Pacific Center for Human Growth, an LGBTQ community center and mental health clinic in Berkeley that until recently was located near the White Horse, which is at 6551 Telegraph Avenue. (The Pacific Center is now at 2130 Center Street in downtown Berkeley.)
“I met and knew Catherine through my work at the Pacific Center,” Ewing said in a phone interview, noting the bar held benefits for the center or allowed its space to be used for fundraisers. “As a result, we forged a friendship.”
The White Horse bills itself as the oldest operating gay bar in the country and is formally known as the White Horse Inn. It opened in 1933, its Facebook page stated.
The White Horse was closed December 23 in memory of Ms. Ficcardi; its Instagram post showed a broken heart emoji. On December 24, the bar posted, “We are devastated over the loss of our beloved Captain. Captain’s warmth, humor, and unwavering love for this community made The White Horse feel like home, and tonight, we’ll raise a glass in her honor.”
Hanson recalled that Ms. Ficcardi was named best bartender in the B.A.R.’s Best of the Bay readers’ poll in 2019. As reporter Jim Gladstone wrote, “A complete turnover of winners from last year means a great excuse for bar-hopping, including a hop all the way across the bay to the oldest gay bar in the country, where Captain Catherine Ficcardi has steered the
<< Business Briefing
From page 6
“The representation isn’t there for us like it is for other communities,” said Lyles. “Then think about access, and access to open spaces is inadequate for Black and Brown people. In California, how many coastal Black and Brown communities are there?”
Organizations like BIMS are helping to break down stereotypes about Black people, said Lyles, such as the long-held trope that they don’t swim. Lyles and their siblings were all lifeguards in their youth, with Lyles going on to get a scuba diving license.
“I love snorkeling and spear fishing. My dad would go sailing, and my mom loved the ocean,” said Lyles. “We were just water people.”
Via the group Diving With A Purpose, Lyles received training in identifying and documenting the indicators of a healthy coral reef system via its CARES program, short for Collective Approach to Restoring Our Ecosystems. Last summer, they were in Florida with it and hope to go to Panama and Honduras in the future.
ship to a stunning out-of-SF victory.”
But as Ewing pointed out, the White Horse is more than just an LGBTQ watering hole in Oakland. “It’s a neighborhood bar,” she said, and Ms. Ficcardi made patrons feel at home no matter who they were.
“What struck me over the years was that she was a community leader – everyone was welcome,” said Ewing.
Hanson also stressed Ms. Ficcardi’s love of community, which she said Ms. Ficcardi nurtured.
“She made people feel special and feel connected to her,” Hanson said.
Ewing said that she and Ms. Ficcardi used to commiserate that the work done by the Pacific Center and Ms. Ficcardi’s work with people at the bar was in some ways similar.
Christine Young is Ms. Ficcardi’s step/chosen daughter. Young’s mom and Ms. Ficcardi used to be partners. After they split, Young remained close to Ms. Ficcardi.
“We lived in the same household during part of my teenage years,” Young, 36, said in a phone interview.
“We became much closer when I was an adult.
“She was loud, boisterous, an outrageous Italian,” Young said. “She was supportive throughout my adult life and very well loved.”
Young, who now lives in Portland, Oregon, said Ms. Ficcardi’s face was one that a lot of patrons of the White Horse saw when they went there.
And, while Young is a straight ally, she said she’s long considered herself part of the LGBTQ community and went to the White Horse when she lived in the area.
“It is a citizen-scientist-based initiative where recreational divers are taught the importance of ecosystems and coral reefs,” noted Lyles. With the Black Lives Matter movement taking off when Lyles completed their master’s program in 2016, they became “disenchanted” with academia and its inherent biases toward people of color. It led Lyles to quit science and spend the next seven years working various jobs, such as a preschool teacher at an outdoor school in Oakland, where Lyles and their partner had moved to in 2017.
They continued to bring people out to Stinson Beach to be near the ocean and to Pacifica to learn to surf in the waters off its beaches, as well as took part in the nonprofit Queer Surf. At the prompting of their partner, Lyles returned to pursuing a marine science career and applied to the program at Stanford. There they founded the group BOSS for Black Ocean Stanford Scholars.
“There are more of us now, but there is a lot of room for improvement,” said Lyles.
bar in Chicago” and then when Ms. Ficcardi moved to the Bay Area.
Johnny Ficcardi, a straight ally, said in a phone interview that while the siblings fought as kids that changed when they got older.
“We grew to respect one another,” he said. “I grew to respect her as a person. She was very warm – very stern, but very warm.”
He added that he thought Ms. Ficcardi’s community in Oakland “made her a better person.”
“The White Horse brought out the best in her,” he said, adding that he thanked her friends and community members there.
Ms. Ficcardi came out at about 19, her brother said, and he was fine with it, as were her parents, though her mother took a little longer to accept it.
“We loved her,” Johnny Ficcardi said.
Jennifer Ficcardi, Ms. Ficcardi’s cousin, said that she’ll remember her sense of humor.
“I had that community as well,” she said.
Early life, family
Ms. Ficcardi was born February 27, 1967. She grew up on Chicago’s North Side, said her younger brother, Johnny Ficcardi, and Jennifer Morgan, Ms. Ficcardi’s best friend since high school. Ms. Ficcardi and Morgan, who lived about six blocks apart, met at Alvernia in Chicago, which was a Catholic all-girls school, Morgan said.
“She was always upbeat,” Morgan recalled, adding that she was also musical and liked to entertain.
Hanson said that Ms. Ficcardi played the piano “beautifully” and liked to sing.
Morgan, a straight ally who now lives in Wisconsin, said she and Ms. Ficcardi stayed in touch over the years, “when she worked at Sears, or at a gay
“The first thing that comes to mind is she was funny, sometimes inappropriately funny, which, in my opinion, made it funnier,” Jennifer Ficcardi said in a phone interview.
Jennifer Ficcardi, a straight ally, said that she felt Ms. Ficcardi “was a big part of the gay and lesbian community, and she was happy to be part of it. It was part of who she was.”
Stacy Flemm, another of Ms. Ficcardi’s cousins, said that she “should have been an entertainer.”
“It was just her,” Flemm, a straight ally, said in a phone interview.
Flemm, who lives in Indiana, also said that Ms. Ficcardi often put others ahead of herself. Flemm’s biggest regret, she said, was that she, her twin sister Kelly Hoefgen, and Jennifer Ficcardi didn’t make it out to the White Horse to see Ms. Ficcardi in her element.
