June 20, 2019 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter

CA Capitol flew flag in '90

Author Kevin Killian dies

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Frameline 43 opens

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Work starts on SF’s Eagle Plaza

Vol. 49 • No. 25 • June 20-26, 2019 Eagle owner Alex Montiel, left, grabbed a shovel at the groundbreaking for Eagle Plaza, joining Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. Loring Sagan of Build Inc., Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Matt Haney, Victor Ruiz-Cornejo from state Senator Scott Wiener’s office, and Bob Goldfarb, president of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.

Mariette Pathy Allen

Former high school gym instructor Steve Dain

Trans man on list of nominees for Emery high gym

by Meg Elison

mery High School in Emeryville is in the middle of a debate over the name of its new gymnasium and sports complex. The community and student body have submitted a long list of names, from the celebrity and unlikely (Bob Marley) to the local and specific (Elio Abrami, a 38-year gym teacher and coach at Emery High who died in 2018.) The list of nominees also includes Steve Dain, who taught gym at Emery High from 1966 to 1976. In 1975, Dain took medical leave to have gender confirmation surgery at Stanford Medical Center. Dain returned to work having transitioned and legally changed his name, eager to resume his duties. Upon understanding what had happened during Dain’s time off, then-district Superintendent Lewis Stommel first suspended and then fired Dain for reasons of “immoral conduct,” and accused him of conducting unauthorized lectures on school premises about his “sex change” operation, according to Alameda County Superior Court documents obtained by the Bay Area Reporter. The text of the suit itself is a testament to historical transphobia. Dain attempted to keep his medical records sealed and private, but the court subpoenaed and read them during the proceedings. Dain’s attorney genders him as male in all filings, while the respondent’s description of the petitioner range widely, defaulting to “he/she” in many places. Dain won his suit, despite these difficulties and the rarity of being an out trans man in 1977. He was awarded his salary from the year he lost his teaching income (about $19,000) plus the cost of the suit and attorney fees. The initial judgment outlines the possibility of “such other and further relief as the court may deem proper,” but no amount is given. Dain, who died in 2007 at age 68, was unable to return to teaching as a career after the case, instead going to school to study chiropractic medicine in 1985, according to his East Bay Times obituary. Christian Patz, current vice mayor of Emeryville, thinks that naming the gym after Dain would send the correct message, and help right the district’s wrong. “It’s an opportunity for visibility and inclusion,” said Patz, a 48-year-old straight ally.

by Matthew S. Bajko

ix years after the owners of the Eagle bar first raised the idea of building a leather-themed plaza, city officials and LGBT community leaders gathered Tuesday, June 18, to break ground on the $1.85 million project. It is the world’s first public parklet dedicated to the leather community. While construction of the outdoor space

in front of the gay bar on 12th Street won’t be complete until December, at the earliest, the plan is for a new flagpole to be erected in time to raise a leather flag Sunday, September 22, to kick off the city’s Leather Week ahead of the annual Folsom Street Fair, taking place this year September 29. “This is a special day for everybody, not only for me,” said Alex Montiel, an owner of the Eagle Tavern who is a member of the

Friends of Eagle Plaza group supporting the project. “What makes it so special is we will have a permanent public recognition for the community. We have always been here and now we have a monument for our diversity.” Beth Bicoastal, 37, the events coordinator for the Eagle who worked as its manager when it reopened in 2013, noted the community has spent years trying to get the plaza off See page 7 >> Bill Wilson

Dem prez hopefuls offer LGBT proposals by Lisa Keen

head of next week’s Democratic presidential debates, several candidates have been showing their Pride. Twenty candidates have qualified to appear in the first nationally televised debates of the Democratic Party for the 2020 presidential primary season, including gay South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. One of four questioners for those candidates will be lesbian political analyst Rachel Maddow. All that, and the fact that the second debate takes place just one day shy of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, makes the odds pretty good that LGBTspecific issues will come up during the June 26 and 27 forums. Several Democratic candidates have been prominently showcasing their support and commitment to the LGBT community all month – speaking at Pride celebrations, making statements in recognition of the third anniversary of the mass shooting at the Orlando, Florida LGBT nightclub Pulse, and – in a few cases – announcing very specific priorities for how they will tackle the needs of the LGBT community should they be elected president. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) was the first to release a plan, introducing her “LGBTQ policy agenda” May 31. The 30-point

Rick Gerharter Rick Gerharter

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke

Kirsten Gillibrand was the first of the Democratic presidential candidates to release an LGBT plan.

proposal calls for signing the Equality Act immediately upon passage. The act, which the House passed last month, seeks to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in public accommodations, employment, housing, and other areas. It faces an unlikely vote in the Senate. Gillibrand’s proposal also calls for directing the Department of Justice to treat sexual ori-

entation and gender identity as a protected minority under non-discrimination laws, ending President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members, “permanently codify[ing] marriage equality as the law of the land,” prohibiting federal funds to child welfare agencies that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, addressing the high suicide rate among LGBTQ youth, ensuring pro-

KEEP UP! See page 10 >>

See page 6 >>

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<< Community News

2 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

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he theme of San Francisco’s Pride celebration this year is “Generations of Resistance,” referencing the history of the movement toward queer liberation, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, as well as the generations to follow. Despite the community’s veneration of, and debt toward, its elders, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office would like to remind people that folks aging in place in San Francisco are uniquely vulnerable and in need of support. At a news conference Friday, June 14, outgoing San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced the launch of a public education campaign focusing on safety protections for marginalized and vulnerable older members of the queer community. Representatives of the office’s victim services division, Community United Against Violence, and Openhouse joined him to kick off this program on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. “Members of the LGBTQ community feel isolated by the prejudice and the biases they have faced. They grew up – not to say that we’re perfect today – but when they were growing up, things were really, really bad. They may be hesitant to come forward when they’re suffering abuse. They often fear law enforcement, because of the history of law enforcement and the LGBT community,” Gascón said. Pablo Espinoza, co-executive director of CUAV, pointed out that this unique vulnerability stems from the way previous generations of LGBTQ people have been isolated. “Also, a lot of older LGBTQ folks might not have a lot of family,” he said. “Many of these folks are completely estranged from their family. So there aren’t those other intimate connections with other people who would normally be checking in on them. Espinoza added that many LGBTQs rely on friends. “So, if you’re friends with an elder, it’s important that you do check in on

Meg Elison

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, left, talks about his office’s new campaign for LGBT elders, with Pablo Espinoza, co-executive director of Community United Against Violence, and Sylvia Vargas, community engagement manager for Openhouse.

them, that you do ask questions,” he said. “Especially if there’s a new relationship, or someone new in their life. Be curious.” Gena Castro Rodriguez, PsyD., chief of the DA’s victim services division, pointed out that LGBT seniors are statistically more likely to live alone and have less family support and connection to services, making them vulnerable to becoming crime victims. “It is important for us to have responsive and effective services to provide connection, support and resources in times of need,” she said. Sylvia Vargas, community engagement manager for Openhouse, specified the particular types of assistance her organization can offer. “Social connections keep us healthy. A lot of older folks feel invisible, even within the LGBT community,” Vargas said. “I hear that from people in the Castro. Historically, we as a people have had to be very selfreliant. So it can be easy to say ‘no, I don’t need help.’ Sometimes it’s good just to have another set of eyes. That’s what we do with our Friendly Visitor program, just to look in on a community member and act as a gatekeeper. Gascón was asked about Brian Egg, a 65-year-old gay man and victim of homicide whose decomposed torso was found in a fish tank in his South

of Market home last summer. Gascón declined to comment, as the investigation into Egg’s death is ongoing. San Francisco police initially arrested Lance Silva and Robert McCaffrey for suspicion of Egg’s homicide as well as for fraud, theft, identity theft, and elder abuse, but the district attorney’s office declined to file charges, pending further investigation. Silva, 40, had previously been convicted in 2015 for stealing money from the retirement accounts of employees who worked for an upholstery company he once owned in Emeryville. Silva had been held on an Alameda County parole violation at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. He was released in April. According to the DA’s office, posters for the new campaign are being placed in elder care facilities and community centers, letting people know what services are available for older LGBTQ people in San Francisco. This campaign intends to connect people to victim services, CUAV, and Openhouse, depending on their type and level of need. The Bay Area Reporter asked Gascón whether this program was part of the legacy he hoped he would be remembered for once he was out of office. “Absolutely,” he said. t

San Jose museum moves family day to June compiled by Cynthia Laird

eeking to be in synch with Pride Month, Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose will hold its fifth annual Proud of My Family event Saturday, June 22. Organizers said children and adults will enjoy activities to celebrate all types of families, especially LGBTQ parents, relatives, and friends. In the past, the day for LGBTQ and allied families has been held in August, the same month as Silicon Valley Pride. Museum spokeswoman Cecilia Clark told the Bay Area Reporter that the museum will still work with the South Bay Pride organization both this weekend and during its August 2425 Pride weekend. “And, it’s allowing us to better collaborate with SV Pride – they’ll be at our event, along with several other organizations from the LGBTQ community, and we’ll be able to better support their event this year,” Clark wrote in an email. “Last year SV Pride expanded their family activities area, and now that our events aren’t on the same weekend, we can better support their effort to grow their family area.”

Courtesy Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose

A girl holds up a yarn heart at Proud of My Family day at Children’s Museum of San Jose.

Silicon Valley Pride spokesman Saldy Suriben confirmed the changes. “Currently we are working with Children’s Discovery Museum to have a table and participate on their June 22 Proud of My Family event,” he wrote in an email. “Similar to last year they are helping us out with our activities at our Family Garden, an area for children and teens within Silicon Valley Pride festival.” This weekend’s Proud of My Family day will include festive rainbow art activities, moving and grooving in the Rainbow Dance Zone, and getting creative with the temporary art

installations around the colors of the Pride flag. There will also be on-site resources about queer families, according to a news release. The Rainbow Women’s Chorus will perform at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. in the museum’s theater. The day culminates with a celebratory Pride parade at 4:30, led by Silicon Valley Pride. The event supports the museum’s strategic commitment to build awareness and understanding among people of diverse ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic situations, religions, abilities, and family configurations, the release stated. “Our goal is to always make every family feel welcome and celebrated at the museum,” Marilee Jennings, executive director, said in the release. “This event helps foster understanding while recognizing that families come in all types of configurations and that what binds us are the shared holes and dreams for our children and their futures.” Proud of My Family day takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is located at 180 Woz Way. Admission is $15 for adults and children; and $14 for seniors. Infants and museum members are free. For more information, visit http://www.cdm.org. See page 10 >>

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<< Open Forum

4 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Volume 49, Number 25 June 20-26, 2019 www.ebar.com PUBLISHER Michael M. Yamashita Thomas E. Horn, Publisher Emeritus (2013) Publisher (2003 – 2013) Bob Ross, Founder (1971 – 2003) NEWS EDITOR Cynthia Laird ARTS EDITOR Roberto Friedman BARTAB EDITOR & EVENTS LISTINGS EDITOR Jim Provenzano ASSISTANT EDITORS Matthew S. Bajko • Meg Elison CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ray Aguilera • Tavo Amador • Race Bannon Erin Blackwell • Roger Brigham Brian Bromberger • Victoria A. Brownworth Brent Calderwood • Philip Campbell Heather Cassell • Belo Cipriani • Dan Renzi Christina DiEdoardo • Richard Dodds Michael Flanagan • Jim Gladstone David Guarino • Liz Highleyman Brandon Judell • John F. Karr • Lisa Keen Matthew Kennedy • Joshua Klipp David Lamble • Max Leger Michael McDonagh • David-Elijah Nahmod Paul Parish • Sean Piverger • Lois Pearlman Tim Pfaff • Jim Piechota • Dan Renzi Bob Roehr • Adam Sandel • Jason Serinus Gregg Shapiro • Gwendolyn Smith • Tony Taylor Sari Staver • Jim Stewart • Sean Timberlake Andre Torrez • Ronn Vigh • Charlie Wagner Ed Walsh • Cornelius Washington • Sura Wood ART DIRECTION Max Leger PRODUCTION/DESIGN Ernesto Sopprani PHOTOGRAPHERS Jane Philomen Cleland • FBFE Rick Gerharter • Gareth Gooch Jose Guzman-Colon • Rudy K. Lawidjaja Georg Lester • Dan Lloyd • Jo-Lynn Otto Rich Stadtmiller • Kelly Sullivan • Fred Rowe Steven Underhil • Dallis Willard • Bill Wilson ILLUSTRATORS & CARTOONISTS Paul Berge • Christine Smith ADVERTISING/ADMINISTRATION Colleen Small Bogitini VICE PRESIDENT OF ADVERTISING Scott Wazlowski – 415.829.8937 NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE Rivendell Media – 212.242.6863

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Communication breakdown harms community

he recent Oakland City Council budget meeting seems to have resolved little in terms of restoring funding to LGBTQ organizations – our email this week to Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office seeking clarification on exactly how much money is in her two-year budget plan for queer groups has not been answered. City Council President Rebecca Kaplan told us Tuesday that she has proposed a $200,000 grant for Our Family Coalition and $500,000 for LGBT+ homeless youth support. The city’s final budget has not yet been approved. But the unfortunate fallout of the June 10 meeting has been a series of open letters between Joe Hawkins, executive director of the Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, and Renata Moreira, the outgoing executive director of Our Family Coalition. Hawkins accuses Moreira of misrepresenting that OFC is the “only” LGBTQ organization providing services to families in Oakland. Moreira responded that what she said at the council meeting was that “OFC is the only LGBTQ family organization in California exclusively dedicated to serving LGBTQ-headed families for over 20 years.” Video from the meeting shows Moreira saying exactly that. We are saddened that two great queer East Bay leaders of color are squabbling over which agency provides the most services. The fact is that Oak-

Renata Moreira, left, and Joe Hawkins

land lags far behind San Francisco in funding for LGBTQ nonprofits. Both OFC and the LGBTQ center need city resources, and it’s a shame that Schaaf and Kaplan, a lesbian herself, have engaged in their own public budget spat to the point that the needs of queer residents are being ignored. Hawkins and Jeff Myers founded the Oakland center two years ago because they grew frustrated that the city lacked a community space. City Hall talk about support for a community center went nowhere, and the Oakland Pride organization, for which Hawkins used to volunteer, never made enough money to set aside a portion for the project, as it had long planned. Today, the center provides space for 12-step meetings and also offers support groups for queer youth, parents of color, parents of LGBTQ kids, elders,

and rents office space onsite to LGBT therapists. In one of his letters, Hawkins noted that the center established a partnership with Children’s Fairyland to host drag queen/king storytime and negotiated subsidized or no-cost entry for lowincome queer families at the historic Lake Merritt attraction. OFC, of course, is the older, more established organization. It offers support groups and playgroups for families, resources for educators, and workshops and trainings. It is fighting for grants and other revenue sources just like the center. Moreira wrote in one of her responses to Hawkins that the two have met several times and OFC “wished very much to create a collaborative relationship” with the community center from its inception. For a variety of reasons, that hasn’t materialized beyond good intentions. Hawkins wrote that the two haven’t met in years. Hawkins maintains that OFC staff made misleading statements at the meeting; Moreira says they didn’t. Whatever was or wasn’t said, it’s imperative that the organizations’ leaders meet in person to overcome their disagreements. Hawkins and Moreira both seemed open to that. We hope they live up to that commitment. After all, if the city of Oakland is intent on short-changing LGBTQ agencies, as seems to be the case with this latest budget brouhaha, nonprofits will need to work together to help provide as many services as possible to a population that city leaders seem intent on neglecting. t

The Pride in shame by James Brandon

ride Month is here! And with it comes a monthlong excursion navigating coast-tocoast parades to celebrate community, self-affirmation, and a true gathering of family with every facet of the LGBTQ2+ prism. Right? It’s easy to get swept away in our safe bubbles among the swirl of rainbows and glitter-bombed gays, taking countless selfies in front of that mighty flag waving over the Castro, or the seven foot tall drag queen in the parade who’s bedazzled in zirconium crystals. But (best said in Carrie Bradshaw’s voice): “I couldn’t help but wonder: Among the pomp and circumstance of corporate-sponsored floats and scantily-clad distractions, have we lost the true meaning of Pride?” For me, instead of feeling Pride, I experience a squall of anxiety sweeping over me. And it’s not just because I’m bumping up against a sea of queers at the festivities. (If you’re like me, crowds of any size are instant anxiety-inducers.) No, for me, Pride celebrations actually bring to surface the years of shame I’ve been working through since I came out 20 years ago; years I felt alone, isolated, and embarrassed for being someone I was told I couldn’t be. This is not to fault the church, community, or home-life I was raised in. Growing up, I literally didn’t know being gay was a possibility because it was never discussed. Ever. Not in my home, not in my neighborhood, and certainly never in school. This, to me, is the crux of the problem: how can we feel a sense of connection when we’re taught nothing about our history in the first place? Although LGBTQ2+ people have been a fundamental part of society throughout human history, our history is buried. I think this in turn made me feel lost when I began discovering aspects of myself I was too scared to navigate on my own. And that disconnect created a deep chasm in my life that prevented me from ever feeling a true sense of belonging with my peers, or with myself. Without realizing it, I carried this feeling with me well into adulthood. It’s easy to develop masks over time, masks that cover the shame, guilt, and loneliness with passable joy. Even as I spent a decade touring the world with Terrence McNally’s play “Corpus Christi” playing a “gay Jesus,” and I met a global community of likeminded queers longing for a sense of connection to faith and society as I did, the separation to self still prevailed. At the end of each performance, I released a guttural cry. Not just because the experience of the play impacted me so deeply, but because I knew I’d begun to feel that connection on stage and still couldn’t feel it in my life. During one of these performances, though, things began to shift. After each show we’d talk with people who shared deeply personal stories about their own ongoing journeys to self-acceptance. And one night, while in San Francisco, I

David Zaugh Photography

James Brandon

shared a brief, but impactful, exchange with two individuals who identified as two-spirit. I was embarrassed to admit I’d never heard the term before, and had no idea what it even meant. They kindly explained in general terms that it’s the LGBTQ+ equivalent for Native peoples, those still rooted in their heritage and culture, and how the history of their people honoring them as healers and mediators. It hit me in that moment how little I knew of my own history, but also how little I knew of my own community. When you’re suddenly aware, watch what appears in your life. Days later, a cast member brought me an episode of “This American Life” titled “81 Words.” The narrator, Alix Spiegel, tells the story of her grandfather, Dr. John P. Spiegel, a president of the American Psychiatric Association who would help decide the fate of millions of humans: On December 15, 1973, the APA officially removed homosexuality as a mental illness from its catalogue of mental disorders, suddenly “curing” millions of queers. Spiegel’s story is a profound, layered, and dramatic account of that time, and beautifully captures the many voices that impacted this integral moment in our history. One I did not know even existed. Something clicked in me after listening to that episode: a visceral yearning to learn more. From that moment forward, I dove into our past to understand more fully where I came from; and I pushed myself out of my “cis white gay male” bubble to explore other facets of our community’s prism, to really get to know others in our multi-layered family. After joining the GLBT Historical Society and exploring its archives: seeing handwritten love letters half-burned (for fear the lovers writing or reading them would get caught), pictorial scrapbooks of Halloween and New Year’s Eve balls (the only time men could legally dress as women), magazines with anonymous ads warning readers where the cops were “picking up fags on the streets,” and everything in-between, I realized my history as a queer human is just as important as any other part of society. And for the first time

I felt the connection I’d always felt onstage and longed for in my life: a true sense of belonging. History’s slowly being re-written today. In EdSource.org, James Hilton Harrell writes, “In 2011, the passage of California’s FAIR Education Act mandated that LGBTQ accomplishments be taught in our history and social studies classrooms.”* Although a few states have followed suit, there’s still a long way to go before full recognition of our community is not only documented, but part of the required curriculum, and many self-appointed guardians of morality are fighting back. One of the main factors debated in the FAIR Education Act was the likelihood of those who identified as LGBTQ+ doing selfharm as compared to their straight peers, and the direct connection to seeing themselves in history books as a preventive factor. “Representation matters,” Harrell writes. “Seeing that there have been gay people throughout American history is an important first step to letting our current students know that they can and will achieve greatness, just as others have done before them.” I wish I’d had these lessons earlier in life. Maybe that seed of anxiety would’ve never been planted within me at such a young age. Maybe it would’ve prevented years of self-abuse and trauma. Either way, knowing some of our history now has innately changed me: it’s rooted me in my day-to-day living, but maybe most importantly, myself. I hope to instill that change in others through my writing. My young adult debut, “Ziggy, Stardust and Me,” is inspired by that pioneering moment in 1973 and part of my own healing is infused in the journey of my main character, Jonathan, to self-acceptance. I’m still learning about our history and about all our people. I hope I never stop learning. That’s the best part of being human: to not only expand our greatness, but to actually be part of creating a piece of lasting history. And in discovering more about my roots, I feel I’ve finally found myself: the real me connected to a lineage of queers since the beginning of time. I think this is the truest meaning of Pride I’ve ever understood. t James Brandon’s young adult novel, “Ziggy, Stardust and Me,” debuts August 6 from Penguin Random House. Set in St. Louis circa 1973, when homosexuality is still treated as a mental illness, two boys defy all the odds and fall in love. Join Brandon at the “Ziggy” book launch event at the GLBT Historical Society Museum in San Francisco August 8. Learn more and preorder at http://www.justbejb.com. * “With California in the lead, LGBTQ history gets boost in school curriculum” by James Hilton Harrell; June 26, 2018; Edsource.org; https://bit.ly/2MrKyJL.

