June 18, 2020 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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More cities show Pride

Global Pride stars

CO trans lawmaker

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A secret love

The

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Landmark victory :

Historic Supreme Court decision protects LGBT workers

Courtesy ABC7 News

Thousands of people took part in the All Black Lives Matter solidarity march in West Hollywood June 14.

‘Pride is a riot’ march planned in SF

by John Ferrannini

T

he official in-person 50th San Francisco Pride parade has been canceled but a protest march will take place on Pride Sunday (June 28).

A post on the website of the community news site Indybay states that an autonomous multiracial trans and queer group will be hosting a “Pride is a riot” protest march. According to the post, people will gather at noon at 19th and Dolores streets, a block from where demonstrators gathered earlier this month to protest the police killing of George Floyd and express support for the Black Lives Matter movement and police reform.

The march will begin at 2 p.m. The author of the post is not specified.

“On Sunday June 28th, we will gather to honor LGBTQ freedom fighters who came before us, to call for the liberation of black, brown and Indigenous people, and to demonstrate that trans and queer people are in this fight,” the post states. “It is not enough to demand police out of pride. We want police out of schools, police off our streets, police out of all communities. Defund, Dismantle, and Abolish the police!”

Police participation in Pride parades has been a salient issue in recent years in San Francisco and other cities. Just last year, protesters blocking the San Francisco parade in protest of police participation were detained by police.

As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, earlier this year, the board of directors of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee voted not to ban the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office from the parade.

Since the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office had not participated in years past – and its exclusion was proposed in unison with a proposal to ban Facebook, Google, and its affiliates – Pride board of directors president Carolyn Wysinger, who is black, accused advocates of the proposal of using long-standing issues of police brutality toward black people for attention. (The sheriff’s office was included in the activists’ proposal because of deputies’ role in carrying out an eviction of homeless moms with Moms 4 Housing from a vacant West Oakland home they occupied.)

Fred Lopez, a gay man who is the executive director of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, did not immediately respond to See page 8 >>

Alex U. Inn speaks to a crowd in Jane Warner Plaza Monday evening to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision protecting LGBTQ people in employment.

by Lisa Keen

I

n what is perhaps the most stunning U.S. Supreme Court victory in history for LGBT people, the nation’s highest court has voted 6-3 that a federal law barring discrimination on the basis of “sex” also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and transgender status.

The court’s decision June 15 in three cases testing the reach of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act came in one 33-page opinion consolidated under Bostock v. Clayton County.

In words that will no doubt be highlighted for many years to come, Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee who replaced the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote: “Ours is a society of written laws. Judges are

not free to overlook plain statutory commands on the strength of nothing more than suppositions about intentions or guesswork about expectations. In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires See page 9 >> Rick Gerharter

Farmers market management group decries ‘vitriol’ after flag flap

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

he farmers market management company whose director publicly berated the gay owner of a Livermore cookie company for handing out rainbow flags at his booth is now complaining of the “vitriol” it has received since video of the confrontation went viral.

As the Bay Area Reporter first reported online Monday, the nearly three-minute video posted to Livermore Pride’s website shows California Farmers’ Markets Association director Gail Hayden angrily admonishing Dan Floyd, a gay married man who owns Dan Good Cookies, for handing out the Pride flags, the international symbol of the LGBTQ community, Sunday, June 7, at the start of Pride Month.

Pride organizers released the video Monday, June 15, after not receiving any response from CFMA regarding its concerns about its policies and Floyd made the decision to withdraw from the market after being cited for violating the vendor rules. He had launched his cookie business at the Livermore Farmers Market in June 2016 and opened his first brick-and-mortar location in the city last December.

Tuesday it was disclosed by Livermore officials that CFMA had abruptly resigned as the operator of the city’s market, forcing its having to be canceled this coming Thursday and Sunday. The

Courtesy Livermore Pride

In a screenshot from a video taken June 7, California Farmers’ Markets Association director Gail Hayden objects to a vendor passing out Pride flags.

city and the local Pride organizers are working together to recruit a new farmers market operator.

CFMA operates 16 other farmers markets around the Bay Area, according to its website. It manages, for instance, the one hosted by the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco’s Marina district. Leaders of the cultural facility have reached out to CFMA to raise ob-

jections about its prohibiting the distribution of rainbow flags at its market, and city officials have also raised concerns about the management company’s policies.

Meanwhile, residents of other cities where CFMA oversees farmers markets have taken to social media to call for them to be fired or for people to boycott the markets until they are replaced.

In a letter sent to at least one organization that contracts with CFMA to manage its farmers market, CFMA President Doug Hayden expressed regret for “any harm caused by this misunderstanding” and pledged to “work to better disseminate market policies in the orientation of new members.”

He added, “CFMA has received zero complaints, zero negative reviews and not one negative comment, nor has there been a single conflict over diversity or discrimination in our markets, with our staff or in any projects we have accomplished in 26+ years. CFMA wholeheartedly embraces vendors who express their individual identity through their stall merchandising, their product design or their decorations. This includes gay pride flags.”

But Hayden also complained in the letter, obtained by the B.A.R., that CFMA has “come under attack from the local Gay Pride regarding the enforcement” of its rules and regulations. Hayden, See page 8 >>

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2020

In reversal, Foster City will fly Pride flag

t

by Matthew S. Bajko

T

wo weeks after they rejected requests to fly the Pride flag, the City Council members in Foster City, California Monday night reversed course and voted 3-2 to do so. In a surprise, the flag was raised Tuesday, June 16, at City Hall and will remain flying through the end of June.

As the Bay Area Reporter first reported June 1, the leaders of the Peninsula city in San Mateo County had rejected requests that they fly the rainbow flag because they were concerned doing so would open them up to having to also fly flags associated with racist groups or causes. Their decision led the Reverend Jim Mitulski, a gay man who is pastor of the Island United UCC Church in Foster City, to launch a public campaign to convince the council to reconsider.

Already 10 other municipalities in the jurisdiction are flying the international symbol for the LGBTQ community. As of last week the Pride flag could be seen flying in front of civic buildings in Belmont, Brisbane, Colma, Daly City, Half Moon Bay, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, and South San Francisco.

Foster City’s council members last year had declared a Pride day in June at the request of the UCC church.

This year, the county’s LGBTQ commission has asked all 20 cities and

Courtesy Foster City

Foster City staff borrowed the rainbow flag from Island United UCC Church and raised it Tuesday in front of City Hall.

towns on the Peninsula to issue Pride Month proclamations and to also fly the rainbow flag.

Due to the novel coronavirus outbreak leading to the cancellation of in-person Pride events – replaced with virtual gatherings – LGBTQ leaders have argued seeing individual cities visibly mark the annual LGBT celebrations is even more important. With people socially isolated as they sheltered in place to help control the spread of the virus, seeing the Pride flag raised in front of their city hall or other community building signals they are accepted and valued, they have noted.

This year the Foster City council adopted a proclamation declaring all of June as Pride Month. They presented it during their meeting June 15 to Lelan Anders, a member of the county’s LGBTQ advisory body.

It’s doing so, said Anders, lets the city’s LGBTQ residents “know they are seen and are important.”

For a community that often feels invisible, added Mitulski, the proclamation lets LGBT people know “you see us and you value us. I can’t tell you how much that means to us.”

See page 6 >>

With divided vote, San Pablo City Council approves flying Pride flag

by Matthew S. Bajko

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y a divided vote Monday night, the San Pablo City Council approved having the Pride flag be flown on its Civic Center flagpole for the rest of June.

The decision had been expected, as the East Bay city’s mayor, Arturo Cruz, had told the Bay Area Reporter that he believed the council would approve flying the flag at its June 15 meeting. The brief but contentious discussion about doing so ended with City Council members Rita Xavier, who brought forward the motion, and Abel Pineda joining with Cruz in supporting the flying of the flag.

With the vote coming the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court’s groundbreaking 6-3 ruling declaring that LGBT employees cannot be fired solely on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, Pineda noted he was “proud” to second the motion to fly the flag.

In explaining his support for raising the rainbow flag, Cruz noted that the city has an adopted diversity statement making it explicit that it is committed to promoting an “atmosphere of respect for all residents and employees” including those who are LGBTQ people or belong to another marginalized group.

San Pablo becomes the 13th city in Contra Costa County to agree to fly the rainbow flag, the international symbol for the LGBTQ community, during Pride Month in June. The Pride flag has already been raised in the cities of Antioch, Clayton, Concord, El Cerrito, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, Richmond, and Walnut Creek. The San Ramon City Council will vote on flying the flag when it meets June 23.

It is part of a push by LGBT advocates in the county to see all 19 cities in the jurisdiction celebrate Pride Month in some manner this year for the first time. It is expected to achieve a countywide Pride sweep in the com-

Courtesy City of San Pablo

San Pablo Mayor Arturo Cruz

ing days when the cities of Brentwood and Oakley issue Pride proclamations next Tuesday and Moraga follows suit the next night on June 24.

As the B.A.R. has reported, the flying of the rainbow flag has become a flashpoint in a number of Bay Area cities this year. Also Monday night on a 3-2 vote the City Council in Foster City adopted a flag policy and agreed to raise the Pride flag, two weeks after the council members had rejected requests that they do so.

Staff in the San Mateo County city raised the flag Wednesday, June 17, at City Hall. It will remain flying through the end of June. LGBT leaders on the Peninsula are also working to see that all 20 cities and towns in their jurisdiction mark Pride Month in some manner this year; the last to do so was Atherton, which issued a Pride proclamation Wednesday, June 17.

