July 24 2014

Panel: Gay wealth a myth

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Vol. 44 • No. 30 • July 24-30, 2014

AIDS confab looks to future

by Liz Highleyman

D

Rick Gerharter

Evicted tenants and partners Alison Panko, left, and Oona Hanawalt sit in their apartment on 25th Street in the Mission.

Queer SF couple fights eviction

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

San Francisco same-sex couple is fighting their landlords’ efforts to evict them from their apartment.

Oona Hanawalt, 33, a special education teacher and tutor, and Alison Panko, 39, an unpaid psychotherapy intern, say landlord Irma Encinas is ousting them from their 25th Street home because Encinas claims they had illegal subtenants.

A judge last week ruled against the couple, who identify as queer, and they have until August 1 to get out, according to Hanawalt.

They’re appealing the judge’s ruling.

“We are terrified, devastated, and entirely broke,” Panko said in an interview.

Hanawalt and Panko are also suing Encinas because they say she failed to repair bad plumbing and other problems.

Encinas formally sued the women for eviction in November 2013 after previously issuing several three-day eviction notices because she claimed “we had too many people living in our apartment and we had illegally replaced roommates.”

Hanawalt moved into the apartment in 2008 with three other people. The rent on the four-bedroom apartment was $3,100 a month. She said all three of the others have been switched out “a couple of times.” Panko moved in in 2011. The couple has been together for more than seven years.

Among other conditions, the 2008 lease says the tenants agreed “not to assign this See page 10 >>

Crowning achievement Jane Philomen Cleland

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he annual AIDS Walk took place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Sunday, July 20 and first-time lead organization Project Inform said the event was a success. Some walkers wore crowns, and at least one person donned a costume. Dana Van Gorder, executive director of Project Inform, told the Bay Area Reporter that the agency had “tremendous support” from the 43

other Bay Area organizations that benefit from the walk. “Virtually all of the legacy sponsors returned this year, and we brought in a significant new corporate sponsor in Quest Diagnostics,” Van Gorder said. About 20,000 people took part in the AIDS Walk, on par with the past few years, and while fundraising totals aren’t yet complete, Van Gorder said that at least $2.3 million was raised.

elegates at the 20th International AIDS Conference, taking place this week in Melbourne, Australia, expressed optimism about progress made to date, but stressed that more remains Liz Highleyman to be done when it Bill Clinton comes to key populaaddresses the tions including gay International AIDS men, transgender Conference people, sex workers, and people who use drugs.

The meeting opened on a somber note Sunday as attendees remembered six colleagues – See page 10 >>

Older lesbians gather in Oakland

by Matthew S. Bajko

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national organization for lesbians age 59 and older is hosting its biennial gathering in Oakland this weekend as it marks its 25th anniversary.

Old Lesbians Organizing for Change expects more than 300 women to attend the gathering, which kicked off Wednesday and runs through Sunday, July 27 at the Oakland California Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in the heart of the East Bay city’s downtown.

“I have been an activist all my life. To find a group that is lesbians in their 60s, 70s, and 80s still being activists, troublemakers, and looking for social justice makes me happy,” said San Francisco resident Carol Seajay, 64, who joined two years ago and is presenting two workshops at the gathering, including one about being hard of hearing.

Known as OLOC for short, the group grew out of two California conferences older lesbians held in the late 1980s, according to an online “herstory” published on its website. The first was held at the California State University Dominguez Campus in Carson, California, in April 1987.

In August 1989, lesbians in northern California sponsored a second conference. Out of that a group of lesbians came together to form OLOC. In 1992 it gained nonprofit status.

“The founding issue of OLOC is to combat ageism in all of its forms and the invisibility

Jane Philomen Cleland

Old Lesbians Organizing for Change members Kaye Griffin, left, Chloe Karl, Christine Torno, and Ardys deLuxn promoted this weekend’s conference at last month’s Pride festivities.

of old lesbians and old women as lead actors in society,” said Oakland resident Elana Dykewomon, 64, who serves on OLOC’s organizing committee and heads the programming committee for this year’s gathering.

“The other part about what OLOC is, it is committed to understanding the intersectional nature of oppression and works against racism, classism, able-ism, size-ism, heterosexism, and all of those -isms and works for a progressive and just world on every front we can,” added Dykewomon, whose partner,

Susan Levinkind, 72, serves on OLOC’s local steering committee.

OLOC’s gathering comes as LGBT aging issues have gained greater attention from leaders in San Francisco and state lawmakers in Sacramento. As the Bay Area Reporter has detailed in a series of stories over the last year, the city formed a task force to examine the issues facing its LGBT senior residents, estimated to number upwards of 20,000, and suggest ways for how policymakers can address their concerns.

See page 6 >>

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<< Community News

2 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

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Nonprofit aims for LGBT-friendly corporate workplaces

by Matthew S. Bajko

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new nonprofit aims to make corporate offices friendlier to LGBT employees by boosting the visibility of straight allies.

Based in San Francisco, the two-year-old Friendfactor is using a competition template to engage both Fortune 500 companies and leading business schools from across the country. By challenging participants to engage allies on campus or in the workplace, the nonprofit hopes to foster greater LGBT awareness and acceptance in the business community.

“The main premise for why we work with these two communities is in the modern world we spend most of our time with the communities we develop in the workplace,” said Friendfactor CEO Joanne Sprague, 32, who identifies as a straight ally.

“There is a high opportunity for a locust of change there when people identify as allies in the workplace. It impacts the rest of their lives in their community and church.”

The nonprofit’s competitions come as increased attention is being paid toward LGBT workplace policies. This week President Barack Obama signed an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers.

A New York Times analysis in May

explored why there are would not be hidden,” no openly LGBT chief said Dyanna Salcedo, executives at America’s an out lesbian and leading businesses. It co-president of the referenced a recent reschool’s LGBT group port from the Human known as Cluster Q. Rights Campaign that “Columbia delivered, found many LGBT and the MBA Ally people, no matter their Challenge has only job title, remain closhelped boost that viseted at work. ibility even more.”

“The HRC report According to said the workplace is Friendfactor, 60 perthe last closet,” noted cent of the student Sprague. body at Columbia was Initially a New Yorkengaged to be LGBT based organization allies as part of the focused on advocacy friendly competition. work, Friendfactor “It is a validation Rick Gerharter re-launched on the for the student body West Coast in July PG&E sponsored its first float in this year’s LGBT Pride creating a very accept2012 under Sprague’s Parade; the utility company recently took first place honors ing MBA program,” leadership. During the in a competition run by Friendfactor. said Ted Kirby, 28, who 2012-2013 school year graduated in May and it organized its first is the outgoing coKellogg School of Management at MBA Ally Challenge, crowning the president of Cluster Q. “We had 750 Northwestern University and the Columbia Business School the inaupeople sign up as allies.”

Ross School of Business at the Unigural winner.

A gay man who will join Deloitte versity of Michigan earned second “If we can educate and engage Consulting in the fall, Kirby said the and third, respectively. The Darden people while they are at school why contest serves the dual purpose of School of Business at the University being an ally and standing up as ally making Columbia a more welcomof Virginia received the Most Imis important, it has an impact when ing place for LGBT students while proved award. they became a manager and move also educating straight students “I chose Columbia, in part, beup the ranks,” said Sprague. about how they can be advocates in cause of its visible LGBT commuThis past school year, with 12 the workplace after they graduate. nity. I knew that for the first time business schools competing, Co“A lot of corporations have the in my life, this part of my identity lumbia won for a second time. The right policies in place and have

those LGBTQ resource groups people can join. They do outreach to show LGBT students they can be out and flourish,” said Kirby, who purposefully chose to be out on his resume when applying for jobs.

“That being said, I think there are a lot of places in this country where it is still not okay to be out. A lot of states don’t have equal protections under the law.”

Workplace challenge

This year Friendfactor launched its Workplace Ally Challenge to bring its campus-based competition into the workplace. Eight Fortune 500 companies from around the country competed between January and June to engage as many allies as possible in building inclusive workplaces.

In a sign of how embracing LGBT issues in corporate boardrooms can still be controversial, however, three of the participating companies asked not to be identified publicly.

“It was something we offered,” explained Sprague. “We are a nonprofit and the goal is to advance the mission.

Telling companies they can’t participate if their compliance department or CEO is risk averse goes against the vision of the organization.”

Of the other five competing See page 5 >>

Ex-Yahoo worker files same-sex harassment suit

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A

n ex-Yahoo worker who claims she was fired after her former female supervisor forced her to have sex has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her old boss and the

giant Internet company. The supervisor quickly responded that the worker was a poor performer who just wants money.

Nan Shi, of Santa Clara, filed her civil suit against Maria Zhang and Yahoo, which is based in Sunny-

vale, in Santa Clara County Superior Court July 11. Shi’s suit is also based on allegations of intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful termination.

In her complaint, Shi, who said she was a principal software engi-

neer at Yahoo, said that when she was hired at Yahoo in February 2013, Zhang, of Sunnyvale, instructed her to let her stay in her temporary company housing.

While there, Zhang “coerced” Shi “to have oral and digital sex with her on multiple occasions against her will.” Zhang told her “she would have a bright future at Yahoo if she had sex with her,” and threatened to take away her “job, stocks, and future” if she didn’t “do what she wanted.”

Shi claims Zhang also forced her “to work grueling hours,” and when she “rejected Zhang’s further advances,” Zhang retaliated by “unfairly downgrading her performance reviews for the second and third quarters of 2013.” She also removed her as lead from projects, Shi alleges, among other complaints.

Shi says that after she reported problems to human resources staff, the company “retaliated” and eventually terminated her.

In her cross-complaint for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, filed July 16, Zhang called Shi’s sexual harassment allegations “outrageously false,” and said they “never had a sexual relationship.”

“Shi made the entire story up in an attempt to save her job and avoid losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unvested Yahoo stock,” according to Zhang.

Zhang founded the start-up company Alike, where Shi worked for her and which was acquired by Yahoo in February 2013. At Yahoo, Shi worked under technical leads on Zhang’s team. Zhang was senior director of engineering.

In her new post, “Shi struggled to perform up to company expectations” and “received negative performance feedback in the third quarter of 2013,” according to Zhang. Shi asked to work under a different technical lead. Zhang consented and assigned someone else to supervise Shi, but she struggled to keep up with the workload, among other problems.

In March 2014, “Realizing that consistent negative performance feedback would likely lead to the

Maria Zhang

termination of her employment and the loss of unvested stock worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Shi complained to human resources that Zhang had “threatened her job,” among other claims, but she didn’t mention any sexual harassment, according to Zhang.

Human resources staff “found no evidence” supporting Shi’s allegations, and Zhang denied Shi’s request for another transfer.

In April, Shi went back to human resources and claimed Zhang had forced her “to have sex in exchange for receiving favorable treatment at Yahoo.” The company investigated, but “Shi was unable to provide a single piece of evidence,” says Zhang, whose complaint says, “Yahoo concluded there was no support for Shi’s assertion” about the alleged sexual relationship.

“Yahoo would have immediately terminated Shi as a result of her consistent negative performance feedback,” according to Zhang, but because of Shi’s allegations, the company held off from firing her, allowing her to continue getting paid until June and vesting stock until she was terminated July 11.

In an email, Yahoo spokeswoman Suzanne Philion said there’s “absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang. Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive, and we intend to fight vigorously to clear her name.”

Neither Zhang nor Shi’s attorneys made them available for interviews.

Both women seek undetermined damages.

The San Jose Mercury News first reported the news of Shi’s lawsuit.t

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Community News>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 3

Panel debunks stereotype of LGBT affluence

by Jim E. Winburn

is there are subgroups within the LGBT popuhe myth of gay afflulation that are incredibly ence serves as a harmful disadvantaged.” exaggeration, according to In addition, Gates speakers of a recent Horizons said that demographic Foundation panel discussion data representing racial hosted at Merrill Lynch Priand ethnic minority vate Bank. subgroups in the LGBT Rather than accept a population also reveal popular stereotype that gays high levels of economic and lesbians are among the disadvantage. wealthiest demographics in “So again, the simple the nation, local community message is that we don’t leaders described a reality for see in all these data Rick Gerharter the LGBT population that sources any evidence includes significant poverty, Sherilyn Adams, center, executive director of Larkin of overall affluence,” discrimination, and home- Street Youth Services, makes a point during a panel he said. “And certainly lessness. there are many groups discussion on the myth of gay affluence. She was Roger Doughty, executive joined on the panel by Bevan Dufty, left, director in the LGBT commudirector of Horizons Foun- of the city’s Housing Opportunity, Partnerships nity who not only just dation, said this myth is a and Engagement office, and Gary J. Gates, Ph.D., don’t show affluence, powerful one, especially in Williams Distinguished Scholar, the Williams but show very serious the hands of “our opponents,” Institute, UCLA School of Law. disadvantages economiwho use it as part of their cally.” “special rights” argument for Bevan Dufty, the gay but disproportionate levels of brand members of the LGBT community. director of Housing Opportunity, loyalty were a hallmark of gays and “It goes along with that sense of, Partnerships and Engagement for lesbians,” wrote Nathan McDermott. oh, this is a privileged class of peoMayor Ed Lee, said he was shocked “In the media, gay men became wellple,” Doughty explained at the July to learn that 29 percent of the to-do, cosmopolitan, and voracious17 panel, which was attended by 7,350 people identified as LGBT in ly consumeristic. In 2012, Experian, about 50 people. “These are people the biennial San Francisco Homea national marketing firm, released who have money, they have access, less Point-In-Time Count and Sura business report claiming that the they have power, and therefore are vey that was released last June. average household income of a marnot worthy objects of, say, a sym“That is a shocking number,” ried or partnered gay man is nearly pathetic hearing in a courtroom, or Dufty said. “That basically means 20 percent more than a straight marlegislative action or anything else for the people that I [reach out to] ried or partnered man ($116,000 like that.” that are LGBT ... it means they are a compared to $94,500).”

But Doughty said the myth of relationship breakup, a job loss, or a Gary J. Gates, Ph.D., a Williams LGBT affluence has become equally housing loss or eviction away from Distinguished Scholar at the Wilharmful inside the LGBT commubeing homeless.” liams Institute at UCLA School of nity, “not only because it’s not true, Dufty explained how overwhelmLaw, laid the groundwork for disbut also because it is also separating ing it is to have overcome hopelling the notion of LGBT affluourselves one from another ... [by] mophobia in the community only ence through hard data. not seeing the whole segment of the to succumb to “homeless-phobia” “As a broad group, I will tell community that are dealing with a in his own city. you, it’s not necessarily clear per very different reality.”

“It shows how we are so vulnerse that LGBT people in general are The myth of gay wealth was born able in this city that we helped to economically disadvantaged, but out of marketing surveys, according to build, this city that prides itself on there’s no evidence of affluence,” a story earlier this year in the Atlantic. its diversity, and having the queer Gates told attendees. “And what is “Marketing firms conducted surfocus we have ... I don’t want it to be critically important [to understand] veys to try to show not just affluence, lost on us,” he said.

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Tax measure seeks to discourage ‘flipping’

by David-Elijah Nahmod

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tax measure that will appear on the November ballot traces its origins to slain supervisor Harvey Milk as it seeks to discourage real-estate “flipping,” the practice whereby a building is bought, the tenants are evicted through the Ellis Act, and then the property is quickly resold at a profit.

The proposal would increase the transfer tax rate on properties that are bought and sold within a fiveyear period. If a building is sold within one year the tax rate would be 24 percent. The rate is graduated down to 14 percent for buildings sold further along the five-year span.

San Francisco Supervisors David Campos, Eric Mar, Jane Kim and John Avalos are sponsoring the measure, which was developed in conjunction with activists after a series of tenant conventions earlier this year.

“We’re going to take our city back to its core values,” Campos said at a rally last month when the measure qualified for the ballot. “This is about saying to the speculators, there’s a price to be paid. The speculators need to be stopped. Pay your fair share if you throw people out.”

Campos said that Milk, who served on the board for nearly a year before he and then-Mayor George Moscone were assassinated in City Hall in November 1978, worked on a similar measure.

Jane Philomen Cleland

Dixon Li Man, center, signed papers at the San Francisco Elections Department last month after a tenant-backed tax measure qualified for the November ballot.

“Many people struggle to stay in the Castro, many of them are LGBTQ,” Campos said. “We are sending a clear message: our city is not for sale. It belongs to the working class.”

Milk’s proposal, which was due to go before the Board of Supervisors two days after his murder, would have imposed a 100 percent tax on real-estate flipping.

“Harvey’s anti-speculation tax was revived because it’s so desperately needed right now,” said Tommi Avicolli Mecca of the Housing Rights Committee. “Controlling the evictions will help cut down on the evictions and the gentrification.

Harvey came up with the idea because the city was experiencing an

eviction crisis back then. He was evicted from his camera store when his rent was tripled, so he knew firsthand what the speculation was doing to the city and to the Castro.

If he were alive today, he’d no doubt be leading the fight against the evictions and gentrification.”

The anti-speculation tax does not yet have an official name. Avicolli Mecca said that the name, as well as its identifying letter on the ballot, would be assigned in August.

“This anti-speculation tax is a piece of legislation that Harvey Milk died while working on,” said Tom Temprano, president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. “We now have an opportunity, nearly 40 years later, to carry on Harvey’s legacy and pass this very reasonable piece of legislation that will stop speculation and help curb skyrocketing rents that are changing the face of our city.”

Passed in 1986, the Ellis Act, a state law, allows landlords who wish to “get out of the rental business” to evict tenants. Many low income, senior, disabled, and people living with HIV/AIDS have lost their rent controlled apartments due to this practice and have been unable to find comparably affordable housing in the city due to skyrocketing rents.

If passed by voters, the surtax would cover apartment buildings of 30 units or less, and would further exclude single family homes, owneroccupied tenancies in common, and condominiums.t

Dufty quoted numbers from the city’s 2013 count. Of the 6,346 people who are homeless in San Francisco, not counting 914 youth that make up the 7,350 total mentioned earlier, 3,400 are on the street, 1,800 are in jail, hospitals or other treatment programs, and 1,145 people are in shelters. Of the 3,400 on the street, about 2,000 are chronically ill. These individuals have been homeless for one year or more, or they’ve had multiple episodes of homelessness, according to Dufty.

Sherilyn Adams, executive director for Larkin Street Youth Services, said her organization, which serves runaway and homeless youth, estimates about 5,400-5,700 young people, between the ages of 12 and 24, in San Francisco are either homeless or atrisk for homelessness.

According to Adams, the only pathway out of homelessness for any group is to significantly improve education and employment

– in addition to improved housing policies.

“I think with all the statistics and what has been said employment discrimination continues,” she said. “Employment discrimination for youth is high, and employment discrimination particularly for trans youth is high. So we need to work really closely with young people to deepen their education levels as well as to help them around workforce development – that’s both basically job readiness and job support.”

Horizons’ philanthropy series panel discussion was moderated by Francisco O. Buchting, Ph.D., director of grantmaking and community initiatives for the Horizons Foundation.

The organization’s next session, “Transcending the Divide: Gaining a Better Understanding of Transgender Issues,” takes place August 21. More information is available at www.horizonsfoundation.org.t

<< Open Forum

4 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

Volume 44, Number 30 July 24-30, 2014 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko Seth Hemmelgarn Jim Provenzano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dan Aiello • Tavo Amador Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Philip Campbell • Heather Cassell Chuck Colbert • Richard Dodds David Guarino • Peter Hernandez Liz Highleyman • Brandon Judell • John F. Karr Lisa Keen • Matthew Kennedy • David Lamble Michael McAllister • Michael McDonagh David-Elijah Nahmod • Elliot Owen Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Bob Roehr Donna Sachet • Adam Sandel Khaled Sayed • Jason Serinus • Gregg Shapiro Gwendolyn Smith • Jim Stewart Andre Torrez • Ed Walsh • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Jay Cribas PRODUCTION/DESIGN Max Leger PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland Rick Gerharter • Lydia Gonzales Rudy K. Lawidjaja • Steven Underhill Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.359.2612 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Putin in the hot seat

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ussian President Vladimir Putin is sitting uncomfortably on the world stage, trying to extricate himself from yet another crisis of his own making. Preliminary indicators, according to U.S. officials, show that it was a Russian-made surface-to-air missile that shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, killing all 298 people aboard. Those passengers included several who were headed to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

One of them, Joep Lange from the Netherlands, once led the International AIDS Society, which oversees the conference. Lange, 59, was traveling with his partner, Jacqueline van Tongeren, 64; both of them worked at the Amsterdam Institute for Global Heath and Development, where he was executive scientific director and she was a communications director.

Other AIDS advocates who perished in the crash included Glenn Thomas, 49, a communications officer for the World Health Organization; and Pim de Kuijer, 32, a longtime AIDS activist and lobbyist at Stop AIDS Now, a Dutch organization.

“He was an outspoken advocate on human rights, especially the position of women in society and position of gays in society,” his brother, Paul de Kuijer, told the New York Times.

The plane crash, in the midst of a war zone where Russian-backed rebels are fighting Ukrainian soldiers, is a stark reminder that even 33,000 feet is not too far for the world’s violence to reach. While not the same as the terrorist attacks that felled the World Trade Center in 2001, the Russian-backed rebels have made clear that they have no limits in their battle to take over Ukraine. There’s evidence, including bragging by the rebels themselves, that they’ve shot down other plans in recent weeks – but those were military aircraft or cargo planes. It seems that the rebels mistook the Malaysian Airlines jet for something other than a civilian plane, and are now scrambling to shift the blame. This week,

the aircraft’s black boxes were recovered and, hopefully, a professional investigation can commence. But the crash site was compromised by rebel fighters in the immediate aftermath; this week ABC News reported that large pieces of the aircraft appear to have been cut away, so it’s unclear how much evidence may have been tampered with or lost.

Ultimately, the downing of the airline falls squarely on Putin’s shoulders. He’s a one-man wrecking crew against humanity. There’s the draconian anti-gay propaganda laws that are now in effect, which cast a pall over the Sochi Winter Olympics earlier this year and that continue to stifle free speech and association in the country. And it was just after the games that he used military action to annex the Crimea Peninsula from Ukraine.

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The Obama administration has imposed additional sanctions on Russia in the wake of the Malaysian Airlines disaster. However, action is really needed from European countries, which are much larger trading partners with Russia. Yet there is already a disconnect, with French president Francois Hollande moving forward with the sale of at least one warship to Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

U.S. actions alone won’t sway Putin, nor will scoldings from the United Nations. A concerted effort by many nations is needed. Putin also can’t dodge responsibility if clear evidence is found that a Russian-made missile was in fact used. The deaths of 298 people – who likely never knew what hit them – are a tremendously sad loss. The fact that those killed included some of the world’s most dedicated AIDS researchers and activists is a double blow, not only to those living with the disease, but all those who are affected by it.t

Liz Highleyman

AIDS 2014 Co-Chairs Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Sharon Lewin lead a moment of silence to the victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 at the opening session of the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Does PrEP = a new gay sexual revolution?

by Tim Vollmer and Doug Sebesta

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lthough in use for years, word is now firmly out about the “first drug that reduces the risk of sexually acquired HIV infection.” News of Truvada, the drug approved two years ago by the Food and Drug Administration for pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, has exploded over social networks and inside the imagination of gay men across the United States over the last few months.

PrEP works on the same basis as PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis), commonly used in occupational settings and the anti-viral therapies used to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. Both of these strategies have long been considered very successful and uncontroversial.

What is it about the idea of PrEP for sexually active gay men that’s causing such a passionate debate within public health circles and our own community?

Even though many health professionals portray PrEP as being “just another tool” to curtail the HIV epidemic, the charged rhetoric used by those for or against it – terms such as “party drug” or “Truvada whore” – suggests otherwise.

As noted by a New York Times headline, PrEP raises the dramatic possibility of a new “sexual revolution” for gay men. While the idea frightens and even outrages many people, some advocates (including an increasingly vocal new generation of gay activists) are explicitly embracing the idea of less fear and more sexual choice, if not outright freedom.

So far the discussion over PrEP has been mostly geared toward moral questions (will gay men be responsible or not?) and health ones (will PrEP lead to less condom use and/or more sexually transmitted diseases?). While obviously important, these are not the only issues.

Questions about its social impact are just as crucial. Will PrEP change aspects of our sexual identity and our sexual landscape that are not at first obvious? Given the complexity and diversity of gay men’s lives, how will these effects differ across age, region, race and ethnicity as well as between negative and positive gay men, top and bottoms and “versatile”?

One way to spark a productive look at the social impact of PrEP is to consider the societal consequences of HIV up to now. Writers and activists like Walt Odets and the late Eric Rofes tried early on to highlight the harm caused by the chronic intense fear of – and focus on – HIV, which in their view was as detrimental to gay men’s social and sexual lives as the virus was to their physical health.

As described by Odets, uninfected gay men face an overwhelming and never-ending pressure to maintain a “clean” status all the while feeling in the shadow of the seemingly poz-centric communal focus that quickly formed around HIV’s devastating health and social issues. As sero-sorting became more common, boundaries between the psycho-socio-sexual realities of neg and poz became even more pronounced.

For Rofes, years of focusing on HIV transmission inadvertently transformed condom usage into a highly contested symbol of gay sexuality. Today, the power of condoms to frame our sexuality is so strong that their nonuse is often not only a primary expression of the traditional romantically committed relationship, but also a badge of edgy outlaw sexuality.

Sero-positioning (being the top if you’re still negative, the bottom once positive) has been another social consequence of the epidemic with a huge but largely hidden impact on gay men’s psycho-sexual lives. For poz “tops” and “vers” men for example, sero-sorting has meant a sharply curtailed sense of sexual and social options.

For many HIV-negatives, the association of HIV with bottoming has deterred experimentation, potentially inhibiting a more authentic sexual and romantic life. For those negative men whose desire to bottom is pivotal to their sex life, the intersection of risk, pleasure, love, and identity may have made HIV infection seem so inevitable and unavoidable that precautions seem pointless.