Cousin Jeff Ficcardi, a straight ally who lives in Arizona, said that Ms. Ficcardi “was very outgoing, kind of the life of the party. She was always fun to be around.”
Kelly Hoefgen, a cousin who lives in Indiana, said Ms. Ficcadri “had a heart of gold.”
“She loved everybody,” Hoefgen, a straight ally, said.
Ms. Ficcardi was predeceased by her mother, Donna, and her father, Terry, and his wife Kathleen. In addition to Hanson, Young, Flemm, Hoefgen, Jeff Ficcardi, Johnny Ficcardi, and Jennifer Ficcardi, Ms. Ficcardi is survived by cousin Keith Ficcardi. Hanson said that there will be a celebration of Ms. Ficcardi’s life on or close to her birthday, with details to follow. t
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2025
White Horse bartender Catherine “Captain” Ficcardi
Courtesy Sarah Hanson
Mr. Baird is best known for spearheading the Coors Brewing Company boycott with Harvey Milk in the 1970s. He led the famous 1973 boycott of Coors beer because of the company’s then-homophobic and antiunion stances. Mr. Baird joined with Milk, then a gay political newcomer and Castro resident who would go on to win a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.
Even after Teamsters Local 888’s (beer delivery drivers) boycott of Coors ended in 1975, Mr. Baird continued to work with Milk – both successfully against the anti-LGBTQ Briggs initiative, Proposition 6, in 1978 that would have banned queer people and their supporters from teaching in California’s public schools, and for LGBTQ equality in the labor movement. For a time when American labor was often a bastion of social conservatism, Mr. Baird’s coalition-building did not go unnoticed by the LGBTQ community – especially in the LGBTQ neighborhood he has called home for so long.
(Local 921, which represented newspaper delivery workers, has since been merged with Local 853. Local 888 represented delivery drivers who at the time faced low wages, unionbusting, and employment discrimination. Local 2785 now represents food and liquor delivery drivers.)
Cleve Jones, a longtime gay activist who has known Mr. Baird since the 1970s, was with him when he died.
From page 1
The other prong of the settlement is that the process for removal of sexual orientation indicators on the discharge papers will be streamlined.
Pentagon reviews underway
As the Bay Area Reporter reported in 2023, the defense department has been proactively reviewing these records.
“We know correcting these records cannot fully restore the dignity taken from LGBTQ+ service members when they were expelled from the military,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks stated at a 2023 news conference. “It doesn’t completely heal the unseen wounds that were left. It doesn’t make people whole again, even for those many who received honorable discharges.”
From page 2
Two days later, Biden awarded Gill the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Gill was one of the first openly LGBTQ people on the Forbes 400 list of the country’s richest people. According to the Denver-based magazine 5280 , Gill is the largest single donor to the LGBTQ rights movement in U.S. history, donating $500 million of his own money, which he made through his work in computer software.
“He had a gentle passing,” Jones said. He also expressed thanks to Mr. Baird’s longtime caretaker, Jessie Gonzales.
Arenas said that Mr. Baird has left a lasting legacy.
“He had an immeasurable mark on our Teamsters union and the labor movement, and his work will live on through all of us,” Arenas said. “He was an inspiration to a lot of people.”
Jones had organized a rally in 2021 during Pride Month in June to honor Mr. Baird for his work on behalf of the LGBTQ community. Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro, presented a certificate to Mr. Baird outside his home, as the B.A.R. reported.
Mr. Baird’s wife, Helen, died in 2016.
“She was a strong lady,” Mr. Baird said outside his home at the rally. “Her and her brother owned a bar – believe it or not – in the Castro district in the 1950s and 1960s at Market and Laguna. She told me about different women entering the bar and didn’t know what was going on because they were kissing and hugging. She treated them terrific, and from that point more happened.”
Longtime friend Sue Englander, a bisexual woman who is retired from serving as political director of the California Faculty Association chapter at San Francisco State University, praised Mr. Baird’s union work.
“He was a model of what a trades unionist should be – activist, vital, and always committed,” Englander told the B.A.R.
According to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, last October, 851 cases had been reviewed over the past 12 months and 96.8% of them qualified for relief.
The switch to Defense Department review without service members having to apply for one had marked a change in federal policy; previously, people had to first apply for a correction to their military records before it would be reviewed. CBS News reported in 2023 that an unnamed Defense Department official said that after the initial review of records from the DADT era, the Pentagon was planning to look at the records of veterans who served before the policy was instituted.
Plaintiffs in the class action suit were pleased with the settlement agreement.
“My family has always valued service and sacrifice, and I was proud to follow in the footsteps of generations before
fight for marriage equality and antidiscrimination protections.”
Other Medal of Freedom honorees included the late attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-New York), former first lady, secretary of state, and senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York), U2’s Bono, and former basketball star Magic Johnson, who is HIVpositive and an advocate for HIV/ AIDS prevention.
Long advocate for equality
The B.A.R. had spoken with Mr. Baird several times over the last year or so. One of his last projects was working to get the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to change its name to better reflect that the union’s membership is not solely made up of men. The national organization has so far resisted such efforts.
In an interview in 2023, Mr. Baird attributed his support for equality across the spectrum of race, sex, and sexual orientation from his mother’s remarks after he danced with a girl at a picnic.
“She made me what I am,” he recalled. “We went to a picnic each year in Santa Rosa. I was there and a lot of the children my age were there, dancing with everyone. I came to my mother and she said, ‘You’re having a lot of fun.’ I said, ‘Her eyes are different from mine, they’re not as round.’ And she said, ‘She’s an Oriental girl and their eyes are different, but you should respect them. You’re not different from anybody else. Always respect women, especially young women.’ That stayed in my head.”
Mr. Baird said he also remembered Japanese- and German-owned businesses that were harassed on Castro Street during World War II; his family had moved to his current residence on Collingwood Street at that time.
It was during his time serving in the United States Army in Korea that he learned even more about racism, he said during the interview. Assigned to play in the band, due to a paperwork mix up, he was temporarily assigned to a mostlyBlack, mostly-Southern unit in an era
me by enlisting in the U.S. Navy,” stated veteran Lilly Steffanides.
“When I joined in 1988, I was determined to serve my country with honor,” Steffanides continued. “However, the discriminatory policies of the time led to my unjust discharge, stripping me of my dignity and access to the benefits I earned. This settlement is not just about correcting records; it’s about restoring the honor and pride that LGBTQ+ veterans have always deserved but were denied. I hope this brings justice to others who served with courage, only to face exclusion and discrimination.”