The council vote in San Pablo came after the governing body earlier this spring adopted its own flag policy. It was sparked by requests that the city fly a flag honoring Christian faiths, which the new policy prevents the city from doing because it prohibits religious flags from being displayed on city-owned flagpoles.

City Councilman Rich Kinney referred to that decision in stating why he was voting against raising the rainbow flag. He called the rejection of the Christian group’s flag discriminatory and criticized his trio of council colleagues for “ganging up” to push

through the Pride flag request.

“It is appalling to me that this city council is supporting any kind of discrimination. This is selective discrimination; you all know that,” said Kinney. “You are personally selecting what you are going to discriminate against.”

The city’s vice mayor, Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado, noted she has a gay granddaughter that she “loves to pieces” but believes her sexual orientation doesn’t mean she has “any more value or less value than the rest of my grandchildren.” She added that, “Sexual orientation will not create in our family a segregation of gay versus straight.”

For that reason, Pabon-Alvarado said she didn’t support having the city fly the rainbow flag.

“I also want to add by flying the rainbow flag, we are disregarding other groups struggling right now,” she said, pointing to the protests over the police killings of African Americans and how both blacks and the elderly have been particularly hit hard by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

“I vote no to show I support all communities and their struggles,” said Pabon-Alvarado. “This is what it is to be inclusive.”

The Pride flag is not only political in nature, said Kinney, but excludes straight individuals.

“The LGBTQ flag is very political.

There is no way it should be seen as any less political than a religious flag,” said Kinney, adding that the rainbow flag “is about people’s sexuality, their sexual activity and preferences. It has no place on a city flagpole people.

This is crazy.”

Kinney said he couldn’t understand how his colleagues could support flying it.

“I have no issue with people who have different sexual preferences than me,” he said, “but I am not trying to get a straight sexual flag agenda on our flagpole.” t

Community News>>

t Global Pride event will focus on Black Lives Matter

June 18-24, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 3

by John Ferrannini

G

lobal Pride – this year’s 24-hour virtual celebration of LGBT pride throughout the world – will be centering the Black Lives Matter movement in its programming, according to a June 12 news release.

Due to the cancellation of many in-person Pride festivities this month due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, InterPride and other Pride organizations are putting together Global Pride. The 24-hour stream of music, performances, speeches, and messages of support will be hosted by Todrick Hall on his YouTube channel, which will be livestreamed June 27 on iHeart Radio’s and the Global Pride website (https://www.globalpride2020. org/).

Global Pride has the partnership of 500 different Pride organizations, which are in the process of submitting content. As the Bay Area Reporter also reported (online and this week in print), San Francisco Pride announced June 12 that it, too, will seek to provide a place of prominence to black LGBTQs at a watershed moment in American race relations.

Hall, courtesy IMDb; Cox, courtesy CalPerformances.org; Lambert, courtesy Biography.com

Actor and director Todrick Hall, left, is part of the Global Pride livestream event June 27, along with actor Laverne Cox and singer Adam Lambert.

“As a black woman in the LGBTQIA+ community, I feel we must confront the systemic racism and violence facing my black brothers, sisters and nonbinary siblings, in the larger culture and within the LGBQIA+ community. I could not think of a larger platform than Global Pride to do this,” Natalie Thompson, co-chair of the Global Pride organizing committee, stated

in the Friday news release.

“I am proud to work beside so many diverse colleagues from around the world. Our community knows well that we must confront hate and prejudice head-on. We have been watching an epidemic of violence against trans people of color – mostly women – in the past decade and this larger discussion must be inclusive and all encompassing.

All Black Lives Matter,” Thompson added.

The lineup announced on Friday includes both political figures and entertainers. Among the political figures who will be speaking as part of Global Pride is former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

In 2012, Biden became the highest-ranking U.S. official to support same-sex marriage rights, pushing his boss, then-President Barack Obama, to state his support shortly thereafter. As the B.A.R. previously reported this year Biden issued a statement acknowledging LGBT Pride Month while President Donald Trump, his Republican opponent, did not.

Other speakers include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco); Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Icelandic President Guðni Jóhannesson; and Leo Varadkar, a gay man who is the prime minister of Ireland.

The artists scheduled to perform run the gamut from being LGBT themselves, to being vocal allies, to being musicians whose music is popular in LGBT culture.

Performers are scheduled to include Adam Lambert, Laverne Cox, Kesha, Rita Ora, The Village People, Mel C, Leann Rimes, Pussy Riot, Calum Scott, Natasha Bedingfield, Thelma Houston, Martha Wash, Olivia Newton-John, and Mary Lambert.

Michelle Meow, the former board president of San Francisco Pride and current executive producer for Global Pride, said in the release that the way the event is coming together is reminiscent of the early LGBT rights movement, even though technology has changed.

“Fifty years ago, grassroots organizations came together to plan the first Gay Liberation Day that changed the world, including the Daughters of Bilitis, Gay Liberation Front, Mattachine Society and Lavender Menace,” Meow stated. “The production of Global Pride has been planned in the same grassroots manner, but with a 21st century technological twist. LGBTQIA+ people from around the world will come together virtually during this crisis of racial injustice and a pandemic.” t

Sha’ar Zahav to hold Pride Seder compiled by Cynthia Laird

C

ongregation Sha’ar Zahav will hold an online Community Pride Seder Monday, June 22, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

An email from the predominately LGBT synagogue noted that all are welcome to join in. The event held

by Sha’ar Zahav in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.

“Each year during Pride Month, members of Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco come together to commemorate our emancipation from oppression, to celebrate our freedom, and to re-commit to our activism, remembering that none of us are free until all of us are free,” the event page reads. “We read from a Pride Haggadah and discuss the items on a Seder plate that represent our history. This year, we will celebrate Community Pride Seder online, together with community members, LGBTQ Jewish clergy, as well as civic and interfaith leaders.”

Haggadah readers will include gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, lesbian Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan, and gay small business owner Manny Yekutiel.

Others will be Oakland Mayor

Jane Philomen Cleland

Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan

Libby Schaaf; Dan Bernal, a gay man who is local chief of staff for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco); and Michael Pappas, a gay man who’s executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council.

To register, go to https://jewishfed.org/news/events/virtual-community-pride-seder. A Zoom link will be sent to registered participants.

and Sonoma County health officials to institute a number of new policies and procedures – introduced in phases – to keep both guests and workers safe.

The casino, located in Rohnert Park, first opened in 2013. A hotel was added about three years later.

Changes include thermal cameras, electrostatic sprayers, physical distancing, hand sanitizers, and appropriate distancing at slot machines and table games.

Additionally, face coverings are required for guests and staff at all times.

The restaurants and bars will be open with modified reduced seating capacity; cocktail service and room service are both available.

Concerts and entertainment have been canceled. The salon and spa, fitness center, and valet are temporarily suspended. Bus service from select Bay Area cities will resume June 29.

Graton Casino set to reopen

Graton Resort and Casino will begin a phased reopening Thursday, June 18, at 8 a.m., several months after being shuttered due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Greg Sarris, a gay man who’s tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, said he and his team worked closely with state

Courtesy Graton Resort and Casino

Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Chairman Greg Sarris

Graton has been a supporter of the LGBT community, as well as other groups, over the years. In 2016, Sarris appeared at the Rainbow Cattle Company in Guerneville to present a check for $10,000 to help the survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.

He told the Bay Area Reporter then that the resort’s priority is making everybody feel welcome.

“The only thing not tolerated here is intolerance,” said Sarris. “I love seeing gay, lesbian, and transgender people walking in here, and holding hands in the bars and restaurants.”

For more information, visit www. gratonresortcasino.com.

Queer radio show returns to airwaves

“Out in the Bay – Queer Radio from San Francisco” returns to the air – and listeners’ earbuds – this week.

The show will air Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m., on KSFP 102.5 FM in San Francisco. It will stream at those times on KSFP’s website and will be available on-demand on popular podcast platforms and at www.outinthebay.org.

Founding producer Eric Jansen stated in a news release that Comcast California and San Francisco Public Press, which operates the aforementioned radio station, are supporting the relaunch.

“Out in the Bay” had a loyal fol-

lowing during its decade-plus run on San Francisco public radio station KALW from 2004 to 2016. The show blends journalism and oral history to bring listeners news, conversation, and commentary from and about LGBTI people.

“As with many journalistic and creative endeavors that celebrate non-mainstream communities, the project was a non-paid ‘labor of love,’” Jansen stated. “I had to put it on hold in 2016 to care for my aging mom.”

Comcast is supporting the show for a 10-week relaunch series. Beth Hester, vice president of external affairs for the company, stated it’s just one way to elevate LGBTQ voices and celebrate the region’s diversity.

KSFP programming director Mel Baker said he was thrilled to see the show return to the airwaves.

“The award-winning show will be one of the crown jewels of the station and serves our mission to provide a platform for the diverse communities of San Francisco,” he stated.

For more information, visit the “Out in the Bay” website.

SF Muni survey

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is conducting an online survey as it works to restore service amid COVID-19.

“As San Francisco and the SFMTA begins the restart process, we are seeking input to help develop a TransporSee page 6 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2020

Volume 50, Number 25 June 18-24, 2020 www.ebar.com

PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird CULTURE EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • John Ferrannini CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Roger Brigham • Brian Bromberger Victoria A. Brownworth • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Dan Renzi Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger David-Elijah Nahmod • Paul Parish Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith Sari Staver • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood

ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd Rich Stadtmiller • Fred Rowe Steven Underhill • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith

A monumental victory

A

fter decades of fighting for the elusive goal of federal employment protections for all LGBT people, Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of LGBT workers is monumental.