Politics>>

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 5

Pride flag at CA Capitol 1st flew in October 1990

by Matthew S. Bajko

hen a rainbow flag was raised Monday over the California Capitol, both Governor Gavin Newsom and Equality California, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization, claimed it marked the “first time ever” it had flown over the building. Yet a Pride flag was first raised above the dome of the Sacramento structure on Coming Out Day October 11, 1990. It was said to mark the first time the symbol of the LGBT community had flown at a state capitol building in the U.S. As a front page story in the Bay Area Reporter that day explained, it was the result of a joint resolution passed the day prior by the Assembly and Senate. A past president of the Sacramento gay and lesbian River City Democratic Club, Ken Topper, who was a legislative aide to then-Senate Pro Tem Dave Roberti, had approached the late Senator Milton Marks (D-San Francisco) to introduce the resolution. “It sends a message to all constituencies that we’re as much a part of this society as any other minority or cultural group,” Topper had told the B.A.R., adding that “the raising of that flag raises our visibility and it will enable people to be freer in acknowledging who they are.” Marks had sought to have the Pride flag fly from sunrise on October 11 until the flags were taken down that night. Yet the flag ended up being flown for only a few hours that day, as the B.A.R. reported in its October 18, 1990 issue. Then-governor George Deukmejian ordered the flag to be taken down shortly after it was raised, according to the article. The story also reported that state police had received threats from veterans who said they planned to shoot or burn the flag. Marks criticized the governor’s decision, stating in a news release that it was “inappropriate” and that the Pride flag “represents the diversity of our state and the struggle to gain rights and acceptance for all people.” Now living in Vermont, former Marks staffer Michael Bosia contacted the B.A.R. after hearing about Newsom’s raising the flag this week in order to correct the historical record. In an email Tuesday, he wrote about working with Topper and another Marks staffer, Carol Stuart, on getting the flag flown nearly three decades ago. Asked about seeing not only Newsom, but Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and gay Colorado Governor Jared Polis fly the Pride flag at their state Capitols for the

Barry Schneider Attorney at Law Bay Area Reporter archives

The October 18, 1990 issue of the Bay Area Reporter featured a photo of the Pride flag that flew briefly at the state Capitol on October 11 for National Coming Out Day.

first time this year in honor of Pride month, Bosia replied he was surprised it hadn’t happen sooner. “To be honest, I am surprised that it has taken this long for the second raising of the flag. But now it is much easier in some ways,” wrote Bosia, an associate professor of political science at Saint Michael’s College. “Imagine how dark 1990 was, and how much anger, after nearly a decade of AIDS, the Bush administration, the 1990 AIDS Conference in San Francisco, the failure of Prop S, state and local budget cuts. We really needed something that gave us hope, and that’s why we did it.” Stuart replied in an email when asked about the flag raising in 1990, “for us standing on the lawn, in front of the Capitol that day, it was very meaningful.” She credited Bosia and Topper, w h o did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, for working behind the scenes to make it happen. EQCA spokesman Samuel Garrett-Pate told the B.A.R. the inaccuracy in the news release sent out Monday highlights why it is important that the LGBT community’s history be archived and taught in classrooms, as California and New Jersey now require. “We’re grateful to the Bay Area Reporter for flagging this important moment in history, and applaud the young gay Capitol staff who organized to have a rainbow flag flown over the Capitol in October 1990 – in celebration of National Coming Out Day,” wrote Garrett-Pate in an emailed reply. “Their courageous act should not be forgotten, and we remain dedicated to ensuring our community’s history is recorded, recognized and celebrated.” The release did mention how the rainbow flag had previously been hung over balconies both inside and outside of the building. And it also noted how the Capitol dome was illuminated in rainbow colors in June 2015 when the U.S.

Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. Newsom spokesman Nathan Click sent the B.A.R. a statement Tuesday afternoon explaining that the governor had just learned that the Pride flag had flown for three hours in 1990. “This piece of our state’s history deserves to be called out and recognized,” stated Newsom. “News reports from the time tell of a group of activists and legislators who quietly orchestrated the flag to be flown to commemorate National Coming Out Day. It was an act of visibility and defiance. After a short time on display, Governor Deukmejian was alerted to the flag’s existence and ordered it come down, saying it was ‘mistakenly’ raised.” He added that, “Almost 30 years later, our state is proud to have moved beyond the days when homophobia and bigotry were enshrined in our state body politic. And we are proud of the individuals whose collective actions helped moved our state and society toward acceptance and understanding. The rioters at the Black Cat, the friendly fearlessness of Harvey Milk, the coalition that banded together to fight the hateful Briggs Initiative – California has been a center of LGBTQ resistance. These legislators and activists who first hoisted the LGBTQ pride flag above the Capitol dome are part of that story.” The Golden State, stated Newsom, “proudly raises the LGBTQ pride flag this month in honor of that history. Twenty-nine years after the LGBT pride flag first flew above the Capitol dome, there’s no mistaking why it’s there. California is welcoming and inclusive to all – regardless of how you identify and who you love.” The Pride flag that flew 29 years ago was reportedly to be sent to the National Coming Out Day headquarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico accompanied by a note acknowledging Marks, who died in 1998, and the others involved in having it be flown. See page 10 >>

Letters >> Let’s all read the Mueller report

Now that President Donald Trump recently confessed on an ABC interview that he would, once again, collude with a hostile foreign entity in order to obtain dirt on a rival, it’s more important than ever for everyone to, at least, read Robert Mueller’s summary findings of the Mueller report. Readers will learn that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and offered the Trump campaign assistance – assistance that the campaign willingly accepted instead of

calling the FBI. The report also highlights 10 episodes of obstruction of justice. This country will move down a dark path unless citizens are engaged and the public demands that their elected officials follow the rule of law, just like the rest of us must do. Check out the Mueller Book Club to join a community of thousands who are all reading the Mueller report at https://muellerbookclub.com. Robert Hall San Francisco

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<< Commentary

6 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Pride and injustice

by Gwendolyn Ann Smith

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t’s Pride season, and I want to remind you that, as everyone grabs a cup of slightly-cool beer and goes out to party in the streets, we are honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. This was a street riot against injustice by a largely poor, LGBTQ community against law enforcement. It was a riot that was also used to stoke outrage in the press, like the tabloid New York Daily News’ infamous headline, “Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad.” It’s a hell of a thing to be able to show that, all these years later, we’re still standing. At the same time, we still need to confront injustice. I speak of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is ICE that has been at the heart of incarcerating asylum seekers to the United States, sometimes leading to permanent harm or death in their migrant concentration camps. To be fair, ICE’s attempts to show how well they treat transgender people wasn’t so much to jump on the Pride bandwagon, and much more about distancing itself from a pair of recent transgender deaths at its hands. In a series of tweets, ICE attempted to show off its facility at the Cibola County Correctional Center in Cibola, New Mexico. It was at Cibola that Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez, a 33-year-old transgender woman seeking asylum from Honduras, died. She had been physically abused, was dehydrated, and was suffering complications of HIV. As the New York Times reported, from an independent autopsy, “other detainees cited in the autopsy report recall that Ms. Hernandez experienced the symptoms of severe dehydration ‘over multiple days

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Johana Medina Leon and Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez

with no medical evaluation or treatment, until she was gravely ill.’” ICE, meanwhile, shows pictures of a clean, well-lit facility with trans and gender-nonconforming migrants doing each other’s hair, getting nice meals, and enjoying a host of recreational activities. “Cibola’s medical & detention staff are trained in best practices for the care of transgender individuals,” reads one of ICE’s tweets, while another promotes the facility’s “common areas, televisions, microwaves, a library, and access to outdoor recreation.” The timing of the tweets seems to be a defense not so much for the death of Hernandez, but that of Johana Medina Leon, another trans woman who died June 1. In her case, ICE released her just before she died, and claims that any illness she had wasn’t its fault. “This is yet another unfortunate example of an individual who illegally enters the United States with an untreated, unscreened medical condition” was the word from ICE field director Corey A. Price. Medina Leon came to the U.S. to apply for asylum. She was held since the middle of April. She pleaded with ICE for medical care after she became ill in its custody. She even asked to be deported immediately, giving up her bit for asylum, just for the hope of medical care. So ICE releases a series of tweets that can at best be called propaganda, to deflect from the deaths of two transgender people in its custody. This is where it all takes an even sicker turn. The series of tweets ended up on the radar of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who decided that this didn’t have enough outrage attached to it. In his mind, transgender migrants, based on ICE’s tweets, were being treated too fairly. “Giving fashion tips to men who dress like women who snuck into our country illegally is a priority for the federal bureaucracy,” said Carlson. “They’re happy to spend a lot of your money doing it.” He seemed to forget that this was the administration of his party and his president doing this. “Meanwhile, for American citi-

LGBT proposals

From page 1

tection of LGBTQ youth under Title IX, and supporting a national ban on conversation therapy. Gillibrand has also gone all out for the LGBT vote in Iowa this month, speaking at the Pride rally and working behind the bar at an LGBT watering hole in Des Moines, and arm wrestling a 20-year-old lesbian in Ames. Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) issued a

zens, things get steadily worse,” continued Carlson. “Life expectancy declines, half a million people sleep on the streets every night, and heroin addicts line the streets of our once-great cities. But at least the federal government can pay for specialized detention centers for transgender migrants in New Mexico. “That’s not all,” he concluded. “Thirty million Americans don’t have health insurance, and millions more pay way more than they can afford for health insurance. But transgender migrants don’t have to worry about that at all. They get all the free health care they want, that includes mental health services and dental. Can you afford dental insurance? If not, you might want to seek asylum. It could be worth it for the amenities alone.” This free health care he speaks of is the same care that was denied to Hernandez and Medina Leon. I doubt they ever had a chance at much free dental care as they lay dying, and I doubt the physical assault that Hernandez reportedly suffered would be the sort of amenity Carlson’s viewers would have in mind. But Carlson seems to think that this facility that Hernandez died in, from an agency that has been involved with the deaths of far more than just two transgender people, is somehow a leftist nirvana. He and his ilk serve a double purpose. Not only have they helped legitimize the lies foisted by ICE in its tweets, effectively sidestepping accountability in the deaths of Medina Leon and Hernandez with pictures of basketball hoops and prison libraries, but has fueled the belief that even those small amounts of possible care are too good for those incarcerated in Cibola, and that their lives should be that much worse. This is a lie on top of a lie, and a great injustice. This is something that we need to fight for this Pride season, and never forget what resilience against adversity really means.t Gwen Smith is still working out her Pride plans. You’ll find her at www.gwensmith.com.

33-point “LGBTQ + Equality” plan June 12. While about half of O’Rourke’s points are similar to Gillibrand’s (such as support for the Equality Act, ensuring federal funds do not support discrimination in foster care, and banning conversion therapy), quite a few are unique. For instance, O’Rourke calls for creating an interagency task force whose goal is to end “discrimination in federal programs and actions.” He said he would appoint judges and execuSee page 7 >>

Community News>>

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 7

Planning panel OKs two cannabis retail stores by Sari Staver

wo new cannabis retail stores have been approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission, including one in the Castro that will be owned in part by two gay men. At its June 13 meeting the commission voted to approve the applications for conditional approval for new stores, one to be located at 3989 17th Street near Market, and the other at 1398 California Street near Hyde. Both are part of the city’s equity-owned cannabis program, which enables people from communities that have been affected by the war on drugs to receive incentives to apply for licenses to open retail cannabis stores. Equity applicants have first priority to apply for licenses for new dispensaries. The equity applicant for the 17th Street store is Chris Callaway; the equity applicant for the California Street location is Drakari Donaldson. Both stores intend to sell medical and recreational cannabis and neither has applied for onsite

LGBT proposals

From page 6

tive branch officials “who have a demonstrated record of supporting the full civil rights of every person.” And he would “revitalize” the White House Advisory Council on HIV. O’Rourke also paid special attention to LGBT voters this month, holding an LGBTQIA town hall in San Antonio, and running in a twomile LGBT memorial run in New York City and a 5K Pride Fun Run in Des Moines. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading all current polls of Democratic presidential nomination hopefuls, spoke before a Human Rights Campaign dinner in June, sharing at length his understanding of discrimination against LGBT people and the need to do more. “For all the hard-won progress you have made, for as much as we can celebrate how much better things have gotten, this fight – as you know – is not nearly over,” said Biden. While he didn’t unveil a plan, Biden did venture one promise: supporting the Equality Act. “I guarantee you that, if I get elected president, it will be the first thing that I ask to be done,” said Biden. This came three months after Biden re-couched his assessment of Vice President Mike Pence as a “decent guy” after LGBT leaders and activists reminded him that Pence has a long record of disparaging LGBT people in words and deeds. “You’re right,” he posted on Twitter, “... there is nothing decent about being antiLGBTQ rights. ...” Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), the second-place holder so

Eagle Plaza

From page 1

the ground. “It is a way to preserve the leather cultural district’s history in SOMA,” said Bicoastal, who lives nearby the site on Dore Alley. Montiel, 47, who started wearing leather 21 years ago, dedicated the groundbreaking ceremony to Mike Leon, who bought the Eagle bar with him and died unexpectedly in May. The business partners had discussed the idea of a leather plaza when they first met with local development firm Build Inc. about the housing project it had proposed across the street from the bar on what had been a gated parking lot. The San Francisco-based firm

Sari Staver

Eureka Sky owners Desmond Morgan, left, and his husband, Ray Connolly, are opening a Castro cannabis shop.

who received unanimous approval for their concept from the Castro Merchants last year. At press time, the men did not return a phone call for an update on their plans. They had promised to return to a future merchants meeting following their appearance at the planning commission. Prior to its hearing last week, the planning commission received 52 letters of support for the store, more than half of which were form letters. A handful of people spoke in favor of Eureka Sky, with one person who said he thought the store could lead to more illegal use of drugs at the adjacent plaza, an ongoing problem. But Connolly promised that the storefront would contain at least six onsite cameras to monitor the behavior of customers. Anyone seen smoking on the street will be prohibited from buying at the store in the future, he said. The couple, who have no prior experience in the cannabis industry, had twice attempted to open retail cannabis stores in the city, one near Fisherman’s Wharf and one at 2352 Market Street, but both applications were subse-

quently withdrawn. The partner for the proposed store on California Street is California Street Cannabis Company. It also received overwhelmingly positive testimony at the hearing. One person spoke in opposition, claiming a different type of business would be more beneficial to the neighborhood. The city’s first equity applicant to be approved was the ColeAshbury Group, which intends to open a retail cannabis shop at 1685 Haight Street. The Castro currently has one dispensary, the Apothecarium, located at 2029 Market Street, across from Safeway. Currently, there is another applicant for a retail dispensary at 258 Noe Street, at Market, currently a nail salon. The Noe Street dispensary will be named Flore Store, after its owner’s restaurant, Flore, which is across the street at Noe and Market streets. Flore owner Terrance Alan could not be reached at press time for an update. There are no onsite consumption lounges in the Castro’s immediate future. t

consumption, which must be approved by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The vote on the Castro store was 5-1, with Commissioner Rodney Fong opposed and Commissioner Joel Koppel absent. The vote on the California Street store was 4-1, with Fong opposed and Commissioners Rich Hillis and Koppel absent. The Castro store, now known

as Eureka Sky (it was previously called Sugar), will be located adjacent to Jane Warner Plaza in a ground floor storefront that was formerly the home of the Wild Card, which closed in 2018 after 22 years in the neighborhood, citing neighborhood crime and blight. Partnering on Eureka Sky as applicants are Ray Connolly and his husband, Desmond Morgan,

far in Democratic polling, includes the “Fight for LGBTQ Equality” as one of 25 issue pages on his campaign website, right beneath the “Fight for Women’s Rights.” The LGBTQ page says “We must:” and then lists a number of actions, including passing the Equality Act, health insurance without discrimination, and “Strongly oppose any legislation that purports to ‘protect’ religious liberty at the expense of others’ rights.”

The first night’s debate will include Senator Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), who is holding onto third place in recent polls, and O’Rourke, who has been making the top 10 but with only about 4% of the vote. One presidential candidate whose efforts to make some kind of gesture toward the LGBT community this month seemed to fall flat was Trump. On May 31, he posted a message on Twitter saying, “As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals ... on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize Professional headshots / profile pics homosexuality and invite all naWeddings / Events tions to join us in this effort!” Some respondents on Twitter reminded readers that Trump and his appointees have systematically moved to undermine equal 415 370 7152 • StevenUnderhill.com rights for LGBT people in virtually every department since he took office. And Trump himself has befriended, and spoken highly of, the leaders of several countries Steven-LinkedIn_17160.indd 1 which are notoriously hostile to LGBT people, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called Trump’s Twitter posting “gross hypocrisy, with an emphasis on gross.” “You can’t celebrate Pride and constantly undermine our rights,” said Griffin. t

The big debates

Out of 23 Democratic presidential candidates, only three did not meet the criteria set by the Democratic National Committee to qualify for next week’s national televised debates. They are Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Governor Steve Bullock of Montana, and Mayor Wayne Messam of Miramar, Florida. That does not mean that their campaigns are over; simply that they did not reach a threshold of 1% support in at least three national polls or record campaign contributions from at least 65,000 people. The 20 candidates who did qualify to participate are split equally between the two dates, in random order (not based on money raised or current polling status). NBC announced Friday who will appear when. Buttigieg will appear on the second night’s stage, along with Biden; Sanders; Senator Kamala Harris (D-California), who has been trading places frequently with Buttigieg for fourth place; and Gillibrand, who has been polling at only 1% and has not been among the top 10 favorites yet. agreed to pay for the majority of the parklet as a condition for securing approval of its housing development. Under construction since last year, 136-unit rental housing project cannot open to residents until the Eagle Plaza is built. “People think of us as developers, we are really urban place-makers,” said Loring Sagan, a co-founder of the company. “This is amazing for us. Let’s dig dirt and make it happen.” Using one of the shovels with blades sporting the red, blue, or black colors of the leather flag was Mayor London Breed. She had stepped in earlier this year to cut through the city’s bureaucratic red tape that had delayed final sign off on the project for two years. “That was just really unacceptable,”

StevenUnderhill

said Breed, who announced she was working with gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman to secure $50,000 in the city’s budget for the plaza friends group. It had already raised $80,000 toward a goal of $150,000 to pay for furniture and other decorative elements of the plaza. The friends group will help activate and oversee the plaza when it opens later this year. “I am proud to live in a city that considers the leather communities enough of a vital part of San Francisco to honor us with an official public gathering place,” said B.A.R. leather columnist Race Bannon, who is a member of the plaza friends group. See page 10 >>

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<< Obituaries

8 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

SF author and poet Kevin Killian dies by Meg Elison

he literary world grieves alongside friends and family of poet and author Kevin Killian, who died June 15. He was 66. The cause of death was cancer, his friends said. Mr. Killian was a gay writer and editor, known for his ribald poetry and explicit memoirs that told stories from an unapologetically queer life. He was one of the founding members of the New Narrative literary movement in San Francisco, characterized by an embodied and directly sexual style of writing without euphemism or polite demurral. Born December 24, 1952, Mr. Killian attended Catholic parochial school and graduate school at State

University of New York. He wrote about coming of age in New York during the later part of his career, reflecting on a life lived by his own rules. He moved to San Francisco in 1980, where he became a part of the vibrant literary scene taking shape at that time. Mr. Killian stayed active in that scene for 40 years, authoring and co-writing dozens of books, as well as editing many others. He wrote over 50 plays, and was a widely published art critic. He was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles award for his 1997 book, “Little Men.” For 20 years, Mr. Killian worked on his novel, “Spreadeagle,” which

he spoke to the Bay Area Reporter about in 2013. “I wanted a politics that would enrage people so they would go do something, act upon it. I do want to shock and alarm people, to wake them up. And I want to thrill them with the holy and the divine,” Mr. Killian told the B.A.R. over coffee. His collection called “Argento,” published in 2001, explored his relationship to AIDS as a gay man living in San Francisco during the height of the epidemic, using the visual language of Dario Argento’s films. His most recent publication, “Fascination,” is a combination of memoir and fiction. Reviewers often noted the sophisticated sense of moral ambiguity in Mr. Killian’s work throughout his career; his books and poems questioned what is good and right and whether it matters. Although Mr. Killian identified as a gay man, he was married to queer woman author Dodie Bellamy for 34 years. Bellamy wrote about their marriage for the Village Voice in 2000 referring to herself and her husband as “two people in mutual need and at equal risk.” Bellamy did not respond to requests for comment. Writer and performer David Buuck, a longtime friend of the de-

Daniel Nicoletta

Author Kevin Killian

ceased, confirmed many of the details of Mr. Killian’s death, remarking upon their long-term friendship and artistic connection. “Kevin’s commitment to the art and literary communities and mentoring younger writers and artists, as well as his commitment to an artist’s life and ethos outside the mainstream of convention, is a model for anyone looking to live a creative life in our times. I truly can’t imagine life without him,” Buuck wrote in an email to the B.A.R.