Another plaintiff, Jules Sohn, is a Marine Corps veteran.
“Growing up, I learned the value of service from my parents and I knew I wanted to serve the public, both in the military and beyond,” Sohn stated. “As a Marine, I was proud to stand alongside my fellow service members, embracing
when the army had only recently been ordered desegregated.
“I was the only white man in that band,” Mr. Baird said. “They said, ‘We’ll show you the letters we get from our parents.’ Some were murdered, homes burned down. Nothing but violence. It’s horrible.”
After being sent home due to illness, Mr. Baird recuperated in Sacramento before returning to the city and getting a job with the San Francisco Chronicle, where he held a union job aiding in newspaper delivery. When he had an issue he contacted the union, which corrected it, and after that he became more and more involved with the local, eventually becoming president and business agent.
Mr. Baird met Milk in the early 1970s when the latter was starting to make a name for himself as the “Mayor of Castro Street,” running for supervisor and once for state Assembly.
“I was walking down Castro with my wife and this guy said, ‘I want you to meet him,’ and I said, ‘Who is him?’ and he said, ‘He’s a politician running for office, and I understand you are into politics,’” Mr. Baird recalled. “I said, ‘I’m not into it much,’ and he said, ‘He wants to help the people. He’s for everyone, not just the gays. He’s for every faith.’ And he was right.”
Mr. Baird had his first conversation with Milk in Milk’s Castro Camera store.
“He talked to me about all the things he wanted to do to make the Castro better and San Francisco better,” Mr. Baird said. “He said, ‘There’s not going to be any discrimination in San Francisco when I get finished.’”
the core values of honor, courage, and commitment. However, the pain and injustice of being discharged under discriminatory policies like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ have lingered for years. This settlement represents not just a recognition of those wrongs but a step toward ensuring that no service member ever faces such prejudice again.”
The 31-page settlement agreement can be viewed online.
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are Chelsea Corey of Haynes and Boone, LLP; Jocelyn Larkin, Lindsay Nako, Lori Rifkin, Fawn Rajbhandari-Korr, and Meredith Dixon of the Impact Fund; Elizabeth Kristen and Lynnette Miner of Legal Aid at Work; and David Willingham, Radha Manthe, and Rachel Yeung of King & Spalding LLP.
Lori Rifkin, a spokesperson for the Impact Fund, expects the team will
It was the beginning of a cooperative relationship between the straight union man and the gay civil rights icon. Tragically, Milk and then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall by disgruntled ex-supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978.
In 1973, Mr. Baird took charge of a union strike against Bay Area beer distributors, including the Coors Brewing Company. Baird reached out to his neighbor, Milk, to build a coalition. Coors also had a 178-question employment application form, as Nancy Wohlforth explained in 2017 on the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ website.
“One question demanded: ‘Are you a homosexual?’ If you answered ‘yes,’ that terminated your application,” she stated. “Another demanded: ‘Are you pro-union?’ If you answered ‘yes,’ that terminated you, too.”
The successful boycott ended in the mid-1980s. (In some circles, the Coors boycott has never really ended, and it was only in more recent years that the Molson-Coors Company, as it’s now known, began enacting more LGBTQfriendly policies for workers. It scored 70% on the national Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for 2025, down from 73% in 2023, according to the report.)
In honoring Mr. Baird in 2021 with a certificate signed by all 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mandelman noted that Mr. Baird “forever changed” the perspective of the labor movement on the matter of LGBTQ acceptance. t
know more in about a month. A status conference in court is scheduled for January 22 and the motion for preliminary approval of settlement is currently set to be heard on February 12, Rifkin wrote in an email.
The Justice and Defense departments didn’t return immediate requests for comment by press time.
Transgender people had also been banned from serving in the military but that policy was reversed in 2016 by the late then-defense secretary Ash Carter, who served under Obama. However, then-president and now presidentelect Donald Trump reinstituted the trans military ban after he took office in 2017. President Joe Biden issued an executive order rescinding that ban in January 2021. It is expected Trump will reinstate the ban when he returns to office January 20. t
Others who received the Citizens Medals were: the late civil rights attorney Louis Lorenzo Redding; war photographer Bobby Sager; the late Delaware judge Collins J. Seitz; women’s rights advocate Eleanor Smeal; the late Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, a victim of World War II-era internment of Japanese Americans; Thomas J. Vallely, who worked for U.S.-Vietnamese cultural understanding; Frances M. Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition; and Paula S. Wallace, who established the Savannah College of Art and Design. t << Biden
“Gill is a visionary entrepreneur whose work has advanced LGBTQI rights and equality,” the White House stated. “After transforming the publishing industry through groundbreaking software, he leveraged his success to secure key victories in the
Business Briefing
They hope to see more Black LGBTQIA+ individuals choose a career in marine science as it provides a way for them “to connect deeply with themselves, their communities, and the planet,” noted Lyles.
“Marine sciences offer more than just an academic or professional path – it’s a space where our identities can intersect with the healing, vastness, and freedom that water represents,” they noted. “Diving into this field allows us to reclaim
Citizens Medals were presented to former senator and presidential candidate Bill Bradley (D-New Jersey); Dr. Frank Butler Jr., who set new standards for tourniquet use; former Senator Chris Dodd (DConnecticut); Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; the late war reporter Joseph L. Galloway; former
narratives, explore ancestral connections, and challenge societal norms about who belongs in these spaces.” Moore also has long felt connected to the ocean. She earned a B.S. in biology from Winthrop University and a M.S. in biology with a concentration in environmental science from Hampton University.
“I feel free when in the ocean, especially scuba diving,” said Moore. “Nobody is talking to me and saying, ‘You are Black and don’t belong.’ There is a freedom there being one with the water. I feel an ancestral connection.”
senator Nancy Kassenbaum (R-Kansas); former senator Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware), who’d replaced Biden in the Senate in 2009; and gun safety advocate Carolyn McCarthy.
Through BIMS, Moore is able to talk to Black parents who may have concerns about their children becoming marine scientists. A large aspect of the profession is field work, which can have them aboard research vessels and ocean-going boats for weeks to months at a time, raising questions about how Black team members will be treated by their colleagues, noted Moore. “I often get asked, ‘Is it safe for us to go on board with these people for a long amount of time?’ The answer now is, ‘Yes.’ Before, I couldn’t say,” said Moore. “We are removing these barriers that had
been in place for a very long time.”