In a lopsided 6-3 decision, the justices declared that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT workers from being discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Significantly, this was the high court’s first decision on transgender rights, and will have significant effects beyond employment.

Achieving equality in the workplace is a game-changer, and one that will help millions of queer Americans.

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It was the meaning of “sex” that was at the center of three cases the court decided Monday (consolidated into Bostock v. Clayton County). Two dealt with sexual orientation (gay men who were fired from their jobs) and one addressed transgender status (a trans woman who was fired after she told her employer of her intent to transition). The court’s decision came in one 33-page opinion consolidated under Bostock v. Clayton County.

It was surprising that Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, a justice that extreme conservatives promoted for President Donald Trump’s first appointment to replace the late Antonin Scalia. But rather than adhere to the “originalism” concept Scalia embraced, which gives the law the meaning that its words were understood to bear at the time they were promulgated, Gorsuch used the theory he believes in, “textualism,” in which judges look only at the written word.

“Ours is a society of written laws,” Gorsuch

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ment discrimination based on these characteristics; Monday’s ruling comes as a relief to them and their families. The Williams Institute noted that an estimated 3.4 million LGB workers and 536,000 trans workers live in these states. Getting fired because of who you are is a real issue – and still happens even in states with protections.

Importantly, the decision will have far-reaching effects on many other federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on sex. Just last Friday – the fourth anniversary of the Pulse massacre – the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made final a rule change that reversed an Obama-era regulation interpreting the ban on sex discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to apply to cases of transgender discrimination. The fate of that rule is now unclear.

Tragically, two of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court cases did not live to see the decision. Donald Zarda, a skydiver who was fired, died in a skydiving accident several years ago. Aimee Stephens, the woman at the center of the transgender status case, died in May of kidney disease. But both deserve the community’s appreciation for taking their cases to the courts, and their estates should be acknowledged for continuing them after their deaths. The other gay man, Gerald Bostock, who was fired from his county job in Georgia after he joined a gay softball team, told reporters he was pleased with the decision.

The fight for equality is not over. As Jocelyn Samuels, executive director of the Williams Institute stated, “We must continue to ensure that what is now the law for LGBT people with regard to employment discrimination is also recognized as the law in every other sphere of activity. And we must recommit ourselves to achieving true equality across the board for all vulnerable populations, most notably people of color within our LGBTQ communities and more broadly.” t

A chance to deepen Pride’s rainbow

by Keith Highiet

given ample amounts of their time.

What’s Wilson’s core issue? She can’t elebrating Pride this June is be herself freely in public. Figuratively, anything but what we’d envishe must wear a mask. sioned for 2020. It’s markedly muted I thought of emotionally consumed – no consummate parade or signifiPrecious, a multiple mask-wearing procant celebration. Many are undertagonist. The identically-named film standably focused on immediate pointedly questions views on race. One concerns – health, politics, and the character asks, “What color do you think economy. A pink triangle may illuI am?” The question ultimately falls on Courtesy Keith Highiet minate San Francisco’s Twin Peaks, the audience. We’re all part of larger Keith Highiet but Pride’s colorful riot is amiss. communities.

My sons, too young to get that I’m It’s the same fictionally in Walker’s gay, can’t be indulged in the annual book, and for real deceased Floyd. immersive experience, showcasing my extended American black freedom seems commonly eluLGBTQ family’s broad culture. We love rainbows. sive, publicly evident. It’s true in our pseudoHowever, unique opportunities are emergegalitarian LGBTQ community too. So many ing. A genuine chance for our community to people are openly masked. brighten and deepen Pride’s rainbow colors is Everyone’s freedoms partially masked due here. Thoughts on racism caused this realization. to COVID-19, feelings of incompleteness are Reading Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” earwidespread. Masks are meant to be tempoly on shaped my view on blackness in America. If rary though. This pandemic creates real breakeveryone read that book, they might “get it” too. A through opportunities. single book, though, can’t fix all on its own. OngoOut LGBTQ folk are quasi-advantaged today, ing education and discussion is required. having done necessary work by shedding a heavy George Floyd’s death captured our attention mask in gaining greater acceptance; the coming out unpredictably and uneasily. Northern Califorprocess required it. Being out is functionally ongonia’s LGBTQ community, richly steeped in a proing, though, regularly encountering situations gressive legacy tradition, can magnify this mothat are queerly unfamiliar and uncomment to make it matter more. A markedly better fortable. Suffering extra intensely today future could materialize, focusing first on racism. are those who find themselves in the My friend, Sylvia Wilson, recently offered her closet, permanently or temporarily.

Facebook page for childhood friends to share Reframing core perceptions on race experiences as youths. This eye-opening oprace, Wilson offered it gently, pointportunity allowed for personal growth. I shared edly as “bias.” Using this word allows something that long troubled me. us to more closely identify. Everyone Concisely, I didn’t even realize that Wilson was suffers from bias sometimes. black as a young child until one day someone Experiencing bias numerously in wanted to touch her hair. It was deceptive, and I witminority statuses as gay and Jewish, I sometimes nessed it. Subtly, I learned she was seen as “different.” think in badges of pink triangles and yellow Another friend, Marianne Villalobos, wisely Stars of David. But unlike being black, I reguopined my “growing up with Sylvia is undoubtlarly “pass” to the unsuspecting or uninterested, edly typical ... illustrative (of) why children expeaccouterments of privilege bestowed. It’s hyperriencing diversity is key.” apparent lately with two children – via egg donor Wilson saw “the change” happen in many and two separate surrogates, to clarify. neighborhood friends. Individually, kids “discovWide-moat bias is the core, but race plagues ered” she was black. It’s among myriad experius abruptly now. ences black Americans endure. Being “white,” I After USC law school, Wilson had her pick of can barely imagine such scenarios. Not so acutely many riches-making law firms, a widely-known and pervasively, at least. perk of graduating from a well-connected inLiving in Southern California today, she sees stitution. Instead, she chose a government job, the “white gaze,” especially in “white spaces,” a regserving underprivileged youth. ular at museums and fine restaurants. Being black This career defining decision surprised many, in America seems a tiresome, taxing constant. including her mom, Odessa, a highly regarded Talk of race matters presciently because it creformer Modesto school board member and reates change. Lately, black friends have generously tired UC regent. Wilson’s dad, Lure, didn’t live to

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wrote. “Judges are not free to overlook plain statutory commands on the strength of nothing more than suppositions about intentions or guesswork about expectations. In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.”

Gorsuch maintained it’s what the words say that’s crucial. Using this criteria, it did not matter what the authors of the Civil Rights Act had in mind, or that they might not have envisioned the society we know today.

“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex,” he concluded.

Trans people in particular will benefit greatly from this decision. Advocates have pushed businesses to hire trans workers for years, as well as for laws that protect workers from sex discrimination in employment. Unemployment in the trans community remains stubbornly high and this decision improves the opportunities for trans people to get and keep jobs.

The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that the ruling provides protections to an estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers (ages 16 and older), including 7.1 million LGB people and 1 million trans people.

We in California have had the benefit of strong state non-discrimination laws that include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. But people living in 27 other states do not have statutes that expressly prohibit employ-

t

see her flourish in her career.

Why select such modest legal work?

Long on a rich path, but not being about financial riches, rather it was the richness of the work that drew her – helping many kids of color, but not in regard to their color.

Sociologically, race is a constructed category.

Biologically, there’s just one race. Queers vitally relate, philosophically as LGBTQ in a straight world, but it’s not equally comparable.

Neither I nor straight ally Wilson know the depravity of intra-LGBTQ racism, but it’s deep.

Upfront glaring or lingering in the background, it’s always a bad look. Bigotry and prejudice lurk in the shadows, overlooked and unnoticed until a bright light is directionally shined.

It’s immediately incumbent to act swiftly. Starting introspectively, we can then appropriately root out racism when identifiable elsewhere. One can be pushed over when standing alone, but group consciousness causes cultural change.

Dealing with race is just a starting point. We have numerous “family” issues to confront out from our closets – ageism, body shaming, elitism, disabilities, and fully breaking down LGBTQIA hierarchical ranking initials.

Pride-wise, Sylvia Johnson (Wilson’s pre-married last name) carries that of revolutionary activist friends Sylvia Rivera and Martha P. Johnson. We’ve come a long way since the Stonewall riot.

Since coming out in the last millennium, I’ve endured the indignity of losing California Proposition 8 (stinging on the night our first black president was elected) and latent stigmas attached to HIV/AIDS. Collectively, we prevail. Being out seems de rigueur now. Marriage equality prevailed federally in the Supreme Court. HIV/ AIDS models for the current pandemic.

Renewed awareness of racism ultimately transcends any family community. Assailing bias honors all who’ve suffered from it. Addressing it primarily is a precursor for integrating richer diversity in Pride. Triangulating pretty in pink illumination, meaning in the color purple, and yellow stars, we’re all queerly, materially rainbow.

Happy Pride. t Keith Highiet lives in Modesto, California with his two children. Along with his dad, he runs his family’s 100-year-old scrap metal recycling business, Modesto Junk Co. In the early 2000s, he co-founded the local area’s first LGBT community center, and remains active in the community in many ways.

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Politics >>

June 18-24, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

In Colorado, trans trailblazer Titone seeks second term

by Matthew S. Bajko

E

arlier this year the Colorado Legislature was poised to ban criminal defendants from using a gay or transgender panic defense at trial. Then the novel coronavirus hit in mid-March, and the lawmakers in the Centennial State turned to paring down their legislative agenda ahead of suspending their session to adhere to shelter-inplace orders.

