June 10, 2021 edition of the Bay Area Reporter, America's highest circulation LGBTQ newspaper

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No to Castro cameras

Jock Talk returns

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Vol. 51 • No. 23 • June 10-16, 2021

Moving event in SF marks AIDS at 40 Rick Gerharter

Officials stood on the Mayor’s Balcony and raised the rainbow flag to celebrate the beginning of LGBTQ Pride Month and the reopening of City Hall.

SF City Hall reopens with pride

Members of the public view a wreath that was laid in the Circle of Friends at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park during a ceremony June 5 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first reported AIDS cases in the U.S.

by Matthew S. Bajko

W

earing heart earrings the colors of the transgender Pride flag, Lisa Strawn stood in front of the steps of San Francisco City Hall Monday capturing with her cellphone the unveiling of the Pride flag on the flagpole off the mayor’s balcony.

Despite a late night working, Strawn wanted to be on hand for the annual ceremony to officially recognize Pride Month in the city.

“I was not going to miss this,” said Strawn, a transgender woman who was released from San Quentin State Prison last July after contracting COVID. “San Francisco offers everything to anybody, not just LGBTQ people.”

Arrested at 19 for prostitution and later sentenced to 50-to-life for burglary due to California’s “three strikes” law that automatically enhances a person’s prison term on their third conviction, Strawn spent more than 35 years behind bars. During that time she became an advocate for herself and other LGBTQ incarcerated people.

She welcomed gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) to San Quentin’s first Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony in November 2019 and advocated on behalf of his bill signed into law last fall that allows trans inmates to petition to be housed with other inmates of the same gender identity. Until now, inmates have been housed based on their gender assigned at birth.

Living in the city’s Transgender District in the Tenderloin the last 10 months, Strawn told the Bay Area Reporter she is excited to be taking part in her first Pride Month in San Francisco.

“I have made it really well all on my own in San Francisco,” she said. “This means a lot to me after coming out of San Quentin.”

Strawn wasn’t the only one voicing a hopeful note at the June 7 flag raising ceremony, which coincided with the reopening of City Hall to the public after being closed for more than a year due to the COVID pandemic. As of Monday, in-person services were once again being offered at the offices of Assessor-Recorder Joaquin Torres and gay Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros.

See page 7 >>

by David-Elijah Nahmod

P

eople gathered at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park June 5 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first reported AIDS cases and to solemnly view portions of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and remember those lives lost.

It was June 5, 1981 that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted five cases of pneumocystis pneumonia among previously healthy gay men in Los Angeles. Over the ensuing years, thousands of people died from the disease, including gay men, women, trans people, hemophiliacs, and injection drug users.

During a morning ceremony, officials laid a wreath in the Circle of Friends and viewed the quilt’s 6000th block. In the afternoon, the public was invited to visit the grove, where they saw 40 other quilt blocks and read names of those lost to the disease.

(The AIDS grove took over stewardship of the quilt in 2019.)

See page 12 >> Christopher Robledo

People’s March announces concrete Pride Sunday plans in SF

by John Ferrannini

A

ctivists have announced more specific plans for the second annual People’s March and Rally: Unite to Fight, which in the absence of the official Pride parade has displaced it as a go-to event for Bay Area residents seeking to commemorate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots that kicked off the modern LGBTQ liberation movement.

“The People’s March and Rally is happening on Sunday, June 27, and it’s starting at the same location as last year, which is at Sacramento and Polk [streets], following the original Pride parade route in San Francisco,” Juanita MORE!, a DJ and drag star who is co-leading the event, told the Bay Area Reporter June 9.

The march will begin at 11 a.m. and make its way to Civic Center for a rally featuring speakers.

It will then “march from Civic Center on Market to Castro Street for Pride dance party,” according to a draft news release sent to the B.A.R. by Alex U. Inn, a co-leader of the event.

As the B.A.R. reported (https://www.ebar. com/news/latest_news//294184) last year, the inaugural People’s March was held in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

The event’s focus is to “stand in protest of transgender and racial injustice, police violence

John Ferrannini

Hundreds of people took part in last year’s People’s March on Polk Street at California and Pine streets.

and killings, unjust healthcare, the fight for gun control, reparations to Black People, and the right for people of color to have the right to vote without laws of intimidations,” the release states.

“We will roar our voices in solidarity with our Black, Brown, and Indigenous trans and queer family, friends, lovers, and neighbors,” the release continues. “We will show up in droves with amplified voices to advocate for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, denounce and condemn

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police violence against our communities, and raise awareness for the need to defund police departments, which will allow for funds to be reallocated to social services, mental healthcare providers, and social justice organizations.”

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, introduced by Congresswoman Karen Bass (DCalifornia), passed the House of Representatives March 3 but has yet to be taken up in the Senate.

Once the marchers reach the Castro, MORE! said “there will be DJs there and probably some more speakers.” These, Inn confirmed, will include those who in past years performed on the Soul of Pride stage.

“It needs to happen again. A lot of the feedback we got last year is that it felt like the reason Pride happened in the first place. I do need to go to my party as well, so that will happen at some point in the day,” MORE! said, referring to her annual Pride fundraising party taking place again this year at 620 Jones Street.

Inn told the B.A.R. that, like last year, the plan is to “finish at 6 p.m.”

People’s March won’t be the only live event that weekend, either. The Trans March is set for Friday, June 25, with both online programming and in-person events, including a brunch at 10 a.m. at 726 Jones Street presented by Openhouse, LYRIC, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and See page 4 >>

<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

t

Castro CBD board rejects camera proposal

by John Ferrannini

A

proposal to place more than 125 security cameras in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood died June 7 in the face of significant community opposition.

In a unanimous voice vote, the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District Board of Directors decided not to continue discussion of the proposal. The vote came just after the results of a survey were announced at the meeting purporting to show majority support for cameras, but the poll was criticized by some for its leading questions.

“We don’t have any commitment for long-term costs, so that’s one reason I’d say kill the program here tonight,” said CBD Treasurer Crispin Hollings, a gay man and longtime community leader.

“Another thing is ... we are an unelected body that would be imposing a system on this neighborhood

outside what the CBD ought to be doing. There’s a lot of good work that the CBD can do without being distracted by this.”

Discussion of a security camera network started last year amid concerns about petty crime in the Castro neighborhood. As the Bay Area Reporter reported last October, tech mogul Chris Larsen is paying to install cameras via CBDs throughout the city. They have already been installed in the Fisherman’s Wharf, Lower Polk, MidMarket, Tenderloin, Union Square, and Japantown neighborhoods.

Randall Scott, the executive director of the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District, said during a contentious town hall on the Castro CBD’s camera proposal in April that there are 40 cameras in his district.

“In my experience, no one’s asked to remove them,” Scott said.

“They’ve only asked for more.”

Screengrab

The Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District presented results of its camera survey June 7, before the board voted to kill the proposal.

The Castro CBD was going to vote last year on accepting $695,000 from Larsen for the program, until the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club sent a letter to the CBD just hours before the latter’s board

meeting asking that the camera item be rejected or, at the very least, the vote be postponed.

One reason for the Milk club’s opposition was an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit alleging that San Francisco police illegally conducted mass surveillance on the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in late spring 2020 by commandeering private security cameras in the Union Square area.

The Milk club letter referenced the lawsuit (lead plaintiff Hope Williams sits on the Milk club board, the letter noted) and the historic use of surveillance cameras to target the LGBTQ community.

After that, a survey was sent asking people their thoughts on the proposal and a town hall was scheduled for April. The Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club joined the Milk club in expressing their discomfort with the plan.

But a bevy of participants at the town hall felt the meeting was one-sided, after the only group opposed to the cameras – the cultural district – pulled out of giving a presentation because the Milk club was not invited.

As the B.A.R. reported late last month, mum was the word about the proposal from the time of the town hall, until the announcement last week of the CBD board meeting.

Survey reveals community divided on cameras

Most of the June 7 CBD meeting was taken up by discussion of the survey, which garnered 938 submitted responses, of which 774 were counted.

Greg Carey, a gay man who presented the results of the survey in his capacity as a consultant for Carey Systems (B.A.R. readers may know Carey from his role as chief of the volunteer Castro Community on Patrol), said that incomplete surveys and surveys from duplicate or fictitious emails were not included in the final count.

Andrea Aiello, a lesbian who is the CBD’s executive director, assured viewers of the virtual meeting that the survey represented a broad cross-section of people who live, work, and otherwise have a stake in the Castro.

“A lot of organizations, such as the cultural district, shared our post [of the survey],” Aiello said. “Lots of organizations sent it to their membership lists, and so it was spread around to a lot of people.”

When given the chance to respond to the prompt “my opinion about the proposal to install safety cameras with a well-managed camera program with now direct access to the police or the public is:,” 54.8% responded “support this technology.”

This included 71.4% of people who reported owning property in the CBD footprint and 61.7% of people who reported living there.

An additional 6.8% of the to-

tal respondents reported that they “may support other technology.” A combined 28.8% responded with anti-camera proposal answers.

Carey said that it was decided the survey would use the term “safety cameras” over “security cameras.”

“The term ‘security camera’ infers the ability or plan to monitor in real time,” Carey said. “This does not describe the proposal we are discussing here tonight. It just doesn’t apply.”

Aiello lauded the sheer amount of detail in the survey results – which also include aggregate data about the connection of respondents to the CBD footprint and their experiences of crime – as “incredible.”

But not everyone was sanguine about the survey, which elicited criticism before Carey finished presenting its results.

In the comments section of the Zoom meeting, Jason Wyman wrote “this is a terribly crafted survey.”

“The methodology behind the survey is totally flawed and provides no opportunity to engage with concerns,” Lee Hepner, a gay man who sits on the Milk club’s board, told the B.A.R. during the meeting. “‘Cameras may keep you safe. Do you support cameras?’ is not a real survey.”

Speaking during public comment, Hepner, who also serves as a legislative aide to District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, likened the survey to a “push poll.”

“There’s nothing in that survey that is not a push poll to convince people cameras will make us safe,” Hepner chided, critiquing “the conflation of cameras with safety.”

Tracy Rosenberg of United to Save the Mission also criticized the survey.

“I’m concerned that you threw away or discarded 164 of the surveys. That’s almost one-in-five,” Rosenberg said. “The fictitious email responses to the survey should not have been thrown out.”

Speaking to the B.A.R. June 8, Carey said that providing the context for the questions was necessary to run an informed survey, and that the methodology was based on best practices.

“The criticism came early, but my whole role has not been to take any sides, but just to provide data,” Carey said. “My background in survey development suggests the best way to understand is to have questions that explain the context, and that the context and background – beyond a yes and no question – can help inform what to do.”

‘Little to no deterrent effect’

During public comment, the breadth of opposition to the cameras became evident.

Brian Hofer, who drafted the city’s ban on facial recognition technology, said that while “it’s unfortunate private parties have to try to solve problems that our government has failed to solve,” the cameras would likely have “little to no deterrent effect” to petty crimes.

Hofer cited reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle that some 17 city Walgreens have closed in the last five years due to robberies.

“Each of those facilities had cameras and many had security guards but the failure speaks for itself,” Hofer said.

Masood Samereie, a straight ally who is the president of the Castro Merchants Association, said that the association’s members opposed the camera system as proposed.

“We believe it should be decentralized,” Samereie said. “I have made the request to meet with the donor to discuss our proposal.”

See page 10 >>

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<< Community News

t Breed nominates out man for preservation panel

4 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

by Cynthia Laird

Wright has also been active with the GLBT Historical Society’s Historic Preservation Working Group, the mayor’s office noted, and the Association for Preservation Technology’s Western U.S. chapter, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, and with the Presidio Historical Association, where he serves on its board of directors.

Terry Beswick, a gay man who’s executive director of the historical society, said Wright was one of the founding members of the organization’s working group, which also doubled as the Arts, Culture and Heritage committee of the San

Francisco LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy.

“I always found him a thoughtful and attentive listener, and blessed with a good sense of humor, which will serve him well on the commission,” Beswick wrote in an email.

Wright works for Page & Turnbull, the same firm that employs Christina Dikas, a straight woman who withdrew her nomination in April after it was clear the Board of Supervisors would reject it.

That affiliation came under some criticism during Dikas’ hearing, as the firm has done many projects in the city, which could be a potential conflict of interest for Wright.

Nonetheless, Beswick said Wright would be a good commissioner.

“His long employment within the belly of the beast (Page & Turnbull) notwithstanding, he will bring the commission strong expertise as an architectural historian coupled with an awareness of LGBTQ historic preservation that is sorely needed right now,” Beswick wrote. “We need to ensure that the most marginalized LGBTQ communities’ historic places are preserved in San Francisco, including BIPOC and trans sites, not just those that are best known.”

Shayne Watson, a lesbian who co-wrote the city’s LGBTQ cultural heritage strategy, praised Wright’s nomination.

“I can’t think of a better candidate for the HPC,” Watson wrote in an email. “Jason is an extraordinarily kind and dedicated LGBTQ preservationist. He’s been volunteering his time for years as a founding member of the GLBT Historical Society’s Historic Places Working Group and the Citywide LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy Arts & Culture Committee. Above all that, he’s just a really decent guy who will take this job very seriously.”

Wright did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

According to the mayor’s office, Wright meets the secretary of the interior’s professional qualification standards for architecture and historic architecture.

