July 16, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Prop 8 tapes ruling appealed

Mission test results

Castro CBD renewed

ARTS

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Rufus Rules

The

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Vol. 50 • No. 29 • July 16-22, 2020

Harvey Milk Plaza elevator project moves forward

by Matthew S. Bajko Screengrab via Zoom

Clockwise from top left, Michelle Maine, Vincent Pan, Phelicia Jones, and Keith Baraka talked about racial justice and election issues during an Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club virtual meeting Monday.

Activists discuss sustaining quest for racial justice

by John Ferrannini

A

t a virtual meeting of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club July 13, a panel of activists discussed how people can sustain this moment of advocacy on behalf of the Black community with an eye toward the November elections.

The panel was moderated by Keith Baraka, a gay, Black man who is a vice chair of the San Francisco County Democratic Party Central Committee. It included Phelicia Jones, founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black community; Vincent Pan, the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action; and Michelle Maine, the communications director of Swing Left San Francisco.

‘Black people fare far worse’

Jones said she has been an “all-around community person” since she was 15 years old. Born in San Francisco and raised in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, Jones is the founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black community, which began as a way to look at differences between Black Americans and others in the areas of housing, health, employment, and mass incarceration.

“Don’t take this as discriminatory, because that’s not my intention, but Black people fare far worse than immigrants in San Francisco,” Jones said. “They have been studying Black people in San Francisco for 55 years. There have been three reports in 55 years and Black San Franciscans are doing worse than we were before.”

So-called urban renewal schemes in the midto-late 20th century destroyed many Black communities in American cities by building freeways and exercising eminent domain in heavily Black neighborhoods.

In San Francisco, redevelopment in the Western Addition’s Fillmore district, rising rents, and gentrification have contributed to an exodus of the city’s Black population, which were from 13% in 1970 to less than 6% in 2010.

Jones said that while San Francisco is a very liberal city, there is a lot of covert racism. Despite committees and reports discussing disparities between Black people and other San Franciscans, there hasn’t been enough concrete action, Jones said.

See page 8 >>

T

he determination by San Francisco’s planning department that Harvey Milk Plaza in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district is historically important and eligible for listing on the California Register of Historical Resources should not impact the proposed elevator project for the Castro Muni Station.

The city’s public works department is planning to install a new elevator in the middle of the plaza to provide better access to the underground subway station from the street for individuals who use wheelchairs and others with mobility issues. It is working in conjunction with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on the project.

As the B.A.R. reported in December, a seethrough glass structure for a three-stop elevator is to be built in a sunken terraced portion of the plaza that is currently fenced off and inaccessible to the public. It will include space for a fourth stop providing direct access to Market Street that could be added at a later date when funding for it is secured.

The $9 million elevator project is part of an estimated $15 million retrofit for the plaza that will include replacing the existing lighting fixtures

Courtesy TreanorHL

Looking west at Harvey Milk Plaza from Castro Street

and removing the red bricks for sparkle grain integral color concrete that matches the paving installed when the sidewalks along Castro Street were widened. The plaza project will also widen a segment of the sidewalk fronting Market Street headed toward Collingwood Street.

SF queer-owned bar Jolene’s faces lawsuit, demands for change

by John Ferrannini

J

olene’s Bar and Restaurant in the Mission district is embroiled in twin controversies – a lawsuit from one former owner, and anonymous allegations of employee mistreatment, manipulation, racism, and cover-ups of alleged sexual assaults.

Jolene’s opened in 2018 at 2700 16th Street by Jolene Linsangan, her then-partner Ashleigh Wilson, and Shannon Amitin. Wilson and Amitin have since left day-to-day bar operations and told the Bay Area Reporter in separate interviews July 14 that they have been trying to get their names removed from the liquor license for some time.

Wilson told the B.A.R. that she is currently involved in litigation against Linsangan, who is listed in the filing as Alicia Linsangan. Indeed, Wilson filed suit against Linsangan April 3, according to San Francisco County Superior Court records.

The lawsuit, which also names Linsangan’s mother, the LLC that does business as Jolene’s, and 10 anonymous individuals among the 13 defendants, alleges nine counts of damages including breach of contract, slander and libel, false light, false imprisonment, and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

According to the complaint filed by Wilson’s attorneys, “Linsangan regularly berated Wilson,

Courtesy Facebook

Queer-owned bar Jolene’s is embroiled in twin controversies.

accusing her of not assisting with the business or providing anything of value, and regularly did so in front of others,” despite the fact that Wilson did much of the work to help the bar get a liquor license.

Shortly after the bar opened, the complaint says, Linsangan cornered Wilson inside of their office “for approximately 10 minutes, which felt like an eternity to Wilson.”

“During the time Wilson was trapped, she

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was pleading with Linsangan to let her go, and she feared for her safety and avidly wanted to escape,” the complaint states. “Wilson, in desperation, called for help from co-manager Amitin, who was on the premises. ... When Amitin responded, Linsangan backed down and let Wilson escape.”

“Wilson made several efforts to negotiate her exit” after the bar was cited by the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for serving alcohol after 2 a.m. and her interest in the bar was signed over to Linsangan’s mother.

As part of that agreement, Linsagnan promised to remove Wilson from the liquor license, the complaint states, however, this was not done and therefore constitutes a breach of contract.

Written and spoken statements by Linsangan making untrue statements about Wilson constitute libel and slander, respectively, the complaint states, which caused Wilson to “experience a loss of reputation and community as a result.”

“Defendant stated and published information or material that showed Wilson in a false light, including that she was untrustworthy, a cheat, a thief, an extortionist, a bad business partner etc.,” the complaint states. “This was highly offensive to Wilson.”

See page 6 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • July 16-22, 2020

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Prop 8 proponents appeal decision to release trial tapes

by John Ferrannini

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roponents of Proposition 8 are appealing a decision to release tapes of the landmark Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial to the United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge William H. Orrick of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California had ordered July 9 that tapes of the 10-year-old trial be released next month.

“On the undisputed record before me, there is no justification, much

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less a compelling one, to keep the trial recordings under seal any longer,” Orrick stated in last week’s ruling. “The recordings shall become public on August 12, 2020.”

Earlier this year, some Prop 8 proponents asked Orrick to extend the 10-year seal, and a hearing on the matter was held in Orrick’s (virtual) courtroom June 17. KQED-TV, the Bay Area affiliate of the Public Broadcasting System, wanted access to the tapes for documentary purposes.

“KQED opposes any delay in the release of the Prop 8 trial videos,” Thomas Burke, an attorney for KQED, said in a July 14 phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter.

“Judge Orrick’s order was sound and we look forward to the public release of these videos.”

The circuit court has to hear the appeal, but the real question is whether the Prop 8 proponents will ask for, and the circuit court grant, a stay on enforcing Orrick’s decision to have the tapes released before the scheduled date of August 12.

If such a stay is granted, release of the tapes could be delayed for years as the appeal makes its way through the federal courts.

After Prop 8 banned same-sex marriage in the state of California in 2008, the trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger was held two years later to determine its constitutionality. Tapes of that trial made by federal Judge Vaughn Walker had been under a 10-year seal, in accordance with the local rules for the Northern District of California.

Orrick’s July 9 decision upheld a 2018 ruling in which he determined that concerns over “judicial integrity” dictated the seal remain in place through 2020, and that those who wanted the tapes sealed in perpetuity had not demonstrated that not doing so would sufficiently cause harm to them.

“My concern regarding judicial integrity was based on Judge Walker’s unequivocal commitments to the trial participants that he intended the recordings solely for his own use in drafting his opinion and the judgment in that case,” Orrick stated in the July 9 ruling. “But I did not find that his statements meant that the recordings should be permanently sealed.”

Walker, who is now retired, came out as gay following the trial.

Orrick went on to state that the Prop 8 proponents did not demonstrate further reasons why the tapes should remain under seal.

“There is no evidence that any Proponent or trial witness fears retaliation or harassment if the recordings

Rick Gerharter

Clergy members and supporters, totaling more than 200 people, marched to Civic Center on March 26, 2009, following a negative decision on Proposition 8 by the California Supreme Court.

are released. Nor is there any evidence that any proponent or trial witness on behalf of the Proponents believed at the time or believes now that Judge Walker’s commitment to personal use of the recordings meant that the trial recordings would remain under seal forever,” Orrick stated. “There is attorney argument that the Proponents relied on Judge Walker’s commitments regarding recording the trial proceedings to conclude that the records would never be released. But that is a different position than they took during oral argument at the 9th Circuit in 2011.

“Having found that the common law right of access requires release of the trial recordings absent some other evidence that could theoretically provide a compelling justification, and finding absolutely none presented on this record, Proponents’ motion to continue the seal on the trial recordings is DENIED,” Orrick continued.

In his ruling, Orrick cited an amicus brief put together by the Reporters Committee of Freedom of the Press and joined by some 36 news media organizations beseeching the court for the tapes’ release. These included the Associated Press, the New York Times, and CNN. In a Bay Area Reporter story published in May, Caitlin Vogus, a straight ally who is an attorney with the Reporters Committee, said that the tapes are part of the historical record. Vogus said that the trial transcripts have already been released and have been incorporated in both a stage production and a network television docuseries.

“This has been widely covered,” Vogus said. “I have not seen any specific example of harassment, just speculative fear, and that is not enough to overcome the interest in public access to court records.

“The Reporters Committee and these organizations filed the amicus brief because it is so important that the public has access to these recordings so we can have the most complete picture of what happened at trial,” Vogus continued.

In a phone interview July 9, Vogus said that she thinks Orrick’s ruling “is fantastic.”