According to Buuck, Mr. Killian died in the company of his two sisters, his wife, and Buuck himself. According to an online post from Buuck, they read Mr. Killian poems by Jack Spicer and played Kylie Minogue songs for him as he breathed his last. A priest was on hand to read the Litany of the Saints, a traditional Catholic prayer of supplication. Memorial services are still being planned and have not yet been announced. t

Queer artists’ group publishes anthology by Sari Staver

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till Here San Francisco, a nonprofit organization of queer artists who grew up in the city, will unveil its just-published “Still Here San Francisco” anthology at a release party Saturday, June 22. Still Here San Francisco, founded by two friends who met at Lowell High School, has “built creative space” for queer artists born and raised and still living in San Francisco, co-founder Natalia Vigil, who identifies as a queer woman of color, said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. Vigil, 35, a writer and artistic director of the organization for the past three years, said group members “tell our stories of survival.” “I like to think of the group as a performance and cultural preservation project that reveals the experiences of queer people raised and still living in the Bay Area,” she said. At this year’s celebration, Still Here will unveil its anthology of nonfiction works, written by 26 queer artists of color. The book, edited by Vigil and Mason J, who requested his last name not be used, “showcases the unique narratives” of group members, Vigil said. The stories explore queerness, coming out, AIDS/ HIV, loss, reclaiming intergenerational memory, legacy, ancestors, and more, she added. “We believe that as storytellers, poets, and artists, we can contribute profound re-understanding of time and place. We believe it is critical to voice our complex experiences with strong San Francisco roots and understand that we have made powerful contributions to San Francisco,” she said. The group’s first show in 2012 was part of the National Queer Arts Festival and sold out the 60seat theater. Membership grew quickly, with up to 400 people attending events, which include a writing workshop series and film screenings as well as the annual celebration.

Sari Staver

Sisters Natalia and Amanda Vigil are preparing for Still Here San Francisco’s anthology launch party.

Amanda Vigil 34, Natalia’s sister who also identifies as a queer woman of color, wrote two pieces in the new book and is the technical director of the yearly show. She said Still Here artists appreciate the opportunity to share their struggles of “living in displacement” where many of their childhood friends have left because of the high cost of living. “We are definitely planning to stay,” she said. Mason J, 31, who identifies as queer, trans, and two-spirit and uses they/them pronouns, wrote in an email to the B.A.R., “For the past seven years Still Here has provided our participants with a multidisciplinary, pan-ethnic, intergenerational queer family composed of born/raised locals and longtime residents bound by kinship, resilience, creativity, and a desire to preserve our histories.” Mason J. said the anthology is a “love letter to the city – an access point to the past, present, future of Bay Area history and I sincerely hope it serves as a beacon of light for weary SF residents and a silencer for those who claim art, activism, and ‘unicorns’ aren’t thriving in the bay.” “Whether it’s writing workshops, readings, community enrichment, fundraisers, bonding

(and banter) about the best corner store in the 415, or tougher subjects like displacement, Pulse, Ghost Ship, the last 3% of black San Franciscans, migrant concentration camps – perhaps a tyrannical U.S. regime,” they wrote. “Despite it all we are determined to show the city we’re still here still queer and not to be erased.” t The June 22 show takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street in the Hall of Culture. Tickets are $12-$20 and are available online or at the door. Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information, visit http://www.stillheresf.org. The book, which costs $15, will be for sale at the event, or can be ordered through the publisher, Fog Lifter Press, at https://foglifterjournal.com/.

Sports >>

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 9

The tangled legal web of sports trans bans by Roger Brigham

ransgender individuals increasingly are gaining recognition of their rights through non-discrimination protections in nearly every part of life. In most forward-thinking states – states that follow the spirit of the phrase “individual rights” to include all people, not just those in power – transgender people have anti-discrimination protection in housing, employment, and access to public accommodations. And then you have sports at the elite or professional level – the Land that Laws Sometimes Forget. Well, maybe not forget. Maybe just indulge transgressions with a wink and a nod, a tax break here and there, a culture of bend-overbackwardness that would win any limbo contest ever staged. When it comes to transgender people competing in sports, policies are frequently advertised as being inclusive that are anything but. To defend such policies of exclusion, terms such as “unfair advantage,” “even playing fields,” “slippery slope,” “integrity of women’s sports,” and “testosterone levels” are bandied about as being sacred principles not to be challenged or examined. Teams of scientists offer contradicting opinions and in the cloud of doubt, some athletes are locked out. The latest battle in this decadeslong war is happening in Minnesota, where Gender Justice and JayCee Cooper, a transgender female powerlifter, last week filed a gender discrimination complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights against USA Powerlifting, saying its recently adopted policy banning the participation of transgender athletes, either men or women, violates her right to compete in women’s powerlifting. “As a powerlifter and a transgender person, I’m no stranger to a challenge,” Cooper said. “I’ve jumped through all the hoops, trying to meet USA Powerlifting’s arbitrary and subjective standards, just to have them respond with an outright ban on transgender women in competitions. At some point you have to say enough is enough. Trans rights are human rights. Trans athletes are supported in our right to compete by the International Olympic Committee, the International Powerlifting Federation’s executive committee, federal and Minnesota state law. USA Powerlifting’s blanket ban violates not just the law, but the very spirit of sports.” USAPL, which said this week it had not yet seen the complaint, responded with a release stating it does not ban transgender ath-

Trans powerlifter JayCee Cooper

letes, but added several qualifiers it said enabled the participation of those athletes. “To allow those born and who went through puberty as males to compete as females would be inherently discriminatory against a federally protected class: women,” the release alleges. “Further, allowing transgender males to use androgens when no other category of athlete is allowed them represents an unfair advantage and against the founding principles of USA Powerlifting. Accordingly, transgender women are allowed to compete in the division reflecting their birth, and transgender men may compete without androgens.” Androgens are routinely medically prescribed for transgender men and antiandrogens are prescribed for transgender women. Both are banned substances for which USAPL does not allow exemptions. USAPL adopted its ban earlier this year. Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D) wrote the powerlifting association asking it to drop it. “Under the Minnesota Human Rights Act, discrimination against anyone based on their gender identity is illegal. This includes in public accommodations, and in Minnesota, organizations such as USA Powerlifting,” she wrote. “I urge you to reconsider this discriminatory, unscientific policy and follow the example of the International Olympic Committee. The myth that trans women have a ‘direct competitive advantage’ is not supported by medical science, and it continues to stoke fear and violence against one of the most at-risk communities in the world.” Sports organizations such as USA Powerlifting answer to multiple institutions. Two of the biggest ones in this case are the government of Minnesota (the state in which the organization is headquartered); and, indirectly, the International Olympic Committee (USAPL is an affiliate of International Powerlifting Federation, which in turn is a member of the IOC). The Minnesota Human Rights Act bars discrimination on the basis of sex or sexual orientation in public accommodations, employment, and business, among other areas. It does not explicitly mention gender identity, but courts have generally found sex discrimination protections to cover discrimination against transgender people. Once the Minnesota Department of Human Rights reads and

accepts a complaint, the parties are asked to go to mediation. If that fails or either party declines mediation, the department investigates the complaint, then either dismisses it or works with both parties to come to conciliation. If that fails, the state attorney general’s office can pursue the case if the state finds the complaint is warranted.

Otherwise, the complainant is left to pursue the matter in court. The IOC has a checkered, often embarrassing, past when it comes to regulation of usage of both performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and women’s sports. For years it had a blind eye when it came to athletes doping; when it did start going after drug abusers, it was often behind the scientific curve in detecting the way dopers were cheating on their tests. Until

recent years, women’s sports in the Olympic Games were greatly restricted in the physical challenges they were allowed to face or the number of entrants they could have, and there were invasive gender determination examinations when some women did not exude the kind of femininity officials expected. See page 11 >>

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA BARREL COMPANY LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, Plaintiff, v. All Persons Claiming Any Interest in, or Lien Upon, the Real Property Herein Described or, Any Part thereof, Defendants. Case No. CGC-19-574377 SUMMONS ON SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT [CCP § 751.05] The people of the State of California, to All Persons Claiming Any Interest in, or Lien Upon, the Real Property Herein Described or, Any Part thereof, defendants, greeting (See Memorandum Disclosing Adverse Interest [CCP § 751.07] attached.): You are hereby required to appear and answer the complaint of CALIFORNIA BARREL COMPANY LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, plaintiff, filed with the clerk of the above-entitled court and county, within three months after the first publication of this summons, and to set forth what interest or lien, if any, you have in or upon that certain real property or any part thereof, situated in the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, particularly described as follows: REAL PROPERTY, SITUATE IN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COMPRJSED OF SIX (6) PARCELS, DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEING A PORTION OF PARCEL A, AS SAID PARCEL A IS DESCRJBED IN THAT CERTAIN GRANT DEED RECORDED SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2016-K334613 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN THE OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: PARCEL ONE BEING ALL OF MARYLAND STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VA CATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRJBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET, SOUTHERLY 279 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID EASTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (ON 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH SAID WESTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF MARYLAND STREET, NORTHERLY 279 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL TWO BEING ALL OF LOUISIANA STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016- K334613) WITH THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET, SOUTHERLY 279 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID EASTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH SAID WESTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF LOUISIANA STREET, NORTHERLY 279 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL THREE BEING A PORTION OF GEORGIA STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHWESTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 1, AS SAID PARCEL 1 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 200 l-G897578), EASTERLY 80 FEET TO A POINT IN THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF SAID PARCEL 1 (DN 200 l-G897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, SOUTHERLY 406.42 FEET TO THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 3, AS SAID PARCEL 3 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT QUIETING TITLE RECORDED MAY 26, 1960 IN BOOK A 127 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, AT PAGE 596, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 3 (Al27 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 18.79 FEET TO A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°10’16” WEST 125.39 FEET, AND 2) SOUTH 86°49’44” WEST 63.85 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID WESTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET; PARCEL FOUR BEING A PORTION OF MICHIGAN STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID MICHIGAN STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 2, AS SAID PARCEL 2 rs DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY 1, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001- 0897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, SOUTHERLY 157.42 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 4, AS SAID PARCEL 4 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT QUIETING TITLE RECORDED MAY 26, 1960 IN BOOK A127 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, AT PAGE 596, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 2 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO A POINT ON THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016- K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: 1) NORTH 03°10’16” WEST 9.01 FEET, AND 2) SOUTH 86°49’44” WEST 11.12 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2001-K334613) AND SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596); THENCE, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 4 (A127 OR 596), NORTHWESTERLY 6 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO A POINT ON SAID WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613), NORTH 03°41’19” WEST 143.4 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (DN 2016-K334613) WITH THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 2 (ON 2001- 0897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID SOUTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 2 (DN 2001-0897578), EASTERLY 18.62 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL FIVE BEING A PORTION OF HUMBOLDT STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (DN 2016-K3346 l 3), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET (33 FEET WIDE) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, AS SAID MICHIGAN STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 2, AS SAID PARCEL 2 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY I, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-0897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 2 (ON 2001-0897578), WESTERLY 18.62 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID NORTHERN LINE OF PARCEL 2 (2001-0897578) AND THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL A (ON 2016- K334613); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (ON 2016K334613), THE FOLLOWING TWO (2) COURSES: I) NORTH 03°41’19” WEST 1.31 FEET, AND 2) NORTH 87°24’17” EAST 18.63 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID WESTERN LINE OF PARCEL A (ON 2001-K334613) AND SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF MICHIGAN STREET, SOUTHERLY I .12 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCEL SIX BEING A PORTION OF HUMBOLDT STREET, AS SAID STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, LYING WITHIN SAID PARCEL A (ON 2016-K334613), MORE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS: BEGINNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE SOUTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET (33 FEET WIDE) WITH THE EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, AS SAID GEORGIA STREET EXISTED PRIOR TO THE VACATION THEREOF, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF PARCEL 1, AS SAID PARCEL 1 IS DESCRIBED IN THAT CERTAIN JUDGMENT RECORDED FEBRUARY I, 2001, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 2001-G897578 OF OFFICIAL RECORDS, IN SAID OFFICE OF THE RECORDER OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO; THENCE, FROM SAID POINT OF BEGINNING, ALONG THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID PARCEL 1 (ON 2001-0897578), WESTERLY 80 FEET TO THE INTERSECTION OF SAID PARCEL 1 (2001- 0897578) AND THE WESTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET, SAID POINT BEING THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF SAID PARCEL I (ON 2001-0897578); THENCE, ALONG SAID WESTERN LINE GEORGIA STREET, NORTHERLY 33 FEET TO THE NORTHERN LINE OF SAID HUMBOLDT STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID NORTHERN LINE OF HUMBOLDT STREET, EASTERLY 80 FEET TO A POINT ON THE EASTERN LINE OF SAID GEORGIA STREET; THENCE, ALONG SAID EASTERN LINE OF GEORGIA STREET, SOUTHERLY 33 FEET TO SAID POINT OF BEGINNING. PARCELS ONE THROUGH SIX BEING PORTIONS OF APN 4175-017. ATTACHED HERETO IS AN ILLUSTRATIVE INDEX MAP, AND BY THIS REFERENCE, MADE A PART HEREOF. And you are hereby notified that, unless you so appear and answer, the plaintiff will apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint, to wit: quiet title to the Property consistent with the legal description above, against all adverse claims of all claimants, known and unknown, as of the date the Complaint in this case was filed. Witness my hand and the seal of said court, Memorandum Disclosing Adverse Interest [CCP § 751.07] The following persons are said to claim an interest in, or lien upon, said property adverse to Plaintiff: 1. PG&E, 245 Market Street, NlOA, Room 1015, P.O. Box 770000, San Francisco, CA 94177 2. City and County of San Francisco, Office of the City Attorney, Room 234 City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, CA 94102 3. Trans Bay Cable LLC, One Letterman Drive, C5-100, San Francisco, CA 94129 4. San Francisco Port Authority, Pier 1, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94111 5. California Regional Water Quality Control Board for the San Francisco Bay Region, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1400, Oakland, CA 94612 6. NRG Potrero LLC, c/o GenOn, 1360 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 2000, Houston TX 77056

<< Community News

10 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Trans man

From page 1

“For the next 10 or 15 years, when people look at this building and ask who was Steve Dain, we can tell the story.” Patz said the idea to name the gym after Dain was first suggested by Jac Asher, a former member of Emeryville’s city council and a professor of gender studies at UC Berkeley. “According to her, this would be

the first public building named after a trans person,” Patz said. He indicated he would be willing to fundraise for a more substantial marker and a named scoreboard, if the school board were to vote to name the structure after Dain. “So many wrongs in history haven’t been righted,” Patz explained. “It’s a small thing, but it’s a chance to right a wrong.” Asher did not respond to requests for comment. The Bay Area Reporter was un-

able to falsify that claim; it seems correct that no other public buildings have been named in the memory of a known trans person in the United States. At the school board’s June 12 meeting, nominations and remarks were given in support of several would-be honorees. The most represented nominee by far was Abrami, with four people taking slots to speak in his favor. The comments were impassioned and often emotional, referring to the time and ef-

News Briefs

From page 2

Stonewall exhibit, rally in San Jose

South Bay LGBTQ organizations will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots Thursday, June 27, at San Jose City Hall, 200 East Santa Clara Street. The event begins at 4 p.m. with an exhibit. A rally will take place from 6:30 to 7:30. The riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City erupted June 28, 1969, when LGBTs fought back against a police raid. They are widely viewed as the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and the Pride parades and marches that started on the first anniversary a year later now take place in cities around the world. The Human Rights Campaign Silicon Valley, Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center, Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, BAYMEC Community Foundation, Silicon Valley Stonewall Democrats, the Santa Clara Office of LGBTQ Affairs, and Silicon Valley Pride are all organizing the event.

Moon exhibit opens at Chabot space center

The Chabot Space and Science Center, in partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center, has created a

Political Notebook

From page 5

Jane Philomen Cleland

Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan

Oakland council prez Kaplan, wife divorced last fall

After marrying five years ago in a private summer wedding ceremony, Oakland at-large City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan and Pamela Rosin divorced last fall. The couple had been together since 2012 after first meeting at Oakland’s East Bay Church. Their nuptials made headlines in the Bay Area when Kaplan announced Rosin had accepted her marriage proposal via a Facebook post in May 2014. Their divorce appears to have gone unreported, as the B.A.R. first learned about it over the weekend in a brief emailed note from Rosin, an Oakland-based associate marriage and family therapist who works with couples and individuals. She was responding to a profile of her ex that ran in the June 13 issue

Eagle Plaza

From page 7

Place Lab, started by Build and now part of the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance, oversaw the design of, and permits for, Eagle Plaza. It will be approximately 12,500 square feet in

Courtesy Chabot Space and Science Center

The north region of the moon is one of many images on display at the Chabot Space and Science Center.

stunning new exhibition exploring the moon from many unique perspectives. “Luminous Moon” opens Saturday, June 22, and runs through September 8. Featuring more than 50 high-resolution images, lunar artifacts, and interactive opportunities for all ages, the exhibition invites the public to consider the moon in new ways. Located in the Chabot’s Gruener Astronomy Hall, the photographic essay will transport visitors through revolutionary angles of the moon that create new discoveries and pave the

way for future space exploration. “What is fascinating about the moon is that something so seemingly familiar to us provides exciting new scientific insights and opportunities for exploration, while continually surprising, amazing, and delighting us with its extraordinary beauty,” Adam Tobin, Chabot’s executive director, said in a news release. Detailed pictures are provided by the missions from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a satellite launched in 2009 to explore the lunar landscape. NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory and LRO’s Lunar Orbiter

of the B.A.R. The story, focused on Kaplan’s historic election in January as the first LGBT person to be president of the Oakland City Council, noted that Kaplan is “a proud butch dyke, married to her wife, and doesn’t conform to gender norms.” In her email, Rosin wrote that there was incorrect information in the story because “Rebecca Kaplan is not married.” Their divorce will be finalized June 20, she told the B.A.R. When the B.A.R. interviewed Kaplan in mid-May for the article, she was asked if there was a special ceremonial title used for her wife now that she was council president. In response, Kaplan made no mention of the fact she was divorced or separated from Rosin, and instead, replied she would “have to ponder that.” In an emailed reply Monday to the B.A.R. when asked if she had divorced from Rosin, Kaplan apologized for not clarifying her relationship status during the interview. She wrote, “as our conversation was focused on my professional life, I wanted to mention and apologize that I did not mention information about my personal life.” Kaplan confirmed that she and her former wife “broke up last fall. And while I do not intend to speak about her, and I only wish her well for her future, I did want to share that information with you.” First elected to her council seat in November 2008, Kaplan was last reelected in 2016 to a four-year term. She is one of only a handful of out women currently serving on a city

council in the Bay Area. She twice ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Oakland, in 2010 and 2014, and is already being talked about as a potential mayoral candidate in 2022 when the city’s current mayor, Libby Schaaf, will be term limited from seeking a third term. There is speculation that Kaplan, a Stanford Law School graduate, could enter the race next year for Oakland city attorney rather than seek re-election to her council seat. The incumbent, Barbara Parker, is also up for re-election in November 2020.

size and reimagine the block of 12th Street between Harrison and Bernice streets. Sidewalks at both entrances into the plaza will sport the colors of the leather flag. At the request of public safety officials, the street will remain open to vehicular traffic in both directions

via a curving, 28-foot-wide two-lane roadway through the plaza. Bollards will be used to close off the street at both ends for special events. “Years ago we were worried if there would even be an Eagle bar,” noted Mandelman. “Not only is the Eagle still here but now we have not only the

BAYMEC endorses Laird for Senate

The South Bay’s main LGBT political group has endorsed gay former Assemblyman John Laird in the race for the state’s open 17th Senate District seat along the Central Coast. BAYMEC, the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, announced its support for Laird in a June 14 email. He is running to succeed Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), who is termed out of office next year. The Senate seat includes Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties, the coastal areas of Monterey County, and southern Santa Clara County. Laird was one of the first two out gay men elected to the state Assembly in 2002. He ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2010 and went on to serve in the administration of former Governor Jerry Brown as California’s secretary for natural resources

fort spent in Abrami’s career on the well-being of his students. Hal Schulz, a relative of Abrami’s, spoke briefly with the B.A.R. before giving his remarks. When asked whether he was aware of Dain’s nomination, Schulz said he was. “Terrible thing, that they fired him like that,” Schulz said. “But he got a chunk of change for it.” No one present at the meeting that night spoke on Dain’s behalf. Emery school board President Barbara Inch explained during the

meeting that although nominations are closed, anyone wishing to make a comment on the current nominees can do so by writing to the school board at lisa.taymuree@ emeryusd.org. The board will reduce the current pool of nominees to three names and take a final vote June 26. It will accept comment online up until that date, and the meeting is open to the public at Anna Yates Elementary, 4727 San Pablo Avenue, at 5:30 p.m.t

Laser Altimeter provide illustrations of research conducted on the moon. During the exhibition, Chabot will train at least one of its large telescopes on the moon, as determined by viewing conditions, the release stated. A community talk back station will enable visitors to join the conversation about the Earth’s closest cosmic neighbor. Complementing the exhibition, Chabot will be offering a full summer’s worth of lunar-related exhibits and activities, including events surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which took place July 24, 1969. Chabot is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is open until 9 p.m. the first Friday of the month. Admission is $18 for adults, $14 for kids ages 3-12, and $15 for students and seniors. Chabot is located at 10000 Skyline Boulevard in Oakland. For more information, visit http://www.chabotspace.org.

missions by both up-and-coming and established Bay Area artists. The series will include 10 large hearts, eight table-top hearts, and 15 mini heart sculptures. Artists have the option of proposing a design for any of the sizes. Select large hearts will have the opportunity to be displayed in Union Square from February to October. “It’s always an exciting time when we accept design renderings for ‘Hearts in San Francisco,’” Ann Lazarus, interim CEO of the foundation, said in a news release. “One of the most widely recognized public art projects, the heart sculptures have become a symbolic reminder to locals and tourists alike of the firstclass care Zuckerberg San Francisco General provides to everyone in the community.” The hearts will be auctioned in February at the annual Hearts SF fundraiser. Organizers said that the hearts artworks, combined with heart events proceeds (2004-2019), have raised more than $27 million for the foundation. Interested artists must complete an application and submit with a full-color design (8.5 inches by 11 inches or larger) by Thursday, August 1. Artwork guidelines, official regulations, and applications are available at www.sfghf.org/createaheart. t

SFGH foundation issues call for ‘hearts’ series

The San Francisco General Hospital Foundation has issued a call for artists for the 2020 edition of “Hearts in San Francisco,” a public art project that raises funds for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. For the 16th annual series next year, the foundation welcomes design sub-

Courtesy Laird for Senate campaign

State Senate candidate John Laird

from January 2011 until the beginning of this year. To date the only other person to pull papers for the Senate race next year is Republican Neil Kitchens. The Prunedale horse ranch owner ran unsuccessfully last year for state Assembly.