Wright holds a bachelor of architecture degree and a minor in historic preservation from the University of Cincinnati. He is a native of Ohio who has lived in San Francisco for many years. His interests and knowledge in preservation cover a broad spectrum within the field and vary from design/construction to materials conservation to cultural landscapes.

Breed has been stymied in her efforts to fill the fourth vacancy on the HPC. Prior to Dikas withdrawing, the board’s rules committee had previously voted 3-0 against seating Dikas, in large part because it would mean there

would be no LGBTQ representation on the commission.

In March, the Board of Supervisors seated Breed’s three other straight nominees – Diane Matsuda, Chris Foley, and Ruchira D. Nageswaran – to serve terms ending December 31, 2024. Matsuda and Foley had both been serving on the commission, while Nageswaran was named to Hyland’s seat.

The matter of the commission vacancy comes as a number of LGBTQ historical preservation items move through the city’s approval process. The supervisors recently approved city landmark status for the Noe Valley residence of the late pioneering lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. In May, the Historic Preservation Commission recommended city landmark status for the gay-owned Eagle bar in the South of Market neighborhood that is popular with the leather community.

Other local LGBTQ historic sites, however, continue to languish on a city planning department list of future potential city landmarks while early talks have focused on turning the late gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk’s former home and camera store site in the Castro, into a national historic site. It is one of seven city landmarks related to LGBTQ history. t

to the Trans March Facebook page. It will return as a march in 2022.

People’s March organizers are urging participants to “please be responsible” and “in compliance with our federal and California state laws to wear masks, if not vaccinated, and to remain safely physically distant.”

The city announced June 8 that it will fully align its COVID-19 restrictions with those of the state starting June 15. Mask mandates will apply in homeless shelters, nursing homes, on public transportation, and at events where over 5,000 people are inside or 10,000 people are outside.

Speaking to the B.A.R. June 4, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman – who represents the Castro – said that “the city is preparing itself for people landing in Civic Center for a party that wouldn’t be permitted or allowed but wouldn’t be broken up as long as everything is safe.”

“It’s complicated,” Mandelman added, expressing the uncertainty so many feel this close to the June 15 California reopening. “People should not come expecting a big party in the Castro; but, you know, muscle memory.”t

M

ayor London Breed intends to nominate an out man for the vacant seat on the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission.

Jason Wright, who is LGBT according to the mayor’s office, would be the only out person on the seven-member advisory panel should he be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Commissioner Jonathan Pearlman, a gay man, is presently serving on the commission but his term has expired and Breed did not renominate him or Andrew Hyland, the other out member.

Wright has been nominated to Seat 3, which is designated for an architectural historian.

Wright has a background in both design and conservation, according to a biography from the mayor’s office, and has 18 years of work in preservation architecture. He has overseen both conservation and architectural projects and engaged in laboratory and other technical conservation methodologies.

“Jason’s varied background has led him to work on such wellknown historic buildings as the California State Capitol; McKim, Mead, and White’s Washington State Capitol in Olympia, Washington; the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; and the Old U.S. Mint in San Francisco,” the mayor’s office stated.

<<

Pride Sunday plans

From page 1

the San Francisco Community Health Center, and a resource fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dolores Street between 18th and 19th streets, according

Courtesy Page & Turnbull

Jason Wright has been nominated to the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission.

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<< Open Forum

6 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

Volume 51, Number 23 June 10-16, 2021 www.ebar.com

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Ramachandran for East Bay Assembly seat R

esidents in Alameda, San Leanalso support bills prioritized by the dro, and part of Oakland have Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.” And started early voting in the June 29 spethat’s key, because if elected, Ramcial primary election for the 18th Asachandran would be the first person sembly District seat. The seat became to join the group of out lawmakers open after Governor Gavin Newsom representing the Q in LGBTQ. tapped former Assemblyman Rob She would also continue her work Bonta (D) to be the state’s new attorfor domestic violence policy. “I beney general, after former AG Xavier lieve that violence against LGBTQ Becerra was confirmed by the U.S. Courtesy Janani Ramachandran individuals must be recognized as a Senate to be President Joe Biden’s Janani public health crisis in California, and health and human services secretary. Ramachandran given far greater attention and reThere are three out candidates runsources on a statewide basis,” she statning in the special primary election, ed. She noted that LGBTQ people face and we endorse one of them – queer lesbian atgreater incidents of abuse than their heterosexual torney Janani Ramachandran. counterparts: 61% of bisexual women, 44% of In her endorsement questionnaire, Ramachlesbian women, 37% of bisexual men, and 26% andran, a progressive Democrat, exhibited a firm of gay men experience rape, physical violence, or grasp of the issues facing the Assembly district – stalking by an intimate partner. A 2015 national namely housing, health care, and criminal justice. survey found that 54% of transgender individuWhile Ramachandran is young – she turns 29 in als reported that they experienced some form of a couple of weeks – her experience representing intimate partner violence, and 47% reported that low-income domestic violence survivors has althey’d been sexually assaulted. “This violence, in lowed her to question the lack of outreach to turn, leads to immense consequences to physipotential LGBTQ clients and advocate for more cal health and longevity, higher rates of mental queer attorneys and policy leaders in this field. health struggles and suicide, economic instabilAs an attorney at the Family Violence Appellate ity, and homelessness, particularly among youth Project, she wrote letters opposing the federal and transgender victims.

Housing and Urban Development Department’s The housing crisis is one of the state’s biggest Trump-era proposal to eliminate shelter options challenges, and the 18th Assembly District is not for the transgender community (new HUD Secimmune. Oakland’s unhoused population inretary Marcia Fudge recently rescinded that polcreased during the pandemic, and the city has icy, which had not been implemented), struggled to find solutions. Ramachanand advocated for greater family leave dran stated that 160,000 Californians protections that expanded the definiare unhoused on any given night and tion of what a family could consist of, over 2 million residents can’t afford which significantly benefitted LGto pay rent. Tens of thousands are BTQ families. “Throughout my life, I facing eviction in a pending “eviction have been committed to furthering the tsunami” following the COVID pangoals of the LGBTQ community in all demic as various eviction moratorithat I do,” she wrote. “I fully intend to ums end. She proposes an immedicontinue to pursue this through my ate, “true moratorium” on evictions work as a state legislator.” and foreclosures during not just In terms of legislative ideas, Ramthe pandemic, but post-pandemic achandran stated she would support recovery period. She also wants to bills “on many intersectional issues that impact implement a “right to free counsel” for all tenmembers of the LGBTQ+ community including ants facing eviction, because, as she pointed out, non-discrimination in the workplace and educait is far more likely a tenant will remain in their tion, transgender and intersex rights, single payer home if they have legal representation. She also health care and HIV/AIDS programs, criminal supports repealing Costa-Hawkins and the Ellis justice reform, and immigration reform. I would Act, although efforts to reform those two state

fortable with my sexuality, my extreme substance use, and feared the future. I hat queer identity and addiction was lonely even when surrounded by have in common is that one can friends and I had suicidal ideations. choose to be closeted about both. That By then I was habitually drinking and was my lived experience until I was 40. using street drugs. Nevertheless, the Today, I advocate for openness around outside indicators of being stereotypisexuality, but transparency around adcally “on track” allowed me to keep diction and recovery are equally as immoving forward and ignore the signs portant. For me, fear and denial prethat I needed help.

Courtesy Fay Zenoff vented me from living an authentic, In my 20s, I married a man; lived Fay Zenoff healthy, and fulfilled life for decades. overseas; had a child. In my 30s, I Now, as an openly queer and sober earned a graduate degree; moved woman, I am experiencing inner peace, growth, back to the Bay Area; had another child; brought happiness, and healing – all outcomes of my jourin a six-figure income; purchased a home; and ney to self-acceptance and recovery. I’ve come to volunteered in my community. I was blessed, learn that stigma and shame are toxic barriers that privileged, and successful by all outside measures must be eradicated so more people can find free– yet I was in emotional turmoil. I drank to quiet dom from isolation and fear. my inner knowing that something was gravely Growing up in the 1980s in the San Francisco wrong. None of my family members or friends Bay Area, I started experimenting with drugs and knew that I had a drinking problem. alcohol as a teenager. Following the unexpected Just before turning 40, I felt a soul death of my brother and my parents’ subsequent sickness even though I continued to divorce, I found that substance use numbed my keep up with my responsibilities. Afpain and grief. By the age of 16, I would comter brutal arguments with my husmonly drink to the point of blacking out. In band and many sleepless nights, I high school, I dated boys and had secret hookfinally entered therapy, filed for a ups with girls. From outside perspectives, I was divorce, and openly started dating achieving what was expected of me – I “fit in” to women. I began to deal with my the social norms of a high school student – I was childhood trauma and confront editor of the yearbook, played varsity sports, and my shame. Yet, I did not quit drinkexcelled academically. But internally, I felt exing. How could I let go of the “one tremely disconnected. I was hiding my sexuality thing” that gave me relief? I did not understand and had become dependent on alcohol. I had no the toxicity and harm alcohol was causing. role models in my community who were bisexI managed to control my consumption for a ual or in recovery from a substance use disorder. few months. Yet, without new coping strategies In college, I continued to drink and use drugs or life skills, the inner chaos escalated. There while progressing with my studies. My peers came a defining day so psychologically painful seemed to do the same. I dated men openly and that I admitted to myself that I needed help to slept with women when drunk. I used alcohol as stop drinking. Little did I know that my sobriety a way to explore my sexuality without having to journey was just the beginning of healing and the own an orientation. At that time, alcohol calmed incredible life changes to come. my inner conflict and was easy to blame for any During my 40s and into my 50s, I led a San “inappropriate” behavior.

Francisco-based social-impact nonprofit, foBy my senior year at Sarah Lawrence College, cused on ending addiction stigma and chamI had fallen into a deep depression. I was uncompioning recovery before starting my own firm.

W

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laws have been unsuccessful so far, both in the legislature and at the ballot box. (Costa-Hawkins deals with the ability of cities to set rent control, while the Ellis Act lets landlords take rental units off the market if they evict a tenant so that a family member moves in.)

Regarding LGBTQ issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity data collection, which the state has been slow to gather even during the COVID pandemic, Ramachandran stated that she supports bills for increased funding for SOGI data collection, for COVID tracking, and other state purposes. She also wants to build support for and implement a true wealth tax in the Golden State that would tax mega-millionaires and billionaires.

The money raised, she stated, could fund and improve programs such as SOGI data collection.

Criminal justice reform is another important issue in the race, especially with officer-involved shootings in Oakland, Alameda, and San Leandro. Ramachandran wrote that she believes in the need to end qualified immunity for police officers. “I will fight for every violent police officer to be held accountable,” she wrote. “I will also push for stronger reforms in restructuring our existing parole hearing system so that it is more equitable and fair,” she stated.

Ramachandran, who was among the first candidates to enter the race, also has a compelling personal story. “Being fully authentic to my own identities in all realms of my life has certainly come with challenges – given that I come from a very religious South Indian family where being openly LGBTQ is taboo,” she wrote. “Nonetheless, I have remained committed to overcoming these many barriers and am excited to run as an openly LGBTQ candidate.” If elected, Ramachandran would be California’s first LGBTQ API female-identified state legislator. She would also be California’s first South Asian female-identified state legislator.

We see Ramachandran as a qualified candidate who is in line with the progressive 18th Assembly District she aims to represent. Ramachandran has been endorsed by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and Equality California, which made a dual recommendation for her and candidate Mia Bonta, Rob Bonta’s wife. That Ramachandran is an out woman is a benefit for the diverse East Bay district, which has never had a queer state lawmaker. Residents in the 18th Assembly District should vote for Ramachandran. t

You can be open about addiction

by Fay Zenoff

Bay Area Reporter

t

I healed my relationship with my ex-husband, grew in so many ways and then met my beloved – she and I are now planning our marriage. Professionally, I now help people integrate recovery into all areas of life and offer companies recovery wellness strategies to enhance employee engagement, well-being and cultural safety. Today, I live a life of congruence, health, and integrity. In recovery, my inside and my outside match.

There are over 22 million people in the U.S. living successfully in long-term recovery, however, the majority of us stay silent and invisible to avoid backlash. I share my story and am open so those needing support can recognize themselves in me and know that a happier, healthier, and more authentic life is possible. Some people think being open about recovery is in direct conflict with Alcoholics Anonymous’ tradition of anonymity, but I believe being open about recovery is an act of pride, advocacy, education, and hope.

With only one in 10 people able to find help out of the 20 million in the U.S. struggling with a substance use disorder – I strongly believe that the time is now to stand up and be open! We must replace shame with empowerment. Let us utilize the power of our voices to end the stigma of addiction. I am open. Are you?

If you or a loved one want to re-assess your relationship with alcohol or learn more about recovery options, check out these resources about alcohol https://www.myrelationshipwithalcohol.com/; a quiz (https://www.rehabs.com/assessments/ alcohol-addiction-quiz/); information about treatment https://bit.ly/3ipcP6M; and resources (https://fayzenoff.com/resources/). t

Fay Zenoff is an addiction recovery wellness strategist, consultant, and coach working with individuals, families, treatment centers, and businesses to support freedom from addiction and the integration of recovery into all areas of wellness. Learn more at www. fayzenoff.com.