“The Reporters Committee protects the public right of access to an issue of huge public concern,” Vogus said. “We’re thrilled [Orrick] did cite the amicus brief and he was talking about how access to the recordings will enhance the completeness of reporting about the trial. Hopefully the public will finally have access to these tapes and a lot of wonderful reporting will happen.”

Burke, said July 9 that the ruling was historic.

“The Prop 8 ruling is a great win for KQED and a historic moment for the federal judiciary and the nation. Judge Orrick’s ruling recognizes that the public should be able to see the video of this historic trial,” Burke stated in an email to the B.A.R. “After multiple court rulings on this issue, Judge Orrick has again carefully interpreted the 9th Circuit’s earlier ruling – and it’s concerns about judicial integrity”.

Holly Kernan, the chief content officer for KQED, added her praise in a July 9 email to the B.A.R. “This is a victory for transparency and accountability. Kudos to KQED Senior Editor Scott Shafer for pushing for access and to Thomas Burke, who is an awesome First Amendment advocate,” Kernan said.

Andrew Pugno, an attorney for the proponents, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. t

Results presented from Mission and Pride COVID-19 testing

by Liz Highleyman

A

bout 6% of people in a section of San Francisco’s Mission district have had the new coronavirus, with the vast majority of cases among Latinos, according to results from a community testing project presented at the COVID-19 Conference following the 23rd International AIDS Conference.

The conference was supposed to have been jointly hosted by San Francisco and Oakland last week, but it was switched to a virtual format and the daylong COVID-19 meeting was added in response to the pandemic.

Another recent testing project, which focused on people who participated in the recent Pride is a riot protest, found that only one person out of the nearly 500 tested was positive for the coronavirus.

Since these testing projects were completed, San Francisco has experienced a rise in new COVID-19 cases – reaching 4,640 as of July 11 – as well as

a rising proportion of people testing positive. COVID-19 deaths, however, have held steady at 50 since mid-June.

As a result of the increase, Mayor London Breed has halted the next phase of the city’s reopening.

Testing in the Mission

The Mission testing project, spearheaded by Unidos en Salud – a collaboration between the Latino Task Force for COVID-19, UCSF, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health – offered both coronavirus PCR tests and antibody tests to all residents and workers in a selected census tract. Testing was done at pop-up sites at parks and schools over four days in late April, six weeks after the city’s shelter-in-place order went into effect.

“This is one of the first mass testing campaigns to do both PCR and antibody testing,” study co-investigator Dr. Carina Marquez of UCSF and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital said at a conference press briefing. “Of-

fering both allowed us to characterize how risk changed over time.”

Census tract 022901, a rectangle extending from 23rd Street to Cesar Chavez Street and from South Van Ness Avenue to Harrison Street, has approximately 4,000 residents. It has among the highest proportions of Latino residents in the city, is one of the densest neighborhoods, and about a third of residents have an annual household income below $50,000.

Lead study investigator Dr. Diane Havlir, also of UCSG and SFGH, said that more than 80% of people seeking care for COVID-19 at the hospital, which lies just to the west of the tract, are Latino.

A total of 3,953 people were tested, including 2,653 census tract residents, 460 people who work in the tract, and 840 people who reside on adjacent blocks. Of these, just over half were men, 40% were Latino, 41% were white, 9% were Asian and 2% were Black.

See page 6 >>

Community News>>

t Mayor talks reopening pace with Castro Merchants

July 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

by John Ferrannini

S

an Francisco Mayor London Breed stressed that the slow pace of business reopenings is frustrating but it is impossible to speed up due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in a Zoom meeting with the Castro Merchants association July 10.

Breed said she was excited last month to announce that certain businesses would be able to open quicker than originally foreseen – and then disappointed when the COVID case numbers left her with no other option than to put those and all other scheduled business reopenings on pause, including those that were going to open Monday, July 13.

“It really broke my heart to hear about businesses that were prepared to open June 29, only to be told the weekend before that they can’t open and the significant loss there,” Breed said. “These are not decisions being entered into lightly and this is not business as usual. We want to make plans; it’s our natural desire. This is what we’re used to but this is not normal times.”

Breed said there is a back-and-forth between her office and the Department of Public Health as they try to find the right balance between supporting small businesses – and individual mental well-being – while trying to keep the virus at bay.

“I fight with DPH every day not just for the economic health of the city, but when you think about it, how this is affecting our mental health,” Breed said, going on to cite the effects of closed churches and children who can’t play with each other. “I’m going to aggressively push the department in that direction that they have a mental health response.”

Breed herself tested negative for the novel coronavirus last week after be-

Screengrab via Zoom

San Francisco Mayor London Breed talked about small business and homelessness issues during a July 10 Zoom meeting with members of the Castro Merchants.

ing exposed to an infected person at a recent public gathering, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dire situation for small businesses

About 50 participants joined the half-hour Zoom call. The mayor spoke for about half the total time with the other half reserved for addressing questions that were submitted by merchants.

Castro Merchants President Masood Samereie explained that the mayor was invited so that the merchants could “get some insight and ask some questions” about city policy on COVID-19. (A planned June 1 Zoom discussion with the merchants was postponed due to the protests over police violence and racism.)

The mayor laid out a bleak picture of how the COVID-19 outbreak has affected – and will continue to impact

– small businesses, particularly those in the Castro. Citywide, merchant sales have declined by 70% in recent months.

“I know you are frustrated, and that so many businesses are suffering,” said Breed. “We need to face the reality that the coronavirus will have a long-term impact, even as we reopen.”

Breed said that the small business resiliency fund has been able to help some companies, but that there isn’t enough city money available for all.

San Francisco faces a budget deficit of between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion over the next two years, which will hamper any attempted response.

Breed said that the city is looking at ways of getting more money from the state or federal governments, as well as from private sources.

One way in which small businesses have been hampered, the mayor said, is the amount of red tape they faced even before the pandemic took hold.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has already committed to reducing bureaucratic obstacles to small businesses going forward.

Breed said she wants to work with the Castro Merchants on a plan to get more people to shop and dine within San Francisco who already live in the Bay Area, noting the deleterious decline in tourism.

“We still have the best restaurants anywhere. We still have the best shopping anywhere. We have the best things anywhere,” Breed said.

Street homelessness

Much of the mayor’s remarks touched upon the city’s homelessness crisis, which she acknowledged has intensified during the pandemic.

Breed said she recently visited the Castro neighborhood to see the situation for herself.

She said she was planning to meet with the Healthy Streets Operation

Center later that day, at Mandelman’s recommendation, to discuss the problem as it specifically relates to the neighborhood.

“The Castro is not on the radar the way the Tenderloin, the Mission, and even the Bayview have been,” Breed said.

Mandelman said in a phone call with the Bay Area Reporter July 10 that he spoke with Breed the previous day and asked for more help for his district, though he did not specifically mention Healthy Streets.

“We had a conversation yesterday where I said we need a lot more help,” Mandelman said. “The problem in the Castro is a significant challenge, with unhoused folks who have mental health problems and substance abuse issues and we need to get help to those people instead of asking the neighbors to deal with it.”

Samereie stated that homelessness in the Castro may scare away customers from restaurants and bars that have moved operations outdoors, and those that plan on doing so if the Shared Spaces permitting on 18th Street is approved.

The mayor shared that concern – saying “we need a plan for the whole city” – but nonetheless hoped people wouldn’t be reluctant to dine out.

“The restaurants I have been fortunate to visit – it’s been wonderful to sit outside and be undisturbed,” Breed said.

Breed said that the Healthy Streets Operations team will come to the Castro, specifically to the encampment on 16th Street south of Market Street, and to Jane Warner Plaza.

“The one-offs – trying to convince people to get off the Dolores median – it’s not happening,” Breed said, adding that the homelessness is intertwined with mental health and drug crises, and sometimes people who use drugs do not want to go to a safe sleeping site.

The safe sleeping site at Everett Middle School at Church and 16th streets, championed by Mandelman in May, will be closing shop soon, Breed said, as the San Francisco Unified School District prepares for the coming school year. She hopes to “work with the school district to extend that.”

Mandelman has since stated that the fact many people did not want to go to the safe sleeping site was a revelatory experience.

Last week, Mandelman said he wasn’t aware of efforts to extend the Everett site, adding that he supports additional safe sleeping sites, which he said the city needs, but does not know of a better place in District 8 to support one than Everett.

He said he would need to be apprised of how the city would implement a new site before he supported one in his district because “the city should have been able to do better” with Everett.

“I’ve had mixed feelings about how it turned out,” Mandelman said. “It was good for folks who showed up but it did not lead to the general improvement overall that some of the neighbors had sought”.

Mandelman said that there are still bad conditions on 16th Street south of Market Street, on Dolores Street and in the Duboce Triangle.

“It was definitely less than I had hoped for,” Mandelman said.

Breed said that while the settlement in UC Hastings’ federal lawsuit against the city over conditions in the Tenderloin has resulted in fewer unhoused people there – last month’s settlement requires hundreds of tents to be removed and their occupants placed in safe sleeping sites or vacant hotel rooms – it came at a tremenSee page 8 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • July 16-22, 2020

Volume 50, Number 29 July 16-22, 2020 www.ebar.com

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t

We need more from Fauci, not less

P

resident Donald Trump’s effort to silence Dr. Anthony Fauci is dangerous for public health.