At the end of the day, Moore wants other Black people who love the ocean and want to preserve it to be able to get paid for working at the beach like she does.
“This is not a bad field; it is just that people made me feel I didn’t belong. Hopefully, nobody else has to experience that and nobody else will,” said Moore.
To learn more about BIMS and become a member, visit its website at blackmarinescience.org. t
Correction Last month’s column should have stated that Alexander Nurseries coowners John Alexander and Jai Alltizer rent their Golden Gate Heights home and that Alexander grew up in Durham, North Carolina. The online version has been updated.
Got a tip on LGBTQ business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email m.bajko@ ebar.com.
Evan Wolfson, left, and Mary Bonauto arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2013, where they were joined by then-San Francisco chief deputy city attorney Therese Stewart, right, who is now a California appellate justice.
Bill Wilson
by David-Elijah Nahmod
Kathy Griffin has been to hell and back. The legendary comic had to lay low for a few years after having survived a series of misfortunes that might have broken the spirits of a weaker person. Griffin dealt with a bout of lung cancer which resulted in the removal of half a lung and a permanent change in the sound of her voice.
She has gone through a divorce. She became addicted to pills, which led to a suicide attempt. Most notable she was fired by CNN, where she used to co-host the network’s New Year’s Eve coverage with former friend Anderson Cooper. She was also investigated by the US government after she published a photo of herself holding up a bloodied, mock Donald Trump head. This got her put onto the no-fly list and unable to work for several years.
But Griffin has bounced back. Now cancerfree and able to fly, she is touring in a new show titled “My Life on the PTSD List.” In her show, Griffin speaks candidly about all she’s been through, finding humor in the worst of situations. Her fans have not deserted her. She is playing to sell-out crowds wherever she goes and will be playing The Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco on January 18.
Griffin was kind enough to take a few minutes from her busy schedule to talk to the Bay Area Reporter about the things that happened to her, and about her new show. She even showed her serious side.
David-Elijah Nahmod: Hi Kathy, how are you doing these days?
Kathy Griffin: I can’t believe I’m doing a show
at the beloved, iconic Masonic on January 18, two days before the inauguration. I mean, it’s the story of my life, what can I tell you? Timing is everything, and mine couldn’t be better. If I were you, I’d run, don’t walk, to get a ticket to my show because it’s our last two days until
The High Princx Pageant
by Jim Gladstone
The fourth annual High Princx pageant, a polymorphous drag extravaganza so grand it takes two nights, will take over Oasis on January 18 and 25. In a bit of allegorical fabulousness, this year’s dates straddle a presidential inauguration while thrusting San Francisco queer values into the spotlight.
Established in 2022 by Tito Soto, Oasis’ event producer and the founder of Princess, the club’s enormously popular Saturday night show, the pageant is as much a celebration as a competition.
“When I started doing drag myself,” said Soto in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, “I was doing something which was unique at that point, forging my own path with a malepresenting drag persona.”
Soto, who has cited KISS, Freddie Mercury, and Elton John as early inspirations, first made his mark in Los Angeles’ Silverlake and Downtown scenes (After studying architecture at Cornell University he moved to LA, where he worked as a theme park designer).
But after coming to San Francisco gigs in the late 2010s, he felt an instant chemistry with the city’s wildly expressive genderqueer drag scene.
“It kind of blew my mind,” said Soto, who ultimately moved here post-pandemic and came aboard full-time at Oasis, “San Francisco is where I needed to be to flourish.”
The High Princx Pageant further exalts the weekly Princess parties’ commitment to full-spectrum queerness and diversity within diversity.
None of the three winners to date – Tyson
Kathy Griffin’s ‘Life on the PTSD List’
Legendary comic finds humor in her misfortunes
our country is taken over by fascism. Kiss your civil rights goodbye, honey. Gay marriage, gone. Trans in the military, gone. Gay people being safe walking down the street. I really worry about the safety of the community with this next administration. I don’t talk about any of that in
my act. I shouldn’t even have led with that, but I’m talking to you and it’s on my mind, and so I want folks to know. Come to my show and blow off some steam.
‘Dragcula’
The queerest vampire show you’ll ever see
by David-Elijah Nahmod
“Listen to them, the children of the night, What music they make.” Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931)
Coming to Oasis beginning on January 16 is what may be the scariest, funniest the venerable club has offered to date. “Dragcula” will be a comic adaptation of the 1931 vampire film classic cast entirely with queer and trans performers. The show promises to take the audience back to the 1930s by presenting “Dragcula” in living greyscale, meaning that everything on stage will be grey, with the exception of Dracula’s favorite snack, blood. The grey colors are meant to recreate the feel of movies that were made in the early 1930s,
when films were almost universally in black and white. The producers want the audience to feel as though an old horror movie were actually unfolding before them, albeit with jokes that they’ll quote on their way home. The show will run from the 16 until February 1, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7pm.
Queer new bite
“Dracula” was born in 1897, when Bram Stoker wrote his legendary vampire novel. The creepy book was a best seller and was successfully adapted for the stage in 1927, when a B list actor named Bela Lugosi took Broadway by storm with his highly stylized performance as the thirsty count.
Lugosi reprised his role in Universal Pictures’ film adaptation of the play and became an
Tito Soto
Distinctive drag at Oasis
Dominic Saavedra
Mudd the TwoSpirit & Polly Amber Ross aka Chris Steele in ‘Dragcula’
Kayleigh Shawn
For your consideration
by Victoria A. Brownworth
Hollywood’s foreign press set off awards season January 5, and a myriad of bad fashion choices, with the Golden Globes. We usually avoid these shows as they always run too long, and become irate if actors of color are shut out. Also, why is the patter written for presenters always so terrible?
But in recent years there has been a plethora of LGBTQ actors nominated and presenting and that has lured us in, as it did for the Golden Globes. We were not disappointed.
The big winner of the night was “Emilia Perez,” the second mostnominated film in Golden Globe history, with ten nominations and four wins at the 82nd annual ceremony, including Best Motion Picture; Musical or Comedy (the first time a nonEnglish-language film won the category) and Best Foreign Language Film.
Zoe Saldaña won for Best Female Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Best Original Song won for “El Mal.”
Trans actress Karla Sofia Gascón also became the first trans woman to be nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture; Musical or Comedy.
“Emilia Perez” was also named one of the top 10 films of 2024 by the American Film Institute, and was selected as the French entry for Best International Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
gown, Gascón said, “I chose these colors tonight – the Buddhist colors – because I have a message for you.
