June 13, 2019 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Vol. 49 • No. 24 • June 13-19, 2019

Google under fire over YouTube policies

Cynthia Laird

Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan

As Oakland council prez, Kaplan breaks the mold

The Google contingent marched in last year’s San Francisco Pride parade.

by Matthew S. Bajko

L

esbian at-large Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan’s election in January as president of the legislative body made headlines for being the first time an out LGBT person had served in the leadership role.

But even more important, Kaplan’s elevation broke through stereotypical perceptions of how a female politician should appear if she is to succeed. For Kaplan is a proud butch dyke, married to her wife, and doesn’t conform to gender norms.

“For people to see an openly LGBT person in that role ... I think sends a really important message about our community and our leadership and our inclusion that has been missing,” said Kaplan. “In this transition into the council presidency, as well as in some of my prior campaigns, some people would advise me that I should try to dress more femme to help my political career, and I completely rejected that strategy.”

She quickly clarified, “And let me be clear, this is not disrespect of femmes. I love them. I just am not one.”

Her appearance – Kaplan wears suits and sports facial hair – was something she had specifically been advised to change if she wanted to lead the council.

“One of the specific things that came up around running for the presidency is, you know, is should I shave, because people like get weird about it. And I decided not to because I felt like I don’t want to collude in that view, that you have to be gender role conforming to be able to attain a leadership role,” explained Kaplan, 48, during a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter inside her cramped council office.

Kaplan has moved to make her mark on the legislative body in other ways. Eschewing past presidential practices, she opted not to assign herself chair of the powerful rules committee, or any council committee, so that each of her seven council colleagues are chairing a committee. Doing so, she believes, has led to a more collegial atmosphere among the council.

“I feel like my commitment is to do the job in a way that’s respectful to everyone. And so, you know, I’m not trying to use the role in a way that would be about hostility,” said Kaplan. “And so,

by Meg Elison

T

he CEO of Google subsidy YouTube apologized Monday to members of the LGBTQ community for the company’s seeming lack of enforcing its anti-harassment policies as activists have called on San Francisco Pride officials to oust Google

A

dding to the issues proponents behind overhauling Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco’s Castro district face is now opposition to the project from a major LGBT group in the city.

As the Bay Area Reporter first noted in an online article last week, the GLBT Historical Society June 6 came out against the proposed plans to rebuild the public parklet above the Castro Muni station. The project, estimated to cost at least $11 million, would reconfigure the sunken entrance into the transit station so that it is flush with Market Street and has added features memorializing Milk, a global LGBT icon who was killed in 1978.

Milk became the first gay person to win elected office in San Francisco and California in 1977 when he won a seat on the city’s Board of Supervisors. Following his death, city officials dedicated the plaza above the Castro station in his honor.

Situated at the corner of Castro and Market streets, the plaza is considered the front door to the neighborhood. But the windswept, sunken area is a largely uninviting space rarely used by the public other than for special events and protests. It has also become a gathering spot for homeless individuals.

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Courtesy Perkins Eastman

A new rendering shows the canopy element for Harvey Milk Plaza.

After transit officials announced several years ago plans to install a new elevator for the Muni station, Castro community leaders called for a total reimagining of the plaza space. A design competition was launched leading to the selection of Perkins Eastman.

The current plans for the area call for raising the terraced gardens to street level and creating a new belowground exhibit space adjacent to the Muni fair gates where Milk’s story could be

{ FIRST OF THREE SECTIONS }

The

transgender

Rick Gerharter

by Matthew S. Bajko

Super-size bisexual, and

own published hate speech and harassment policies following a series of high-profile and detailed tweets exposing ongoing racist and homophobic abuse by the conservative pundit Steven Crowder against Carlos Maza, a gay Latino journalist.

See page 14 >>

LGBT archival group opposes teardown of Milk plaza

See page 15 >>

the gay, lesbian,

from this month’s parade.

Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, made the announcement Monday, June 10, during a discussion at Code Conference, a Vox-sponsored event run by its tech vertical ReCode.

Over the past week, YouTube has gone through a whiplash-inducing series of decisions, reversals, and public upsets about its

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told. The proposal has been controversial from the start and is opposed by the architect that initially designed the plaza, Howard Grant, who later came out of the closet as gay.

Others have voiced concern that a planned canopy will obstruct views of the 1922 BeauxArts building at 400 Castro Street, designed by Edward Foulkes, and a mural painted on it that depicts a historic Victorian across the street.

See page 14 >>

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

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fter an absence of many years, the rainbow flag is again flying at the newly christened Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag Apartments at 324 Larkin Street in San Francisco’s Civic Center area. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence blessed the building during a June 11 ceremony. Also on hand were Mayor London Breed; Bill Jones, the original owner of

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the building, which was once known as the Rainbow Flag Apartments; and Brian Basinger of the Q Foundation, who sought to honor the late Baker, who co-created the rainbow flag and turned it into a worldwide symbol of LGBT Pride.

For more, see Bay Area Reporter article online at https://bit. ly/2QS1E6O.

SF supes OK LGBT landmark

by Matthew S. Bajko

A

restaurant space in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood is on its way to becoming the city’s fourth LGBT historic site. It is believed it would be the first landmark in the country to focus on an early queer eatery.

For decades, the property at 524 Union Street was home to several LGBT restaurants, most famously that of the Paper Doll. Opened in 1944, the Paper Doll is considered to be San Francisco’s first restaurant and nightclub catering to the gay community.

The Board of Supervisors approved the local landmark for the site June 11, more than two years after the Smucha family that owns the building first proposed it be recognized for its historical significance to the LGBT community. The vote was 9-0 as Supervisor Gordon Mar had left the chambers and Aaron Peskin recused himself since he owns property within 500 feet.

The board needs to approve it a second time at its June 18 meeting, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed is expected to sign off on the landmark later this month.

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The interior of the former Paper Doll Restaurant as it looks today.

a historical marker or plaque to the building once the landmark designation becomes final.

“I am amazed that in San Francisco we are the only early LGBTQrelated landmark designation,” Beverly Smucha told the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday.

The Smucha family was inspired to seek the landmark designation after reading about the property’s storied past in an LGBT historic context statement adopted by city

officials in 2015. The document had recommended that 524 Union Street be landmarked.

The building, rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, has housed bars and restaurants since the late 1840s.

The Paper Doll’s first owner, Tom Arbulich, hired lesbian staff and offered a welcome watering hole to queer patrons.

“It afforded sexual minorities a See page 15 >>

Trans woman attacked in Castro

by Meg Elison

A

55-year-old trans woman was the victim of an aggravated assault at the corner of Castro and Market streets, according to a San Francisco Police Department daily crime report from May 30.

According to the report, the victim was approached by an unidentified male assailant, struck, and pushed into the street. The report described the offense as aggravated assault, and the victim was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The incident took place just after 6 p.m., the report stated.

The assault went unremarked upon for several days, until Police Chief William Scott brought it up at a Police Commission meeting Wednesday, June 5.

“The disturbing part of this was that this was a totally unprovoked attack,” Scott said, according to the San

Francisco Examiner, which first reported the incident. “We’re asking for the public’s help if anybody saw anything that can help us solve this case.”

The Bay Area Reporter noted the assault in the SFPD’s daily crime recap. However, the original report misgendered the victim. When the B.A.R reached out for clarification and additional details, SFPD media relations pinpointed the incident on the original report, but declined to comment on the error.

This incident adds to an alreadyviolent Pride Month in the U.S., occurring in the same week as the death of Johana Medina, a 25-yearold trans asylum seeker, shortly after her release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Texas. This attack also happened just before two gay men were battered in front of Southside Spirit House in San Francisco in an apparent incident of homophobic violence. t

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

Volume 49, Number 24 June 13-19, 2019 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 BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Meg Elison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Dan Renzi Bob Roehr • Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor Sari Staver • Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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News Editor • news@ebar.com Arts Editor • arts@ebar.com Out & About listings • jim@ebar.com Advertising • scott@ebar.com Letters • letters@ebar.com Published weekly. Bay Area Reporter reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement which the publisher believes is in poor taste or which advertises illegal items which might result in legal action against Bay Area Reporter. Ads will not be rejected solely on the basis of politics, philosophy, religion, race, age, or sexual orientation.

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Police and Pride

U

ntil recently, LGBT Americans regularly suffered harassment, abuse, and worse at the hands of law enforcement, an oppression justified by religion and criminalized by the government. The LGBT liberation movement was forged in violent confrontations with police at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco and the Stonewall Inn in New York.

San Francisco erupted in the White Night Riots against the police in 1979 when LGBTs reacted to the lenient sentence Dan White, a former cop and supervisor, received for the assassination of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. The police soon responded by descending on the Castro, clubbing and injuring citizens, and raiding and destroying the Elephant Walk (Harvey’s). In the Castro Sweep Police riot of 1989, over a sevenblock area of the Castro was declared an unlawful-assembly zone on a busy Friday night when about 200 police rushed down Castro Street, indiscriminately clubbing and arresting people on the streets, and preventing patrons and residents from exiting buildings for over an hour. This action was the police response to a small, peaceful protest of the AIDS activist group ACT UP San Francisco.

Despite the mistrust of the police that still lingers among LGBT activists – many of whom have joined with groups like Black Lives Matter to protest in solidarity with African Americans against police misconduct, including questionable officer-involved shootings – there are signs that law enforcement is willing to work with the community in constructive ways.

New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill’s public apology last week for officers’ actions 50 years ago during the Stonewall rebellion was an important event and a hopeful signal for change and healing. LGBT activists had been waiting for years for the NYPD to formally acknowledge that it had inappropriately raided the bar.

As the city prepares to celebrate World Pride and Stonewall 50, they heard that unequivocally from O’Neill. “The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong – plain and simple,” O’Neill said during an event at police headquarters.

Courtesy Twitter

SFPD’s Pride patch

“The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologize.”

The LGBT community center in Sacramento, which produces that city’s Pride events, had initially barred police officers from marching in uniform in the parade in order to protect queer people “who experience fear and anxiety provoked by the uniform,” a Sacramento Bee article reported. People remain angry over the 2018 police shooting death of Stephon Clark, an African American man who was unarmed. While Clark was not gay, many LGBTs cited that incident as the cause for feeling unsafe with police participation in last weekend’s Pride parade. A few days later, after meeting with police officials, the center reversed its decision, and declared that officers, including LGBT members of the police department, could march in uniform. A bigger victory, however, resulted from discussions over the issue. The department agreed to name the first LGBT liaison in its outreach unit and create a standing LGBT community advisory committee to recommend better policies and to “remove all barriers” for the community to interact with law enforcement, according to a news release from the police department and the center. The department will also

t

co-create a new training program that “elevates the voices of marginalized LGBTQ community members and discusses the role of implicit bias,” the release said.

According to the Bee, the department and the center also agreed to start hosting community forums with Police Chief Daniel Hahn, LGBT center officials, LGBTQ officers, and interested LGBTQ residents, and to create a program within the center for community members to report crimes and complaints to the police.

This is a big deal. The fact that law enforcement is willing to reach out and form these advisory bodies will open up communication and hopefully lead to better training and fewer negative interactions with the LGBTQ community. Unlike 50 years ago, many LGBTs in law enforcement are out at work and proudly serve their communities. That must continue if real progress is to be made and maintained. It is by working in these agencies that LGBT officers can help change attitudes and break down stereotypes from within police departments.

Improving the community’s relationship with law enforcement is an ongoing process.

In San Francisco, where the head of the police union is a gay man, the department issued a special Pride patch for officers to wear, and yet managed to misgender a trans crime victim in the daily log that is sent to reporters. And it wasn’t too long ago that police text messages were discovered to regularly contain homophobic slurs.

Progress is made in small steps too. The city’s Office of Police Accountability, headed by a gay black man, recently won approval for a series of changes making it easier for the public to report alleged wrongdoing by officers. Now, forms will be made available at every police station, instead of only at the DPA office. Additionally, a new quarterly disciplinary board will hold meetings between DPA and SFPD to identify and address disciplinary trends and training deficiencies.

It’s gratifying to see positive change during Pride Month and as the Stonewall riots turn 50. Ultimately, we are a better, safer community when law enforcement works with us, by learning from their past mistakes and generally working toward improvement together. t

Priest’s rant led to book

by Perry N. Halkitis

horror and in shame of what had occurred, erasing any negativity of this want to tell you why I wrote “Out petty man’s caustic words. in Time: From Stonewall to Queer, Ernie’s actions also had had anHow Gay Men Came of Age Across the other powerful effect. It released Generations.” my nephew James, then 18 years My mother passed away quietly in old, who until that time was hidher bed on March 19, 2014. She was ing his gay identity – although both only 76. Like any good Greek AmeriBobby and I were relatively sure he can child – the first generation born in was a gay man. A week later, James the United States – it was incumbent Perry N. Halkitis came to our home and came out for upon me to assure that the cultural the very first time to his family. His rituals were realized. This included a words were powerful and yet heavy, memorializing of my mother at the church 40 as they were for me some 30 years earlier. I strugdays after her passing, known in Greek as “mnegled to comprehend his emotions given that our mosino.” family – his mother, my cousin, his grandmother, With the help of my family, I undertook the my aunt – had loved me and embraced Bobby necessary steps. On the day of the mnemosino, we for many years. all gathered in the first few pews of the St. DemeIt was then I knew this book needed trios Greek Orthodox Church in Astoria, Queens to be written – to compel us to real– the community in which I was raised yet escaped ize that our struggles in the LGBTQ at 18 to flee across the river and build my life as population perpetuate. Here is a a gay man in Manhattan. This is the church in brief passage from my book “Out in which my parents were married, where my brothTime,” which was released June 3: er and I baptized, and where my parents’ funer“Life as a gay man in the Unitals were held. My mother was memorialized with ed States continues to be complex many others on that day, and thereafter the priest and multidimensional, shaped by leading the service gave his sermon. a person’s emotions, family, culOn that day, with my husband, Bobby, and me ture, religion, and society, strucfront and center, the priest, who I’m identifying tures that create the psychosocial only as Ernie (fully aware of our lives as a marburdens so many gay men experience. Notwithried gay couple), was compelled to denounce standing the social and political advances that civil rights as “rights that are not bestowed by have created a better place for gay men in the God.” This act is highly reminiscent of the March United States, generation after generation must actions of Stephanie Borowicz – a member of navigate and overcome hurdles while establishthe Pennsylvania Legislature – who, like Ernie, ing their identities in a heterosexist world: for the weaponized Christianity prior to the swearing Stonewall Generation it was the right to live their in of the first Muslim state representative, Molives openly and freely; for the AIDS Generation vita Johnson-Harrell. Ernie’s words blaspheming it was the struggle to survive this deadly virus; marriage equality tore my heart apart on a day and for the Queer Generation the battle rages when it was already heavy with burden. After the on to make their place in a world filled with failservice, my family and friends who had joined ure – such as the fallout from the 2008 financial us for the mnemosino – including my closeted crisis and growing income inequality – and to lifelong friend George to whom my new book is resist the monolithic, gender-rigid, racist percepdedicated – comforted and rallied around us in tions that often permeate gay culture. Though

I

these challenges are wide and varied, there is one that remains a constant for all generations of gay men, central to the battle for their existence: coming out.

“There are also commonalities that tie coming out experiences together across generations, whether you are a 78-year-old black man who grew up in Baltimore in the 1950s or a Chinese Mexican 19-year-old university student today, or anyone in between. While 59 years separates the generation of these two men, the battles they face continue, and both continue to resist the wars that are waged against them. Of course, differences exist as well, due to individual circumstances and personal experiences.

“In telling their stories, each one of these men reveals who he is through personal narratives ... these narratives also show the multiple identities that these men have been developing throughout the course of their lives – as gay men, as lovers, as brothers, as sons, as professionals, in addition to their identities across culture, race, ethnicity, and location of birth, religion, and gender. The story of one’s gay identity is not separate from the myriad other identities a person holds. These identities include that of the otherness created by a heteronormative society; the masculine or male identity imposed by the same society as well as the gay community; one’s identity along the lines of race, ethnicity, and culture; the identity of drug use and partying; and one’s identity as a sexual being who has sex with other men – this latter identity defining a great part of who we are.” t Perry N. Halkitis is dean and director of the Center for Health, Identity Behavior & Prevention Studies, School of Public Health, Rutgers University. His book “Out in Time: From Stonewall to Queer, How Gay Men Came of Age Across the Generations” was recently published by Oxford University Press and available at www.amazon.com.

t

Politics >>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

More cities fly the rainbow flag

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

hree more Bay Area cities are now flying the rainbow flag for the first time in honor of Pride Month, as is the government office for Alameda County.

Tuesday night (June 11) the city councils in Hercules and Antioch both voted to raise the LGBT symbol. Their doing so means that every city in West Contra Costa County is flying a rainbow flag, according to local LGBT leaders.

On the Peninsula the city of San Carlos in San Mateo County hoisted the rainbow flag last week in honor of Pride Month and will host a formal ceremony later this month.

The decisions by the city and county leaders come after flying the Pride flag became a national issue when a divided Dublin City Council in late May voted to reject a request from gay freshman City Councilman Shawn Kumagai to do so. The resulting controversy led the East Bay city’s mayor and two council members who had initially voted not to switch course last week and join with their two other colleagues in unanimously adopting a flag policy for the city’s three flagpoles and to fly the rainbow flag through July 3.

As was the case in Dublin, it was freshmen out council members in Hercules and San Carlos who brought forward the requests to fly the flag. In 2016 Roland Esquivias became the first LGBT person to serve on the Hercules City Council.

Now serving as his city’s vice mayor, Esquivias worked with the Lambda Democratic Club of Contra Costa County in bringing forward the request to fly the rainbow flag.

“It is great to have this opportunity to be a voice for my LGBTQ community but to have your colleagues listen and support you just throw the ball out of the ballpark!”

Esquivias wrote in a Twitter post shortly after the council vote.

San Carlos City Councilwoman Laura Parmer-Lohan, elected last fall, told the Bay Area Reporter that she believes this June marks the first time her city has flown the rainbow flag in honor of Pride

Courtesy Twitter

Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, left, joined Emeryville City Council man John Bauters to raise the rainbow flag at the county office building Tuesday.

Month. The first LGBT person to serve on the council, Parmer-Lohan and her wife are raising their two teenage sons in the city.

She had brought up the idea of flying the flag earlier this year during a strategic planning session when she also asked that the concept of inclusivity to be added to San Carlos’ vision statement.

“At the same meeting I expressed my hope, that at some point in the future, San Carlos raise the Pride flag as a demonstration of our city’s values, and that it will be one of many efforts we will undertake to show that everyone in our community is valued,” explained Parmer-Lohan.

The city will host a Pride Month ceremony at 4:30 p.m. June 21 in front of its City Hall at 600 Elm Street. San Mateo County Pride Center Executive Director Lisa Putkey and San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine will be honored, as will gay former Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager.

“San Carlos declared itself a Welcoming City in March, 2017, because we believe a key foundation of civic life is the acceptance of all who abide by our laws and, more importantly, wish to build a better life for themselves and others by living and working together peacefully and respectfully,” wrote

City Councilman Mark Olbert in an invite to the Pride event.

Olbert, the council’s current chair, added that recognizing Pride Month “is another way of expressing those same values. It also serves as a reminder to everyone that someone’s identity, whatever it may be at a particular point in time, is irrelevant when it comes to being part of a community. We are defined by how we act, and how we behave towards others, not by how others may choose to label us.”

In Alameda County, the Board of Supervisors raised the rainbow flag Monday, June 10, for the first time at the request of Supervisor Scott Haggerty. He did so after learning that the East Bay county had never flown the flag when he inquired about it in light of what happened in Dublin, which is part of his First Supervisorial District.

In a statement to the B.A.R. Haggerty said what happened in Dublin “definitely played a role, but a very small role. The bottom line for me is that members of the LGBTQ community live in this county, work in this county, raise families in this county and contribute to this county, so why not acknowledge them for what they do and the contributions they make!”

He added that raising the flag was one of his proudest moments as a county supervisor.

“Furthermore, in all honesty, raising that flag yesterday and showing my support to a community that feels so disenfranchised, especially with the vandalism (of an LGBT youth space in San Jose) that was reported this morning and some of the nasty testimony I heard in recent weeks, made me, as an elected official, proud,” stated Haggerty, who is in his sixth fouryear term on the board. “Proud that I have the ability to set policy that makes a community proud and puts a smile on their faces.”

Normally flown in September when Oakland holds its Pride event, Mayor Libby Schaaf raised the rainbow flag this week on the roof of City Hall. In a tweet following the Tuesday ceremony, she wrote, “We recognize, celebrate and honor the wonderful + beautiful LGBTQ+ members of our community. Happy National Pride Month!”

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See page 12 >>

Letters >> Disagrees with SB 50

You have to hand it to state Senator Scott Wiener – he never gives up flogging for the housing industry [“We need more homes now,” Guest Opinion, May 23]. Last year, Senate Bill 827, this year, in slightly modified form, SB 50. Wiener’s bill has stalled in the Senate, but his mantra and methods haven’t changed much.

Cite a manifest problem, in this case homelessness and a lack of affordable housing, relentlessly posit the same, and only, solution over and over – just build more housing – and the problem will be solved. Repeat.

But why should he change? The California Building Industry Association has picked Wiener as Legislator of the Year, and the bulk of his campaign contributions come from builders. (FoxandHoundsDaily.com, https:// bit.ly/2I7ga82.)

But there are reasons why the bills have so many skeptics, including the very groups and people that might seemingly benefit. More market rate housing is not going to get housing for people sleeping on the streets or in cars, nor assist the working poor (those with “low-mod” income levels in the Bay Area would be considered wealthy in many parts of the country) who could really benefit from affordable housing. According to the June 2018 Fortune, households of four people in San Francisco, San Mateo, or Marin counties earning $117,000 per year are considered “low income,” according to Housing and Urban Development guidelines.

Here are some solutions.

For starters, cities need to stop subsidizing tech industries. Yes, Twitter comes to mind. Subsidies, if there are any, should go to creating truly affordable housing, not just a few

of the least desirable units with sunset provisions in otherwise market rate projects.

Spread the tech blessings. Why obliterate the unique character of our cities, why we moved or stayed here in the first place, to accommodate more tech with high wage workers, when there are so many less expensive areas of the country with affordable housing and workers with skills that would welcome the opportunities?

A new Homestead Act, providing incentives for people to own a house in underpopulated parts of the country. As Elizabeth Warren has pointed out, families owning their own home has been the classic American strategy of getting a financial foothold – the house just doesn’t have to be in Hillsborough.

Wiener himself is an unlikely spokesman for truly changing the status quo, and his sympathy for the needy seems faux. He opposed San Francisco’s Proposition C to address homelessness.

In this dark period, with so much being lost or threatened under the warped presidency of Donald Trump, Wiener’s relentless cheerleading and promotion of more market rate housing as a magic bullet to fix the manifest problem of the yawning divide between rich and poor is disheartening, and cruel to those who want to believe. The accompanying chorus of YIMBY chants of “more housing, any housing, everywhere” is acrid theater.

There is a crisis, but Wiener’s a Pied Piper.

For more information, check out www.livablecalifornia. org for an analysis of SB 50 and its impacts.

Robert Brokl Oakland, California

13 Affordable Rental Units available at 1491 Sunnydale Avenue.

50% AMI MOHCD Net rents for units at 50% of AMI

Households must earn no more than the Maximum Annual Income 50% MOHCD 1 person - $43,100; 2 persons - $49,250; 3 persons - $55,450; 4 persons - $61,600; 5 persons - $66,500; 6 persons $71,450; 7 persons - $76,350 Applications and information can be found on DAHLIA-San Francisco Housing Portal at housing.sfgov.org. Applications due by 5pm on June 28, 2019. Call 1491 Sunnyvale Ave for building information at 415-508-5391.

Units available through the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and are subject to monitoring and other restrictions. Visit www.sfmohcd.org for program information.

<< Business News

6 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

t

Lesbians Who Tech retools 2020 Castro summit

by Matthew S. Bajko

L

esbians Who Tech + Allies is retooling its 2020 San Francisco summit as it remains determined to stay in the city’s LGBT Castro district amid growing popularity.

The biggest change is in the dates, as next year’s summit will not be held during the winter. Instead, it will be held April 23-25.

“We are moving the event to April so we do not have to deal so much with the chance of rain,” explained Michelle Skoor, vice president of operations and programs for the company.