Fauci hasn’t been seen in a national TV interview in weeks, and has acknowledged that he hasn’t briefed the president on the novel coronavirus outbreak in more than a month. (He went to the White House Monday but did not meet with Trump, and he’s been doing web interviews with various universities.) Fauci is the country’s top infectious disease expert; he has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, and back then, the LGBTQ community relied on him for honest information about HIV/ AIDS, even as he didn’t have all the answers. Fauci became an indispensable ally in the quest for federal funding for research into new drugs that have saved the lives of people with HIV/AIDS. Fauci has worked for six U.S. presidents and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2008.

The fight against this global COVID-19 pandemic cries out for leadership. Since the president has refused to lead, the public is forced to depend on Fauci’s fact-based medical advice on how the nation can recover. For a time this spring, Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx were regular participants in the daily White House coronavirus news conferences, but no more. Fauci’s exclusion comes at a critical time when clear health guidance is necessary to limit infection rates.

Instead, a common-sense health recommendation to wear face coverings has devolved into a needless political battle by those on the right, and confusion roils states in varying degrees of reopening, re-closing. Over the weekend Florida reported 15,300 cases in a single day – a record in this country, even surpassing New York at its height.

Courtesy NBC News

Dr. Anthony Fauci

The simple truth of the matter is that the president is unhappy that Fauci disagreed with his rosy assessment that the country is “doing great” and has criticized some states for reopening too quickly. Things have gotten so bad that NBC News reported Monday that the Association of American Medical Colleges issued a statement in support of Fauci, saying it was “extremely concerned and alarmed” by efforts to discredit him. The White House had issued a statement to reporters – akin to opposition research on a political opponent – that took several of Fauci’s prior statements out of context in an effort to show “he has made mistakes,” as press secretary Kayleigh McEnany put it. Fauci’s past statements were made with the best information available at the time, though he and others have changed their health recommendations as knowledge about the virus changes.

Indicative of this country’s uneven response to COVID-19 was California’s about-face this week.

Governor Gavin Newsom ordered indoor businesses to close again. He probably should just reinstitute the strict stay-at-home order he issued back in March. This virus is incredibly effective at transmission – and deadly. Trump’s bluster earlier this year that it would burn out by summer has proved false; if anything, it’s worsening, especial ly in Sun Belt states like Arizona, and Texas and Florida in the South.

On a hopeful note, according to a survey reported by NBC News Monday, Americans trust Fauci on COVID-19 overwhelmingly – 67% to 26% for Trump. And, as the New York Times reported, Trump is probably stuck with Fauci, a career civil servant who cannot just be fired via tweet like so many of the president’s former cabinet secretaries and other advisers.

The contention that many people in San Francisco have already had the virus and are “done with it” underscores the seriousness of gaining control of the situation. Mayor London Breed herself was recently exposed to an infected person – she tested negative – and she changed course to pause business reopenings that had been planned for this week. The virus is not going away, so Breed and other officials have held virtual public meetings in recent days to inform people of the data points they are using to determine when it will be safe to reopen. And doctors are just realizing that they don’t yet know how long antibodies will last in a person who has had coronavirus, raising questions about long-term immunity. The actor Tom Hanks, who along with his wife, Rita Wilson, had COVID in March, said in an NBC interview last week that the antibodies he developed are fading, leaving him at risk for reinfection.

People are becoming inured to the demands of staying healthy. If anyone thinks rising case numbers don’t impact them, they are wrong. This is a choice between life and death and Americans need to hear from Fauci. t

Britt fought for progressive policies

by Gwenn Craig

I

had known Harry Britt since 1977, when he was president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club (then the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club). After attending on and off for about a year, Britt finally recruited me to join the club. He was the second president of SF Gay, as it was referred to, following founding President Chris Perry.

So much of San Francisco’s gay history was bubbling to the surface during this time. While the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club (now the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club) was already well-established and known by political insiders to be a club of lesbians, gay men, and their straight allies, SF Gay’s claim to fame was that it was the first Democratic club to have the word “gay” in its name. This was in 1976 when the gay community not yet evolved to embrace bisexual or transgender members of our rainbow, and lesbians fought for visibility, leadership, and representation equal to gay men. Some out-andproud lesbians and gay men viewed the Alice club as semi-closeted because recognition that it was a gay club depended on knowledge that Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein maintained a closeted long-term relationship.

Britt gave numerous speeches about the necessity of the club to be highly engaged and visible because the word “gay” in our name forced straight politicians to acknowledge us for who we were. Britt was as much an evangelist for being out and authentic in our politics as Harvey Milk.

I have no doubt that this is why Britt was one of Milk’s top choices to succeed him in the event of his untimely death.

In the subsequent decades, Bill Kraus and I worked closely with Britt on numerous issues, including the No on 6/Stop Briggs campaign (that would have banned gays from being teachers), the aftermath of Milk’s 1978 assassination, strategic organizing to have Britt appointed as Milk’s successor to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the political response to the Dan White verdict (White had assassinated Milk and then-mayor George Moscone), the resulting White Night riots and Elephant Walk bar beatings, the fight for domestic partners rights legislation, and much more.

Britt, Kraus, and I were delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City, and worked with the Ted Kennedy cam-

Dan Nicoletta

Gwenn Craig, left, Supervisor Harry Britt, Jane Fonda, and Tom Hayden sing “Happy Birthday” to Harvey Milk at the annual dinner for the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, May 21, 1980.

paign and with Kennedy himself to bring greater visibility and support for the LGBT community and agenda. Kraus went on to become an aide to Congressman Phil Burton (D-San Francisco), one of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives. His work resulted in significant and influential legislation, most notably funding for HIV/AIDS. Sadly, Kraus succumbed to that very epidemic himself in January 1986.

Britt felt Kraus’ loss very deeply.

As a supervisor, Britt led several important issues, particularly on rent control and tenants’ rights. As an avowed democratic socialist, his eloquent speeches often included issues of economic equity and multiracial equality. Britt recognized he had a position of national spokesperson for the LGBTQ movement, and used the opportunity to promote a progressive vision that rose in partnership with movements to empower people of color, Indigenous people, women, economically and physically disadvantaged people, and other oppressed people everywhere.

Prior to coming to San Francisco and coming out as gay, Britt had been a minister in Texas. As a result, he could preach. His speech at the Milk club’s first dinner in 1980 was particularly memorable – a real barn burner! It was a great night to show his stuff. Despite being a young club, we’d

attracted a smorgasbord of local and state leaders, with Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda as guests of honor. (An often forgotten footnote: also on the program as a featured speaker, due to Kraus’ inspiration and insistence, was Cesar Chavez.)

Hayden and Fonda were so impressed with Britt’s eloquence and passion. Not surprisingly, Britt became a leading ally of Hayden’s organization Campaign for Economic Democracy, and Fonda and Hayden returned to campaign in the Castro for Britt’s reelection to the Board of Supervisors.

Britt’s great talent as a supervisor was as a coalition builder, continuing the path that Milk had walked in his short time in San Francisco’s political life. Britt built relationships with community leaders rather than with power brokers.

In doing so, he was essential to keeping the board’s progressive majority intact. While he eventually retired from the board, he never retired from speaking on the movement for full rights for LGBTQ people.

Britt passed away June 24 at the age of 82. His voice will be greatly missed. t Gwenn Craig, a longtime lesbian leader, is a former president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and a former San Francisco police commissioner.

t

Politics >>

July 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Castro benefit district secures renewal

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, which provides cleaning services and other support to San Francisco’s LGBTQ neighborhood, has secured its renewal through June 30, 2035.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted 11-0 Tuesday, July 14, to extend the CBD for another 15 years, allowing it to assess a fee on the properties within its boundary along the 400 and 500 blocks of Castro Street, Market Street between Castro and Octavia Boulevard, and additional blocks on several cross streets in the area. The board vote came after it was revealed that the CBD had secured the support of a weighted majority of property owners within its boundary, 71.52%, who pay the assessed fees.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman had urged his colleagues to renew the CBD since it has “provided critical services to one of San Francisco’s most iconic neighborhoods.” Pointing to the impact the coronavirus outbreak has had on the Castro, leading to an increase of homeless people living in tents on the streets and local businesses closing their doors, Mandelman predicted the organization would play a critical role “in the renaissance of the neighborhood when we come out of the pandemic.”

CBD Executive Director Andrea Aiello thanked the property owners who voted for the renewal considering the “uncertainty we are facing is very real for people and scary.” Their support amid the health crisis, she added, “shows they trust us to spend their hardearned dollars” in ways that will benefit the Castro district.

More than a dozen people called into the board meeting to express

Rick Gerharter

Castro CBD Executive Director Andrea Aiello

their support for the CBD. Among them was Canela Bistro and Wine Bar owner Mat Schuster, who told the supervisors the CBD provides “a valuable” service and their decision to renew it should be a “slam dunk.”

Two people spoke against renewing the CBD, arguing the city should be paying for the services it provides via the tax revenue it collects and not be requiring property owners to pay more for them.

“The city agencies should be able to provide these services we pay for as taxpayers,” said John Goldsmith, a Castro resident who is a longtime critic of the CBD and its management.

He added the Castro Merchants business association “should have greater influence on how the public realm is managed and operated.”

The CBD was launched in 2005 in order to provide cleaning services that the city itself was unable to pay for, from daily sweeping to power steam cleaning of the sidewalks on a regular basis and

graffiti removal. Over the years it expanded its scope to provide additional services, from entertainment in Jane Warner Plaza to daily security patrols.

As the Bay Area Reporter’s monthly business column noted last October, the CBD will be dedicating the money it collects from property assessment fees, projected to total $819,403 this fiscal year that started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2021, for its cleaning services. It is instituting a three-tiered assessment plan with those property owners on and around Castro Street paying more, while those along or near Market Street paying less because they will receive reduced services.