The light always wins over darkness.
You can put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you can never take away our soul or our resistance or our identity.
It was a pretty stunning series of wins. Director Jacques Audiard, who does not speak English, turned the stage over to Gascón to speak on the film and she gave a heartfelt message about inclusion.
Wearing an orange and yellow
So, you don’t talk about Trump in this new show?
I don’t talk about Trump in this new show. I mention the head picture for like thirty seconds, but I talk about other shit. I want to give all of San Francisco – let’s not kid each other, it’s going to be a gay audience – let me give you guys some laughter. Two hours, I don’t have an opening act, so be on time because it’s just me. If I’m a good girl, I’ll do two hours and if I’m a bad girl, I’ll do two hours and fifteen.
I want to say to you, raise your voice and say that I won, I am who I am, not who you want [me to be].”
It was extraordinary. In her speech earlier in the night, Saldaña acknowledged Gascón, saying, “I’m also sharing [this award] with you, Karla. No one other than you could have played Emilia Pérez.”
Other high points of the night included what is sure to be seen as an iconic speech by Demi Moore, who Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for “The Substance.”
Moore spoke to what happens
You have a lot of things to have PTSD about.
Honey, it’s a laundry list. It’s the Trump head picture, 75 percent of my friends ditched me and never came back. I was fired by CNN, my beloved New Year’s Eve gig which I really enjoyed doing, then I got addicted to prescription pills. I tried to take my life, I was on a 51/50 psych hold for three days, then I got sober right after that.
I’m now 4 ½ years sober, and a year after I got sober I got lung cancer, even though I never smoked. So they took out half my left lung, and then I
to women aging out in Hollywood (though she looks spectacular at 62). She said in part, “In those moments when we don’t think we are smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough, or basically just not enough, I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.’” Amen.
And Jodie Foster, who won for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture: Television, has been making movies for more than a half century. She spoke about authenticity and thanked her wife, “And the love of my life, Alex. Thank you, forever.”
There were also queer presenters, including Ariana DeBose and Ayo Edebiri from “The Bear.” Alas, there were also a host of terrible dresses to comment on, to which we will only say, stop dressing large actresses in ridiculous outfits and stop dressing
got injured during the surgery by the surgeon. I had a voice like Minnie Mouse for three years, which as a comic will fuck with your head, did fuck with my head. And just about three months ago I had a miraculous surgery by a female surgeon. She put an implant in my left vocal cord, which had become permanently paralyzed when I had my lung cancer surgery. So, I feel like I got my life back overnight, even though it’s been seven years of struggle. Oh, and I’m also just about divorced, so I would like to be the new Golden Bachelorette. In the first episode I just sleep with every contestant!
older actresses in dresses you would never make a younger woman wear. It’s disrespectful and just plain unkind. Spell on you
Many of our favorite series are back with new seasons in January. Among them is “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” on AMC which premiered January 5.
Neurosurgeon Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario) has a problem. When she gets mad, she kills with her mind. Her search for answers sends her to New Orleans, home to her biological family and the spirit Lasher (Jack Huston), a powerful, shapeshifting entity who has been bound to the Mayfair witches for centuries and has haunted them for generations.
Ciprien (Sip) Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa), a devoted agent to the Talamasca, is assigned to protect Rowan. He soon realizes he’s in way over his head as secrets are revealed that could
tarnish Rowan’s family and his role in the Talamasca.
Rowan is determined to use Lasher’s powers to fulfill her purpose as a healer, but when tragedy strikes, she must put aside her own desires and fight to save her family. With Harry Hamlin as Cortland Mayfair, the current Mayfair patriarch, Ben Feldman as Sam Larkin, Rowan’s former boyfriend who is the CEO of a genetics startup and Alyssa Jirrels as Moira Mayfair, Rowan’s cousin who is a mind reader. It’s compelling viewing, on AMC and Hulu.
Some other queer-forward series that are back this month that you want to check out and/or return to are “XO, Kitty” and “The Traitors.” Also, queer comedian Lisa Treyger’s first hourlong stand-up special, “Night Owl” is set to premiere globally on Netflix on January 28.t
Read the full column on www.ebar.com.
How do you find humor in things like that?
Because I have found, and if there’s one takeaway from the show I want people to get, it’s that I’ve been down there. I’ve been down the lowest of the low and even in those moments if you somehow just say to yourself, okay, maybe not now, maybe at this moment I can’t find anything to laugh about at this fucked-up situation. But someday I’m going to be with my buddies, or I’m going to be thinking of something, and I’m going to involuntarily laugh, and then you start to find humor in stuff.
And honestly, that has just saved my life. And looking for the odd thing that maybe you didn’t notice at first, and I just have to laugh at myself. And I invite the audience to laugh at my PTSD with me. And by the way, I think America has a kind of collective PTSD right now. I mean seriously, everything from Covid to Trumpism. Like I said, the rights of the community being seriously at stake, I think it’s time for us to get together, form a sense of community and the one thing I can do to contribute to it is to make you guys laugh.
You were also investigated by the government. What did they investigate you for?
They were trying to charge me with conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States because of the Trump photo. That’s never happened in the history of this country, much less to a comedian.
Even the great Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin, and I’m not putting myself in their class, even those guys were investigated by local authorities, the cops. I was investigated by the president himself, the attorney general of the United States, two agencies within the Department of Justice, the US attorney’s office and the Secret Service. These are the feds, so I had the feds at my door.
It’s interesting whether or not I would stay in America with Trump winning a second term, number one, of course I’m going to stay. I’m not going to let him chase me out, but number two, I’ve had the feds at my door. So the Secret Service would
call me, and every time I said something about Trump that was negative, and I’m being kind, but anyway, the original thing was the picture of the decapitated head.