CA lawmakers fund LGBT projects

State lawmakers included more than $3.7 million in funding for various LGBT projects in the budget they sent to Governor Gavin Newsom last week. Once he signs it, the funding will become final. Three of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus’ funding asks survived the budget negotiations between the state Senate and Assembly. Most significantly, they allocated the $2 million sought by organizers of the International AIDS Conference be-

Eagle but this amazing plaza here.” District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents the South of Market neighborhood at City Hall, noted that not only is the Eagle Plaza the first to honor the leather and LGBT communities, but it is also located in the firstever leather-focused cultural district.

ing co-hosted by San Francisco and Oakland next summer. Also included in the budget is $500,000 for the national LGBT arts center being built by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and $175,000 for the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, according to gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who chairs the LGBTQ affinity group for legislators. (The caucus had also sought several million dollars to pay for LGBT cultural competency training for public school teachers. Since legislation requiring the training is still pending, it was not added to this year’s budget.) Wiener also secured $1 million for the proposed revamp of Harvey Milk Plaza above the Castro Muni Station. The controversial project is estimated to cost at least $11 million, which a community group has pledged to raise as it seeks city approval. And Wiener secured $100,000 for the Eagle Plaza, a leatherthemed public parklet in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood that broke ground Tuesday. The funding would go toward the estimated $1.85 million price tag for the project. 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 all five Napa County cities agreeing to fly the Pride flag for the first time this June.

“There is no West SOMA without the leather community,” he said. Bob Goldfarb, chair of the leather district, said the community is thrilled to have the plaza be a focal part of it. “We look forward to having it as a gathering place in our district,” he said. t

t <<

Sports>>

Jock Talk

From page 9

The IOC

When the IOC passed policy guidelines in 2016 saying transgender men and women should be included in sports, even if they have not undergone therapy, there was much jubilation among transgender advocacy groups and their supporters. A closer look at that transgender policy, however, reveals a ton of exceptions that can still lock transgender athletes out. First off, the IOC has said all along that the guidelines are not rules, and that sports governing bodies should consider the guidelines when establishing their own transgender inclusion rules. “I don’t think many federations have rules on defining eligibility of transgender individuals,” IOC medical director Dr. Richard Budgett said when the guidelines were announced. “This should give them the confidence and stimulus to put these rules in place.” Secondly, the IOC set a limit on how high testosterone levels can be for an entire year before any competition and throughout the competition. But it also said governing bodies must still abide by drug-use rules set by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which handles anti-doping policies for Olympic sports. Now, WADA is many things, but progressive and inclusive are not adjectives that spring to mind when reviewing its policies. It has always given short shrift to HIVinfected athletes – for example, it would not grant therapeutic use exemptions, or TUEs, for facial wasting because it considers that a psychological issue, not a medical necessity – and about the best that can be said for its awareness on trans issues is that it stopped referring to transgender individu-

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 11

als as “transsexuals” less than a decade ago. The toothlessness of the IOC guidelines and the strictest of interpretations of WADA rules gave USA Powerlifting the cover it sought to kick out all transgender athletes, male or female. Originally, USA Powerlifting was named the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association. It may have rebranded itself, but it remains married to its hardline anti-drug roots, which by definition focus more on exclusion than inclusion. The organization admits as much in the introduction to its ironically named “Transgender Inclusion Policy,” when it begins, “USA Powerlifting is an inclusive organization,” but continues, “for all athletes and members who comply with its rules, policies, procedures, and bylaws. USA Powerlifting is not a fit for every athlete and for every medical condition or situation.” USA Powerlifting does not argue transgender men have an inherent strength advantage – but it allows no TUEs for testosterone, period. Transgender men take medically controlled minimal testosterone injections. Bam: banned by the powerlifting organization. The organization bars transgender women lifters with a double whammy. Some drugs transgender women may take as part of their medical treatments are not exempted; and USA Powerlifting says trans women have unfair physical advantages developed in adolescence. They base that claim on a report submitted by its own committee on TUEs. The report lists seven members on that committee: pharmaceutical expert Frank Cintineo; nurse Harriet Hall; statistician Matt Giese; exercise physiologist Scott Howell; neuroscientist Huaiyu Tan; Larry Maile, president of USA Powerlifting; and commit-

KEEP UP!

tee chairman Kristopher Hunt, an emergency physician. None of them are experts on gender dysphoria, but their report does cite a lot of other reports, including a review of the beforeand-after performance results of one transgender female lifter and a study that looked at the post-injection effects of steroids on mice. “The assertion of gender choice, although legal to change in parts of the world, does not erase the dimorphic differences of sex, formalized at birth and continually developing throughout the lifespan, that have direct implications to performance advantages,” the report asserts. “Our policy on transgender participation was borne from the fact that the requisite 12 months of androgen blockade, regardless of resultant testosterone levels, does not come close to reversing the effects of having been born into the male sex when measuring the effect on powerlifting total.” Now here’s the funny thing about the papers cited in the USA Powerlifting report: they include not a single dissenting paper, not a single study suggesting transgender women athletes do not have an overwhelming and inescapable advantage. Not a one. Of course, such scientific reports abound, reports that conclude no significant competitive advantage exists for transgender women, but they are not cited in the report. There are no interviews conducted with transgender lifters about what participation in the sport means to them in their lives, to their well-being. When “normal” testosterone levels are discussed, transgender individuals and individuals with differences in sexual development are excluded, in effect basing all reference points in a way that pre-excludes many women to justify their exclusion.

There is no mention that sometimes naturally occurring testosterone intolerance negates the benefits of higher testosterone levels. Issues such as bigger bodies (which exclusionists cite as one of the advantages transgender women have) requiring more oxygen (but transgender women have lessened capacities to supply once they are on hormone suppressants) are not discussed. So, yeah, USA Powerlifting’s internal report supports its policy. “Rather than creating a transgender participation policy, USAPL chose to create an exclusion policy by banning transgender women from competing altogether,” said Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice. “USAPL created a policy rooted in bias, fear and misinformation – and out of step with the core values of sports, such as inclusion and basic fairness. There are many threats to women’s sports, but equality and inclusion are not among them.”

Other groups disagree

Never mind that other sports groups are in utter disagreement. The Women’s Sports Foundation, for example, has supported inclusion of transgender athletes for years. Its position paper on transgender inclusion in 2011 argued that female transgender athletes have no physical advantage over other female athletes. “If a young person transitions from male to female prior to puberty, as in the case of some transgender people, no accommodation is necessary at all and this student should be treated as any other competitor in girls’ or women’s sports,” the foundation wrote. “Additionally, if a transgender student transitions after puberty, medical experts increasingly agree that the effects of taking female hormones negate any strength and muscular advantage that testoster-

one may have provided and places a male-to-female transgender athlete who has completed her transition in the same general range of strength and performance exhibited by non-transgender females who are competing. A female-tomale transgender athlete has no physical advantage before, during or after transition and should be permitted to participate fully on male sports teams.” But the current scientific evidence regarding transgender sports performance is shaky or incomplete at best regardless of which way it points. For example, when I asked WSF what was the scientific evidence supporting its statement that transgender women have no physical advantage, I was directed to a 1996 paper that examined post-transition chemical levels in transgender men and women. (And yes, in 1996 that paper referred to “transsexuals.”) But the study groups were not made up of athletes; they were not people for whom exercise is an integral part of life. There were no performance comparisons made, just chemical ones. Given that scientific evidence for and against trans inclusion is mixed, inconclusive and occasionally self-contradictory, and often just flat out faulty, it would seem inadequate to adopt an exclusionary stand just to banish arbitrarily a small pocket of the population. For now, we live in a world of unsettled science. And even if there were solid statistical proof of on average an advantage – so what? No athlete is ever guaranteed a medal, so it makes sense to give everyone a shot. USA Powerlifting has a strict anti-doping history it is seeking to protect, even if it means denying some athletes a chance to compete. t

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6/19/19 11:47 AM

AN FRANCISCO BAY AREA RAPID TRANSIT DISTRICT NOTICE TO PROPOSERS – GENERAL INFORMATION 6M3451 - DECOMMISSIONING OF BART LEGACY RAILCARS A. The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (hereinafter referred to as “BART” or “District”) is soliciting competitive revenue generating Proposals to the District for the Pick-up, Removal, and Disposal of Transit Railcars consistent with the terms and provisions in this Request for Proposals (“RFP”), on or about June 12, 2019. B. Proposals must be received by 2:00PM local time, Tuesday July 9, 2019 as follows: For Special Delivery or Hand Delivery: District Secretary SF Bay Area Rapid Transit District 300 Lakeside Drive, 23rd. Floor Oakland, CA 94612

or By U.S. Mail: District Secretary SF Bay Area Rapid Transit District P.O. Box 12688 Oakland, CA 94604-2688

C. The District operates a fleet of six hundred sixty-nine (669) legacy passenger railcars that are nearing their end of life. The legacy cars will be replaced with seven hundred seventy-five (775) new cars built by Bombardier. In January 2018, the first new Bombardier cars began service following safety and reliability testing, and regulatory approval. With the number of new railcars in service, BART is ready to start the decommissioning of the legacy fleet. D. This RFP consists of the sale of ten (10) legacy railcars to the responsive and responsible Proposer who meets the minimum technical requirements and offers the highest revenue generating Proposal to the District. The winning Proposer will be responsible for pick-up, removal, and disposal of the railcars in accordance with all applicable local, state and federal regulatory requirements.The railcars under this Agreement must be dismantled, recycled and disposed of, and shall not be repurposed for any other use. REQUIRED REGISTRATION ON BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL In order for prospective Proposers to be eligible for award of an Agreement being solicited on the BART Procurement Portal, such Proposers are required to be currently registered to do business with BART on the BART Procurement Portal online at https://suppliers.bart.gov and have obtained Solicitation Documents, updates, and any Addenda issued on line so as to be added to the online Planholders List for this solicitation. If a prospective Proposer is a joint venture or partnership, such entity may register on the BART Procurement Portal with the entity’s tax identification number (TIN) and download the Solicitation Documents so as to be listed as an online planholder under the entity’s name prior to submitting its Proposal. If such entity has not registered on BART Procurement Portal in the name of the joint venture or partnership prior to submitting its Proposal, provided that at least one of the joint venturers or partners registered online on the BART Procurement Portal and downloaded the Solicitation Documents so as to be added to the online Planholders List for this solicitation, such entity will be required to register with the entity’s TIN as an online planholder following the submittal of Proposals, in order for the entity to be eligible for award of this Agreement. PROPOSERS WHO HAVE NOT REGISTERED ON THE BART PROCUREMENT PORTAL PRIOR TO SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL, (OR FOR JOINT A VENTURE OR PARTNERSHIP AS DESCRIBED ABOVE PRIOR TO AWARD) AND DID NOT DOWNLOAD THE SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS FOR THIS SOLICITATION ON LINE SO AS TO BE LISTED AS AN ONLINE PLANHOLDER FOR THIS SOLICITATION, WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR AWARD OF THIS AGREEMENT. PRE-PROPOSAL MEETING A highly recommended pre proposal meeting and site visit will be held on Thursday, June 27, 2019. The meeting will convene at 11:00am, local time, at BART offices located at 150 Sandoval Way, Hayward, CA 94544. The site visit will immediately follow the pre-proposal meeting. Dated at Oakland, California, this 11thday of June 2019. /S/ Kofo Domingo Kofo Domingo, Chief Procurement Officer 6/20/19 CNS-3263938# - BAY AREA REPORTER

<< Legals

12 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Legal Notices>> ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554871

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

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

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

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

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HUZZAH STUDIO, 778 30TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94121. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SARAH JUTRAS. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/22/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/22/19.

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

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

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

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MISSION CURRY HOUSE, 2434 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed O&R RESTAURANT GROUP INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038663400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SF TOWN BUILDERS, 3450 SACRAMENTO ST #157, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SF TOWN BUILDERS, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/21/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/21/19.

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: YUKOL PLACE, 2380 LOMBARD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed MCGEM LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/17/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038655800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VOSS GALLERY, 3344 24TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed VOSS GALLERY LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/15/19.

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038667700

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038667100

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

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

MAY 30, JUNE 06, 13, 20, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038667900

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOLY GELATO, 1392 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122. This business is conducted by a limited liability company and is signed HK KINGSMAN (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/24/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/24/19.

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: THE THONGLOR, 420 GEARY ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed SRI-SUK, INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/19.

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

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038660100

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

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038645900

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

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

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

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

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554846 In the matter of the application of: BOBBY DULAI SINGH, 3352 18TH ST #3, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner BOBBY DULAI SINGH, is requesting that the name BOBBY DULAI SINGH, be changed to BOBBY DULAI. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 27th of June 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038672800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: KOSA BELLA, 3133 22ND ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed REINA O. PORTILLO. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 11/30/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/29/19.

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: LACUNA ERGONOMIC, 1881 GREENWICH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94123. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed KELLY WHITTLESEY. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/30/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038670000

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

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

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

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038670600 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: HOOLOO TRAVEL, 1015 FILLMORE ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94115. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed ZERYIHUN LEMMA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 04/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/28/19.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019

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

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

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

The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name known as: WALKING TOGETHER, 341 CHESTNUT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133. This business was conducted by a corporation and signed by WALKING TOGETHER (CA). The fictitious name was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/14.

JUNE 06, 13, 20, 27, 2019 SUMMONS (DIVORCE) CALIFORNIA SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES, 300 EAST WALNUT ST, PASADENA, CA 91101 NOTICE TO RESPONDENT: QI TENG LU, YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PETITIONER: NINGNING ZHANG CASE NO. 18PDFL02353

You have been sued. Read the information below and on the next page. You have 30 calendar days after this Summons and Petition are served on you to file a Response (form FL-120) at the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. A letter, phone call, or court appearance will not protect you. If you do not file your Response on time, the court may make orders affecting your marriage or domestic partnership, your property, and custody of your children. You may be ordered to pay support and attorney fees and costs. For legal advice, contact a lawyer immediately. Get help finding a lawyer at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp), at the California Legal Services website (www.lawhelpca.org) or by contacting your local county bar association. NOTICE – RESTRAINING ORDERS FOLLOW: These restraining orders are effective against both spouses or domestic partners until the petition is dismissed, a judgment is entered, or the court makes further orders. They are enforceable anywhere in California by any law enforcement officer who has received or seen a copy of them. FEE WAIVER: If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the clerk for a fee waiver form. The court may order you to pay back all or part of the fees and costs that the court waived for you or the other party. The name and address of the court are: California Superior Court, County of Los Angeles, 300 East Walnut St, Pasadena, CA 91101 Pasadena Courthouse. The name, address and telephone number of petitioner’s attorney, or petitioner without an attorney is: Elaine Yang, Esq.; Yang and Chen LLP, 17890 Castleton St #101, City of Industry, CA 91748 (626) 965-8789 Date: Dec 24, 2018 Clerk of The Court, Jorge Serrano, Deputy. STANDARD FAMILY LAW RESTRAINING ORDERS: Starting immediately, you and your spouse or domestic partner are restrained from: 1. Removing the minor child or children of the parties, if any, from the state without the prior written consent of the other party or an order of the court; 2. Cashing borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for the benefit of the parties and their minor child or children; 3. Transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life; and 4. Creating a nonprobate transfer or modifying a nonprobate transfer in the manner that affects the disposition of property subject to the transfer, without the written consent of the other party or an order of the court. Before revocation of a nonprobate transfer can take effect or a right of survivorship to property can be eliminated, notice of the change must be filed and served on the other party. You must notify each other of any proposed extraordinary expenditures at least five business days prior to incurring these extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for all extraordinary expenditures made after these restraining orders are effective. However, you may use community property, quasi-community property, or your own separate property to pay an attorney to help you or to pay court costs. NOTICE – ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE: Do you or someone in your household need affordable health insurance? If so, you should apply for Covered California. Covered California can help reduce the costs you pay towards high quality affordable health care. For more information, visit www.coveredca.com. Or call Covered California at 1-800-300-1506. WARNING – IMPORTANT INFORMATION California law provides that, for purposes of division of property upon dissolution of a marriage or domestic partnership or upon legal separation, property acquired by the parties during marriage or domestic partnership in joint form is presumed to be community property. If either party to this action should die before the jointly held community property is divided, the language in the deed that characterizes how title is held (i.e. joint tenancy, tenants in common, or community property) will be controlling, and not the community property presumption. You should consult your attorney if you want the community property presumption to be written into the recorded title to the property.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019

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

Petitioner Frank Joseph Fischl requests that he be appointed administrator and Letters issue upon qualification. Full authority be granted to administer under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. Decedent died on May 14, 2018 at Kaiser in Santa Clara, but lived in San Francisco and was a resident of the county named above. Street address, city and county of decedent’s residence at time of death: 33 Harriet St, San Francisco, CA. Decedent died intestate. No executor is named in the will. Petitioner is a person entitled to Letters. Proposed personal representative is a resident of California. No spouse as follows: divorced or never married. No registered domestic partner. No child. Decedent was not survived by a stepchild or foster child or children who would have been adopted by decedent but for a legal barrier. Decedent was survived by a parent or parents who are listed in item 8 – Vlasta Zichova of the Czech Republic. Decedent had no predeceased spouse. A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: June 26, 2019, 9:00 am, Rm 204, Superior Court of California, 400 McAllister St, San Francisco, CA 94102. If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. Petitioner without attorney: FRANK JOSEPH FISCHL, 3224 BOSTON AVE, OAKLAND, CA 94602; Ph. (510) 534-8427.

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

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

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038680500 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: EA CAFE, 735 3RD ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed ASHEDH INC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/05/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/05/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038680400

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: PINE HEADZ LLC, 1026 SAN LUIS CIRCLE #609, DALY CITY, CA 94014. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed PINE HEADZ LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/06/19.

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

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

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: RAPTOR COMMUNICATIONS, 428 CORBETT AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114. This business is conducted by a limited liability company, and is signed RAPTOR LLC (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/31/19.

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038682700

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

JUNE 13, 20, 27, JULY 04, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554926

In the matter of the application of: CORA ROSE MUIR THOMAS, 808 ALVARADO ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94114, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CORA ROSE MUIR THOMAS, is requesting that the name CORA ROSE MUIR THOMAS, be changed to KORA ROSE MUIR THOMAS. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, on the 25th of July 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME IN SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO FILE CNC-19-554931

In the matter of the application of: CHUN KOW LAU, 133 MONETA WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94112, for change of name having been filed in Superior Court, and it appearing from said application that petitioner CHUN KOW LAU, is requesting that the name CHUN KOW LAU AKA HENRY CHUN, be changed to HENRY CHUN KOW LAU. Now therefore, it is hereby ordered, that all persons interested in said matter do appear before this Court in Dept. 514, Room 514 on the 30th of July 2019 at 9:00am of said day to show cause why the application for change of name should not be granted.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038683400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: MAGNET FLOOR ESTIMATOR, 603 9TH AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed SORONZONBOLD ULZIIKHUTAG. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/01/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038686400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ARE YOU EXPERIENCED S.F. CITY TOURS, 537 JONES ST #3439, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed PAUL Y. ROBERTSON. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/12/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038683300 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: J.M.F. CLEANING SERVICES, 545 O’FARRELL ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94102. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed GENY G. CAUICH VILLARREAL. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/10/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/10/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038685100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ATHINA VALENTINA, 1471 WASHINGTON ST #201, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed MICHELLE DEMETRIADES. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/11/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/11/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038682400 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: ADDIS AMERICA TOURS, 160 PORTOLA DR #106, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed BERHANESELASE ASSEFA. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/07/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038677300

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SMILING SALON, 738 CLEMENT ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed XIAOZHEN WEN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/03/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038687100 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: TOWN LAND CONSTRUCTION, 1962 42ND AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94116. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed DAVID FRANCIS FLYNN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/13/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/13/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038672200 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: VEIL CLOTHING, 2427 MISSION ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94110. This business is conducted by an individual, and is signed NICK VAN WAGONER. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on NA. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/29/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038682800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SHAH’S HALAL FOOD, 532 MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a general partnership, and is signed MOHAMMAD NADER & SHOAIB RAHMAN. The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 06/06/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/07/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038678800 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: FINANCIAL DISTRICT DENTISTRY, 220 MONTGOMERY ST #120, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94104. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed EVANGELINE AMORES DDS, INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 02/01/18. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 06/04/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038675900 The following person(s) is/are doing business as: OLIVER SPACE, 430 9TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed PETRA LIVING, INC. (DE). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/31/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/31/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT FILE A-038671400

The following person(s) is/are doing business as: SWERV STUDIOS, 410 BRANNAN ST, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107. This business is conducted by a corporation, and is signed J BODYWORKS INC. (CA). The registrant(s) commenced to transact business under the above listed fictitious business name or names on 05/15/19. The statement was filed with the City and County of San Francisco, CA on 05/29/19.