In theory at least, PrEP could “fix” much of HIV’s sexual polarization and social divisions by making prevention a pharmacologically

routine, normalized, and unobtrusive part of everyday life. The likelihood of this actually happening depends on many factors, not the least of which is the collective view of gay men and their sexuality.

PrEP has become a sort of Rorschach test for people’s attitudes on a range of still sensitive topics.

After over 30 years of associating gay sex with HIV, it is clear that for many people it is hard to even imagine a gay sexuality focused more on its potential than its problems. It’s also clear that gay men can be divided over sexual politics just as sharply as any other group.

The fundamental differences in how we as gay men view our sexuality and the ways we express our desires means that even while PrEP blurs many of the social divisions caused

by HIV– between negative and positive, top and bottom, the more sexually active and the not – it threatens to sharpen a whole new set of its own.

A revolution or not, PrEP is poised to upend long held assumptions about our lives as gay men. Many people will see these changes as going dangerously off course and threatening social acceptance and equality. Others will view them as being the future of a freer and more open gay male sexuality.

Now that PrEP is here to stay, how can we maximize not only its potential to limit new infections, but also its potential to liberate gay male sexuality from the epidemic’s deep shadow – without sparking a larger cultural war or a wider generation gap in the process?

These are some of the many profound issues that we as a community of gay men need to be pondering and talking about together.t Tim Vollmer, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and Doug Sebesta, Ph.D. is a medical sociologist. Both volunteer for the Gay Men’s Community Initiative, which is sponsoring the town hall forum “Does PrEP = A New Gay Sexual Revolution?” at the Metropolitan Community Church-San Francisco, 150 Eureka Street, Thursday, July 24 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Community News>>

t New LGBTQ county commission seeks applicants compiled by Cynthia Laird

T

he San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, which last month unanimously voted to create an LGBTQ commission, is now seeking applicants for the advisory panel.

The commission will consist of nine voting members appointed by the supervisors. Commissioners will meet at least six times a year, develop a yearly work plan, and provide recommendations to the board at least once a year.

“San Mateo County is breaking new ground with the creation of the LGBTQ commission,” Supervisor Dave Pine, who sponsored the resolution creating the commission, said in a news release. “We are seeking energetic and dynamic individuals who are eager to take on the challenge of building and defining this important new commission.”

Applicants must live in San Mateo County. Officials encourage people of all ages to apply, as one seat will be set aside for a youth.

Ideal candidates will possess several of the following attributes: Have an abiding interest in furthering the equality and well-being of LGBTQ individuals.

Demonstrate knowledge of LGBTQ issues affecting under-represented communities including youth, people of color, non-English speakers, older adults, immigrants, physically and mentally disabled people, and economically disadvantaged county residents.

Demonstrated ability to effectively provide outreach to underserved and at-risk LGBTQ populations with the goal of achieving equality in the county.

Demonstrated experience promoting programs that foster the well-being and civic participation of LGBTQ people in the county.

Knowledge of a broad spectrum of LGBTQ community resources and the ability to leverage community contacts.

Ability and willingness to work collaboratively with other members of the commission to achieve commission goals.

<<

Corporate workplaces

From page 2

companies, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, headquartered in San Francisco, won the contest. The second-place finisher was ConAgra Foods, based in Omaha, Nebraska, and Southern California Edison took third place honors. The other two public companies that competed were Bank of America and Pfizer.

“In communities with small LGBT populations, there are usually plenty of people supportive but they don’t have a way to step up and show that,” said Elizabeth Liedel, 32, a senior specialist in community relations at PG&E who is a straight ally.

A classmate of Sprague’s at Duke University’s business school, Liedel served on Friendfactor’s board for a year beginning in September 2012.

When the nonprofit launched its workplace contest, she sought permission from PG&E executives to take part.

The company has long embraced LGBT issues, signing on as San Francisco Pride’s first corporate sponsor in 1986 and creating one of the oldest LGBT employee resource groups. It routinely scores 100 per-

Ability and willingness to devote sufficient time and resources to carry out the responsibilities of the commission.

The deadline to apply is Friday, August 8. Applications can be obtained from Alicia Garcia, deputy clerk of the Board of Supervisors, 400 County Center, Redwood City, or by calling (650) 363-4634. Applications are also available online at https://bnc.smcgov.org/ vacancies.

For more information about the commission, contact director Honora Miller at (650) 363-4872 or hmiller@smcgov.org.

Low-cost IMD vaccines for gay, bi men

The San Francisco Department of Public Health has made recommendations for vaccination against invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) for individuals who anticipate having close or sexual contact with gay or bisexual men traveling from or residing in the Los Angeles area.

Dr. Cora Hoover, director of the health department’s communicable disease control and prevention, said that low-cost vaccinations are available for people without insurance (or who are insured but whose insurance does not cover the vaccine) at the health department’s AITC Immunization and Travel Clinic at 101 Grove Street. Health care providers are encouraged to refer patients to the AITC clinic for vaccination if they are unable to vaccinate them.

The vaccine costs $26 while supplies last. For clinic hours, visit http://www.sfcdcp.org/AITCcontact.html. An appointment is only necessary if people are traveling internationally, otherwise, patients can drop in during regular clinic hours.

The vaccination advisory is due to several confirmed cases of IMD, including four cases in men who have sex with men, that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported earlier this year.

San Francisco public health officials continue to monitor IMD locally, although there have been no cases reported since 2011 among San Francisco MSM. cent on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.

Yet within its corporate offices there was very little visibility promoting its pro-gay policies and culture, noted Liedel.

Working with the company’s PrideNetwork Employee Resource Group, Liedel helped coordinate a number of activities to engage LGBT allies among the 4,000 employees working in the downtown San Francisco offices. Roughly 15 percent of the local workforce was engaged by the campaign.

“My motivation was not external attention for PG&E but cultivating the right environment internally,” said Liedel.

As part of the competition, employees were given “I’m an ally” cards they could post in their workstations. The company also sponsored its first float in the Pride parade that featured the PG&E mascot Helmet, modeled after its workers’ requisite safety gear.

“We have talked about honoring an ally of the month to keep that awareness going so people don’t think June is the end of it all,” said Gabe Trevino, 38, a gay man who lives in Concord and has worked for the company a dozen years, currently as a business operations analyst.

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 5

Sarria artifacts head to auction

More than 2,000 items, including rare coins, jewelry, paintings, antiques, and historical artifacts belonging to Jose Sarria, will soon be auctioned off to the public.

Sarria, who was the first openly gay person to seek elective office in America, died last August 19. He was 90.

A longtime gay rights activist, Sarria ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961 as an out gay man. Although he lost the race, he did receive 6,000 votes.

He also founded the Imperial Court system, which has raised millions of dollars for HIV/AIDS and other charities. He gave himself the titular title “Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, Jose I, The Widow Norton,” in homage to Joshua Norton, an eccentric city resident who in 1859 declared himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

Since then, the Imperial Court has been active in San Francisco and other cities.

The upcoming auction will be held online August 1-11. Lots of the items can be viewed now at Bentley’s Auctions at http://tinyurl.com/kp4zf8g.

According to Joe Castel of the Jose Sarria Project, proceeds from the auction will go toward the making of a feature documentary on Sarria’s life that is set to be released in 2015.

Openhouse to honor Sarria

Jose Sarria will also be honored on the one-year anniversary of his death at a special event being organized by Openhouse, an LGBT senior agency.

On Tuesday, August 19, a panel discussion and reception will be held at the LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street in San Francisco. A cash bar is available at 6 p.m., followed by the program at 7.

Moderator Donna Sachet, also the Bay Area Reporter’s society columnist and a former empress, will join a panel of Sarria’s friends and LGBT historical experts to look at Sarria’s role in the fight for LGBT rights. Scheduled panelists include LGBTQ historian Gerard KoskovSee page 8 >> President of PG&E’s 400-member LGBT employee group, Trevino estimated that 25 percent are straight allies.

“We love our allies. We love that word. And we want to create that environment,” he said.

Collectively, the eight companies that participated in the inaugural workplace challenge reached nearly 2,000 professionals through 69 ally engagement activities, according to Friendfactor. In the space of just six months, LGBT awareness and the inclusiveness of workplace culture at the organizations increased by 18 percent and 10 percent, respectively, said the nonprofit.

Other than recognition at an awards ceremony, set to be held from 6:30 to 11 p.m. this Saturday, July 26 at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, there are no cash prizes handed out to the winners.

“The point is to show your company cares about LGBT equality and having an LGBT inclusive workplace. It is not about money or an award,” said Sprague, who is running Friendfactor with an annual budget of $100,000. t

For ticket information to the awards ceremony, visit www. friendfactor.org/awardsdinner.

/lgbtsf

<< National News

6 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

LGBTs connect at Netroots Nation

by Chuck Colbert

M

ore than 120 LGBT activists, bloggers, organizations, funders, and journalists from across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico gathered in Detroit recently for a daylong discussion about the future of the LGBT movement and ways to effect progressive social change within it and beyond.

Organized by Mike Rogers, vice chairman and managing director of Raw Story Media, the LGBT Netroots Connect program, now in its seventh year, has more than doubled its size from the initial 60-person meeting, which was then called the National Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative.

Since 2008, Netroots Connect has done “a great job,” said Rogers, program director, in broadening the scope of the program and its participants. “Our team is no longer just bloggers, but also social media activists and more, from all over the country, engaged in social change.”

“What’s really important,” he said, is “intersectionality,” the connecting of LGBT concerns with broader progressive issues, for example, economic justice, immigration reform, the labor movement, reproductive rights, affordable health care, religious liberty, and the environment, among others.

Enabling people to make personal connections, the face-to-face networking not possible through email exchanges and instant messaging, is also paramount, Rogers said, explaining, “My strength is the schmooze.”

LGBT Netroots Connect was held Wednesday, July 16, just one day before Netroots Nation (July 17-20), the annual political convention for American liberal-to-progressive activists, mostly Democrats.

LGBT protesters interrupt VP Biden’s speech

The three-day convention drew 2,000 to 3,000 attendees to the Motor City’s Cobo Center, including Vice President Joe Biden, who addressed the gathering on Thursday afternoon.

“This is one of those moments that people get a chance to bend history just a little bit,” he said. “And there are fundamental changes taking place.”

Biden’s speech touched on a number of LGBT themes, for instance, the importance of marriage

equality, non-discrimination, and full equality.

The vice president’s remarks fell on receptive ears. “Because of you, we’ve recognized basic fundamental rights in the LGBT community,” he said.

During Biden’s speech, however, several immigration-reform advocates stood and chanted for a short time, “Stop deporting our families,” before convention security and secret service personnel escorted them out.

The protesters were from the activist groups United We Dream and GetEqual.

Netroots Connect participants said that Biden impressed them in his handling of the incident.

“I appreciate the vice president’s hearing what was said,” explained Todd Allen, an ordained Southern Baptist minister and Mississippi LGBT activist. “How many times does a politician have protesters hear what they are saying,” and in effect say, “I feel your pain.”

Sean Howell of San Francisco, founder and CEO of Hornet, a gay men’s social network, said Biden’s empathy touched him.

Howell was referring to the vice president’s acknowledgment that he shared the protesters’ sentiments, going so far as to give a personal story about “how terrible it must be to come home from school and wonder if your parents have been deported,” Howell said.

That Biden said everyone should applaud the demonstrators resonated poignantly with Howell.

Netroots Nation also drew Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), who delivered the keynote address on Friday morning. She was a big hit among attendees, and received spirited applause after speaking.

Sounding notes of unity and populism, Warren told attendees, “If we join together, we win.”

Another speaker was the Reverend William Barber, the fiery African American preacher behind North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement, a grassroots response to a conservative Republican takeover of the state’s executive and legislative branches of government.

Barber’s Thursday evening opening plenary keynote speech focused on economic justice as a moral issue.

In addition to educational workshops, training sessions, and panel presentations on a wide range of

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Former Army officer Sue Fulton found the LGBT Netroots Connect session beneficial.

progressive causes, this year’s Netroots Nation featured a full platter of LGBT-focused content, including caucuses for queer people of color, LGBTs, transgender people and allies, and on equality legislation, as well as sessions about the labor movement, sex-positive talk, transgender military service, fighting religious exemptions, and fake (or junk) science.

Altogether, Netroots Nation and LGBT Netroots Connect infused attendees with new energy and enthusiasm heading into this year’s midterm elections.

Collaboration is key

“For me, the best part is the connecting with fellow LGBT journalists and activists,” said transgender activist Rebecca Juro, media correspondent for Advocate.com and a Gay Voices contributor at the Huffington Post. At LGBT Netroots Connect, she said, “I participated in a group discussion on being fierce without being frightening, which was definitely a highlight for me.”

For Juro, more effective advocacy for equality comes from uniting and working together, she said.

That message resonated with Shannon Cuttle, managing director of anti-bullying initiatives for Garden State Equality, a New Jersey-based LGBT advocacy and civil rights organization.

“Seeing so many activists from all over the country, grassroots and grass tops,” along with “bloggers

<<

Older lesbians

From page 1

A state Assembly committee on aging held a special hearing about LGBT seniors’ issues during Pride month in June. It plans to include its own recommendations about how to address the needs of California’s aging LGBT population in a report set to be released this fall.

Supporting older lesbians, and women in general, economically is one of OLOC’s main issues it seeks to address.

“How to share our resources and make sure old women’s economic plight is understood, recognized, and addressed by all of our various movements,” is a key goal, said Dykewomon, noting that at least a third of attendees receive some form of financial aide to attend.

This year’s gathering theme is

t

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision, a religious exemption in the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and legislative attempts at the state level in Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, Tennessee, South Dakota, and Mississippi by social conservatives and the far right that would enable persons to discriminate against LGBTs and same-sex couples based on religious beliefs opposed to homosexuality all served to raise the level of concern among Netroots Connect participants about the harm religious exemptions cause in advancing LGBT equality.

At one session, 25 people voiced their concerns and discussed action steps that ranged from education and outreach about First Amendment rights to adamant opposition to any exemptions that wall off LG-

BTs from non-discriminatory laws or policies.

In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., the court ruled 5-4 that Department of Health and Human Services regulations requiring employers to provide their female employees with no-cost access to contraception violate the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In addition, advocates for LGBT equality maintain the proposed religious exemption included in the current version of ENDA is unprecedented in civil rights legislation and would, in effect, gut the nondiscrimination protections.

And a Mississippi law, which went into effect July 1, allows people to discriminate against LGBTs and others if they feel their religious convictions are compromised.

Jeff White-Perkins, president of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Lesbian and Gay Community Center, said “his general feeling as a Mississippi activist, of being alone in the work, has been lessened” by Netroots Connect and conference conversations over religious exemptions.

“I truly saw that though Mississippi has a long way to go, we are being seen as somewhat the endgame for most of the issues that stand today from equality to even women’s rights,” he said. “That idea has me very excited.”

On religious freedom, “There has been real awakening in the community about how religious exemptions affect our lives and the lives of people we care about, the women in our lives; and the ramifications go far beyond what we ever understood until this year,” said John Bare of San Francisco, who serves on the board of directors for GetEqual and chairs its governance committee.

“Now we are understanding that our own bill [ENDA], the one we’ve been fighting for 40 years, has those religious exemptions,” which “are really quite obnoxious and could do a lot of damage beyond our own community,” he added.

And yet, “There’s a real understanding that we need to come out strong as a community opposed to that,” Bare explained. “We need to start with education about what the First Amendment guarantees all of us in terms of our freedom of religion and in terms of what else we might describe as religious freedom.

“But our own private notion of our conscience and our religious liberty does not allow for going into the public square to discriminate,” Bare added.

GetEqual, a bold-action LGBTQ advocacy organization, Bare said, is “trying to get the word out about that,” with a new #NoAsterisks campaign (http://www.NoAsterisks.org), which educates about full civil rights for LGBTs – without exceptions.t

“Lesbian Activism Changing the World” and features workshops on a host of issues, ranging from lesbian health concerns and the importance of eco-feminism to preventing elder abuse and body image issues.

“Probably there is a workshop for everyone,” said Dykewomon, noting that they cover “every imaginable subject.”

The group has lined up a number of noted feminists, authors, poets, and activists to address attendees.

Keynote speakers include lesbian femme writer Dorothy Allison; lesbian Chicana writer Cherrie Moraga, a professor at Stanford; and Native American activist and writer Chrystos, who lives in San Francisco and identifies as Two Spirit and lesbian.

During the gathering’s opening night event OLOC presented its Del Martin Old Lesbian Pride Award, given to nominees age 70 or older

and still living. This year’s recipients were Arden Eversmeyer of Houston, Texas and Joan Emerson of the OLOC Bay Area chapter. The honor comes with $500 for each.

Eversmeyer founded the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project in 1997 and has been collecting stories of lesbian friends ever since. Co-director of OLOC from 1997 to 2004, she also has served on its steering committee for 14 years.

For 18 years – 1996-2013 – Emerson has worked to revitalize and coordinate OLOC’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter. The local chapter is OLOC’s oldest, most active, and its largest, with more than 200 members.

“Old age has been the best time of my life,” stated Emerson.

For more information about OLOC and its gathering, visit http:// www.oloc.org.t

and journalists together in the same room was inspiring, impactful, and powerful and speaks to the progress our movement is making,” he said.

For Cuttle, in his work, a key take-away from Netroots Connect is how “we are all in this together,” he said. “That’s true and has resonated through the whole conference.”

Yet another attendee offered her take on the importance of the daylong gathering.

“My concerns that the LGBT activist community is fixated on marriage equality were, happily, dispelled by the Netroots Connect meeting,” said Sue Fulton, a former Army officer and West Point graduate, who serves on the board of Sparta, an LGBT military organization. “I got to be part of spirited planning discussions about transgender military service, Southern strategy, immigration reform, and countering myths about bisexuals.”

Jason Parsley, associate publisher at South Florida Gay News, shared Fulton’s outlook.

“It was refreshing to participate in a discussion that wasn’t dominated by gay marriage and be able to explore other topics that face the community right now, like immigration reform, LGBT youth, homelessness, and PrEP, among others,” he said, referring to the HIV prevention treatment formally called pre-exposure prophylaxis.

“I really enjoyed the interactivity of the daylong event. It kept me interested and engaged throughout the day,” Parsley added. “As a member of the LGBT media it just reinforced the idea that there is still a need for vibrant and dynamic LGBT media outlets. There are so many issues the community is facing, and will be facing, that it’s important for the gay media to be present and able to report and tell these stories.”

Religious exemptions raise concerns

t

Politics>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 7

SF to revisit design of street signs honoring trans woman

by Matthew S. Bajko

noncommittal on forming an LGBT senior commission in California, as the B.A.R. has reported.

“One thing I would really like to see considered is a statewide task force on LGBT senior issues,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like it is going anywhere. ... I still think that idea has a lot of merit.”

A

fter a main proponent behind naming a Tenderloin street block in honor of the late transgender performer Vicki Marlane raised objections to the signage design, city officials are looking into the issue.

In late June, timed to the annual Trans March during Pride weekend, Marlane’s name was added to street signs along the 100 block of Turk Street. The host of a popular drag revue show at gay bar Aunt Charlie’s located at 133 Turk, Marlane died in 2011 at the age of 76 due to AIDSrelated complications.

Under the word Turk the signs read “(Vicki Mar Lane).” The oneblock stretch will remain officially designated as Turk Street so as not to impact the addresses of the businesses and residences located there.

A few weeks ago Felicia Elizondo, a friend of Marlane’s who is a member of the Vicki Marlane Committee that pushed for the street-naming honor, complained about the signs after she noticed the city had handled the naming of an intersection on behalf of the Reverend Cecil Williams in a different manner.

In that instance, a separate sign reading “Rev. Cecil Williams Way” was installed under the sign for Ellis Street at the start of the 300 block. It is located where stands Glide Memorial Church, where Williams was the lead pastor until his retirement in 2000.

Comparing the two signs, Elizondo wrote on her Facebook page “there is quiet (sic) a different in size. Let make Vicki Mar Lane sign as big as Cecil Willams (sic) Sign.”

Sue Englander, another member of the committee, told the B.A.R. it is unclear if Williams’s street sign has the proper approval.

“We had heard that it was only temporary for his anniversary but it remains up,” she noted in an email last week. She added that the committee plans to talk with city officials “about the uniformity of commemorative street signage.”

When asked by the B.A.R. about the signage complaints, Sunny Angulo, an aide to District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, said she would inquire with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency about changing the signs for Marlane.

“I see what she’s saying because it’s a drop-down for Rev. Cecil’s sign (versus a new sign with both names on it). I think we can definitely ask SFMTA about this, they have been so supportive through the process,” wrote Angulo in an email.

courtesy Felecia Elizondo’s Facebook page

Supporters of the late transgender performer Vicki Marlane want her street sign to look like the one for Glide’s the Reverend Cecil Williams.

LGBT senior panel chair ‘pleased’ by reaction to report

Four months after San Francisco’s LGBT Aging Policy Task Force released its report in late March, the panel’s chair said he has been mostly “pleased” by the initial reaction to its findings and recommendations.

The panel included a “public challenge” to the city’s entire LGBT community asking it to do “one significant act” within six months of the release of its report aimed at improving the lives of LGBT seniors.

“From what I have seen, I have been pleased. I wouldn’t say I am doing back flips down Castro Street.

I do think very good discussions have started,” said Bill Ambrunn, a gay attorney who chaired the volunteer panel. “It’s not like it is the first priority everyone is talking about, that would have me doing back flips down Castro Street. People are at least seeing it as a part of the landscape and something that needs to be addressed.”

The task force report included a few suggestions, such as nonprofits adding a senior member to boards of directors, featuring an older adult in an ad campaign, or providing senior tickets to annual galas.

Senior service agencies were asked “to do at least one significant act to increase or improve those services.” Pride officials were recommended that they annually honor seniors with a special grand marshal category.

Donors and foundations were challenged to “allocate a larger portion of philanthropic dollars” to-

ward LGBT senior programs and services.

“At this particular moment in time, if we don’t pay attention to the situation our LGBT seniors are living in many of them are going to suffer and continue suffering. It is time to act,” said Ambrunn when asked why the task force included the challenge for individuals and groups in its report.

A number of groups have highlighted LGBT senior issues in recent months. Both the Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic clubs hosted discussions about the task force’s report. This month the San Francisco AIDS Foundation hosted a gathering for providers focused on HIV and aging issues.

Next month, on August 6, the Commonwealth Club is hosting a discussion about LGBT retirement living. Openhouse, which provides services to LGBT seniors, is hosting a special celebration of the life of drag queen Jose Julio Sarria on August 19 to mark the one-year anniversary of his death.

At City Hall both of the city’s two gay supervisors, Scott Wiener and David Campos, are working on legislation based on the task force’s report.

“I definitely have confidence they are moving things forward at a good speed so I think we can’t expect too much the first few months,” said Ambrunn when asked about the pace of seeing legislation be introduced.

He was critical of state lawmakers who have questioned the need for a special legislative committee on LGBT aging issues and been

Jane Philomen Cleland

Castro Lions’ bountiful gifts R

epresentatives from 20 LGBT, HIV/AIDS, and other nonprofits joined members of the Castro Lions Club for its annual dinner and grant distribution Thursday, July 17 at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. Castro Lions distributed $126,000 to the nonprofits, including $45,000 for the Lions Eye Foundation; $15,000 for the National AIDS Memorial Grove; $4,000 to the AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Funds; and

$45,000 as part of a matching grant to the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Several other organizations also received checks, such as Openhouse, Tenderloin Tessie, and La Casa De Las Madres ($500 each), Positive Resource Center ($2,500), and the Pacific Center in Berkeley ($1,000). Lions club spokesman Gary Nathan said the club was happy to be able to help so many organizations.

courtesy Betty Yee

Betty Yee was endorsed this week by Equality California.

EQCA endorses Yee

With its endorsed candidate for controller in the June primary having conceded last week, Equality California quickly endorsed the second-place finisher in the race.

The statewide LGBT advocacy group had given its backing to gay former Assembly speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) as he sought to become the first out person elected to statewide office. But Perez ended up in third place, and after a partial recount, failed to substantially lift his vote tally, he pulled the plug Friday, July 18 and accepted his defeat.

In short order EQCA’s political action committee voted to lend its support to Betty Yee, a Democrat who represents the Bay Area and northern California on the state Board of Equalization. She will face off against the first-place primary finisher, Republican Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, in November.

“I’m very proud of my work to advance equality for the LGBT community and I am grateful to have the support and endorsement of Equality California in my campaign for controller,” stated Yee. “I look forward to bringing my extensive finance experience and commitment to equal rights together to ensure that all Californians have the tools to succeed in their lives.”

Yee, who has fought for tax equity for same-sex couples, had been the

endorsed candidate in the primary of both the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and the Bay Area Reporter.

In a statement released Monday, incoming EQCA Executive Director Rick Zbur stated that “Yee is one the LGBT community’s greatest advocates – having her as our next state controller would be a great win for our community and all Californians. From her dedicated service on the Equality California Institute board to her work to advance tax equality for same-sex couples, Betty has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to civil rights and equality for LGBT Californians.” t Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http:// www.ebar.com Monday mornings at noon for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion.

This week’s column reported on the resignation of a local gay Obama administration official.

Keep abreast of the latest LGBT political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes.

Got a tip on LGBT politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 8615019 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.

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<< Sports

8 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

t

Supervisors to vote on renaming street after Waddell

by Roger Brigham

T

he San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday, July 29 on a resolution to honor Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell by renaming a small street after him. As I applaud this action as being highly appropriate and long overdue, I am also left to wonder what it would take for the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame to follow suit.