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Politics >>

June 10-16, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

CA legislators propose millions for trans health, HIV, and STDs

by Matthew S. Bajko

C

alifornia lawmakers included roughly $52.3 million toward various LGBTQ initiatives in their budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Among the items are a historic $15 million investment in transgender health services, $13 million to support LGBTQ youth, and a $6 million boost to fight the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and sexually transmitted diseases.

Legislative leaders also allocated $750,000 to support LGBTQ archives across the state and $1.7 million for a new air circulation and filtration system at the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts in San Francisco as it prepares to reopen to the public as the COVID epidemic ebbs.

The legislators also allocated $365,600 in one-time funding to develop and implement policies related to the Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act. In addition to giving incarcerated trans and nonbinary individuals a choice in where they are housed, the act requires state prison personnel to record the person’s self-reported gender identity, gender pronouns, and honorifics during the intake process.

The Legislature has until June 15 to pass the roughly $267 billion budget and send it to Governor Gavin Newsom to sign. Despite the ongoing health crisis the state’s finances have not been negatively impacted, instead state budget analysts have projected a $76 billion budget surplus.

Thus, state lawmakers have proposed finally funding the Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund.

It was established in 2020 only after Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), a straight ally who authored the legislation, and trans advocates agreed to strike from the bill the requirement for the state to actually fund it.

In April a coalition of trans groups had sought $15 million over two years, starting in 2022, for the fund, but Newsom didn’t allocate any money toward it when he released his revised budget in May. Legislators, however, allocated all $15 million for the fund to be distributed by the state’s Office of Health Equity toward programs focused on coordinating trans-inclusive health care for individuals who identify as transgender, gender-nonconforming, or intersex.

Newsom did include $3 million for the state Department of Education to develop LGBTQ+ teacher training, two years after he signed a teacher training bill into law. At the time he had requested that it too be stripped of a mandatory funding provision with the pledge to fund it later.

Under the state lawmakers’ budget proposal, $1.8 million of the money would be earmarked for the develop-

<<

City Hall

From page 1

Those looking to obtain marriage licenses from the office of County Clerk Diane Rea were also able to again do so, while civil marriage ceremonies will return Wednesday, June 9. For more information and to make an appointment online, visit https://sfgov.org/countyclerk/.

“Who wants to get married? I got benefits,” joked Mayor London Breed, a single straight ally, who said she was looking forward to performing wedding ceremonies herself.

She hailed the reopening of City Hall to the public and looked for-

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law Courtesy Twitter

State lawmakers have proposed millions in funds for LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS programs.

ment of an online LGBTQ+ cultural competency training. An additional $600,000 would go for developing an interactive online platform for the content, while $598,000 would be used for one-time costs incurred by the state.

LGBTQ+ student support centers would receive $10 million under Proposition 98, which established minimum funding levels for public schools and community colleges.

And the budget proposal also calls for allowing smaller communitybased organizations to successfully compete for grants and contracts funded by the $17.5 million Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Women’s Health Equity Fund established in 2019.

Boost for HIV, STD, and hep C services

Last year, due to the pandemic’s anticipated impact on the budget, a coalition of health services agencies pared back their $52 million request to $3 million to fund a plan to end the overlapping epidemics of HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted diseases. This year they were seeking at least $19 million, but Newsom did not include any of their funding request in his budget proposal.

Legislators, however, included in their budget proposal a $19 million investment in the End the Epidemics plan. It renews the current $13 million in state funding for the effort and includes a one-time $6 million increase.

HIV aging demonstration projects targeted at longtime survivors of HIV and AIDS would receive the bulk of the extra money, $5 million, while the other $1 million would be used to buy hepatitis C test kits. The state’s syringe exchange supply clearinghouse would continue to receive $3 million, while STD programs would continue to receive the remaining $10 million.

Another allocation of $2.8 million would allow Narcotic Treatment Programs to, among other tests, provide testing for HIV and hepatitis C. The legislative budget proposal also

ward to further opening up the city June 15 when state officials are expected to lift even more business operating restrictions and public protocols put in place to stem the transmission of the coronavirus.

“We survived a pandemic y’all,” said Breed. “We are still here. We are still kicking. City Hall is open.”

Restrictions are expected to remain in place for large public gatherings and, unlike in other cities that are preparing to have in-person Pride events this year, San Francisco is not planning to host an official Pride parade or civic celebration the last weekend of June.

includes using the ADAP rebate fund to help cover the cost of PrEP navigation and retention services to help HIV-negative people with low-tomoderate incomes continue taking the medication that helps prevent the transmission of HIV. There is no dollar amount specified in the budget, though it is expected to be in the millions of dollars.

“We know these epidemics continue,” said Craig Pulsipher, the associate director of government affairs for APLA Health in Los Angeles. “They were growing before the pandemic, and we have plenty of signs they have only grown worse over the last year.”

The End the Epidemics funding was a priority for the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, the affinity group for out members of the state Legislature. Gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), chair of the caucus, expressed hope the investments would stem the tide of the trio of epidemics in a statement to the Bay Area Reporter.

“The pandemic has shown both sides of the coin when it comes to our health care system. We have seen massive disparities in access to treatment and services, which were exacerbated by mistrust, poverty, and housing instability,” stated Low. “But we’ve also seen the country’s incredible ability to mobilize and expand services in a way that has allowed us to turn the corner on the pandemic. I’m confident that if we apply the same tenets and address funding gaps in California’s health care system, we have the ability to fully tackle local epidemics related to HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted diseases.” t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www. ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on Alameda Democrats wanting to ban endorsing candidates who oppose LGBTQ rights.

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

Marking Pride Month

Yet the city has found myriad ways to mark Pride Month this year. June 1 saw the lighting of the pink triangle installation atop Twin Peaks. During her budget presentation earlier in the day, Breed announced $2 million to launch the country’s first guaranteed income program for transgender residents as well as $12 million toward the acquisition of a site for a large-scale LGBTQ museum, as the B.A.R. was first to report.

“Our rich history includes the LGBTQ community,” noted Breed during the flag raising ceremony.

See page 12 >>

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

LGBTQ AAPI Elders and Caregiving: 2 Part series Presented by the Alzheimer’s Association® and AARP®

Kendell lands new gig

t

compiled by Cynthia Laird

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LGBTQ AAPI ELDERS & CAREGIVING: LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD Date: Monday, June 28, 2021 Time: 6 p.m. EDT | 3 p.m. PDT

THE 10 WARNING SIGNS OF ALZHEIMER’S Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Time: 4 p.m. EDT | 1 p.m. PDT Via Zoom

Via Zoom Target audience: Individuals and caregivers who identify as LGBTQ AAPI, and allies Registration at: tinyurl.com/AARP0628 LGBTQ Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) find they are often confronted with the complexities of caregiving through the lens of intersectionality. The Alzheimer’s Association and AARP invite you to join us for a one-hour conversation about social isolation, anti-Asian sentiments, and caregiving within the LGBTQ AAPI community. The panelists will share their caregiving stories, provide culturally sensitive resources, and address any questions you may have.

Registration at: tinyurl.com/AlzSigns0629 On the day following the panel discussion, the Alzheimer’s Association will offer another webinar that talks specifically on the 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s. In this session, you will learn about common warning signs of Alzheimer’s, the benefit of early detection and diagnosis, as well as tips to care for someone who is experiencing changes in their memory and other cognitive functions.

For more information, contact Arthur Chan, archan@alz.org, 415.463.8504

we the power of

ate Kendell, the former longtime executive director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, is now the first chief of staff for the California Endowment.

Kendell began the new position June 1, after having served for nine years on the endowment’s board of directors, a news release stated.

“The endowment is excited to have Kate Kendell continue to serve our foundation, now as chief of staff,” stated Dr. Robert K. Ross, CEO and president of the endowment. “Kate’s career is steeped in racial justice, LGBTQ advocacy, and civil rights. She will be a strong leader for our work in the next decade.”

According to the release, Kendell’s hiring comes after recent retirements of executive team members and a major transition of staff.

Kendell will assist and support the executive team, and will play a key role in the development and implementation for the endowment’s future work, helping to deepen the racial equity efforts of the organization. She will also support grant making from the CEO’s office, and ensure the prioritization of critical issues and required information for the CEO to help facilitate efficiency and provide timely decision-making.

Kendell stepped down from NCLR at the end of 2018. Most recently, she served as interim chief legal officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Kendell said she’s enthusiastic about the new job.

“After serving on the board of the California Endowment, I am especially excited to join the staff of an organization committed to health and social and racial justice,” she stated in an email. “For 25 years the endowment has empowered and partnered with youth and residents to create vibrant communities where all can thrive, including LGBTQ residents. I look forward to helping the passionate and talented team at theeEndowment deepen and grow that work for all Californians.”

The California Endowment has a budget of about $3.5 million, according to the audited financials on its website. It works to provide grants to develop social justice and health equity for all Californians. Learn more at https://www.calendow.org/.

Glide announces Pride festivities

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Glide Memorial Church and the Glide Pride Team have announced various activities to recognize LGBTQ Pride Month in June. There will be tributes, special offerings, and Pride-inspired Sunday celebrations.

Led by Marvin K. White, Glide’s minister of celebration, the church is dedicated to unconditional love, radically inclusive faith, and social justice.

“Glide Memorial Church has a long history of LGBTQ+ inclusion,”

Courtesy Facebook

Kate Kendell is now the chief of staff at the California Endowment.

White stated in a news release. “Our congregation has been a spiritual home for the LGBTQ+ community from the beginning. ... We celebrate Pride because we know that the LGBTQ+ stories that make up our beloved community will endure.”

There are drag and spirituality shows on Friday, June 11, featuring Afrika America; Monday, June 14, with Lotus Boy; and Monday, June 21, with Honey Mahogany. All start at 7 p.m.

“Black Trans Lives: Breaking the Silence” will be held Tuesday, June 22, at 6 p.m. There will be a virtual watch party for the classic drag ballroom film “Paris is Burning” Friday, June 25, at 6 p.m. On Sunday, June 27, at 2 p.m. there will be a virtual Pride party on Twitch with DJ David Harness.

For more information and to register for the events, go to https://www. glide.org/.

LGBTQ first-time homebuyer seminar

The LGBTQ+ Real Estate Alliance will hold a virtual national first-time homebuyer seminar for queer people Wednesday, June 16, from 4 to 5 p.m.

Pacific Time. Organizers said they believed this is the first such program ever offered specifically for the LGBTQ+ community.

This is also the first public program offered by the alliance, a 501(c)6 nonprofit with more than 1,200 members that launched last October. According to a news release, it will feature a variety of important topics for potential homeowners, including discussions about down payments, mortgage types, pre-approval, and the lending process. The program will offer insight into selecting an agent, home, and neighborhood while offering perspectives on the offer, negotiations, and the different steps to closing. The alliance will also provide resources to help combat potential housing discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Today’s market conditions have heightened the challenges facing firsttime homebuyers and we believe it is See page 9 >>

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Correction

Due to a production error, the June 3 Guest Opinion in the print edition contained the wrong photo. Long-term AIDS survivor Matt Sharp, shown here, wrote the piece, as the byline stated.

The online version was correct.

t

Health News>>

June 10-16, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Centers to study COVID-19’s impact on queer Americans

by John Ferrannini

S

ix organizations are launching a national study on how COVID-19 impacted the LGBTQ community.

The We Count Collaborative will bring together data from 45,000 LGBTQ patients. It is a joint effort between the PRIDE Study (based at Stanford University on the Peninsula) and five federally qualified health centers: the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York, CrescentCare in New Orleans, Howard Brown Health in Chicago, and the Whitman-Walker Institute in Washington, D.C. Annesa Flentje, who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is associate director of the PRIDE Study, told the Bay Area Reporter that the project, launched in May, is necessary due to the dearth of sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, data that was collected at the start of the pandemic.

“I think one of the reasons it’s so important to have this collaborative effort is that LGBTQ+ people haven’t been included in a lot of the data about COVID – hardly any of it,” Flentje, a queer woman, told the B.A.R. “When we look at communities being extraimpacted by COVID, we aren’t able

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News Briefs

From page 8

important to provide members of our community with the tools and resources they need to navigate the buying process,” stated Ryan Weyandt, CEO of the alliance. “Along with discrimination, and fear of it, we have found a lack of education focused on the LGBTQ+ community that would allow more to better prepare for the process.”

Weyandt pointed out that the LGBTQ+ homeownership rate is just 49.6%, according to the Williams

Courtesy UCSF

Annesa Flentje, Ph.D., is associate director of the PRIDE Study.

to see what those impacts are for LGBTQ people in particular.”

Flentje is also the director of the UCSF Center for Sexual and Gender Minority Health.

As the B.A.R. consistently reported, state and local agencies were slow at the height of the pandemic to implement the collection of SOGI data as required by state and local laws – even though it was projected early on that LGBTQ people would be dispropor-

Institute, an LGBTQ think tank at UCLA School of Law. This is far below the national mark of 65.6% cited by the U.S. Census Bureau.

One of the featured speakers will be Josh Pringle from Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Leaskou Partners in Palm Springs. Other speakers include Kassandra Alicea, the alliance’s San Antonio, Texas chapter president and an agent with Coldwell Banker’s D’Ann Harper Realtors, and Ron Waterson, a loan officer with PrimeLending in Dallas.