Started in 2012, the annual conference aims to increase the numbers of LGBT women in the tech industry. This year’s event, held in late February and early March, drew 6,000 attendees over the course of three days. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and straight ally Stacey Abrams (D) was one of the marquee speakers.

“We aim to amplify queer women already working in tech and our allies like Stacey Abrams who want to see a diverse workforce,” said Skoor, who identifies as genderqueer and uses gender-neutral pronouns. “We want to make sure queer women and queer women of color are not left out.”

Finding room to handle such a large crowd has been a challenge for organizers, who use the Castro Theatre as their main base of operation. They also take over the gayborhood’s two city-owned parking lots and, this winter, shut down a block of 18th Street to hold breakout sessions.

With some asking if it is time for the summit to move out of the neighborhood to a larger venue, organizers prefer staying put. To offset the impact of the summit on the Castro’s businesses, they are making an effort to partner with local stores, restaurants, and bars, hiring them as suppliers or renting out their sites for parties and other events.

The summit this year booked out the locally owned Beck’s Motor Lodge on Market Street to house invited speakers and other guests and plans to do so again in 2020. It also contracted with such places as Rossi’s Deli and the Castro Coffee Company for catering services.

At the May meeting of the Castro Merchants business association,

Courtesy Michael’s Chocolates

Michael’s Chocolates is offering a special selection for Pride Month.

Gay chocolatier creates Pride confection

Courtesy Lesbians Who Tech

Lesbians Who Tech + Allies is retooling plans for its 2020 San Francisco conference.

Skoor estimated the 2019 summit spent at least $140,000 with local merchants. The summit would like to increase that amount next year, by for instance, having a Castro eatery provide upward of 300 box lunches instead of bringing in food trucks to feed attendees.

“We want to keep all of our business in the Castro as much as we can,” said Skoor.

Thursday (June 13) Skoor will be seeking permission from the city’s Interdepartment Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, known as ISCOTT, to once again close 18th Street between Castro and Collingwood streets for the 2020 summit. The block would be shut to vehicle traffic from 2 p.m.

Thursday, April 23, to 3 a.m. Sunday, April 26.

Lesbians Who Tech is also seeking permission to again use the two parking lots, one accessed off 18th Street and the other behind the Castro Theatre, from 6 a.m. Tuesday, April 21, to 1 a.m. Sunday, April 26.

Last month, the Castro Merchants voted to support the closure requests.

“Normally it would concern me, but they have actively worked with the community to push the money back into it, using Castro restaurants and merchants for food and supplies as well as advertising them to the attendees,” Terry Asten Bennett, whose family owns Cliff ’s Variety on Castro Street, told the Bay Area Reporter as for why she supported the summit’s request.

Based on feedback from residents perturbed in February by the noise from the tents on 18th Street be-

ing installed overnight, the summit organizers plan to set up the street during the daytime next April.

With meeting space at a premium in the Castro, the summit organizers have explored different options with limited success. One hiccup they encountered this year came when attendees under the age of 21 were not allowed entrance into the Cafe, a gay club on Market Street, for daytime sessions despite no alcohol being served. It had not been a problem during previous summits, and as the B.A.R. reported in March, came as a surprise this year.

Meanwhile, the owners of the vacant commercial building at 2390 Market Street, which had housed a Pottery Barn, declined to rent it out on a short-term basis for the summit to use, Skoor said when asked by the B.A.R. about leasing the space.

Organizers also had looked at erecting a tent on 17th Street within the confines of Jane Warner Plaza next year. But with the need for the F-Line trolley cars to navigate through the parklet, the summit organizers are not pursuing that option at the moment.

The ISCOTT meeting begins at 9 a.m. and is held in Room 7080 on the seventh floor of 1 South Van Ness Avenue.

Registration for the 2020 San Francisco summit has yet to open.

Information about the event will be posted to the website https://lesbianswhotech.org/.

Gay chocolatier Michael Benner has once again whipped up a special confection for Pride Month.

His 2019 Pride Collection features creamy dark chocolate ganache in dark chocolate heart shells hand painted the colors of the rainbow flag using colored cocoa butter.

The yellow heart is a version of his award-winning lemon burst bonbon. In 2017, Benner launched his San Francisco-based Michael’s Chocolates with his husband, Curtis Wallis.

His Pride hearts can be ordered in boxes of six ($18) and up to 24 ($69) with free shipping to San Francisco addresses. To place an order, visit https://www.michaelschocolates. com/store/p62/Pr ide_Col le ction_2019_.html.

Coffee company collects Pride stories

The lauded lesbian-owned Equator Coffee is asking its patrons to share why Pride is special to them by writing down their reasons on postcards found at its various locations.

They will then be displayed at the San Francisco location at 986 Market Street during Pride weekend June 29-30.

For more information, visit https://www. equatorcoffees.com/ pages/pride-2019.

Honor Roll

Shoppers of Macy’s San Francisco stores during June can round up their purchases to the nearest dollar amount in order to benefit the Trevor Project, which provides suicide prevention and other services to LGBT youth. And during Pride weekend, Macy’s Union Square store, located at 170 O’Farrell Street, invites customers to join it for a special celebration with drag performances by

the House of Glitter Queens from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 29, in its Men’s Department on Level 5.

Also during Pride Month two restaurants located along the parade route have special menu offerings benefiting REAF, the Richmond Ermet Aid Foundation of San Francisco that donates to local LGBT nonprofits.

Patrons of One Market Restaurant, located at 1 Market Street, can order two specialty cocktails with $1 from each one purchased going to REAF. The Harvey Milkshake ($12), named after the gay icon, is made with homemade vanilla ice cream, Stolichnaya vodka, crème de cacao, and prickly pear. The Friend of Dorothy cocktail ($13) is made with Gloria Ferrer Private Reserve Cuvée and prickly pear.

M.Y. China, on the fourth floor of the Westfield San Francisco Centre at 845 Market Street, is serving up two special dishes and one cocktail on behalf of REAF, with $2 from each one ordered donated to the charity. There is the Rainbow Scissor Cut Wild Boar Noodles ($20), made with bean sprouts, scallions, and wood ear mushrooms, and the Rainbow Dan Dan Noodles ($16) with seasoned pork, peanuts, and chili garlic sauce, served chilled.

The PRIDE AF Cocktail ($13) consists of Ming River Baijiu, St. Germaine, and New Amsterdam Gin. And congrats to Scarpelli and Associates Physical Therapy, located in the Castro at 4200 18th Street, Suite 102, on becoming a legacy business. The San Francisco Small Business Commission approved its designation May 29.

Elizabeth Scarpelli and Lisa Kakeshi founded the niche orthopedic manual therapy practice in 1985. It early on provided care to people living with HIV and continues to partner with local nonprofits.

“We treat patients one-on-one, and have a long standing mentoring and consultation program,” stated Scarpelli, president and CEO of the business. “Patients trust our therapists to collaborate and problem solve, finding solutions to complex problems.” t Got a tip on LGBT business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ ebar.com.

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<< Community News

t Guerneville resorts rebuild after February flood 8 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

by Charlie Wagner

W

hen people wear hard hats around Guerneville’s R3 Hotel pool these days, it’s not a tribute to the Village People.

General manager Jeff Bridges clarified what’s going on.

“Our pool looks great, but we can’t let anyone swim because it’s an active construction project,” he said.

The business and some others suffered damage in a February flood that hit the gay resort town in Sonoma County. Now, rebuilding is underway and, in many cases, nearly complete.

“Our greatest challenge has been getting equipment like refrigerators and ice machines delivered on time,” Bridges said. “We are planning to open the bar the last week of June.” He quickly added, “That is equipmentdependent.”

To celebrate the R3’s return to business Bridges and his team are organizing a multi-day “grand opening” for the July 4 holiday.

He unveiled some of their plans for live entertainment.

“Snatch will return for her 20th year, and Mercedez Munro will host a big drag show on Saturday night,” he said.

R3 event coordinator Rodger Jensen said they are planning other entertainment as well, and recommended checking the R3 website for more information.

Just a block down Fourth Street is another LGBTQ-popular resort closed after the flood, the Woods Cot-

tages and Cabins at the Russian River.

Currently, that is also an active construction site.

Michael Preaseau has owned the Woods since 2004. In a phone interview he said, “This was my third flood, after others in 2006 and 2017, and this was the worst. It took out 15 units (the resort has 19 total) but the basics are done and we expect to have 13 units online by the last weekend in June.”

He outlined how his resort always upgrades when repairing flood damage: “We’ll have new floors and beds, so all our rooms will be nicer. We will be going full swing on the Fourth of July holiday.”

At the end of the street is another flood-closed resort, the West Sonoma Inn, popular with LGBTQ visitors during Women’s Weekend and Lazy Bear. Representatives of the business did not return phone calls seeking comment, but it appears to be under repair.

Elise VanDyne, executive director of the Russian River Chamber of Commerce, confirmed in an email that the West Sonoma Inn will be hosting Lazy Bear events and its “public and party space is open now to renters, just not the rooms.”

Speaking in his role as president of the chamber, Bridges said, “July 4 is a four-day holiday weekend and the town will be full.”

Flood Aid raises $33K

The recent Love Wins-Russian River Flood Aid series of benefits in April raised about $33,000, organizers said.

Charlie Wagner

The pool at the Woods Cottages and Cabins at the Russian River is ready for the resort’s late June reopening following flood damage this winter.

“Every night was geared to a different part of our community,” Jensen explained, and he gave special thanks to the Rainbow Cattle Company on Main Street in Guerneville, which held a special Give Back Thursday on the first night.

“We raised $10,000 just on opening night,” Jensen said.

Two beneficiaries split the proceeds, each receiving $16,739. The first was processed through the New Vision Foundation of Santa Rosa, which then divided the money equally

between the Russian River and Sebastopol chambers of commerce.

Bridges, the president of the Russian River chamber, said, “The funds were distributed to local businesses based on how badly the businesses were affected and the number of their employees. Grants ranged from $500 to $3,000 and were given to 54 businesses in Guerneville and 42 in Sebastopol.”

The other half was given to West County Community Services, which, according to its website “serves West Sonoma County with programs including

employment, housing, seniors, youth, mental health and counseling services.”

Tim Miller, executive director of WCCS, confirmed the agency received $16,739, which is being processed through the Lazy Bear Fund.

The Temporary Housing Assistance Program, as it’s called, will close June 30 when all the money is used up.

Individuals and families received the funds, not businesses, he said.

“The aid now is almost all housingrelated,” he added.

See page 15 >>

Lawyer looking for ‘blue discharge’ recipients

by Meg Elison

L

awyer Elizabeth Kristen is looking for some of America’s long-lost gay soldiers.

Uncovering the shameful history of the American military’s “blue discharges” is one of the driving passions of her efforts for San Francisco-based Legal Aid at Work, where she is director of its gender equity and LGBT rights program.

The blue discharge designation means that one’s ending in the military was neither honorable nor dishonorable. These walking papers were handed to unknown hundreds of soldiers from 1916 to 1947, when it was replaced by the general discharge and finally the long-standing anti-gay policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from 1993-2011.

The so-called blue ticket still carries a stigma for many living vets, reminding them of the shame and ostracism of being outed. Printed on blue paper, the discharge once waved a red flag to potential employers who often refused to hire returned soldiers who

Courtesy Legal Aid at Work

Attorney Elizabeth Kristen

could not show honorable discharge paperwork.

Kristen, a 52-year-old lesbian, said in a phone interview that she came from a military family, which got her interested in the plight of these veterans who were deprived of most of the benefits of their service, including the

GI Bill program for education, health insurance, and burial assistance.

It also deprived gay veterans of benefits and honors not commonly known to the civilian public. While most veterans in possession of a blue discharge are not likely to still be in the market for college education, death and burial benefits can be a more pressing concern.

“I found out about this history by just talking to an older family member of mine,” Kristen said. “He told me he had a bad discharge for being gay, and I begged him to allow me to file a discharge upgrade for him. He didn’t want to dig up the shame and regret involved. He said it was literally locked away in the closet and that’s where it will stay.”

Unable to help her own family, Kristen reached out to other veterans, including Helen James, a 90-year-old lesbian living in Clovis, California with one of these discharges on her record. James had already applied for a discharge upgrade, but the Air Force failed to respond within the mandated 18 months. With the help

of D.C. law firm WilmerHale, Kristen brought suit on James’ behalf and national media began to take notice.

“I met Helen James, and she was so vital and warm and genuine and still very much in touch with what had happened,” said Kristen, remembering the beginning of the case. “I wanted to make it happen faster because of her age. Helen James was the 2018 grand marshal of the Fresno Rainbow Pride parade. Her life changed in ways she couldn’t have imagined, because she came out about this.”

Kristen contacted James to see if she would speak with the B.A.R., but James did not respond.

Kristen hopes most of all that these stories of restored honorable discharges will reach any remaining queer vets and encourage them to come forward to receive their due.

“I read a 1986 undesirable discharge. The reason for separation is given as ‘attempted to engage in or solicited homosexual acts.’ I met a lesbian who did time in Leavenworth for being who she was. These people are still out there, and they deserve justice.

It’s unfair to put the burden of appealing for these upgrades on the individuals who have suffered from them.

We need a bill that restores all these purged service members to their full dignity. We can’t give them back what they’ve lost, but we can honor them as they deserve,” Kristen said.

Kristen hopes that stories like James’ will encourage other veterans to come forward, and push for broad change.

“Courage has a ripple effect. Each person who comes forward and tells their story shows their bravery and helps someone else do the same,” she said. “Our lesbian elders and queer elders, we owe it to them for doing the hard work of coming before us. We have to set an example for younger queer people that we don’t just move forward, we can still bring the past to justice.” t For more information, contact (415) 864-8848 or visit http://www. legalaidatwork.org.

Affordable co-working space opens in Fruitvale

by Meg Elison

A

s co-working spaces proliferate across the Bay Area, they have gone from a utility to a symbol of wealth and status.

Now, a queer woman has opened one up in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, envisioning affordable work spaces for women, LGBT folks, and people of color.

Homiey Fruitvale owner Ebonie Cobb, 30, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, decided to take a stand and create a more inclusive space.

Homiey Fruitvale is described in a news release as a black, queer, and woman-owned co-working and event space. Newly opened in May, the space offers the usual ameni-

Meg Elison

A vibrant mural greets workers at Homiey Fruitvale, a new co-working space in Oakland.

ties of co-working benefits: space and seating, Wi-Fi, and a kitchen stocked with snacks, coffee, and tea.

Homiey originated in Chicago,

but founder Cobb thought another location could be particularly useful in East Oakland. They chose the Fruitvale area for its ease of access

via BART, with a station just a fiveminute walk away.

The Bay Area Reporter had a chance to tour the space with Cobb. It is sunny and well-lit and has seating capacity for 45 people.

The choices in art are striking, with a large, bright-pink graffiti-style mural dominating one wall in the main space, and a vintage-looking functioning telephone booth that can connect to a cellphone to make a call. However, the aesthetic belies a serious ethic of affordability, and a desire to be an accessible space.

“Affordability is super important,” said Cobb in an interview.

“Co-working is typically a space where you don’t see a lot of black and brown people. There’s a lot of

privilege associated with just being able to use a co-working space. I don’t think that should be the case.

Making something that’s accessible in a neighborhood like Fruitvale is very important. This is a space to build not only your business, but also your confidence. This is a place that you can call your own.”

Cobb’s other job rents space with a well-known co-working company.

They acknowledged the difference between that experience and the one they are trying to create with Homiey.

“I don’t see a lot of people who look like me there,” they said. “My job is genuinely committed to diverSee page 15 >>

t

Community News>>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Park Service releases guide of LGBT sites compiled by Cynthia Laird

J

ust in time for Pride Month, the National Park Service has released a free downloadable Pride Guide.

The 80-page guide is an interactive resource for exploring LGBTQ history and places in the United States.

Working through the Pride Guide gives people an opportunity to learn new things, but it should also inspire them to socialize with others while listening to their thoughts and perspectives, according to a release from the Park Service.

In 2016, the Park Service published “LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History,” which explored the legacy and history of LGBTQ people and places.

“This Pride Guide provides a brief summary of each chapter of the theme study along with discussion questions and activities,” the Park Service stated in the release.

Intended for teenagers and gaystraight alliances, this resource can also be used by adults and communities interested in learning more about the topic material, the Park Service stated.

According to the Park Service, the guide may also be used by teachers to meet state standards and requirements for inclusive curricula.

To download the guide, go to https://bit.ly/2K3RL5p.

Bayview Pride fundraiser

Drag king group Momma’s Boyz will be featured entertainment at a benefit for Bayview Pride Saturday, June 15, from 5 to 10 p.m. at women-owned Gratta Wines, 5273 Third Street in San Francisco.

The event will help residents in District 10 have a larger presence in the San Francisco Pride parade, according to a Facebook post.

Momma’s Boyz will be joined by their Kingdom drag king brothers, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and special performances by Ariel Bowser and Anya.

A $10 donation at the door gets attendees a raffle ticket for the chance to win some goodies and enjoy the show. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased. Organizers will also be auctioning off a magnum of Dolcetto Rose.

Bayview Pasta will be in the house serving up its lasagna paired with a glass of wine, with $2 from all lasagna and wine sales going in the pot.

Attendees are encouraged to come dressed in their best drag.

For more information, visit https:// bit.ly/2XHzZZ8.

Out & Equal offers scholarship for trans woman of color

Responding to the killings of five transgender women of color in less than a month, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates has announced it is establishing a scholarship to enable a trans woman of color to attend its Workplace Summit at no cost.

“It is not enough for us to send ‘thoughts and prayers’ after each of these incidents,” Out & Equal CEO Erin Uritus said in a news release. “We need to recognize that this is a crisis that demands action.”

She said that staff at the nonprofit talked about what the organization could do.

“We immediately knew that this violence is related to the social status of transgender women, and that this status is closely linked to the fact that transgender women are far more likely to be unemployed or underemployed,” Uritus, who identifies as pansexual and queer, added.

According to Out & Equal, the body of Chynal Lindsey, 26, was found in a Dallas lake on Saturday,

Courtesy NPS

The National Park Service has issued a Pride Guide.

June 2. Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was found dead in Dallas on Saturday, May 25. Paris Cameron was shot and killed in Detroit May 25. Michelle “Tamika” Williams, 40, was fatally shot in Philadelphia Friday, May 24.

Claire Legato, 21, succumbed to her injuries May 14; she had been shot a month earlier in Cleveland.

The scholarship is a “token” of Out & Equal’s solidarity with women who face this threat, Uritus added.

“It is also our hope that by announcing this scholarship – and talking about this issue at the summit – we will be able to place this crisis, and the need for action, on the agenda of all of the Fortune 1,000 companies that will be present,” she said.

The summit is scheduled for October 14-17 in Washington, D.C. The scholarship application can be found at https://outandequal. org/transempowermentscholarship/.

Trans health program at Commonwealth Club

Tiffany Woods, a trans woman and longtime health advocate, will present “Transgender Health in the Age of Trump: An Attempted Erasure of Trans Americans” Monday, June 17, at 5:15 p.m. at the Commonwealth Club, 110 The Embarcadero in San Francisco.

Woods was recently elected northern California co-chair of the LGBT Caucus of the California Democratic Party. A former program manager at TransVision, Woods is now a trans health specialist for the state Department of Public Health, though her talk is independent of her day job.

Woods is expected to address the numerous things the Trump administration has done to negatively affect trans Americans, including the ban on trans service members serving in the military. The Department of Health and Human Services has created a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, which is expected to offer greater protections for health care workers who do not wish to treat trans patients.

“Yet, trans Americans and their allies have fought back, defining their resiliency and ability to personally succeed at historic levels,” a program description noted.

Tickets are $20 general admission, $10 for club members, and $8 for students. Registration opens at 4:45 p.m.

The program is part of the Commonwealth Club’s LGBT Pride Month programming. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2VMB3NG.

Alameda fair to hold Pride day

The Alameda County Fair will have its first Out at the Fair Pride Day Saturday, June 22.

The fair runs Wednesday through

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Sunday from June 14 to July 7, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., except July 4, when it is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. General admission is $15 for adults and $10 for kids ages 6-12.

In addition to the LGBTQ Pride day, the fair will hold Fiesta a la Feria (June 16), Asian Pacific Celebration at the Fair (June 23), and Bollywood at the Fair (June 30). The fair is held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton.

“The Alameda County Fair prides itself on community and inclusiveness,” Angel Moore, vice president of business development, said in a news release. “We are excited to introduce these new festivals to recognize the importance that diversity plays in all communities throughout the Bay Area.”

The Alameda fair features horse racing, a carnival midway, and free concerts from 8 to 9:15 p.m. nightly with fireworks (except July 4). June 28 will feature a fireworks spectacular set to music at 9:45.

For more information, including discount days, concert lineup, and ticket info, visit alamedacountyfair.com.

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In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the BAYMEC Community Foundation will present an event to recognize Wiggsy Sivertsen, one of the South Bay’s leading figures in the LGBTQ civil rights movement, Monday, June 24, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Cafe Stritch, 374 S. First Street, in downtown San Jose.

The BAYMEC Community Foundation is the 501(c)3 arm of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, which Sivertsen helped co-found.

Ken Yeager, a gay man and former Santa Clara County supervisor, is now the executive director of the foundation. In a news release, he said that “An Evening with Wiggsy and Pals” will be fun and give people a chance to hear Sivertsen’s story and share their own.

“You won’t want to miss this chance to hear her stories told with typical candor and humor,” he said.

“We all know Wiggsy is not someone who holds back.”

The event is co-sponsored by Silicon Valley Pride, the Rainbow Chamber of Commerce, and the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center.

Tickets are $100 and benefit the BAYMEC foundation. For more information, visit baymecfoundation.org/.

LGBT center to host opera program

The San Francisco LGBT Community Center will host the Merola Opera Program for a special performance Wednesday, June 26, at 6 p.m. at 1800 Market Street.

Merola is widely regarded as the foremost opera training program for aspiring singers, coach accompanists, and stage directors. It is financially independent but has a close association with San Francisco Opera, according to its website.

At the upcoming show, program participants will perform selections from the new opera, “If I Were You.” According to a news release, the newly commissioned opera is a contemporary story of identity with echoes of classic literature, from Faust to Jekyll and Hyde. Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer envision a work in which many of Merola’s young singers have the opportunity to be the lead as Fabian’s soul and music move from one character to the next.

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<< National News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

High court could get anti-gay florist’s case

by Lisa Keen

T

he U.S. Supreme Court may soon get another chance to consider whether businesses can claim religious motivations for refusing service to LGBT people.

The case likely will come from the Washington state Supreme Court, which ruled last week that a business cannot claim a religious exemption from a state law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a group that has been pushing for such exemptions, said immediately that it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case, Washington v. Arlene’s Flowers Inc., has already been to the U.S. Supreme Court once. In June 2018, the court vacated the Washington Supreme Court’s initial ruling on the issue, also against the religious exemption. But the high court said last year that the state court should reconsider its decision “in light of ” the Supreme Court’s decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado.

Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Washington, is expected to appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Supreme Court did not say a baker had a right to refuse to sell a cake to a same-sex couple by citing his religious beliefs. It said the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had demonstrated “clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs” of the baker.

In its ruling June 6, the Washington Supreme Court said it reconsidered the case and reviewed “substantial new briefing” on the issue and found that the courts that deliberated on the issue “did not act with religious animus” when they ruled a florist violated a state law by refusing to sell flowers to a gay couple.

The Washington case involves Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington. Stutzman refused to sell flowers to a gay couple – Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed. Both the state and the couple sued Stutzman, saying she violated the state public accommodations law. The lawsuits were consolidated.

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund submitted a friend-ofthe-court brief to the Washington Supreme Court in the original case, in 2017.

“The Washington Supreme Court today again confirmed a simple principle: our precious freedoms of religion and speech do not give businesses a license to discriminate against LGBT people,” Jennifer C. Pizer, director of law and policy for Lambda Legal, said in a June 6 state-

ment. “As important, the court also did a careful review and rejected the assertion that there was anti-religious bias in the state courts’ consideration of the lawsuit. The florist in this action ... had no plausible basis for claiming there was hostility to her religious beliefs among those deciding her case.”