Thus, leaders in the state Senate pulled the gay and transgender panic defense ban bill, as they had yet to vote on it. The decision angered its lead sponsor in the lower chamber, state Representative Brianna Titone, the first transgender person elected to a state legislative seat West of the Mississippi.

When the Legislature decided to reconvene in late May to finish its session, Titone sought to revive the bill.

“I was angry so I wrote a letter to the Senate president and majority leader and the Senate sponsors trying to get them to bring the bill back,” Titone told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent phone interview.

Her plea worked, and last week the bill flew through both statehouse chambers, garnering one lone no vote in the House.

“It was a good bill that had bipartisan support from the get-go,” said Titone, 42, first elected to her suburban seat northwest of Denver in 2018.

The vote in the House took place Friday, June 12. Titone noted in a tweet its passage marked “symbolic progress on the anniversary of #PulseNightclub today,” referring to the domestic terrorist attack on an Orlando gay club in 2016.

“We are making a bold statement that we value the lives of the LGBTQ community and it is Pride Month. It is a Pride miracle this bill ended up passing this year,” Titone told the B.A.R. “Being it could have just gone away if I had not taken the initiative to ruffle some feathers, frankly pissing people off in the Senate.”

In light of the nationwide protests against police killings of African Americans and the deaths of transgender people, most of whom are black trans women, Titone said passing the bill took on even more import this month.

“I know as a trans person that black trans women are the ones who take the brunt of the violence and murder.

To the people outside the building I wanted to make sure they felt heard and that we were working to protect specifically black trans women,” said Titone, referring to protests held outside the Statehouse.

Gay Colorado Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill in the coming days, bringing the number of states banning such a legal tactic to 11. (California was the first to do so in 2014.) His press secretary, Conor Cahill, told the B.A.R. this week that the governor’s office has yet to receive the bill and is working on

Courtesy Rep. Brianna Titone

Colorado state Representative Brianna Titone, left, joined her colleagues state Representative Leslie Herod and state Representative Matt Soper who helped pass a pro-trans bill.

the signing schedule.

Titone’s tenacity in advocating for the bill is illustrative of how she has approached representing her constituents in the Legislature. It has also garnered her favorable headlines in the state since she took her oath of office and a growing national following.

“The work I’m doing here is what the people want. That is what I came here to do,” said Titone, who was a volunteer firefighter in upstate New York where she grew up.

She abandoned her dream of being an FBI special agent when she transitioned in her late 30s. A decade ago she moved to Colorado after landing a job with a Denver-based mining consultancy. Titone is a geologist and works as an information technology professional.

“I decided I wanted to live in the mountains,” Titone said.

During the suspension of the legislative session Titone continued to work from home, assisting constituents impacted by the health crisis. She also prepared to deal with the state’s ballooning budget deficit due to the pandemic, which led several of her bills with larger price tags to be indefinitely postponed.

“We want to do everything we can to try to help those who are struggling, but what can you do when you just don’t have the money?” asked Titone when the B.A.R. first spoke with her in late May. “It is very emotional for us when we are cutting programs that help people. But this is the difficult job we signed up for, and we have to make tough choices.”

Two years ago Titone defeated a Republican incumbent by 439 votes to become the first transgender person to serve in her Legislature and only the fourth in the country. The quartet are part of an affinity group dubbed the U.S. Trans Caucus for transgender lawmakers across the country and in May held their first virtual get-together for a conversation that was posted

to YouTube.

Following the election last week of Rosemary Ketchum to a West Virginia city council seat, making her the first trans lawmaker in her state, Titone reached out to her by phone. It was a courtesy she wished she had received and plans to do for other trans and nonbinary candidates.

“My race fell so far under the radar it didn’t end up on Time magazine. It barely ended up on the local TV news and the Denver Post,” said Titone, recalling how she had to fight for endorsements from LGBT and Democratic groups because she was relatively unknown and a first-time candidate few expected would win her race.

This year, Titone is being prominently backed by the LGBTQ Victory Fund and is unopposed in the Democratic primary set for June 30. The woman she defeated, Vicki Pyne, is unopposed in the GOP primary and the two are headed for a rematch in November.

Titone told the B.A.R. she is expecting it will be a hard fought reelection campaign. She argued that she has delivered for her district since being elected and is hopeful she will be given the opportunity to continue representing it.

“My track record and our messaging we have is going to speak for itself. That is always an advantage, to have policy to back up a campaign with,” she said. “I am not taking it for granted, though, I still need all hands on deck to make sure we can win this.”

Driving past 18th and Castro streets last Saturday afternoon, I was stunned to see a throng – gay men mainly – with face masks off, crowding an area where sidewalk tables had been set out by the establishment near the bus stop where Muni passengers have no choice but to wait for transportation.

Haven’t these guys heard of the coronavirus? Safe social distancing? Is their entitlement and urge to party more important than protecting other people’s lives? Have they learned nothing or are we seeing a reincarnation of the bug-chasers of the AIDS epidemic who went out like lemmings with

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Gay man seated on SF ethics panel

Nearly three decades after he helped establish San Francisco’s ethics commission, Larry Bush will now serve on it as a watchdog of the city’s civic and political leaders.

The Board of Supervisors confirmed Bush, a gay resident of the Castro district, to the oversight panel Tuesday. He was the only applicant for the seat, which was vacated by Lateef Gray in order to take a position in the district attorney’s office.

Bush had assisted with drafting the charter amendment that created the ethics commission in 1994.

He served on the Friends of Ethics citizen’s group before resigning in 2018.

His term expires February 1, 2023. Bush joins the panel amid continued fallout from a scandal involving a payback scheme that has resulted in three city department heads charged with corruption by federal prosecutors, including former public works director Mohammad Nuru. 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 LGBT candidates seeking election in the East Bay this November.

Letters >> ‘Cavalier bros’ put others at risk

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law

the goal of getting infected with HIV when there were no effective drugs to combat that mortal disease?

Whatever their justifications, these cavalier bros disgrace the LGBT community and a nation where 117,000 have already died and 200,000 will likely be dead come September. They also dishonor our overburdened health care workers and people who will become sick only to find no available hospital beds or care. The business, which facilitates them with no regard for public safety, and they deserve round condemnation.

Adrian Brooks San Francisco

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<< Commentary

6 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2020

On black trans lives and J.K. Rowling

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

W

e may, right now, be living through some of the most impactful times for trans and nonbinary people, and the choices we make now may shape the trans community for decades to come.

At the end of May, Tony McDade – a 38-year-old black transman – was shot by a Tallahassee police officer.

Onlookers claim that officers shouted at McDade to hold still, saying, “Don’t Move, N*****.” They then shot him once he halted. The officer is on administrative leave.

While McDade’s killing is getting a lot less coverage than that of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, his is, nevertheless, one of many that has spurred on a renewed Black Lives Matter movement, leading to weeks of protest, a lot of performative hand-wringing, and maybe the first inklings of change in the radicalized, militarized police

forces across the United States.

Yet even at one of these protests, a 21-year-old black transwoman named Iyanna Dior was attacked by 30 or so people outside a gas station in Minneapolis.

She is lucky to have survived, but Dominique Fells and Riah Milton weren’t so fortunate. They are the 12th and 13th people to die at the hands of anti-transgender violence in 2020. Milton, from Cincinnati, was shot to death June 9, while Fells was found dismembered on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia a day earlier.

Further highlighting police brutality toward trans people, details recently came out in the 2019 death of Layleen Polanco. Polanco, 27, died in Rikers Island jail after having an epileptic seizure. The guards mocked her as she died.

She was held on $500 bail stemming from a 2017 prostitution charge.

Meanwhile, the United States De-

partment of Health and Human Services has moved to reverse transgender health protections put in place by the Obama administration. Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights in the HHS, has been working toward this for years, releasing the final rule June 12 during Pride Month, on the fourth anniversary of the Pulse shooting.

A point of clarity: this isn’t necessarily about transgender-specific care. This rule change means that any medical professional will be able to discriminate against transgender patients no matter what ailment they may be facing. For example, COVID-19 treatment, or a broken arm, or anything else.

Similar moves are happening right now in the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson looking to halt plans to streamline trans selfidentity; in Hungary, where its parliament has voted to end legal recognition for trans people; and in Puerto Rico, which has stripped the right of transgender people to change their birth certificates, even while the Commonwealth has seen a marked increase of violence against transgender people.

In the midst of all this, a multimillionaire fantasy writer, J.K. Rowling, has decided to let us know just how much she dislikes transgender people, causing a furor that has threatened to overwhelm far more vital news.

After months of “is she or isn’t she anti-trans” on Twitter, and days after she accidentally posted a sentence related to an anti-transgender news story into a light post about a children’s

<<

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News Briefs

From page 3

tation Recover Plan,” an email from the agency stated. “This plan will include service and operational strategies, such as expansion of Muni service, frequency, and operation, once the city begins to reopen.”

The survey is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. To do so, go to https://www.surveygizmo.com/ s3/5625121/2020.

AIDS grove accepting scholarship applications

The National AIDS Memorial Grove has announced that applications are now being accepted for its Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship.

The grove will award 10 financial scholarships between $2,500 and $5,000 for the Fall 2020/Spring 2021 semesters.

The scholarship is named in honor of Zamora, an AIDS educator, activ-

<<

Foster City

From page 2

Flag policy

Later in the meeting the council members voted to adopt a flag policy that paved the way for them to also order city staff to raise the Pride flag Wednesday. In a memo to the council, Jean Savaree, the city attorney for Foster City, explained her initial reservations she had voiced to one of the council members about flying the rainbow flag.