There is no cost to attend. To regis-

tionately impacted by the pandemic.

“I think the COVID-19 pandemic has shown a light on the real damage that can be done when we don’t collect basic demographic information,” Flentje said. “The LGBTQ+ community has remained mostly invisible when it comes to not understanding that impact.”

This year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report showing that LGBTQs had higher rates of underlying illnesses related to negative COVID-19 outcomes, which a news release from the We Count Collaborative stated made “data tracking on the virus’ health impacts in LGBTQ communities is more imperative than ever.”

The quintet of health centers is “uniquely positioned,” it noted,“to track and report on this data as well as advise on best practices for addressing the health needs of LGBTQ communities.”

The 45,000 participants in the study “are people who are engaged with the federally-qualified health centers,” Flentje said.

“This collaboration is harnessing the power of electronic records at those care sites,” she explained.

Flentje told the B.A.R. that “some data have been collected, [and] some

will be in the future.” She added that Whitman-Walker would be better able to address the data collection aspect.

Jenn Kwait, Ph.D., a research scientist at the Whitman-Walker Institute, stated in an email to the B.A.R. that the We Count Collaborative is using electronic medical record data from the participating health centers.

“We will create a combined, multisite, de-identified dataset of patient-level data to explore key questions,” wrote Kwait. “The EMR data ... is already, or will be, collected as part of clinical care.

We will be collecting additional data through existing and future surveys conducted via the PRIDE Study.”

Some of the data will come from the PRIDE Study itself, Flentje said.

“The PRIDE Study has really detailed information from 6,000 LGBTQ people all over the country about how COVID has impacted them financially, socially and healthwise,” Flentje said. “By collaborating with the PRIDE Study, we can look in-depth at what’s in those electronic records.”

Flentje said that the researchers hope to find out how vaccination, in addition to contracting the virus, impacted the community.

“It’s not just COVID,” Flentje said.

“It’s really focusing on LGBTQ+ people and finding out how their health was impacted in that period of time.”

Flentje said that once results are in, policymakers will have something to refer to when seeking to provide more help to communities hit hardest by the pandemic.

“When you look at the industries impacted, we know LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be employed in those industries,” Flentje said. “So, our community will need more in recovery from the pandemic.”

The LA center also pointed to the public policy implications in its statement.

“Our pooled data will allow for a novel and robust analysis of COVID-19’s impact on access to health care for vulnerable LGBTQ clients,” stated Dr. Robert Bolan, the LA center’s chief medical officer. “The capability to collect and report on data trends across our geographically diverse sites will inform vital public health policy around prevention, education, and provision of services for LGBTQ communities.”

Updates throughout the process can be found on the website of the Whitman-Walker Institute. t

ter, go to https://realestatealliance.org/ event/first-time-home-buyers-course/.

According to a new report from the National Association of Realtors that was released June 9, LGBTQ buyers purchased older and smaller homes more than non-LGBTQ buyers, and expect to live in their new homes five years less than non-LGBTQ buyers.

BTQ+ Business Initiative launch. The initiative will promote an inclusive ecosystem at the CHCC through regional collaboration, maximizing resources, and leadership development, according to a news release.

The CHCC has committed to building bridges between its regional Hispanic chambers, affiliates, and the regional LGBTQ+ chambers or business associations in launching the initiative.

“LGBTQ+ rights this decade has seen a range of positive changes.

Companies have come a long way putting in place policies that pro-

mote and protect diversity,” stated Julian Canete, president and CEO of CHCC. “But there’s still more that can be done, in particular a formal collaboration between the CHCC and the LGBTQ+ business community.”

The CHCC will work on cultivating certified LGBTQ+ diverse suppliers, connecting them to opportunities. It will also assist its corporate partners in diversifying their supply chains, and advocate on behalf of LGBTQ+ and allied business communities. t

CA Hispanic chamber launches LGBTQ business initiatives

The California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce has announced its LG-

<< Business News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

t

Gay-owned Berkeley bakery takes a stand for AAPIs

by Matthew S. Bajko

H

usbands Sam Butarbutar and Wenter Shyu, co-owners of Berkeley’s Third Culture Bakery, are using their culinary skills to stand up for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in light of the wave of attacks against API people and the overt discrimination the AAPI community has faced since the start of the COVID pandemic.

With the disease first seen in Wuhan, China, and former President Donald Trump using racist language to refer to the novel coronavirus, API communities across the country have experienced increased hostility since March 2020.

This past March rallies and protests broke out in myriad cities, including San Francisco, in response to multiple incidents of AAPI seniors being beaten in the Bay Area and the shooting deaths of eight people, including six Asian women, in the Atlanta region.

In response Butarbutar, 32, and Shyu, 31, themselves Asian immigrants, launched a fundraiser and created safety kits to hand out to AAPI individuals, particularly those over 40 years of age, transgender individuals and other members of the LGBTQ+ community. Each kit comes with an “extremely loud” keychain alarm, one keychain pepper spray container, a lanyard and wristband. Instructions on how to use the items come in Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and more.

<<

Camera proposal

From page 2

The absence of that donor, already a controversy during the April town hall, was brought up again.

“It’s very strange that Chris Larsen is giving two-thirds of a million to an organization but is not presenting himself to us,” said gay CBD board member Daniel Bergerac, stating his intention to vote against continuing discussion of the camera proposal.

Larsen stated in an email June 8 that he’s from San Francisco and believes in the city.

“In many ways, tech has contributed to the disparity and problems that we see in San Francisco today,” Larsen stated. “As members of the community, I think it’s our job to help solve them by reinvesting in the city, making it safe and supporting our small businesses.

We work closely with people in

Third Culture Bakery

Sam Butarbutar, left, and Wenter Shyu sit outside their Berkeley bakery.

They have raised more than $40,000 and, as of June 1, have assembled and distributed 7,400 safety kits across multiple states and cities. They are nearing their goal of distributing 12,000 kits and plan to soon start handing them out in New York City and other locations.

Shyu said the couple “felt so hopeless” at first and personally donated to several nonprofits and GoFundMes that were set up. Then they came up with the idea for the safety kits and reached to Chinatown leaders in San Francisco and Oakland for help with handing them out.

“Money is great and helps support the families,” he said. “For us, we wanted to do something more fungible. People wanted these families to feel safe.”

Butarbutar was born in Indonesia and grew up in New York; Shyu is from Thailand and grew up in Los Angeles.

They chose the name of their bakery the community who know how to best support residents and businesses in each neighborhood. Any project – including the funding of cameras – is driven and maintained by the community.”

Samereie wrote to the B.A.R. June 8 that “we have reached out to other community organizations and [are] trying to collaborate in this effort and make it a win-win for everyone in a sensible way.”

Justine Shoemaker, president of the CBD’s board of directors, said in explaining her intention to vote against the proposal that while “there were a fair amount of people really in favor of a camera program,” she “would have expected to see 70-80% support for the program.”

When it was clear that the CBD board was going to end further consideration, Hepner extended an olive branch.

“The CBD can rebuild trust and bridges with these commu-

purposefully for its reference to children with mixed identities influenced both by their parents’ culture and the culture in which they are raised.

“I was too white for Asian kids and too Asian for white kids,” recalled Shyu. “In high school I identified with it – third culture – because it helped me grapple with my identity.”

Butarbutar added that the term resonated with him as he missed the different flavors and tastes he grew up with overseas. He purposefully incorporated tropical ingredients, such as coconut and rice flour, into his baking to satiate those cravings.

“No one was making it, and I selfishly wanted to eat those things,” he said.

It is bittersweet in a sense, as when the men came out to their families a year after opening their bakery it led to Butarbutar no longer being on speaking terms with his parents. Their staff of 26 and growing has become the couple’s chosen family.

“Now we have our family here to take care of. They are my priority now,” he said.

Shyu, whose family embraced his being gay, said the couple is using the success of their business to be role models for other LGBTQ AAPIs who may not be accepted by their families.

“We are using the bakery as a platform to further images of inclusivity,” he said.

The safety-focused fundraising drive coincided with the 4th anniversary on April 1 of their launching Third

Culture Bakery. The couple, together since 2016, each had started their own East Bay bakeries in 2014: Butarbutar ran Sam’s Patisserie in Berkeley, Shyu’s owned We the Minis in Oakland.

Having met at a bakers’ brunch, the couple merged their operations in 2017 and their mochi donuts and muffins quickly became beloved desserts by a loyal fan base. They have expanded out of state to open locations in Aurora, Colorado last year and Denver this April, and will be opening their second Bay Area location this summer.

In July the couple plans to open a new matcha cafe in downtown Walnut Creek at 1310 S. California Boulevard. Their fourth location will feature the green Japanese tea in everything from drinks to desserts in addition to their mochi treats.

The butter style mochi muffins and donuts, which are baked not fried, were inspired by Butarbutar’s mom’s cooking with rice flour to make special treats for Christmas and New Year’s.

Her desserts were very coconut centric, he recalled, and used the pandan leaf, as the plant grows wild throughout Southeast Asia. Securing enough of the fragrant leaves took some doing in the U.S. for the couple.

“We found a family shop in the Bay Area and from Los Angeles,” said Shyu, who they are now regular cus-

tomers of as they can handle the ingredient volume they require.

When they first started they were making 10 dozen pastries a week; today they crank out 25,000 a month.

The mochi donuts have been especially popular.

“The donuts have been a huge addition. It kind of blew up,” recalled Shyu.

Each season they incorporate different flavors into the mix, noted Butarbutar.

When the COVID pandemic first hit, just as they opened their Aurora location, the couple faced a difficult March and April last year when they closed their physical locations and only provided curbside pickups or deliveries.

They survived, partly by their ability to ship many of their pastries to customers across the country who can place orders via their website. Last June, they were able to reopen for in-person orders and their sales “shot up,” mainly because they were one of the few places open in their neighborhood.

“They call it the new Gourmet Ghetto,” said Shyu, as there are a dozen other food businesses in their building known as the Berkeley Kitchens.

“It is a little hidden gem.”

To learn more about Third Culture Bakery and to order their products online, visit https:// thirdculturebakery.com/ t

nity organizations [that opposed the cameras],” Hepner said. “It’s a genuine offer that we’d like to continue collaborating on community-based alternatives. That offer to collaborate is absolutely genuine.”

Stephen Torres, a gay man who sits on the cultural district’s board, said that “the offer is the same for the cultural district.”

“Collaboratively is the way to move forward,” Torres said.

After the meeting, Torres wrote to the B.A.R. that Hepner’s comments were “so important.”

“When we were elected to this [cultural district] board, each of us promised to listen to our community, which is why we took this position against this surveillance system, but like Lee said so eloquently, we also recognize the importance of working with leadership in the Castro collaboratively and seeking solutions that serve our community best,” Torres wrote early June 8.

“The CBD leadership, as well as that of groups like the Castro Merchants, have put in a lot of years trying to work on behalf of the community and we, like the Harvey Milk, Alice B. Toklas Dems and other members of our coalition, are here to help in whatever way we can in creating a safe and inclusive Castro.”

Catie Arbona, a queer woman who is the co-chair of the Alice club, stated in a June 8 email to the B.A.R. that the organization is “glad to see the CBD decline to move forward with the proposal last night, and we’re equally glad that the CBD was willing to listen when Milk, Alice, the cultural district and other community members expressed our concerns.”

“Attempting to meet the needs of a neighborhood as diverse as the Castro – including visitors, business owners, and housed and unhoused residents – isn’t a simple or easy job, and we very much

join in Milk and the cultural district’s offer to collaborate with the CBD on future community-based alternatives to the camera proposal,” Arbona continued.

In an emailed response, Aiello told the B.A.R. that the CBD board was guided by the survey results.

“The Castro Community Benefit District Board had decided several months ago that they would look toward the community, particularly the community-based survey, to help the board make a decision,” Aiello stated. “The results of the survey were presented to the board last night, the results showed a majority of respondents supporting a camera program with strong privacy controls, but not an overwhelming majority.

The survey results showed approvals in the 44-60% range. To approve a controversial project such as this, the board was looking for approvals in more of the 75-80% range.”t

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Sports >>

June 10-16, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

I’m baaaaaack! Now, what did we miss?

by Roger Brigham

I

t was a bit more than a year ago that my weekly sports column in the Bay Area Reporter was suspended as part of the fallout from the global COVID-19 pandemic and the cessation of so much sports activity (especially on the recreational level). Normally in the span of 14 months my column would have been thrust upon the readership about 60 times; in the year-plus since my weekly column last appeared in late March 2020, my byline has surfaced but 10 times as news headlines warranted.

As we emerge into the new normal, my column returns, but on a twice-amonth schedule rather than weekly.

This means I’ll have to hold my breath for twice as long as before. Fortunately, wearing a smothering mask during my waking hours the past year has prepared me for the task.

Now, let’s play catch-up.

• The 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed and are now set to open July 23, in Tokyo – sans foreign spectators. In past Olympic cycles, we have preceded most games with stories about the human rights abuses involved in constructing the facilities, the financial ruin the event can place on the hosts, and round-the-clock hype for several months to whip us into flag-waving athletic frenzy.

Under the new normal, we are being told that a substantial majority of Japanese residents don’t want the Olympics to be held because they fear

it will be a super-spreader event that will overwhelm the health care system while more than two-thirds of the citizens remain unvaccinated. We learn the Tokyo Olympics, whose budget has reportedly exploded from its initial $7 billion projection to as much as $35 billion, will siphon off 10,000 health care workers for its own needs.