Stutzman, who identifies as a Southern Baptist, told the couple she could not provide flowers for their wedding because of her “relationship to Jesus Christ.” The state court noted that she also defended her refusal by pointing to her denomination’s position that marriage can be between only one man and one woman. She said she had sold flowers to gay customers but had a policy of “don’t take same-sex marriages” because providing flowers to such weddings constituted an endorsement of marriage for same-sex couples.

“However,” noted the Washington Supreme Court, “Stutzman acknowledged that selling flowers for an atheistic or Muslim wedding would not be tantamount to endorsing those systems of belief.”

In a unanimous decision, the

t

state Supreme Court rejected all of Stutzman’s arguments, including that requiring she obey the state’s non-discrimination law violates her constitutional First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion, free speech, and freedom of association.

Another case

The U.S. Supreme Court could announce any day now whether it intends to hear an appeal pressed by another group, the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, on behalf of a baker in Oregon who refused to sell a cake to a same-sex couple.

That case, Klein v. Oregon, has been on the justices’ conference list since February but the court has yet to say whether it will take the appeal.

In March, the Supreme Court declined to hear another appeal on the public accommodations issue from Alliance Defending Freedom.

That case, Aloha Bed & Breakfast v.

Cervelli, involved the owner of a bed and breakfast in Hawaii who refused to accommodate a same-sex couple.

There was no indication of why the court did not take the case. t

Judge rules against trans barista in Starbucks suit

by Meg Elison

A

Fresno County Superior Court judge Tuesday issued a tentative ruling against a trans barista in her lawsuit against Starbucks.

Madison Wade, 29, was already an experienced Starbucks barista when she began her gender transition at a Fresno branch of the national coffee chain. In a complaint

filed in Fresno County Superior Court, Wade alleges that her supervisor, Dustin Guthrie, began a campaign of harassment and misgendering soon after she began her transition, forcing her to transfer locations and finally to resign after nine years of employment.

According to the complaint, filed in July 2018, Guthrie refused to use Wade’s correct pronouns in her working environment and

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misgendered her consistently in front of both co-workers and customers. This behavior also included using gendered slang such as “bro” or “dude” to refer to Wade, the complaint says.

At the same time as these events, Guthrie allegedly posted transphobic memes to his personal Facebook page, including deadnaming and deriding Caitlyn Jenner, and an image of John Wayne with the caption: “Cutting your pecker off does not make you a woman. It just makes you a guy who cut off his damn pecker!”

Though screencaps of these posts were submitted as evidence in the complaint, Guthrie’s page has since been made private. However, his public page likes still include Ben Shapiro, noted transmisogynist pundit and frequent speaker for transphobic causes, as well as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Guthrie refused to comment on the case when contacted by phone, referring the Bay Area Reporter to Starbucks’ media relations department.

Starbucks did not return a message seeking comment.

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Starbucks publishes an employee handbook, which refers to employees as “partners.” In a section titled, “Workplace Guidelines for Supporting Transgender Partners,” the company states that “Refusal to respect a partner’s request to be identified by the pronouns of choice is considered disrespectful (e.g., intentionally referring to a partner by a pronoun that does not correspond to the employee’s gender identity), and not in alignment with Our Mission and Values.” A screencap of this page of the handbook was provided to the B.A.R. by a former Starbucks employee.

Starbucks sought a summary dismissal of this case in a hearing Tuesday, on the basis that consistent misgendering does not meet the standard for harassment, which according to state law must be “severe or pervasive.”

Fresno Superior Court Judge Kimberly Gaab issued a tentative ruling in favor of Starbucks, establishing that these conditions do not constitute harassment. Gaab’s decision elaborated that Guthrie’s

8/11/17 12:30 PM

Courtesy Madison Wade

Former Starbucks barista Madison Wade

conduct did not qualify as outrageous, and that the plaintiff failed to prove significant emotional distress, offering examples from cases of egregious harassment as a guideline of what would qualify.

Gaab denied requests made by local Fresno television stations to film or stream Tuesday’s hearing, according to permit requests filed

by KFSN and KSEE furnished to the B.A.R by Wade’s attorney, Arnold Peter.

Peter spoke with the B.A.R by phone, outlining his fears for the repercussions for trans workers across the state based on the outcome of Wade’s case if Gaab’s ruling is made final.

“Starbucks has to do whatever is necessary to defend its rights, but they’re trying to establish some pretty bad law. They’re asking the court to determine that misgendering does not constitute harassment. That’s a very dangerous precedent to set in times like these,” Peter said.

“There’s no legal framework yet for evaluating these conditions.

Transgender issues in the workplace are too new, so there aren’t any cases to address this issue.

The cases that exist mostly deal with male supervisors sexually harassing female subordinates and specifically involve sexually explicit conditions. We’re not saying Guthrie said anything disparaging. We’re saying that misgendering itself is a big deal. This is a case of first oppression,” he added.

Gaab took the case under submission.

Wade echoed the sentiment that her predicament goes beyond just her.

“It’s an important case, not just for me but for trans individuals everywhere,” she said. “Trans rights are really under threat right now, and it can only get worse if places like Starbucks are allowed to decide that this isn’t harassment. There are many transgender partners throughout Starbucks’ stores that rely on the safety of corporate supportive policies.

“Starbucks has policies in place that can, and have, transformed the lives of many LGBTQ partners.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that they have the ability to properly enforce these policies,” she added.

“There seems to be a severe disconnect from the ideologies put forth by Starbucks Corporate and the policies applied on a local level. Marketing a safe space for LGBTQ partners without the ability to properly execute is like leading people into a buzz saw.”

Wade and other transgender people across the nation face daunting employment prospects, even in states like California that have protections in place. A ruling in favor of Starbucks could severely limit recourse for transgender people who are experiencing discrimination in their workplace, advocates said. According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey published by the National Center for Transgender Equality, trans women are four times more likely to be unemployed than cis women.

As part of celebrations for Pride 2019, Starbucks is a sponsor of SF Pride. It is currently selling rainbow-themed merchandise, as well as matching donations to Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta’s Born This Way Foundation, which states its aim as working to “improve access to mental health resources and support organizations around the country who are making a difference for LGBTQ communities and society as a whole.”

Representatives for Born This Way Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. t

Community News>>

t Different paths for conquering eating disorders

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

by Madison Silva

Intuitive eating

O

n a regular basis, many queer people, especially youth, suffer stressors that impact their mental health, advocates said.

Anxiety, depression, and low selfesteem steadily remain at high levels in the LGBTQ community due to harassment in spaces such as school and work, potentially traumatic coming out experiences, various types of prejudice, abuse, as well as exclusion and rejection. Statistics from the Trevor Project show that 51% of bisexual people have a diagnosed eating disorder, along with 49% of gays and lesbians, 40% of genderqueer and non-binary individuals, and 35% of other identifying LGBTQ members. Anorexia is the most common eating disorder among queer youth.

Experts pointed out that young queer individuals, who often lack adequate resources and accessibility to treatment, often turn to damaging coping methods, like substance abuse, self-harm, and eating disorders.

“As a community, LGBTQ individuals do not often talk about mental health and may lack awareness about mental health conditions. This sometimes prevents people from seeking the treatment and support that they need to get better,” the National Alliance on Mental Illness states on its website.

The Bay Area Reporter spoke with Allison Burnett and Jared Levenson, who are making an impact on the rising threat of eating disorders within the LGBTQ community through different means.

Burnett works for Alsana, an eating disorder treatment center with five locations across the country. It is changing how LGBTQ individu-

Courtesy Jared Levenson

Jared Levenson has started an intuitive eating community in the South Bay.

als receive help. Burnett, a therapist since 2012, currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama and is the national director of alumni and advocacy for the company. Burnett, a member of the LGBTQ community herself, realized that 40% of the people seeking help at Alsana identified as queer. With that in mind, she decided that the company needed to tailor its treatment for LGBTQ clients. “[Alsana] has always been a safe space, but I wanted to turn it into an affirming space for LGBTQ clients,” Burnett said.

Burnett started with encouraging the staff to explore their own sexualities and identities and how that would affect queer-identifying clients. Burnett wanted the staff to assess the culture and life differences between them and their LGBTQ clients, and how to remain sensitive and aware of those differences.

As the next step, Burnett, 33, helped the company create its gen-

der, sexuality, and identity groups.

The groups cater to queer individuals, acting as a support system for those struggling with those issues along with their eating disorders.

Burnett described the framework as “body embrace.” The first goal is body tolerance, then body acceptance, and finally, body compassion, she noted. At every location, patients have a point person. Through Burnett’s guidance, those point people participate in a monthly checkin regarding LGBTQs at the centers, focusing on issues and how they can improve patient care – what she calls Partners in Pride.

Burnett said most people go through their insurance when enrolling for treatment and admissions staff determine how much a person’s insurance will cover. Alsana has inpatient and outpatient programs available. California facilities include Westlake Village in Los Angeles County, Santa Barbara, and Monterey.

In the South Bay, Levenson, an ally, is with the intuitive eating community. He spoke with the B.A.R. on what he called the “backlash against diets.”

Intuitive eating, according to a post by Aaron Flores on the National Eating Disorders Association’s website, is about trusting one’s inner body wisdom to make choices around food that feel good in one’s body, without judgment and without influence from diet culture.

Levenson, after battling with his fluctuating weight and depression, became a monk for over a year and in that time discovered the concept of intuitive eating. With intuitive eating, Levenson said that his body was at its natural weight again and his mind was clearer than ever.

Intuitive eating puts an emphasis on mindful eating. Levenson, 28, described it as “yoga for food.”

“If we can be present with food and learn not to use food emotionally, we can heal,” he said. “I think our culture is ready for an eating movement.”

With diets, there is someone from the outside telling someone how to eat, which disconnects a person from their body, he pointed out.

“You can’t be healthy when you’re disconnected from your body,” Levenson said. “People fail at dieting and incorrectly blame themselves – this workshop helps people realize it’s not their fault.”

Levenson, who’s in Santa Clara, also holds guided intuitive eating dinners, which he describes as support groups for people who are struggling with their diets or have been harmed by diet culture.

Through meditation and discussion, he helps individuals become in touch with what they’re feeling and thinking when they’re eating.

Levenson will be holding educational workshops on intuitive eating in the South Bay throughout the summer.

He met a friend of his, Dal Miranda, 74, who was in Overeaters Anonymous and encouraged Levenson to spread the word about intuitive eating. Levenson held his first meal for multiple people with Miranda and it went successfully.

“The first thing [Jared] says is, eat anything you want – which goes against everything I know,” Miranda said.

“What’s different about Jared, he takes the whole picture into consideration,” Miranda added.

“We do these dinners where we all talk about our relationship to food. It’s unbelievable what people are willing to share.”

Levenson then branched out from there. OA is a 12-step program with a spiritual foundation.

Intuitive eating is spiritual as well, but follows no steps – just being in touch with one’s body, he noted.t For more information on Alsana, visit www.alsana.com. For more information on Levenson’s intuitive eating program, visit https:// weightlossenlightenment.com/.

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<< National News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

t

Guidance will mandate insurance coverage for PrEP

by Liz Highleyman

T

he U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released a recommendation Tuesday, calling on health care providers to offer PrEP to men and women at high risk of acquiring HIV. The June 11 recommendation received an “A” grade, meaning it is well supported by scientific evidence.

The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to cover USPSTF-recommended prevention services with an “A” or “B” grade.

“The new recommendation for PrEP is enormously important news for the struggle against HIV,” Dr. Robert Grant of UCSF, who led a major study showing that PrEP is highly effective for gay and bisexual men, told the Bay Area Reporter. “This grade A recommendation reflects the available evidence, which strongly supports the use of PrEP as a safe, effective method for HIV prevention.”

Based on a review of medical studies, the USPSTF experts found “convincing evidence” that PrEP is of substantial benefit in decreasing the risk of HIV infection among people at high risk and “adequate evidence” that PrEP is associated with only small harms, including kidney and gastrointestinal side effects.

As described in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the recommendation says clinicians should offer PrEP to sexually active men who have sex with men and heterosexual women and men who have an HIV-positive sex partner, do not use condoms consistently, or have had a sexually transmitted disease within the past six months.

It is also recommended for people who inject drugs who share needles or other injection equipment.

The recommendation notes that transgender women and men may be at increased risk for HIV and should be considered for PrEP based on the same

criteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that around a quarter of trans women are living with HIV. Although few transgender people have been included in clinical trials, PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through receptive or insertive anal or vaginal sex, so it can be considered for cisgender and transgender people alike, according to the task force authors.

The task force recommends oncedaily Truvada (tenofovir DF/emtricitabine) – currently the only PrEP regimen approved by the Food and Drug Administration – for all at-risk groups. But it also says that tenofovir DF alone, which is available as a cheap generic, is an option for heterosexual men and women and people who inject drugs, based on studies showing that it lowers HIV risk in these groups. No equivalent studies of gay and bi men have been done. The recommendation says little about intermittent PrEP – also known as PrEP 2-1-1 – taken on a fixed schedule before and after sex.

Many advocates applauded the new recommendation.

“While we know that access to PrEP involves much more than merely access to a daily pill, and PrEP uptake is lagging among many communities who need it, this positive recommendation from the USPSTF will provide a boost for the [Trump] administration’s plan to reduce new HIV infections by 90 percent in the United States by 2030,” said Carl Schmid, deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute.

Implications for access

Medical experts and advocates agree that the new recommendation has the potential to substantially expand access to PrEP. The mandate is expected to be fully implemented in 2021 – around the time generic versions of Truvada

Rick Gerharter

Mission Wellness Pharmacy in San Francisco promoted PrEP last fall.

are likely to become available.

“The decision of the USPSTF to grant PrEP a grade A recommendation is an excellent, if long overdue, step to ensuring universal access to this vital public health tool,” James Krellenstein of the PrEP4All Collaboration told the B.A.R. “Activists will now need to ensure that when this rule is implemented, all plans are not only charging zero cost sharing for access to the drug, but also to the vital clinical services that people on PrEP need to stay healthy.”

According to CDC estimates, only around 10% of the more than 1.1 million people in the United States who are at substantial risk of acquiring HIV are using PrEP. This drops to just 1% of African Americans, the group with the highest rate of new infections. In California, the state Office of AIDS estimates that as many as 240,000 Californians could be eligible for PrEP, but only around 9,000 people were using it as of late 2016. In San Francisco, about half of eligible individuals are on PrEP, according to the city’s latest HIV epidemiology report.

Many private insurers already cover Truvada PrEP – which is priced at around $1,600 per month – but many require cost sharing. Manufacturer Gilead Sciences offers a co-pay card that

people with private insurance can use to cover their out-of-pocket costs, but some find this benefit inadequate. The USPSTF recommendation will eliminate this cost sharing. In addition, more state Medicaid programs are expected to cover PrEP. In effect, the recommendation could end up shifting the cost of Truvada from Gilead to private and public insurers – and ultimately to the premiums paid by customers.

The recommendation is unlikely to satisfy advocates who demand that Gilead lower the price of Truvada and want other companies to produce less expensive generic versions. As previously reported, Krellenstein’s group discovered earlier this year that the CDC appears to hold patents on the use of Truvada for HIV prevention, but the government has not taken advantage of them to increase access to PrEP. The cost of PrEP represents a substantial financial burden for both Medicaid programs and state and local public health departments that directly provide Truvada. California’s Medicaid program spends about $50 million on PrEP, according to Kaiser Health News.

While a majority of individuals with access to the health care system can generally find a way to obtain Truvada now – especially in cities such as San Francisco that employ PrEP navigators to help them – the larger issue is people who aren’t engaged in care.

Beyond the cost barrier, expanding PrEP use among those who need it most will also require raising awareness and combatting stigma.

“PrEP has been proven to be a highly effective intervention in preventing new cases of HIV, and receiving an A grade is an important step toward increased access,” San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO Joe Hollendoner told the B.A.R. “We know, however, that access alone does not result in utilization, so we call on health care providers to educate their patients who are at risk for HIV acquisition – especially those who are people of color – about PrEP and how it can protect their sexual health.”

But in some cases providers themselves can be the problem.

“In addition to addressing insurance coverage issues, the USPSTF’s strong support of PrEP provides needed impetus to increase medical provider awareness of this essential prevention tool and to address providers’ reluctance to prescribe PrEP,” HIV Medicine Association chair Dr. W. David Hardy said in a statement.

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PrEP at the pharmacy

In other PrEP access news, the California Senate last month passed a bill that will allow pharmacists to provide PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) without a doctor’s prescription.

It also prohibits insurance companies from requiring prior authorization for PrEP coverage.

Senate Bill 159, coauthored by gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and gay Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), authorizes pharmacists to offer a month’s worth of PrEP without a physician’s authorization. Clients would then be referred to a medical provider for the recommended ongoing monitoring, including STD screening and kidney function tests. Pharmacists would also be able to offer a monthlong course of PEP, which must be started within 72 hours after exposure to HIV. “By allowing pharmacists to furnish these revolutionary medications, we will help reduce HIV infection rates and create a stronger path toward ending new HIV infections entirely,” Wiener said in a statement. “We have the tools to end new HIV infections, and we can get there in our lifetime.”

Some have raised concerns about providing PrEP without doing testing on kidney function in advance, because the tenofovir in Truvada can potentially cause kidney impairment in susceptible individuals. But studies have shown that kidney problems are uncommon among people using Truvada for HIV prevention.

“One month is not going to be a problem,” Grant told the B.A.R. “We’re not seeing kidney problems very much at all in people seeking PrEP. These typically occur four to five months after starting and they’re rare.”

SB 159 passed by a wide 34-1 margin on May 21. It now moves to the Assembly. If approved there, the two chambers will agree on a compromise version and send the legislation to Governor Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it.

“The goal of the bill is to make PrEP accessible at a point when people are willing and able to start,” said Courtney Mulhern-Pearson, senior director for policy and strategy at SFAF, which co-sponsored the bill. “We’re looking at PrEP uptake and realizing we need to do more to increase access across the state. This is an innovative way to increase access to and awareness of PrEP and to make sure it’s available to all who need it.” t

lot from tenants rights activist Dean Preston. Whoever wins will serve out the remainder of Breed’s term through 2020 and will need to run next November for a full four-year term.

Two other candidates qualified for the race Tuesday – film producer Nomvula O’Meara and Ryan Lam – while Ryan Solomon, a gay man who is a bartender at the Castro district bar Badlands, ended his bid to represent the Haight and Western Addition neighborhoods.

Candidates in the fall races for city attorney, district attorney, public defender, sheriff, treasurer, and seats on the school district and community college boards have until August 9 to qualify for the November 5 election. t

Obituaries >> Otakar Frank Zich June 18, 1951 – May 14, 2018

Otakar Frank Zich, also known as Otto, died last spring of a massive heart attack.

He is survived by his mother, Vlasta Zichova, and his sisters, Vlasta Kristkova and Svatava Cmerkova from the Czech Republic, and his two cats,

Bitch and Bastard, now residing in a new home. He is also survived by his friends Frank Fischl, Dale Suess, and Mark Huebner. He was cremated and some of his ashes were scattered at the Satyr 2018 run in Badger Flat and the rest to be interned in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, where he lived in the 1980s. Otto belonged to the Rainbow Motorcycle Club in San Francisco and the Satyrs MC of Los Angeles. Otto is very missed and cannot be replaced.

t

Sports >>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Runner stands her ground after coming out

by Roger Brigham

fill my responsibility to my family. I am giving my parents time. Gradually, when the noise dies down, they will come round. Even people in the village will eventually come round.

My partner is also determined. She keeps telling me not to worry about what the world will say.”

I

t is said some are born to greatness while others have greatness thrust upon them. There is a third group, however, who are born to nothingness but achieve greatness through perseverance, purposeful focus, and gut-checking grit. With that in mind, let us take a moment this Pride Month to celebrate and appreciate the life of Dutee Chand.

Chand was born into a poor family in a poor village in the eastern part of India. Her father supported the family in their one-room apartment by hand-weaving saris. Her older sister, Saraswati, got her interested in running at the age of 10 and coached her for several years.

In 2012, at the age of 16, Chand became the national 100-meter 18-years-and-under champion. She was the pride of her village, Chaka Gopalpur, the next season when she was the 200-meter bronze medalist in the Asian track championships, reached the 100-meter final in the 2013 World Youth Championships, and won the national 100- and 200-meter championships.

Of course, the global track world took note of the rising star – and not very kindly.

In 2014, Chand was abruptly dropped from India’s Commonwealth Games team not because of any cheating or other malfeasance, but merely because her body produced a level of natural testosterone that affronted the sensibilities of the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Such individuals are referred to with clinical terms such as “different sexual development,” “intersex” or “hyperandrogenism.” But no matter the terminology, the fact remains they are women. Always have been, always will be. That is beyond dispute. It is easy and cold to discuss people as statistical objects when dismissing their importance or making them the subject of exclusion, but the reality remains that we are all of the same flesh and blood.

So Chand and her supporters took her case to court. In July 2015 the Court of Arbitration for Sport threw out the IAAF policy on hyperandrogenism because of lack of scientific evidence to support the ban. IAAF was given two years to come up with scientific proof and Chand was free to return to the track.

“These years have been extremely tough for me,” Chand told the Indian Express. “The negativity, fear of my career ending prematurely, insensitive comments about my body – I have faced them all. I am extremely relieved that I can run fearlessly again, knowing that now my battle exists only on the track and not off it.”

And for a good while that was true. Her fellow villagers celebrated when she won two bronze medals in the 2017 Asian track championships. The next year she won silver in the women’s 100 meters at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta – India’s first medal in that distance in 20 years – and added the silver in the same meet in the 200 meters. She is currently hoping to meet the national team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Last year India decriminalized homosexual acts and Chand praised that decision. In May she revealed for the first time she was in a relationship with a woman she met in 2016.

“I have found someone who is

See page 15 >> IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA BARREL COMPANY LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Plaintiff, v.

All Persons Claiming Any Interest in, or Lien Upon, the Real Property Herein Described or, Any Part thereof, Defendants.

Case No. CGC-19-574377

Runner Dutee Chand has stood her ground after coming out as lesbian.

my soulmate,” Chand, 23, told the Express. “I have always supported the rights of those who want to be in a same-sex relationship. It is an individual person’s choice. Currently, my focus is on the World Championships and the Olympic Games but in the future I would like to settle down with her. I have always believed that everyone should have the freedom to love. There is no greater emotion than love and it should not be denied.”

But this was not an entirely voluntary decision for Chand. She said she disclosed her relationship because her sister, Saraswati, had told members of the news media about it. And shortly after Chand came out, villagers in Odisha reportedly dragged a 19-year-old woman out of her house, tied her to a tree and beat her, after discovering her in bed with another woman.

Suddenly, the family and village support she had been receiving turned chilly and hostile.

“It’s humiliating for all of us,” Prashant Behra, a fellow villager, complained to the press about Chand’s revelation. “We have supported her all the way in her running, but we cannot accept this relationship. Marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

She should never have talked about it to the whole world. She should stick to running.”

Responded Chand, “It is going to take time for people in my village to get used to the idea. They don’t know anything different from what tradition tells them so I am not angry with them. That doesn’t mean to say I am not going to follow my heart. I can’t spend my life worrying about others. No one can live without love.”

Chand’s mother, Akhuji, said, “I had been supporting her all along for her special interest in sports but we belong to a traditional weaver community, which does not permit such things. How can we face our relatives and society?”

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe with a mother’s love, or a neighbor’s respect? Maybe by backing a person when she needs your support rather than merely cheering her achievements when they bring you a little vicarious but unearned glory?

Saraswati Chand said she believed her sister’s coaching staff had urged her to come out in order to drive a wedge between the runner and her family for their own financial benefit. But Chand was having none of that and said she and her partner were determined to persevere and hold out for the healing to begin.

“I am not a child who blindly does what her parents say,” she said.