The resolution to change Lech Walesa Street in the Civic Center to Dr. Tom Waddell Place received unanimous approval at a public hearing held Monday, July 21, by the board’s land use and economic development committee. It was sponsored in advance by five of the 11 supervisors – Jane Kim, Scott Wiener, David Campos, John Avalos and Eric Mar – and several representatives of the Gay Games attended the meeting to speak in support of the resolution, including Waddell’s widow, Sara Waddell Lewinstein; and their daughter, Jessica Waddell Lewinstein.

Waddell, a gay man and a 1968 Olympian in the decathlon, is credited with creating the vision for the Gay Games, a quadrennial sports and cultural festival founded in San Francisco in 1982 that through the decades has engendered a massive stimulation in the growth of LGBT recreational sports groups. Waddell originally named the event the Gay Olympic Games, but just days before their launch he was enjoined from using the word “Olympics” by the U.S. Olympic Committee – a landmark decision that dragged on for years and was ultimately settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the USOC. Before his death in

Doug Litwin

Sara Waddell Lewinstein, right, listens as her daughter, Jessica Waddell Lewinstein, testifies at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing in support of a street being renamed for her father, Gay Games founder Dr. Tom Waddell.

1987 of complications from AIDS, Waddell worked in San Francisco’s public health clinic. The Tom Waddell Urban Health Clinic, on Golden Gate Avenue, is named in his honor.

San Francisco resident Doug Litwin, marketing director for the Federation of Gay Games, spoke on behalf of the FGG in support of the street name change. Noting that thousands of participants who will be gathering from around the world next month in Cleveland for Gay Games 9, Litwin said, “Dr. Tom Waddell did not seek fame or fortune. But his legacy is most worthy of recognition. His memory lives

in the Gay Games, and it would be most appropriate that this street already so closely associated with his life, take his name as a memorial that can continue to inspire new generations of athletes, artists, and activists.”

It is easy to forget how revolutionary Waddell’s vision was – and how polarized the queer community was – in San Francisco and beyond. The community was not yet unified under LGBT or LGBTQ initials, and not yet galvanized by the war against AIDS. We had not yet fought the battles for the right to bear arms for our countries or wedding rings for our loved ones. It was a world of -isms, and it was that divisive culture Waddell and his supporters tackled head-on.

“It was never about being gay or lesbian,” Sara Waddell Lewinstein said after the committee hearing. “It was about inclusion. It was about inspiring people to take part and be part of something. The Gay Games brought us together. It wasn’t about gay rights – it was about human rights.”

Which brings me back to BASHOF. Five inductees were named in February – Bob Ladouceur, Owen Nolan, Jim Hines, Tony LaRussa and Bob Lurie – bringing the total number of people honored to 158, including just 12 women.

Of the 146 men, just one – Olympic skater Brian Boitano, who was inducted in 2010 – identifies as gay, and he did not publicly come out as gay until this year.

Just one openly gay man.

I look at the BASHOF website, I look at the lists of the names, and I understand the tendency, when trying to sell costly tickets to banquets to raise funds for youth sports programs, the desire to focus on headline-grabbing, crowd-pleasing winners from the major men’s sports leagues and a handful of longtime coaches and administrators. I get that.

But if BASHOF is to have any significance for many of us in the Bay Area, it really should include in its recognition those who braved the worst of social ostracism in their times, achieved athletic excellence, demonstrated high character, and left a lasting social legacy.

I would say Waddell did that more than any other man on the current BASHOF honor roll.

‘Gender-verification’ cloud

The Commonwealth Games opened in Scotland this week with media speculation that a women’s national sprint champion was excluded from India’s national team because of a failed “gender verification” test.

India’s track and field federation confirmed that at the last minute it had omitted Dutee Chand, 18, from its squad after including her preliminarily, but said that was because she did not measure up to competition expectations. Simultaneously the national sports federation confirmed an athlete had been given a gender verification test, which tests blood hormone levels, and failed, but would

The long, hot, deadly summer

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

O

n June 3, the body of Kandy Hall, a 40-year-old transgender woman of color, was discovered in a field on the northeast side of Baltimore. While the police have been tight-lipped with details, we know that she was stabbed, and her body experienced severe trauma.

A week or so later, on June 12, Zoraida Reyes’s body was found behind a Dairy Queen in Anaheim, California. The 20-year-old Hispanic transwoman was a local activist. There were no signs of foul play, but her death is still being investigated as suspicious.

Another week passed, and on June 19, Yaz’min Shancez, a 31-year-old transwoman of color known to her friends as “Miss T,” was found burned to death.

Her body was disposed of behind a large trash bin at a Budget Truck Rental in Fort Meyers, Florida. Police are investigating it as a homicide, but are not considering it a hate crime as of yet.

One more week, one more death: on June 26, Tiff Edwards, a 28-yearold transwoman of color, was found dead. She was discovered in the middle of the road by a sanitation worker in Walnut Hills, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. She was shot to death.

Most recently, on July 16, the body of 26-year-old Mia Henderson was found on the Northwest side of Baltimore. Like Hall, Henderson was a transwoman of color.

Her murder also bore other similarities to that of Hall – although police are not yet ready to directly

connect the two murders.

Henderson’s death attracted some media attention after it was reported that she was the sister of Los Angeles Clippers guard Reggie Bullock.

That’s five deaths of transgender women in just over a month. Four of them have been declared homicides, and it sounds like the fifth is as well. All are transgender women of color.

I want to be more shocked by it all, but I also know that this is not nearly as uncommon as it should be. I’m sure there were plenty of others between June 3 and July 16 – particularly outside of the United States.

All of these women ended up dead and discarded. They were tossed behind a garbage bin, left in the middle of the street, or dumped in a field. The persons responsible for these deaths had little respect for their victims in death, and clearly had no respect for their lives.

Over the last few months, we have seen transgender visibility explode.

Actress Laverne Cox, a recurring cast member of the hit show Orange is the New Black, was on the cover of Time magazine and was recently nominated for an Emmy Award. Janet Mock has topped the New York Times bestseller list with her autobiography Redefining Realness. All of a sudden we’re seen everywhere.

Yet even with this visibility, we’re still dying at an alarming rate – and while all transgender people are affected by anti-transgender violence, we cannot ignore that the most vulnerable among us are transwomen

courtesy Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Mia Henderson, the sister of NBA guard Reggie Bullock, was found murdered in Baltimore last week.

of color.

Meanwhile, the mainstream transgender community is focused elsewhere. We are still arguing over the use of the term “tranny,” which is alternately an anti-transgender slur and a term of affection. Some have taken this argument into even further toxic territory, claiming one group is focused on “victimhood” while others are turning it into a generational battle between transgender activists of the 1990s versus those of today.

There’s more, too. We’re also in the midst of scores of cross-community and intersectionality issues facing the transgender community and its allies today. This column is just too short to delve deep into the many types of mire in which we are stuck.

What is important to me is this: none of those arguments saved a single one of the lives listed above.

Indeed, they seem to only keep us distracted and provide additional fuel for those who seek to harm us.

We urgently need to look at what we are doing to each other. We need to learn to focus on what is impor-

tant here. Can we get outraged over who said what about whom? Sure, I suppose. Can we argue about who said what to whom? Why yes, if that flips your switches.

But we need to look beyond all of this. We need to consider that what someone calls us is irrelevant in the face of death. We need to worry less about how one should be a transgender advocate and more about doing the work. We need to educate our allies and help them help us – not automatically slap their hands away.

There could be someone in Baltimore who is targeting transgender people.

An up and coming activist in and around Orange County, California was found dead and the police aren’t willing to call it a homicide.

Another transwoman is dead in Ohio, one of many killed over the last few years.

A transgender Floridian was burned to death and tossed behind a large trash bin, yet police aren’t willing to classify this as a hate crime.

Five more transgender women get to be honored in November at the Transgender Day of Remembrance – five more out of hundreds.

This is what we should be outraged about. This is what we should be focused on. We need to amplify the voices and the needs of our transwomen of color, we need to speak out about their deaths, and look for ways to avoid it happening all over again.

It’s a long, hot summer – and it’s only half way over. It’s time for us all to move forward, and it’s time for us to all get to work.t Gwen Smith is really, really tired of death. You can find her at http://www.gwensmith.com.

not confirm that the athlete was Chand.

Chand, however, seemed to believe the test is what knocked her out.

“I am completely shattered over the development,” she told reporters. “I am an athlete and wanted to bring glory to my country. All my efforts have gone astray.”

Vikings suspend coach

The Minnesota Vikings announced Friday, July 18 that they would suspend special teams coordinator Mike Priefer for the first three games of the 2014 season without pay and announced the team would make a $100,000 donation to regional LGBT organizations following a team-funded, independently conducted investigation into allegations made by former punter Chris Kluwe.

That was $900,000 and one game short of what Kluwe sought. The free agent punter said this week he plans to sue the Vikings and force the release of the full report.

The Vikings received a 150-page report from the labor firm Littler but released just the 29-page summary, which failed to substantiate many of Kluwe’s allegations and cleared the Vikings of the assertion that they had cut Kluwe because of alleged distractions created by his outspoken advocacy for same-sex marriage.

Kluwe has started a petition on www.change.org to force the Vikings to release the full report.

The Vikings suspended Priefer when the report did not clear him of the allegation that in November 2012 he said during a team meeting that gays should be rounded up on an island and “nuke them till it glows.” t

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News Briefs

From page 5

ich, Juliet Demeter of the GLBT Historical Society, Empress XLI Galilea, Empress XXV Marlena, and Robbie Robinson.

Tickets are $20 until August 12 ($25 after that date) and can be purchased online at http://tinyurl.com/ldj7v3c.

LGBTQ mental health symposium in SF

The UCSF Alliance Health Project will convene “Growing Beyond Diversity,” a statewide, daylong LGBTQ mental health symposium, Saturday, August 2 at the college’s Mission Bay campus.

Organizers noted that at a time when LGBTQ rights are front and center in the news, nine leaders in the field of LGBTQ health and mental health will share current research findings on mental health disparities and outcomes and approaches to resolve these disparities.

Researchers scheduled to make presentations include UCSF trans health expert Jae Sevelius, Ph.D., who will discuss “Caring for the Mental Health of Transgender People;” Rafael Diaz, Ph.D., who will talk about “Inequality, Discrimination and Mental Health in the LGBT Community;” and Gregory Herek, Ph.D., of UC Davis, who will present on “Stigma and the Mental Health of Sexual Minorities: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead.”

The symposium is free and open to the public. Educators can receive six units of continuing education credit for $30.

The conference takes place at Genentech Hall, 600 16th Street in San Francisco. It opens with coffee and bagels at 8:30; the program starts at 9. Lunch is provided.

For more information, contact DK Haas, LGBTQ community liaison, at dk.haas@ucsf.edu.t

t

Summer Reading>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 9

Tolerance is not enough, author argues

by Brian Bromberger

T

he author of a thought-provoking new book was in town recently and talked about why LGBTs should demand more than tolerance from society.

Suzanna Walters, a sociology professor and director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Northeastern University, is the author of The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes and Good Intentions Are Sabotaging Gay Equality (NYU Press), which looks at the changing attitudes of many toward gays and lesbians, and argues that tolerance is not enough.

“I didn’t come out at age 16 to be tolerated,” Walters, 53, told the Bay Area Reporter in explaining why she wrote the book.

Noting that tolerance always had a condescending edge to it, she finds it “bizarre that mainstream LGBT politics and our liberal allies have embraced this concept in terms of thinking about civil rights.”

The other story that bothered Walters was “with the victories about same-sex marriages and the end of [‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’], the attitude that things with regards to civil rights are almost done. Old activists and activists on the ground don’t say this but the mainstream media thinks the culture wars are over, which is absurd. Just look at the Republican Party and the defeat of Eric Cantor by a Tea Party radical.”

“Also, violence against gays and lesbians is alive and well,” she added.

“The discourse of tolerance and the notion we have won are part and parcel of this present time in our history and I wanted to write about both aspects.”

Referring to the Jean Cocteau quote that prefaces her book, “I’m not willing to just be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty,” the concept of tolerance “limits civil rights and demeans the movement for sexual equality and justice as well as full expression of our gender and sexual lives, which should not be accepted, but celebrated.”

Walters differentiates between three terms that often get conflated: desegregation, which is the opening up of institutions, allowing entry into something that was formerly segregated like marriage for heterosexual couples; then assimilation or the idea that one’s difference and uniqueness disappears in this melting pot of sameness. Integration, which should be the goal, not assimilation, has a transformative component to it.

“Let me give an example,” she said. “Working at a university, we

Brian Bromberger

Professor Suzanna Walters

need to hire not just white male professors but we require a diverse student population, as well as faculty.

You do it not only because it is ethical, moral, and legal, but because it transforms you and the physical, emotional, and psychic space you are in, becoming a transformative benefit for everyone and not a token for a minority.”

A self-described provocateur, Walters differentiates herself from the radical group Against Equality, an LGBT anarchist collective, which rejects any lesbigay inclusion in institutions such as marriage and the military.

“I started out in a similar position, but as I thought about these issues and researched them, I got angry with these hard left positions saying that all the changes that have happened in my lifetime are homo light, window dressing, and a smokescreen for the old time oppression,” Walters said. “However, I think this is empirically incorrect.

Times have changed enormously and the benefits are huge. I would much rather live now than when I came out.”

Walters added that while she is “deeply critical” of marriage, she thinks it is an important civil right and applauds those who have worked on marriage equality.

“I look at friends who have mar-

ried. They are good people and devout feminists, doing it for different gains,” she said. “My disagreement, as with any institution, is that people need to think about why they want to participate in it with all its ramifications.”

She pointed out that aside from a few celebrities, there was no mass movement by straight people boycotting marriage until same-sex couples could also tie the knot.

“One of the arguments made by gay marriage proponents is that same-sex marriage won’t change straight marriage at all – it won’t hurt you or have any affect at all,” she said. “But you bet it will change if you really let our participation sink in.”

As examples, Walters pointed to division of labor and gender differentiation.

“One would hope queer families would challenge those assumptions and present a different consciousness about gender fluidity and a more egalitarian society,” she said.

Walters has often been asked if her vision of the future includes sexuality not mattering at all or becoming irrelevant.

“My answer is no,” she said. “It is part of our identity, just like race and gender. They shouldn’t disappear, but ultimately we should live in a world where it shouldn’t make

Angelo Prato

Lowell Roger Williams

July 26, 1973 – July 20, 2014

February 19, 1938 – April 19, 2014

at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at the San Francisco Women’s Building, 3543 18th Street.

Mr. Robinson, 87, died June 30.

In addition to writing Milk’s speeches, Mr. Robinson was a successful science fiction author. He wrote The Prometheus Strain in 1975 and with Thomas Scortia, wrote The Glass Inferno, which became the basis for the film, The Towering Inferno.

A reception will follow the memorial.

Obituaries >>

A

ngelo Prato loving son, brother, uncle, teacher, friend, and partner unexpectedly passed away Sunday, July 20 in San Francisco, California. He was 40 years old. Angelo was a loving man who lit up the room with his warm smile and loving heart. He was someone who friends could count on and family loved tremendously. Whether he was in his classroom teaching his wonderful students, hitting the ball on the softball field, or standing tall as a dear friend, everyone around him was blessed to have known him.

Angelo is survived by his parents Thomas and Barbara Prato; brother Victor Prato; sister Valerie Dentoni; and partner Stephen Kling. Services are as follows: Holy Cross Church, Linden, California, viewing, Sunday, July 27, 1 to 4 p.m.; funeral, July 28, 11 a.m. In addition, we will be celebrating his life locally on Wednesday, July 30, at 7 p.m. at 575 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.

Additional details about his services can be found online.

O

ur beloved friend Lowell Roger Williams died peacefully in Detroit on April 19, 2014, after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.

Roger, as he was known locally, spent 30 years in San Francisco beginning in 1978, most of that time in his career at an insurance brokerage, and after retiring from there, he selflessly volunteered for many years in the grocery section at Project Open Hand.

Roger was a native of Detroit, and he returned there in 2006 to be closer to his family. He had also spent many years prior to 1978 with Shannon and Luchs insurance brokers in Washington, D.C., and leaves behind countless loving friends there, as well as in San Francisco, Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, and beyond.

Robinson memorial set

A memorial for Frank Robinson, a gay man who was a speechwriter for the late Harvey Milk, will be held Friday, August 8

Correction The July 17 article, “Gay Google exec battles SF tenants,” inaccurately stated Jack Halprin had not filed a formal response to a lawsuit that had been filed against him and settled. Halprin did file a response to the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court.

The online version has been corrected.

any difference.”

As in her book, Walters critiques biological determinism – I was born this way – with even religion echoing this view: God made me this way. Even though the science behind this view is not strong, it has become the new gay orthodoxy.

While it has been used to help gain rights, including marriage (“that’s the way they are and they shouldn’t suffer because of that”), there is a patronizing tone to this argument, she said, meaning “We can’t help it.”

“One of the most surprising conclusions writing this book was how much people buy into this premise, especially because the media reinforces this party line,” Walters said.

“To say otherwise means one could change, implying choice and volition and we would lose the battle for our rights. Whether or not I am born gay is irrelevant to civil rights and should not be part of the discourse.”

Walters sees queers as living in an in-between time, having made some great gains but far from the utopia some LGBT pundits are claiming the community has almost reached.

“Yes, we have gay-straight alliances in a few high schools but there is not a schoolyard in the country where anti-gay epithets don’t still rule the day,” she said.

She severely rebukes this progress narrative.

“If it is so cool and hip to come out, why can I still count on two hands how many celebrities have come out? Few major Hollywood movies have had major gay storylines in the last 15 years – I can count them on two hands also. We are still the witty sexless sidekicks, despite real improvements, especially in television, with richer storylines, but this cultural visibility is actually minimal. For so long we were so used to nothing that when we get a little coverage, it seems like a cultural deluge.”

The movement’s almost sole emphasis on marriage as the brass ring, the be all end all, and now almost synonymous with gay rights, drives Walters crazy.

“I would like to see all the celebrities that went gaga over gay

marriage, go gaga on ENDA, but it is not as sexy or romantic,” she said, referring to the long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act in Congress. “Also these weddings are often massive displays of wealth and privilege. Marriage remains primarily a white upper middle class institution for people who can afford it. What benefit is it if you are financially disenfranchised?”

Among her other insights is how the “language of tolerance is slippery, where gay people are now being called intolerant if they oppose someone who is anti-gay marriage, even if it is based on hate speech.

The language of equality, freedom, and liberation cannot be turned against you,” she said.

She notes, too, how religiousbased antipathy against gays (“I hate you because of my beliefs”) is granted a kind of legitimacy in the U.S. that wouldn’t be given to other forms of animus.

“It is never legitimate to argue that other people are illegitimate,” she said.

Walters observes that despite incredible gains made, social movements take time, usually several generations, which explains the still pervasive presence of homophobia, but feels the LGBT movement is undercutting that progress by embracing this language of tolerance.

“We are not the same as straight people, but we should embrace that difference rather than deny or cover it up just to be accepted or liked,” she said. “Who are you to accept me? We can contribute ideas about gender fluidity, sexual freedom, and creating new kinship models of nontraditional families, such as what we did during the AIDS crisis and how we built new networks of care and sustenance, which is what we do when we are attacked, even building gayborhoods.”

Walters also believes LGBT civil rights needs to re-embrace feminist and other justice movements such as racial equality and economic equity to broaden its social ideals and return unapologetically to its Stonewall liberation roots (“I’m queer, I’m here, get used to it”). t

<< Classifieds

10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

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Eviction

From page 1

agreement or sublet the premises without first obtaining the prior written consent of the owner. ... The parties agree that violation of this covenant and obligation shall be just cause for eviction.”

Hanawalt said, “I made a mistake” by not getting Encinas’s approval for the switched roommates, but she pointed to rules of the city’s rent board.

The agency’s definition of a tenant includes someone approved by the landlord “by sufferance,” essentially meaning the property owner gives approval by not interfering.

Hanawalt said Encinas and Andres and Saul Alvarado, who Hanawalt said are Encinas’s family members and co-owners of the building, had known about the new roommates but hadn’t done anything about them.

Rent board rules also state that someone subletting is considered to have the landlord’s approval “If the landlord fails to respond to the tenant in writing” within 14 days of receiving the tenant’s written request.

In December 2013, after the eviction was filed, Hanawalt wrote Encinas a letter introducing one new roommate. Hanawalt asked whether the woman needed to complete a formal application. She said Encinas didn’t respond.

Hanawalt and Panko reached a stipulation with Encinas earlier this year that included an agreement that the couple would notify Encinas before any change of occupants

<<

and not have more than three people in the apartment. Hanawalt said Encinas installed a security camera outside their door and Panko said she then claimed the couple had violated the agreement by having “many illegal subletters.”

But the couple said Encinas had over-counted people. For example, they said, one recent roommate had gotten a haircut, making it appear that she was two different people.

According to court documents, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing found that the couple had breached the stipulation and ruled against them Friday, July 18, allowing their eviction.

Neither Encinas nor her attorney in the case, Brenda Cruz Keith, responded to interview requests Tuesday, July 22. Andres and Saul Alvarado couldn’t be reached for comment.

Alleged lack of repairs

In May 2013, the couple and their roommates filed a civil complaint in superior court against Encinas and the Alvarados. In the filing, the women say that among other problems, there was a “defective” electrical system and plumbing – “including raw sewage leaks,” and “peeling paint.” They’re seeking damages exceeding $25,000.

In an interview, Hanawalt said she wasn’t aware of the problems when she moved in in 2008. She said as things broke, she sent letters to Encinas. While many repairs have been made, she said, at least some of the fixes weren’t effective.

After Encinas filed an initial

eviction notice in December 2012, she quit making repairs altogether, Hanawalt said.

P. Richard Colombatto, the attorney representing Encinas and the Alvarados in the civil lawsuit, was out of the office Tuesday and didn’t respond to interview requests.

However, in court documents, Encinas and the Alvarados defended themselves in part by saying, “It is unclear which problems arose when or how extensive they were.”

Department of Building Inspection data show the agency issued a notice of violation in May 2013 related to the apartment. The records cite problems including exterior painting that were eventually corrected. An issue involving a window permit remained as of earlier this year.

The couple said their lawyer advised them to file the complaint in November. Before that, Panko said, they “weren’t aware that was an option.”

Hanawalt and Panko are the only two people living in the apartment now. Two women who were Hanawalt and Panko’s roommates at the time the November complaint was filed are listed as plaintiffs in the original documents but have since moved out. They couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The current rent for the apartment is about $3,200 a month. If the eviction goes through, the women said, they’d have to leave the Bay Area.

Hanawalt and Panko are trying to raise $8,000 through http://www. gofundme.com/survivingeviction to cover moving expenses, a security deposit, and other costs. As of Tuesday they had raised $1,760.t

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035910000

From page 1

including renowned Dutch AIDS researcher Joep Lange – who were confirmed to have been killed aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down near the Russia-Ukraine border last Thursday.

But the focus of the conference soon turned to taking stock of how far advocates, researchers, and others have come in addressing the epidemic and how much remains to be done.

Under the overarching theme of “Stepping Up the Pace,” 12,000 participants attended sessions devoted to advances in treatment for HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis, biomedical HIV prevention including pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, and ending stigma and criminalization of people with HIV. “Stepping up the pace is a perfect theme for this conference because we’re on a steady march,” former President Bill Clinton said during his keynote address on Wednesday.

“We have proven to ourselves that the end of AIDS is possible.”

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe opened the conference with an overview of progress in the global response to HIV/AIDS since the last International AIDS Conference in 2012. As of July 2014, as many as 14 million people with HIV are receiving antiretroviral therapy, according to a UNAIDS estimate.

“More has been done in the last three years than in the last 25 years,” Sidibe said. “We quickened the pace, and we changed completely the trajectory of the response.”

Sidibe described the new UNAIDS target that calls for 90 percent of people living with HIV to be diagnosed, 90 percent of those who test positive to start treatment, and 90 percent on treatment to have undetectable viral load by 2020. In particular, he said, resources must be focused where they are most needed to address the 15 countries that account for 75 percent of new HIV infections and related deaths.

During his talk, Clinton predicted, “We can achieve the promise of World Health Organization [HIV treatment] guidelines within the

existing funding envelope if we use our resources more effectively.”

But treatment advocates interrupted both Sidibe’s and Clinton’s speeches, demanding less talk and more action.

“We demand not only the promises, but the policies, laws, and funding to make them possible,” declared Amanda Banda, a coordinator of Medecins Sans Frontieres’ Access Campaign.

“Today most people living with HIV outside wealthy countries don’t even know their viral load because they’ve never had access to the test, and too many do not have the treatment they need to control the virus,” said Bactrin Killingo of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition. “This is a violation of basic human rights – all people deserve the information, medicine, and support needed to control and suppress the virus.”

Liz Highleyman

AIDS advocates staged a Mobilization March during the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Related events

The days leading up to the conference featured a full slate of sessions including an HIV cure symposium and the annual Global Forum on MSM and HIV pre-conference. The MSMGF meeting featured discussion of how new prevention technologies fit into the broader picture of health and wellness for gay and bisexual men.

“There’s an extraordinary cultural shift ongoing in the gay community, especially in the U.S.,” community PrEP expert Gus Cairns told the Bay Area Reporter. “A very rich and respectful discussion arose, and what we ended up agreeing on is that the

PrEP debate has enabled people to start talking about things that have been a bit taboo or frozen in the HIV conversation. The PrEP debate has thrown a hand grenade into discourse about prevention in the gay community, and that can only be a good thing.”

On Tuesday at the main conference, Dr. Robert Grant, an investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and medical director at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, presented the latest data from the iPrEx Open-Label Extension, a follow-up to the pivotal study of Truvada PrEP for gay men and transgender women.

Although PrEP is intended to be taken daily, the study found that it remains effective if people take it at least four times per week. In addition, there was no evidence of increased sexual risk-taking among people using PrEP in the trial.

