July 15, 2021 edition of the Bay Area Reporter, America's highest circulation LGBTQ newspaper

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Castro cultural district to have survey on Pride flag

by John Ferrannini

Jane Philomen Cleland

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill July 9 allowing nonbinary people to be identified as such on death certificates.

Newsom signs nonbinary death certificates bill

by Matthew S. Bajko

D

Vol. 51 • No. 28 • July 15-21, 2021

eceased Californians who are nonbinary will be able to be identified as such on their death certificates under legislation Governor Gavin Newsom signed July 9. It is the first LGBTQ-related bill that the governor approved this legislative session, with 10 more currently making their way through the Legislature.

Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (DOrinda) authored the death certificate bill, Assembly Bill 439. It was one of a slew of bills that Newsom signed into law late Friday without comment.

Another bill he signed that Bauer-Kahan authored, AB 378, will update state codes to refer to statewide elected officials by gender-neutral pronouns. Currently, the codes use only male pronouns.

“I am beyond thrilled that Governor Gavin Newsom has signed these two bills into law, and has helped correct these egregious injustices within our code. It’s 2021 and our laws need to reflect that anyone, regardless of gender, can hold California’s highest offices,” Bauer-Kahan told the Bay Area Reporter.

Both of her bills will take effect January 1. The nonbinary option on death certificates adds to similar legislation enacted in 2017. Senate Bill 179, authored by lesbian Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), authorized people to use nonbinary on their birth certificates, court documents, and driver’s licenses.

“For too long, nonbinary individuals have been inaccurately identified, an unjust labeling that violates their right to equal treatment” noted Bauer-Kahan. “AB 439 ensures that nonbinary people will be respected and remembered accurately for who they were.”

Melissa Shuen-Mallory, a nonbinary queer femme who is on the East Bay’s New Haven Unified School District board, hailed the signing of the bill. She told the B.A.R. that such legislation not only benefits nonbinary individuals but also intersex people who do not identify as male or female.

“I think it is great. This is just one step closer to having all of your official documents affirm your gender identity,” said Shuen-Mallory, who is planning to update their driver’s license so it states they are nonbinary when it is time to renew it.

See page 10 >>

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he Castro LGBTQ Cultural District announced it will launch a community survey later this month, to be followed by a town hall, on the subject of raising a more contemporary Pride flag at Castro and Market streets.

This comes weeks after the Castro Merchants Association, which pays for and maintains the 20 by 30 foot flag, proposed (https://www.ebar.com/ news/news//306341) installing a second flagpole in the Castro neighborhood to fly a Pride flag design newer than Gilbert Baker’s rainbow flag.

“We believe it is absolutely time for us to show our Black, Brown, and trans siblings how much representation matters to us on this board by raising a contemporary Pride flag that prioritizes and highlights diversity and inclusivity, atop Harvey Milk Plaza,” the cultural district stated in the July 12 news release. “The future flag we seek to fly proudly at the gateway of Castro’s main street does not take away from the legacy of Gilbert Baker and the gay rights movement of our queer predecessors, but honors that legacy by affirming our emerging and intersecting racial and sexual, gender and nonbinary identities, while acutely addressing the current realities we collectively face today.”

Courtesy exp1.com

The rainbow flag flies at Castro and Market streets.

The release, survey, and town hall come after the cultural district’s advisory board voted last month 7-2 that the Baker-designed rainbow Pride flag that currently flies above the plaza should be replaced with the Progress Pride flag.

The Progress Pride flag (which includes a chevron with the colors of the transgender flag, as well as brown and black stripes) was unveiled in June 2018 by nonbinary designer Daniel Quasar.

Last month, many cities in San Mateo and Alameda counties flew the Progress flag in lieu of the rainbow flag as part of annual Pride Month commemorations.

“The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District recognizes the importance of representation and visibility for our LGBTQ+ communities in the neighborhood and across the city,” Elizabeth Lanyon, the co-chair of the cultural district’s advisory board, stated in the release. “As the LGBTQ movement continues to evolve, we will do our part to be sure every LGBTQ person who comes to the Castro knows they are safe, celebrated, and welcome. We are eager to hear from you, our neighbors, business owners, visitors and friends, about what this means and how we can be part of an inclusive and thriving Castro.”

Tina Valentin Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person who is the manager of the district, told the B.A.R. that the release, survey, and town hall (tentatively set for August or September) follow up on the vote the advisory board took last month.

When asked the cultural district’s thoughts about the proposed second flagpole, such as placing it in Harvey Milk Plaza, Aguirre referred to board member Sacred Mitchell, who did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

See page 7 >>

SF museum exhibit highlights LGBTQ scientists

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

groundbreaking exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is highlighting the work of queer scientists. It is believed to be the first such display in a museum setting to showcase LGBTQ+ women and gender minorities of color working in STEMM professions.

The acronym is short for science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine. “New Science: The Academy Exhibit” can be found mounted on a wall of the main floor to the right of The Swamp gallery that houses Claude, an albino alligator.

The first of the eight colorful panels declares, “Queer and intersectional identities are revolutionizing how science gets done.” On the subsequent panels are photos and brief bios of 11 scientists with QR codes that visitors can use to bring up fuller information about each individual on their smartphones.

Among the featured STEMM professionals are herpetologist Chelsea Connor, a Black queer woman from Dominica, and environmental scientist Oliver Nguyen, who is trans nonbinary and from a Vietnamese American family. An additional 12 out scientists are featured on the accompanying website for the exhibit, which officially launched June 24 during Pride Month.

The exhibitory project is derived from a visibility campaign called “500 Queer Scientists” that

Matthew S. Bajko

Lauren Esposito, Ph.D., left, welcomed Exploratorium intern Felix Duley to the “New Science: The Academy Exhibit” at the California Academy of Sciences.

Lauren Esposito, Ph.D., a curator of arachnology at the Cal Academy, launched in 2018 to foster a sense of community among LGBTQ people in the sciences.

“It is a topic I feel passionate about,” said Esposito, who six years ago became the first out LGBTQ curator in charge of a research lab at the 168-year-old institution.

Esposito, 39, who is queer and resides in San Francisco, grew up along the border in Texas. Af-

ter earning her doctorate in New York, she came west in 2011 to do her post doc at UC Berkeley.

Hired by the Cal Academy to study spiders and scorpions in the field, Esposito felt isolated and alone as a queer scientist. Looking for a way to mirror her professional pursuits with her personal interests and identity, Esposito landed on the idea of profiling queer STEMM professionals on a website accessible to anyone in the world.

See page 10 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021

Volume 51, Number 28 July 15-21, 2021 www.ebar.com

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Castro cultural district can unify the neighborhood

I

t was nearly a year ago that we editorialized in favor of raising a more inclusive Pride on the giant flagpole at Castro and Market streets. The proposal landed with a thud. The Castro Merchants Association, which oversees the flag and flagpole, however, did write in a guest opinion that we published saying it would “support any community effort to erect an additional flagpole or some other installation in a significant location in the neighborhood to fly flags that symbolize the diversity of our LGBTQ+ residents and visitors, and would use any influence we have with the city to push this through.” The main sticking point is that the flagpole and flag, made by the late Gilbert Baker, are legally recognized by the city as a work of art. It will be eligible for city landmark status in 2022, according to the merchants’ group.

The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District’s board weighed in on the issue last month by voting in favor of replacing Baker’s rainbow flag with the Progress Pride flag. That prompted the merchants association to issue a statement that it would seek to install a second flagpole in the Castro where different versions of the Pride flag could be flown. The cultural district board recently announced that it will conduct an online survey, beginning July 26, to gather community input about the flag and flagpole proposals. The survey will be followed by a town hall meeting.

Actually, it should have happened in reverse order. The district board should have scheduled the survey and town hall meeting before taking their vote on the flagpole. As it stands, we all know the cultural district leaders’ positions on the issue (at least those members who showed up to the virtual meeting); rendering a town hall meeting less effective and somewhat meaningless. It’s yet unknown, but perhaps unlikely, that the cultural district board will change its position if the survey results tip in favor of leaving the flagpole as it is, with Baker’s flag. The district board is doing what it accused the CBD of with its failed camera proposal: forming a proposal and thereby an opinion first, then having an online survey and town hall meeting after.

The cultural district board picked a longdebated topic as its first major initiative for the neighborhood. The merchants group has visited

Rick Gerharter

The rainbow flag flies at Castro and Market streets.

the flagpole issue many, many times over the years and ultimately decided on a policy to leave Baker’s flag flying at full staff 24/7 year-round.

The Gilbert Baker Foundation, which was formed after his death in 2017, stated last year that “the rainbow flag was meant to represent all colors, creeds, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. It was meant to be everybody’s flag.”

When the city legislation to create the LGBTQ cultural district was introduced in 2018 by gay then-Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, the goals of the organization were preserving, sustaining, and promoting the LGBTQ history and culture of the neighborhood. “This will include highlighting structures and sites important to LGBTQ history; fostering racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity among residents and businesses; and creating a safe, beautiful, and inclusive space for LGBTQ and allied communities,” as we reported at the time.

More importantly, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District should play a role in bringing the community and neighborhood organizations together toward common goals. In that vein, it could be working with the city to connect unhoused people with services. It could be collaborating with the Castro Merchants Association to promote the neighborhood as a commercial destination. The cultural district did do a good job pulling together this year’s activities for Harvey Milk Day, an inperson event that celebrated the gay icon. It also joined forces with the Harvey Milk and Alice B.

M

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Toklas LGBTQ Democratic clubs to present a unified front in opposition to the CBD camera proposal. The big gripe among Castro merchants is that tourists step off the bus, get their picture taken in front of the flag, and leave. The cultural district could be spearheading initiatives to address this and other issues for neighborhood residents and merchants in tandem with the CBD and the merchants group or independently from them.

The Transgender District has set a high bar, as has the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, for community engagement. Both have used their leverage with City Hall and elected leaders to get funds for projects like painting light poles with the trans flag colors and creating Eagle Plaza – thanks to its work with the builder of a nearby housing development – and landmarking the Eagle Tavern. The leather district board has been working with the planning department and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on the streetscape project for Folsom Street. The Transgender District has been working to secure housing for trans people and bringing the history of the Tenderloin alive.

We recognize the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District is newly formed, and that it started in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has a lot of committees that people can get involved with: cultural heritage, tenant protections, arts and culture, economic and workforce development, land use, and cultural competency. Those wishing to have a voice in the Castro’s future should get involved. And the district’s board should do more proactive outreach as it moves forward. t

Anti-trans myth-making

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Bay Area Reporter

t

yths are often greater than reality.

Consider Napoleon Bonaparte, a French military and political leader during the early 1800s. You likely believe that he was exceptionally short, and his stature has often been used as a pretext for his ferocity in battle. There’s even a theorized inferiority complex named after him.

But Napoleon was around 5 feet 7 inches tall by many accounts, and certainly of at least average height for his time. It was the British press, most notably its cartoonists, who portrayed him as a short, angry despot – and their caricatures have created a common misconception that remains stronger than any reality.

In my life, I’ve seen quite a few such things, like the Apollo conspiracy theory, where people have felt that something as monumental as the moon landing was perpetrated on a soundstage, or similar beliefs about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 9/11 attacks, and even the supposed flatness of the Earth all being deeply hidden government secrets that “they” don’t want you to know.

Today, we see any number of stories spun far worse than any cartoon depicting a short French leader. There are numerous conspiracy theories that have been all but weaponized, with the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory that alleges former President Donald Trump was engaged in a struggle with an international cabal of sex traffickers, including prominent Hollywood actors and Democratic politicians.

Much like QAnon, there are hundreds of other such conspiracy theories, usually put forth by members of the right wing: the death of Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee employee whom Fox News alleged had been killed as retribution for leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks (Fox News settled a lawsuit over the issue last year); both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections; the birthplace of former President Barack Obama; Hunter Biden’s laptop (the New York Post claims that emails it says are from the younger Biden’s laptop show he arranged for

Christine Smith

his father, Joe, then the vice president, to meet with Ukrainian energy officials); the Deep State (a conspiracy theory that collusion exists within the U.S. political system and constitutes a hidden government within the legitimately elected government); and COVID-19, masks, and vaccinations are just the tip of that particular iceberg.

Most of these are created on the flimsiest of evidence, or even no verification at all. They simply have to feel right to their believers. Just having something that somehow shores up their beliefs is enough.

Enter, once again, the transgender bathroom predator.

It has been years since anti-trans panic was ratcheted up to defeat LGBTQ laws such as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in 2015. The entire argument hinges on people believing that such laws would lead to a flood of male predators claiming to be trans in order to have easy access to women and children in bathrooms.

The same argument was put forth in scores of additional fights, even this year as Tennessee enacted a law requiring businesses to display a prominent sign in their windows, should they

allow trans people to use the facilities. Until a judge recently blocked implementation, that sign was to read: “NOTICE: THIS FACILITY MAINTAINS A POLICY OF ALLOWING THE USE OF RESTROOMS BY EITHER BIOLOGICAL SEX, REGARDLESS OF THE DESIGNATION ON THE RESTROOM.” Yes, in all caps, boldface, and on a sign a minimum of 6 inches tall.

In all these years, there has been scant evidence of anyone actually taking advantage of non-transgender women or girls in such facilities. Indeed, the only stories that have cropped up have been from men attempting to root out transgender women from women’s restrooms, usually only angering non-transgender women whom they erroneously targeted.

Take, for example, Wi Spa. Wi Spa is a Korean-owned, LGBTQ-friendly spa in Los Angeles. Wi Spa has a few transgender clients, and those clients are welcome to use facilities congruent with their gender identity.

On June 24, an Instagram user named “cubanaangel” posted a video where she complained to the Wi Spa staff about the presence of a trans woman – whom she referred to as a man –attending the spa that day. She further claimed that both women and girls in the spa were offended by the presence of the trans woman’s genitalia. The video cuts off just as the woman is about to confront the trans woman herself.

Yet a report in the Los Angeles Blade casts doubt on this user’s report, as an anonymous Los Angeles Police Department source has told the Blade that they have found no corroborating evidence that a transgender woman was at the spa that day. Wi Spa, too, noted that none of its usual transgender clients had appointments that day. All of their trans clients are well-known by the staff, and access to the spa is by appointment only.