“I am grown up. I will spend my life with who I want, but I will also ful-

SUMMONS ON SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT [CCP § 751.05] The people of the State of California, to All Persons Claiming Any Interest in, or Lien Upon, the Real Property Herein Described or, Any Part thereof, defendants, greeting (See Memorandum Disclosing Adverse Interest [CCP § 751.07] attached.): You are hereby required to appear and answer the complaint of CALIFORNIA BARREL COMPANY LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, plaintiff, filed with the clerk of the above-entitled court and county, within three months after the first publication of this summons, and to set forth what interest or lien, if any, you have in or upon that certain real property or any part thereof, situated in the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, particularly described as follows: REAL PROPERTY, SITUATE IN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COMPRJSED OF SIX (6) PARCELS, DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEING A PORTION OF PARCEL A, AS SAID PARCEL A IS DESCRJBED IN THAT CERTAIN GRANT DEED RECORDED SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2016-K334613 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: PARCEL ONE BEING ALL OF MARYLAND STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VA CATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRJBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET, SOUTHERLY 279 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID EASTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (ON 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH SAID WESTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET, NORTHERLY 279 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL TWO BEING ALL OF LOUISIANA STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016- K334613) WITH THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET, SOUTHERLY 279 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID EASTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH SAID WESTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET, NORTHERLY 279 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL THREE BEING A PORTION OF GEORGIA STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 1, AS SAID PARCEL 1 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 200 l-G897578), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO A POINT IN THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 200 l-G897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, SOUTHERLY 406.42 FEET TO THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 3, AS SAID PARCEL 3 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT QUIETING TITLE RECORDED MAY 26, 1960 IN BOOK A 127 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, AT PAGE 596, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 3 (Al27 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 18.79 FEET TO A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°10’16” WEST 125.39 FEET, AND 2) SOUTH 86°49’44” WEST 63.85 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID WESTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET; PARCEL FOUR BEING A PORTION OF MICHIGAN STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID MICHIGAN STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 2, AS SAID PARCEL 2 rs DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001- 0897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, SOUTHERLY 157.42 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 4, AS SAID PARCEL 4 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT QUIETING TITLE RECORDED MAY 26, 1960 IN BOOK A127 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, AT PAGE 596, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 2 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016- K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°10’16” WEST 9.01 FEET, AND 2) SOUTH 86°49’44” WEST 11.12 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596); THENCE, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 6 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO A POINT ON SAID WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), NORTH 03°41’19” WEST 143.4 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 2 (ON 2001- 0897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 2 (DN 2001-0897578), EASTERLY 18.62 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL FIVE BEING A PORTION OF HUMBOLDT STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K3346 l 3), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET (33 FEET WIDE) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, AS SAID MICHIGAN STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 2, AS SAID PARCEL 2 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY I, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-0897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 2 (ON 2001-0897578), WESTERLY 18.62 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 2 (2001-0897578) AND THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (ON 2016- K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (ON 2016K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: I) NORTH 03°41’19” WEST 1.31 FEET, AND 2) NORTH 87°24’17” EAST 18.63 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (ON 2001-K334613) AND SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, SOUTHERLY I .12 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL SIX BEING A PORTION OF HUMBOLDT STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (ON 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET (33 FEET WIDE) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, AS SAID GEORGIA STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 1, AS SAID PARCEL 1 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY I, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 1 (ON 2001-0897578), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID PARCEL 1 (2001- 0897578) AND THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF SAID PARCEL I (ON 2001-0897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE GEORGIA STREET, NORTHERLY 33 FEET TO THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF HUMBOLDT STREET, EASTERLY 80 FEET TO A POINT ON THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, SOUTHERLY 33 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCELS ONE THROUGH SIX BEING PORTIONS OF APN 4175-017. ATTACHED HERETO IS AN ILLUSTRATIVE INDEX MAP, AND BY THIS REFERENCE, MADE A PART HEREOF. And you are hereby notified that, unless you so appear and answer, the plaintiff will apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint, to wit: quiet title to the Property consistent with the legal description above, against all adverse claims of all claimants, known and unknown, as of the date the Complaint in this case was filed. Witness my hand and the seal of said court, Memorandum Disclosing Adverse Interest [CCP § 751.07] The following persons are said to claim an interest in, or lien upon, said property adverse to Plaintiff: 1.

PG&E, 245 Market Street, NlOA, Room 1015, P.O. Box 770000, San Francisco, CA 94177 2.

City and County of San Francisco, Office of the City Attorney, Room 234 City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102 3.

Trans Bay Cable LLC, One Letterman Drive, C5-100, San Francisco, CA 94129 4.

San Francisco Port Authority, Pier 1, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94111 5.

California Regional Water Quality Control Board for the San Francisco Bay Region, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1400, Oakland, CA 94612 6.

NRG Potrero LLC, c/o GenOn, 1360 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 2000, Houston TX 77056

<< Community News

14 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

<<

YouTube

Responding to outrage from queer creators and supporters of Maza’s complaints against both Crowder and the platform, Wojcicki stood by the company’s decision while simultaneously acknowledging hurt feelings and a loss of public trust.

“I know the decision we made was very hurtful to LGBTQ community,” she said, according to Axios. “That was not our intention at all.”

Maza did not respond to a request for comment following Wojcicki’s statement.

Wojcicki acknowledged this process is far from over. In response to follow-up questions, she said, “I see how much improvement we have already made,” adding, “I’m not saying we’re done.”

In response to pointed and repeated questions, Wojcicki refused to answer whether she believes YouTube radicalizes people.

“Our view is that we’re offering a diverse set of content to our users,” she said, according to Business Insider’s Rob Price, who live-tweeted part of the tense question-and-answer session.

The YouTube apology was the latest in a development that first surfaced at the June 5 meeting of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration

<<

Milk plaza

From page 1

The proposed canopy would start above a new glass protective shield over a rebuilt entrance into the Muni station pushed farther back from Castro Street. It would then extend over the shaft for the new elevator and end in front of a planned grove of 11 ginkgo trees representing each month that Milk held office.

For Harvey Milk Day, which is held annually on May 22, which was Milk’s birthday, the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza group and the architectural firm released a revised design and video for the plaza redo. It depicted a pink canopy cut into triangular shapes, reminiscent of the LGBT community’s lambda symbol, holding up see-through panels. It appears to be billowing in the wind like the adjacent oversized rainbow flag currently installed at the plaza.

The final design, however, is still to be determined as the project’s supporters continue to gather public input and seek approval from a host of city and transit oversight bodies.

The historical society is the first local LGBT nonprofit to take an official stance against the project.

In a statement released last week, Executive Director Terry Beswick stated this his organization would prefer

<<

Courtesy YouTube

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki

Committee board, where current and former Google employees joined with LGBTQ activists in demanding that Google be ousted from the 2019 Pride parade and celebration. They have accused Google of “rainbow-washing” its corporate image while refusing to enforce its anti-harassment policies against monetized YouTube channels that direct bigotry and abuse toward LGBTQ individuals.

Before Wojcicki’s apology, a Google employee spoke with the B.A.R. on the condition of anonymity about the current mood among LGBTQ Googlers, saying by phone that, “I’m really worried that they [company seeing “a restoration, renovation, and limited adaptation of the existing historic design” for the plaza instead of demolishing it.

“We support the efforts of the city and county of San Francisco to undertake the work necessary to bring the space into full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and we congratulate the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza and its supporters on their work to bring attention to the plaza,” stated Beswick. “However, after careful consideration of the proposed demolition and complete redesign of the space under consideration by the city, the society instead favors preservation and restoration of the existing historic plaza with limited adaptation of the original design to ensure ADA compliance, to allow for appropriate arts and history installations and to address other functional considerations.”

He added that the historical society, which is aiming to build its own permanent museum somewhere in San Francisco, would like to see the city “refocus funding and to organize efforts to restore, refresh, and make accessible the original design of Harvey Milk Plaza and the surrounding area with the utmost respect for the spirit of Harvey Milk and the history of the Castro neighborhood.”

News Briefs

From page 9

General admission tickets start at $35, VIP tickets start at $60 and include a special meet and greet with the performers. All tickets include complimentary refreshments. The evening will benefit the center’s programs and services. For tickets and more information, visit https://bit.ly/2ZcjeW6.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ sing-along at Oracle Park

In a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music, and their late bi frontman Freddie Mercury, San Francisco Giants Enterprises will present a sing-along to “Bohemian Rhapsody” Saturday, July 13, at Oracle Park.

Doors open at 6 p.m., the movie screens at 7:30.

“We are very excited to host the inaugural public movie night on our new state-of-the-art scoreboard at Oracle Park,” Stephen Revetria, president of Giants Enterprises, said in a news release. “The Bay Area has a very passionate cinematic com-

registered contingent of the parade.”

Lopez did not respond to a request for comment following Wojcicki’s statements Monday.

In taking on YouTube’s policies, Maza gathered evidence. Crowder calls Maza a “lispy queer” in multiple videos, derisively refers to Maza as “the gay Mexican,” and sells T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Socialism is for Fags.” In a thread directed at YouTube itself, Maza appealed for enforcement of policies that state that the platform does not allow “content that is deliberately posted in order to humiliate someone,” and “content that makes hurtful and negative personal comments.”

YouTube responded in a series of tweets explaining that although the language used is hurtful, it did not violate its terms of service.

After the thread went viral, multiple news outlets (most notably Maza’s employer, Vox Media) published articles about the cognitive dissonance between YouTube’s stated policies and its choices in enforcing them.

YouTube responded yet again by announcing the platform would start removing content from Holocaust and Sandy Hook denialists, as well as applying more stringent standards to remove neo-Nazi videos from the site.

YouTube did not, however, directly address the question of anti-LGBTQ bigotry in monetized content.

Representatives from Google did

not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Maza spoke with the B.A.R via Twitter direct message, agreeing that Google should be barred from SF Pride based on its actions in this conflict.

“YouTube’s design pushes millions of viewers towards anti-LGBT bullies who use racist and anti-gay slurs with relative impunity,” he said. “If YouTube wants to march as an ally to the LGBT community, it should probably start by enforcing the plain language of its anti-abuse policies and protecting its most vulnerable creators.”

As of this week, Crowder has not been deplatformed or censored in any way. His content has not been demonetized, although he has removed his “Socialism is for Fags” T-shirt from his official shop. His video alleging that Vox and other liberal media outlets are attempting to censor him has 900,000 views. Crowder did not respond to a request for comment.

It is believed that SF Pride has never banned an organization from its festivities, though the vote was very close (5-4) in 2015 after Facebook’s rollout of its “real name” policy disproportionately affected queer, trans, and drag queen users of the platform, Hoodline reported.

Facebook ultimately apologized and created a work-around for people in “special circumstances” to use a pseudonym if necessary. t

‘Disappointed’

of the plaza redo project it is unlikely to take a vote on the project since it’s uncertain its members could come to a consensus on supporting or opposing it. Meanwhile, the plaza overhaul opponents are pressing for the Castro/Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association to schedule a vote on the plaza redesign at one of its upcoming meetings.

Grant, who has been calling for smaller enhancements to the plaza he designed, told the B.A.R. via email last week, “I have hoped the GLBT Historical Society would take a position on the Friends of HMP’s relentless determination to demolish & replace the historically significant plaza.”

He added, “It has been a mystery to me why this organization would come to the defense of hamburger joints in the Castro and ignore the biggest controversy over a historical site like the plaza.”

In an email to the B.A.R. last month, Grant asked if a better use of the $11 million would be to “purchase the SoulCycle building and turn it into an LGBTQ museum featuring Harvey Milk memorabilia? Its location next to a renovated Harvey Milk Plaza would be perfect! No demolition!”

When any construction at the plaza will occur remains to be seen.

The city’s public works department

is handling the design of the new elevator set to be added to the Castro Muni station, which has been delayed due to the community’s desire to see it include a fourth stop flush with Market Street. Initially it was to have three stops, two inside the Muni station and one accessible from Castro Street.

As the B.A.R. noted in a story last month, the city agency doesn’t know what the price tag for the elevator will be since it is still being designed.

Nor is it clear who will pay for the additional stop; the city could either absorb the cost or require the friends group to foot the bill.

It also is uncertain where the plaza friends group will find the money to pay for its plans for reimagining the parklet. Nonetheless, Springfield told the B.A.R. that the community does need to come to a decision on what the plaza will look like after the new elevator is installed, likely sometime in late 2020 or early 2021.

“Because of the SFMTA elevator project, change is coming to Harvey Milk Plaza whether any of us are ready for it or not,” he said. “After the place is torn apart to put in this elevator, when it is put back together how do we want it to look like and how do we want to honor Harvey Milk?”

To see the designs online, visit https://www.harveymilkplaza.org/. t

Foundation to donate a portion of every ticket sold.

“We are excited and grateful to partner with the Giants on this fun and festive event,” Joe Hollendoner, SFAF CEO, stated in the release.

The evening’s program will include a pre-show performance by The Killer Queens, the world’s only – and San Francisco’s own – all-female Queen tribute band. Following the movie, guests will enjoy a brief fireworks show as the credits roll.

Guests will have the opportunity to sit on the field to enjoy the Academy Award-winning film that stars Rami Malek, who won an Oscar, as Mercury.

Giants Enterprises is the entrepreneurial arm of the Giants baseball team.

Tickets are $15 general admission and are now on sale at http://www. sfgiants.com/movienight.

have until Friday, June 28, at 5 p.m. to submit a piece for consideration.

This year’s theme is “Hidden Gems in San Francisco.”

This is the fifth year that San Francisco Beautiful has featured local artists and poets on Muni buses throughout the city. Five artists will have the opportunity to have their original art displayed on 100 Muni buses throughout San Francisco beginning in January, according to the announcement.

For more information, and an application, go to https://sfbeautiful. org/muniart-call/.

be significantly reduced.

Patrons will still be billed a replacement fee for items not returned 30 days past the due date.

The fee will be excused when the item is returned in good condition.

“Our library exists because of community support. Our materials are meant to be used, and this is a more effective way of ensuring their availability to everyone,” Jamie Turbak, director of library services, said in a news release.

In other news, the Oakland Public Library increased its hours for the first time since 2004 earlier this spring, thanks to funding through voter-approved Measure DD. For more information, visit www. oaklandlibrary.org. t

leadership] don’t know how unsustainable this is. They want to have it both ways: to monetize the engagement that comes from really odious content, but to bear no responsibility for it. And all of us queers who work here see how they’re getting away with making money off people who hate us while doing nothing to stop them. Meanwhile, most queer creators’ channels are demonetized or marked ‘adult’ because they use words like ‘trans.’ Google has no right to be at Pride. They’re just capitalists. They don’t care.”

From page 1

Courtesy SF Giants Enterprises

San Francisco Giants Enterprises will hold a “Bohemian Rhapsody” sing-along movie night next month at Oracle Park.

munity that we look forward to bringing together now and in the future.”

Giants Enterprises is also teaming up with the San Francisco AIDS

t

No action by SF Pride

The SF Pride board, which produces the Pride parade and festival, did not take any action at the meeting, which was first reported by Hoodline.

SF Pride communications manager Fred Lopez wrote in an email last week that the organization is “monitoring the story.”

“San Francisco Pride seeks to build space for diversity, inclusion, and respectful dialogue. We encourage the elevation and protection of marginalized voices,” Lopez wrote.

“We are monitoring this story as it develops, listening to the concerns of the community, and have raised these concerns with our contacts at Google,” Lopez added. “Google is a longtime partner of San Francisco Pride and is a sponsor of the 2019 parade and celebration. Google is a

Brian Springfield, a local architect based in the Castro who is a main leader of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza group, told the B.A.R. the society’s decision is disappointing.

“Obviously, I am disappointed.

We’ve reached out to the historical society and had conversations with them,” he said. “As recently as March we discussed exchanging formal letters of support between our projects, so this really kind of came out of left field.”

Longtime LGBT rights advocate Cleve Jones, who was friends with Milk and lives in the Castro, told the B.A.R. he, too, was disappointed by the society’s position, noting that it has had every opportunity to be engaged in the yearslong design charette for redoing Milk plaza. He supports the plaza redesign proposal and the LGBT museum project and wishes the two groups could find a way to work collaboratively on both.

“I think this will be perceived as a way for the historical society to sabotage a project they conceive as competing with theirs,” said Jones. “This scarcity mentality we need to move beyond. Everyone involved has to step up their game.”

Another neighborhood group, the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association, has informed opponents

Muni art deadline approaching

San Francisco Beautiful has announced that the deadline is fast approaching for this year’s open call for Muni art submissions. People

Oakland library eliminates overdue fines

The Oakland Public Library beginning July 1, it will eliminate overdue fines for library materials.

The Oakland City Council approved the library’s request in May. Books, audiobooks, CDs, DVDs, and items reserved through LINK+ will no longer incur overdue fines.

Tools checked out from the Oakland Tool Lending Library will still have overdue fines, though they will

t <<

Community News>>

Jock Talk

From page 13

For now, Chand said her partner, whom she has not identified in order to avoid heightened public attention but whose parents support their relationship, has moved to the capital

<<

Flood

From page 8

Pink Saturday Sonoma

Over in Sonoma, Out in the Vineyards owner Gary Saperstein raised $10,107 during his May 4 Pink Sonoma Saturday event. All of the funds were donated to Santa Rosa-based Positive Images, which provides support and advocacy to Sonoma County’s LGBTQ youth ages 12 to 24.

<<

Co-working

From page 8

sity, but co-working space just don’t reflect myself to me.”

Cobb said that right now, there is no charge for events. Co-working memberships are priced at different tiered levels, with starting rates as low as $5 per month.

Cobb is proud of the well-ap-

<<

LGBT landmark

From page 2

place to live somewhat openly and love somewhat openly and a place relatively safe for these people at a time it was illegal to be themselves,” said Shayne Watson, a lesbian and architectural historian and preservation planner who co-wrote the citywide LGBT study.

By the mid-1950s, gay men had

<<

Kaplan

From page 1

you know, when people come with scheduling items, or things like that, we’re just handling them based on the merits and the timing and not having games being played around, like, ‘Oh, I don’t like you,’ or ‘You didn’t endorse me so your items not going to get scheduled.’ That used to happen a lot, and I’ve put a complete stop to that.”

There is now a limit of one ceremonial presentation at each council meeting in order to cut down on the time it takes to reach the substantive items on the agenda. And to avoid disruptive outbursts at council meetings, Kaplan has staffers try to address the concerns raised by members of the public without them needing to repeatedly return in order to receive help.

The changes, Kaplan contended, have brought a bit of civility back to the council chambers.

“I gotta say, I am very pleased to be having the opportunity to be council president. It’s, it’s really lovely. And it’s a really good time,” said Kaplan, who was first elected to her council seat in November 2008 and was last re-elected in 2016.

Her elevation to council president followed the election last fall of sev-

of Odisha, Bhubaneshwar, for the last two years of her university study.

“She isn’t defying anyone – family or society – deliberately,” athletes rights advocate Payoshni Mitra said of Chand. “She is simply saying this is who she is and what she wants.”

Gay rugby fundraiser

San Francisco Fog Rugby will sponsor a beer bust fundraiser for the Portland Lumberjacks Saturday, June 15, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Lookout bar, 3600 16th Street. The Fog took second in the International Gay Rugby West Coast regional recently

hosted by the Lumberjacks, but the Lumberjacks said they were left with some unanticipated expenses.

“Being part of the gay rugby community means taking care of each other (after we bash each other on the pitch), so SF Fog is holding this fundraiser to help our sister team

out,” Fog president Rob Flores wrote to club supporters.

The fundraiser will feature Jell-O shots, raffles, and games. t

Saperstein explained via email why he chose PI as the event’s sole nonprofit beneficiary.

“LGBTQ youth ... are the future, and I hope to be able to assist in making their path easier than mine,” he wrote.

Positive Images board President Christian Sullberg said the agency will use the money to cover recent funding cuts by Sonoma County, due to a budget deficit.

“We have the only LGBTQ center currently in Sonoma County,” he

wrote in an email.

Sullberg pointed out the agency provides anonymous support groups for young people with little or no money, who often cannot be “out” without risking being kicked out of their homes.

“Having people like Gary ... is extremely needed for PI to continue the work we have done for the past 29 years,” he wrote.

Just before the event was held, controversy developed when the new own-

ers of the venue, the General’s Daughter in Sonoma, were revealed to be Stacy and Ken Mattson, whose business partner in LeFever Mattson Property Management is Tim LeFever, former board chair of the Capitol Resource Institute, which advocates for “religious freedom” and against LGBTQ rights. Stacy Mattson had also posted anti-gay comments on social media.

In an April B.A.R. story however, Saperstein said the previous venue owner had donated the space for his

event. The Mattsons honored that agreement and they received no funds from Pink Sonoma Saturday.

In a separate email, commenting on plans for Pink Sonoma Saturday next year, Saperstein wrote, “I am looking into another venue.”

For more information, visit http:// www.ther3hotel.com, www.russianriverhotel.com, and www.westsonomainn.com. t

pointed living-room feel of Homiey, including a generously-sized backyard and the eye-catching soft pink facade of the building. Part of that feel will be made up by clients, Cobb admits. They detailed the changes that they’ve made since their soft opening, including music to break up the silence and holding interviews for potential members in the space.

“We want to meet people who want to come in. Not to be exclusive, but to be inclusive,” Cobb said.

“We want people to know who we are and what we’re about before they decide to make a commitment to us.”

Kelly Anneken, an Oakland comic and podcaster who declined to give her age, spoke with the B.A.R about her experience working with

Homiey Fruitvale as an event space via email.

“I’ve been working with my friend and fellow comic, Alexandria Love, to find a space for CRUSH, a comedy open mic that’s a safe space for women, nonbinary, and genderqueer comics to hone their craft in the East Bay,” Anneken wrote.

“From almost the second we met Ebonie, we knew Homiey was the

right spot. They immediately understood that we weren’t looking to turn a profit on this event, but to create and develop a community that wants to push stand up beyond the limiting cis-het male boundaries of the art form.”

Homiey Fruitvale is currently open and accepting applications.

For more information, visit https:// www.homiey.com/oakland.t

claimed the space as their own, leading to a court fight over the suspension of its liquor license waged by then owner Dante Benedetti, a straight man. He lost his legal battle and later sold the bar; in the late 1960s and early 1970s the late B.A.R. founding publisher Bob Ross had two stints operating restaurants there.

By the 1980s, the restaurant space lost its gay affiliations and was home

to a number of establishments that catered to mostly straight clientele.

After a French restaurant shuttered in 2012, permit issues hampered seeing another eatery open in the space.

The Smucha family, which has owned the site since the late 1970s, hopes to lease it out to a restaurateur that will honor its history. They are also looking into seeking both state and federal listing of the prop-

erty as an historic site.

The last time San Francisco officials approved a city landmark for an LGBT site was in 2013. Added to the list that year was the Twin Peaks Tavern, the Castro gay bar that was the first in the country to install clear glass windows so its patrons were visible.

The city’s other two LGBT landmarks are the late gay supervisor Harvey Milk’s residence and former

Castro Camera shop at 573 Castro Street and the former Jose Theater/ Names Project Building at 2362 Market Street, once home the AIDS Memorial Quilt. While the Women’s Building at 3543 18th Street is also a city landmark, it was listed for its historical significance predating the modern LGBT rights movement. It did recently gain national historic site status due to its LGBT cultural significance. t

eral progressive council members, including her former aide, Sheng Thao, in District 4. Kaplan last year opted not to challenge Mayor Libby Schaaf who was seeking re-election, having lost to her in 2014; it was her second failed bid for mayor of the East Bay city.

Kaplan told the B.A.R. that despite Schaaf trying to thwart her becoming council president – the council vote was unanimous – she has tried to foster a working relationship with the mayor, whom she meets with every other week to discuss city business.

“There’s a lot of communication that’s open,” said Kaplan.

council president responds with a budget proposal of her own.

Kaplan’s budgetary ideas, such as eliminating the city’s transportation department, have generated headlines and outrage from Schaaf’s administration. On Monday the mayor went so far as to email constituents asking them to speak out against Kaplan’s budget, calling it “one of the most dangerous proposals I’ve ever seen to threaten Oakland’s future.”

While the spat has been interpreted as a political squabble between the two lawmakers, a spokesman for the mayor this week downplayed the dispute in comments to the B.A.R. “It is unfortunate it has been portrayed as a personal slash political fight when it is actually a very policy focused debate,” said Justin Berton, Schaaf’s communications director.

“The mayor has worked with council member Kaplan for years as they served together on the council.”

Lost amid the fiscal fighting is the fact that Schaaf is term limited from running again for mayor in 2022. As for Kaplan, she is up for re-election to her council seat next fall, though there is speculation the Stanford Law School graduate may instead run for Oakland city attorney. The incumbent, Barbara Parker, is also up for re-election in November 2020.

“In an office like city attorney, I

think (Kaplan) would bring all factions together. I think a lot of people really respect her legal and analytical abilities,” said Michael Colbruno, a gay man who serves on Oakland’s port commission.