Which really was just a Halloween mask, and I put one of my wig holders behind it because it kept folding, and then I put a bunch of ketchup on it and held it up, and I put a very stoic look on my face so everyone would know I was doing a parody. And you know, he did not enjoy that. Maxine Waters told me that the picture scared the shit out of him. I think that’s great, that was the intention. t
‘Kathy Griffin: My Life on the PTSD List,’ January 18, 8pm, Masonic Auditorium, 1111 California Street, $52-$119. www.sfmasonic.com www.kathygriffin.net
<< Kathy Griffin
From page 11
Kathy Griffin
Jen Rosenstein
Left to Right: Demi Moore, Karla Sofia Gascón and Jodie Foster at the Golden Globes
All photos: CBS
Alexandra Daddario in ‘Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches’
‘The Room Next Door’
by Brian Bromberger
Considered Spain’s greatest living film director, and one of the world’s foremost queer auteurs, Pedro Almodóvar has made his first fulllength English language film (though he made a queer cowboy love story in last year’s short “Strange Way of Life”) in “The Room Next Door (Sony Classic Pictures).” But it’s hardly a typical Almodóvar film, lacking his trademark melodrama, byzantine plots, irreverent humor, sexual transgression, and excessive kitsch/camp. It’s uncharacteristically straightforward and stylistically austere.
Almodóvar continues to deal with issues of mortality and reflecting back on one’s life. However, in “Room” he tackles death head on, which might account for the film’s soberness.
He’s only intermittently successful, yet even with such serious fare, his gay sensibility doesn’t waver and his obsession with beauty and pleasure still burns bright. At the heart of it, Almodovar asks the intriguing but uncomfortable question; how much are we willing to do for a friend?
Reconnecting
Celebrated autofiction novelist
Ingrid (Julianne Moore) at a book signing, learns that a former friend/ journalism colleague Martha (Tilda Swinton) has cancer and decides to visit her. They haven’t been in contact in years, but were close in their twenties when they worked at the same magazine.
They reconnect, with Martha
Check-In, Kai Kai Bee Michaels, and Sassi Fran – have conformed to old school “man dressed as a woman” drag queen conventions.
That’s by coincidence, said Soto. But it speaks to the range of participants who are welcome under the High Princx tent.
The rules of en-gag-ment
Only seasoned Bay Area performers with a minimum of five years’ drag are invited to participate in the pageant. The 2025 contestants are Delilah Befierce, Jeté Guevara, Jota Mercury, Mary Vice, Mojo Carter, Pangaea, Sadie Creekwood, and Vicki Cristina
Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film’s stylistically austere
sharing her life story as a war correspondent and as a young mother to a daughter Michelle with whom she’s now estranged. Martha has stage three cervical cancer and hopes an experimental treatment will be effective.
As time progresses, the treatment fails and Martha, not wanting to die an agonizing death, buys an illegal pill on the Dark Web, she can use to kill herself. “Cancer can’t get me if I get me first,” she reasons.
She asks the death-phobic Ingrid if she will help her, just being in the room next door. She’s planned every detail, so as to end her life on her own terms. Martha will leave a note for the police, to avoid any suspicion anyone helped her, but doesn’t want a stranger discovering her body. She will sleep with the door ajar, but when she ac-
Barcelona.
As in years past, they will face off in four categories: Creative Presentation, a Met Galaesque runway show in which participants each offer their own take on a pre-announced theme (This year’s is High Camp); Q & A, in which queries can range from silly to serious; Lip Sync Battles, with competitor pairings and song selection; Talent Presentation, in which each contestant and a retinue of back-up performer deliver a blow-out production number of their own devising, complete with video, props, and special effects as they see fit.
The first three events will be held on Saturday, Jan. 18, with the Talent
tually takes her life, the door will be closed, so Ingrid will know when the end has arrived.
Martha doesn’t want to die in her Fifth Avenue apartment, but rents a modern country house near upstate woodsy Woodstock with a picture postcard view. Ingrid must decide if she will help Martha. She consults a former lover Damian (a stalwart John Turturro), who was previously Martha’s boyfriend, now a pessimistic lecturer on the impending doom of climate change.
Restraining
The film’s pro-euthanasia position is based on Almodóvar’s loose adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel “What Are You Going Through?” There’s an inevitability here with few surprises,
Presentation and award ceremony following a week later.
This year, for the second time, audience members will vote for the winner of a “Fan Favorite Award,” entering their choices when they purchase tickets online with a promo code.
Getting judgy
Snaxx, another member of the Oasis team, and a past competitor in other drag pageants, as well as performing in multiple ‘Rocky Horror Show’s, is part of this year’s High Princx judging panel. She told the Bay Area Reporter that the first night’s opening competitions reveal a lot about contestants’ character and skills:
“The Creative Presentation is interesting because you get to learn about the contestant’s personal perspective on things. Everyone is working from the same overarching theme, so you get a sense of how their minds work in interpreting it.
“Some people think of Q&A as a throwaway at pageants, but it’s something I love watching and listening to, because there’s no real way to prepare for it. It reveals a lot about who you are. Being an experienced performer who knows how to use a microphone, is comfortable on stage, and can speak well off the top of your head isn’t something you can manufacture. You can’t throw money at it like you can for a look. It’s not about having better collaborators.”
depriving the movie from being compelling. Room feels primarily like a dialogue between Martha and Ingrid talking about death, so it easily could’ve been a stage play. This might account for the film’s sterile, almost clinical detachment of the subject matter. The dialogue is rather wooden and abstract, almost like reading a hospital case study.
“Room” lacks the histrionics, over-the-top, wild emotionality of Almodóvar’s previous films. While there are a few flashbacks (though none with the younger Martha and Ingrid together), the film could actually have used some surrealism, musical number, or re-envisioning it as a mock soap opera, both to lighten and heighten the desperation of their situation. It’s too subdued and restrained, but the film has poignant scenes, where Ingrid is able to listen and be present to Martha, asking what she’s going through at that moment, accompanying her on this final journey.
You can’t get more melodramatic than having to decide whether to help your friend kill herself, so the topic would seem tailor made for Almodóvar’s theatricality, yet that’s what’s missing here, as is any sense of pathos or real conflict. It’s never a question of if but only when.
Somehow transferring from Spanish to English, Almodóvar’s controlled zaniness has been lost, leaving only somberness, such that the biggest laugh comes when Ingrid mistakenly thinks Martha has already killed herself.
Regarding the final Talent Presentations, Snaxx tipped her hat to Soto:
“Tito inspires other drag performers to take a dream that they can’t imagine turning into reality and just going for it. He makes you want to do your best job, take advantage of all the technology we have available at Oasis, make your most authentic art and do something incredible that people are going to remember.
“I think that ultimately, putting together that presentation for the pageant is more about winning a battle within yourself than beating anybody else. And the bar is set really high.”