We read that hundreds of Japanese cities have either uninvited teams that planned to train in them, or that teams have uninvited themselves – again, because of fears of spreading the virus.

And we hear that members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, while defeating a law that would have reflected the values of the Olympic Charter by protecting the civil rights of LGBTQ individuals, said queers were “morally unacceptable” and “resisting the preservation of the species that occurs naturally in biological terms,” and that transgender rights in other countries meant that “men” were able to win “lots of medals” competing against women and to use women’s restrooms. #foreheadpalmsmack The new normal sure sounds a lot like the old normal.

• The Oakland A’s have renamed this week’s annual Pride Night to Glenn Burke Pride Night to honor the memory of the gay Bay Area native whose MLB career with the Dodgers

Courtesy ABC News

The Tokyo Olympics are still scheduled to take place starting next month, despite fears by Japanese residents that the games could become COVID super-spreader events.

and A’s was tragically short but inspired the High Five. Special promotional event tickets are available on the team website for the Friday, June 11, game against the Kansas City Royals.

Ten dollars from each special event sale is to be donated to the Glenn Burke Wellness Clinic at the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center. For more information, visit https://www. mlb.com/athletics/tickets/specials.

(The San Francisco Giants held their Pride Night June 5.)

• The 2020 EuroGames were wiped out entirely by the pandemic, but registration is ongoing for the 2021 EuroGames in Copenhagen, Denmark as organizers express optimism the four-day event will be held as scheduled, August 17-20, even as some COVID-19 restrictions remain in force.

Registration is open at https://copenhagen2021. com/ through July 12.

A slate of 29 sports is planned. The base registration cost is 90 euros (about $110) for members of the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation, and 120 euros ($146) for non-members. The event website says registrants will receive full refunds if the event is cancelled because of COVID-19.

• Former 49ers assistant football coach Katie Sowers has left the team and joined the coaching staff with the Kansas City Chiefs, but the San Francisco NFL franchise has taken steps to up its image in the queer community.

The Niners have released an apparel line it says is “the only genderless retail line released by an NFL team;” and the section of the website dedicated to its fans who identify as LGBTQ, https:// www.49ers.com/fans/pride, is featuring video profiles of several of its most devoted LGBTQ fans throughout June. In addition, an Activism in Sports panel video will be available on the website Tuesday, June 22. Featured speakers include Sam Rapoport, NFL senior director of diversity, equity, and inclusion; Kimberly Chexnayder, NFL Media; former MMA fighter Fallon Fox; and Kurtis Gabriel, forward for the San Jose Sharks.

• The assault on transgender inclusion in sports continues its contentious course.

Take New Zealand, for example.

Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is expected to be the first transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics if they proceed as scheduled. But while she is allowed to compete with other women at the highest level of their sport, New Zealand rugby is still clutching its pearls debating whether it will allow transgender women recreational players to compete with other women or restrict them to playing with men.

This follows World Rugby’s misguided decision to ban transgender women from playing at the international level

but to allow national federations to draw up their own rules for transgender inclusion in their own leagues.

“It was concluded that safety and fairness cannot presently be assured for women competing against trans women in contact rugby,” World Rugby mansplained in its policy announcement.

Makes you wonder what the hell version of rugby they ever played. I routinely played against players anywhere from 50 to 150 pounds heavier than me. My safety was never assured and I never questioned the fairness of our size and strength disparities. t

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<< Community News

12 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

<<

AIDS at 40

From page 1

There were musical performances from the Messengers of Hope Gospel Choir featuring Ja Ronn and Flow and members of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.

Among the quilt blocks on display was one for Susan Piracci Roggio, who had been a flower girl at the wedding of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), and one for Freddie Mercury, lead singer for the band Queen. There was also a panel for Dr. Tom Waddell, who founded the Gay Games. A larger sized block was also on display from Glide Memorial Church, upon which there were more than 100 names.

Some of those who attended could not believe the disease has ravaged the world for four decades.

“I’m here with my kids and that gives it a whole different meaning,” said Joshua Gamson, a 58-year-old gay man who sits on the board of the grove. “I’m a little bit in awe of what the National AIDS Memorial has become, and still in disbelief that it’s been 40 years. I feel sad and inspired.”

Gamson is a sociology professor at the University of San Francisco.

John Cunningham, a gay man who’s executive director of the AIDS grove, opened the speakers’ program by asking for a moment of silence for those lost to AIDS. “I certainly feel their spirit here today,” he said. “With the beauty of the sun, and the nature, and the birds, and each of you. My name is John Cunningham, and I am a man living with AIDS, and I’m honored to lead the National AIDS Memorial.”

Cunningham asked that anyone living with AIDS stand or raise their hand. Those who did were met with applause. Cunningham also acknowledged June 5 as HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day. “We must support the long-term survivors community,” he said.

Young people were among those who visited in the afternoon.

Tatum Jenkins, a 20-year-old bisexual woman, and her friend, Zoe Schneider, an 18-year-old straight ally, were waiting to be admitted to the grove to view the quilt blocks.

“We stumbled across this,” said Jenkins. “I recognized that there aren’t a lot of things to do for Pride this year.

This felt like a good opportunity to connect with the history of Pride.”

“Coming at it from a young person’s perspective, 40 years can feel like such a long time because it’s double our lifespan,” added Schneider.

“When you put it in perspective of

<<

City Hall

From page 7

The next day much of Market Street was decked out with Pride flags.

Friday, June 4, the day that it welcomed back visitors to its 18th Street galleries in the LGBTQ Castro district, the GLBT Historical Society Museum unveiled a fragment of one of the first rainbow flags that flew in front of City Hall during the 1978 Pride Parade.

Gilbert Baker, who co-created the first rainbow flags with his friends Lynn Segerblom and the late James McNamara in 1978, had salvaged it the following June but had kept it out of public view. When he died unexpectedly in 2017 it was among the possessions inherited by his sister, Ardonna Cook, who unknowingly sent it to the Gilbert Baker Foundation to carry in the June 2019 Stonewall 50 Pride Parade in New York City.

Saturday saw commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the first reported AIDS cases take place at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Across town at Oracle Park that afternoon the San Francisco Giants celebrated Pride Month and debuted uniforms with the team logo in Pride colors.

This weekend, the team is partnering with Frameline, San Francisco’s

Christopher Robledo

AIDS Memorial Quilt co-founder Gert McMullin, left, and volunteers unveil the 6,000th block of the AIDS quilt at the AIDS Memorial Grove inside Golden Gate Park June 5 during the 40th anniversary of the first reported AIDS cases.

all the people here this is very recent history and it has a legacy and a cultural impact that continues to touch so many people.”

Mayor London Breed spoke during the morning ceremony.

“San Francisco was left on our own,” Breed said, recalling the early days of the AIDS epidemic when the federal government largely ignored the crisis. “But we did what San Franciscans do best, we came together and provided things to address this crisis like no other. The system of care to help those who were struggling with HIV/AIDS was developed right here in San Francisco. The renowned research that continues to this very day was established right here in our great city.”

Breed also thanked Cleve Jones for co-founding the AIDS quilt. Breed then spoke of the Getting to Zero campaign, which was established in 2014 when she served on the Board of Supervisors.

“Zero new infections,” she said.

“Zero new deaths, zero stigma attached to those who have HIV or AIDS. And for the first time in a very long time, in 2019 we saw only 166 new infections of HIV and that is really historic for the work that we’re doing in investing in PrEP, and investing in the things that are truly going to get us to zero new infections.”

As the Bay Area Reporter noted last week, the city’s Getting to Zero campaign hopes to reduce transmission of the virus and HIV-related deaths by 90% before 2025.

Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (DSan Francisco) recalled that when he was a 17-year-old gay man in 1987, there was no treatment for HIV, and no PrEP, a drug that is highly effective at preventing HIV. LGBTQ international film festival, and the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee to present two movie nights at the ballpark. The film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “In The Heights” by director Jon M. Chu will screen Friday night, while the world premiere of “Everybody’s Talking about Jamie,” about a British teen who dreams of becoming a drag queen, takes place Saturday.

Attendees can expect a bit of the annual Pride parade, such as the Dykes on Bikes contingent, as part of the movie nights.

“You can’t cancel Pride,” said Pride board president Carolyn R. Wysinger.

The flag raising ceremony Monday served as a way for Pride to publicly celebrate its grand marshals this year.

They include mayoral adviser Clair Farley, a transgender woman who is executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Transgender Initiatives; Nicole Santamaría, executive director of El/La Para TransLatinas; founding director of the Transgender Strategy Center Morey Riordan; and Akira Jackson, who is the executive director of Transgender Advocates for Justice and Accountability Coalition; and the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center.

“I can’t believe it is 51 years of Pride.

We are ready to go back and socialize

“It was a scary time to come of age as a gay man,” Wiener said. “It was a time when our federal government had abandoned us, because this virus was impacting gay and bisexual men, trans women, Black people, people using drugs, sex workers, all of us considered disposable throwaway people by our federal government, and by society. But this community pulled together and survived. Not everyone survived, we know tens of millions of people have died from this virus, but we were able to come through this and we now have effective treatments, we now have PrEP, we now have support systems.”

Wiener acknowledged that people were still being lost to HIV. He said that he wanted to see the quilt stop growing and thanked Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) for her work in ending the criminalization of HIV. Lee has long pushed for federal legislation to end HIV criminalization. In 2017, then-governor Jerry Brown signed a state law, SB 239, which Wiener authored with gay former Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D), now the mayor of San Diego, that modernized the state’s HIV criminalization laws adopted during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Lee supported the state legislation.

“We need to take that national,” Wiener said.

Lee said she and the others attended to “remember all those we have lost over the last 40 years.”

“Many of you have been in this fight since then,” she added. “We’re also here to reflect at the progress that we’ve made and recommit ourselves to this work. Let us remember those who have fought on the front lines, stood up for dignity, for health, for

social justice, and for an end to discrimination.”

Lee noted that she is a co-founder and a co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus and that she serves on the powerful appropriations committee.

“I just want to tell you that ending HIV and AIDS by 2030 continues to be a priority for me,” she said. “We will get there.”

She pointed out that African Americans account for 45% of HIV diagnoses nationwide, even though they are only 13% of the population.

Ima Diawara, inaugural recipient of the AIDS grove’s Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award, and Antwan Matthews, a grove board member, offered a spoken word performance of their poem “If I Say.” At one point during the reading Matthews became overcome with emotion and had to stop and breathe. Their performance was met with much applause.

Long-term HIV survivor Lonnie Payne, a gay Black man who now serves on the AIDS grove board, recalled losing his partner, his brother, and his brother’s partner. He spoke of his work with the HIV/AIDS hotline in support of others in the community.

There were representatives from Gilead Sciences, Quest Diagnostics, and Vivent Health who spoke of the work they do in support of ending the epidemic.

Jones, also a long-term survivor, recalled reading the CDC’s announcement of the first five cases of AIDS 40 years ago.

“Five years later almost everyone I knew was dead,” he said. “Or dying or caring for someone who was dying.

Out of that beginning grew a great movement that changed not just the fight against AIDS, but the way the world looked at gay people. The way we test drugs. The way patients can be part of advocacy and policy change.”

Jones expressed his gratitude to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which he helped start with Drs. Paul Volberding and Marcus Conant and the late B.A.R. publisher Bob Ross when it was known as the Kaposi’s Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation, and to Vivent and to Gilead. Jones then introduced Pelosi, saying that she was not an ally, but family.

Pelosi spent much of her time at the podium thanking the many people who have been involved in the fight against AIDS. She also recalled the formation of the quilt and the first time it was displayed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. “And at the end of the week, ABC News has the newsmaker of the week,

Rick Gerharter

San Francisco Treasurer-Tax Collector José Cisneros stood outside the entrance to his office June 7 in the newly reopened City Hall.

and have a drink with a mask on,” said Jackson, who said she was honored to serve as a grand marshal this year even though there won’t be a parade.

Having made it through the last year, with her own agency having to do most of its work virtually, Jackson celebrated now being on “the cusp” of coming out of COVID and being able to see people in person again.

“We did make the best of it with the Zooms ... the endless Zooms, the endless Zooms,” she said.

Also serving as grand marshals this year are queer twin sisters Melonie and Melorra Green, who are co-executive directors of the African

American Art and Culture Complex in the Western Addition. The cultural center has teamed with Pride to present a Solidarity Rally in honor of Juneteenth, marked as the official end to slavery in the U.S., from 3 to 9 p.m.

Friday, June 18, at the facility located at 762 Fulton Street.

In an email to the B.A.R., Melorra Green expressed the sisters’ gratitude at being selected.

“Being recognized by San Francisco Pride and our community is one of the most honored expressions to receive,” stated Melorra Green. “We hope to amplify the voices of Black and people of color in the LGBTQIA

t

and it’s Cleve Jones,” Pelosi said. “And they showed the whole quilt on the mall. It was so fantastic. It was historic. And now today is another historic day, after traveling and finding a home in Atlanta, the quilt has come home to San Francisco, where we will honor it, where we will protect it.”

Pelosi was referring to the fact that the quilt had been warehoused in Atlanta for a number of years, but was recently returned to the Bay Area, where it’s maintained by the AIDS grove.

