Making Hormel Center cool
08
Harsh reaction to Kavanaugh
ARTS
07
23
15
Oklahoma!
Nightlife events
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 48 • No. 28 • July 12-18, 2018
Mayor Breed, Supe Mandelman take office Courtesy Governor’s office
Barbara Phelan
Gov names first LGBT judge to Sonoma court
by Matthew S. Bajko
G
overnor Jerry Brown has named the first known LGBT judge to the Sonoma County Superior Court. Barbara Phelan, 57, a lesbian attorney who lives in Glen Ellen, was appointed by Brown in late June to fill a vacancy on the North Bay court. She is expected to take her oath of office sometime in early August. “I have always believed the judiciary is very important in peoples’ lives and can impact people directly, sometimes gravely. I always wanted to be a part of the process to bring greater justice into the world,” Phelan told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent phone interview. Since the state court system began collecting sexual orientation and gender identity data on California’s judges seven years ago, there has never been a self-identified LGBT judge on the Sonoma County bench. Phelan, who has served as a judicial staff attorney at the First District Court of Appeal since 2003, was among 10 Superior Court judges appointed by Brown on June 27. “I think diversity in all of its forms is important to the judiciary, that includes sexual orientation but also, of course, race, gender, and natural origin. A diverse bench is a more intelligent and fairer bench,” she said. Her appointment, and that of gay lawyer Gary Roberts last month to the Los Angeles Superior Court, brings the number of LGBT jurists serving on the state’s appellate and trial courts to at least 59. The number marks a record for the state’s bench and a slight increase from the 53 LGBT judges listed in the demographic judicial data for 2017. The newest out jurist is lesbian Oakland resident Jenna M. Whitman, 45, who took her oath of office Friday, July 6, to join the Alameda County Superior Court. As the B.A.R.’s online Political Notes column reported June 4, Whitman is the fifth known LGBT person serving on the East Bay bench. Whitman was sworn in by Presiding Judge Wynne Carvill. She was joined by several of her colleagues, her family, and her wife, Amy, and their young son. “I want to express gratitude to my family, and Amy, my wife, and to all the people at the court,” Whitman said during brief remarks. “I’ve watched judges here for over a decade, and I’m honored to join them in Alameda County,” added Whitman, who was a research attorney for the court from 2007-2017, and later, held that position at See page 12 >>
Twelve Days, Twelve Pianos, One Garden & You!
Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom congratulates London Breed, who he swore in as San Francisco’s 45th mayor Wednesday, July 11.
by Matthew S. Bajko
S
an Francisco welcomed in a new mayoral administration Wednesday morning when Mayor London Breed took her oath of office on the steps of City Hall before an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 people. The Board of Supervisors also ushered in its newest member, gay District 8 Supervisor
Rafael Mandelman, when he was sworn into office inside the board’s chambers roughly 90 minutes after Breed officially became San Francisco’s 45th mayor. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, the city’s 42nd mayor, administered the oath to Breed, who invited the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus to perform as part of her inauguration ceremony. Breed, 43, is the first
African-American woman to be elected to Room 200 in City Hall, where she spent several hours Wednesday afternoon receiving well-wishers, family, and friends. “I grew up a few blocks from here but a world away,” Breed, adorned in a glittering blue dress, said during her speech following her swearing in. See page 13 >>
PrEP program begins in Mexico
Bill Wilson
by Ed Walsh
M
exico took a major step aimed at HIV prevention in late June. The country inaugurated a PrEP program in four cities that would make daily dosing of the HIV drug Truvada available free to as many as 3,000 people. Mexico has a lower overall HIV rate than the U.S. but that statistic is not reflected in the gay male population of the country. The HIV rate is higher among gay men in Mexico than it is in the U.S., according to United Nations data. The PrEP program is targeted toward people at highest risk for contracting HIV in the country, including gay men and transgender women. “This is a big thing in Mexico. We are a pilot program for Latin America for this project,” said Paco Arjona, who oversees the PrEP program in Puerto Vallarta as director of the LGBT-focused SETAC community center. The program is funded by the United Nations International Drug Purchase Facility (Unitaid). The U.N. agency has been allotted a grant of more than $26 million to spend on the pilot project that includes Brazil and Peru. It is slated to continue through 2020. Bay Areabased Gilead Sciences is donating the drug. A total of 7,500 people will be enrolled in the project over the three countries. It is expected to save those countries a total of $20 million in HIV treatment costs, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Arjona told the Bay Area Reporter that the
Ed Walsh
Paco Arjona is the director of SETAC community center in Puerto Vallarta.
effort to bring the PrEP program to Mexico took a year and a half, hampered by slowmoving Mexican government bureaucracies. The program began last week with client intake interviews and the PrEP sites hope to soon receive the drug. In response to an email query from the B.A.R., Unitaid representative Heather Leigh responded that the drugs are to arrive at the PrEP sites “in the next week or
so.” Although the program is scheduled to run through 2020, if shown successful, HIV health advocates hope it will continue. The principal investigator of the PrEP project in Mexico, Hamid Vega, told the Mexican newspaper Reporte Indigo that given Mexico’s limited resources, he hopes PrEP could be made available to the highest risk groups in the See page 12 >>
{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }
SUNSET PIANO & SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN PRESENT
FLOWER PIANO JULY 5–16, 2018
And get tickets now for NightGarden Piano—July 12, 13 & 14!