A winning perspective
The 2023 High Princx winner, Kai Kai Bee Michaels, who describes herself as AFAB (assigned female at birth) acknowledges that the attention she garnered from the pageant led to increases in her bookings and fees, but that the event’s most important as-
Ambivalence
What “Room” shares with Almodóvar’s previous movies is his perennial theme of women overcoming adversity and close female relationships. It’s the progressive intimate bond between Ingrid and Martha, that makes Road work, even marginally. Both Moore and Swinton are at the peak of their craft and are sensational together, carrying the film’s weight. It’s fascinating that both actresses owe their movie careers to gay directors who discovered them: Derek Jarman for Swinton and Todd Haynes for Moore. Now the gay Almodóvar has united them.
Swinton’s elegant alabaster Sphinxlike face registers a myriad of emotions, remaining frail yet vital, in her ambivalence on surrendering the life she loves. Moore has the harder, less showy role of providing support without revealing how upset she really is or agitating Ingrid.
Almodóvar’s gay sensibility comes out in the eye popping bright bold colors in the idiosyncratic cinematography and costume designs creating his typical visual splendor, reinforcing the film’s argument for life, to savor every moment we share with those we love. For all its faults, he still manages to create a movie about death that retains the joy of being alive and watching Swinton/ Moore’s astonishing performances.t
‘The Room Next Door’ opens Jan. 9 at Alamo Drafthouse, 2550 Mission St. www.sonyclassics.com
pects are rooted in community more than competition.
“If you’re a part of this little world,” she said, “You pretty much know all of the other performers. I feel a little sad if someone in the drag community is too focused on winning a pageant. Look, the ego is there. But when I see all the work people put into their numbers, I relate to them all.
“I see people who I look up to put their all into it, last year I got to watch Raya Light compete, and she’s a legend to me. And then I have those proud Mama Bear feelings watching people I knew as babies. We live in this hyper-individualistic society, and I think our drag community is a wonderful microcosm of what collaborative community care can look like.”t
The High Princx Pageant 2025, Jan. 18 and 25. 10pm. $23-$56. Oasis. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com
<< Princx Pageant
From page 11
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in ‘The Room Next Door’ Sony Classic Pictures
Contestants and judges in the 2025 High Princx Pageant
Chantel Minky Beam
Left: Snaxx Right: Kai Kai Bee Michaels
Rachel Z Facebook
One Night Only with ‘Some Like it Hot’
by David-Elijah Nahmod
J anuary 20 will be a special night for lovers of musical theater and cabaret. The Richmond Ermet Aid Foundation, a non-profit which raises critical funds for people living with HIV and other chronic illnesses, will stage a very special musical evening at the Marines Memorial Theater. Gracing the stage will be cast members from the Broadway touring company of “Some Like it Hot,” along with local cabaret legends Jason Brock and Paula West.
In addition to the performances, there will be an auction during the show. According to Ken Henderson, REAF’s executive director, the evening’s beneficiaries will be Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and REAF’s Small Emergency Grants program.
“Many of these Broadway touring casts don’t know who REAF is, but they all know who Broadway Cares is so they are much more likely to say yes to participating in these benefits,” Henderson wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. “Broadway Cares’ mission aligns very well with REAF’s except they provide support nationwide.”
Singing assistance
Matt Loehr, who plays Joe in “Some Like it Hot,” the role played by Tony Curtis in the classic 1959 film, feels that it’s very important to continue to raise funds for HIV/AIDS service organizations, because the virus is still very much with us.
“To be blunt, it’s not the death sentence that it was when I was first growing up, which is a blessing,” Loehr said in an interview with the B.A.R. “But it is still quite serious, so awareness
is paramount as well as continuing to raise funds for organizations that provide so many services to people living with HIV and AIDS who would otherwise not be able to afford those services. Medication, food and housing, to name a few.”
Loehr added that he knows all too well how important Broadway Cares is to the Broadway community.
“I have friends who are HIV-positive who have received great help from Broadway Cares, certainly,”
Loehr said. “But I will say that I have been incredibly lucky in that I came of age when drugs like AZT were already saving and prolonging lives so I very fortunately did not watch anyone suffer early on when the virus first appeared and was wreaking devastating havoc.
Loehr enjoys being part of benefits, which he feels are a fun way to give back to communities. And he’s
and acting in movies, on TV and in video games, as well as performing concerts. But his stay in Japan wasn’t fated to be permanent.
“I couldn’t get my Visa renewed, and I thought it might be a good time to go back to America anyway,” he said.
“I wasn’t getting the career growth in entertainment that I had been hoping for. Although I did do some pretty cool stuff looking back. One of my TV commercials is still running right now in Japan.”
Brock’s history with REAF goes back twenty years, and he appreciates the work they do and the way they do it. He also appreciates the support he’s gotten from them over the years even before he was on TV. Like Loehr, he understands the importance of standing up for the community and helping others.
doing it through a medium he loves, song and dance. But he declined to reveal exactly what he’ll be doing at the REAF benefit.
“I can’t quite say because something I’m cooking up with a few people would best be served as a surprise,” he said. “You have to be there.”
Brock & roll
Brock also declined to say much about his REAF performance, though he did throw a little humor into his interview.
“As far as I know I’m just singing, something big,” he told the BAR. “I offered to strip, but REAF said that would hurt sales.”
Brock recently returned to the USA after a lengthy stay in Japan, where he got a bachelor’s degree in political science and attended a Japanese language school. Eventually he found work as a teacher, while also singing
<< Dragcula From page 11
instant movie star. The film was a smash hit and launched Universal as the premiere producer of monster movies like “Frankenstein” (1931), “The Mummy” (1932), and “Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), a grisly epic which also starred Lugosi. The actor became typecast and until his death in 1956, he essayed one horror role after another.
“Dracula” became a favorite among moviegoers, with the story being remade dozens of times. And now the latest adaptation comes to Oasis.
According to Chris Steele, producer and director of the Oasis production, “Dracula” has its roots in queerness.
“Bram Stoker began writing it just one month after his flamboyant queer colleague Oscar Wilde was jailed for indecency,” Steele said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “Dracula is a flamboyant, charismatic, foreigner who makes people reckon with their most repressed desires. With the politics of the world at the moment, we want to create a show where people unleash their inner vampire, where they feel empowered to embrace even the weirdest, most taboo parts of themselves. We’re building a show where the things that make a character an other actually make them more powerful than sticking to the status quo.”
Author to author
According to Steele, there’s been a lot of speculation over the years regarding Stoker’s own queerness.