Should the CBD increase its assessment fee on the 586 parcels within its boundary by 5% annually, its assessment revenue would total more than $1.6 million by July 1 of 2034.

The CBD plans to seek grant funding or donations to cover the other amenities it has been providing, such as entertainment and additional security. Over the past 15 years it has secured nearly $2.2 million in grants and $600,458 in contributions to pay for its various programs and services.

Several people expressed their desire to see the CBD allocate the funding required to maintain the security services, which are provided by the San Francisco Patrol Special Police and cost $98,974 during the fiscal year running from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.

The patrol specials are overseen by the city’s police department but are not police officers.t

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Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on the LGBTQ issues expected to be included in the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform.

Letters >> Masks are worthwhile

Yes, definitely wear the masks when you are among the herd (other people) [“Mask up, dammit,” Editorial, July 9]. We know that during the 1918 flu pandemic, when masks became strongly encouraged and enforced, that flu rates were reduced in half. Although not a perfect preventative measure they are definitely worthwhile.

However, we also know that outdoor transmission is relatively rare, with or without masks. In Wuhan and China in general, only one COVID-19 case was attributed to outdoor transmission, according to reports. With the recent Black Lives Matter outdoor protests and demonstrations, there has been no reported surge of related pandemic cases. The outdoors (socially distanced and uncrowded) has been a heavily documented and researched phenomenon all during this pandemic all over the world. It’s low risk.

Life is always a risk management issue, especially in a pandemic. So, media should point out that the risk of COVID exposure by unmasked joggers, walkers, and bicyclists is less than going to a grocery store or whatever you left home for.

Give people one less thing to worry about.

George Davis San Francisco

[Editor’s note: We’re not doctors. It has been reported (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/end-lockdown-memorial-day-add-increase-coronavirus-casesexperts-say-n1231802) that the nationwide surge in COVID cases began around Memorial Day, when pent-up residents began flocking to beaches, as well as other outdoor and indoor establishments. Cases are also surging in California, where Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered a sweeping rollback of reopening, including bars and indoor businesses. Wear a mask.]

City planners should think bigger

If the city were to buy the Bank of America building (Soul Cycle) and adjacent annex (Laser Away), the entrance to the Castro Station turnstiles could be closer to the bus stop without the need of an expensive, ugly, and space consuming elevator [“SF planners find Harvey Milk Plaza to be historically important,” online, July 10].

(By my altimeter, the Laser Away floor is roughly equal to the turnstile-level elevation.) Also, an exit next to Marcello’s Pizza would be more convenient in inclement weather for nearly everyone, rather than several feet of elevation just to descend a set of slippery stairs.

Without an entry in front of the old BoA building, the space used for the current entry could be converted to a larger park area with functions unrelated to the train station. An optional stairway toward Collingwood would improve convenience for those living in the several blocks west of Castro Street. Is it wrong to think that a park is a better tribute to Harvey Milk than a Muni entrance?

The concourse from the entry at Laser Away to the turnstiles could house any number of exhibits and small shops. Presumably, a sidewalk level entry would be more convenient for handicapped access than an unwashed elevator.

The old Bank of America building is iconic. If the city does not buy it, one day a developer will destroy it.

City planners should think bigger.

Richard Bellerose San Francisco

Letters to the editor policy

Send letters to the Bay Area Reporter, 44 Gough Street, #204, San Francisco, CA 94103, or news@ebar.com. Letters must be 400 words or less, signed, and include an address and daytime phone number for verification purposes only. Unsigned, anonymous, and open letters will not be published. Letters may be edited for space.

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<< Community News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • July 16-22, 2020

<<

COVID-19 testing

From page 2

Overall, 2.3% of people in the selected community had positive PCR test results, indicating current active infection. The rates were 1.7% for tract residents and 6.0% for those who worked in the tract.

Latinos had a 20-fold higher likelihood of testing positive than people of other racial and ethnic groups (3.9% versus 0.2%). In fact, 95% of those who tested positive were Latino and none were non-Hispanic white, despite the fact that the two groups were equally represented among those tested. About three-quarters of those who tested positive were men, 64% were frontline service workers, and 93% said they could not maintain their income if they stayed at home.

Just over half of people who tested PCR positive had no COVID-19 symptoms at the time of testing, although 13% of them later developed symptoms. This suggests that the true rate of asymptomatic infection is around 40%, according to co-in-

vestigator and conference co-chair Dr. Monica Gandhi, also of UCSF. Viral load levels were similarly high in people with or without symptoms, adding to the evidence that asymptomatic people can transmit the virus.

A clinical and community-led team provided comprehensive support for everyone who tested PCR positive, including wellness checks, linkage to primary care, and food delivery to enable them to self-isolate, Marquez told the Bay Area Reporter. DPH conducted contact tracing to identify other people in the community who might have been exposed. Only one person required hospitalization during follow-up.

Antibody tests

In addition, 3.1% of residents and 7.7% of workers in the census tract tested positive for coronavirus antibody tests, which reveal whether someone was infected in the past.

Combining positive PCR tests and positive antibody tests, an estimated 6.1% of residents have ever had the coronavirus.

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Testing for COVID-19 was done in San Francisco’s Mission district in late April at Parque Niños Unidos.

Again, the antibody positivity rate was highest among Latinos. While prior infections were more evenly distributed – with about a third occurring in other racial and ethnic groups – recent infections showed a shift toward Latinos, frontline workers, and those making under $50,000 per year.

Marquez noted that most people with recent infections apparently contracted the virus at work or in their homes. Half of those who tested positive shared a household with another positive person. Genetic testing of viral samples revealed a high level of diversity, suggesting multiple independent introductions of the virus into the community.

“Recent infections were increasingly concentrated among low-income Latinx frontline workers,” Marquez said. “The primary driver is underlying inequities. These are people out working to support their families.”

<<

Jolene’s

From page 1

On the advice of her attorney, Linsangan told the B.A.R. that she would not comment on the lawsuit.

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A call-out social media post on the anonymous allegations started making the rounds on Facebook in late June. Credited to an unnamed group of Jolene’s employees, a series of 10 slides begins with the “You Are Safe Here” sign at the queer establishment changed to say “You Aren’t Safe Here.”

“This Pride Month it feels fitting to share ways that Jolene’s management has caused harm,” the second slide states. “1. They put the wellbeing of employees and patrons at risk 2. Cause psychological harm to those working closely with them 3. Discriminate against folks with multiple intersecting marginalized identities.”

The slides go on to make a series of allegations, including that trans employees, sex workers, Black and Brown people are tokenized; that employees who work at other bars “or speak up against mistreatment” are pushed out; that there exists a “hostile work environment utilizing manipulation, scare tactics, and coercion;” that employees are not paid in a timely manner “if at all;” that sex workers who show up to Jolene’s aren’t paid; that white people are placed in managerial roles “after telling staff Black and

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Pride protest testing

Another COVID-19 testing study focused on queer and trans people of color and their allies attending the Pride is a riot rally near Mission Dolores Park, one of two large unofficial Pride events held in solidarity with the recent wave of Black Lives Matter protests.

It remains unclear whether racial justice protests in the Bay Area and nationwide, which started after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 and have coincided with economic reopenings in several states, have contributed to the recent rise in COVID-19. However, health officials have not seen direct links to clusters of new cases in cities with large protests.

The pop-up test site, coordinated by http://www.renegade.bio in collaboration with the testing company Primary and the phlebotomy and diBrown people would be prioritized;” that there was not transparency about funds raised during a recent COVIDrelated fundraiser; that alleged sexual assaults at the bar were covered up, known perpetrators were allowed to remain there, and employees were asked to “clean up the bodily fluids from assaults;” that disabled patrons were told “not to show up on busy nights” and were not served; and that the police were preferred to conflict de-escalation.

“These are just a handful of the unethical practices occurring at Jolene’s,” the complainants state, before going on to demand an apology by July 15; de-escalation training for employees; Black and Brown management; cultural competency trainings and participation in “a restorative justice circle facilitated by mental health professionals.”

The slides conclude with an email address to contact the complainants.

When this reporter did so, the complainants declined to comment on the record.

“While we appreciate the opportunity, protecting the identities of those involved is more important,” a July 13 emailed response read.

Amitin and Wilson stated that they had disagreements with Linsangan about what it meant to have a queer space.

Amitin wouldn’t comment further on the nature of the disagreement, but Wilson said that “for me what

t

agnostic sample collection company Bay Area PLS, was conveniently located at the Children’s Day School across the street from the park.

Participants who were tested on June 28 were asked to return a week later for a repeat test. People who did not take part in the protest could also get tested on either day. This site offered only PCR tests for active infection, not antibody tests.

Craig Rouskey, CEO of renegade. bio, told the B.A.R. that the site tested 265 people on June 28 and 329 people on July 5, of whom 110 were repeat testers from the week before. Just over half were white, 21% were Latino, 13% were Asian, and 4% were Black.

Only one person tested positive, on July 5, and this individual had not been tested the previous week.

“With just one positive out of 593 tests performed, the low rate of positive results bears out early research findings that antiracism protests have not been a significant source of COVID transmission,” Rouskey said.

The project team surveyed a subset of participants about prior testing before this study and found that a majority had previously been tested, some of them multiple times.

“The fact that more than half of those responding have been tested before suggests that members of this community have been proactive in monitoring their COVID status,” Rouskey told the B.A.R. “Interestingly, 44% of participants had never been tested before, suggesting that testing events brought to the community are key to enfranchising all people to participate in keeping each other safe.” t

queer meant was ensuring that every voice is heard and the full spectrum of our community is represented and empowered. Those are unwavering for me and we couldn’t come to some consensus on moving forward with that together.”