See page 12 >>

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Ramachandran calls foul on CA Dem Party’s Bonta endorsement

by Matthew S. Bajko

S

ocial justice attorney Janani Ramachandran is crying foul over how the California Democratic Party handled its endorsement process in her August 31 runoff race against Mia Bonta for the East Bay’s Assembly District 18 seat. The women are vying to succeed Bonta’s husband, Rob Bonta, who resigned earlier this year to become California’s attorney general.

Bonta, president of the Alameda Unified School Board, took first place in the June 29 special election but fell short of the more than 50% threshold she needed to win outright. Ramachandran landed in second place ahead of six other candidates.

One of the two is set to become the Bay Area’s fifth female state legislator.

Ramachandran, if elected, would be the first legislator who identifies as queer and first out API female state legislator. Of South Indian ancestry, she would also be California’s first South Asian assemblywoman.

A supermajority of the party’s state central committee voted to endorse Bonta at the end of the Fourth of July weekend. In turn, Ramachandran’s campaign filed an official objection with the state party alleging the “rushed endorsement vote over the holiday weekend” resulted in irregularities and violated the party’s own conflict of interest rules. It also claimed delegates accused of forgery were allowed to vote without the party first investigating the allegations.

“When the Republican Party works to suppress votes – we rightly cry foul.

When the Democratic Party adopts a

Ramachandran, courtesy the candidate; Bonta, Jane Philomen Cleland

Janani Ramachandran, left, lost an appeal to the California Democratic Party over its endorsement of Mia Bonta in the August 31 runoff race.

voting process that by definition denies full access – we should raise our voices as one to speak out for a fair and just voting process,” stated Ramachandran, an Oakland resident who also identifies as lesbian.

The California Democratic Party Endorsement Appeals Committee upheld Bonta’s endorsement July 7, prompting the party to officially announce a day later its backing of her to represent Alameda, San Leandro, and a portion of Oakland in the Legislature’s lower chamber.

“As a daughter of Puerto Rican activists, Mia knows firsthand what it takes to make equitable progress within our communities,” said state party chair Rusty Hicks. “From her drive to advance economic mobility among our most underserved communities to her lifelong dedication towards improving educational outcomes for low-income students – Mia is the leader we need in the California State Legislature.”

One of the accusations Ramach-

andran’s campaign has leveled against Bonta is that she and her mother committed voter fraud and forged signatures during the local party’s previous endorsement vote ahead of last month’s contest. It criticized the state party leaders for ignoring those claims.

Bonta fell a few votes shy of securing the Alameda County Democratic Party’s endorsement. Rowena Brown, Bonta’s campaign manager, dismissed those allegations in a statement to the Bay Area Reporter.

“Ramachandran’s baseless allegations and cries of fraud echo those of Donald Trump and national Republicans who seek to undermine voter confidence in the election process, a dangerous narrative we as a party must not feed into,” stated Brown. “Mia Bonta is proud to have earned the endorsement of the CA Democratic Party and is focused on continuing to address the issues voters care about like homelessness, education and rebuilding after the pandemic.”

Neither the state party nor the Alameda County Democratic Party provided comment about the endorsement dispute when contacted by the B.A.R. Meanwhile, the California Asian and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus solely endorsed Ramachandran this week. Its chair, state Senator Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), called her “a champion for social justice and a strong advocate for the Asian American Pacific Islander community as a member of the California Commission on APIA Affairs.” t

Letters >> SF Gay Men’s Chorus lost the woke culture war I am in a special position to comment on the culture war flare-up surrounding the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ “We’ll Convert your Children” music video, as I served for seven years as the chorus’ accountant [“SF Gay Men’s Chorus receives death threats after InfoWars article,” online, July 8]. In principle, I supported the chorus’ mission, but not necessarily the implementation of that mission. I was also a paid music critic and a professional classical musician.

Based on my front-seat view to the SFGMC’s artistic planning process, I suspect “We’ll Convert your Children” fits into the same type of sophisticated psy-op as the CIA’s “Woke” feminist Latina recruiting ad, and the U.S. Army’s Private Emma Has Two Mommys recruitment film. I suspect that the alt-right backlash was coordinated with the video’s release and even some of the more tasteless online comments were arranged by the chorus’ PR firm. The song had been around for some time, having been commissioned by the Oakland Symphony. The sudden attention suggests the hidden hand of PR. For those corralled into the San Francisco Bubble, the video does not seem what it is: a parody of what conservatives think a parody of the gay agenda is. It’s so cartoonishly over-the-top and out-of-touch it’s hard to take seriously. Hence the cringe factor.

The joke just isn’t funny. Let me be clear: nobody takes the lyrics seriously and actually thinks the SFGMC is coming for their children to brainwash them into some perverted gay agenda.

Predictably, San Francisco liberal outlets such as SFist reported on a parody of the conservative backlash – evoking straw-men such as QAnon, or “anti-vaxxers,” or “Trumpists,” or costumed rebels at “the insurrection,” or linking to “bottom-feeding media.” The result: a gratifying smugness that safely contains chorus fans in a bubble where they won’t convert anybody. After a season when progressives call to defund the police, the chorus announced it had consulted law enforcement. For an ensemble that prides itself with parody, it is now policing its intellectual property so the video cannot be used for parody. What was left out completely was engagement by the chorus or its supportive media with the far more substantive criticism that the SFGMC’s video evoked a certain cringe factor and reflected an unhealthy cancel culture.

While the SFGMC claims to be progressive, it’s really only trying to convert members of its own choir. That’s why corporate funders search out gay organization sponsorship – to put on a progressive face to making the public turn a blind eye to the many injustices underpinning our corporate society. This does not mean that gay liberation or tolerance should be abandoned. SFGMC members are happy to consume matching “Pride” T-shirts allegedly made by child slave labor in Bangladesh specially purchased for this video. Someone’s coming for those children. I’m sure the SFGMC’s proud corporate sponsor Wells Fargo will even open unauthorized accounts for them.

Yes, trans liberation or immigrant rights are deeply-felt issues – but addressing them means opening a dialogue with those the chorus means to convert. Therein lies the true revolutionary potential.

Tom Busse San Francisco

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Flag flap is cancel culture at its worst

I agree completely with Matt Foreman’s well-reasoned letter regarding the Progress flag flap [“Progress flag leaves out many,” Letters, July 8]. Pun entirely intended.

According to the Bay Area Reporter’s reporting [“Castro Merchants propose 2nd flagpole,” July 1], the Philadelphia flag was designed by a marketing firm and the more controversial Progress flag was created by a graphic designer who apparently immediately monetized its design. Those facts alone should give one pause on this entire issue.

Prior to Gilbert Baker’s inspired late 1970s creation of the rainbow flag the most used iteration of our identity was the lambda symbol. A symbol currently not known by many people and one I often need to explain to those who visit my shop. I can’t think of any culture in the entire world that needs an explanation of the meaning of the rainbow flag.

While Baker and I didn’t always agree, he did produce, and gave away without any thought of remuneration, this symbol that currently enjoys worldwide recognition. A design that seemed to include ALL the letters of the everexpanding alphabet of our communities with no fuss.

Unless I failed to get the memo I don’t recall there When you plan your life celebration and lasting remembrance in being any hue and cry demanding a change in advance, you can design every detail of your own unique memorial the internationally recognized rainbow flag. and provide your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead I might be more sympathetic with Progress When your celebration lasting protectsyou your plan loved ones fromlife unnecessary stress and and financial burden, flag creator Daniel Quasar’s confused design When you remembrance plan your celebration and lasting remembrance in allowing themlife to focus on what will matter most at that time—you. in advance, you can design every were it not for the fact that they created it and advance, you canofdesign every detail of your ownand unique memorial immediately moved to be enriched by its prodetail own memorial provide Contact usyour today about theunique beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy duction and use. Baker, on the other hand,and was provide atyour the San Francisco Columbarium. loved ones with true peace of mind.

Planning your loved ones with true peace of mind. Planning ahead content with the moniker of the “Gay Betsy protects your loved onesProudly from unnecessary stressunnecessary and financial burden, ahead protects yourserving loved onesCommunity. from Ross.” the LGBT I suggest that those who want to invest in allowing and them focus on whatburden, will matter most them at thattotime—you. stresstoand financial allowing personally display either of the new designs do focus on what will matter most at that time—you. so. Just as people have with the leather, bear, and trans flags-among many of the “new” identity flags. However, Contact us today about the beautiful ways to create a lasting legacy there is absolutely no good reason to change the iconic at the San Contact FranciscousColumbarium. today about the beautiful ways to create rainbow flag at Market and Castro streets; or for that matter anywhere else – including the questionable act of adda lasting legacy at the San Francisco Columbarium. ing a second competing flagpole. What do we do with the One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 banners gracing the light poles or the crosswalk design at SanFranciscoColumbarium.com 18th and Castro streets? Are we then required to replace Proudly serving the LGBT Community.

FD 1306 / COA 660 those with a muddled and difficult-to-explain Progress flag? And what happens when someone comes up with a symbol designed to replace what they decide is a dated Progress flag?

This entire subject of replacing one identity flag with another smacks of cancel culture at its worst. I can assure you the right would jump on this controversy in a skinny minute. Our communities are currently under enough assault without adding this to the mix.

As far as I’m concerned the rainbow flag ain’t broke so One Loraine Ct. | San Francisco | 415-771-0717 we don’t need to fix it.

SanFranciscoColumbarium.com Patrick Batt San Francisco

PlanningAhead Ahead isisSimple Planning Simple The benefits are immense.

Planning Ahead is Simple The benefits are immense.

The benefits are immense.

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WORKSHOP 2

LEGAL ISSUES Attorney Diana Dean Gendotti 6 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021 Diana Gendotti is an estate planning and trust administration attorney who has been licensed for 31 years, and has an office in Los Altos. She will highlight the critical aspects of estate planning, especially as it relates to LGBTQ issues.

Bring any burning questions!

LGBTQs rally to support Grubstake Diner

Standing by STRONG Instructor, will lead everyone in the a quick pected to hear matter and and can John Ferrannini make a decision about the project workshop.

urray,

overussion ople er

“The residents of the neighboring Austin condominium building lmost 70 LGBTQ and allied at its July 22 meeting. have tried in every way possible to community members have Diner owner Jimmy Consos profile appeals to various aspects of signed on to a petition to the city posed a plan to rebuild the diner the project while their sole intent planning commission4 supporting on the bottom floor of a mixed-use is to block any additional height WORKSHOP Grubstake Diner in its planned rebuilding that would also feature afadjacent to their building,” the peBUILDproject, YOUR VILLAGE building which will include fordable housing some years ago, tition states. “The residents were Facilitators: Chan and Loretta Austin, Avenidas the construction Jenn of 21 apartments as the San Francisco Chronicle retold when they bought their conabove the Polk is Gulch late-nightimportant ported inright 2016.now.

However, the peti-and dos at the much larger Austin just Community especially Building eatery popular with the queer comhas faced commua few years ago that the Grubstake strengthening your village willtioners helpstate youhethrive.

Discover munity. nity opposition from residents in was in the process of being redevelopportunities for new connections with our intergenerational The planning commission is exnearby condos. oped and would include additional

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pen pal program and social groups. Learn where to find community resources and how to build a safe space.

anta Clara Office of he significance of about the County’s a strong, vibrant

, Office of LGBTQ Affairs

(650) 289-5400 • www.avenidas.org

tion or sign up at www.avenidas.org

July 2021 Calendar of Events Monday, July 19

2:30pm-3:30pm

LGBTQ Elder Empowerment and Connections Group

“What would you tell your younger LGBTQ self?”

Join Avenidas Rainbow Collective Empowerment and Connections group this month as we discuss the lessons that we have learned as LGBTQ older adults living in our society. What has changed. What hasn’t changed. If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say? Join us on July 19 to enjoy a short video and discussion.

NEW EVENING GROUP Tuesday, July 20

7:00-8:00pm

Wonder Women Lesbian Social Group

Socialize with our lesbian community. We meet virtually twice a month and host open conversations on news, trends, festivals, relationships, home projects, and what matters to you. Share your unique flair with BTQ Programs Coordinator/Community Liaison. as we to become theinto bestthe social group for lesbian women in north Santa Clara County.

BTQ Initiative,this willgroup provide hisstrive unique insights

Thursday, July 22 3:00-3:30pm Gay Men’s Walking Group uskin, Stanford Forgiveness Project. sical and mental health. He offers easily practiced skills The Gay Men’s Walking Group is a great way to get out of the house and make new friends in a safe and responsible way. The guys meet for lunch, exercise, and social engagement, while social distancing and wearing masks, during the second and fourth weekend of each month. The Thursday meeting on Zoom is the planning meeting for the upcoming walk. Join us on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 3pm to plan the walk for the following weekend.

RKSHOP 2

Thursday, July 22 4:00pm-5:00pm Song Appreciation Group AL ISSUES ney Diana Dean Gendotti Theme of the Day: “Favorite Song about an SF Bay Area City.” a Gendotti is an estate planning and trust administration Songslicensed hold meaning soyears, come join andanshare the songs that have touched your life. Submit your song ney who has been for 31 andushas in advance via email to the group facilitator in Los Altos. She will highlight the critical aspects ofThomas Kingery at tkingery@avenidas.org so we can play it during ouraszoom meeting. we’llissues. discuss the meaning of the song and how it relates to the you and e planning, especially it relates to Then LGBTQ any burning the questions! topic of the day. Join us on the second and fourth Thursday of the month at 4pm.

NG Instructor,Thursday, will leadJuly everyone in a quick and 24 12:30-1pm

Coming Out Exhibit in San Jose History Park Meet Up

Let’s go together to tour this new exhibit Coming Out: 50 Years of Queer Resistance and Resilience in RKSHOP 4 Silicon Valley. This reveals five D YOUR VILLAGE decades of challenges and joys for the LGBTQ+ community in Santa Clara Valley. The exhibit begins in tators: Jenn Chan and Loretta Avenidas the Arbuckle GalleryAustin, and visitors are encouraged to enter the adjacent Community Room. Docents will munity is especially important rightany now.

Building and Thomas Kingery at tkingery@Avenidas.org to register for be available to answer questions.

Contact gthening yourthe village helpany you thrive. Discover eventwill or with questions.