JUNE 20, 27, JULY 04, 11, 2019

Hero worship

Books for Pride

LGBTQ-TV

Classic gay flicks

Vol. 49 • No. 25 • June 20-26, 2019

www.ebar.com/arts

Artists on fire in Frameline film fest by Sura Wood

ortraits of LGBTQ+ artists shine at Frameline this year, starting with the sparkling festival opener “Vita & Virginia,” which brings erotic life and poetic license to the decade-long, lesbian love affair between two literary lights of the 20th century. The relationship between the androgynous, feminist socialite Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) and the introspective, bohemian Virginia Woolf, who was prone to depression and later committed suicide, is an See page 18 >>

Scene from director Chanya Button’s “Vita & Virginia,” playing Frameline.

Courtesy Frameline

Sasha Cooke in the title role in Handel’s “Orlando” for San Francisco Opera.

Courtesy SF DocFest

Scene from directors Jerry Mitchell and Brett Sullivan’s “Kinky Boots: The Musical,” playing Frameline 43.

Feeling Frameline 43

Updating 'Orlando'

by David Lamble

by Philip Campbell

he political, legal and spiritual battles for survival facing LGBTQ people around the globe are examined in an array of fiction and nonfiction, full-length and short-subject films from dozens of countries at Frameline 43. Continuing the emphasis on transgender rights from last year’s festival, we learn how traumatic it can be to experience violence at the hands of your own family. See page 18 >>

ritish director Harry Fehr made his San Francisco Opera/American Opera debut last week with an ingenious staging of Handel’s compelling 18th-century opera-seria “Orlando.” The second installment in SFO’s highly contrasted summer line-up of three updates the composer’s adventurous score to a 20th-century setting and adds psychological insight for 21st-century listeners.

{ SECOND OF THREE SECTIONS }

See page 13 >> Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

<< Music

14 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

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Orlando

From page 13

Artists also making SFO debuts have revived Fehr’s original Scottish Opera production. Yannis Thavoris’ sleekly functional production design, Tim van’t Hof’s re-creation of Anna Watson’s strong lighting, and Andrzej Goulding’s highly effective projections help define the director’s inventive blueprint and make better sense of a fairly murky libretto. A dream cast of five singers, all making role debuts, includes some established SFO favorites, a charming American Opera debutante, and a rocketing rising-star. English conductor Christopher Moulds, in his SFO debut, contributes to the accompanying continuo, and leads a strong and lush sounding orchestra. The recipe for success turns out to have excited a little more on paper than in action, but an intrigued and attentive opening matinee audience still responded with an appreciative ovation and enthusiastic praise for Harry Fehr’s cleverness. His update moves the action from shadowy baroque groves to a brilliantly lit military hospital in WWII (the last “good war”), and replaces the magic of sorcerer Zoroastro with the modern wonders of Dr. Zoroastro’s 1940s medicine.

Young warrior Orlando is now a legendary RAF pilot suffering posttraumatic stress disorder who is sinking into madness from anger and jealousy at the loss of his former lover Angelica. She has fallen for Medoro, another young man in recovery. Shepherdess Dorinda has changed to a bright but naive ward nurse with a huge crush on Medoro. Her conflicted (and amusing) attitude about love and relationships offers needed comic relief when the lovers in the central triangle become overstressed. Substituting electroshock therapy administered by physician’s aides for the original libretto’s magical potion (supplied by the eagle of Jupiter!), Zoroastro finally restores Orlando to sanity. The complicated preceding plot twists and turns are more plausible, but even with helpful supertitles, Fehr’s intelligent vision is sometimes confusing. Conductor Moulds doesn’t help clarify much with a rather unvaried approach to accompaniment. The big rounded sound of modern instruments can be attractive in baroque repertoire, especially in the theatrical splendor of Handel, but Moulds creates a wash of sound that muffles some of the singers and frequently slows dramatic tension. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, known for her wonderfully rich and expressive voice, is surprisingly miscast as Orlando. We know she can fill the auditorium with beautiful sound, but the conductor often swamped her big arias in monochromatic dullness, and while she acts the part with customary conviction, much of her marvelous range was obscured. It is a good and sympathetic portrayal, but disappointing to fans expecting another vocal triumph.

Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Sasha Cooke as Orlando and Christian Van Horn as Zoroastro in Handel’s “Orlando.”

The triumph belonged to young countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen as Medoro. The second-year Adler Fellow is on the fast track to stardom after many notable successes in 2019, which included a knockout appearance with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in another Handel masterpiece, “Saul.” Ready from the start for the mainstage of SFO, Nussbaum Cohen proved perfect in diction and tone for the role of likeable Medoro, caught between his admiration for Orlando’s heroism and a genuine love for Angelica. His biggest strength lies in the sheer beauty of his voice, and he can back it with power and emotion. Soprano Heidi Stober added Angelica to her long list of SFO roles with her bright-edged sound and convincing acting skills. She navigated the difficult writing confidently, and made a believable partner for Nussbaum Cohen’s Medoro. Bass-baritone Christian Van Horn

was an impressive Zoroastro, a little stressed at the top, but warmly resonant in his big pronouncements. It might have been better for Sasha Cooke and Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen to switch roles, but there was no need picturing anyone else in the part of Nurse Dorinda. Pert and endearing Austrian soprano Christina Gansch made her role and American Opera debuts with remarkable poise and delightfully fresh voice. She is more than welcome to return to SFO, hopefully in a Mozart opera. Handel created a remarkably forward-thinking score for “Orlando.” Harry Fehr has transcended the restrictive conventions of opera-seria to make it dramatically viable for today. t “Orlando” continues in repertory through June 27. www.sfopera.org

Portrait of an artful appraiser by Roberto Friedman

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n a recent return to Washington, DC, Out There made time for a few cultural forays. First on our must-see list was “Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice,” 46 paintings and 10 drawings by the Venetian painter Jacobo Tintoretto (1518-94) at the National Gallery of Art through July 7. This is the first large retrospective of the Old Master ever presented in the U.S. Many of the works 10:44 AMhave never left Venice before. But his working on canvas (then a new method) freed him from the frescoes and other site-specific limitations that came with the work of his two idols, Titian and Michelangelo. His work combines the color and majesty of the former master with the muscularity in the figure study of the latter. Tintoretto amazes in fantastic religious scenes, mythological narratives and psychologically revealing portraits, including a self-portrait as a young man in which the artist appears to be appraising the viewer (1546-48). A rhyming self-portrait, of the artist as an old man, conveys the wisdom, contemplation and fatigue of maturity (1588). “Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975,” showing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, impresses with its artists’ furious engagement with the issues of their time. It’s a compelling survey of protest art during the immoral US war of the 1960s & 70s, and offers a guide for the present art of resistance. Stand-outs to OT were Philip Guston’s caricatures of disgraced President Nixon, Martha Rosler’s “House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home” photomontage series,

and Peter Saul’s “Saigon,” wall-towall with what The New York Times called “offend-everyone Surrealism.” We enjoyed a recital, “From Warsaw with Love: Polish-American Jazz for Springtime” (Kuba Cichocki, piano; Bogna Kicinska, vocals; Patrick O’ Leary, bass), presented in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, celebrating the European Month of Culture, in the NGA’s pastoral West Garden Court. The National Building Museum is one of DC’s great hidden treasures, and this visit it yielded up “Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project” (through July 28) and “Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters,” a loving survey of the great art deco movie palaces, many no longer extant, found in that great quirky city (through Feb. 17, 2020).

Persistence of vision

Filmmaker Rodney Evans will receive the 2019 Frameline Award before the screening of his latest film “Vision Portraits” at the SF LGBTQ film festival on Wed., June 26, at the Castro Theatre. The new film from 2004’s Frameline Audience Award winner for the gay classic “Brother to Brother” is a study of four visually impaired artists: photographer John Dugdale, dancer Kayla Hamilton, writer Ryan Knight and the filmmaker himself, currently living with a degenerative eye disease. More info at www.frameline.org.

Sparkling verse

Back in town, OT attended a progressive wine tasting of offerings from Napa Valley’s Schramsberg Vineyards, known for its handcrafted

Philadelphia Museum of Art/ARS

Tintoretto’s self-portrait as a young man (1546-48), now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

sparkling wines, held at Roka Akor, a fine establishment in Jackson Square we love for more than its palindromic appellation. Vintner Hugh Davies presented a “blending seminar” in which we sampled the four chardonnays and one pinot noir from Sonoma, Napa and Marin vineyards that comprised the 2018 J. Schram base blend, then sipped them in optimum mix. Schramsberg garnered international reputation when its Blanc de Blancs was chosen to be the wine for Pres. Nixon’s 1972 “Toast to Peace” with China’s Premier Zhou Enlai. Its wines have been served at State dinners by every U.S. administration since. We sampled natural and finished blends of J. Schram from 2017, 2013, 2009, 2004 and 1999, and it was easy to see why it gets the honors. Though our table was full of accomplished vintners and master sommeliers who tossed around opinions about dosage and late disgorgement, OT held our own in the appreciation department. We love our bubblies. t

Theatre>>

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 15

Cruise control at Theatre Rhino by Jim Gladstone

oes the world need two stage plays that revolve around the notion of Tom Cruise being gay? Probably not. But we’ve got em. John Fisher’s “Action Hero,” now being mounted by Theatre Rhinoceros in a rough-around-the-edges world premiere, is a far more intellectually engaging example of the genre-by-coincidence than “The Little Dog Laughed,” a slicker Douglas Carter Beane comedy that played at the New Conservatory Theatre here a decade ago. Fisher’s “Action Hero” (in addition to writing the script, he directed, and is one-third of the cast) is a multi-layered Los Angeles fantasia, weaving film noir motifs with a tale of contemporary young men trying to break into the movie business and a slightly pedantic dose of LA’s byzantine municipal history. The dialogue namechecks “Chinatown,” and that film’s influence is clear, as

David Wilson

John Fisher plays Clark Tail in “Action Hero,” a Theatre Rhinoceros production at the Phoenix Theatre.

is that of the “The Game,” the gimmick-dependent 1997 Sean Penn/ Michael Douglas vehicle. Among Fisher’s most interest-

ing angles here is that the pseudoCruise character, called Clark Tail, is not written or played as being altogether duplicitous in denying that he’s gay. Instead, his elusive identity is portrayed as part and parcel of an entire Hollywood ecosystem in which illusion and reality are fluid. Clark Tail, played by Fisher, is just the clearest example of a condition in which all of these characters exist. Jason, the protagonist-narrator (Gabriel Ross), is riddled with moral slippage. He thinks of himself as self-directed but relies on his wealthy father for handouts, feels embarrassed scraping together a living doing gay bar sitcom parodies as he auditions for “real” acting jobs in the movies, revels in playing deceptive pranks, and is sexually and professionally seduced by the man he sneeringly describes as “Hollywood’s biggest closet case.” His more laid-back buddy and apparent sometime fuckbuddy, Cranston (Jake Soss) operates in a

go-with-the-flow modality wiggling between authenticity and careerism with no sense of moral conflict. As written by Fisher, he’s the happier soul. The cast of three works admirably hard throughout a fast-paced 90 minutes. On a virtually empty stage, they pantomime fight scenes, scramble up risers meant to suggest a rocky incline, and slide on their backs across the stage to suggest floating through the L.A. sewer system. There’s an earthquake, a flood and a fire in the course of the show, which is as ridiculous as, well, a Hollywood action movie. Or life in Los Angeles. This is a difficult-to-pin-down play, much of which I suspect is intentional, since ambiguity is among its subjects. The deep darkness of the Phoenix Theater’s thrust stage and the occasional underbeds of noir soundtrack music occasionally make “Action Hero” feel genuinely eerie. At other times, especially

when the actors are in drag, making quick changes (Fisher and Soss play multiple characters) or rushing through physically demanding blocking, there’s an almost slapstick, antic quality to the proceedings. These disparate tones would actually benefit from more ambiguity, overlapping in the middle rather than doing battle as polar opposites. In his second Rhino role this year (after playing the young lover in “Deathtrap”), Jake Soss is again almost distractingly sexy. With his handsome smile, physical ease and a penchant for shirts that seem designed to creep above his waistline, one can easily imagine him in the Tom Cruise role. And if he’s in a Rhinoceros play, he must be gay. Right? t

front lines. Not to be overlooked among them is the most recent, by Teodor Currentzis, leading Music Aeterna, his orchestra of musician loyalists who would follow him into the fire (Sony). In fact his Sixth is incendiary, fearless in its plunge into this dark territory and equally impassioned in its rendering of the overwhelming Andante. It demands to be heard. As arresting a new interpretation, if for significantly different reasons, is Francois-Xavier Roth’s of the First Symphony (Harmonia Mundi), a second recorded First for Roth but this one with his specialty period-instrument ensemble Les Siecles, which is changing the way we hear much pre-WWI music. We have been teased with the prospect of historically informed Mahler before, but with only limited delivery on the promise historically appropriate instruments and playing styles bring to the enterprise. From the First’s opening measures, music coming from another plane, at last we get both greater remoteness in the origin of the sound and more cogent if raucous revels on the ground. Balances, particularly tricky given the extreme dynamics of the First, do nearly take care of themselves, and Fischer and his players ride herd joyously. This nature-soaked symphony gains immeasurably from performance on more “natural,” less high-tech instruments. As realized here, the winds give us the chirping of the insects and the singing of the birds as realistically, and vividly, as their modern counterparts do in Messiaen. The percussion instruments clearly belong to humans plumbing them for their maximum sonic possibilities, not operators of instruments of sonic war. The CD’s strong cover makes it clear this will not be an ordinary First, and it spells out the version played, the first (1893-94) of three of this symphony. Mahler, ever suspicious of the word symphony, the form he was to take to its limits, called his “tone poem” “Titan,” referring to its extramusical “program” mapping a hero’s journey, cradle to grave. This early version still contains the second movement, “Blumine,” a comparatively pale pastel in which Mahler wordlessly declares his passion for Marion von Weber, the wife of one of his best friends. The almost unbearable sweetness of the strings speaks so literally of forbidden love that it’s plain why the composer eventually deleted it from the score. Had he not made the excision on his

own, it’s sure that his ambitious wife Alma, the love of his life, would have seen to it. This recording counts as the stake in the heart of the notion that old instruments cannot rise to the sonic capacity and overall brilliance of their modern successors. Yet here you can hear the “foot” in both the funeral march and the cloddily buoyant country dances, and when the full orchestra weighs in with the “Dall’Inferno” (“From hell”) finale, Verdi’s Dies Irae feels near. Finally, as splendidly as he did with his shelf-clearing recent Third, Ivan Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra weigh in with what’s sure

to be the reference recording of the Seventh Symphony (Channel Classics). Credit the engineering, too, but Fischer’s way of optimizing clarity in heavy scoring by creating interactive sonic environments for his players, spheres within spheres, dispatches once and for all the notion that this is the composer’s strangest and most elusive work. It’s seldom sounded so confident, taking the music’s prescriptions at full dose. More than ever before, we hear that this music is not forbidding, but as co-created here, clear as night. t

“Action Hero” plays the Phoenix Theater, 414 Mason St., SF. Tickets ($15-$42): (800) 8383006, www.therhino.org

Mahler marvels by Tim Pfaff

s would only be fitting, MTT, our own private Merlin of Mahler, is crafting his farewell season as music director of the SF Symphony around two major pillars of the composer’s output, the Sixth and Eighth Symphonies. Some standout new Mahler recordings lay the groundwork for

audience preparation. Rafael Kubelik was Europe’s counterpart to Leonard Bernstein in bringing Mahler symphonies out of the shadows into their current, central place in the orchestral repertoire, and DG has just re-mastered his complete cycle, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony on 10 CDs and a single, startlingly clear Blu-ray disc. Nothing in it sounds obsolete, everything arrestingly new. Kubelik’s First has always held pride of place, and now the others sound properly like siblings. If there’s a single reason to invest in the set, it’s Kubelik’s Eighth, the sprawling, monumental work in which one hears all of Mahler and which Mahler putatively regarded as his finest. I’d gladly salute MTT’s latest Eighth as the new reference recording were it not fouled by James Morris’ caustic, snarling bass, which renders it unlistenable to me. A re-recording of MTT’s farewell Eighth, the best imaginable farewell disc, might plant a flag on Everest. With the Sixth, it’s the opposite problem. There’s already a recording for every taste, yet new ones continue to bring word from the work’s inexhaustible

<< Books

16 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Creative reading: Pride 2019 booklist by Gregg Shapiro

ride 2019 is taking on special meaning with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots during celebrations across the country. Visit your favorite independent

bookseller or the love-it-or-hate-it Amazon.com to order copies of these LGBTQ books for readers of all rainbow stripes.

Poetic paths

It’s hard to believe that “The Tradition” (Copper Canyon Press) is only the third fulllength collection by gay AfricanAmerican poet Jericho Brown, because he’s such an invigorating presence in the world. A poetic examination of terror, “The Tradition” uses Brown’s literary device the duplex, a form that merges the sonnet, the ghazal and the blues. In the “fore/words” to her new poetry collection “Sweet World” (CavanKerry Press), award-winning lesbian poet Maureen Seaton asks the reader for forgiveness for having “mixed up magic with grief, love with terror, light with impenetrable darkness.” The Colorado

poems were written during the “decision-making of breast cancer treatment.” How could a book of collaborative lyric essays by two cherished poets, straight ally Denise Duhamel and lesbian writer Julie Marie Wade, be less than supremely poetic? Fiercely feminist, political and personal, “The Unrhymables: Collaboration in Prose” (Noctuary Press) has essays based on colors, religions, movies, thresholds and inspirational women. Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of legendary “gay poetpreacher” Walt Whitman, “Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman” (Squares & Rebels), edited by Raymond Luczak, features works of 80 gay poets, including Edmund White, David Trinidad, Bryan Borland, Scott Hightower, Alfred Corn, Felice Picano, and Jaime Manrique. Everything you need to know about “LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia” (West Virginia Univ. Press), edited by Jeff Mann & Julia Watts, can be found in the title. The first-of-its-kind collection features poems by Nickole Brown, Aaron Smith, Dorothy Allison and Kelly McQuain, and short stories by Silas House, Fenton Johnson and others.

Adult books

Original co-founding member of the Violet Quill Club, poet-novelist-memoirist Felice Picano’s new novel “Justify My Sins: A Hollywood Novel in Three Acts” (Beautiful Dreamer Press) offers “noted names and events” of the 1970s-90s. The latest installment in James Earl Hardy’s B-Boy Blues series, “Men of the House” (IAJ Books) tells

the story of Brooklyn-based high school senior Raheim, oldest child of a gay male couple, who has his hands full balancing his relationship with girlfriend Maxine, admissions offers from the Ivy League, and the creation of his identity. In “The Stars of Locust Ridge” (Vivid Imagery), prolific writer Craig Moody takes us to the Great Smoky Mountains, near Dolly Parton’s childhood home in rural Tennessee, introducing us to teenaged Genevieve and her coming-of-age. Lesbian novelist Nina Revoyr says that her new novel “A Student of History” (Akashic Books) “is an L.A. story, but also an American story” about economic disparity, history and “invisible aristocracy.” “Stella Maris & Other Key West Stories” (Turtle Point Press), the second book by award-winning gay writer Michael Carroll, is set in the “beautiful town Key West, the last bastion, the place of the just-misfits.” Sexual identity and self-acceptance become a throughline in “Anatomy of a Miracle” (Hogarth), the new novel by Jonathan Miles with the subtitle “The ‘True’ Story of a Paralyzed Veteran, a Mississippi Convenience Store, a Vatican Investigation, and the Spectacular Perils of Grace.” Beginning in 1912 and continuing into the 21st century, “Correspondents” (Grove), the second novel by gay writer-activist Tim Murphy, author of 2016’s brilliant “Christodora,” is powerful and epic in breadth and scope. Straight novelist-ally Elinor Lipman is no stranger to writing about queer characters, and her hilarious new novel “Good Riddance” (HMH) is about troubles arising from a discarded yearbook and a nosey neighbor. In “Nirvana Is Here” (Three Rooms Press), his first novel since

Queer classics come to Blu-Ray by David-Elijah Nahmod

ust in time for Pride, Shout Factory releases four classic queer titles on Blu-ray. The films represent a wide variety of genres, from a romantic comedy and a Tennessee Williams drama to a splashy musical and a drag extravaganza. Beeban Kidron’s “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” attracted attention upon its initial release in 1995 due to the casting of straight macho men Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes as gay men in drag. Though the film received mixed reviews, it was a moderate success at the box office, pleasing the crowds who came out to see it. It’s the story of Vida (Swayze), Noxeema (Snipes) and Chi Chi (John Leguizamo), three New York drag queens who embark on a road trip to Hollywood, where they plan to compete in the Drag Queen of America pageant. Along the way their car breaks down, and they find themselves stranded in Snydersville, a rundown hicktown in the middle of nowhere. During their two-day stay in the town, they bond with many of the townspeople, involving them-

selves in people’s problems. Vida, for example, comes to the aid of battered wife Carol Ann (Stockard Channing), while Noxeema befriends lonely widow Clara (Alice Drummond). The girls also provide a number of the local ladies with makeovers. The film’s opening scene, set at a New York City drag pageant, is great fun and includes cameos from many of the city’s biggest drag legends, such as Coco Peru, Candis Cayne, Hedda Lettuce and The Lady Bunny. Quentin Crisp and San Francisco’s very own legend Jose Sarria are briefly glimpsed as pageant judges, while superstar RuPaul has a small role as the winner of the previous year’s pageant. There’s also an amusing post-pageant cameo from Robin Williams. The film includes a bizarre subplot featuring Chris Penn as a homophobic sheriff who’s looking for the three heroines. Though he’s presented as an idiotic half-wit meant to provide comic relief, his constant anti-gay remarks are not in the least bit funny. In one particularly offensive scene, the sheriff sits at a bar, rambling about all the things he thinks gay people do. It’s hard to believe gay viewers would find his tirade amusing.