Amitin and Wilson said they’d had the opportunity to speak with some of the complainants and were supportive.

“I think it’s really great that folks were able to put together a plan of action instead of just calling folks out and canceling them,” Amitin said. “I think it was a good opportunity for education and growth. ... I found folks to be seeking justice and seeking to be heard.”

In a July 13 email to the B.A.R. Linsangan stated that she is responding to the allegations, which are posted to the business’ Instagram page and website.

“I do believe that it is essential in these times that we come together to build a better and brighter future that the LGBTQI+ community needs and deserves,” Linsangan wrote. “In response to the allegations we have announced a public business response, a personal response and our action plan. I’ve dedicated the month of July to research, fine tune and to initiate the first steps of our action plan.”

In her personal response, which was posted to Instagram, Linsangan stated, “It was never my intention to See page 9 >>

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • July 16-22, 2020

<<

Mayor

From page 3

dous cost to the city even with some federal financial assistance.

“I think timing was a big part of what happened in the Tenderloin. We

<<

Racial justice

From page 1

“If people would have followed [the recommendations of past studies], Black San Franciscans wouldn’t be in the position we are in now,” Jones said. “We [San Franciscans] want to do reports, and task forces, but we don’t want to see results.”

Jones said that Mayor London Breed has faced a tougher time from her political opponents because she is Black.

“I may offend a few people, but the Board of Supervisors – these white progressives that run San Francisco – need to get a grip because they are not culturally competent,” Jones said. “It’s a dog-and-pony-show. They want to have a hearing. ‘Let’s have a hearing!’

Then what happens? Nothing. ... So if people wanted to do something, then something would be done.”

Progressive supervisors contacted for this story did not respond to requests for comment.

According to Jones, the lack of community engagement extends to the San Francisco Democratic Party.

“The majority of Black people don’t know a thing about the DCCC,” Jones said.“The only Black people who know about the DCCC are those in politics.”

Baraka, the DCCC member, suggested people refer to the body as just the local Democratic Party so that it sounds less “esoteric” to people.

Jones said she was originally not involved in issues of police brutality, but after San Francisco officers fatally shot Mario Woods, a Black man, in 2015, “Justice for Mario Woods” was added to the name of her organization.

Jones said that members of the Board of Supervisors are often not responsive to her letters.

“Do you know how many Board

<<

had a few hundred rooms reserved for people with COVID that we were able to shift over,” Breed said. “I want to be clear that what we did is very costly, even with reimbursements from FEMA.”

‘We’re not out of the woods’

guidance on boat and fishing expeditions. (Governor Gavin Newsom ordered indoor areas of zoos closed on Monday; the San Francisco Zoo remains open with restrictions. Online reservations are required.)

There have been 4,643 cases of

COVID-19 in San Francisco and 50 deaths, as of July 14.

“We’re not out of the woods yet but we are in a much better place than so many areas around the country,” Breed said. t

of Supervisors will answer you? Not many,” Jones said. “That’s why you see such an uprising all over this nation.

People are getting it. [Police] Chief [William] Scott gets it. He meets with us on a quarterly basis about reduced use of force on Black people.”

In a phone call to the Bay Area Reporter late Tuesday, Scott said those meetings with Wealth and Disparities in the Black community have been “fruitful.”

“We started that process a year and a half ago, if not longer,” Scott said.

“They are productive meetings, candid meetings, and we’ve made progress both on communicating with Wealth and Disparities and with what we’re doing to change the narrative of some of the issues important to them, particularly as it relates to use of force against African Americans in our city, and other issues. They have come to be productive and fruitful meetings.”

Jones said that her organization did not ask for the meetings.

“He asked me because he is interested in bringing down use-of-force because Black is the highest. For every other ethnicity, use-of-force has gone down, except for Black people,” she said.

Jones urged people who have been protesting to avoid a “romanticizing of social justice” and to take concrete actions in their communities. She said she’s working with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission to pass out masks, hand sanitizer, and COVID-19 information every Thursday.

“We’re feeding 10 families a month in the Bayview,” Jones said. “We’re not talking about things sitting around two to three months but good groceries, nice produce.”

political office, California voters will have a number of ballot initiatives to vote on this November, covering issues including parole and teenage voting rights, cash bail, rent control, and affirmative action.

If passed, Proposition 16 would repeal Proposition 209, a 1996 initiative that banned the state from considering race, ethnicity, or sex in public employment, contracting, and education.

Vincent Pan, the co-executive director of Chinatown-based Chinese for Affirmative Action, said that repealing the state’s ban on affirmative action will help advance people of color.

“This is a movement proposition,” Pan said. “This isn’t just some technical water bond where you have to explain the details. This is about us.”

But Pan pointed out that there is “a lot of opposition even in our own communities,” mentioning “very, very loud conservative Chinese voices” and Ward Connerly, a Black former regent of the University of California who was a major voice behind Prop 209 and who is returning to the spotlight to fight Prop 16.

“CA-16 goes a long way to remedying the wrongs we have had to contend with from an institutional perspective,” Pan said.

Pan also took a few moments to condemn the incidents of racism against Asian Americans that have occurred related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 2,000 such incidents nationwide had been reported to advocacy groups as of early June, according to CBS News.

“In the Asian community we’ve seen a rise in anti-Asian hate incidents as [President Donald Trump] blames Chinese people to distract from his

own failures,” Pan said, saying that 800 reported hate incidents have occurred in California alone.

Trump and his officials have sometimes referred to the novel coronavirus as the “China virus,” drawing from its origins in Wuhan, China, and as the “kung flu.”

Left has expanded its focus from the House of Representatives to the Senate and the White House. They were planning on returning to the 10th and 21st congressional districts and also volunteering in Arizona, where incumbent Republican Senator Martha McSally will most likely be facing off with Democratic challenger Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and the husband of former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), who had to resign from the lower chamber after being badly wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt.

“We were looking forward to canvassing trips but then the world turned upside-down,” Maine said, referring to this year’s COVID-19 pandemic.

“Knocking on doors is the most reliable, surefire way of turning out the vote and now we don’t have that.”

In response, Swing Left will be doing phone banks into the California House districts and Arizona from people’s homes. Volunteers will also be sending postcards and text messages to voters.

Baraka asked a viewer-submitted question of Maine “what should we be telling folks who are energized and want to help but who have not been in nuts-and-bolts work?”

Maine said that people who are interested in phone banking should not be dissuaded because they find it hard to talk to others. Swing Left has workshops titled “Phone Banking for Introverts” that are “taught by folks who consider themselves to be introverts.”

“Just give it a try,” Maine said.

“People are less scary than you think.

People will be polite – they’re much meaner on the internet than they are [on the phone].” t

Affirmative action

In addition to the elections for

Breed said that most reopenings are on pause but that some things will change July 13 nonetheless – the San Francisco Zoo will be able to reopen, shoppers can once again use their own bags, and there will be further

Milk plaza

From page 1

photos of Milk, the city’s first gay supervisor, who represented the Castro at City Hall. New drought tolerant plants would be used to landscape the terraces behind the elevator.

The city’s arts commission approved the elevator design and plaza upgrades at its June 1 meeting. The engineering division for the regional transit agency BART must also review the project since it owns the station.

Beth Rubenstein, a spokeswoman for San Francisco Public Works, told the B.A.R. this week that the project should break ground next year. It is slated to take upward of 18 months to complete.

“If SFMTA proceeds with the current design, they’re looking at starting the project first quarter next year. From our understanding, the historic resource report does not affect this project,” Rubenstein wrote in an emailed reply.

Historical evaluation

As the B.A.R. first reported online July 10, the city’s planning department is now working on a more detailed response to the findings of the historic resource evaluation of the plaza conducted by the firm TreanorHL. The evaluation focused solely on the Harvey Milk Plaza and not the entire Castro Muni Station.

In January, the consultants submitted a 36-page draft report that determined Harvey Milk Plaza “appears individually eligible for listing” in the California Register of Historical Resources under Criterion 1-Event “for its association with gay liberation, Pride, and politics as a gathering place for exceptionally important vigils and marches.”

It narrowed the period of significance for the plaza to its construc-

t

Courtesy SF Public Works

A rendering of the proposed elevator at the Castro Muni Station also shows the new paving and birdlike “Torres” light fixtures.

tion completion in 1976 and the first National March on Washington in October 1979, which the firm noted “marked the ‘coming out’ of the LGBTQ cultural and political movement at the national level. The plaza retains sufficient integrity to communicate its significance.”

It also determined the plaza “appears eligible as a contributor to the Eureka Valley/Castro Street Commercial Historic District for its cultural association with the LGBTQ rights movement in San Francisco.”

It remains to be seen, however, if such listing for the public parklet above the Castro Muni Station will be sought either by the city or a community group. Nor is it clear how the

determination that the plaza itself is of historical importance – and that it contributes to having the entire Eureka Valley/Castro Street commercial historic district be designated a California Register Historic District – will impact plans to completely reimagine the entire plaza in order to create a more significant memorial to its namesake.

The city designated the plaza in honor of Milk in 1985, seven years after he was assassinated the morning of November 27, 1978 along with thenmayor George Moscone inside City Hall. The late gay supervisor Harry Britt, Milk’s successor who died last month, and former supervisor John Molinari led the effort to do so.

COVID changes campaigning

Swing Left San Francisco is the local chapter of a national organization created following Trump’s election four years ago.

“The goal was simple – winning back the House [of Representatives] from the Trump regime in the 2018 election,” Maine said.