“Daily dosing of PrEP is recommended, because it helps foster the habit of consistent PrEP use and increases drug levels in the body, providing the best safety cushion for individuals who occasionally miss doses,” Grant said. “At the same time, these results demonstrate that PrEP remains highly effective, even in realworld circumstances in which adherence may not be perfect.”

Another pre-conference event – Beyond Blame: Challenging HIV Criminalization – focused on the ways discrimination against and criminalization of people with HIV hamper the response to the epidemic. Laws that target gay men, sex workers, and drug users also keep people from accessing HIV prevention and treatment and create an enabling environment for the spread of the epidemic, advocates proclaimed.

On Tuesday evening activists and conference delegates joined forces for a Mobilization March that ended with a candlelight vigil in central Melbourne. Key demands included an end to discrimination and criminalization, more funding for prevention and treatment, and lowering the cost of drugs for HIV and hepatitis C. “Stop criminalizing sex workers, stop criminalizing drug users, and stop making a killing on our lives,” declared HealthGAP organizer Michael Tikili.t

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GALA, 2277 UNION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GAYLE LEE RECUERDO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/25/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/25/14.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A AND A GROUP, 137 DOCKSIDE DR, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALFREDO VELA BALAM. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035943100

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035900600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PIER 70 PARTNERS, 420 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PIER 70 PARTNERS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/19/14.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035911100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DIAMONDS ON WEB, 888 BRANNAN ST #3110, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DIAMOND IMPORTS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/86. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/2014.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035911700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CAPITAL PROPERTIES, 2588 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CONSOLIDATED LAND CO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 10/01/84. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/26/14.

JULY 03, 10, 17, 24, 2014

AIDS conference

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NOTICE OF ADOPTION

In the Matter of the Petition of: Michelle A. Maxwell, for the Adoption of a Child. Case Number: 49D08-1405-AD-018725.

To JASON CASSADY, the father of Michelle A. Maxwell (5/28/2008).

You are hereby notified that on May 29, 2014, a Petition for Adoption of Michelle A. Maxwell born 5/28/2008 was filed in the Superior Court of Marion County, Indiana.

All parental rights you may have with respect to the minor child will be lost and you will neither receive notice nor be entitled to object to the adoption of the child unless you appear in the pending adoption action and show cause why your rights to the child should not be terminated by adoption.

Michele L. Jackson - Attorney for Petitioner HARDEN JACKSON, PC 11450 North Meridian Street, Suite 200 Carmel, Indiana 46032 Telephone: (317) 569-0770 Facsimile: (317) 569-6775 _____________________________

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035918500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LESCOE LEASING, 1232 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT LESCOE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/2014.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035920300

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PK MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTIONS, 77 VAN NESS AVE #101, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL KENNELLY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/15/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937900

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: A. MORIKAMI CONSULTING, 295 21ST AVE #1, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AMY K. MORIKAMI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035938300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: GOOD, FORM & SPECTACLE, 16 SHERMAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GEORGINA OATES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035919500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RICHARD HUNG ALLSTATE INSURANCE AGENCY, 601 KANSAS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD HUNG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/01/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035904700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VARDASIAM SUSHI, 61 PARK PLZA DR #3, DALY CITY, CA 94015. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed ANAND MISHIGDORJ & MIKHAIL GUNYAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/23/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/23/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035933700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RD HOME, 30 WINTER PLACE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed LARRY F. DASALLA & RAYMOND F. REGALADO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14.

The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/09/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035940300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: JESSIMPORTS; GASTON COLLECTIVE, 110 GOUGH ST, #203B, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JESSSICA GASTON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/2014.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: WALKING TOGETHER, 341 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCSICO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed WALKING TOGETHER (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/05/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/14/14.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035925700

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035922700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TUYET MAI, 547 HYDE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JIMMY TRAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/07/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/2014.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035926600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE IRISH BANK BAR & RESTAURANT, 10 MARK LANE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MARAE ERIN INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FITNESS SF MID MARKET, 1 TENTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed MID MARKET FITNESS, INC (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/16/2014. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/2014.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LEATHER GLOVES ONLINE, 1661 TENNESSEE ST UNIT 2K, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ADELARD AND EDWARDS INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/22/00. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 10, 17, 24, 31, 2014

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Legal Notices>> FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035939700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ALL SMILES DENTAL, 156 W. PORTAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CUONG HO DDS, A PROFESSIONAL DENTAL CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/11/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TETER ENGINEERING, 1662 CLAY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DAVID TETER CONSULTING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035940800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PLIN, 280 VALENCIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PLIN LICENSE LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/03/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/15/14.

JULY 17, 24, 31, AUG 07, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-14-550457

In the matter of the application of: ZEBADYHA TREE LEE, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ZEBADYHA TREE LEE,, is requesting that the name ZEBADYHA TREE LEE,, be changed to ZEE BOUDREAUX. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept.

514 on the 16th of September 2014 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035937100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE SALTY DOG, 1627 JACKSON ST #8, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ALISON W.TARNOFF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035953600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VANGUARD HOME SOLUTIONS, 3601 CABRILLO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed IGOR BELOV. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/21/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/21/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035922600

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SUNSET MOBILE NOTARY SERVICE, 1472 LA PLAYA ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RUSSELL EUGENE CHAMPAGNE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/02/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035945100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TAPESTRY PROPERTIES, 769 MONTEREY BLVD #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROGER K. FONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035917000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: NEW HIVE DESIGNS, 642 WOODMONT ST, BERKELEY, CA 94708. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID PATRICK BENNETT. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/30/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 11

Classifieds The

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035944000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FOG CITY SOFTBALL, 212 GATES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JOHN MICHAEL LUCANIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/16/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035940400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: DONL PLUMBING CO. INC, 17487 EHLE ST, CASTRO VALLEY, CA 94546. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed DONL PLUMBING CO. INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/14/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/14/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035946200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EAGLES DRIFT IN LOUNGE, 1232 NORIEGA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SUNSET DRIFT IN LOUNGE, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/17/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035925200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHOP-WARE, 475 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SHOP-WARE, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/07/14.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-035939000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ROAM ARTISAN BURGERS, 1649 GREENWICH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed JSS RESTAURANT GROUP, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/03/09. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 07/11/14.

Gaylesta2x2_0610CN Gaylesta2x2_0610CN

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT

Counseling>>

NOTICE TO PROPOSERS GENERAL INFORMATION The SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT (“District”), 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, California, is advertising for proposals for Request for Proposals (RFP) No. 6M3258, on or about July 21, 2014, with proposals due by 2:00 PM local time, Tuesday, September 9, 2014.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES TO BE PROVIDED The District is soliciting the services to provide vehicle power sweeping, mechanical/ manual wet/dry sweeping and cleaning services at various BART stations, plazas, parking garages, maintenance yards and parking lots in accordance with the scope of services. The District intends to enter into separate Agreements for Zone 1 and Zone 2 areas. Each Agreement will cover a three (3) year base period with the District’s unilateral option to extend the Agreement for up to two additional one-year periods. Each Agreement shall not exceed five-years in duration.

A Pre-Proposal Meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 6, 2014. The Pre-Proposal Meeting will convene at 10:00 AM in the District’s Administrative Office located at 300 Lakeside Drive, 15th Floor, Room 1502, Oakland, California 94612. At the Pre-Proposal Meeting the District’s NonDiscrimination Program for Subcontracting will be explained. All questions regarding MBE/WBE participation should be directed to Mr. Ron Granada, Office of Civil Rights at (510) 464-6103 – FAX (510) 464-7587.

Prospective proposers are requested to make every effort to attend this only scheduled Pre-Proposal Meeting.

Confidential referrals made to licensed psychotherapists who understand our community.

Referrals are available to LGBTQ therapists on all insurance plans. Visit www.Gaylesta.org and click on “Find a Therapist.” Or email us at contact@gaylesta.org

Visit our website to view profiles of over 150 therapists.

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WHERE TO OBTAIN OR SEE RFP DOCUMENTS (Available on or after July 22, 2014) Copies of the RFP may be obtained: (1) By written request to the District’s Contract Administrator, Gary Leong, 300 Lakeside Drive, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612. Reference RFP No. 6M3258 – Systemwide Parking Lot Sweeping Services and send requests to Fax No. (510) 464-7650.

(2) By arranging pick up at the above address.

Call the District’s Contract Administrator (510) 287-4717 prior to pickup of the RFP. (3) By E-mail request to the District’s Contract Administrator Gleong1@BART.gov.

JULY 24, 31, AUG 07, 14, 2014

Dated at Oakland, California this 16th day of July, 2014

ebar.com

Kenneth A. Duron Kenneth A. Duron, District Secretary San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District 7/24/14 CNS-2646358# BAY AREA REPORTER

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17

Jewish lives

Magic show

18

Out &About

Stritch in time

16

O&A

15

The

Vol. 44 • No. 30 • July 24-30, 2014

www.ebar.com/arts Photo: Courtesy SF Symphony

Come to her window: Melissa Etheridge sings with SFS

by David-Elijah Nahmod

K Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge performs with the San Francisco Symphony.

nown for her raspy voice and confessional lyrics, singer/songwriter and guitarist Melissa Etheridge has become a rock music icon. The Oscar and Grammy winner’s success is a groundbreaker, since the rock world is dominated primarily by men. Not only is Etheridge a woman, she’s a lesbian who came out in 1993. Ellen DeGeneres’ historic coming out was still four years away.

Etheridge’s appearances with San Francisco Symphony on July 30 and 31 will offer a new depth to her many hit songs, as well as to her covers of songwriters she admires, such as Joan Armatrading. She’ll be singing many of her standard hits with a full orchestra, which is not the kind of sound her emotion-laden lyrics are usually associated with.

Etheridge kindly spoke to the B.A.R. as she prepared for her arrival in San Francisco.

See page 23 >>

Photo: Courtesy SFJFF

Things aren’t really so bad for ‘Little Horribles’ creator

by Sura Wood

T

hose mortifying moments in life, the ones that make you shudder even years after they’ve happened, are the basis of Little Horribles, a comic series on the Web about a painfully awkward single woman in her 30s. Dubbed the lesbian answer to HBO’s Girls, its central character, a smart cookie striving for an elusive “more” but courting miniature embarrassing disasters instead, is embodied by the series’ creator, writer and star, Amy York Rubin.

A native New Yorker, Rubin, who started the series of seven-minute episodes a year ago and has since caught the eye of industry insiders, Los Angeles magazine, The Huffington Post and Variety, grew up in suburban D.C, graduated from Vassar, and toiled in Democratic politics in New York City and on Capitol Hill, where she started producing viral political videos. In 2010, she relocated to L.A, the setting for her less-competent, socially-challenged alter-ego, a highly intelligent, slightly overweight lesbian who seems to repel the very people she hopes to attract, and is often head-and-shoulders above the people around her. Unlike The L Word of a decade ago, Little Horribles doesn’t trumpet the sexual content, or trade in fantasy or glamour. Amy makes clumsy attempts to connect, and just tries to get through the day.

See page 16 >>

Little Horribles creator, writer and star Amy York Rubin.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

designing home jews and midcentury modernism On view through October 6, 2014 The Contemporary Jewish Museum | Plan your visit at thecjm.org

<< Out There

14 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

Another barihunk sighting

by Roberto Friedman

tone Efraín Solís, bass Kenneth Kellogg, soprano Sara Duchovnay, mezzo-soprano Molly Mahoney and mezzo-soprano Nicole Takesono.

West Edge Opera describes the work this way: “Drawing upon Ginsberg’s poetry, this piece is a portrait of America that covers the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, as seen by the collabora-

T

he second production of West Edge Opera’s new Summer Festival, Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg’s Hydrogen Jukebox, will open on Sun., July 27, 5 p.m. at Berkeley’s Ed Roberts Campus. Glass sets the words of late gay poet Ginsberg in his distinctive musical idiom, conducted by David Möschler and directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer. The opera features tenor Jonathan Blalock, bari-

tors Glass, Ginsberg and designer Jerome Sirlin. Its content ranges from highly personal poems of Ginsberg to his reflection on social issues: the anti-war movement, the sexual revolution, drugs, Eastern philosophy, environmental awareness. The six vocal parts represent six archetypal American characters – a waitress, a policeman, a businessman, a cheerleader, a priest, and a mechanic.”

Tenor Jonathan Blalock is acclaimed for his work in 20th & 21stcentury opera, including world premieres of The Secret Agent and Before Night Falls. B.A.R. readers will want to know that the Barihunks blog awarded “hunkentenor” Blalock a Barihunks Calendar Grant for his career, with the remarks, “He first caught our eye with two stunning performances at the Fort Worth Opera Festival, appearing shirtless in both Jorge Martin’s Before Night Falls and Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox.

Last season, he was one of the many gifted young artists at the Santa Fe Opera.” The accompanying photo, courtesy Barihunks, supports that award.

Repeat performances are Sat., Aug. 2, and Fri., Aug. 8, both at 8 p.m. The opera’s venue will be the atrium of the Ed Roberts Campus, found at 3075 Adeline St., Berkeley. Seating is general admission.

Tickets & info are available at (510) 841-1903, or westedgeopera.org.

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“Barihunk” tenor Jonathan Blalock appeared as Lazaro in composer Jorge Martin’s Before Night Falls.

Peace out

We listened to the new Morrissey album World Peace Is None of Your Business (Harvest) online, but then went to Amoeba Music to buy the actual CD, because music sounds much richer when it’s heard from a real stereo system. The salesclerk looked at a song title on the playlist,

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others. Rather than wishing cancer on anyone, meat-eater or not, we’d rather take our cue from an earlier lyric: “It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate,/It takes strength to be gentle and kind.” Morrissey crooned that very sentiment on “I Know It’s Over,” from The Smiths’ 1986 record The Queen Is Dead. Still true.

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t

“Earth Is the Loneliest Planet,” and remarked, “Isn’t that the most Morrissey title ever?”

He had a point. A lot of the new album is echt Moz: you can hear his resolute point of view on “Neal Cassady Drops Dead,” “Kick the Bride Down the Aisle” and “The Bullfighter Dies” (“and nobody cries”). Probably the centerpiece of the album, the eight-minute-long “I’m Not a Man,” is an eloquent dismissal of what even The New York Times calls “hetero-normative masculinity.” It also ventures into Morrissey’s lifelong campaign against considering animals as food (“Meat is Murder”).

“T-bone steak,” he sings, morbidly: “Cancer of the prostrate!”

But this is why, even though the man’s voice and literate lyrics have been a part of our listening life ever since his long-ago tenure with The Smiths, we’re rapidly tiring of the Moz. We agree with most if not all of his political positions, and find his militant vegetarianism admirable. We just don’t like the nastiness that attends his condemnations of

Chef Charles Phan, of The Slanted Door fame, unveiled his South café in the SF Jazz Center upon its opening last year. It featured New Orleans-style food: gumbo, fried chicken, and the like. All delectable, but ill-suited to the quick-turnaround time demanded of perfor mance-venue restaurants. So now, with chef de cuisine Rymee Trobaugh Trobaugh, he has re-opened South re-imagined as a Mexican eatery. Out There attended the press opening. Standout fare included Flor de calabas relleno (squash blossoms stuffed with sheep ricotta and salsa de aguacate), pickled pasilla relleno with sardines and potatoes, and conejo en mole amarillo (rabbit in yellow mole, chard, carrots). We downed it all with a refreshing Chi Chi (Hanger One vodka, house coconut cream, pineapple, lime and crushed ice). The name may remain the same, the offerings are a world apart.

Finally, last Friday night OT celebrated the opening of the triennial Bay Area Now 7 show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

For this iteration, YBCA’s curators turned over its selection process and presentation to regional visual arts organizations, a worthy and democratic decision. They include two queer-oriented arts groups, and so arts writer Sura Wood will have a review in next week’s issue.

Be good until then.t

t

Theatre>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 15

Remembering Elaine Stritch at Exit Theatre. ing red as I write this, was, Now based in Brooklyn, Man“I think you should look in zoor grew up in a Pakistani Muslim the mirror every day and home in North London, where she say, ‘I’m fucking incredwas torn by the pleasures of modible.’” And then everything ern London and the somber life changed. “You really hit her parents maintained at home. the nail on the head,” she Among the dichotomies she faced said, though she claimed were a twin brother moving toward she would use another adfundamentalist ideologies, a love jective for the mirror talk. affair with an Irish bartender, and “You’re talking about selfthe conflicting psychological affects esteem, and you got below of wearing a burqa in Mecca and a the surface into the real bikini in Majorca. “It’s much easier stuff, and nobody goes there to stay silent when you question the when they talk to me. That’s ideas that you were raised with, and something real, and I want it can be very scary,” says Manzoor. to thank you.”

“Yet silence, not expressing your beBut I had nowhere to go liefs, also comes at a price.” after that, and it was time Manzoor has performed Burq for foot-in-the-mouth Off! in numerous cities, though the goodbyes. “Well, I guess Exit performances are part of a West you better let me go,” I said Coast debut along with a Los Angewhile meaning the opposite. les run. The show even comes with a “Let you go?” she exclaimed. plug from Deepak Chopra: “Gutsy, “I’m the one is supposed to hilarious, and must-see.” Go to thelet you go.” And at that point exit.org for more information. she did.

I was able to put together Sex and the Victoria a reasonable story, but cerAfter a run of nearly a year of tainly left out the enveloping once-a-week performances at Rebel circumstances, as well as the Bar, the be-dragged variation on Sex “fucking incredible” interand the City is moving to bigger digs lude. From Company to her with spruced-up production values. one-woman show At LiberTwo episodes from the HBO series, ty, I had loved Elaine Stritch, different from the ones previously and I basically messed up staged, will run July 24-Aug. 10 at my one and only chance for A columnist’s memories of a wayward interview with Elaine Stritch were the Victoria Theatre under the aegis a reasonable conversation stoked by her recent passing. with this iconic personality. With hand with Stritch, and I was curious if my

by Richard Dodds over heart – let me stop typconversationally based interview ing while I actually do that – I he statute of limitations has skills would be enhanced. Short anhave never been crocked dopassed. The self-incriminating swer: No. ing an interview again (and circumstances of a telephone interWhen I called her at the appoint“cocktail hour” has devolved view with Elaine Stritch in 2003 did ed evening hour, I reminded her significantly in the past denot make it into the story that ran in who I was, and that she had been cade). It might have worked the B.A.R. With her recent passing I at the pool earlier. “You don’t with some other celebrities, was reminded – like a kick in the think I remember? You but it was a lesson that needbutt – of how not to do think I’m senile?” she ed to be learned, and Elaine an interview. barked. “And I wasn’t Stritch was the one to teach it.

I followed the pubat the pool. Let’s leave licist’s instructions to it at that.”

Burqas to bikinis call her at Noon, and Foot continued to As long as there are culshe asked me to call go into mouth as my tures that intersect, there back that evening, that stream-of-consciouswill be clashes. And there is she was by the hotel ness questions and reno more fraught a culture pool, and that it wasn’t marks always seemed clash these days than between a good time to talk. off-base, my sense of Western and Islamic philosoWhen it came time to humor not sparking phies. Nadia Parvez Manzoor Adam Reichardt call her, it was late into reciprocation, and I knew I had dug is a one-woman embodiment what used to be my cocktail hour. myself into a deep hole. It was time of this clash, which she por- Nadia Parvez Manzoor explores the Frankly, I was a little bit drunk and for a hail-Mary conclusion to our trays as both herself and 20 clash of Western and Muslim philosophies in her autobiographical solo show a little bit stoned. Somehow this talk. other characters in Burq Off!, Burq Off! at Exit Theatre. seemed appropriate for an interview What I said, and my face is turnwith performances July 24-26

of Velvet Rage Productions.

D’Arcy Drollinger is back both as director and as Samantha Jones, the sexually adventurous publicist played on TV by Kim Cattrall.

Heklina again has the central role of Carrie Bradshaw, the newspaper columnist with a shoe fetish and created on screen by Sarah Jessica Parker, and Lady Bear returns in the Cynthia Nixon role of the sexually cynical Miranda Hobbes. Leigh Crow is another returnee as Mr. Big (the Chris Noth role), who is Carrie’s on-and-off lover.

T

kentaylorphotography.com

Alaska, who gained fame on RuPaul’s Drag Race, is a guest star in a new staging of Sex and the City episodes at the Victoria Theatre.

The one new cast member, receiving “special guest” billing, is Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, who was more discreetly billed as simply Alaska during the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and is again so mononymously billed in Sex and the City.

The drag performer and recording artist will play the prim Charlotte York (Kristin Davis on TV) at the Victoria. Tickets are available at sexandthecitylive.eventbrite.com.t

Gay, straight, bi – & happily confused

by Richard Dodds

A

ll sorts of lines get blurred in Everybody Here Says Hello!, an intriguingly different take on contemporary romance. This new play

by Stuart Bousel also sets up its own dramatic rules, a potentially risky move but one that further enhances a story that knows when to wink at the audience and when to play it straight.

Actually, “straight” is a clouded word in a story that at first seems to have a gay relationship at its core before sending out tendrils into complex webs of sexual permutations.

Happy and sad are always in close proximity, but Bousel finds ways to evoke laughs that always seem appropriate for the situations. Even the most quippish wisecracks ring true for the characters, who feel like fresh creations but are somehow still familiar.

Wily West Productions is presenting the premiere of Everybody Here Says Hello! in a rotating schedule with another new play, Superheroes, at Exit Theatre. On a simple unit set

by Quinn J. Whitaker, director Rik Lopes’ staging confidently grasps

this story?” complains Byron the untraditional structure to Luke/Doug (Sam Tillis), of Bousel’s play, and his apwho can change mid-scene pealing cast follows suit. from Byron’s ex to Rebecca’s There are so many plot ex. There are bar mitzvahs, turns, subplots, locations, weddings, literary agents, and double-cast characters porn publishers, and a rethat the script would nearly calcitrant sister to contend need to be reprinted here to with, and playwright and offer a true summary. Not director smoothly weave this that it’s hard to follow; well, tale into a tight 90 minutes. sometimes it is, and someCast members not yet times that seems to be on acknowledged include Kat purpose. But a brief descripBushnell, Sylvia Hathaway, tion of the opening scene can and Wesley Cayabyab, and at least get the ball rolling. In while the entire ensemble is this case, a baseball. sharply tuned into the mateAspiring actor Patrick rial, it is Mikka Bonel’s per(Nick Trengove) is watching formance as Rebecca that his aspiring novelist boygives the production its most friend Byron (Dan Kuntz) driving force. When it’s all play baseball with his straight over, you may not rememjock friends. Also watching Jim Norrena ber who finally ends up with from the stands is Rebecca whom, but Everybody Here (Mikka Bonel), the squeeze- Nick Trengove (center) plays an aspiring actor who finds his affections torn between Says Hello! is more about the du-jour of hyper-macho Dan Kuntz and Mikka Bonel in Everybody Here Says Hello! bumpy but jaunty journey Toro (Tony Cirimele). Handthan the destination.t some Patrick and acerbically performer between acting gigs, she have already been shaken. At times, sultry Rebecca sufficiently intrigue marvels at her skills at flipping him. the characters step out of a scene to one another that Patrick changes Everybody Here Says Hello! will “I’m the most amazing heterosexual talk to the audience or even argue his professed orientation from gay run at Exit Theatre through Aug. woman in the world,” she exclaims. about who should be getting a shot 23. Tickets are $22-$25, available at to bisexual. When Rebecca finds Former lovers come into play, at narration. “Why do you get to wilywestproductions.com. out that Patrick works as a drag further upsetting dynamics that tell this story when you’re hardly in

<< Film

16 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

Through a Jewish lens

by David Lamble

T

he 34th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs July 24 through August 10 at the Castro Theatre and RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco, CineArts in Palo Alto, Berkeley’s California Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Oakland’s New Parkway Theatre and Grand Lake Theater, and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. This festival has a couple of queer gems, special guests, world premieres and a number of panels where real people can talk face-to-face.

Snails in the Rain First-time director Yariv Mozer sets his powerful carnal drama at a Tel Aviv university where a hunky linguistics student anxiously passes the summer of 1989. Boaz (Yoav Reuveni) is fearful about his chances for a scholarship to finish his education in Jerusalem; he’s in an intensely sexual relationship with an emotionally needy girlfriend; and his bitter old mom keeps dropping by to needle the girlfriend about how inadequate she is to meet the needs of her sonny boy: “What’s that smell? Oh, you’re cooking again.”

Most disturbing of all are the love letters from an old army buddy, letters sent to the same PO box where Boaz is expecting the scholarship letter. His pen pal describes lonely nights without Boaz’s arms around him. The letters, secretly read by the girlfriend, culminate in a plea that the men meet and start a life together.

A poignant homage to Israel’s first gay-themed feature Drifting

by Amos Gutman (1954-93), a film whose hero Robi is emotionally paralyzed by homophobia and his own feelings of dissociation and ennui, Snails in the Rain is a virtual symphony of male-on-male lust and longing. Everywhere Boaz goes, he feels male eyes observing him, beckoning. In one scene, a darkly handsome young man says that Boaz has beautiful “female” eyes, then attempts to kiss him. Boaz is driven close to a breakdown by his inability to either accept or completely turn his back on the chorus of randy guys all around him.

<<

Amy York Rubin

From page 13

Although the show’s situations may draw on its creator’s authentic feelings, it’s no surprise to learn that Rubin is every bit as sharp as the fictional Amy, and a great deal more self-assured, A director who does stand-up on the side and runs her own branded entertainment company with clients such as Vanity Fair and Google, she’s currently in “development” discussions for the show, though she won’t divulge details. But the question remains: why summon those cringe-worthy moments – from masturbating in her

Not everyone will enjoy the ending, but director Mozer makes an incendiary statement not only about homophobia, but also by extension the blanket of sexual repression that engulfs the region, Jew and Arab alike. Caution for steamy hetero and homo love, and references to longhaired Israeli boys attacking adult men in parks. (Castro, 7/31; California, 8/3; Rafael, 8/10) Havana Curveball “I don’t mean to sound like a cliche, but it’s my generation’s job to mop up whatever you guys did, clean it up.” Meet Mica, a mop-haired Bay Area secular Jewish kid who a few years ago embarked on a seemingly simple project for his Bar Mitzvah. A lifelong baseball devotee and SF Giants fan, Mica thought it would be neat to provide bats, gloves, balls, helmets, masks and jock protectors to kids too poor to afford the real thing. And what better place to extend such a gift than baseballcrazy Cuba? Turns out, one of the hardest things to do is help folks who, through no fault of their own, happen to be on your government’s shit-list.