“The city attorney had previously expressed concern that flying alternate flags without a formal policy might lead to the city’s flagpole being designated as a forum for free speech by the public. By approving a formal policy, which requires that before commemorative flags can be displayed, they must be approved by resolution of the City Council, the city

Illustration: Christine Smith

drawing, Rowling decided to clear the air. First, she went on a rant about an article that referred to “people who menstruate,” claiming it was erasing women to include trans men and nonbinary people.

Days later, just as things had started to calm down, she posted a 3,500-orso-word manifesto on transgender people. The tome, unlikely to be adapted to a stage play or blockbuster movie franchise, regurgitates every anti-transgender assertion used over the last decade, from claims that transmen only transition to gain the societal advantages of men to once again resurrecting bathroom predator panic.

I will not bore you with a point-by-point repudiation of her screed, though plenty of others have gone through it. Suffice it to say that it is full of long disproved scaremongering and more than a few outright falsehoods about transgender people. If anything, I find it a sorry document, written by someone who has decided to fall into some very lazy thinking, prodded along by a certain cadre of anti-transgender campaigners.

Indeed, I find the whole situation a

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sad one. I feel sorry for all the fans, particularly those who are trans, nonbinary, or are friends of same, now retiring their Harry Potter scarves and stuffed owls. Yet I also feel sorry for Rowling whom, I suspect, will come to a realization in a decade or two about just how wrong she was, and how much she may have betrayed her fans and herself by digging in her heels.

In one of her fantasy books, a wizard named Albus Dumbledore said, “It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Rowling has made the choice to stand with Johnson, the Trump administration, and others. She has chosen to be on the side of those who beat us, who kill us, and who mock our deaths.

Oh, and, there’s two other things that has happened recently.

In a stunning 6-3 decision June 15 written by conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court ruled that employment protections for transgender – and gay – people under Title VII are law, meaning that you cannot fire a person based on their trans status or sexual orientation. This ruling will also likely doom attempts at rolling back protections in the Trump administration, like the aforementioned one at HHS. Also, on Sunday, June 14, an estimated 15,000 people gathered at the Brooklyn Museum for a silent march and rally. Their cause? Speaking out in support of black trans lives.

One may hope that Rowling will realize, before it is too late, what side she should be standing on. t Gwen Smith doesn’t live under the stairs. Rather, you’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

ist, and reality television pioneer who died more than 25 years ago of AIDSrelated illness. Zamora appeared on MTV’s “The Real World: San Francisco” in 1994. Before appearing on the show, he had already been an active HIV/AIDS advocate and educator. At age 17 he learned that he was a young man living with HIV. He died in November 1994 at age 22.

The scholarship helps support the education of young people who are engaged in a variety of HIV-related work in their schools, communities, and chosen academic fields.

“The Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship is helping support the next generation of HIV/ AIDS educators, researchers, health providers, and advocates who are committed to the fight against this disease, which is now in its fourth decade,” stated John Cunningham, executive director of the grove.

Gilead Sciences is the major funder and partner for the scholarship, providing a $50,000 grant to the AIDS grove to support the program. The scholarship is open to all current high school seniors and

college freshmen, sophomores, and juniors (ages 27 and younger) who meet various requirements.

The application deadline is Monday, July 20. For more information, visit www.aidsmemorial.org.

retains control over the flags to be displayed, and flagpole remains a nonpublic forum,” wrote Savaree.

As the B.A.R. reported the night of the city council’s initial June 1 vote, City Councilwoman Catherine Mahanpour, currently serving as mayor, rejected flying the Pride flag. She said the city’s municipal building “really wouldn’t lend itself to” doing so.

City Councilman Sam Hindi said he had conferred with Savaree who shared his concerns that agreeing to fly the rainbow flag “opens the door” to the city having to raise flags associated with racist groups or other entities the city wouldn’t want to be associated with.

“One of the unintended consequences, if you will, if we do that is we have to let somebody, for example a racist organization, that put in a request to raise the flag and put us in a not comfortable position,” said Hindi.

“For those reasons I am not recommending raising the flag.”

Hindi, who agreed to issue the Pride proclamation last year when he was serving as mayor, stressed that the denial of the flag flying request did not mean that the city didn’t celebrate its LGBT residents.

“I want to assure the LGBTQ community we support you 100 percent and you are part of our community and we appreciate all your contributions,” he said.

At the June 15 meeting, Foster City Chamber of Commerce Vice Chair Dan Demers thanked the council for issuing the Pride proclamations it has done but also urged them to also fly the flag. Doing so, he said, would encourage other cities to follow suit.

“While admirable first steps this does fall short,” said Demers, referring

ALRP receives Gilead grants

The aforementioned Gilead Sciences has awarded three grants to the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, which will allow the agency to provide essential services to people living with HIV/AIDS. The grants total $175,000, according to a news release from ALRP. “These funds will go a long way toward enabling ALRP to continue to be there for the growing number of clients coming to us for legal help, especially during this new health crisis,” longtime agency Executive Director Bill Hirsh stated, referring to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

ALRP was deemed an essential service and has remained open durSee page 7 >>

See page 8 >>

t

Sports >>

June 18-24, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Gay Games registration postponed a year

by Roger Brigham

R

egistration for the 2022 Gay Games, which had been scheduled to open early this year, has been postponed to the spring of 2021 – just one and a half years before the scheduled start of the event in Hong Kong.

What financial impact that will have on Gay Games XI is unknown.

The Federation of Gay Games informed its general assembly members of the change Tuesday in a joint statement with Hong Kong 2022 organizers.

The organizations also said they will do a survey of potential participants this summer to gauge the level of interest in going to the 2022 event.

Usually registration for the quadrennial LGBT sports and cultural event opens about two years in advance. In their original bid document, Hong Kong organizers had projected that 2,025 participants would register this year, generating $500,000 in operating capital. Eliminating that income from the 2020 projected budget would leave Hong Kong with a hole of several hundreds of thousands of dollars in its operations cash flow.

Neither the FGG nor HK2022 responded to requests for information on how that shortfall would be overcome.

“For Hong Kong, most revenue and expenses are still to come,” the joint statement said.

In the scenario Hong Kong presented in its bid, organizers expected to raise more than $500,000 before the start of 2020 toward a budget of about $7 million. Neither organization said whether that projected revenue had been achieved or what adjustments may have already been made to the budget.

“In order to plan accordingly, GGHK is planning to distribute a participation survey this summer to start to get estimates on the number of participants and to identify the countries/regions they come from,” the joint statement said. “This survey will help us to identify the demand for the sport, arts & culture events and to make any changes in our event, marketing, PR and outreach plans if needed.”

Doug Litwin, longtime marketing officer for the FGG, said, “The FGG will be involved in the creation of the survey, including the questions asked. In fact, we have been working with our partners in Hong Kong on the survey for a few weeks now. The FGG will help distribute the survey and will also have full access to all of the results.”

Courtesy GGHK

Gay Games Hong Kong organizers have postponed registration for the 2022 event.

<<

News Briefs

From page 6

ing the shelter-in-place orders that are only now beginning to be eased.

Most staff and panel attorneys have been working remotely, Hirsh previously told the B.A.R. At the time ALRP was monitoring evictions, which it will continue to do.

“While there are many legal areas that directly impact the health of people living with HIV, including immigration, disability insurance,

and estate planning, there is no issue of greater importance to people living with HIV than housing,” Hirsh stated.

He added that ALRP expects to handle a record number of housing cases this year because of COVID-19. He also anticipates a reduction in federal dollars.

“This emergency funding from Gilead is literally a lifeline for ALRP and our clients, and could not have come at a better time,” Hirsh added.

Darwin Thompson, associate

Continued concerns

The joint statement came two days after the FGG board responded to assembly discussions about continued concerns regarding the viability of the 2022 Gay Games, focused on three issues: the continued yearlong protests in Hong Kong; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; and the decision by the Chinese government to impose a security law on Hong Kong that human rights activists believe will be the end of the “two systems, one country” model Hong Kong has enjoyed since being turned over to China.

Those same activists and many governments also have expressed concern that the security law will put political activists and organizers in danger of reprisals from the mainland.

The joint statement, however, made no direct mention of the security law or the ongoing protests. The closest mention of the protests was an opening statement that the boards of the two organizations had held a meeting “regarding the situation in Hong Kong which has made worldwide news for over a year and continues to capture the attention of global media.”

There was a later non-specific reference to the “current sea change that Hong Kong, the United States and to the extent other parts of the world are witnessing.” The phrase “the current situation,” is repeatedly used.

At the FGG general assembly meeting in Guadalajara last year, several delegates raised concerns about what impact China’s tightening grip on political affairs in Hong Kong would have on their ability to recruit athletes to register for the Gay Games. They urged the FGG board to have a “Plan B” in effect should it seem almost inevitable that holding the event in Hong Kong would not be viable.

“The Steering Committee meets with the GGHK team on a monthly basis and many of your questions are continuously reviewed as planning for the event progresses. There is a contingency planning group of members from both the FGG and the GGHK

director of public affairs for Gilead, stated that the company was “pleased” to support ALRP’s work to address and eliminate health disparities, especially those for HIVrelated disparities in the Bay Area.

“We believe this is a critical time to continue to support local programs that are working to improve the health and wellness of those living with HIV,” he stated.

For more information about ALRP, visit www.alrp.org.t

team. In addition the FGG has created a new contingency planning group to discuss not only backup plans for our quadrennial event, but also for our other activities.”

The first signs of such contingencies for the FGG have been the delay of site selection for the 2026 Gay Games; and the decision to postpone the 2020 annual meeting to January 2021 in London and make it a virtual meeting.

Despite the political and health challenges, organizers say they still ex-

pect to have 12,000 participants.