To that end, Swing Left sought to match people interested in politics from heavily Democratic districts – such as California’s 12th Congressional District, which encompasses most of San Francisco and is represented

by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – and paired them with swing districts.

To that end, San Francisco-based Democrats did the nuts-and-bolts campaign work of knocking on doors and calling voters in California’s 10th and 21st congressional districts, which include Modesto and Kings County, respectively.

“We spent a lot of time going out, getting to know these parts of California, making sure our voter lists were clean,” Maine said. “It paid off. Nationally, we flipped 40 seats.”

The blue wave hit the 10th and 21st districts, too.

“T.J. Cox – we thought on election night that he’d lost [the 21st district] but as two to three weeks of ballots came in it turned around and he’d won by 862 votes. All that making contact with people worked,” Maine said.

Maine said that this year, Swing

A group of Castro leaders has been working on an estimated $10 million plan to redo the plaza, considered the front door into the LGBTQ neighborhood. While preliminary designs for the idea won approval from the city’s arts commission, a final schematic is still years away from winning approval from the various city and regional oversight bodies that will need to sign off on it.

Fighting the larger remodel proposal has been the group Save Harvey Milk Plaza. While supportive of the elevator project, it contends the goal of better honoring Milk can be achieved within the confines of the current plaza design and at less cost.

It prefers seeing city officials designate a planter containing five palm trees near Collingwood Street as the LGBTQ Veterans Grove, naming the adjacent terraced planters Harvey’s Garden – A Watershed Garden, and the walkway running the length of the landscape beds as Lavender Lane.

Howard Grant, who designed the plaza in the 1960s along with the Castro Muni station and others located along Market Street, is among those opposed at seeing it be ripped up or significantly altered. Employed at the time by Reid and Tarics Associates, Grant would come out as gay years later.

In light of the planning department’s determination that Harvey Milk Plaza is eligible for listing on the California Register, Grant told the B.A.R. it brings into question any plans to renovate it. He believes a community group should now seek its listing as a historic site.

“There is no compelling reason to go through the agony of demolishing the present plaza and greenbelt to end up with a smaller plaza that is hidden behind an entrance to the Muni station, especially if they put an enclosure on it,” said Grant.

Any such project moving forward will have to have a compelling argument for why a site that is historically significant should be demolished, noted Grant. And while it is still possible that a major renovation of the plaza could be approved, Grant raised doubts about there being any justification for doing so.

“I don’t think you can justify demolishing the plaza,” he said.

At the start of Pride Month last year, the GLBT Historical Society expressed its misgivings about the plaza renovation proposal and argued a less intensive remodel of the site would be a better option. It also called for the city to conduct an analysis of the plaza to determine its historical significance and eligibility for being designated a historical site.

In response to the planning department’s determination it is eligible for such a designation, GLBT Historical Society Executive Director Terry Beswick told the B.A.R. the archival group would wait for additional analysis from the city before its board considers pursuing listing the site on state or federal registers.

“I have not had a chance to consult with architectural historians on this report, but I’m glad the appropriate evaluations of the site are being undertaken prior to finalizing any proposed new designs,” stated Beswick in an emailed reply. “I’m confident that all stakeholders can come together to agree on improvements to the Castro Muni Station and Harvey Milk Plaza that respect the historic significance of the site and also meet the needs of the neighborhood.”

Beswick acknowledged that the plaza does need to be upgraded in some manner.

“I’ve always argued that the plaza should be looked at in the context See page 9 >>

t <<

Community News>>

Milk plaza

From page 8

of the entire intersection as part of a long-term planning process, and that historic preservation and commemoration should be integral to that effort,” he stated. “I don’t think anyone wants to keep it exactly as it is, and I hope that ADA elevator can go in soon.”

Brian Springfield, a local architect based in the Castro who is a main leader of the group seeking a complete reimagining of the parklet, questioned the need to designate the plaza as a historic site in an interview with the B.A.R. He argued that such historic events like the candlelight march held to honor Milk and Moscone the night they died and the celebrations in 2013 and 2015 of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in support of marriage equality occurred on the street with the crowd spilling into the plaza.

“I don’t know what history happened in what we think of now as Harvey Milk Plaza,” said Springfield.

“If you look at the city designation of Harvey Milk Plaza, it was for the entire intersection of Castro and Market streets to be dedicated Harvey Milk Plaza. The idea of what is Harvey Milk Plaza has changed. Now folks are very focused on what was designed to be an entrance to a public transit station.”

<<

Jolene’s

From page 6

hurt or have anyone feel unimportant, unseen or ignored by me. After reading some of these comments, it is clear

July 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

In its report, TreanorHL noted that the plaza being named in honor of an important individual is not reason alone for it being significant. And in this instance, it pointed out that the site “is not directly associated with Milk himself, his political career, or his efforts establishing LGBTQ rights.”

But the firm pointed to the citywide LGBTQ cultural framework adopted in 2015 and finalized a year later, titled “LGBTQ History in San Francisco,” to determine that “Harvey Milk Plaza appears significant under ‘Theme 6: Gay Liberation, Pride, and Politics (1960s to 1990s)’ as a gathering place for exceptionally important vigils

and marches, such as the candlelight vigil from the Castro to Civic Center the night of Harvey Milk and George Moscone’s assassinations in 1978 and the White Night Riot march from the Castro to Civic Center in 1979 after assassin Dan White avoided a firstdegree murder charge.”

In the planning department response to the firm’s report, signed by Allison Vanderslice, a principal preservation planner and the CEQA cultural resources team manager for the environmental planning division, the staff state they “agree with the findings of the HRE that the Harvey Milk Plaza is individually eligible for listing in the California Register under Criterion 1 as a gathering place of exceptionally important vigils and marches” for the events TreanorHL cited.

The planning staff wrote they also agreed with the firm’s finding that the plaza would contribute to the Castro district’s being listed.

“The Castro Street historic district is eligible under Criterion 1 as an intact example of a late 19th century streetcar suburb in San Francisco, as well as for its association with the consolidation of San Francisco’s LGBTQ community in the neighborhood in the 1970s,” states the staff report.

“The period of significance spans two distinct eras; whereas 1880-1929 rep-

resents development of the neighborhood as a streetcar suburb and spans the earliest known date of construction up until the beginning of the Great Depression, 1970-1979 represents the period in which the Castro developed as an exceptionally significant cultural, social, and political area for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community. Harvey Milk Plaza is associated with the later period of significance.”

In terms of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza group’s efforts, Springfield told the B.A.R. it is close to hiring a public space consultant who would engage in another round of community outreach about what to do with the site. Next would be selecting the creative lead for the design team to create final architectural plans for the plaza, he said.

“We have a schematic design or phase 1 that was approved by the arts commission. Now we need the vision,” said Springfield.

Those plans, he added, would take into account the city’s findings on the plaza’s historical significance.

“It is really hard to speak about it with any certainty, as you never know what is going to happen,” he said. “It is an unknown. But depending on where it lands during the design process, the design team would have to respond to that.” t

that I have failed and it has impacted a lot of you and for that I am truly sorry.

“This bar isn’t just a bar to me. It is my heart, a place where I deeply want each and every one of you to feel welcomed and safe. I want you to know, I

am here now, wholly. I am listening. I am sorry,” she continued.

Linsangan’s action plan, which is posted to Jolene’s website, addresses many of the specific allegations made by the complainants and commits to

“a Restorative Justice Circle mediated by a POC mental health professional and professional community mediator(s)” at a future time and date.

As of press time, the complainants had indicated they are willing to issue

a response to Linsangan’s statements to the B.A.R., however they have yet to do so.t

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 06/23/20.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039088200

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039095800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SEYMOURS FASHIONS, 211 SUTTER ST #700, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed KAVITA L. BULCHANDANI & LAL V. BULCHANDANI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/10/75. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/19/20.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FOUR DEUCES, 2319 TARAVAL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed TDMULL PROPERTIES, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/22/13. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/20.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CAMERA WEST INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/26/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/20.

Gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro at City Hall, told the B.A.R. that the finding the plaza is historically significant “makes sense.” He said it remains to be seen what that means for any project undertaken at the site.

“In terms of any renovation or renewal of the plaza, it definitely has implications for what can and cannot be done,” said Mandelman, who added, “I don’t really know where this ultimately will go. Clearly, work is needed on the plaza to make it more usable.

This report identifies some features that need to be incorporated in that.

There is still broad latitude on what can be done there.”

Gay state Senator Wiener (D-San Francisco), who secured $1 million in state funding for the plaza friends group, questioned the need to preserve the existing plaza in a statement to the B.A.R. “Harvey Milk Plaza is horribly designed and is a disservice to Harvey’s memory,” Wiener stated. “It makes it very hard for people to gather there, and the historic homage to Harvey is downstairs in an ugly hole in the ground. The historic significance of Harvey Milk Plaza is its historic centrality to the neighborhood, not the exact physical design. By improving the design and accessibility of this

neighborhood jewel, we will honor Harvey’s memory, enhance the Castro, and create better opportunities to gather as a community and educate visitors.”

Planning department spokeswoman Gina Simi told the B.A.R. no one with the city agency was available for a phone interview for this article. As of press time, she had yet to respond to emailed questions about what impact, if any, the historic listing eligibility determination would have on the proposal to revamp the plaza or if the city would seek such a designation for it.

Determined eligible for historic listing

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555734 In the matter of the application of: AVNISH PATEL & SHEILA PATWARDHAN, C/O ALEXANDER TOTTO, WALD LAW GROUP, P.C., 88 KEARNY ST #1475, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner AVNISH PATEL & SHEILA PATWARDHAN, is requesting that the name ASHA PATWARDHAN PATEL, be changed to ASHA AVNISH PATWARDHAN PATEL. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept 103N, on the 28th of July 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUN 25, JUL 02, 09, 16, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039082400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MPSHARP TECHNOLOGIES LLC, 638 36TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MPSHARP TECHNOLOGIES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/12/20.