Over the years there has been a lack of LGBT representation at Oakland City Hall, with just three known out council members since 2000. Having LGBT people serve on the city’s oversight panels has also be an issue, noted Colbruno, so Kaplan becoming council president is an important milestone.

“We have learned historically that having a seat at the table is always important for being able to raise the issues that come out of our community. It is why we fought so hard to get people from our LGBT community to have a seat of power,” said Colbruno, a government affairs consultant. “Rebecca is one of the smartest people around. The only thing I hope for, and think she will be more successful, is if the legislative and executive branch work together on issues facing the city right now. Oakland is at a critical time.”

Colbruno added, “I am not saying it is not happening. I am hoping it does happen.”

Tension between the two arms of government is usual, he added, having seen it first hand working as a su-

pervisor aide in San Francisco and in the state Legislature for lesbian former lawmaker Carole Migden.

“I think it is a normal part of the process. The important thing is what you do with it,” he said. “Both Libby and Rebecca are incredibly capable women.

If they work together, Oakland is on the cusp of amazing things happening.”

Gay Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters, who succeeded Colbruno as the political action committee chair of the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, serves with Kaplan on a county transportation committee. While the two out politicos often support different candidates in local political races, Bauters told the B.A.R. he was “happy” to see Kaplan be elected council president.

“To have the largest city in the county select an openly LGBTQ person as their council president is a testament both to Rebecca’s experience and leadership, but also a statement of how our region leads California when it comes to equity and social values,” wrote Bauters in an emailed reply. “I have had the privilege of working with Rebecca on important regional transportation issues at the Alameda County Transportation Commission where her aptitude for policy has helped make Alameda County a regional leader on the issue of transportation.” t

LGBT issues

In terms of LGBT issues, Kaplan told the B.A.R. she would like to see Oakland open a homeless shelter either specifically for LGBT people or one explicitly welcoming of LGBT individuals. It is one of the budgetary items she is fighting to fund this year, as well as LGBT youth programs and monetary support for the LGBT community center near Lake Merritt and the city’s annual Pride celebration.

Yet over the past two weeks the councilwoman and the mayor have sparred over the city’s budget, which must be approved by July 1. Under city rules, Schaaf first presents a budget to the City Council and then the

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<< Legals

16 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

t

Legal Notices>> SUMMONS (CITACION JUDICIAL) SUPERIOR COURT STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, UNLIMITED CIVIL JURISDICTION NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: STEVEN KARIKER AKA STEVEN D. KARIKER; AND DOES 1 THROUGH 50, INCLUSIVE, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, A CORPORATION. CASE NO. CGC-18-569648 NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this Summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff.

A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court. There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association. NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

The name and address of the court is: SUPERIOR COURT, STATE OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, UNLIMITED CIVIL JURISDICTION, 400 MCALLISTER ST, ROOM 103, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102; The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: ROBERT L. POLLAK #083950, GLASSBERG, POLLAK & ASSOCIATES, 1000 4TH ST, #570, SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901-3118 415-291-8320 CLERK OFF THE COURT, DE LA VEGA-NAVARRO, ROSSELY NOTICE TO THE PERSON SERVED: You are served as an individual defendant.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554850 In the matter of the application of: KATE AMELIA REBER, 357 ALLISON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner KATE AMELIA REBER, is requesting that the name KATE AMELIA REBER, be changed to KIT REBALSKY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 27th of June 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554847 In the matter of the application of: ALISON ROSS, 525 BAKER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ALISON ROSS, is requesting that the name ALISON ROSS, be changed to ALISON SASHA DE VRIES. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 9th of July 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554842

In the matter of the application of: NINA RAMOS HARRISON, 334 NOE ST, #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner NINA RAMOS HARRISON, is requesting that the name NINA RAMOS HARRISON, be changed to NINA RAMOS COSTA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514 on the 25th of June 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038651300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ASPIRE HEALTH CARE & NURSING EDUCATORS PRIVATE TRAINING INSTITUTE, 511 HEAD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JENNIFER SHIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/10/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038650500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: APJ CONSULTING, 2503 POST ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TIMOTHY EDWIN JOHNSON. 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 05/13/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038652600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SALON 828, 2004 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RHODA LEE. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/14/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038643800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARENA SF, 2565 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed QUALIA ENTERTAINMENT INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/29/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/07/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038656300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: CALIFORNIA AUTO GLASS, 1880 EVANS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SARAT FAMILY ENTERPRISES GROUP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038656400

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038663400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF TOWN BUILDERS, 3450 SACRAMENTO ST #157, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SF TOWN BUILDERS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BOTTOMFEEDER RECORDS; WACKOWORLD MUSIC, 225 ANDOVER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ERIK IAN WALKER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038657200

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038659500

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038673200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARCHE ENTERPRISE, 201 WEBSTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ARCHE ENTERPRISE (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SULTANS KEBAB, 3915 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed B&F RESTAURANT INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/16/19.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036340100

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: COUPLES THERAPY COLLECTIVE, 3237 SACRAMENTO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business was conducted by a general partnership and signed by VANESSA WATT & DOROTHY JANE WALTER. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/03/15.

MAY 23, 30, JUNE 06, 13, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554871

In the matter of the application of: ROY FRANCIS JADRYEV, 448 DOUGLASS ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROY FRANCIS JADRYEV, is requesting that the name ROY FRANCIS JADRYEV AKA ROY F. JADRYEV AKA ROLAND PETER JADRYEV, be changed to ROLAND FRANCIS PETER JADRYEV. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 11th of July 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038668300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KIND EARTH PRODUCTIONS, 139 CORBETT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRISTOPHER C. JONES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038664900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAZ AUTO GLASS, 1880 EVANS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DARIO SARAT-GUZMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038660800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION K, 77 BLUXOME ST, UNIT 112, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KHANH MONG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038664700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUZZAH STUDIO, 778 30TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH JUTRAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038663100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PIXTRANSFER, 33 ELLERT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ROBERT ADLER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038662300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LUCKY CAB, 1407 IRVING ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LUCKY TAM, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038658800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: INNER SUNSET PUBLISHING; KRONOS ARTS PUBLISHING; KRONOS QUARTET, 1242 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed KRONOS PERFORMING ARTS ASSOCIATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 07/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/17/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038661100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THANH PHAN; TONY PHAN, 1343 21ST AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed LUNA PIENA INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/09/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038663200

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION CURRY HOUSE, 2434 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed O&R RESTAURANT GROUP 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 05/21/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038670000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YUKOL PLACE, 2380 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MCGEM 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 05/17/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LITTLE HANDS DAYCARE, 330 HOWTH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ASHLEY BERKLEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/30/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038655800

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038670600

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038667700

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038667100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VOSS GALLERY, 3344 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed VOSS GALLERY 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 05/15/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE AVENUES SPA, 3929 CALIFORNIA ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed TAS LIMITED LIABILTY COMPANY (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038667900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOLY GELATO, 1392 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122.

This business is conducted by a limited liability company and is signed HK KINGSMAN (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038668000

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HARAJUKU SUSHI AT 1920 BAR, 1812 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed HK KINGSMAN (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-036970600

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: RPM (RICHMOND PLAZA METASPACE), 275 6TH AVE #109, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by LAUREL LYNN CONNELL. The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/03/16.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554901 In the matter of the application of: THOMAS ROBERT VENEGONI, 1250 BRODERICK ST #6, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner THOMAS ROBERT VENEGONI, is requesting that the name THOMAS ROBERT VENEGONI, be changed to THOM FOWLER. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 18th of July 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554896 In the matter of the application of: JULIA AYANA BALTRIP, 333 GONZALEZ DR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94132, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JULIA AYANA BALTRIP, is requesting that the name JULIA AYANA BALTRIP AKA JULIA ALYS BALTRIP AKA JULIA ALYS AYANA BALTRIP AKA JULIA ALYS AYANA BALTRIP BALAGAS AKA JULIA BALTRIP AKA JULIA A. BALTRIP AKA AYANA BALTRIP AKA AYANA BALTRIP BALAGAS, be changed to JULIA AYANA AÏRAKAN-MANCE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 16th of July 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554846

In the matter of the application of: BOBBY DULAI SINGH, 3352 18TH ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BOBBY DULAI SINGH, is requesting that the name BOBBY DULAI SINGH, be changed to BOBBY DULAI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 27th of June 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038672800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOOLOO TRAVEL, 1015 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZERYIHUN LEMMA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ERBOSE, 190 22ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed AUDREY DOMBROSKI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038670100

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE THONGLOR, 420 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SRI-SUK, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038660100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: STEPHANIE KIM WONG, D.O., INC., 341 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed STEPHANIE KIM WONG, D.O., INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/19/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038645900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: 1327 ENTERPRISES, 1327 COLUMBUS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a married couple, and is signed CALVIN CHOW & DIANA MARIE CHOW. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/08/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/08/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT OF USE OF FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME FILE A-035940300

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: WALKING TOGETHER, 341 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed

by WALKING TOGETHER (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/14.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038680500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EA CAFE, 735 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ASHEDH INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/05/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038680400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SENTINEL FILM PROTECTION, 190 NAPOLEON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed DECO TOWING LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038681800

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PINE HEADZ LLC, 1026 SAN LUIS CIRCLE #609, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PINE HEADZ 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 06/06/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038676100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: BITE ME SANDWICHES, 701 COLE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BAR VERO (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/31/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038672300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KOSA BELLA, 3133 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REINA O. PORTILLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/30/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/29/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SIENNA CATERING, 1499 32ND AVE. SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed YINGPING LILY MOK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/29/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/29/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038673300

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038675500

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LACUNA ERGONOMIC, 1881 GREENWICH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY WHITTLESEY. 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 05/30/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAPTOR COMMUNICATIONS, 428 CORBETT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RAPTOR 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 05/31/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019

SUMMONS (DIVORCE) CALIFORNIA SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, 300 EAST WALNUT ST, PASADENA, CA 91101 NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: QI TENG LU, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PETITIONER: NINGNING ZHANG CASE NO. 18PDFL02353 You have been sued. Read the information below and on the next page. You have 30 calendar days after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you.

If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children.

You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately.

Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpca.org) or by contacting your local county bar association.

NOTICE – RESTRAINING ORDERS FOLLOW: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them.

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

The name and address of the court are: California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles, 300 East Walnut St, Pasadena, CA 91101 Pasadena Courthouse.

The name, address and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney is: Elaine Yang, Esq.; Yang and Chen LLP, 17890 Castleton St #101, City of Industry, CA 91748 (626) 965-8789 Date: Dec 24, 2018 Clerk of The Court, Jorge Serrano, Deputy.

STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1. Removing the minor child or children of the parties, if any, from the state without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children; 3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in the manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party.

You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs.

NOTICE – ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE: Do you or someone in your household need affordable health insurance? If so, you should apply for Covered California. Covered California can help reduce the costs you pay towards high quality affordable health care. For more information, visit www.coveredca.com. Or call Covered California at 1-800-300-1506.

WARNING – IMPORTANT INFORMATION California law provides that, for purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (i.e. joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling, and not the community property presumption. You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 NOTICE OF PETITION FOR LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION FOR THE ESTATE OF OTAKAR FRANK ZICH, DECEDENT, IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 400 MCALLISTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102: CASE # PES-19-302-894

Petitioner Frank Joseph Fischl requests that he be appointed administrator and Letters issue upon qualification. Full authority be granted to administer under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. Decedent died on May 14, 2018 at Kaiser in Santa Clara, but lived in San Francisco and was a resident of the county named above. Street address, city and county of decedent’s residence at time of death: 33 Harriet St, San Francisco, CA. Decedent died intestate. No executor is named in the will. Petitioner is a person entitled to Letters. Proposed personal representative is a resident of California. No spouse as follows: divorced or never married. No registered domestic partner. No child. Decedent was not survived by a stepchild or foster child or children who would have been adopted by decedent but for a legal barrier. Decedent was survived by a parent or parents who are listed in item 8 – Vlasta Zichova of the Czech Republic. Decedent had no predeceased spouse.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: June 26, 2019, 9:00 am, Rm 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 94102.

If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

Petitioner without attorney: FRANK JOSEPH FISCHL, 3224 BOSTON AVE, OAKLAND, CA 94602; Ph. (510) 534-8427.

JUNE 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038682700

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SQUARE PIE GUYS, 1077 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed ADAM MADISON LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/27/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019

20

20

Rhino rampage

Aztec power

21

20

Fashion forward

Trans performance

Vol. 49 • No. 24 • June 13-19, 2019

www.ebar.com/arts

Impresario impresses with new memoir

by John F. Karr

T

Courtesy the subject

he buzz is on! Marc Huestis has just published his endlessly exciting and not infrequently moving autobiography, “Impresario of Castro Street” ($19.99). So, you ask, What’s an impresario? Here’s the definition courtesy of Marc Huestis: “An impresario is a producer with pizzazz.”

See page 24 >>

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Jonathan Bloom

Marc Huestis gleefully hawks his new autobiography.

J’Nai Bridges in the title role of Bizet’s “Carmen” for San Francisco Opera.

Margo Humphrey, “Crying ain’t gonna help none, baby” (1972); color lithograph.

Enduring ‘Carmen’

Blackness visible

by Philip Campbell

by Sura Wood

T

he latest revival of Bizet’s “Carmen,” which opened the San Francisco Opera’s summer season last week, proves something we always knew. Whether presented as spectacle, psychodrama or tragic love story, all you really need is a strong musical production to tick the boxes.

See page 22 >>

I

t’s no secret that the walls of most major Western museums and galleries are dominated by the creative output of white male artists.

The practice has effectively, if not deliberately, edged out deserving works by women and people of color, and kept them from public view.

See page 22 >>

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

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Vol. 44 • No.

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<< Out There

18 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

THIRD AN N UA L

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SISTER ACT

SING-ALONG

Celebrate Pride

AT GRACE CATHEDRAL

Pride Mass

Grace celebrates your love. Have your

1100 California Street San Francisco

Visit Concord

Todos Santos Plaza in downtown Concord, CA, hosts the summertime “Music & Market” series.

wedding here for an unforgettable day.

Peace & Concord

by Roberto Friedman

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oncord, CA, is a city of 130,000 that’s 20 miles east of San Francisco. Their tourism bureau invited Out There to come visit as part of our ongoing series on Bay Area Staycations. In this case all we had to do was board a BART train in SF, and 45 minutes later we stepped out into the Contra Costa sun, just a few blocks from the town’s central Todos Santos Plaza.

On Thursday nights this summer through Oct. 3, the 31st annual “Music & Market” series in Concord’s charming town square offers a Farmer’s Market and free concerts in the park from 6:30-8 p.m.

We were there to hear the Concord High Jazz Band open for the Blue Devils brass band. The downtown plaza is also home to many cute restaurants and bars; we pub-hopped from the Hop Grenade to EJ Phair for drinks before enjoying a deluxe dinner at Lima Peruvian restaurant.

Todos Santos Plaza was also the site for the Rainbow Community Center’s Concord Pride festival on Sat., June 1. The day before, Con1:10 PMcord’s City Council had raised the LGBTQ Pride flag over City Hall.

During a meet-and-greet reception at the Plate & Vine restaurant in the Concord Hilton, OT chatted with Concord Mayor Carlyn S. Obringer, who was looking forward to appearing in the city’s Pride festivities.

The Concord Historical Society, in a Masonic Temple intended to become its permanent museum, was the site for our introduction to “Java & Jazz,” a live music-enhanced lecture on the history of jazz in Concord, and there’s plenty. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Concord Jazz Festival, which began as the Summer Music Festival. Concord is the birthplace of Dave Brubeck (b. 1920), and thus of “cool jazz”; his Quartet’s 1959 “Time Out” was the first instrumental jazz album to sell a million copies. Now the CJF is hosted by the Concord Pavilion, “the house that jazz built” by architect Frank Gehry, the first outdoor theatre in N. Cal., with 12,500 capacity and a full square-acre roof. The Concord Records label is now the fifth largest record company in the country.

Our city tour of 31-sq.-mile Concord took us to the 1955 children’s amusement park Pixieland, still in

6/11/19 9:32 AM

vintage condition; Six Flags Hurricane Harbor; Buchanan Field airport; and lunch at Los Rancheros taqueria, where we were serenaded

by Mariachi Mexicanismo, led by trumpeter Raymondo Coronado. Then it was time for a Wine & Chocolate class at Rachel Dunn Chocolates, led by chocolatiers Rachel and Michael Dunn. Our handmade bonbons turned out surprisingly good; and fortunately our office-mates enjoyed our final project, a huge chocolate caramel Fuji apple wrapped in almonds. Dinner at Mona’s Burger’s and dessert at Out the Dough stuffed us to the brim.

Next day found us on a guided hike through Mount Diablo State Park, 3,849 feet above sea level at the summit, where you can see for 150 miles and 32 counties. A picnic lunch at Markham Park & Arboretum led to a nature walk during which Pepi found a fine example of his favorite tree. Finally we were given a tour & tasting at the 50% women-owned and -operated Epidemic Ales, apocalypticthemed beers brewed in Concord such as Zombrew; a further tasting at Concord Taphouse; and dinner at Puesto, a Mexico City-type highend Mexican restaurant whose tasty dishes included a superb ceviche.

So OT doesn’t put our nose up at the suburbs anymore. Some cold & foggy Thursday night this summer, you might just find us sneak-

ing off on BART to attend another free concert in Todos Santos Plaza.

There’s warmth and light there.

Moz covers

The best tracks on Morrissey’s new album where he covers other people’s songs, “California Son” (Etienne), are the ones where he proves he’s not afraid to sing a verse originally sung by a woman. On “Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow” he’s got Joni Mitchell’s idiosyncratic phrasing down pat, though his velvet crooning produces very different results. “You need a heart like Mary’s should your man get weak.”

On Laura Nyro’s “Wedding Bell Blues,” he exclaims, “Bill! I love you so, I always will, and in your voice I hear a choir of carousels. But am I ever going to hear my wedding bells?” It sounds different sung by a man.

The Moz doesn’t neglect male songwriters Jobriath (“Morning Starship”), Bob Dylan (“Only a Pawn in Their Game”), Phil Ochs (“Days of Decision”), Roy Orbison (“It’s Over”) and Tim Hardin (“Lenny’s Tune”), and he does a bitchin’ “Lady Willpower” (Gary Puckett and the Union Gap). But it’s with his covers of immortal women that he truly impresses: Buffy Sainte-Marie (“Suffer the Little Children”), Dionne Warwick (“Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets”), Carly Simon (“When You Close Your Eyes”), and he closes with “Some Say I Got Devil” by Melanie. We can see heads exploding from here to Berkeley.t

CAMOU FL AGE . AR MOR . IDENTIT Y.

Opens June 14 in English, Español, 繁體中文, Filipino Discover the superpowers of skin at this brand new, multi-sensory exhibit. Touch amazing specimens— from scales to feathers to fur. Plus, learn how our perceptions of skin shape human identity and culture.

Buy ahead and save at calacademy.org

29739-CAS-Skin-Bay Area Reporter-9.75x16-06.06.19-FA.indd 1

6/6/19 2:37 PM

<< Theatre

20 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

Horns of plenty

by Jim Gladstone

Y

ou’d need an awfully thick skin to resist being tickled by the production of “Rhinoceros,” Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 classic now at the American Conservatory Theater. Under the crisp direction of Tonywinning director Frank Galati, who has judiciously trimmed Derek Prouse’s translation from the French, the evening charges by in a light-footed 90 minutes, stressing Romanianborn Ionesco’s absurdist comedy at least as much as his sociopolitical commentary.

The takeover and transformation of a provincial French town by the play’s titular beasts, originally interpreted to reKevin Berne flect the rise of Fascism prior Berenger (David Breitbarth) with Mrs. to WWII, is metaphorically Boeuf (Trish Mulholland) in Eugène apropos once again in today’s Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” for ACT. political climate. It’s a delicious coincidence that the script fregard Berenger (David Breitbarth), quently refers to rhinoceroses as an unmotivated newspaper clerk “pachyderms,” a taxonomy that also prone to daydrinking and romantic embraces the grand old elephant. fantasies; and dapper Gene (Matt But despite a few over-emphatic DeCaro), a well-to-do businessdirectorial elbow jabs – the addition man quick to offer condescending of the phrase “fake news”; a brief advice and judgment. Breitbarth’s second-act sag into the didactic – slow speech and slouchy postures the production generally allows the as Berenger are the perfect foil for play’s darkness to serve as undertow DeCaro’s fussbudget mannerisms as beneath a sparkling comic surface.

Gene, who squares his shoulders so The play is anchored by two tours frequently it makes propriety look de force of odd couple antagonism like compulsion. between unlikely old friends, hag-

Their first round of quibbling takes place outside a small café in their sleepy South-ofFrance village. Scenic designer Robert Perdziola’s painted cloth backdrop cleverly underscores not only the play’s setting, but also its vaudevillian style. In the midst of Gene’s pompous dispensation of buck-up and bear-down bromides, the first rhinoceros arrives in town, providing him a hardly-needed bonus opportunity to rail against the world’s dishevelment and dismiss the relevance of anything but the status quo.

By the time this pair meets again, rhinocerosity is becoming the status quo. One by one, their fellow townsfolk have been transforming into the heavy-breathing beasts (Joseph Cerqua’s sinister sound design creates a slowly building atmosphere of rumbles, snorts and stampeding footfall).

When Berenger visits Gene at home, he discovers his friend midmetamorphosis. DeCaro is fantastic here, doing a bravura BruceBanner-hulks-out routine unaided

by CGI or makeup effects. He curls his hands into hooves, hunches forward as a prodigious belly slips free of his dandy smoking jacket, drops his voice to a guttural growl, and winces, sensing a horn erupting from his forehead.

Ionesco refuses to deliver a mes-

sage as pointed as a rhino’s bony protuberance. While he writes Gene as the sort of fellow who might voluntarily switch sides in an argument in order to stay in sync with a dominant majority, he also suggests that his transformation is symptomatic of a sickness. When Berenger arrives, Gene has taken to his bed; he howls in discomfort throughout his shape-shifting, sometimes whiplashing from rhino back to human mode, as if trying to break the pull of a malevolent force.

This ambiguity also permeates an earlier scene in Berenger’s newspaper office, where his colleagues double-talk their way around the rhinos’ takeover, denying their presence at all, declaring their threat a hoax, acknowledging their existence but diminishing their importance, condemning them, defending against them, admiring them, becoming them. Danny Scheie works a prissy, adenoidal voice to superb comic effect playing supercilious bureau chief Mr. Papillon, and Jomar Tagatac is smug perfection as Mr. Botard, another functionary who cavalierly spins 180-degree turns around his own opinions.

Whether these characters’ shifts of opinion come out of slippery self-defense, willful obliviousness or a combination of the two is left purposely unclear. The funniest – and, in retrospect, most provocative – change of perspective belongs to Mrs. Boeuf (Trish Mulholland),

t

the high-strung wife of a columnist who has been pursued through the town by a rhino. She storms the office in a lather, condemning the horrible monsters. But when, in short order, she discovers her husband has become one of them, she suddenly changes her tune, falling (literally, through the floor) in love with him anew, and riding off into the sunset atop her rhino-amour’s broad back (designer Perdziola delivers two ridiculously entertaining visual effects in this sequence).

The joy of Ionesco’s playful script is the permission it gives the audience to juggle multiple possibilities and puzzle over meaning. When, in the final scene, surrounded by rhinoceroses dressed as people, Berenger, the last man standing, exclaims, “I will not capitulate!,” he seems at once noble and foolish.

This critic decided not to capitulate to what audience chatter and promotional materials suggest is the dominant, oversimplified interpretation of the “Rhinoceros.”

Certainly the play offers its share of allegory, but its willingness to be silly and embrace the non-sequitur provides another valuable lesson on surviving through troubled times.t Rhinoceros, through June 23.

A.C.T.’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., SF. Tickets ($15-$110): (415) 729-2228, www.act-sf.org.

Yucca, yucca

by Jim Gladstone

A

ztec society worshipped the sun. “Kiss My Aztec” frenetically proves the adage that there’s nothing new under it.