Major participatory multi-sport events such as the Gay Games are heavily dependent on recruiting efforts by member sports organizations. Many LGBT sports federations have indicated skepticism about generic assurances in the wake of such financial disasters as the 2017 Miami World Outgames, which assured participants all was well right up to the second they cancelled the event hours before opening ceremonies were to be held. t

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Remembering Pulse victims

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anza Mexika, left, honored a memorial at 18th and Castro streets June 12 for the 49 people killed and 53 injured at the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando,

Rick Gerharter

Florida four years ago. Earlier, Danza Mexika led a procession of nearly 200 people from Castro and Market to the memorial site.

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<< Community News

8 • Bay Area Reporter • June 18-24, 2020

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Farmers market

From page 1

who is married to Gail Hayden, contended the Livermore Pride group was asked to stop handing out the flags “because they had been deemed unsafe.”

He added that the Pride group had not filled out a “Hold Harmless Agreement” that CFMA requires of all market participants. Hayden also wrote that the Pride group “denied” requests that it relocate to the market’s free speech area.

“To our astonishment, this event has mushroomed over the ability to hand out materials (18” gay pride flags) at the market without approval from market management. Add to this, the pointytip flags were being used by children as swords, nearly poking one child in the eye,” wrote Hayden. “Safety and management protocol have taken on a new meaning to some in the Livermore community. Its now being categorized as Racial Bigotry and Sexual Discrimination. This interpretation is unfair.”

CFMA, insisted Hayden, “does not enforce its rules in a discriminatory fashion, and does not ever single out any specific group. An item deemed unsafe has nothing to do with its cause or subject.”

Livermore Pride response

In response to the letter, the Livermore Pride board of directors released a statement to the B.A.R. expressing disappointment in how the Hayden family has conducted itself over the past week.

“Had CFMA been open to discuss-

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A pink unicorn showed up at Dan Good Cookies in Livermore and was greeted by owner Dan Floyd.

ing this circumstance and engaging genuinely, yesterday’s community and media interest would have been mitigated. By shutting down their social media venues, avoiding community discussion and giving inconsistent talking points to explain away the incident, CFMA created their own crisis,” stated the Pride board. “Walking away, as they did today, is also not conducive to resolution, especially after stating in the media that they wanted to both resolve the circumstances and welcome Dan Good Cookies back to the Livermore Farmers Market.”

The Pride board noted that due to CFMA’s decision to end its management of the farmers market that, “sadly, their subcontracted vendors will suffer economically while another management contractor is identified that can commit to a diverse and welcoming Livermore Farmers Market.”

The board also refuted a number of

points that Hayden made in his letter regarding various aspects of the altercation and CFMA’s rationale for its banning distribution of the Pride flags.

“We had hoped that CFMA would have reached out in the last week to offer their apology and commit to reconsidering their practices, but they did not,” stated the Pride board. “They instead twice ignored Dan’s correspondence asking for clarity on the rules and policies, and cited Dan for purported violations that were not among the infractions he was aggressively accused of that day. CFMA ignored all of the comments the community shared yesterday on the Livermore Farmers Market and CFMA social media pages.”

Hayden in his letter also referred to CFMA staff doing Zoom interviews with local television stations about the incident. (CFMA has not responded to the B.A.R.’s interview requests.)

In one interview conducted in

SF Pride

From page 1

a request for comment by the B.A.R.’s Wednesday press deadline.

This year’s Pride parade was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, leaving Market Street open on Pride Sunday for the first time in decades – and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Pride, which began to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, an LGBT uprising against police harassment.

“We want you to make this day your own,” the post about the June 28 protest march states. “Create a contingent of your beautiful queer neighbors, lovers and community members.

Bring your motorcycles, cars, strollers, trucks, bikes, and feet. Bring offerings, gifts, dance, music, debauchery, spirit, whatever you have to share.

“We call on all queer communities and our accomplices that are fighting for a future without white supremacy and the structures that support it. Join us in [the] streets so we can reclaim Pride,” it concludes.

When asked for comment about the June 28 event, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman stated he suspects “there may be more.”

“We have reached out to the City’s Emergency Operations Center to encourage them to begin planning for how to ensure whatever events do happen around Pride can occur as safely as possible,” Mandelman said.

“The pandemic is still with us. Our numbers have been very good so far,

Courtesy Brittni Kiick

person with KPIX5, the local CBS affiliate, Gail Hayden told the reporter when asked about her comments to Floyd about the flags that, “I didn’t really mean political, I meant in the sense that it’s not food, it’s in another category, it’s the same as when animal cruelty people, factory farming, people against foie gras. Every market has 10 to 20 things that people argue about.”

But the Pride board was critical of the various comments the Hayden family has made in the various media interviews and in its letter obtained by the B.A.R. They said CFMA’s leadership has been spinning “a new defense for indefensible behavior” and that safety concerns wasn’t stated as the rationale for the admonishment Floyd received that Sunday at the market.

The Pride board also called the Hayden’s referring to a “free speech zone” where items can be handed out “a red herring since distribution of a Pride flag isn’t ‘speech,’ nor is it political.”

In contrast to Doug Hayden claiming in his letter that “any vendor is welcome to decorate their booth with lifestyle items,” the Pride board stated that CFMA had sent Floyd an email with his citation that said, “Please note when wondering how to decorate your stall at the discretion of the market manager, a good guideline is ‘food related.’ It is all about cookies. That’s the goal is to sell food.”

In his letter, Doug Hayden wrote that they also tried to address the situation with community members via social media platforms to little effect.

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of responses do not seem to care about the liabilities or complications that

Foster City

From page 6

to the proclamations. Flying the flag, he added, is a “powerful symbol of acceptance and allyship to the LGBTQ community and a beacon of hope to the citizens, employees and employers who champion or identify with the LGBTQ community.”

A number of residents and other community and religious leaders in Foster City and San Mateo County also spoke out in favor of seeing the city raise the Pride flag. Visa Inc. and Gilead Sciences, which are both located in Foster City and fly the rainbow flag in front of their buildings in the city, also urged the city council to raise

Who, courtesy Twitter; Hernandez, davidhernandezofficial.com; Electra, courtesy Wikipedia

Betty Who, left, David Hernandez, and Dorian Electra are three of the entertainers San Francisco Pride officials announced for this year’s virtual event June 27-28.

Courtesy Big Freedia

Big Freedia will headline this year’s SF Pride virtual entertainment.

Last week, Lopez and Wysinger announced that in their quest to center black voices during this year’s virtual

SF Pride celebration, queer bounce musician Big Freedia will headline the event.

As the B.A.R. first reported online last week, Big Freedia will be joined by a host of performers as SF Pride’s 50th anniversary takes place virtually June 27-28 on its website.

Other performers announced include gay “American Idol” finalist David Hernandez; Australian singersongwriter Betty Who; San Franciscobased drag performers Sister Roma, Honey Mahogany, Per Sia, and Yves Saint Croissant; trans artists Urias and Dorian Electra; and queer Chicago rapper Kidd Kenn.

Freedia, who identifies as gay and prefers male or female pronouns, according to NPR, has been credited with helping popularize the genre of hip-hop known as bounce, which was

largely underground since developing in the early 1990s.

Wysinger and Lopez spoke with the B.A.R. via phone June 11.

“We are able to announce the first wave of entertainers in our online celebration,” Lopez said. “Over the last couple weeks, not only Pride but organizations all over the nation are re-evaluating their messages and tone, and so our online celebration is in flux. We are trying to center black voices and also (queer and trans people of color) on our virtual stage.

“Further announcements will be made further on,” Lopez added.

According to a news release, more than 13 hours of programming will be streamed through www.sfpride.org as the nation’s largest gathering of the LGBTQ+ community and allies goes online for the first time.

the rainbow flag.

Vice Mayor Sanjay Gehani chalked up what happened at the earlier council meeting as a “misunderstanding” and made it clear he would be supporting adoption of the flag policy and raising the Pride flag.

“We should be making every effort to stand together,” he said.

Councilwoman Richa Awasthi also spoke in favor of doing so. She said it was time for the city to fly the Pride flag and questioned what message it would send if it refused to do so when all the cities surrounding it are doing so.

“To me displaying the Pride flag in the month of June informs the LGBTQ community that they are included, they are loved, they are a part of us,” said

Awasthi, adding that she wished the council had voted on the issue sooner so the flag could be up all month.

Hindi provided the third vote in support of flying the Pride flag, and he thanked the mayor for bringing the item back before the council. He added that the city attorney had provided him a “better answer” to his questions about the flag issue than during their prior conversation.

“To me really it is a no brainer to raise the Pride flag and make sure Foster City is a welcoming community,” said Hindi.

But Mahanpour and Councilman Jon Froomin both spoke out against approving the flag policy and voiced concerns that flying the Pride flag

would be divisive.

Froomin argued the policy requires the council and future councils “to discriminate between groups” if it votes to deny a flag request but approve a different one. He also objected to seeing the city’s flag be removed in order to fly a commemorative flag in front of city hall and suggested a flagpole be erected in a city park for such flags.

“I want it to be very clear to the public, my vote on this has absolutely nothing to do with the Pride flag,” said Froomin, explaining his opposition was focused on the position if puts the council in going forward in deciding on other commemorative flag requests. “If this policy is adopted, my intention is to approve any flag that

and we have saved thousands of lives in San Francisco, but we want to keep it that way.”

Last week, Mandelman stated that large public gatherings on Pride weekend were likely, despite the cancelation of the in-person parade.