Tickets are limited so email ASAP! The Coming Out Exhibit will be at the rtunities for new connections with1650 our Senter intergenerational History Park San Jose, Rd. San Jose, CA 95112. www.historysanjose.org/wp/

pal program and social groups. Learn where to find munity resources and how to build a safe space.

Free and inclusive to all!

e of of ty’s

TQ Affairs

<< Community News

Register on our website at avenidas.org/programs/lgbtq-seniors-initiative/ or email LGBTQ@avenidas.org, or call (650) 289-5433 to get registration assistance.

(650) 289-5400 • www.avenidas.org

Please reference the name of group or event that you are interested in joining.

ign up at www.avenidas.org

With support from the County of Santa Clara, Office of LGBTQ Affairs

Call (650) 289-5433 or sign up at www.avenidas.org

height to allow for the housing units – to try to undo that work now only serves to postpone the redevelopment of this community asset.”

Consos and the Austin condominium building at 1545 Pine Street did not respond to requests for comment by press time. The petitioners state that the eatery is operating in good faith and that Consos is pursuing the project “to make the salvaging of this historic LGBTQ+-friendly venue financially feasible.”

“The Grubstake team has worked tirelessly to address any issues brought forth by the Austin residents and we hope that you see the true value of this project in its proposed form,” the petition states.

“Please move this project forward as soon as possible.”

The Grubstake Diner, currently open till 2 a.m., has been operational since the 1960s – around the time Polk Street became one of the city’s LGBTQ meccas. Though Polk Gulch’s LGBTQ prominence has diminished in comparison to the Castro and South of Market neighborhoods in recent years, the late night diner nonetheless has a strong footprint of support in the community.

One of those supporters is drag queen and activist Juanita MORE!, who signed the petition.

“I’ve been part of the Grubstake family for at least 30 years and am proud to say my picture is still hanging proudly over one of its booths,” MORE! wrote to the Bay Area Reporter. “ It has been a haven for the LGBTQ+ community for many years. In some ways, this was the place where the party continued well after the bars had closed.

“Most times, when I would arrive at 3 a.m. on a Saturday, there would be a line down the block to get in – I would sneak around the back and enter through the kitchen,” added MORE! “My table was always ready for me.”

Cal Callahan, a gay man who

t

Courtesy Facebook

A proposal to build housing and renovate Grubstake Diner is expected to be heard by the San Francisco Planning Commission July 22.

is the manager of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, also shared memories of the diner.

“There was the night when my roommate at the time and I were coming home from a club,” Callahan wrote. “Our cab driver decided Grubstake – and I assume the two of us looked so good that he went off-duty and joined us.”

Callahan stated that supporting the diner is imperative considering the decline in both LGBTQ-specific businesses and late night diners, which for decades have filled an important role in queer nightlife culture.

“Grubstake has always filled a niche to support late-night entertainment in San Francisco,” Callahan wrote. “As those options have diminished, each remaining business becomes more and more important.”

Indeed, the news release announcing the petition noted the closures of It’s Tops on upper Market Street, which shuttered in 2020, and Sparky’s Diner on Church Street, which preceded it in death four years earlier. Orphan Andy’s continues to operate on 17th Street.

“Leaders of the LGBTQ+ community were consulted five years ago by Mr. Consos to assist him See page 12 >>

St. James moves forward with no ED

by John Ferrannini

E

nding more than a year of silence on who’s in charge, St. James Infirmary announced July 13 that it is going forward without an executive director as the nonprofit that serves sex workers shifts to a “new, horizontal leadership structure,” according to a news release.

“The organization runs like spokes on a wheel. All of our programs have an experienced director and teams of amazing staff and volunteers,” operations director Anita O’Shea stated.

“What makes us even more unique is that most of us have had real lived experiences similar to the people that we serve: sex work, homelessness, drug use, and losing our loved ones as a result of a broken system.”

Bay Area Reporter readers may remember that O’Shea “stepped up to the plate” (in the words of Patsy Chan, a former board chair) in the wake of the abrupt resignation of St. James’ Executive Director Toni Newman last February. (Newman is now the executive director of the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center.)

A representative of St. James Infirmary shut its doors on a B.A.R. reporter on March 2, 2020 after first denying, then confirming, that there was an interim executive director.

In a phone interview July 13, O’Shea apologized for the organization’s lack of transparency.

Courtesy St. James Infirmary

St. James operations director Anita O’Shea

“We were basically trying to figure it out when Toni left,” O’Shea told the B.A.R. “We really honestly were not prepared. Then, combined with the COVID pandemic, we were trying to figure out what the next steps would be. It took six months to determine what we want to do and how.”

O’Shea said that board members have been reading “Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness” by Frédéric Laloux, which advocates an organizational theory that does away with hierarchy and focuses on selfmanagement, organizational evolution, and integration.

“We discerned we’d been running as a co-directorship, and decided to See page 12 >>

t <<

Community News>>

Pride flag

vember 7, 1997 (though over the years there have been occasions when other flags have temporarily been hoisted).

The business association ultimately adopted a policy that the Baker flag would fly full-staff, 24/7, year-round.

Castro Merchants President Masood Samereie, a straight ally, stated to the B.A.R. that the group appreciates the district’s interest.

“As previously shared, we stand by our recent statement supporting a second flag pole to fly other LGBTQ+ flags and/or symbols at Harvey Milk Plaza or elsewhere in the Castro,” Samereie stated. “We appreciate the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District’s efforts to further community discussion through a planned survey and town hall.”

Former Castro Merchants president Daniel Bergerac, who identifies as a self-described “practicing homosexual,” told the B.A.R. that the survey and town hall are “skirting the big issue.”

From page 1

(The cultural district did not respond to a request for comment in response to the merchants’ second flagpole proposal at the time, either.)

Aguirre said that it is hoped the survey, which goes live on the district’s social media platforms July 26, and town hall will showcase a desire for change in the neighborhood.

“It’s pretty clear we want change; we want a flag that is more representative of us in the Castro,” Aguirre said.

“I hope people show up with open minds and open hearts to participate in a dialogue as we talk about how the flag and its evolution is important, in the interest of representation.”

The merchants group has long maintained the flag that has flown at Castro and Market streets since the flagpole there was dedicated on No-

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

“It’s not their flagpole,” said Bergerac, who now sits on the board of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District. “It’s just telling to me that here’s a new, special district that can spend city money and this is where they put time and effort into.”

Bergerac noted that almost as many members of the board were absent from the Zoom meeting when the district board decided to endorse the Progress flag (that is, five) as those who’d showed up to vote in favor of the change (seven).

“You have to work together,” Bergerac said. “You can’t throw people under the bus.”

Bergerac called it “backwards” that the survey and town hall are taking place after the board endorsed the Progress flag.

As of press time, Aguirre has not responded to an inquiry as to whether they have been in touch with the merchants on the flagpole issue.

The B.A.R. last August editorialized in favor of “a flag design that expands inclusivity” being flown from the Castro flagpole. Several online petitions at the time collected signatures in favor of replacing the flag as well.

New York-based group seeking to landmark flagpole

Baker’s rainbow flag came about when late gay supervisor Harvey Milk had urged Baker, a gay artist, to design a symbol for the 1978 San Francisco Pride parade. With the help of his friends Lynn Segerblom, who now lives in Southern California, and James McNamara, who died of AIDSrelated complications in 1999, Baker came up with a rainbow flag design that had eight colored stripes, with one version also sporting a corner section of stars to mimic the design of the American flag.

Baker would go on to reduce the number of colored stripes to just six

and turned the rainbow flag into an international symbol of LGBTQ rights.

He died unexpectedly in 2017, and the foundation created in his name recently donated a segment from one of the first rainbow flags that flew in front of San Francisco City Hall during the 1978 Pride parade to the GLBT Historical Society Museum in the city’s Castro district, where it is now on public display.

The office of gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has told the B.A.R. it’s receptive to the idea of landmarking the flagpole, though no formal request to start the landmarking process has been submitted to city officials.

Charley Beal, the president of the New York-based Gilbert Baker Foundation, has been pushing behind the scenes with both Mandelman and Mayor London Breed’s offices for the flagpole to be landmarked, according See page 11 >>

Hibernation is finally over. It’s time to get out and recline in the name of recovery.

Because vacationing here helps get our economy moving again. So, head to the beach or go city hopping. Dine out and shop local. Heck, try a weekend of wine tasting. You can sip and swirl in the name of civic pride.

~ support your state by vacationing here ~

VCA_CAC_SFBayAreaReporter_07-15.indd 1

7/7/21 3:05 PM

<< National News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021

t

No major losses for LGBTQs at Supreme Court analysis by Lisa Keen

includes 17 states, after Attorney General Rob Bonta last month added Florida and four others to it.)

Kim Davis v. Ermold – in which the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that now former county clerk Davis in Kentucky could not refuse to issue marriage licenses to samesex couples after the Obergefell decision. Once again, Thomas and Alito dissented. (Note: Barrett was not yet on the court when this case was rejected for review.)

T

he U.S. Supreme Court session that just ended amounted to mostly a “tread water” experience for LGBTQ people – with several little victories and no spectacular losses. But there are sharks in these legal waters, nipping at equal protection for queer people in the name of religion, and prospects for the future are unsettling.

The days of the blockbuster wins for LGBTQ people seem over, at least for the foreseeable future. No more triumphs, like the 2015 decision to strike state bans on marriage for same-sex couples (Obergefell v. Hodges) or the 2013 decision to strike a key provision of federal law (Defense of Marriage Act), which banned recognition of such marriages (U.S. v. Windsor). No surprise epic decision, like last year’s ruling that “sex discrimination” prohibited by the federal civil rights law includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (Bostock v. Clayton County).

In the 2020-21 session, which adjourned July 2, the composition of the court curdled to the right and, more specifically, to the religious right. The court’s most pro-LGBTQ justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, died last September and was replaced

by Amy Coney Barrett just as the session got underway. This alone brought a sense of dread and gloom for LGBTQ prospects going forward.

Ginsburg had voted pro-LGBTQ 90% of the time; many expected Barrett to vote just as frequently against queer people.

Barrett had only two LGBTQrelated opinions to weigh in on this session. In one, Americans for Prosperity v. California, she voted with other conservatives to hold that California’s law requiring that the identities of major donors to tax-exempt

Mixed bag Courtesy Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court tilted to the right during its just-concluded term, but there were no major losses for the LGBTQ community.

organizations be reported to the state violates the First Amendment right of association for donors. In the other, Fulton v. Philadelphia, she voted with a unanimous bench to hold that Philadelphia’s interest in eradicating discrimination against LGBTQ people “cannot justify denying [Catholic Social Services] an exception for its religious exercise” in excluding gay couples from foster care. Barrett, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted the same way on both cases.

And Barrett, Roberts, and Kavanaugh apparently withheld their consent to grant review of several lower court decisions that LGBTQ people had won. It takes four justices to agree to hear an appeal before the court will accept it for review. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas wanted to hear four different appeals where LGBTQ people won in the lower courts. In one of those four appeals, the Alito-Thomas duo had a third vote from Justice Neil Gorsuch.

But they didn’t get the critical fourth, and that left the pro-LGBTQ rulings intact.

The appeals that were snubbed included: Arlene’s Flowers v. Washington – in which the Washington Supreme Court ruled that a state non-discrimination law does not violate the First Amendment free exercise rights of a florist who claimed her religion required her to deny service to same-sex couples seeking flowers for their weddings. In this case, Gorsuch joined Alito and Thomas, wanting to hear the appeal.

Gloucester v. Grimm – in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, following the Supreme Court precedent in Bostock, a Virginia school district did violate Title IX of the federal Education Amendments Act when it refused to allow a transgender male student, Gavin Grimm, to use the boys’ restroom and locker room.

Texas v. California – in which the state of Texas sought to file a “bill of complaint” directly with the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging a California law that prohibited state-funded travel to certain states, including Texas, which had laws hostile to LGBTQ people. (California’s “no-fly” list now

Gary Buseck, senior adviser to GLBTQ Advocates & Defenders, said he was heartened by Barrett’s concurrence in Fulton. Barrett wrote a brief concurring opinion, explaining why she did not go along with the request to overturn a Supreme Court precedent called Employment Division v. Smith. Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch urged the court to do so, saying Smith burdens the free exercise of religion. In Smith, the Supreme Court ruled that a state could deny unemployment benefits to a person fired for using illegal drugs as part of a religious ceremony. The 1990 decision said a state law denying benefits to employees fired for “misconduct” (illegal drug use) was generally applicable to all persons.

Barrett said she was “skeptical” about the idea of “swapping Smith’s categorical anti-discrimination approach for an equally categorical strict scrutiny regime ...” She said the Supreme Court “has been much more nuanced” in its approach and there was no reason in the Fulton conflict to overturn Smith.

Kavanaugh and Justice Stephen Breyer signed onto Barrett’s concurrence.

Other observers said it may be too soon to tell how conservative the court will become.

“You cannot write anyone off on the court at this point,” said American Civil Liberties Union legal director David Cole, in a post-session discussion.

Cole noted that the Supreme Court has had a majority of Republican-appointed justices since 1972 and yet has made “substantial progress” on issues such as marriage equality. The key, he said, is that the Supreme Court “doesn’t depart very far from where the country is” and, “because the country had moved to a point where there was just not a good reason to deny marriage equality in 2015,” the court ruled for marriage equality that year.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law, speaking at a Supreme Court analysis session by the National Constitution Center on July 8, said he sees a Supreme Court “in transition” since Barrett replaced Ginsburg. He said it is clear there won’t be any 5-4 decisions with liberals in the majority, and the conservative majority now means most cases will be more conservative appeals.

New York University School of Law Professor Melissa Murray, speaking at the same session, predicted a continued “move toward religion as having ‘most favored nation’ status” at the Supreme Court.