But for the most part, “To Wong Foo” is an enjoyable mixture of comedy and drama. The three leads look fabulous, though it’s never explained why they remain in drag after they exit the stage. But you have to hand it to the guys: they really dived into their characters, playing their glamorous roles with gusto. While not a great film, “To Wong Foo” is a good one, with the exception of the scenes involving the Penn character. Shout Factory’s Blu-ray release includes a making-of documentary, interviews with auteur Kidron, gay screenwriter Douglas Beane, and John Leguizamo. Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey” (1995) is a most unusual romantic comedy. It’s about AIDS. Steven Weber stars as the title character, a gay man in New York who swears off sex out of fear of the disease. As soon as he takes his vow of celibacy, he meets his soulmate, the HIV-positive Steve (Michael T. Weiss). Their on-again, off-again flirtation forms the core of the story, which offers insightful commentary about life during the epidemic while also being screamingly funny. Several fantasy sequences let viewers into Jeffrey’s head. The funniest of these sees Jeffrey’s straight-laced parents trying to involve him in phone sex! 1968’s “Boom!,” written by the great gay playwright Tennessee Williams based on his play “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” is a bizarre opus starring 36-year-old Elizabeth Taylor as a 60ish character, and 43-year-old Richard Burton as a character meant to be played by a man in his early 20s. Openly gay actorplaywright Noel Coward offers support as a man known as The Witch of Capri. The role was originally offered to Katharine Hepburn, who declined. So Coward is actually playing a female

role. The story doesn’t make too much sense. Super-rich Taylor, dying of an unnamed disease, is visited on her private island by struggling poet Burton, for vague reasons. Though “Boom!” doesn’t offer much of a story, it’s a wild campfest featuring lots of hammy overacting and Taylor’s outrageous outfits. Shout Factory’s BluRay includes a commentary track by filmmaker John Waters, who counts “Boom!” among his favorite films. Finally, Shout Factory offers the notorious bomb of a musical “Can’t Stop the Music,” a highly fictionalized retelling of the formation of the Village People, the disco-era supergroup named after Greenwich Village, New York’s popular gay neighborhood. Group members presented themselves as symbols of gay masculinity. So how bad is the film? Actually, not bad at all. It’s just a silly, plotless tale of a young man (Steve Guttenberg) trying to make it as a music producer with the help of his roommate (Valerie Perrine). Though the band is given little screentime, the songs are good and the musical numbers splashy. Guttenberg and Perrine play off each other well, delivering their fasttalking lines with tongues firmly planted in cheek. The film includes a supporting performance by a pre-transitioned Caitlyn Jenner, when she was still known as Bruce. If we only knew. Unfortunately, “Can’t Stop the Music” harmed the careers of producer Allan Carr (“Grease”) and Perrine. More’s the pity. Shout Factory’s BluRay includes an extensive interview with Village Person Randy Jones. Happy Pride! t

2005’s incredible “Faith for Beginners,” gay writer Aaron Hamburger follows historian Ari on his quest to reconnect with straight high school crush Justin, while also dealing with his ex-husband, all set against the backdrop of “the meteoric rise and fall of the band Nirvana and the #MeToo movement.” Set in glamorous literary and film circles of 1950s Italy, “Leading Men” (Viking), the fourth novel by gay writer Christopher Castellani, features Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Williams’ lover Frank Merlo and legendary film icon Anja Bloom. Taylor Saracen joins gay authors St. Sukie de la Croix and Jim Elledge in exploring the queer past of Chicago’s notorious, openly gay Towertown neighborhood of the 1920s in her novel “In the City by the Lake” (13 Red Media). In “Todd Sweeney: The Fiend of Fleet High” (Hosta Press), gay writer David Pratt takes the story of Sweeney Todd in a new direction, setting the story in high school, where the title character and pal Nellie Lovett come to the rescue of best friend Toby Ragg. Gay novelist Henry Alley’s new book “Men Touching” (Chelsea Station Editions) is set in 1986 Seattle, as Vietnam vet Robb attempts to beat his drug addiction. His highschool teacher partner Bart is coming out to his family while dealing with a friend dying of AIDS complications. “The Shape of the Earth” (Bold Strokes Books), the new full-length erotic romance novel by Gary Garth McCann, involves Lenny, the manager of a struggling bookstore, his fidelity issues with Dave, and his flirtation with grad student Ian, which threatens to upend everything. t

TV>>

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 17

Counting LGBTQ blessings for Pride Month by Victoria A. Brownworth

o like we said last time, if networks and cable were true LGBTQ allies, we’d have nothing but queer programming for Pride Month. But since they are not, we’ve compiled a list of series that you can watch to make the rest of your Pride and Stonewall 50 the queerest, right from the comfort of your own home, phone and TV. Series with somewhat-to-mostly queer content are available on cable, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, iTunes and Google. There is something for everyone: lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning. You should take the opportunity to delve. You should take a risk with some of these series, which are off the standard moniedwhite-male-30something-gay track (not that there is anything wrong with being a 30something gay white man with money!). But it has taken quite a long while for the TV series world to recognize that there are non-white, non-male, non-cis queers out there. Here is a list of shows we have watched that we know are worth a look and have queer content. You can clip or print out this list and put it right on your desk or bedside table for easy access. Some of these shows you know, others you may never have heard of, but what would Pride be without a little adventure? “Pose.” “Gentleman Jack.” “Nos4a2.” “Tales of the City.” “Will & Grace.” “The Bisexual.” “The Fosters.” “Empire.” “Star.” “Killing Eve.” “Black Lightning.” “Orphan Black.” “Orange Is the New Black.” “Wentworth.” “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” “One Day at a Time.” “Vida.” “The Sinner.” “West 40s.” “Derek and Cameron.” “Venice the Series.” “Hanging Out.” “The Bad Boy Series.” “Queer Eye.” “Addicted the Web Series.” “Drama Queenz.” “Before I Got Famous.” “I Am Jazz.” “Wynonna Earp.” “Hunting Season.” “Adulting.” “Brujos.” “My Best Gay Friends.” “My Gay Roommate.” “Her Story.” “Carmilla.” “Brown Girls.” “Jaded.” “People Like Us.” “Falling for Angels.”“Good Trouble.”“Dear White People.” “grown-ish.” “Modern Family.” “Veep.” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” “The Bold Type.” These series will take you through Pride and beyond, and remind you of how much we need LGBTQ programing. We deserve characters who look, sound and act like us, and have lives like ours. We deserve to be more than tokens and the only queer in town, as is so often the case. If HBO can bring Anne Lister to the screen from the 18th century and keep us riveted in “Gentleman Jack,” then surely we can have more stories of our current queer lives. The season finale of “Gentleman Jack” was awesomely good, like the entire series has been. But then, Sally Wainwright is brilliant (if you haven’t see “Happy Valley,” go Netflix it). We are not overly fond of the period drama, but Wainwright, with Suranne Jones as Lister, brought the period to vivid and explicable life. Jones is magnificent as Lister. Smart, clever, arch, handsome. It makes one just a bit giddy to remember that Lister was real, and in the 1700s was living openly as a lesbian and had lesbian affairs, ran a business and wrote four million words’ worth of diaries. Truly awesome. Billy Porter is having a moment, and oh are we here for it. Fresh off his fabulousness at the Tony Awards, where he arrived wearing a fantastic pink and red dress made from the curtains from his Tony-winning musical “Kinky Boots,” Porter was a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on June 12. He was spectacular. Wearing a pleated gold silk pantsuit with a pleated ruff (yes, a ruff), Porter

CBS-TV

Billy Porter was a guest on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

received huge applause. Colbert, the most staid dresser of all the late-night talk-show hosts, thanked Porter for dressing for the occasion. Porter said, “I’m on ‘The Late Show.’ Of course I’m going to dress.” There was discussion of Porter’s fashion. Colbert showed photos of Porter’s amazing outfits at the May 6 Met Gala, to which Porter said merely, “Susan Sontag, ‘Notes on Camp.’” Educate that audience! Then there were pics of the Tonys outfit. Porter said the Tonys dress was “upcycled couture,” that curtain from “Kinky Boots” plus lots of pink tulle. Somewhat out of his depth, Colbert asked if Porter thought “fashion makes a political statement.” Porter, in all his flaming, gorgeous majesty, leaned in and said, “I’ve always been into fashion. And I feel like especially when it comes to gender, [it can be political].” He then launched into one of the most feminist treatises we’ve heard on the tube. Certainly one of the most feminist we have heard from a man. Porter said, “We’ve moved past the point where women wearing pants is a problem. Women wearing pants is powerful, it’s strong, everybody accepts it. It’s fighting the patriarchy. But the minute a man puts on a dress it’s disgusting.” Porter looked out at the audience and repeated “disgusting.” Then he continued, “So what are we saying? Men are strong, women are disgusting. I’m not doing that any more. I’m done with that.” The audience went wild. Porter went on, “I’m a man in a dress. And if I feel like wearing a dress, I’m going to wear one. Jesus wore a dress. They call them robes, but he wore a dress. Jesus wore a dress.” Porter described the world of “Pose” for the audience who had just watched ultra-straight Beto O’Rourke waving his arms prior to Porter arriving and sashaying onto the stage. Porter said, “But the [ballroom] culture is really interesting. It’s a culture of chosen family. I think that’s what so great about the show. The show presents what chosen family looks like.” The next thing Porter said was the best encapsulation of what so many of us have experienced in our queer lives. He said, “Sometimes our biological families are not equipped to love us unconditionally for us to thrive as LGBTQ people.” The audience was cheering. “The ballroom culture is a culture that emerged from these people being thrown out of their houses just for who they are. We found our tribe, we found our family. The culture is about how we uplift each other.” The segment ended with Colbert saying how much he loves and admires Porter’s style. So Porter pulled out his pink rhinestone glasses from the Tonys and a black-and-white striped Philip Treacy fedora he said he bought for only $500 years ago (it would cost at least $2,500 now, that’s the basic price line for a Treacy chapeau). He put the glasses and hat on Colbert and had him sissy that walk across the stage dragging his suit

jacket like a cape. Utter fabulousness. For the full impact, watch the episode at CBS.com.

Beautiful ad

Now it’s time for a word from an LGBTQ sponsor. When the Trump administration is threatening LGBTQ people and doing their best to actively harm transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, it’s heartening to see a company step up specifically for our community’s most vulnerable members. For Pride month, Sephora released a gorgeous ad celebrating transgender, non-binary, gender-non-conforming and LGB people with their “We Belong to Something Beautiful” campaign. We admit, we got all verklempt after we saw it on TV the first time. And the second. And the third. (We also get the feels over the Truvada for PrEP ads.) Set to Shirley Bassey’s rousing queer anthem “This Is My Life,” the ad begins with a rush of words: They. She. Ze. He. Xe. We. We Belong to Something Beautiful. Yeah, baby, all of us. According to Sephora, the ad is part of a new, multi-chapter platform “meant to celebrate different forms of diversity and inclusion in beauty.” The “Identify as We” launch also includes a new “Trans is Beautiful” group. Sephora is also introducing its first-ever SephoraHeartPride collection, featuring 10 branded offerings that celebrate and support Pride. Sephora will also donate $1 to support LGBTQ organizations for every product sold. Sephora says it is working with the Tides Foundation to coordinate the donations. There is no overstating the importance and impact of seeing companies center the LGBTQ community. Sephora is reaching out and not just putting LGBTQ people in their ads, they are hiring LGBTQ people as well. This is a statement: it means that LGBTQ people aren’t just being tokenized, but are instead being included and even elevated. Among the incredibly gorgeous people in the ad are transgender, genderqueer and non-binary models Aaron Philip, Hunter Schafer and Fatima Jamal. The inclusion of Aaron Philip in the ad takes it to a whole other level, as Philip is a black, disabled trans model. For those queers in wheelchairs like we have been since being paralyzed, seeing Philip in the Sephora ad was something. Born with cerebral palsy and identifying as a gender-nonconforming trans woman, Philip is breaking all kinds of ground. In a CNN interview, Philip said, “There’s still a great lack of visibility and attention towards people with disabilities in fashion.” She said, “As of right now, I’m one of two physically disabled models in the entire industry, next to Jillian Mercado.” (The Latinx Mercado has muscular dystrophy and also models from her wheelchair.) Philip told CNN, “It shouldn’t be the responsibility of anyone who is marginalized to amplify their voice when there are so many voices that can amplify it for them. But it’s just the way of getting to where you need to be. So I’ll do it. Hopefully I’ll do it so that other girls in my position don’t have to – they can just live and do their jobs.” Philip

is only 17, doing the work the adults should be doing. Hunter Schafer, who looks hauntingly beautiful in the Sephora ad, stars in the new HBO drama “Euphoria,” which premiered on June 16. The series is a new direction for HBO, which has never had a teen-centered drama. Teen dramas have gotten darker since the days of “Glee,” with “Pretty Little Liars,” “Riverdale” and “13 Reasons” being a lot more like we remember adolescence: fraught, angst-driven, drug-laced, peppered with extreme moments of episodic joy and heartbreak. “Euphoria” is definitely on the dark side. As HBO describes the series, “‘Euphoria’ follows a group of high school students as they navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma, and social media. Actor and singer Zendaya leads an ensemble cast including Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Algee Smith and Sydney Sweeney.” Zendaya and Schafer are outstanding. This is a well-acted and beautifully shot series. Lush, atmospheric, deeply emotive. Zendaya plays Rue, a 17-year-old struggling to stay clean as she battles drug addiction. This is a really different role for her, being a Disney Channel star. But she is superb as Rue, and the demands the role makes on her as an actor are well-met. The most disturbing aspect of the aptly named Rue as a character is how her entire world revolves around her addiction. What that does to her, her younger sister and others around her is a lot of the drama, but acutely compelling because of the realness. Schafer plays the charming Jules, a trans girl in love with pink who becomes friends with Rue when she moves to town. The dynamic of their relationship is truly groundbreaking. We’ve seen entirely too much TV over the years, and we have not seen this. Jules makes everyone think about things differently. Her transness, her

sweetness, her romantic nature are both breathtaking and heartbreaking. Schafer is a standout here, and it’s just fabulous to see a young trans actor playing such a complex role at the center of such a big debut series. Note to networks: this is what inclusive casting and writing looks like. Our one complaint about “Euphoria” is the tired trope of the fat girl who hates her body. Yes, millions of girls and women hate their bodies in part because they are told to by TV shows and ad campaigns. Barbie Ferreira does an excellent job with the role of Kat, a body-conscious teen exploring her sexuality, but still. In real life Ferreira is drop-dead gorgeous, a model, the groundbreaking star of a web series and leader in the body positivity movement. In 2016, Time magazine named her one of America’s 30 Most Influential Teens. But in “Euphoria,” she spends too much time looking at her own ass in the mirror, and not in a good way. We would like someone of Ferreira’s acclaim to be in-your-face comfy with her size and her sexiness in this series. Just saying. “Euphoria” is edgy stuff. The Parents Television Council said the show is marketing adult content to teens. PTC reported the first episode had “close to 30 penises flash onscreen,” and that the “onscreen statutory rape of a character” was intense for young viewers. Those are issues for parents to address in their own homes, but one thing we personally would like is for folks to stop putting adjectives in front of the word rape. Rape is rape. If there’s no consent, calling it date or statutory or anything else is irrelevant. It is rape, period. A fluffy adjective does not diminish the trauma if you’re a victim/survivor, as many of us are. So for the dark, the daring and the decadent, in these days of Pride, you really must revel, and stay tuned. t

PRIDE! in Berkeley June 27th 5pm-8pm Downtown Berkeley Plaza ● Berkeley PRIDE Drag Show ● Circle Left - Contra Dance ● Live Music by mya byrne

<< Film

18 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Frameline artists

From page 13

essay in the folly and joy of opposites attracting. Initially tentative, Woolf (played by the fabulous, willowy Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki) was electrified sexually and creatively by the glamorous, uninhibited and ultimately elusive Sackville-West, who was the inspiration for the genderbending time traveler of Woolf’s 1928 novel “Orlando.” (If you haven’t seen Sally Potter’s 1992 feminist film adaptation of the same name with Tilda Swinton switching genders with alacrity, track it down post-haste.). Based on a 1993 stage play by Eileen Atkins and letters the lovers wrote to one another, director Chanya Button’s film combines the aesthetic pleasures of an elegantly-appointed costume drama with high-toned literary biography and forbidden lust. Isabella Rossellini, chewing the scenery as Vita’s snarky, aristocratic mother, nearly steals the show. Montgomery Clift, whose aching vulnerability and wounded beauty melted the heart of a young Liz Taylor and millions of fans in “A Place in the Sun,” has long been an object of speculation. Marked by substance abuse, closeted homosexuality and a near-fatal car accident that disfigured his sensitive, exquisitely expressive face, the life of the handsome, brooding actor, cut short at the age of 45, was once called “the longest suicide in Hollywood history.” Of course, the real story is more complicated. “Making Montgomery Clift,” an intimate documentary co-directed by his nephew Robert Anderson Clift and Hillary Demmon, attempts to set

Frameline 43

From page 13

In the words of one young man from Syria, his murder would have been considered an honor killing by some members of his conservative religious community. Frameline 43 allows you to experience earth-shattering changes in parts of the world whose citizens are just beginning to recognize the common humanity of same-sex-oriented people. Frameline 43 unspools June 20-30 at the Castro, Roxie and Victoria venues in SF, as well as the Shattuck in Berkeley, and the Piedmont in Oakland. “Vita & Virginia” Fans of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novella “Orlando” should appreciate Chanya Button’s curtain-raising drama. With star turns by Elizabeth Debicki as Woolf and Gemma Arterton as lover Vita Sackville-West, “Vita & Virginia” brings to life one of the great lesbian love affairs of the 20th century. An intriguing blend of literary bio and romantic mystery, this is a costume drama with a supporting turn from “Blue Velvet” star Isabella Rossellini as Vita’s severely disapproving mom. As the two different novelists begin exploring each other’s minds and bodies, their relationship sparks a creative surge in Woolf, who uses the androgynous Sackville-West as inspiration for “Orlando.” (Castro, 6/20) “Kinky Boots: The Musical” Directors Jerry Mitchell and Brett Sullivan’s “Kinky Boots: The Musical” (with a book by Harvey Fierstein and original songs by Cyndi Lauper) stars London sensations Killian Donnelly as shoemaker scion Charlie and Matt Henry as Lola, the feisty drag queen who tries to save the factory with her fab fetishy creations. (Castro, 6/22) “Sid & Judy” Judy! Judy! Judy! Director Stephen Kijak’s world premiere bio-doc commemorates a half-century since the death of the extravagantly talented and tragically short-lived singer/film star Judy Garland. Her career spanned four decades, highlighted by “The Wizard of Oz,” her early-1940s comedies with fellow kid star Mickey Rooney, a series of MGM musicals, brilliant late-career supporting turns (“Judgment at Nuremberg”) and CBS-TV’s

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from co-directors Robert Anderson Clift and Hillary Demmon’s “Making Montgomery Clift.”

the record straight and add nuance to mistaken, preconceived notions of the man they knew. Through interviews with family and confidants, rare archival footage, and audio recordings shared by Clift’s brother, the film goes beyond the myth crafted by publicists and standard Hollywood biographies to explore who Monty actually was, and his commitment to his craft, an artistic legacy that includes “Suddenly Last Summer,” “From Here to Eternity” and “Red River,” where he looked pretty spiffy in cowboy hat and spurs. Catapulted from the obscurity of a lonely childhood in a drab Paris suburb to the glare and excess of runway spectaculars, the openly gay, enfant terrible couturier Jean Paul Gaultier has had a wild ride. An homage to his life and work, “Jean Paul Gaultier: Freak and Chic,” directed by Yann L’Henoret, offers a backstage tour of “Fashion Freak