Pelosi also noted that the LGBTQ community would not have achieved marriage equality or the repeal of the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy without all the AIDS activism that preceded those movements.

“It’s not over yet,” Pelosi said.

“Pretty soon we’re going to put this in a museum in the dustbin of history.

We just haven’t gotten there yet, but we will.”

Reading names

The speakers’ program was followed by the reading of names of people who died of AIDS. The readings continued throughout the afternoon as the public was allowed inside the grove to view the quilt blocks and read names themselves.

“It’s bittersweet, 40 years in,” Cunningham told the B.A.R. as the reading of the names began. “But we have hope for the future and we find our hope in each other, and may the words and the power that Speaker Pelosi shared inspire all of us to carry on with a vision of a world without AIDS.” Others echoed that sentiment.

“As a long-term survivor of 34 years of living with HIV, it’s a delicate balance of beauty and pain to know that I’m here when so many people I know did not survive,” said Vince Crisostomo, a 60-year-old gay Asian American man who’s the program director of SFAF’s Elizabeth Taylor 50Plus Network. “I’m reminded that my story doesn’t end, it’s not over yet and I’m hoping for a happy ending.”

The morning program has been archived online, and includes a statement from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was not present at Saturday’s ceremony, but who has been on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic for decades before becoming the public face of the federal government’s response to the COVID pandemic.

To view the program online, go to https://www.aidsmemorial.org/ aids40. t

community to fully express themselves. We all need to be allies in moving toward equity, social justice and love for those who have not been given space to be heard and understood.

Know that change is coming.”

Making her first public remarks since becoming executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights just as the COVID epidemic led to lockdowns last March, Imani Rupert-Gordon noted that not every LGBTQ person lives in a city as welcoming and supportive as San Francisco. Her agency is involved in legal fights across the country aimed at overturning anti-LGBTQ laws, especially those attacking the rights of trans youth, enacted by various state legislators.

“It is not just cruel. It is unethical and unlawful,” she said of the wave of such bills that have been passed in recent weeks.

Rupert-Gordon called on Congress to pass the Equality Act, a sweeping federal LGBTQ rights bill currently stuck in the U.S. Senate despite President Joe Biden’s pledge to sign it into law. Until then, LGBTQ residents in 29 states will continue to face discrimination, she noted.

“It will make every single person safer,” said Rupert-Gordon. t

t

Classifieds >>

June 10-16, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 13

Legals>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556303 In the matter of the application of BRETT ELERY CURTIS, 2175 MARKET ST #514, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BRETT ELERY CURTIS is requesting that the name BRETT ELERY CURTIS be changed to BRETT ELERY. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 15th of JUNE 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556334 In the matter of the application of DAVID HOWARD FOSTON, 295 FARALLONES ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DAVID HOWARD FOSTON is requesting that the name DAVID HOWARD FOSTON be changed to RHOYALBALB’E DAVID HOWARD FOSTON. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 29th of JUNE 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556324 In the matter of the application of JOEL ALAN BRENNEMAN, 510 STEINER ST #2, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner JOEL ALAN BRENNEMAN is requesting that the name JOEL ALAN BRENNEMAN be changed to JOEL TAYLOR BRENNEMAN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103 on the 24th of JUNE 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039330800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAN MARCOS RESTAURANTE, 98 LELAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed TEOFILO PEREZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/03/21.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039332700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ALCHEMY 3, 265 FELL ST #102, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KIM MAKOI. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/07/21.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039332600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BENFIELD WORKS, 899 FULTON ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIO ANTONIO BENFIELD. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/19/02. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/07/21.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039333700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CITISHIELD, 4224 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CITISHIELD INCORPORATED (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/08/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/21.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039332500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as TRULY FOOD & MORE, 483 MADRID ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SKARLET AMAYA AVILES LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/05/21.

MAY 20, 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021 NOTICE OF AMENDMENT OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF ELIAS GUTIERREZ MACIAS (AKA ELIAS M. GUTIERREZ) IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-21-304369 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of ELIAS GUTIERREZ MACIAS (AKA ELIAS M. GUTIERREZ; AKA ELIAS GUTIERREZ), C/O NICOLE C. KELLY, ESQ (SBN 320379), THE KELLY LAW FIRM, 345 FRANKLIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. A Petition for Probate has been filed by GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: JUNE 22, 2021, 9:00 am, Dept. 204, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: NICOLE C. KELLY, ESQ (SBN 320379), THE KELLY LAW FIRM, 345 FRANKLIN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102; Ph. (415) 552-0059.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 2021

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556325 In the matter of the application of WALTER THEODORE WOODWARD, 233 DOLORES ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner WALTER THEODORE WOODWARD is requesting that the name WALTER THEODORE WOODWARD be changed to THEODORE WALTER WOODWARD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 24th of JUNE 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556328 In the matter of the application of ROSA ESMERELDA ZELAYA PORTILLO, 2786 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ROSA ESMERELDA ZELAYA PORTILLO is requesting that the name ASHLEY AMANDA SANCHEZ ZELAYA be changed to ASHLEY AMANDA SOLANO ZELAYA. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 614 on the 1st of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039347000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as AH LEGAL SERVICES, 1924 HAYES ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANGIE HUA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039334000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PETIT SWEETS, 566 PENNSYLVANIA AVE #A, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MAI-TAM NGUYEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/15/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039335800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as NIMP, 474 NATOMA ST #410, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARK ALLAN PAISLEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039336500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LITTLE SESAME, 555 5TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HAKKINEN, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/20/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/14/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039333800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FLOOR PROS, 1661 TENNESSEE ST #3K, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed HUNG MAI CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 12/14/07. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/12/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039338000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAN FRANCISCO BOAT CHARTERS; HERE AND NOW EVENTS; 1405 YORKSHIRE LOOP, TRACY, CA 95376. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed SMALL TOWN GLORY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039327400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as ORGANIC STYLIST, THE, 4111 19TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed JAIYA ALAMIA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/17/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 04/29/21.

MAY 27, JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF SALLY A. MCDONNELL IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO: FILE PES-21-304503 To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of SALLY A. MCDONNELL, C/O PAUL H. MELBOSTAD (SBN 99951), GOLDSTEIN, GELLMAN, MELBOSTAD, HARRIS & MCSPARRAN LLP, 1388 SUTTER ST #1000, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. A Petition for Probate has been filed by SCOTT D. HRUDICKA in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. The Petition for Probate requests that SCOTT D. HRUDICKA be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate. The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: JUNE 23, 2021, 9:00 am, Rm. 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the latter of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined by section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a

Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk. Attorney for petitioner: PAUL H. MELBOSTAD (SBN 99951), GOLDSTEIN, GELLMAN, MELBOSTAD, HARRIS & MCSPARRAN LLP, 1388 SUTTER ST #1000, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109; Ph. (415) 673-5600.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556357 In the matter of the application of WING KEUNG IP & SHUK MEI KOON, 100 WALLER ST #235, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner WING KEUNG IP & SHUK MEI KOON is requesting that the name WING HEI IP AKA WING HEI JEANINE IP be changed to JEANNIE WING HEI IP. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 22th of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556343 In the matter of the application of YINGJUN HE, 150 NIAGARA AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner YINGJUN HE is requesting that the name YINGJUN HE be changed to YUKO YINGJUN HE. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 27th of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556295 In the matter of the application of SEAN STEVENS TESSIER (AKA SEAN STEVENS), 601 MINNESOTA ST #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SEAN STEVENS TESSIER (AKA SEAN STEVENS) is requesting that the name SEAN STEVENS TESSIER (AKA SEAN STEVENS) be changed to SEAN STEVENS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103, on the 15th of JUNE 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556353 In the matter of the application of ARON AHLAM, 1115 TENNESSEE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ARON AHLAM is requesting that the name ARON AHLAM be changed to ARON ARGUELLO. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Rm. 103 on the 27th of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039346900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LIVE TAHOE REAL ESTATE, 891 BEACH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHRIS HERNANDEZ. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039332800 The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as AARON HANSEN DESIGN, 584 CASTRO ST #105, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business was conducted by an individual and signed by AARON HANSEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/16. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/07/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039352300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LATIN AMERICAN BARBERSHOP, 3194 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed EINSTEIN PAREDES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039350300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as HI-FI D.I.Y. PRODUCTIONS, 944 TREAT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed LAUREN TABAK. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/02/05. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039354400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SANDRA FIZ NUTRITION, 825 SILLIMAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MARIA SANDRA FIZ ELIAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/26/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039345900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BISCUIT BENDER, 328 GUERRERO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed BISCUIT BENDER INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/06/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039346400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as FERRY PLAZA FARMERS MARKET, ONE FERRY BUILDING #50, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION ABOUT SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/23/06. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/20/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039352400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as FORESIGHT RISK AND INSURANCE SERVICES, 785 MARKET ST #600, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed INSURTECH INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/21.

JUNE 03, 10, 17, 24, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039360100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PLUR EVENTS, 238 11TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ANDRE KORR. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/09/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556354 In the matter of the application of DAVID EDWARD BRAGINSKY, 147 29TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner DAVID EDWARD BRAGINSKY is requesting that the name DAVID EDWARD BRAGINSKY, AKA DAVID BRAGINSKY be changed to DAVID BRAGINSKY BLOOMIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 8th of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039360000 The following person(s) is/are doing business as KANDI LOVE; BLURR EVENTS; 238 11TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GABRIEL RENOUF. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/19/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556352 In the matter of the application of SHAHRZAD ROSE BROOME, 147 29TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner SHAHRZAD ROSE BROOME is requesting that the name SHAHRZAD ROSE BROOME, AKA ROSE BROOME, AKA S. ROSE BROOME be changed to ROSE BROOME BLOOMIN. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 8th of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556374 In the matter of the application of OXANA HOWARD, 738 WASHINGTON ST #4, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner OXANA HOWARD is requesting that the name OXANA HOWARD be changed to OXANA VIKTOROVNA HOWARD. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 17th of AUG 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-21-556375 In the matter of the application of ANGEL ALEXANDER SOSA JIMENEZ, 161-A LELAND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94134 for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner ANGEL ALEXANDER SOSA JIMENEZ is requesting that the name ANGEL ALEXANDER SOSA JIMENEZ be changed to ANGEL ALEXANDER DELAPAZ JIMENEZ. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 103N, Rm. 103N on the 20th of JULY 2021 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039355300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as STEVEN SATYRICON, 88 WALTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed STEVEN JAMES BENDER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/03/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/27/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039335300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SEA TEA MUSIC CO., 3042 PINE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115.

This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed CHARLES THOMAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/05/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039346700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as EVERY 6 WEEKS; SIX; ARTIFICIAL; 491 CASTRO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed RICHARD TITUS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 01/01/14. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039354300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PHO VIETNAM SAN FRANCISCO, 1406 POLK ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed VIETNAM FOOD CORPORATION (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 08/01/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/26/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039351900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SAN FRANCISCO HEALTH CARE, 1477 GROVE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a corporation and is signed SAN FRANCISCO HEALTH CARE AND REHAB, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/23/10. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039282900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as BANANA HOME, 321 KEARNY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108.

This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PARAGON 168 CORP (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 03/03/21.

MAR 25, APR 01, 08, 15, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A039360400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as LA ROCCAS CORNER, 957 COLUMBUS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PURGATORY INC. (CA).

The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/01/95. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/08/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039335700 The following person(s) is/are doing business as SOCIAL DATA LAB; SOCIAL DATA REVOLUTION, 4150 17TH ST #12, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed WEIGEND ASSOCIATES LLC (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 03/30/11. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/13/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039350500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as THE PEN AND THE PANGOLIN, 95 CENTRAL AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed THE PEN AND THE PANGOLIN (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 09/29/20. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A039358300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as PERSONA, 685 SUTTER ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed 685 SUTTER LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/04/21. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-039359900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as CANDLESTICK PARK, 747 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed BOTTOM OF THE NINTH (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on N/A. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/21.

JUNE 10, 17, 24, JULY 1, 2021

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picture

by Brian Bromberger

T

he big news out of the 29th Annual San Francisco Documentary Film Festival from June 3 to 17 is the opening and closing night, centerpiece, and Vanguard Awardee films, will all be presented live at the Roxie Theater. As usual, the festival is offering a few LGBTQ films, all of which are worth seeking out.

Military tale

The star of this lot is Surviving the Silence, already a candidate for one of the best queer documentaries of the year. In 1992, decorated Army Nurse Colonel Pat Thompson, just two years away from retirement, was asked to preside over the military review board that would dismiss Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer for admitting she was a lesbian. This assignment caused Thompson personal agony since she too was a (closeted) lesbian having lived privately with her life partner Barbara Brass for decades.

Cammermeyer is well-known to LGBTQ audiences since in 1995 she published her bestselling memoir Serving in Silence, which became an Emmy award-winning TV movie produced by Barbara Streisand and starring Glenn Close.

However, Thompson’s pivotal role in the story remained a secret until 2013 when she and now married wife Barbara, went public at a college speaking engagement, leading not only to a standing ovation but a second career as out and proud lesbians pursuing social justice and activism.