Similar events have already occurred in other cities. In West Hollywood last weekend an All Black Lives Matter march occurred when Los Angeles Pride’s parade normally would have. In Brooklyn, a Black Trans Lives Matter event drew thousands on the weekend Brooklyn Pride in-person events would have occurred.

Big Freedia to headline virtual SF Pride

t

arise when others decide to hand out whatever they wish inside a market.

In fact, the vitriol has been unfair and extreme by any standard,” he wrote.

“Since this occurrence, physical harm and death threats have been made against the Association Staff and its vendors.”

The Pride board in its statement to the B.A.R. condemned the threats that the Hayden family has received in the last two days.

“Ms. Hayden represents CFMA, and her family who works for CFMA defends her approach and continues to obfuscate this issue, as well as engage in public historical revisionism regarding its nature. We have sadly heard, however, that Ms. Hayden has been targeted with potentially violent threats, and want to remind everyone that no matter the nature of our disagreements, that there is no room for violence in a civil society,” stated the board.

It added that, “Livermore Pride is pleased to be actively engaging with stakeholders and decision-makers to help ensure a timely and efficient transition that brings a positive new beginning to the Livermore Farmers Market and continues efforts toward an inclusive and welcoming community.”

Overall, the Pride board stated it was “heartened by the love and support that Livermore and the region have shown” both Floyd and its executive director, Amy Pannu, who taped the confrontation at the market, “after learning about the disrespectful and discriminatory attitude they received.”

The board added, “Our community has firmly said, ‘This is not OK, enough is enough.’” t Additional programming will include speeches from LGBTQ+ elected officials and thought leaders, highlights of the accomplishments of Pride’s 2020 community grand marshals and honorees, conversations, reflections on 50 years of the Pride movement, and more.

Two recurring themes that have haunted the Pride organizations both in San Francisco and elsewhere in recent years are issues surrounding police participation and the visibility of trans people and people of color, particularly black people.

Pride is the annual commemoration of the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when in June 1969, LGBTs fought the New York City Police Department when officers conducted a then-routine raid at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.

At the time the Stonewall Inn was a hangout for the people most excluded from other spaces both in the LGBT community and society writ large – sex workers, drag queens, gendernonconforming and trans people, and the homeless.

On the one-year anniversary of the riots – 50 years ago this year – protests were held in major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles that became the forerunners to today’s Pride celebrations. In the years since, activists have said Pride has strayed too far from its roots in protest and rebellion, and has too often focused on white, gay, cisgender men at the expense of other people in the LGBT community. t comes our way.”

Mahanpour said she agreed with Froomin’s stance and reiterated her belief that the city, state, and U.S. flags should be the only ones flying in front of City Hall.

“I see the stars and stripes as a sign of unity and diversity,” she said. “I see no reason to change our practices on this.”

She later added, “I support diversity. I support inclusion. I support the (Pride Month) proclamation. I just don’t support the flag raising.”

As a compromise, Hindi revised his motion so that the city will fly the city, U.S. and Pride flag for the rest of June. t

t <<

From the Cover >>

June 18-24, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

Supreme Court

From page 1

an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.”

Reaction from LGBT rights groups was swift.

“This is a huge victory not just for LGBTQ people, but for our country,” said National Center for Lesbian Rights legal director Shannon Minter.

“Today’s decision will be remembered as a watershed in the history of LGBTQ rights, even as our country continues to grapple with the brutal legacy of racism.”

Others said the court correctly read the law.

“The Supreme Court agrees with the straightforward reading of the law that we’ve been advocating for years,” said Jenny Pizer, senior attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. “The words on the page say no workplace discrimination because of sex. There’s no way to understand those words that excludes sexual orientation or gender identity. It means essential job protection for millions of LGBT people. That’s more important than ever now as we grapple with the ongoing health pandemic and related economic challenges. For half a century, the law has promised workplace fairness. The court today agrees that promise protects LGBTQ people like everyone else.”

While the decision interprets the reach of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, the ruling is widely expected to be applicable to many other federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on sex. Among those laws are Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Equal Credit Act, and section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bars discrimination in health care and health care insurance.

Just last Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made final a rule change that reversed an Obama-era regulation interpreting the ban on sex discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to apply to cases of transgender discrimination. In addition to

Courtesy U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that firing people because they are LGBT is illegal.

undoing protections for transgender people, the rule change also rolls back protections based on sex stereotyping, women who have had abortions and those who speak English as a second language.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers who have more than 15 employees from discriminating “because of sex.” The question was whether courts should interpret “sex” to encompass sexual orientation and transgender status.

The court took up the issue in two separate oral arguments: one dealing with sexual orientation and one dealing with transgender status.

The sexual orientation cases were Altitude Express v. Zarda, from New York and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Bostock v. Clayton County, from Georgia and the 11th Circuit. Both involved gay men who were fired after acknowledging they were gay. The 2nd Circuit said the employer’s firing of parachute instructor Donald Zarda did violate Title VII. But the 11th Circuit dismissed Gerald Bostock’s lawsuit, saying the court was bound to conform to an earlier decision by the 11th Circuit – a ruling that

Title VII does not cover sexual orientation.

The transgender status argument came through Harris Funeral v.

EEOC, from Michigan and the 6th Circuit. It marks the first time the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the issue of whether a transgender person is protected by Title VII. The Harris case involves a funeral director, Aimee Stephens, who worked for years identifying as a male because that was the gender assigned to her on her birth certificate. But Stephens sincerely believed, since a young age, that her gender was female. When she got the courage to live authentically, she told her boss she would begin transitioning to live life as a woman. Harris Funeral fired her, and Stephens filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

EEOC ruled that Harris Funeral’s action violated Title VII, and the 6th Circuit agreed.

Only 21 states prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation and transgender identity.

Legislation has been pending in Congress for more than four decades, attempting to establish protections na-

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tionwide; but, the legislation – which has taken on different forms – has not cleared Congress. The House of Representatives last year passed the latest version, dubbed the Equality Act. But it has not seen a vote in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Stephens, the funeral home employee who brought the transgender complaint to the EEOC, died at her home in Detroit May 12 of kidney failure. She was 59. Zarda, the plaintiff in the Altitude Express case, died in 2014 in a parachuting accident. He was 44.

Bostock said his job with Clayton County, advocating for child abuse and neglect victims, had been his “dream job.” The county fired him for “conduct unbecoming” after he joined a gay softball league. The loss of the job also meant loss of health insurance, just as Bostock was recovering from prostate cancer. Reached recently, Bostock, 56, said he is currently working as a mental health counselor for a Georgia hospital.

Title VII in historic context

portance to the LGBT community.

For many years, with the pivotal vote of then-Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court ruled that states could not bar same-sex couples from marrying (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015), the federal government could not bar recognition of same-sex couple marriages (U.S. v. Windsor, 2013), and states could not bar same-sex couples from having intimate relations (Lawrence v.

Texas, 2003).

Not all the LGBT decisions have been good ones for LGBT people. In 2017 (in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer), the majority ruled that church schools should receive the same grants as state schools even if they discriminated against LGBT people. In 2018 (in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado), it hinted it might be open to allowing small businesses to discriminate against LGBT customers by claiming a religious exemption.

The scope of the Bostock decision potentially sweeps far beyond Title VII’s protection in employment and will likely be cited by courts interpreting similar “because of sex” language in many other statutes.

“This is a huge victory for LGBTQ equality,” said James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “The Supreme Court’s clarification that it’s unlawful to fire people because they’re LGBTQ is the result of decades of advocates fighting for our rights. The court has caught up to the majority of our country, which already knows that discriminating against LGBTQ people is both unfair and against the law.”

But Esseks cautioned, “Our work is not done. There are still alarming gaps in federal civil rights laws that leave people – particularly black and brown LGBTQ people – open to discrimination in businesses [and] open to the public and taxpayer-funded programs. Congress must affirm today’s decision and update our laws to ensure comprehensive and explicit protections for LGBTQ people and all people who face discrimination.” t

June has often brought Supreme Court decisions of monumental im-

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 Yelp reviews

by Brian Bromberger

A Secret Love Lesbian couple in documentary covers amazing decades tually playing four seasons as catcher for the Peoria Redwings.

This saga was the inspiration for the 1992 Penny Marshall hit film, A League of Their Own. Terry suggests there were quite a few lesbians who played on teams, a fact not mentioned in the movie, but will figure more prominently in the upcoming Amazon Prime comedy series remake.

A Secret Love is most adept at showing how even when you have an understanding

Andre' Leon Talley

‘The Chiffon Trenches: a Memoir’ shares the fashion guru’s life by design

by Cornelius Washington

O

n the heels of his record-breaking documentary, The Gospel According to André (now part of The National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress), André Leon Talley has published the tome, The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir, an incredibly brave, stylish, naked and, hopefully (for him) cathartic, look at the life and career of the grand, gluttonous eunuch of fashion.

by Brian Bromberger

“D

ear Simon, Screw you for having the world’s most perfect, accepting parents [and] the world’s most supportive friends, because for some of us, it’s not that easy. My story is nothing like yours.”

So begins the disenchanting new Hulu TV series, a spin-off of the 2018 Love, Simon, the first gay teen romance film released by Hollywood. Love, Simon was seriously flawed with its privileged white, upper-middle class hero passing as straight, hetero-normative template, and stuffed with cliches about teens and LGBTQ people.

Simon falls in text love with a secret gay classmate, is dragged out of the closet by a manipulative fellow student, makes a crazy declaration of love, ending with his first gay kiss on a Ferris wheel in front of the whole school.

One needn’t have watched Love, Simon, as the plot is regurgitated within the first five minutes via Victor’s Instagram messages to Simon providing a skeletal context. Simon’s voice-over narration revealed a wry, breezy, self-effacing, comical tone that at least made Simon semiplausible with the veneer of a persona.