The half-century-old American embargo against Cuba is a big obstacle to overcome. Mica tried sending his carload of baseball stuff via a Canadian post office in Vancouver. Unfortunately, once mailed, the baseball care package fell into a bureaucratic black hole that no amount of letters

courtesy SFJFF

Scene from director Yariv Mozer’s Snails in the Rain, a symphony of male-on-male lust and longing.

or calls could resolve.

Plan B: Mica and his family fly a new batch of ball equipment directly to Havana via Mexico. Once there, the 16-year-old would go through some eye-opening experiences in the country that essentially saved his grandpa’s life, fleeing the Nazis over 70 years ago. The heart of Curveball is observing Mica play-

courtesy SFJFF

Scene from directors Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider’s Havana Curveball: a big obstacle to overcome.

car, and comforting a hyper-emotional lover who’s blowing her off, to ironing shut a bag of chips to cover up her bingeing at a hotel mini-bar, not to mention a habit of crying and scarfing down bakery goods while sitting on the toilet – and reveal them to the world at large? Rubin talked about this and more in a recent conversation. She’ll be the featured guest at an event coming up at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, where she’ll discuss her work and screen a selection of clips.

Sura Wood: A number of gay and lesbian-themed series are popping up on the Web. Did you set out to make a lesbian-focused,

female-centric series?

Amy York Rubin: Not really, but I’m a woman, I’m not straight, and I was writing something that came very much from my own point of view and personal experiences, so it was unavoidable. I don’t really identify as gay or lesbian. Actually, I don’t like any box. I like the idea of the spectrum of sexuality, which we play with in the series. I certainly searched on Netflix for lesbian movies or shows, and watched all of them. There wasn’t a lot out there, or much that I liked.

Your character has a hard time reading signals, and has questionable judgment. For

ing with his Cuban peers and asking old fans in Havana what they know about baseball in America.

“Tim Lincecum, ‘the freak,’ he had a great World Series, although he’s struggled since,” one savvy old guy opines.

Back when I was Mica’s age, a character in my favorite movie, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, would urge its hero, Jack Lemmon’s C.C. Baxter, “Baxter, be a mensch, you know what that is, a human being!”

After watching young Mica negotiate some really ground-up beats, including passing out free stuff to Cuban street urchins desperate enough to steal the shoes from his feet, you get the feeling that this kid passes Wilder’s “mensch” test with flying colors. Mica will appear at the film’s screenings with his director parents, Marcia Jamel and Ken Schneider.

(CineArts, 7/31; Castro, 8/3; Grand Lake, 8/10) Run Boy Run The time is the winter of 1942-43, and we watch an 8-year-old Jewish boy attempt to steal a heavy coat from a Polish peasant, and get beaten for his trouble. This true life-into-fiction film details the efforts of a kid to pass

for a gentile so that he could bond with Jew-hating farmers. For a rare Holocaust story seen through the eyes of a child, director Pepe Danquart appears in person at the Castro (7/29) and Palo Alto (CineArts, 7/30) screenings. The film also shows in Berkeley (California, 8/7).

Touchdown Israel What do the 8 million or so citizens of Israel possess that 8 million Los Angelinos don’t? A grownup tackle-football team. Director Paul Hischberger relates the truly oddball circumstances behind the start of American football in the Holy Land, which among other things becomes a neutral ground where Jews and Arabs can vent and even bond. (Director in person: CineArts, 7/26; Castro, 7/27; Grand Lake, 8/9; Rafael, 8/10) Regarding Susan Sontag Here’s an encore for this bio-doc about the woman who gave us a definition of camp, language for dealing with AIDS and cancer, and a lifetime of big ideas. We’ll have a full DVD review later this summer. (Director Nancy Kates in person, CineArts, 7/28; Castro, 8/2; California, 8/3)t

instance, she can’t get a word in edgewise with a self-centered date, but she doesn’t get up and leave, perhaps thinking things will improve if she hangs in there.

Yes, there’s a fine line between being open-minded and being an idiot.

and I love the Amy Schumer show.

It may be one of the downsides of growing fame that people believe you and the character are one and the same. Does that bother you?

I don’t care. When I wrote it, I just thought of it as moments that I wanted to play, and I never considered casting anyone else. The distinction is that usually the emotional nugget is true, but not the story. Like the mini-bar episode: the emotional backbone – using food to deal with family issues – is a big truth and part of my life, but that particular scenario never happened.

Journalists have spun Little Horribles as the lesbian equivalent of Girls. How do you feel about the comparison?

If I were skinny and wasn’t a woman, I don’t think they’d be compared. Girls feels much more like an indie, who am I, what do I want, coming-of-age ensemble show, while mine is a harder-edged comedy. Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) or Louie would be the more obvious tonal comparisons.

courtesy Amy York Rubin

Amy York Rubin (bottom) in a scene from the Web series Little Horribles.

t

What are your favorite shows?

Veep may be my favorite right now.

I like Broad City on Comedy Central,

Info: sfjff.org

Is the creative atmosphere different when a woman is in charge?

Anytime someone has personal experience with being on the outside, being the other, of not being included, it changes the way they run things. Not always, though. I’ve certainly worked with some women I’d never want to work with again, but I think a white man in America doesn’t have that experience. They tend to inherently believe they’re right.

The show is often described as a chronicle of small humiliations.

Why resurrect them?

Honestly, I didn’t think through putting a scene online where I’m masturbating in my car and how awkward that could be, or how hard it was going to be reliving a shameful break-up. I wanted to explore moments in my life that were related to a larger theme and look at them.

What about the notion of oversharing and too much disclosure?

For better or worse, I’m part of a generation that doesn’t care about privacy. Of course, I care about the invasions by the NSA, but not about the stuff I put out there myself.

Maybe I’ll get that wall eventually.

We’ll see.t Little Horribles: An Evening with Amy York Rubin, Aug. 1 at 9 p.m., Rayko Photo Center, SF. Info: sfjff.org

t

Film>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 17

Not much movie magic

Summer at the Cliff House

Join us for these Cliff House Weekly Favorites • Wine Lovers’ Tuesday – Half Priced Bottled Wines* • Bistro Wednesday Nights – $28 Three-Course Prix Fixe • Friday Night Jazz in the Balcony Lounge • Sunday Champagne Brunch Buffet *Some restrictions apply. Promotions are not valid on holidays.

The Lands End Lookout Be sure to visit the Lookout Cafe at the Lands End visitor center. Operated by the Cliff House team, the cafe serves a delicious selection of locally sourced grab-and-go items including the famous It’s It originally for sale at Playland at the Beach.

The center, under the direction of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, offers educational and interactive exhibits, a museum store, stunning views, and the amazing Lands End Trails.

Open daily from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Located at Point Lobos and Merrie Way

Sony Pictures Classics

1090 Point Lobos

415-386-3330

www.CliffHouse.com

Emma Stone as Sophie and Colin Firth as Stanley in Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight.

by David Lamble

A

s a child, while his gypsy-like family hopscotched among a dozen apartments dotting the map of Brooklyn and suburban Long Island, Allan Stewart Konigsberg amused himself and a boyhood chum by mastering Magic 101.

The boys entertained the kids on the block with simple card tricks and low-level flim-flam. As a teen, the future Woody Allen first met a show-biz idol, “Mr. Television” himself, the great Milton Berle, at the neighborhood magic shop.

His new 1920s-era romantic comedy Magic in the Moonlight is the latest of a dozen Woody films that have toyed with the “black arts.”

In Alice, Mia Farrow spies on her philandering hubby with a special invisibility potion she gleans from an old Chinese herbalist. In The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, an evil magician employs a magic spell as a cover for committing murder; and perhaps the wildest bit of screen magic unfolds in Woody’s Depression-era classic The Purple Rose of Cairo, in which a poor movie buff is swept off her feet when the leading man from a B-picture suddenly jumps down from the screen and proceeds to re-invent her life.

In comparison to these minor Woody gems, this new magic show feels overstuffed with unnecessary minor characters, and distinctly overplotted. In brief, the film is a battle of wits, egos and personal styles between a pompous middle-aged magician, Stanley (Colin Firth), and a mischievous younger medium, Sophie (Emma Stone).

With a confidence-scheme plot that could have been lifted from that Preston Sturges screwball classic The Lady Eve, Magic in the Moonlight is a tad long and distinctly minor Woody.

First of all, Colin Firth’s Stanley is a one-dimensional ass, both a bore and a snob. Therefore it takes a considerable feat of heavy plotting and unnecessary screen time to convince us that he deserves the damsel

in the end. Woody wastes one possible Sophie suitor by rendering the handsome Hamish Linklater’s playboy Brice a witless fool, a device little removed from Shakespeare’s jesters.

One of the chief reasons to catch this one is for the incendiary beauty of its pastoral South of France settings. As with his recent European “vacation” comedies (Midnight in Paris, To Rome with Love), Woody has a shrewd eye for spotting upand-coming young male stars in the making. But often, as with the casting of the comic genius-in-themaking Jesse Eisenberg in Rome, he doesn’t give the young men something substantial to do. Clearly, Woody still pivots towards juicier turns for his female cast members.

While admirable in itself, this tends to shortchange the audience, stuck with seeing talented guys working below their skill levels.

Also, the writing, normally Woody’s strong suit, here feels a tad predictable and even cliché-riddled.

In one set-piece between Stanley and Sophie, the dialogue is notably threadbare. Sophie is directing her talents as a spiritual medium towards unraveling the mystery of Stanley, producing the following exchange.

Sophie: “The mental impressions are cloudy.”

Stanley: “Are they cumulus or cirrus?”

Sophie: “You’re making fun of me.”

Scenes such as this, as well as plotbeats recycled from older, far better films – Stanley and Sophie use the threat of a summer lightning storm to find shelter in a nearby planetarium, as Woody and Diane Keaton’s characters did in the sublimely enchanting Manhattan – give us the feeling that Magic in the Moonlight was possibly stitched together from old scripts in that famous bedroom drawer Allen has so profitably dipped into over the years.

Alas, while Woody #49 is merely ho-hum, we can look forward to his erasing its memory in our minds

with #50, which, with the master’s yearly film habit, will be on us before we know it.t

ebar.com

FORBIDDEN BROADWAY

OPERATION OPERA

Now - July 27

July 31 - August 10

For tickets:www.feinsteinssf.com Feinstein’s | Hotel Nikko San Francisco 222 Mason Street 855-MF-NIKKO | 855-636-4556

092795.01_HNSF-Fein-Q3_7-14_BAR_Forbidden_OpOpera ROUND #: MECH Trim: 5.75in x 7.625in Bleed: none Live: 5.75in x 7.625in Color Space: CMYK

Fonts: Futura

<< Out&About

18 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

Tough @ Z Below

Out &About

O&A

Chris Black’s one-woman show about hard-drinking boxer John L. Sullivan, and the nature of athleticism and ending a career. $20-$25. Thu-Sat 8pm.

Thru Aug. 9. 470 Florida St. www.chrisblackdance.wix.com/dance

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival @ Esplanade The months-long free performance series continues, with weekend outdoor dance, music and theatre concerts, on various days and evenings. July 24: Dalia Marina, 12:30pm. July 26: Tom Rigney & Flambeau, 1pm. July 31: Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, 12:30pm. Shows thru Oct. Mission St. at 3rd. 543-1718. www.ybgfestival.org

Thu 31 Jay Brannan

Audiophiles

by Jim Provenzano

W

e would like to think that the variety of artistic endeavors happening this week will counteract the comparatively awful acts of human behavior being displayed elsewhere. You know what I’m referring to.

This not being a political forum, at the risk of putting on creative blinders, try to focus on the good stuff here on our side of the planet, in particular, the lovely song stylings of three gay musicians (Cheyenne Jackson, Matt Alber, Jay Brannan), and one lovely local lady (Connie Champagne).

Candace Roberts @ Martuni’s The singer-songwriter who’s ‘trending’ with “Not My City Anymore,” her topical song about Bay Area gentrification, performs at the popular intimate martini bar’s lounge. $10.

7pm. 4 Valencia St. www.candaceroberts.com

PrEP Forum @ MCC Gay Men’s Community Initiative presents a forum about HIV prevention medications, with moderators Tim Vollmer and Michael Brandon. Free.

7pm-9pm. Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka St. www.thecommunityinitiative.org

The handsome openly gay star of Broadway and TV performs songs from cinema classics with the San Francisco Symphony, which also performs the overtures from Gypsy and Funny Girl. $15-$60. 7:30pm. Also July 25. Grove St at Van Ness Ave. 864-6000. www.sfsymphony.org

Dance Concerts @ The Garage

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival @ Castro Theatre

Project Tremelo’s Through the Layers of Weathered Glass (July 24, Aug. 1 & 2, 8pm); Detour Dance’s Filaments (July 25 & 26, 8pm). Peter & Co. SF’s Off the Cuff improvs and Peter Cheng’s Vicissitudes (July 30 & 31, 8pm). $10-$20. 715 Bryant St. 5181517. www.715bryant.org

Forbidden Broadway @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Alive and Kicking!, Gerald Alessandrini’s newest edition of the show tune parody revue comes to the Bay Area, with musical send-ups and satirical vignettes of The Book of Mormon, Once, Newsies, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patankin and more. $45-$60.

Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat & Sun 7pm.

Thru July 27. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome Thrillpeddlers’ hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes, performers, and some of the original cast members. $30-$35. Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru July 26. 575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Bay Area Now 7 @ YBCA Seventh annual exhibit of local and regional artists’ visual, performing, film and video art works. $12-$15 (free for members). Exhibit thru Oct. 5. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. 978-2787. www.ybca.org

Bay Area Playwrights Festival @ Thick House 37th annual festival of nearly a dozen diverse works by local playwrights, each staged once. $20-$95 (full pass).

Thru July 27. 1695 18th St. www.playwrightsfoundation.org

Fri 25 Monsieur Chopin

Connie Champagne @ Hotel Rex The talented local chanteuse (known for her impeccable Judy Garland stylings) performs Ready For My Close-Up, a night of movie theme songs, both popular and obscure, including advance requests (email societycabaret@gmail.com). $20-$50.

8pm. cocktails and food items; no minimum. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.SocietyCabaret.com

Into the Woods @ San Francisco Playhouse

Thu 24 Cheyenne Jackson

Frank Pietronigro @ Johnston Gallery

Hershey Felder, whose solo biographical-music shows about George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein wowed audiences, returns with his show about, and performed as, composer Fryderyk Chopin. $29-$53. Tue, Thu-Sat 8pm. Wed & Sun 7pm. Sat & Sun 2pm.Thru Aug. 10. Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org

Exhibit of gay-themed paintings (“Great American Patriots”) and “Documents,” an unusual installation that uses anti-gay words. Thru Sept.

2327 Market St. www.pietronigro.com www.johnstontaxgroup.com/art

Move Live @ Warfield Theatre

Local production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s acclaimed musical that takes an ‘after Happily Ever After’ look at fairy tales. $20-$120. Tue-Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm & Sun 2pm. Thru Sept. 6. 450 Post St., 2nd floor of Kensington Park Hotel.

677-9596. www.sfplayhouse.org

Matt Alber @ Great American Music Hall The gay singer-songwriter known for heartwarming (and heartbreaking) music performs in a special concert with his brother Bryce Alber (aka Lou Jane) and his father Kurt Alber. $21. ($46 with dinner; other beer, wine, and full menu options). Doors 8pm.

Show 9pm. 859 O’Farrell St. 8850750. www.mattalber.com www.slimspresents.com

Thu 24 Forbidden Broadway

Dancing With the Stars professionals Julian Hough and Derek Hough perform with a crew of ballroom dancers in a series splashy virtuosic dance numbers. $35-$60. 8pm. 982 Market St. www.moveliveontour.com www.thewarfieldtheatre.com

Surjit Nongmeikapam @ SOMArts Center Solo performance that combines classical and contemporary Asian dance. Also, Tableau Stations’ Aniconic, which features Nongmeikapam. $15-$20. 8pm. Thru July 27. 934 Brannan St. www.tableaustations.org www.somarts.org

Twelfth Night @ Ashby Stage, Berkeley Shotgun Players’ production of William Shakespeare’s romantic classic includes live music and a jaunty-sexy staging. $20-$35. Thru Aug. 17. 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org

Sat 26 Marin Shakespeare Company kicks off its 25th anniversary summer series with William Shakespeare’s genderbending romantic comedy, in repertory with The Bard’s classic udnerage teen romantic tragedy. Ampitheatre open one hour prior to showtime for picnicking; Bring overwear; it gets chilly. $12-$240 (season pass) and ‘pay as you like.’ Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 4pm. Thru Aug. 10. 499-4488.

Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 890 Belle Avenue, Dominican University of California, San Rafael. www.marinshakespeare.org

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi

Sketch 4; Music Mirror @ ODC Theater Acclaimed local choreographers Amy Seiwert and Adam Hougland premiere two works in progress with eight of the Bay Area’s best dancers, each interpreting the same live music work by composer Kevin Keller. $22-$40.

8pm. Thu-Sat 8pm, Sun 7pm. Thru July 27. 3153 17th St. 863-9834. www.odcdance.org

Monsieur Chopin @ Berkeley Repertory

As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet @ Forest Meadows Ampitheatre, San Rafael

The annual festival of Jewish-themed features, shorts and documentaries continues through Aug. 3. (www.sfjff.org). $10-festival passes.

429 Castro St. www.castrotheatre.com

Hick: A Love Story @ Eureka Theatre Terry Baum and Pat Bond wrote and perform in a twowomen play about the romance between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok; co-presented

by Theatre Rhinoceros and Crackpot Crones. Free. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 3pm. Thru July 27.

215 Jackson St. at Battery. www.crackpotcrones.com

Fri 25

RAWdance @ Z Space Tenth anniversary concert of works

by Ryan T. Smith and Wendy Rein’s innovative local dance company, including Turing’s Apple, inspired by the work of gay mathematician and WWII “code breaker” Alan Turing, plus the premiere of Burn In, and works by guest artists Gretchen Garnett & Dancers and Tanya Bello’s Project B. $25-$30. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm.

450 Florida St. (866) 811-4111. www.RawDance.org www.Zspace.org

Cheyenne Jackson @ Davies Symphony Hall

Children’s student ensemble production of John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe’s musical comedy about a 1950s high school besieged by zombies. $15-$20. 3:30pm & 7pm. Thru July 25.

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

John Zich

Thu 24

Zombie Prom @ Berkeley Playhouse

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The musical comedy revue celebrates its 40th year with an ever-changing lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd (Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Dan Hoyle @ The Marsh The award-winning solo performer premieres his new show, Each and Every Thing, a multi-character play about the search for real community in a hyper-connected world. $20-$50.

Thu & Fri 8pm, Sat 8:30pm. Extended thru August 24. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Derek Jarman, Visionary @ BAM/Pacific Film Archive Screenings of the works of the late gay filmmaker who defied trends and created his own unique cinematic style, most often with explicitly gay themes.

July 26: Tilda Swinton in The Last of England. $4-$6.50. 8:40pm. Saturday screenings Thru Aug. 28. 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Dracula Inquest @ Berkeley City Club Central Works performs Gary Graves’ new dramatic take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale. $15-$28. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 5pm. Thru Aug. 17. 2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 558-1381. www.centralworks.org

Intimate Impressionism @ Legion of Honor The exhibition includes nearly 70 paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., featuring the work of 19th-century avant-garde painters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh. Also, the Salon Doré, a reconstructed room from the Hotel de La Trémoille, has re-opened. Free/$25.

Thru Aug. 3. Lincoln Park, 100 34th Ave. 750-3600. www.famsf.org

Mugwumpin @ Costume Shop The innovative experimental theatre company celebrates ten years with several revivals; This Is All I Need and other plays in repertory with the new Blockbuster Season, also later this summer. other shows thru August and Sept. $20-$40. 1117 Market St. www.mugwumpin.org

Perverts Put Out @ Center for Sex & Culture Simon Sheppard and Carol Queen cohost the sex-themed reading event, with Greta Christina, Jen Cross, Princess Cream Pie, Jen Cross, Philip Huang, Seeley Quest, horehound stillpoint, and Na’amen Tilahun. $10-$25.

8pm. 1349 Mission St. www.sexandculture.org

San Francisco Mime Troupe @ Various Venues Ripple Effect, the newest play produced by the politically-themed satirical theatre company now celebrating its 55th season, takes on eviction, Google Glass-sporting hipster techies, and economic disparity in the Bay Area. Half-hour music set pre-show. July 26 & 27 at Live Oak Park, Berkeley. July 30 at Montclair Ball Field, (7pm show). Indoor and outdoor locales thru Sept. 1. 285-1717. www.sfmt.org

The Scion @ The Marsh Solo performer Brian Copeland returns with his unusual play about privilege, murder and sausage in his retelling of the triple murder crime at the Santos Linguisa Factory. $30-$100. Sat 5pm.

Thru Aug. 23. 1062 Valencia St. 2823055. www.themarsh.org

Shrek the Musical @ Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley Berkeley Playhouse’s youth-inclusive production of the stage musical based on the animated film about an ogre who enters the world of a royal kingdom. $17-$60. Sat 1pm & 6pm. Sun 12pm & 5pm. Wed & Thu 7pm. Thru Aug. 3. 2640 College Ave., Berkeley.

(510) 845-8542. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

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Out&About>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 19

JB Higgins @ Magnet

Sun 27 God Fights the Plague @ The Marsh 18-year-old playwright Dezi Gallegos (who made a splash at 14 with Prop 8 Love Stories) performs a solo show with multiple gay and straight characters of different faiths, each searching for God. $15-$100. Sat 8:30pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 10. 1062 Valencia St. at 21st. 282-3055. www.themarsh.org

Project Mah Jongg @ Contemporary Jewish Museum New exhibit about the popular Chinese game and Jewish culture’s affection for it. Thru Oct. 28. Also, Designing Homes: Jews and Midcentury Modernism, an exhibit of architectural, furniture, dinnerware, photos, and interior design in post-WWII. Other exhibits, lectures and gallery talks as well. Free (members)-$12. Fri-Tue 11am-5pm, Thu 11am-8pm (closed Wed). 736 Mission St. 655-7800. www.thecjm.org

SF Hiking Club @ Presidio

Tue 29 Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum Exhibit of photos, and an audiovisual installation, by the Los Angeles artist who focused on gay underground culture of the late 1960s and early ‘70s in SF and LA. Thru Jan. 11, 2015.

Lines on the Horizon: Native American Art from the Weisel Family Collection, thru Jan. 4, 2015. Free/$10. Tue-Sun 9:30am-5:15pm. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.deyoungmuseum.org

Meditation Group @ LGBT Center Weekly non-sectarian meditation group; part of the Let’s Kick ASS AIDS Survivor Syndrome support group.

Tuesdays, 5pm, 1800 Market St. www. letskickASS.org www.sfcenter.org

Tofu Art @ GlamaRama Salon Collage + Landscape = Collagescape, the local artist’s new exhibit of works in mixed media, collage and painting, and a second group exhibit of mixed media works by a dozen artists from California, New Mexico, New York, Sweden, and Germany. Opening reception Aug 1, 7pm-10pm. Thru Sept.

28. www.tofuart.com www.glamarama.com

Peter DeSilva

Join GLBT hikers for a nine-mile casual walk through Presidio National Park. See a redwood forest, gardens, and Andy Goldsworthy’s outdoor artworks. Meet at the top of the Lyon Street steps, Lyon & Broadway at 10am. Nearest Muni stop is 24-Divisadero at Jackson. Bring water, lunch, good walking shoes, hat, sunscreen, layers for SF weather, curiosity, and enthusiasm. 378-5612. www.sfhiking.com

Exhibit of prints depicting Moments of Realization, with local LGBT community subjects. Exhibit thru July. 4122 18th St. www.magnetsf.org

Aileycamp

New Sunday program offers tours and exhibits about San Francisco’s history. Explore the fascinating building’s grand halls and vaults. $5-$10.

Weekly, 1pm-4pm. 88 5th St. 5371105. www.SFhistory.org

The World of Mary Blair @ Walt Disney Museum Magic, Color, Flair, an exhibit of original art work from the innovative production design artist for Disney’s Peter Pan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and other films, and the iconic attractions at Walt Disney World like the “It’s a Small World” ride; thru Sept. 7. Also, Leading Ladies and Femme Fatales: The Art of Marc Davis, including original drawings of Cruella DeVille, Tinkerbell and other iconic characters; thru Nov. 4. 104 Montgomery St. www.waltdisney.org

Mon 28 1964: The Year San Francisco Came Out @ GLBT History Museum New exhibit focusing on San Francisco’s emerging gay culture at the time of the pivotal LIFE magazine feature “Homosexuality in America.”

Also, Biconic Flashpoints: Four Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics, thru Aug. 15. Reg. hours Mon-Sat 11am-7pm. Sun 12pm-5pm. ($5/free for members). 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Celebrating Judy @ Hotel Rex Barry Lloyd and Annalisa Bastiani perform at a full-course lunch and afternoon concert of music famous by Judy Garland. $55. 12pm. 562 Sutter St. www.SocietyCabaret.com

Photo exhibit of the artist’s 1920s prints of the beautiful French capital.

Tue-Sat 11am-5:30pm (1st Thursdays til 7:30). Thru Aug. 23. 49 Geary St. #410. 781-1122. www.roberttat.com

Thu 31 Aileycamp @ Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley Middle-school dancers in the annual six-week dance workshop (founded by Alvin Ailey) perform Blood Memories: Ancestral Memories Across Time.