Filmmaker Cindy Abel happened to be in the audience that night and was inspired to create this compelling documentary charting

SF DocFest's LGBTQ focus Thompson’s career as well as her loving relationship with Brass.

What will thrill viewers are these women’s distinctive service to our country despite their persecution by the Pentagon and the incredible personal sacrifices they made. Also, the film reminds us that age is no barrier to continue engaged activism for LGBTQ equality. Their past history continues to inspire current queer military personnel today. You will be cheering all three women by the time the credits appear.

Work it

A very close second for top prize at DocFest is Workhorse Queen. At first this documentary seems to detail the career of pop star drag queen, Mrs. Kasha Davis, a campy take-off on the 1960s liberated housewife. Davis captures the persona of Ed Popil, by day the manager of a telemarketing center in Rochester, New York.

Having auditioned for seven years on the TV

Barbara Brass and Army Nurse Colonel Pat Thompson in Surviving the Silence

reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race, he finally gets cast onto the show and a full-time career commences at age 44.

What makes this documentary so terrific is that it’s really a commentary on the effect the drive for stardom has on performers’ lives. While his Drag Race gig initially offers him media exposure and opportunities to perform featuring his signature line, “There’s always time for a cocktail,” because he wasn’t a top winner on the show, within a year he’s no longer in demand.

Popil sees this drop-off as a defeat and begins drinking heavily, leading to an arrest for drunk driving, almost destroying his marriage to his long-term husband.

The documentary suggests that an appearance on Drag Race may not be the winning ticket to celebrity it heralds, as the film also profiles another drag queen still trying for 11 years unsuccessfully to appear on the show and considering himself a failure. Within drag

culture, there’s almost an apartheid split between RuPaul winners and losers.

Fury, us

Once A Fury not only explores a forgotten history, but adds to that archival record by allowing the participants to reflect on their own roles fifty years later. The Furies were a 1970s radical lesbian-feminist collective, formed not only to counterpoint the sexism of the maledominated 1960s New Left, but the homophobia in the women’s liberation movement.

They were a separatist lesbian group that had aspirations to go underground and use guns to achieve their revolutionary aims of equality for all. They are best remembered for their widely read newspaper (The Furies) that advanced their ideology, which is still influential today, as it lives on in libraries, private collections, and on the web. The collective was See page 18 >>

'Women: From Her to Here' at Chinese Culture Center

by David-Elijah Nahmod

N

ow on display at the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco (750 Kearny, inside the Hilton Hotel) is Women: From Her to Here, an exhibition of works by women from the Asian diaspora, many of them queeridentified. The exhibit features paintings, videos, photos, and a collection of LGBTQ zines from around the globe. The show, which will remain on display until August 28, explores agency and belonging in queer and feminist communities.

Women: From Her to Here offers pieces from a diverse array of artists from across various sexual and gender identities. Artists hail from the Bay Area, Taiwan, Honk Kong, China and elsewhere.

Some of the works are simple, such as series of paintings by Chelsea Ryoko Wong, an artist who seeks to present the diversity and style of her San Francisco home. Scenes depicted include a painting inspired by Osento, a lesbian bathhouse operated on Valencia Street from 1980-2008, as well as a look at Li Po Lounge, which continues to do business in Chinatown and was once a safe haven for gay men during police raids of the 1940s.

A display of queer zines from the Queer Reads

nF Sa

rancisco

Library presents 20 titles that suggest how queer people find each other.

Another piece, Ever Wanting (for Margaret Chung) is a hypnotic experimental film that explores the life of Chung, the first American born Chinese female physician. Though closeted during her lifetime, Chung experimented with male and female gender presentation and had relationships with a number of women.

“I feel that queer Asian diasporic experiences is a complex yet often Huang Meng Wen, Suits and Corsages, 2015 - 2021. marginalized perspective,” said exhibition curator Hoi Leung when asked why she put the show together. “As someone who identifies as a queer logues advanced by women, feminists, and the nist identities, but also fully embodies queer and immigrant from Hong Kong, I always wanted LGBTQ+ community both hyper-locally within feminist sensibilities,” she said. “For me, all the to display queer Asian diasporic expressions as San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood and works break boundaries within their disciplines an entry point to explore what it means liminartists from across the Asian diaspora,” she said. and push against the status quo in some way.” ally, occupying an in-between-ness that is both “I try to highlight relational stories, movements One of the simplest, loveliest pieces in the daunting and freeing.” and spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area and show is a thirty-minute film, Coby and Stephen Leung added that she wanted the show to present them alongside a range of Asian-diaAre in Love. This documentary by Luka Yuanyuspeak to Chinese Culture Center’s intersecting sporic artistic perspectives.” an Yang and Carlo Nasisse paints a living porcommunities of Asian Americans, queer and Leung feels that it’s important to include a trait of Coby, a retired 92-year-old dancer who trans people of color, and immigrants. broad range of disciplines in the show, “where See page 19 >> “I selected works that can connect artistic diaevery work not only represents queer and femi-

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Comedy & Music >>

June 10-16, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Comic Pride - Marga Gomez hosts Who’s Your Mami David-Elijah Nahmod

O

n June 17 lesbian comedy legend and host Marga Gomez will offer Who’s Your Mami Comedy: Pride Edition. The show is part of a series of stand up shows that Gomez has been doing in conjunction with Brava Theater since 2019. The show will be zoomin’ on Zoom at 7pm and is, according to Gomez, the final time this series will be presented online, although she does plan to continue it in some fashion whenever Brava Theater reopens.

Who’s Your Mami promises to offer a line-up of hilarious laugh makers. Scheduled to perform are coheadliners Sampson McCormick and Sandra Valls, who will be heating up your computer screens with some sizzling gay comedy. Also on hand will be another lesbian comic legend, Karen Ripley, and Jesus U. BettaWork, who was voted Best Comic in the Bay Area Reporter’s Bestie Awards for 2020.

The pandemic was hard for Gomez, as it was for everybody, but she made the best of it. She had a show opening on March 13, which turned out to be the first day of shelter in place.

“And then it dawned on me that we were in a pandemic,” she recalls.

And so, like many performers, Gomez took to live-streaming. Before all the brick and mortar stores closed, she went to the Guitar Center on Van Ness Avenue and bought herself some podcasting equipment. She began watching YouTube tutorials and got a webcam. The show that was due to open was live-streamed to the Brava Theater audience and got picked up by theater festivals in New York and San Diego.

“A lot of great performers didn’t want to do the live-streaming route,” she said. “They’ve just been waiting for over a year. I haven’t. I’ve been de-

(L-R clockwise) Marga Gomez, Sandra Valls, Sampson McCormick, Karen Ripley and Jesus U. BettaWork.

veloping stuff the whole time.”

And though she wants to return to performing live in clubs, Gomez plans to continue live streaming.

“I mean I spent a lot of money on my equipment,” she said. “Look, YouTube got big before the pandemic, so there are people who like to watch videos. Just because something is DYI, doesn’t mean it’s gonna suck. It can be really good, and if you like an artist you get to see them more intimately.”

It can be difficult to find humor amid the pandemic, but, according to Gomez, you get whatever little nugget you can. Sometimes, she points out, comedians can be curmudgeons who complain about the people who won’t wear masks, who can be a source of comedy.

“We feed on stupidity,” she said.

“And there’s been a lot of that.”

Gomez explained the origins of Who’s Your Mami (pronounced Mommy). In the New York barrio where she grew up, Mami used to be a catcall that straight men would hurl at women as they walked down the street. But now Latina women use the term with each other as a term of endearment.

“I love the way women have taken that word and turned it into something loving and respectful,” Gomez said.

Gomez added that to her, Pride is about connecting the dots: homophobia, classism, and racism.

“It’s about the struggle of people who are underrepresented or underserved to get equity,” she said.“Pride is a celebration, but it’s also a commitment to stay honest, to think of ourselves as

part of a community, and to think of our community as part of other communities that also are maligned or exploited. To me Pride is change.”

She promises that the four comedians she’s presenting will complement each other. First to be presented will be Jesus U. BettaWork, who Gomez describes as a unique and funny performer.

“He’s very campy and clever,” she said. “He’s like a queer Bugs Bunny.”

Q-Music: LGBTQ tunes for Pride 2021

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f you watched Russell T. Davies devastating HBO Max series It’s A Sin, you’ll recall that each episode made fabulous use of period and vintage tunes. You may have also noticed the glaring absence of any songs by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, especially during the mid-1980s episodes.

Relax, you still have a chance to indulge in the delights of FGTH with the double LP 180-gram vinyl reissues of 1984’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome and 1994’s Bang!...

The Greatest Hits of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (both on ZTT/ UMC). The quintet, led by gay vocalists Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford, had an in-your-face style (remember the kinky “official” music video for “Relax”?) that not only dealt with (queer) sexuality (“Relax”), but also politics (“Two Tribes”).

Both of those songs were also dance-oriented making them a good fit for the club crowd. In addition to the original songs on …

Pleasuredome, FGTH got to show off its skills as interpreters with covers of the Edwin Starr hit single “War,” Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and the Bacharach and David classic “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”

Produced by the legendary Trevor Horn, whose distinctive and easily identified handiwork is all over the album –as you can hear on the title cut– these reissues are worthwhile for anyone longing for a nostalgic, yet timeless, experience, even if they weren’t there the first time around.

Are there enough words, poetic or otherwise, to express the gratitude to the late gay poet Allen Ginsberg that he deserves?

Almost 25 years after his death, and 65 years after the publication of his legendary (and controversial for the time), masterwork Howl, Ginsberg remains a source of inspiration for poets (just ask Denise Duhamel) and poetry aficionados.

Ani DiFranco Allen Ginsberg at Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems (Omnivore) might be better retitled The First Partial Recorded Reading of Howl because a few minutes into the second section Ginsberg declares that he doesn’t want to read anymore. To be fair, he had already conquered the epic first section, and it’s definitely worth hearing him just get that Ani DiFranco’s Revolutionary Love far.

Ad d i t i on a l l y, The title of AngelHeaded Ginsberg’s expression Hipster (BMG), the final various of concern for not wanting “to artists compilation by the late Hal corrupt youth” as he reads the Willner, is a reference to a line from first line of “A Dream Record,” is Ginsberg’s Howl. Subtitled The amusing considering what preceded Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex, the it in poems such as “Epithalamion” double-disc set not only honors T. (later published as “Love Poem on Rex’s 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Theme by Walt Whitman”) and “A Supermarket in California.”

See page 18 >>

Karen Ripley is the queen of deadpan and one-liners, according to Gomez.

“She has been doing stand-up comedy since 1977, out as a lesbian,” Gomez said. “I call her a dyke-on, you know, like an icon. She’s a dyke-on.

And she’s really raunchy, really dirty.”

Sandra Valls will be streaming from Los Angeles.

“She’s a Mexican American comedian,” said Gomez. “She talks about the Chicana experience. She’s a fantastic performer. We all like sex, so she’ll probably get into some sexy stuff too.

It’s going to be a very sexy, fun show.”

Gomez discovered Sampson McCormick on YouTube.

“His videos go viral all the time,” she said. “They’re about gay sex, about the hypocrisy of the church towards gay people when the clergy is gay. I don’t know what he’s going to talk about but it’s always wonderful. He’s a great storyteller, and a very funny comedian. And he’s easy on the eyes.”

Tickets are $10 and Zoom doors will open at 6:30. And to those who are not sure if they want to check this show out, Gomez offers some simple advice.

“Go to the website and look at the credits on these people,” she said.

“HBO, BET, Viceland, Logo, all these television networks can’t be wrong.

They’ve won awards. I would love for people who have never heard of us come. Google them, and check out their videos.” t www.brava.org

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<< Books

16 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

Pride fiction in 2021

by Gregg Shapiro

C

onsider the wide variety of LGBTQ fiction books published this year that showcase our diverse lives, and our diverse forms of storytelling.

Sex With Strangers: Stories (University of Wisconsin Press), the first short story collection by gay novelist and educator Michael Lowenthal (The Paternity Test and others) is populated with characters, gay (“Over Boy,” “Thieves,” “The Gift of Travel”) and straight (“You Are Here,”

“Uncle Kent,” “Stud”), with sexual goals in common.

Canadian Y/A fantasy author Ashley Shuttleworth makes their debut with A Dark and Hollow Star (Margaret K. Elderry Books), an urban fantasy tale featuring four queer teens tasked with preventing a serial killer from revealing the concealed faery realm to humans.

In The Kingdoms (Bloomsbury), the fourth novel by Bath, England-based Natasha Pulley, amnesiac Joe Tournier time travels from late 19th-century

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London to the Napoleonic Wars with a mysterious postcard in his possession and a “forbidden queer romance” on the horizon.

Legendary queer writer Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway (Penguin Books), which tells the tale of Clarissa Dalloway, and former loves including Sally Seton, gets a deluxe edition reissue, complete with a new foreword by Jenny Offill and introduction and notes by Elaine Showalter.

Lambda Literary Award-winning gay writer Michael Nava, best known for his series of mystery novels featuring gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios, returns with the 11th Lies With Man (Amble Press), set in 1986 Los Angeles when rightwing Christians have put an initiative on the ballot to quarantine people with HIV in camps resulting in the bombing of an evangelical church.

How to Become a Planet (Algonquin Young Readers), the new Young Adult novel

by Nicole Melleby, draws readers into the orbit of 13-yearold main character Pluto Timoney, newly diagnosed with anxiety and depression just as she develops her first attraction to a contemporary probing her own gender identity.