Cleverly, Love, Simon married two overwrought genres, the coming out story with the mystery, as the identity of Simon’s confidential admirer, that functioned as a cliffhanger, wasn’t disclosed till the final frame. Love, Victor, is nothing like Love, Simon, lacking the

The book reveals the ambivalence, menace, and bitterness directed toward black people who foolishly dedicate their lives and talent toiling in the service of white people, particularly concerning aesthetics, status and money.

Raised in Durham, North Carolina during the Jim Crow era, Talley was an only child, raised by his grandmother, who worked as a maid for 50 years. After graduating from Brown University with a Masters of Arts Degree in French Literature, he moved to Manhattan and immediately interned with the modest charm and suspense of the original.

Love, Victor was created and produced by Disney+ TV, who became upset over scenes of alcohol use (minor), marital problems (Victor’s parents), and sexual exploration (tame with only kissing and no premarital sex), that might disturb families with young kids.

So Disney sold it to Hulu, yet Love, Victor has Disney imprints all over it. We are back again at Creekwood, a wealthy public high school that doesn’t exist in the real world, but only in the imagination of Hollywood scriptwriters. There isn’t one pimple on any of the students, probably because all the main teen characters are played by gorgeous actors in their 20s, long past their acne-prone years.

Victor (Michael Cimino) is the eldest son of an allegedly religious, faux-working-class Texan Columbian-American family. Unlike Simon, who knew he was gay, Victor is confused about his sexual identity.

A part of Victor still likes girls and within five minutes of stepping foot into Creekwood, he bonds with the most popular one, Mia (Rachel Naomi Hilson, This Is Us) romancing her throughout the entire series. He also encounters the openly gay Benjie (George Sear) and is instantly smitten with him, though he has a boyfriend.

It is mystifying that Disney worried this show would offend some viewers, which if the script had actually done so, might have rendered Love, Victor more compelling and relevant. Love, Victor, despite the undoubtedly

biological family, there can still be conflicts. As the documentary opens, Terry and Pat, now in their 80s, are deciding whether to sell their home and enter an assisted living facility.

To his credit, Bolan is unafraid to show the unpleasant sides of all the participants. Despite their being family he remains truthful about their disagreements. Through its use of archival footage, home movies, nostalgic photos, newspaper clippings, and letters, the film gives an intimate, poignant account of the

aging process and the bittersweet prospect of losing one’s cherished partner.

Triumphantly, the movie documents that love conquers all, even if it takes 70 years to materialize. To those who believe same-sex relationships are inferior or dissimilar to straight ones, they need only watch A Secret Love to be otherwise convinced.t

iconic empress of fashion, Diana Vreeland, during her reign as curator of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. She recommended him to Interview Magazine, where he was rapidly promoted from receptionist to fashion editor.

The lily-white world of haute couture was not prepared for a 6’6” tall black beanpole of a man, sitting in the front row and the salons and socializing with the icons of French fashion.

Talley erroneously placed his faith in the idea that his impeccable southern manners, immaculate French and snappy writing skills would pave the way for his acceptance and embrace by Paris.

His writing of a rave review of Givenchy’s High Chic collection and his bold choice of using only black models turned out to be a huge mistake as, afterwards, racism raised its ugly head.

Pierre Berge, YSL’s business partner and former lover, placed one phone call to Fairchild that effectively ruined Talley’s career in bourgeoisie Paris. Andre was only 30 years old.

His star diminished, Talley returned to the U.S., where he worked freelance, most notably (for one year) at Chicago’s Johnson Publishing, the creators of Ebony and Jet magazines.

He landed at Vogue as Fashion News Editor, but his observational, anthropological skills, referencing African elements of haute couture,

was not appreciated by Grace Mirabella, the magazine’s then-editor-in-chief.

It was at this time that he first met Anna Wintour. Next, Talley became the Style Editor at Vanity Fair, moving to HG magazine (previously House & Garden) where Wintour was Editor-in-Chief, beginning his long, sad and pathetically masochistic relationship beneath her.

When, at long last, she became editor of American Vogue, Talley became its Creative Director, and their twisted pathology played out on the world’s stage for decades, despite his being thwarted and debased by her at every turn.

Even after his firing from Vogue, he would still waddle over to fit her when requested and literally hold her purse at various functions.

His talent, rigor and exquisite taste, combined with his dramatic persona, made him the heart and soul of the magazine.

No one is better at the art of the interview of the fragile egos of the rich and famous, but, time and again, Talley was underpaid and discharged, always without notice –per Condé Nast custom– as he was as the host of Vogue’s podcast (for which he was paid a paltry $500 per episode), and The Met Gala.

Despite all of this, ultimately, Talley is absolutely on par with legends such as Oscar Wilde, Cecil Beaton and Horst, celebrating humanity, the highest aspect of any person or brand.

With this memoir, he is just now putting in the work to embrace and celebrate himself.

Get the book. Read the book.

The best shade is no shade. Just ‘T.’t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

Hulu

D

irected by Terry’s grand-nephew Chris Bolan in his debut, while seemingly a family affair, A Secret Love doesn’t shy from tense squabbles and disturbing history, showcasing the steadfast devotion and fidelity of these two women’s relationship, paralleling the entire arc of LGBTQ history from outcasts, criminals and sinners to marriage equality.

The story begins in 1947 when the two women met at a hockey rink in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and sensed an immediate attraction. They both grew up in farms in northwestern Canada and Pat experienced a turbulent family life, realizing early on her parents would never accept her sexuality. Terry, a softball celebrity, had been recruited at age 19 by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the U.S. during World War II, even-

Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel in ‘A Secret Love’

Victor (Michael Cimino) and Benjie (George Sear) in ‘Love, Victor.’

Love, Victor A watchable but wasted opportunity good intentions of everyone involved in the project, comes uncomfortably close to trivializing what for many non-privileged people of color raised in culturally traditional religious environments, can still in 2020 be a frightening, wrenching experience of acknowledging one’s sexuality.

Yet with all its deficiencies, from an adolescent perspective the program is watchable,

so one can only hope some isolated teenagers wrestling with their orientation and how to fit in, might be emboldened to accept who they are and learn to be themselves. This might be the only consolation of the frustrating wasted opportunity that is Love, Victor.t

Read the full review on www.ebar.com

San Francisco

t Leather>>

June 18-24, 2020 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

Negotiating Risk Sex in the time of pandemics

by Race Bannon

T

he San Francisco Bay Area is slowly beginning to open from the rigid shelter-in-place restrictions necessitated by the pandemic. This week I walked down Castro Street and felt a vibrancy returning to the city with restaurants serving customers at sidewalk tables. Although we must intelligently proceed with baby steps as we reopen society, the tentative relief seen in the eyes of those on the street was palpable.

However, there is one part of life where the specifics of how we proceed to return to some semblance of normality seems elusive for many – sex. How does one have sex without having been sheltered in place exclusively with someone? How does Kristofer Weston one have sex when the virus is poKristofer Weston (left) and Mike Gaite (right) demonstrating a creative tentially passed by the most casual way to have sex amid the pandemic. of unmasked contacts?

To help me and others struggling with this issue, I moderated an onheadgear orgy. Regular testing was showered and he went on his way, line discussion for a group of about mentioned as a risk reduction meaboth of us sexually satisfied. We’re 50 men who are members of a losure as was outright celibacy for the kinky, dammit. It’s in our nature to cal kinky men’s Facebook group I duration. come up with creative fun ways to administer. The conversation was One of the men who took part in have sex. We can do this!” engaged, passionate and thoughtful. the discussion was Kristofer Weston, One thing the group seemed A day prior to the discussion, New a well-known kinkster and the to agree on was that shame and York City published its Executive Director of IsMyjudgment had no place in such updated Safer Sex and Guy.com. He shared one of dialogues. The moment you judge COVID-19 guidelines, his current play strategies. someone for their own guidelines the most robust and “After some careyou shut down meaningful dissex-positive guidelines I ful discussion I had a course, both one-on-one and as a have seen from any Amerplay buddy come over community. No two people or situican city. They went so far to my place. I had him ations are alike and therefore how as to suggest “making it shower immediately afwe approach sex in the era of COa little kinky” with creter coming in, then put VID-19 will likely differ. ative sexual positions and on a sexy gas mask I had Effective communication between physical barriers such as waiting for him in the bathpartners came up over and over. This walls (glory hole fans are rejoicing). room. I wore another style of propis nothing new for kinky men for Those participating in the discuserly filtered fetish mask. My buddy whom negotiation is a foundation of sion had their own suggestions such and I then proceeded to have an their sex. Assessing our own and othas playing masked, engaging in webamazing time with bondage and ers’ risk profiles is a tool we can also cam sex and phone sexting, remote other forms of play, never once use when deciding whether to move control sex devices, and one person taking the masks off. It was incredforward with sex. In the case of COsuggested a head-to-toe latex and ibly hot. Once we finished, we both VID-19, and unlike HIV, one’s risk

profile includes those with whom you live, work and socialize since the virus does not discriminate between sex and social partners.

Self-isolating for an agreed upon period such as seven or 14 days prior to and after having sex was mentioned by a few of the men.

Stay safe in whatever ways you decide are best for you. Just make sure you stay informed about the virus and the latest suggestions from both health authorities and your fellow sexual adventurers.t

Read the full article on www.ebar.com Resources Guide The LGBTQ Leather, Kink and Sexuality Communities Resources Guide is a ‘living’ document and will be updated ongoing as more information is made available. https://bit.ly/2Jpcxud Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. www.bannon.com

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