Free. 7pm. Bancroft Way at Dana St., UC Berkeley campus. (510) 642-9988. www.calperformances.org

Gorgeous @ Asian Art Museum New exhibit about 2,000 years of unconventional visualizations of beauty at the contemporary and historical museum. Permanent exhibits as well. $15. Thru Sept. 14. 200 Larkin St. www.asianart.org

The Habit of Art @ Eureka Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros presents Alan Bennet’s “very British Comedy” about theatre, poetry and life itself. $15-$25. Wed-Sat 8pm. Also Sat 3pm.

Previews. Opening night Aug. 2. Thru Aug. 23. 215 Jackson St. (800) 8383006. www.TheRhino.org

Jay Brannan @ Bottom of the Hill The talented gay singer-songwriter returns for a night of inspiring music.

Terra Naomi and Becca Richardson also perform. $14. 9pm. All ages. 1233 17th St. 626-4455. www.jaybrannan.com www.bottomofthehill.com

No Race-Baiting, RedBaiting or Queer-Baiting! @ GLBT History Museum Stanford U.S. History professor Estelle Freedman shares a slide lecture of images from the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, a queer-friendly union that organized workers on Pacific cruise ships. 7pm-9pm. $5/free for members). 4127 18th St. 621-1107. www.glbthistory.org

Thu 31

Tours and Exhibits @ The Old Mint

William Odiorne’s Paris @ Robert Tat Gallery

Wed 30 Literary Death Match @ Shadow Lounge, Oakland The rousing reading series goes to East Bay, with Tim “Toaster” Henderson, Joshua Safran, Mac Barnett, Sonya Renee Taylor, Karinda Dobbins, and Nancy Davis Kho. $8-$12. 8pm.

341 13th St, Oakland. (510) 839-1999. www.literarydeathmatch.com

Melissa Etheridge @ Davies Symphony Hall The popular out rock-country musician performs favorite songs and music from her new CD This is ME. $15-$65.

8pm. Also July 31, 8pm. Grove St at Van Ness Ave. 864-6000. www.MelissaEtheridge.com www.sfsymphony.org

Patterns @ New Stage Patterns: For Some Reason, It Really Tickled Me, Amy Munz’ solo performance, with innovative multiple projections, about young adult romance quandaries. $30. Wed-Sat 8pm. Thru Aug. 16. Dennis Gallagher Arts Pavilion, French American International High School, 66 Page St. (800) 838-3006.

TheNewStage.com

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays. JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. sonyholland.com

Operation Opera @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko Adelmo Guidarelli performs his Fringe Festival hit, a comic musical take on operatic classics. $35-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 10. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinssf.com

Skulls @ California Academy of Sciences Exhibits and planetarium shows with C various live, interactive and installed M exhibits about animals, plants and the earth, including the new popular Y exhibit of animal and human skulls CM (thru Nov. 30). Special events each MY week, with adult nightlife parties most Thursday nights. $20-$30. Mon-CY Sat 9:30am-5pm. Sun 11am-5pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate CMY Park. 379-8000.

K www.calacademy.org To submit event listings, email jim@ebar.com. Deadline is each Thursday, a week before publication. For more bar and nightlife events, go to On the Tab in our BARtab section, online at www.ebar.com/bartab

Fri 25 Matt Alber

ebar.com

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Books>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 21

Young, hairy love

by Jim Piechota

Cub by Jeff Mann; Bear Bones Books, $15 West Virginia youth and ostracized outsider is at the center of prolific, Lambda Award-winning poet, essayist and author Jeff Mann’s latest novel. Cub is an impressive coming-of-age tale from its eyecatching cover art to the narrative itself, which deftly explores themes of teenaged angst, homophobia, and the entanglements of young romantic love.

Travis Ferrell, a plump farm boy with a beard and ponytail, is a good guy who has matured early; he does

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well in his final year in high school and, for a 17-year-old, is surprisingly at ease with fully embracing his homosexuality. His closest friends have already headed off to college, leaving him behind to manage a senior year adrift in a sea of fellow students who hardly understand his personal need to somehow find gay love in a small, countrified West Virginian town.

Muddling through months of bullying in the school halls, fighting off a Bible-thumping holy-rolling classmate, entertaining a casual interest in Wiccan teachings and anxiety about his future, Travis pairs up with Mike Woodson, a beefy, hard-

drinking, cigarette-smoking bad boy who steals Travis’ heart and introduces him to the finer aspects of weightlifting, anal sex, and the nuances of being gay in a small town.

This burgeoning romance is passionately portrayed by Mann, who gracefully infuses just the right amounts of emotional longing and sexual tension in Travis and Mike’s quick-burning relationship. It’s a heady, melodramatic bond that becomes increasingly complicated once Travis nears graduation and reimagines himself enjoying a future many miles away from the structured confines of rural West Virginia.

Mann excels in saturating his narrative with sensuality and in fortifying his engaging characters with strength, personality, and, of course, an overabundance of body hair for their young age (the author is well-known for his books on the “bears” and the gay bear community). Breezy and touching, Mann’s novel evokes that innocent age when love comes quickly and the exquisitely painful process of growing up and moving on can take one’s breath away.t

History of gay empowerment

by Brian Bromberger

In a New Century: Essays on Queer History, Politics, and Community Life by John D’Emilio; University of Wisconsin Press, $27.95 n a tribute essay on the 2007 death of his friend Allan Berube, the San Franciscan historian who wrote the groundbreaking account of gay men and lesbians in the military during World War II Coming Out Under Fire, John D’Emilio described Berube as a community historian. “He believed passionately in the power of history to change the way indi-

I

in NGLTF has helped make him a more insightful historian on community organizing and social movements. He writes that “involvement in organizations devoted to social, political, and economic change makes me want to study movements and learn more so that I can be a more effective activist.”

For D’Emilio, being a historian is not just an occupation but a calling. He views history as a story of change, with each generation never remaining constant. He notes that the changes that have occurred in the last 50 years around LGBT issues have been vast. But change poses new challenges. Early in his career,

he has been based for over a decade, showing how local episodes can illustrate broader themes in LGBT history, such as gender nonconformity in WWII, and Cold War persecution of gays and lesbians. Part IV attempts to draw some lessons from history, such as Bayard Rustin’s legacy, the landmark 2003 Supreme Court case Lawrence vs. Texas that ended sodomy laws, and a critique of same-sex marriage as an activist priority. The penultimate essay observes that many historical studies done in the last 40 years have worked against silence, invisibility, and isolation. They are mostly stories of resistance, whether risking oneself by going to a bar on a Saturday night or refusing to return to small-town life after a military discharge. These accounts do not deny the intensity of oppression, but the greater theme is the willingness to challenge life as usual. In all this scholarship, gays and lesbians attempt to shape their

own worlds with their initiatives and choices. They become the heroes of their own lives. In the course of this history, a vibrant self-identified community is built.

D’Emilio believes the goals of LGBT history now should be “to embed queer stories in a larger national political history, so they will becomes less separated, less ghettoized, and become seen as integral to understanding broader narratives of U.S. history.” Every one of these essays is worth reading. D’Emilio’s gift is rendering whatever historical topic he is addressing relevant. He is a gifted teacher, and his excitement about what he has discovered in his research can be contagious. The central debate for D’Emilio has always been whether gay liberation is part of a broader historical struggle for human freedom. Should the focus be on gay issues alone? Should we pursue a multi-issue coalition politics or a single-issue national-

ist politics? D’Emilio is asking us whether queers should retain the same strategies that were developed for conditions of 40 years ago. Or because our status in broader society has so improved, will the road to equality (and yes, we have a long way to go) best be achieved through single-issue politics? There are no easy answers to these questions, and D’Emilio believes we need both local infrastructure and powerful national voices, such as Lambda Legal, GLAAD, and the Human Rights Campaign, to attain these goals. But he warns that each new generation must set its own agendas. “History exists for us to learn from it, but it is not there to be unthinkingly copied and repeated.” With such a thoughtful guide pointing out how far we have travelled and what lessons we have learned, the path ahead for LGBT history having an impact on “mainstream” history remains bright.t

CHECK OUT WHAT’S COOKING AT EDGE! For sizzling photos, Pride event coverage, LGBT news & entertainment!

viduals and even whole groups of people understood the world and their place in it.” The same portrayal and term community historian could aptly define D’Emilio.

A professor of gender, women’s studies, and history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he has authored three pioneering books on gay history: Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the U.S., 1940-1970; Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America; and Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. His latest work is a wide-ranging collection of essays on the social, cultural, and political changes provoked by LGBT activism. His own LGBT participation

he observed that a historian could see his words as a tool for building new lives and communities. That motivation still inspires D’Emilio’s writing today. Many of the essays in this collection originated as talks before academic and activist audiences, or as local LGBT newspaper articles. There are four sections. Part I looks at the broad sweep of LGBT activism since the 1960s, assessing the gains and suggestions about the future, questioning queer nationalism and how the gay movement has interacted with leftist politics. Part II focuses on the process of research and writing history, with pieces emerging from his own experiences writing about sex, community organizing, and producing oral history.

Part III centers on Chicago, where

<< Music

22 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

Back to the future with Handel

by Jason Victor Serinus

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t may seem strange to frame a performance of Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740) as pointing to the future. But in the hands and hearts of the young participants in American Bach Soloists’ annual Summer Festival and Academy, Handel’s pastoral ode shone with a freshness that provided an aural antidote to today’s increasingly frenetic and hideously compressed MP3 soundscape.

Heard on July 18 from an ideal location in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s airy and resonant concert hall, Handel’s sweet jewel glistened as if composed anew.

True, Maestro Jeffrey Thomas’ careful pacing was so “moderato” as to sometimes render the experience more rarefied than invigorating, but the presence of so many student instrumentalists and vocalists who are still feeling their way undoubtedly influenced his tempos. Nonetheless, when flutist Joshua Romatowski (Dearborn, MI) chirped along with his fellow Academy participant, soprano Hailey Fuqua (Boston, MA), on the famous aria, “Sweet bird, that shun’st the noise of folly,” and the orchestra’s mix of professional and student string players chirped with delicious delicacy over a perfect bass foundation as Academy soprano Anna Gorbachyova (Yekaterinburg, Russia) sang “Mirth admit me of they crew,” all concerns were replaced with wonder.

Key to the success of both performances were the women’s astounding trills and perfectly placed high notes. The higher these sopranos went, the more wonderful their voices became. At one point, when Gorbachyova unexpectedly chirped out a high D (at baroque pitch), several audience members gasped in amazement. Nor was Fuqua’s high E

in “Sweet Bird” anything but wondrous.

While neither she nor Fuqua possesses the dew-like radiance and clear enunciation of some of the great early-music sopranos of present and past, their shining high ranges and technical facility hold promise for successful careers.

In the tenor department, Michael Jankosky’s (Pittsburg, PA) cutting clarity, vocal beauty, excellent enunciation, and technical surety could well put him in high demand in the years ahead. If his slightly cocky attitude and overdone facial expressions reflect an artist still finding his way, his voice suggests that he is already there. The same may be true for bass David Rugger (Bloomington, American Bach Soloists music director Jeffrey Thomas on stage IN), whose fabulous, with members of the ABS Festival Orchestra: heavenly singing. mature sound and early-music mezzos that includes on top is lovely. Soprano Fiona Gilgratifying ability to alter vocal color Kathleen Ferrier, Janet Baker, and lespie (Williamsport, PA) and adorto match the text of his sole aria Lorraine Hunt Lieberson not yet able tenor Corey Shotwell (Ionia, helped one forgive his pompous attiapparent, it is possible that the emoMI) may also possess smaller voices, tude and overly studied movements. tional truth at the center of Vojtko’s but when their evenly matched inSpecial mention must be made tone may soon elevate her into their struments sang the final duet to the of the hallowed depth and supreme rank. More, please. heavenly accompaniment of faculty stillness that mezzo-soprano Agnes Bass Benjamin Kazez (San Franmember Debra Nagy’s oboe and Vojtko (Siófok, Hungary) brought cisco) may be lighter-voiced than Nate Helgeson’s (Eugene, OR) basto “There held in holy passion still,” those above, with his bottom a bit soon, their light, sweet beauty was and to her subsequent recitative and shallow and the top sometimes perfection itself. aria. Hers may not be the deepest coarsely produced, but there is a Special mention is also due the voice, but there is something rare handsome core to his sound. Sadhorn of Sadie Glass (Manitowoc, about its exceptionally even, modvisaged tenor Jason Rylander (ArWI), trumpet of Steven Marquardt estly plush, and heart-touching lington, VA) may be weak at the bot(Burnsville, MI), heavenly singing sound. With the rightful successor tom of his range, but his sweetness of the ABS Chorus, and excellence to the lineage of “spiritually-voiced”

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Filip Celander

of the orchestra. The supremely beautiful ensemble sound that Thomas has achieved during his 25 years at the helm of ABS testifies to his mastery.

A personal postscript: It is with a mixture of sadness and excitement that my husband and I, having found ourselves priced out of the East Bay housing market, will soon begin our lives anew in Port Townsend, WA. I extend my deepest gratitude to Thomas and B.A.R. arts editor Roberto Friedman for making this, my final local performance review for this publication, such a joy.t

Gay rights masterpiece?

by Tim Pfaff

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magining what Benjamin Britten might think about his iconic War Requiem becoming a vehicle extoling gay rights is enough to stop thought in its tracks. The great gay composer, who died in 1973, wasn’t anybody’s idea of “out,” but no one who knew so much as his name would not also have known that he was gay, at a time when the acceptance, to say nothing of the legality, of homosexuality in England had not moved significantly beyond that in Oscar Wilde’s day.

What Britten was renowned for, and “out” about, was his uncompromising pacifism, caused him enough trouble. His repudiation of war comes up repeatedly in his music, but never in a more potent or concentrated way than in his War Requiem, commissioned for the inauguration of the cathedral built next to the iconic ruins of the bombedout Coventry Cathedral in 1962 and, tragically, never irrelevant since. As I write, I need more than the fingers of both hands to count the countries in which war rages, mostly beyond the gaze of the international press, and other fingers are now pointing at Moscow over the downing of MH17.

Not that long before, a bomb of a different kind was dropped in Moscow. At a high-profile performance

of the War Requiem by the London Philharmonic, its conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, made the kind of preperformance speech considered de rigueur in Russia. In unusually long remarks, Jurowski commented that the War Requiem is “a celebration of love, and specifically homosexual love.” It was the latest volley by top classical musicians against Russia’s newly fortified antigay laws, and some reporters opined that surely Jurowski was exaggerating, even distorting, the evidence to make the point.

Was he?

On the title page of War Requiem, Britten inscribed the words of poet Wilfred Owen, “My subject is War, and the pity of War.” It was in every way a bold move on Britten’s part to intersperse the more standard Latin

requiem texts with poems by the gay World War I poet. Clearly, the composer’s principal reason for using the Owen poems, to which W.H. Auden introduced him, is their immediacy, their almost extreme personalization of the horrors and vanity of war. But the homoerotic charge of the poems, and particularly the final pair, expressing the feelings of two dead “enemy” soldiers, leading to their joint plea “Let us sleep now” (in which “sleep” does not have sexual reverberations), has not gone unnoticed by generations of listeners of all sexualities.

Of the half-dozen new recordings of War Requiem to appear during the Britten Year just passed, several warrant a second look in light of Jurowski’s claim. Of the star-studded recordings, there’s Antonio Pappano’s (Warner Classics), which almost hews to Britten’s intention of using vocal soloists from England, Germany and Russia to represent the major powers in World War II. (Yanks away?) The soprano is Russian superstar Anna Netrebko, who lately has been explicit about her love of gay people without distancing herself from her mentor Valery Gergiev, a close friend of Vladimir Putin. Netrebko boldly tackles her assignment with

a plummy sound, generic intensity and paint-peeling shrillness, but she hardly dislodges memory of Galina Vishnevskaya (no vocal angel herself, but a singer of tremendous force and integrity), for whom Britten conceived the part.

Ever-enterprising Testament has released the first-ever-published recording of the premiere, conducted

by Britten on May 30, 1962. While it’s been dismissed as a collector’sonly issue, memorializing not just the first performance of the great work but of that performance’s shortcomings (largely due to the over-resonant, inhospitable acoustics of the new cathedral, which is also a problem in the otherwise fine video of the 50th-anniversary performance, from Arthaus Musik, under Andris Nelsons) and the conspicuous mistakes in the first outing of this hugely complex and demanding score, it’s far from merely archival.

From start to finish there’s the unmistakable sense that this was an occasion not just of high moment but also of enormous emotional impact. Deputizing on days’ notice for Vishnevskaya, whom the Soviet Union would not grant leave to attend, Heather Harper gives one of her greatest performances ever of Britten’s music, which is saying a great deal. And the “right” men, Britten’s lifelong partner and muse Peter Pears and the great German singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (the only named performer who had done service in the field during World War II, ending his stint with the Wehrmacht as an American prisoner of war – in which confines his public singing career

began), outdistance their own high standards.

The ordinarily unflappable Fischer-Dieskau was, famously, so overwhelmed by the work in performance that he sank into his chair and at the concert’s end had to be helped from the stage by Pears. But, pre-overwhelm, he’s as incendiary as I’ve ever heard him, incisive in his delivery of the English texts and decisive in vocal authority. The final “duet” takes both the soloists and listeners, now as then, to the limit of what’s endurable. Fischer-Dieskau does seem to be communicating from “the other side,” and by the time he sings the heart-stopping, “I am the enemy you killed, my friend,” you see what Jurowski meant by love, including of the man-to-man sort.

The Decca studio set of the following year is one of a small handful of classical recordings regarded as not just definitive but also unsurpassable. But, if you know the work, this recording of the premiere might be the first one you regularly take off the shelf.

But but but, unless unless unless that turned out to be Paul McCreesh’s (Signum Records), the most pellucid, intimate and searching recording of the work I’ve heard. The Britten Year’s “White Album” (its cover is aching in its simplicity), it’s perfectly realized and ineluctable in its bore into the soul. The ideal soloists are Susan Gritton (arguably the star of the Britten Year), John Mark Ainsley and Christopher Maltman, and McCreesh wrings astounding music-making from his Gabrieli Consort and Players and their longtime Polish counterparts.t

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Music>>

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 23

Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge: expect an “eargasm” when she appears at Davies Hall.

Steven Underhill

<<

WEDDINGS, HEADSHOTS, PORTRAITS

Melissa Etheridge

From page 13

David-Elijah Nahmod: What can your fans expect from your new symphonic sound?

Melissa Etheridge: A complete eargasm! There’s nothing like this.

You’ll feel like you’re bathing in golden sunshine. I did my songs with the Boston Symphony – I got chills.

How difficult was it to come out in 1993?

It was an unknown abyss. My friends, people like Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O’Donnell and Brad Pitt, knew, and it wasn’t a big deal to them. In one interview for a music magazine I used general pronouns instead of he/she when speaking of my partner. The writer changed the pronouns to my “boyfriend.” I was mortified. I’d look at people like Urvashi Vaid [former Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force] and the work they were doing for equality, and I thought that I’m only successful because people think I’m something I’m not.

I wanted to come out.

Is it true that you refused to pay your taxes after Prop 8 [California’s now-tossed gay marriage ban] was passed? Can you set the record straight, so to speak, on that?

Prop 8 was a blow in the gut. I was so out of my mind about it. In my manifesto [published in 2008 at The Daily Beast] I wrote “that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights. Sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.” But I paid my taxes.

And now we have marriage.

It’s mindblowing. It feels good to call her [Linda Wallem} my wife. I had to go before a judge and adopt my own kids, it was awful. This is so much better.

Can you talk about surviving breast cancer?

My life has been a journey. When my relationship with Julie Cypher fell apart, I felt like I had let the community down. I took in a lot of acidic behaviors, a lot of sugar and alcohol.

When your body is out of balance, cancer grows. Looking back, the tumor made sense. It knocked me over the head – I needed to wake up. The cancer was a gift, it enabled me to change my life. Every choice I make affects my body. Now I eat good food, do yoga and exercise.

Which was more exciting for you, winning an Oscar [Best Song, “I Need To Wake Up,” from An Inconvenient Truth] or a Grammy?

I did the film as a favor to Al Gore.

I had no idea it would be released worldwide, and it was the first time

a song was nominated for a documentary. Winning the Oscar was the crown jewel. Oscar has a shimmer about it like nothing else. It’s the only category I could win for, and it’s the most fabulous thing I could win. But I love my Grammys!t

Melissa Etheridge sings with the San Francisco Symphony, Wed. & Thurs., July 30 & 31, at 7:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave,, SF. Tickets ($15-$45), call (415) 864-6000, or go to sfsymphony.org.

PHOTOGRAPHY

415 370 7152

stevenunderhill.com · stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com

ebar.com

THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE ASIAN ART MUSEUM We’re open until 9 PM on Thursdays in the spring and summer. For just $5 after 5pm, you can enjoy the Gorgeous exhibition and museum in all its evening beauty. And that’s not all–there are usually special programs too. Plan your visit at www.asianart.org

7/31 GORGEOUS IDEA TALK: SKINS AND SURFACES WITH SAMPADA ARANKE 8/7 MY GORGEOUS FETISH: ROPE, FLOWERS, INK AND FLESH WITH MIDORI 8/14 GORGEOUS IDEA TALK: SEX, CHOCOLATE AND KIMONOS WITH TINA TAKEMOTO

Photo: Michele Serchuk 2012

9/4 SAYA WOOLFALK: CHIMATEK WITH ORIGINAL MUSIC BY DJ SPOOKY 8/28 ARTISTS DRAWING CLUB: BREATHE WITH JUNG RAN BAE

9/11 GORGEOUS IDEA TALK: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS WITH MICHAEL STABILE

Left: Still, 2005, by Jung Ran Bae. Insects, pins, newspaper obituaries, fabric, wood and glass. Courtesy of the artist. © Jung Ran Bae Right: Chimera, 2013, by Saya Woolfalk. Digital video, mixed media installation, and latex wall drawing.

Courtesy of the artist and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. © Saya Woolfalk and YBCA

Asian Art Museum Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art & Culture

200 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 www.asianart.org

28

32

Pecs O'Toole

Alessandro Del Toro

NIGHTLIFE FOOD

35

SPIRITS

SEX

Birdcage Follies

SOCIETY

ROMANCE

PERSONALS Vol. 44 • No. 30 • July 24-30, 2014

www.ebar.com ✶ www.bartabsf.com Rich Stadtmiller

LEATHER

by Race Bannon

W

ith the quickly approaching Up Your Alley street fair and the vast array of related events that take place around the same time, San Francisco is poised to yet again celebrate the leather and kinky among us in a truly special way. This year Up Your Alley, produced by Folsom Street Events, takes place on Sunday, July 27, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The fair is centered on Dore Alley between Howard and Folsom, continuing on Folsom from 9th to Juniper and the adjoining block of 10th Street.

See page 26

>>

FAIR game An Up Your Alley smooch from 2011.

UP YOUR ALLEY RE-KINKIFIES SOMA

courtesy Steamworks

get laid now

your weekend guide to sex spaces and the cruisiest bars

by Cornelius Washington

S

ex concerns people, no matter your age, race, gender, size or orientation. It concerns you. It’s a basic biological function, only slightly less important than breathing, eating, drinking and sleeping.

It’s an adult activity that has breathtaking possibilities, and responsibilities. Done correctly (and frequently), it can take you places within your psyche that will heal and liberate you.

Done incorrectly (and not often enough), it can stifle, warp and damage your spirit. In Western civilization, we have a bizarre, hypocritical viewpoint on sex, denying its open expression, in its myriad forms, but, we never hesitate to exploit it via advertising, to sell mundane products while subjugating and demonizing minorities.

See page 29 >>

Cruising is encouraged in the halls and locker room at Steamworks Berkeley.

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

26 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

t

Fred Alert

Thousands of people gather at the 2012 Up Your Alley street fair.

<<

Up Your Alley

From page 25

Many people assume that Up Your Alley and its big brother, Folsom Street Fair, have similar origins, but that’s not quite true. Gayle Rubin, Ph.D., author of Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader, and the person many consider the world’s foremost authority on San Francisco leather history and South of Market history in particular, says this of the fair’s origins.

“In contrast to the Folsom Street Fair, which eventually became a leather event, Up Your Alley was a gay and leather event from the start.

The first Up Your Alley fair was held on August 25, 1985 on Ringold Alley. The fair was the brainchild of Patrick Toner, who was that year’s International Mr. Leather, and Jerry Vallaire. The first Up Your Alley was focused primarily on AIDS and was structured entirely as a fundraising party. It was billed as a ‘block party and tea dance’ and as a carnival to raise money for three charities: the San Francisco AIDS Fund, the Gay Games II, and Community United

Against Violence.”

Dr. Rubin explains the fair’s move from Ringold Alley to its present location.

“In 1987, the third Up Your Alley moved over to Dore Alley where it was usually referred to as the ‘Dore Alley Fair.’ It was still mostly a small street party with charity booths, food and drink, and entertainment, although the celebrants themselves were usually the most entertaining feature. It changed significantly and began to converge with the Folsom Street Fair when ownership and management of both fairs were placed into a single nonprofit corporation in 1990.”

By the mid-80s the AIDS crisis was worsening and its impact on the fair’s organizers was significant.

Dr. Rubin recounts, “As the original owners and founders of each fair moved on to other projects, and as some of them were diagnosed with HIV, they began to worry about the longevity of these events and plan for a longer future. Kathleen Connell stepped down as co-producer of the Folsom Street Fair in 1986

Rich Stadtmiller

An affectionate pair at 2012’s Up Your Alley street fair.