“The Judy Garland Show.” Revealing and poignant, the film is rich with spectacular clips and rare concert footage, told through the memoirs of the man who, for a tumultuous decade, was her confidant, producer, and husband, Sid Luft. (Castro, 6/26) “Before You Know It” Fresh from 2019 Sundance, Hannah Pearl Utt offers a smart, funny, heartfelt family drama about the eccentric Gurners, perched atop their business, a community theater in Lower Manhattan. Stars co-writers Jen Tullock and Utt, alongside Judith Light, Mandy Patinkin, and Alec Baldwin. (Castro, 6/24) “The Ground Beneath My Feet” Drawing partly from her own life story and in tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” Austrian director Marie Kreutzer offers a chilling thriller about a modern woman, Lola (a riveting Valerie Pachner), a stressed-out business consultant whose brutal job (corporate layoffs), secret life (passionate affair with her female boss) and family history (mentally ill older sister) come to a head. English subtitles. (Castro, 6/21; Piedmont, 6/28) “Unsettled: Seeking Refuge in America” Tom Shepard’s harrowing film documents the plight of people seeking asylum in Trump America because life in their birth countries has become intolerably dangerous. Shepard reports that at least 70 nations consider same-sex relations unlawful; four prescribe the death penalty. (Castro, 6/23) “Temblores (Tremors)” Director Jayro Bustamante focuses on sophisticated Pablo as he reveals he’s leaving his wife and kids to join his male lover. In an evangelical part of Guatemala, Pablo’s parents, wife, employer, and pastor set about destroying this errant man. A bold demonstration of the impact that religious and social prejudice can have on queer lives. (Castro, 6/25) “Bit” Director Brad Michael Elmore’s American premiere concerns a summer vacation in LA that quickly turns into a fight to survive for Laurel (Nicole Maines), a transgender teenage girl who falls in with a quartet of queer feminist vampires. Unsure if they want to kill her, eat her, or recruit her, Laurel tags along with the bloodsucking clique as they rid the streets of predatory men in this madcap, gory take on

Show,” Gaultier’s choreographed, extravagantly costumed musical revue, which doubles as a retrospective of his career’s greatest hits. Known for his outrageous, hyper-sexualized fashions and celebration of androgyny, Gaultier plays genial host to L’Henoret, who follows the production, from inception to its glittery opening night at the Folies Bergere. Along the way, he reflects on his humble beginnings, his grandmother’s corsets and other sources of inspiration, as well as the death of his longtime partner from HIV. Superstars Madonna, Catherine Deneuve and muse Rossy de Palma drop by and join the party. A trip down the yellow brick road for real, Stephen Kijak’s “Sid & Judy” chronicles the tragically short life, astounding gifts and tenacious demons of gay icon Judy Garland, who died 50 years ago this month. The documentary weaves together the

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Yann L’Henoret’s “Jean Paul Gaultier: Freak and Chic.”

entertainer’s own words; recollections from her husband, producer and closest adviser Sid Luft, based on his 2017 memoir “Judy & I”; concert footage; and a rare duet she performed with Barbara Streisand. The third and longest-lasting of her five husbands, Luft certainly passed the endurance test. He’s credited with resurrecting her singing career, helping salvage her movie stardom, and facilitating the final phase of her comeback, after she was unceremoniously kicked off the MGM lot – evidently, her addiction to amphetamines and erratic behavior didn’t endear her to studio execs or directors. He also produced the Oscar-nominated 1954 version of “A Star Is Born,” where she belted out a heartfelt rendition of “The Man that Got Away.” Nobody did it better. The subversive political artist, painter, writer, photographer, filmmaker, AIDS activist and former teenage hustler David

Wojnarowicz was a prominent figure in the East Village art scene of the 1980s, and a lightning rod who incensed fundamentalists. He’s also the intriguing subject of Marion Scemama’s experimental documentary essay “Self-Portrait in 23 Rounds, A Chapter in David Wojnarowicz’s Life 1989-1991.” Her moving portrait revolves around a five-hour 1989 interview with the restlessly creative artist conducted by theorist Sylvère Lotringer. His close friend and collaborator, Scemama integrates examples of Wojnarowicz’s provocative, sexually explicit work and volatile performance art with his ruminations on his artistic process, AIDS and confronting his looming mortality at a time when society was denying the epidemic existed. He would be gone three years later.t Frameline.org

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Marcelino Islas Hernandez’s “History Lessons.”

a coming-of-age tale. (Castro, 6/22) “End of the Century” Director Lucio Castro presents a sexy, funny, time-shifting feature debut set in hip Barcelona. Castro explores the relationship between lovers Ocho and Javi over many decades and different realities. (Castro, 6/21; Victoria, 6/29) “Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts” Director Nick Zeig-Owens presents a behind-the-scenes exposé of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star and country music songstress Trixie Mattel, a glimpse into the backstage drama of a drag superstar. Following Trixie through a musical world tour and the genesis of her “Viceland” series with Katya, “Moving Parts” showcases the glitz and glamour of fame, and its pitfalls when you have a legion of fans watching your every move. (Castro, 6/25) “Kattumaram” Director Swarnavel Eswaran takes us to a small tsunami-ravaged Indian village where a fisherman works to care for his orphaned schoolteacher niece, Anandhi. Despite constant pressure from her uncle and conservative society, Anandhi refuses to be married off. It isn’t until a new friendship with a fellow female teacher blossoms that people begin to suspect why. (Roxie, 6/23; Shattuck, 6/27) “Changing the Game” Michael

Courtesy Frameline

Scene from director Michael Barnett’s “Changing the Game.”

Barnett’s timely doc examines the fight of trans athletes to compete against other men. At the heart of the film is a trans man who wants to wrestle against other men, but is barred from doing so by state law. (Castro, 6/23) “History Lessons” Mexican director Marcelino Islas Hernandez provides female teacher-pupil fireworks in this love tryst, in Spanish with English subtitles. (Victoria, 6/23; Piedmont, 6/29) “Straight Up” James Sweeney’s story of a relationship between a possibly closeted man (Todd) and a

straight-identified woman (Rory). (Castro, 6/24) “Stray Dolls” Director Sonejuhi Sinha tracks the adventures of Riz (Geetanjali Thapa), a young Indian immigrant whose life in a lowdown motel is enlivened by teaming up with Dallas (Olivia DeJonge), a Dolly Parton-quoting Texan. Cynthia Nixon almost steals the show as their karaoke-singing, druggy boss. A lively crime drama that breaks all the rules. (Victoria, 6/22) t www.frameline.org

Arts Events

Leather

www.ebar.com

Shining Stars Vol. 49 • No. 25 • June 20-26, 2019

Nightlife Events

June 20 - 26, 2019 We’re winding up Pride month with plenty more ‘rainbowl-you-over’ events.

Fri 21 Botanicals and Brews @ SF Conservatory of Flowers

Listings on page 20>

CLUSTERFEST GLBT comics shine

by Jim Gladstone

he third annual Clusterfest, presented by Comedy Central, takes over the Bill Graham Auditorium and Civic Center Plaza this Friday through Sunday. While the top of the bill features the likes of Amy Poehler and John Mulaney, the notably diverse threeday line-up features some of the most interesting queer comedians working today. Close to ten percent of the performers on the bill identify as LGBTQ. Even a decade ago, the comedy club circuit had a straight-boys-club atmosphere that could make stand-up a tough pursuit for women and queers. But new generations of audiences and the emergence of podcasting as an alternative platform for comedians have brought a wider range of talents to both niche and national audiences. Matteo Lane, currently featured on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup and a veteran of Stephen Colbert and Seth Myers’ late night stages, says he’s found mainstream club audiences remarkably open. “When I started doing stand-up,” he says of his early days in Chicago eight years ago, “I wanted to get on stage as much as I could. So I did the gay clubs, straight places. That didn’t matter. I just wanted to practice. You can have

(left-right) Matteo Lane, Irene Tu, Julio Torres, Robin Tran and Jaboukie Young-White will perform at Clusterfest.

all the funny ideas in the world, but the technical aspects of timing, the process of developing the delivery of a joke, that’s what I fell in love with. “I don’t look at my material as being straight or gay. What do most comedians talk about? Dating, relationships, childhood. So sure, I’m gay. But that’s not the subject.” Lane feels like he can translate his experiences as a gay man into stories and jokes that anyone can relate to. “I think it’s all about

communication. I’m very interested in understanding other people and trying to communicate with them at different levels. I just love connecting with people.” Translation, in fact, is a lifelong passion of Lane’s. An opera singer prior to entering stand-up, he’s fluent in Italian and Spanish and proficient in French and German. This past spring, Lane did a stand-up tour of Milan, Florence and Rome, performing his act in Italian.

Queer or straight, English or Italian, in a small club or a huge festival setting, Lane says he treats every audience the same. “It’s more important to feel comfortable with myself and what I’m doing on stage than to try to adjust the material to the audience,” he says. “This may sound ridiculous, but its almost like when Luke Skywalker was trying to learn the Force. Yoda has him lifting rocks with his See page 21 >>

Rick Gerharter

{ THIRD OF THREE SECTIONS }

PILSNER PRIDE! NO COVER...EVER! 225 Church St., San Francisco www.pilsnerinn.com Pilsner-Strip_062719.indd 1

Mon 6/24: Tura - Alcoholic Kombucha Tasting 6-8 TUES 6/25: Schofferhofer Bier Tasting 6-8

Wed 6/26: Pulling Pork Harvey Milk Dem. Club Fundraiser 6-9 THURS 6/27: Live Radio @ The Pilsner 6-8 SAT 6/29: DJ Dank - Tea Dance 3-7 SUN 6/30: Pitchers and Catchers Drag Show 6-10 6/19/19 12:22 PM

<< Nightlife Events

20 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

June 20-27, 2019

Nightlife Events

We’re winding up Pride month with plenty more ‘rainbowlyou-over’ events.

Hoe is Life @ The Stud

Mixtape Vol. 4 @ Jolene’s

Monthly slutty party. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

DJs Jibbz and Ola spin global beats. $7-$10. 9pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. http://jolenessf.com/

FRI 21 100% Pure Love @ The Stud Gay rave with DJs Bianca Oblivion, Chrissym Chuck Gunn, and Siobhan Aluvalot. $5-$10. 9pm-3am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Botanicals and Brews @ SF Conservatory of Flowers Third annual party at the scenic beautiful conservatory, with plants displays, projections, outdoor picnic tables and craft brews. $29-$49. 7pm10pm. 100 JFK Drive, Golden Gate Park. conservatoryofflowers.org

Thurs 27

Clusterfest @ Civic Center

Heklina hosts Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences

THU 20

Queer Undie Party @ Jolene’s

Gayface @ El Rio Queer weekly night out with DJed and live music, at the popular Mission bar. 10pm-2am. 3158 Mission St. elriosf.com

Sex & the City Live @ Oasis

Leak your own nudes at the saucy night, with DJ Jibbz. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. jolenessf.com/

Sundance Saloon @ Space 550

The comic drag parody performances of scripts from the hit HBO show about four Manhattan women, adapted by and starring D’Arcy Drollinger. $27-$50. Thu-Sat 7pm thru July 13. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

The popular two-stepping linedancing, not-just-country music night, with free lessons. $5. 6:30pm-10:30pm. Also Sundays 5pm-10:30pm. 550 Barneveld Ave. sundancesaloon.org

The Monster Show @ The Edge

Tubesteak Connection @ Aunt Charlie’s Lounge

The weekly drag show with host Sue Casa, DJ MC2, themed nights and hilarious fun. $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Disco guru DJ Bus Station John spins grooves at the intimate retro music night. $5. 10pm-2am. 133 Turk St. at Taylor. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Playmates and soul mates...

San Francisco:

1-415-692-5774 18+ MegaMates.com

Third annual comedy and music festival, with a wide array of talents (Amy Poehler, Matteo Lane, Robin Tran, Leslie Jone, Big Freedia, Patton Oswalt, Tig Nataro, Trixie Mattel and dozens more). See feature in this section. $119-$1250. Thru June 23. Also in Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. www.clusterfest.com

Drummer @ Powerhouse Leather gear and cruise night with Mr. Powerhouse Leather 2019 AJ Huff; DJ Jason Godfrey. $5. 9pm-2am. 1347 Folsom St. powerhousebar.com

Friday Nights @ Oakland Museum Early evening weekly parties coordinated with Queer California: Untold Stories, a multimedia exhibition documenting California LGBT lives, with contemporary artwork, rare historical materials, film, photography, sculpture; thru Aug. 11. Free-$15. 5pm-9pm. 1000 Oak St. www.museumca.org

Garrett Clayton @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko The TV, film and stage actor performs ‘It Takes Three,’ his new fun cabaret concert, with Ashley Argota and Desi Dennis-Dylan. $45-$75 ($20 food/ drink min.) 8pm. Also June 22. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. feinsteinssf.com

Latin Explosion @ Club 21 The popular Latin club with gogo guys galore and Latin music. $10-$20. 9pm-3am. 2111 Franklin St., Oakland. www.club21oakland.com

Queer Beats @ Oasis Live acts Vincint and vocal quintet Perta, plus DJed grooves. $20. 10pm3am. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com

Uhaul @ Jolene’s The popular women’s dance party returns at the new nightclub, now weekly. 10pm-2am. 2700 16th St. at Harrison. jolenessf.com/

You Betta Work Comedy Fiesta @ San Mateo County Pride Center Jesus U BettaWork’s monthly gigglefest this time includes Michelle March, Baruch Porras-Hernandez, Sharon Birzer and Wonder Dave. 7:30pm. 1021 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo. http://jesusubettawork.com/

SAT 22 Alameda County Fair @ Fairgrounds, Pleaston

Mother @ Oasis Heklina’s popular weekly drag show, with special guests and great music themes. June 22 is an ABBA tribute with cohostess Peaches Christ. 10pm3am (11:30pm show). 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Mystopia @ Public Works 50 Shades of Pride, a big dance party produced by the Burning Man camp, with DJs Peter Napoli; stripes, spots, sequined colorful attire suggested. $12-$25. 9:30pm-4am. 161 Erie St. mystopia.camp | publicsf.com

Napa, Sonoma Pride @ Various Venues Enjoy dances, cookouts, park parties, drag shows, youth dances, art shows and more; most Saturdays, Sundays thru June 28. NapaSonomaPride.org

Pride Comedy Nights @ Santa Cruz & Berkeley Host Lisa Geduldig welcomes jokers Marga Gomez, Sampson McCormick, Irene Tu (Berk.) and Kim Luke (S.C.). $25-$35. June 22, 8pm at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Berkeley. June 23, 7pm at Freigh & Salvage, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. eventbrite.com

Secret Emchy Society @ Rite Spot Enjoy music from the local queer Americana trio. 9pm. 2099 Folsom St. www.emchy.com

Tribe @ SF Eagle Welcoming all kinksters, leathermen, puppies, and hot sexy gay men for a night of dark debauchery and ultimate fun. with DJs Josh Cheon and Pre OpTrans. $10. 9pm-2am, free before 10pm in full gear. 398 12th St. sf-eagle.com

Showtunes Sing-Along @ SF Eagle DJ Dank, Bambi Lake, Maria Konner, Birdie Bob Watt and David Lawrence Hawkins perform and lead a singalong night. $10. 7pm-11pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. sf-eagle.com

MON 24 Judas Priest @ The Warfield The metal rock band, with now-out and proud lead singer Rob Halford, plays their classic hits; Uriah Heep opens. $50-$100. 8pm. Also June 25. 982 Market St. www.axs.com

Martha T. Lipton @ Oasis The local drag talent (Evan Johnson) performs Acting Like an Actress, a comic tutorial on emoting. $10. 8pm. 298 11th St. www.sfoasis.com

Munro’s at Midnight @ Midnight Sun Drag night with Mercedez Munro. No cover. 10pm. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. www.midnightsunsf.com

Queer Bowling @ Mission Bowling Monthly fun with balls and pins; tasty beer and snacks menu at the bar, DJs Siobhan Aluvalot & Marke B plus guests Chulita and Vinyl Club. 6pm-9pm. 3176 17th St. www.missionbowlingclub.com

Vamp @ Beaux Women’s night with a sultry vampire theme; goth, red & black, lingerie attire welcome but not required; bondage and BDSM demos, too. DJs Olga T and Jayne Grey. $5-$15. 8pm2am. 2344 Market St. beauxsf.com

SUN 23 Big Gay Beer Bust @ The Cinch Benefits and plenty of beer at the historic neighborhood bar. 3pm-7pm. 1723 Polk St. www.cinchsf.com

Big Top @ Beaux Enjoy an extra weekend night at the fun Castro nightclub, plus hot local DJs and sexy gogo guys and gals. $8. 9pm2am. 2344 Market St. Beauxsf.com

Madonnathon @ The Stud After-party for the Like a Prayer (Madonna super-fan documentary) screening, with DJ Jene. 9pm-2am. 399 9th St. www.studsf.com

Margarita Party @ SF Eagle 31st annual pre-beer bust party and fundraiser for Real Bad (Grass Roots Gay Rights Foundation). 12pm-3pm. 398 12th St. at Harrison. sf-eagle.com

NerdOut @ Oasis Rooftop party for Bay Area techies. $10. 3pm-8pm. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com

Raw! Uncut! Video! @ The Stud Sneak preview of the X-rated documentary about Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry’s Palm Drive Video, which created an underground super-manly erotic genre in the ‘80s and ‘90s, plus readings of fan letters. 6pm-9pm. 399 9th St. studsf.com

Tue 25 Sampson McCormick @ San Francisco Punch Line Korrell McCormick

TUE 25 Gay Beach @ Local Brewing Co. DoTheBay’s gay beer PR event for Gay Beach Beer. 6pm-9pm. 69 Bluxome St. http://gay.dothebay.com/gay-beach-rsvp

Karaoke Cocktails @ Ginger’s The new basement tribute to the old Ginger’s Trois hosts weekly singing fun. 8pm-12am. 86 Hardie Place. gingers.bar/

Sampson McCormick @ San Francisco Punch Line Black, Gay & In The Bay features the insightful comic and storyteller. $17. 8pm. 444 Battery St. www.sampsoncomedy.com punchlinecomedyclub.com

Enjoy rides, carnival games, entertainment, food,d rinks and more at the fair. LGBT events June 22. https://annual.alamedacountyfair. com/fair-festivals/

Alanis Morissette @ Rodney Strong Vineyards, Healdsburg The ‘90s pop-rock singer is still going strong, and it’s not ironic. $99-$149. 6pm. 11455 Old Redwood Highway, Healdsburg. www.rodneystrong.com

Cream @ Lone Star Saloon Prince Wolf, Boyshapedbox and Dreamcast DJ at the bear bar. $5. 9pm2am. 1354 Harrison St. lonestarsf.com

Sat 22 Mystopia @ Public Works

t <<

Comedy >>

Clusterfest

From page 19

mind and then he sees the X-Wing stuck in the water. He thinks he has to push harder, to do something different. But the rocks and the XWing are the same.” Matteo Lane will appear in Clusterfest programs at the following dates and times: Fri., 9:30 pm (Todd Barry’s Crowd Work show) Sat., 4:45 pm (Chi Guys) Sun., 3:45 pm (Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion reading); 9 pm (Patton Oswalt show)

Talented folks

Here are some of the other queer comedy Jedis on hand to lift your spirits this weekend. Jaboukie Young-White manages an unusual mix of tone and content in his comedy: He’s simultaneously cheerful and woke. Whether slyly opining on racism, homophobia, politics or climate change, his ability to put across socially conscious material with puckish grins rather than disgruntled grimaces gives his act a refreshingly optimistic vibe. His jokes are sharp, but he doesn’t come across as a guy with an axe to grind. Which makes sense, given that the openly gay Chicago-born comic’s career is off to a flying start. At 24 years old, he’s the only comedian on most bills whose jokes about millennials are also his jokes about fuddy-duddy old people. While honing his chops in Windy

Showstoppers @ Oasis An Evening with Garland and Minnelli, performed by Logan Walker. $20$30. 8pm. 298 11th St. sfoasis.com

WED 26 B.P.M. @ Club BnB, Oakland Olga T and Shugga Shay’s weekly queer women and men’s R&B hip hop and soul night, at the club’s new location. 8pm-2am. 2120 Broadway, Oakland. www.bench-and-bar.com

Castro Karaoke @ Midnight Sun Sing out with host Bebe Sweetbriar; 2 for 1 well drinks. 8pm-2am. 4067 18th St. 861-4186. midnightsunsf.com

Liberace and Liza @ Feinstein’s at the Nikko David Safferr and Jillian Snow Harris return with their witty wacky nostalgic cabaret tribute to the glam costume pianist and Liza Minnelli. $30-$600. 7pm. Also June 27, 8pm. Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St. feinsteinssf.com

Pan Dulce @ Beaux Drag divas, gogo studs, DJed Latin grooves and drinks at the Hump Day fiesta 9pm-2am (free before 10:30pm). 2344 Market St. www. clubpapi.com www.beauxsf.com

THU 27 After Dark @ Exploratorium Pride edition of the museum party; enjoy cocktails and science demos at the hands-on museum (Tactile dome evening hours Fri & Sat, weekly 6:15 and 7:30pm.) $20. Pier 15 (Embarcadero at Green St). exploratorium.edu/

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 21

City clubs, Young-White simultaneously began to develop a national profile through a very funny Twitter account (@jaboukie). He’s written for Netflix’ American Vandal and Nick Kroll’s brilliant animated guide to puberty Big Mouth and, as of last year, became a regular correspondent on Trevor Noah’s Daily Show. Signature smile: “When I’m in Chicago, people think I’m half-black half-white. When I’m in New York people think I’m Puerto Rican. But when I’m in CVS, people think I’m stealing.” Jaboukie Young-White at Clusterfest: Fri., 8:15 pm (Clueless reading) Sat., 2 pm (Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness); 4:45 pm (Chi Guys); 9:45 pm (Vino Diesel) “I don’t mean to brag,” says Robin Tran in her debut Hulu comedy special, “But I think that I’m the best Vietnamese transgender lesbian comedian in the country.” The Orange County-based comic, did her first set during a 2004 high school talent show. She’s grown into stand-up as she’s grown into her own identity. The big break that led to her Hulu deal came during one of Jeff Ross’ Roast Battle shows in which two comics compete in an insult duel found Tran dishing it out at least as well as she took it from Alex Duong: He scored points referring to her as “Ali Dong” while she riposted, “I’m just like Alex’s girlfriend and family, because we all have a useless dick we want to get rid of.”