Coming up

Two cases are already in the queue for next session, though the court has not yet agreed to hear them: One, Dignity v. Minton, asks whether a Roman Catholic-run hospital in California can deny a hysterectomy to a transgender male patient. Another asks whether Boston, which allows LGBTQ Pride flags to fly on city property during Pride Month, can deny a Christian group to fly its flag on the same property. t

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50 years in 50 weeks: 1985, Dan White kills self

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even years after he shot and killed gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone, the end came for Dan White when he died by suicide October 21, 1985 in the garage of his family’s home in the Excelsior district. As our October 24 issue reports, White had only been paroled in January of that year, after serving five and a half years in prison and a year of parole. (The lenient sentence, after

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a jury convicted him of manslaughter instead of first-degree murder, led to riots in San Francisco in May 1979.) White’s death left many with a feeling of “completion,” as gay then-supervisor Harry Britt told the Bay Area Reporter. “The trial left such a sense of unfinished business with justice left hanging,” Britt, who died last year, added. To view the issue, go to https://archive.org/details/ BAR_19851024/mode/2up.

s w e n r a b @e

National News>>

t Federal agency moves to support SOGI collection

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

federal agency that certifies the use of electronic medical records is requiring the creators of the computerized systems ensure such data as patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity can be easily shared among health care providers, governmental agencies, and researchers. It is a first step toward creating a systemized way to securely capture and exchange the Courtesy Careersinfosecurity.com SOGI data among various entities.

National coordinator for health The federal Office of the National IT Micky Tripathi, Ph.D. Coordinator for Health IT published on July 9 version 2 of the United and nurses, to record and share the States Core Data for Interoperability, data. The release of the updated stanknown as USCDI v2. It sets the standards hopefully will lead to federal dards nationwide for health inforagencies with the authority to do so mation exchange and establishes the making the collection of SOGI data a baseline for what data is commonly requirement, said Tripathi. exchanged across care settings for a “It is not the conclusion of this part wide range of uses. of the story,” he said. Rather, Tripathi In a virtual interview with the Bay said his office is “kicking that off. Here Area Reporter Friday, National Cooris the first stake in the ground. This dinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi, is where we are headed, and now we Ph.D., explained that the federal office need to have the regulatory cycle back has for years required that the creators it up with more and more teeth.” of electronic medical records systems By laying the groundwork for include fields to ask about SOGI. health IT professionals to build sysNow, they will be required to make tems that allow for the exchange of sure such data is shareable with other the SOGI data as the information health care providers. becomes applicable to an individu“It is a unique and important leal’s care, the Biden administration is ver that we have. We try to make sure signaling that it supports seeing the those systems are capable of recording SOGI data become a required catinformation and using information ISO 12647-7 Digital in Controlegory Stripthat 2009is collected.

100 60 100 70 30 100 60 70 30 100 60 100 70 A ways that are100important to the public “The updated U.S. Core Data for interest,” said Tripathi, a straight ally Interoperability takes an important who started as the national coordistep in reflecting the needs of all panator as soon as President Joe Biden tients who access the nation’s health was sworn into office on January 20. care stated Rachel Levine, 100 100 60 100 100 70 70 30 30 100 100 60 100 100 system,” 70 70 30 30 Dr. 100 100 60 100 100 70 70 “The Biden administration feels it is a transgender woman who is the U.S. very important to be sensitive to the Department of Health and Human diversity and differences of the entire Services’ assistant secretary for health, U.S. population.” in a news release announcing the upWhile the federal office is ensuring dated standards. “For accurate, comthat the SOGI data can be collected, it passionate, and safe care, it is impordoes not have the authority to require tant for a patient’s sexual orientation health professionals, such as doctors and gender identity to be part of their B

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

She added in an emailed reply, “The LGBTQ community has historically been marginalized in our health care system, and during the pandemic, no consistent or meaningful data was collected about the LGTBQ community and COVID-19 throughout the state. That’s unacceptable and needs to change. This is a good first step.”

care coordination and this new version helps prioritize next steps for the health care community as well as help identify patients’ specific nonmedical needs – like housing, transportation, and poverty – that affect health to coordinate care and assistance to improve health outcomes.”

Revisions applauded

LGBTQ advocates who have been pushing to see that SOGI data become a routine part of the medical intake process, and that such information be easily shared for health-related purposes, applauded the revisions to the USCDI v2.

“Fenway Health strongly supports the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questions and data in the demographics section of USCDI v2. We also support the inclusion of social determinants of health (SDOH). We commend the Office of Health Information Technology for including these important data so critical to providing competent, affirming care in our nation’s health IT interoperability system,” Sean Cahill, Ph.D., the Boston-based agency’s director of health policy research, told the B.A.R. in response to a request for comment.

“We look forward to working with health care providers and patients to ensure voluntary collection and use of SOGI and SDOH data to provide affirming, holistic care 40 100 30 100 40 100 40 70 40 while protecting patient40privacy and confidentiality,” he added.

Catie Stewart, the communications director for gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who has 30 30 100 40 100 40 40 100 10 40 40 become a vocal advocate for SOGI data collection amid the COVID-19 pandemic but was unavailable for comment, told the B.A.R. that the release of the revised federal standards “is an exciting update that we hope will allow for better and more consisT:9.75" tent SOGI data collection.”

3%

Pandemic shined light on issue

The health crisis brought into stark relief how the lack of SOGI data can result in public health officials being blind about the medical needs of LGBTQ individuals. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was unknown how many LGBTQ people were testing positive for the novel coronavirus or dying from it.

Many LGBTQ people have underlying health issues that make them more susceptible to COVID-19 or work in front-line industries that place them at higher risk of contracting the virus, sparking concerns about just how widespread infections and deaths were in the LGBTQ community. California officials took steps last summer and in the fall to address the lack of SOGI data but then ran into problems with the health record systems being used around the state.

They either had not been updated to ask the SOGI questions or were unable to share the data with state health officials because of problems 70 40 40 40 70 40 40 70 40 70 40 40 10 with what are known as the3 Health Level Seven International (HL7) standards. The HL7 standards omit sexual orientation data and use outdated terms for gender identity.

20 70 70 70 70 40 70 40 40 0000 3.1 2.2 2.2 10.2 7.4 7.4 The HL7’s Gender Harmony Project is working to address the issue, while the group SNOMED, which sets standards for medical terms, has established a sex and gender clinical group to review and update data elements with regard to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and related anatomy.

A coalition of more than 60 organizations working in LGBTQ health care in April had sent a letter to Tripathi and Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Steven Posnack requesting that the SOGI questions be included in the final USCDI v2, along with intersex status, name used, and pronouns.

An advisory committee to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT also called for the SOGI questions to be added to USCDI v2.

More than 180 LGBTQI and allied community organizations signed on to an open letter released in June for Pride Month that called on health leaders to end the invisibility of LGBTQI people in health data. Not only did the groups call for SOGI data to be collected in health records but also in research, surveillance, clinical trials and other health settings. They particularly called out the lack of information on how COVID has impacted the LGBTQ community.

“Until we’re allowed to come out on health forms, key information like how many of us get COVID-19 or cancer every year will never be known,” stated Scout, Ph.D., the executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, which helped organize the joint communiqué. (Scout uses one name.)

“We need to be collecting voluntary SOGISC data from patients throughout every level of our health system.

The failure of health institutions to 25 50 90 100 routinely collect75 SOGISC data puts us at risk,” read the letter, using the acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity, and variations in sex characteristics (also known as intersex status).

25 19 19 50 40 40 75 66 66 100 100 100 80 70 70 100 Fenway Health and the WhitmanWalker clinic in Washington, D.C. both helped initiate the writing of the letter. In a phone interview with the B.A.R. July 9, Benjamin Brooks, J.D., M.P.H., a gay man who is WhitmanWalker’s assistant director of policy, See page 11 >>

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<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021

<<

Death certificates

From page 1

Newsom’s signing AB 439 follows the news last month that the State Department has begun the process to allow people who identify as nonbinary, intersex, or gender-nonconforming to choose a gender-neutral gender marker for their U.S. Passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.

According to a recent study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, roughly 11% of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. – approximately 1.2 million people – identify as nonbinary and the majority of them are white, urban residents under the age of 29.

As Equality California Legislative Director Tami A. Martin stated when Bauer-Kahan’s legislation passed out of the Legislature last month, “This bill is another crucial part of affirming the dignity of our trans and nonbinary community. We are grateful to Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan for her leadership in advancing this issue and to Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins for laying the foundation of this work beginning in 2014.”

<<

LGBTQ scientists

From page 1

Located at 500queerscientists.com, it is nearing 1,560 profiles of LGBTQ scientists from across the globe. Meanwhile, the project has reached roughly 2,500 people via its social media accounts.

“We come together in ways we may not feel we can do in our institutions and labs,” said Esposito. “I am just the steward, the shepherd of the website.”

Telling stories

In February the Association of Science and Technology Centers awarded the Cal Academy a $30,000 IF/ THEN Gender Equity Grant Moonshot Award to help fund the exhibit. It is constructed in such a way that other science institutions and museums can easily replicate it from materials

t

Gender-neutral offices

Bauer-Kahan’s AB 378 systematically goes through laws related to the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state controller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, and board of equalization to make all references to the gender of the officer gender neutral. Currently, most parts of the state code refer to these constitutional office holders as only “he” or “him.”

It is similar to SB 272 authored by gay state Senator John Laird (D- Santa Cruz), of which Bauer-Kahan is a coauthor and is still pending in the Legislature. The bill will update “archaic gender-specific pronouns” used in the state’s vehicle code to refer to the California Highway Patrol commissioner, now led by a woman, as well as throughout the state’s insurance code.

It is one of the 10 LGBTQ bills lawmakers and community groups hope will also be sent to Newsom for his signage in the coming weeks. One of the bills would protect the privacy rights of people receiving sensitive health care services, such as gender-affirming care.

AB 1184 is one of two trans rights bills

Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) is carrying this year.

His AB 245 would prohibit public universities from deadnaming trans and nonbinary students on their diplomas and academic records. AB 218 would allow Californians to update their marriage certificates and the birth certificates of their children to accurately reflect their legal name and gender.

Gay freshman Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego) revived the legislation after Newsom vetoed similar legislation last fall due to concerns it would inadvertently out transgender and nonbinary individuals.

Gay Assemblyman Evan Low’s AB 1084 would require retailers with 500 or more employees to remove signs for gender in toy and child care sections, or require the retailers to provide a gender-neutral retail section for the items. In a compromise to move the bill forward, Low and co-author Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (DBell Gardens) agreed to not include children’s clothing sections in the bill.

AB 465 by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Van Nuys) would require that professional fiduciaries receive

LGBTQ+ cultural competency and sensitivity training during their education and licensing process. Private professional fiduciaries provide critical services to older adults and people with disabilities, from managing their clients’ daily care, housing, and medical needs to ensuring their bills are paid and managing their investments.

AB 1041, authored by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), would expand the definition of “family member” for purposes of family and sick leave to allow covered workers to take time off to care for someone designated by the employee at the time of the request. It takes into account LGBTQ people’s chosen family members who aren’t biologically or legally related and other household units that don’t abide by a “nuclear family” model so that such individuals can get time off to provide health care and other assistance to their loved ones.

SB 357, the Safer Streets for All Act co-authored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), would repeal California Penal Code Section 653.22, the law that criminal-

izes loitering for the intent to engage in sex work. It would also allow those convicted of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution, particularly the Black women and transgender individuals often targeted under the law, to seal their records.

Senator Lena A. Gonzalez’s (D-Long Beach) SB 283, aimed at strengthening the Equal Insurance HIV Act of 2020, would impose a prohibition as of January 1, 2023 on a life or disability insurance insurer from considering an applicant’s occupation in determining whether to require an HIV test and clarifies that limiting benefits payable for a loss caused or contributed to by HIV is allowed if it was part of the original underwriting risk. It also clarifies that the misdemeanor for willful, negligent, or malicious disclosure of HIV test results to a third party is punishable by imprisonment for a period not to exceed 364 days.

And Laird’s SB 258 aims to include older people with HIV as part of the population of “greatest social need” when it comes to programs and services administered by the California Department of Aging. t

shared for free via an online platform that will launch in August.

“The goal was to build something people would want in their museum,” said Esposito, adding that, “One of the biggest things for us was to have people tell their own story in their own words.”

She also wanted to present the subjects in a celebratory manner. Each was asked to send in a self-portrait for use in the display, with the visuals incorporating Easter eggs that relate to the person’s research. Thus, Anolis lizards can be seen in the wallpaper-like design behind Connor’s photo, and scorpion tails are incorporated into Esposito’s own panel in the exhibit.

“It just highlights people celebrating their identities and how their identities benefited how they approached their research,” said Esposito.

Assisting on the project was the

first-ever class of 13 STARS interns aged 18 to 24 at the Exploratorium along San Francisco’s Embarcadero.

The acronym stands for Striving for Trans-inclusion and Anti-Racism in Science learning, and the interns helped record interviews with queer scientists and worked on accompanying materials for the exhibit.

“It was fantastic to work with young people who are exactly the people I want to reach with this exhibit,” said Esposito.

Intern and Solano Community College student Felix Duley, 18, a bisexual transgender man who lives in Fairfield, happened to stop by the Cal Academy to see the exhibit in early July at the same time the Bay Area Reporter was interviewing Esposito about it.

“I could feel the air being pushed out of me,” said Duley about encountering

it for the first time. “As a younger person seeing this, I’d be ridiculously overwhelmed and have all good feelings.”

It will hopefully open up a realm of professional possibilities for other LGBTQ youth interested in STEMM fields, said Duley, who shares Esposito’s love of spiders, as he has 12 tarantulas and one jumping spider at home.

Until he learned about Esposito’s project, Duley said, “I wasn’t aware there was a population of queer people visibly in the science world.”

November 18 is now marked as the International Day of LGBTQIA+ People in STEM. It corresponds to the date in 1960 when the late gay American astronomer Frank Kameny filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking more time to wage his legal fight against the federal government for being fired and banned from future em-

ployment due to his sexual orientation.

According to a 2020 research paper LGBTQ+ people are 17% to 21% less represented in STEMM fields than expected based on their prevalence in the U.S. population. Through the museum exhibit and the 500 Queer Scientists virtual project, Esposito aims to throw open the closet door for out professionals working in, and LGBTQ youth interested in, pursuing STEMM careers.

“I want people to know they have a space here,” said Esposito, “and their perspective is important if we are going to solve the challenges the world is facing.”