Drummer photo: courtesy Jack Fritscher. Advocate photo: Bissones

Patrick Toner posed for cover spreads in Drummer and Advocate Men. He died of AIDS in 1993.

and was succeeded by Jayne Salinger. That year, Valerio and Salinger incorporated the Folsom Street Fair as SCAN, the South of Market Community Association. Toner and Vallaire had already established Up Your Alley, Inc. as a separate and independent corporation. In 1990, both the SCAN and Up Your Alley corporations were terminated and the two Fairs were merged into a new organization, SMMILE: South of Market Merchants’ and Individuals’ Lifestyles Events.”

In 2003, SMMILE became Fol-

som Street Events, the organization that continues to produce the fair to this day. Folsom Street Events operates as a community nonprofit with proceeds from Up Your Alley, Folsom Street Fair, and other events it produces contributing over $5 million (yes, you read that correctly) over the years to a wide array of charities and worthwhile causes.

So remember, when you contribute your donation at the fair’s entrance, you’re actually helping a lot of people with your money.

Over the years the fair has changed, grown and morphed into what it is today. I talked with Bob Goldfarb, a former Board member starting in 2000 (when the producing organization was SMMILE) who also served as the head of Security, Vice President and eventually President for two years. At that time SMMILE did not have an Executive Director. So Goldfarb produced Up Your Alley for the years he served as President.

Rich Stadtmiller

A trio of pals at 2013’s fair.

Rich Stadtmiller

Women in leather, even a singlets at the 2013 fair.

Goldfarb offered this regarding how the fair has changed since he helped produce it.

“The fair has grown and physically moved slightly since I was President,” he said. “There used to be a parking lot on Dore Alley where we had the food court and fair headquarters. That space is now occupied by the apartments at Dore and Folsom. In those days, the fair was Dore Alley plus Folsom from 9th to 10th. It’s expanded to include Folsom from 10th to 11th as well as 10th Street. Recycling and composting collection have been added.

Then and now, the fair is all about self-expression. There were more guys in leather back then. Now guys are expressing themselves in different ways. It’s still a hot, sexy, good time and one of my favorite days of the year!”

I asked Demetri Moshoyannis, the Executive Director of Folsom Street Events, what is unique about Up Your Alley as opposed to Folsom Street Fair.

He said, “If people are unfamiliar with the two events, I usually compare them with respect to size, scope, geography, and demographics. In terms of size, Up Your Alley is much smaller – 10,000-12,000 people on two and a half city blocks, compared to the nearly 350,000 people on 13 city blocks who come to Folsom Street Fair. In terms of scope, Up Your Alley is much more focused on BDSM play, whereas Folsom Street Fair is a more inclusive entertainment experience. In terms of geography, Up Your Alley attracts way more locals. Folsom Street Fair is a decidedly international audience. In terms of demographics, Up Your Alley is about 95% gay, bi and trans men whereas Folsom Street Fair is approximately 75% gay, bi, and trans men with many women

Rich Stadtmiller

Beer and bondage at the 2012 fair.

Rich Stadtmiller

The annual Naked Twister, sponsored by Steamworks Berkeley.

Tyger Yosshi

Jorge Vieto, Jr. flogs at a recent Up Your Alley street fair.

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

Mark Abramson

Up Your Alley cofounder Patrick Toner (right) at a margarita booth with Al Parker (left) and Rita Rocket (center).

and heterosexuals attending. In the end, it’s really a matter of where you feel comfortable. Personally, I think it’s good to have two very different types of fetish fairs – it offers variety.”

A hot button issue lately in San Francisco has been public nudity.

One of the stipulations in the nudity legislation enacted by the Board of Supervisors is that street fairs are exempt from the legislation. So if you’re inclined, you can be naked at Up Your Alley. Moshoyannis was clear that nudity will be allowed at the fair. When I asked him how he and his organization were handling the nudity issue, he said “We are handling it by…encouraging it? [laughs] Up Your Alley and Folsom Street Fair are some of the most nudist friendly street festivals.

We are working with the Body Freedom Network by offering them a free booth space and allowing them to host a naked dance contest in the dance area at 3:00pm. So, if you’re interested in how the issue is working its way through local politics or entering the contest, then stop by their booth on 10th Street. Also, we will have a coat and clothes check again on 10th Street, benefiting the Leathermen’s Discussion Group.”

As someone who considers myself a fairly serious and experienced BDSM and kink player, one of the things I’ve always noticed is that Up Your Alley seems to attract more of that sort of person than Folsom Street Fair does. Moshoyannis validated my observation when I asked him who he sees as the primary target audience for Up Your Alley.

“Gay men who are committed players in the leather and fetish scenes. Traditionally, we don’t do much marketing outside of San Francisco (with International Mr. Leather being a major exception), but clearly the word has gotten out.

Usually we encourage tourists or newcomers to try Folsom Street Fair first. Tourists tend to enjoy the spectacle and entertainment values at Folsom a bit more; and newcomers can enjoy Folsom by being voyeurs,

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 27

by watching and learning. Up Your Alley can be pretty intimidating for someone who isn’t a seasoned member of the community.”

Every year I look forward to Up Your Alley and the numerous social, dance and play events that surround it. The moment I pay my donation at the fair gate and walk into the sea of leatherfolk, I am swept into a fully kink world that is extremely special to me.

We’re so lucky to have that opportunity here. I arrive early and usually stay late because I want to savor every moment of that brotherhood bond that permeates the air.

But I wondered if other have the same impression I do.

So I asked some people to tell me of their Up Your Alley experiences.

One of the recurring messages I got from many people I asked was that they liked the local and smaller aspects of Up Your Alley as compared to Folsom Street Fair. While I myself

by fellow pigs and kinksters,” said Lopez. “I like that this one is a little more local (though I fear not for much longer). It’s a chance for everyone else to see exactly who I am at a bigger level (not that I ever hide it). And a chance to meet and network with people who share similar views as mine.”

Jorge Vieto, Jr., a Fraternal Member of The 15 Association, Board member of the SF Leather Alliance and the former Stop AIDS Project Leather Coordinator, said, “I like that it is a fun place to connect with local and like-minded kinksters that I otherwise wouldn’t get to see dur-

a communal, kinky environment, some out of towners also attend.

Aaron Duke, American Leatherman 2013, is one such well known leatherman who travels the nation regularly attending leather and kink events of various kinds. I asked him how Up Your Alley compares to other events he’s attended.

“There is nothing like Up Your Alley anywhere,” said Duke. “People travel from around the globe to attend this one of a kind, legendary street fair. It’s a public exhibition of what makes leather, kink, fetish and BDSM so unique. There are a whole host of events surrounding the weekend that cater to a wide variety of interests. There is always something for everyone. There is a historical legacy of this event. And it’s also been an amazing generator of funds for many local and national

American Leatherman 2013 Aaron Duke.

Rich Stadtmiller

Jorge Vieto, Jr. (left) and Bob Goldfarb at a 15 Association dinner in 2013.

love both fairs, for different reasons, it’s interesting to get other perspectives.

Eric Burkett, a Board Member of Leathermen’s Discussion Group and the current Leather Daddy’s Boy XXIX, offered this.

“I like Dore for probably much the same reason as others do,” he said “It’s smaller than its larger, more famous counterpart, the Folsom Street Fair. Up Your Alley still has something of a community feel to it although that, too, has changed as it draws more and more of a mainstream presence. It’s a little raunchier, a little more sordid, a little more fun. I like the feeling I get as if I were in on a secret.”

Erick Lopez, a bartender at the Edge bar in the Castro and producer of Code, the Castro’s only official leather/kink bar event, offered this.

“I love knowing I am surrounded

Rich Stadtmiller

Men in full gear at the 2013 Up Your Alley Street Fair.

ing other times of the year. Also, it’s a great opportunity for clubs such as The 15 Association to demonstrate our skills and outreach to newer folks. To me, Up Your Alley was important because one of my ways of ‘coming out’ as a kinkster happened in the context of this fair many years ago. I still look fondly at my first fair since it was in many ways a ‘coming out’ for me.”

While the fair is primarily held so that locals can hang out and enjoy

Rich Stadtmiller

Folsom Street Events Executive Director Demetri Moshoyannis at Up Your Alley in 2013.

charities throughout the years.”

Various vendors are now an integral part of the fair. One of the longtime vendors is Mr. S Leather. I asked Richard Hunter, the owner of the venerable and iconic leather retail institution, what Up Your Alley

is like from his perspective and why the fair is an important event.

“Mr. S has had a booth at Up Your Alley for many years, but we never wanted to sell anything at our booth,” said Hunter. “That day was for playing, having fun and connecting with friends. So we flogged, and tied boys up all day and just wanted to be part of the reason San Francisco has Up You Alley. Personally, I think this event is much more a part of the gay men’s leather community than Folsom Street Fair. It’s still mostly gay men enjoying each other’s company without all the tourists gawking at us.

At the end of the day, it’s always felt good to have spent the day out on the public street with like-minded kinky friends. Gotta love San Francisco and what we are still allowed to do here.”

So get ready to have a blast at Up Your Alley this year. Make sure to also check out the calendar listings that accompany this column for an assortment of events you can also attend. There’s so much going on that you may have to plan out your fun and play itinerary ahead of time.

Then after you’ve had a blast with this year’s festivities, we can all look forward to next year when Up Your Alley will turn 30. Moshoyannis said his team is already preparing for it.

“So far, we’re not sure how we’ll celebrate that anniversary, but the Board of Directors will help to decide those issues at our strategic planning meeting in January. Our anniversaries are always an exceptional time!”

I’m looking forward that, but in the meantime I’m getting my gear ready to wear at this year’s fair and the host of other events I plan to attend this week as well. I hope to see many of my readers there. Let’s have fun and revel in this amazing city that welcomes us kinksters with open arms.t Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. You can reach him through the contact page at www.bannon.com.

t

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

28 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

BARchive: Perils of Pecs O’Toole

by Jim Stewart

W

e stood inside Allan Lowery’s new bar, the Leatherneck, at 11th and Folsom. It was about to open with its new United States Marine Corps theme. Gregg Coats, designer of the bar’s logo, stared at the row of horizontal windows boarded up with plywood.

“It needs something there,” Gregg said, pointing at the windows.

“Like what?” Allan said.

“Something USMC-ish,” I said.

“Pictures of Marines.”

“Marines in a leather bar.”

“In boot camp!”

“A Marine initiation!”

We were all talking at once.

“A cartoon strip!” “Each window could be a different panel in the strip!” “Who could paint such a cartoon strip? And that size?”

“Don’t look at me!” Gregg said.

Al Shapiro, better known as A. Jay, was a prominent illustrator from the 1960s through the 1980s who created the first continuing

Jim Stewart

Perils of Pecs O’Toole Panel One 1977, hung in the Leatherneck Bar.

gay comic strip, Harry Chess. The strip debuted in QQ Magazine in New York. When Drummer magazine moved north to San Francisco, Jack Fritscher became editorin-chief and A. Jay the art director.

Harry Chess continued in the new “mag for the macho male.” Allan Lowery contacted Shapiro.

A. Jay agreed to create a Marine-themed comic-erotic cartoon strip large enough to fill each

Jim Stewart

Two Men Detail from Pecs O’Toole Panel One in 1977.

Jim Stewart

Al (A. Jay) Shapiro in 1977.

of the boarded-up windows. Thus the 4’ x 8’ panels depicting “The Perils of Pecs O’Toole” were created specifically for the Leatherneck bar. The panels would come out slowly, with a month or more between each in order to build anticipation of the further perils of Pecs O’Toole. Each panel had a special unveiling with the artist present. The introductory panel was ready for its debut in early July, 1977.

Prior to the installation, I went to A. Jay’s home in Potrero Hill.

We lugged the completed work of art to the roof where I took several shots of both Pecs O’Toole and his creator. Once installed behind the bar’s pinball machines, I took additional pix of the panel. It looked great in the smoky confines of the Leatherneck. Allan held a second grand opening for the unveiling of Pecs O’Toole as he was initiated into the U. S. Marines Corps. It was a hit! The bar was packed. The doorman’s line went to the corner and extended down Folsom Street.

Later that fall, I took several rooftop shots of the second panel depicting the further adventures of Pecs O’Toole. It was then installed in the second window of The Leatherneck to cheers from the crowd of Pecs O’Toole fans.

By the end of 1977, the bar started to wan as new leather bars, such as the Black-and-Blue and the Brig, lured away many of the Leatherneck’s customers.

Allan closed the bar for a week.

We completely redid the interior. The name Leatherneck was dropped in favor of a Marine chevron with no name. It worked. For a while. But before the third and final panel could be painted, the bar closed for good.

Lowery sold the Pecs O’Toole panels to a private buyer. The last I heard, their whereabouts was unknown.t © 2014 writerJimStewart@hotmail. com For further true gay adventures check out the award-winning Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of 1970s SoMa and Leatherfolk in Gay San Francisco by Jim Stewart.

Leather Events, July 24 – August 10, 2014 There’s always a lot going on in the San Francisco Bay Area for leather and other kinksters.

Thu 24 5th Annual SF BLUF Dinner @ Don Ramon Restaurant Leather, biker, or other gear required, $30 at door, 225 11th St., 6pm bar, 7:30pm buffet.

Reserve seats by July 20 at blufsf@yahoo.com.

Fri 25

Sat 26 Anthony Friedkin: The Gay Essay @ de Young Museum SF Defenders leather/kink outing, de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, 11am. www.sfdefenders.org

Beers, Boys and Bondage @ Mr. S Leather

Annual leather/kink street fair, see website for South of Market location, 11am. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Flagging in the Park @ AIDS Memorial Grove

Hosted by the Bare Chest Calendar Men, 1347 Folsom St., 7pm. www.barechest.org

Play Party @ Blow Buddies Official play space for Up Your Alley Fair, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Sober Kink Together @ Castro Country Club Officially a CMA meeting, but open to all Anonymous 12-step Fellowship members, 4058 18th St., 9:30pm.

Official dance event of Up Your Alley, 525 Harrison St., 10pm. See website for ticket details. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Memory/Everyday Hero Celebration @ AIDS Memorial Grove

Paws Up @ SOMA StrEATFood Park

Up Your Alley Kickoff Party @ Powerhouse

Bay of Pigs

Sun 27

Rubber Men of SF meet and greet, 4141 18th St., 6pm. www.rmsf.org

SF K9 Unit Annual Pup-Handler-Curious Dinner, no charge/dutch treat, reserved group seating in The School Bus, 428 11th St., 6:30pm. www.sfk9unit.org

Dress code enforced party, 398 12th St., 9pm. www.sf-eagle.com

Up Your Alley Edition of the Leather/kink social event, 385 8th St., 11am. www.mr-s-leather.com

Bring a blanket, a picnic basket and some stories for a group celebration of our thriving, our memories, and the everyday heroes in our lives hosted by Rich Stadtmiller of RichTrove. com, Golden Gate Park, 11:30am.

Ignition Meet and Greet @ Does Your Mother Know

Kontrol @ SF Eagle

Not specifically a leather/kink event, but lots of kinky folks attend, Golden Gate Park, 12:30am. www.flaggercentral.com/tag/flagging-in-the-park

Back Door Alley @ Powerhouse Event hosted by Rubber Men of SF, 1347 Folsom St., 5pm. www.rmsf.org

The 15 Association Men’s Play Party @ SF Citadel

Up Your Alley Street Fair

Play Party @ Blow Buddies Official play space for Up Your Alley Fair, 933 Harrison St., 4pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Play T-Dance @ Mezzanine Post Up Your Alley dance party, 444 Jessie St., 5pm. www.ticketfly.com/event/581927

Phoenix @ Mr. S Leather Men’s rubber play party, 385A 8th St., 6pm.

See website for pre-registration details. www.rmsf.org

A men’s BDSM play party. 181 Eddy St., 8pm. www.the15sf.org

Sat 2

Play Party @ Blow Buddies Official play space for Up Your Alley Fair, 933 Harrison St., 8pm. www.blowbuddies.com

Santa Clara County Leather Association Annual Leather Formal @ Flames Eatery & Bar

Code @ Edge

A leather and uniform dinner, 88 S. Fourth St., San Jose, 6:30pm. www.sccleather.org

Bringing leather back to the Castro, 4149 18th St., 9pm. http://qbarsf.com/EDGE/

Fri 8 SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group Meet & Greet @ Powerhouse Kickoff for the SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group Fetish Fair 2014 weekend, hosted by the Bay Area boys of Leather, 1347 Folsom St., 9pm. www.sfldg.org/fetishfair2014

Sat 9 Whips in the Park @ Powerhouse For men who want to throw whips together, part of the SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group Fetish Fair 2014 weekend, hosted by SFLDG and Daddy Robert, location TBD (check website), 11am. www.sfldg.org/fetishfair2014

Fetish Fair @ SF Citadel Annual BDSM demonstration and kinky fun fair, part of the SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group Fetish Fair 2014 weekend, 181 Eddy St., 7pm. www.sfldg.org/fetishfair2014

Men’s Play Party @ SF Citadel Men’s Play Party with The Men of GearUp Weekend, part of the SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group Fetish Fair 2014 weekend, 181 Eddy St., 9:15pm. www.sfldg.org/fetishfair2014

Sun 10 Casual Food Truck Lunch @ SOMA StrEATFood Park Casual, no-host lunch at the food trucks, part of the SF Leathermen’s Discussion Group Fetish Fair 2014 weekend, 428 11th St., 12pm. www.sfldg.org/fetishfair2014

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 29

Now let’s discuss the bars, shall we?

The Hole In The Wall

The Hole In The Wall, known for its atypical hard rock tunes (often spun by DJ Don Baird) proves that yes, you can meet someone in this great institution of diversity and debauchery this weekend, and in the crowd, probably pull some pants down and have a great episode. Being right in the path of the Up Your Alley events, it’ll be crowded this weekend. Be safe and respectful, while having a good time. The draft beers and wild decorations are sure to inspire a sexy trip.

1369 Folsom St. www.hitws.com

courtesy Eros

A pair of men relax in the tiled showers and sauna at Eros.

<<

Get Laid Now

From page 25

We think about sex constantly, but, quickly stigmatize anything and everyone who appears to be more comfortable and focused about it than we are. Now, the only way both improvement and greater pleasure from your sexuality is to embrace it and keep at it (while allowing others to do the same).

Armed with this manifesto, allow me to give you just a little bit of information on where you may go to fuck, suck, kiss, spank, rim, fondle, tongue, tickle, finger, dance and participate, in all of the wonderful ways that you can get laid and feel wonderful about being you this Up Your Alley Street Fair weekend… and beyond, into fucking infinity!

Eros

Recently, this publication profiled Eros in an excellent article that left me intrigued. Ken Rowe, one of Eros’ co-owners, provided me with an impressive private tour. It’s a very beautiful space. It’s safe-sex-conscious and very egalitarian. Their prices are reasonable, with masseurs, a new fitness area, a stunning smoking deck, sauna, SMBD classes, nude yoga and nude art classes, where both the artists and models must be naked.

When I asked Ken what he wanted to tell me, and the many men who will enter Eros to get laid this weekend, he stated, “Check out our party called ‘Bearos,’ 7pm to 3am.

We are here for you all, seven days a week. We have a diverse, international clientele, in a safe part of town. We are convenient to many buses and the trolley, and we can provide an experience that hooking up on the internet never will! You can come over, have great sex and/or just chill out and relax in a beautiful environment. We pride ourselves on our cleanliness. Come over and see us.”

Next, let me tell you about a place that’s near and dear to my heart.

2051 Market St. 255-4921. www.erossf.com

Steamworks Berkeley

Let me start off by stating that each time I’ve visited Steamworks, I’ve left floating on air! Some of my life’s most beautiful, romantic and erotic experiences have happened there. No bullshit. It’s an amazing, huge facility. Along with DJed speical events, the East Bay bath house attracts a lot of UC Berkeley students, and well as older studs. It has a well-appointed gym, a beguiling glory hole maze, mirror-ceilinged private rooms, a beautiful swimming pool and hot music. I must mention the post-industrial decor.

It’s very reminiscent of Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation 1814” music video. Man, if only the water pipes could talk.

2107 4th St. (510) 845-8992. www.steamworksbaths.com/berkeley

The Watergarden

If you happen to trek down San Jose way, The Watergarden is a sure bet for a clean-up in the sex and bathing department. With a South Bay clientele that includes Latino hunks, and special events that showcase live nude shows by visiting porn studs, you can swim, shower and suck to your heart’s content.

1010 The Alameda, San Jose. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Blow Buddies

Meanwhile, back in San Francisco, Blow Buddies, the oral sex emporium, is a must-visit. Their themed night are very popular. It’s a large establishment, with excellent clientele and cool décor; very open, yet intimate. There is only one admission, at a great price. Many men go there, get on theier knees and do what they have to do. Theme nights offer a range for all tastes.

With clothes check, condoms and lube, plus washing stations, and a reputation that’s been documented in hundreds of porn videos, you’re sure to get laid at least once in this erotic establishement.

933 Harrison St. 777-4323. www.blowbuddies.com

courtesy The Watergarden

Yes, they’re models, but you meet hotties at The Watergarden.

The Powerhouse

How can I explain it? On many nights, The Powerhouse becomes a hot, rockin’, ass-smackin’ porn set that would make Chi Chi LaRue faint dead away in her Christian Louboutin pumps. The cruising action in the Powerhouse’s back room is quite notorious, and the front room often features nearly naked gogo guys and sex-themed shows and benefits.

For Dore weekend, the bar is packed to capacity. Be prepared to wait in line, visitors and locals. Also, be prepared to be snug up against any numbers of pairs and trios of guys making out.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com See page 33 >>

The Eagle

The Eagle has been rebooted!

Bears, cubs, and all sorts of men, women and transfolk have embraced the re-opened, beautifully renovated and vaunted leather bar.

Of course, there will be hot, gearedup, horny guys who’ve come a long way to see the improvements in this bedrock of butchness. Men being men, things will heat up with potential heavy action, right next to jovial cameraderie. Get yourself a beer, take off some clothes and let the fantasy take you. Sunday’s beer bust will see a lot of spillover from the street fair. But every night should be crowded, including the bathrooms.

398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

The Lone Star

Unpretentious, up-front, downhome men doing their thing; hanging out and being friendly. Yes, it is bear centeral, but all types of people are welcome. You can let yourself go and do things that gay men do with each other to become really good friends. Leave your judgements outside, and enjoy the open back patio by day or night.

1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Rich Stadtmiller

A Dore duo at The Powerhouse.

<< On the Tab

30 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

eON THE– TAB f July 24 31

★

Fri 25 Bad Girl Cocktail Hour @ The Lexington Club Every Friday night, bad girls can get $1 dollar margaritas between 9pm and 10pm. 3464 19th St. between Mission and Valencia. 863-2052. www.lexingtonclub.com

Bearracuda @ Beatbox Underwear, under bears, Dore weekend night, with DJs John LePage and steve Sherwood. $10. 9pm-3am.

314 11th St. www.bearracuda.com www.BeatboxSF.com

Xavier Caylor

Connie Champagne @ Hotel Rex

Flagging in the Park

Sat 26

D

ore, Dore Dore! Actually, there are a few other events going on this week, but those in the know are aware that the Up Your Alley Street Fair is the central sleazepoint for all things kinky, beery, leathery and Dorey (-ish?). This week’s BARtab section is devoted to debauchery, past present and future. But there are a few events where you can keep your clothes on.

Thu 24 Bulge @ Powerhouse Grace Towers hosts the gogo-tastic night of sexy dudes shakin' their bulges and getting wet in their undies for $100 prize (contest at midnight), and dance beats spun by DJ DAMnation. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Candace Roberts @ Martuni's The singer-songwriter who's 'trending' with "Not My City Anymore," her topical song about Bay Area gentrification, performs at the popular intimate martini bar's lounge. $10.

7pm. 4 Valencia St. www.candaceroberts.com

La Femme @ Beaux Ladies' happy hour at the Castro nightclub, with drink specials, no cover, and women gogos. 4pm-9pm.

2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

FSH Society Benefit @ Yoshi's

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

My So-Called Night @ Beaux Heklina hosts a new weekly '90s-themed video, dancing', drinkin' night, with VJs Jorge Terez and Becky Knox, plus hostess Heklina. Get down with your funky bunch, and enjoy 90-cent drinks! '90s-themed attire and costume conest. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Nap's Karaoke @ Virgil's Sea Room Sing out loud at the weekly least judgmental karaoke in town, hosted by the former owner of the bar. No cover. 9pm. 3152 Mission St. 8292233. www.virgilssf.com

The talented local chanteuse (known for her impeccable Judy Garland stylings) performs Ready For My Close-Up, a night of movie theme songs, both popular and obscure, including advance requests (email societycabaret@gmail.com). $20-$50.

8pm. cocktails and food items; no minimum. 562 Sutter St. 857-1896. www.SocietyCabaret.com

Drew Sumrok & Alessandro Del Toro @ Nob Hill Theatre In this Up your Alley special weekend, Sumrock strips for a sexy solo show (8pm), then a live sex show with Del Toro (10pm). $25. Also July 26. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Forbidden Broadway @ Feinstein's at the Nikko Alive and Kicking!, Gerald Alessandrini's newest edition of the show tune parody revue, comes to the Bay Area, with musical send-ups and satirical vignettes of The Book of Mormon, Once, Newsies, Patti LuPone, Mandy Patankin and more. $45-$60. Thu & Fri 8pm. Sat & Sun 7pm. Thru July 27. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. (866) 663-1063. www.ticketweb.com

Happy Friday @ Midnight Sun

Thrillpeddlers' hilarious Cockettes revival returns, with new choreography, costumes and cast members. $30-$35.

Thu-Sat 8pm. Extended thru July 26.

575 10th St. (800) 838-3006. www.thrillpeddlers.com

Manimal @ Beaux

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge

The gay singer-songwriter known for heartwarming (and heartbreaking) music performs in a special concert with his brother Bryce Alber (aka Lou Jane) and his father Kurt Alber. $21. ($46 with dinner; other beer, wine, and full menu options). Doors 8pm.