JUN 25, JUL 02, 09, 16, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555758 In the matter of the application of: ETERI VLADIMIROVNA ELIASHVILI, 237 KEARNY ST #212, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ETERI VLADIMIROVNA ELIASHVILI, is requesting that the name ETERI VLADIMIROVNA ELIASHVILI AKA ETERI V. ELIASHVILI, be changed to ETERI VLADIMIROVNA DOBRICH. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103, Room 103 on the 6th of August 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555761 In the matter of the application of: JENNY WU, 780 DELTA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JENNY WU, is requesting that the name JENNY WU AKA JENNY WU-ZHEN, be changed to JENNY WU ZHEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103, Room 103 on the 11th of August 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039077900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: AMERICARE SAN FRANCISCO, 120 DIVISADERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HOME CARE SF 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 06/10/20.

JUL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039090200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KINGZ AND QUEENZ CLEANING, 1225 4TH ST #228, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94158. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ELITE 8

JUL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039077100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EUROPEAN WAX CENTER, 2675 GEARY BLVD #E-102, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TCTSF VENTURES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/20/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/08/20.

JUL 02, 09, 16, 23, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555769 In the matter of the application of: HO NAM CHAK, 691 KEITH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner HO NAM CHAK, is requesting that the name HO NAM CHAK, be changed to JACK H.N. CHAK. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103N, Room 103N on the 18th of August 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555768 In the matter of the application of: MEI FUNG YVETTE WUN, HO HEI CHAK, HO YIN CHAK, 691 KEITH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner MEI FUNG YVETTE WUN, is requesting that the name MEI FUNG YVETTE WUN be changed to YVETTE M.F. CHAK; HO HEI CHAK be changed to MAX H.H. CHAK; HO YIN CHAK be changed to CHRIS H.Y. CHAK. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103N, Room 103N on the 18th of August 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-20-555772 In the matter of the application of: NICHOLAS JAMES CHEUNG DOMBROWSKI, 625 COLE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NICHOLAS JAMES CHEUNG DOMBROWSKI is requesting that the name NICHOLAS JAMES CHEUNG DOMBROWSKI be changed to NIK JEDREK VALLEN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.103N, Room 103N on the 18th of August 2020 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039091800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAIDEN, MOTHER, CRONE, 3150 18TH ST #260, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JANAYA CASEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/20.

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 SUMMONS MARIN COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: SERGIO MELLO, AN INDIVIDUAL, SENTIS SYSTEMS INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, AND DOES 1-10, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: MARCELO MELLO, AN INDIVIDUAL. CASE NO. CW1904254 NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case.

There may be a court form that you can use for your response.

You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo. ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site www. lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for for waived fees and costs of on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

The name and address of the court is: Marin County Superior Court, 35021 Civic Center Dr., San Rafael, CA 94903. The name, address, and telephone number of the plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: Brett L. Gibbs, Esq., 28 Altamont Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941; (415) 341-5318.

Nov. 19, 2019, James M. Kim, Clerk; Q. Roary, Deputy.

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039091200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE CANTELLUS GROUP, 52 CLARENDON AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed KES LLC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/20.

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-329092800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOLDEN GATE CANNABIS COMPANY, 500 JONES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INFINITY WELLNESS TLC INC (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 06/25/20.

JUL 09, 16, 23, 30, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039099800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as GROOM DAY SPAW, 938 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed GREEN PAWZ, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/15/15. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/20.

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039100000

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039094100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as WEALTH VISION ADVISORS®, 582 MARKET ST #407, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed WEALTH VISION 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 06/29/20.

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039100800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as ONJUNO, 1390 MARKET ST #200, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CAPITALJ 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 07/07/20.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as MUY LOCO ONVESTMENTS, 385 CASTANADA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by a joint venture, and is signed ALEXANDRA CASTAILLAC SAINE & JUDITH EUPHRAT CASTAILLAC. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/08/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/08/20.

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039091000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as RENAISSANCE SALON, 2600 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed RSSF INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/20.

JUL 16, 23, 30, AUG 06, 2020 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039097100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LEICA STORE SF, 463 BUSH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108.

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Does Stephen Sondheim know about the song “This One’s For The Ladies (That Lunge)”, and if so, what does he think of the semi-tribute?

You know what? I don’t know! That’s a good idea. I’ll send it to him. I met him a couple of times and we’ve hung out a bit. I should send him a link.

In “Peaceful Afternoon,” an anniversary song for your husband Jorn (Weisbrodt), you sing the line “between sex and death and trying to keep the kitchen clean,” which may be the most romantic summation of marriage I’ve ever heard, and I’ve been with my husband for almost 28 years. What does Jorn think of the song?

He loves it. It is now kind of part of our marriage that I write a song about him for every album of original songs I release. It’s been that way for the last three or four records, so it’s not a new thing. Thankfully, they’re all love songs [laughs] and they seem to grow in power and strength and beauty, so it’s worth pontificating on.

by Gregg Shapiro

F

or those who have been counting (and patiently waiting), it’s been 12 (!) years since Rufus Wainwright has released an album of original pop music. Rest assured that with Unfollow the Rules (BMG), Wainwright doesn’t disappoint.

Album opener “Trouble In Paradise,” which shares a kinship with “Going To A Town” (from 2007’s Release The Stars), sets the tone with its political voice, something which echoes in “Only the People That Love.”

Wainwright also doesn’t skimp on the operatic excesses on the dramatic “Early Morning Madness” and “My Little You.” But there is also a hopefulness (and even humor) interwoven throughout on songs such as “You Ain’t Big,” “Peaceful Afternoon,” “Damsel in Distress” and “Alone Time.” Rufus was gracious enough to answer a few questions in advance of the release of Unfollow the Rules.

Gregg Shapiro: Work on Unfollow the Rules, which is being released in July 2020, began in 2018. Is that about the average length of time for you when it comes to making a record or if this one took longer, why is that the case?

Rufus Wainwright: This one took longer. I had worked for this period of time years ago on my early albums. With this one I returned to that concept. I will say that we weren’t working the whole time. We did it in spurts. I think if you actually put all the time that was spent consecutively, it didn’t take anywhere near as long as that. That being said, I’m a strong believer in walking away from a project for a little bit to get a fresh sense of what it needs and coming back to it. This album had a lot of that; going away for a few months and then coming back. I think that really helped a lot.

What was it like working with producer and musician Mitchell Froom on Unfollow the Rules?

That is one of the great tales of my life. On an artistic level he was perfect. On the one hand, he respected my work and is a fan and wanted to fight for the songs and so forth. But on the other hand, he wasn’t afraid to really question me and give me his honest opinion about what was going on musically. It was this nice combination of caring and also curt [laughs]. But then on top of all of that, he’s

Rufus Rules

an interview with Rufus Wainwright a lovely guy; a true mensch. And we’re very good friends now, which is the best thing that can happen.

You said in a YouTube video that your daughter Viva came up with the album’s title, Unfollow the Rules. Was the titular song inspired by the title or vice versa?

Many years ago, she expressed that concept one afternoon and I jotted it down. “Daddy, I want to unfollow the rules.” Then it became a lyric in a song and then it became a song itself.

Now, it’s the name of the record. That happened in a very organic way and I’m not quite sure which came first, the chicken or the egg at this point, in terms of how this has all come about.

But I will say that, like the album taking so long, having these big breaks in between, that song is similar. I kind of finished a couple little sections here and there, then I would go away and come back and hammer away at lyrics.

In the eight years between Unfollow the Rules and Out of the Game, albums of original pop songs, the world has changed considerably, especially in light of the 2016 US election. Am I on the right track when I say that the songs “Hatred” and “Only the People That Love” sound like musical responses to the current state of things in Trump world?

Yeah! You picked the right songs. Arguably, one could even say “Trouble in Paradise,” the opening track, is indicative of the era we live in. “Hatred” I wrote in a period of my life where I was just up against the wall somewhat concerning an adult issue. Things that we all go through as human beings, whether

Welcome to Chechnya Searing documentary exposes violent homophobia

Maxim Lapunov in ‘Welcome to Chechnya’

by Brian Bromberger

M

axim Lapunov is the main protagonist of gay journalist/filmmaker David France’s searing new brutal chilling exposé documentary, Welcome to Chechnya. A huge hit at Sundance, had Maxim been able to attend an actual Castro Theater screening he would have received a thunderous standing ovation.

The film’s backdrop is the harrowing saga of the purging/war, via (electro)torture, beatings, and executions of LGBTQ people in Chechnya spearheaded by its Putin puppet leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, that began in 2017 and was revealed in a New Yorker article by Masha Gessen.

Difficult to watch, yet riveting nail-biting suspense, this film makes us appreciate, in this month of celebrating our country’s independence and democratic ideals, the basic freedom just to survive.

it’s illness or going to court or losing a loved one. It was one of those big moments in life and I was filled with wrath. I needed to do something with that wrath in order to win the battle and not destroy myself in the process.

I do feel like we’re at a similar juncture right now with the election. People are going to be angry no matter what. There’s no getting rid of that, so we have to then channel that energy into the appropriate weapons [laughs] and come out better by the end. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, and it’s quite frightening, actually. But human history is laced with troubled times, we’ve been here before in the world. You have to go through this to get to a better place. “Only the People That Love” is eventually the answer to the question. Love will conquer all and that is your best bet in surviving this tricky period.