The exhibit will be viewable at the Cal Academy through at least December.t

To learn more about the exhibit online visit https://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/new-scienceexhibit

THE BAY AREA REPORTER IS PROUD TO BE THE OFFICIAL LGBTQ MEDIA SPONSOR OF

t

Obituaries>>

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Ken Scearce, director of Sin City Classic tournament, dies

by Roger Brigham

T

he LGBTQ recreational sports community was rocked with the unexpected news that Sin City Classic tournament director Ken Scearce had died.

Mr. Scearce, 48, was found unresponsive in his home in Los Angeles’ Toluca Lake district Wednesday, July 7, around 4:30 p.m. Paramedics were unable to revive him and declared him deceased shortly thereafter of an apparent heart attack. An official cause of death is not known.

“He was an extraordinary person and leader,” the Sin City Classic board said in a formal statement. “Ken poured his heart and soul into the Sin

<<

Pride flag

From page 7

to communications released as part of a disclosure request to gay activists Michael Petrelis and Bill Wilson.

It is not eligible to be landmarked, however, until next year, according to Samereie in a guest opinion for the B.A.R.

<<

SOGI

From page 9

noted that despite intersex still being omitted from the USCDI v2., it “is an extremely important and helpful update” and a “good step in the right direction.”

The new standards on SOGI data collection will help health care centers across the country better un-

City Classic. It would not be what it is today without his love, leadership, and dedication. His loss is felt across the country because he cherished relationships with so many of you. Ken was passionate about this festival and we are committed to honoring his incomparable legacy.”

Mr. Scearce, a gay man and a national account manager with Encore, was a longtime leader in the Greater Los Angeles Area Softball League and became tournament director of the multi-sport Sin City Classic in 2017.

He was inducted in to the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance Hall of Fame in 2014.

“Ken Scearce was an amazing person who brought his incredible spirit

and passion to our softball family,” said Vincent Fuqua, commissioner of the San Francisco Gay Softball League. “He has been a tremendous support and ally to me and many others over the years. He will truly be missed, yet his spirit lives in all of us.”

Kimberly Hadley, sports officer of the Federation of Gay Games, said she had been talking with Mr. Scearce recently about ways in which Sin City Classic and the Gay Games could mutually support each other.

“It’s a sad day,” Hadley said. “He was a good friend over the years. He truly was a leader in the LGBTQ+ sports community. He really heard what people were saying and wanted nothing but the best for everyone’s

events. He had a kind heart and genuinely wanted to see everyone succeed.

We worked quite closely on various initiatives and in various groups. His wisdom and passion for people will be missed.”

Survivors include Ms. Scearce’s sister, Tammy Marie Lonas; and his partner of 19 years, Freddie Alvarez.

Mr. Scearce and Alvarez had recently bought their condominium and planned to get married later this year.

Larry Potter was a friend and teammate on the GLAASL’s Cartel softball team.

“He was a great coach for the team and a great friend,” Potter said. “He loved what he was doing.” t

“We feel that Supervisor Mandelman would be a perfect candidate for initiating this project at the [Board of Supervisors] level,” Beal stated in a March 30 email to Breed’s office.

Victor Ruiz-Cornejo, a policy adviser for Breed, responded that it would be best if a landmarking effort was community-led. Beal wrote back that he’d prefer an effort led at the

Board of Supervisors.

“Directing our funds toward a community-led landmarking effort will deprive us of other services we need and the opportunity to financially support other institutions like the GLBT museum which currently houses the Gilbert Baker Collection,” Beal stated.

When asked for comment, Beal directed the B.A.R. to an online statement

from the Gilbert Baker Foundation.

“As Gilbert Baker’s sole remaining permanent art installation, the rainbow flag at Harvey Milk Plaza deserves landmark status,” the statement reads, in part. “It is a beacon of hope for all people – especially for those who live in oppressive countries. It is also the most significant piece of LGBTQ+ art in San Francisco – perhaps

in the world – and a ‘time capsule’ that marks and commemorates those activists (Black, white, Latino, Asian and Native born) that fought for the rights we have today.”

Mandelman, and Breed’s office did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Aguirre stated that they are not in touch with Beal about the flagpole. t

derstand how many of their patients are LGBTQ and provide them with the data they need to tailor their services toward their health needs, said Brooks. They could also lead to more collaboration among a greater number of health centers treating LGBTQ Americans, he said, and improved data for their advocacy on LGBTQ health issues and needs.

“It opens the doors to the kind of

services and clinical care they need to be offering,” said Brooks. “In particular these changes could make health care centers have affirmative data policies. It opens doors for other inclusive policies like having inclusive and welcoming environments for sexual and gender minority patients.”

Whitman Walker is part of a research collaborative with other health clinics across the country that serve

LGBTQ individuals, noted Brooks, so the revised standards will make it easier for those health care providers to share the SOGI data they are collecting with each other for research and advocacy purposes.

“The big picture on a national scale having routine data collection for LGBTQ people helps to give us a bigger picture of what the urgent areas of health care needs are for sexual and

gender minority patients,” said Brooks.

“It opens the door for understanding best how to advocate for and allocate resources and research to address the urgent needs of the community.”

Version 2 of the United States Core Data for Interoperability can be accessed online at https://www. healthit.gov/isa/united-states-coredata-interoperability-uscdi t

KEEP UP! EMAIL STRIP.indd 1

Courtesy Facebook

Sin City Classic Tournament director Ken Scearce has died.

Stay up-to-date with late breaking news, online extras and our weekly email recap of the most comprehensive Bay Area, state and national LGBTQ news.

Sign up today at ebar.com/SUBSCRIBE 6/19/19 11:30 AM

<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021

<<

Transmissions

From page 4

Likewise, cubanaangel’s Instagram account is predominantly Christian memes, making one question why she would opt to go to a known LGBTQfriendly spa. No one has confirmed

<<

Diner

From page 6

with plans for this project with the goals to keep Grubstake Diner a safe haven and welcoming space for the LGBTQ+ community and nightlife industry; and to preserve the historic ephemera and architec-

<<

St. James

From page 6

go forward with that new leadership style,” O’Shea said. “We are taking in a lot of philosophies talking about communication and the advice process [and] conflict engagement.”

St. James Infirmary was named after Margo St. James, a longtime feminist and sex worker activist who died

t

her story. This is also not the first time the spa has been targeted for being trans-friendly.

Nevertheless, a right-wing protest spun up on July 3, attracting religious fundamentalists, right-wing Proud Boys, and QAnon believers. Counterprotesters also showed up, and some

were attacked in the ensuing standoff. A second protest is in the works as right-wing pundits like Tucker Carlson fan the flames. All this for a spa visit that likely never happened, involving a transgender person who was almost certainly not there.

In the end, will that matter?

For years, the right has been seeking tales of transgender predators, and cubanaangel’s myth-making can be just what they need. It won’t matter than no transgender person was there: transgender people have been there in the past, and even if there were no problems, that is close enough to spin

this year. It confirmed the right’s biases and will be used as a rallying cry.

Add that the spa is Korean-owned, and I’m sure the anti-Asian crowd will be plenty happy about all this, too.

Myths are often greater than reality – but this myth needs to die a very quick death, before more of us do. t

tural elements of Grubstake Diner,” the release stated. “He incorporated all of our suggestions in his plans and went to great length and expense working with preservationists and architects. The project fully qualifies with CA AB 2345, the California State Density Bonus Law, and the Housing Account-

ability Act. LGBTQ+ venues continue to be threatened and we’ve experienced the closure of several of the few remaining late-night restaurants in recent years such as Sparky’s Diner and It’s Tops.” The petition was copied to gay state Senator Scott Wiener, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and

District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, in whose district the diner resides.

Wiener’s and Peskin’s offices did not respond to requests for comment, but Mandelman gave the following statement to the B.A.R. “Since conditional use authorizations are appealable to the Board of Supervisors, I don’t take posi-

tions on any project requiring a CU so that I can still vote if it comes before the board,” Mandelman stated.

“That said, the very long list of LGBTQ leaders and organizations who have signed on in support of this project is a strong signal of just how important Grubstake is to the queer community.”t

in January. In 1999, St. James, Carol Leigh, Johanna Breyer, and Dawn Passar of the Exotic Dancers Alliance, and a group of medical allies, started St. James Infirmary, the first peerbased occupational health and safety clinic for sex workers.

The clinic initially operated out of San Francisco City Clinic before moving to its own facility on Mission Street.

It is now housed at San Francisco Com-

munity Health Center at 730 Polk Street, a space shared with the center, Shanti Project, and Project Open Hand.

According to its most recent IRS Form 990 for Fiscal Year 2019-2020, the organization had a total revenue of $3.5 million and total expenses of $3.1 million. It received $2.5 million in government grants, with $1 million coming from other contributions. As the B.A.R. reported in 2019, St. James

Infirmary was awarded a contract to the tune of 490,000 annually for two years to provide case management to help keep transgender and gender-nonconforming people in their homes or find housing.

The release states that the organization has been there for the community in spite of the trying times. It provides all services for free.

“Economic responses to COVID,

including mass layoffs and limitations on safer sex practices that in turn can limit sex work, have had a devastating effect on the sex worker community,” the release states. “St. James has been there throughout the pandemic to offer assistance and care to a community that is otherwise forgotten, or worse, scapegoated and blamed for their experiences of poverty and ill health.” t

the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/19/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/21.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AGUILAR AUTO SERVICES & BODY SHOP LLC, 2810 OAKDALE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AGUILAR AUTO SERVICES & BODY SHOP LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/03/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/21.

MOLLY WONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 10th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

UNDERWOOD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DOUGLAS ESCOBAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/23/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/21.

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556410

In the matter of the application of NAJABAT MURAD ALESKERZADE, 1770 POST ST #340, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NAJABAT MURAD ALESKERZADE is requesting that the name NAJABAT MURAD ALESKERZADE be changed to ALIX JOY ALDER ASKER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 5th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039368600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as IRIS + EMERSON, 790 ARGUELLO BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TANYA S. ODISHO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039373700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DAVID JAMES’S GPS, 1050B FLORIDA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID JAMES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039375300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SPIRITUAL AWAKENING PSYCHIC CENTER, 533 BALBOA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY STANLEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/21/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/21/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039366000

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039368800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PARKSIDE CRYSTAL, 367 IVY ST #5, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RALPH L. ANDERSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/18/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/14/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039371000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as KQ CONNECTION COURIER COMPANY, 2093 THOMAS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed QUANG NGO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039372900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CALIFORNIA CATERERS; EUROPINK; BLONDI’S; 537 JONES ST #2166, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VITA CAMPISI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039364200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ONELUV SKIN STUDIO, 660 MARKET ST. #219, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BETH SCHATZMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/09/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039358600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KJW FABRICATIONS, 908 POST ST #24, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY JAMES WATERMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039372100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MANISHA FASHION COLLECTION, 910 STOCKTON ST #14 & #15, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MANISHA GURUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/29/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039369100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as VENTRILOQUENT, 3966 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ASHWIN SODHI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LAUREL PROPERTIES, 3543 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LAUREL REALTY INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/15/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039370800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as COMPASS DEVELOPMENT MARKETING GROUP; COMPASS DEVELOPMENT; 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed COMPASS CALIFORNIA II INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/16/21.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/16/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039371700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EAST WEST ADMINISTRATORS, 1352 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PODIATRY PLAN INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039371600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BENEFIT BROKERAGE SOLUTIONS/SILLICON VALLEY HEALTH PLAN, 1352 HAIGHT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DC RISK SOLUTIONS LTD (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039374200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as KHOB KHUN THAI CUISINE & BREAKFAST, 3741 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KHOB KHON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039374400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as AGUILAR TOW SERVICES, 2810 OAKDALE AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed AGUILAR TOW SERVICES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/21.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039374300

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039371900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as TOM’S HARDWOOD FLOOR, 2055 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TOM’S HARDWOOD FLOOR (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/17/21.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039376200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOCIAL REALTOR DIGITAL, 1801 22ND AVE #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed OTIO. DEV LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/22/21.

JUNE 24, JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF DAVID JOHANNES SCHOENBURG, AKA DAVID J. SCHOENBURG, DAVID SCHOENBURG, HANS SCHOENBURG IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-21-304571

To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of DAVID JOHANNES SCHOENBURG, AKA DAVID J. SCHOENBURG, DAVID SCHOENBURG, HANS SCHOENBURG. A Petition for Probate has been filed by JANE W. MCGRATH in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that JANE W. MCGRATH be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: July 21, 2021, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: ELIZABETH CANNON (SBN 197434), PLAGEMAN , LUND & CANNON, 1631 TELEGRAPH AVE, OAKLAND, CA 94612; Ph. (510) 899-6100.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556418

In the matter of the application of CHRISTINE WONG, 2208 MISSION ST #504, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CHRISTINE WONG is requesting that the name CHRISTINE WONG be changed to CRYSTAL

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039377600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as PACIFIC WEST FINANCIAL SOUTH BAY (PWFSB), 29 LAKEWOOD AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUSSELL M. DAVIS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/22/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039380900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LT HOME REPAIR SERVICE, 615 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LARRY LOC VO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/25/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039379100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039381500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ART OF HAIR ACADEMY, 521 GREEN ST #15, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN PAUL STRAND. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039361600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BRIONES HOUSEKEEPING, 990 GEARY ST #209, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DARIO BRIONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/08/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039378600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as B&J MANUFACTURING, 275 COUNTRY CLUB DR, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BERTHA JIMENEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/86. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039380800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HEIMWEE ANTIQUES, 56 MAYNARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HUMBERTO JIRON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039378900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ONE UP REAL ESTATE, 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VINCENT HEUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039375800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as HRMONIK, 2261 MARKET ST #450A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANN JEAN-PHILIPPE DUTREUIL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/22/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039378300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ESCOBAR BROS RECYCLING, 1225 THOMAS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DOUGLAS ESCOBAR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/23/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039378400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ESCOBAR BROS TOWING SERVICE, 1212

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FREEKEH; FREEKEH SF; 3126 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ARAFAT A. HERZALLAH. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/25/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039381600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PORK STORE CAFÉ VALENCIA, 3122 16TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed 3122 16TH STREET, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-030375400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LOCALS DISTRO, 1500 BURKE AVE #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE BURKE GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/21/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-030375500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BURKE EXTRACTS, 1500 BURKE AVE #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed THE BURKE GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/21/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039379500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as RADISH, 2565 3RD ST #310, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MY RADISH, INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/24/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039380300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as DRUGOTC.COM, 1836 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed OJN, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/05/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/24/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039373900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PROPOSITION CHICKEN, 3465 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed REMA RESTAURANTS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/18/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039379600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MFA FINANCIAL PLANNING; MOORE FINANCIAL ADVICE; 586-B WISCONSIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed CNM ASSOCIATES, LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/24/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039379900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CHAPTER, SAN FRANCISCO; CHAPTER HOSTEL; 655 ELLIS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed COSA FRANKLIN STREET LLC (NV). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/24/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039372200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CAFÉ MEUSE, 1400 PACIFIC AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed NOB HILL NOSHERY, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/29/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039381400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THAI SPICE RESTAURANT, 1730 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KUSONTHAMMARAT LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039361200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE HAT MAN, 3064 CANYON WAY, PITTSBURG, CA 94565. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MERRITT BROWN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/08/21.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/08/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039375100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BISTRO CENTRAL PARC, 560 CENTRAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BISTRO PARC LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/02/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/21/21.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-039057300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as BISTRO CENTRAL PARC, 560 CENTRAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by BISTRO CENTRAL PARC, INC. (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/01/20.