Show 9pm. 859 O'Farrell St. 8850750. www.mattalber.com www.slimspresents.com

Funny Fun @ Club 21, Oakland New LGBT comedy night hosted by Dan Mires. $10. 8pm. July 24: Natasha Muse. July 31: Caitlin Gill headlines.

2111 Franklin St. Oakland. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Jukebox @ Beatbox Veteran DJ Page Hodel (The Box, Q and many other events) presents a new weekly dance event, with soul, funk, hip-hop and house mixes. $10. 21+. 9pm-2am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.BeatboxSF.com

Mary Go Round @ Lookout Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro and Holotta Tymes host the weekly night with DJ Philip Grasso, gogo guys, drink specials, and drag acts.

10pm-2am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

The intimate groovy retro disco night with tunes spun by DJ Bus Station John. $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle The weekly live rock shows feature local and touring bands. 9pm-ish. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Ursula Rucker @ Leo's Music Club The veteran spoken word performer is joined by Mona Webb, Dahleed Jeffries, Aisha Fukushima, Aima and DJ Cecil. $10-$15. 9pm. 5447 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.bit.ly/ursulaoakland

VIP @ Club 21, Oakland Hip Hop, Top 40, and sexy Latin music; gogo dancers, appetizers, and special guest DJs. No cover before 11pm and just $5 after all night.

Dancing 9pm-3am. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm 2111 Franklin St. (510) 2689425. www.club21oakland.com

The weekly mash-up dance night, with resident DJs Adrian & Mysterious D. No matter the theme, a mixed fun good time's assured. $8-$15. 9pm3am. 21+. 375 11th St. at Harrison. www.BootieSF.com www.DNAlounge.com

Sat 26 Bay of Pigs @ The Factory Eddie Martinez and Dan De Leon DJ at the annual Up Your Alley circuit dance and extra-sexy party, with hot gogo guys showing all, a horny playroom, and multiple bars. Paid clothes check, so you can strip down to nearly nothing. $35$60. 10pm-4am. 525 Harrison St. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Beer Bust @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Beer only $8 until you bust. 4pm8pm. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Code @ Edge Host Erich Lopez and his hotty leather gogo crew bring leather back to the Castro each month. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. www.qbarsf.com/EDGE/

Flagging in the Park @

National AIDS Memorial Grove The festive outdoor dance, picnic and commemorative event includes DJed music and flow arts in a lovely park setting. 12:30-4:30pm. Bowling Green Drive, near Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park. www.flaggercentral.com www.aidsmemorial.org

CRISP , REFRESHING

TASTE.

Latin Explosion and Valentino Presents welcome the bighaired comic drag queen. Enjoy eight bars, more dance floors, and a smoking lounge at the largest gay Latin dance night in the Bay Area. Happy hour 4pm8:30pm. Dancing 9pm-4am. 2111 Franklin St. (510) 268-9425. www.club21oakland.com

Fuego @ The Watergarden, San Jose Weekly event, with Latin music, halfoff locker fees and Latin men, at the South Bay private men's bath house. $8-$39. Reg hours 24/7. 18+. 1010 The Alameda. (408) 275-1215. www.thewatergarden.com

Bootie SF @ DNA Lounge

Up Your Alley Kickoff Party hosted by the Bare Chest Calendar Men. 7pm, followed by the towel-snapping sexy party with DJ Bill Dupp. (9pm-2am).

1347 Folsom St. www.barechest.org

Lola Veronica @ Club 21, Oakland

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe

Pearls Over Shanghai @ The Hypnodrome

Steam @ Powerhouse

The popular video bar ends each week with gogo guys (starting at 9pm) and drink specials. Check out the new expanded front lounge, with a window view. 4067 18th St. 8614186. www.midnightsunsf.com

The charity for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy's fundraiser, Songs in the Key of Steven Blier, features opera singer Frederica von Stade and pianist Steven Blier, with a reception, auction and dinner. $50-$125 and $250. 1330 Fillmore St. www.fshsociety.org www.yoshis.com

Amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am. 2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

t

Gogo-tastic night starts off your weekend. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Matt Alber @ Great American Music Hall

Fri 25 Lola Veronica @ Club 21

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event now also takes place on Saturdays! 3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Furries in the Wild @ Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland The daytime party for furries and their friends returns to the scenic East Bay setting; DJed music for dancing, change areas, picnic tables, a potluck.

Free/donations, BYOB. 12pm-7pm.

Joaquin Miller PRoad at Sanborn, Oakland. www.frolicparty.com/furries

Industry @ Beatbox DJs Tom Stephan and Paul Goodyear spin hardcore dance grooves for the Dore Alley weekend party. $20-$40.

10pm-4am. 314 11th St. at Folsom. www.IndustrySF.com

The Purple Ones @ Slim's The fabulous Prince cover band performs the Great One's hits; the Goldenhearts and Phone Sex Operators open. $16-$20. 9pm. 333 11th St. 255-0333. www.slimspresents.com

Brand:Bud Lig Item #: PBL20 Job/Order #: 2

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Stallion Saturdays @ Beaux The gogo-tastic night returns, with hunky dancers offering lap dances upstairs in the lounge, hosted by Sister Roma. $4. Free before 10pm.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 31

Sat 26

Joe Pessa

t

On the Tab>>

Bay of Pigs

Sun 27 Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon The ursine crowd converges for beer and fun. 4pm-8pm. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Up Your Alley Street Fair The annual leather/kink street fair returns for another day of outdoor leather kinky fun, with beer and food booths, with DJs DAMnation, Matt Effect, Chris Griswold, James Torres and Hawthorne. Gate donations benefit local nonprofits. 11am-6pm.

Dore Alley between Howard and Folsom St., and between 9th & 10th. www.folsomstreetevents.org

Mon 28 Celebrating Judy @ Hotel Rex Barry Lloyd and Annalisa Bastiani perform at a full-course lunch and afternoon concert of music famous by Judy Garland. $55. 12pm. 562 Sutter St. www.SocietyCabaret.com

Cock and Bull Mondays @ Hole in the Wall Saloon Specials on drinks made with Cock and Bull ginger ale (Jack and Cock, Russian Mule, and more). 8pmclosing. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

Drag Mondays @ The Café Mahlae Balenciaga and DJ Kidd Sysko's weekly drag and dance night.

9pm-1am. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Mahogany Mondays @ Midnight Sun Honey Mahogany's weekly drag and musical talent show starts around 10pm, 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

No No Bingo @ Virgil's Sea Room Mica Sigourney and Tom Temprano cohost the wacky weekly game night at the cool Mission bar. 8pm. 3152 Mission St. www.virgilssf.com

Piano Bar 101 @ Martuni's ©2014 A-B, Bud Light® Beer, St. Louis, MO

Trim: 8.75 x 7.75 Bleed: none Live: 8.5x7.5

Weekly live music shows with various acts, along with brunch, mimosas, champagne and more, at the stylish nightclub and restaurant. 2565 Mission St. at 21st. 920-0577. www.balancoiresf.com

Full of Grace @ Beaux Weekly night with hostess Grace Towers, different local and visiting DJs, and pop-up drag performances.

No cover. 9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

GlamaZone @ The Cafe Pollo del Mar's weekly drag shows takes on different themes with a comic edge. 8:30-11:30pm. 2369 Market St. www.cafesf.com

Jock @ The Lookout The weekly jock-ular fun continues, with special sports team fundraisers.

3pm-7pm. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

LGBT night at the former Sacred Heart Church-turned disco roller skate party space, hosted by John D. Miles, the "Godfather of Skate."

Actually every night is gay-friendly, including Saturday's Black Rock night (Burning Man garb encouraged). Also Wed, Thu, 7pm-10pm. Sat afternoon sessions 1pm-2:30pm and 3pm5:30pm. $10. Kids 12 and under $5.

Skate rentals $5. 554 Fillmore St at Fell. www.churchof8wheels.com

The weekly dancing competition for gogo wannabes. 9pm. cash prizes, $2 well drinks (2 for 1 happy hour til 9pm). Show at 9pm. 4146 18th St. www.toadhallbar.com

Strip down at the strip joint. $20 includes refreshments. 8pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

The classic leather bar's most popular Sunday daytime event in town draws the menfolk. 3pm-6pm. Now also on Saturdays! 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Closing Date: 7/1/14

So You Think You Can Gogo? @ Toad Hall

Naked Night @ Nob Hill Theatre

Beer Bust @ SF Eagle

QC: CS Brunch Sundays Publication: Bay Area Reporter @ Balançoire

Gay Skate Night @ Church on 8 Wheels

Sing-along night with talented locals, and charming accompanist Joe Wicht (aka Trauma Flintstone). 9pm. 4 Valencia St. at Market. www.dragatmartunis.com

Play T-Dance @ Mezzanine The popular post-Up Your Alley dance party draws hundreds of shirtless men, flag dancers, leather guys and gals, and sweet dance grooves by DJ Russ Rich. $40-$70. 5pm-12am. 444 Jessie St. www.playdance.com

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The popular country western LGBT dance night; enjoy fun foot-stomping two-stepping and line-dancing. $5.

5pm-10:30pm with lessons from 5:30-7:15 pm. Also Thursdays. 550 Barneveld Ave., and Tuesdays at Beatbox, $6. 6:30-11pm. 314 11th St. www.sundancesaloon.org

Sunday's a Drag @ Starlight Room Donna Sachet hosts the weekly fabulous brunch and drag show. $45.

11am, show at noon; 1:30pm, show at 2:30pm. 450 Powell St. in Union Square. 395-8595. www.starlightroomsf.com

Tue 29

Sony Holland @ Level III The acclaimed jazz vocalist performs with guitarist Jerry Holland. Weekly 5pm-8pm. Also Thursdays & Fridays.

JW Marriott, 515 Mason St. at Post. www.sonyholland.com

Trivia Night @ Harvey's

Piano Bar @ Beaux

BeBe Sweetbriar hosts a weekly night of trivia quizzes and fun and prizes; no cover. 8pm-1pm. 500 Castro St. 4314278. www.harveyssf.com

Singer extraordinaire Jason Brock hosts the new weekly night, with your talented host –and even you– singing.

9pm-2am. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Thu 31

Wed 30 Bottoms Up Bingo @ Hi Tops Play board games and win offbeat prizes at the popular sports bar. 9pm.

2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Bromance @ Beaux DJ Kidd Sysko spins tunes for the bro-tastic midweek night, with $2 beer pitchers, beer pong, $1 shots served by undie-clad guys. It's like a frat house without the closet cases.

8:30-10pm. 2344 Market St. www.beauxsf.com

Dare 2 Bare @ Club OMG New weekly underwear night includes free clothes check, no cover, and drink specials. 9pm-2am. 43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Literary Death Match @ Shadow Lounge, Oakland The rousing reading series goes to East Bay, with Tim "Toaster" Henderson, Joshua Safran, Mac Barnett, Sonya Renee Taylor, Karinda Dobbins, and Nancy Davis Kho. $8-$12. 8pm. 341 13th St, Oakland. (510) 839-1999. www.literarydeathmatch.com

Miss Kitty's Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night at the Bernal Heights bar includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover. 7pm-10pm.

424 Cortland St. 647-3099. www.wildsidewest.com

Queer Salsa @ Beatbox Weekly Latin partner dance night.

8pm-1am. 314 11th St. www.beatboxsf.com

Red Hots Burlesque @ El Rio Women's burlesque show performs each Wed & Fri. Karaoke follows. $5$10. 7pm. 3158 Mission St. 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Rookies Night @ Nob Hill Theatre Watch newbies get nude, or compete yourself for a $200 prize. Audience picks the winner. $20. 9pm. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Gym Class @ Hi Tops Enjoy cheap/free whiskey shots from jock-strapped hotties and sexy sports videos at the popular new sports bar.

10pm-2am. 2247 Market St. 551-2500. www.HiTopsSF.com

Jay Brannan @ Bottom of the Hill The talented gay singer-songwriter returns for a night inspiring music.

Terra Naomi and Becca Richardson also perform. $14. 9pm. All ages. 1233 17th St. 626-4455. www.jaybrannan. com www.bottomofthehill.com

The Monster Show @ The Edge Cookie Dough's weekly drag show with gogo guys. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Operation Opera @ Feinstein's at the Nikko Adelmo Guidarelli performs his Fringe Festival hit, a comic musical take on operatic classics. $35-$50. Thu-Sat 8pm. Sun 7pm. Thru Aug. 10. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinssf.com

Pan Dulce @ The Cafe Enjoy amazingly hot Papi gogo guys, cheap drinks and fun DJed dance music. Free before 10pm. $5 til 2am.

2369 Market St. www.clubpapi.com www.cafesf.com

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ The Chapel The janglin' Delta blues band returns. $12-$15. 9pm. 777 Valencia St. www.bigdamnband.com www.thechapelsf.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie's Lounge Retro disco tunes and a fun diverse crowd, each Thursday; now in its tenth year! $4. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

Circle of Life Cabaret @ Lookout A C.O.L.T. Following, the disability and LGBTinclusive theatre company’s music and variety show, with cocktail specials, comp. appetizers and DJ Shawn P. No cover.

7pm-10pm. 3600 16th St. www.circleoflifetheatre.org www.lookoutsf.com

Funny Tuesdays @ Harvey's Ronn Vigh hosts the weekly LGBT and gay-friendly comedy night. One-drink or menu item minimum. 9pm.

500 Castro St. at 18th.

431-HARV. www.harveyssf.com

Thu 31 Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band @ The Chapel

Serving the LGBT communities since 1971

32 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

Alessandro Del Toro

by Cornelius Washington

How did you create your porn name?

I wanted a name that was sexy and powerful at the same time. I’ve always liked the name Alessandro and I picked ‘Del Toro’ because of the power and virility it represents.

How do you feel about working at the legendary Nob Hill Theater?

I think it is a great honor. The theater has such a rich history, not just in San Francisco, but in the history of the sex industry as well. I’m looking forward to the experience.

Your porn versus private sexuality; what do you do onscreen that you don’t do privately, and vice versa?

I can be much more mellow in my private life. There is not as much bondage, pissing, or fisting. Sex in my

private life is now more about connecting to the individual; that’s something I’ve been learning recently.

How do you prepare for a scene, on all levels?

I spend the most time preparing physically. I want to look my best, so the week before a shoot, I hit the gym harder, I get proper rest, and make sure every part of me is camera-ready. I also hold off on having sex so that my sexual energy is at its peak for the scene.

How do you like your porn career so far?

There’s a part of me that thinks I haven’t done enough yet, like I should do more. At this stage, I am not as interested in filming or doing appearances, though. I want to focus on advocacy and outreach.

Who would you like to be your

The sexy smart stud speaks

next scene partner, and what would you do with them?

I’d love to do something with Jake Deckard. An outdoors scene would be hot.

What was the very first porn film you ever saw?

I think it was Conquered starring Billly Herrington and Colton Ford, two of my favorites.

Whom, in the porn industry, do you admire?

I admire people that have had long careers and adapted to change throughout the years. One of the people I admire the most in that sense is Chi Chi LaRue. What do you think will be the next big gay porn trend?

I see everything in the industry moving towards more reality. People want to see real people having real sex.

Barebacking; pro or con?

This is such a controversial issue, and this is the first time that I get to speak publicly about it.

Barebacking is such a hot-button issue because it is so closely tied to our health and our responsibility to each other as a community.

When condoms were first introduced into the porn world, it was to make a statement about responsible sex, and mitigate the impact that the AIDS crisis was having on our community. I think it is important to uphold that same message as time goes by. Bareback sex is hot. Most men gay or straight seem to think so. How do we uphold that message of health that is ever so important, as we start to see more and more studios going condomless?

We’ve come a long way when it comes to HIV. Times are changing and we need to look at the issue realistically. I am still an advocate for safe sex. I am definitely an advocate for taking care of your body. The landscape for safe sex is changing, though. Regular testing, “undetectable” status, pre- and post-exposure therapy, and the possibility of a new vaccine are all important new factors that are being introduced into our community that influence the way we look at ourselves and each other. I believe in having a more balanced way of looking at things. Bareback sex no longer means “unsafe” sex.

Alessandro Del Toro.

Condom sex is still the only option for some people, and I respect that, but we no longer have to demonize the idea of bareback sex.

I eat them by myself in the car and then throw away the bag and wrapper in someone else’s trash. I’m a total fatty at heart.

What do you want people to see when they watch your films?

I want them to see a great performance with elements of real sex.

I don’t want it to be overproduced.

Who is your fantasy celebrity fuck?

Joe Mangianello.

When you watch porn, what gets you hard?

I like powerful sexual energy. I like to see two or more powerful men just going at it.

What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?

Eating McDonald’s French fries.

What is your favorite body part on other men?

Butts. I’m obsessed with butts.

Since you’re performing at The Nob Hill Theater during Dore Alley weekend, do you have any fetishes or kinks?

I’m really into fisting these days.

But I’ve always enjoyed the leather/ bondage scene.

What are your professional goals in porn?

I admire longevity in any career.

At the end of this year I would like to take a hiatus and concentrate on other areas of my life. I’d like to come back to this when I’m a few years older with a new look and different type of sexual energy.

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What is your favorite body part on yourself?

My butt.

What is your relationship status (single, married, taken)?

I’m taken; for the first time in about five years.

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What are your personal goals?

I’m starting my Doctorate in Psychology in January. I would eventually like to get licensed as a sex therapist.

I want to use both parts of my life to make an impact in people’s lives.t

Hot House Entertainment

Alessandro Del Toro. “I’m obsessed with butts.”

Alessandro del Toro performs with Drew Sumrok at the Nob Hill Theatre in special Up your Alley weekend shows July 25 & 26; Sumrock strips for a sexy solo show (8pm), then a live sex show with del Torro (10pm). $25. 729 Bush St. at Powell. 397-6758. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

t

Read more online at www.ebar.com

July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 33

No-frills Fetish

by John F. Karr

M

y version of history—which is generally cloudy and frequently entirely imagined—tells me that the Dore Alley Fair (aka, The Up Your Alley Fair) had its origins as the looser, kinkier offspring of the Folsom Street Fair. Honoring that kink, let’s look at a couple fetish flicks from Lavender Lounge—decidedly the looser, no-frills or furbelows version of stuff from the city’s larger fetish providers. With their performers draped in jocks, socks and expensive leather couture that are color-coordinated to highlights on glowing, seemingly lacquered sets, their productions are carefully

side rooms. It’s definitely a roughround-the-edges sorta place. But it’s the rough action that occupies our attention, and Lavender Lounge producer/director Mark Kleim comes through.

Kleim’s also the videographer and editor—it’s a one-man show, baby. His fluid camera eliminates the need for much editing, and he does a good job of staying intent on where the action is.

Kleim doesn’t hype the action; his pacing encourages the performers’ emotional connection, and he’s good at recording it. Finally, his casting is fully competitive, a mix of known stars, golden oldies (I’ll tune in wherever Derrick Hanson shows up), and provocative newcomers,

Lavender Lounge

Leo Forte’s in control of Race Cooper, in the Lavender Lounge Rope Reality.

designed. On the other hand, Lavender Lounge flicks are carelessly not at all designed.

The basement dungeon of Lavender Lounge headquarters, just a couple alleys down the way from the Up Yours affair, looks like it might once have been a single car garage.

The walls are drywall, painted white.

A sling hangs in the middle of the space. Some cinderblock sits randomly around the outskirts. On the side walls there are coiled hoses and fuse boxes dripping wires, and way off in the back there are rickety storage shelves full of old stuff.

A couple doors open onto cluttered

<<

Get Laid Now

From page 29

The Nob Hill Theater

No, it’s not in the SoMa/Castro area, but, hot damn, it’s good! I’ve had such great times each time I’ve gone there, but, I’ve noticed someone who takes his sex very seriously; porn beast, Casey Williams. I have seen him seduce men into doing things that I do not have the vocabulary to write about. I wanted his opinion on how men should deal with each other this weekend.

His response, “First of all, you need some muscle to back up your article. Meet me at The Nob Hill Theater, and bring your cameras!”

I did. And he made them sizzle!

Our 20-minute photo session stretched into over three hours.

When we entered the lobby (to towel off and come up for air), Larry, the NHT’s co-owner, gave me this quote for all of the dudes coming in to do what they want to do.

Larry said, “Visit us. We have two hot porn studs doing live performances, with full sex at the 10pm show. Our sexy house dancers are ready for you, too. Our video arcade, patio, stripper pole lounge, underground play room and two private performance areas can accommo-

like edgy Cy Stone.

Hanson and Stone aren’t in Rope Reality, but Leo Forte, Chris Daniels, Chad Brock and Nick Moretti are. I got into the tight focus Forte lasers on Mr. Daniels during their scene, as well as his facility with rope. And the faintest of smiles that reveals his deep satisfaction, and thus encourages ours.

Forte’s scene with Daniels begins with an extended prep session of tie-him-up that I think will please ropers. With his hands restrained behind his back, and a torso roping that connects with an overhead joist, Daniels (wearing a beard and date all of your safe-sex desires. We are what you want in adult entertainment, here in San Francisco.”

It suddenly occurred to me to ask Casey his plans for this weekend.

His beautiful blue eyes twinkled as he said, “I want the studs to come see me go-go dance at the ‘Bay of Pigs’ event, at The Factory (525 Harrison Street) 9pm-4am, where I’ll show them what I’ve got!”

I mustered enough courage to ask him what kind of sex he was looking for this weekend. He replied, “Nothing more or less than what I always get; good, hot, safe oral sex, but, I know that men come from all over the world to get freaky, so, what I want to say to them is to go ahead and live out your fantasies. Be wild, but, be wise.”

And that means safe sex, guys.

729 Bush St. at Powell St. 7819468. www.thenobhilltheatre.com

Other Kinks

For our straight and bisexual readers, the Power Exchange at 220 Jones Street, offers men and women a chance to get their sex on, with various events. 487-9944. www.powerexchange.com Although you can find more information on leather and kink events in the Leather Events listings,

a jock) gets deep kisses and is forced (gladly, I’m sure) into lovin’ Forte’s armpits. It may be a disappointment to some that the ropes are entirely gone when Forte throws Daniels a sling fuck. But it’s a good one, highlighted by the foreplay that finds Forte’s light brown face buried in Daniel’s bright pink ass.

I sure like seeing the all-over sexy, deep-voiced and playful Chad Brock all trussed up by Mr. Moretti, who wields a mean crop on Brock’s balls and cock. When guy like Brock growls, “Ouch,” you believe it. He’s still bound up when Moretti throws him in the sling for a power fuck. When Moretti’s finished fucking, he lets Brock suck the cum off his cock.

Leo Forte hands it to Race Cooper, in Flog Fist Fuck, seventy-five minutes of fierce action. Cooper is elaborately roped when whipped at length with a multi-strand flogger, before he’s fiercely penetrated by finger, tongue, cock. With this multi-faceted scene, our appreciation for Forte’s dominance skills grows. You’ll be squirming, too, as Forte edges Cooper to the point where the sweat-drenched bottom is whimpering, “Fuck me, please, fuck me.” What an onslaught Cooper endures. But then his pained expression freezes, his eyes glaze over, and Blooey! He screams and groans as his cum blasts.

I was pleased to come (and cum) across desirable Blake Oscar, whom I’d previously enjoyed taking a royal fisting in Titan Rough’s Daddy Fist. That’s his only other movie, that I know of, although there are several more scenes at LavenderLounge.com. Forty years old and a delish 5’6” with a 7.5” cock, Oscar’s a compact bundle of daddy fuck&-fistability. He’s topped here by Australian daddy, Reed Matthews, who strongly resembles pornstar of yore, Steve Richards, with cropped beard, grizzled face, rangy body and a dick almost as big as Richards’. Oscar loves to get fisted, but first, he takes a hard paddling, opens himself up with a honker of a dildo, takes a doozy of a fisting, and gets to lap up both his own and Anderson’s cum. That’s a keeper of a scene to me!t Hi-res photos and downloadable scenes at LavenderLounge.com.

Get films at PornTeam.com

The SF Citadel at 1277 Mission Street, is worth an extra mention.

Calling itself “The Bay Area’s Premier Community Dungeon,” the spanking benches, spreader bars, and medical exam room will keep you occupied for hours. Go ahead and get carried away, but don’t forget your manners: disruptively loud whip-cracks are frowned upon. www.sfcitadel.org Last resort or retro Tenderloin sleaze? The Tearoom Theater at 145 Eddy Street, has been open for more than four decades. Traditionalists will appreciate the old-timey charm, intimate theater seats, and the low lighting. Remember to bring cash for the $12 cover and the selection of DVDs available for purchase.

If you are still able, ready and willing, still get your freak on, here’s your nightcap. The day after Dore Alley Festival is the bi-monthly gathering of the SF Jacks, a masturbation-only meeting, that happens at the venerable Center for Sex & Culture, 1349 Mission St., starting at 7:30pm (www. sexandculture.org). Get there on time to take advantage of the entire event.

Full nudity is mandatory. $7.00 donation is requested. Reach out and touch someone, in a low-key, leisurely, all-body types celebration! It’s very reaffirming, on every level, and isn’t that what sexuality is all about? t

Steven Underhill

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34 • BAY AREA REPORTER • July 24-30, 2014

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July 24-30, 2014 • BAY AREA REPORTER • 35

photos by steven underhill Birdcage Follies L

ike a feathered phoenix from the flames, Galilea’s Birdcage Follies was reborn on July 19, and the event filled the Arc of San Francisco (aka 180 Eleventh Street) with birds of all kinds. Along with festive drag acts, leather folk, Country Western dancers, and LGBT youth were in attendance at the show and benefit. For more information on The Arc, visit www.thearcsf.org.

See more event photo albums on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife and on www.StevenUnderhill.com See this and other issues in full page-view format at www.issuu.com/bayareareporter t

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For headshots, portraits or to arrange your wedding photos

call (415) 370-7152 or visit www.StevenUnderhill.com or email stevenunderhillphotos@gmail.com