The wisecracking world premiere production now at the Berkeley Rep throws kitschy, derivative shadows of many other recent musical comedies: There’s the historically relocated hip-hop of “Hamilton”; the “thee”-til-it’s-twee Elizabethan excess of “Head Over Heels”; the coarse sexual shtick of “The Book of Mormon”; and the quippy puppetry of “Avenue Q.” Co-writer/ lyricist John Leguizamo has called “Spamalot” an inspiration, and the stage-and-screen influence of Mel Brooks babbles incessantly here.

It’s particularly odd, then, that “Aztec” ends up emulating so little of the heart and spirit of Leguizamo’s own last show, “Latin History for Morons” (also directed by Tony Taccone for a Berkeley Rep world premiere), a one-man performance in which he sketched brief, informa-

tive portraits of under-acknowledged cultural heroes while emotionally recalling efforts to infuse his own children with a sense of Latinx pride. If you’re expecting an expansion of that show’s mission here, be forewarned. You won’t get any more insight about Latin American history from “Kiss My Aztec” than you do about the American West from “Blazing Saddles.”

The opening musical number “White People on Boats” and a finale built on the lyric “The world is getting browner” are more gestures to establish “Aztec”’s identity-politics cred than distillations of the rest of the show’s content.

Leguizamo and Taccone, who collaborated on the book as well as directing, have built their slender plot around a fictional 1540 Aztec attack on the invading Spaniards’ citadel. But fleeting gags about Aztec codices, customs, and toughto-pronounce deities are primarily used to signal era and setting, while the majority of the show is scaffolding for modern risqué repartee. The

The music, composed by high schoolers who adore Benjamin Velez and played “Hamilton”’s refreshing by a terrific six-piece onspin on history class will stage combo, is a mixtape love “Aztec” too, but for its of traditional and contemsophomoric groaners about porary Latin idioms. It adds pubic hair, vaginas, cocaine, velocity and coherence to buttsex and other matters of skit-like scenes that might extracurricular importance. otherwise feel like elements In all honesty, I laughed of a burlesque revue. The my buttsexing ass off at numbers blend together occasional zingers such as, in a hooky, rhythmic “Are you alright? You look soundscape that keeps toes like you’ve been roofied by tapping, but there are no Lord Cosby.” But I grimaced Kevin Berne/Berkeley Repertory Theatre standout melodies to hum at lines like, “You got a nice on the way home. The score, pair of milk containers on Joél Pérez (Pepe) in the world premiere of like the entire show, seems you.” A whole song on the “Kiss My Aztec!” at Berkeley Rep, directed by primarily a delivery mechaglories of “Dark Meat” felt Tony Taccone. nism for Leguizamo’s jokes. particularly unenlightened.

He’s been more successThe material is far outanachronistic girl-power messages ful – both at entertainment classed by a fantastic, highare able to transcend their cookie-cut and emotional impact – when he’s energy cast of 11. Joél Pérez gives a triteness. And Richard Henry Ruiz, a worked as a one-man band.t master class in clowning as Pepe (yes, sort of 16th-century Jabba the Hutt, there is a peepee joke), a virginal is irresistibly crass in his irresistible Aztec scion deeply attached to his Kiss My Aztec, through July 14. bejeweled codpiece (Clint Ramos sock puppets, Macchu and Picchu.

Berkeley Rep, 2015 Addison St., designed the hit-or-miss costumes; Berkeley. Tickets ($60-$115, 30% As the warrior Colombina, Yani there’s one goth that seems grabbed discount for under 35): (510) Marin brings such charismatic en647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org from another show’s wardrobe). ergy to her performance the show’s

Trans performance celebrated

by Rae Raucci

T

he Fresh Meat Festival is an annual San Francisco performance celebration of transgender talent in diverse areas, from musical and vocal acts to dance performances, performance arts, theater pieces, and beyond.

Now in its 17th year, the show grew out of the frustration the founders had in putting on such a show. As Sean Dorsey, the impresario behind the Sean Dorsey Dance Company, explained, when he and his founding partner Shawna Virago looked at the trans landscape for performance in the founding year of 2002, “Even though there was this incredible groundswell of trans artistry, no one would put this show on.”

Because the traditional venues

for trans performers, drag bars and nightclubs, held a narrow view of what trans performance was, they had no place for trans artists of a different type. “So we put together a group of artists for a one-time Fresh Meat show, working in a variety of types of performances. The love of that initial show led to its 17-year run.”

Dorsey explained, “The Fresh Meat Festival shows the worth and beauty of trans artists, and shows that trans artists are worthy of being in positions of cultural authority.

But that worth can’t survive without a proper venue with high production values, with events open to all.

This year’s lineup includes bachata dancers, vogue shows, and an enormous new trans choir, the New Voices Bay Area Choir.”

The full lineup includes the Afri-

Courtesy Fresh Meat Festival

Jahaira Fajardo and Angelica Medina are part of Fresh Meat Festival 2019.

can-American deaf dance trailblazer Antoine Hunter; Vogue superstars #kNOwSHADE Vogue Ensemble; sublime harmonies by the GAPA Men’s Chorus; exquisite poetry and dance by J Mase III & Randy Ford; integrated/disabled dance pioneers AXIS Dance Company; queer bachata champions Jahaira Fajardo & Angelica Medina; cutting-edge performance artists Javier Stell-Fresquez & Ivy Monteiro; sidesplitting comedy-storytelling by Lottie Riot; the groundbreaking New Voices Bay Area TIGQ Chorus; trailblazing trans/queer modern dance by Sean Dorsey Dance; folk-punk by Shawna Virago; multi-disciplinary music superstar Star Amerasu; R&B songs by Tajah J; and queer retro quartet The Singing Bois.

When asked if he saw the Fresh

Meat Festival as a necessary addition to traditional drag venues, Dorsey explained, “Our communities need all of these places – drag shows, trans shows – because artists of this type need a proper place to perform.” The Fresh Meat show features trans performers of all types, the genderqueer/genderfluid as well as traditional trans performers. “We are in love, and embrace the full experience and range of trans people.”

The Fresh Meat Festival fits that bill. Catch it at Z Space, 450 Florida St., SF, from June 20-22.t Disclaimer: Rae Raucci is a member of the New Voices Bay Area Choir.

Tickets, info, nightly lineup: www.freshmeatproductions.org

t

Books>>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

The way men do

by Tim Pfaff

S

urely one of the last things Ocean Vuong thought he’d become is topical, and hotly so. In advance of the monsoon of immigrant narratives predicted for the next year and half, Vuong’s debut novel “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” (Penguin) sets the high-water mark. In a story that self-pity would overtake in lesser hands, radiance holds sway.

Vuong was brought to the U.S. by his mother and grandmother when he was two. Credibly claiming he couldn’t read at all until he was 10, he knocked an unsuspecting literary establishment sideways with his first book, “Night Sky with Exit Wounds,” a collection of poems so fine they confounded expectations about the novel said to follow.

“On Earth” is no pansy prosepoem, and Vuong has again shocked his readers, with an epistolary novel, the genre’s ur-form, which now only the best living writers (think Marilynne Robinson in “Gilead”) venture. Vuong’s is a letter to a mother who, he knows as does she, will never be able to read it. “Our mother tongue then is no mother at all – but an orphan. … Is there a language for falling out of language?

“I am twenty-eight years old, 5ft 4in tall, 112lbs. I am handsome at exactly three angles and deadly from everywhere else. I am writing you from inside a body that used to be

Tom Hines

Author Ocean Vuong.

yours. Which is to say, I am writing as a son.”

“On Earth” is prime AsianAmerican literary real estate, and we’ve barely unpacked in Hartford, Connecticut before the “mother/ monster” conundrum is out of the bag. Ocean, waving out loud, identifies his Ma with a “woman warrior,” an archetype Maxine Hong Kingston picked fresh from a tree that has yielded golden apples of perpetual renewal when anything less primal would have fallen, rotting, from the trees – as fruit literally does in the well-insured Hartford of Charles Ives and Wallace Stevens, where immigrants like Ocean are, at most,

Midnight flaneurs. The metaphor resurfaces in Ocean’s account of drawing his family tree in school, its branches akimbo, their joints the survivors whose interrelationships are less than clear.

Ma, “Rose” when she’s in bloom, is not Kingston’s imperious Brave Orchid but the beaten and beatendown factory worker and nail-salon technician whose wild mood swings do not prevent her from visiting the beating she got from her husband on her fatherless son; “[W]hat happened was that I was a boy once and bruiseless.” Even she is overshadowed by her mother, schizophrenic Grandma Lan, a priceless alloy

of the mad and the madcap whose mandated burial in the “mother land” gives Ocean (Little Dog to the women) his first conscious encounter with Vietnam.

Another surprise is Vuong’s realism, albeit a born poet’s. There’s not a patch in his vaulting prose where a reader has to stop to divine what’s meant, and while Vuong leapfrogs across time frames, there’s never uncertainty as to how the story goes.

The story that’s almost exclusively his – until boomerang confessions by him, then Ma at Dunkin’ Donuts – is gay first love. His is Trevor, the scion of a tobacco-farming family with its own history of trickle-down abuse. We are let in on Trevor’s fate, an Oxy OD death, before the considerable pre-story, their more than five-year tryst. The sole extended rant, during which Vuong never loses verbal control, vilifies the cruelties of drug addiction that made off with so many of his friends.

Trevor, a delicate thug and cagy sexual aggressor, resists being “really” gay at the same time he cannot resist Ocean, and the tender terror of their fragile, daredevil relationship flirts with the archetypal before settling into the boys’ own story.

I’ve not read an account of firsttime anal bottoming more frank and

minutely felt than Ocean’s. The episode includes a baptismal interlude in an actual, cold river for both boys, leading to the climactic ass-fucking.

“The whole point of us meeting was to say goodbye,” Ocean reflects after Trevor’s death, “or rather, just to be side by side, a farewell of presence, of proximity, the way men do.”

The novel is as true to its title as Ocean is to Trevor, contemplating beauty in all its warring manifestations. “It was an accident, my beauty revealed to me.” In the mirror Ocean sees “everything I hid from. … And yet I stayed. I let the mirror hold those flaws – because for once, drying, they were not wrong but something that was wanted. …

[T]he thing about beauty is that it’s only beautiful outside of itself.”

“I read that beauty has historically demanded replication,” he muses elsewhere. “We make more of what we find aesthetically pleasing [to] extend it through space and time. …

Staring into the mirror, I replicate myself into a future where I might not exist.”

“I want to insist that our being alive is beautiful enough to be worthy of replication,” he writes. “And so what? So what if all I ever made of my life was more of it?”

Vuong has said “so what?” if he never writes another poem or novel, but who else could bear that?

Behold what has become of “Huckleberry Finn.”t

Couturier to the stars

by David Lamble

F

or years the cosmopolitan world knew him by a single name: Halston. As Frédéric Tcheng demonstrates in “Halston,” his moving, deftly assembled film biography of the man who designed garments both practical and chic for women and men from New York to Beijing, Roy Frowick Halston was a complicated man. The enigma of his layered identity was comparable to that of his friend and artistic fellow traveler, Andy Warhol. Both men were flamboyant homosexual visual artists from humble roots – Halston from the cornfields of Iowa, Warhol from Pittsburgh, PA – who gave themselves flashy Pop Art personalities and reached the stars, both Hollywood and celestial.

Enjoying an active Midwestern childhood that included fishing and soapbox derby racing, Halston (1932-90) acquired sewing skills

from his mom, and by his early 20s was making a living designing women’s hats. His first claim to national fame arose when a pillbox hat of his design graced the head of Jackie Kennedy at JFK’s 1961 inaugural. Voila! Halston was soon a national brand, a household word.

The film shows him appearing on “What’s My Line?” where his secret was that he’d created hot pants.

In quick order Halston made the move to Manhattan’s Seventh Ave., where he produced his first ready-to-wear collection for the upscale Bergdorf Goodman emporium. Soon came his own salon and a position astride the top of New York’s fashion industry. By the early 70s Halston was hanging with a fast crowd with frequently dropped names: Liza Minnelli, Martha Graham, Elizabeth Taylor, Marisa Berenson, Joel Schumacher.

Filmmaker Tcheng assembles a large cast from Halston’s army of

Halston’s growing drug habit and his increasingly reckless relationships with the “suits” who first provided and later withheld support for his lavish business and personal expenses. The film gives a detailed account of Halston’s late-career decision to design a mass-market fashion line for the middle-class chain J.C.

Penny’s. When the news of the deal reached the papers, the head of Bergdorf Goodman was so incensed he ordered all Halston-branded products be immediately removed from his stores. Sadly too, upon his death (the night of the 1990 Oscars), many of his clothes were sold off at bargain prices rather than being given to museums for preservation. Halston’s personal life is given comparatively short shrift, with a brief mention of a longterm lover and his passion for joining the jet-set crowd at Studio 54.

Halston’s career set the stage for the emergence of other name-brand designers such as Calvin Klein. But in the end, Halston’s own words give a sense of what gave him the most pleasure in life. Oscar night, 1975: “This is glamour! The stars, the palm trees, the weather, the glitter.

I came with a dream of what the Academy Awards were like, and I’m going home with a full stomach.”

Opens Friday.t

hosted by a woman. The late comic Joan Rivers is one of the few women to have (temporarily) broken into the late-night boys’ club. Rivers’ stint as Johnny Carson’s most frequent “Tonight Show” substitute ended when Johnny took offence at Rivers’ acceptance of a hosting job for the rival Fox network.

The men in the cast (mostly fleshing out the writers’ room) are a drab lot, with the exception

of John Lithgow as Newbury’s physically disabled husband, whose scenes with Thompson are the sole indication that Newbury has a vulnerable side that could come across as human, let alone funny, to a hip late-night audience. Thompson and Kaling do have a warm moment late in the film, when the star has to ascend six flights of stairs to her assistant’s Brooklyn tenement apartment.t

Courtesy the filmmakers

Good friends Halston and Liza Minnelli in director Frédéric Tcheng’s “Halston.”

friends and acquaintances, who speak of him with affection. Referring to the parallel ups and downs of her mom Judy Garland, Minnelli is visibly upset at Halston’s public fall from grace, culminating in his death at 57, in San Francisco from AIDS complications.

We get candid assessments of

Meeting in the boys’ room

Emily Aragones/Amazon Studios

Emma Thompson is Katherine Newbury in “Late Night.”

by David Lamble

“L

ate Night,” an acerbic female buddy film opening Friday, takes us inside the cutthroat world of Midnight TV chat shows with the premise that one of them is hosted by a woman; none currently is.

Most of us are familiar with the ruthless machinations behind the scenes of talk shows, due to how often these situations are regurgitated on sitcoms and in standup monologues. The female “monster” at the center of “Late Night” is veteran British film star Emma Thompson,

here playing Katherine Newbury, a haughty 56-year-old late-night TV hostess who, improbably, has never even met her all-male writing staff.

Newbury also has a well-deserved reputation for providing a cold shoulder to younger women seeking a door into the business.

So it’s a little hard to accept that this ice queen would add a young woman of South Asian heritage with no experience writing comedy to her writing staff. That woman is played with more chutzpah than aplomb by the film’s screenwriter, Mindy Kaling. Kaling’s Molly is faced with a problem that would defy the skills of the cagiest of industry hands: how to cultivate an audience for an arrogant fading star whose low ratings appear just reward for bad material and a charmless public persona. “Late Night” sets about demonstrating why, despite the existence of more than a halfdozen late-night talkfests, not one is

<< Film

22 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

Twin Peaks Tavern on the Castro screen

by David-Elijah Nahmod

“T

hrough the Windows,” a new documentary about the historic Twin Peaks Tavern at the corner of Castro and 17th Sts., will premiere at this year’s Frameline LGBTQ Film Festival (Castro Theatre, June 24, 1:30 p.m.). It was co-directed by Bret Parker and Petey Barma, a married lesbian couple who call the Castro home. Parker is no stranger to filmmaking, as she has worked at Pixar Animation Studios for 23 years.

When it first opened as a gay bar in 1972, Twin Peaks Tavern made history by being the first gay bar in the U.S. to open its windows to the outside. For the first time, pedestrians on the street could look inside the bar’s windows and see the gay people inside. In 1972 this idea was revolutionary. People could still be

<<

Carmen

From page 17

That is the takeaway from the Company’s sluggish mounting of director Francesca Zambello’s attractive but curiously uninspired production, a co-production of SFO and Washington National Opera, originally created by Opera Australia based on the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Norwegian National Opera co-production.

Get it, got it? Good. Because it seems the wide usage of the template has removed some of the soul from the current revival.

Everything is in the right place, everyone hits his or her mark, and nothing goes wrong in a largely traditional enactment of a beloved work, but how can something so busy ultimately feel so static?

The production design by Tanya McCallin is smoothly functional.

Bathed in the dusky oranges and raw umber of revival lighting designer Justin A. Partier’s re-creation of original lighting designer Paule Constable’s glow, it looks handsomely atmospheric.

Zambello often fusses with crowd scenes, but she also self-edits, so most of the action is clear. The main characters disappear in the swirl of activity, but once they resume singing, there is no need to highlight them more.

Ian Robertson’s SFO Chorus fills

<<

Blackness

From page 17

It has not only hurt careers but deprived audiences of access to important and exciting art. In recent years, things have begun to change, and there are notable exceptions, but progress toward leveling the playing field has been painfully slow.

Functioning as something of a corrective, “About Things Loved: Blackness and Belonging,” a small but potent academic exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum, puts outstanding artworks by black artists from Africa and the African Diaspora center stage while shining a light on a history of their marginalization and exclusion from the art world. The brilliance and beauty of some of the 30 or so well-chosen works on view makes one bemoan that sorry history. To cite just one example: the razzle-dazzle of Herve Telemaque’s abstract painting “Othello #1” (1960), which merges Haitian iconography with Anglo literary references and French surrealism, hasn’t seen the light of day since 1970. Attention should also be paid to Faith Ringgold. Her color lithograph “The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles” (1996), a vibrant picture of partying-down with a communal purpose, imagines a congregation

Courtesy the filmmakers

Scene from directors Bret Parker and Petey Barma’s “Through the Windows.”

tinue distributing the film beyond Frameline. They have already been in contact with the GLBT Historical Society and are planning a screening of the film at the GLBT History Museum in the fall. Parker is reaching out to Castro businesses to raise funds for distribution, which she hopes will include online streaming and touring to film fests.

“At a time when the basic civil rights of all LGBTQ people are being threatened, it’s more important than ever to remind people not only of our history, but of our presence, and our film does just that,” Parker says in a letter to donors.

“These were all people that during the 70s dared to be seen. It’s our responsibility as queer filmmakers to continue that dare by bringing our own voices out into the open.”

The film features interviews with longtime bar patrons, current and

t

former employees, who share their coming out stories and speak of the camaraderie they found at Twin Peaks. Patrons recall people who had their favorite seats in the bar, and engaging in “staring contests” if they came in and found their favorite seat taken.

The AIDS crisis is cited during a moving portion of the film in which patrons and former employees speak of those who’ve passed on.

The Twin Peaks was the site of many “Celebration of Life” ceremonies.

Some employees pay tribute to the bar’s former owners, who made sure their employees had health insurance. The film reminds us that the gay community took care of each other during the AIDS crisis.t

fired from their jobs for being gay at that time, and police harassment was common. According to two former Twin Peaks employees interviewed in the film, some people felt no one would patronize the bar.

They were wrong. Soon Twin Peaks

Tavern was jammed.

At 54 minutes, “Through the Windows” is short and sweet, and would fit perfectly into a one-hour timeslot on PBS. No PBS airings are planned, but Parker and Barma are crowdfunding so they can con-

the stage with customary enthusiasm, but even the kiddies outside the cigarette factory and corrida look a tad too picturesque in their spotlessly appropriate costumes.

The last time “Carmen” played the War Memorial Opera House, audiences experienced the full frontal shock of a blazing re-creation of controversial Castilian director Calixto Bieito’s down-and-dirty display of male-dominated humanity. Nudity and relentless machismo stressed the title character’s environment and added brutal context for the drama.

Zambello has gone farther back to slant the character’s motivations differently. Legendary director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle once added importance to the role of Micaela, but allowed the other characters little deviation from stock interpretations. It was interesting, and contrasted with a stereotypically willful Carmen, but did not amount to much more than smart detail.

Romanian soprano Anita Hartig, in her remarkable SFO debut as Micaela, hapless go-between for the dying mother of anti-hero Don Jose, is stronger and more forthright than usual. She greets the soldier outside his barracks with a kiss that clearly adds some tongue. We knew she wanted him for herself and has Madre’s blessing, but the confused look on his face makes us wonder if part of his problem is virginity.

French sound. Hartig’s apIt fits with tenor Matthew pealing attractiveness and Polenzani’s sad sack characsympathetic connection to terization and soprano J’Nai character make Polenzani’s Bridges’ predatory portrayal Don Jose seem even more of of the title role. The concept a wuss. works psychologically and is Ah, Carmen: temptress, hardly out of line, but it does opportunist, and all-around not allow for much chemistry. hot-blooded dame. VictimWhen Carmen aims her fateized by milieu and gypsy ful rose at Don Jose, it lands superstitions, she lives life next to him limply, and they Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera like a man and turns predadon’t even make eye contact. tor herself. She is hardly inGuess she chose him because Anita Hartig as Micaëla, Matthew Polenzani as dependent, but at least tries he was ignoring her. Guess he Don José, and J’Nai Bridges in the title role of to live on her own terms. is seduced because she is so Bizet’s “Carmen.”

The myriad aspects of her different from Micaela. When character are fascinating, bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen helps, but Gaffigan makes sure none but J’Nai Bridges hones in on her later makes an impressive entry on of Bizet’s hit tunes misfires while strength without much insight to horseback, as bullfighter Escamillo, building a strong narrative arc. her vulnerability. Bridges brings the next entry in Carmen’s dateKyle Ketelsen made his SFO debut her rich, expressive tone to fill in in 2006 as Escamillo, and little has book is a no-brainer. the blanks. Previous turns at SFO, changed. He has kept the swagger Depth of personality or motivanotably in the role of Josefa Segovia and strong voice. It is easy to see why tion is not in the acting, though no in John Adams’ “Girls of the Golden Carmen wants to score. Matthew one is unacceptably at odds with West,” created the buzz for her dePolenzani, making his role debut as the scenario. There are some sparks served star turn. She triumphed on Don Jose, is also an SFO veteran. The of convincing life in dance master opening night. beauty of his voice is apparent, and if Lawrence Pech’s choreography, but Well-cast supporting parts inhis acting is washed out, the passion the drama really ignites when the cluded New York bass David Leigh’s of his emotions still emerges. A parcast is singing. standout SFO and role debuts as ticularly fine rendition of the “Flower Conductor James Gaffigan is Zuniga, alongside some very talSong” brought the first big ovation of getting a high profile on both sides ented SFO Adler fellows. An audithe performance. of Grove St., at the San Francisco ence member said, “Fun to find out Anita Hartig’s Micaela responds Symphony and in his SFO mainwhere all those famous songs come to Zambello’s spotlighting with stage debut. Leading the orchestra from!” It’s also good to remember confidence, but she almost steals with a sure and energetic hand, he why “Carmen” still endures.t the show because of her astoncoaxes the loveliest of sounds and ishing voice. Bright, warm, with maintains thrust throughout the gorgeously controlled vibrato, it’s performance. Condensing four acts In repertory through June 29. the perfect vehicle for Bizet’s very into two parts with one intermission sfopera.org

Blackness as Belongings,” a of powerhouse black womsection that includes a handanhood – Sojourner Truth, woven Gullah basket from Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet the Sea Islands off the South Tubman and Rosa Parks – Carolina coast, and an aged, assembled in front of an apsepia-toned photograph of proving Vincent Van Gogh in enslaved people gathered his beloved south of France. on the deck of a sailing ship Equally radiant is “Crying circa 1870. ain’t gonna help none, baby” Romare Bearden’s collage (1972), a tough-love ode “Continuities” (1969), a to the blues, replete with a puddle of tears, by Oakland’s marvel to analyze close-up, own Margo Humphrey. is featured in a section on Organized by UC Berkeley black bodies and black life. graduate students and their Inspired by African art and Faith Ringgold, member Artists Rights Society, NY professors, the show drew Faith Ringgold, “The Sunflower Quilting Bee at channeling jazz, Bearden on BAMPFA’s permanent Arles” (1996); color lithograph. created an authentic sense collection and the Phoebe of time, place and thriving A. Hearst Museum of Ancommunity with magazine thropology, which has an clippings, newsprint, cut exhibition commences with Fred extensive cache of West African paper, paint and a superb eye for Wilson’s “Wanderer” (2003), a disobjects, some of which were gathercolor. One can almost hear the comfiting painted wooden figurine ing dust in storage and hadn’t been racket of the city in a scene where of a uniformed African servant or on view for years. Coming on the a couple, portrayed in a style modslave in gold shoes, carrying a tray; heels of MoAD’s “Highlights from eled on African masks, is dressed a globe tracing African migratory the Studio Museum in Harlem” and for an out-on-the-town neighborroutes is where his head ought to “Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold,” and hood stroll during the Harlem be. Since the early 1990s Wilson has the phenomenal “Revelations: Art Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s. appropriated and modified rafrom the African American South” A horse with blinders is pulling cially offensive artifacts like this exhibition at the de Young last year, a cart in the near distance, and a one, a novelty piece still found in “About Things Loved” adds to a sliver of sun setting in a red paper Venetian tourist shops and hotel growing awareness of artists who sky signals the evening is just getlobbies. He uses them to critique should be better known, and questing rolling. both the relegation of black Afritions why they’re not.