JULY 01, 08, 15, 22, 2021 SUMMONS IN A CIVIL ACTION IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:21-CV-02362-SK BRIAN WHITAKER, PLAINTIFF V. EVA C. JEONG, IN INDIVIDUAL AND REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY AS TRUSTEE OF THE STEVE M. JONG AND EVA C. JEONG REVOCABLE TRUST DATED DECEMBER 26, 1995; JOHNNY LY, DEFENDANTS To Eva C. Jeong, in individual and representative capacity as trustee Of The Steve M. Jong And Eva C. Jeong Revocable Trust Dated December 26, 1995, 146 Wood St Apt 8, San Francisco, CA 94118-3465 and Johnny Ly, c/o Latte Express #5, 646 Kearny St, San Francisco, CA 94108, a lawsuit has been filed against you. Within 21 days after service of this summons on you (not counting the day you received it) – or 60 days if you are the United States or a United States agency, or an officer or employee of the United States described in Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(a)(2) or (3) – you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The answer or motion must be served on the plaintiff or plaintiff’s attorney, whose name and address are Amanda Seabock, Esq., SBN 289900, 8033 Linda Vista Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92111; Phone (858) 3757385; (888) 422-5191 fax. If you fail to respond, judgment by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. You also must file your answer or motion with the court. Date: 4/2/2021. Clerk of the Court Susan Y. Soong; signed Sheila Rash, deputy clerk.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556421

In the matter of the application of WENJIE ZHONG, 288 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner WENJIE ZHONG is requesting that the name WENJIE ZHONG be changed to WENNIE ZHONG. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 9th of SEP 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556432

In the matter of the application of SUNJUNG KIM, 260 KING ST #417, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SUNJUNG KIM is requesting that the name SUNJUNG KIM be changed to MICHAEL SUNJUNG KIM. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 17th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556436

In the matter of the application of GENEVA CARTER, 32 MAXWELL CT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner GENEVA CARTER is requesting that the name AIRAM VERRILL JACKSON be changed to KY’REAL KENYA DUVALL and the name GENEVA HELEN CARTER be changed to MALAYSIA GRACE DUVALL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 17th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039371800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as WELLNESS WARRIOR SF, 1050 NORTH POINT ST #402, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ELIZABETH CHANG WILSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/03/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/17/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039384600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EARTH ALLY, 743 11TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHARLOTTE CANNER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/02/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039387500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SASSY LOCS HUMAN HAIR, 1101 PHELPS ST #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANET PICKENS-STANFORD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039386700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MAESTRO APPLIANCE, 150 SAN MARCOS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDRE SAVKIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039364700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MYPLIANCE, 136 FOERSTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ROMAN STEPANYUK & OLEKSANDR STEPANYUK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/11/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039386900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PHO HUONG VIET, 5733 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PHO HUONG VIET INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039386400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NAILS N BEAUTY, 2385 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed NAILS N BEAUTY (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039385100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EGGCELLENT WAFFLES, 891 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed WAI YAM KWAN HK LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039386200

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LILIKOI, 3108 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KINGDEW ENTERPRISES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556416

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039385600

In the matter of the application of ROY MILTON BOSWELL, 1788 CLAY ST #207, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROY MILTON BOSWELL is requesting that the name ROY MILTON BOSWELL be changed to ROY MILTON BOSWELL-VIGGIANO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 10th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021

The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE ANCHOVY BAR, 1740 O’FARRELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE PROGRESS PROVISIONS, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/20.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039387600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as RITUAL NAIL BAR, 340 DIVISADERO ST, SAN

FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HOANG & NEAL, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 08, 15, 22, 29, 2021 SUMMONS (FAMILY LAW) SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: KACI L. LIN, YOU ARE BEING SUED. PETITIONER’S NAME IS JAMES R. LIN CASE NO. FDI-21-794891

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120 or FL-123) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnerships, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs.

For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www. lawhelpcalifornia.org), or by contacting your local county bar association.

NOTICE RESTRAINING ORDERS: The restraining orders following are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment entered, or the court makes further orders.

They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.

FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party.

UNIFIED FAMILY COURT – SAN FRANCISCO SUPERIOR COURT, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102; PETITIONER’S ATTORNEY: Michael Strebe (SBN #280375), Lewellen Strebe PC, 50 Osgood Pl. #500, San Francisco, CA 94133; (415) 818-1106.

May 12, 2021, Clerk of the Court: Tim Kyu. STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1. Removing the minor children of the parties from the state or applying for a new or replacement passport for those minor children without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing, borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor children; 3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in the manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party. You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs. NOTICE-ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE: Do you or someone in your household need affordable health insurance? If so, you should apply for Covered California. Covered California can help reduce the cost you pay towards high quality affordable care. For more information, visit www. coveredca.com. Or call Covered California at 1-800300-1506. WARNING-IMPORTANT INFORMATION: California law provides that, for the purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (i.e., joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling, and not the community property presumption.

You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556439

In the matter of the application of ERIC MICHAEL SCHUMACHER & ERIN LYNN SCHUMACHER, 118 BACHE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ERIC MICHAEL SCHUMACHER & ERIN LYNN SCHUMACHER is requesting that the name SADIE ROSE SCHUMACHER be changed to TOBY ROSE SCHUMACHER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 19th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556447

In the matter of the application of SEAN JEFFREY HENNESSEY, 5021 DIAMOND HEIGHTS BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SEAN JEFFREY HENNESSEY is requesting that the name SEAN JEFFREY HENNESSEY be changed to SEAN JEFFREY LI HSIANG HENNESSEY-HSIEH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 19th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556448

In the matter of the application of KUN YUAN HSIEH, 5021 DIAMOND HEIGHTS BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KUN YUAN HSIEH is requesting that the name KUN YUAN HSIEH be changed to BRIAN KUN YUAN HENNESSEY-HSIEH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 19th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556453

In the matter of the application of CASSANDRA LOUISE MILLER AKA CASSANDRA LOUISE ATKINS, 1427 LARKIN ST #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application

that petitioner CASSANDRA LOUISE MILLER AKA CASSANDRA LOUISE ATKINS is requesting that the name(s) CASSANDRA LOUISE MILLER AKA CASSANDRA LOUISE ATKINS be changed to CASSANDRA LOUISE ATKINS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 24th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556460

In the matter of the application of SAN LING, C/O JOHN F. LEE (SBN #154343), 15 BOARDMAN PL, 2ND FL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SAN LING is requesting that the name SAN LING be changed to KATHLEEN LING CHAU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 24th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556461

In the matter of the application of SEEMA HAJI, 620 TERESITA BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SEEMA HAJI is requesting that the name YUVAN JAMES BANERJEE be changed to YUVAN HAJI BANERJEE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 24th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556462

In the matter of the application of SEEMA HUSSAIN HAJI AKA SEEMA KESWANI, 620 TERESITA BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SEEMA HUSSAIN HAJI AKA SEEMA KESWANI is requesting that the name(s) SEEMA HUSSAIN HAJI AKA SEEMA KESWANI be changed to SEEMA HAJI LAWRENCE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 24th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556463

In the matter of the application of KARISHMA HAJI, 2150 18TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KARISHMA HAJI is requesting that the name KARISHMA HUSSAIN HAJI AKA KARISHMA KESWANI be changed to KARISHMA HAJI; the name MEERA NAINA HEIKER be changed to MEERA HAJI HEIKER; and the name ZOYA AMAYA HEIKER be changed to ZOYA HAJI HEIKER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 24th of AUGUST 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039389800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as MEGA TRADING COMPANY, 2743 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHOONG LI FEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/29/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039393800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CITY LIGHT PALACE, 706 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALLAN P. NUTALL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039394600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as YOLANDA’S EZ REGISTRATION SERVICE, 1321 STEINER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YOLANDA R. JONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039394300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EMERALD SPA, 441 STOCKTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed HANNA HOANG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under

the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039390100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as SIBERIAN SECRETS, 350 TOWNSEND ST #827, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed VITALY DANEKIN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/27/16.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/06/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039398100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as CORTEZ AND CORTEZ GENERAL MAINTENANCE, 227 9TH ST #22, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed FRANK ALLEN CORTEZ WALLACE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/08/21.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039386000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as LAUNDERWORLD, 2307 FOLSOM ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed AOIKUN INC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039396900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as BAY AREA REPORTER, 44 GOUGH ST #204, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BAR MEDIA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039392600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CENSORED EXPLICIT VODKA; THE STRAITS GROUP; 849 AVENUE D, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94130. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TREEHOUSE CRAFT DISTILLERY, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039394500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as EVENTS BY GS, 1222 25TH AVE #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed EVENTS BY GS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/22/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039397600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE RED TAIL, 545 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FOG CITY BREWS LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/08/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039386300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as JADE ELLEN, 1910 29TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed JADE ELLEN, LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/08/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039384100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as HALCYON, 314 11TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 314 11TH STREET LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039401300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as NUANCED COLLECTIVE, 800 INDIANA ST #347, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed FLOW STATE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/12/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/12/21.

JULY 15, 22, 29, AUG 05, 2021

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Jack Spencer

by Gregg Shapiro

A

nyone familiar with the brilliant songs of lesbian singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier won’t be at all surprised to learn that she also has an undeniable gift for writing prose. Her first book, Saved By A Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting (St. Martin’s Press, 2021), which I would describe as a memoir/manual hybrid, is as personal and revealing as her tunes.

Over the course of 13 songs (11 originals and two by others, including John Prine’s “Sam Stone” and John Lennon’s “Mother”), Gauthier takes the reader behind the scenes with stories about how the songs came to be, while also delving into the process itself. It’s fascinating read for all, songwriters and fans alike. Mary was generous enough to talk to me in advance of the July 6 publication of the book.

Gregg Shapiro: Mary, your book Saved By A Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, is a memoir/gentle-songwritingmanual hybrid. Was that the intention all along or did it begin as one, say a memoir, and then merge with a songwriting guide?

Mary Gauthier: This was a six or seven-year process. I wrote a book before this for Yale University Press. They wanted a straight-up book on songwriting. Then the guy who signed me to Yale left the press. He moved to Berkeley and is running a nonprofit, beautiful press out there called Heyday. When he left the book kind of got shelved. So, that book went away.

I had that manuscript which I’d spent years on and then I connected with St. Martin’s Press. They wanted to see that manuscript.

They liked it, but they wanted something

Mary Gauthier Saved by a songwriter more interesting to people who are not songwriters, but also to reach songwriters. It was their idea, and I love it, to pick stories from my life that are examples of, I guess, inspiration for songs or my deepening understanding of songwriting; tell it through story.

Let’s go with something that’s a mash-up memoir plus songs behind-the-scenes instruction.

Which I think is a better book, actually, because the straight-up instruction books on songwriting, kind of don’t give you a context for where all these lessons come from. What I’m trying to teach and show students is that they come from your life. Where else could they come from?

You wrote that your ‘hope is to encourage courage’ when it comes to songwriting, but you also don’t hesitate to write about your own songwriting frustration. Would it be fair to say the book is as instructional as it is cautionary?

Maybe not cautionary; just letting songwrit-

Jewish Filmfest includes compelling LGBTQ stories

by Brian Bromberger

F

rom July 22 to August 1, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), the world’s first and largest Jewish film festival, will present more than 50 films from over 20 countries. Now in its 41st year, 2021’s program has “something for everyone,” including six films addressing LGBTQ issues, seven exploring topics and themes relating to the Israeli-Palestinian region, and twenty-five featuring women directors and producers.

Festival-goers who are comfortable viewing films from home can participate in the JFI Digital Screening Room, while those who wish to gather in community can enjoy inperson live screenings at the Castro Theatre on July 24 and 25.

“We really were not sure what was going to happen this year but the lineup reflects the full breadth of Jewish identity and the perseverance of independent filmmakers during a global pandemic. There is nothing like a community experiencing a film premiere together in the dark,” said JFI Executive Director Lexi Leban in a press statement. For the

most part, the queer SFJFF offerings are outstanding this year.

Prognosis, a harrowing study of Oscar-winning Bay Area documentary filmmaker Debra Chasnoff ’s turning the camera on herself after she’s diagnosed with stage-4 breast cancer, was shown at Frameline45 and reviewed here in June. But if you missed it, this might be your last chance to see it on the big Castro screen.

Charlatan, which also played at Frameline45, will be screened in connection with its director Agnieszka Holland (best known for her Holocaust film Europa, Europa) being given SFJFF’s Freedom of Expression Award, “honoring the unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a just, free and open society.” Past recipients include Norman Lear and Kirk Douglas.

Based on the true story of Czech herbalist and alternative healer Jan Mikolasek (Ivan Trojan; his son Josef plays him as a youth), Charlatan encompasses a thirty-year career which included treating Nazi heavyweights like Martin Bormann and Czech Communist President Antonin Zapotocky.

The son of a country gardener, Mikolasek developed his ‘psychic’ gifts from studies with a faith healing widow who recognized his talents.

ers know that if you ever think this is going to get easy, forget about it! This is hard. What we’re trying to do with song is what a novelist tries to do in 700 pages. We’ve got three minutes.