Inspired by stories of the early days of AIDS and the difficulties of placing positive children in foster care, the novel All the Children Are Home (Harper Perennial) by Patry Francis introduces us to fictional foster parents extraordinaire Dahlia and Louie Moscatelli.

Boasting a new translation by Peter Collier, The Fugitive (Penguin Classics, 1925/2021), the sixth book of French

by Gregg Shapiro ride festivities for 2021 still seem to be up in the air or not taking place.

Nevertheless, there are other ways of displaying your pride in being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, including reading a book by a queer writer or ally.

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Award-winning lesbian mystery novelist Barbara Wilson has the distinction of having had one of her books, Gaudi Afternoon (in which we were introduced to sleuth/translator Cassandra Reilly), made into a movie (starring Judy Davis and Marcia Gay Harden!). Not the Real Jupiter (Cedar Street Editions) is the fifth of Wilson’s Cassandra Reilly mystery series.

As a Gen X trans woman who lived on the street for nearly five years,

Sybil Lamb knows what she’s talking about when it comes to writing about homelessness, as she does in her illustrated YA novel The Girl Who Was Convinced Beyond All Reason That She Could Fly (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), the story of a young homeless girl named Eggs.

Experimentation and magic realism converge in The Groundhog Forever (WTAW Press) by Henry Hoke (a cousin of the late Tallulah Bankhead), a constantly morphing novel about a pair of queer film students (Thing 1 and Thing 2, seriously) in early 21stcentury Manhattan who find themselves trapped in a Groundhog Day sequel.

Taking inspiration from the 16th-century European tapestries known as “The Hunt of the Unicorn,” on display at the Met Cloisters, lesbian writer Janet Mason has crafted the novel The Unicorn, The Mystery (Adelaide Books), told from the viewpoints of a monk and, of course, a unicorn.

For Face: One Square Foot of Skin (Akashic), her second book following 2018’s Fame: The Hijacking of Reality, actor turned writer/director/ producer Justine Bateman presents a series of fictional vignettes based on interviews, addressing the “root causes for society’s own negative attitudes towards women’s older faces.”

Following the 2020 revised edition of gay writer Louis Flint Ceci’s 2008 novel Comfort Me (with illustrations

by Jennifer Rain Crosby), the author returns with Jacob’s Ladder (Les Croyens Press) the latest installment in The Croy Cycle, continuing the story of Mally Jacobs, now known as Jake. t

Pride 2021 nonfiction reading list P

les , baub c i r b a f hers to e everthing t a e f From we hav ourself out. , t s a o y to b o deck t d e e you n

homosexual writer Marcel Proust’s most overtly queer multi-volume work In Search of Lost Time, has arrived in advance of the 100th anniversary of Proust’s passing in 1922.

Set shortly after the landmark Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, Let’s Get Back to the Party (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill), the debut novel by Zak Salih examines what it means to be a gay man today by following the story of the continually intersecting paths of childhood friends

t

Broken Horses (Crown)

by Brandi Carlile – Queer Grammy winner Carlile has been on a thrilling streak. Her lauded 2018 album By The Way, I Forgive You greatly expanded her following, her collaboration with country legend Tanya Tucker was a triumph, and her ascension to alternative Americana goddess continues at a rapid pace. She can also add writer to her resume with this stunning memoir in which she tells her story in unvarnished detail.

Saved By A Song (St. Martin Essentials)

by Mary Gauthier – With advance raves from the above-mentioned Carlile, as well as Amy Ray of

Indigo Girls, Wally Lamb, Sarah Silverman, Emmylou Harris and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, Saved By A Song, by Grammynominated lesbian singer/songwriter Gauthier, is described as “part memoir, part philosophy of art” and “part nuts and bolts of songwriter,” and is thoroughly revelatory.

Out of the past

Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust and Murder in Queer New York (Celadon) by Elon Green – Far from your typical true-crime tome, this debut book from straight journalist Green is a sensitive and respectful page-turner, the very definition of a must-read, that takes readers back 30 years or more to a time when the “Last Call Killer” was murdering gay men on the East Coast.

Chicago After Stonewall: A History of LGBTQ Chicago From Gay Lib to Gay Life (Rattling Good Yarns Press) St Sukie

de la Croix – Picking up where he left off with the well-received Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall, de la Croix, the living patron saint of gay history, takes readers on a journey over the course of 61 chapters, following the Stonewall riots and the birth of the Gay Liberation Front through Pride Week 1975 and the launch of Gay Life, Chicago’s first regularly published gay newspaper.

Memorable memoirs

The Beauty of Living Twice (Knopf)

by Sharon Stone – Oscar nominee Stone (1995’s Casino) gained some LGBTQ+ fans for her portrayal of notorious bisexual Catherine in Basic Instinct (1992), which she writes about, as well as surviving a 2001 stroke in her first book, a memoir “for the wounded” and “for the survivors.”

The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays of Pop Culture (St. Martin Griffin)

by Grace Perry – Perry, a queer millennial born in 1989, whose formative teen years (2002-2009), and the pop culture she devoured in her teens, serve as the inspiration for the 12 essays, including “The Gospel According to Mean Girls,” “Taylor Swift Made Me a u-Haul Dyke” and “Real World Gays and Real World Gays,” in her debut collection.

The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures + Pieces (Tin House) by Courtney Cook – A See page 19 >>

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<< Music & Film

18 • Bay Area Reporter • June 10-16, 2021

<<

t

Q-Music

From page 15

Fame induction, but also Willner’s unparalleled skills as an organizer of a project such as this (previous Willner productions include Amarcord Nino Rota, a salute to the Fellini film composer, That’s The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk, Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill and Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films).

As with anything of this scope, 26 tracks, some performers have a better grasp on the material than others. Queer artists including Joan Jett (“Jeepster”), Marc Almond (“Teenage Dream”), John Cameron Mitchell (“Diamond Meadows”), Peaches (“Solid Gold, Easy Action”), Kesha (“Children of the Revolution”), and the recently out Maria McKee (“She Was Born To Be My Unicorn”/“Ride A White Swan”) all come off without a hitch.

Bi icon Ani DiFranco’s transformation from folk-punk goddess to R&B diva is nearing completion with her exceptional new album Revolutionary Love (Righteous Babe). With each of the six albums she has released since her relocation to New Orleans in 2005,

Allen Ginsberg at Reed College: The First Recorded Reading of Howl & Other Poems

DiFranco’s sound has evolved to incorporate more of the influences of her adopted hometown. This is never clearer than on the amazing title cut which brings classic blue-eyed soul into the 21st century. That soulful feeling continues on “Bad Dream” and “Contagious.” She momentarily shifts musical gears on the political declaration of “Do Or Die” and the instrumental “Confluence,” conjuring a Latin spirit. Experimental final track “Crocus,” also deserves to be mentioned.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood

In recent years, the late bi singer/ songwriter Judee Sill (1944-1979), the very definition of a cult act, has been rescued from o b s c u r i t y.

First, via the 2009 various artists album Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill which Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of AngelHeaded Hipster f e a t u r e d Judee Sill performances Award-winner Michael Cerveris), producer Lorenzo Wolff began his by Final “The Kiss” (featuring Emily Down Where the Valleys Are Low Fantasy (aka gay singer/songwriter Holden), “The Pearl” (featuring (StorySound) project in 2019 “as a Owen Pallett), Beth Orton, Ron Bartees Strange) and “There’s A test to see if Sill’s songs could stand Sexsmith, Meg Baird and Bill Rugged Road” (featuring Osei up to a more robust, aggressive Callahan, to name a few. On 2016’s Essed).t production style.” As it turns out, case/lang/veirs, the collaboration the answer is yes as you can hear on project by Neko Case, k.d. lang and these seven distinct interpretations Laura Veirs, Veirs paid homage to of Sill’s work, including “Jesus Was Sill in a song titled “Song For Judee.”

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SF DocFest

From page 14

fervent and short-lived, breaking up after 18 months.

Director Jacqueline Rhodes interviewed ten of the original twelve Furies, two of whom became famous after they left the Furies: author/novelist Rita Mae Brown and feminist author/activist Charlotte Bunch, founder of The Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University.

The documentary skillfully shows the divide between the theory of lesbian feminism and the difficulty of living it.

These were intense, opinionated women, some of whom 50 years later regret their participation in the Furies. But most of them –after their involvement– proceeded to implement feminist change.

They’ve all remained politically active now into their seventies.

Even if you don’t agree with their philosophy, their analysis laid the groundwork for our contemporary understanding of intersectionality. Once A Fury is provocative and exasperating, but never boring and you will have much to ponder after the last frame ends.

Short & sweet

One of the festival’s short films, Making Samantha, records the making of the first all trans cast (27!) music video about what it means to be trans, created by singersongwriter Benjamin Scheuer, inspired by his trans friend Samantha Williams. Scheuer wanted to show the universal journey of finding identity, acceptance, and love, that as humans we have more in common than our differences.

As one of the cast members remarked, “when you’ve heard one trans story, you’ve heard one trans story.”

But during the course of the 5-minute video, every cast member will say, “I am Samantha,” to show everyone has a place in the world, regardless of who they are. Another cast member revealed that after transitioning she felt more alive and freer than ever before, Once A Fury and so will viewers

Mrs Kasha Davis in Workhorse Queen

once they’ve experienced this highspirited 11-minute breath of fresh air.

And based on all these superb queer offerings, one can’t help but feel this sentiment will apply to all the films screened at this year’s DocFest. Get to the Roxie Theater as quickly as you can. | www.sfindie.com t

Making Samantha

t <<

Books & Art >>

June 10-16, 2021 • Bay Area Reporter • 19

Reading list

From page 16

unique graphic memoir with text and illustrations by the author, provides the reader with firsthand details of Cook’s experience of living with borderline personality disorder, from symptoms to diagnosis, to “finding her way – and herself – one day at a time.”

Get Up & Fight: The Memoir of Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi, the Mother of Women’s Judo (All She Wrote Productions)

by Rena “Rusty” Kanokogi & Jean Kanokogi, PhD – Published posthumously and co-authored by her daughter, with a foreword by Billie Jean King, Rusty’s memoir follows her path from Brooklyn teen girl gang leader to judo champion to her accomplishment of earning a place for female judo athletes at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and beyond.

What Wasn’t I Thinking?: A Memoir of Rebellion, Madness, and My Mother (Querelle Press) by Sebastian Stuart – To say that Ferro-Grumley Award-winning gay novelist and playwright Stuart has had a life is an understatement. The longtime partner of novelist Stephen McCauley, as well as the son of film producer Walker Stuart and his wife, Life Magazine’s entertainment editor Jozefa, Stuart has turned his life into a riveting and raucous memoir. t

<<

From Her to Here

From page 14

the development of the LGBTQ community in Shanghai from 20032018, and features interviews with activists, artists, directors of support groups, and scholars from the Chinese gender equality movement.

The film begins with an incident in which Sina Microblog, a social networking site in China, banned all mention of homosexuality. The community responded with a boycott. The film tells the community’s story from there and includes tours of local queer spaces.

appeared in Chinatown nightclubs, and Stephen, a 74-year-old retired experimental film director. They fell in love during their golden years, and whenever they went out together, they wore matching outfits made by Coby.

The film follows them together as they prepare for their farewell dance in Las Vegas.

Also fascinating is the short documentary Sambal Belacan, Bay Area filmmaker Madeleine Lim’s look at three firstgeneration lesbians from Singapore as they struggle to create home and belonging in San Francisco.

“Under the current climate of Asian hate and violence, Women: From Her to Here is about seeing each other’s humanities, empathizing with one another, One of Chelsea Ryoko Wong’s watercolors, and telling stories on Bathing on Valencia Street (2021) our own terms,” said Several interesting people speak: a Leung. “From queer and feminist trans woman who was rejected by her perspectives, Women invites everyfather, and three older men who recall one to imagine a future that is radithe club that they used to attend. Incal and boundless.” terviews such as these bring the city Women: From Her to Here will of Shanghai to life. The screening will be on display until August 28. Mask include a panel discussion. t and social distancing protocols will www.cccsf.us be in effect, and admission is free.

Gallery hours are Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.

In addition to Women, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco will host a free online screening of the feature length documentary Shanghai Queer on Friday June 18 at 6pm.

The film (with Chen Han Sheng’s mixed-media installation, English subtitles) When I was a Child (2020) tells the story of

50 Years in 50 Weeks: 1980: 10th anniversary stage salute

by Jim Provenzano

W

hile film and news sections covered the controversies over the Al Pacino/ William Friedkin film Cruising (January 31), the November 6 issue’s coverage of the annual Beaux Arts Ball proved it to be the drag event of the season.

The April 10 tenth anniversary issue, at a whopping 68 pages, featured a disco dance event on the cover, and looked back on the Bay Area Reporter’s first decade.

Models>>

Included was an expansive series of articles on the growing theater scene.

“Gay Women and Gay Men Perform” focused a spotlight on The Angels of Light, The Gay Theater Collective, The Whole Works Theater, and other companies, including the only remaining ensemble, Theatre Rhinoceros.

Even back then, patrons of the performing arts had plenty of options.

Enjoy more vintage B.A.R. issues at https://archive.org/details/bayareareporter

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