Erica Deeman, one of two gay cans to subservient roles and the Handsomely installed in a spaartists here, is represented by “Unreflexive priorities of museums. His cious black-walled gallery, the titled 08” (2014), in which a silhoupiece leads off “Roots and Routes:

To donate to the distribution campaign, go to: www. throughthewindows.com .

ette of a black woman’s profile is contrasted with a harsh white backdrop. Lyle Ashton Harris addresses his evolving identity as a queer black man, the second generation of AIDS activism, and finding joy in daily life, despite the pandemic.

He’s the gender-fluid subject of his 1993 color photograph “San Francisco is the Only City Where You Can Spend a Million and Still Feel Like Shit,” where he reclines in full face makeup next to a box of halfeaten pizza crusts. Locals will relate to the title’s sentiment, though the dollar amount needs to be adjusted for inflation: $10 million would be more like it.

Raymond Saunders made art out of recycled junk and other detritus he collected on Bay Area streets for “About Things Loved” (1986), the painted collage that gives the show its name. Assembled on a damaged folding screen, it’s comprised of children’s finger paintings and drawings, a scrawled Chinese parking sign, Japanese calligraphy and a grocery list whose contents – an egg here, a lemon there – find their way into the composition. To whom and where do these displaced objects belong, and have they found their way home at last?t Through July 21. bampfa.edu

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<< Books

24 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

<<

t

Marc Huestis

From page 17

Pizzazz! It defines Mr. Huestis himself, and powers up the book.

He’s subtitled it “An Intimate Showbiz Memoir.” While he’s right about the “intimate part” – he couldn’t give more low-down dirt, or get more scandalously self-revealing – this memoir’s about much more than showbiz. As a drag performer, Mark worked with the fabled theatre group the Angels of Light; as a political activist he fought with Harvey Milk; as a filmmaker, he created first-generation AIDS documentaries including “Sex Is” and the eternally charming and eradefining “Whatever Happened to Susan Jane”; as a film maven, he cofounded Frameline; and to pay for it all, he worked for years as a publicist. Finally, he pizzazzed himself into re-invention as the impresario who got scores of Hollywood legends to give up their secrets before full houses of clamoring fans at the Castro Theatre.

Fully half the book details the fun of these extravaganzas, with highlights of the star interviews included in script format, followed by never-before-heard confidences given to Marc in private, sorta off-the-record moments. There’s the joy of Patty McCormack, Patty Duke, Debbie Reynolds, and Carol Lindley. There’s the pathos and selfpity of Shelley Winters; the sweet, damaged, defenseless drunk Sandra Dee; and the love/hate thing with John Waters. “You can be dishy or gossipy,” Marc told me when I interviewed him in his apartment that’s gleefully cluttered with showbiz mementos. “But I didn’t want to be nasty or vicious.” When we talked, I had to pry the dirt out of him, but under his breath he whispered, “I really hated Mitzi Gaynor, and Barbara Eden was the most boring woman in the world.” In the book he revels in snark, but also reveals his kindness and generosity.

Steven Underhill

The author jubilates beneath a Midnight marquee.

After 20 years of showcasing more than 50 stars in his Castro extravaganzas, Marc had one more career up his sleeve. He was going to write a book. His best friends tried to contain their skepticism as they asked, “Marc, write a book?”

Nobody’d ever thought of him as a writer. But Marc did indeed write his book. Much to everybody’s thrill, what Marc has produced is wellwritten indeed, telling all about his showbiz life, his degradation-strewn escapades and addictions, and his political activism. “I’m proud that I did it, and I feel a real sense of accomplishment. I’ve gotten a lot of love because of it,” he added, then quipped, “You have to wait in line to be my boyfriend!”

One impressive quality of the book is its appreciable overlook of everything that’s gone down here since the 70s. Over the decades he’s lived here, he said, “My life has mirrored the country. I said farewell to free love, the flower-child mind-set, and embraced the hard edge of leather jackets and the fuck-you attitude of punk.”

Disclosure: I’m a longtime friend of Marc’s, and I’m credited with proofreading it. I think it’s a really fine work, but to find out if I’m being appropriately objective, you’ll just have to read it yourself.

Marc’s handsome dad, a hunk named Hank, graduated from the Coast Guard into jobs as a radio technician and, most importantly to Marc’s future efforts, a video editor.

His mother, Matilda, had showbiz aspirations, and evolved into Marija, the Continental Gypsy. She devolved from glamorous singer-dancer to somewhat tawdry stripper; the story of her long decline is truly sad. Marc’s home life was marked by abuse both physical and psychological. How bad? “Authorities were called,” he told me. Throw in with his ever-rebellious nature, the boredom of a suburban childhood, and you have reasons for Marc’s need to escape from a surprisingly young age into theatre, sex and drugs. Scramble these factors all together, then gangway, girl, get offa his runway.

Marc sought sex everywhere, all the time. His interest in visiting the Louvre was actually a diversionary tactic that would bring him in

proximity to its next-door neighbor, the notorious cruising grounds of the Tuileries. When taking the Green Tortoise bus from Manhattan to California, he explained, he didn’t mind the long trip, but was bummed that when the bus stopped at middle-of-nowhere rest stops, “filled with lonesome cowboys, truckers on speed, and smelly toilets, there was no time to trick.”

Marc’s travails with sex leave you both titillated and tearful. S&M sex for money, he writes, “made me feel I was worth something.” Of the abject humiliation he sought (“It’s so exciting!”), as well as the sex dominated by bondage and whips, seeming to punish himself for every success he had, he told me, “Perhaps because I was beaten as I child, I got confused about love equaling pain.”

Sexual escapades brought him to whoring around Provincetown, where a handsome trick told him he’d love San Francisco. Natch, that was his next stop. Where, natch, he bumped into the same fellow, who invited him to be in a show. So Marc became an Angel of Light. He found it artistically swell and sexually ensnaring.

He was also snared by crystal meth. Tina. Its use allowed sexual indulgences so extreme and degrading that one can hardly believe one is reading them. They’re part of the reason Marc self-published. No mainstream publisher would accept such material. “I didn’t mean to scandalize folks,” he told me. “But truthfully, I had no choice. I had to be open and truthful.”

After retiring from his Castro Theatre presentations, Marc entered a period of self-examination. It allowed him to grow into a life of quiet (well, for Marc, anyway) comfort in the rustic cabin in the woods he bought with an inheritance. “I never had contentment,” he revealed in closing. “But now I do. So, despite everything I did to make it not turn out okay, it did.”t Frameline presents a Gala Book Launch with stars and film clips, at the Victoria Theatre, Sun., June 23, 6:45 p.m. Book signing, 8:30 p.m. at Manny’s, 3092 16th St., SF. www.Frameline.org www.marchuestispresents.com

30

31

Nightlife Events

Shining Stars

www.ebar.com

Vol. 49 • No. 24 • June 13-19, 2019

Garrett Clayton TV and film fave on his new trio cabaret show

by Jim Gladstone

“I

t’s the worst thing to watch someone jerking off their ego on stage,” says actor Garrett Clayton, discussing how he came up with his debut cabaret act which he brings to Feinstein’s at the Nikko on June 21 and 22.

See page 26 >>

Arts Events

June 13-20, 2019

Frame it, screen it, sing it or conduct it; LGBT-themed arts events blossom in mid-June.

Thu 13 Donna Personna @ Commonwealth Club

Branden and James Classical crossover partners, on- and off-stage

by Jim Gladstone

I

t was during Pride weekend of 2015 that Branden James and James Clark performed together publicly for the first time. The venue was Martuni’s, the show was free and a tip jar was circulated. It was a particularly festive Pride that year, as gay marriage had just been legalized.

Listings start on page 28 > { THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

See page 27 >>

<< Cabaret

26 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

<<

Garrett Clayton

From page 25

Gay fans might disagree, given that many of them likely first encountered Clayton in King Cobra, a pulpy, ripped-from-the headlines 2016 movie in which he played porn star Brent Corrigan, caught up in the murderous rivalry between two would-be Sleazer B. DeMilles played by James Franco and Christian Slater.

But Clayton, 28, is altogether earnest in dismissing the hackneyed cradle-to-fame “My Biography In Song” structure that many celebrities build their solo shows around.

And besides, while he certainly has a few Cobraphile superfans and a following from his days as a Disney Channel heartthrob (2013’s Teen Beach Movie and 2015’s Teen Beach II), Clayton doesn’t consider him-

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self a celebrity. In fact, he’s decided to not even do a solo show.

His Feinstein’s debut, It Takes Three, features Clayton singing with friends and fellow actors Ashley Argota and Desi Dennis-Dylan (who happens to be the daughter of a certain Nobel laureate folksinger). A third friend, Doug Peck, is their accompanist.

Among the tunes audiences will hear are a spin on “It Takes Two,” which Clayton sang as Link Larkin in television’s Hairspray Live!; “Tightrope” from The Greatest Showman, and a mash-up of famous trios. Argota and Dennis-Dylan will also have spotlight numbers.

“I really wanted the show to be fairly balanced between us,” Clayton says with typical humility. “One of my favorite ways to spend a night is gathering around the piano and singing with my friends. This is re-

t

ally a version of that. I hope it will feel that way for the audience, too. It’s not about us standing over people.”

Out and About

Clayton’s conscientious respect for his colleagues and his audience stems in part from knowing how badly it feels to be disrespected. The Michigan native, who got his start in community theater at age 15 (First lead role: Charlie Brown), was outright rejected by his father and brother when he came out during high school, and remains estranged from them to this day.

Then, after being cast in small film roles and re- Garrett Clayton with Ashley Argota and Desi Dennis-Dylan gional theater productions (“I’ve done Fame twice; both times I’ve played Leroy!”), he moved to California at 19 to pursue bigger opportunities.

But the management team Clayton signed on with ended up making him feel so much smaller.

“I was never in the closet until I moved to Los Angeles,” says Clayton, explaining that he was strongly pressured to butch it up by his management who was bent on molding him into a heartthrob for straight female audiences.

“My manager asked me if I was gay and when I said yes, he said, ‘Nobody wants to fuck the gay guy.

Above: Garrett They want to shop with him. So Clayton in we’re going to have to figure that King Cobra. out.’”

Clayton has openly described Left: Garrett several years of deep emotional Clayton in distress instigated by his team reguHairspray Live. larly pushing him to walk, dress, and speak differently, even going as far Below: Garrett as suggesting he wear logoed sports Clayton with his gear in social media photos “to look fiancé Blake Knight more masculine.” (left) and their Even when promoting King Cohuskies. bra in an interview with Out magazine, Clayton demurred to acknowledge his sexual orientation, saying “I don’t really like talking about my Parody Of…) troupe personal life.” that mounts song-filled Speaking to London’s Gay Times spoofs of pop culture last summer after publicly coming touchstones at Rockout in an Instagram post, Clayton well, a Los Angeles cabrecalled his team telling him, “I literaret venue. ally had to change everything about He’s been a part of myself, otherwise I was never going tongue-in-cheek takes to make it. And that was so conflicton Stranger Things and ing, because here’s somebody offer10 Things I Hate About ing you your dream but they’re tellYou. Still embraced by ing you that…you’re talented but Disney, where he first who you are isn’t good enough.” made his mark, Clayton headlined Gay Days at Between worlds and a half years,” he says, pleased to Disneyland last year, singing “I Put A After finally breaking with his publicly acknowledge the man who Spell On You,” which he first fell in management and spending time in stood by him through a sometimes love with in the studio’s own Hocus therapy, Clayton not only openly wrenching struggle.

Pocus. claimed his identity as a gay man, While Clayton continues to purAmong the musical roles he says but took the opportunity to thank sue television and film roles—he he’d love to get a crack at are Elder his longtime partner (now fiancé) recently played a suicidal teen in Price in The Book of Mormon and screenwriter Blake Knight for emothe indie film Reach and Nicholas Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie. tionally supporting him through Cage’s son in the bonkers Between Along with moving forward in years of others’ bad advice.

Worlds—he remains particularly his career without the burden of “I met Blake when I was workpassionate about musical theater. closet, Clayton is also savoring the ing as a waiter after I first moved to Clayton is regularly part of the comforts of a now unhidden doL.A. We’ve been together for eight UMPO (Unauthorized Musical mestic life.

He lives with Knight and their two huskies, Dart and Dash, which he emphasizes that he didn’t get because of Game of Thrones.

“I grew up with a husky. When I see people buying them now because they want a dire wolf, it’s upsetting.

They’re very unpredictable and you need to know how to care for them.”

Clayton has the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films on heavy repeat and often listens to show tunes on Spotify.

“Do you know the song ‘Breathe’ from In The Heights?’ That’s a nice one to fold laundry to.” t Garrett Clayton with Ashley Argota and Desi Dennis-Dylan in ‘It Takes Three,’ Friday June 21 and Saturday June 22, 8pm. $45$75 ($20 food/drink min.) Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.feinsteinsatthenikko.com

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6/11/19 9:08 AM

t

Cabaret>>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 27

Branden James and James Clark performing.

<<

Branden and James

From page 25

Just four years later, “Branden & James” have become a brand name in the crossover classical music world, alongside the likes of Josh Groban, the Piano Guys, and Jackie Evancho (James also admires the Finnish heavy metal cellists Apocolyptica). Performing original interpretations of pop tunes from “Unchained Melody” to “Wicked Game,” the duo –Branden sings tenor, James plays the cello and creates the arrangements– has been touring the world and recorded a first album, set for release later this year.

They’ve also gotten married.

So there’s a feeling of celebration around their return for this year’s Pride, when they’ll play Friday and Saturday night shows at Feinstein’s at the Nikko.

“It feels,” says James, “like we’re coming full circle.”

For Branden, 40, playing San Francisco is even more of a homecoming. He lived here between 2000 and 2006.

“I was raised a wide-eyed Christian boy in Orange County,” he explained during a recent conversation between the Bay Area Reporter and the couple. “I came to San Francisco to study singing at the Conservatory of Music. It was really a coming of age for me, dating guys, experiencing gay culture.”

Branden lived in the Sunset and Lower Haight, and sang for his supper at Max’s Opera Café.

After graduating, he made his way to New York, which served as his home base for nine years during which he performed in the Metropolitan Opera chorus and sang with other companies around the U.S. and abroad. He also began to perform his own more pop-oriented cabaret concerts and piano bar gigs. In 2013, Branden’s public profile was considerably raised when he competed and became a finalist on the eighth season of America’s Got Talent.

James, 36, hails from Adelaide, Australia where, like his husband, he grew up in a religious family and listened mainly to Amy Grant and other Christian pop as child and teenager. But James was also classically trained in piano and cello from a young age and, after college, spent five years as a high school music teacher in Australia.

“In my heart of hearts, though,” says James, “I never really wanted to be an orchestral cellist.”

In 2012, he moved to the U.S. to pursue a masters degree at Cal State, Long Beach and seek work as a session cellist and arranger.

San Francisco Days

The couple met after Branden relocated to Los Angeles to pursue opportunities in the wake of his television success. James was hired to as the music director for a charity concert Branden was appearing in and the pair hit it off immediately, becoming fast friends who started to make music together, both literally and figuratively.

“I remember the first time we

came to San Francisco together,” says Branden, recalling a whirlwind tour of Lands End, Golden Gate Park and his favorite quirky taqueria, the Mexican Grill (which operates out of the Tart to Tart bakery shop near 9th and Irving). A few visits later, they were showcasing their musical collaborations at Martuni’s (Both men have friends in town, who helped generate a turnout for the then-unknown duo’s debut).

Shortly after that first gig, Branden received an unexpected offer to perform for five weeks at Vanessie, a piano bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“It wasn’t a direction I’d been

planning to take,” he recalls, “But James came along and it turned into a kind of laboratory for us. Five weeks turned into seven months.

We spent so much time playing together. We started out taking requests, sight-reading and then really worked on getting our own arrangements down.”

Santa Fe, says Branden, is the kind of town where the audiences tend to be people “who either have three houses or three jobs.” The wealthy Texans and Oklahomans, and artsy music-loving locals who made up their early following gave the duo a diverse fanbase from the start.

Between patrons’ word of mouth, the pair’s own aggressive social media outreach, and their music business network, Branden & James began booking concerts and an extensive schedule of cruise ship residencies.

“At this point,” says James, “I think about 40% of our audience is gay and the rest are just people who have come across us and enjoyed the music. We are both well-versed in the harmonic language of choral music. We tend to choose songs that are very melodic and lend themselves to a classical singing style.”

“I think audiences sometimes expect that because I play cello, it’s going to be sad, slow music, which isn’t the case at all,” he adds. “A lot of pop bands have been incorporating cello on their recordings over the past ten years or so. The timbre and tone production is similar to the human voice.”

That said, for the most part, their repertoire leans toward adult contemporary sounds rather than the more rhythmic Top 40 pop or the deep house that Branden enjoys in his leisure time.

“We tried a couple Justin Bieber songs and a Britney Spears,” he says, “but they just didn’t work.”t Branden & James, Fri. June 28 and Sat. June 29, 8pm. Feinstein’s at the Nikko, 222 Mason St. $40$70. feinsteinsatthenikko.com

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Serving Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner all day Open 24/7 3991-A 17thSt Market & Castro, San Francisco

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<< Arts Events

28 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

Rhinoceros @ Geary Theatre American Conservatory Theatre’s new production of Eugene Ionesco’s classic and still timely dark satire about political mendacity and cultural conformity; translated by Derek Prouse; special events thru run. $15-$110. Thru June 23. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

Robert Moses’ Kin @ YBCA The award-winning dance company performs the world premiere of Moses’ The Exceptionally Elderly Overweight Black Man Phoenix. $45.

8pm. Also June 15, 8pm & 16 at 5pm.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. robertmoseskin.org

Shortlived VIII @ PianoFight PianoFight and A.C.T. present the nation’s largest audience-judged theater competition, with multiple short plays performed over several week. $20. June 14-Aug. 10 (Finals at the Strand Theater Sept 7 & 8).

144 Taylor St. www.PianoFight.com

Thu 20

The Singing Bois at Fresh Meat Festival @ Z Space

Sat 15 For full listings, visit www.ebar.com/events

Preserving SF’s Queer Historic Places @ SF Main Library

Thu 13

Panel discussion about gentrification’s effect on historic buildings and spaces, with Tania Jimenez, Gerard Koskovich, Gayle S. Rubin, Terry Beswick and moderator Carol Queen. Free. 6pm. Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Four-week festival of new solo and ensemble theatre/dance works. $15-$30. Thu-Sun thru June 29.

2940 16th St. www.ftloose.com

Action Hero @ Phoenix Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros’ new production of John Fisher’s play about an actor with Hollywood dreams. $20-$40.

Thru July 6. 414 Mason St. www.TheRhino.org

Archduke @ Mountain View Center for the Arts Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph’s play explores how one man and one moment can derail an entire century. $40-$100. Thru June 30.

500 Castro St., Mountain View. www.theatreworks.org

Aunt Charlie’s @ Tenderloin Museum Multimedia exhibit about the historic Tenderloin drag bar; thru Dec 1. June 13, The Donna Personna Portraits Project, 8pm. June 20: LGBTQ History in the Tenderloin walking tour, 6:30pm. 398 Eddy St. www.tenderloinmuseum.org

Classic and New Films @ Castro Theatre Rocketman, thru June 17. June 13: Queer Eyes’s Tan France (7pm).

June 15: Disney’s Moana singalong (1:30). June 18: singersongwriter Bill Callahan (8pm).

June 20: Frameline Film Festival opening night feature Vita & Virginia (7pm); fest thru June 30 www.frameline.org $8-$15. 429 Castro St www.castrotheatre.com

Significant Other @ SF Playhouse Joshua Harmon’s witty romantic comedy about a gay man who endures all his friends’ weddings. $20-$100. Thru June 15. 450 Post St. www.sfplayhouse.org

Thrill Spot: The Raid on Tommy’s Place @ GLBT History Museum Author Katie Gilmarten hosts a lecture about the historic raid of the San Francisco lesbian bar in 1954, with rare photos and scandalous headlines. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Fri 14 Border People @ The Marsh Dan Hoyle’s new solo show embodies multiple characters based around the U.S./Mexico border wall controversies. $25-$100. Wed-Fri 8pm, Sat 5pm. 1062 Valencia St. www.themarsh.org

RJ Muna

Above Ground Theater Festival @ Mojo Theatre

Documentary Film Festival @ Roxie, Brava Theaters Fascinating documentary films from around the world; thru June 13. 3117 16th St. and 2781 24th St. www.sfindie.com

Donna Personna @ Commonwealth Club The Pride Grand Marshall, writer and trans activist discusses her life and work, with host Michelle Meow.

Free. 12pm. 110 The Embarcadero. www.commonwealthclub.org

Bizet’s classic opera of passion and tragedy is performed. $26-$256.

7:30pm. Also June 29, 23, 26 and 29. 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfopera.com

Halston @ Landmark Cinemas

Animation Exhibits @ Walt Disney Museum Mickey Mouse: From Walt to the World (thru Jan 6), and other exhibits of animation art by the prolific studio’s artists. 104 Montgomery St, The Presidio. $5$25. 10am-6pm. Closed Tue. http://wdfmuseum.org/

Robert Moses’ Kin @ YBCA

Park indoor exhibit that showcases the lives of historic LGBT people.

Open daily 10am-5pm. 1414 Harbour Way South, Suite 3000, Richmond. www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm

Mamma Mia! @ San Jose Stage Company South Bay production of the hit ABBA jukebox musical about romance and paternity queries on a Greek island. $32-$60. 8pm. Thru July 7. 490 South First St., San Jose. www.thestage.org

Mia Nakano @ CIIS The Visability Project, the artist’s series of portraits of diverse people.

Desai Matta Gallery, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission St. www.ciis.edu

Napa, Sonoma Pride @ Various Venues Enjoy dances, cookouts, park parties, drag shows, youth dances, art shows and more; most Saturdays, Sundays thru June 28. www.NapaSonomaPride.org

Oedipus el Rey @ Magic Theatre Revival of Luis Alfaro’s 2009 modern update on the classic Greek tragedy focuses on incarcerated youth. $15-$75. Thru June 23. Fort Mason, 2 Marina Blvd., Bldg D, 3rd floor. www.MagicTheatre.org

Hamilton @ Orpheum Theatre The mega-hit Tony-winning Broadway hip hop musical revision of American Revolutionary-era history. $111-$686. Thru Sept 8.

1192 Market St. www.shnsf.com

Older and Out @ North Berkeley Senior Center Weekly group discussion about problems for elders in the LGBT community. 3:15pm. 1901 Hearst Ave., Berkeley. www.pacificcenter.org

Queer California: Untold Stories @ Oakland Museum Multimedia exhibition documenting California LGBT lives, with contemporary artwork, rare historical materials, film, photography, sculpture; thru Aug. 11. Friday 5pm LGBT film screenings. Free/$15. 1000 Oak St. www.museumca.org

Mon 17 Starman: Freddie Burretti, The Man Who Sewed the World @ Roxie

Beach Blanket Babylon @ Club Fugazi The musical comedy revue celebrates its final year with fun lineup of political and pop culture icons, all in gigantic wigs. $25-$160.

Beer/wine served; cash only; 21+, except where noted. Wed-Fri 8pm.

Sat 6pm & 9pm. Sun 2pm & 5pm.

678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd.