If Leonard Cohen was still alive, he’d be the first one to tell you, this is hard.

“Hallelujah” took something like seven years and 50 verses to get to the song that we know and love today. The only songwriter who makes it look easy is Bob Dylan, and there’s one of them in all of history. I think it’s not necessarily cautionary, but more, ‘Hey, don’t expect it to get easy.’ In fact, the further you go, the more you’re going to see that this is always about roaming around in the darkness trying to find the light.

In chapter two, you say, “To sound like myself, I had to reveal myself,” which I think is reflected in the way you have spoken and written honestly about your path to recovery, which includes 30 years of sobriety.

Charlatan

Eventually he would treat five million people by examining their urine in a glass bottom under strong light, diagnosing their ailments by prescribing herbal teas, ointments and other folk, homeopathic cures, with no medical degree.

People would wait hours on long lines to see him at his office. He hired an unemployed laborer Frantisek Palko (Juraj Loj, who injects much needed passion in some dry patches) to be his loyal assistant and clandestine lover, a relationship invented for the film. Shielded from the Communists by Zapotocky until his death in 1957, eventually Mikolasek was tried and sent to prison in the late 1950s.

Was his downfall due to his refusal to comply with the communist political system (and, the film argues, false charges of murder), his Christian belief stance in an officially atheist country, or his homosexuality (also still debated if he was gay or not) when it was still classified as an illegal offense?

The centerpiece documentary, The Conductor, is a riveting dynamic portrait of Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct a major American classical orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Born to musician parents (father a violinist, mother a cel-

What would it mean to you to have your book embraced as recommended reading for the recovery community?

That would be tremendous. I think that’s what I’m getting at, very much what I’m getting. That I wouldn’t be a songwriter if I hadn’t gotten sober. And I wouldn’t have gotten sober if I hadn’t gotten arrested. I figured that’s a good enough place as any to start the book.

In the car, drunk, with sirens behind you. Very, very scary [laughs].

My heart was racing when I was reading that part, too. Also notable is the way you address queerness in your life and music, from the Indigo Girls concert you attended to your songs “Goddamn HIV” and “Drag Queens in Limousines.” In the years since you been writing and recording music, what do you think of the way that LGBTQ+ musicians have been embraced by audiences from all walks of life?

That’s a great question! I was telling my partner Jaimee that this is the year of the warm embrace. We’ve hit a critical mass this year. I get requests from the Americana Music Association, “Please send us a quote about your story, Americana music and Gay Pride Month, directed to people who are on our Instagram.”

Nashville keeps changing. I recently interviewed (out country artist) Ty Herndon, who produced his annual Concert for Love and Acceptance. The Brothers Osborne, one of whom came out, performed, so an incredible change is taking place in Nashville and country music.

Something, especially this year, I don’t know what has happened. I think it helps that Brandi went and won six Grammys. I think it helps that people realize gay marriage is not going away, that it’s becoming more and more just something that people can see in their own world. Gay and lesbian couples getting married, having kids, raising families. I just think critical mass has been reached. The magic of exponents. I feel it in my own world here, as people ask me for quotes. I said to Jaimee, “Oh, my God, I’ve finally been gay long enough that gay is cool [laughs].”

I have to admit that I burst into tears when you wrote about Nanci Griffith giving you her See page 15 >>

list), Alsop was inspired to pursue her musical career when at age 9 she saw Leonard Bernstein conduct on TV’s Young People’s Concert.

In 1993, Alsop became the music director of the Colorado Symphony, followed by guest conductor stints at orchestras throughout the world. In 2005 she became the first conductor to receive a genius MacArthur Fellowship.

Then in 2007 she was appointed her position at BSO, but was immediately ensconced in a controversy as the Baltimore musicians were angry, saying they hadn’t been consulted during the search process and questioned her musical depth. Some complained that her previous performances were substandard. She had a frank private meeting with the whole orchestra, smoothed over some of their differences, but it was a painful process for her. Last month, she just ended her tenure with BSO. The film is committed to a feminist pointof-view, focusing on Alsop’s determination to break the male glass ceiling, by reporting what she felt. Marin’s voice-over narration emerges in a few interviews director Bernadette Wegenstein did with her, conveying her survival strategies when she was rejected and criticized.

The one major flaw in an otherwise terrific documentary is dealing with Alsop’s lesbianism in a trivial manner. Wegenstein allows Alsop’s wife of 30+ years Kristin Jurkscheit, a few See page 19 >>

The Conductor’s Marin Alsop

t <<

Books & Cabaret>>

Mary Gauthier

From page 14

guitar to keep in the “Our Lady of the Shooting Stars” chapter. I’m so glad that you included that detail in the book. Would you say that that is another illustration of what we talked about earlier, encouraging courage?

Yes, absolutely, and encouraging up-andcoming artists who are speaking to you by validating them. Right now, it seems to me that this generation coming up is real big on pulling their friends up with them. Certainly, my partner Jaimee is expert at that. They’re not looking at it as shortages, they’re looking at it as, “I got a little, here have some.”

Generosity.

Yes! Generosity wins! It’s not fun to be in the winner’s circle alone. You want community, you want connection. You want your friends.

You want someone to high-five. If it’s your manager as your only friend, you’re in trouble, and I’ve been there. I think there’s a spirit, along with the diversity and inclusion, of community rising and community building. I take lessons on this. I’m not instinctively good at it.

I have to watch how people who are good at it do it, and then kind of mime what they’re doing. I want to do what Nanci did for me. I can’t be giving away guitars. I don’t have the

clout. She had a Taylor endorsement so she was able to just say, “Hey, can you build me another one?” But I can metaphorically do that.

For example, Elles Bailey, a young woman in England recorded “Mercy Now,” and I loved her recording. I tagged her and thanked her on all my socials and put her recording of it up. I thought, why haven’t I been doing this all along? This is how you do it. This is more fun, to be together on this journey.

Did you find other creative ways to pass the time during the pandemic, perhaps performing live-streaming sets or such?

Yes. We’ve done a live stream every Sunday since early April 2020. We still are doing them, although I think as we pick up the touring, there’s going to be fewer and fewer because we’re traveling every Sunday. I brought a guest on every week and that’s been a lot of fun and a way to see my friends. Have them as my guest and we get to hang out. Also, doing things around the house has been great; growing a garden. I got my second garden going back there. We’re dealing now with zucchini, which is awesome.

Being in one place for an extended period of time, most everyone I brought into live stream has been saying it’s incredible to be in one place for an extended period of time, because none of us had been in such a long time.

Now that the book is published, have you started thinking about or working on your next album?

Yes. I’m going to record it in December.

What we’ve got right now is the vinyl shortage situation. The vinyl manufacturing plants are unable to keep up with the demand. The demand for vinyl surged. Record companies have had to put the brakes on because the vinyl companies are underwater. I’m just about ready to go. I’m maybe two songs shy of a new record. But the business end is nowhere near ready. They said do it in December and we’ll put it out in late spring and hope that vinyl will be somewhat caught up by then. We’ll see. But I’m close.t

Laura E. Partain

Mary Gautheir

www.marygauthier.com

Read the full interview, with videos, on www.ebar.com

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Happy to be here

by Jim Gladstone

T

here will be much to celebrate with Broadway star Lillias White when she makes her Feinstein’s at the Nikko debut in a two-night engagement beginning Friday, July 23. The very same day will see the release of White’s new album, Get Yourself Some Happy!

Happy is, in fact, White’s very first solo studio album. This may surprise audiences, considering that the vocally powerful Tony winner (for Cy Coleman’s 1997 musical, The Life) has thrilled audiences in two of Broadway’s signature musical moments; as Effie White in Dreamgirls (1987 revival) and in a six-monthrun as Grizabella in Cats.

Her cabaret performances have been praised

by The New York Times as exuding “intelligence and self-assured sophistication.” And yet another reason the album comes as a surprise –and another reason to celebrate– is that this newbie recording artist will turn 70 just two days before taking the stage at the Nikko.

“I’ve always wanted to be a recording artist,” White told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent phone interview, during which she was being driven from her New York home to a recording studio, where she’s been making up for lost time. “I’m recording tracks for my next album,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a tribute to Sarah Vaughn called Divine Sass. I’ve done many of the songs in concerts over the years.”

Since 1981, when she played her first Broadway role in Barnum, White has been in the cast of 11 different musicals on the Great White Way, including Once on This Island, How To Succeed in Business…, Chicago, and Fela!, for which she received a second Tony nomination playing the legendary Nigerian musician’s mother (White was also a standby for 1988’s infamous Carrie: The Musical). White also did an Emmy-winning turn on Sesame Street, played the title role in a Los Angeles stage production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and more recently appeared on Netflix’s The Get Down and Russian Doll.

Somewhere in there, “back in the day,” White briefly lived in San Francisco. “I married a man

Reach 120,000+ active, educated, and affluent arts-enthusiasts who read the Bay Area Reporter, as we herald and celebrate the the arrival of the highly-anticipated Fall Arts Season.

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Lillias White

from there,” she says of a period she’d rather not revisit. “I don’t know why I did that.”

Still, White, who lived at Gough and Washington, has fond memories of the city itself and has returned for concert performances at The Venetian Room and the Orinda Theater’s cabaret series.

At Feinstein’s she’ll be performing many of the songs that she and her longtime musical director, the late Timothy Graphenreed, selected for the new album. While all of the tunes share a theme of happiness, White gamely zips between styles, demonstrating her range from a hushed rendition of “You’re My Best Friend” to an amped up, danceable “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.”

As to whether there are any music theater roles she’d still like to get a crack at, White says, “I want to do new work, with new music and fresh voices.”

But after a pause, the ever-effervescent 69-year-old reconsiders: “I would love to do Mame.”t Lillias White at Feinstein’s at the Nikko, July 23 and 24. 222 Mason St. $75 www.feinsteinssf.com

Read the full article on www.ebar.com

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From the museums and galleries, to local theatre, performances, television, film, along with dance, music, books -- our fall arts preview edition presents comprehensive coverage of the arts scene in the world-class city we’ve called home since 1971.

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<< TV

16 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021

Protests and produce

Left: Tennis hunk Matteo Berrettini Right: Banned track star Christine Mboma

by Victoria A. Brownworth

S

occer, tennis, Olympic trials; It’s been a helluva sports week.

Let’s all agree that Matteo Berrettini, the 25-year-old, 6’5” “Hammer of Wimbledon” is adorable and hot and fortunately will be around for a long time.

Let’s also agree that soccer is a bazillion percent more exciting than football and the players are sexy AF. Let’s also agree that the war on Black women athletes needs to end and that there is something seriously wrong with the World Athletics rule that has women athletes tested not just for doping, but for femaleness.

Several of the world’s fastest women have been banned from their signature track events for having naturally occurring high testosterone levels. That every one of them is Black is both not surprising and utterly shocking. According to the 2019 World Athletics rules adopted by the International Olympic Committee, women have to alter their bodies with estrogen supplements if they have high T or be disqualified from their sports, even though estrogen can be a carcinogen in artificially high doses.

Caster Semenya, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi have all been banned from their races at the Tokyo Olympics for high T. So have Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Margaret Wambui of Kenya, who won silver and bronze behind Semenya’s gold at the 2016 Olympics.

So this is even more insidious than Sha’Carri Richardson being banned for smoking a joint. (If she’d gotten drunk instead, she’d be golden.)

This “alter your natural body or you can’t run” rule is something you

Paralympics triathlete Chris Nikic

should know about and object to as you watch the glory that is the Tokyo Olympics. The games start July 23 with the opening ceremony, which is bound to be amazing. On NBC.

Paralympics

We have really appreciated ABC World News Tonight featuring disabled athletes who will be participating in the Tokyo Paralympics.

The Paralympics never get enough attention and as a former athlete, now paraplegic, we cheer the Paralympians with fervor.

ABC also featured Triathlete Chris Nikic on the July 11 broadcast. Nikic was honored with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at The 2021 ESPYS for being the first person with Down Syndrome to complete the 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon run at the Ironman Florida competition.

Fat is more than a Feminist issue

Who doesn’t love Valerie Bertinelli? We grew up with her on One

Day at a Time. We loved her on Hot in Cleveland. We watch her now on Valerie’s Home Cooking and Kids Baking Championship (how do those kids bake better than we do?).

We watch her on Today.

Bertinelli’s delightful and she’s been an LGBTQ ally since way before it got trendy and was part of the NoH8 campaign. In 1996 she starred in the lesbian custody battle movie Two Mothers for Zachary, based on the Sharon Bottoms case, with Vanessa Redgrave. In 1996, folks still thought you were gay if you played gay. (Two Mothers for Zachary is available on Amazon Prime.)

Bertinelli’s emotional anti-fatshaming video message on Instagram after a social media troll commented on her weight went viral last week and wow. You can watch it, and weep. She’s sans make-up, been crying, yet still looks incredibly good despite that, and being 61.

Her message was clear: Don’t tell people they need to lose weight, ever. Bertinelli took her pushback a step further and apologized for being part of the weight loss machine by being a spokesperson for Jenny Craig for six years.

Weight is an issue Bertinelli has been dealing with forever, as her IG post explained. Now she is set to star opposite Demi Lovato –who has also struggled with their weight– in a comedy for NBC, Hungry.

Bertinelli’s character, Lisa, is described as a “warm, loving, self-critical and emotional mess of a woman who has lost and gained the same 30 pounds for 30 years,” Lisa considers her daughter Teddy (Lovato) to be her best friend. And as a restaurant owner, “she is constantly thinking about and serving people food.”

Valerie Bertinelli

Hungry “follows friends who belong to a food-issues group as they help each other look for love, success and the perfect thing in the fridge that’s going to make it all better.” The show is the creation of Emmy-winning writer and executive producer Suzanne Martin, known for her work on Frasier and the revival of NBC Will & Grace. Lovato will be one of the few non-binary actors on TV.

The cast of the rebooted Gossip Girl

crowd ... But what if three’s a party?”

What indeed? Max (Thomas Doherty) is the always hot and ready pansexual player. Aki (Evan Mock) has pink hair, a skateboard and a big Q over whether he likes girls, boys or both. Monet de Haan (Savannah Lee Smith) is the intimidating and powerful lesbian best friend to Julien (Jordan Alexander) and Luna (Zión Moreno).