I have a feeling that there are probably going to be gay men of a certain age who will hear Sarah Siddons get name-checked in “Romantical Man” and know who she was.

[Big laugh] How did an 18th-century actress find her way into this song?

I’ve been a fan of All About Eve for many years. She briefly appears in that movie. Let’s just say I wasn’t deeply knowledgeable of that whole concept until I ran into her grave. That’s where I got the idea. I was walking through London and I saw this amazing statue of her in Paddington Green. Then I went and read up on her and fell into this rabbit hole [laughs] of the 18th century and Bette Davis movies [laughs]. I’m happy to bring people along on this journey.

As Isteev remarks, “It is a shame to be gay in Chechnya … so strong it can only be washed away with blood.” In this predominately Muslim country, it is such a disgrace and stain to be LGBTQ that families are encouraged in honor killings to “cleanse” their own deviant children and siblings.

A routine drug raid in 2017 and a cellphone found on one of the men arrested, revealed images of gay sex and explicit texts.

He was then tortured to surrender names and contact information of other gay men, who were then apprehended and violently coerced into divulging identities of their cohorts.

Meanwhile, in interviews when pressed about this murderous campaign against LGBTQ people, Kadyrov says, “We have no such people here … but “to purify our blood, if there are any here, take them.” Because Russia implicitly supports Chechnya’s policies, refugees have to seek asylum in Western nations.

But their eventual locations must remain secret, because like a LeCarre spy thriller, not only are their families subject to harassment, violence, and even arrest, but Chechnyan Mafia-like thugs can be sent abroad to track refugees down, return them home, or even assassinate them, all to ensure their victim’s silence.

France zeroes in on a few escapees, who with state-of-the-art digital technology are given different faces and voices protecting them from detection, yet seeing their facial expressions viewers can empathize with their dire plight.

We meet “Grisha,” (all fugitives adopt new names), a 30-year-old Russian gay events planner, who, while working in Chechnya, was detained and tortured so savagely he

In the midst of all the seriousness, there is also humor, as in the song “You Ain’t Big.” What was the inspiration for that song and are you prepared to hear from the people of Lawrence, Kansas, as well as Southern Pennsylvania, Eastern California and Western New York state?

[Laughs] Lawrence, I think, is a veiled compliment. The whole premise of the song is that you’re not really a huge celebrity until you’ve been amongst the plebeians of America, which is an interesting place, to say the least. Lawrence has always been a bit of an oasis in the Midwest whenever I’ve gone there. I can kind of breathe, finally. I don’t feel as tense as I do in the rest of the country. As far as Southern Pennsylvania, Eastern California and Western New York (are concerned), those are particular jungles, shall we say [laughs].

Having seen you perform in concert many times over the years, I was wondering how you are adjusting to the new normal of canceled and rescheduled concert tours during the pandemic?

I have to say I am one of the luckiest artists around because I, thankfully over the last 10 years, really made great overtures to the opera world. I went out there and hammered away at this crazy idea of being accepted into the classical pantheon. I will never know if that’s happened until I am dead for about 100 years.

That being said, what’s great about it now is that I must’ve had some effect because I do have a lot of commissions. They take two or three years to compose. The calendar is much wider in the classical world than in the pop world. So, there’s a ton of work that I could sit down and work on because of that little exit strategy that I had at one point.t

Read the full interview on www.ebar.com https://rufuswainwright.com/

could barely crawl. He was released once authorities realized he was Russian. He began to speak out publicly and was again targeted such that his long-term boyfriend and whole family had to emigrate for their own safety.

Grisha’s airport reunion with his boyfriend is quite emotional and joyful in an otherwise bleak scenario.

“Grisha” becomes Maxim Lapunov, who tired of running and hiding, courageously resolves after breaking free, to return to Russia and sue the Chechnyan government through the courts, although they eventually refuse to hear his case. He is the hero, the first person to witness publicly to the media about his ordeal, using his real name.

Lapunov is now pursuing his charges at the European Court of Human Rights, which found them credible, with Moscow yet to respond. The epilogue informs us that out of 151 survivors, 44 were granted refugee status in Canada, while the Trump administration has accepted zero.

This film in itself becomes an activist tool shocking the audience into pursuing measures to stop this nauseous terrorist crime against humanity. But in the Frameline Q & A, Lupanov remains hopeful, proclaiming, “People shouldn’t be afraid to change things and demand justice from their government,” wise counsel in this era of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com hbo.com/documentaries/welcome-to-chechnya

t

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39 1-A 17th Market & Castro, San Francisco

The Polly Polaroid Paradox

Tracking down the woman behind the legend

the only time from the 1970s to the ’90s that the first name Lenore is mentioned.

Bob Thornton, co-owner of The Cinch, said, “I remember Polly very well! I have a collection of about 20 that she took in The Cinch. She was in and out for years, it seemed.

I remember there was a lot of speculation about who she was when she wasn’t Polly.”

Photographic memory

Dan Nicoletta

Polly Polaroid portrait at The Giraffe Annex in the early 1990s.

by Michael Flanagan

P

olly Polaroid was a presence for around two decades in the gay bars of San Francisco – and yet no one seemed to remember her story.

She would make her rounds in the bars, saying “Photo to remember the evening?” to all patrons – and yet she disappeared and no one knew what happened.

There are precious few mentions about her in the gay press. In Gay Times from 1986 Rick Mill spoke to both her ubiquity and anonymity in his column The Piglet’s Pen: “Who is that lady called Polly Polaroid? No matter where I go, she’s there. ‘Photo to remember the evening?’ she humbly inquires. That woman ought to go into the blackmail business, [with] some of the pictures she’s taken of me. I mean, here I am on Ringold Alley; three in the morning…the rest is a blur.

All I remember is seeing a flash and hearing a little voice saying, ‘Photo to remember the evening?’”

She was, apparently, an inspiration to her subjects with her sense of humor as well. In his Bird Droppings column in a 1976 article in San Francisco’s Rip Off Rag, the author, who went by the name of ‘The Jailbird,’ has this item: “The Bird’s quote of the week:

St

July 16-22, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Polly Polaroid to a paying customer, ‘If you want me to take a picture of Shane’s manhood in the bathroom, you may have to spend another six dollars to have it enlarged.’”

The one hint I had regarding her identity came from the Bay Area Reporter, where her photos occasionally appeared. In his April 15, 1976 column, Sweetlips has a photo from Jackson’s (2237 Powell St.) with the credit: Lenore “Polly Polaroid.” It is

Polly caught the particular attention of other photographers like Jim James, who remembered her well.

“She used to especially hang out at the P.S. Bar on Polk,” said James.

“I did not get to know her that well.

She was a bit shy. [She was] a tiny wispy old gal with a squeaky, crackly voice. But she always managed to ask every person at least once if they would like their Polaroid taken.”

I asked James if it was a cash-only business and he responded, “Yes, cash only. I think she wanted from 5 to 7 dollars for two.” James remembered Polly taking a photo of him with his soon to be ex-boyfriend one Thanksgiving at the P.S. It was finally another photographer, Dan Nicoletta, who helped me solve the mystery of Polly Polaroid.

Nicoletta remembered her throughout the city, and had particular memories of the evening of February 16, 1994.

That night was the stag party for Miss X, former member (with Miss Tippi and Doris Fish) of Sluts A GoGo. The evening began at a roller rink and continued with a bar crawl up Polk Street which ended at the Giraffe (1131 Polk Street).

Dan Nicoletta

Polly Polaroid at Miss X’s Bachelor Party at The Giraffe Annex in the early 1990s

Dan Nicoletta

Polly Polaroid (right) with a bevy of ‘90s nightlife folks at Miss X’s Bachelor Party at The Giraffe Annex in the early 1990s.

Nicoletta took several photos at the event, including ones of Polly Polaroid. And in the envelope with his photos was a card with Polly’s phone number. A reverse number lookup revealed Polly Polaroid’s identity, and genealogical databases told the rest of the story.

Polly Polaroid was the assumed name of Lenore Ricci, who was born on Feb 14, 1919. Lenore’s maiden name was Rogers (though she also went by Brown, her step-father’s name). She was originally from Walworth, Minnesota. She moved to San Francisco in 1944 and married fellow Minnesotan Edward Ricci, who immediately thereafter went to war in the Pacific. He died in the war shortly thereafter. She was living at 350 Grove at the time of his death.

Ricci went to San Francisco State University in the 1950s and while there was a sports photographer for the Gators. For a while in the ’60s she was an Avon Lady, which may be where she gained her marketing skills. She moved to the 900 block of Franklin in the ’70s, where she continued to live till she left San Francisco (around 1995). She died in Fargo, North Dakota on October 11, 2008.

Her story is one of the great stories of a bygone era of San Francisco, of wild times at the bars on Polk Street. I look forward to the day when some ambitious curator gathers her work for an exhibition. On her memorial site there is a memory from one of her caregivers which says that she was a unique lady who had very interesting stories.

One can only imagine the stories that caregiver heard.t

Read the full story with lots more photos on www.ebar.com

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Naya Rivera

Stars dimmed, reignited

2020 Pride all summer long reading list

The death of Glee star Naya Rivera, and the new Batwoman, are covered in Victoria A. Brownworth’s Lavender Tube column. Nightlife, arts and community events provide some needed amusement. All this and more on www.ebar.com.

Whether you sat out the Pride season by keeping your observances at a social distance or you took to the streets in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march, having reading materials on hand to augment the celebration is always a good idea. Gregg Shapiro rounds up summer selections on www.ebar.com.

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