Love Is Gay Tour @ Ivy Room, Honey Hive Gallery Lucy & La Mer, Wasi and Polar Tropica perform queer fun songs. June 27, 8pm, $10. 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany www.ivyroom.com June 28, 6:30pm, 4117 Judah St. June 29, 5pm, Knockout Bar, 3223 Mission St. https://www.isawwasi.com/

The Monster Show @ The Edge The weekly drag show with themed nights $5. 9pm-2am. 4149 18th St. at Collingwood. www.edgesf.com

Mr. S 40th Anniversary @ SF Oasis Slip into Pride Weekend with the Mr. S Leather Crew. Help celebrate 40 years in San Francisco. One lucky guest will win a $1500 shopping spree. No cover. 21+ with ID. 298 11th St., 9pm2am. www.mr-s-leather.com

Nightlife @ California Academy of Sciences Parties at the fascinating spacious nature and science exhibit museum; June 27, Heklina hosts the annual Pride party. $12-$15. 6pm-10pm. 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park. www.calacademy.org

Pelvic Thrust @ Lone Star Saloon Metalbob and Bulldog Mike DJ metal rock. 9pm-2am. 1354 Harrison St. www.lonestarsf.com

Thump @ White Horse, Oakland Weekly electro music night with DJ Matthew Baker and guests. 9pm-2am. 6551 Telegraph Ave, (510) 652-3820. www.whitehorsebar.com t

High Tide Pride Boat Party @ SF Bay Do the Bay and Hornblower’s nautical party cruises around the bay, with DJed grooves drag acts cocktails and nibblies. $30-$45. 5:30pm-9pm. Pier 3. http://gay.dothebay.com/hightide-pride-boat-party-san-francisco

Literary Speakeasy @ Martuni’s Four-year anniversary of the reading & musician series hosted by James J. Siegel, with Mark Abramson, Michael Tod Edgerton, Heather June Gibbons, Nazelah Jamison, and musical guest Emily Zisman. 7pm. 4 Valencia St.

Thu 27 Love Is Gay Tour @ Ivy Room, Honey Hive Gallery

Tran told the Hollywood Reporter that she didn’t view trans jokes as inherently offensive or off-limits, so long as they don’t come from a mean-spirited or dismissive place. “Hey, I’m a human being and everybody gets made fun of, so do I not exist anymore.” Tran’s act is an intersectional traffic jam, with material on being a first-generation Asian American, a transwoman, and a lesbian. Signature smile: “I’m at a really weird phase of my transition now. If someone is sexist toward me, I’m simultaneously insulted by the misogyny but inside I’m really glad they acknowledge me as a woman.” Robin Tran at Clusterfest: Sat. 5:30 pm (Anthony Jeselnik show) Sun. 3:45 pm (Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion reading); 7 pm (Asian AF) Local favorite Irene Tu recently debuted her latest solo show, Rest In Peace, Irene as the featured artist for the 22nd United States of Asian America Festival. Where past material has focused on her triple minority status, Tu has expanded her comic palette, finding nuanced oxymoronic humor in grappling with one’s mortality while simultaneously striving to live one’s best life. A Berkeley graduate who studied science and engineering, Tu brings a cool, analytic persona to the her performances, occasionally tiptoeing into edgy terrain. Signature smile: “Mao doesn’t get the credit that he deserves. He

killed 60 million more people than Hitler, he did a way better job at his job. Why is everyone talking about Hitler? I feel like that’s racism.” Irene Tu at Clusterfest Sat. 3:30 (with James Veitch) Sun 7 pm (Asian AF) Julio Torres’ spacey, deadpan comes off as a 21st-century update of Emo Phillips. His absurdist manbaby stage persona is occasionally sprinkled with a hint of borscht. Bleach-blond and unabashedly queer, Torres is the latest rising star from the Saturday Night Live galaxy. Like Michael O’Donoghue, who created the classic ‘Mister Bill’ clips and Robert Smigel, known for The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Torres is not a sketch player, but a behindthe-scenes genius, creating some of the show’s most memorable video shorts. His most famous may be 2016’s Wells for Boys, a fauxmercial for a Fisher-Price building set for sensitive, sulky, budding queer aesthetes. A native El Salvadoran, Torres is one of the creators of HBO’s new

Spanish-language mock-horror series Los Espookys and has a solo special debuting on the service later this summer. Its called My Favorite Shapes and likely proves that its hip to be rhomboid. Signature smile: “My favorite color is clear, followed by shiny.” Julian Torres at Clusterfest: Sat., 2 pm (Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness); 6:45 pm (Los Espookys); 8:15 pm (John Mulaney show) 10:15 pm John Mulaney late show) Other queer performers appearing at Clusterfest include Jonathan Van Ness, Fortune Feimster, Guy Branum, Tig Notaro, Big Freedia, Punkie Johnson, Peaches Christ, Trixie Mattel and Katya. t Comedy Central presents Clusterfest, Friday June 21Sunday June 23. Civic Center Plaza. Tickets: $119 (one day) $279 (three day). www.clusterfest.com

<< Arts Events

June 20-27, 2019

Arts Events

22 • Bay Area Reporter • June 20-26, 2019

Fri 21 San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus @ Sydney Goldstein Theater

Aplauso! @ GLBT History Museum

Stonewall: 50 Years @ Harvey Milk Photo Cntr

Maiden @ Landmark Cinemas

Latinx queer storytelling night with Donna Personna, Mason J, Foxxy Blue Orchid Xandra Ibarra, Natalia M. Vigil, Dulce and Juliana Delgado Lopera. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. glbthistory.org

Group exhibit of LGBT photography focusing on Pride events. Opening reception 5pm-8:30pm. Thru July 21. Reg. hours Tue-Thu 3pm-9:30pm. Sat 10am-5:300pm, Sun 11am-5:30pm. 50 Scott St. harveymilkphotocenter.org

Advance screening of the documentary about the first allwomen sailing crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989 (opens July 5). Embarcadero Center Cinema, 1 Embracadero. www. landmarktheatres.com

The Fit @ Strand Theater Carey Perloff’s new play involves an Indian-American woman’s trevails to retain her ethnic identity in Silicon Valley’s tech world. $30-$35. Wed, Thu 7pm. Fri & Sat 8pm. Sat 3pm thru June 29. 1127 Market St. sfplayhouse.org

Wake up and taste the rainbow! For malapropism-free arts events, proceed.

THU 20

Group Show @ Mercury20, Oakland

Above Ground Theater Festival @ Mojo Theatre

It’s All Been So Nice, duo exhibit of works by Andrew Migul Fuller and Jeremiah Jenkins, and Duet by Kathleen King and Kerry Vander Meer. Both thru July 27. 475 25th St., Oakland. Thu-Sat 12pm-6pm. mercurytwenty.com/

Four-week festival of new solo and ensemble theatre/dance works. $15$30. Thu-Sun thru June 29. 2940 16th St. https://www.ftloose.com/

Action Hero @ Phoenix Theatre Theatre Rhinoceros’ new production of John Fisher’s play about an actor with Hollywood dreams. $20-$40. Thru July 6. 414 Mason St. www. TheRhino.org

Carmen @ War Memorial Opera House Bizet’s classic opera of passion and tragedy is performed. $26-$256. 7:30pm. June 20, 23, 26 and 29. 301 Van Ness Ave. www.sfopera.com

Frameline Film Festival @ Various Cinemas 43rd annual huge festival of 100s of LGBTQ films from around the world. Screenings at the Castro, Roxie, Victoria, and more. frameline.org

Fresh Meat Festival @ Z Space Three-day festival of dance, theatre, music and more with works by trans and queer artists Antoine Hunter, AXIS Dance Company, NowShade Vocal Ensemble, GAPA Men’s Chorus, J Mase III and Randy Ford, Lottie Riot, Sean Dorsey Dance, Shawna Virago, The Singing Boys and more. $20-$50. 8pm. Also June 21 & 22. 450 Florida

The Routledge History of Queer America

@ GLBT History Museum Author/editor Don Romesburg and panelists discuss the new anthology history book. $5. 7pm. 4127 18th St. glbthistory.org

Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth: The Queer Antifada @ CounterPulse Zulfikar Ali Bhutto directs a collectivecreated future dystopian performance work. $15-$35. 8pm. Also June 21 & 22. 80 Turk St. counterpulse.org

FRI 21 Queer California: Untold Stories @ Oakland Museum Multimedia exhibition documenting California LGBT lives, with contemporary artwork, rare historical materials, film, photography, sculpture; thru Aug. 11. Friday 5pm LGBT film screenings. Free/$15. 1000 Oak St. museumca.org/

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Rhinoceros @ Geary Theatre

That Don Reed Show @ The Marsh Berkeley The local actor-playwright’s solo show combines autobiographical storytelling, improv and comedy. $20$100. 8:30pm. Also 5:30pm Sundays, thru July 21. 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. www.themarsh.org

American Conservatory Theatre’s new production of Eugene Ionesco’s classic and still timely dark satire about political mendacity and cultural conformity; translated by Derek Prouse; special events thru run. $15-$110. Thru June 23. 415 Geary St. www.act-sf.org

With(out) With(in) the Very Moment @ SF Arts Commission

San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus @ Sydney Goldstein Theater

SUN 23

Queens, the Chorus’ annual Pride concert, features music of Sylvester, musicals, pop classics, local drag celebrities Heklina, Kylie Minono, Donna Sachet, Sister Roma and Sister Phyliss of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and a tribute to the Imperial Court and Ducal Council of San Francisco. $25-$100. 8pm. Also June 22 at 2:30 and 8pm. 275 Hayes St. www.sfgmc.org

Exhibit about LGBT lives, and surviving AIDS; thru June 22; closing day. 401 Van Ness Ave. sfartscommission.org

I Will Speak, I Will Speak @ New People Cinema Free screening of the new documentary about people on five different continents living with HIV; sponsored by Atlas2020. 3pm. 1746 Post St. www.atlas2018.org

Marc Huestis @ Victoria Theatre

Comic Exhibits @ Cartoon Art Museum

Impresario of Castro Street author discusses his new celebrity-filled memoir, with a screening of his best Castro Theatre tribute nights, plus guests Carol Lynley, Bruce Vilanch, Matthew Martin, Helen Shumaker and others. $15. 6:30pm. 2961 16th St. frameline.org

Mais Kobabe’s Gender Queer, thru July 1; among other exhibits. 11am5pm. 781 Beach St. cartoonart.org

The Oldest Living Cater Waiter @ Gateway Theatre

SAT 22 Kiss My Aztec! @ Berkeley Rep John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone’s hilarious multi-genre musical comedy about woke Aztecs taking on Spanish invaders. $35-$115. Thru July 14. 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. www.berkeleyrep.org

LGBTQ Art, Film, Poetry and Dance @ de Young

Michael Patrick Gaffney’s “Best of Fringe Festival” comedic solo show serves up a witty take on food service, fame and self-discovery. $20-$45. Sun, Mon Tue 7pm thru July 9. 215 Jackson St. www.42ndstmoon.org

MON 24 Book Club @ Strut

Artists and culture makers discuss intergenerational arts from the 1960s to the present/ 2pm-3:30pm. Piazzoni Murals Room, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive. www.glbthistory.org www.famsf.org

The monthly meeting this time discusses Tom Spanbauer’s epic novel I Loved You More. 7:30pm. 470 Castro St. www.strutsf.org

Proud of My Family @ Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose

Chosen Familias: Bay Area LGBTQ Latinx Stories. Also, The Mayor of Folsom Street: Alan Selby’s Legacy, an exhibit of the leather culture pioneer. $5. 4127 18th St. www.glbthistory.org

Fifth annual LGBTQ parents and their kids day aert activities, kids dance area, storytime and performances. 10am-5pm. 180 Woz Way, San Jose. www.cdm.org/event/proud-of-myfamily-3/

Chosen Familias @ GLBT History Museum

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Queer as German Folk @ SF Public Library Exhibit of ephemera and memorabilia about Stonewall rebellion commemorations in Germeny and worldwide; thru Sept 26. 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

TUE 25 Doug Meyer @ SF Main Library The author of Heroes: a Tribute, Collectors Edition discusses his book that visualizes fifty brilliant, creative figures who were early victims of AIDS. 6pm. Hormel Center, 3rd floor, 100 Larkin St. www.sfpl.org

Smoke & Mirrors: The War on Drugs @ AAACC Exhibit of works by six muralists and 20 artists focusing on pot use, hemp, and historical elements of cannabis in communities of color. Tue-Fri 12pm6pm. Sat til 5pm. Thru Aug 31. 762 Fulton St. www.aaacc.org

WED 26 If I Were You @ SF LGBT Center Merola Opera vocalists perform selections from a new work by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. $35-$60. 6pm. 1800 Market St. www.sfcenter.org

Pride Golf Tournament @ TPC Harding Park Inaugural Pride golf tournament. 1pm. 99 Harding Road. www.golfgenius. com www.sfpride.org

THU 27 Lynne Breedlove @ Dog Eared Books The author sifns and reads copies from 45 Thought Crimes, essays, poetic and political prose. 7pm. 489 Castro St. www.dogearedbooks.com

Various Events @ Oakland LGBTQ Center Social events and meetings at the new LGBTQ center include film screenings and workshops, including Bruthas Rising, trans men of color meetings, 4th Tuesdays, 6:30pm. Film screenings, 4th Saturdays, 7:30pm. Game nights, Fridays 7:30pm-11pm. Vogue sessions, first Saturdays. 3207 Lakeshore Ave. Oakland. www.oaklandlgbtqcenter.org t

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ttention, show people: Martha T. Lipton will teach an acting class in the Fez Room at Oasis on June 24. It will be a class like no other, because Lipton is a failed actress, despite 30-plus years of trying! Read more about the determined thespian (aka actor Evan Johnson) at www.ebar.com.

Sun 23 The Oldest Living Cater Waiter @ Gateway Theatre

Leather >>

June 20-26, 2019 • Bay Area Reporter • 23

Shared fantasies by Race Bannon

n the Friday during the International Mr. Leather weekend in Chicago I was thankfully able to make time for a side trip to the Multiplicity of the Erotic Conference (MOTE) being held nearby. MOTE is a new incarnation of the former Conference on Alternative Sexualities hosted for the past 10 years as a collaboration between Programs Advancing Sexual Diversity (PASD) and The Community Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS). The MOTE Conference addresses cutting-edge research and the most current clinical approaches to sexuality, gender and relationships, focusing on the intersections of research, clinical work and professional practice by presenting the latest ideas and findings on polyamory, consensual non-monogamies, kink/BDSM sexualities and identities, transgender/genderqueer/ nonbinary experiences, asexualities, sex worker studies, hierarchical (power-exchange) relationships, and so on. Closing out the Conference was a stellar keynote address by Dr. Justin Lehmiller, an esteemed Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute and author of the book Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life. Lehmiller is also the brains behind the extremely popular blog site, ‘Sex & Psychology’ (www. lehmiller.com). The data gathered and analyzed for his book served as the foundation for Lehmiller’s keynote titled ‘Which Sexual Fantasies Are Common, and Which Ones Are Truly Rare?: Insights

From the Largest Survey of Sexual Fantasies in the United States.’ The keynote was spectacular and made even this seasoned sexuality writer take notice of some fascinating research. When gathering his data, Lehmiller surveyed 4175 adults in the United States across the entire range of genders, ages, sexual orientations, races, and relationship styles. They completed a 369-question survey inquiring about their fantasies, personalities, sexual histories and demographics. Participants were asked to describe their “favorite” sexual fantasy of all time and sum up that fantasy in a single word of their choice. Some of the more popular oneword answers? Threesome. Dominance. Bondage. Gangbang. Submission. Orgy. BDSM, and many more. Lehmiller undertook a qualitative analysis of the information that ended up yielding seven major themes. I can’t do justice to elaborating on these themes, which is why I recommend you read the book, but here they are in a nutshell. 1. Multi-partner sex, threesomes, orgies, and gangbangs. 2. Power, control and rough sex; BDSM, for example. 3. Novelty, adventure and variety. These are sexual activities that one has never done before or would like to attempt in some new way, such as different settings or public sex. 4. Taboo or forbidden sex, voyeurism and exhibitionism were among these. 5. Passion, romance and intimacy; this was common across genders, orientations and ages with most saying they rarely or never fantasize about completely emotionless sex, which I

Justin Lehmiller on the science of sexual desire found heartening. 6. Non-monogamy and partner sharing; this is a separate category from group sex and included open relationships, polyamory, swinging and cuckolding. 7. Erotic flexibility and genderbending; these push the boundaries of sexual orientation or gender roles. Cross-dressing, changing genders and sex outside of one’s usual sexual orientation were among the fantasies. These seven high-level fantasy categories represented about 96% of the participants’ favorite fantasies and appear to be the fundamental building blocks of all fantasy content.

Sexuality survey says…

The themes weren’t mutually exclusive either. Most participants selected more than one theme, but the predominance of them is telling of how widespread some fantasies are. For example, 47% selected multiple partners, 46% selected BDSM, and 30% selected being in a non-monogamous relationship. So, why is all this important? Often people wrestle with coming to terms with their sexual fantasies because they sense they’re rare. The less common we believe our fantasies might be the more likely we are to build up some shame and trepidations around them. By laying bare the reality that these wide-ranging sexual fantasies are rather common (in other words, quite normal), hopefully people will embrace those fantasies for what they are, a healthy manifestation of their sexuality. By expanding what is seen as normal among sexual fantasies, perhaps sexual shame and stigma can be re-

duced while improving sexual communication between partners. As for psychotherapeutic professionals who sometimes ignorantly assume many of these fantasies are unhealthy and pathological, perhaps the realization that they’re so prevalent will guide professionals to not label them problematic unless they violate consent or cause harm or distress. If this column and other such writings do but one thing, and that’s to expose the world to the true diversity of our sexualities and the fantasies them fuel them, then I’ll be happy. Solid research such as presented here backs up such diversity. It also further helps destigmatize the kinky and sexually adventurous among us, leading to a happier and healthier personal and collective erotic landscape. As for Dr. Lehmiller’s book, I’ve been reading it and it’s incredibly accessible to everyone. I suggest my readers get it. I think you’ll find it quite interesting. As its subtitle suggests, I think it just might improve your sex life. t

Esther Boston

Dr. Justin Lehmiller, author and Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute.

Race Bannon is a local author, blogger and activist. bannon.com

For Leather events calendar, visit us online at www.ebar.com

Shining Stars Steven Underhill Photos by

Daytime Disco @ Virgin Hotel D See page 23 >>

J Wayne G spun Prideful funky grooves at Brian Kent’s Daytime Disco, a scenic airy rooftop party at the Virgin Hotel (250 4th St.) on June 15. Guests enjoyed the views, music and mid-Pride month fun, while some sported glamorous retro attire. Local luminaries and hosts included Bebe Sweetbriar, Scarlett Menzie, Suzan Revah, Andy Lax and Ron Zamora. www.briankentproductions.com See more nightlife photos on BARtab’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/lgbtsf.nightlife. For more of Steven Underhill’s photos, visit www.StevenUnderhill.com.

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*Offer applies only to single-receipt qualifying purchases. Ashley HomeStore does not require a down payment, however, sales tax and delivery charges are due at time of purchase if the purchase is made with your Ashley Advantage™ Credit Card. No interest will be charged on promo purchase and equal monthly payments are required equal to initial promo purchase amount divided equally by the number of months in promo period until promo is paid in full. The equal monthly payment will be rounded to the next highest whole dollar and may be higher than the minimum payment that would be required if the purchase was a non-promotional purchase. Regular account terms apply to nonpromotional purchases. For new accounts: Purchase APR is 29.99%; Minimum Interest Charge is $2. Existing cardholders should see their credit card agreement for their applicable terms. Promotional purchases of merchandise will be charged to account when merchandise is delivered. Subject to credit approval. ‡Monthly payment shown is equal to the purchase price, excluding taxes and delivery, divided by the number of months in the promo period, rounded to the next highest whole dollar, and only applies to the selected financing option shown. If you make your payments by the due date each month, the monthly payment shown should allow you to pay off this purchase within the promo period if this balance is the only balance on your account during the promo period. If you have other balances on your account, this monthly payment will be added to the minimum payment applicable to those balances. §Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. See store for details. ‡‡Previous purchases excluded. Cannot be combined with any other promotion or discount. Discount offers exclude Tempur-Pedic®, Stearns & Foster® and Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid™ mattress sets, floor models, clearance items, sales tax, furniture protection plans, warranty, delivery fee, Manager’s Special pricing, Advertised Special pricing and 14 Piece Packages, cannot be combined with financing specials. Effective 1/1/2018, all mattress and box springs are subject to a $10.50 per unit CA recycling fee. SEE STORE FOR DETAILS. Stoneledge Furniture LLC., many times has multiple offers, promotions, discounts and financing specials occurring at the same time; these are allowed to only be used either/or and not both or combined with each other. Although every precaution is taken, errors in price and/or specification may occur in print. We reserve the right to correct any such errors. Picture may not represent item exactly as shown, advertised items may not be on display at all locations. Some restrictions may apply. Available only at participating locations. ±Leather Match upholstery features top-grain leather in the seating areas and skillfully matched vinyl everywhere else. Ashley HomeStores are independently owned and operated. ©2019 Ashley HomeStores, Ltd. Promotional Start Date: June 11, 2019. Expires: July 8, 2019.