(Green St.). 421-4222. www.beachblanketbabylon.com

Editor Jon B. Cooke in conversation with Last Gasp founder Ron Turner and Cartoon Art Museum founder Malcolm Whyte for an evening discussion about The Book of Weirdo, a retrospective of R. Crumb’s publication. $10. 6:30pm. Also, on exhibit; Mais Kobabe’s Gender Queer, thru July 1. 11am-5pm. 781 Beach St. www.cartoonart.org

Fri 14

LGBTQ Histories from the WWII Home Front @ Rosie the Riveter Visitor Education Center, Richmond

Frédéric Tcheng’s new documentary about the iconic gay fashion designer. https://halstonfilm.com/

The Book of Weirdo @ Cartoon Art Museum

Comedy @ Ashkenaz Laughs at a Father’s Day show with Tom Ammiano, Samson Koletkar, Jeff Applebaum and Lisa Geduldig. $15-$20. 8pm. 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. www.koshercomedy.com

Carmen @ War Memorial Opera House

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Clayton Howard @ SF Main Library The author discusses his book, The Closet and the Cul-de-Sace: The Politics of Sexual Privacy in Northern California. 2pm. Hormel Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Kiss My Aztec! @ Berkeley Rep John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone’s hilarious multi-genre musical comedy about woke Aztecs taking on Spanish invaders. $35-$115. Thru July 14. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

Orlando @ War Memorial Opera House Handel’s 1733 opera (the first of three operas using plots drawn from Ludovico Ariosto’s Renaissance epic Orlando Furioso ) is performed. $26$256. 7:30pm. Also June 18, 21, and 27. 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfopera.com

Out of Site: SoMa @ South of Market Locales Seth Eisen’s new LGBT history walking tour covers the once-cruisy district, from Native American villages, gold miners, leather men and lesbian mechanics; with performances by Marga Gomez, Brian Freeman, Landa Lakes and other talents. $10-$45. June 15 & 16. 12pm & 3pm. Sun 1pm. Meet at Howard Langton Community Garden, 10 Langton St. www.eyezen.org

Sadie Barnette: The New Eagle Creek Saloon @ The Lab The Oakland artist’s installation recreates and honors her father’s history as owner of SF’s first Black-owned gay bar, with archival materials and ‘hosted’ events; thru June 30. 2948 16th St. thelab.org

Who Killed Sylvia Plath? @ The Marsh Lorri Holt performs Lynne Kaufman’s fascinating solo play about the tragic demise of the poet. $25-$100.

Sat 8:30pm, Sun 5:30pm. Thru June 16. 1062 Valencia St. themarsh.org

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Arts Events>>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 29

Coffee, Rhum, Sugar and Gold: A Post-Colonial Paradox @ MOAD Exhibit of works that explore the legacy of European colonialism in the Caribbean through the work of 10 contemporary artists. Free/$10.

Wed-Sat 11am-6pm. Sun 12pm5pm. Thru Aug 11. 685 Mission St. www.moadsf.org

Naked Men’s Sketch @ Eros

Thu 20

The Routledge History of Queer America @ GLBT History Museum

Sun 16 Big Little Lies @ Alamo Drafthouse Free screenings of the first two episodes of Season 2 of the Emmywinning HBO series starring Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep; with snacks and drinks.

5pm. Also June 17. 2550 Mission St. www.drafthouse.com

Billys Heart Circle, Potluck @ Strut Participate in heart-centered sharing, chanting, easy physical movement, emotional connections, and updates about upcoming Billys events. 3pm-6pm, 270 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Floral Exhibits @ SF Botanical Garden Visit the lush gardens with displays of trees, flowers and shrubs from around the world, including the annual Magnolia bloom. Monthly plant sales, plus art exhibits and gift shop; free entry with SF proof of residency. $5-$10 for others.

7:30am-closing. 9th Ave at Lincoln Way. https://sfbotanicalgarden.org/

Gaugin: A Spiritual Journey @ de Young Museum

Once @ Gateway Theatre 42nd Street Moon’s new production of the multi-Tony-winning musical, a straight romance about an Irish musician who falls for a Czech immigrant. $28-$75. Thru June 30.

215 Jackson St. 42ndstmoon.org

Queer Music Festival @ Whiskey Tip, Santa Rosa Outdoor ‘Father’s Gay’ day-long music performances by Ah Mer Ah Su, Kohinoorgasm, Copyslut, Tyler Holmes, El Primo Inocente, Emile Rosewater and Libby; food, drinks for sale. $20-$25.

12pm-8pm. 1910 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa. www.whiskeytipsr.com

Queer Tango @ Finnish Hall, Berkeley Same-sex partner tango dancing, including lessons for newbies, food and drinks. $5-$10. 3:30pm6:30pm. 1970 Chestnut St, Berkeley. www.finnishhall.org

Sprightly @ SF Public Library Weekly hangout for LGBTQ youth, with crafts, snacks and activities.

12:30pm-2:30pm. James C. Hormel Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Tattoos in Japanese Prints @ Asian Art Museum

Exhibit of the Impressionist’s great works; thru June 23. Also, Fans of the Eighteenth Century (thru June 30), Ordinary Objects/Wild Things (thru July 14), Specters of Disruption (thru Nov 10) exhibits of Modern and historic art, including embroidery, Maori portraits and installations. Free/$15. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.famsf.org

Tattoos in Japanese Prints and The Bold Brush of Au Ho-Nein, both thru Aug. 18; also, Contemporary works

by Kim Heecheon and Liu Jianhua; exhibits of sculpture and antiquities.

Sunday café specialties from $7-$16.

Free-$20. Tue-Sun 10am-5pm. 200 Larkin St. http://www.asianart.org/

Queer History Conference @ College of Ethnic Studies

Mon 17

First national conference of the Committee on LGBT History of the American Historical Association, with multiple panels and events, including receptions at Jolene’s, the GLBT History Museum and SF Main Library. Thru June 18. ethnicstudies. sfsu.edu/content/qhc19

Chosen Familias: Bay Area LGBTQ Latinx Stories. Also, The Mayor of Folsom Street: Alan Selby’s Legacy, an exhibit of the leather culture pioneer. $5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Chosen Familias @ GLBT History Museum

Odd Mondays @ Folio Books Four Queer authors read; novelist Chris Delyani and his new book, Best Man, with Julian Mithra and fellow novelists Chris Delyani and Cass Sellars; including rainbow cake. 6:45pm. 3957 24th St. www.foliosf.com

Show Me as I Want to Be Seen @ Contemporary Jewish Museum Show Me as I Want to Be Seen, the work of groundbreaking French Jewish artist, Surrealist, and activist Claude Cahun (1894– 1954) and her lifelong collaborator Marcel Moore (1892–1972), thru July 7; In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art—Oxossi Ayofemi and Risa Wechsler, thru July. Free/$17. 736 Mission St. www.thecjm.org/

Starman: Freddie Burretti, the Man Who Sewed the World @ Roxie Screening of a fascinating documentary about the fashion designer who made many rock star costumes, including David Bowie’s iconic Ziggy Stardust outfits. $9$13. 7pm. 3117 16th St. www.roxie.com

Tue 18 Andy Warhol @ SF MOMA Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again, a new exhibition of the iconic pop artist’s works; thru Sept 2. Also, other exhibits of Modern art. Free/$25.

Fri-Tue 10am-5pm; Thu 10am-9pm. 151 3rd St. www.sfmoma.org

Call Me by Your Name @ Davies Symphony Hall The SF Symphony performs the Sufjan Stevens score along with a screening of the hit gay-themed film set in Italy. $35-$155. 7:30pm. 201 Van Ness Ave. www.sfsymphony.org

Smoke & Mirrors: The War on Drugs @ AAACC Exhibit of works by six muralists and 20 artists focusing on pot use, hemp, and historical elements of cannabis in communities of color. Tue-Fri 12pm6pm. Sat til 5pm. Thru Aug 31. 762 Fulton St. www.aaacc.org

Wed 19 Aging in the LGBTQ Community @ Commonwealth Club

Mon 17

Chosen Familias @ GLBT History Museum

Panel discussion on challenges and opportunities facing LGBTQ seniors, with Dr. Jason Flatt (UCSF), Grace Li (On Lok), Karyn Skultety (Openhouse) and host Michell Meow. Free-$5. 6:30pm. 110 The Embarcadero. www.commonwealthclub.org

Get naked and take turns modeling at the sex club’s popular weekly event. Donations/no entrance fee.

7pm-9pm. 2051 Market St. www.erossf.com

Pride Comedy Show @ Oasis Sergio Novoa hosts a super-queer Pride comedy night with Nicole Blue, Kay Nilsson, Chey Bell, Coral Best, Jesús U. BettaWork, Loren Kraut and Mitchell Lamar. $5. 7pm.

298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Rusalka @ War Memorial Opera House Antonin Dvoják’s opera, a heartbreaking tale of love and sacrifice based on the same story that inspired The Little Mermaid, is performed. June 19 is Pride Night at the Opera. $85 and up. 7:30pm.

Thru June 28. 301 Van Ness Ave. https://sfopera.com

We Are Everywhere @ Oasis Book release party for Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown’s new LGBT history photo book, We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power & Pride in the History of Queer Liberation.

7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Thu 20 Frameline Film Festival @ Various Cinemas 43rd annual huge festival of 100s of LGBTQ films from around the world.

Screenings at the Castro, Roxie, Victoria, and more. frameline.org

Fresh Meat Festival @ Z Space Three-day festival of dance, theatre, music and more with works by trans and queer artists Antoine Hunter, AXIS Dance Company, NowShade Vocal Ensemble, GAPA Men’s Chorus, J Mase III and Randy Ford, Lottie Riot, Sean Dorsey Dance, Shawna Virago, The Singing Boys and more. $20-$50. 8pm. Also June 21 & 22. 450 Florida St. www.freshmeatproductions.com

The Routledge History of Queer America @ GLBT History Museum Author/editor Don Romesburg and panelists discuss the new anthology history book. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth: The Queer Antifada @ CounterPulse Zulfikar Ali Bhutto directs a collective-created future dystopian performance work. $15-$35. 8pm.

Also June 21 & 22. 80 Turk St. www.counterpulse.org

Various Events @ Oakland LGBTQ Center Social events and meetings at the new LGBTQ center include film screenings and workshops, including Bruthas Rising, trans men of color meetings, 4th Tuesdays, 6:30pm. Film screenings, 4th Saturdays, 7:30pm. Game nights, Fridays 7:30pm-11pm. Vogue sessions, first Saturdays. 3207 Lakeshore Ave. Oakland. https:// www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org/

With(out) With(in) the Very Moment @ SF Arts Commission Exhibit about LGBT lives, and surviving AIDS, featuring Alternate Endings, a series of video programs

by Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art. Thru June 22. 401 Van Ness Ave. www.sfartscommission.orgt To submit event listings, email events@ebar.com

<< Nightlife Evnets

30 • Bay Area Reporter • June 13-19, 2019

Nightlife Events

Full-on celebrations, select live acts, and ultra-rainbow nights await you.

Comedy @ Ashkenaz Laughs at a Father’s Day show with Tom Ammiano, Samson Koletkar, Jeff Applebaum and Lisa Geduldig. $15-$20. 8pm. 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. www.koshercomedy.com

Gayface @ El Rio Queer weekly night out with DJed and live music. 10pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. www.elriosf.com

Junk @ Powerhouse MrPam and Dulce de Leche cohost the weekly underwear strip night and contest. $5. 10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Puff @ The Stud Cannabis and queens, with DJ Dank and guest DJ Dreamcast Jesse James Alexander, drag show and pot-themed prizes in the stoner raffle. $10, 6pm8pm. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG KJ Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol; first Thursdays are Costume Karaoke; third is Kinky Karaoke 8pm.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

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See pics on ebar.com

Castro Country Club’s sober drag show, hosted by Miss CCC Ashhley Madison, with queens lipsynching to gay anthems and icons. $15-$20.

7:30pm. 100 Collingwood at 18th. www.castrocountryclub.org

Lance Holman’s monthly cruisy night with DJ Blackstone. $5. 10pm-2am.

1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Copyslut at the Queer Music Festival @ Whiskey Tip, Santa Rosa

Nick Murphy @ The Fillmore The Aussie pop-indie Platinum-selling vocalist (aka Chet Faker) performs new and favorite songs; Beacon also performs. $31. 9pm. Also June 15.

1805 Geary St. at Fillmore. http://thefillmore.com

Seoul Train @ Oasis Rebel Girl @ Jolene’s Throwback Thursday with guest DJ Snick at Night with classic riot grrrl classics. $5. 8pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

Rice Rockettes @ Lookout Local and visiting Asian drag queens’ weekly show with DJ Philip Grasso. $5. 10:30pm show. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Rock Fag @ Hole in the Wall Enjoy hard rock and punk music from DJ Don Baird at the wonderfully divey SoMa bar, in its 25th year. Also Fridays. 7pm-2am. 1369 Folsom St. 431-4695. www.hitws.com

San Mateo County Fair @ San Mateo County Event Center Annual fair with rides, food, live music acts, agriculture and livestock displays, arts, crafts and more.

Free-$10 ($45 full adult pass). Daily 11am-10pm. Thru June 16. 2495 S Delaware St, San Mateo. www.sanmateocountyfair.com

Secret Emchy Society, Dawn Oberg @ Martuni’s Bar Fly Cabaret features the local Americana trio and the folk songwriter, who perform at the intimate martini bar. 6pm. 4 Valencia St. http://www.emchy.com/

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People>> MEN TO MEN MASSAGE

LGBTQ night at the immersive costume Roaring ‘20s play. $79-$149.

7pm-8:30pm cocktails, 8:30pm show.

644 Broadway. thespeakeasysf.com

Lick It @ Powerhouse

Personals Massage>>

Mascara @ Eureka Valley Rec. Center

The popular Latin club with gogo guys galore and Latin music. $10-$20.

9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

June 13-20, 2019

Thu 13

Happy Hour @ The Speakeasy

Latin Explosion @ Club 21

Sun 16

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Sex and the City Live @ Oasis The comic drag parody performances of scripts from the hit HBO show about four Manhattan women, adapted by and starring D’Arcy Drollinger. $27-$50. Thu-Sat 7pm thru July 13. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

SF Slam 10 @ El Toro Empress Pollo del Mar cohosts the second annual pro wrestling Pride event, with ring-flinging action; partial proceeds benefit the Portola Neighborhood Association. $20 and up/donations. Doors 7pm, matches 8pm. 2470 San Bruno Ave. www. facebook.com/WrestlingForCharity

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550 The popular two-stepping linedancing, not-just-country music night, with free lessons. $5.

6:30pm-10:30pm. Also Sundays 5pm10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. www.sundancesaloon.org

Thursday Night Live @ SF Eagle Rock bands play at the famed leather bar. June 13: Surpris 1980, Inner Ear Brigade and Fancy Dad. June 20: Ritchie White Orchestra, Manos Lindas and Girls With Guns. $8. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Women in Wine @ One Market The restaurant hosts a tasting and celebration of women wine makers, with 20+ makers, 75+ wines (A portion of ticket proceeds benefits La Cocina, an organization dedicated to cultivating low-income food entrepreneurs.) $85. 6:30pm-8:30pm. www.eventbrite.com

Fri 14 Arturo Sandoval @ Yoshi’s Oakland The veteran jazz trumpeter performs with his band at the stylish restaurantnightclub. $32-$74. 8pm & 10pm.

Also June 15, 16. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. www.yoshis.com

Korean pop night with a $500 dance showdown competition. $10. 10pm2am. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Spencer Day @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The #1 Billboard-charting pop-jazz singer-pianist returns with his new cabaret concert, Broadway by Day. $50-$80. 8pm. Also June 15. ($20 food/drink min.) Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. www.mattdoylemusic.com

Uhaul @ Jolene’s The popular women’s dance party returns at the new nightclub, now weekly. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

Sat 15 Beatpig @ Powerhouse Juanita MORE! and crew’s wild monthly night at the SoMa bar, with DJs Entrée and Stanley Frank. $5.

10pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Chromeo @ Greek Theatre, Berkeley Cool electrofunk grooves with the band, plus Toro Y Moi, Noname and Ian Isiah. $55. 6pm. 2001 Gayly Drive, Berkeley. www.apeconcerts.com

Date a Middle Eastern Man @ Oasis Afternoon social hour for Middle eastern men and their admirers, hosted by Asheq SF; no cover. 4pm7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

GAYmBoiSF @ Rickshaw Stop The gay Asian dance party features pop and hip hop. $10-$15. 9:30pm2am. 155 Fell St. rickshawstop.com

Macho Macho @ SF Eagle Latinx leather night with lucha libre gogo hombres, Latin and Rock mixes with DJ Succia and Decoffinated $8.

9pm-2am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular weekly drag show, with special guests and great music themes. June 15 is hosted by SF Tsunami Swim Club. $10-$15. 10pm3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Napa, Sonoma Pride @ Various Venues Enjoy dances, cookouts, park parties, drag shows, youth dances, art shows and more; most Saturdays, Sundays thru June 28. NapaSonomaPride.org

Reddroxx @ Lone Star Saloon DJ Brd spins at the bear bar. $5.

9pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Stallion @ Midnight Sun DJ Bill Dupp, intimate dance floor, gogo cuties, all in the heart of the Castro. 8pm-2am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Swagger Like Us @ Jolene’s Bearcat/Discwoman guest-DJs the hip hop queer night with DJs Jibbz and Baysik. $10. 8pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

Third Eye Blind, Jimmy Eat World @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Rock out with the two bands; also Ra Ra Riot. $60-$80. 7pm. Civic Center Plaza. www.apeconcerts.com

Sun 16 Beer Bust @ SF Eagle The popular daytime party, where $10-$15 gets you all the beer you can drink, supporting worthy causes.

3pm-6pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Beer Bust @ Lone Star Saloon Enjoy beer, bears, food and DJed beats at the weekly fundraiser. $15. 4pm8pm. 1354 Harrison St. onestarsf.com

Blessed @ Port Bar, Oakland Carnie Asada’s fun drag night with Carnie’s Angels Mahlae Balenciaga and Au Jus, plus DJ Ion. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Broadway Bares: SF Strips IV @ DNA Lounge Comic Strips, a superhero and comic book-themed variety dance and strip show with sexy dancers and special guest stars Jai Rodriguez, Bruce Vilanch, Cassandra Cass, Leanne Borghesi and Andrew Christian.

Proceeds benefit the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation. $45, $69, $100 (premium seating). 8pm. 375 11th St. www.bit.ly/broadwaybaressftix

Boy Division @ The Cat Club The New Wave monthly dance night’s Pride edition, with super-gay mixes featuring DJs Xander and Tomas Diablo, who’ll play Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell, Bronski Beat, Dead or Alive, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. $5-$10. 9:30pm-3am. 1190 Folsom St. www.sfcatclub.com

Cubcake @ Lone Star Saloon The monthly bears & cubs night includes DJ Paul Goodyear, plus sweet treats. $5. 9pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Friday Nights @ Oakland Museum Early evening weekly parties coordinated with Queer California: Untold Stories, an exhibition documenting California LGBT lives; thru Aug. 11. Free/$15. 5pm-9pm.

1000 Oak St. http://museumca.org/

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Sun 16 Broadway Bares – SF Strips IV @ DNA Lounge

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Shining Stars>>

June 13-19, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 31

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Kiss My Aztec @ Berkeley Rep B

erkeley Repertory’s opening night of comic and playwright John Leguizamo’s Kiss My Aztec brought out local luminaries like Rita Moreno, director Tony Taccone, and of course the cast members and musicians performing in the East Bay theatre company’s latest innovative show. Kiss My Aztec runs through July 14. www.berkeleyrep.org See plenty more photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. See more of Steven Underhill’s photos at StevenUnderhill.com.

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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

Disco Daddy @ SF Eagle

Trivia Night @ Port Bar, Oakland

Celebrate the sixth anniversary of the joyful Bestie-winning monthly retro dance party with DJ Bus Station John. $5-$8. 7pm-12am. 398 12th St. at Harrison. www.sf-eagle.com

Cranny hosts a big gay trivia night at the new East Bay bar; drinks specials and prizes. 7:30pm. 2023 Broadway. www.portbaroakland.com

Domingo De Escandal @ Club OMG

Queer femmes and friends dance party with hip hop, Top 40 and throwbacks at the stylish intimate bar, with DJs Val G and Iris Triska. 9pm2am. 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Vice Tuesdays @ Q Bar

Weekly Latin night with drag shows hosted by Vicky Jimenez and DJ Carlitos. (Comedy Open Mic 5:30pm).

7pm-2am. 43 6th St. clubomgsf.com

Wed 19

Gigante @ Qbar Frisco Robbie spins Latin and Hip-Hop grooves. $5. 9pm-2am (weekly beer bust 2pm-9pm). 456 Castro St. www.QbarSF.com

Jock @ The Lookout Enjoy the weekly jock-ular fun, with DJed dance music at sports team fundraisers. 12pm-1am. 3600 16th St. www.lookoutsf.com

Katya Presents @ Martuni’s The Russian opera diva sings with actor Will Giammona and pianist Joe Wicht. $20. 7pm. 4 Valencia St. https://www.russianoperadiva.com/

Queer Music Festival @ Whiskey Tip, Santa Rosa Outdoor ‘Father’s Gay’ day-long music performances by Ah Mer Ah Su, Kohinoorgasm, Copyslut, Tyler Holmes, El Primo Inocente, Emile Rosewater and Libby; food, drinks for sale. $20-$25. 12pm-8pm. 1910 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa. http://www.whiskeytipsr.com/

Renegade @ Atlas The weekly cruisy semi-private party. 6pm-10pm. $5-$10. Now also Thursdays, 9pm-2am. 415 10th St. https://www.facebook.com/ groups/2094886877491354/

B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland

Mon 17 Juanita MORE! and Sister Roma at Drag Queen Cook-off @ Williams Sonoma

Mon 17 Drag Queen Cook-off @ Williams Sonoma Juanita MORE! and Sister Roma cook up fun in the 2nd drag cooking competition, with guest-judges including Top Chef’s Melissa King and Terry Yu from Worst Cooks in America, and host Liam Mayclem. $20. 6pm.

340 Post St. www.eventbrite.com/

Munro’s at Midnight @ Midnight Sun Drag night with Mercedez Munro. No cover. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Pillows @ Powerhouse Glamamore’s crafts and drag night.

9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Underwear Night @ 440 Strip down to your skivvies at the popular men’s night. 9pm-2am. 440 Castro St. 621-8732. the440.com

Tue 18 Cock Shot @ Beaux With DJ Chad Bays. No cover. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St.beauxsf.com

Gaymer Night @ Midnight Sun Weekly fun night of games and cocktails. 8pm-12am. 4067 18th St. www.midnightsunsf.com

Meme Boys @ Powerhouse Games and amusements. $5. 10pm2am. 1347 Folsom St. www.powerhousebar.com

Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Follies & Dollies @ White Horse Bar, Oakland Weekly drag show at the historic gay bar. 9:30pm-11:30pm. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com

Miss Kitty’s Trivia Night @ Wild Side West The weekly fun night includes prizes, hosted by Kitty Tapata. No cover.

7pm-10pm. 424 Cortland St. 6473099. www.wildsidewest.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux Drag divas, gogo studs, DJed Latin grooves and drinks. 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. www.clubpapi.com

Pride Comedy Show @ Oasis Sergio Novoa hosts a super-queer Pride comedy night with Nicole Blue, Kay Nilsson, Chey Bell, Coral Best, Jesús U. BettaWork, Loren Kraut and Mitchell Lamar. $5. 7pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Queeraoke @ El Rio Midweek drag rave and vocal open mic, with Dulce de Leche, Rhani Nothingmore, Beth Bicoastal, Ginger Snap and guests. 10pm. 3158 Mission St. http://www.elriosf.com/

We Are Everywhere @ Oasis Book release party for Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown’s new LGBT history photo book, We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power & Pride in the History of Queer Liberation. 7pm.

298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Thu 20 The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Queer Karaoke @ Club OMG KJ Dana hosts the weekly singing night; unleash your inner American Idol; first Thursdays are Costume Karaoke; 3rd is Kinky Karaoke 8pm.

43 6th St. www.clubomgsf.com

Queer Undie Party @ Jolene’s Leak your own nudes at the saucy night, with DJ Jibbz. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. jolenessf.com

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.comt Want your nightlife event listed?

Email events@ebar.com, at least two weeks before your event.

Event photos welcome.

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