The exclusive Constance Billard prep school is the school. Social media is the vehicle. Watch for a summer of secrets, scandal and so much more.

Unforgettable

Season 4 of the superb and awardwinning PBS Mystery series Unforgotten has everything you could possibly want in a crime/thriller series now that Mare of Easttown is done till next season. DCI Cassandra “Cassie” Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunil “Sunny” Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) are the lead detectives in a London cold case unit. Cassie is a single mother with a father suffering from rapid-onset Alzheimer’s and Sunny is a single father of two teenage girls. Their complex personal lives create conflicts that spill over into their work lives.

At the end of season 3, Cassie had a mental breakdown and went on medical leave. She had hoped to take a medical retirement, but the police department decides she must forfeit her pension –about $200,000– due to being three months short of her 30 years.

Season 4 opens with the team finding a headless corpse in a freezer in a junkyard. Piecing the who, what, where, how and why together is tantalizing, and we don’t want to give away too much, but a literal wrong turn 30 years ago altered six lives forever.

Also featured this season: a lesbian couple–one of whom is a principle in the plot--about to be married, various disability issues including intellectual disabilities, and racial conflicts faced by Southeast Asian Londoners.

Season 4 of Unforgotten is incomparably good, as are the three previous seasons. Watch on PBS or on Amazon Prime or Apple iTunes.

Cucumber, Banana, Tofu

Finally, if you are in need of a cool drink of gayness, Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk, Doctor Who, Torchwood), has three interconnected LGBTQ shows from 2014 that are being restreamed. Banana, Cucumber and Tofu delve into the lives of multi-generational gay men. There’s sex, passion, love, commitment, fear. It’s a lot.

Cucumber focuses on middleaged Henry Best (Vincent Franklin) and his long-suffering partner, Lance Sullivan (Cyril Nri). Banana is focused on the younger characters--Dean Monroe (Fisayo Akinade) and Freddie Baxter (Freddie Fox) are spectacular--and the intersection between and among them.

Tofu is a documentary series that focuses on a range of sex attitudes from the POV of everyday people.

Like Cucumber and Banana, the name of the series refers to the same urological scale of hardness of the male erection from a European study that inspired Davies; it starts at tofu, goes through peeled banana, and ends at cucumber.

Davies gets how people make wrong choices all the time based on their desires, losses and fears. All his work is worth watching. On Amazon, Apple iTunes and Vudu.

So, to choose an on-field or off slot, a hard or soft option, you know you really must stay tuned.t

Gossip, girls

Professional headshots / profile pics Weddings / Events

StevenUnderhill 415 370 7152 • StevenUnderhill.com

You didn’t even know how much you needed this, but Gossip Girl is back! And now it is super queer; for real, this time.

Yes, a new generation of privileged Upper East Side New Yorkers at an elite school –now pansexual, bisexual, queer, non-binary– are “introduced to ruthless social surveillance eight years after the original blogger’s website went dark.”

Kristen Bell returns as the voice of the omniscient blogger, Gossip Girl. The original series ran for six seasons from 2007 through 2016, a total of 121 episodes. The series introduced us to Blake Lively and Penn Badgley (You), won a ton of awards and we all loved it.

The HBO Max reboot is for Gen Z queers and folks who love them. The tagline from the show reads “They say two is company and three’s a

t

Above: Sanjeev Bhaskar and Nicola Walker in Unforgotten Below: Cast members in Cucumber

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<< Books

18 • Bay Area Reporter • July 15-21, 2021

A dark history told in the light of hope

by Jim Piechota

I

n this honest and poignant remembrance of the years before, during, and after the scourge of AIDS, celebrated designer, photographer, and artist Derek Frost escorts readers into the dark, devastating heart of the 1980s and beyond.

Frost, 69, met his husband, entrepreneur Jeremy Norman, nearly 45 years ago in 1977 when London’s gay community fostered a supportive environment of sexuality, solidarity, and unapologetic partying.

Even in the 1980s, their idea of coupling was progressive, open, and non-restrictive: “Why close doors

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Author Derek Frost

Frost and Norman’s numerous visits to Key West over the years are immersive and exacting in mood and detail as the liberal, uncritical location in 1981 hosted a “constant tropical languid sensuality which perfumes the air and informs our behavior.” There, particularly in the pre-AIDS era where rumors of a “gay cancer” were just beginning to simmer, the party was blameless, gloriously cocaine-fueled, and featured the passionate bodies of hot-blooded Cuban boys who lived and loved with great enthusiasm and style.

Through the bigotry of Anita Bryant, the shocking death of Rock Hudson, Princess Diana’s groundbreaking hug of an HIV-positive gay man, the advent of safe sex, ACT-UP activism, and CD4 counts: all of the indelible history markers are here and made exquisitely personal as the memoir progresses through years of good times and bad. Most readers will remember each with a painful wince, but will

remain grateful that books like Frost’s are available as a necessary reminder of where we’ve been and what the road ahead will show us.

Together, Frost and Norman would go on to start a number of memorable businesses including the Embassy Club (opened one year after they’d met), the iconic Heaven nightclub, and the Soho Athletic Gym, in addition to two charities, one of which, AIDS Ark, continues to save the lives of people in dire need of medical treatment and livegiving supplies in parts of the world where AIDS meds are scarcest.

This resonant memoir forms both a unique history lesson and a memoir of two men who managed to beat the odds to share their remarkable story of survival and selfpreservation.t Living and Loving in the Age of AIDS by Derek Frost, Watkins Publishing, $16.95 www.penguinrandomhouse.com

Gender rainbows

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when others open?” Frost writes of his union with Norman. But the specter of AIDS hovered over the community and when Norman tested HIV positive, the couple considered it a certain death sentence even as he was placed on AZT therapy, which, at the time, became just as terrifying a reality as the diagnosis itself.

Frost’s partner would endure a host of mysterious illnesses and seesawing T-cell levels throughout the six years following his positive test.

While it placed a strain on their relationship, it also fortified it. The couple would become stronger, staunchly united in the goal of staying alive and remaining together no matter what they were forced to confront.

Frost’s narration is heartfelt and often quite moving as he intimately describes the terror of a decade where the term “AIDS” became commonplace, the staggering amount of heartbreaking funerals he and Norman attended, and the years of fighting against public stigma while striving for equality and liberation.

His portrait of this formative era in gay history is a critical reminder of what today’s older generation struggled to overcome in order to pave the way for the contemporary community to survive and live freely.

Frost’s memory is impeccably keen as he describes what gay life was like in the mid-1960s when he was enjoying his first sexual experience at a screening of the first episode of Doctor Who, or his passion for an older boy that became accidentally exposed to the neighborhood he lived in, or coming out to his parents at 24, to their surprising acceptance.

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To begin your mail subscription, call us at 415-861-5019 or email subscriptions@ebar.com

Los Angeles-based author James Sie delves into the tender subject matter of cis and trans male romance in his new expansive, contemporary young adult novel, All Kinds of Other.

The two kids helming the novel are Jules, a Jewish cis high school sophomore who has just come out as gay and Jack, an Indian American transgender student just relocated to Los Angeles from Pittsburgh. An instant attraction develops as does a simmering curiosity about the other, especially when Jack is outed as transgender and Jules must reassess his feelings for Jack, which doesn’t take long.

As their attraction deepens, both boys must contend with the fallout in the form of school bullying, racism, violent transphobia and misogyny, and nasty assumptions about their relationship from biased (and probably jealous) onlookers who vape, swear, and denigrate at will.

Though geared for younger audiences, both of these excellent books offer crossover potential for any reader. They both encourage everyone to take a closer glimpse into your true self and to discover (or re-discover) the beauty that makes one unique, special, and effortlessly awesome.t

nyone bringing up children in this contemporary atmosphere of gender fluidity and open sexuality will want to approach the subject of transgender people with judgment-free positivity and true grace. Sometimes the perfect words are difficult to come by, so literature and storytelling can often fill in these gaps.

Two recently released children’s/young adult Author Kyle Lukoff books that, aside from beginning to show themselves in not ing wonderful stories, can so fun and friendly ways. also become important and uniqueLukoff pulls off quite the literly creative tools in addressing the ary balancing act between Bug’s issues surrounding gender fluidity coming-of-age blossoming and the and all of the varying nuances on consistently chilling ghost story the sexuality spectrum with inquisibackdrop. Ultimately, the story cotive children and young adults. alesces into a suspenseful haunting School librarian and children’s allegory smoothly blended with book author Kyle Lukoff ’s new the tribulations of a child carefully coming-out novel, Too Bright to See, restructuring his gender and his encompasses themes of grief, longsexuality based on pure gut feeling, gender, family, and unbridled ing and the innate desire for inner self-discovery, all brilliantly encaphappiness. sulated within an entertaining and thought-provoking ghost story.

At its center is Bug, a transgender boy who is suddenly saddened by the loss of his beloved gay Uncle Roderick. Feeling confused, melancholy, and pensive beneath the burdensome weight of his grief, Bug realizes the ghosts inside the haunted house where he lives with his mother (“like peas in an oversized Author James Sie pod”) have no relation to Casper and are be-

Read the full reviews on www.ebar.com

July 15-21, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Get Out!

July 15-22, 2021

Wed 21

We’ve been listing online arts, nightlife and community events every week through the pandemic.

Keep up with all the reopened shows and nightclub events on www.ebar.com.

Pan Dulce @ Beaux

Marques Daniels

1985:

50 Years in 50 Weeks:

Lovin’ la leather, Bare Chests galore

t

50 in 50, Events & Music>>

I

f you think we’re focusing on Mr. Marcus’ May 23 1985 Leather column just to show off a photo of handsome Bare Chest Calendar contestant Paul John Gillespie, you’re right.

But there’s a bit of historic irony to also observe.

Hey, it’s an historic Robert Pruzan photo, as are many others

by Rink in a photo feature decrying the ‘loss’ of Ringold Alley as a leather cruise spot. If anyone in the mid-1980s could get a peek at how the once-cruisy South of Market district has changed, they’d split their chaps.

But back to Marcus’ ‘B.A.R. Bazaar’ column, which recounts the numerous Memorial Day Weekend events on the agenda for those into the bar scene. As for the Bare Chest Calendar night, Mr. June was one of seven contestants at the SF Eagle.

“Each personality was introduced with much camp and dish,” Marcus noted before veering into crime journalism, about “incidents of a violent nature taking place in the Folsom area… as the straight influx of yuppies is being less than gracious after its recent invasion of the leather zone.”

2021 to 1985: “Hold my beer.”t

Read Marcus’ column and more vintage B.A.R.s at https://archive.org/details/BAR_19850523/ page/n29/mode/2up

Melissa Etheridge

<<

Jewish Filmfest

From page 14

on-camera comments (30 second bits) about her support, as well as raising together their son, though grumbling Alsop’s devotion to music has kept her away from their family. We are told nothing about Jurkscheit, how they met or have remained partners for so long.

The Conductor is basically a lovefest and skips over any chastisement Alsop has received for undistinctive interpretations of some classical pieces. Still there is no doubt that Alsop is a necessary force of nature in the classical music world and this documentary is an inspiring tribute to her.

My Name is Pauli Murray (MNPM) is both inspiring and infuriating in that the audience gets to (re)discover a nonbinary human rights activist, lawyer, poet, labor organizer, legal theorist, professor, and first Black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest, who anticipated social movements that would arrive years later, sowing seeds for those changes which would take decades to bear fruit. Yet up until four years ago, history had forgotten this incredible iconoclast focused on human rights, who wouldn’t accept the status quo.

Born in 1910, orphaned at 3, raised in Jim Crow North Carolina,

Murray anticipated civil rights and women’s rights decades before those movements peaked. Murray wasn’t comfortable being female (who if alive today would probably identify as a trans man) and had a long-term romantic relationship with a woman.

Filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Gordon, who made the fabulous Oscar-nominated documentary RBG, first discovered Murray from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who cited her as a legal mentor in her Supreme Court arguments for gender equality.

Ginsburg appears in MNPM confessing her admiration for Murray. There are so many firsts attributed to Murray that can’t all be named here. Yet to emphasize how far Murray was ahead of her time, West and Cohen cleverly cover Murray’s argument for a cause juxtaposed next to a boldface later name we’re more familiar with today such as Thurgood Marshall.

MNPM is a bit dryer and more conventional than the witty pop unorthodox style of RBG, but unlike Ginsburg whom we all recognize, West and Cohen have to introduce us to a person few of us have encountered.

Based on the experience of Ethiopian gay activist Kobi Tarkei, in the six-minute short Cosmopolitan, Jacob, a Canadian Black man, tries to gain entry into a gay party only to

L’FREAQ

Bobby Newberry

Post-Pride playlist June has come and gone, but grooves from artists all over the rainbow continue to share queer tunes in a variety of genres, from longtime favorite Melissa Etheridge and showman Todrick Hall to less known singers you’ll love, like Vincint and L’FREAQ. Watch and listen to our baker’s dozen music videos on www.ebar.com.t

e t a r o c e d h t i w f l yourse pride

Left: My Name is Pauli Murray Right: Cosmopolitan

Vincint

be rejected because of racist attitudes.

There’s not much dialogue here, but the silence, looks, and text messages capture the sense of helplessness, frustration, as well as being the ‘other’ and not accepted into the queer community. Potent and scathing, Cosmopolitan is required viewing in these post-George Floyd times, and reveals the insidious socially conventional ways we can inflict racial harm.

The 18-minute short Binding of Itzik obliterates all categorizing. A middle-aged Hasidic bookbinder stumbles across a Craigslist ad offering ‘binding lessons for submissive women’ in his online search for bookbinding materials. He responds to it and becomes entangled in an emotionally intense BD/SM relationship posing as a woman with a male stranger on the internet.

What happens to this kinky religious man living out a fantasy as a submissive female and deciding whether to meet in person and essentially come out, encompasses the remainder of this riveting bon mot not to be missed.t

s bauble , c i r b fa hers to e everthing t a e f From e hav f out. w l , e t s s r a u o to bo deck y o t d e you ne

www.jfi.org/sfjff-2021

Read about more films, with trailers, in the full article on www.ebar.com

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