“The novel really feels like he’s struggling to reconcile with what is publicly acceptable and what the heart wants, which is something every queer person has to do sometime in their life,” said Steele. “Stoker even wrote a series of very intimate letters to revolutionary gay icon Walt Whitman that basically equated to the ye olde equivalent of a Grindr profile description, gave his weight, height, and even described his very full lips. We can’t know for sure but I’d say that guy was at least bi.”
ing from issues caused by AIDS,” he said. “But I also think it’s important that REAF has widened their mission to include other types of aid for our community.”
The singer, well known for his powerful pipes, invites the public to come to the show and enjoy an evening of great music.
“I hope they’ll leave happy and satisfied by the level and quality of entertainment they saw and heard,” he said. “But it would be great if people leave feeling touched in some deep way with a new understanding of issues affecting our community. And if they happen to get touched in some other way, with consent, even better!”t
“I think it’s important to raise money for AIDS related organizations because some people are still suffer-
‘One Night Only’ with the cast of ‘Some Like It Hot, ‘January 20, Marines Memorial Theater, 7:30pm, 609 Sutter St. $45-$100. www.reaf-sf.org
Since this is first and foremost a drag show, audiences can expect male characters like Dracula and Van Helsing the vampire hunter to be played by local drag performers, most of whom are trans or nonbinary. Bay Area icon Mudd the Two Spirit will be playing the count, and they’ll be going toe to toe with cosplay drag legend KaiKai Bee Michaels as Van Velsing.
Blatant kink
“It’s top tier talent across the cast, playing with gender and lampooning ideas of what’s proper and presentable in society,” said Steele. “Drag transcends gender. I feel really lucky to get to work with a cast of absolute drag superstars.”
The novel and the Lugosi film won’t be the only things getting the once over in the show. SoMa’s kink subculture has found its way into the script.
“So much of the comedy of this show is just us exposing and being blatant about the kink relationships in the novel,” Steele said. “Dracula is everyone’s Dom, Renfield (Dracula’s servant) is a bratty bottom into degradation. Van Helsing is an expert on
the paranormal, and a noted shibari power top. Where else can you see a production of ‘Dracula’ that calls Dr. Seward a beta cuck and regularly refers to Dracula as daddy?”
Steele added that it’s not necessary to see the Lugosi film in order to appreciate this show.
“We are telling the whole story of Dracula,” Steele said. “You don’t even need to know who Dracula is to have fun at this show. But if you’re a horror cinephile like me, or love the original Gothic novel, then you’re gonna get an extra layer of funny. The cast is already discussing the newly released Eggers’ ‘Nosferatu’ and there’s jokes about that in the show too. Oasis is a place that celebrates decadence even in the darkest corners of the disco-lit dance floor. We want the audience to get into it. Come in your best Gothic garb. Pull out your puff sleeves, your ball gowns, your capes and top coats and come scream with us.”t
‘Dragcula’, January 16-February 1, Thursdays-Saturdays, 7pm, Oasis, 298 11th St. $38.90-$60.40, 21+ only https://www.sfoasis.com/
Performers at a recent REAF benefit concert
Steven Underhill
Left: Matt Loehr Right: Jason Brock at a recent REAF benefit concert
Justin Patterson Steven Underhill
Left to Right: Vanilla Meringue, Polly Amber Ross aka Chris Steele, Chester Vanderbox aka Nic Sommerfeld, & Mudd the TwoSpirit in ‘Dragcula’
Kayleigh Shawn
Poetry reading list for the new year
by Gregg Shapiro
The winsome truths of lyrical poetry may be helpful in getting us into the future. Among the recents releases are the groundbreaking anthology “Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology” (The Library of America, 2024).
Not only is the expansive and essential compilation edited by gay poet and educator Rigoberto Gonzalez, but it also features a vast and impressive array of LGBTQ poets including Richard Blanco, Natalie Diaz, Dan Vera, Francisco Aragón, Blas Falconer, Gloria Anzaldúa, Jaime Manrique, Eduardo C. Corral, Miguel Piñero, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Rafael Campo, Emanuel Xavier, Oliver Baez Bendorf, Rane Arroyo, and Christopher Soto.
“Old Stranger: Poems” (Alice James Books, 2024), is the sixth poetry collection, and the first in 10 years by award-winning lesbian poet Joan Larkin. Separated into four sections, these poems, which include a series of ekphrastic pieces, feel like reflections of a life lived from the perspective of a wise and worldly octogenarian.
“Woke Up No Light” (Knopf, 2024), the debut poetry collection by Leila Mottley, a Lambda Literary Award finalist and former Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, California, is as raw and visceral as the times in which we find ourselves. Illuminated by poems about reparations, the death of Elijah McClain, celebrities, the journey from girlhood to womanhood, sexuality, and much more. The collection even includes the wonderful “After Want by Joan Larkin,” reinforcing the previously mentioned poet’s far-reaching influence.
In his book-length elegy “Impossible Things” (Duke University Press, 2024), trans poet Miller Oberman explores “intergenerational grief,” from the perspectives of being a trans child and a father, incorporating his late father’s unpublished memoir. The result is a deeply personal examination of the impacts on family and loss.
“Letters to Forget: Poems” (Knopf, 2024) by the late trans poet Kelly Caldwell and “Your Dazzling Death: Poems” (Knopf, 2024) by queer, nonbinary poet Cass Donish, Caldwell’s widow, are companion pieces. The
child of Christian missionaries, Caldwell’s life was full of personal struggles, a recurring theme in her poetry. Donish’s book of poetry, their third, was written following Caldwell’s suicide at age 31 in March 2020, resulting in a shattering reading experience.
“The Pinko Commie Dyke” (Indolent Books, 2024) by Julie R. Enszer, with illustrations by Isabel Clare Paul, is subtitled “Poems From a Leftist Lesbian Cabal.” Each of the 36
poems includes the collection’s title, followed by a verb, as in the case of “The Pinko Commie Dyke Infiltrates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Demonstrates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Cultivates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Ejaculates,” “The Pinko Commie Dyke Hijacks,” and so on.
While not queer herself, celebrated novelist and poet Margaret Atwood has included LGBTQ characters in her work, most notably in
2003’s “Oryx and Crake.” However, years before her 1969 debut novel, and her award-winning 1987 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” helped make her a household name, Atwood was a published poet, beginning with 1961’s “Double Persephone.” Three poems from that book, as well as poems from nearly a dozen more collections, and a multitude of uncollected poems, have been gathered under one cover in “Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2023” (Knopf, 2024).t
tickets on more than 40 events! In select areas when you purchase seats for two or more designated performances.
